CHAPTER VIII.
Chitta Ranjan's Part in the Non-Co-operation Movement.
While on the cessation of all hostilities in Europe India stood on the tip-toe of expectation for the new age of freedom that was about to dawn and while men conjured rosy visions of the future, Lord Chelmsford inaugurated in an evil moment a policy of depriving India of even the elementary rights of personal freedom and free speech—rights which are most valued in an enlightened democracy. Towards the close of December 1917 Lord Chelmsford thought it fit to appoint a Commission presided over by Mr. Justice Rowlatt of the King's Bench Division to investigate and report on revolutionary conspiracies in India and to advise the Government to frame such legislation as might enable them to deal more effectively with the reactionary movements. The Commission was appointed without any sort of compelling necessity and, to say the least of it, at a most inopportune moment. The Commission held its sittings at different places of India and after an one-sided and unjudicial enquiry published a long report towards the close of April 1918. The war having just then successfully terminated in favour of the Allies, the Defence of India Act and other war-time measures which could only last so long as the war continued, would necessarily cease to be in force any longer and therefore the Commission suggested certain penal laws as a more effective and permanent safe-guard against the so-called anarchists of India. The report was emphatically protested against by every section of the Indian press but in spite of all popular opposition, Government drafted a bill substantially embodying the recommendations of the Rowlatt Committee and hurried it through the Imperial Legislative Council within six months of the report. The bill is generally known as the Rowlatt Bill. The effect of its provisions was two-fold: the Provincial Governments would be vested with an authority similar to that which was given to them by the Defence of India Act, and every person accused of a revolutionary crime would be summarily tried by the tribunals specially appointed for the purpose.
Against such a cruel and tyrannical measure the whole of India protested with one voice. Public feeling was in a state of high ferment and yet in spite of all this, and in spite of the fact that every Indian Non-official member of the Imperial Legislative Council voted against the proposed measure, the Rowlatt Bill was passed into Law in March 1919. The situation in India reached a state of very high tension. Mahatma Gandhi advised his countrymen to take the Satyagraha Pledge as the only means of securing redress for their grievances. The pledge ran thus:—
"Being conscientiously of opinion that the Bills are unjust, subversive of the principle of liberty and justice, and destructive of the elementary rights of individuals, on which the safety of the community as a whole and the state itself is based, we solemnly affirm that in the event of these Bills becoming law and until they are withdrawn, we shall refuse civilly to obey these laws and such other laws as may be thought fit and further affirm that in this struggle we will faithfully follow truth and refrain from violence to life, person and property."
Mahatma Gandhi further suggested that the second Sunday after the publication of the Viceregal Assent to the Rowlatt Act should be observed as a day of humiliation and prayer, a twenty-four hours' fasting should be observed by all adults, all work should be suspended for the day and public meetings should be held on that day in all parts of India at which Resolutions praying for the withdrawal of the measure should be passed. Indians gladly and freely took this pledge. Of the leaders in Bengal Chitta Ranjan was the first to rally round Mahatma Gandhi in preaching the Satyagraha vow. In March 1919 at a huge meeting of the citizens of Calcutta he delivered a speech in Bengali on Satyagraha in course of which he said:—
"To-day is Mahatma Gandhi's day. To-day is the day for us to express the afflictions of our heart. In days of prosperity we forget ourselves, but on evil days when fallen we realise ourselves and hear the message of God.
To-day at this national crisis we must search for the soul of the nation. This soul is to be attained by strength. What is that strength? It is not brute force, but the force of love. This is what Mahatma teaches us and this is the message of all India. The realisation of this message requires the abandonment of selfishness, envy, malice, and hatred. Why do we protest against the Rowlatt Act? We know it for certain that its enforcement means the dwarfing of our national being. To avert this calamity we should abandon all envy and malice and infuse into the hearts of our countrymen an ardent love for mother-country. This is why Mahatma has said—"Do not hate even your enemies, for the victory of love is ensured." This agitation, therefore, springs from love and righteousness; it is the throbbing of the heart of a nation. The only means to gain our object is self-sacrifice—self-sacrifice inspired by love."