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The history of our freedom movement is the saga of innumerable armedstruggles. One after another, these struggles kept on challenging the British rule in India. However, during and after the Second World War, these struggles acquired a new momentum and new strength. The revolutionary spirit of Indian National Army (INA) had greatly affected the British Indian Armed Forces. Between March 1942 and the beginning of 1946 there were nineteen uprisings in the Royal Indian Navy alone. The most important was the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) revolt of 1 946 which paved the way for freedom.
The revolt began in Bombay when on 18 February 1946 some ratings at the shore training establishment Talwar refused to eat bad food served to them. They went to the duty officer who was a British to complain about rotten food. Instead of paying any heed to their complaint, the duty officer remarked, 'Beggars can not be choosers' and shouted at them 'you sons of coolies, you sons of Indian bitches'. This attitude and arrogance on the part of the duty officer made the ratings angry and agitated. For years they had been treated like dirt; they had suffered humiliations, hardships and discriminations, but now things were different, their outlook had been transformed. They had fought the Germans, the Italians and the Japanese shoulder to shoulder with Allied forces. Their heroism and gallantry had won them praise of the world. It had increased their self-confidence. Beside this, they had seen with their own eyes the freedom struggle of the peoples of the countries they had helped to liberate from the fascists. They had come back to a new India fighting for freedom. Many of them had joined the Navy during the Second World War and had come from all over India. Among them were workers, peasants, students and a sizeable proportion was from the lower-middle class. Their links with the people were closer. They saw how the people rallied behind the INA men who had created a new history by launching an armed struggle against the British imperialism. Now it was RIN's turn to make its contribution in the freedom struggle. Thus, it becomes obvious that the RIN revolt was not a sudden outburst. It was the expression of...