Role in Freedom Movement
During the Quit India Movement, Usha quickly became a leader. She moved from New Delhi to Mumbai, where she hoisted the tricolor on August 9, 1942 at Gawalia Tank Ground, which was later renamed as the "August Kranti Maidan." At that time, almost the entire leadership of the Congress Party was in prison.
On August 14, 1942, she and her close associates began the Secret Congress Radio, a clandestine radio station. The first words broadcast in her resonant voice were: “This is the Congress radio calling on 42.34 meters from somewhere in India.” Her associates included Vithalbhai Jhaveri, Chandrakant Jhaveri, Babubhai Thakkar and Nanka Motwani, owner of Chicago Radio, who supplied equipments and provided technicians.
Many leaders, including Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, Achyutrao Patwardhan and Purushottam Trikamdas, also assisted the Secret Congress Radio. The radio broadcast recorded messages from Gandhi and other prominent leaders across India. To elude the authorities, the organizers moved the station's location almost daily. Ultimately, however, the police found them on November 12, 1942 and arrested the organizers, including Usha Mehata. All were later imprisoned.
Although the Secret Congress Radio functioned only for three months, it greatly assisted the movement by disseminating uncensored news and other information banned by the British-controlled government of India. Scecret Congress Radio also kept the leaders of the freedom movement in touch with the public.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID), a wing of the Indian Police, interrogated her for six months. During this time, she was held in solitary confinement and offered inducements such as the opportunity to study abroad if she would betray the movement. However, she chose to remain silent and, during her trials, asked the Judge of the High Court whether she was required to answer the questions. When the judge confirmed that she was not mandatory, she declared that she would not reply to any of the questions, not even to save herself. After the trial, she was sentenced to four years' imprisonment (1942 to 1946). Two of her associates were also convicted.
Reminiscing about those days, Usha Mehta described her involvement with the Secret Congress Radio as her “finest moment” and also as her saddest moment, because an Indian technician had betrayed them to the authorities.
She was imprisoned at Yeravda Jail in Pune, Maharashtra, where her health deteriorated, and she was sent to Bombay for treatment at Sir J. J. Hospital. In the hospital, three to four policemen kept a round-the-clock watch on her to prevent her from escaping. When her health improved, she was returned to Yeravda Jail. In March 1946, she was released, the first political prisoner to be released in Bombay, at orders of Morarji Desai, who was at that time a home minister in the interim government and who eventually rose to become Prime Minister of India.
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