Religion Practice and Science of Non Violence

Author(s): O P Jaggi
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt Ltd

Page 86

Religion, Practice and Science of Non-Violence
special correspondent in India: "Bombay, 21 June: At 7 o'clock began to come processions of white-robed volunteers bearing red, green and white banners, singing "We will take SwarajIndia our Motherland.' At the head of each walked a tiny detachment of women and girls dressed in orange robes, many garlanded with jasmine. They marched steadily on past the policemen and actually lined up behind the stretchers.
"They waited there in a long front down the boulevard for the order to march on the field.
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"I shall not forget the scenes which followed. Dark-faced Marathi policemen in their yellow turbans marched along in column led by English sergeants across the field toward the waiting crowd. As they neared it the police went faster and faster.
"Mounted Indian policemen who had been galloping across the field, whacking heads indiscriminately, came to a stymic when they faced the little cluster of blue Akali turbans on the slender Sikh men. The Sikhs are brave men-how can we hit them? It was not fear, but respect.
"But the police, determined to try to clear the field, at last rushed around the Sikh women and began to hit the men. I stood within five feet of a Sikh leader as he took the lathi blows. He was a short, heavily muscled man.
"The blows came-he stood straight. His turban was knocked off. The long black hair was bared with the round top knot: He closed his eyes as the blows fell-until at last he swayed, and fell to the ground.
"No other Sikhs had tried to shield him, but now, shouting their defiance, they wiped away the blood streaming from his mouth. Hystrical Hindus rushed to him, bearing cakes of ice to rub the contusions over his eyes. The Sikh gave me a smileand stood for more.
"And then the police threw up their hands. 'You cannot go on hitting a blighter when he stands up to you like that.'"
Wave upon wave of satyagrahis came forward, were beaten and jailed, but there was no end to the queue of satyagrahis. When the monsoons set in, other forms of civil disobedience were resorted to, like the boycott of foreign-made products, especially cloth, disobedience of publicity restrictions etc. The movement continued for a year.