Pratap: The 'conscience of India'

As you dip into this personal history, the story turns into a thriller.

- VIPUL MUDGAL

The churning of the freedom movement unfolds through the biography of journalist Virendra Mohan, a "partner in crime" of Bhagat Singh and Chandra Shekhar Azad. What begins as a profile of Pratap, a defiant Urdu daily, becomes a chronicle of India's press freedom before and after Independence, as well as the censorship of the Emergency and reporting of terrorism in Punjab.

The authors often stray from the theme, but the side stories evoke serendipity. You get life sketches of Lahore, the king of cities north of the Vindhyas, its place in the freedom movement, with its clubs, colleges, boulevards and poetry. Urdu is the language, and "inqualab" is in the air. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre has incensed the nation, and a militant movement is rising in Lahore and Kapurthala. There are tales of human bondage where nationalism reigns, but it does not ride on religion.

Some stories are part of folklore, others are forgotten—such as the vignettes of a young Kamala, who smuggles her jewellery for the cause and is about to shoot the Governor before the assassination plot is shelved at the last minute.

Virendra Mohan spent most of his youth in prison. He was arrested nine times for being part of the revolutionary movement, but eventually joined the Congress. At 18, he was first arrested in 1928 for the murder of British policeman John Saunders. He was in Lahore's Central Jail on the day Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev were hanged.