Civil Disobedience in Indian Tradition, with Some Early Nineteenth Century Documents c4: Author's Note
Civil Disobedience in Indian Tradition, with Some Early Nineteenth Century Documents c4
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- English
Author's Note
c4.1
In 1965, during the course of a preliminary perusal of late eighteenth and nineteenth century British official material on India, I happened to read of a boycott and consequent organisational steps taken by some village communities during the ‘Deccan Riots’ of 1874 in the districts of Ahmednagar and Pune. The techniques employed by these village communities primarily against the money-lenders but also against all those who sided with the latter seemed essentially identical to those employed in the non-cooperation and civil disobedience movements of recent decades. Further research led me to several other apparently similar instances of nineteenth century non-cooperation and civil disobedience in different parts of India.
c4.2
For me this information was wholly unexpected. It not only led to much questioning, but also persuaded me to re-read some of the writings of Mahatma Gandhi on the subject. Up to this time, like those I knew, I had taken it for granted that non-cooperation and civil disobedience were of very recent origin in India and owed their practice here to Gandhiji. Again, like many others I had also assumed that while Gandhiji had made them more perfect and effective he himself had initially derived them from Thoreau, Tolstoy, Ruskin and other Europeans. But re-reading *Hind Swaraj*, I found Gandhiji observing: ‘In India the nation at large has generally used passive resistance in all departments of life. We cease to cooperate with our rulers when they displease us.’
c4.3
I shared this passage of Gandhiji with a number of friends several of whom had known Gandhiji personally and had many times participated in his non-cooperation and civil disobedience movements. I found them similarly fascinated with the information I had acquired. The fascination however, to an extent, was tinged with incredulity. It seemed to many that the above observation of Gandhiji was more symbolic of his idealisation of the past than a confirmation that non-cooperation and civil disobedience had been one of the traditional modes of protest against authority in India. The never ending repetition of claims that the ordinary people of India had from time immemorial been subservient to whoever ruled over them; that they had little or no regard for such mundane things as society or politics seemed to have had a deep impact not only on those who knew Gandhiji well and followed him into battle but equally on those who were considered hostile or even indifferent to him. Such incredulity, it seemed to me, could be met only through a more detailed search and assembling of primary material on the subject.
c4.4
The documents printed in this book (pages 57-172) are the result of this search and were compiled during 1966 from the relevant judicial and revenue records in the India Office Library, London. The first hint of the events described in them, however, came to me from the brief reference to them in Dr. Sashi Bhusan Chaudhuri's book *Civil Disturbances during British Rule in India 1765-1857*.
c4.5
I am thankful to the authorities and staff of the India Office Library, the West Bengal State Archives and the Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya, Delhi for various facilities they made available to me during this search.
c4.6
Though the compilation of the documents reproduced was completed in 1966 itself, the interpretation and presentation of the whole has only been done during the past few months, through the assistance of facilities and support extended by the Gandhi Peace Foundation. Unpublished Crown copyright materials in the India Office Library and India Office Records transcribed in this book appear by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, London.
c4.7
Innumerable friends have shown great interest and offered advice as well as criticism on the material and interpretations presented here. I am grateful to all of them. I am specially obliged to Bernie Horowitz, Mohammad Rafiq Khan and Radhakrishna for affording me much of their time and attention in this regard. I am also thankful to Narendra Goyal for help in the production of this book.
c4.8
The documents on pages 57-172 have been arranged in the order these would have been placed by the executing authorities in Benares, etc. in relation to correspondence with the Government at Fort William (Calcutta), or the Government of Bengal in its correspondence with London. This, it is hoped, would be helpful in the understanding of the events in Benares and other towns in the order they occurred.
c4.9
The documents are reproduced here in their original spellings and punctuation. In spite of all possible care, a few typographical errors may remain. These, however, do not make any substantial alteration in the meaning of the concerned passages.
c4.10
July, 1971 Dharampal