Ramanand Sannyasi and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

 

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

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

 

 

Ramanand Sannyasi and Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

Ramanand Sannyasi receipt Mahatma Gandhi letter dated the 28th instant. I regret I did not give you any particulars in my first letter.

(1) After 1921 episode the recruiting absolutely stopped. The trade was dull and there were huge stocks of Indian tea both in England and in India. With the present rise in the market and clearance of stocks, the planters began to feel need of more labour to recultivate the plantations which had been abandoned since 1921. The present recruiting started in last November. The information which I received was from a friend who is the District Engineer of Gurgaon District (Punjab). Then later on I received information from nearly six districts in U. P. and two districts of Punjab. It was in January that I issued a statement to the Press warning the people against consequences. The Anglo-Indian agents who were in charge carefully avoided the districts from which they used to draw their labour before 1921 episode.

(2) The above covers your questions No. 2 and 3 also.

(3) The enquiry I want to make in the plantations is what are actual conditions prevailing there at present. Has their moral or otherwise their economic position increased than hitherto, and whether it will not be in the general interest of the country to check the flow of the labour to those districts if no improvement in any direction has taken place so that the morals and characters of further number may not become lax.

(4) No written conditions were offered to the would-be recruit as far as I have ascertained, but mainly they were as follows:

(i) Rs. thirty per menses as wages both to the husband and wife.

(ii) Free quarters, wood for fuel and medical attendance.

(iii) Free railway passage in case the recruit does not like the place. But you can yourself guess how difficult it is to return from tea garden districts if you are once there as a labourer. I quite accept your suggestion that enquiries should be made first through Assam Congress Committee before proceeding there. Accordingly I am writing a letter to the Committee the copy of which I am enclosing herewith. I am also enclosing herewith a letter in original which I only few days ago received from the Congress committee, Biswan.

Mahatma Gandhi wrote a letter of the 23rd instant, for which I thank you. It is difficult for me to give you advice without knowing full particulars:

(1) Has the recruiting started only now and, if it has, from what date?

(2) Was there no recruiting prior to that?

(3) If there was none, when did the stoppage begin?

(4) What inquiry is to be made in the plantations?

The condition cannot now be better than before unless the terms offered by the planters are different. If they are different, you should be able to get a copy of those terms in the villages where recruiting is going on. I therefore do not know what purpose can be served just now by going to the tea plantations and making inquiries. Moreover, the Provincial Congress Committee in Assam should be corresponded with before any steps are taken. I would therefore suggest your writing a letter giving full particulars of the recruiting going on in the districts mentioned by you. If you adopt my suggestion, when sending your reply, please send me a copy of your letter to the Assam Committee also.

In last November I received news from the Gurgaon District of Punjab that a certain Anglo-Indian gentleman was employing retired   military men for recruiting labour for tea gardens, and that he was offering

(i) Free railway passage to the gardens

(ii) Rs. thirty monthly as wages both for husband and wife.

(iii) Together with free quarters and fuel wood. He was also willing to provide passage back and journey expenses should the recruit when at reaching there does not like to stay. Immediately after that I received news to the same effect from Karnal, Ambala, Rohtak and Hissar districts of Punjab and from nearly every district of U. P. except Fezabad, Bellia, Gorakhpur and some other two or three districts which they perhaps avoided because these contained their ex-labourers. As I am quite familiar with the conditions prevailing in tea gardens and episode of 1921 came vividly before my eyes, I issued a statement to the Bengal, Punjab and U.P. Press in January last which you must have noticed and also I wrote to Bengal, U.P. and Punjab committees to take such action as conditions permit. At that time I did not write to you not because it was not necessary but because Assam had slipped from my memory.

Now I wrote to Mahatma Gandhiji telling him of the thing and consulting him regarding the advisability or otherwise of proceeding to the tea gardens and looking at the thing. He has written to me to first make enquiries through you and then to consider what action should be taken in light of the same. Therefore I shall be obliged if you will kindly supply me the following information:

(1) What are the actual conditions prevailing in plantations at present and has any improvement taken place regarding wages or morals since 1921 happenings.

(2) Is fresh labour coming there, if so, from which districts mainly, and how they are being treated.

(3) Do you think in the light of enquiries which you will make it is advisable to take measures against recruiting or should anybody be deputed there to look after them.

 

References:

 

1. LETTER FROM RAMANAND SANNYASI, April 1, 1924
2. LETTER TO RAMANAND SANNYASI, March 28, 1924
3. RAMANAND SANNYASI’S LETTER TO CONGRESS COMMITTEE, April 1, 1924