Another member asked me to explain the difference between the positions
north and south of the Ganges. Let us take this town of Patna. The hon.
member did not, as some do, deny _in toto_ that, there had been
intimidation. I say there is in fact but little difference. In Tirhut
the crime manifest and overt, and in Patna it is suppressed. Have the
Council heard of those poor beggars who received tickets entitling to go
to Gulzarbagh on the morning of the 22nd December and get blankets? Do
they know that these people were asked by "volunteers" on their way to
show their tickets which were then taken and torn up, that the same day
some of the beggars when returning from Gulzarbagh were deprived of the
blankets which they had been given which were burnt, and the beggars had
to be content with such warmth, as they could derive from the glow of
enforced patriotism. The difference between this side of the Ganges and
the other is that in Patna such things do not unfortunately in a large
city attract much attention.
Oh! the shame of it, a blind beggar woman deprived of her blanket, but
no violence of course was used, only soul-force. Babu Ganesh Dutt
appealed to justice and sympathy. Do these beggars deserve no sympathy?
Is there to be no justice done on their oppressors? I shall be told that
the leaders of the movement disavow such action; that they deplore them
as much as we do. Sir, we cannot separate the methods from the ideals of
the revolutionary movement. I am prepared to believe that some of the
leaders deplore violence and would try to restrain it, but I maintain,
and I challenge, any hon. member here to disprove it that, conducted on
the lines as it is, admitting such members as it does to its ranks, the
non-co-operation movement must inevitably result in violence.