Biju Patnaik: Titan of Multiple Freedom struggles
By Prasenjit K. Basu
On August 17th 1945, two days after the Japanese announced they would be surrendering to the US-led allies, Indonesia declared its independence – with Soekarno as president, and Mohammed Hatta as vice president. They were sworn in by senior officers of the Japanese army, then still in control of Indonesia (and indeed much of the rest of East Asia) despite the formal offer of surrender. Both Soekarno and Hatta had collaborated with the Japanese, who had helped them to respectively consolidate the nationalist and Muslim organizations of the former Dutch East Indies under their leadership. Sutan Sjahrir (a socialist who had refused to collaborate with the Japanese) subsequently (November) became Prime Minister in Soekarna and Hatta’s government.
After the formal surrender ceremonies in September 1945, British-Indian troops of the South-east Asia Command (SEAC) under Lord Louis Mountbatten began to re-establish order – with some sporadic cooperation from the Japanese. In the eyes of the newly-formed United Nations (UN), the SEAC’s Maratha, Rajput and Gurkha troops were re-establishing order so that the Dutch (who had ruled the islands until ousted by the Japanese in 1942) might return to their former colony. This placed the SEAC’s troops into conflict with the pemuda (youth volunteers) of Soekarno’s Republican government. Almost accidentally, a huge battle began on November 10th 1945 between the SEAC’s largely Indian troops and the 120,000 pemuda attempting to defend Surabaya. In this gory Battle of Surabaya, at least 10,000 people were killed.
Further skirmishes continued until September 1946, when Nehru (newly elected Interim Prime Minister of India) became aware of the large-scale presence of Indian troops in Indonesia – fighting on the wrong side. He immediately called for their withdrawal, and began strenuous diplomatic efforts to ensure that the UN would not support the re-colonisation of Indonesia. Meanwhile, war raged in Indonesia itself between the volunteer army led by Sudirman and the Dutch army (KNIL).
Soekarno’s Jogjakarta-based government steadily lost ground, and in early-1947 Nehru learnt that Hatta and Sjahrir were in grave danger. When India’s interim government decided to air-drop food and other aid to the beleaguered Indonesia freedom-fighters, Nehru naturally turned to India’s leading private aviator, Bijayananda (“Biju”) Patnaik, recently released by the British after three years’ detention for high treason.
During the Second World War, Biju Patnaik had joined the Royal Indian Air Force, and been responsible for evacuating British families from Burma as it fell to the Japanese in 1942, as well as flying supplies into China and the Soviet Union. But, since the age of 13, he had been influenced by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and inspired by the example of his fellow Ravenshaw College (Cuttack) alumnus, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. So, even as he flew sorties over Burma, Biju Patnaik dropped leaflets condemning the British imposition of a famine on India, urging the British-Indian troops to support Gandhiji’s Quit India movement, and later to help Netaji’s INA. While on leave, he ferried Congress leaders to secret meetings with their supporters, and was a core member of the underground directorate led by Jayaprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia. In 1943, the British got wind of Biju Patnaik’s dual role and imprisoned him as part of the ruthless suppression of the Quit India movement.
But the young dare-devil’s most dramatic act of all occurred on July 22nd, 1947. The previous day, the Dutch had launched an all-out offensive, blocking all sea and air-routes into Indonesia. But Biju Patnaik flew his single-engine Dakota into Java and landed in a rice-field near where Hatta and Sjahrir were trapped. He flew them to safety, and managed to fly Sjahrir to Singapore – and thence onto Delhi, where he met Nehru. On July 28th, India and Australia introduced a resolution in the UN Security Council condemning Dutch actions, and Sjahrir eloquently argued his country’s case at the UN in New York. The intervention eventually led to the opening of Dutch-Indonesian negotiations that ultimately led to full Indonesian independence in 1949.
For his extraordinary act of derring-do at the height of the Indonesian war of independence, Biju Patnaik was subsequently conferred Indonesia’s highest civilian honour. Biju believed he was acting in the great tradition of the Kalinga kingdom (of Orissa) who had engaged with Java and Bali over two millennia. As a close personal friend of Soekarno, he suggested the Sanskrit name for his eldest daughter, Megawati.
Later that year, on October 27th 1947, the great aviator performed another act of high patriotism on India’s own behalf. At 10am, the day after Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir had signed the Instrument of Accession to India, Biju Patnaik piloted one of the first planes transporting Indian troops into Srinagar airport – flying over mountains without sufficient de-icing equipment, and without knowledge of whether the airport itself was in Indian or Pakistani hands five days after the invasion of Kashmir by Pakistani troops and irregulars. Biju Patnaik’s valour and skill were thus vital in India’s success in securing the Vale of Kashmir at this critical hour.
After Independence, Biju set about establishing numerous enterprises aimed at the industrialization of Orissa, one of India’s poorest states. He established Kalinga Airlines, Kalinga Steel, and a newspaper in an era in which Nehruvian socialism frowned upon entrepreneurship. During his brief first tenure as Chief Minister (1961-63), he established Paradip port, and was sent by Nehru on a diplomatic mission to President Kennedy during the Chinese invasion of October 1962 to secure military aid. Having resigned as part of the Kamaraj Plan (aimed at revitalizing the Congress party after the 1962 China disaster), he probably passed up an opportunity to succeed Nehru as Prime Minister.
Having fallen out with Indira Gandhi in 1969, he became Leader of the Opposition in Orissa and was imprisoned soon after the imposition of Emergency in 1975. With the victory of the Janata Party in 1977, he became India’s Minister of Steel, Mines and Coal, and later (1990-95) served in his second term as Chief Minister of Orissa, resuming his attempts at bringing about an industrial revolution in his state.
Although this relentless, restless visionary’s dream remained unfulfilled by the time of his death in April 1997, his legendary life has become better known since his death – and his legacy to Orissa and India lives on in his extraordinary children, Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik and celebrated author Gita Mehta (author of Karma Cola, Snakes and Ladders, Raj and The River Sutra). He is commemorated in the name of the political party (Biju Janata Dal) that now rules Orissa. While lacking his father’s visionary zeal, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has the administrative and political acumen to attract massive investments by such international players as Korea’s Posco and India’s Hindalco and Vedanta – who are helping Orissa to leapfrog into the twenty-first century.
But the legend that will live forever is that of a valiant freedom-fighter who, in an era when aviation was still in its infancy, used his skill as a pilot to facilitate the independence of India and Indonesia, and the integration of Kashmir into India. In the pantheon of modern Indian heroes, Bijayananda Patnaik has few genuine peers.
On August 17th 1945, two days after the Japanese announced they would be surrendering to the US-led allies, Indonesia declared its independence – with Soekarno as president, and Mohammed Hatta as vice president. They were sworn in by senior officers of the Japanese army, then still in control of Indonesia (and indeed much of the rest of East Asia) despite the formal offer of surrender. Both Soekarno and Hatta had collaborated with the Japanese, who had helped them to respectively consolidate the nationalist and Muslim organizations of the former Dutch East Indies under their leadership. Sutan Sjahrir (a socialist who had refused to collaborate with the Japanese) subsequently (November) became Prime Minister in Soekarna and Hatta’s government.
After the formal surrender ceremonies in September 1945, British-Indian troops of the South-east Asia Command (SEAC) under Lord Louis Mountbatten began to re-establish order – with some sporadic cooperation from the Japanese. In the eyes of the newly-formed United Nations (UN), the SEAC’s Maratha, Rajput and Gurkha troops were re-establishing order so that the Dutch (who had ruled the islands until ousted by the Japanese in 1942) might return to their former colony. This placed the SEAC’s troops into conflict with the pemuda (youth volunteers) of Soekarno’s Republican government. Almost accidentally, a huge battle began on November 10th 1945 between the SEAC’s largely Indian troops and the 120,000 pemuda attempting to defend Surabaya. In this gory Battle of Surabaya, at least 10,000 people were killed.
Further skirmishes continued until September 1946, when Nehru (newly elected Interim Prime Minister of India) became aware of the large-scale presence of Indian troops in Indonesia – fighting on the wrong side. He immediately called for their withdrawal, and began strenuous diplomatic efforts to ensure that the UN would not support the re-colonisation of Indonesia. Meanwhile, war raged in Indonesia itself between the volunteer army led by Sudirman and the Dutch army (KNIL).
Soekarno’s Jogjakarta-based government steadily lost ground, and in early-1947 Nehru learnt that Hatta and Sjahrir were in grave danger. When India’s interim government decided to air-drop food and other aid to the beleaguered Indonesia freedom-fighters, Nehru naturally turned to India’s leading private aviator, Bijayananda (“Biju”) Patnaik, recently released by the British after three years’ detention for high treason.
During the Second World War, Biju Patnaik had joined the Royal Indian Air Force, and been responsible for evacuating British families from Burma as it fell to the Japanese in 1942, as well as flying supplies into China and the Soviet Union. But, since the age of 13, he had been influenced by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and inspired by the example of his fellow Ravenshaw College (Cuttack) alumnus, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. So, even as he flew sorties over Burma, Biju Patnaik dropped leaflets condemning the British imposition of a famine on India, urging the British-Indian troops to support Gandhiji’s Quit India movement, and later to help Netaji’s INA. While on leave, he ferried Congress leaders to secret meetings with their supporters, and was a core member of the underground directorate led by Jayaprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia. In 1943, the British got wind of Biju Patnaik’s dual role and imprisoned him as part of the ruthless suppression of the Quit India movement.
But the young dare-devil’s most dramatic act of all occurred on July 22nd, 1947. The previous day, the Dutch had launched an all-out offensive, blocking all sea and air-routes into Indonesia. But Biju Patnaik flew his single-engine Dakota into Java and landed in a rice-field near where Hatta and Sjahrir were trapped. He flew them to safety, and managed to fly Sjahrir to Singapore – and thence onto Delhi, where he met Nehru. On July 28th, India and Australia introduced a resolution in the UN Security Council condemning Dutch actions, and Sjahrir eloquently argued his country’s case at the UN in New York. The intervention eventually led to the opening of Dutch-Indonesian negotiations that ultimately led to full Indonesian independence in 1949.
For his extraordinary act of derring-do at the height of the Indonesian war of independence, Biju Patnaik was subsequently conferred Indonesia’s highest civilian honour. Biju believed he was acting in the great tradition of the Kalinga kingdom (of Orissa) who had engaged with Java and Bali over two millennia. As a close personal friend of Soekarno, he suggested the Sanskrit name for his eldest daughter, Megawati.
Later that year, on October 27th 1947, the great aviator performed another act of high patriotism on India’s own behalf. At 10am, the day after Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir had signed the Instrument of Accession to India, Biju Patnaik piloted one of the first planes transporting Indian troops into Srinagar airport – flying over mountains without sufficient de-icing equipment, and without knowledge of whether the airport itself was in Indian or Pakistani hands five days after the invasion of Kashmir by Pakistani troops and irregulars. Biju Patnaik’s valour and skill were thus vital in India’s success in securing the Vale of Kashmir at this critical hour.
After Independence, Biju set about establishing numerous enterprises aimed at the industrialization of Orissa, one of India’s poorest states. He established Kalinga Airlines, Kalinga Steel, and a newspaper in an era in which Nehruvian socialism frowned upon entrepreneurship. During his brief first tenure as Chief Minister (1961-63), he established Paradip port, and was sent by Nehru on a diplomatic mission to President Kennedy during the Chinese invasion of October 1962 to secure military aid. Having resigned as part of the Kamaraj Plan (aimed at revitalizing the Congress party after the 1962 China disaster), he probably passed up an opportunity to succeed Nehru as Prime Minister.
Having fallen out with Indira Gandhi in 1969, he became Leader of the Opposition in Orissa and was imprisoned soon after the imposition of Emergency in 1975. With the victory of the Janata Party in 1977, he became India’s Minister of Steel, Mines and Coal, and later (1990-95) served in his second term as Chief Minister of Orissa, resuming his attempts at bringing about an industrial revolution in his state.
Although this relentless, restless visionary’s dream remained unfulfilled by the time of his death in April 1997, his legendary life has become better known since his death – and his legacy to Orissa and India lives on in his extraordinary children, Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik and celebrated author Gita Mehta (author of Karma Cola, Snakes and Ladders, Raj and The River Sutra). He is commemorated in the name of the political party (Biju Janata Dal) that now rules Orissa. While lacking his father’s visionary zeal, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has the administrative and political acumen to attract massive investments by such international players as Korea’s Posco and India’s Hindalco and Vedanta – who are helping Orissa to leapfrog into the twenty-first century.
But the legend that will live forever is that of a valiant freedom-fighter who, in an era when aviation was still in its infancy, used his skill as a pilot to facilitate the independence of India and Indonesia, and the integration of Kashmir into India. In the pantheon of modern Indian heroes, Bijayananda Patnaik has few genuine peers.
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