Freedom's Battle - Mahatma Gandhi
And my speeches are intended to create 'dis-affection' such that the
people might consider it a shame to assist or co-operate with a
Government that had forfeited all title to confidence, respect or
support.
I draw no distinction between the Imperial and the Indian Government.
The latter has accepted, on the Khilafat, the policy imposed upon it by
the former. And in the Punjab case the former has endorsed the policy of
terrorism and emasculation of a brave people initiated by the latter.
British ministers have broken their pledged word and wantonly wounded
the feelings of the seventy million Mussulmans of India. Innocent men
and women were insulted by the insolent officers of the Punjab
Government. Their wrongs not only remain unrighted but the very officers
who so cruelly subjected them to barbarous humiliation retain office
under the Government.
When at Amritsar last year I pleaded with all the earnestness I could
command for co-operation with the Government and for response to the
wishes expressed in the Royal Proclamation. I did so because I honestly
believed that, a new era was about to begin, and that the old spirit of
fear, distrust and consequent terrorism was about to give place to the
new spirit of respect, trust and goodwill. I sincerely believed that the
Mussulman sentiment would be placated and that the officers that had
misbehaved during the Martial Law regime in the Punjab would be at least
dismissed and the people would be otherwise made to feel that a
Government that had always been found quick (and mighty) to punish
popular excesses would not fail to punish its agents' misdeeds. But to
my amazement and dismay I have discovered that the present
representatives of the Empire have become dishonest and unscrupulous.
They have no real regard for the wishes of the people of India and they
count Indian honour as of little consequence.
I can no longer retain affection for a Government so evilly manned as it
is now-a-days. And for me, it is humiliating to retain my freedom and be
witness to the continuing wrong. Mr. Montagu however is certainly right
in threatening me with deprivation of my liberty if I persist in
endangering the existence of the Government. For that must be the result
if my activity bears fruit. My only regret is that inasmuch as Mr.
Montagu admits my past services, he might have perceived that there must
be something exceptionally bad in the Government if a well-wisher like
me could no longer give his affection to it. It was simpler to insist on
justice being done to the Mussalmans and to the Punjab than to threaten
me with punishment so that the injustice might be perpetuated. Indeed I
fully expect it will be found that even in promoting disaffection
towards an unjust Government I had rendered greater services to the
Empire than I am already credited with.
At the present moment, however, the duty of those who approve my
activity is clear. They ought on no account to resent the deprivation of
my liberty, should the Government of India deem it to be their duty to
take it away. A citizen has no right to resist such restriction imposed
in accordance with the laws of the State to which he belongs. Much less
have those who sympathise with him. In my case there can be no question
of sympathy. For I deliberately oppose the Government to the extent of
trying to put its very existence in jeopardy. For my supporters,
therefore, it must be a moment of joy when I am imprisoned. It means the
beginning of success if only the supporters continue the policy for
which I stand. If the Government arrest me, they would do so in order to
stop the progress of Non-co-operation which I preach. It follows that if
Non-co-operation continues with unabated vigour, even after my arrest,
the Government must imprison others or grant the people's wish in order
to gain their co-operation. Any eruption of violence on the part of the
people even under provocation would end in disaster. Whether therefore
it is I or any one else who is arrested during the campaign, the first
condition of success is that there must be no resentment shown against
it. We cannot imperil the very existence of a Government and quarrel
with its attempt to save itself by punishing those who place it in
danger.
HIJARAT AND ITS MEANING
India is a continent. Its articulate thousands know what its
inarticulate millions are doing or thinking. The Government and the
educated Indians may think that the Khilafat movement is merely a
passing phase. The millions of Mussalmans think otherwise. The flight of
the Mussalmans is growing apace. The newspapers contain paragraphs in
out of the way corners informing the readers that a special train
containing a barrister with sixty women, forty children including twenty
sucklings, all told 765, have left for Afghanistan. They were cheered
_en route_. They were presented with cash, edibles and other things, and
were joined by more Muhajarins on the way. No fanatical preaching by
Shaukatali can make people break up and leave their homes for an unknown
land. There must be an abiding faith in them. That it is better for them
to leave a State which has no regard for their religious sentiment and
face a beggar's life than to remain in it even though it may be in a
princely manner. Nothing but pride of power can blind the Government of
India to the scene that is being enacted before it.
But there is yet another side to the movement. Here are the facts as
stated in the following Government _Communique_ dated 10th July 1920:--
An unfortunate affair in connection with the Mahajarin occurred on
the 8th instant at Kacha Garhi between Peshawar and Jamrud. The
following are the facts as at present reported. Two members of a
party of the Mahajarins proceeding by train to Jamrud were detected
by the British military police travelling without tickets.
Altercation ensued at Islamia College Station, but the train
proceeded to Kacha Garhi. An attempt was made to evict these
Mahajarins, whereupon the military police were attacked by a crowd of
some forty Mahajarins and the British officer who intervened was
seriously wounded with a spade. A detachment of Indian troops at
Kacha Garhi thereupon fired two or three shots at the Mahajarin for
making murderous assault on the British officer. One Mahajarin was
killed and one wounded and three arrested. Both the military and the
police were injured. The body of the Mahajarin was despatched to
Peshawar and buried on the morning of the 9th. This incident has
caused considerable excitement in Peshawar City, and the Khilafat
Hijrat Committee are exercising restraining influence. Shops were
closed on the morning of the 9th. A full enquiry has been instituted.
Now Peshawar to Jamrud is a matter of a few miles. It was clearly the
duty of the military not to attempt to pull out the ticketless
Mahajarins for the sake of a few annas. But they actually attempted
force. Intervention by the rest of the party was a foregone conclusion.
An altercation ensued. A British officer was attacked with a spade.
Firing and a death of a Mahajarin was the result. Has British prestige
been enhanced by the episode? Why have not the Government put tactful
officers in charge at the frontier, whilst a great religious emigration
is in progress? The action of the military will pass from tongue to
tongue throughout India and the Mussalman world around, will not doubt
be unconsciously and even consciously exaggerated in the passage and the
feeling bitter as it already is will grow in bitterness. The
_Communique_ says that the Government are making further inquiry. Let us
hope that it will be full and that better arrangements will be made to
prevent a repetition of what appears to have been a thoughtless act on
the part of the military.
And may I draw the attention of those who are opposing non-co-operation
that unless they find out a substitute they should either join the
non-co-operation movement or prepare to face a disorganised subterranean
upheaval whose effect no one can foresee and whose spread it would be
impossible to check or regulate?
III. THE PUNJAB WRONGS
POLITICAL FREEMASONRY
Freemasonry is a secret brotherhood which has more by its secret and
iron rules than by its service to humanity obtained a hold upon some of
the best minds. Similarly there seems to be some secret code of conduct
governing the official class in India before which the flower of the
great British nation fall prostrate and unconsciously become instruments
of injustice which as private individuals they would be ashamed of
perpetrating. In no other way is it possible for one to understand the
majority report of the Hunter Committee, the despatch of the Government
of India, and the reply thereto of the Secretary of State for India. In
spite of the energetic protests of a section of the Press to the
personnel of the committee, it might be said that on the whole the
public were prepared to trust it especially as it contained three Indian
members who could fairly be claimed to be independent. The first rude
shock to this confidence was delivered by the refusal of Lord Hunter's
Committee to accept the very moderate and reasonable demand of the
Congress Committee that the imprisoned Punjab leaders might be allowed
to appear before it to instruct Counsel. Any doubt that might have been
left in the mind of any person has been dispelled by the report of the
majority of that committee. The result has justified the attitude of the
Congress Committee. The evidence collected by it shows what lord
Hunter's Committee purposely denied itself.
The minority report stands out like an oasis in a desert. The Indian
members deserve the congratulation of their countrymen for having dared
to do their duty in the face of heavy odds. I wish that they had refused
to associate themselves even in a modified manner with the condemnation
of the civil disobedience form of Satyagraha. The defiant spirit of the
Delhi mob on the 30th March 1919 can hardly be used for condemning a
great spiritual movement which is admittedly and manifestly intended to
restrain the violent tendencies of mobs and to replace criminal
lawlessness by civil disobedience of authority, when it has forfeited
all title to respect. On the 30th March civil disobedience had not even
been started. Almost every great popular demonstration has been hitherto
attended all the world over by a certain amount of lawlessness. The
demonstration of 30th March and 6th April could have been held under any
other aegis us under that of Satyagrah. I hold that without the advent
of the spirit of civility and orderliness the disobedience would have
taken a much more violent form than it did even at Delhi. It was only
the wonderfully quick acceptance by the people of the principle of
Satyagrah that effectively checked the spread of violence throughout the
length and breadth of India. And even to-day it is not the memory of the
black barbarity of General Dyer that is keeping the undoubted
restlessness among the people from breaking forth into violence. The
hold that Satyagrah has gained on the people--it may be even against
their will--is curbing the forces of disorder and violence. But I must
not detain the reader on a defence of Satyagrah against unjust attacks.
If it has gained a foothold in India, it will survive much fiercer
attacks than the one made by the majority of the Hunter Committee and
somewhat supported by the minority. Had the majority report been
defective only in this direction and correct in every other there would
have been nothing but praise for it. After all Satyagrah is a new
experiment in political field. And a hasty attributing to it of any
popular disorder would have been pardonable.
The universally pronounced adverse judgment upon the report and the
despatches rests upon far more painful revelations. Look at the
manifestly laboured defence of every official act of inhumanity except
where condemnation could not be avoided through the impudent admissions
made by the actors themselves; look at the special pleading introduced
to defend General Dyer even against himself; look at the vain
glorification of Sir Michael O'Dwyer although it was his spirit that
actuated every act of criminality on the part of the subordinates; look
at the deliberate refusal to examine his wild career before the events
of April. His acts were an open book of which the committee ought to
have taken judicial notices. Instead of accepting everything that the
officials had to say, the Committee's obvious duty was to tax itself to
find out the real cause of the disorders. It ought to have gone out of
its way to search out the inwardness of the events. Instead of patiently
going behind the hard crust of official documents, the Committee allowed
itself to be guided with criminal laziness by mere official evidence.
The report and the despatches, in my humble opinion, constitute an
attempt to condone official lawlessness. The cautious and half-hearted
condemnation pronounced upon General Dyer's massacre and the notorious
crawling order only deepens the disappointment of the reader as he goes
through page after page of thinly disguised official whitewash. I need,
however, scarcely attempt any elaborate examination of the report or the
despatches which have been so justly censured by the whole national
press whether of the moderate or the extremist hue. The point to
consider is how to break down this secret--be the secrecy over so
unconscious--conspiracy to uphold official iniquity. A scandal of this
magnitude cannot be tolerated by the nation, if it is to preserve its
self-respect and become a free partner in the Empire. The All-India
Congress Committee has resolved upon convening a special session of the
Congress for the purpose of considering, among other things, the
situation arising from the report. In my opinion the time has arrived
when we must cease to rely upon mere petition to Parliament for
effective action. Petitions will have value, when the nation has behind
it the power to enforce its will. What power then have we? When we are
firmly of opinion that grave wrong has been done us and when after an
appeal to the highest authority we fail to secure redress, there must be
some power available to us for undoing the wrong. It is true that in the
vast majority of cases it is the duty of a subject to submit to wrongs
on failure of the usual procedure, so long as they do not affect his
vital being. But every nation and every individual has the right and it
is their duty, to rise against an intolerable wrong. I do not believe in
armed risings. They are a remedy worse than the disease sought to be
cured. They are a token of the spirit of revenge and impatience and
anger. The method of violence cannot do good in the long run. Witness
the effect of the armed rising of the allied powers against Germany.
Have they not become even like the Germans, as the latter have been
depicted to us by them?
We have a better method. Unlike that of violence it certainly involves
the exercise of restraint and patience: but it requires also
resoluteness of will. This method is to refuse to be party to the wrong.
No tyrant has ever yet succeeded in his purpose without carrying the
victim with him, it may be, as it often is, by force. Most people choose
rather to yield to the will of the tyrant than to suffer for the
consequences of resistance. Hence does terrorism form part of the
stock-in-trade of the tyrant. But we have instances in history where
terrorism has failed to impose the terrorist's will upon his victim.
India has the choice before her now. If then the acts of the Punjab
Government be an insufferable wrong, if the report of Lord Hunter's
Committee and the two despatches be a greater wrong by reason of their
grievous condonation of those acts, it is clear that we must refuse to
submit to this official violence. Appeal the Parliament by all means, if
necessary, but if the Parliament fails us and if we are worthy to call
ourselves a nation, we must refuse to uphold the Government by
withdrawing co-operation from it.
THE DUTY OF THE PUNJABEE
The Allahabad _Leader_ deserves to be congratulated for publishing the
correspondence on Mr. Bosworth Smith who was one of the Martial Law
officers against whom the complaints about persistent and continuous
ill-treatment were among the bitterest. It appears from the
correspondence that Mr. Bosworth Smith has received promotion instead of
dismissal. Sometime before Martial Law Mr. Smith appears to have been
degraded. "He has since been restored," says the _Leader_ correspondent,
"to his position of a Deputy Commissioner of the second grade from which
he was degraded and also been invested with power under section 30 of
the Criminal Procedure Code. Since his arrival, the poor Indian
population of the town of Amhala Cantonment has been living under a
regime of horror and tyranny." The correspondent adds: "I use both these
words deliberately for conveying precisely what they mean." I cull a few
passage from this illuminating letter to illustrate the meaning of
horror and tyranny. "In private complaints he never takes the statement
of the complainant. It is taken down by the reader when the court rises
and got signed by the magistrate the following day. Whether the report
received (upon such complaints) is favourable to the complainant or
unfavourable to him, it is never ready by the magistrate, and
complaints are dismissed without proper trial. This is the fate of
private complaints. Now as regards police chellans. Pleaders for the
accused are not allowed to interview under trial prisoners in police
custody. They are not allowed to cross-examine prosecution witnesses....
Prosecution witnesses are examined with leading questions.... Thus a
whole prosecution story is put into the mouth of police, witnesses for
the defence though called in are not allowed to be examined by the
defence counsel.... The accused is silenced if he picks up courage to
say anything in defence.... Any Cantonment servant can write down the
name of any citizen of the Cantonment on a chit of paper and ask him to
appear the next day in court. This is a summons.... If any one does not
appear in court who is thus ordered, criminal warrants of arrest are
issued against him." There is much more of this style in the letter
which is worth producing, but I have given enough to illustrate the
writer's meaning. Let me turn for a while to this official's record
during Martial Law. He is the official who tried people in batches and
convicted them after a farcical trial. Witnesses have deposed to his
having assembled people, having asked them to give false evidence,
having removed women's veils, called them 'flies, bitches, she-asses'
and having spat upon them. He it was who subjected the innocent pleaders
of Shokhupura indescribable persecution. Mr. Andrews personally
investigated complaints against this official and came to the conclusion
that no official had behaved worse than Mr. Smith. He gathered the
people of Shokhupura, humiliated them in a variety of ways, called them
'suvarlog,' 'gandi mukkhi.' His evidence before the Hunter Commission
betrays his total disregard for truth and this is the officer who, if
the correspondent in question has given correct facts, has been
promoted. The question however is why, he is at all in Government
service and why he has not been tried for assaulting and abusing
innocent men and women.
I notice a desire for the impeachment of General Dyer and Sir Michael
O'Dwyer. I will not stop to examine whether the course is feasible. I
was sorry to find Mr. Shastriar joining this cry for the prosecution of
General Dyer. If the English people will willingly do so, I would
welcome such prosecution as a sign of their strong disapproval of the
Jallianwalla Bagh atrocity, but I would certainly not spend a single
farthing in a vain pursuit after the conviction of this man. Surely the
public has received sufficient experience of the English mind.
Practically the whole English Press has joined the conspiracy to screen
these offenders against humanity. I would not be party to make heroes of
them by joining the cry for prosecution private or public. If I can only
persuade India to insist upon their complete dismissal, I should be
satisfied. But more than the dismissal, of Sir Michael O'Dwyer and
General Dyer, is necessary the peremptory dismissal, if not a trial, of
Colonel O'Brien, Mr. Bosworth Smith, Rai Shri Ram and others mentioned
in the Congress Sub-Committee's Report. Bad as General Dyer is I
consider Mr. Smith to be infinitely worse and his crimes to be far more
serious than the massacre of Jallianwalla Bugh. General Dyer sincerely
believed that it was a soldierly act to terrorise people by shooting
them. But Mr. Smith was wantonly cruel, vulgar and debased. If all the
facts that have been deposed to against him are true, there is not a
spark of humanity about him. Unlike General Dyer he lacks the courage to
confirm what he has done and he wriggles when challenged. This officer
remains free to inflict himself upon people who have done no wrong to
him, and who is permitted to disgrace the rule he represents for the
time being.
What is the Punjab doing? Is it not the duty of the Punjabis not to rest
until they have secured the dismissal of Mr. Smith and the like? The
Punjab leaders have been discharged in vain if they will not utilise the
liberty they have received, in order to purge the administration of
Messrs. Bosworth Smith and Company. I am sure that if they will only
begin a determined agitation they will have the whole India by their
side. I venture to suggest to them that the best way to qualify for
sending General Dyer to the gallows is to perform the easier and the
more urgent duty of arresting the mischief still continued by the
officials against whom they have assisted in collecting
overwhelming evidence.
GENERAL DYER
The Army Council has found General Dyer guilty of error of judgment and
advised that he should not receive any office under the Crown. Mr.
Montagu has been unsparing in his criticism of General Dyer's conduct.
And yet somehow or other I cannot help feeling that General Dyer is by
no means the worst offender. His brutality is unmistakable. His abject
and unsoldier-like cowardice is apparent in every line of his amazing
defence before the Army Council. He has called an unarmed crowd of men
and children--mostly holiday-makers--'a rebel army.' He believes himself
to be the saviour of the Punjab in that he was able to shoot down like
rabbits men who were penned in an inclosure. Such a man is unworthy of
being considered a soldier. There was no bravery in his action. He ran
no risk. He shot without the slightest opposition and without warning.
This is not an 'error of judgement.' It is paralysis of it in the face
of fancied danger. It is proof of criminal incapacity and
heartlessness. But the fury that has been spent upon General Dyer is, I
am sure, largely misdirected. No doubt the shooting was 'frightful,' the
loss of innocent life deplorable. But the slow torture, degradation and
emasculation that followed was much worse, more calculated, malicious
and soul-killing, and the actors who performed the deeds deserve greater
condemnation that General Dyer for the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre. The
latter merely destroyed a few bodies but the others tried to kill the
soul of a nation. Who ever talks of Col. Frank Johnson who was by far
the worst offender? He terrorised guiltless Lahore, and by his merciless
orders set the tone to the whole of the Martial Law officers. But what I
am concerned with is not even Col. Johnson. The first business of the
people of the Punjab and of India is to rid the service of Col O'Brien,
Mr. Bosworth Smith, Rai Shri Ram and Mr. Malik Khan. They are still
retained in the service. Their guilt is as much proved as that of
General Dyer. We shall have failed in our duty if the condemnation
pronounced upon General Dyer produces a sense of satisfaction and the
obvious duty of purging the administration in the Punjab is neglected.
That task will not be performed by platform rhetoric or resolutions
merely. Stern action is required on out part if we are to make any
headway with ourselves and make any impression upon the officials that
they are not to consider themselves as masters of the people but as
their trusties and servants who cannot hold office if they misbehave
themselves and prove unworthy of the trust reposed in them.
THE PUNJAB SENTENCES
The commissioners appointed by the Congress Punjab Sub Committee have in
their report accused His Excellency the Viceroy of criminal want of
imagination. His Excellency's refusal to commute two death sentences out
of five is a fine illustration of the accusation. The rejection of the
appeal by the Privy Council no more proves the guilt of the condemned
than their innocence would have been proved by quashing the proceedings
before the Martial Law Tribunal. Moreover, these cases clearly come
under the Royal Proclamation in accordance with its interpretation by
the Punjab Government. The murders in Amritsar were not due to any
private quarrel between the murderers and their victims. The offence
grave, though it was, was purely political and committed under
excitement. More than full reparation has been taken for the murders and
arson. In the circumstances commonsense dictates reduction of the death
sentences. The popular belief favours the view that the condemned men
are innocent and have not had a fair trial. The execution has been so
long delayed that hanging at this stage would give a rude shock to
Indian society. Any Viceroy with imagination would have at once
announced commutation of the death sentences--not so Lord Chelmsford. In
his estimation, evidently, the demands of justice will not be satisfied
if at least some of the condemned men are not hanged. Public feeling
with him counts for nothing. We shall still hope that, either the
Viceroy or Mr. Montagu will commute the death sentences.