The Trial of 1922

Justice Broomfield knew that the law under which the man on the dock was being tried was cruel and favored the masters over slaves. He also knew that as a judge it was his duty to uphold the law for it was enacted by a competent Crown. The only thing that he could do was to make the proceedings absolutely impersonal and let the laws prevail over personal feelings. All that he did to show his personal admiration for the accused was to bow to him, as judge, before taking his judicial seat.

And, the man on the dock bowed back, smiling as he ever was, that disarming smiles that had endeared him to millions. His name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

Gandhi was accused of inciting the populace of India by his writings in Young India, a paper that he published from 1919 to 1931. He wrote from his heart and was never in doubt over what he asked the millions who read or heard his writings to demand. He asked them to demand what was their right, a right that Bal Gangadhar Tilak had so eloquently put as जन्म सिद्ध अधिकार (Right by birth), and the right to be masters of their own destinies. Freedom from colonial rule that he so out earnestly asked his countrymen to ask for through his writings was seen as sedition by the Colonial Masters who had levied the charge against him for “bringing or attempting to excite disaffection towards the British Government established by law in British India”.

The trial court was packed to the brim. Thousands of followers stood outside the court premises, silently but defiantly in the eyes of the amassed police forces. They did not sing or chant or indulge in activities that would belie the great faith that Gandhi had on them. Satya or truth, he had often said, will prevail. Violence, he believed with all his heart and soul, would beget nothing but more violence and in the melee truth will be lost. So the swollen crowds stood patiently without a murmur.

Inside the court room, on the 18^th March 1922, Justice Broomsfield proceeded to conduct the trial as per law. He was not surpriced when Gandhi eagerly pleaded guilty. However, the Advocate General (Sir JT Strangman along with Rao Bahadur Girdharlal Uttamram, Public Prosecutor of District Ahmedabad) representing the Crown insisted on reading out the full extent of incitements that Gandhi had caused in the eyes of the Crown, by his writings in Young India. Gandhi gave forth his bewitching smiles for each of the accusations and again in the end, pleaded guilty to all the charges. Justice Broomfield then proceeded to ask Gandhi whether hhe would like to say anything before the judgment was announced. Gandhi said yes. He had come prepared with a statement which, with the permission of the judge, he proceeded to read. As the courtroom in which Kasturba Gandhi, Sarojini Naidu, Pandit MM Malaviya, N C Kelkar, Smt JB Petit, and Smt Anasuyaben Sarabhai were also present among the public, he concluded his statement by saying:

“If one has no affection for a person or system, one should be free to give the fullest expression to his disaffection, so long as he does not contemplate, promote, or incite to violence…. I have no personal ill-will against any single administrator, much less can I have any disaffection towards the King’s person. But I hold it to be a virtue to be disaffected towards a Government which in its totality has done more harm to India than any previous system. India is less manly under the British rule than she ever was before. Holding such a belief, I consider it to be a sin to have affection for the system. And it has been a precious privilege for me to be able to write what I have in the various articles tendered in evidence against me.

In fact, I believe that I have rendered a service to India and England by showing in non-co-operation the way out of the unnatural state in which both are living. In my opinion, non-co-operation with evil is as much a duty as is co-operation with good. But in the past, non-co-operation has been deliberately expressed in violence to the evil-doer. I am endeavoring to show to my countrymen that violent non-co-operation only multiples evil, and that as evil can only be sustained by violence, withdrawal of support of evil requires complete abstention from violence. Non-violence implies voluntary submission to the penalty for non-co-operation with evil.

I am here, therefore, to invite and submit cheerfully to the highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me for what in law is deliberate crime, and what appears to me to be the highest duty of a citizen. The only course open to you, the Judge and the assessors, is either to resign your posts and thus dissociate yourselves from evil, if you feel that the law you are called upon to administer is an evil, and that in reality I am innocent, or to inflict on me the severest penalty, if you believe that the system and the law you are assisting to administer are good for the people of this country, and that my activity is, therefore, injurious to the common weal”.

Pin drop silence prevailed in the court when Gandhi finished. He proceeded to fold the paper in which he had penned his statement, tuck it in his famous ‘loin cloth’, and turning to the judge, bowed. Justice Broomfield contemplated for some time and then proceeded to announce the gravest punishment that law could impose on a charge of sedition – six years of imprisonment. A smiling Gandhi cheerfully nodded when the judge completed his pronouncement. After having completed his judicial duty, Justice Broomfield added to the judicial verdict by saying:

   “I should like to say …. if the course of events in India should make it possible for the Government to reduce the period and release you, no one will be better pleased than I."

And then the honorable Mr Broomfield rose, and bowed to Gandhi. In Gandhi’s own words:

“So far as the sentence itself is concerned, I certainly consider it is as light as any judge would inflict on me, and so far as the whole proceedings are concerned, I must say that I could not have expected greater courtesy”.

Gandhi’s trial of 1922 bears eloquent testimony to a process of law and courage of conviction that are beyond physical description. There is a spiritual quality that can be felt both in the accused and judge that marked the world of those years in a different class.

Such is the story of courage and conviction.  

Not just a birthday to remeber....

It is 1045 h on 02 Oct 13. World Non-Violence Day. From New Delhi to Timbuktu (this place actually is in Mali, Africa. Google it and you will know) across the globe, scores of idols of the man whose belief in non-violence led to the downfall of the greatest empire the world has seen would have been garlanded. Bhajans would have been sung or would be in the process of being pitched for closure. From commoners to ambassadors to presidents and kings would have bowed their head as a mark of respect and said whatever most appropriate thing to say on this occasion is. The listeners or the crowd if at all would have hummed and hued their ‘yeah, yeah’. By around noon, purportedly the great believers in the cause that this man espoused would have retired to their more important assignments of the day, satisfied that they have marked this man’s 144^th birth anniversary in the most appropriate manner that would be convincing enough to those who saw them on TV or heard them on radio. In so far as the millions who nether watched TV or heard radio, yet another day in their lives would be trudging towards wherever it takes them to.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the lawyer who could not stand and speak two sentences; the man whose legs where so shaky that he dropped his brief and ran from the court to hide;

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the man who would take the blows of police lathi with a smile during anti-Rowlett protests; the man who went on a fast that brought the bloodshed in Naokali to a stop; the man even his bitterest opponents would not hesitate to meet; the man whom a nation of 33 crores called “Bapu” (father); the man who took his assailant’s bullets with just two words (calling on his favorite God);

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the man who forever was seeking to know his own self; who in the process of which found a people of 33 crore thirsting for an identity;

The man whom we call Mahatma.

There are as much we can see as human fallibilities in Gandhi that we find in our selves. There are as many similarities too. But the only thing that makes him Mahatma and rest of us as ordinary mortals is his un-assailable faith in his own self. Where he believed, he went irrespective of the consequences; where he believed, he did irrespective of the consequences; where he believed, he gave and received irrespective of the consequences. So, that which sets him apart is a simple aspect called: Belief.

There is one more aspect that must be mentioned about him – his utter selflessness. But then what can we say about someone who wanted nothing for himself; not because he had no needs; not because he had no family; not because he wanted to be bigger than life; just because he was always in search of something that would define him as he was. The one who is content in himself has very little need for others.  In mammoth crowds, he could stand alone; in solitude, he could be heard. Actually there is very little of this Gandhi that we know. We are content calling him ‘Bapu’ once a year and perhaps more content being oblivious to his persona. As they say, simplicity is the most complex thing to understand.

It is not his person that is at debate. What appalls is the utter ignorance amongst us on his understanding of this country. Gandhi saw the nation as he would see himself – with utmost criticism that was aimed at discovering its strength. No one understood (though we all quote) when he said ‘India lives in its villages’. What a thousand economists cannot say in two hundred thousand volumes, he said in one line. In case of doubt, consider the following:

·      More than 60 % of India lives in villages. They remain home to the largest population and of course, vote banks. (That is why you see the ilk’s of Laloo going overboard to fool the village folks with their electoral gimmicks)

·        While caste and creed may appear to be ruling the village roost, villages remain one of the most coherent units of Indian society where everyone is an integral part of its socio-cultural-economic life

·    Inspite of the industrial economy that we have built as a nation, in a billion ways the cottage and village industries remain part of our everyday life. Over 80% of Indian households depend on what is produced in villages and rural areas.

·     The economy IS (in capital, underlined and never-out-scored) agrarian and try what we may, will remain so.

With this background, look at Gandhi. All his reform agenda was always aimed at villages – be it social causes, economic causes or what may be. He was not playing to the gallery. He was stating facts, seeing the truth and therefore advocating for the same. Say, 65 years of governance had consistently focused on basics like electricity, water, sanitation and education for the villages of India, the India of today would be far different than what we see. If the orientation for village industries, land reforms and agriculture had been blended correctly and implemented, we would not be seeing the rural upheavals that we see today. This would have meant a more contented country-side and a stronger economy. This also would have meant lesser slums, crime and demographic pressure on urban areas.

It is not possible to debate and understand Gandhi in a couple of pages. He needs more time and devotion. It is not to say that he is to be reinvented as a panacea for all the ills of our society. But, his relevance to a world that is ridden with poverty, violence and purposelessness can never be understated.

We need Gandhi. Not as a fossil of yester years to be cherished in a museum, but as a living idea that we need to nourish in our minds and apply in our daily lives. We are also Gandhis, if we can find the strength to discover our follies, rid our biases and unite for an India that will rise as the phoenix does from the ashes of its ambiguities, fears and uncertainties.

We need Gandhi.