New Delhi, March 31 Its undercurrents had been simmering for long but were ignored. When it finally erupted at Bombay on February 18, 1946 over terrible service conditions, racism and broken recruitment promises, the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny spread like wildfire across the country, from Karachi to Calcutta, as 20,000 men took over 78 ships and 21 shore establishments, replacing British flags with the entwined flags of the Congress, the Muslim League, and the Communists.
Although the uprising was put down with considerable violence, it actually hastened the process of Indian Independence as the British reaction was knee-jerk - a Cabinet Mission to discuss the transfer power to Indian stakeholders was announced barely 24 hours into the mutiny, says an extensively researched book on the revolt, which laments that the top leadership of the freedom movement turned their backs on the mutineers as they feared they would be overshadowed and that the entire episode has been virtually pencilled out of history and has "never been given the importance it deserved".
Documents from British archives "make it clear that the ratings' mutiny accelerated the rush towards freedom, and India achieved Independence just a year-and-a-half later", Pramod Kapoor, writes in "1946 - Last War of Independence - Royal Indian Navy Mutiny"
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