Sir,
The publication of the summary of the Commissioner's Gujarati address to the Kaira cultivators necessitates a reply in justice to the latter as also the workers.
I have before me a verbatim report of the speech. It is more direct than the summary in the laying down of the Government policy. The Commissioner's position is that the revenue authorities' decision regarding suspension is final. They may and do receive and hear complaint from the ryots, but the finality of their decision cannot be questioned. This is the crux of the struggle. It is contended on behalf of the ryots that, where there are, in matters of administrative orders, sharp differences of opinion between local officials and them, the points of differences are and ought to be referred to an impartial committee of inquiry. This, it is held, constitutes the strength of the British Con-stitution. The Commissioner has on principle rejected this position and invited a crisis. And he has made such a fetish of it that he armed himself beforehand with a letter from Lord Willingdon to the effect that even he should not interfere with the Commissioner's decision. He brings in the War to defend his position and adjures the ryots and me to desist from our cause at this time of peril to the Empire. But I venture to suggest that the Commissioner's attitude constitutes a peril far graver than the German peril, and I am serving the Empire in trying to deliver it from this peril, from within. There is no mistaking the fact that India is waking up from its long sleep. The ryots do not need to be literate to appreciate their rights and their duties. They have but to realize their invalunerable power and no Government, however strong, can stand against their will. The Kaira ryots are solving an Imperial problem of the first magnitude in India. They will show that it is impossible to govern men without their consent. Once the Civil Service realizes this position, it will supply to India truly Civil Servants who will be the bulwark of the people's rights. Today the Civil Service rule is a rule of fear. The Kaira ryot is fighting for the rule of love. It is the Commissioner who has produced the crisis. It was, as it is now, his duty to placate the people when he saw that they held a different view. The revenue of India will be no more in danger because a Commissioner yields to the popular demands and grants concessions than the administration of justice was in danger, when Mrs. Maybrick was reprieved purly in obedience to the popular-will, or the Empire was in danger because a corner of a mosque in Cawnpore was replaced in obedience to the same demand. Had I hesitated to advise the people to stand against the Commissioner's refusal to listen to their prayer, instead of taking the open and healthy course it has taken, their discontent would have burrowed under and bred ill-will. That son is a true son of his father, who rather than harbour ill-will against him, frankly but respectfully tells him all he feels and equally respectfully resists him, if he cannot truthfully obey his commands. I apply the same law to the relations between the Government and the people. There cannot be seasons when a man must suspend his conscience. But just as a wise father will quickly agree with his son and not incur his ill-will, especially if the family was in danger from without, even so a wise Government will quickly agree with the ryots, rather than incur their displeasure. War cannot be permitted to give a licence to the officials to exact obedience to their orders, even though the ryots may consider them to be unreasonable and unjust.
Sabre-rattling
The Commissioner steels the hearts of the ryots for continuing their course by telling them that for a revenue for four lakhs of rupees, he will for ever confiscate their hundred and fifty thousand acres of land worth over 3 crores of rupees, and for ever declare the holders, their wives and children unworthy of holding any lands in Kaira. He considers the ryots to be misguided and contumacious in the same breath. These are solemn words :
"Do not be under the impression that our Mamlatdars and our Talatis will realize the assessment by attaching and selling your movable property. We are not going to trouble ourselves so much. Our officers' time is valuable. Only by your bringing in the monies shall the treasuries be filled. This is no threat. You take it from me that parents never threaten their children. They only advise. But if you do not pay the dues, your lands will be confiscated. Many people say that this will not happen. But I say it will. I have no need to take a vow. I shall prove that I mean what I say. The lands of those who do not pay will be confiscated. Those who are contumacious will get no lands in future. Government do not want their names on their Records of Ryots. Those who go out shall never be admitted again."
I hold that it is the sacred duty of every loyal citizen to fight unto death against such a spirit of vindictiveness and tyranny. The Commissioner has done the Ahmedabad strikers and me a cruel wrong in saying that the strikers knowingly broke their vow. He was present at the meeting where the settlement was declared. He may hold that the strikers had broken their vow (though his speech at the meeting produced a contrary impression), but there is nothing to show that the strikers knowingly broke their vow. On the contrary, it was entirely kept by their resuming their work on their getting for the first day wages demanded by them, and the final decision as to wages being referred to arbitration. The strikers had suggested arbitration which the millowners had rejected. Their struggle in its essence was for a 35% increase in their wages or such increase as an Arbitration Board may decide. And this is what they have got. The hit at the strikers and me is, I regret to have to say, a hit below the belt.[1]
- Nadiad,
- April 15, 1918.
- Yours, etc.,
- M. K. Gandhi
- ↑ The Bombay Chronicle, 17-4-1918.
