Civil Disobedience in Indian Tradition, with Some Early Nineteenth Century Documents c5.16

c5.16

In a small principality, the villagers were offended by some command issued by the prince. The former immediately began vacating the village. (It is possible that such recourse to the vacating of villages, towns, etc., as noted by Gandhiji and as threatened in 1810-11 at Murshedabad etc., was of a much later origin than the various other forms of non-cooperation and civil disobedience described in this volume. Resort to such an extreme step as the vacating of villages etc., indicates increasing alienation of the rulers from the ruled and further a substantial weakening of the strength of the latter. Such a situation is in glaring contrast to the situation where ‘the princes stood in awe of their subjects’. Though such an extreme step at times may have still worked in relation to Indian rulers who were not yet completely alienated from the ruled in Gandhiji’s young days, its potential use against completely alien rulers, such as the British, must have become very small indeed.) The prince became nervous,