We know that criminal intimidation had been practised on the widest
scale in many districts. I may say that the majority of districts where
these associations existed, criminal intimidation of a subtle kind,
namely to attack a man in his religious opinions or to attack him in his
social relations, had been widely practised. We had an example here in
Lucknow of ordinary intimidation. A member of the Council himself
witnessed the unfortunate driver of an ekka being dragged off his ekka
and beaten because he ventured to ply for hire on the 17th of November.
I know myself the case of a shop which was kept open for two or three
days. The shopkeeper was surrounded by a howling mob, and he was told
what would happen to him, if he did not shut up his shop. In Fatehpur
they kept a blackboard, which was exhibited publicly, to show up the
people, who ventured to buy foreign cloth. This is also a form of subtle
and most cruel intimidation involving social boycott. You all know
perfectly well the difficulties that exist in India in getting victims
of this kind of tyranny to come forward and seek their legal redress in
the ordinary courts of law. The difficulty of proving criminal
intimidation is accentuated by the fact that it is not cognizable by the
police, and, consequently the complainant has to go to court, but, owing
to the difficulty of getting witnesses to prove his case, he usually
compromises. Well that is the position which confronted us. There was a
system of widespread intimidation. So far from the movement being on the
verge of collapse, as certain optimists stated to-day, it was increasing
in vigour. There was the usual lip service of non-violence, a profession
which in me produces a feeling of nausea. Practice and precept, as we
said in a letter to the Government of India, which they quoted in the
debate "were poles as under." There were also, as my friend Kunwar
Jagdish Parshad in his eloquent speech this morning has stated, constant
endeavours to seduce Government servants from their duty. A great deal
of pity has been showered on the non-co-operators by certain speakers
to-day, but they never spared a moment to think what the police have
gone through. Here in Lucknow Chauk, sub-inspectors and the rank and
file of your own fellow countrymen have been grossly insulted, abused
and their family life rendered intolerable. Are we not going to support
them when such facts are brought to our notice? We are bound to support
our loyal servants, who, through all these troubles, have served us
faithfully. I am only asking for some recognition of the difficulty to
which they are exposed in performing their duties, and in their daily
life. With these facts before us we came to the conclusion--the
Government as a whole came to the conclusion--that the Criminal Law
Amendment should be extended to these Provinces. I think there can be no
doubt that the whole Council are unanimous that law and order must be
enforced. They may differ from us as to the method which we took.