Philip Spratt, a charming and simple person, was a regular visitor to our bookshop. By his own account he was sent to India in 1926 by the British Communist Party to launch a workers and peasants party as a legal cover for the Communist Party of India.
As a youngster, I had several opportunities to come into contact with Philip Spratt, an intellectual genius, thanks to his frequent visits to Select Bookshop, which was founded by my father, K.B.K. Rao, in Bangalore in 1945. Before moving to its current location off Brigade Road, Select Bookshop was first situated on Museum Road and then on M.G. Road (earlier known as South Parade). Spratt worked as an editor of MysIndia, the English weekly, founded by D.N. Hosali, who was the brother of S.N. Hosali, the Inspector General of Police of Mysore (as Karnataka was called then).
Spratt and my father bicycled in the city. Book lovers often used to see my father moving around the city on his cycle in search of books. Once during a visit to my fathers bookshop (perhaps I was delivering his lunch), I observed Spratt bring a set of Hayavadana Raos History of Mysore on his cycle to deliver it to my father as one of his favourite customers had asked for it.
He was intimately acquainted with my father and frequently discussed episodes that happened at his press. I remember him explaining to my father once: Look at the essay, Mr Rao. It is supposed to be a literary essay from an experienced professor of English and is full of grammatical errors. On several occasions, I was a passive listener when Spratt discussed editorial work with my father.
When I was a college student, I was responsible for forming a students union in Malleswaram (in Bangalore) with the assistance of my classmates and two girls in our neighbourhood who comprised the executive committee. The responsibility of being the president of the union gave me the opportunity to invite Spratt to deliver public lectures at Malleswaram Grounds. On certain occasions Spratt met P. Kodanda Rao and his wife on the same platform. The couple was representing the Servants of India Society.
Once, when a theatre group was invited to enact Shakespearean plays at BRV Theatre (in Bangalore Cantonment), an amusing incident occurred. I and members of the students union took our seats in the theatre and enjoyed the play. When the intermission was announced, we got up to go out. As we were leaving the hall, we were startled to observe my father and Spratt in the seats next to us and engaged in a serious conversation. As we were adolescents, it was natural that we felt shy to have been seen in the company of young girls.
Spratt, who joined the British Communist Party while he was a student at Cambridge, was sent to India in December 1926 to launch, according to his own account ( Blowing Up India, Calcutta, 1955), a workers and peasants party as a legal cover for the Communist Party of India (CPI).
He was the principal accused in the Meerut Conspiracy Case. Communist activity was abruptly cut short by the arrests in the case under instruction from the British government in India. Thirty-one of the CPIs most important leaders from different parts of India, including Spratt, Ben Bradley and S.A Dange, were arrested on March 28, 1929. The arrests were accompanied by comprehensive search operations throughout the country, and an extensive investigation was conducted regarding their secret documents, usage of invisible ink, etc.
In the 1940s, Spratt joined the radical/democratic party of M.N. Roy. While Spratt was the editor of MysIndia, Sibnarayan Ray, the philosopher and literary critic, was a regular contributor.
Spratt also had a close associate in Dr Kottar, who was recognised as an eminent Buddhist scholar and an art critic. His articles on the well-known dancer Shanta Rao used to be very popular.
When I was deputed as the liaison officer on behalf of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited to the company Turbomeca (in the south of France), Spratt, at the request of my father, taught me colloquial French with great care and patience. He was a charming and simple person. During this period, I also remember having attended a packed public lecture at the Indian Institute of World Culture, Bangalore, with my close associates. This lecture had probably been arranged by Spratt and other radical democrats. We listened to the lecture, standing at the gates, through loudspeakers arranged outside.
Like many youngsters, I had great respect for Leftist leaders such as Jayaprakash Narayan and never missed an opportunity to listen to their public speeches in Bangalore. I started reading Sibnarayan Rays accounts of M.N. Roy and how he had deputed Spratt to establish socialist groups and the labour movement in Madras (now Chennai).
Spratt left for Madras in 1965 at the insistence of C. Rajagopalachari to take up the editorship of the latters newspaper Swarajya. Even after his move, he was in regular contact with my father.
Parcels of books used to be dispatched for Select Bookshop. Spratt passed away in March 1971. Even today I regret having parted with a book on India he translated from French. As I knew, he had several books to his credit, such as Blowing Up India and Indian Psychology.
Spratt was only one of the several well-known personalities who used to visit our second-hand bookshop in Bangalore. Pothan Joseph, the editor of Deccan Herald; Dr Steven Tuck, SVD, of Theological College, Bombay; Ruskin Bond from Mussourie; Manohar Malgaonkar, author; Joseph Campbell, the Orientalist; and T.N. Chaturvedi, a former Governor of Karnataka were regular visitors in the past.
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