It was by sheer chance
that I read this book in these days, though I was keen to read it early, after
buying it in World Book Fair in February this year. Prior to
this I had read Shahid Amin’s book on ChauriChaura-Event, Metaphor, Memory
Chauri Chaura, published and much discussed earlier, written as part of
Sub-altern studies in history. Few other books, which I wished to have, when I
visited Gorakhpur-Devria-Chauri Chaura-Maghar-Lumbini in 2010 June, could not
acquire that time, but whose references are in this book.(Some Photos attached)
Chauri Chaura has attracted me a lot, that is why I visited
the place, after reading Shahid Amin book, I think my interest has been to know
the two parallel streams of freedom struggle. Bhagat Singh and Chandershekhar
Azad both had got disillusioned with Mahatma Gandhi due to his withdrawal of
mass Satyagraha or non cooperation movement on excuse of Chauri Chaura incident
of violence, where a police station was burnt by Satyagrahis and 23 policemen
were burnt alive. It was a turning point in Indian freedom struggle, as it gave
birth to alternative revolutionary movement. So it becomes necessary for a
student of history and of revolutionary movements to study this event more
keenly. Shahid Amin’s book has also impressed me at the time of reading it in
2009 or so. But Subhas Kushwaha has perhaps done even more labour and has more
concern with the struggles of those people and he has brought to notice even
the afterlife of the event and the movement. This new book is more elaborate
study of the movement, area and after effects of the movement. Motivation of
writing over this event for both writers has been to be part of that region.
Shahid comes from Devria and Kushwaha from Kushinagar, both close to Chauri Chaura.
Professionally Shahid is historian and Kushwaha a Hindi writer, references to
both writers become imperative, if one has read both the books.
Kushwaha has divided the book in 3 parts and 23 chapters with
12 appendices, references and foreword. Writer has acknowledged Manager
Pandey’s call as motivation for him to study this subject, as Kushwaha has
written books on peasant movement and literature based upon it. For material
collection, he faced lot of problems, took recourse to Right to information
also, and got many documents from British library London.
In first part
of the book, writer has focused upon background of the struggle by delineating
Indian freedom struggle since 1857, particularly its impact in Gorakhpur
region. Chauri Chaura movement was fought by peasantry of the region, so writer
has also given description of pre Chauri Chaura political activities and
peasant conditions. Writer has described the impact of Mahatma Gandhi’s visit
to the area almost a year earlier. After giving this background writer has
concentrated on the epical struggle of Chauri Chaura in second and main part of
the book. In his foreword writer has challenged official description of the
struggle, which is inscribed on black granite on Chauri Chaura memorial. This
inscription has mysteriously obliterated the real nerve centre of the
movement-Dumri Khurd village, from where all the activities of movement took
place and from where Dalits, Muslims and other backward classes people revolted
in a big way. In 1857, Bandhu Singh of Dumri Kala or Dumri Khas village of
Gorakhpur region has taken big part and he was hanged on a tree, many other
people of the region were also victimised for revolting in 1857. In second
chapter, writer has described the peasant revolts during 1918-22 and also riots
in UP. Quoting from largely unknown book of Jaichander Vidyalankar, teacher of
Bhagat Singh, writer has underlined the fact that even Nehru did not support
Avadh peasant struggle on the excuse that ‘they don’t want class struggle in
country’! There has been talk of Bolshevik revolution of Russia, happened in
1917 among peasant activists, which has even been referred in Premchand’s novel
Premashram of 1922. In third chapter writer has discussed Gandhi’s idea of
Satyagraha and his views on non violence. Writer has also underlined the
magnetic impact Gandhi had among masses, so much so that a 104 year old woman
came to see Gandhi after visiting many religious places to look at him as
incarnation of God! People had immense faith on Mahatma Gandhi! Mahatma Gandhi
had become undisputed leader of Congress party after the demise of Lokmanya Tilak
in 1920 and since then some kind of Satyagraha was being conducted by Congress
party, first on Khilafat issue, then on issues of peasants etc. But whenever
there was little of violence, Gandhi reacted rather strongly. Thus when Prince
of Wales visited Bombay on 17th November 1921, 20 thousand strong
masses became uncontrolled and in resulting violence, 53 including 45
Satyagrahis were killed in police firing. Mahatma Gandhi condemned the incident
and not police repression and withdrew the movement and proceeded on fast.
From
January 1922, there were lot of disturbances in the country and in United
Province (UP) also. Writer has argued that it was wrong to say that Chauri Chaura
incident happened out of blue, it had background and was culmination of that
process. He has given data of arrests of 1921-22 peasant movements; there were
18120 arrests out of which 16719 were convicted for various offences. On the
other hand M N Roy in Soviet Union was trying to use his influence to
radicalise Congress programme of agitation against British colonialism by
sending many pamphlets for Congress sessions.
In 1921 Mahatma
Gandhi toured UP with Ali brothers-Maulana Mohammad Ali Johar and Maulana Shaukat
Ali Johar. On 8th February 1921, they had reached Chauri Chaura.
Traveling on train, on all stations large crowds gathered to have a look at
him, 30 thousand people came on Devria station, on Chauri Chaura station he
received a gift from a Marwari. Gandhi stayed for 6-7 hours in Gorakhpur and
addressed a meeting of about two lakh people. To enrol for non cooperation
movement Satyagarhis had to sign a pledge to remain non violent in face of even
brutal attacks by police. Gorakhpur area was politically very active, 15000
people had protested against Jallianwala Bagh massacre here and when Avadh
peasant movement leader Baba Raghav Das was convicted, 50 thousand people
gathered at court to protest.
In the second part of the
book, writer has focused on the actual events happened on 4th
February 1922 leading to the burning of police station that day resulting in
the death of 23 policemen. There are two villages near Chauri Chaura-Dumri Khurd
or Chhoti Dumri and Dumri Kala or Dumri Khas or Badki Dumri, which are at a
distance of five miles from each other. Dumri has the only Zamindari of Sikh
settler Surat Singh, who was awarded this Zamindari due to his loyalty during
1857. His two sons-Umrao Singh(father of Amrita Shergill) and Sunder Singh
Majithia acquired this after his death, on whose behalf their relative Harcharn
Singh took care of it for two decades. In Saraya, they had established sugarcane
mill in 1900. The feudal lords lived in Badki Dumri or Dumri Kala, whereas poor
people, mostly Dalits from Chamar caste lived in Chhotki Dumri, which became
the centre of the movement, which later came to be known as Chauri Chaura
movement due to 4th February happenings there. There was lot of
Muslim population in the region and generally there was peace and amity between
Dalits and Muslims of the area, except for minor tensions here and there once
in a while. Chauri and Chaura were two villages nearby, but railway station was
named Chauri Chaura, police station is in Chaura village, which is bigger of
the two. Dumri was also a big village with 2500+ population in those days. The
meeting of Satyagrah committee had taken place on the morning of 4th
February at this village and Satyagrahis had marched from this village to
Chauri Chaura, where peasants and other people have joined from other villages
too. Nazar Ali and Lal Mohammad were main leaders of the movement in this area;
other prominent persons were Bhagwan Ahir, Abdulla, Inderjit Koery, Shyam
Sunder and one unidentified Sanyasi were also in the lead. Shikari also played
leading role in beginning, but he turned approver during trial. Lal Mohammad
aged forty was from Chaura village, Nazar Ali aged 30 and Bhagwan Ahir aged 24
were from Dumri Khurd, Abdulla Sai, 40 years old was from Rajdhani village.
They were all known activists and sometimes office bearers of local Congress
committees. Chaura police Inspector and In charge of police station has beaten
up Bhagwan Ahir without any provocation, that has created a tension in the
area, which was otherwise conducting peaceful Satyagraha in the area. The local
Zamindars or their agents were siding with the police, which included Harcharn
Singh and Santbux Singh, who had big business interest in the area. By noon 3
to five thousand people had gathered in Chauri Chaura, the Police Station
incharge had already got armed police unit from district headquarters, they
were also in police station. There were many Chaukidars in police station,
which had come to collect their salaries on that day. The heated exchanges
between Guptshwar Singh and processionists perhaps led to attack from police
side, resulting in the death of at least two Satyagrahis, but some say it could
be 26, this provoked Satyagrahis, which could not stick to their pledge of not
attacking back and the earlier police repression contributed to their pent up
feelings, so they burnt the police station, killing 23 persons inside, but they
spared wives and children of police men.
Writer has described the events of 4th February in
great detail, which confirms the firing straight on Satyagrahis resulting in
the death of at least two volunteers-Kheli Bhar and Budh Ali, after this it
became difficult to control the anger of Satyagrahis and they collected
kerosene and other such inflammable items from the market itself and put the
police station on fire. Their prime target was Gupteshwar the brutal DSP of
police, another senior police officer to get burnt alive was armed police
inspector or DSP Prithvipal Singh, other 21 policemen were either constables,
one or two Head constables and many Choukidars, who were used by Gupteshwar to
attack Satyagrahis. Another Chaukidar Surajbali Singh died of wounds, making
the figure to 24. On the other hand, the number of Satyagrahis killed is
recorded as two, but there were references to 26 or at least many more than the
recorded number, as due to non communication times of those days, many dead
bodies may have been taken to villages by the volunteers. All the feudal lords
or their agents sided with British police during the clash as well as
afterwards to get Satyagarhis hanged from British courts. Total of 225 persons
were charged with murder, conspiracy and many other offenses. Interestingly
there were very few high caste persons in this list. 90% were from Dalits,
backward castes and Muslims. Not only British Government treated it as grave
crime, even Mahatma Gandhi, on whose name Satyagrahis offered themselves for
sacrifice and shouted all the time slogan in his name, called this incident as
‘Crime of Gorakhpur’ and ‘Crime of Chauri Chaura’ and the non cooperation was
immediately suspended on the excuse of this incident, as it violated the
‘pledge of non violence’!
Police challaned initially 273 persons in lower court on 25th
March 1922, out of 273, 54 persons were challaned even in absence, whocould not
be arrested. Later trial was conducted on 228 persons, out of whom few died
during trial, few became approvers. These persons were from 30+ villages of the
area. After the trial, 47 were acquitted due to lack of evidence and 172
persons were convicted to death! This created furore in the whole world. News
of the revolt was carried in the world media as well. Australian newspapers
carried the news, Communists world over stood for the convicted poor peasants
and other rural labourers. M N Roy, wrote letter to British labour party on
behalf of Indian Communists from Zurich on 2nd February 1923
demanding revocation of the sentence of death, focusing upon the condition of
Indian ‘hungry peasants’. On 14th March 1923, Executive of Communist
International and Red International of Labour Unions while condemning the sentence
appealed the working class world over to oppose the sentence. In India,
protests came in Calcutta, peasant leader Baba Raghav Das protested and he was
imprisoned for some months for protesting. But the illiterate convicted
peasants were not disturbed by the sentence, they used to say that after ‘ten
months’ they will return on earth to continue the struggle, meaning getting
‘rebirth’ after death! After lower court conviction order in January 1923, an
appeal was filed by Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya in High Court in third week of
January itself and hearing started from 6th March 1923. Some labour
members of British Parliament raised the issue in Parliament and demanded
revocation of death sentence. Communist Saklatwala also raised the issue. On 30th
April 1923, High Court gave its verdict and death sentence was limited to 19
persons, 38 were acquitted, few were released with short sentences, but many
got long term jail sentences! Mercy petitions formality was done without any
result and 19 persons were hanged from 2nd July to 11th
July 1923 in different jails of UP. All the major leaders of the movement were
hanged-Nazar Ali, Lal Mohammad, Abdulla, Bhagwan Ahir etc.
Those who got life
sentences, their condition was pitiable, because of poverty, even Congress Government
did not release them, when they came to power in 1938 for some time. Many
political prisoners, including those of revolutionary movements like of Kakori
were released, but Chauri Chaura prisoners waited till 1942-3 to get released.
Government provided all help to killed policemen families, including giving
jobs and pensions, where as no one took care of Chauri Chaura convicts. Their
women’s condition in homes was much worse. Only two persons of high castes out
of 170 convicted got some social position after 1947. Dwarka Pandey became MLA
from 1952 to 1957. Dwarka Gosain got pension in 1949 and was honoured in 1972.
Poor participants of ChauriC haura struggle had to struggle a lot to get
cleared from the tag of Goondas, Looteras etc. and their recognition as freedom
fighters came as late as in 1993, when 110 families from this event started
receiving pensions. For this also only Communists like Jharkhande Rai MP and
CPI MLA’s UP assembly fought and not the Congress! Memorial to the killed
policemen was built in 1924 itself inside police station, whereas memorial to
Chauri Chaura martyrs could be inaugurated only in 1993, with many false
inscriptions in names of high caste persons, who never took part in movement.
Irony is that even in police station memorial salami is given, but not to 19
martyrs!
Subhas
Chander Kushwaha has written the book with labour of love and with concern for
the victims of Chauri Chaura movement. Earlier major publication was of Shahid
Amin’s Event, Metaphor, MemoryChauri Chaura, written from subaltern angle.
Shahid Amin’s book and research is also appreciable, but Subhas Kushwaha has
done much more elaborate research and hard work He got even the photographs of
police station with dead bodies scattered and many other documents from British
library London. He had to struggle hard to get the copies of documents from
Indian offices, often through RTI. SubhasKushwaha’s 12 appendices carry
documents of tremendous historic value, which include names of all policemen
killed in police station, Gandhi’s confidential letters to Congress party, Dates
and details of execution of 19 convicts, List of 225 accused, extracts from
judgements, names of different jails, where the convicts were sent.Book is very
rich in historic documentation. To say
in brief, writer has produced a commendable volume. Yet he will not get much credit
from Indian academicians, as the book is written in Hindi, even though
published by international publishing house-Penguin books!
Indian
academicians/historians never acknowledged Pandit Sunder Lal’s great two-volume
history-Bharat Men Angrezi Raj, despite being proscribed by British colonial
authorities, nor Chauri Chaura is likely to be recognised as work of great
significance, just because it is written in Indian language. Many major works
in Bengali on revolutionary movement history have still not been translated in
either Hindi or English, though these are the source books of Indian history.
Yet hopefully this book will perform its primary task of spreading awareness
about the reality of Chauri Chaura, which has remained obliterated due to
Indian politicians, particularly of Congress variety’s deliberate ignore as
Gandhi has condemned the movement as ‘violent’ movement. Fact of the matter is
that poor peasants with hatred for oppressors led Charui Chaura movement.
Because of Mahatma Gandhi’s withdrawal of this movement, both Bhagat Singh and
Chandershekhar Azad got disillusioned from Mahatma Gandhi and Congress party
and decided to chart a new path of revolutionary movement. Chandershekhar Azad has
30 lashes on his back in 1921 non-cooperation movement in Banaras by every time
shouting ‘Mahatma Gandhi ki Jai’! In a way, Chauri Chaura proved to be a
catalyst for revolutionary movement for India or one may say that had there
been no Chauri Chaura, there would have been no Bhagat Singh, Chandershekhar
Azad and his comrades!
Kudos to Subhash Chander Kushwaha for
writing this well researched book on one of the most significant episode of
Indian freedom struggle!
.JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
-Hindu+Panch+Calcutta-18-6-31+(1).jpg)
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}