THE CHAMPARAN SAGA
[Extract from a biography of Dr Rajendra Prasad written by Dr BSM Murty; shortly to be published]
Call of the Indigo
‘Not a chest of indigo reaches England
without being stained with human blood.’
-
A
British official
We may as well continue the story with these diary
entries by Rajkumar Shukla who was not merely a half-literate farmer, but also
a crusader against the tyranny of the indigo planters of Champaran. From
Calcutta he left for Patna with Gandhi on way finally to Champaran.
9
April : Two tickets from Howrah to Patna. Many people besides Bhupendranath
Basu came to bid farewell to Gandhiji. We both got into the train. It started
at 3.25 p.m.
10
April : Reached Patna at 10 a.m .Went with Gandhiji to the residence of
Rajendra Babu. At 3 p.m. Gandhiji sent two telegrams to Mr Kriplani,
Muzaffarpur, and to Brajkishoreji, Darbhanga.Then Gandhiji sent me to Majharul
Haque Sahab. Majharul Haque Sahab came with me in his car to Gandhiji and went
out with him for a walk. Left with Gandhiji for Muzaffarpur at 8 p.m.[Reached]
Muzaffarpur station at 1 a.m. Mr Kriplani gave a gala reception….
J.B. Kripalani was professor of History at G.B.B.
(now L.S.) College, Muzaffarpur. He was also a popular Warden of the college
hostel. He had already met and spent a week with Gandhi at Shantiniketan.
Gandhi then had appeared to him ‘as yet
an unknown quantity [in] Indian public life’ and a ‘rather…eccentric specimen
of an England returned educated Indian’. Kripalani was a man of ready wit and
humour in life. But in his biography he writes about this ‘first impression’ of
Gandhi with imaginative empathy.
He appeared to be a man who could, if need be, stand
alone, provided he was convinced that the course of action he was following was
the right one…Gandhiji was rather austere and puritanic. But he was not
censorious….he was friendly and cheerful and did not lack humour….His love for
the poor was neither intellectual nor sentimental, nor romantic. It was deep
and abiding…One could see that Gandhiji was not patronizing the poor but was
trying to live like them and feel one with them.
When Kripalani got Gandhi’s telegram about his
arrival at Muzaffarpur, his students joined him enthusiastically for a grand
reception to the Hero of South Africa. They arranged flowers and arati for their great guest, and when
the coconut could not be had from the market at that late hour, Kripalani did
not dither for a moment and – ‘I was a good climber and went up the tree [in
the compound] and took down some coconuts’.
At the crowded railway station it took Kripalani and
his entourage quite some time to locate Gandhi, dressed as he was in rustic
clothes, ‘carrying a bundle containing his papers, while his spare bedding was
with Shukla’. An embarrassed Gandhi bore with patiernce all the rigmarole of
garlanding, arati, and, later the
‘unhorsed carriage’ stealthily drawn by the students themselves.
I had made arrangements with my colleague Prof.
Malkani to put up Gandhiji in his house. He was living in the same compound. In
a two-storeyed house he occupied the upper storey. His family was not there.
The ground floor was occupied by another colleague of mine. In the morning as
soon as he heard that Gandhiji was accommodated in the upper story, he was so
frightened that he immediately left the house.
Quite aware of the risk that Gandhi was putting his
host to, he quickly moved next day to the house of a local lawyer, Gaya Prasad,
where two other lawyers – Ramnavami Prasad and Dharanidhar Prasad – soon joined
him and acquainted him with the gravity and details of the plight of Champaran
farmers. Ramnavami Prasad had already sent telegrams to Braj Kishore Prasad and
Rajendra Prasad, the two senior-most lawyers and provincial leaders to join
Gandhi’s mission. In the mean time Gandhi met the Tirhut Commissioner, L.F.
Morshed, after seeking an interview with him through a brief note in which he
had written : ‘Having heard a great deal about the condition of the Indians
working in connection with indigo plantation, I have arrived here to ascertain
so far as is possible, for myself the true position. I would like to do my work
with the cognizance and even cooperation, if I can secure it, of the local
administration’,etc. But Morshead was singularly officious and bullying to
Gandhi in that interview, asking him peremptorily to go back at once.
When Gandhi met J.M.Wilson, Secretary, Bihar
Planters’ Association, Muzaffarpur, on April 11, he also tried to dissuade Gandhi
from going to Champaran. Meanwhile, even
before Gandhi proceeded to Motihari with Ramnavami Prasad, Dharanidhar Prasad
and Gorakh Prasad, reaching there in the afternoon of April 15, Morshed had
also informed W.B. Heycock, the District Magistrate of Champaran, through a
letter in which he wrote : ‘[His] object is likely to be agitation rather than
a genuine search for knowledge…I consider that there is a danger of disturbance to the public tranquillity should
he visit your district. I have the honour to request you to direct him by an
order under Section 144 Cr.P.C. to leave it at once if he should appear’.
Gandhi
in Motihari
Gandhi had huge welcoming crowds at stations along
the way and on reaching Motihari he went straight to the house of Gorakh Prasad
where he was to stay. Unfamiliar with the local Bhojpuri dialect, he sought
help from Dharanidhar Prasad and Ramnavami Prasad to act as his interpreters.
Learning there about a recent atrocity at a nearby village, Jasaulipatti,
Gandhi started for the village early next day with Dharnidhar Prasad and
Ramnavami Prasad, riding on an elephant. As he was resting midway at a village,
about 15 kms from Motihari, conversing with the local farmers about their
problems, a police sub-inspector appeared on the scene.
We had scarcely gone half way when a messenger from
the Police Superintendent overtook us and said that the latter had sent his
compliments. I saw what he meant. Having left Dharnidhar Babu to preoceed to
the original destination, I got into the hired carriage which the messenger had
brought. He then served on me a notice to leave Champaran, and drove me to my
place.
In that notice the Champaran D.M. had asked Gandhi to leave the district ‘by the
next available train’ as per orders from the Tirhut Commissioner, in view of
the perceived danger by his presence to
‘public peace’. A copy of the Commissioner’s letter was also attached to the
notice. Gandhi immediately sent a reply to the D.M., in acknowledgement of the
notice, saying that, ‘I feel it to be my duty to say that I am unable to leave
this District but if it so pleases the authorities, I shall submit to the order
by suffering the penalty of disobedience’.
Soon the administrative machinery swung into action
and telegraphic printers got buzzing with urgent messages. Confidential
despatches through special messengers were
sent urgently by train between Patna, Muzaffarpur, Motihari and Bettiah. As the
first World War was on, the Indian government did not want any new internal
trouble anywhere. The Champaran indigo problem was already an ugly skeleton in
the government’s cupboard and it did not want it to be rattled at this crucial
hour. Also the British indigo planters exercised a lot of influence on the
local authorities, and together for them Gandhi’s arrival on the scene straight
out of the South African imbroglio was like a sudden poke into a hornet’s nest.
Confronted by Gandhi’s calculated disobedience, Heycock
issued a summons on April 17, under section 188, asking Gandhi to appear before
the Sub-Divisional Magistrate’s court by the following noon to face charges. By
instinct and experience Gandhi had anticipated all this, and he worked
sleeplessly throughout the night writing letters and telegrams to the local
authorities and friends like Mazharul Haque, Madan Mohan Malaviya and Mr Polak
explaining the fast developing situation in Motihari. He also wrote a letter to
the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, saying that since the government no longer
trusted him enough to allow him to do public service in Champaran, he felt
obliged to return the medal of honour (Kaisar-e-Hind) recently conferred on him
by the British government for his commendable help in the Boer and Zulu
conflicts. The statement that he wanted to make before the Magistrate was also
prepared by him during the night. With the coming of the morning people started
assembling near Gandhi’s place and there was a palpable excitement in the air
all around as Gandhi started for his court appearance accompanied by his two
friends Ramnavami and Dharnidhar.
The
Motihari Trial
The news of the notice and the summons spread like
wild fire, and I was told that Motihari that day witnessed unprecedented
scenes. Gorakh Babu’s house and the court house overflowed with men.
Fortunately I had finished all my work during the night and so was able to cope
with the crowds. My companions proved the greatest help. They occupied
themselves with regulating the crowds, for the latter followed me whereever I
went.
Unprecedented the scene must have been for a small
town like Motihari because when Gandhi
entered the Magistrate’s court there was
such a stampede that glass-panes were smashed and doors and windows were
unhinged. Gandhi had to wait in the ‘Mukhtarkhana’ till the police could bring
some semblance of order. The court proceedings began in a tense atmosphere.
The trial began. The Government pleader, the
Magistrate and other officials were on tenterhooks. They were at a loss to know
what to do. The Government pleader was pressing the Magistrate to postpone the
case. But I interfered and requested the Magistrate not to postpone the case,
as I wanted to plead guilty to having disobeyed the order to leave Champaran…
Gandhi was an experienced Barrister. He was aware of
the shaky legality of the order of extradition. As Rajendra Prasad, himself a
brilliant lawyer, later observed:
True, a difficult point of law was involved in the
case: it was not very clear whether an order like the one passed by the
District Magistrate, was legal. If it was not, its disobedience was no offence,
and Gandhiji could not be tried for it. Some little thought that I had given to
the question had led me to the conclusion that the District Magistrate’s order
was illegal and that Gandhiji could not be penalized for non-compliance with
it.
It was, perhaps, for the first time that British law
had landed itself in a muddle of its own creation. In Gandhi’s words :
According to the law, I was to be on my trial, but
truly speaking Government was to be on its trial. The Commisioner only
succeeded in trapping Government in the net which he had spread for me.
As the Indian adage has it : the snake now could
neither swallow nor throw up the mole. And Gandhi must have chuckled internally
at the discomfiture of the government when he read out his brief but carefully
worded statement before the court. Some of its sentences were remarkably
trenchant:
I have entered the country with motives of rendering
humanitarian and national service. I have done so in response to a pressing
invitation to come and help the ryots, who urge they are not being fairly
treated by the indigo planters. I could not render any help
without
studying the problem. I have, therefore, come to study it
with
the assistance, if possible, of the Administration and the planters. I have no
other motive, and cannot believe that my coming can in any way disturb public
peace and cause loss of life….As a law-abiding citizen my first instinct would
be, as it was, to obey the order served upon me. But I could not do so without
doing violence to my sense of duty to those for whom I have come. I feel that I
could just now serve them only by remaining in their midst. I could not, therefore,
voluntarily retire….
I venture to make this statement not in any way in
extenuation of the penalty to be awarded against me, but to show that I have
disregarded the order served upon me not for want of respect for lawful
authority, but in obedience to the higher law of our being, the voice of
conscience.
The statement seemed to spill over with subtle
irony; after all ‘lawful authority’ must learn to operate within its own lawful
ambit! It was a dazzling instance of confronting the ‘law of truth’ against the
‘law of dissimulation’.
The court was totally flummoxed. The accused had
outwitted the Magistrate by pleading guilty to a charge that hardly signified a
punishable guilt. The court understood the full implications of awarding the
sentence for defiance of law, because it would not hold water in a higher
court, so ‘the Magistrate postponed judgment’. And during the next few days there was a flurry
of telegrams and confidential messages between the Tirhut Commissioner,
Morshead, and the Bihar government’s Chief Secretary, McPherson, the latter
severely berating Morshead for his ill-conceived handling of the whole affair.
Both the telegram (of April 19) and the long D.O. letter (of April 20) express
the extreme displeasure of the Governor General-in-Council. Only a
few critical sentences need be quoted to show the anger and exasperation of the
Government.
[Telegram:19.4.1917] There is nothing in your letter
to show that Gandhi intended to stir up trouble and it would have been far
better to let him see officers concerned and visit spots after warning him that
he would be held responsible for any disturbance that might ensue.
[D.O. letter:20.4.1917] His Honour-in-Council
considers that in your dealing with Mr Gandhi you did not go about the matter
in
the right way… you made a still greater mistake in that, without ascertain the
views of the Government or even waiting for Mr Gandhi’s production of his
credentials, you issued an anticipatory instruction to the District Magistrate
of Champaran to keep an order under
section 144 Cr.P.C. ready waiting for Mr Gandhi should he arrive in
Motihari. Such an order, as you yourself practically admit, was of doubtful
legality….
But the course adopted by you was just that which
was most calculated to intensify suspicion and create an impression that Govt
wanted to stifle enquiry and it had produced the embarrassing position
mentioned in your telegram received yesterday that Gandhi awaits conviction
under sec. 188 I.P.C. and sentence is deferred pending the order of Govt….Mr
Gandhi is doubtless eager to adopt the role of martyr which as you know he has
already played in South Africa and nothing perhaps would suit him better than
to undergo a term of imprisonment at the hands of an ‘unjust’ magistracy….
Orders have now been issued to Heycock to afford Mr
Gandhi such assistances and guidance in the pursuit of his enquiries as may be
obtainable from the local officers….This is all that can be done now to
retrieve the mistakes that have been made in the treatment of the case….A very
difficult and delicate situation has now arisen and it will have to be handled
with great tact, care and circumspection.
This was a classic case of a ‘trial of truth’. As
Gandhi himself said of the Champaran peasantry whose lawful rights he had come
to fight for: ‘It is no exaggeration, but the literal truth, to say that in
this meeting with the peasants I was face to face with God, Ahimsa and Truth’.
The
Magistrate postponed judgment in the case for a few days, apparently to buy
time for consultation with the higher authorities at Patna. Meanwhile, even
before the day appointed for the judgment ‘the Magistrate sent a written
message that the Lieutenant Governor had ordered the case against me to be
withdrawn’. The government had seen sense and removed the hurdle it had placed
in the path of humanitarian justice, thereby losing face in the national press
.
© Dr BSM Murty
No part of this extract can be used in
any way so as to infringe pre-publication rights.
where Gandhi went first Dharmshala where the recording of witness accounts took place
Some Photos: Courtesy Google Images
Other extracts from the book which are available on this Blog (Scroll by year and date)
2011: May 28 : The
Indigo Story; July 8: The Butcher of Amritsar; July 17: A Planter’s Murder
2014: Sep 14 : The
Seven Martyrs; Dec 3 : Early childhood in Jeeradei
2015: Jun 30: Congress
in disarray; Aug 27: Clash of Convictions; Oct 8: Presidential
Itineraries;
Dec
20: Congress at crossroads
2016: Mar
15: Election for Second Term; May 13: Visit to Soviet Union; Aug 25: Limits of
Presidency
Aug 28 : The Last Phase
2017: Apr 15: Champaran Saga (The Indigo Story: Repeat of 28 May 2011)
Other Important blogs
Aug 28 : The Last Phase
2017: Apr 15: Champaran Saga (The Indigo Story: Repeat of 28 May 2011)
Other Important blogs
Sahitya Samagra : 5 Oct 2010 / On Premchand: 26 May 2011 / Has Hindi been defeated by Shivpujan Sahay : 7 Dec 2011 / Memoirs on Prasad and Nirala : 25-26 Oct 2012 / Shivpujan Sahay Smriti Samaroh: 27 Jan 2014 / On Amrit Lal Nagar: 18 Aug 2014 / On Bachchan : 27 Nov 2014 / On Renu: 3 Mar 2015 / On Trilochan: 1 Apr 2015 /Odes of Keats + Shantiniketan: 25 May 2015 / Premchand Patron Men: 3 Aug 2015/ Suhagraat: Dwivediji's poem: 13 Nov 2015/ Dehati Duniya: 8 Aug 2016/ Three stories of JP: 6 Jul 2016/ On Neelabh Ashk: 24 Jul 2016/ Dec 25 2016: Anupam MIshra: Paani ki Kahaani
ALL MATTER AND PHOTOS PUBLISHED ON THE BLOG ARE (c) Dr BSM Murty
ALL MATTER AND PHOTOS PUBLISHED ON THE BLOG ARE (c) Dr BSM Murty
