Freedom Fighter Vishwanath Mathur (1913-2004) was from north Bihar. In the 1930s, he was active there in revolutionary groups and was jailed several times, eventually at the notorious Cellular Jail on the Andaman islands. As a prisoner there he became exposed to Marxism for the first time - and talks in this interview about the way that Marxist writings circulated in jail. He subsequently joined the Communist Party of India and was a pioneer of the party in Bihar. During the Second World War, he was detained at the Deoli camp in Rajasthan and was involved in the discussions among interned communists about whether the party policy should change to one of a 'people's war'.
Mr Mathur was subsequently a prominent member of the organisation of those who had been detained in the Andamans and became president of the All India Freedom Fighters' association. I interviewed him at his home in Delhi on 10 September 1998.