Gandhi and Anarchy

by Sir C. Sankaran Nair

I left at 2 P.M. and arrived Meanchupra at about 3 P.M.

About 500 yards on the road west of Meanchupra I found some volunteers sitting on a culvert guarding the road. On arrival at the Bungalow I found Mr. and Mrs. Gray and their three children absolutely shut off and isolated by three volunteers. All the Factory work had been stopped as the jamadar peons and coolies were not allowed to enter the factory so that there was no one to cut the sugarcane etc. All carts had been stopped, volunteers cutting the ropes of the bullocks and driving them away. Even the house servants had been stopped from going to the bungalow from their village. There was no bearer, cooks mashalchi, dhobe, garden coolies or even murgiwala. Mrs. Grey had to dig up the potatoes in the garden, cook the food, wash up the dishes, etc., and her ayah asked her (as well she might) if it was true that the British Raj was over.

Sir, these are the facts which have already compelled Government to post a force of additional police to the Sitamarhi subdivision, and I do not disguise from the Council that they may force us at no distant date to take even sterner measures to preserve the peace of the district, and of other districts that are similarly threatened. If Government find it necessary later to present to Council a bill of costs which will not be at all to their liking, let them thank their non-co-operation friends for the gift.

I know we shall be met with the old cry of repression, but in this case it is a stupid cry. No Government of this country wants repression for repression's sake, and least of all the Government of Bihar and Orissa, which includes within its number three distinguished Indians who have never been accused of any lack of political independence. For my own part I claim that no one welcomed more keenly than I did the inauguration of the new reforms era in India. I had the confident hope (and in this matter I speak also for my hon'ble colleague, Sir Havilland Le Mesurier) that we had before us a great and inspiring task of friendly co-operation with educated Indians, which would at no very distant date place this country in the forefront of the common-wealth of nations. Sir, this great task has for the moment been heavily handicapped and hampered by the poisonous cult of non-co-operation, a cult which has embittered and clouded the political life of India and caused discouragement to all the friends of reform. It has made life a burden and weariness to all ranks of Government officers, to the responsible agents of Government in districts and to the directing staff at headquarters but I have still hope that the better sense of India will prevail and that the clouds will clear away. It is to you, members of the Council, that Government look to give a lead to the public which you represent, in the fight against this great danger which menaces India. The danger is not one which threatens only the officers of Government, professional men, and men of wealth and property. The interests of the common people, the patient cultivators and the toiling workmen, are just as much at stake. It is they who will suffer most, if revolution comes, as the same classes are suffering to-day in Russia where they are perishing in millions as a result of the disintegration of ordered Government. I call therefore upon the representatives of all classes in this assembly to consider what is their duty, their solemn duty, on this occasion. The choice is between the orderly progress of India towards a future of brightest promise and the perilous path of revolution which leads to darkness and death. There is no midway between them. I appeal to you, gentlemen of the Council, to put aside any pre-conceived notions or prepared speeches with which you may have entered this hall to-day and to look at the position in all its naked truth. The question you have to decide for yourself is whether you stand for orderly Government or revolution. I trust that the hon'ble mover himself will realize his responsibility in the light of these remarks and withdraw his resolution now that it has served its purpose of securing a full discussion of the political situation.

APPENDIX XVII
Disgraceful Tyranny

The following is taken from the speech delivered by the Hon. Mr. Hammond, the officiating Chief Secretary of the Bihar and Orissa Government, during the recent debate in the Provincial Council on the political situation. The Pioneer 1st February, 22.

Has the hon. member read what has just happened in Guntur, in Madras, where rents are being withheld? Is he aware that not in one but in two or three districts in the Province there have been refusals to pay chaukidari taxes; that we have read not one but several speeches advocating this refusal? May I tell the Council that barely three or four days ago, in the district of Puri, a Panch assessor was murdered while endeavouring to collect chaukidari tax? Swami Vidyanand and others who followed and desclaimed against repressive laws enquired what have the "volunteers" done? It is a pertinent question, and, with your permission, Sir, I will give a few instances by way of answer. Time does not allow me to go through all their nefarious activities, but if Hon. members want to know what the "volunteers" have done, apart from enforced hartal and the ordinary common forms of secret intimidation, ask the widow of the Mahomedan, Mazir Ali Kalal, whose corpse was exhumed in Ranchi, thrown upon the public road and the face beaten in with a brick; ask Gopi Khar at Chatra, who on the 3rd January was beaten and taken with his face blackened through the town because his wife committed the foul crime of selling food to those who visited liquor shops. Is that persuasion? Is this Ahimsa? ask the woman of Kateya, Mussammatt Paremia Koerin, near Siwan, who was stripped naked and driven through the village by a howling mob. She complained as well she might to the Government police officer, who, when he went to hold an enquiry was attacked by a mob—a demonstration in force of soul-force! A speaker later in the debate declaimed against those, the Planters and the police, whose courage, he said, "took the form of delight in tyrannising over the poor and of oppressing their fellow-countrymen." I ask in all sincerity what are these cases I have related but a disgraceful tyranny; are they not, indeed, 'oppression of the poor?' "What right?" I shall be asked "have you to lay these crimes at the doors of the non-co-operation party?" The answer is, that when men publicly oppose the funeral it is not irrational to believe that they are concerned with the subsequent exhumation of the corpse. In the other cases I have mentioned evidence has been taken and there is the judicial finding.

North and South of the Ganges

Another member asked me to explain the difference between the positions north and south of the Ganges. Let us take this town of Patna. The hon. member did not, as some do, deny in toto that, there had been intimidation. I say there is in fact but little difference. In Tirhut the crime manifest and overt, and in Patna it is suppressed. Have the Council heard of those poor beggars who received tickets entitling to go to Gulzarbagh on the morning of the 22nd December and get blankets? Do they know that these people were asked by "volunteers" on their way to show their tickets which were then taken and torn up, that the same day some of the beggars when returning from Gulzarbagh were deprived of the blankets which they had been given which were burnt, and the beggars had to be content with such warmth, as they could derive from the glow of enforced patriotism. The difference between this side of the Ganges and the other is that in Patna such things do not unfortunately in a large city attract much attention.