In this interview with Kavita Puri from 2017, Pamela Justine Dowley-Wise discusses her experience of the Quit India movement while living in India. Pamela was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1926 to British parents. Her father worked for an American oil company. She describes how she had very little interaction with Indians, except at Christmas when her father’s employees brought the family gifts.

Pamela tells Kavita that she first heard of the Indian independence movement when the riots started, recalling that it was a very worrying time. Pamela describes how a supporter of the Quit India movement pushed her off her bicycle into heavy traffic in the street, leaving her battered and bruised. When Pamela returned home, her father decided that it was no longer safe for his family in India and wanted them to return to England. Pamela states that until that attack she had felt safe in India, and describes being well treated and respected despite the riots.

What was the Quit India movement?

On 8 August 1942 Mahatma Gandhi launched the Quit India movement to demand an end to British rule. The Indian National Congress encouraged people to challenge and disregard British rule through boycotts, non-violent protests and destruction of government property. In response, the British Indian government arrested most of the Congress leaders, including Gandhi, with many remaining imprisoned right until the end of World War Two in 1945.

About Kavita Puri’s Partition Voices

This audio clip is an extract from a longer interview from the Partition Voices collection. In 2017 BBC journalist Kavita Puri led a project to mark the 70th anniversary of the Partition of India. Through interviews, the Partition Voices team directly documented the experiences of those who lived through this traumatic time and subsequently moved to Britain, as well as stories from their children and grandchildren. The testimonies recall epic journeys and forced migration, violence, partings with friends and family, and the end of Empire, with some speaking about these events for the very first time. The outcome of this project was an award-winning three-part series for BBC Radio 4 titled Partition Voices, and later an acclaimed book of the same name. The full recordings and transcripts from Partition Voices are archived at the British Library Sound Archive, with collection reference C1790.

I had no interaction with the Indian population at all. My father did because he had 133 Indian staff under him in (inaudible) oil company, American oil company working for him. And so, we never saw them, except at Christmas time. They would come to us about just around Christmas and they would bring us gifts, many lovely gifts. It was evidently a done thing to go to see the Memsaab and the daughters. And so, that is about the only time we knew them. We used to go to the clubs which were – I never saw an Indian in the clubs there. They were British clubs, the golf club, tennis club.

KAVITA PURI:

And when did you first hear about the independence movement?

PAMELA JUSTINE DOWLEY-WISE:

I first heard about that when the riots started. “We want Pakistan. British Quit India.” And it was a very worrying time. And I was cycling along Chowringhee one day as I’d always done. And out of the blue, a man, an Indian man came level with me and put his arm, his right arm out and pushed me off my bike in the heavy traffic. And I fell in the street with all the cars and rickshaws and everything around me. It was extremely dangerous. I could have been killed but I was grazed and battered and bruised. And when I went back to our home, my mother had a fit. When father saw it, he said, “That’s it.” He said, “I don’t think it’s safe for you to be here any longer. The family must go to England.” But he couldn’t because he had this post in the American oil company.

KAVITA PURI:

And when that incident happened, was that – do you think it was just because you were British?

PAMELA JUSTINE DOWLEY-WISE:

Yes. He said “Quit India” as he did it.