Interview number: 203

Interviewer: Shanker, Uma

Interview date: 1974-08-26

Length 308 minutes

Condition notes: Noisy microphone; some regions of distortion due to too-close microphone

J.N. Sahni, journalist/politician, remembers the political awakening of Indian youth post-1900, fake salt after Dandi, the I.N.C., 1930s politics, Quit India, Freedom leaders, English/vernacular newspapers, and Indian attitudes pre/post Independence.

{parts 2, 4, 7 and 8 have been interfered with, post-transcription, so the blanked sections have been left in place while those parts of the transcript are being read: parts 5 and 6 have been interfered with, post-recording, and, from the page numbering, they appear to have had no contemporaneous transcript, so the longer blanked sections have been removed from this digitised version, for easier listening, and their removal indicated on the subsequent transcripts; shorter, blanked sections have also been highlighted but not removed: full, archive clones available for study at CSAS on request.}

Coverage notes: ‘Hindustan Times’, ‘The National Call’, ‘Nav Yug’, ‘The Forward’, ‘The Comrade’; ‘The Lid Off’, ‘The Truth About The Indian Press’; Congress Socialist Party; United Nations; West Punjab; ’14-’18 War; Hari Ram Seti, Sita Ram; Lahore; Khilafat, Swaraj; cattle-lifters; Jamuna river; tongas; salt; Congress; Delhi-wallahs; garibi hatao; loyalty; Mrs. Satyavati; Stepney; graffiti stencils; Princes, Princestan; Islam; English/Indian newspapers; English language; rasgullas; corruption, integrity; dhoti, kurta; Indira Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah; political musical chairs, High Command; Kamaraj Plan; caucus; nostrums; personalities; Bangladesh liberation; Kashmir problem; Sunni, Pakhtoon, Shia; Partition; Wavell, Mountbatten; Lahore culture; Punjab; Parsees; press; Mughals, traditions, Englishness; thrall; 1900-1974