MUMBAI, July 23: Macaulay may have tried to create a system during British rule of nurturing a class of English-speaking babus to ensure that they remained in subordinate posts. This, however, could not prevent revolutionaries from being born out of its womb.K V Upadhye, a typist for the British police, tutored to say `Long Live the King', subverted this system during the Quit India struggle. The 87-year-old Upadhye recalled how he used to tip off freedom fighters about key police decisions and their impending arrest.``I used to pilfer an extra carbon copy of all orders typed, shamelessly eavesdrop on officers' conversations and then tip off the underground workers'', he said.Upadhye joined the movement in 1921 as a 11 year-old. "Though I was originally inspired by Lokmanya Tilak's slogan Swaraj mera janma siddha adhikar hai even before Gandhiji's arrival on the national scene, it was only during the Quit India movement that I finally took the plunge,'' he says.He recalled that though the Quit India resolution was passed on August eight, the details had not been spelt out. After their leaders' arrest, each activist was his own leader, taking his own decisions.When the news spread that Gandhiji was going to read out the Quit India resolution in the All India Congress Committee (AICC) meeting at Gowalia Tank, Upadhye found out that the government was going to arrest all national leaders. ``So I rushed to the meeting. Achyut Patwardhan, R R Diwakar, D P Karmarkar, R S Hekerikar and M P Patil believed me and escaped arrest by going underground.''Top leaders, including Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, were arrested on the intervening night of August eight-nine. While the movement now seemed like ``a bird without wings'', there emerged an underground network that carried on the struggle, even setting up an underground radio station.``The movement would have fallen flat on its face had it not been for this underground network that worked till the leaders were released, says Upadhye.Without giving the slightest hint that he was a Congress mole, Upadhye went about coordinating sabotage activities in North Karnataka and Maharashtra. His plan of action was even appreciated by underground leaders like Jayprakash Narayan and Achyut Patwardhan.``Alongwith with B D Jatti and others, I set up the underground centre in Jamkhandi''. They burnt down the Sulebhavi-Suldhal railway station near Belgaum even though it was guarded round the clock by the police. ``Gandhiji acknowledged the good work being done by the patriots in Karnataka in a letter to Diwakarji in 1943. When all was quiet in other parts, Karnataka had kept the flame of nationalism alive,'' he said.Ironically, it was his British uniform that delivered him from suspicion on many occasions. ``I had a close call once when I went to meet an arrested undergound activist in jail. I would have been summarily shot had they discovered my real activities.''Upadhye, who even failed his matriculation exams by three marks after spending 13 days in jail, continues to be a free spirit. His sons could not complete college because he did not have the money to pay for their fees. He could have utilised his ``freedom fighter's position'', but did not. In 1972, the Karnataka government honoured him with tamra patra, but he refused it, saying ``I do not want to encash my patriotism.``I only want to speak on the occasion of the golden jubilee year of Independence, and have written accordingly to the Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral'', he said.
