Indian 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

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Indian Army and Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

I myself do not believe that any Army, Indian or British, is necessary at all, but there the Working Committee disagrees with me. That being so, I am prepared to agree that for a transitional period the Indian Army will need some British officers, because you have never allowed our own officers to learn all that must be learned about modern warfare. Perhaps some British regiments would be necessary also, partly for the same reasons. But they must be subject to the control of the Indian Government. 1 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. 2

However honest the Prime Minister’s declaration on the closing day of the Round Table Conference was, it fell far short of the national demand, and hence was utterly unacceptable if there was no room for expansion. And yet the pity of it is that it represents the English mind. The true test of responsibility is control of Defence and Finance. The declaration is unequivocal about both these matters. There is to be no Indian control, certainly not of Defence, and virtually not of Finance. The reason for this extraordinary state of affairs is the great ignorance that prevails in England about India. Many of the best Englishmen believe that we are incapable of defending ourselves or managing our Finance. If this is so, we are certainly far away from the Complete Independence we want. But I claim that we are quite able to look after our own Defence and Finance. What is the army in India? Roughly, it consists of sixty thousand British soldiers and a hundred and sixty thousand Indian soldiers all hirelings. Indian soldiers are chosen for their being devoid of any national instinct whatever. They are almost trained to regard themselves as foreigners who should look down upon the ordinary citizen with whom they have nothing in common. The whole of this army is used for external aggression, and the protection of British interests and British lives within Indian borders. This army I regard as a menace, within, to nationalism, and without, to the independence of India’s neighbours. Surely India managed somehow to live and to preserve her culture before the British advent. India’s defence lies in the cultivation of friendly relations with her neighbours and her ability to resist, through nonviolent non-co-operation, her exploitation by any nation. The first act of a National Government should be to disband this menace, unless it were reduced to manageable proportions and the control handed honourably and peacefully to the National Government by the British Government. This is the least expiation the British Government owe to the people of India for having brought into being an army designed to crush their legitimate aspirations. Should the British Government not see the obvious duty of doing this elementary thing, the Nationalist Party must continue to fight till hard experience had demonstrated the necessity. The Indian Army of the future will not be mercenary but voluntary, and largely in the nature of police. But the British people have been taught to think that the army in India is the crowning act of British rule for which India should be forever thankful. The Editor of The Indian Review has to dispel this colossal ignorance by hard study of facts and figures showing how the army is composed and how, from its conception, it has been used for the spoliation of India and her neighbours. 3 

The Indian army has been maintained up till now mainly to hold India in subjugation. It has been completely segregated from the general population who can in no sense regard it as their own. This policy of mistrust still continues and is the reason why national defence is not entrusted to India’s elected representatives. 4 If I have any hand in guiding the imagined national Government, there would be no further assistance save the toleration of the United Nations on the Indian soil under well-defined conditions. Naturally there will be no prohibition against any Indian giving his own personal help by way of being a recruit or and of giving financial aid. It should be understood that the Indian army has been disbanded with the withdrawal of British power. Again if I have any say in the councils of the national government, all its power, prestige and resources would be used towards bringing about world peace. But of course after the formation of the national government my voice may be a voice in the wilderness and nationalist India may go war-mad. 5

Automatically the Indian army is disbanded from that moment, and they decide to pack up as soon as they can. Or they may declare they would pack up only after the war is over, but that they would expect no help from India, impose no taxes, raise no recruits—beyond what help India chooses to give voluntarily. British rule will cease from that moment, no matter what happens to India afterwards. Today it is all a hypocrisy, unreality. I want that to end. The new order will come only when that falsity ends. It is an unwarranted claim Britain and America is making, the claim of saving democracy and freedom. It is a wrong thing to make that claim when there is this terrible tragedy of holding a whole nation in bondage. 6    Today the whole of India is impotent and feels frustrated. The Indian Army consists largely of people who have joined up because of economic pressure. They have no feeling of a cause to fight for, and in no sense are they a national army. Those of us who would fight for a cause, for India and China, with armed forces or with non-violence, cannot under the foreign heel, function as they want to. And yet our people know for certain that India free can play even a decisive part not only on her own behalf, but also on behalf of China and world peace. Many like me feel that it is not proper or manly to remain in this helpless state and allow events to overwhelm us when a way to effective action can be opened to us. They feel, therefore, that every possible effort should be made to ensure independence and that freedom of action which is so urgently needed. This is the origin of my appeal to the British power to end immediately the unnatural connection between Britain and India.  I made clear no such thing. What I did was to discuss with interviewers the possibilities in the event of British withdrawal. Indian army, being a creation of the British Government, I assumed, would be automatically disbanded when that power withdrew, unless it was taken over by a treaty by the replacing Government. If the withdrawal took place by agreement and with goodwill on both sides, these matters should present no difficulty. 7    

The Indian Army should be given this unique opportunity of doing constructive work. They can be moved about easily. They could, therefore, be sent to all such places where wells need to be dug most urgently. 8 Defending the country will include defending the Indian States as well and it should not be impossible so to make arrangements with Britain that the New India Government will be in a position to implement the obligations of paramountcy which it will inherit from the British power. Again, you surely do not think that in protecting Indian States British power had to place any reliance worth mentioning on the Navy and Air Force. That protection was largely given by the Indian army and even from the commencement of the new regime; we shall have, according to the Commander-in-chief, an Indian Army which would be quite capable of providing fully for the internal defence requirements of the country. 9

With all my readiness to grasp new ideas, I have failed to find a substantial reason for inducing the spread of the Roman alphabet for the purpose of replacing the Nagari or Urdu script. It is true that in the Indian Army, the Roman alphabet has been largely used. I should hope that the Indian soldier, if he is saturated with the national spirit, will not mind learning both Nagari and Urdu characters. After all, amid the ocean of Indian humanity, the Indian soldier is a mere drop. He must shed the English mode. Probably the reason for Romanizing Urdu will be found in the English officer being too lazy to learn to read Urdu or Nagari characters. 10 Sherwani refused to give up the National Conference under pressure. He made it clear to the assailants that the Sheikh was the head of the Kashmir Government that the Indian army had already reached Kashmir and, before long, would repeal the assailants. On hearing this, the assailants were enraged and were in panic. They riddled his body with fourteen bullets. They cut his nose and disfigured his face and pasted a notice on his body: “This man is a traitor. His name is Sherwani. All traitors would be treated in the same way.” But within 48 hours of this ruthless murder and bloodshed, Sherwani’s prophecy came true. The invaders fled from Baramula in panic and the Indian army chased them away. Anybody, whether Hindu, Sikh, Muslim or anyone else, would be proud of such martyrdom. 11 The simple fact is that Pakistan has invaded Kashmir. Units of the Indian army have gone to Kashmir but not to invade Kashmir. They have been sent on the express invitation of the Maharaja and Sheikh Abdullah. Sheikh Abdullah is the real Maharaja of Kashmir. Muslims in their thousands are devoted to him. He is called the Lion of Kashmir. 12

 

References:

 

1. The Statesman, 2-4-1931
2. Indian Round Table Conference (Second Session) : Proceedings of Federal Structure Committee and Minorities Committee, Vol. I, pp. 387-9
3. The India Review, 16-1-1932  
4. The Transform of Power, 1942-7, Vol. II, pp. 66-70
5. Harijan, 14-6-1942
6. Harijan, 14-6-1942
7. Letter to Chiang Kai-Sheikh, June 14, 1942
8. Letter to G. E. B. Abell, February 21, 1946
9. Talk with Sir Stafford Cripps, April 10, 1946
10. Harijan, 21-4-1946 
11. Prarthana Pravachan—II, pp. 93
12. Prarthana Pravachan—II, pp. 239