FROM PARIS, BY A PARSI - HOW THE INDIAN FLAG LANDED ON OUR SOIL?

Hello Everybody,

Last week, India celebrated her 61st Independence Day. It brought back memories afresh of our struggle for independence as television channels continued to beam images and clippings of the Father of our Nation – Mahatma Gandhi, the Quit India Movement and the great men and women who sacrificed their lives to win India back her freedom.

Today in yet another series of articles, we have Rasheid Taleyarkhan bringing alive one such important woman who was lost somewhere in the pages of history – yes it’s none other than Madam Bhikaji Cama. 


He recounts the historic moment when the flag was first brought to India and how his ancestors were inadvertently a part of it and an account which ensued which no text books would attest today. So, read on and share with us your views and opinions on the same by posting in your comments.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

Vande Mataram

Love, Sonyaa

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The British colonial leaders and the progressive Parsees of Bombay encouraged young Indian girls to get educated in spite of the social restrictions prevalent in society when it came to educating a girl child. And so the Alexandra Girls School was born. But with education the first germs of nationalistic feelings were planted – an effect the British had not anticipated.

And one such person who was born in 1861 was not only an outstanding student but also a girl (Oh! Ho! What is the world coming to?). She was Bhikaji Sorabji Patel. Perhaps not in the same league as her friends Dadabhai Navroji & Pherozeshah Mehta but she was dynamic enough to be later nicknamed by Lenin as “INDIA’S JOAN OF ARC”. Her feelings for her country translated into action in the field of social work & charity for the destitute but gradually expanded into “REVOLUTION”

After doing extensive social work she also started fighting for women’s rights. In 1902 she went for medical treatment to the UK and there she met Dadabhai Navroji. From that time on her contacts with Irish rebels and many Indians for whom the slogan “RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY IS OBEDIENCE TO GOD” was of prime importance which increased greatly.

Within just a few years of being in Europe, Madame Cama felt the Congress party of India was producing no results and she turned her back on constitutional agitation. Her impatient nature (a common feature in Parsees) brought her closer to the fiery Veer Savarkar. The “House of Terror” as India House in London came to be known, was opened on 1 July 1905 by Dadabhai Navroji, Lala Lajpat Rai, Madame Cama, Hans Raj and the famous suffragette Charlotte Despard.

In the revolutionary movement Madame Came become well known for 2 things:

1) She trained young revolutionaries to make explosives

2) And more importantly, she was instrumental in designing India’s first national flag.

Recently compared to Osama Bin Laden because she came from an affluent family and advocated violence against her country’s enemy, Bhikaji was not a terrorist. Her targets were single and focused and I know not of any instance, where an innocent person was ever hurt.

In 1910 whilst addressing a conference in Cairo, she asked, "I see here the representatives of only half the population of Egypt. May I ask where is the other half? Sons of Egypt, where are the daughters of Egypt? Where are your mothers and sisters? Your wives and daughters?"

She was the first to unfurl and display an early version of the flag at Stuttgart at an international conference and here she also became the first Indian to demand publicly not just home rule but complete independence. When she unfurled the first National Flag at the International Socialist Conference in Stuttgart (Germany) in 1907 a thousand representatives from several countries were attending. An Indian lady in a colorful sari was a rare phenomenon in those days and her majestic appearance and brave and clear words made everybody think that she was a Maharani or at least a princess from a native state.

She declared: “This flag is of India's independence. Behold, it is born. It is already sanctified by the blood of martyred Indian youth. I call upon you, gentlemen, to rise and salute the flag of Indian independence. In the name of this flag I appeal to lovers of freedom all over the world to cooperate with this flag in freeing one-fifth of the human race.”

The Indian Flag became a focal point of her life. She redesigned again and again the flag till the final one was approved in 1935 by the Leaders of the Independence Movement which was brought by her to India.

Eventually around 1936 the Congress Party and Mahatma Gandhi requested her to bring the final design of the flag she and the revolutionary group had designed to India as they were confident that they would soon be given Independence. Having lived in Paris from 1905 to 1936, she set out on a journey to India never to return again. Thus it transpired that India's first flag was packed in Madame Cama's suitcase and she boarded a ship for Bombay.

To receive her at the docks at Ballard Estate, conspicuous by their absence, were the Congress leaders. My grandfather Rustom Jehangir was there because Madame Cama was his sister-in-law. Also, it was rumoured, that the Bombay Police were there to search her bags. Rustomjee waited at the foot of the gangplank where all the passengers were disembarking but everyone came off except Bhikaji Cama. Worried, Rustomjee went onto the ship and caught hold of the Chief Steward. They then proceeded to her cabin to find it locked from the inside. Knocking and yelling loudly having produced no results, they then broke down the door to find Madame unconscious. Bold and decisive like most Parsee stalwarts, Rustomji quickly picked her up in his arms and asked for a stretcher. The pursers rallied around and in no time at all two medical orderlies carried Madame Cama down the gangplank whilst Rustomjee carried her suitcase, little realising that he was making history carrying India's first national flag on to Indian soil as he stepped off the red carpet and onto the pier!!!

A horse cab was summoned and Madame Cama was rushed to a hospital. Sadly she never regained consciousness though Rustomjee's friends and all the top doctors tried their best. For three days nobody from the Congress Party came to enquire about her health. On the fourth day a relatively junior Congress leader walked in demanding the flag be handed over to him. Rustomjee was livid and probably using typical Parsee swear words asked him in Gujarati why neither Nehru or Gandhi or any of the top Congress leaders had visited the Hospital and did they not care that Madame Cama who had given so much of her life for the Freedom Movement, was seriously ill? The Congresswala was then directed to the suitcase, which in all this "dhamaal" had not yet been unpacked and was just lying in a corner of the hospital room. He went over, rummaged through the bag and pulled out the historic flag. Rustomjee, though at heart a pro-independence person, was so incensed at the callous uncaring attitude of the Congress top brass that he told the chap as he rose up lifting the flag, "Take your bloody flag and get out!!!" (translated into censored English).

Now these last two paragraphs comprise of what I was told and though I've never found them in any history book but I do believe they are a true and accurate account of the actual arrival of our flag onto our beloved Indian soil.

JAI HIND