Battle On The Waves

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Fuelled by ideas of patriotism, friendship, and fraternal bonds, Battle on the Waves presents the story of a significant chapter of India's independence movement, the Indian Naval Mutiny of 1946. The story is about the time when the British Empire in India enjoyed unfettered support and protection from the Crown's army, which led to dissatisfaction and rebellion amongst the young sailors of the Indian Royal Navy. As their living conditions deteriorated, HMIS Talwar became the epicentre of the rebellion and worked to bring other shore establishments together for the cause. Soon, this unrest reached a tipping point and thousands of young sailors across the nation pledged their allegiance to fight for India's independence. Under these turbulent circumstances, 18-year-old Preet and celebrated Leading Signalman Ramavtar Singh must work together to protect their colleagues while also dealing with their growing affection for each other. Surrounded by their friends and a spirited journalist from The Bombay Daily, Ramavtar and Preet discover the actual price of freedom-and love.

Not much has been said or written about the mutiny that took place in the ranks of the Royal Indian Navy in 1946, a year before India gained independence. Battle on the Waves is my humble attempt to remedy this.

This book is a fictional retelling of a real event - the mutiny that saw thousands of Indian sailors (known as ratings) revolt against their unjust British masters. They were regularly abused and discriminated against, details of which are documented in Untold Story 1946 Naval Mutiny: Last War of Independence by Lt Cdr G.D. Sharma, VSM (retd). The demands of these sailors included equal wages as their British counterparts, as well as the release of all political prisoners and Indian National Army (INA) soldiers who were languishing in jail. Their bravery had the British quaking in fear. As Pramod Kapoor writes in his book 1946: Last War of Independence, even UK PM Clement Atlee took grave note of the incident. In fact, desperate cables were exchanged between Atlee and Viceroy Lord Archibald Wavell at the time.

The mutiny eventually involved 20,000 sailors who were willing to sacrifice their lives for the cause.