Page 70 - GANDHI A Biography for Children and Beginners

GANDHI – A Biography for children and beginners

Gandhi was shocked. How could he start a mass Civil Disobedience after Chauri

Chaura showed that people had not understood the discipline that the

Satyagraha army should observe ? He promptly suspended the plan to launch
mass Civil Disobedience. Many of his followers and colleagues like C. R. Das,

Jawaharlal Nehru and others were indignant and nonplussed. How could one

bring a people's movement to the white pitch of revolutionary action and then

withdraw? Gandhi's answer was clear. He was the general. If the general could
not rely on the discipline of the Army, how could he conduct the campaign ? If

soldiers took what action they pleased, how could there be a concerted, well-

directed deployment of the force of the Army? He had no alternative but to
disengage, regroup and return to the charge.

The Government was in two minds ever since Gandhi launched non-co-

operation. Were they to leave him free or to arrest him and risk a flare up? It
seemed to them now that the time had arrived. Gandhi seemed to have lost the

support of many colleagues. People were demoralized that Gandhi had called

off the fight. It appeared to the Government that Gandhi was isolated,

despondent and 'played out'. This was the moment to strike. He was arrested on
the 10th of March and put on trial at Ahmedabad in the court of Mr.

Broomfield.

Then followed an extrardinary trial, which perhaps has no parallel. The court

was overflowing with citizens, — Gandhi's followers as well as others. The Judge

came, and before taking his seat, bowed to the prisoner at the bar. Before him

was a man who had been charged with sedition, tampering with the loyalty of
His Majesty's servants and subjects, spreading disaffection among the people

and the Army. The charges were based on three articles that Gandhi had

written in the Young India. Gandhi and his colleague Shankarlal Banker were

the accused. Gandhi made it easy for the Judge by pleading guilty. He said he
had preached disaffection. He was once a loyal subject and co-operator. He

then described how from a loyal citizen he had been forced to become a rebel.

Sedition had now become a moral and spiritual duty for him. But non-violence
was the first and the last article of his creed. He knew he was playing with fire

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