As There were many an ill-informed people laboring under the delusion that the freedom movement in India started with the advent of Gandhiji in 1914-15, There is nothing more erroneous than this conception; on the contrary the reverse is the truth, namely, the freedom movement was ever alive and could never be suppressed even in the, year ASS tor the British thought that they had finally subdued the whole of the Indian people when the last of the Vishwa was deposed. But the history is that the Sikhs were not that time challenging the supremacy of the British in the whole of British India, and by the time the battle of 1848 at Gujrrat, the Sikhs were finally defeated, the rebellion of 1857 was in the offing. It came up with such suddenness and thirst that more than once the British were prepared to Leave India between 1857 and 1858, And by the, time the British had suppressed that rebellion Queen Victoria was proclaimed are Empress of India. Then rose the Indian National Congress es challenge the British domination once more Indian National Congress which was started in 1885 was in one sense no doubt constitutional and moderate propagandist machinery. But what are called extremists were seen from within at resell and were not satisfied with the permanent acceptance of the British over lordship over us.
2: It makes clear therefore that freedom movement md Hess died out in India but again rose and rose like the Phoenix from its own ashes, Its pertinent therefore for the, to give its history in more recent times in order ne show that the freedom movement was fully alive when Gandhi ji arrived in India. Nor Can it be claimed as is now been done vociferously that successful issue of the’ battle for freedom was due to Gandhiji leadership. How this claim is untrue is shown hereafter.
3: Within eight starting of the been in the year 1892 the British Government were obliged to expand the existing Legislative Cone This was followed up by the Morle-Minto Reforms in 1909. When elected representatives were for the first time allowed to participate in the work of the legislatures. Twelve or thirteen years thereafter while the first World War was going on the Montague-Chelmsford Reforms gave partial provincial autonomy and also increased the number of elected members in the Central Legislature so as to give a permanent non-official elected majority. And as lately as 1935 came an era of complete provincial autonomy and a further stage in Central responsibility which covered every subject except foreign policy, army-and only to some extent, finance, In all other respects the responsibility of the Executive to a wholly elected legislature was full, and complete. ‘The act of 1935 was of course seriously defective, more especially, because of the numerous. Safeguards ‘given to British vested interests it was also condemned by all political Derrieres particularly “Son account of the powers of the veto. But still it-is quite certain that if we had not rejected it, then India would ; have long since reached ‘the Dominion Status stage which we are now supposed to be ‘enjoying. The only thing that
Gandhiji and the ‘Congress have done is the partition of the country, which is the loss we had to suffer owing to his leadership of the Congress Party.
4: Side by side with the Indian National Congress eat growing up a section which was described as extremists within the Congress and revolutionary outside. These latter sections were never reconciled to the yoke of Britain. they were represented by Khadi Sera awe ‘his colleagues when in 1906 he threw a bomb at an Englishman. Later on the First World War broke out; and the terrorist movement grew in Engage and to some extent in Maharashtra,
The Gadara party was operating simultaneously in Europe and America to overthrow the British rule with the help of the Beas powers during the First World War. The Komag hate Maru incident i’s well I’m own and it is by no hot” means clear that incident in Madras Beach was, due the-Germans, Gandhiji discouraged all such movements and zealously went on the land in peers soldiers for the British, Rowlett Report describes at length the strength of the revolution when beginning from the year 1906 right up to that date one Britishers after another and his-Indian stooges were shot dead by the revolutionaries and British authorities were trembling about Gens very, existence when Mr. Montague came to their rescue in 1918, But even he was not successful in putting down the movement, Revolutionary armed risings and attacks occurred at regular intervals, The protest against the Rowlett Act was followed by Jallianwala Bagh tragedy in which hundreds of Indians young men and women ~ were shot dead or were seriously injured simply for the crime of attending a protest” meeting, During these days Michael o’ Dwyer became – notorious for sallies and unscrupulous reprisals
He had to pay for it when he least, expected, Twenty years later he was shot DEAD by the revolution hero Udham Singh, Madan Lal Dhingra, M. Dutt Kashera,- these are some of the names associated with the Indian Revolutionary Movement long before Gandhiji name was heard.
- The revolutionary movement beginning with Bengal and Maharashtra later extended to the Punjab. It may be mentioned that these young men associated with not come from the referral ‘of the society but ‘from educated and cultured families in high social tare in private Lites they sacrificed their. Lives of ‘comfort and ease on the altar of the deliverance of their were the martyrs whose load the cement of the Indian of Independence, Lokmanya Tilak” Built on it the foundation of the edifice of Swaraj. Gandhiji took advantage of the accumulated momentum of those who were called moderates WERE ABLE to obtain as some concessions which were really the result of this revolutionary movement back ground.
6: Moderate opinion condemned the revolutionary violence, Gandhiji publicly denounced it, but there is not the least doubt that overwhelming masses of the people always supported with cordial but silent approval this vanguard of Indian Independence. That fact was amply demonstrated ‘ at the Karachi session of the Indian National Congress in March 1931 when in the teeth of Gandhiji opposition a, resolution was passed in the open session admiring Bhagat Singh’s courage and spirit of sacrifice in throwing two bombs in 1929, Gandhiji never forgot this defeat at the Karachi session and when a few months later Mr.Hotsm, the acting Governor of Bombay wag shot at by Gandhiji returned to His theme at a meeting sin and asserted that the resolution of admiration for Bhagat Singh was ‘The only dissentious view was that of Mr, Subash Chandra Bose who immediately fell the disfavor of Gandhiji. To sum up the share of these heroic sacrifices of Indian youth in the struggle for India’s delivery from the British is by no means negligible; while. I fear that so long as Indian affairs will be in charge of the Gandhians group the true history of the memorable days will never be recorded, It remains true that their share in the achievement of freedom has been substantial.
7:It was not merely those revolutionaries who Ben continued to’ offer armed resistance whom Gandhiji opposed put even those who had radical views and were working within constitutional limits were also the target of his opposition, A most outrageous example of his dislike of those who did not agree with him is furnished by the case of Subash Chandra Bose, There is a belief that “the deportation of Subash was not six years was not entirely “disliked by the Mahatma, ‘and his election in the Presidential Chair at the Congress was rendered possible only after he had personally’ disavowed before Gandhiji any tendency towards violence when he was elected to the presidential office. However, Subash Chandra Bose did not toe the line according to the Gandhians behests during his time of office in other matters, put he was so popular that against the declared wishes of Mahatma in favour of Dr.lattabhi Sitaramayya, Subash Chandra Bose was elected president for the second time with a very substantial majority, even from the province of Andhra, This upset the Mahatma beyond endurance and he expressed his anger in the Mahatma manner of full of concentrated venom by saying that Subash is success was his defeat and not a of Dr.Fattabhi. Even thereafter his rage was not fully gratified, and he asserted himself from the Tripura congress by staging a rival show at fasting and not into Subash Chandra Bose was driven Sue of the Congress gadi that the venom of the congress gadi was completely glutted.
- This incident regarding Subash Chandra Bose’s President ship at Tripura Congress and the event of his expulsion from the residential office is an indication Of the hypocrisy with which san controlled repudiated the Congress as He declared to the world, in 1934 with a great show of his detachment that he was not even a member of the elute: thereafter and therefore he to do with it. By his loss when Subash was elected for the second time as the President of the Congress, he furnished proof that he’ had interfered with that from eae very inception in favour of Dr.Vattabhi it is a further proof of his keen and engrossing interest in the and petty squabbles within ‘the Congress at every while professional even a member of that body
9: When the “Quit India” movement was decided upon a by the Congress on the 8th august “1942 on the initiative of Gandhiji most leaders were quickly arrested” by Government before they could make any start and the move- ment so far as it was non-violent was nipped in the bud. There was another section in the Congress itself who went underground. These latter were not over anxious to follow the Comedian wieners lade and to go to jail on the contrary they wanted to avoid going to jail as long as possible and in the meantime to do maximum damage to the Government in all directions, by cutting communications, by arson, Look other acts of violence, not excluding murder. The statement of Gandhiji exhorting the people “to do or die” was interpreted by the latter section as giving them full scope for all kinds of obstruction and sabotage. In fact they did everything the war efforts of Government a one fullest extent. Police Than as were burnt, postal communications were violently interrupted, In the North Bihar and eras places, nearly 900 Railway stations were does burnt or reseed and the administration was brought to a standstill. All these activities were directly opened to the A Congress creed of non-violence technique preached by Gandhiji. Gandhiji could neither support nor oppose these latter activities. If he supported of non-violence would stand exposed. If he opposed them publicly he would become unpopular with the masses who did not care brass button whether the expulsion of the British from India was accomplished by violence be non- violence, In fact the “Quit India” campaign was known- more for its acts of violence than for anything else, Gandhiji non-violence died within a few weeks of ‘the starting India” campaign while that was going on under that name found no favour with, The Gandhians point was activities of the Congress party and its supporters within a few ‘weeks of the 8th of August 1942.Nowhere was non-violence either ‘preached or practiced as the supporters of the campaign were, in the words of Gandhi ji himself, prepared do or to diet, It was only when Lord in his correspondence with Gandhiji in 1943 categorically challenged him to own or disown the violence on that part of the supporters of the Congress that Gandhi was forced to condemn the violence of the Congress party; what- ever embarrassment, damage, inconvenience and harm were done to the war efforts was the result of the activities of the Congress supporters and not the posseted non-violence of Gandhi. Absolute non-violence had completely failed; relative-non-violence, i.e. armed resistance to aggression succeeded to some extent, but Gandhiji had to denounce it from the jail the revolutionary struggle for independence was thus discouraged by the Mahatma while his over strategy had completely collapsed soon after the 8th of August 1942.
- By this time Mr. Subhash Chandra Bose who had ‘mysteriously escaped from Boos early in early 1941 had already arrived in after caching werlin through Afghanistan, The way in which he Subhash Bose escaped from Calcutta in January 1941 the hard grips end ‘sufferings through’ “which he ace to Pass on Jens way” through the Frontier to Kabul and thereafter to Berlin are vividly described by Mr. Steven Chand in his book when Bose Was” Ziauddin”, _The tenacity and courage with which faced all privations all dangers all difficulties eventually reaching Berlin make most thrilling and romantic Sence By the time of the arrival of the Cripps Mission an India. He had already reached Japan ‘and was Organising EURO of India. Before Subhash left Germany, Hitler had invested with the title of His seen the Governor General of India; and on reaching ‘Japan he found the Japanese ready to assist him against the British in the u invasion of this Japan had ‘already joined” the war on the side of the axis by the attack the Pearl. Germany has declared and Britain and France in turn had declared war and’ Germany and” Japan’ ‘Long ago. In Japan, in Federated Malaya States, in Burma and in other parts of the Far East, Subhash received most enthusiastic welcome and intense support ran the Indians settled there.
11: The Japanese had occupied Burma, Dutch East Indies, Federated Malaya States and the whole of the Far east including the Andamans Islands. Stash Chandra Lose was thereby enabled to start a provisional Indian Republican Government at the Andamans in Indian Territory. By 1944 he was equipped to start on an invasion of India with the help of the Japanese. The Congress party of course was definitely opposed to him. Pandit Nehru had declared that if Subhash Chandra Bose came into India with the support of the Japanese he would fight Subhash; but Nehru too would have fought Subhash with armed support of the British alone! i. e. with The Japanese and the Indian Frontier, The I.N.A. consisted of volunteers, from see the Indian population of the Far east and of those Indian prisoners of War who had deserted to the I.N.A. from the Japanese prisons: That the campaign eventually failed was engendered in them as Wonderful. He was lovingly described by them as “Netaji Subash Chandra Bose “and they, had adopted slogan of “Jai Hind” under his leadership whole of the Far East wherever ‘there is an Titan, celebrates with the greatest enthusiasm ‘Subhesh’s birthday, Gandhi ji was naturally opposed to the patriotic revolutionary army which supported: Subhash Chandra Bose’s invasion free India, .But Subhash was loved and “respected more “than leader because of his single-minded effort to destroy British Hepialids. If Subhash had been alive and had entered India in 1945 after the defeat of the Japanese army, the whole Indian population would, like one man, have been behind him and given him the most affectionate welcome Gandhiji was again more vokamanya Tilak died in 1920 and Gandhiji became They traded on the name of Subhash the two issues which led the Congress party affectionate welcome Gandhiji was again more no rushing defeat for Gandhiji; but luck was side and Subhash Chandra died outside India, It has Chandra Bose and the I.N.A. and to is officers and men in the Great State Trial.
They traded on the name of Subhash issues which led the Congress party in 1945-46 were their pretended affection for the I.N.A. and their hypocritical homage to Sub hash’s memory. Moreover the Congress party promised that they were opposed to Pakistan and would resist it at all costs. On these two assurances they came out successful in the 1946 elections. After the elections they treated the I.N.,A. with very sent courtesy and of course they succumbed to the breach of their promises,
- All this time the Muslim League was carrying on treasonable activities, disturbing the peace and tranquility of India, carrying on a murderous campaign against the Hindus. Lord Wavell and Lord Mountbatten looked on entirely unconcerned, The Congress would not venture to condemn or to stop these wholesale massacres in pursuit of their policy of appeasement at all costs. Gandhiji suppressed everything which did not fit in with his pattern of public activities, I am therefore surprised when claimed are made over and over again that the awakening of the nation was due to Gandhiji. My own view is that constant pandering to the rabid communalism of the Muslim League was not the awakening of the nation.
