Sword of Damocles – 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

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Sword of Damocles – Mahatma Gandhi

 

Section 124A is hung over our heads like the sword of Damocles where we are feasting or fasting. It has descended upon Dr. Satyapal devoted head whilst preparing the political feast for the Congressmen and women who will flock to Lahore during the Christmas week. Two year’s rest in a prison plus a fine of Rs.200 is the reward that the Punjab Government had awarded to Dr. Satyapal for his having dared to love his country well. Dr. Satyapal has been adjudged guilty of sedition because he wants freedom for his country from misrule. Where is the Indian, be he Liberal or Nationalist, Mussalman or Hindu, who is not knowingly guilty of sedition, if Dr. Satyapal is? I have read again and again the speech which was the subject-matter of the indictment against Dr. Satyapal.

A diligent man could easily find from the daily Press speeches much stronger than Dr. Satyapal. Disaffection has been described by a commentator on the Section as want of affection. He goes so far as to say that he who has no affection for the Government established by law is guilty of disaffection. I do not know any Indian who has actually affection for the Government as it is today established. It is a rape of the word ‘law’. It is established by the naked sword, kept ready to descend upon us at the will of the arbitrary rulers in whose appointment the people have no say. Dr. Satyapal incarceration therefore suggests a wide agitation for the repeal of Section 124A. But repeal of that Section and the like means repeal of the existing system of government which means attainment of swaraj. Therefore the force required really to repeal that Section is the force required for the attainment of swaraj. It may be perfectly possible to make a show of repeal and retain by a concealed route the same powers now exercised under the Section. No such dodge will or should satisfy the people at this stage.

If therefore we feel that Dr. Satyapal has been wronged and in him the whole movement, we must intensify the movement and evolve a government for which we can have real affection, which we can call our own. There will then be no sedition on a nation-wide scale, any political murders or attempts at such with the secret sympathy of a people tired or superimposed rule. That we have not yet changed the condition which we know to be intolerable is not proof of our satisfaction with it; it is proof no doubt of our helplessness. But that helplessness is fast going. Whether it is to find expression in anarchy and bloodshed or in well-ordered civil disobedience remains to be seen. Much will depend upon the wisdom of the English rulers; more however will depend upon us. If we will look less towards Downing Street or White Hall and more towards ourselves, we shall shed our impatience. We shall then be too busy building up to be impatient. I have a suspicion that many of us want swaraj as a gift instead of earning it by the sweat of our brows.

 

Reference:

Young India, 18-7-1929