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| Following Gandhiji’s footsteps to the banks of Ravi on 26 January | | Refurbish, recharge the Republic-I | | ABID SHAH
NEW DELHI, JAN 24: On the eve of the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose that was observed yesterday – January 23 -- a group of academicians, activists and journalists got together at Gandhi Peace Foundation here.
Oblivious of thunderous traffic outside on a fog and smog laden Delhi evening, they were meeting at the call of Professor Jagmohan Singh, the nephew of the late Shaheed Bhagat Singh and founder of Teesra Swadhinta Andolan (TSA) or third freedom movement to deliberate upon inadequacies and shortfalls of independence.
And this has sadly been so despite the promulgation of one of the best constitutions in the world after nearly two centuries long slavery that was shown the door through a relentless struggle marked by embracing martyrdom and other hardships by thousands of Indians irrespective of so many distinctions within their ranks. Saying this, Professor Singh who teaches Economics at Ludhiana Agriculture University remarked that events like the Republic Day and Independence Day should break the official trap that reduce them to mere rituals because of the way they are observed for past six decades or so.
So much so that 26th January is associated with only the promulgation of the Constitution of India, said Professor Singh, missing out its roots that set through a public vow undertaken by our freedom fighters led by Mahatma Gandhi to end slavery on the banks of mighty Ravi river near Amritsar in Punjab on this day – 26 January in 1930, exactly two decades before the Constitution came into force on January 26, 1950.
And as to what the pledge was, Professor Singh said that this as penned by Gandhiji has somehow been lost from public consciousness. And he had to retrieve it from Gandhiji’s papers since this defined the freedom sought by the people of India and the agenda thereafter. He said that not only he wished to make it public but to drive it back into Indian consciousness and would thus repeat this on 26 January 2010 on the banks of the same river whose gurgling once lapsed into silence and gave way to the solemn words that were uttered by the late Mahatma and his scores of followers eight decades ago in order to swear freedom for their hapless fellow countrymen.
Thus, a group of TSA from Delhi and other States would set out from Amritsar tomorrow to join Professor Singh and his group on Tuesday or Republic Day morning on the banks of Ravi to rededicate themselves to the ideals formed during the freedom struggle as summed up in the oath written by Gandhiji.
This oath is as published in Young India in the issue dated 23 January 1930 is, indeed worth reproducing here as the country is set to observe 60th anniversary of the Republic:
“We believe that it is the inalienable right of the Indian people, as of any other people to have freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil and have the necessities of life so that they may have full opportunities of growth. We believe also that if any government deprives a people of these rights and oppresses them, the people have a further right to alter it or abolish it. The British Government in India has not only deprived the Indian people of their freedom, but has based itself on the exploitation of the masses, and has ruined India economically, politically, culturally and spiritually. We believe therefore that India must sever the British connection and attain purna swaraj or complete independence.
“India has been ruined economically. The revenue derived from our people is out of all proportion to our income. Our average income is seven pice (less than two pence) per day, and of the heavy taxes we pay, 20 percent are raised from the land revenue derived from the peasantry and three percent from the salt tax, which falls most heavily on the poor.
“Village industries, such as hand-spinning, have been destroyed leaving the peasantry idle for at least four months in a year and dulling their intellect for the want of handicrafts, and nothing has been substituted, as in other countries, for the crafts thus destroyed.
“Customs and currency have been so manipulated as to heap further burdens on the peasantry. The British manufactured goods constitute the bulk of our imports. Customs duties betray clear partiality for British manufacturers and revenues from them are not used to lessen the burden on the masses but for sustaining a highly extravagant administration. Still more arbitrary has been the manipulation of the exchange ratio which has resulted in millions being drained away from the country.
“Politically India’s status has never been so reduced as under the British regime. No reforms have given real political power to the people. The tallest of us have to bend before foreign authority. The rights of free expression of opinion and free association have been denied to us, and many of our countrymen are compelled to live in exile abroad and cannot return to their homes. All administrative talent is killed and the masses have to be satisfied with petty village offices and clerkship.
“Culturally the system of education has torn us from our moorings and our training has made us hug the very chains that bind us. Spiritually compulsory disarmament has made us unmanly, and the presence of an alien army of occupation, employed with deadly effect to crush in us the spirit of resistance, has made us think that we cannot look after ourselves or put up a defence against foreign aggression or even defend out homes and families from the attack of thieves, robbers and miscreants.
“We hold it a crime against man and God to submit any longer to a rule that has caused this four fold (economic, political, cultural and spiirutal) disaster to our country. We recognise, however, that most effective way of gaining our freedom is not through violence. We will, therefore, prepare ourselves by withdrawing, so far as we can, all voluntary association from the British Government, and will prepare for civil disobedience, including non-payment of taxes. We are convinced that if we can withdraw our voluntary help and stop payment of taxes without doing violence, even under provocation, the end of this inhuman rule is assured.
“We therefore hereby solemnly resolve to carry out the Congress instructions issued from time to time for the purpose of establishing purna swaraj.”
Twenty years after Gandhiji as also those who followed him took this oath, a Constitution was promulgated with no less solemnity. Yet to read how far Gandhiji’s words have been kept in six decades, in Professor Jagmohan Singh’s view, wait for this newspaper until tomorrow.
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