M. S. ANEY’S STATEMENT SUSPENDING CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09415777229, 094055338

E-mail- [e-mail];[e-mail]

 

 

M. S. ANEY’S STATEMENT SUSPENDING CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE  

 

 

M.S. Aney’s statement suspending civil disobedience is here on May 9, 1933. I feel sure that although the news of the fast of Mahatma Gandhi is bound to cast a dark shadow of anxiety and gloom throughout the country, it will be some relief to his countrymen as well as to his friends and followers throughout the world to know that Government has, at any rate, released him unconditionally and allowed him to observe his vow and practice his great penance as a free citizen. In a statement issued to the Press last night, after his release, he has expressed his views on the conduct of the civil disobedience movement which, I have no doubt, will receive the consideration they deserve from every civil resister. It is perfectly true that during the period of fast, the civil resisters will be in a state of suspense and as a consequence he has advised me to declare officially and suspend the civil disobedience campaign for one month or even six weeks. In his statement he has emphatically stated what I have been saying more than once during the last four months in reply to various critics of the civil disobedience movement that the civil disobedience cannot be withdrawn so long as many civil resisters are imprisoned, and no settlement can be arrived at so long as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and others are in jail. ‘Indeed the withdrawal of the civil disobedience movement is not within the power of men who are out of prison. It is possible only for the original Working Committee to do so.’ I repeat the position so lucidly and emphatically enumerated by Mahatma Gandhi above, which is the only rational and constitutional position for the Congressmen to take on the point of withdrawal of the civil disobedience campaign. But the question of suspending the campaign to serve any definite object of a limited period undoubtedly stands on a different footing. It is no doubt a serious responsibility which I have been called to shoulder. But I am armed with a weapon it is an advice that comes from one who is not only the author of the present civil disobedience campaign but the originator and sole authority on the science and practice of civil disobedience itself. In response to his suggestion which also strikes me as a proper thing to do at this time in order to eliminate from the atmosphere all the elements of excitement and render it pure for all of us to inhale, to be in a prayerful mood to invoke the blessings of the Almighty on the great cause for which Mahatma Gandhi is undergoing this penance and supply him with an abundance of spiritual food so necessary for him to sustain through this ordeal, I declare officially that civil disobedience shall be suspended for six weeks beginning with Tuesday the 9th of May. In conclusion I repeat my appeal to every man and woman to utilize this period to the best of his or her ability and energy in the service of such work for the uplift of Harijans as may be most commending itself to him or her.