Civil Disobedience in Indian Tradition, with Some Early Nineteenth Century Documents c3.7

c3.7

The material brought together by Shri Dharampal in this volume throws quite a different light on the subject. The following pages describe, in the words of the then British officers, the *mass movements* of civil disobedience at Benares, Patna, Sarun, Moorshedabad and Bhaugulpore against the imposition of new taxes on houses and shops. Shri Dharampal is quite right when he declares: 'If the dates, (1810-12) were just advanced by some 110 to 120 years, the name of the tax altered and a few other verbal changes made, this narrative could be taken as a fair recital of most events in the still remembered civil disobedience campaigns of the 1920s and 1930s.' That the events described in the correspondence published here were not exceptions, is borne out by other instances given by Shri Dharampal of similar actions that were either contemporary or of earlier times in other parts of the country.