Chapter II: Part ONE: § 1 (2)

Order reigned everywhere. At Delhi only there were a few disturbances.[64] Gandhi set out to quiet them. But the Government had him arrested and sent him back to Bombay. The news of his arrest caused riots in Punjab; at Amritsar some houses were looted, and a few people were killed. In the night of April 11 General Dyer arrived with his troops and occupied the city. Order reigned everywhere. The fifteenth was a great Hindu feast-day. A meeting was to take place at an open space called Jallianwalla Bagh. The crowd was peaceful and numbered many women and children. The night before General Dyer had sent out an order forbidding public meetings, but no one had heard about it. The general, however, came to Jallianwalla Bagh with his machine-guns and without warning opened fire on the defenseless mass of people. The firing lasted about ten minutes, till the ammunition was used up. As the grounds were surrounded by high walls, no one could escape. From five to six hundred Hindus were killed, and a much larger number wounded. There was no one to care for the dead and wounded. As the result of the massacre, martial law was proclaimed, and a reign of terror spread over Punjab. Aëroplanes threw bombs on the unarmed crowds. The most honorable citizens were dragged to court, flogged, and forced to crawl on their knees, and subjected to the most shocking indignities. It was as if a wind of madness swept over the English rulers. It was as if the law of non-violence, proclaimed by India, stirred European violence to frenzy. Gandhi saw bloodshed and suffering were ahead. But he had not promised to lead his people to victory along a white road. He had warned them that the path would be washed with blood. Jallianwalla Bagh was only the beginning:

We must be prepared to contemplate with equanimity not a thousand murders of innocent men and women but many thousands before we attain a status in the world that shall not be surpassed by any nation.... We hope, therefore, that all concerned will take rather than lose heart and treat hanging as an ordinary affair of life.[65]

Owing to the rigorous military censorship, the news of the horrors of Punjab did not leak out for several months. But when it did leak out[66] a wave of indignation swept over India and alarmed even English opinion. An investigation was ordered, and Lord Hunter presided over the commission.

In the meantime, the National Indian Congress formed a subcommission to carry on investigations independently of the Government, but along the same lines. It was to the obvious interest of the Government, as all intelligent Englishmen realized, to punish those guilty of the massacre of Amritsar. Gandhi did not demand as much as that. In his admirable moderation he did not ask for the punishment of General Dyer and the guilty officers. While denouncing them, he felt no bitterness and sought no vengeance. One bears no ill will to a madman. But one must put him where he can do no damage. Gandhi, therefore, merely asked that General Dyer be recalled. But _quos vult perdere._... Before the results of the investigation could be published, the Government passed an indemnity act to protect official employees. Though Dyer was removed from his post, he was rewarded with money contributed from private sources.

While India was still in effervescence after the Punjab affair, a second conflict arose between the Government and the people, a more serious one this time, because it implied a flagrant violation of solemn promises. The Government's attitude shattered whatever confidence India still had in the good faith of the English rulers, and brought on the great revolt.

The European War had placed the Moslems of India in a very painful dilemma. They were torn between their duty as loyal citizens of the empire and faithful followers of their religious chief. They agreed to help England when she promised not to attack the sultan's or the caliph's sovereignty. It was the sense of Moslem opinion in India that the Turks should remain in Turkey in Europe and that the sultan should retain not only authority over the Holy Places of Islam, but over Arabia as delimited by Mohammedan scholars with the enclaves of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine. This Lloyd George and the viceroy solemnly promised. When the war was over, however, all pledges were forgotten. And when the rumors of the peace terms to be imposed on Turkey began to circulate in 1919, the Moslems in India began to grow restless, and their discontent finally started the Khilafat or Califat movement.

It began October 17,1919 (Khilafat day), with an imposing peaceful demonstration, which was followed, about a month later (November 24), by the opening of an All-India Khilafat Conference at Delhi. Gandhi presided. With his quick glance he had realized that the Islamic agitation might be made into the instrument of Indian unity. The problem of uniting the various races in India was a most difficult one. The English had always taken advantage of the natural enmity between Hindus and Moslems; Gandhi even accuses them of having fostered it. At any rate, they had never tried to conciliate the two peoples, who challenged each other childishly. To annoy the Mohammedans, for instance, the Hindus used to make a point of singing when they passed the mosques where silence should reign, while the Mohammedans lost no opportunity of jeering the Hindus' cow-worship. Mutual ill will and persistent animosity reigned between the two races, who never associated with each other and were not allowed to intermarry or even eat in common. The English Government rested sweetly on the cushion of implicit trust in the impossibility of the two ever agreeing and adopting a common policy. When Gandhi's voice, therefore, proclaimed the identity of the Hindu and the Moslem cause, it awoke with a start. In an outburst of generosity, which happened to be sound politics, Gandhi urged the Hindus to do all in their power to advance Mohammedan claims.

Hindus, Parsees, Christians, or Jews, if we wish to live as one nation, the interest of any one of us must be the interest of all. The only deciding consideration can be the justice of a particular cause.

Mohammedan blood had already mixed with that of the Hindus in the tragic massacre of Amritsar. The two people now had to seal their alliance, an unconditional alliance. The Moslems were the most advanced and audacious element in India. And they were the first to announce, at this Khilafat Conference, that they would refuse to cooperate with the Government if their demands were not met. Gandhi approved of this measure, but in his innate horror of going to extremes he refused at the time to advocate the boycott of British goods, for he looked upon the boycott as an expression of weakness or thirst for vengeance. A second Khilafat Conference met at Amritsar in the end of December, 1919, and decided to send a deputation to Europe to inform the English Government and the Supreme Council of India's attitude. It also voted for the sending of an ultimatum to the viceroy, warning him of trouble if the peace terms should prove unsatisfactory. Finally a third conference, meeting in Bombay in February, 1920, issued a manifesto which, in its violent arraignment of Great Britain's policy, was a forerunner of the coming storm.

Gandhi realized the storm was brewing, and instead of trying to call it forth he did all in his power to break its violence.

It seemed as if England also realized the danger. By belated concessions she seemed to be making desperate efforts to avert the consequences of her former attitude. An Indian Reform Act based on the Montagu-Chelmsford report gave the people in India more influence in the Central Government as well as in local administrations. The king approved the act by a proclamation of December 24, 1919, in which he invited the people of India and the functionaries to cooperate with the Government in every way, while he also urged the viceroy to pardon political offenses and recommended a general amnesty. Gandhi, always ready to believe in the adversary's good faith, interpreted these measures as signifying a sort of tacit agreement to deal more justly with India, and he called upon the people to welcome the reforms. He confessed that they were insufficient, but he said they should be accepted as the starting-point for greater victories. He urged the conference to approve them unreservedly. After a heated debate the National Indian Congress adopted his view.

But soon it became evident that Gandhi's hopes were built on illusions. The viceroy did not heed the king's appeal for clemency, and instead of setting prisoners free, the doors of the jails opened only for executions. It became evident that the promised reforms would remain inoperative.

On top of this came the news of the peace conditions imposed on Turkey, May 14, 1920. In a message to the people the viceroy admitted they would prove disappointing, but he advised the Moslems to resign themselves to the inevitable.

Then came the publication of the official report on the Amritsar massacres. It was the last straw.

India's national consciousness was aroused. All ties were broken.

The Khilafat Committee, meeting at Bombay, May 28, 1920, passed a resolution adopting Gandhi's non-cooperation policy, and this resolution was ratified unanimously by the Moslem Conference of Allahabad, June 80, 1920.

Gandhi, in the meantime, wrote an open letter to the viceroy informing him that the movement of non-cooperation would begin. He explained why he had recourse to it, and his arguments are worth studying, for they prove that even then Gandhi was hoping to avoid a break with England. In the bottom of his heart he still hoped that the Government might be brought to mend its ways by purely legal methods:

The only course open to me is either in despair to sever all connection with British rule or, if I still retain faith in the inherent superiority of the British Constitution, to adopt such means as will rectify the wrong done and thus restore confidence. I have not lost faith in the superiority of the British Constitution and it is because I believe in it that I have advised my Moslem friends to withdraw their support from Your Excellency's Government, and advised the Hindus to join them.

And this noble citizen of the empire the blind pride of the empire spurned.

[Footnote 1: As C. F. Andrews says, "He laughs like a child and adores children."]

[Footnote 2: "Few can resist the charm of his personality. His bitterest enemies become courteous when confronted with his beautiful courtesy." (Joseph J. Doke.)]

[Footnote 3: "Every departure from truth, no matter how trifling, is intolerable to him." (C. F. Andrews.)]

[Footnote 4: "He is not a passionate orator; his manner is calm and serene and he appeals particularly to the intelligence. But his serenity places the subject he discusses in the clearest light. The inflexions of his voice are not varied but they are intensely sincere. He never makes any gestures with his arms, in fact he rarely even moves a finger. But his luminous words, expressed in terse, concise sentences, carry conviction. He never abandons a subject before he feels that he has made it perfectly clear." (Joseph J. Doke.)]

[Footnote 5: "Young India," March 2, 1922. The dates cited in the motes of this volume refer to the date of publication of Gandhi’s articles in "Young India."]

[Footnote 6: _A_, privative, _himsa_, to do evil. Hence, _ahimsa_, principle of not harming any form of life, nonviolence. It is one of Hinduism's most ancient precepts, proclaimed by Mahavira, the founder of Jaïnism, by Buddha, as well as by the disciples of Vishnu.]

[Footnote 7: He attended the elementary school of Porbandar till the age of seven and then the public school of Rajkot till ten. After that he went to the high school of Katyavar until, at the age of seventeen, he entered the University of Ahmedabad.]

[Footnote 8: He described his childhood in a speech at the Pariah Conference, April 13, 1921.]

[Footnote 9: Long afterward he told Joseph Doke of the anguish he had suffered after eating meat. He was unable to sleep; he felt like a murderer.]

[Footnote 10: He is not in favor of child marriages, however, and made a campaign against them, on the ground that they weaken the race. In exceptional cases, however, he says that such unions, sealed before the individual's character is molded, may build up between husband and wife an exceptionally beautiful relationship of sympathy and harmony. Gandhi's own wife is an admirable example of this. Mrs. Gandhi shared all her husband's trials and adversities with unfailing steadfastness of purpose and indomitable courage.]

[Footnote 11: Speech of April 13, 1921.]

[Footnote 12: These two men, precursors, have suffered from the ingratitude and forgetfulness of younger generations. Their political ideal having been surpassed, their efforts in paving the way have been deprecated. Gandhi, however, always realized their contribution to the cause and remained true to them, particularly to Gokhale, for whom he felt a deep and almost religious affection. He frequently speaks of Gokhale and Dadabhai as men whom Young India should venerate. (See "Hind Swaraj, Letter to the Parsecs, Young India," March 23, 1921, and the Confession of Faith, July 13, 1921.)]

[Footnote 13: A long letter from Tolstoi to Gandhi is published in the "Golden Number" of "Indian Opinion." It was written September 7, 1910, shortly before Tolstoi's death. Tolstoi had read "Indian Opinion," and he was gratified to hear of the Indian non-resisters. He praised their campaign and says that non-resistance is the law of love, an aspiration to form part of the communion of human souls. It is the law of Christ and of all the spiritual leaders of the world.

My friend Paul Biroukoff found several other letters from Tolstoi to Gandhi in the Tolstoi archives at Moscow. He is planning to publish them in a volume entitled "Tolstoi and the Orient," adding them to several other letters written by Tolstoi to various great men of the East.]

[Footnote 14: Gandhi himself tells in his quiet humorous way of his experiences in prison in a curious article printed in the volume, "Speeches and Writings of M. K. Gandhi," Natesan, Madras, pp. 152-178.]

[Footnote 15: In 1907 Gandhi was the victim of the violence of his own compatriots, for his moderation was eyed with suspicion by certain Indians, while, the Government, on the other hand, did all in its power to compromise him. Gandhi, therefore, suffered from the violence of the oppressed as well as of the oppressors.]

[Footnote 16: I will dwell on "Hind Swaraj" a little more at length, later on.]

[Footnote 17: Joseph J. Doke, interesting because of his interviews with Gandhi, tells in the last chapter of his book how, in 1908, Gandhi was led to the fort of Johannesburg in prison garb and thrown into a cell with Chinese common-law criminals of the worst sort.]

[Footnote 18: Two high-minded Englishmen, C. F. Andrews and W. W. Pearson, seconded Gandhi's efforts by all means within their power.]

[Footnote 19: Gandhi refers to this in an article dated May 12, 1920.]

[Footnote 20: Shortly before he died, Gokhale, Gandhi's beloved master, had suggested that Gandhi make a trip through India and study conditions at first hand, before going into politics. And Gandhi had promised not to take an active part in the political life of India for a year.]

[Footnote 21: The Satyagraha movement may be said to have begun February 28, 1919.]

[Footnote 22: Gandhi explained his attitude toward Bolshevism on November 24, 1921.]

[Footnote 23: August 11, 1920: Gandhi protests against the doctrine of the sword.]

[Footnote 24: "Humanity is one. There are different races, but the higher a race the greater its duties." ("Ethical Religion")]

[Footnote 25: November 5, 1919.]

[Footnote 26: October 27, 1920.]

[Footnote 27: October 6, 1921.]

[Footnote 28: All religions are like different roads leading to the same goal. ("Hind Swaraj.") "All religions are founded on the same moral laws. My ethical religion is made up of laws which bind men all over the world." ("Ethical Religion.")]

[Footnote 29: October 6, 1921.]

[Footnote 30: Etymologically, _varna_, color, class or caste; _ashrama_, place of discipline; _dharma_, religion. Society, in other words, stands for "discipline of the castes."]

[Footnote 31: February 25, 1920. In a second line Gandhi adds, "Ruskin and Tolstoi."]

[Footnote 32: "Seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you."]

[Footnote 33: "Young India," February 25, 1920.]

[Footnote 34: He says to Joseph J. Doke in 1908 that God has been incarnate throughout the ages, in different forms, because, as explained in the Gitâ, Krishna says: "When religion falls into decadence and unbelief prevails, I manifest myself. For the protection of all that is good, and the destruction of all that is evil, for the establishment of Dharma, I must be born and reborn, for ever and ever." Christianism is part of Gandhi's theology. Christ is a radiant revelation of God. But not the only revelation. He is not seated on the throne alone.]

[Footnote 35: The "Hind Swaraj" contains a list of about sixty of Tolstoi's works which Gandhi recommends to his followers, among them, "The Kingdom of God Is within You, What Is Art?" and "What Shall We Do?" He tells Joseph Doke that Tolstoi influenced him deeply, but that he does not agree with Tolstoi's political ideals. To a question asked him in 1921 as to his feeling for and opinion of Count Tolstoi, Gandhi replies (in "Young India" of October 25, 1921), "My relation to him was that of a devoted admirer who owes him much in life."]

[Footnote 36: He was particularly fond of Ruskin's "Crown of Wild Olives."]

[Footnote 37: "Apologia and Death of Socrates," translated by Gandhi, was one of the books confiscated by the Indian Government in 1919.]

[Footnote 38: In regard to cow-worship see "Young India," March 16, June 8, June 29, August 4, 1920, and May 18, October 6, 1921. In regard to castes see articles December 8, 1920, and October 6, 1921.]

[Footnote 39: This is in accordance with the Upanishads, for when the primitive classes hardened into proud castes, in the course of centuries, these Hindu scriptures express protest and disapproval.]

[Footnote 40: A term often used by Gandhi. "Untouchability is an invention of Satan." (June 19, 1921.)]

[Footnote 41: September 8, 1920.]

[Footnote 42: It should not be forgotten that one of Gandhi's main arguments against the medical science of Europe is its use of vivisection, which he brands as "man's blackest crime."]

[Footnote 43: Particularly in regard to sexual relations. Gandhi's doctrine resembles that of St. Paul in its rigorism.]

[Footnote 44: "Hind Swaraj."]

[Footnote 45: Although Gandhi does not approve of European science, he realizes the necessity of scientific achievement. He admires the disinterested zeal and the spirit of self-sacrifice of European men of science and frequently calls their abnegation greater than that of Hindu believers. But he disapproves the goal they are pursuing even though he admires their state of mind. There is an evident antagonism between Gandhi and European science. And in this connection we will see, later on, how Tagore protests against Gandhi's medievalism.]

[Footnote 46: January 19, 1921.]

[Footnote 47: March 9, 1920.]

[Footnote 48: August 11, 1920.]

[Footnote 49: Etymology: _Swa_, self; _raj_, government, autonomy. The word is as old as the Vedas, but it was adopted by Dadabhai, Gandhi's Parsee master, who made it part of the political vocabulary.]

[Footnote 50: Etymology: _Satya_, just right; _Agraha_, attempt, effort. Hence, _Satyagraha_, a just effort, in the sense of meaning non-acceptation of or resistance to injustice. Gandhi defines it, November 5, 1919, as meaning "holding on to truth, hence, truth-force." And he adds, "I have also defined it as love-force or soul-force."]

[Footnote 51: August 11, 1920.]

[Footnote 52: October 20, 1921.]

[Footnote 53: August 4, 1920.]

[Footnote 54: August 11, 1920. One of the rules of the _Satayagraha Ashram_, the school founded by Gandhi, is "absence of fear." The spirit must be freed from fear of kings, nations, castes, family, men, wild beasts, and death. It is also the fourth condition of non-violent resistance in the Hindra. The others are chastity, poverty, and truth.]

[Footnote 55: June 16, 1920.]

[Footnote 56: August 11, 1920.]

[Footnote 57: April 6, 1921.]

[Footnote 58: A few months before his imprisonment Gandhi replies to the criticisms as to "illogic" of his conduct. His critics jeer at the assistance he tendered England in South Africa and during the World War. Gandhi, in replying, does not try to evade the issue. He honestly believed, he says, that he was a citizen of the empire; it was not his business to judge the Government. He would consider it wrong for every man to look upon himself as justified in criticizing the Government. He had confidence in England's wisdom and loyalty as long as possible. The Government's aberration has destroyed his faith in it. Let the Government take the consequences! (November 17, 1921.)]

[Footnote 59: April 6, 1921.]

[Footnote 60: On the contrary, violence degrades the person who makes use of it. The Allies' violence made them like unto the Germans, whose acts they flayed, in the beginning of the war. (June 9, 1920.)]

[Footnote 61: The hardest fiber must melt in the fire of love. If it does not melt it is because the fire is not strong enough. (March 9, 1920.) Those joining the _Satyagraha_ movement had to promise to disobey the laws declared by the _Satyagraha_ committee to be unjust, to follow in the path of truth, and to abstain from all violence against the lives, persons, or property of their adversaries.]

[Footnote 62: March 23, 1919.]

[Footnote 63: This Hindustani word of Mohammedan origin means cessation of work.]

[Footnote 64: Delhi, incidentally, made a mistake in the date of the _hartal_ and celebrated it March 30.]

[Footnote 65: April 7, 1920.]

[Footnote 66: Gandhi, to quiet the effervescence instead of trying to exploit it as an ordinary revolutionary leader would have done, suspended the movement on April 18.]