wires, damaging bridges, uprooting railway tracks, strikes in critical areas which would obstruct movement of the army and other government functions were committed. He opined that India got her freedom not so much because of this Quit India movement as was often claimed but more because of the destruction of the British army caused by Hitler during the Second World War. Giving an unexpected tilt to the article at the end Joshi wrote, ‘Around 1944-45 the Indian youth was under great influence of revolutionary leaders like Jayaprakash Narayan, Achyutrao Patwardhan etc. After the war was over and the process of granting freedom had started, leaders like Nehru and Patel had feared that if independence did not come soon enough, then their non-violent freedom struggle would get over, and the leadership of the further freedom struggle would then go in the hands of revolutionaries. In their hurry, they even agreed to the partition. One reason for that was obviously the fear the Congress leaders had of those revolutionaries of 1942.’ Sharad completed last two years of schooling in well-known Parle Tilak Vidyalay of Mumbai. Afterwards he joined Commerce College which surprised all his friends and relatives. He was always fond of Sanskrit and was quite good at it. Everyone expected him to take up Arts and end up as a professor of Sanskrit. However, even then, Sharad never liked anyone predicting his moves. He never wanted anyone to take him for granted. His elder sister Sindhu has written, ‘One specialty of Sharad is that he always likes to be different from others. The same happened with his education. He said, “Why should everyone opt for Science or Arts? I shall go for Commerce.” And that is how he did his M.Com.’ Even for joining Commerce he chose Sydenham College, which was much farther from his home in Andheri. Poddar College was nearer and most of the middleclass Marathi speaking students went there. But Sharad chose a college where 26
Q
Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
