When Gandhiji pleaded guilty of Sedition

In March 1922, Gandhi was tried before Mr. Broomfield, I.C.S., District & Sessions Judge of Ahmedabad, for sedition in respect of two articles, which he had written in his paper "Young India". Before that, there was acute unrest and hostility to government, mainly due to the doctrines preached by Gandhi, and his campaign of non-cooperation and civil disobedience. This had resulted in some acts of violence and bloodshed. The most recent were attacks on peaceful citizens involving much bloodshed and destruction of property by an infuriated mob in Bombay on the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1921. Another was the inhuman burning alive of a number of policemen by a maddened mob at Chauri Chaura near Agra. Of course, Gandhi deplored and denounced these acts of violence; and even suspended the campaign for some time, himself going on fast by way of penance.The situation was further embittered by the discontent of Mussalmans over the treatment of Turkey by the Allies after the termination of the War. The Indian Mussalmans looked upon the Sultan of Turkey as their Khaliph, and deeply resented any indignity shown to him by the European powers, including England. The Muslim masses in India were incited and inflamed by the Ali Brothers who had started the Khilafat agitation. Gandhi joined hands with the Ali Brothers in their opposition to British rule in India. According to Strangman, "The Ali Brothers were at one with Gandhi in one particular only; and that was that they desired a cessation of British rule." The Hindu-Muslim unity at this juncture was artificial and ephemeral based on no common grievance. Hindus had little to do with Muslim sentiment over the humiliation of Turkey; and the Muslim masses never wholeheartedly shared the Hindu nationalism; and ultimately by insisting on Partition betrayed the national cause so far as the unity of the country was concerned. Neither the Hindu nor the Muslim could forget past history; for history, although it may be perverted partially, cannot be altogether obliterated. "They did not share his fantastic dreams either as to the means by which that end should be attained, or the results which should ensue. The iniquity of the Turkish Treaty was one of their main planks-a matter in which the Hindu was not even remotely interested". "Naturally enough," observes Strangman in 'Indian Courts And Characters', "after a time the divergence of views as to the method of attack became apparent. To teach the militant Mohammedan to adopt the principles of non-violent non-cooperation, is to teach the lion to display the playful tricks of the lamb. The Brothers gave utterances to incitements to violence for which, at Gandhi's instance, they published an apology, as a result of which the Government refrained from prosecuting them; but it was only for a short duration. The Brothers had subsequently to be prosecuted and convicted."On 29th September 1922, Gandhi published under his own name an article in his paper "Young India". Among the most serious features of the seditious incitements of the Ali Brothers was their attempt to tamper with the loyalty of the Indian troops. Gandhi wrote in his article that "he was not prepared for the revelation of such hopeless ignorance on the part of the Governor of Bombay. It is evident that he has not followed the course of Indian history during the past twelve months. He evidently does not know that the National Congress began to tamper with the loyalty of the sepoy in September last year; that the Central Khilafat Committee began it earlier, and that he himself began it earlier still." "I have no hesitation in saying," Gandhi proceeded, "that it is sinful for anyone, either soldiers or civilian, to serve this Government which has proved treacherous to the Mussalmans of India, and which has been guilty of the inhumanities of the Panjab. I have said this from many a platform in the presence of sepoys". "I shall not hesitate (when the time is ripe), at the peril of being shot, to ask the Indian sepoy individually to leave his service and become a weaver. For, has not the sepoy been used to hold India under subjection, has he not been used to murder innocent people at Jalianwala Bagh, has he not been used to drive away innocent men, women, and children during that dreadful night at Chandpur, has he not been used to subjugate the proud Arab of Mesopotamia, has he not been utilised to crush the Egyptian? How can any Indian having a spark of humanity in him, and any Mussalman having any pride in his religion, feel otherwise than as the Ali Brothers have done? The sepoy has been used more often as a hired assassin than as a soldier defending the liberty or the honour of the weak and the helpless."Gandhi wrote and published another article in his paper in which he answered Lord Reading, the Viceroy, who had, in a public speech, said that he felt perplexed and puzzled by the activities of a section of the Indian community. Lord Reading had...

When Gandhiji pleaded guilty of Sedition

Rashid M A

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When Gandhiji pleaded guilty of Sedition

Rashid M A

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