ANDREW WHITEHEAD
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Partition Voices:
Sailen Chatterjee

Partition Voices: Sailen Chatterjee
​


Sailen Chatterjee (1923-2001) was a veteran journalist who in 1945 was assigned to cover Gandhi and travelled with him regularly over the next two years, including to Noakhali in East Bengal and to Calcutta. He got to know Gandhi well. Chatterjee was present at Gandhi's assassination on 30 January 1948 and gave an eye-witness account of the moment of tragedy. I Interviewed Sailen Chatterjee in Delhi on 25 January 1997.

I have kept on the end of this recording charming renditions by my then BBC colleague Jyotsna Singh of a Tagore song which Gandhi greatly liked and which is mentioned by Chatterjee.

EXTRACTS:

Travelled with Gandhi from 1945 "as a journalist but I became almost a member of his party. I used to travel with him in hits third-class compartment. I used to read newspapers to him almost every night then I used to walk with him during his peace mission, pilgrimage, in Noakhali ... and I used to talk to him on many matters"

After spending a month in Srirampur in Noakhali, 'Gandhi decided to tour the whole area, from one village to another village, and preach his message of peace, brotherhood and unity. ... He gave up his chappals [sandals] ... And it was one night, one day journey. Early morning he would start from a village, slowly walk, reach another village and stay there. Sometimes even he had to stay in a tree. ... Every day he would ask people accompanying him to sing a song of Tagore - Rabindranath Tagore had written a poem: walk alone, if anybody responds to your call ... Every day this song used to be sung. one day, I said why do you want this song to be sing, Gandhi ji? He said: perhaps ... Gurudev [Tagore] has written this for me'

During Gandhi's fast to Calcutta, 'these people who were responsible for killing, they came with their weapons, placed him at the feet of Gandhi, and they assured him: we will never in future to do this kind of killing and destruction ... Some people who were very shabbily dressed they came with swords, daggers anc country-made guns ... I saw them ...  Even Mountbatten said this was the miracle of Calcutta'.

On 30 January 1948, 'when [Gandhi] was meeting Sardar Patel it was almost five. So he said: no, no, no, I'm getting late for the prayer. So he walked. I used to cover his prayer speeches. Everyday I used to follow him as he used to leave the room, thinking that after he goes from the prayer ground he will speak something, and I'll take a note. So I was following him. When he was going, there were three steps. He climbed. That was his last fast, he was slightly weak ... so slowly he was going with his hands n the shoulders of his grand-daughters, two grand-daughters, and as he was climbing a young man, from a distance I could see, some young man dressed in green ... He tried to touch his feet. Later these grand-daughters told me they told this young man: please don't touch his feet, Gandhi doesn't like people touching his feet. And immediately the man rose then he fired three shots and Gandhi fell down. He uttered the word: hai Ram. I rushed. i found from his shawl blood was coming out. Everybody was weeping ... People held that man, some were beating him ... There was confusion ... and everybody lifted Gandhi, I also followed and we went in the room.'

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  • Home
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      • Alexander Baron
      • A walk round Baron's manor
      • John Sommerfield >
        • John Sommerfield Archive
        • John Sommerfield's Spanish notebook
        • John Sommerfield, 'More Room for Us'
        • The artist Molly Moss by Catherine Layton
      • Lynne Reid Banks
      • "Against the Tyranny of Kings and Princes": radicalism in George Gissing's 'Workers in the Dawn'
      • 'Beyond Boundary Passage'
      • 'London' by Dorf Bonarjee
    • A Mission in Kashmir >
      • Full text: A Mission in Kashmir
      • 'The People's Militia: Communists and Kashmiri nationalism in the 1940s'
      • The Rise and Fall of New Kashmir
      • The Making of the 'New Kashmir' manifesto
      • 'For the Conversion of Kashmir'
      • 'I shall paint my nails with the blood of those that covet me'
      • Freda Bedi looking 'From a Woman's Window' on Kashmir
      • Kashmir 1947: Testimonies of a Contested History
      • Kashmir @ 70
      • Kashmir 47 Images
      • Kashmir 47 on film
      • Kashmir 47 in fiction
      • Father Shanks's Kashmir 'Diary'
      • Krishna Misri: 1947, a year of change
      • Shanti Ambardar: Kashmir 1947
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      • Popular Politics and Social Structure in Clerkenwell >
        • The Residents of Clerkenwell
        • The Occupational Structure of Clerkenwell
        • Clerkenwell and Reform
        • Fenians, Reformers and the Clerkenwell "Outrage"
        • Clerkenwell: Socialism Finds a Niche
        • Clerkenwell: Not Forgetting the Anarchists
      • Red London: radicals and socialists in late-Victorian Clerkenwell
      • Patriotic Club
    • NW5 and Around >
      • George Jones, Hornsey Communist
  • Voices
    • Partition Voices >
      • Partition Voices: L.K. Advani
      • Partition Voices: Ram Advani
      • Partition Voices: Qazi Ghulam Ajmiri
      • Partition Voices: Angela Aranha
      • Partition Voices: Helen Baldwin
      • Partition Voices: Bali family
      • Partition Voices: Edward Behr
      • Partition Voices: Benazir Bhutto
      • Partition Voices: H.K. Burki
      • Partition Voices: Sailen Chatterjee
      • Partition Voices: Pran Chopra
      • Partition Voices: K.S. + Ayesha Duggal
      • Partition Voices: Alys Faiz
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      • Partition Voices: Ashoka Gupta
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      • Political Voices: Dorothy Thompson
      • Political Voices: E.P. Thompson
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      • The Land Song
      • Harry Pollitt on disc
    • The British New Left >
      • New Left: Neal Ascherson
      • New Left: T.J. Clark
      • New Left: Catherine Hall
      • New Left: Jean McCrindle
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      • New Left: Headopoly
    • South Asia
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  • Collecting
    • Political Pamphlets
    • Political Journals
    • Political Badges
    • Political Tokens
    • Political Ephemera
  • Radio Gems
    • 'What's Left of Communism?'
    • 'India: a people partitioned'
    • India's Minorities
    • Documentaries and Features
    • From Our Own Correspondent >
      • FOOC: Working at Westminster 1990
      • FOOC: Ulster's Talking Shop 1991
      • FOOC: House Rules at Westminster 1992
      • FOOC: India's Red Fort State
      • FOOC: Keeping Kosher in Cuba
      • FOOC: Italy's Gourmand Communists 1992
      • FOOC: Scoundrel Politicians - 1993
      • FOOC: Kashmir's New Puritans 1993
      • FOOC: The Rajah of Bihar 1993
      • FOOC: Bringing the Gospel to Mizoram 1993
      • FOOC: Netaji, India's Lost Leader 1994
      • FOOC: A Self-Respect Wedding 1994
      • FOOC: The Miseries of Manipur 1994
      • FOOC: Village Bangladesh 1994
      • FOOC: Indian Beauty 1995
      • FOOC: Calcutta's Communists Discover Capitalism 1995
      • FOOC: Localism in Ladakh 1995
      • FOOC: Bhutan, not quite Paradise
      • FOOC: Crime and Indian Politics 1995
      • FOOC: Sonia Gandhi 1995
      • FOOC: Sri Lanka's Missing Leaders 1995
      • FOOC: India Votes 1996
      • FOOC: Communism Revisited 1996
      • FOOC: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan 1996
      • FOOC: Kerala's Jewish Community 1996
      • FOOC: India's Corruption Scandals 1996
      • FOOC: The Maldives Crowded Capital 1996
      • FOOC: India's Polluted Capital 1996
      • FOOC: Jinnah, Pakistan's Quaid 1997
      • FOOC: Mauritius, an Indian Ocean melting pot
      • FOOC: The Hijras Blessing 1998
      • FOOC: Massacre at Baramulla 2003
      • FOOC: An Old Photo from Kashmir 2007
      • FOOC: Prosperity Driven from Detroit 2008
      • FOOC: An Atheist in MLK's Atlanta2013
      • FOOC: San Francisco's City Lights 2014
      • FOOC: Kashmir Revisited 2014
      • FOOC: By Ferry in Burma 2014
      • FOOC: Toyah's Grave 2017
      • FOOC: The Tibetan Colony in Kashmir 2017
      • FOOC: Stars of Tamil Politics 2018
      • FOOC: Koreans in Chennai 2018
      • FOOC: Epitaph to Empire 2019
      • FOOC: Armenians in India 2019
      • FOOC: Lahore's Bradlaugh Hall 2020
      • FOOC: Chennai and the British Empire 2023
    • What's your favourite political song?
    • London Snapshots
  • Writing
    • Bibliography
    • Tramping Artisans
    • Working Class Housing in Jericho, Oxford
    • New Statesman
    • The Freethinker
    • Outlook
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    • Fresh Garbage
    • miscellaneous writing
    • David Goodway contact and writings >
      • Goodway Libertarian Politics of G.K. Chesterton
  • Gallery
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