Whenever it appears to the Local Government that any printing
press in respect of which any security has been deposited as
required by Section 3 is used for the purpose of printing or
publishing any newspaper, book, or other document containing any
words, signs or visible representations which are likely to have
a tendency directly, or indirectly, whether by inference,
suggestion, allusion, metaphor, implication or otherwise:
(a) To incite to murder or to any offense under the Explosives
Substances Act of 1908, or to any act of violence or
(b) To seduce any officer, soldier, or sailor in the Army or
Navy of His Majesty from his allegiance or his duty or
(c) To bring into hatred or contempt His Majesty or the
Government established by the law in British India, or the
Administration of Justice in British India or any native Prince
or Chief under the suzeranity of His Majesty or any class or
section of His Majesty's subjects in British India or to excite
disaffection towards His Majesty or the said Government or any
such Prince or Chief or
(d) To put any person in fear or to cause any annoyance to him
and thereby induce him to deliver to any person any property or
valuable security, or to do any act which he is not legally
bound to do or to omit any act which he is legally entitled to
do or
(e) To encourage or incite any person to interfere with the
administration of the law or with the maintenance of law and
order or
(f) To convey any threat of injury to a public servant, or to
any person in whom the public servant is believed to be
interested, with a view to inducing that person to do any act or
to forbear to do any act connected with the exercise of his
public functions the Local Government may, by notice in writing
to the keeper of such printing press, stating or describing the
words, signs or visible representations which in its opinion are
of the nature described above, declare the security deposited in
respect of such Press and all copies of such newspaper, book, or
other document wherever found to be forfeited to His Majesty.
EXPLANATION I: In clause c the expression disaffection includes
disloyalty and all feelings of enmity.
EXPLANATION II: Comments expressing the disapproval of the
measures of the Government of any such native Prince or Chief as
aforesaid with a view to obtain their alteration by lawful means
or of the administration or other action of the Government or
any such native Prince or Chief or of the administration of
Justice in British India without exciting or attempting to
excite hatred, contempt, or disaffection, do not come under the
scope of clause c.
Can any people make headway in the art of self-government who are
governed by a foreign bureaucracy aided by an army of Indian Czars
regulating the very minutest details of their life? You know that this
over government of India is a direct result of your rule. Before you
came the Indian village was a self-governed unit. (See statements of
Monroe, Elphinstone, Metcalfe, and Lawrence.) Even now the people in the
Native States are in this respect better off than the people of British
India. The Education Minister of your Cabinet, Mr. H. A. L. Fisher has,
after a visit to India, placed it on record that "the inhabitants of a
well governed Native State are, on the whole, happier and more contented
than the inhabitants of British India. They are more lightly taxed; the
pace of the administration is less urgent and exacting. They feel that
they do things for themselves instead of having everything done by a
cold and alien benevolence." Yet if an Indian leader were to point this
out and ask the Indian masses to improve their lot by demanding and
winning for themselves the right to manage their own affairs, and by
driving out those influences that stand in their way, he would be
persecuted and imprisoned or transported.
The first axiom for political progress is that the people should
throw away their attitude of submission to oppression, tyranny,
high-handedness, and conditions of slavery whether imposed by a national
or a foreign Government. They have a right to revolt if they have the
means to do so successfully. But in any case, they have a right to
discuss, agitate and organize for changes. This they cannot do unless
they have a free press, a free platform, and the right of free
association. In India the first is denied by the Press Act, the second
by the comprehensive sections of the Penal Code, and the third by the
so-called "Seditious Meetings Act." What little was left has been done
away with under the extensive powers taken and exercised by the
Executive under the plea of war exigency by the "Defense of India Act."
While every other part of the Empire, including the "Mother Country" is
discussing political and economic changes of an extremely radical
character, such as the establishment of a more effective Imperial
Parliament and Preferential Tariffs after the war, not to speak of
constructive programmes for education, and industrial rejuvenation, the
Indian leaders are "officially" advised to be mum, and any effort to
rouse the country to a consciousness of its rights and duties is
characterized as perverted, ill-timed, and inconsistent with loyalty.
The advocates of "Home Rule" are being openly hampered in their
propaganda. Papers advocating home rule have been persecuted, and
leaders have been prohibited from entering provincial areas. But what is
worse is that the Criminal Investigation Department have been instructed
to take down the names of all those who have enlisted in the cause,
either as active or passive workers. A deputation of representatives of
the press that waited on the Viceroy to lay their grievances before him
has been lectured on the impropriety of thus raising the question at
this juncture and has otherwise been treated with shocking discourtesy.
In conclusion, let me ask you, sir, to notice the coercive methods by
which the War Loan is being raised in India. Poor underpaid subordinate
officials are being forced to purchase Government stock. They will
surely purchase the stock and win the good-will of their officers, but
just as surely they will squeeze the cost out of the people. That will
be strictly in accord with the standards of loyalty set up by your
officials!
Mr. David Lloyd George, I have addressed this letter to you, because at
this moment you seem to be the only British statesman possessed of
imagination. Exercise your imagination, sir, a little and save India for
the Empire; win the gratitude and blessings of a fifth of the human
race--of a people who were one of the first pioneers of civilization in
the world, who laid the foundations of culture, which you profess to be
so very anxious to save. Remember that the Indians were rich,
prosperous, free, self-governing, civilized and great, both in peace and
war, when not only Britain but even "Greece and Rome were nursing the
tenants of the wilderness." The Indians have lost their freedom because
they oppressed the people under them and as surely as night follows day,
the British will lose all that makes them great to-day, if they continue
to oppress and exploit the subject races within their Empire. The world
cannot be safe for democracy unless India is self-governed. Nor can
there be any lasting peace in the world, so long as India and China are
not strong enough to protect themselves.
Pardon me, sir, if I have disturbed you at such a critical moment;
though it is folly to presume that you could be disturbed in the
slightest degree by such a letter. I have written it out of a sense of
duty as sacred as that which inspires you in your herculean task; and if
you are inclined to think harshly of me for this letter, just try to put
yourself in my position and decide what then would be your point of
view.
LAJPAT RAI.
New York City, June 13, 1917.
Transcriber Notes:
Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_.
Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS.
Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of
the speakers. Those words were retained as-is.
Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected
unless otherwise noted.
Page 11, "Deva Bhumi" was replaced with "Deva Bhumi".