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Noted Gandhian Dr Usha Mehta is dead

Gandhian Dr Usha Mehta, who played an important role in the Quit India movement in Bombay, passed away on Friday night after a brief illness.

She was 80 and is survived by her elder brother and two nephews.

Family sources said she had not been keeping well since Thursday and at around 2100 hours IST she complained of breathlessness and collapsed. Her nephew film-maker Ketan Mehta and his brother Rohit were at her side.

Mehta had participated in the Quit India anniversary celebrations at August Kranti Maidan on Wednesday, along with former Union finance minister Madhu Dandavate, Mrinal Gore and other freedom fighters.

With her death, a glorious chapter in the history of the Quit India movement passes into the pages of history.

Dimunitive and soft-sopken, Ushaben, as she was known among her friends and well-wishers, remained active till the end and was humility personified. She was one of the last vanguards of the Quit India movement who set up an underground radio to maintain communication among freedom fighters evading British rule.

Born on March 25, 1920, at Saras village in Surat district of Gujarat, she came to Bombay in 1933 after her father, a judge in Gujarat retired. She was a schoolgirl and was highly inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's preachings on non-violence.

Even after Independence, she continued to pass on the Gandhian message and was president of the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi at Mani Bhavan, where the father of the nation lived whenever he visited the city.

Mehta was professor of politics at Bombay University and later head of the department. She retired in 1975. She did her thesis in Gandhian social and political thought and was conferred a Ph D for her work.

During her speeches at August Kranti Maidan, she would tell old-timers who participated in the freedom movement that they had a tough task ahead and should not rest on the laurels of having won freedom. ''We have to transform swarajya into surajaya," she would always say.

UNI

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