For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Police and Mahatma Gandhi-I

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

Police and Mahatma Gandhi-I

If while visiting places or calling together people, the police or any other officials object, the Volunteer should politely reply that so long as the Head Office does not direct the cessation of work, he would have to continue his work. If in doing this, he is arrested by the police, he should allow himself to be arrested, but he should not resist the police. And if such a thing happens, he should at once send a detailed report to the Head Office. If people themselves hesitate to gather together through the fear of the police or for any other cause, the Volunteer should give up that place and should at once give information of such an occurrence to the Head Office. 1 In revenue matters as also for the maintenance of peace and order in his district, the Collector is at present dependent on the one-sided reports of the Mamlatdar and the police and this often leads to serious errors in the administration of the district and injustice to the people. This Conference therefore recommends to the Government that it appoint an advisory board of elected members for each district. 2

The junior most police officer can ruin the reputation of a big man of wealth. I think it is the duty of every leader to get out of this state of mind. The officers are not amenable to the public. They think their actions are divinely inspired and cannot conceivably be opposed. It will be a service to them, and therefore to the State, to help them get rid of this notion. Wherever, therefore, I find people submitting to injustice out of fear, I tell them that, to shake off imposed hardships, they must suffer voluntarily. This is Satyagraha. To make others suffer in order to save ourselves from suffering is duragraha, brute force. When a bullock is hurt, he kicks. When a man is oppressed, he should employ soul force to fight himself free, suffering voluntarily to that end. 3 A man who meddles with what is not his job is not prompted by any concern for the right—he is merely conceited. Your duty is only to impart instruction to children and to look after matters of hygiene and sanitation and you may not transgress its limits. Therefore your action in stopping the police and getting the cattle released was not right. It may be that they will not prosecute you for stopping the police, but not prosecuting you will only involve you in further trouble. It is well that you write to me about everything. Continue to write in this manner. But do not ever leave the field of school work to meddle with something else. Your duty is only that and nothing else, It is not right of you to be angry with the Saheb either. I hope you will be very cautious in your behaviour in future. 4

Section 33 Where, in the opinion of the Local Government, any person has been or is concerned in such area in any offence of that kind, it may make in respect of such person any order authorized in Part II and may further order (a) the arrest of any such person without warrant; (b) the confinement of any such person in such place and under such conditions and restrictions as it may specify; (c) the search of any place specified in the order which, in the opinion of the Local Government has been, is being or is about to be used by any such person in such a manner as to endanger the public safety. The arrest of such a person may be affected at any place where he may be found by any police officer or any other officer to whom the order may be directed. 5 There the Police Commissioner prohibits an innocent procession. The satyagrahis obey because they are bound by the Pledge not to commit disobedience except where authorized by the committee. Their first impulse would be to disregard the prohibition and the consequences of such hasty disregard might be most serious. In South Africa, they surrendered to my judgment as to the selection of the laws and the time of breaking them. Here the committee was thought of at my instance. But of every such committee, I am the President. I hope, you find time to read the cuttings I have been sending you. I must now end this letter as visitors are waiting to see me. 6

It is the duty of the demonstrators to obey and carry out all police instructions as it is as yet no part of the movement to offer civil disobedience against police orders that may be given in connection with demonstrations, processions organized by Satyagraha Associations. 7 I remember an occasion when a mob of 6,000 Europeans, who had been previously inflamed by their leaders, tried to lynch one who, I believe, had given no cause for it. After a hot pursuit by the lynches, he found shelter in a friend’s house, which was also the latter’s shop. Towards evening, the crowd in a determined manner marched to the house, and demanded delivery of the victim of their wrath on pain of burning down the shop. Lives of nearly twenty men, women and children were at stake. Goods worth £20,000 might have been destroyed. Here, if at any time, the use of the military would have been justified. But the Superintendent of Police would not summon any such aid. He alone with his dozen constables scattered amongst the crowd, defended the lives and property that were in danger, and after three hours’ contending with the crowd, he succeeded in stealing the victim through the crowd to the police station, and finally in dispersing the lynches. This happened on the 13th day of January, 1897, in Durban. Unlike the Durban crowd, the Delhi crowd was without a mind of its own. It threatened to do nothing beyond, as alleged in the communiqué, refusing to disperse. 8

I think we can say things passed off wonderfully well on Sunday. There was a mixed Hindu-Muslim procession near Crawford Market. Some members of the procession were assaulted and they sustained injuries. The incident was nothing serious, I believe; all the same, that no one in the procession was at fault, though the Police Commissioner says that the men had disregarded the Deputy Commissioner’s order. The respectable gentlemen who told me of the incident absolve the precisionists of all blame. I send you a copy of my letter to Mr. Griffith, and also copies of the statements I have taken from the leading men and which have accompanied my letter to Mr. Griffith; you will be able to see from them that, if these gentlemen are right in their facts, the police certainly are to blame somewhat. 9 We need not consider the conduct of the police, nor is this the occasion for such consideration. We are beholden to H.E. the Governor and the police for the entire absence of rifle fire, or gunfire. But the one thing to be remembered is that we should learn how to observe perfect peace and how to undergo intelligent suffering. Without this there is no Satyagraha. 10

It arms the police and the executive with arbitrary and demoralizing powers. An executive that asks for extraordinary powers is as a rule to be distrusted. Extraordinary powers are asked by those who wish to cover their inefficiency or inability to cope with an evil. It is like an unskilled surgeon wanting to use the knife where a lancet in a skilled hand would do equally well. Often extraordinary powers are taken to cover wrongs done by authority, as I fear was done by the Punjab Government in April. History would have been written differently if the Central Government had asked the Punjab Government to deal with the situation in the ordinary manner. It is said that in two places at least the Governor told the police that the latter would be held responsible if any disturbance took place in their jurisdiction. Believing then, as I do, that the Rowlatt Act is bad in every respect and that nothing bad can outlast honest effort, I entertain no misgivings about the Act being repealed long before the expiry of the time limit. But that honest effort during the suspension period consists in meetings, memorials and resolutions. I respectfully appeal to the leaders who have advised me to suspend civil resistance to do their duty. Sir Narayan Chandavarkar even said that method other than civil resistance were open to the people. Will he and the other leaders give the lead?

In addition to their work, I suggest a memorial, after the style of the Congress-League Scheme Memorial, to be signed by thousands of people. Such memorial, as the late Mr. Ranade used to say, have an educative value and are quite useful for the purpose of focusing public opinion. Moreover, when civil resistance was started, I was told that it was premature; we had not exhausted all the other means at our disposal. I ventured to say we had. Adoption of the programme suggested by me avoids the possibility of a repetition of the charge of premature resumption of civil resistance, if unfortunately it has to be resumed. From every point of view, therefore, I feel that we should for the time being revert to the old method of agitation and education of public opinion, always insisting on speakers confining themselves to facts, avoiding declamation or inflammatory language. A proper explanation of the Rowlatt Act is itself its severest condemnation. 11

The questions, regarding the posting of an additional police force, tabled by the Hon’ble Rao Bahadur Harilal Desai in the Bombay Legislative Assembly and the Government’s reply to them are worth nothing. We can see from them how subordinate officers can mislead the Government. We can also see how one wrong leads to another. The first step of the Government was wrong. Misled by the Collector’s report, the Government stationed additional police at Nadiad and Barejadi. It realized that this was a mistake, but was not prepared to admit as much. The Government thus found itself in a position in which it had no choice but to defend the mistake anyhow. Let us examine whether, in the process, the Government has had to do another wrong. 12

Among the questions asked by the Rao Bahadur, one was whether there were any disturbances in Nadiad on the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th of April. This was a significant question and in asking it the Rao Bahadur’s point was that there had been no disturbances in Nadiad on those dates and that, therefore, the Government had no justification for stationing additional police. How could the Government make such an admission? Hence it adopted a wrong line in its reply and said that a large crowd had assembled on the morning of the 11th with the object of compelling the Head Master of the English School, by show of criminal force, to close the school. There is no reason to believe the Government story simply because it is so positive about it. The Government has not come to this conclusion after a public inquiry of any nature. It gave this information in the Legislative Assembly on the basis of the one-sided police report it had received. Had it exercised its judgment, it would have used some kind of a qualifying expression and presented the information less positively. The Government is all too ready with its criticism if a one-sided case is presented on behalf of the people; what right has it, then, to come to any conclusion on the basis of a one-sided report? There are courts in existence to adjudicate between the Government and the people, and the principle of setting up an independent Commission of Inquiry is also an accepted policy at present.

I have made inquiries and have an altogether different account from prominent citizens of Nadiad. They say, on their side, that no crowd had collected on purpose to force the school to close. Other schools being closed on that day, the boys of the English School, too, were engaged in an argument with their Head Master and a few persons from the town had joined them, but no undue pressure was used. Now let us examine the third statement. It has been said on behalf of the Government that a party had assembled on the 12th of April with the intention of attacking the Dairy in Nadiad, but that it was dispersed by the police. The report which I have received goes to show that a party did go there with a view to persuading the manager to close the Dairy. The crowd had dispersed at the mere request of prominent citizens of Nadiad. The police did not have to make the least effort to disperse it, nor was there any need for them to make any. 13

The authorities have recognized the delicacy of the situation in that they have drafted special police to Ahmadabad and taken extraordinary precautions in order to avoid unruliness on the part of the labourers and to cow them down into submission. 14 The best and quickest way to deliverance from the distrust and secret police department is to rid the country of false fear and all violence. But till that far-off day arrives, the handful of satyagrahis must be prepared to treat the prison as their second home. I hope therefore that the friends of Durgadas will not advise him or his wife to petition for mercy nor add to the wife’s unhappiness by commiserating with her. On the contrary, it is our duty to ask her to steel her heart and feel glad that her husband is in jail for no fault of his own. The truest service that we can render to Durgadas would be to offer Mrs. Durgadas such assistance, pecuniary or otherwise, as she may need. I understand that the “New Call” cases have cost nearly Rs. 15,000. The money could certainly have been utilized to better purpose. It is not right to beggar ourselves by fighting against odds. It is hardly manful to be over-anxious about the result of political trials that involve no disgrace. 15

I left Bombay for Delhi and the Punjab on the 8th April and had telegraphed to Dr. Satyapal, whom I had never met before, to meet me at Delhi. But after passing Muttra I was served with an order prohibiting me from entering the province of Delhi. I felt that I was bound to disregard this order and I proceeded on my journey. At Palwal, I was served with another order prohibiting me from entering the Punjab and confining me to the Bombay Presidency. And I was arrested by a party of police and taken off the train at that station. The Superintendent of Police who arrested me acted with every courtesy. I was taken to Muttra by the first available train the thence by goods trains early in the morning to Sawai Madhopur, where I joined the Bombay Mail from Peshawar and was taken charge of by Superintendent Bowring. I was discharged at Bombay on the 10th April. I was absolutely in form and substance arrested and I was surprised to find it so often said that it was not so. The train pulled up between Muttra and Palwal and the order was served on me when we reached the border and the police officer exceedingly courteously reasoned with me saying how bad it would be for them to arrest me at a wayside station and how it would not be possible to have a magistrate and that he did not know what proceedings would be adopted. We reached Palwal. At that station, I saw not only the Superintendent of Police; I think it was the Delhi Superintendent of Police, but also a party of officers. I suppose they were police constables, I cannot say exactly who they were and the officer placing his hand on my shoulder said, “Mr. Gandhi, I arrest you.” He served two orders on me, then he asked me quickly to remove my luggage, not myself personally, but he had the luggage removed and I was called upon to point out the things that had to be removed. He asked whether there was any man who wanted to be with me. Then there was a friend who came with me. There was a police guard. I intended to go to the platform to clear my throat and the police challenged me. They were right. There were all the simple ingredients of proper arrest. 16

It is punitive in character. Part II deals with preventive measures and is, therefore, as the mover of the Bill practically admitted, more open to attack. Whereas Part I contemplates the actual commission of scheduled offences, part II authorizes the Governor-Genera-in-Council, if he is satisfied that revolutionary movements likely to lead to the commission of scheduled offences are being extensively promoted, to notify that the provisions of Part II shall apply in the area specified. Therefore, Section 22 enables the local government, where it has reasonable grounds for believing that any person is or has been actually concerned in a revolutionary movement, to place all the materials relating to such a case before a Judicial officer who is qualified for appointment to a High Court and to take his opinion thereon. Thereafter, if the local government is satisfied that action under part II is necessary, it may take security from such person for a period not exceeding one year, that he will not commit or attempt to commit any of the Scheduled offences, that he shall not change his residence without notifying the Government, that he shall be restricted to a particular area, shall abstain from any act calculated to disturb the public peace or prejudicial to public safety and shall report himself at the nearest police station at specified periods. Section 24 authorizes the Government to use “all means reasonably necessary to enforce compliance with its orders”. Thus, upon mere suspicion, the most respectable man may find himself entirely at the mercy of the police. If this is prevention, it is worse than the disease, and prevention itself calculated to produce the very disease sought to be prevented. Could these excesses have been prevented? Could innocent lives have been saved? What were the police doing? The Kotwali (Police Station) is a portion of the same block as the Town Hall. There were sufficient numbers of the police force at the Kotwali. The crowd did not touch the Kotwali, whilst it burnt the adjoining Town Hall with impunity. Most of the other buildings burnt were within a stone’s throw of the Kotwali. The police had also intimation of the fact that the banks were being set fire to. It was clearly the duty that the banks were being set fire to. It was clearly the duty of the police to have bestirred themselves and, even at the peril of their lives, at least tried to save the Englishmen who were murdered. 17

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