“If for a time the Mahatma cannot be with us in the flesh, it behoves us to prove by calm, sustained and steadfast effort that he abides with us in the spirit. Not eternal watchfulness alone but unceasing effort is the price of freedom and in the struggle it must be remembered that arrests such as that of Mr. Das or the Mahatma are but episodes, looming large at the moment but destined to sink into proper perspective in time”.
MARCH 11, 1922
Mahatma Gandhi’s arrest
THE EXPECTED HAS HAPPENED AND MAHATMA GANDHI HAS been arrested. Considering that in these days one need not commit any specific offence to be arrested we need not be too curious concerning the particular section or sections which the Mahatma may be supposed to have infringed. His arrest may therefore be regarded as a sop to Cerberus. The Times has demanded it and what The Times wants it, under the masterly direction of Lord Northcliffe, knows how to get. The hearty enthusiasm with which the announcement of Mr. Montagu’s resignation was greeted by the Unionists in the House of Commons is an illustration of the temper of Mr. Lloyd George’s masters and to defer any longer taking action such as they demand was to imperil his Premiership and Mr. Lloyd George knows that he is too indispensable to the nation and the world at large lightly to risk that. We may take it therefore that the stiffening of opinion in England is the prime motive cause of the arrest. It is difficult to explain it otherwise coming as it does at this particular moment. We could have understood it if he had been arrested when he announced his intention to start civil disobedience in the mass. On both occasions the Government lay low because there was then nobody to egg them on, no panic-stricken Press to feature the coming horror in India in lurid headlines, no Northcliffes to emulate the fat boy in Pickwick thirsting to make the flesh of the public creep. It required the Prince of Wales’ visit to India, a visit which in spite of his great personal qualities we have no hesitation in calling one of the most ill-omened of royal tours, to make the British public realise that all was not well in India, that the Reforms Act had not set the coping-stone on Indian political ambitions. The awakening has come but it is not so much an awakening as a transition from a dreamless sleep into a nightmare and one of the earliest reactions of the new scale of political values is the arrest of Mr. Gandhi. Mr. Montagu’s resignation may not have anything to do with the new orientation of policy but it is at any rate timely. It would have been awkward for him otherwise to reconcile his statement that Mr. Gandhi’s arrest was deferred pending further experience of the reality of his abandonment of mass civil disobedience and the present move. It cannot be pretended that anything has transpired since that statement was made, which could even remotely suggest itself as a reason for the arrest. It is true the Delhi resolutions may be construed as a modification of the Bardoli ones but that is hardly the Mahatma’s fault. His efforts have been consistently directed towards softening them down and the lead he has given has been followed all over the country, even the Punjab, which is usually the most impatient, consenting to give the Bardoli programme a trial. It is clear, therefore, that civil disobedience is an academic question all over the country except in Andhradesa where a premature and apparently unauthorised campaign was begun but which has now been given up. Mr. Gandhi never compromises with his conscience and he is determined that all possibilities of violence must be eliminated before the fight can be begun. The Government cannot be ignorant that all his energies have latterly been devoted with this sole end in view and that so far as any activities of Mr. Gandhi or his followers are concerned no official need lose a night’s sleep. They cannot be ignorant, if their real uneasiness is the possibility of widespread disorder, that Mr. Gandhi free is a greater asset to them than Mr. Gandhi in jail. If in spite of these considerations they decided to arrest Mr. Gandhi, it must have been on grounds quite other than a breach of the law or a possible disturbance of the peace. The Government in fact are pursuing the policy which dictated the arrest of Mr. Das, whose offence was that he was the President-elect of the Congress, and kept him incarcerated for a scandalously long period before trial. It is a challenge thrown in the face of the country. Government feel that the movement has had too much rope, has grown stronger than it imagined could be possible with the “most futile of all movements.” And it seeks to crush the movement by arresting its originator. As is usual with all repression its action is neither timely nor thorough. For one thing it is too late; for another the Government cannot build enough jails for all those who will have to be arrested if the movement is to be scotched. The response of the country to the challenge must be clear and unmistakable. That there will be unbounded resentment at the action goes without saying but what must be insisted on is that that resentment should translate itself to a strengthening of our purpose and not waste itself in futile violence. As the Mahatma has time and again insisted, to resort to violence is to play the Government’s game. The Daily News suggests that the alternative to concessions is handing the country over to the military. We must demonstrate that violence in repression is as unnecessary as it is bound to be futile and that a machine-gun is as useless in a moral struggle as a warrant of arrest. We commend to the attention of our readers the simple and affecting message issued by the Mahatma on the eve of his arrest and would ask them to steel their hearts and set to work upon the programme without wasting their energy in useless grief. If for a time the Mahatma cannot be with us in the flesh, it behoves us to prove by calm, sustained and steadfast effort that he abides with us in the spirit. Not eternal watchfulness alone but unceasing effort is the price of freedom and in the struggle it must be remembered that arrests such as that of Mr. Das or the Mahatma are but episodes, looming large at the moment but destined to sink into proper perspective in time. The faint-hearted may regret the intensified repression the arrest forebodes. Even they, we venture to think, will hardly endorse the appeal made by Mr. Sastri, with the replete gratitude of one who has dined well and often, that the Moderates should support Government if (being behind the scenes he might as well have said, when it felt it necessary to arrest Mr. Gandhi. The choice is theirs however and the mess of pottage for them to take or leave. For the country at large things must grow much worse before they grow better and for the empire – but who shall speculate on how the struggle will develop?
Reference:
The First 100
A Selection of Editorials, 1878-1978, THE HINDU, VOLUME I