British Army and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

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British Army and Mahatma Gandhi 

 

 

The Government communiqué goes on to state how they tampered with the loyalty of the Army. The Brothers were a party to a resolution at a conference in Karachi which called upon the Mussulmans to warn any Mussulman against serving in the Army and telling every Mussulman soldier that in terms of Islam it was a sin to serve in the British Army. I am sorry that I was not present at that historic conference in Karachi and had I been present there and had the conference permitted me; I should also have been one of those who would have supported that resolution. (Laughter,) Only a Mussulman can say whether it is a sin for a Mussulman to serve in the British Army at the present moment, but as a Hindu and as an Indian, I know what my duty and what the duty of every Hindu, every Indian, should be on such an occasion. I know that it is a sin for a single Indian to serve either in the British Army, or in any of the civil departments of this Government, and if a public declaration of this character even in the presence of soldiers constituted the offence of tampering with the loyalty of the soldiers of the British Army, let me tell this meeting and through this meeting the Government of India, that I have committed the offence of tampering with the soldiers serving in the British Army, times without number. Nor is it a new offence it was an offence deliberately committed by me in the month of September last year, and it was an offence committed also by the Indian National Congress in the month of September at Calcutta and deliberately repeated at Nagpur.

If neither the Congress nor I have hitherto gone to individual soldiers and individual employees in the Government departments, it is not because of want of will, but because of want of ability. In our unfortunate country in which poverty is day by day deepening and in which starvation faces lakhs upon lakhs of our countrymen and countrywomen, it has not been possible for us, up now to call upon the soldiers individually, to appeal to them and ask them for the sake of their country and for the sake of their religion to give up their employment and do their duty. What I venture to warn the Government is that as soon as the country has received and assimilated the gospel of the spinning-wheel and swaraj and as soon as the soldiers and others are ready to take up the spinning-wheel and the handloom, I promise that if I have got still the strength left in me and the personal liberty that is vouchsafed to me by this Government, I promise that I shall undertake to go to every one of the soldiers and every one of those who are serving in the civil departments of Government to give up his employment and take up the spinning wheel; but even at this very moment, I invite every soldier who calls himself an Indian and every servant in Government employment that if he has understood the message of swadeshi, it is his bounden duty to have his employment under this Government which has emasculated this country, which has put affronts upon Islam and which has made itself responsible for the tragedy of Jallianwala Bagh. I say that it is a sin for anybody to serve this Government and if they have got a hope in swadeshi they will do well to leave their employment under this Government. 1

If the volunteers lack the sense of discipline, we shall find ourselves in a difficult position. In war discipline is everything. At the time of the Crimean War, the officers of the British army committed such blunders that vast numbers of soldiers were killed. The poor soldiers went on obeying the orders given and met their death. The stupidity of the officers has been forgotten, but the bravery of the soldiers has been immortalized in the golden words of a famous poem by Tennyson. 2 Then there is the British section of the Indian Army. What is the purpose of this British Army? Every Indian child knows that that British Army is there, including the Indian Army, for the defence of British interests and for avoiding or resisting foreign aggression. I am sorry to have to make these remarks, but that is precisely what I have learned and have experienced, and it would be unjust even to my British friends if I did not give expression to the truth as I have given it and as I hold it. Thirdly, it is an Army intended to suppress rebellion against constituted authority. 3 

Andrews made me understand the significance of the King- Emperor’s title. The British king is king also in the Dominions, but he is the Emperor of India. India alone makes the Empire. The Dominions are peopled by your cousins. But we Indians, with our different culture and traditions, can never belong to the British family. We may belong to a world-wide family of nations, but first we must cease to be under-dogs. So I set myself to win independence. You may object that by so doing I am throwing away the protection of the British army and navy. India would not need them, if she were truly non-violent. If, in the glow of freedom, she could live up to that creed, no power on earth would ever cast an evil eye upon her. That would be India’s crowning glory and her contribution to the world’s progress. 4 ‘Political’ necessarily means the removal of the control of the British army in every shape and form. ‘Economic’ means entire freedom from British capitalists and capital, as also their Indian counterparts. In other words, the humblest must feel equal to the tallest. This can take place only by capital or capitalists sharing their skill and capital with the lowliest and the least. ‘Moral’ means freedom from armed defence forces. My conception of Ramarajya excludes replacement of the British army by a national army of occupation. A country that is governed by even its national army can never be morally free and, therefore, its so-called weakest member can never rise to his full moral height. 5 

The note is something quite different from what you said yesterday. For one thing it does not contemplate independence. It seems to take Pakistan for granted. As I said yesterday nothing can be done so long as the British Army of occupation remains. The people can’t be natural so long as their territory is occupied. Therefore there is no meeting ground in the note. 6 A polish lady has sent me a note just today saying that all Europeans had received secret instructions to leave India as the British army would no longer be able to give them adequate protection. If it is so, it is a sad reflection on us. We would be unworthy of the name of satyagrahi if even an English child did not feel secure in our midst. Even if we succeed in driving out the Europeans by these tactics, something worse will take their place. Our Quit India Resolution has no malice about it. It only means that we will no longer be exploited. 7

But they can say let bygones be bygones and now they have turned over a new leaf. Lord Mountbatten is honest in his intention but his success is in the hands of the British commercial interests, the British army and the British civilians. If they are not sincere, whatever the Viceroy has done will be undone. Let us therefore pray to God to grant them good sense. Whatever the trouble in quitting India, even if they face a dark future ahead, still I would tell them that their good lies in deciding to leave India. 8 I get many letters full of abuse. The abuse has no effect on me for I take the abuse as praise. But people hurl abuses at me not because I take it as praise but because in their eyes I am not what I ought to be. There was a time when these same people used to sing my praises. I have selected two questions contained in a letter I have received today which I shall answer here. The first question is: ‘‘you have become so used to the British army. What will happen to you after the British army withdraws from here?’’ I answered this question when I was in South Africa and again answered it after my return here many years ago. I still say the same thing. We have no use for the British army. It does not increase our strength but reduces it. I am of course a votary of non-violence but this applies even to those who do not believe in non-violence. If everyone becomes a soldier and learns to wield the rifle, what need would there be left for the British army? If the withdrawal of the British army shocks us, then how can we be said to be fit for swaraj? If a man’s lungs become diseased, he cannot keep himself alive with another person’s lungs. Swaraj constitutes the lungs of India. If we want to survive we cannot do so with others’ help. We are today like a man, who has spent his life in a dark cellar and, being suddenly let out, is for the time being blinded by sunlight. We do not want the British army or any other army either to suppress us or to defend us. 9

 

References:

 

1. The Hindu, 22-9-1921
2. Navajivan, 4-5-1930
3. Indian Round Table Conference (Second Session): Proceedings of Federal Structure Committee and Minorities Committee, Vol. I, pp. 387-9
4. Harijan, 14-4-1946
5. Harijan, 5-5-1946 
6. Letter to Major Short, May 4, 1946
7. The Hindu, 8-7-1946
8. Prarthana-Pravachan—Part I, pp. 43
9. Prarthana Pravachan–I, pp. 196