Viceroy v. Gandhi
Between the Roy* and the Viceroy there is this difference: The Earl of Willingdon on his throne at Delhi can initiate action, decree the most drastic measures--in short, can rule. Last week the return to India of Mahatma Gandhi gave the Viceroy a chance to seem every inch a king. When Mr. Gandhi begged audience by telegram to discuss Lord Willingdon's recent ordinance suppressing free speech, freedom of assembly and virtually all civil rights in Bengal (TIME, Dec. 14), he received from the Viceregal court the telegraphic answer:
". . . His Excellency feels bound to emphasize that he will not be prepared to discuss with you the measures which the Government of India, with the full approval of His Majesty's Government, have found it necessary to adopt in Bengal, the United Provinces and the North-west Frontier Province. . . ."
In Bombay the Viceregal telegram was publicly called "insulting" by President Vallabhai Patel of the Gandhite Indian National Congress. Other Gandhites shouted: "This means war!" Squatting in his little tent pitched atop a Bombay tenement house, the Mahatma meditated half the night. Then loyal followers heard the scratch, scratch of his pen as he wrote to the Viceroy:
"You demand co-operation from the Congress without returning any on behalf of the Government. ... I can read in no other way your peremptory refusal to discuss the ordinances. . . . The Congress must resist with its prescribed creed of non-violence such measures of legalized terrorism as have been imposed in various provinces."
Next morning Disciple Madeline Slade, daughter of a deceased British Admiral, hastily washed all the Mahatma's loin cloths, so that he might not lack fresh ones in jail. Meanwhile leading British and Indian merchants and businessmen peppered the Viceregal Court with telegrams, cables. They reminded Lord Willingdon that Mahatma Gandhi's arrest would mean a trade loss of millions of dollars to the Empire, since it would unquestionably provoke a fresh Indian boycott of British goods. Even the Leader of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition, George Lansbury, successor to James Ramsay MacDonald as Parliamentary Leader of the Labor Party, cabled from London to the Viceroy: "Many friends are profoundly disturbed by your refusal to discuss the working of the ordinances with Gandhi . . . should be treated as one whose advice and goodwill on all matters should be considered."
The Viceroy's next act was 100% kingly. He ordered the Government of Bombay to arrest Mr. Gandhi in the dead of night and lodge him before dawn in Yerovda Jail near Poona, where the Mahatma had twice before been imprisoned (1926, 1930). At 3 a. m. Police Commissioner Wilson, Inspector Hirst and two strapping Indian policemen climbed the tenement stairs, approached the tent with-in which Mr. Gandhi was sleeping, bearing a warrant arresting the Mahatma "for good and sufficient reasons." Under a century-old ordinance enacted in the reign of King George IV. 50 years before Britain became an Empire, Prisoner Gandhi was to be lodged in jail for an indefinite term "during the pleasure of the Government."
"Bapoo, Bapoo!" cried Miss Slade softly, awakening the Mahatma by his pet name. "The police are here."
As it was Bapoo's day of silence, he received the warrant of arrest with a silent nod and smile, scribbled with a pencil his obedience to the Viceregal will. "Mr. Gandhi," said Police Commissioner Wilson, "you have half an hour to dress and pack."
Thousands of Indians had massed out side the tenement house, stood silent. With fresh water brought by Disciple Slade the Mahatma washed his hands and face, brushed his teeth. "Arrest me, too!" suddenly screamed Mrs. Gandhi, but even the need of comforting her did not cause Mr. Gandhi to break his silence. As she flung herself at his feet sobbing, "Please forgive me if I have said or done anything wrong to you at any time!" he patted her encouragingly on the back, then scribbled: "Don't grieve or worry about me. The British will be my warders, but God will be my protector. May the Father of us all keep you in His infinite mercy."
Softly Mrs. Gandhi, Miss Slade and some other Indian women who had crowded near began to chant the Mahatma's favorite prayer, "The Perfect Believer":
The perfect believer bears no ill will or malice toward any man. He looks upon every woman as his mother. He wishes well to all living creatures and he would cut out his tongue rather than lie.
As the last half minute of the Mahatma's half hour came, plump Devi Das Gandhi flung himself at the Mahatma's feet crying: "Father! Father!" Sobbing Miss Slade kissed the old man's withered toes, homage which he gently discouraged.
Immobile, non-resistant, the thousands of Indians who had waited all night around the tenement house made no move to interfere as the four police officers bundled Mr. Gandhi into a touring car, drove off into the night while the crowd chanted like a litany Victory! Victory! Victory!
Arrested the same night, spirited before dawn to the same jail was President Vallabhai Patel of the Indian National Congress which had declared the boycott on British goods as soon as the warrant for Mr. Gandhi's arrest was issued the afternoon before. (No sooner was Rajendra Prasad nominated to succeed Patel, than he too was taken prisoner. And Jawaharal Nehru, No. 2 Nationalist leader after the Mahatma, was sentenced to two years at hard labor.) One hour after the boycott went into effect, Mr. Gandhi imperatively demanded that two British-made gold watches be bought by his secretary and despatched to the two British policemen who guarded him in Europe. Expostulation against this breaking of the boycott by the Mahatma himself was in vain. "I promised those men watches," serenely observed St. Gandhi, "and I must stick to my word." (Each watch is engraved: "With love from M. K. Gandhi.")
At Yerovda Jail the British warders greeted Mr. Gandhi, whom many of them appear to venerate, with extreme kindness, made him welcome in his old quarters. Soon his spinning wheel was whirring. Beside it lay two books recently given him as keepsakes by their authors: Wanderings and Travels by James Ramsay Mac-Donald, Prime Minister; and The Fourth Seal by Sir Samuel Hoare, Secretary of State for India.
In his last hours of freedom Mr. Gandhi wrote two messages--a short one to all Christians, urging them to boycott British goods,* strive for Indian freedom; and a long message to his fellow Indians:
"India, awaken from your sleep! . . . Discard foreign cloth. Spin and weave your own. . . . Discard violence!
"Protect Englishmen, English women and children, even if they are provocative. Withdraw from the Government all cooperation, individually and collectively. Fulfill the resolutions of the Executive Committee of the Indian National Congress, even if the hardships include injury or loss of life and property."
Determined to crush this spirit once and for all. the Viceroy at once proclaimed four new all-India ordinances:
1) Making even peaceful picketing a crime.
2) Empowering the Government to declare any association unlawful and mak-ing it unlawful to contribute to such an association's funds.
3) Empowering the Government to punish ''unlawful instigation" not only by arresting the instigators but by confiscating their property.
4) Empowering all the provincial Governments in India specifically to declare the Indian National Congress unlawful and proceed accordingly.
The ink of Lord Willingdon's signature to the stern ordinances was not dry for long before things began to happen. At Allahabad a procession of Nationalists was ordered by police to disperse. When they refused, police laid about them with their lathis. Back and forth the mob surged, crushing spectators in the narrow byways. Net result: two killed, one of them trampled to death; 18 Congress party leaders arrested; about 20 injured.
In London every paper except the Laborite Daily Herald (which advocates granting Indians their independence) upheld the right royal acts of Viceroy Lord Willingdon last week, particularly endorsed his arrest of Mahatma Gandhi though some editors argued that the Viceroy should have received "Gandhi" before ordering his arrest.
*Assent of George V to most British Parliamentary bills is still given in archaic Norman French "La Roy Ia Valt!"
*The Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all "Because we England, have asked his indulged flock in to pray last week "Because we have indulged in national arrogance, finding satisfaction in our power over others rather than in our ability to serve them, forgive our trespasses."
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