Chapter One: Growing Up in Gomta, Pre-Independence Days

n September 8, 1936, I was born to Mrs. Santokben Kathrotia9 and Mr. Haribhai Bechar Kathrotia. My birth took place in Gomta, a village that was part of O 10 the princely state of Gondal in Halar district of Kathiawar re- gion of India. Currently, the same village is in Rajkot District of Gujarat. Kathiawar had four districts until 1948, when it became the new State of Saurashtra out of the merger of 202 princely states. The districts were Sorath, Gohilwar, Zalawar and Halar. In honor of the birth, an astrologer was called in from nearby town of Jetpur to prepare “Kundali”11 based on stars and Zodiac. The astrologer suggested that the child be named beginning with letter B, V or U. He further predicted that the child, someday, will become a Krorpati12, worth US

9 Maiden name Santokben Gokaldas Kaneria of Pipalia, near Dhoraji in Rajkot District of Gujarat 10 Princely States in British India were the ones ruled by Indian Kings and Princes as protectorates of British Empire. 11 A written document prepared by an astrologer, foretelling the child’s future. 12 Krorpati is a person worth 10 Million Indian Rupees.

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$2,000,000, per then prevailing exchange rates. The name Gondal. All roads were passable year round. At the entrance Vithal was chosen and thus I began my journey in this world. of the town were two structures: a school and a police gate I was the third child of Santokben and Haribhai Kathrotia. equipped with a telephone. The state roads were lined with First child was a sister, Labhuben, and then a brother, trees on both sides and had mile markers showing the dis- Vallabhbhai, in whose shadow I grew up for many years. I tance to the nearest town, the county headquarter, and to followed him wherever he went. I admired him and wanted the capital city Gondal. Each mile marker was a little struc- to do everything he did. We also had our share of fights as ture that could be used to rest under or over it. we grew up. Like any boy, I always wanted to play with and Gomta had a population of 1,666, while the Gondal state be accepted by the big boys. population was 202,000 according to 1941 censes. Gomta Gomta was a very progressive village in a princely state was on a railway line that was owned and operated by the of Gondal which did not operate under typical rules. In pre- state of Gondal. Gondal railways also operated in many parts independence India, most of the princely states functioned of Kathiawar, including Junagadh, the largest state in the re- under a feudal system where the largest share of the farm- gion. The great majority of the population of Gomta con- ers’ harvest went to the land-owners or the rulers (commonly sisted of Patel farmers and their families. Residents of Gomta known as Rajas, Maharajas, Thakurs, Nawabs or Maharanas). were always socially and politically active and progressive. In the princely state of Gondal the land that was cultivated Dissent of British policies and criticism of the British Raj was by the farmers was also owned by them. Neither the state tolerated in Gondal state. The Maharaja of Gondal refused to nor any land-owner shared in the harvest. There was a small provide free protection to the British agents whenever they property tax on the farmland and that, too, was reduced or visited the state, even though the other states provided such waived altogether in bad crop years. This unique set-up was services. We had a poem in our state-published textbook adopted by the state of Saurashtra after independence, and that was very much anti-British and pro-independence. The later was used by the ruling Congress Party as an example title of the poem was India’s Fragrant Flowers and praised of the type of arrangement that India should establish as the leaders like Gandhi, the Patel brothers, the father and son its political goal for land policy. The system was created and Nehrus and others. It was composed by Becharlal Trikamji advanced by the late Maharaja Bhagavatsinhji, a British edu- Patel of Gondal, whose pen name was Vihari. He was the cated visionary ruler. He ruled Gondal from 1885 AD to 1942 father of our Education Secretary, Chandulal Patel. Poet and AD. His advisors on the farm policy were Bhimji Rudabhai author Vihari was lured to relocate in Gondal, from his home- Changela of Motimard and Gokaldas Kanji Kalawadia of town of Shihore in the state of Bhavnagar, when Maharaja Khokhari, and later of Upleta. Both of these men were Patel Bhagavatsinhji offered him a title of “State Poet” and a posi- farmers. Our Education Secretary was Chandulal Becharbhai tion of Education Secretary to his young son during the early Patel. years of 20th century. In the days before World War II, Gomta had a literacy My earliest memory takes me back to sometime in 1942, rate of nearly 100 per cent, compared to national average when Maharaja Bhagvatsinhji died. I was standing near of 20 per cent. There was a school in every village in state of Gondal gate with Labhuben, Vallabhbhai and some other

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people. Someone noticed that one of my gold studs was at home would be harsher. After a few incidents like these, missing from one ear. My parents felt that I was not respon- the remaining days and years at Gomta School were normal. sible enough to guard a valuable item like the gold stud and, I remember people telling my parents that I had a very good therefore, I had to give up the other one forever. I have never memory and that I would do well in my studies. worn anything in my ears since then. The tradition of the My other brothers and sisters include a brother, Girdhar, boys in India wearing ear studs has also gone since those born in 1938, and a sister, Bhagirathi (Bhagu) born in 1943. A days. brother, Gordhan was born in 1945 and last one of us, Natvar I barely remember my first day of school. I believe it was (Natu) was born in 1947. We also had a sister, Nathiben, from in September 1942. The minimum age to start school was my father’s first marriage. Our parents made sure that we 7 years. After Vallabhbhai had started the school, I wanted never referred Nathiben as our half-sister. She was our eldest to join him so badly that my parents gave my birth date as sister. Nathiben’s husband, Devraj Patel was a dominant and September 10, 1935 and got me in the school at the age of well-respected figure in our family. Two of their sons, Manji six. The schools did not require birth certificate. Whatever and Chandu have been very close to me and friends all my the parents said was entered as birth-date in the school life. Thus our entire generation was born in pre-indepen- record. Many people did not register the births in those dence India, as British subjects. I was closest to Vallabhbhai, days. Gomta Elementary School had classes up to seventh because we played and studied together, in the same class grade. All teachers were educated up to 7th grade and had a for three years. Labhuben, Vallabhbhai and I worked on our teaching certificate from the state. The schools in the cities family farm together. We worked during the summer and throughout India taught English starting in 5th grade. The Diwali vacations. Vallabhbhai and I had quite a few fights schools in villages did not teach the English language. The and at times used foul language too. Like most brothers language used for instruction, in all city schools, beginning close in age, my younger brother Girdhar and I had a few with 8th grade, was also English. fights of our own as he grew up. After I started the school, I must have been missing my Education in Gomta was fairly good. The teachers were stay at-home play time. Soon after enrolling in school, I did very capable, although none had completed high school. We not want to go any more. My father had to escort me to did not have any text books for at least the first three years. school. One of my fond memories occurred when I did not Students used a slate and a chalk-like pen to learn and write want to go to school and my father took me there. As soon as they learned the alphabet and how to read and write. The as he left the school, I ran back home. Next, my father and an same slate and chalk-like pen was used to write numerals as uncle from Moti Marad, Ram Fuva, who was married to my fa- students did simple arithmetic. We had printed books be- ther’s cousin, took me back to school. I pulled the same trick ginning in the fourth grade. The study of social studies, his- again. Finally, Ram Fuva caught up with me while I was run- tory and geography were limited to our own Gondal state. ning away and carried me to school, while I was beating him Later, in the fifth and sixth grades, we studied the history and on his chest. I got a little whipping and was left at the school geography of Saurashtra and India. I do not recall having with a warning that if I left the school again, the punishment more than two small printed books even at the sixth grade

4 5 Marshall Plan versus The Great Society Growing Up in Gomta, Pre-Independence Days level. Any student who finished five, six or seven years at any metal coins had disappeared and the local merchants had Gondal state elementary school was well prepared for daily printed their own paper currency in the denominations of life as well as dealing with or conducting a small business. less than one rupee. The currency was good only in your Most girls dropped out of school after fourth or fifth grade, town. I also remember a picture in the newspaper and the as soon as the state compulsory education requirements headline over it. I do not know what was in the picture, but had been met. the story was about thousands of people killed in a bomb Just prior to the beginning of the World War II, Subhas blast over Japan. This created a plane phobia in my mind. Chandra Bose had open disagreement with Indian National Gomta was on an airline route from Mumbai to Rajkot. Congress Party and had openly challenged the leadership of Every time I saw a plane flying overhead, I was frightened. Mahatma Gandhi. Bose contested party presidency against I thought the plane might drop a bomb over our town. I Jawaharlal Nehru, who was endorsed by Gandhi. Bose de- never expressed my fear to anyone and suffered from this feated Nehru and became the party president. Bose’s slo- phobia for many years. gan was “we will win independence using guns, not slogans”. During my third grade in 1945, we got a surprising three Bose left India in 1941 and formed Azad Hind Sena, Free India days off from the school. The celebration was for our govern- Army, with the help of the Japanese. The Sena began their ment winning the war. We did not know what war or what march on India with a base in Malaysia and kept marching government it was. Most people in India were more inter- towards India. The marchers were all Indians. The Japanese ested in their own independence than in victories of British were more than happy to help since they were at war with government or of any of its allies, but we were happy to have the British. The Azad Hind Sena forces reached all the way time off from our work and happily celebrated school being to the India/Burma border, where they perished fighting the dismissed for such a long period. In those days we never had allied forces. The allied forces in Burma war were made up of long vacations. The most we ever were out of school was mostly Indians, Hindus, Sikhs, Gurkhas and Muslims. The his- two or three days during Diwali or similar religious holidays. tory of the world is always written by the victors. The west- We even attended schools on Saturdays for half a day, so any ern version of the war is that allied defeated the Japanese excuse to cancel classes would have seemed like a reason- in the Burma Theater. That version is only half of the truth. able one to us. The allied forces also defeated the Free India army there. My The year of 1945 was prominent in the world history. It mother’s younger brother was in Malaya (now Malaysia) at brought the end of the costliest war in terms of human lives this time and he never came home. No one ever knew what lost and resources wasted. The end of the war also ended happened to him. After Azad Hind Sena was defeated at the worst genocide and mass murder of the Jews by Nazi Burma-India border, Subhas Bose died in a plane crash on Germany. Sadly, most people in India did not know about his way to Japan. I clearly remember the rationing of kerosene, sugar and some other commodities during the war. We used to stand in line at the distribution center at Gondal gate. All

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the massacre of Jews by the Nazis. Our village had very There were plenty of opportunities in our house to learn little communications with the outside world. One or two musical instruments and classical singing. Somehow, I never households received daily newspaper. There were no radios took advantage of it. I tried my hands at the Harmonium or televisions. Only 20% of the people could read or write. and Tabla for a while, but did not practice it seriously. By the Thus the news of the war never got to the masses. The main time I was old enough to try music, my interest was moving focus of news in India was whatever was happening to gain towards Indian nationalism. There were suggestions that independence from Great Britain. someday I should be sent to the boarding house in Gondal About the time the war ended, my father had planted for my high school education. garbanzo beans, also known as chick peas on one of our My early interest in capitalism was aroused when I was in family’s small tracts of farmland13. The birds were eating the the fourth grade. One of the chapters in the text book was blooms before the pods could be formed. My father was in about Jamshedji Tata, the best-known Indian industrialist his early fifties, which was considered old age by Indian stan- and the founder of the international conglomerate The Tata dards. He decided that Vallabhbhai, being the older son, age Group of Companies. The title of the story was “From rags to 10, should guard the crop, even at the expense of his studies. riches.” I always wanted to be like Tata-not necessarily in terms His studies indeed suffered and he failed the fourth grade. of his wealth, but in his commitment to hard work and be- For the next three years, we both were in the same class. ing successful in whatever I tried to do. I dreamed of leaving During these three years he was ahead of me in class rank small-town farm life to educate myself to be a businessman and in our studies. Other students in the same class includ- and to bring up my family in a non-agriculture setting. For ed Girdhar Moteria, Babulal Chaniara, and Girdhar Dhulia. a rural farm family, finishing high school and owning a small Vasant Vachhani was one year behind me, but would later shop would have been considered a success in those days. become my classmate for a longer period than anyone else. On August 15, 1947, the Independence came to about The war also began the era of atomic weapons. The end 65% of India, known as British India, but not to 597 prince- of the war also expedited the end of colonialism. It brought ly states. The British Parliament had divided colonial India new political boundaries. In the 1940s, the people of India into two countries, independent India and Pakistan, and were openly hostile to British Raj14. People living under gave the 597 princely states a choice to join either country princely states were afraid of their rulers, and their local po- or remain independent. Most princely states, including 202 lice and civil service employees. These states did not have to in Saurashtra, wanted to be independent and started to act worry about the world opinion and could deal with dissent- as such. On August 15, we marched through the town at ers in whatever manner they chose. Their rulers had little 5:00 AM chanting “Azad Hind Zindabad”, long live free India. incentives to recognize individual liberties and rights. We carried the newly independent India’s flag, which was 13 The total farmland of about 60 acres was in 10 separate pieces with- in 2 miles of town. The farms were cultivated using manual labor and oxen pulled equipments. 14 Raj, meaning Empire, is now an accepted word in English language.

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actually Congress Party’s flag, and demanded that the states give up their rules and join India. The events of Hyderabad give up their thrones and allow us to join the independent and Junagadh, as well as the other 594 rulers relinquishing India. We, the people, refused to accept princely states’ rules. their thrones, are what earned him the title of the Iron Man There were confrontations and confusion. The state police of Indian independence. Thus a new state of Saurashtra was resorted to force a few times. born on April 15, 1948. The savior at this time was not Mahatma Gandhi or new- This important event is often omitted from histories of ly installed Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. It was Deputy Indian independence. People of Gujarat, of course, took Prime Minister and Home Minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. great pride in Sardar Patel’s accomplishments. Most people Sardar Patel’s keen political acumen was tested mightily in in India, and particularly those in border-states like Punjab, trying to preserve a united India. Sardar Patel’s persuaded, and people in former princely states, feel that Sardar Patel, pressured, or threatened military action, as necessary, with through his decisive actions had done what other leaders the end result that somehow all 597 rulers of princely states could not have achieved in 25 years. He did it so quickly gave up their thrones within eight months of independence. that it seemed almost miraculous. Although Sardar Patel What was even more amazing is that Patel handled this had done something that none of the other national leaders while he was directing the war in Kashmir, a princely state had accomplished, it seems that the Nehru family does not which had been invaded from Pakistan side. Unlike the bor- want any name to shine in Indian history other than those der state of Kashmir, two other princely states with Muslim of Gandhi and the Nehru family. There is no mention in the rulers and a Hindu population-Hyderabad and Junagadh- Indian history that the entire country became independent were landlocked hundreds of miles inside India. The Nizam15 only on April 15, 1948. The State of Saurashtra celebrated of Hyderabad wanted either to be independent (to not have April 15 as Saurashtra Unity Day. However, the Nehru fam- his territory accede to either country) or to join Pakistan. ily had solid grip on power for the first 30 years of indepen- The Nawab16 of Junagadh also wanted to join Pakistan. dence. In 1956, as Saurashtra merged, against the will of its Junagadh’s border was only ten miles from my hometown people, with Gujarat, Kutchh and Maharashtra, to form a new of Gomta. This was the first time I saw Sikhs and Gurkhas in state of Mumbai, the government in New Delhi made sure military uniform riding in the armored vehicles. The Nawab that the celebration of April 15, 1948 is deleted from the cal- finally fled to Pakistan and the Nizam agreed to join India. endar. It was Gandhi who handpicked Nehru as the Prime With the help of his able personal secretary, V. P. Menon, Minister against the wishes of the majority in Congress Patel took swift control of the other princely states. He also party. Patel did not challenge Gandhi’s decision. Had he came to Rajkot for a meeting of the rulers of all 202 states in challenged Gandhi’s selection of Prime Minister, like Subhas Saurashtra. Patel announced that all states have agreed to Bose did in 1938, many observers at the time believed that 15 Nizam is a title used by Moslem rulers of Hyderabad, present day he would have prevailed, as Bose did. Motilal Nehru, the Andhra Pradesh state in India father of the first prime minister of independent India, had 16 Nawab is also a title used by many Moslem rulers, including the one seen the winds of independence early on; he stood on the in Junagadh, now in Gujarat state in India.

10 11 Marshall Plan versus The Great Society Growing Up in Gomta, Pre-Independence Days right side of Gandhi and he groomed his son, Jawaharlal, for a day, every day, there were Darshans, or the glimpse of the future Prime Ministership. the idol of young Lord Krishna. After the Golokvas (passing No one had a radio in Gomta. The news traveled slowly. away to the land of Krishna and the Gopies17) of my father, On the morning of January 31, 1948, when the morning pa- my mother took care of the temple with the help of my older per arrived from Rajkot, we learned that Mahatma Gandhi brother Vallabhbhai. had been assassinated by Nathuram Godse during the Gomta Elementary school offered education through prayer meeting on January 30, 1948. I was standing on the seventh grade. Those who wanted to study high school road near the school when we heard the news. I do not re- would go to nearby city after finishing fourth, fifth, sixth or member what my reaction was. I was only 11 and was raised seventh grade. Middle schools in the cities taught English in a very religious and conservative Hindu home where un- as a subject starting in the fifth grade, but village schools touchability was practiced. We were told that Gandhi was did not teach English. By 1948, it was almost certain that my wrong in demanding equality for the lower castes. Between parents would send only one son to Gondal for a high school 1948 and 1955 I would also become a liberal Gandhian and education. Since Vallabhbhai was needed in the family farm- a Congress Party member. ing (he was thirteen at the time), they decided to send me. It took my parents a long time to change their views Vallabhbhai did as good, or better than me, in the studies on caste and untouchability. Centuries old systems do not during the fourth, fifth and sixth grade we were together in die in a decade. My views changed long before theirs did. Gomta, but he was older and stronger and, therefore, able Although my parents had difficulty in changing their views to be more helpful on the farm. I have always felt that I was about the caste and untouchability because it was so much fortunate to have been chosen by my parents and wished a part of Indian culture, they otherwise had strong sense of they had resources to send both of us to high school. right and wrong and high moral values, which they tried My academic year 1947-48, sixth grade, was one of the to instill in all of their children. This had an everlasting ef- most memorable in my life. India became independent. We, fect on me. Later in life, between the years 1948 and 1955, the students along with general public, openly defied the I acquired a strong sense of social justice, politics and civic princely states and their local agents. We demonstrated in issues. Before I was ten years old, I was reading scriptures the streets, shouted pro-independence slogans and refused to group of people in the evening, who would gather regu- to obey orders of police and civil servants. People told them larly in front of the Temple in our house. This group meets in face to face confrontations that their days are numbered even today, every day for daily “Bhagavat Varta”, the stories and that in a few months, people would be in charge. Some of God. We used to have a Krishna Temple in the house local leaders were arrested and imprisoned by princely and my parents were devotees and Marjadis (Priests) for life. states. About three months after Mahatma Gandhi’s assas- Our home and temple were open to town people. Six times sination, the princely states peacefully gave up their rule. I 17 Krishna is believed to be the ninth and the last incarnation of Vishnu in Hindu scriptures. Gopies were milk maid devotees in Krishna’s birth place town of Gokul in present day Uttar Pradesh state of India.

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