Mr M.K Gandhi
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WHEN GANDHI was born British rule had been established in India. The uprising of 1857, known as the Mutiny, had merely served to consolidate the British adventure into an empire. India had effectively passed under British tutelage, so effectively indeed, that instead of resenting alien rule the generation of educated Indians were eager to submit to the "Civilizing mission" of their foreign masters. Political subjection had been reinforced by intellectual and moral servility. It seemed that the British empire in India was safe for centuries.
When Gandhi died it was India, a free nation that mourned his loss. The disinherited had recovered their heritage and the "dumb millions" had found their voice. The disarmed had won a great battle and had in the process evolved a moral force such as to compel the attention, and to some degree, the admiration, of the world. The story of this miracle is also the story of Gandhi's life, for he, more than any other was the architect of this miracle. Ever since his grateful countrymen call him the Father of the Nation.
And yet it would be an exaggeration to say that Gandhi alone wrought this miracle. No single individual, however great and wonderful, can be the sole engineer of a historical process. A succession of remarkable predecessors and elder contemporaries had quarried and broken the stones which helped Gandhi to pave the way for India's independence. They had set in motion various trends in the intellectual, social and moral consciousness of the people which the genius Gandhi mobilized and directed in a grand march. Raja Rammohan Roy, Ramkrishna Paramhamsa and his great disciple, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Dadabhai Navroji, Badruddin Tyabji, Syed Ahmed Khan, Ranade, Gokhale, Tilak, Aurobindo Ghosh and Rabindranath Tagore, to name only a few. Each one of them, had in his own, field created a consciousness of India's destiny and helped to generate a spirit of sacrifice which, in Gandhi's hands, became the instruments of a vast political-***-moral upheaval. Had Gandhi been born hundred years earlier he could hardly have achieved what he did. Nevertheless, it is true, that, but for Gandhi, India's political destiny would have been vastly different and her moral stature vastly inferior.
But though Gandhi lived, suffered and died in India for Indians, it is not in relation to India's destiny alone that his life has significance. Future generations will not only remember him as a patriot, politician and nation-builder but much more. He was essentially a moral force, whose appeal is to the conscience of man and therefore universal. He was the servant and friend of man as man and not as belonging to this or that nation, religion or race. If he worked for Indians only, it was because he was born among them and because their humiliation and suffering supplied the necessary incentives to his moral sensibility. The lesson of his life therefore is for all to read. He founded no church and though he lived by faith he left behind no dogma for the faithful to quarrel over. He gave no attributes to God save Truth and prescribed no path for attaining it save honest and relentless search through means that injure no living thing. Who dare therefore claim Gandhi for his own except by claiming him for all?
Another lesson of his life which should be of universal interest is that he was not born a genius and did not exhibit in early life any extraordinary faculty that is not shared by the common run of men. He was no inspired bard like Rabindranath Tagore, he had no mystic visions like Ramakrishna Paramhansa, he was no child prodigy like Shankara or Vivekananda. He was just an ordinary child like most of us. If there was anything extraordinary about him as a child, it was his shyness, a handicap from which he suffered for a long time. No doubt, something very extraordinary must have been latent in his spirit which later developed into an iron will and combined with a moral sensibility made him what he became, but there was little evidence of it in his childhood. We may therefore derive courage and inspiration from the knowledge that if he made himself what he was, there is no visible reason why we should not be able to do the same.
His genius, so to speak, was an infinite capacity for taking pains in fulfillment of a restless moral urge. His life was one continuous striving, an unremitting sadhana, a relentless search for truth, not abstract or metaphysical truth, but such truth as can be realized in human relations. He climbed step by step, each step no bigger than a man's, till when we saw him at the height he seemed more than a man. "Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe", wrote Einstein, "that such a one as this, ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth." If at the end he seemed like no other man, it is good to remember that when he began he was like any other man.
Such is the great lesson of his life. Fortunately, he has himself recorded for us the main incidents of his life till 1921 and described with scrupulous veracity the evolution of his moral and intellectual consciousness. Had he not done so, there would have been in India no dearth of devout chroniclers who would have invented divine portents at his birth and invested him with a halo from his childhood.
MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND GANDHI was born on October 2, 1869, at Porbandar, a small town on the western coast of India, which was then one of the many tiny states in Kathiawar. He was born in middle class family of Vaishya caste. His grandfather had risen to be the Dewan or Prime Minister of Porbandar and was succeeded by his son Karamchand who was the father of Mohandas. Putlibai, Mohandas's mother, was a saintly character, gentle and devout, and left a deep impress on her son's mind.
Mohandas went to an elementary school in Porbandar, where he found it difficult to master the multiplication tables. "My intellect must have been sluggish and my memory raw", he recalled with candour many years later. He was seven when his family moved to Rajkot, another state in Kathiawar, where his father became Dewan. There he attended a primary school and later joined a high school. Though conscientious he was a "mediocre student" and was excessively shy and timid.
While his school record gave no indication of his future greatness, there was one incident which was significant. A British school inspector came to examine the boys and set a spelling test. Mohandas made a mistake which the class teacher noticed. The latter motioned to him to copy the correct spelling from his neighbour's slate. Mohandas refused to take the hint and was later chided for his "stupidity".
We can also discover in the little boy a hint of that passion for reforming others which later became so dominant a trait of the Mahatma, though in this case the zeal almost led him astray. Impelled by a desire to reform a friend of his elder brother's, one Sheikh Mehtab, he cultivated his company and imbibed habits which he had to regret later. This friend convinced him that the British could rule India because they lived on meat which gave them the necessary strength. So Mohandas who came on orthodox vegetarian family took to tasting meat clandestinely, for patriotic reasons. But apart from the inherited vegetarian sentiment which made him feel, after he had once swallowed a piece, as if "a live goat were bleating inside me", he had to wrestle with the knowledge that such clandestine repasts would have to be hidden from his parents which would entail falsehood on his part. This he was reluctant to do. And so after a few such experiments he gave up the idea, consoling himself with the reflection : "When they are no more and I have found my freedom, I will eat meat openly."
While he was still in high school, he was married, at the age of thirteen, to Kasturbai who was also of the same age. For a boy of that age marriage meant only a round of feasts, new clothes to wear and a strange and docile companion to play with. But he soon felt the impact of sex which he has described for us with admirable candour. The infinite tenderness and respect which were so marked a characteristic of his attitude in later life to Indian women may have owed something to his personal experience of "the cruel custom of child marriage", as he called it.
AFTER MATRICULATING from the high school, Mohandas joined the Samaldas College in Bhavnagar, where he found the studies difficult and the atmosphere uncongenial, Meanwhile, his father had died in 1885. A friend of the family suggested that if the young Gandhi hoped to take his father's place in the state service he had better become a barrister which he could do in England in three years. Gandhi jumped at the idea. The mother's objection to his going abroad was overcome by the son's solemn vow not to touch wine, women and meat.
Gandhi went to Bombay to take the boat for England. In Bombay, his caste people, who looked upon crossing the ocean as contamination, threatened to excommunicate him if he persisted in going abroad. But Gandhi was adamant and was thus formally excommunicated by his caste. Undeterred, he sailed on September 4, 1888, for Southampton-aged eighteen. A few months earlier Kasturbai had borne him a son.
The first few days in London were miserable. "I would continually think of my home and country. . . Everything was strange-the people, their ways and even their dwellings. I was a complete novice in the matter of English etiquette, and continually had to be on my guard. There was the additional inconvenience of the vegetarian vow. Even the dishes that I could eat were tasteless and insipid."
The food difficulty was solved when one day he chanced upon a vegetarian restaurant in Farringdon Street where he also bought a copy of Salt's Plea for Vegetarianism and was greatly impressed by it. Hitherto he had been a vegetarian because of the vow he had taken. From now on he became a vegetarian by choice. He read many more books on vegetarianism and diet and was delighted to discover modern science confirm the practice of his forefathers. To spread vegetarianism became henceforward his mission, as he put it.
During the early period of his stay in England Gandhi went through a phase which he has described as aping the English gentleman. He got new clothes made, purchased a silk hat costing nineteen shillings, "wasted ten pounds on an evening dress suit made in Bond Street" and flaunted a double watch-chain of gold. He took lessons in French and in elocution and spent three guineas to learn ball-room dancing. But he soon realized-and here is foreshadowed the real Gandhi-that if he could not become a gentleman by virtue of his character, the ambition was not worth cherishing.
Towards the end of his second year in London, he came across two theosophist brothers who introduced him to Sir Edwin Arnold's translation in English verse of the Gita-The Song Celestial priceless worth. He was deeply impressed. "The book struck me as one of priceless worth. This opinion of the Gita has ever since been growing on me, with the result that I regard it today as the supreme book for knowledge of Truth. It has afforded me invaluable help in my moments of gloom."
About the same time a Christian friend whom he had met in a vegetarian boarding house introduced him to the Bible. He found it difficult to wade through the Old Testament which put him to sleep, but he fell in love with the New Testament and specially with the Sermon on the Mount. He also read Sir Edwin Arnold's rendering of Buddha's life-The light of Asia-as well as the chapter on the Prophet of Islam in Carlyle's Heroes and Hero Worship. The attitude of respect for all religions and the desire to understand the best in each one of them were thus planted in his mind early in life.
Having passed his examinations Gandhi was called to the Bar on June10, 1891, and sailed for India two days later.
WHEN HE REACHED Bombay he learnt to his profound sorrow that his mother had died. The news had been deliberately kept back from him to spare him the shock in a distant land.
After spending some time in Rajkot where with his usual earnestness he immediately took in hand the education of his little son and of his brother's children, he decided to set up in legal practice in Bombay. He stayed in Bombay for a few months but had only one small brief. When he rose to argue it in the court, his nerve failed him and he could not utter a word.
Having failed to establish himself in Bombay, Gandhi returned to Rajkot where he started again. But he did not make much headway and was unhappy and out of tune with the atmosphere of petty intrigue that was rampant in the small states of Kathiawar. In this predicament came an offer from Dada Abdulla & Co. to proceed to South Africa on their behalf to instruct their counsel in a lawsuit. It was a godsend. Gandhi jumped at it and sailed for South Africa in April 1893.
He little realized what he was letting himself in for and fondly imagined that he was escaping from an unpleasant situation in Rajkot and was going to make a little money after all. But fate had something different in store for him. It was in South Africa that this shy, timid youth of twenty-four, inexperienced, unaided, alone, came into clash with forces that obliged him to tap his hidden moral resources and turn misfortunes into creative spiritual experiences.
Dressed in a frock-coat and turban Gandhi landed in Durban where his client Abdulla Sheth received him. Almost the first thing he sensed on arrival was the oppressive atmosphere of racial snobbishness. Indians of whom large numbers were settled in South Africa, some as merchants, some in the professions, the large majority as indentured labourers or their descendants, were all looked down upon as pariahs by the white settlers and called coolies or samis. Thus a Hindu doctor was a coolie doctor and Gandhi himself a coolie barrister.
After about a week's stay in Durban Gandhi left for Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal, where his presence was needed in connection with a lawsuit. A first class ticket was purchased for him by his client. When the train reached Maritzburg, the capital of Natal, at about 9 p.m. a white passenger who boarded the train objected to the presence of a "coloured" man in the compartment and Gandhi was ordered by a railway official to shift to a third class. When he refused to do so, a constable pushed him out and his luggage was taken away by the railway authorities. It was winter and bitterly cold. Gandhi sat and shivered the whole night in the waiting-room, thinking : 'Should I fight for my rights or go back to India?' He decided that it was cowardice to run away without fulfilling his obligations.
The next evening he continued the train journey-this time without a mishap. But a bigger mishap awaited him on the journey from Charlestown to Johannesburg which had to be covered by stagecoach. He was made to sit with the coachman on the box outside, while the white conductor sat inside with the white passengers.
Gandhi pocketed the insult for fear of missing the coach altogether. On the way the conductor who wanted a smoke spread a piece of dirty sack-cloth on the footboard and ordered Gandhi to sit there so that the conductor could have Gandhi's seat and smoke. Gandhi refused. The conductor swore and rained blows on him, trying to throw him down. Gandhi clung to the brass rails of the coach box, refusing to yield and unwilling to retaliate. Some of the white passengers protested at this cowardly assault and the conductor was obliged to stop beating Gandhi who kept his seat.
Though his main concern in Pretoria was with the lawsuit, Gandhi's sense of social justice had been aroused by his personal experience of the indignities to which his countrymen were subject. He therefore lost no time, after making the necessary preliminary contacts, in calling a meeting of the Indian community in Pretoria which consisted largely of Muslim merchants. This was his first public speech successfully delivered. He exhorted his countrymen to observe truthfulness even in business and reminded them that their responsibility was all the greater since their country would be judged by their conduct in a foreign land. He asked them to forget all distinctions of religion and caste and to give up some of their insanitary habits. He suggested the formation of an association to look after the Indian settlers and offered his free time and services.
The position of Indians in the Transvaal was worse than in Natal. They were compelled to pay a poll tax of £3; they were not allowed to own land except in a specially allotted location, a kind of ghetto; they had no franchise, and were not allowed to walk on the pavement or move out of doors after 9 p.m. without special permit. One day Gandhi, who had received from the State Attorney a letter authorizing him to be out of doors all hours, was having his usual walk. As he passed near President Kruger's house, the policeman on duty, suddenly and without any warning , pushed him off the pavement and kicked him into the street. Mr. coates, an English Quaker who knew Gandhi, happened to pass by and saw the incident. He advised Gandhi to proceed against the man and offered himself as witness. But Gandhi declined the offer saying that he had made it a rule not to go to court in respect of a personal grievance.
In the meanwhile he had been working hard at the lawsuit and had gained a sound knowledge of legal practice. He made two discoveries: one was that facts are three fourth of the law; the other, that litigation was ruinous to both parties in a suit and therefore the duty of a lawyer was to bring them together in a settlement out of court. In this particular case he succeeded in persuading both Abdulla Sheth and the opposing party, Tyeb Sheth, to accept arbitration.
Having completed his work in Pretoria, Gandhi returned to Durban and prepared to sail home. But at a farewell dinner given in his honour some one showed him a news item in Natal Mercury that the Natal Government proposed to introduce a bill to disfranchise Indians. Gandhi immediately understood the ominous implications of this bill which, as he said, "is the first nail into our coffin" and advised his compatriots to resist it by concerned action. But they pleaded their helplessness without him and begged him to stay on for another month. He agreed, little realizing that this one month would grow into twenty years.
Three YEARS' STAY in South Africa persuaded Gandhi that he could not now desert a cause he had so warmly espoused. He therefore took six months' leave to visit India and bring his family back. But it was no holiday. He visited many cities in India and worked hard to interest the editors of papers and eminent public men in the unfortunate condition of Indians in South Africa. He published a small pamphlet on the subject. Though it was a very sober and restrained statement of the Indian case, a distorted summary cabled by Reuters created considerable misunderstanding in Natal which was to have unpleasant consequences later.
When plague broke out in Rajkot, Gandhi volunteered his services and visited every locality, including the quarters of the untouchables, to inspect the latrines and teach the residents better methods of sanitation.
During this visit, he made the acquaintance of veteran leaders like Badruddin Tyabji, Pherozeshah Mehta, Surendranath Banerjee and the great savant and patriot, Tilak. He met the wise and noble-hearted Gokhale and was greatly attracted to him. He addressed a large public meeting in Bombay. He was due to speak in Calcutta also, but before he could do so an urgent telegram from the Indian community in Natal obliged him to cut short his stay and sail for Durban with his wife and children in November 1896.
When the ship reached to Durban, it was put into five day's quarantine. The European community, misled by garbled versions of Gandhi's activities in India and by a rumour that he was bringing shiploads of Indians to settle in Natal, were wild with anger and threatened to drown all the passengers. However, the passengers, including Gandhi's family, were allowed to land unmolested. But when Gandhi came down a little later and his identity was discovered, an infuriated mob fell upon him, stoning, beating and kicking him and would probably have killed him had not a brave English lady came to his rescue.
News of this cowardly assault received wide publicity and Joseph Chamberlain, the British Secretary of States for the Colonies, cabled an order to Natal to prosecute all those who were responsible for the attempted lynching. But Gandhi refused to identify and prosecute his assailants, saying that they were misled and that he was sure that when they came to know the truth they would be sorry for what they had done. Thus spoke the Mahatma in him.
It was during this second period in South Africa that Gandhi's mode of living underwent a change, albeit gradual. Formerly, he was anxious to maintain the standard of an English barrister. Now he began, in his methodical but original fashion, to reduce his wants and his expenses. He "studied the art" of laundering and became his own washerman. He could now iron and starch a stiff white collar. He also learnt to cut his own hair. He not only cleaned his own chamber-pots but often his guests as well. Not satisfied with self-help, he volunteered, despite his busy practice as a lawyer and demand of public work, his free service for two hours a day as compounder in a charitable hospital. He also undertook the education at home of his two sons and a nephew. He read books on nursing and midwifery and in fact served as midwife when his fourth and last son was born.
In 1899 the Boer war broke out. Though Gandhi's sympathies were all with the Boers who were fighting for their independence, he advised the Indian community to support the British cause, on the ground that since they claimed their rights as British subject it was their duty to defend the Empire when it was threatened. He therefore organized and, with the help of Dr. Booth, trained an Indian Ambulance Corps of 1,100 volunteers and offered its services to the Government. The corps under Gandhi's leadership rendered valuable service and was mentioned in dispatches. What pleased Gandhi most was the fact that Indians of all creeds and castes lived and faced danger together. All his life nothing gave him greater happiness than the sight of men working as brothers and rising above the prejudices of creed, caste or race.
In 1901, at the end of the war, Gandhi felt that he must now return to India. His professional success in South Africa might, he feared turn him into a "money-maker". With great difficulty he persuaded his friends to let him go and promised to return should the community need him within a year.
He reached India in time to attend the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress and had the satisfaction of seeing his resolution on South Africa pass with acclamation. He was however disappointed with the congress. He felt that Indian politicians talked too much but do little. He deplored the importance given to the English language in their discussions and was pained to see the insanitary condition of the latrines in the camp.
After staying for a few days in Calcutta as Gokhale's Guest, when he went out on a tour of India, traveling third class in order to study for himself the habits and difficulties of the poor. He observed that the extreme discomfort of third class travel in India was due to much of the indifference of the railway authorities as to the dirty habits of the passengers themselves and suggested that educated persons should voluntarily travel third so as to reform the people's habits and be in a position to ventilate their legitimate grievances. The diagnosis as well as the remedy suggested were characteristic of his approach to all social and political problems - equal emphasis on obligations as on rights.
Gandhi was not destined to work in India yet. Hardly had he set up in practice in Bombay when a cablegram from the Indian community in Natal recalled him. He had given them his word that he would return if needed. Leaving his family in India he sailed again.
He had been called to put the Indian case before Joseph Chamberlain who was visiting South Africa. But the Colonial Secretary who had come to receive a gift of thirty-five million pounds from South Africa had no mind to alienate the European community. Gandhi failed in his mission to win Chamberlain's sympathy and discovered in the process that the situation in the Transvaal had become ominous for the Indians. He therefore decided to stay on in Johannesburg and enrolled as an advocate of the Supreme court.
Though he stayed on specifically to challenge European arrogance and to resist injustice, he harboured no hatred in his heart and was in fact always ready to help his opponents when they were in distress. It was this rare combination of readiness to resist wrong and capacity to love his opponent which baffled his enemies and compelled their admiration. When the so-called Zulu rebellion broke out, he again offered his help to the Government and raised an Indian Ambulance Corps. He was happy that he and his men had to nurse the sick and dying Zulus whom the white doctors and nurses were unwilling to touch.
It was during these marches through the Zulu country that he pondered deeply over the kind of life he should lead in order to dedicate himself completely to the service of humanity. He realized that absolute continence or brahmacharya was indispensable for the purpose, for one "could not live both after the flesh and the spirit". And so immediately after his return from the Zulu campaign in 1906, he announced his resolution to take a vow of absolute continence to a select group of friends.
This step was taken under the influence of the Bhagvad Gita which he had been reading regularly every morning for some time and committing to memory. Another doctrine of the Gita which influenced him profoundly was "non-possession". As soon as he realized its implications he allowed his insurance policy of Rs.10,000 to lapse. Henceforth he would put his faith in God alone.
Next to the Gita , the book which influenced him most deeply was Ruskin's Unto This Last which his friend Polak had given him to read one day in 1904. What Ruskin preached, or rather what Gandhi understood him to preach, was the moral dignity of manual labour and the beauty of community living on the basis of equality. Since, unlike Ruskin, Gandhi could not appreciate an ideal without wanting to practice it, he immediately set about to buy a farm where such a life could be lived. Thus was founded the famous Phoenix colony, on a hundred acres of land, some fourteen miles from Durban.
But Gandhi could not stay long at Phoenix. Duty called him to Johannesburg where also, later, he found another colony on similar ideals, at a distance of twenty-one miles from the city. He called it the Tolstoy Farm. In both these ashrams, as settlements organized on spiritual ideals are known in India, the inmates did all the work themselves, from cooking to scavenging. Extreme simplicity of the life was observed, reinforced by a strict code of moral and physical hygiene. No medicines were kept, for Gandhi who had earlier read Adolf Just's Return to Nature believed profoundly in nature cure. Every inmate had to practise some handicraft. Gandhi himself learnt to make sandals.
He foresaw that a shadow with the South African Government was sooner or later inevitable and knew from his own individual experience that no brute force could quell the spirit of man ready to defy and willing to suffer. What he could do himself he could train others to do. Individual resistance could be expanded and organized into a mass struggle in the prosecution of a moral equivalent of war. He had read Tolstoy and Thoreau's use of the term "civil disobedience" did not seem to express Gandhi's own concept of ahimsa as a positive force of love, nor did he like the use of the phrase "passive resistance". The concept was now clearly formulated in his mind but the word to describe it was wanting. His cousin Maganlal Gandhi suggested sadagraha, meaning holding fast to truth or firmness in a righteous cause. Gandhi liked the term and changed to satyagraha. Thus was evolved and formulated Gandhi's most original idea in political action.
The occasion was not long in coming. In 1907, when the Transvaal received responsible government, it passed what came to be known as the Black Act, requiring all Indians, men and women, to register and submit to finger prints. Gandhi advised the Indian community to refuse to submit to this indignity and to court imprisonment by defying the law. In January 1908, he was arrested and sentenced to two months' simple imprisonment. He was followed by other satyagrahis.
Before the prison term was over General smuts sent him an emissary proposing that if the Indians voluntarily registered themselves he promised to repeal the Act. Gandhi agreed to the compromise. He always believed in trusting the opponent. But the other Indians were not so trusting. One burly Pathan even charged Gandhi with having betrayed them and threatened to kill him if he registered. On the day Gandhi went out to register he has waylaid and attacked by this and other Pathans and severely injured. When he recovered consciousness and was told that his assailants had been arrested he insisted on their being released.
Gandhi registered, but his disappointment was great when Smuts went back on his word and refused to repeal the Black Act. The Indians made a bonfire of their registration certificates and decided to defy the ban on immigration to the Transvaal. Jails began to be filled. Gandhi was arrested a second time in September 1908 and sentenced to two months' imprisonment, this time hard labour. The struggle continued. In February 1909 he was arrested a third time and sentenced to three months' hard labour. He made such good use of his time in jail with study and prayer that he was able to declare that "the real road to ultimate happiness lies in going to jail and undergoing sufferings and privations there in the interest of one's own country and religion".
In 1911, a provisional settlement of the Asiatic question in the Transvaal brought about a suspension of the satyagraha. In the following year, Gokhale visited South Africa and on the eve of his departure assured Gandhi that the Union Government had promised to repeal the Black Act, to remove the racial bar from the immigration law and to abolish the £3 tax. But Gandhi had his fears which were soon borne out. The Union Government went back on its promise, and to this fire was added a very powerful fuel when a judgment of the Supreme Court ruled that only Christian marriages were legal in South Africa, turning at one stroke all Indian marriages in South Africa invalid and all Indian wives into concubines. This provoked Indian women, including, Kasturbai, to join the struggle.
It was illegal for the Indians to cross the border from the Transvaal into Natal, and vice versa, without a permit. Indian women from the Tolstoy Ashram crossed the border without permits and proceeded to Newcastle to persuade the Indian miners there to strike. They succeeded and were arrested. The strike spread and thousands of miners and other Indians prepared, under Gandhi's leadership, to march to the Transvaal border in a concerted act of non-violent defiance. Gandhi made strict rules for the conduct of the satyagrahis who were to submit patiently and without retaliation to insult, flogging or arrest. He was arrested and sentenced, but the satyagraha spread. At one time there were about fifty thousand indentured labourers on strike and several thousand other Indians in jail. The Government tried repression and even shooting, and many lives were lost. "In the end", as an American biographer has put it, "General Smuts did what every Government that ever opposed Gandhi had to do - he yielded."
Gandhi was released and, in January 1914, a provisional agreement was arrived at between him and General Smuts and the main Indian demands were conceded. Gandhi's work in South Africa was now over and, in July 1914, he sailed with his wife for England where Gokhale had called him. Before sailing, he sent a pair of sandals he had made in jail to General Smuts as a gift. Recalling the gift twenty-five years later, the General wrote : "I have worn these sandals for many a summer since then even though I may feel that I am not worthy to stand in the shoes of so great a man."
In April 1893, Gandhi had sailed for South Africa, a young and inexperienced barrister in search of fortune. In January 1915 he finally returned to India, a Mahatma, with no possessions and with only one ambition - to serve his people. Though the intelligentsia had heard of his exploits in South Africa, he was not much known in India and Indians in general did not realize that "the Great Soul in beggar's garb", as the poet Tagore called him called him later, had reached her shores. Nor did he know his shores. Nor did he know his India well. He therefore readily promised his "political guru", Gokhale, that he would spend the first year in India studying the country, with "his ears open but his mouth shut".
At the end of his year's wanderings, Gandhi settled down on the bank of the river Sabarmati, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, where he founded an ashram in May 1915. He called it the Satyagraha Ashram. The inmates about twenty-five men and women, took the vows of truth, ahimsa, celibacy, non-stealing, non-possession and control of the palate, and dedicated themselves to the service of the people .
Gandhi's first public address in India was on the occasion of the opening ceremony of the Banaras Hindu University in February 1916, which was distinguished by the presence of many magnets and princes and of the Viceroy himself. Speaking in English he shocked them all by expressing his "deep humiliation and shame" at being compelled "to address my countrymen in a language that is foreign to me". He shocked them more when turning to the bejewelled princes he said: "There is no salvation for India unless you strip yourselves of this jewellery and hold it in trust for your countrymen in India." Many princes walked out.
His first satyagraha in India was in Champaran, in Bihar, where he went in 1917 at the request of a poor peasants to inquire into the grievances of the much exploited peasants of that district, who were compelled by British indigo planters to grow indigo on 15 percent of their land and part with the whole crop for rent. The news that a Mahatma had arrived to inquire into their sufferings spread like wild fire and thousands of peasants left their villages to have his darshan and to tell him of their woes. The vested interests were up in arms and the police superintendent ordered Gandhi to leave district. Gandhi refused and was summoned to appear in court the next day. Thousand of peasants followed him there. The embarrassed magistrate postponed the trial and released him without bail, for Gandhi refused to furnish any.
Later, the case was withdrawn and Gandhi proceeded with his inquiry. Along with the inquiry, he educated the peasants in the principles of satyagraha and taught them that the first condition of freedom was freedom from fear. He sent for volunteers who helped to instruct the illiterate and ignorant peasants in elementary hygiene and ran schools for their children. This kind of activity was typical of Gandhi. Even as he taught people to fight for their rights, he taught them to fulfill their obligations. A free people must learn to stand on their feet. But the more he worked for the people the less was his presence welcome to the Government who were at last obliged to set up a committee of inquiry. The report of the committee of which Gandhi was a member went in favour of the tenant farmers. The success of his first experiment in satyagraha in India greatly enhanced Gandhi's reputation in this country.
Hardly had his work in Champaran been done when Gandhi was called to his ashram at Sabarmati by an urgent appeal from the textile workers of Ahmedabad whose dispute with the mill-owners was taking a serious turn. Having satisfied himself that the workers' demands were legitimate and mill-owners' refusal to submit the dispute to arbitration unreasonable, Gandhi asked the workers to strike, on condition that they took a pledge to remain non-violent. They agreed, but after a few days their zeal began to flag and Gandhi feared that they might break the pledge and resort to violence. Since it was the fear of starvation which drove the workers to desperation, Gandhi decided to starve himself. He declared that he would not touch food until a settlement had been reached. At the end of three days, both parties agreed on an arbitration amid general rejoicing.
Almost immediately after came the agrarian trouble in the Kheda district of Gujarat. The peasants who were on the verge of starvation were being forced by the Government to pay the usual tax. Gandhi advised satyagraha and persuade all the peasants, the well-to-do as well as the poor, to take a pledge not to pay any tax until those who could not pay were granted remission. The no-tax campaign lasted for about four months at the end of which the Government suspended the assessment for the poor peasants.
Now there took place an event which still baffles the pacifists in the West. In 1917, the Viceroy Lord Chelmsford invited Gandhi to a War conference convened in Delhi to enlist the support of Indian leaders for the recruitment campaign. At that time Gandhi believed that the British Empire was by and large a power for good, and that since India had on the whole benefited by British connection, it was the duty of every Indian to help the Empire in the hour of its need. Gandhi not only supported the resolution of the War Conference but actually toured the Kheda district (where previously he had led the peasants in satyagraha) to persuade people to enlist.
IT WAS THE ROWLATT BILL with its denial of civil liberties which finally brought Gandhi into active Indian politics. From 1919 to his death in 1948, he occupied the centre of the Indian stage and was the hero of the great historical drama which culminated in the independence of his country. He changed the entire character of the political scene in India. He only grew. In the thick of the battle he remained a man of God.
Since the Rowlatt Bill was not a local issue and the struggle was to be launched on an all-India scale, Gandhi pondered deeply what shape it should take. He had to rouse the people's enthusiasm and yet keep their passions from breaking into violence. Finally, he hit upon the idea of hartal or a national observance of mourning or protest by the closing of shops and places of business.
The hartal was observed all over India, by Hindus and Muslims alike, with an enthusiasm which surprised every one. Even Gandhi had not realized how great was his hold on the imagination of the Indian masses. The Government's complacency received a rude shock to see the war-time "recruiting sergeant" of the Empire turn a rebel. When Gandhi who was now in demand everywhere left for Delhi and Amritsar, he was served with a notice at Palwal station forbidding him to cross into the Punjab. On his refusal to obey the order, he was arrested and brought back to Bombay.
The news of his arrest spread like wild fire and created great excitement among the people. Crowds gathered in cities and some violence took place. When Gandhi came to Ahmedabad and found that a police officer had been killed by the mob, he was horrified and felt that "a rapier run through my body could hardly have pained me more". He suspended the satyagraha movement and undertook a fast for three days as penance for the violence committed by people.
On the very day, April 13, 1919, when Gandhi announced his three-day fast in Ahmedabad, the British General Dyer ordered the massacre of unarmed and peaceful citizens attending a meeting in Jallianwala Bagh at Amritsar. Later, even the official report admitted that 400 people had been killed and between 1,000 and 2,000 wounded, though the unofficial inquiry conducted by the Gandhi himself estimated 1,200 dead and 3,600 wounded. This cowardly massacre of the innocent was followed by the declaration of martial law in the Punjab, with wholesale arrests, floggings and the inhuman order by which no Indian could pass a certain street except by crawling on his belly. The events of that day which has been called by Sir Valentine Chirol as "that black day in the annals of British India" mark a turning point in the history of the Indian struggle. The moral prestige of Britain received a fatal blow. Henceforth, Gandhi could not keep away from the battle-field of Indian politics.
It was typical of Gandhi that great as was his concern over the happenings in the Punjab, he shared with equal zeal the Indian Muslim's concern at the rate of the defeated Turkish Sultan who was also the Caliph or the religious head of Islam. In fact, it was at a Muslim Conference held in Delhi in November 1919 that he first advocated non-cooperation with the British Government.
It is interesting to recall that four years earlier, when he attended the Lucknow session of the Congress, he was more an observer than a participant and had seemed to Jawaharlal Nehru "very distant and different and unpolitical". In 1920, he dominated the political scene. In fact, he re-created the Congress and turned talking politicians into active revolutions and anglicized leaders of society into servants of the people who henceforth wore white home-spun. He bridged the gulf between the intelligentsia and the masses and widened the concept of Swaraj to include almost every aspect of social and moral regeneration. From now on, the story of life is the story of how Congress fought for and won India's freedom.
Like a magician, Gandhi roused a storm of enthusiasm in the country with his call to non-cooperate. He began the campaign by returning to the Viceroy the medals and decorations he had received from the Government for his war-services and humanitarian work. "I can retain", he wrote to wrong to defend its immorality." Many Indians renounced their titles and honours, lawyers gave up their practice, students left colleges and schools, and thousand of the city-bred went into the villages to spread the message of non-violent non-cooperation with the "satanic" government and to prepare the masses of defy the law. The somnolent people woke up in a frenzy of courage and self-sacrifice. Bonfires of foreign cloth lit the sky everywhere and the hum of the spinning wheel rose like a sacrificial chant in thousands of homes. Women, secluded for centuries, marched in the streets with men and incidentally freed themselves from age-old shackles. In speech after speech, article after article in his two weeklies, Young India and Navjivan, Gandhi poured forth his passionate utterances which electrified the people. Thousands of people were put in prison and many more thousands were preparing to court arrest.
The anti-climax came suddenly in February 1922. An outbreak of mob violence in Chauri Chaura so shocked and pained Gandhi that he refused to continue the campaign and undertook a fast for five days to atone for a crime committed by others in a state of mob hysteria. Many of his colleagues protested and though Gandhi admitted that "the drastic reversal of practically the whole of the aggressive programme may be politically unsound and unwise", he maintained that "there is no doubt that it is religiously sound". He felt that "it is a million times better to appear untrue before the world than to be untrue to ourselves". Where Gandhi's conscience was concerned he was always ready to stand alone.
However, the immediate result was that the British Government found this anti-climax a convenient opportunity to arrest him. He told the English judge at the trial : " I have no personal ill-will against any single administrator, much less can I have any disaffection towards the King's person. But I hold it a virtue to be disaffected towards a government which in its totality has done more harm to Indian than any previous system. India is less manly under British rule than ever before. Holding such a belief I consider it a sin to have any affection for the system.......... The only course open to you, the judge is either to resign your post and thus dissociate yourself from evil, if you feel that the law you are called upon to administer is an evil and that in reality I am innocent; or to inflict on me the severest penalty if you believe that the system and the law you are assisting to administer are good for the people of this country, and that my activity is therefore, injurious to the public weal."
The judge sentenced him to six years' simple imprisonment and expressed the hope that "if the course of events in India should make it possible for the Government to reduce the period and release you, no one will be better pleased than I."
Prison was for Gandhi more a luxury than a punishment. He could devote more time to prayer, study and spinning than he could outside. But in January 1924 he fell seriously ill with acute appendicitis. He was removed to a hospital in Poona where a British surgeon performed the operation. While he was convalescing he was released by the Government.
What he saw of India as a free man greatly pained him. At the time of his arrest he had left his people on the wave of a great moral upsurge which had united Hindus and Muslims as never before. But in the meanwhile the Khilafat issue had been killed by Kamal Ataturk. The Muslims no longer needed Hindu support; the two communities had drifted apart. There were communal riots in several places. Not knowing how to stem this tide of frustration, he undertook a fast if twenty-one days a to atone once again for the sins of his people. "It seems as if God has been dethroned," he said, announcing the fast. "Let us reinstate Him in our hearts." The fast caused considerable heart-searching, and long before it was over, pledges of amity poured in upon him from men of various communities.
For the next five years Gandhi seemingly retired from active agitational politics and devoted himself to the propagation of what he regarded as the basic national needs, namely, Hindu-Muslim unity, removal of untouchability, equality of women, popularization of hand-spinning and the reconstruction of village economy in general. "I am not interested". he wrote in June 1923, "freeing India merely from the English yoke. I am bent upon freeing and social and economic freedom, must go together.
There was also the fact that Gandhi, on his release from prison, had found the Congress divided. By 1929, however, the various groups had once more rallied under his leadership, and when on the last day of that year he himself moved the Resolution in the Congress session declaring complete Independence as the goal of Congress policy, it was obvious that he was again ready to lead the nation in an open challenge which was taken by millions throughout the country on January 26, 1930, which day has been celebrated as Independence as the goal of Congress policy, it was obvious that he was again ready to lead the nation in an open challenge to British rule. He drew up a pledge of "Purna Swaraj" or complete independence which was taken by millions throughout the country on January 26, 1930, which day has been celebrated as Independence Day ever since. All eyes were now turned to Sabarmati. What will the wizard of non-violence do next?
On March 12, 1930, after having duly informed the Viceroy, Gandhi, followed by seventy-eight members of his ashram, both men and women, began his historic 24-day march to the sea beach at Dandi to break the law which had deprived the poor man of his right to make his own salt. This seemed a small issue, but the dramatic manner in which he announced and executed the plan, the march on foot of this unarmed man of God for 241 miles, with villagers flocking from miles around to kneel by the roadside, set the imagination of the nation aflame and roused enthusiasm such as no one had anticipated. Early in the morning of April 6, after prayers, he went to the beach and picked up a little lump of salt left by the waves. This simple act was immediately followed by a nation-wide defiance of the law. Men and women, simple villagers and sophisticated city folk, marched in thousands to invite arrest, police lathi charges and even shooting in many cases. Gandhi himself was arrested on May 4, soon after midnight. Within a few weeks about a hundred thousand men and women were in jail, throwing mighty machinery of the British Government out of gear.
When the First Round Table Conference met in November 1930, the Labour Government was faced with an embarrassing situation. At the closing session of the Conference, on January 19, 1931, Ramsay MacDonald expressed the hope that the Congress would be represented at the Second Round Table Conference. Gandhi and some other Congress leaders were therefore unconditionally released on January 26, exactly a year after the first independence pledge had been taken. Soon after, on February 14, the Gandhi-Irwin talks began to the disgust of Winston Churchill, who was scandalized at "the nauseating and humiliating spectacle of this one-time Inner Temple Lawyer, now seditious fakir, striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceroy's palace, there to negotiate a parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor."
ON MARCH 5 was signed the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and on August 29 Gandhi sailed for London to attend the Second Round Table Conference as the delegate of the Congress. "There is every chance of my returning empty-handed", he said, as he embarked. He was right. But though he returned empty-handed, his visit was not without good results. He had by now become a legend and fantastic stories, some kind some malicious, had spread about him. It was good therefore for the British people to see for themselves how simple, kindly and irresistible was the charm of his personality, how universal his sympathies, how keen his humor and infectious his laughter.
In London, he declined to go to a hotel and stayed at Kingsley Hall, a social service centre in the East End, where he soon won the hearts of the young and old. His kindliness and his humour broke down the barriers of national and race prejudice. When asked why he chose to wear only a loin-cloth, he replied, "You people wear plus-fours, mine are minus-four." He went to Lancashire where his agitation against foreign cloth had caused unemployment. The workers cheered him and one of the unemployed said : "I am one of the unemployed, but if I was in India I would say the same thing that Mr. Gandhi is saying."
On his way back he visited Romain Rolland in Switzerland. It was at a meeting of the pacifists at Lausanne that he explained why rather than say, god is Truth, he would say, Truth is God.
The day he reached Bombay he said: "I am not conscious of a single experience throughout my three months stay in England and Europe that made me feel that after all East is East and West is West. On the contrary, I have been convinced more than ever that human nature is much the same, no matter under what clime it flourishes, and that if you approached people with trust and affection you would have ten-fold trust and thousand-fold affection returned to you."
But the immediate experience that awaited him hardly bore out this optimism. Even before he had reached India, the effect of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact had been destroyed by the repressive policy of the new Viceroy, Lord Willingdon. India was being ruled by Ordinances, and shooting and arrests had become the order of the day. Jawaharlal Nehru who was coming to Bombay to receive Gandhi was arrested on the way. "I take it", said Gandhi when he landed on December 28, 1931, "that these are Christmas gifts from Lord Willingdon, our Christian Viceroy." A week later Gandhi himself was arrested and locked up in Yervada Jail without trial.
WITH THE OUTBREAK of the war in 1939, Gandhi was dragged back into the political arena. He had loyally supported the Empire in the First World War. In the Boer War, even though his moral sympathies were with the Boers who were fighting for their independence, he had offered his services to the Empire out of a sense of loyalty. His feelings were different now, though, as stated, "my sympathies are wholly with the allies." He had came to believe "all war to be wholly wrong". He was also aware of the anomaly in Britain's position in fighting for freedom while denying India her. There were many patriots in India who felt that this was the hour to strike, since Britain's difficulty was India's opportunity. But Gandhi refused to countenance such an attitude. "We do not seek our independence out of Britain's ruin. That is not the way of non-violence."
The majority of Congress leaders would have welcomed participation in the war effort, provided India could do so as an equal partner with Britain. Gandhi did not believe in conditional non-violence, but he was realistic enough to know that he could not carry the majority of the Congress leaders, who were at best patriot-politicians, not saints, along the arduous path of absolute non-violence. Nor was he vain enough to insist on the Congress accepting his terms as the price of his leadership, though he knew that in the impending political crisis the party could not do without him. He therefore effaced himself and advised the nation to accept the Congress stand and pleaded with the British on its behalf.
But the British Government was in no mood to listen and Winston Churchill was frank enough to say that he had not become "the King's First Minister in order to preside at the liquidation of the British Empire." In the meanwhile, the situation rapidly deteriorated. The British were unable to stem the Japanese advance to the Indian border. The people were becoming increasingly restive and impatient, and Gandhi feared that if this excitement were not given an organized non-violent expression, it would break out in sporadic disorder and violence. Since the British did not seem able at that time to ensure India's defence and were not willing to let India defend herself, Gandhi called upon them to "Quit India" and prepared to organize satyagraha. Addressing historic session of the All India Congress Committee on August 7, 1942, he said : Our quarrel is not with the British people; we fight their imperialism. The proposal for the withdrawal of British power did not come out of anger. It came to enable India to play its due part at the present critical juncture."
He had not yet formulated any clear plan of action. In any case, he wanted to see the Viceroy before doing so. But the initiative was taken away from his hands, for in the early hours of the morning of August 9, he and other leaders of the Congress were arrested. Disorders broke out immediately all over India, many of them violent. The Government having deprived the people of non-violent leadership answered violence with greater violence till India virtually became a country under armed occupation.
Gandhi was interned in the Aga Khan Palace near Poona. He was greatly perturbed by the terror reigning in the country and at the British Government's charge that he was responsible for violence. He entered into a long correspondence with the Government which ended in his fasting for twenty-one years. During the fast, which began on February 10, 1943, his condition grew very critical and it was feared that he would not survive. Fortunately he did. This period in prison was one of tribulation and tragedy for Gandhi. Six days after his arrest, Mahadev Desai, his secretary and companion for twenty-four years, died suddenly of heart failure. In December 1943, Kasturbai fell ill and in February of the following year she, too, died.
The mental strain he had gone through his arrest told on Gandhi's health and six weeks after Kasturbai's death he had a severe attack of malaria. On May 3, the doctor's bulletin described his general condition as "giving rise to anxiety." The Government, embarrassed by the public agitation caused by the news of his illness, released him unconditionally on May 6. For a long time after, he was so weak that to conserve his energy he was obliged to observe long periods of silence.
But weak or strong, he could not sit idle and watch the situation in the country rapidly deteriorate. He asked to see the Viceroy but Lord Wavell declined to meet him. He knew that the British were encouraging Muslim demands to keep the Hindus and Muslims divided and were using this difference as an excuse for their continued occupation of India. Although his political career he had worked passionately for Hindu-Muslim accord. In 1919, he had made the Khilafat cause his own and had later fasted to bring about communal harmony. But the more he tried to placate the Muslims the more adamant and extravagant grew their demands until their leader Jinnah would be satisfied with nothing less than a separate state for the Muslims.
THE BRITISH WERE unable to control the situation in India which was steadily becoming worse. Famine and disorder had sapped the foundations of imperial prestige. Britain emerged from the war victorious but physically exhausted and morally sober. The general elections of 1945 returned Labour to power and Mr. Attlee, the British Prime Minister, unwilling to lose India altogether by persisting in the Churchillian policy of blood and iron, promised "an early realization of self Government in India." In the meanwhile, elections were to be held and a Constituent Assembly convened to frame a constitution for a united India. A Cabinet Mission arrived from England to discuss with Indian leaders the future shape of a free and united India, but failed to bring the Congress and Muslims together. Having encouraged Muslims separatism the British were now unable to control it,
On August 12, 1946, the Viceroy invited Jawaharlal Nehru to form an interim government. Jinnah declared a "Direct Action Day" in Bengal which resulted in an orgy of bloodshed. Shootings and stabbing took place in many places in India. This blood-red prologue to freedom was pure agony for Gandhi. He was staying in the Bhangi colony (untouchable's quarters) in Delhi from where day after day he raised his voice against violence. But his voice seemed a voice in the wilderness.
Then came the news of a large-scale outbreak of violence against the Hindu minority In the Noakhali district of East Bengal. Gandhi could no longer sit quite. He must beard the lion in his own den and teach the two communities to live and let live if necessary at the cost of his life. If he could not do that his message of non-violence had fallen on deaf at the ears and the freedom to which he had brought India so near was not the freedom he had dream of. And so, against the pleading of his Congress colleagues who did not wish that he should risk his life, he left for Noakhali in Bengal where the Muslim League government was in power. While in Calcutta, he heard that the Hindus of Bihar had retaliated against the Muslims, repeating the outrages of Noakhali. Bitter sorrow filled Gandhi's heart, for he always felt the misdeeds of his co-religionists more acutely than he did of others, and Bihar was the land where he had launched his first satyagraha in India. As penance, he resolved to keep himself "on the lowest diet possible" which would become "a fast unto death if the erring Biharis have not turned over a new leaf." Fortunately, "the erring Bihari's were restored to sanity by this warning and Gandhi proceeded to Noakhali.
In the noble book of Gandhi's life this chapter is the noblest. Just when political freedom was almost achieved and the State apparatus of power his for the asking, he renounced it and embraced the hazards of a lone pilgrimage to plant the message of love and courage in a wilderness of hatred and terror. In a region were 80 per cent of the people were Muslim, most of whom hostile, where there were hardly any roads and almost no means of modern communication, where hundreds of Hindus had been butchered, their women raped and thousands forcibly converted and where hordes of unruly fanatics still roamed the countryside in search of loot and fresh victims. Gandhi pitched his camp, refusing police protection and keeping only one Bengali interpreter and one stenographer with him. At the age of seventy-seven, he went barefoot from village to village, through a most difficult countryside, where low, marshy patches had to be crossed on precarious, improvised bridges of bamboo poles. He lived on local fruit and vegetables and worked day and night to plant courage in the hearts of the Hindus and love in the hearts of the Muslims. "I have only one object in view and it is a clear one : namely, that God should purify the hearts of Hindus and Muslims and the two communities should be free from suspicion and fear of one another."
Thus he lived and suffered and taught in Noakhali from November 7, 1946, to March 2, 1947, when he had to leave for Bihar in answer to persistent request. In Bihar also, he did what he had done in Noakhali. He went from village to village, mostly on foot, asking to people to make amends for the wrongs they had done to the Muslims. Unlike Noakhali, he was besieged by worshipping crowds wherever he went in Bihar. He collected money for the relief of the injured and homeless Muslims. Many women gave away their jewellery. Harrowing tales were pouring in of the massacre of the Hindus in Rawalpindi in the Punjab and but for Gandhi's presence the Biharis might have again lost their heads in a frenzy of retaliation. "If ever you become mad again, you must destroy me first", he told them.
Thats why he is the right choice
SHAHEED BHAGAT SINGH
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He is the symbol of the heroism of the youth of India. A revolutionary He threw a bomb when the Legislature was in session to warn the British Government. He was put to death but lives in the hearts of his countrymen.
One evening a boy of three was out for a walk with his father. There was also an elderly man with the father. Chatting they walked on and went beyond the village. Green crop delighted the eyes. The elders were walking along the edge of a field. Not hearing the footsteps of the boy, the father looked back. The boy was sitting on the ground and seemed to be planting some thing. The father became curious.
"What are you doing?" said he.
"Look, father, I shall grow guns all over the field" was the innocent reply of the boy. His eyes shone with the strong faith that guns would grow in the field. Both the elders were struck with wonder at the little boy's words.
The boy was Bhagat Singh who later fought like a hero for India's freedom and sacrificed his life.
Birth
Banga was a village in Layalpura district of Punjab province. A brave man, Sardar Kishan Singh by name, lived there. Vidya vati was his wife. Kishan Singh's family was noted for bravery and love of adventure. Many heroes of his family had fought to free India from the British. Such fighters are called revolutionaries. Kishan Singh too was a revolutionary. His younger brothers, Ajit Singh and Swaran Singh, too, had fought to drive the British out of India. Kishan Singh, Ajit Singh and Swaran Singh had all been sent to prison by the Government.
In those days such a revolution hadspread all over the country. People were full of determination to win freedom. It was at such a time that Bhagat Singh was born (on September 28, 1907). He was the third son of Sardar Kishan Singh and Vidyavati. At the same time, Kishan Singh and the Uncle Swaran Singh were freed from the jail. It was learnt that another uncle of his, Ajit Singh, too, would be freed. As he thus brought good fortune to his family the child was named Bhagat Singh. 'Bhagat Singh' means 'the fortunate'.
A Friend to All
Bhagat was a lovely child. His smile was charming. People used to say that he would become very famous.
His mother Vidyavati's life had been full of sorrow right from the beginning. The revolutionary husband would always be away. Always lurking in Vidyavati's mind was the fear that he might at any time be sent to jail. It was a family of fighters for freedom and one or the other would always be in jail. Vidyavati herself had to look after the affairs of the family. At such anxious times, her children were her only comfort. They were intelligent and brave and this made her forget her misery. Bhagat Singh was her favorite.
Bhagat Singh was admitted to the primary school. From his childhood he was highly interested in studies. He was ahead of the others in his class. He used to write a beautiful hand. He was the favorite pupil of his teachers. Very much liked by his class- mates, he was their leader. Big boys used to carry Bhagat Singh on their shoulders to the school and back home. His childhood itself indicated that later he would become a leader of revolutionaries.
Bhagat Singh easily made friends with one and all. His companions were naturally his friends. But cartmen and coolies, and the very men who swept the streets were his friends.
Once clothes had to be stitched Bhagat Singh. The old tailors who stitched clothes delivered them at the house and went away. "Who is that who brought the clothes?" asked mother, Vidyavati.
"My friend," replied Bhagat Singh.
"What! Is the tailor, too, your friend?"
Vidyavati asked, surprised.
"Yes, every one in the village is my friend" was Bhagat Singh's reply.
Thus the ability to win the hearts of men grew in Bhagat Singh right from his childhood.
The Lion's Cub
Bhagat Singh had two uncles. Of them, Swaran Singh had again been sent to prison by the British. Life in prison was wretched and he fell ill. His health did not improve even after his release and he died. When Ajit Singh came out of the jail, he left the country. Bhagat Singh's aunts would often recall their husbands' misery, and lament over it. Seeing this, Bhagat
Singh would bravely say, "Don't weep, aunt. When I grow up, I will drive out the British and bring back my uncle. I will take revenge upon the British who are the cause for my uncle's illness." On hearing the heroic words of the little boy, the weeping women would burst into laughter. At least for the moment they would forget their sorrow.
When he was in the fourth class, Bhagat Singh asked his classmates, "What do you wish to become when you grow up?"
Each boy gave a different answer. "I intend becoming a doctor," said one. Another said, "I will be a government officer." Still another would become a merchant; while another 'would marry'. Bhagat Singh remarked, "is marriage a big achievement? Anybody can marry. On the other hand, I will drive the British out of India."
Thus patriotism flowed in his veins from the days of his childhood.
By the time he completed his secondary education, Bhagat Singh knew everything about the revolutionaries of his family. He had read all the records about them at home. And the desire to fight for the country's freedom grew strong in him.
Bhagat Singh finished his primary education at Banga. Next he went to Lahore to join a secondary school. The patriot Kishan Singh did not want to admit his son to a school run by the followers of the British. So Bhagat Singh continued his studies in a private school.
Bhagat Singh was a village boy. His father was afraid he would lag behind in his studies. So he engaged a teacher to teach him at home. But within two days the teacher saw how intelligent the boy was. "What can I teach this boy?He has already learnt everything," said the teacher to Kishan Singh.
Bhagat Singh took to his studies with great zeal. His teachers wondered at his intelligence. He scored good marks in subjects like history, geography and arithmetic. But he had a bad score in English - 68 out of 150! It must have been because he had always hated the British! His words in his letter to his grandfather are really interesting: "My score in English is 68 out of 150.
A score of 50 is enough for a pass.Thus I have passed with credit." That was how the clever boy stated his low score in a round about manner.
A Spark of Revolution
It was the year 1919. A very tragic event happened in India that year.British soldiers opened fire on a gathering in Jallianwala Bagh, and kept up the fire for quite some time. There was no way of escape for the
people. Countless persons -grown-up men, women and little children -fell down dead. Blood flowed like a stream. The event caused terror and anger in the minds of people all over the country. The tragedy drew the attention of the entire world.
Bhagat Singh was then twelve years old; his mind was deeply disturbed by this event. The next day he did not return home after the school hours. His people at home waited and waited and grew anxious.
Instead of going to school, Bhagat Singh went straight to the place of the tragedy. Somehow managing to push through the police on guard, he went in. He collected a bottle of mud wet with the blood of Indians and returned home. Seeing that he was late, his younger sister said, "Where were you all this time? Mother has been waiting to give you something to eat." But Bhagat Singh was not at all thinking of food. Showing the bottle in his hand, he said, "Look here. This is the blood of ourpeople killed by the British. Salute this."
Then he put the bottle in a niche a worshipped it with flowers.
The people who had assembled in Jallianwala Bagh carried no weapons. Nor was there a way to escape from the place. And these people were killed by the British bullets! Such were the thoughts working in the mind of Bhagat Singh. The feeling that somehow the British must be driven out of India became firmer.
" That was the time when the Indian National Congress was fighting for the country's freedom. It awakened the people's love for their country and was uniting the people. Even before entering the ninth class, Bhagat Singh decided to take up this work. He was only thirteen.
Bhagat Singh told his father of his decision and asked for his permission. Himself a revolutionary, Kishan Singh willingly gave his consent. Bhagat Singh left the school and joined the movement.
At that time, there was a powerful anti- foreign cloth movement in the country. If foreign cloth is bought, other countries are benefited. In order to end this, we have to wear cloth made in our country. Foreign cloth must be burnt - so the leaders taught. Bhagat Singh took part in this movement with zeal. Right from his early days, he used to wear only Khadi. With what zeal he helped the cause of homemade cloth and burnt foreign cloth! Every week he would collect foreign clothes, heap them up and burn them.
The First Step
In 1922, the Congress organized a procession in the town of Chauri chaura in Gorakhpur District. Then some rogues locked up twenty-two policemen together in a house, set fire to the house and burnt them. Before this, similar acts of violence had occurred even in Bombay andMadras. Mahatma Gandhi felt very sad at all this. He asked the people to end the non- cooperation movement which was then going on in the country.
That was a great disappointment to young Bhagat Singh, a lad of fifteen. Should an important movement be given up, just because 22 persons died? Before that, a nineteen-year-old revolutionary by name Kartar Singh had been hanged by the British Govemment. Then none of these supporters of nonviolence raised any objection. How could nonviolence become so important now? Such thoughts weakened Bhagat Singh's faith in non - violence and non-cooperation movements. He went on firmly believing that armed revolution was the only practical way of winning freedom.
He made a deep study of the lives of the revolutionaries of Ireland, Italy and Russia. The more he read, the deeper grew his belief that war alone could bring freedom. The youth of the land should be inspired to turn to revolution. The very thought of fighting for freedom should thrill the young men. So thinking, Bhagat Singh began to organize the youth.
To continue his studies, Bhagat Singh joined the National College. This college had been started by great patriots like Lala Lajpat Ray. Though he had not been to school for some years, Bhagat Singh had a good knowledge of history and politics. The Principal was astonished and permitted him to join the college straight away.
During the day he would listen to the lessons in the class. In the evening he would collect several friends and discuss the coming revolution. This became his daily routine.
At college, Bhagat Singh took part in several plays.A teacher who saw him in the leading roles in 'RanaPratap', 'Samrat Chandragupta' and 'Bharata-durdasha' remarked, "This boy will become a great man."
'No Marriage for Me'
Bhagat Singh did not confine himself to the study of books. The more he learnt about revolution, the greater grew his desire to participate in it. Bengal, the home of revolution, caught his attention. He established contact with the revolutionary party of the province. The leader of the party was Sachindranath Sanyal. Every member of the party had to accept one condition. At the call of its leader, he had to be ready to quit home and join him. Bhagat Singh agreed.
Bhagat Singh's grandmother insisted that he should get married. So a girl was chosen. A day was fixed for the formal decision.
The day was fast approaching. But just then the leader of the revolution called him. Bhagat Singh left home and went to Lahore. For sometime thereafter, nobody knew where he went.
Before leaving home, Bhagat Singh wrote a letter; he said, "The aim of my life is to fight for India's freedom. I don't wish for worldly pleasures. At the time of my Upanayanam (the initiation ceremony among the Hindus), my uncle had taken a sacred promise from me; I promised to sacrifice myself for the sake of the country. Accordingly I am now giving up my own happiness and going out to serve the country."
Bhagat Singh reached Kanpur. First he earned his bread there by selling news papers. Then he came to know a revolutionary by name Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi. He got a job in the office of his periodical 'The Pratap'. And he also learnt his first lessons as a revolutionary. Revolutionaries generally change their names so that people may not know them Bhagat Singh became Balawant Singh.
At home Bhagat Singh's parents were much worried about their son. His grand- mother, then seriously ill, was very eager to see her grandson. His people searched for him and brought him back.
In The Stream of Revolution
Even at home, Bhagat Singh could not sit idle. At that time the Akali Dal arranged a procession. But in order to prevent it, the District Collector Dil Bagh Singh issued an order: Nobody should supply either food or drink to the members of the Akali Dal.
Even at home, Bhagat Singh could not sit idle. At that time the Akali Dal arranged a procession. But in order'-to prevent it, the District Collector Dil Bagh Singh issued an order: Nobody should supply either food
or drink to the members of the Akali Dal.
The Collector who issued the order belonged to Bhagat Singh's family. But being a government officer, he hated the revolutionaries.
Bhagat Singh thought of helping the Akali Dal people visiting his village. Heexplained the situation to the villagers and arranged to supply food secretly to the Akali Dal people at night. Thus a week passed. The Dal's program went on continuously and successfully. Throughout the day, there used to be talks on the country's freedom and the duty of the people. Bhagat Singh also used to speak.
The Collector grew angry that the people had helped the Dal against his orders, He issued a warrant to arrest Bhagat Singh. Then Bhagat Singh was only seventeen. So he was a minor and could not be arrested.
The Collector grew angrier. "Bhagat Singh may be too young but his brain is not too young!" he grumbled.
Arrest and Release
Bhagat Singh was a fountain of zeal. His village was too small for his activities. He went to Lahore. There a union of revolutionaries by name 'Naujavan Bharat Sabha' was founded. Bhagat Singh became the Secretary.
Like the Kranti Dal in Bengal, the new union started teaching lessons of revolution to the people of Punjab. Outwardly its objects were to spread Indian culture, to make the youth strong and so on. But the real purpose was to bring about a revolution for the country's freedom.
Within a few days, it started branches in different places. The celebration of the birthdays of revolutionaries became an important part of the program of the union. The members would take out pictures of revolutionaries, decorated with Khadi garlands, in processions. They would cut their fingers and put a mark of blood on the foreheads of the heroes in thepictures. They would lecture about them. It was in these days that Bhagat Singh gained good practice in public speaking. Within a few days he became a good speaker. He got into touch with the students' unions of colleges. He spread the message of revolution everywhere.
By this time, Bhaaat Singh had caught the eye of the police. His movements were carefully watched by spies.
Once, as he was just leaving the train at Amritsar, the spies followed Bhagat Singh. Trying to escape from them, he began to fun. But where ever he went he could not escape. At last he rushed into a lawyer's house and escaped from the police. Then he traveled to Lahore. When the train reached Lahore, he was caught by the police and pushed into the Lahore Fort Jail.
Bhagat Singh did not know why he was arrested. A few days earlier some rogues had thrown a bomb on procession during the Dussara Festival.It killed some people. The police suspected the hand of revolutionaries in it. That was why they arrested Bhagat Singh and pushed him into jail. To find out the secrets of other revolutionaries, they tortured him in many ways. They flogged him with a knot and gored with a spear. But Bhagat Singh did not open his mouth.
Finally, a Magistrate decided that Bhagat Singh could be released only on a bail of sixty thousand rupees who would be prepared to bear such a responsibility? Yet, out of sheer affection for Bhagat Singh, two rich persons came forward. They were Duneechand and Daulatram. On their surety, Bhagat Singh was set free.
If Bhagat Singh participated inrevolutionary activities during the period of bail, the two wealthy men would have to pay sixty thousand rupees to the Government. Bhagat Singh did not wish that others should be troubled on his account. That was why he decided to keep quiet during the period of bail. At this time his father built a cowshed in his native place, so that Bhagat Singh could run a small diary. Bhagat Singh took up that work in earnest.
Every day he got up at four. Then he fed the cows, removed the cowdung and cleaned the shed. Next he milked the cows and sold the milk. It was all systematic, and tidily done. Whatever he undertook Bhagat Singh did a good job.
The entire day he was busy with his dairy, but the night brought thoughts ofrevolution. He joined his friends for discussions. At the same time, he got into touch with the newspapers, 'Kirtee' and 'Akalee'. He wrote articles for them. A journal brought out a special issue to honor fighters who had been hanged; Bhagat Singh himself introduced some of the revolutionaries.
The Dussara Bomb case involving Bhagat Singh was still going on. ' At last he was released. He was not even on bail. At once Bhagat Singh closed the milk center. He returned to work for the revolution. After
attending a meeting of revolutionaries in Delhi in 1928, he never returned home.
Vengeance
In Delhi, Chandrasekhar Azad, a young revolutionary, was introduced to Bhagat Singh. It was as if fire and wind were united. The activities of the revolutionaries gained new strength. Bhagat Singh removed his beard and had a closer crop, so that the police might not recognize him. All these days he had been a hero of the Sikhs; he now became a national hero.
There was a revolutionary party called the 'Hindustan Prajatantra Sangha' (The Indian Republic Party). The name was changed to 'Hindustan Samajvadi Prajatantra Sangha' (The Indian Socialist Republican Party). Its aim was to establish a republic in India by means of an armed revolution.
When a bomb is thrown to the ground, it explodes causing a deafening sound, and destroys everything near-by. The revolutionaries needed any number of bombs to drive out the British. But where could they get them? Bhagat Singh went to Calcutta to learn to make bombs. There he
bought as many bombs as he needed. He also learnt from Jatindranath Das, a revolutionary, how to make bombs.
The revolutionaries set up a factory secretly at Agra to make bombs. But how could they get the money they needed? Sometimes for three days together they lived only on a cup of tea. They did not have beds or rugs though it was biting cold. They were starving. And all the while the thought of the police plagued them. In the midst of all this they went on with their sacred work. And, for money they would sometimes loot government off ices.
At last they could make bombs. The bombs were tested at Jhansi Fort. The test was a success.
In February 1928, a committee from England visited India. It came to be known as the Simon Commission. The purpose of its visit was to decide how much freedom and responsibility could be given to the people of India. But there was no Indian on the committee. Naturally Indians were very angry. They decided to make it
impossible for the Commission to work. They decided to drive it back to England. Wherever the committee went, people protested with black flags, shouting "Simon, go back."
When the Simon Commission reached Lahore in October, it had to face a big procession opposed to it.'Naujavan Bharat Sabha' arranged the procession. Thousands of people took part in it. Its leader was the elderly patriot, Lala Lajpat Ray. Trouble started near the railway station itself. The revolutionaries did not allow the Simon Commission to proceed. The police could not protect the members. By that time, the Police Superintendent, one Scott by name, ordered a lathicharge. The police began to beat people with heavy sticks. People started running. But Lajpat Ray and his companions did not move.
A police officer by name Saunders
rushed forward and hit Lajpat Ray on the chest. It was a powerful blow. Lajpat Ray was old and he was ill. The blow brought him death. He suffered for a month and died.
In his death, the revolutionaries suffered a heavy loss. They decided that they should take revenge and that they should kill Scott who ordered the lathi-charge. They thought of a plan. A revolutionary by name Jaya- gopal was to observe Scott's movements. Bhagat Singh and Rajguru were to shoot him. They had to plan carefully their escape. So much was planned under the leadership of Chandrasekhara Azad.
But in the beginning itself, a small mistake was committed. Jayagopal mistook Saunders for Scott.
The appointed day came. That evening Saunders came out of the police station and got on his motor bicycle. Jayagopal who was behind made a sign. Bhagat Singh and Rajguru were waiting on the way. As the motor bicycle neared Rajguru shot at Saunders from his pistol. At once Bhagat Singh also fired. A bullet struck the
chest of the man who had struck Lajpat Ray's chest with a heavy stick; Saunders fell down dead. Bhagat Singh and Rajguru ran away. The police chased them. Both of them rushed into a lodge near-by. Then they escaped from the place.
The whole city was filled with the news of Saunders' murder. The police spies began a search for the murderers all over the city.
Next day posters appeared on the walls in all the streets of Lahore. They declared, "Lala Lajpat Ray's death is avenged. Saunders has been murdered." Besides, there were some words of caution addressed to the Government. The posters also contained the name of The Hindustan Samajvadi Prajatantra Sena (The Indian Socialist Republican Army) in red letters. So every one could know who were behind the murder of Saunders, The people's respect for the Kranti Dal grew. Saunders' murder shook the British Government.
Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Chandra sekhara Azad all three escaped from Lahore. Bhagat Singh dressed himself as a foreign youth and wore a hat. Durga Bhabhi, the wife of a revolutionary by name
Bhagavaticharan, and their child followed Bhagat Singh, so that people would think they were Bhagat Singh's wife and child. These three traveled by train in a first class compartment. Rajguru left the place disguised as an ordinary worker. Azad traveled as a pundit (scholar). The railway station was filled with eagle-eyed spies; but all the three went away.
A Bomb Bursts
The police searched and searched for Bhagat Singh and Rajguru, but could not find them. Three months passed.
In April 1929, the Central Legislative Assembly met in Delhi. The British Government wanted to place before the Assembly two bills which were likely to harm the country's interests. Even if the Assembly rejected them, the Viceroy could use his special powers and approve them, and they would become laws. The Hindustan Samajvadi Prajatantra Sena (The Indian Socialist Republican Army) decided to resist the move.
Of course, the revolutionaries escaped after Saunders' murder. But the people of Lahore were subjected to torture by the police. The Sena decided that such a thing should not happen again. The revolu- tionaries must oppose the British and court arrest. They must see that the objects of the Prajatantra Sena were explained to the people all over the country. With this object in view, the Sena resolved to send Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt to Delhi. Both of them were to go there, throw a bomb in the Legislative Assembly and, get arrested. For this purpose two harm- less bombs were made.
On the 8th of April 1929 the two men took the bombs and entered the Assembly Hall. They sat in the visitors' gallery.The session commenced. The bills were placed before the Assembly by the Government. The members rejected them. In the end, a member of the Government began an announcement that the Viceroy had exercised his special powers. At once, a bomb fell from, above and exploded causing a fearful sound. Immediately another bomb fell. There were sounds of shooting, too. The entire hall was filled with smoke. People ran helter skelter. Some were so frightened that they fell down unconscious. By that time, red pamphlets fell from the visitors' gallery. In them, particulars of Prajatantra Sena (the Republican Army) were given and the Government was condemned. The Hall was filled with the slogan, 'Long Live Revolution!'
The police rushed to the spot. Only Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt were there. They were holding pistols. Afraid of them, the police moved back. But both threw down their pistols and got them hand- cuffed.
The bombs thrown into the Assembly Hall killed no one.Four or five personsreceived very minor injuries; that was all.
It was not the revolutionaries' object to kill any body. The incident drew the attention of the entire world. The Kranti Dal's name became a household word. The British Government trembled.
After the incident, the Government got scent of the factory at Lahore. The Government seized enough material to make seven thousand bombs. Another big factory at Shaharanpur too was discovered by the Government. Within a few days, most of the leaders of the Kranti Dal were arrested. The Government filed a case against them, accusing them of executing the Lahore plot. Bhagat Singh and his companions were kept in prison in Lahore.
A Welcome to Death
The trial of the accused commenced. In those days political prisoners were not treated properly in the jail. They were not given proper food. They were made to suffer in every possible way. Bhagat Singh and his companions decided to fight against the wretched conditions. Bhagat Singh was sure of being hanged. But he thought at least the other political. Prisoners could benefit. All the revolu- tionaries went on fast. They fasted for two months. Then the Government said it would consider their demands. Some gave up the fast. But Jatin Das did not. He did not listen to anybody. On the 64th day of his fast, he died. Bhagat Singh fasted for thirty-two days thereafter.
The trial of Bhagat Singh and hiscompanions began; it drew the attention of the whole world. The court was heavily guarded by the police. No spectators were allowed inside the court. The prisoners were brought to the court in chains. They used to shout 'Long Live Revolution I' and only then enter the court hall.
Bhagat Singh and BatukeshwarDutt stated, "If the deaf are to hear, the sound has to be very loud. When we dropped thebomb, it was not our intention to kill anybody. We have bombed the British Government. The
British must quit India and make her free." They also explained the objects of their association. The whole world came to understand their aim and activitiesbecause of the press reports.
Finally judgment was given. Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were to be hanged; some were to undergo lifeimprisonment; some were to be kept in jail for five years, some for seven, some for ten years.
Bhagat Singh was to be hanged! When the news spread, the people all over the country were mad with rage. Thousands of appeals were sent to the Government, pleading that he should be saved. Several leaders of public life joined in the appeal. But all attempts failed. It was decided to hang them on the 24th of March 1931. Even the members of the prisoners' families were hot allowed to meet them. Moreover, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were hanged a day before the appointed day, that is, on March 23rd.
Even on the day of their hanging they were fearless. They were cheerful. They com- peted with one another to be hanged first. It was decided that first Sukhdev would be hanged and then Bhagat Singh and finally Rajguru. All the three climbed the platform. Kissing the rope, they themselves put it round their neck. They died with the name of Bharat Mata on their lips. Such was the end of the three champions of freedom.
That day no one in the jail touched food. Everyone was in tears. The next day, not knowing that the three prisoners had already been hanged, their relatives came to meet them. But it was all over with them. The dead bodies of the martyrs had been secretly burnt on the bank of the river Sutlej. Getting a clue thousands of people raced to the spot; but only the ashes remained. The people sobbed, with the ashes in their hands.
All over the country tributes were paid to the heroes who fought for freedom and sacrificed their lives.Hundreds of songs werecomposed and sung about the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh. Even today, the heroic spirit of Bhagat Singh is an unfailing source of inspiration to the youth of the country. His courage, spirit of adventure and patriotism are an example to one and all.
He was the alltime Hero of India...........