Kush Akotia, GPC Student        

Born in Jail

            I have only met my mother’s parents ten times in twenty years.  We lived in Africa and my grandparents lived in India. My mother would always tell me stories about India, the country she grew up in, and their fight for freedom during the British reign. This period was very crucial for Indians as they were trying to gain independence through many efforts organized by our freedom fighters.  Our family was part of one such event.  My great grandparents supported Mahatma Gandhi in one of his protests against the British.  Their participation in the freedom struggle resulted in their arrest due to which my grandfather was born in jail.  This story always left me with thousands of questions, which only my grandfather could answer.  During my most recent visit to India, I had the opportunity of hearing the story from my grandfather himself.

            He first briefed me on the Indian history, and told me the tale of his birth as told to him by his mother. India was colonized by the British, and was now trying to break free from the strong rule of the Queens Empire. The British had many restrictions on the people and they took all their agricultural products and wealth as an imposition of tax or sent it to England. Most of the royal jewelry and precious stones were all taken to England for the Queen. The Indian people protested and developed plans to fight for their freedom.  I could relate very well to this because the British colonized Zambia, the country of my birth.

 The “Dandi March” which was a protest led by Gandhi, where they walked through many small towns to prove to the British that they would demand their freedom and no longer be subdued to give up their own resources and products.  Gandhi and his followers stopped at my great grandfather’s house during the long march for the night for food and shelter and continued the march the next morning. Some of the British officers found out they were there and arrested my grandparents along with freedom fighters. The British soldiers burst through the doors and held my family under gunpoint as they searched the house for any hidden freedom fighters staying there. The British accused my family of aiding in the freedom protest and took them to jail. My great grand mother was five months pregnant at the time with my grandfather.

            Life in jail was unexpected for my great grandparents. The jail cells were very cramped and smelled of urine and feces. The food was given in very small rations and even thought my great grandmother was pregnant they did not show and sympathy and compassion to her nutritional needs. Like everybody else, she was served a bowl of rice and some mixed greens. The mixed greens were not even washed and had insects crawling on them, which were picked off as they ate. My great grand parents waited and counted the long days and nights they spent in jail awaiting the birth of her second child. At the same time she was concerned about her eight-year-old son whom she had left behind in the care of her brother in law.

Despite the lack of proper medical attention, with the help and support of the other women in jail, she gave birth to my grandfather on 9^th June 1932 and he was named Swaraj, a name picked for him by Gandhi himself. Swaraj means freedom as Gandhi often referred to it in his patriotic statement “ Swaraj is my birth right, and I shall have it”. And to this day my grandfather caries his name with pride even thought he was born in jail.