Che Visited India 65 Years Ago!

Chaman Lal

I admire Cuban revolution of 1st January 1959, led by Fidel Castro was one of the most unique revolutions in world history, where just 82 determined revolutionaries, sailing from Mexico on the ship Granma, made the historic revolution with the support of Cuban peasants and workers, against the very powerful army of dictator Batista. Out of 82, only about 15 survived after the brutal attack by Batista forces, but these fifteen in the course of just two and half years organised an army of many thousands of peasants and defeated the dictator Batista, who fled the country! Among these Cuban liberation heroes, Che Guevara fascinated me most, as I find his personality traits similar to our South Asian revolutionary Bhagat Singh! So, on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of Che Guevara’s only visit to India in 1959, I am tempted to write a small memoir.

Che Guevara along with his team landed at Delhi airport on the late evening of 30th June 1959, just six months after Cuba liberated itself from Batista’s dictatorial oppressive regime. The then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru entertained him and his team to lunch on July 1, 1959 at his Teen Murthy residence, now turned into Prime Ministers Museum changing name from Nehru Memorial Museum and Library recently. Cuban leader Fidel Castro actually sent his closest comrade Che Guevara to afro- Asian nations to establish diplomatic and economic relations with Cuba. Interestingly the official record of Che Guevara’s visit to India was found with some difficulty as he was not yet as famous and iconic figure as Che. Indian official records have the name of Commandant Ernesto as the leader of Cuban delegation visiting India. No Minister received him at the airport; an official of the foreign ministry D S Bagla received him and was seen in most of the photographs taken in Delhi and around. R Bhanumati, an Indian journalist recorded his interview at All India Radio, which later she included in her book Conversations. In 2007, Om Thanvi, editor of the Hindi daily Jansatta from Delhi, traveled to Cuba and found out more about Che visit and also got Che Guevara’s report on the Indian visit submitted to Fidel Castro, which he got translated from a Spanish scholar Prabhati Nautial and wrote a series of articles in his edited daily Jansatta. Che Guevara might have visited a few cities other than Delhi and its neighbourhood areas, but references and photographs were available only of Calcutta, now called Kolkata. In Calcutta, some leaders of United Communist Party might have met him. Perhaps some public meetings were organised in his honour. But they did not satisfy Che’s curious nature of knowing the revolutionary history of India. The only names mentioned by Che in his memoirs of India are Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, but nothing about Bhagat Singh and Netaji Subhash Bose, the radical socialist leaders of the freedom struggle. Che Guevara perhaps would have been happier to know from Communists, their version of the freedom struggle; he would have found in Bhagat Singh a fellow and a comrade like his own brave and fearless self.

During the year 2010-11, I was on an ICCR assignment to The University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine campus in Trinidad and Tobago as a Visiting Professor of Hindi from JNU, New Delhi. There are many chairs of Hindi in various Universities in all parts of the world. I chose Trinidad, due to my interest in Cuba and Venezuela especially, especially in Suriname and Guyana having an Indian background population in large numbers like Trinidad itself. These countries were close to Trinidad. In Trinidad's capital Port of Spain, I had close relations with Cuban and Venezuelan embassies with both ambassadors as friends. I was part of almost every public event in both the embassies. I was fascinated by the socialist revolution made in Cuba with just 82 sailors including Fidel Castro, his brother Raul Castro, and Che Guevara on the ship Granma, which is now displayed in Havana as an iconic historic item!

So, during my vacations in the UWI, I planned trips to Cuba and Venezuela. In Cuba I landed up in Havana first, visiting the revolutionary museum, Jose Marti Memorial. Che Guevara study center in Havana was closed for renovation, so I missed visiting that. I had gone on my own, but I was helped by ICAP, the international body of Cuban people’s relations with people of other countries. I stood in solidarity with the Release of 5 Cubans from US prison in those days and was taking part in solidarity meetings in Trinidad's capital Port of Spain. I also addressed an ICAP meeting held in Santiago in solidarity with Cuban 5, where a Bolivian music troupe also came. In Santiago, I visited the house from where Fidel Castro led his 129 men to attack the Moncada garrison, in which 61 persons were massacred and Castro got 15 years Jail, but which also produced the best political document of world history--Castro’s court statement-‘History will Absolve me”! As I was keen to visit Santa Clara, the city liberated under Che Guevara’s command, the last day of my visit to Cuba on 17th December 2011 was spent in Santa Clara. It looked to me like an old Indian city, quiet but sober. Look at my note on that day from my diary:

 I reached Che memorial at 11.30 and spent three hours there, saw Che's grand statue, tall, Museum and memoirs of 220 fighters, 29 Bolivians Compasa memorial where Che and Tania's remains are kept, and very sober atmosphere. The Museum was interesting, but could not click. I gifted my book and articles to the Museum. Professor of history came along to the city center and saw the new National Library. Santa Clara is like an old Indian town, with old houses, and a railway station. Saw a train, now a memorial, killed on 29th December, three days before victory, saw another memorial, where the armoured train was derailed and 400 Batista army men surrendered with armoury before 23 of Che’s men! Action train compartments are also kept in the museum. A rare Che statue with a child in the city fascinated me, where I clicked with the Professor of History, whose name I could not pick up properly!

 I surely would like to visit Cuba again for a longer period and do some research in Che Study Centre in Havana. I met Che Guevara’s daughter Dr Aleida and granddaughter in Delhi recently and hope to see them in Havana again!

[Chaman Lal is a retired Professor from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, and Honorary Advisor to Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, Delhi Archives New Delhi. He can be contacted at chamanlal.jnu@gmail.com and WhatsApp no +919868774820]

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Vol 57, No. 4, Jul 21 - 27, 2024