Extracts from the speech of the Hon'ble Sir Henry Wheeler, Member in
charge of Political Department
What is the situation with which we are faced? It is the outcome of a
movement which, in pursuit of certain political aims, has resulted in
every province in India in bloodshed, disorder and confusion. A concise
picture of the all India situation is contained in the report of the
committee which recently inquired into the working of certain laws at
Simla, and from it I quote their conclusion:--
Taking into consideration all the evidence we have received and the
points to which we have adverted and bearing in mind the still
prevailing economic discontent, we cannot dismiss as improbable the
danger of sudden sectarian, agrarian or labour disorder on a large scale
culminating in riots.
They give instances of what they call 34 notable cases of disorder which
have occurred in India during the current year. That is, most briefly,
the position in India as a whole.
Let me now give a few illustrations of the position in Bengal, with
which we are more particularly concerned, for it is perhaps apt to be
overlooked that the whole problem does not centre round Calcutta alone.
There is outside this city this vast Presidency of 40 millions people,
and the difficulties in the _mufussal_ are just as acute as here. To
cite an example--in the district of Rangpur we have lately had reported
an organisation of volunteers under a district captain and four
vice-captains, definitely named, supported by two subordinate officers
in each thana and a regular budget and funds, which, in addition to the
better known objects of the non-co-operation movement, had set before
itself the following five aims.--
(1) The organisation of volunteers to be ready for civil disobedience;
(2) the preparation of the people to abstain from payment of chaukidari
and union board tax;
(3) the preparation of the tenants to refrain from paying rents;
(4) the preparation of the people to boycott the thana and the law
courts;
(5) to boycott higher grade police and other officers especially with
regard to foodstuffs, and if as a result of this the Government start
their own store and make local arrangements it is felt that it will be
possible to place difficulties in the way of transport.
This last line has in fact been taken and the Collector had to improvise
supplies of food to various thanas and registration office. The Council
will have noticed the use of the term "civil disobedience," and in two
other districts--namely, Noakhali and Faridpur--we have had the usual
phenomena of a little knot of men forming themselves into a committee
and saying: "We will have civil disobedience." What is civil
disobedience understood to mean? Lest it be thought that it is merely an
abstract subject for discussion, say, in a newspaper article, let me
refer to an interesting definition of the term which we have recently
had from a neighbouring province. The president of a meeting there
lately outlined civil disobedience in the following terms:--
A notice calling upon Government to grant Swaraj within seven days will
first be served upon the chief civil officer present in the locality
selected for civil disobedience. Subsequently the residents of the
particular locality will be directed to disobey all orders and laws of
Government and to refuse to pay taxes, register documents, etc. At the
same time police stations and courts will be surrounded and the
officials told to deposit their uniforms and other badges of office.
Thereafter police-stations and courts will be treated as Swaraj
property. That is a position which, I put in to the Council, can be
summed up in one word, "anarchy." That is the civil disobedience which
is being preached, and which, if we are to believe the three speeches
which we have just heard, is a little excitement which, in the words of
one speaker, can be disposed of by a "flick of a handkerchief."
Now, Sir, I could carry on these examples from the _mufassal_ to
Chittagon, which has been in a state of disturbance and agitation since
April last, and to Howrah where disturbances have been intermittent
throughout the year, culminating in firing in the streets and in the
death of a policeman. But the chronicle is too long, and I pass to
Calcutta, where the remarks of His Excellency have fortunately shortened
my task. We are all aware that the incessant stream of inflammatory
oratory and agitation in Calcutta culminated on the 17th November in a
paralysis of the life of the city and I was even surprised, when
refreshing my memory as to those events, to see how openly what was done
was gloried in by the leaders of the non-co-operation movement as having
been done by their orders and direction. They were good enough to define
in their instructions who might go about the streets and who might not,
I have seen the statement that by the kindness of the Congress and the
Khilafat committees certain shops would be allowed to open at 12 noon.
There has never been any attempt to conceal the fact that the town was
at that time, in the view of the non-co-operators, subject to their
orders--subject by the processes of intimidation with which we are well
acquainted.
Now if that was the position--and I submit that this is a correct
statement of the position--Government was obviously confronted with the
question of what they were to do. Was this state of affairs to continue
or was it to be checked? We were approached on all sides, in this
Council and by such responsible bodies as the British Indian
Association, to intervene and to restore some measure of law and order
in a condition of things which was fast drifting to chaos. In these
circumstances we took the measures of which the Council is well aware,
namely, to declare certain associations to be illegal, to introduce the
Seditious Meetings Act in one district and prohibit by order of the
Commissioner of Police, meetings and processions in Calcutta. I put it
to the Council that short of these measures it would not have been
possible to comply with the urgent requests so reasonably made to us
from so many quarters to intervene in the interests of decent
administration. That is the issue which is before the Council. Is it or
is it not a fact that on the 17th of last month the people of this city
were disgusted with the state of affairs and the prevailing terrorism?
Is it or is it not a fact that constant pressure was brought to bear on
Government by all sections of the people to bring about a better state
of affairs? Can it in truth be said that the action of Government in
attempting to curtail the activities of the gentlemen to whom the
excitement is due has gone beyond the necessity of the case? If so, what
is the alternative which the Council would place before Government? Of
that, however we have heard singularly little, except from Babu Surendra
Nath Mallik, who advises us to withdraw all our orders, release
prisoners, reduce sentences and place on their trial the military and
the police--a solution which, I trust, will not commend itself to the
better sense of the Council....