Eternal India Encyclopedia

FREEDOMMOVEMENT

Eternal India

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session of the Congress would be elected on

the basis of membership - one for 50,000. This

made the Congress a far more representative

body. Its membership rose by leaps and bounds

as the subscription was only four

annas

a year.

It became more youthful when the age-limit

for membership was reduced to 18.

All the Congress candidates withdrew

from elections, the emphasis fell on boycott of

courts by lawyers, of educational institutions,

foreign cloth and liquor shops. A large num-

ber of students left their schools and colleges.

Teachers resigned in large numbers. National

Colleges like the Jamia Milia Islamia and the

Kashi, Bihar and Gujarat Vidya Peeths were

set up. Narendra Dev, Rajendra Prasad, Zakir

Hussain and Subhash Chandra Bose taught in

such national colleges. Complete boycott of

foreign cloth was to be achieved by 30th

September 1921. This was to be done by

picketing and public bonfires as in the days of

the Swadeshi movement.

The student community was organised as

national volunteers. They did propaganda for

the nationalist cause, collected donations,

demonstrated against co-operators, ran arbi-

tration courts and picketed shops selling for-

eign goods.

The Khilafat Committee asked the Mus-

lims not to join the army and for this the Ali

brothers were arrested.

The peasants of Midnapore refused to

pay Union Board taxes and peasants' unions

were started for the first time in Bengal. In

Rai-Bareilly and Faizabad in U.P. tenants re-

fused to pay illegal cesses.

In Bihar, the Tana Bhagat movement of

the Adivasis of Chhotanagpur threatened non-

payment of

chowdidari

tax and rent. In the

Punjab the Akali movement was aimed at

removing corruption in the management of

Gurdwaras. In Malabar, the Mappilas (Mo-

plahs) had started a movement against local

zamindars and money-lenders. Thus there

was a mass awakening in all parts of India. But

the most spectacular success that attended the

movement was the boycott of the visit of the

Prince of Wales.

Bombay observed hartal and a meeting

was arranged on the beach where Gandhi

made a bonfire of foreign cloth. But the mob

turned unruly and assaulted Europeans who

showed their, loyalty to the Prince. There was

police firing and riots. Many people were

killed.

The Government decided to take

repressive measures. .The Congress and the

Khilafat

volunteer

organization

were

declared unlawful. Freedom of speech and

association was curtailed.

The prisons of Calcutta overflowed. C.R.

Das, Motilal Nehru, Lala Lajpat Rai and

Gopabandhu Das of Orissa were arrested.

By the end of 1921 all important leaders

except Gandhiji were behind prison bars.

Gandhi decided to shift the emphasis of the

movement from the cities, where non-vio-

lence had failed, to the village.

The Ahmedabad Congress authorized in-

dividual or mass civil disobedience:

"There is

nothing before the country but to adopt some

non-violent method for the enforcement of its

demands including the elementary rights of

free speech, free association and a free Press. ”

Gandhi would try it in one taluk in Gujarat -

Bardoli

There was mob violence at Chauri Chaura

in U.P. where some peasants set fire to a police

station and caused the death of twenty police-

men. This was done in reply to the police

firing on the hartal volunteers. Gandhiji

dropped the civil disobedience and opted for a

constructive programme.

Gandhi said,

‘If the thing (Non-

cooperation movement) had not

been suspended We would have

been leading not a non-violent but

essentially a violent stmggle. The

cause will prosper by this retreat....

we have come back to our moor-

ings. ’

By his successive postponements of civil

disobedience, Gandhi warned that he would

not have Swaraj at the cost of the sacred

principle of satyagraha.

Gandhiji was arrested on 10th March

1922 and charged with spreading disaffection

against the Government.

The trial of Gandhiji became historic

because of the explanation offered by Gandhiji

for his actions, though he pleaded guilty to the

charge itself.

‘Non-cooperation with evil is as much a

duty as is cooperation with good... I submit

cheerfully to the highest penalty that can be

inflicied upon me for what in law is a deliber-

ate crime, and, what appears to me to be the

highest duty of a citizen.’

The suspension of the civil disobedience

movement came as a shock to many national

leaders. Subhash called it a

'National calamity'.

Jawaharlal

Nehru

mentions

his

autobiography

his

"amazement

and

consternation" at the decision. Many accused

Gandhi of curbing the political initiative of the

masses and keeping them under rigid upper

class control.

The Swarajists (1923)

When the mass civil disobedience move-

ment was dropped there was widespread dis-

appointment which led to a sudden dissipa-

tion of enthusiasm in the national struggle.

At this stage a new lead was given by

C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru. Both of them felt

that instead of boycotting the legislatures,

non-cooperation should be carried into the

councils.

The result was a split in the ranks of the

Congress - the Motilal Nehru group called the

pro-changers or

Swarajists

and the no-

changers.

On December 31,1922 a new party called

the Swarajya Party was formed within the

Congress. C.R. Das was the president and

Motilal Nehru one of the secretaries.

The new party kept in view the essential

principles of non-violence and non-coopera-

tion. The Swarajists fought the elections of

November 1923 and practically wiped out the

liberals. They were the largest party in the

Bengal Council. In the Central Assembly, the

Swarajists formed a coalition, called the Na-

tionalist Party, with thirty moderate and

Muslim members.

1924-25

: The term of the First Legislative

Council having expired at the end of 1923

arrangements were made for election to the

second. In January 23, 1924, the first meeting

of the Second Legislative Assembly was at-

tended by the Swarajya Party. Jatindramohan

Sen Gupta moved a Resolution urging the

release of all persons detained without trial

under Regulation III of 1818 in Bengal.

On February 5, Gandhi who was released

unconditionally on grounds of ill-health

launched the Khadi movement. On February

8, Motilal Nehru moved his famous resolution