Kasturiranga Santhanam

“ If we have lost our liberty it is because we deserved to lose it, and English domination of India was achieved, not by the strength of England’s arm, but by the weakness of the Indian people. The non-co-operation movement aims at removing all the evils inherent in us, and by strengthening ourselves, ipso facto, weaken the forces that have overpowered us. ”

“ It is, indeed, regrettable that in this country alone no recognition should be given to a person who suffers for his opinions and whose offence involves no moral turpitude. I would have no complaint to make if the Government frankly put forward the proposition that they meant to make the life of the non-co-operators in jail as hard as possible, so as to teach them a lesson. But they profess one thing and do another. The Government of India clearly stated in open Council that political prisoners would be treated with every consideration. ”

“ It was at this moment of gloom and despondency when hope had died down and faith in the goodness of human nature was shattered, that Mahatma Gandhi came forward and we began to see a ray of hope whereby we could triumph in spite of the forces of reaction which stood arrayed against us. ”

“ The very methods by which England consolidated her power in India ought to furnish us a lesson as to how we ought to proceed to achieve self-government for ourselves. You might be quite sure that, if England could only dictate the commercial policy of India, she would tomorrow grant us full powers in all other directions, and it is because she is afraid that, with the loss of political power and domination, she would lose the right of controlling the commercial policy, that she is determined not to let us get the right of governing ourselves. ”

“ We can only bow our heads in deep thankfulness to Providence which has vouchsafed to grant us the inestimable boon of such a great personality at a time when India, fallen and stricken India, stood sorely in need of a strong hand to pull us out of the Slough of Despond. ”

“ I hope I have demonstrated clearly that the very intensity of the repression by the Government, the nervousness betrayed by it and the other steps taken by it to counteract the effects of the movement of non-co-operation is a sure sign that our movement is stronger than ever to-day and that far from losing its hold on the people, it is bound to gather fresh strength day by day. ”

“ Take again the parade of armed forces in the several districts in the Punjab. The Government has not alleged that there is any rebellion or fear of any violence; still large forces are being marched through the villages simply with a view to overawe the public and strike terror into them. Is it any wonder if in these marches exactions are made or forcible supplies levied? In many villages punitive police are quartered, simply because the villagers take part in the Congress, Khilafat and the Gurdwara movement. The police acts with studied insult and cruelty towards the inhabitants. ”

“ In the serious conflict with the authorities that has taken place, all the communities have stood shoulder to shoulder with one another and have suffered in common. Where blows have been received, where liberty has been restricted and where blood has been shed, the Hindus and Muslims have vied with each other in offering the greatest sacrifice. ”

“ The solemn pledges given by the British Prime Minister to the Muslims had been cruelly broken, and the faith, that we rightly or wrongly had in the justice and fairplay of the English, was gone forever. The horrors of the Martial Law in the Punjab and the subsequent denial of even justice to the Indian nation had made us despair that the Indians would ever be treated as human beings entitled to ordinary human rights and privileges. ”

“ To me the beauty of this movement lies in the fact that it is not only a weapon whereby we can force the Bureaucracy to surrender its power, but is also a means whereby we might perfect ourselves and make ourselves fit to exercise that power when we do obtain it. ”

“ If we would only grasp sufficiently clearly the patent fact, that Englishmen would not care to rule India if it were not for material advantages, and that political domination is of little attraction to the Englishmen except as a means for finding markets for the products of their own country we would have gone a long way indeed in correctly diagnosing the political illness we are suffering from. ”

“ That is why the day that the whole of India is clad in khaddar and the import of foreign cloth ceases absolutely, that day will usher in Self Rule. To achieve the boycott we will have to be quite united and all the communities in India will have to work hand in hand and this common effort will promote our unity as nothing else will. ”

“ The extent to which we suceed in removing the root cause of the evil will also be the extent to which we can hope for success. Internal dissensions, lack of self-reliance, and weakening of the social fabric, drove us into the arms of the foreigner who came to India originally for purely commercial purposes. ”

“ Complaints are pouring in every day that the police behave with great brutality, handcuffing all prisoners irrespective of their status and position, making them walk long distances in the burning sun in spite of bodily infirmities, keeping them overcrowded in the police lock-ups and not even giving them the ordinary facilities for performing their ablutions and very often sending them out for necessary purposes in pairs with their hands manacled. ”

“ The normal activities of the Congress are very often restricted and efforts are made, though not openly, to prevent recruitment of members of the Congress. The attempt to suppress the Panchayats, I have already mentioned. Picketing of a peaceful kind for stopping the sale of foreign cloth or liquor is anathema to the Government officers, and they have stopped at nothing to discourage and put an end to this form of activity. The wearing of black turbans seems to have become a crime and in Lahore, at least, the wearing of a Gandhi Cap or black puggree sends the District Magistrate crazy. ”

“ Reports have come from Sialkot district that the police have very often arrested people unconnected with political movements, especially, non-co-operation, simply because they were easier game. The non-co-operators, not being afraid of arrest, on the contrary welcoming it, are not a paying proposition. Sometimes, where instructions to arrest two or three men in a village were given, the police have arrested a lot more along with them in the hope that those others would pay subsequently for their liberty. ”

“ But worst of all is the practice which the police is resorting to, of bringing charges involving moral turpitude against prominent political workers simply with a view to lower them in the estimation of the public, knowing full well that they would not, according to the principles of Non-co-operation, produce any defense or even cross-examine the prosecution witnesses. ”

“ A careful study of the present situation will convince even the most hostile critic that we have, achieved almost or nearly, all that we had in view. Hindu-Mohammadan dissensions, the root cause of our weakness, are nearly non-existent to-day. We have made rapid strides in sinking our differences and creating that atmosphere of mutual trust and good will without which no common endeavour is possible. ”

“ We find that the public generally is more responsive than ever to the call of the non-co-operation movement. Those who have toured the districts invariably report that the people are as enthusiastic as ever and are willing to carry out any directions given by the Congress and sister committees. A very encouraging sign is that in spite of the great depletion in the ranks of our workers there are new men coming forward to take their place and carry on the work. ”

“ Another scandalous feature of the present policy of the Government is that the people after arrest are kept for long terms in the jails as under trial prisoners and the trials themselves are unnecessarily prolonged in spite of the fact that the accused, as non-co-operators, do not take part in the proceedings.
Very often persons are arrested under one section, proceeded against under another and finally convicted under a totally different section of the Penal Code. ”

“ The treatment of political prisoners in jails is really disgraceful. In the Punjab the policy actually put into practice seems to be to make the jail life of these people as hard and unbearable as possible. ”

“ But it can readily be imagined, what an abuse this practice lends itself to as it gives a wide scope to the police to terrorize innocent people and extort, perhaps, money from them by threatening them with arrest. A police party going into any village with blank warrants in their hands can terrorize the whole village, and especially those people who are not avowed non-co-operators. ”

“ In some of the jails very hard work, like grinding of corn and preparing reeds for rope-making, etc., are given to these people who are mostly town-bred and unaccustomed to hard manual labour. They are made to undergo periodical parades simply to humiliate them. For fancied offences against jail discipline harsh punishments like solitary confinement, standing hand cuffed, etc., are inflicted. ”

“ The prisoners in most of the jails in the Punjab are made to wear the degrading jail uniform which consists of a shirt with half arms and a pair of shorts. Exposed portions of the body are simply eaten alive by the mosquitoes. They are not afforded any facilities for reading newspapers. No light is allowed to them at night. ”

“ Pandit Santanam dealt at length with the new British repression and charged that this policy had been accompanied by grave abuses. He said 40,000 of the leading spirits in the Non-Co-operation movement are held in jail in India under distressing conditions and multitudes more have been arrested without any real cause. ”

“ In Sialkot town itself, we have had the spectacle of nearly a hundred men being arrested in a few days’ time, and after the lapse of a short interval all, but five or six of them, being left off without any explanation being offered. ”

“ The sanitary arrangements are defective and no attempt is made to secure privacy even in the lavatories. The food is the ordinary mess common to the jails, very often unwholesome and disgusting, flavoured with half heated oil, which stinks in the nostrils and with a good admixture of dust and grit. ”