Description:

Gandhi Mohandas

Gandhi Criticized by Pro-British Indian Educator in the Last Stages of the Indian Independence Movement

“If he was set free to-day, he said he would still play with fire.”

High school head-master Maulvi Idris Ahmad compiles documents to demonstrate the violent results of Gandhi’s alleged non-violent approach to reform in India. Ahmad criticizes Gandhi especially for his role in creating conditions that led to an attack on a police station in Chauri Chaura, where nearly two dozen Indian policemen were killed.

Maulvi Idris Ahmad, "Mahatma Gandhi’s Final Verdict: Complete Failure of the Soul-Force Movement; Theory of “Non-Violence” Exploded, 2nd ed. Aligarh, India: Muslim University Institute Press, 1922. Printed pamphlet. 36 pp., 5.5" x 8.5".  Wear to front cover; repaired tear to back cover; apparently missing final four pages.

Excerpts

“There is ample evidence on record to show that Mahatma Gandhi fully realized and was very well aware of the inevitable consequences of his dangerous movement prudently petnamed as ‘non-violent non-co-operation,’ which he launched with the express object of overthrowing the present Government and securing Swaraj of some other type for India.” (p.1)

“His personal experience moreover, extending over three years, must have convinced him of the real truth howsoever uncongenial to him. The Satyagraha disturbances of 1919 compelled him to plead guilty to ‘a Himalayan Error.’ The year 1920 was by no means free from disturbances in almost every Province most of which could be attributed directly or indirectly to the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and his followers, and to the effect of those teachings in weakening the respect of the masses for law and order and for constituted authority.” (p. 2-3)

“The reason of Mahatmaji’s adoption of the self same methods of agitation immediately after his occasional outbursts of regrets for consequent violence is found in his own statement before the District and Sessions Judge of Ahmedabad, in the course of which he boldly admitted that ‘to preach disaffection towards the existing system of Government had become almost a passion with him,’ and that he had discharged his unpleasant duty of preaching so, knowing the responsibility that rested upon him, and he endorsed all the blame that the Advocate-General had thrown on his shoulders for the occurrences in Madras, Bombay and Chauri Chaura. If he was set free to-day, he said he would still play with fire.” (p.4)

“‘It is humiliating for me,’ says Mahatma Gandhi ‘to discover that there is a spirit of violence abroad, and that the Government of the United Provinces has been obliged to enlist additional police for avoiding a repetition of Chauri Chaura.’ It is most fortunate for the country that after this bold confession of truth, this time the Mahatmaji has ordered a halt of the destructive factors of his movement and now insists on a constructive programme to which we wish all success.” (p. 5)

In the early 1920s, Indians led by Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) engaged in a nationwide non-cooperation movement, largely using non-violent civil disobedience. Their goal was to challenge repressive government regulations with the ultimate goal of Swaraj, or self-governance.

On February 2, 1922, protesters challenged high meat prices in the marketplace in Chauri Chaura, in the Gorakhpur district of the United Provinces in British India. In response, the police beat back the demonstrators and arrested several leaders. Three days later, more than two thousand protesters gathered at the police station and demanded the release of their leaders. The police fired warning shots, protesters retaliated with stones, and the police opened fire on the crowd, killing three, before retreating to their station. Enraged protesters set fire to the police station, killing all 22 or 23 policemen and messengers inside.

The British declared martial law in Chauri Chaura, and Gandhi, appalled at the actions of his followers, went on a five-day fast as penance. A week after the incident, the Indian National Congress halted the Non-cooperation Movement, but Jawaharlal Nehru and other leaders who were in prison when Gandhi made the decision to halt the movement, believed he had made a mistake that demoralized many workers. The government arrested Gandhi and put him in jail. It also arrested more than 220 people in relation to the riot and arson. Six died in police custody, and another 172 were sentenced to death. After a storm of protest erupted and some leaders called for a general strike, the High Court reviewed the death sentences, upholding nineteen, sentencing 110 to life in prison, and the remainder to long prison terms.

India finally achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1947.

Maulavi Idris Ahmad was the head-master at the District High School in Bijnor, United Provinces. In addition to this work, he also published "The Blessings of the British Rule in India" (1920), which appeared in several editions.

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