After IGP Killburn's police managed to arrest Manubhai on 9 January 1943, he was put in a cell in the Red Fort jail in Delhi. On hearing about Manubhai's imprisonment, Lala Shri Ram tried to send him his salary on the basis of paid leave but Manubhai refused to accept it. He remained in prison for 3 years. At first he was kept in solitary confinement for 3 months at the Red Fort where torture was routine, so that prisoners would succumb and reveal the programmes of the Movement or the whereabouts of other activists or would leave the Movement. In three 8-hour batches, Manubhai was tortured day after day throughout day and night by the police who would not allow him to sleep to weaken his resolve, but Manubhai did not give in; he never disclosed any information and continued to protect the other leaders, especially Aruna Asaf Ali by not revealing to the police any details of her whereabouts which they were particularly after.

Thumbnail sized photo of Vidyaben kept hidden by Manubhai in prison

On one of the nights in prison when bread came wrapped in a piece of newspaper, Manubhai read that Gandhiji had gone on a fast, and he too immediately began to fast. On the 11th day of fasting he became unconscious and was given saline. At this point the authorities decided he was not revealing any information and sent him to Tihar Jail before shifting him again and this time to Ferozepur jail being charged under the Indian Penal Code Articles 120 and 120(A) for conspiracy and for "waging war against the king". The trial continued for four months but because of lack of adequate evidence, the charges were dropped against Manubhai and the other prisoners and from then on they were kept in prison as detenus rather than accused. For the rest of the time in prison, Manubhai was a detenu in Ferozpur Jail in Punjab, from where he would risk smuggling out letters he wrote to Vidyaben sharing with her his thoughts and vision for independent India and instructing her on how to enhance the freedom struggle.

Officially, prisoners were allowed to write letters no longer than twenty lines which would be counted by the censoring jailer. Manubhai wrote some letters in Gujarati so that the jailer would not understand them and when questioned, he would say, "what does a man write to his fiancee." Other letters and leaflets were long and smuggled out. As narrated by Vidyaben to friends, his ideas were always full of practical wisdom as he believed that the first task of rebuilding India was to provide opportunities and the necessary resources to all the people of India to enable everyone to contribute to the process of development and to reduce the economic and social gap between the different strata of Indian society.

Unfortunately only an extract remains from a long letter in his own hand, written by Manubhai to Vidyaben (expressing his ideas that were influenced by socialists and humanists from a wide spectrum across the globe as well as by the vision he had developed having seen and experienced the reality of India); the extract which was reproduced in a newspaper is as follows:

"Sources of Finance for a National Plan: I will first briefly narrate to you the background which I contemplate for this problem because it is only due to this background that I consider this question of financing the economic plan for our country as a very simple and easy one and not so formidable or controversial as our orthodox economists make us believe. The background is this: The idea and the necessity of national economic planning arises naturally and inevitably from the nation's determination and resolve to level up the class strata and to enrich the poor and bring them to a decent economic level of life by a redistribution of [illegible] and wealth and with an aim to produce a 'classless' state to [illegible]. It postulates a state where social and economic needs are provided for all on an egalitarian basis. Of course, it can not mean strict equality and probably at the [illegible] requires long gradual process. It also means a state in which none is ....... "

 

Such exchange of spirit and ideas and materials kept the Movement alive and also kept up the political spirit in the country, encouraging strikes and processions to continue to take place despite all the leading figures being in jail. In Ferozpur jail Manubhai went on a fast to protest against discriminating practices where offensive food was being served to certain categories of prisoners. For some months he also suffered from a severe attack of dysentery which was at first treated by an inmate Dr Yudhvir Singh who was a homeopath, but when the illness became life threatening, the other detenus then went on a hunger strike to force the jailors to fetch a doctor from Lahore. A German Dr Williamson arrived from Lahore who declared that he was astonished that the prisoner Manubhai was still alive. During this time negotiations were going on with the British, but failing. Like the Cripps Mission other efforts were also doomed to failure as they did not agree to the Indian demand for complete independence. Gandhiji had already been released from jail in 1944; and gradually of the 1200 prisoners in Ferozepur Jail most were out but Manubhai Shah and Ramjilal Bandhu and two others were the last to be released at the end of September 1945 only after Gandhiji wrote to the Home Minister Mr Tottenham that what these prisoners had done was nothing compared to the inhumane acts of violence of the British Government.^[1]

We are reiterating some of these activities to remind our future generations what the tenor was of the Quit India Movement and though widely spread how essentially it was non-violent, and how independence of India was gained by the actions of thousands of people across the country, it was not attained by a single individual or a leader; it was a mass Movement in which were enjoined individuals from all nooks and corners of India; in all nooks and corners some action or the other was taking place unbeknownst to each other and unbeknownst to the world beyond; innumerable unsung noble warriers worked tirelessly to attain freedom, Vidyaben being one such who actively exhorted girls and boys of all ages around her to join the freedom struggle.

Vidyaben in the Freedom Struggle

By 1933, during her school years, at the very young age of 11 years, Vidyaben had already been greatly influenced by the work of Gandhiji. During the 1930s and 1940s as a youngster Vidyaben had been participating in small ways on an everyday basis in the Freedom Movement in Gujarat as Gandhiji’s work was well known throughout Saurashtra. In her school, Sheth G. T. Girls' High School (Vanita Vishram), she had created a stir by bringing the message of nonviolence to her fellow students. In 1939, a Diwan in a princely state was committing atrocities on the common man and Gandhiji had started a movement against the Diwan. At the time Vidyaben was active in school and this protest against the Diwan influenced her greatly. Her school principal Sushilaben Pai was an enthusiastic Gandhian and she not only inspired Vidyaben but also allowed her to join protest activities as and when it was necessary as it meant missing school and Principal's permission became essential. Vidyaben had also been given encouragement by Urmila Mehta the Principal of Barton Female Training College which was near her own school. She had come to know Urmilaben as she used to like to watch cricket matches being played in a nearby play ground and that was only possible from Barton. Vidyaben had requested Urmilaben to allow her to enter her college to watch cricket, and which also gave them the opportunity to discuss affairs of global politics.

In 1942 when Gandhiji gave the call to do or die and the Quit India movement gained momentum, Vidyaben was a university student, and under the guidance of Gandhiji she readily joined hundreds of other volunteers who were waiting for such a moment. Vidyaben used to prepare and distribute pamphlets, put up posters, initiate rallies to awaken the youth and women, encouraging them to boycott foreign cloth, while in turn many a times she worried about her parents, as her father could lose his job as he was working for the British Raj in the Department of Education. She gave up eating sweets and ghee for three years until India became independent. After completing B.A. in Economics in 1943, as there was no postgraduate college in her parents' town, she left home to study for an M.A. at Samaldas College in Bhavnagar where she continued her work to force the British to Quit India.

When Vidyaben met Manubhai, he was already active in the freedom movement. Their chance meeting drew them towards each other and they felt even more inspired and certain of their commitment to the struggle. Vidyaben increased her activities, writing and distributing literature to invite others to join them, helping other people in the movement, making public speeches, going door to door to bring people out on the streets. As day by day the struggle grew in intensity, family members became concerned as it was impossible to predict what the outcome of the struggle would be and for how long it would go on for. But Vidyaben carried on nonetheless. They decided to not get married until freedom was certain. Manubhai and Aruna Asaf Ali worked closely together underground, and Vidyaben used to visit them in Delhi. Arunaji was a dynamic and dedicated person with utter honesty, integrity and passion for the oppressed Indians. On 9th August 1942, several leaders were arrested, but Arunaji went to Gowalia Tank and unfurled the National Flag. She escaped lathi charge, tear gas and other atrocities of the police, and went to Delhi. Subsequently Manubhai was caught, but all the time protected Aruna Asaf Ali by not letting anyone know where she was hiding. Vidyaben remained closely associated with her in Delhi through the activist years and even after 1947 until Arunaji's death in 1996. Vidyaben took risks, acted on advice from various teams around the country and worked hard making speeches, boycotting foreign goods, preparing and putting up posters, writing pamphlets and distributing them to the people of Gujarat to highlight the key issues for the future of India. But she did not get caught despite having sometimes received written instructions from colleagues describing how tiny bomb crackers can be made which would make small explosions but loud noise to scare the British government. Like Manubhai, Vidyaben also liked to make speeches exhorting people especially women to come out and join the struggle.

Vidyaben along with the renowned homeopath Jugal Kishore used to often visit Manubhai and Mrs Sharda Jugal Kishore in prison not knowing when they will be released. Some acquaintances of Vidyaben's father were urging him to break the engagement of Vidyaben with Manubhai as they used to say that "the British would remain in India longer than can be imagined" and Indian freedom was not certain. Vidyaben's father told her that while people were talking about this, only she should make the decision; Vidyaben's response was an outright rejection of such a suggestion as neither was she going to break her engagement nor did she have any doubt regarding the imminent independence of India.

After Manubhai was released from jail in 1945, Vidyaben and he got married; they had already waited for each other for five years. They continued to be active in the freedom struggle but at the same time Manubhai went back to work for Delhi Cloth Mills so that he could also support the growing family.