For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

F. G. Pratt and Mahatma Gandhi

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

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

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

E-mail- dr.yadav.yogendra@gandhifoundation.net;

dr.yogendragandhi@gmail.com

Mailing Address- C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur- 208020, Uttar Pradesh, India

F. G. Pratt and Mahatma Gandhi

F. G. Pratt was a commissioner of Kheda, in Gujrat. He sent no escort to Gandhi, nor did he suspend the collection of revenue. So Mahatma Gandhi was started Kheda Satyagraha with the help of farmers of Kheda. He wrote many letters to commissioner for to put the actual position of farmers. We were not able on Wednesday last to resume discussion of my complaint about unbecoming language used in Gujarati circulars. I enclose copy of a public notice dated the 14th January over the Collector’s signature. I have underlined what I have ventured to term undignified and offensive. The underlined portion insults both the Secretaries and those who have accepted their advice. As I told you I do not think that the Collector had intended to use expressions which in the Gujarati language could not be used about respectable men. You will find herewith enclosed a copy of a circular over the Mamlatdar’s signature.

I venture to suggest that the language of this circular is open to grave objection. As to the anti-dairy activity, I enclose herewith the circular which is being printed specially for distribution. You will notice that it covers the whole ground. There is a slight misunderstanding in your letter. I have not confined my attention to the milk supply to the infants of the sellers only, but my attention extends to the public at large. In my opinion milk supplied to the dairies is so much milk taken away from the infants’ mouths. Could you give me some details as to the coercion alleged to have been used by some people against milk-sellers intending to deal with the dairies? If I knew the villages and perhaps the names of the offenders 1 would try to reach them. As for the forfeiture notices 1 would venture to say this. To confiscate land worth several thousand rupees’ assessment is, in my opinion, a punishment out of all proportion to the default and can therefore only be termed vindictive. I observe that more such notices have been issued. I hope they will be withdrawn. 1

I am much obliged to you for your note which I received this morning. As I am asking for an appointment I do not wish to deal with the various matters referred to in your note beyond saying that I have already taken precautions against any departure from the strict instructions given regarding dairies and that I shall gladly adopt your suggestion regarding public repudiation in writing. Kindly send me an appointment. 2 After the most mature deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that I dare not leave Gujarat without satisfying myself personally as to the truth or otherwise of the statements made about the failure of crops in a large part of Kaira. I have, therefore, decided not to leave Gujarat for the time being, and I am proceeding by the one o’clock train today to Nadiad with a party of co-workers. I must confess that convincing proof has not been produced before you to warrant suspension on the scale asked for, but so far as I am aware both Messrs. Parekh and Company and Deodhar and Company believe that though they have not been able to stand the fire of cross-examination, the truth is on their side. Only they have not succeeded in producing convincing proof. I think it is the experience of most of us that there are some facts we know, though we cannot prove them. That has been the position of these friends. On the strength of the failure of evidence hitherto produced, His Excellency has thrown on my shoulders the responsibility of removing the impression, which people are labouring under, as to the failure of crops in Kaira. But obviously I cannot do so as at present equipped. Whilst it is true that the evidence hitherto produced as to failure of crops to such all extent as to warrant suspension under the revenue rules, has not been conclusive, it is not possible for me, without conducting a personal investigation, to declare that the popular belief in such failure is wrong. This investigation is a duty I owe to the people of Kaira, to the Gujarat Sabha, of which I have the privilege of being the President, and, if I may say so, to the Government. I have entered somewhat into details because I am anxious, if I can do so, to assure you that I have absolutely no desire to encourage or produce a useless agitation and that I am proceeding to Kaira purely and simply in search of truth.

You have agreed that if the people are right they are entitled to relief. You very properly declined to grant it unless reports of your officials could be successfully challenged. And I, on my part, would be shirking a plain duty in spite of the persistent statements made by responsible people to the contrary, if I did not satisfy myself as to their truth or otherwise. You will most materially help in allaying the ferment in Kaira, if you could possibly be generous enough to postpone collection pending the result of my self-imposed mission. And if you think that I may be afforded the usual facilities may I ask you to advise the Collector to help me with information that may be legitimately granted to a public worker. I wish also to add that if you desire that any representative of yours should be present while I am inquiring, I have no objection whatsoever. I trust you will excuse the length of the communication. In reply to the invitation to attend the Durbar on the 26th instant I was obliged to send a reply in the negative in view of my then impending departure for Delhi. But in the circumstances now altered, I hope to be able to attend, and pay my respects. 3

Your frank talk of yesterday encourages me to send you this letter. The following is the position throughout India. A new order of things is replacing the old. It can be established peacefully or it must be preceded by some painful disturbances. What it will be lies largely in the hands of civil servants like you, more than in those of the King’s representatives quite at the top? You desire to do well, but you rule not by right of love, but by the force of fear. The sum total of the energy of the civil service represents to the people the British Constitution. You have failed, probably not through any fault of your own, to interpret it to the people as fully as you might have. The result is the people dread your power to punish and they miss the good you desire to do. The home-rulers so named have become impatient of your authority. They are a rapidly increasing power. They find no difficulty in showing to the people the dreadful side of the civil service rule. The people welcome them as their deliverers. With nothing but love of the land and distrust of the officials to guide them, they spread ill will.

The order you represent knows this only too well and it naturally resents this insult. And so the gulf widens. I presumptuously believe that I can step into the breach and may succeed in stopping harmful disturbances during our passage to the new state of things. I want, at the end of it, to see established not mutual distrust and the law of force, but mutual trust and the law of love. I can only do so if I can show the people a better and more expeditious way of righting wrongs. It is obviously bad if they submit to your order through fear and harbour ill will. It is worse if, misguided, they resort to violence. The only dignified and truly loyal and uplifting course for them is to show disapproval by disobeying your orders which they may consider to be unjust, and by knowingly and respectfully suffering the penalty of their breach. I venture to think that advice to do so can be safely tendered in almost every conceivable case of a felt wrong, provided that all other recognized remedies have been previously tried. I wish you could see the viewpoint submitted by me. You will, I know, forgive me for my presumption in writing this letter. Of course, I have written this irrespective of the Kaira trouble. It is highly likely that I shall have the privilege of working with you on a more non-contentious platform. But I feel that it is better that you should know me with all my limitations. 4

Messages have been coming to me, and one has arrived just this very moment, to the effect that in several villages Talatis are putting undue pressure upon the villagers to pay the dues. Representations have come from Matar Taluka asking me to go over to the District and speak to the people. From everywhere in the Kaira District people have been coming in and asking for some public pronouncement. As you are aware beyond speaking to the people as to what they ought to do I have scrupulously refrained from making any public announcement or inviting public agitation? Indeed I have gone so far as to tell friends on whom I exercise any influence to avoid discussion in the press. Before making public declaration and holding meetings, etc., I do want to make a final appeal to you. Is it impossible to announce a general suspension of the collection of the second installment, practically for the whole District, coupled with a declaration to the effect that the Government would still expect holders of sanadia land to pay the dues in full? This will avoid ferment and it will be a graceful concession which I verily believe is demanded by the circumstances of the case. I am at your service should you want it. 5

I returned from Indore yesterday. I am passing the day at Limbasi. I observe that the whole of the crops of this Division has been placed under distrait. This seems to me to be a cruel procedure. Again complaints are being made that violence is being used against the people in other parts. This, I know, can have no countenance from the higher officials. The Government resist the people, and the latter the former on a matter of principle. I think that the fight can be fought without bitterness. Both will have gained in the end if none but the fairest means be adopted by the parties to gain their respective ends. 6 Your letter of the 29th ultimo has been redirected to me from Indore. I thank you for it. Evidently it was His Excellency’s desire that notwithstanding the final letter I should have sought an interview with you. Do you think that we may usefully meet and discuss the situation? I had a full chat with Mr. Ghosal and Mr. Hood yesterday. We were able to reach a reasonable solution regarding Limbasi. But I am anxious that an equally reasonable solution may be reached on the general question. Your charge about my taking on too many responsibilities is only too true. I can but plead helplessness. I know that I should be there and handle the mill-hands instead of leaving them to Miss Anasuya Sarabhai. And yet I dare not leave the Kaira matter. I could not avoid it in the first instance. I shall look forward to your visit to the school. I am anxious to interest you in my experiment. Do please apologize on my behalf to Miss Green for my having run away from Ahmadabad. I have your second letter also for which many thanks. 7

I thank you for your cordial note. I would wait on you on Thursday the 11th instant at 9 a.m. As to the laying down of weapons before coming to parley I would do much to please you, but I feel that I shall most truly serve you by being disobedient in as orderly a manner as possible. My disobedience is a defensive measure. I would be no friend of law and order if I acted otherwise than I am doing. I wish you were present at the meetings we have been having. But I must not anticipate my pleading of Thursday. This I know that behind my activity there is not a trace of ill will against any man on earth. If 9 a.m., Thursday, too is inconvenient to you please send me your own time. 8 I venture to think that you are prejudiced against the Home Rulers quite unnecessarily. They are not as bad as you think them to be. In any case I must take the material that I see before me and improve it where it is bad. I find the Home Rulers to be the easiest people to get on with not because I fall in with their views very quickly but because I appeal to their sense of right and wrong and am patient with them. Finding mine to be the superior method they accept it in place of their own. They try to substitute love for hatred. You could do likewise and you can make them yours. It is likely that both the Nadiad and the Ahmadabad Home Rulers have a valid answer to your charges. Their selflessness in their relations with me disposes me to think that they are not likely to be guided by sordid motives in their conduct of Municipal affairs. I ask you to trust them and secure their co-operation. The Kheda people do not render blind obedience to me. They are not allowed to do so. And I have no doubt that if they follow my advice to the last they cannot but be elevated morally. For does not conscious suffering always exalt a nation? The passive resisters of South Africa are today the strongest supporters of the Government. Their resistance was based on faith in the Government’s ultimate justice. Were you not cruelly unjust to the strikers and me? Do you believe that the latter broke their vow? And whatever may be your belief your suggestion that the strikers willingly broke the vow is surely the unkindest cut of all. Your speech at the strikers’ meeting did not leave on my mind the impression that you created at the Kheda cultivators’ meeting. All the compliments you pay me are undeserved by me if I have become party to the strikers’ breaking the vow. 9

Naturally I accept your assurance that you did not deliberately misrepresent the strikers. I have been summoned to attend the War Conference. The first object is stated to be to sink domestic differences. This Kheda business falls under that category. I am not ashamed to approach you again and appeal to you in the name of the object of the Conference to recede from the position you have taken up. What a great relief it would be to the Viceroy if I could tell His Excellency that we had settled our domestic quarrel. I am leaving tonight for Bombay to attend the Begar Conference. 10 My movements at the present moment are that I leave Ahmadabad for Bombay tomorrow in connection with the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan meetings that are to be held on the 19th, 20th and 21st. instant. I hope to return on the 22nd, at the outside on the 23rd. If I return on the 23rd, it is my intention to halt at Nadiad for about 2 hours. After my return, I want to continue organizing work in Ahmadabad along the lines I have informed Mr. Chatfield of. I am anxious that the people should become saturated with the absolutely peaceful nature of Satyagraha before I commence what might be termed the “offensive”.

If you have any wish to express in connection with my programme, I do hope you will not hesitate to let me know, even confidentially if necessary, and I need hardly say that I shall endeavour to carry it out so far as possible. Even though the Government may not desire my co-operation, as a satyagrahi it will be my duty to do acts of co-operation and assist in restoring order and removing lust for violence. 11 Through some bungling on my part, I see that copies of the last three leaflets were not delivered to you. I know you will excuse me for the unintentional omission. Probably you have already seen them. I send you a few copies herewith of each of the leaflets. I am going to Bombay today hoping to return on Monday. I stop at Nadiad for a few hours on my way to Bombay. 12

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