Chitta Ranjan\'s Part in the Non-Co-operation Movement.

While on the cessation of all hostilities in Europe India stood on the tip-toe of expectation for the new age of freedom that was about to dawn and while men conjured rosy visions of the future, Lord Chelmsford inaugurated in an evil moment a policy of depriving India of even the elementary rights of personal freedom and free speech—rights which are most valued in an enlightened democracy. Towards the close of December 1917 Lord Chelmsford thought it fit to appoint a Commission presided over by Mr. Justice Rowlatt of the King\'s Bench Division to investigate and report on revolutionary conspiracies in India and to advise the Government to frame such legislation as might enable them to deal more effectively with the reactionary movements. The Commission was appointed without any sort of compelling necessity and, to say the least of it, at a most inopportune moment. The Commission held its sittings at different places of India and after an one-sided and unjudicial enquiry published a long report towards the close of April 1918. The war having just then successfully terminated in favour of the Allies, the Defence of India Act and other war-time measures which could only last so long as the war continued, would necessarily cease to be in force any longer and therefore the Commission suggested certain penal laws as a more effective and permanent safe-guard against the so-called anarchists of India. The report was emphatically protested against by every section of the Indian press but in spite of all popular opposition,[56] Government drafted a bill substantially embodying the recommendations of the Rowlatt Committee and hurried it through the Imperial Legislative Council within six months of the report. The bill is generally known as the Rowlatt Bill. The effect of its provisions was two-fold: the Provincial Governments would be vested with an authority similar to that which was given to them by the Defence of India Act, and every person accused of a revolutionary crime would be summarily tried by the tribunals specially appointed for the purpose.

Against such a cruel and tyrannical measure the whole of India protested with one voice. Public feeling was in a state of high ferment and yet in spite of all this, and in spite of the fact that every Indian Non-official member of the Imperial Legislative Council voted against the proposed measure, the Rowlatt Bill was passed into Law in March 1919. The situation in India reached a state of very high tension. Mahatma Gandhi advised his countrymen to take the Satyagraha Pledge as the only means of securing redress for their grievances. The pledge ran thus:—

"Being conscientiously of opinion that the Bills are unjust, subversive of the principle of liberty and justice, and destructive of the elementary rights of individuals, on which the safety of the community as a whole and the state itself is based, we solemnly affirm that in the event of these Bills becoming law and until they are withdrawn, we shall refuse civilly to obey these laws and such other laws as may be thought fit and further affirm that in this struggle we will faithfully follow truth and refrain from violence to life, person and property."

Mahatma Gandhi further suggested that the second Sunday after the publication of the Viceregal Assent to the Rowlatt Act should be observed as a day of humiliation and prayer, a twenty-four hours\' fasting should be observed by all adults, all work should be suspended for the day and public meetings[57] should be held on that day in all parts of India at which Resolutions praying for the withdrawal of the measure should be passed. Indians gladly and freely took this pledge. Of the leaders in Bengal Chitta Ranjan was the first to rally round Mahatma Gandhi in preaching the Satyagraha vow. In March 1919 at a huge meeting of the citizens of Calcutta he delivered a speech in Bengali on Satyagraha in course of which he said:—

"To-day is Mahatma Gandhi\'s day. To-day is the day for us to express the afflictions of our heart. In days of prosperity we forget ourselves, but on evil days when fallen we realise ourselves and hear the message of God.

To-day at this national crisis we must search for the soul of the nation. This soul is to be attained by strength. What is that strength? It is not brute force, but the force of love. This is what Mahatma teaches us and this is the message of all India. The realisation of this message requires the abandonment of selfishness, envy, malice, and hatred. Why do we protest against the Rowlatt Act? We know it for certain that its enforcement means the dwarfing of our national being. To avert this calamity we should abandon all envy and malice and infuse into the hearts of our countrymen an ardent love for mother-country. This is why Mahatma has said—"Do not hate even your enemies, for the victory of love is ensured." This agitation, therefore, springs from love and righteousness; it is the throbbing of the heart of a nation. The only means to gain our object is self-sacrifice—self-sacrifice inspired by love."

The campaign of Satyagraha was started and what followed is written large in characters of fire and blood in the pages of Indian History. The Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, Sir Michael O\'Dwyer, did in an evil moment start a counter-campaign of repression. Drs Kitchelew and Satyapal, two popular leaders, were arrested and Mahatma Gandhi who[58] proceeded to the Punjab from Bombay was prohibited from entering the province, was arrested and sent back to Bombay. A strong rumour to the effect that Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned spread over all parts of India and exasperated the populace. Disorder broke out at Calcutta, Ahmedabad and many other places, but it took a serious form in the Punjab where martial law was proclaimed, and scores of persons were illegally hauled up before the martial law tribunals. Counsel for defence was disallowed and the unfortunate victims were all sentenced to death. In April 1919 the civil population of Amritasar convened a public meeting at the Jallianwalla Bagh to protest against some of the high-handed and tyrannous measures of the Punjab Government. The military were ordered by their Commanding Officer, General Dyer, to open fire on the harmless and defenceless crowd of men, women and children. In the name of public peace aeroplanes bombed the civil population from above and men were made to crawl on their bellies as a sign of penitent submission. This conduct of the Punjab authorities met with the full approval of Lord Chelmsford.

Independent public opinion demanded a thorough and sifting enquiry into the atrocities of the Punjab and in compliance with the insistent public demand, Mr. Montagu, the Secretary of State for India, appointed a Committee consisting of official and non-official members and presided over by Lord Hunter to investigate and report on the Punjab disorders. The Indian National Congress deputed a Committee consisting of Mahatma Gandhi, Srijut Chitta Ranjan Das, and other prominent leaders to conduct an independent enquiry of the disturbances. Chitta Ranjan was not then keeping good health, but the call of the mother-country was paramount with him. For about four months he served on the Committee at a great personal sacrifice. The report of the Committee which was published in due time contained a severe denunciation of[59] the most cold-blooded atrocities committed by the authorities of the Punjab. The official report, though the European members forming the majority attempted at whitewashing, contained much evidence to show that there had been some excessive use of military force. Both the reports astounded the world with first-hand knowledge of the unparalleled atrocities of the Punjab. The matter was agitated in Parliament and the staunch friends of India there tried their best to get justice done to India. The Secretary of State expressed his confidence in the Viceroy, the Viceroy his confidence in Sir M. O\'Dwyer, who in turn fully approved of the deeds of General Dyer and this gentleman openly prided over his bloody performances at Jallianwalla Bagh. But the most shameful termination of the affair was the fact that the House of Lords hailed General Dyer as the Saviour of India. However four things relating to the Punjab event augmented the discontented feeling of the people bringing home to them their utterly helpless condition. First, the minority report of the Indian members of the Hunter committee and the shameless whitewashing of the European members of the same committee; secondly, the non-impeachment of General Dyer and Sir M. O\'Dwyer; thirdly, the heinous approbation of Dyer\'s conduct by the House of Lords; and fourthly the large contributions to the Dyer Fund both in England and India as a reward of his gallant deed.

Simultaneously with these high handed and arbitrary proceedings in the Indian administration a fresh wrong was done to every follower of the Muslim faith. At the end of the European War, Mr. Lloyd George in replying to Indian representations on behalf of Turkey, assured Islam that Turkey would have full justice. But when peace was concluded, the treatment meted out to Turkey was extremely derogatory to her self-respect and dignity; the Khilafat, the supreme temporal and spiritual power in Islam was most[60] shamelessly handled. The Prime Minister, when reminded of his previous promise, replied somewhat ironically that Turkey had had justice done to her.

At this moment Mahatma Gandhi came forward with his scheme of the passive resistance movement now generally styled, Non-Co-operation as the only means of rectifying the Punjab and Khilafat Wrongs. On the 4th of September 1920 at the Special Session of the Indian National Congress at Calcutta, which was presided over by Lala Lajpat Rai, the Non-Co-operation resolution of Mahatma Gandhi was adopted by an overwhelming majority. It laid down the following steps to prepare the country for non-violent Non-Co-operation:

(a) National Education.
(b) Boycott of Law Courts.
(c) Boycott of Foreign Goods.
(d) Call for Self-Sacrifice.
(e) Organisation of the Indian National Service.
(f) The Swadeshi Vow.
(g) Tilak Memorial Swarajya Fund.

At the Special Session of the Congress held at Calcutta Chitta Ranjan was not in favour of withdrawing students from schools and colleges and boycotting Law-courts. But at Nagpur a prolonged discussion with Mahatma Gandhi about the details of the Non-Co-operation movement convinced him of the necessity for adopting the whole programme and at the session of the Nagpur Congress Chitta Ranjan himself moved the Non-Co-operation Resolution. Some of the delegates who did not know Chitta Ranjan well doubted his sincerity, but when he told them bluntly that in his whole life he had never failed to practise what he preached, the non-believers were silenced. In course of the speech he said:—

"I ask you to remember, that when I say anything, I mean[61] it, and in my life on public questions, I have never said anything which I do not believe in."

Chitta Ranjan came back to Calcutta, gave up his unrivalled practice at the call of his mother-country and devoted all his time and energy to the attainment of Swaraj by the peaceful method of non-violent Non-co-operation. The only thought which was uppermost in his mind when he gave up his practice was his solicitude for his poor countrymen. Some time after this one of his friends once asked him what would be the fate of his enormous charities. Chitta Ranjan kept quiet for a while and then replied with a deep sigh:—"What shall I do? A greater call of duty has reached me, I must respond to it. Those whom I have helped so long will be helped now by God Himself."

About two years ago when Chitta Ranjan was engaged in the Dumraon Raj case an ascetic once said to him:—"My child, this life of worldly enjoyment you shall have to renounce very soon." None could at that time have any faith in that prophecy. Who could have ever dreamt that the time was so near? Mysterious indeed are the ways of God which the limited intelligence of man fails to fathom.

Chitta Ranjan\'s sacrifice in the Non-co-operation movement has elicited admiration even from high-souled Englishmen. Sir Michael Sadler, the late President of the Calcutta University Commission wrote in the London Times:—"Chitta Ranjan\'s wonderful sacrifice is unparalleled in the history of the world. Indians would do well to follow him."

As we have already said Chitta Ranjan is never a politician in the true sense of the term; he possesses none of the diplomatic ways of a thorough-bred politician. He is only a high-souled patriot led by emotions. He has loved his country with all his heart from childhood; in manhood through all activities he has striven hard to keep alive its sacred image in his heart; and now on the threshhold of age that image[62] has became clearer and truer than ever. The late Lokamanya Tilak once said of him, "I believe the time is not very far when Chitta Ranjan will devote all his energy to the services of his country and his love of mother-land will burn as a torch-light to guide his countrymen in the right path." That hope has now been realised.

The People of India also as a mark of their heart-felt gratitude for the noble sacrifice and selfless patriotism of Deshabandhu Chitta Ranjan Das has unanimously elected him to be the President of the Indian National Congress to be held at Ahmedabad in December 1921. For some time he hesitated to preside over the most momentous session of the Congress of this year, but at last in compliance with the united request of his countrymen he accepted the honour—the highest they had in their power to bestow.

It is after all the great ideal of Chitta Ranjan\'s sacrifice that has led the young men of Bengal to respond to the call of mother-country when even Mahatma\'s appeal has failed to move them. The student-community of Bengal came out in a body to rally round Deshabandhu Chitta Ranjan in attaining the object for which we are all fighting. In one of the students\' meetings at Calcutta Mahatma Gandhi while addressing the students said:—"I knew that you were waiting for Srijut Chitta Ranjan\'s leadership and I hoped the time was not very far when he would sacrifice his all at the call of his country." In an appeal to the students of Calcutta he said:—

"I advocate the method of Non-Co-operation, as every other method has failed. I want you to cling to this method, come what may. This is our last chance and this, at least, will not be in vain. Do you know what Non-Co-operation means? You must withdraw your help in moving the powerful machinery of the Bureaucracy. Do you realise how you can move this machinery? The Bureaucracy works its[63] wicked will through the pleaders, through doctors, through clerks, through their police officers and through Magistrates and Judges. And you now see what the Calcutta University contributes. It contributes all the strength upon which the strength of the bureaucracy depends.

The method that I advocate is the method of sacrifice. If you have to destroy what you consider your chance of success in life, remember, it is only to defeat the bureaucracy, and to attain Swaraj. How can Swaraj be attained unless you realise your own right clearly, unhesitatingly? How can you compel the bureaucracy to recognise that which you yourself do not realise?

I repeat, therefore,—wake up, wake up, wake up. We have slept too long. Realise the sense of your bondage and stand out boldly and firmly on the road to Freedom."

In his Sagar Sangit Chitta Ranjan once sang this song:—
"As thou didst call with the roar of thy thunder In the infinitely musical voice of thy soul, My life over-flooded its banks In the heart-churning torrents of thy sound."

When actually this call came to him, he went forth from place to place to preach the Swaraj mantra. Bengal was already prepared to adopt it. Wherever he went, the local people responded in a splendid manner and national institutions grew up simultaneously. After starting a national college at Dacca when Chitta Ranjan proceeded to Mymensingh in the beginning of March 1921, the Joint Magistrate prohibited him from entering the town. As the Congress had not then sanctioned civil disobedience, he did not break that order. But on that occasion the noble message that he sent to his countrymen is even now vibrating in the air:—"We are treated like helots in our country. Life is unbearable without Swaraj." He then came to Tangail and in the[64] large compound of Mr. Wajed Ali Khan Pani\'s house a mass meeting was held where the labourers and peasants were present in a large number; the large-hearted Zaminder Mr. Khan Pani started a national school and for the benefit of the peasants a granary was proposed. From Tangail Chitta Ranjan came to Sylhet via Maulavi Bazar and Habigunj and presided over the Assam Khilafat Conference. The local people accorded him a splendid ovation, the town was lighted in honour of his visit. In course of the speech at the Khilafat Conference he said:—"The dawn of a new era has come. It is the dawn of unity among the different sects of the Indian people. This unity is never to be broken. We are all united to attain Swaraj. If in our own home, we cannot preserve our self-respect, if in our own country we are ............