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Chauri Chaura, Vidroh
aur Swadhinta Andolan(Revolt and freedom struggle), Subhas Chandar
Kushwaha, Penguin Books, Ist ed. 2014, Pages 360, Rupees 225/
It was by sheer chance that I read this book in these days, though I was
keen to read it early, after buying it in World Book Fair in February this
year. Prior to this I had read Shahid Amin’s book on ChauriChaura-Event,
Metaphor, Memory Chauri Chaura, published and much discussed earlier,
written as part of Sub-altern studies in history. Few other books, which I
wished to have, when I visited Gorakhpur-Devria-Chauri
Chaura-Maghar-Lumbini in 2010 June, could not acquire that time, but whose
references are in this book.(Some Photos attached)
Chauri Chaura has attracted me a lot, that is why I visited the place,
after reading Shahid Amin book, I think my interest has been to know the
two parallel streams of freedom struggle. Bhagat Singh and Chandershekhar
Azad both had got disillusioned with Mahatma Gandhi due to his withdrawal
of mass Satyagraha or non cooperation movement on excuse of Chauri Chaura
incident of violence, where a police station was burnt by Satyagrahis and
23 policemen were burnt alive. It was a turning point in Indian freedom
struggle, as it gave birth to alternative revolutionary movement. So it
becomes necessary for a student of history and of revolutionary movements
to study this event more keenly. Shahid Amin’s book has also impressed me
at the time of reading it in 2009 or so. But Subhas Kushwaha has perhaps
done even more labour and has more concern with the struggles of those
people and he has brought to notice even the afterlife of the event and
the movement. This new book is more elaborate study of the movement, area
and after effects of the movement. Motivation of writing over this event
for both writers has been to be part of that region. Shahid comes from
Devria and Kushwaha from Kushinagar, both close to Chauri Chaura.
Professionally Shahid is historian and Kushwaha a Hindi writer, references
to both writers become imperative, if one has read both the books.
Kushwaha has divided the book in 3 parts and 23 chapters with 12
appendices, references and foreword. Writer has acknowledged Manager
Pandey’s call as motivation for him to study this subject, as Kushwaha has
written books on peasant movement and literature based upon it. For
material collection, he faced lot of problems, took recourse to Right to
information also, and got many documents from British library London.
In first part of the book, writer has focused upon background of the
struggle by delineating Indian freedom struggle since 1857, particularly
its impact in Gorakhpur region. Chauri Chaura movement was fought by
peasantry of the region, so writer has also given description of pre
Chauri Chaura political activities and peasant conditions. Writer has
described the impact of Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to the area almost a year
earlier. After giving this background writer has concentrated on the
epical struggle of Chauri Chaura in second and main part of the book. In
his foreword writer has challenged official description of the struggle,
which is inscribed on black granite on Chauri Chaura memoria l.
This inscription has mysteriously obliterated the real nerve centre of the
movement-Dumri Khurd village, from where all the activities of movement
took place and from where Dalits, Muslims and other backward classes
people revolted in a big way. In 1857, Bandhu Singh of Dumri Kala or Dumri
Khas village of Gorakhpur region has taken big part and he was hanged on a
tree, many other people of the region were also victimised for revolting
in 1857. In second chapter, writer has described the peasant revolts
during 1918-22 and also riots in UP. Quoting from largely unknown book of
Jaichander Vidyalankar, teacher of Bhagat Singh, writer has underlined the
fact that even Nehru did not support Avadh peasant struggle on the excuse
that ‘they don’t want class struggle in country’! There has been talk of
Bolshevik revolution of Russia, happened in 1917 among peasant activists,
which has even been referred in Premchand’s novel Premashram of 1922. In
third chapter writer has discussed Gandhi’s idea of Satyagraha and his
views on non violence. Writer has also underlined the magnetic impact
Gandhi had among masses, so much so that a 104 year old woman came to see
Gandhi after visiting many religious places to look at him as incarnation
of God! People had immense faith on Mahatma Gandhi! Mahatma Gandhi had
become undisputed leader of Congress party after the demise of Lokmanya
Tilak in 1920 and since then some kind of Satyagraha was being conducted
by Congress party, first on Khilafat issue, then on issues of peasants
etc. But whenever there was little of violence, Gandhi reacted rather
strongly. Thus when Prince of Wales visited Bombay on 17th November 1921,
20 thousand strong masses became uncontrolled and in resulting violence,
53 including 45 Satyagrahis were killed in police firing. Mahatma Gandhi
condemned the incident and not police repression and withdrew the movement
and proceeded on fast.
From January 1922, there were lot of disturbances in the country and in
United Province (UP) also. Writer has argued that it was wrong to say that
Chauri Chaura incident happened out of blue, it had background and was
culmination of that process. He has given data of arrests of 1921-22
peasant movements; there were 18120 arrests out of which 16719 were
convicted for various offences. On the other hand M N Roy in Soviet Union
was trying to use his influence to radicalise Congress programme of
agitation against British colonialism by sending many pamphlets for
Congress sessions.
In 1921 Mahatma Gandhi toured UP with Ali brothers-Maulana Mohammad Ali
Johar and Maulana Shaukat Ali Johar. On 8th February 1921, they had
reached Chauri Chaura. Traveling on train, on all stations large crowds
gathered to have a look at him, 30 thousand people came on Devria station,
on Chauri Chaura station he received a gift from a Marwari. Gandhi stayed
for 6-7 hours in Gorakhpur and addressed a meeting of about two lakh
people. To enrol for non cooperation movement Satyagarhis had to sign a
pledge to remain non violent in face of even brutal attacks by police.
Gorakhpur area was politically very active, 15000 people had protested
against Jallianwala Bagh massacre here and when Avadh peasant movement
leader Baba Raghav Das was convicted, 50 thousand people gathered at court
to protest.
In the second part of the book, writer has focused on the actual events
happened on 4th February 1922 leading to the burning of police station
that day resulting in the death of 23 policemen. There are two villages
near Chauri Chaura-Dumri Khurd or Chhoti Dumri and Dumri Kala or Dumri
Khas or Badki Dumri, which are at a distance of five miles from each
other. Dumri has the only Zamindari of Sikh settler Surat Singh, who was
awarded this Zamindari due to his loyalty during 1857. His two sons-Umrao
Singh(father of Amrita Shergill) and Sunder Singh Majithia acquired this
after his death, on whose behalf their relative Harcharn Singh took care
of it for two decades. In Saraya, they had established sugarcane mill in
1900. The feudal lords lived in Badki Dumri or Dumri Kala, whereas poor
people, mostly Dalits from Chamar caste lived in Chhotki Dumri, which
became the centre of the movement, which later came to be known as Chauri
Chaura movement due to 4th February happenings there. There was lot of
Muslim population in the region and generally there was peace and amity
between Dalits and Muslims of the area, except for minor tensions here and
there once in a while. Chauri and Chaura were two villages nearby, but
railway station was named Chauri Chaura, police station is in Chaura
village, which is bigger of the two. Dumri was also a big village with
2500+ population in those days. The meeting of Satyagrah committee had
taken place on the morning of 4th February at this village and Satyagrahis
had marched from this village to Chauri Chaura, where peasants and other
people have joined from other villages too. Nazar Ali and Lal Mohammad
were main leaders of the movement in this area; other prominent persons
were Bhagwan Ahir, Abdulla, Inderjit Koery, Shyam Sunder and one
unidentified Sanyasi were also in the lead. Shikari also played leading
role in beginning, but he turned approver during trial. Lal Mohammad aged
forty was from Chaura village, Nazar Ali aged 30 and Bhagwan Ahir aged 24
were from Dumri Khurd, Abdulla Sai, 40 years old was from Rajdhani
village. They were all known activists and sometimes office bearers of
local Congress committees. Chaura police Inspector and In charge of police
station has beaten up Bhagwan Ahir without any provocation, that has
created a tension in the area, which was otherwise conducting peaceful
Satyagraha in the area. The local Zamindars or their agents were siding
with the police, which included Harcharn Singh and Santbux Singh, who had
big business interest in the area. By noon 3 to five thousand people had
gathered in Chauri Chaura, the Police Station incharge had already got
armed police unit from district headquarters, they were also in police
station. There were many Chaukidars in police station, which had come to
collect their salaries on that day. The heated exchanges between Guptshwar
Singh and processionists perhaps led to attack from police side, resulting
in the death of at least two Satyagrahis, but some say it could be 26,
this provoked Satyagrahis, which could not stick to their pledge of not
attacking back and the earlier police repression contributed to their pent
up feelings, so they burnt the police station, killing 23 persons inside,
but they spared wives and children of police men.
Writer has described the events of 4th February in great detail, which
confirms the firing straight on Satyagrahis resulting in the death of at
least two volunteers-Kheli Bhar and Budh Ali, after this it became
difficult to control the anger of Satyagrahis and they collected kerosene
and other such inflammable items from the market itself and put the police
station on fire. Their prime target was Gupteshwar the brutal DSP of
police, another senior police officer to get burnt alive was armed police
inspector or DSP Prithvipal Singh, other 21 policemen were either
constables, one or two Head constables and many Choukidars, who were used
by Gupteshwar to attack Satyagrahis. Another Chaukidar Surajbali Singh
died of wounds, making the figure to 24. On the other hand, the number of
Satyagrahis killed is recorded as two, but there were references to 26 or
at least many more than the recorded number, as due to non communication
times of those days, many dead bodies may have been taken to villages by
the volunteers. All the feudal lords or their agents sided with British
police during the clash as well as afterwards to get Satyagarhis hanged
from British courts. Total of 225 persons were charged with murder,
conspiracy and many other offenses. Interestingly there were very few high
caste persons in this list. 90% were from Dalits, backward castes and
Muslims. Not only British Government treated it as grave crime, even
Mahatma  Gandhi, on
whose name Satyagrahis offered themselves for sacrifice and shouted all
the time slogan in his name, called this incident as ‘Crime of Gorakhpur’
and ‘Crime of Chauri Chaura’ and the non cooperation was immediately
suspended on the excuse of this incident, as it violated the ‘pledge of
non violence’!
Police challaned initially 273 persons in lower court on 25th March 1922,
out of 273, 54 persons were challaned even in absence, whocould not be
arrested. Later trial was conducted on 228 persons, out of whom few died
during trial, few became approvers. These persons were from 30+ villages
of the area. After the trial, 47 were acquitted due to lack of evidence
and 172 persons were convicted to death! This created furore in the whole
world. News of the revolt was carried in the world media as well.
Australian newspapers carried the news, Communists world over stood for
the convicted poor peasants and other rural labourers. M N Roy, wrote
letter to British labour party on behalf of Indian Communists from Zurich
on 2ndFebruary 1923 demanding revocation of the sentence of death,
focusing upon the condition of Indian ‘hungry peasants’. On 14th March
1923, Executive of Communist International and Red International of Labour
Unions while condemning the sentence appealed the working class world over
to oppose the sentence. In India, protests came in Calcutta, peasant
leader Baba Raghav Das protested and he was imprisoned for some months for
protesting. But the illiterate convicted peasants were not disturbed by
the sentence, they used to say that after ‘ten months’ they will return on
earth to continue the struggle, meaning getting ‘rebirth’ after death!
After lower court conviction order in January 1923, an appeal was filed by
Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya in High Court in third week of January itself
and hearing started from 6th March 1923. Some labour members of British
Parliament raised the issue in Parliament and demanded revocation of death
sentence. Communist Saklatwala also raised the issue. On 30th April 1923,
High Court gave its verdict and death sentence was limited to 19 persons,
38 were acquitted, few were released with short sentences, but many got
long term jail sentences! Mercy petitions formality was done without any
result and 19 persons were hanged from 2nd July to 11th July 1923 in
different jails of UP. All the major leaders of the movement were
hanged-Nazar Ali, Lal Mohammad, Abdulla, Bhagwan Ahir etc.
Those who got life sentences, their condition was pitiable, because of
poverty, even Congress Government did not release them, when they came to
power in 1938 for some time. Many political prisoners, including those of
revolutionary movements like of Kakori were released, but Chauri Chaura
prisoners waited till 1942-3 to get released. Government provided all help
to killed policemen families, including giving jobs and pensions, where as
no one took care of Chauri Chaura convicts. Their women’s condition in
homes was much worse. Only two persons of high castes out of 170 convicted
got some social position after 1947. Dwarka Pandey became MLA from 1952 to
1957. Dwarka Gosain got pension in 1949 and was honoured in 1972. Poor
participants of ChauriC haura struggle had to struggle a lot to get
cleared from the tag of Goondas, Looteras etc. and their recognition as
freedom fighters came as late as in 1993, when 110 families from this
event started receiving pensions. For this also only Communists like
Jharkhande Rai MP and CPI MLA’s UP assembly fought and not the Congress!
Memorial to the killed policemen was built in 1924 itself inside police
station, whereas memorial to Chauri Chaura martyrs could be inaugurated
only in 1993, with many false inscriptions in names of high caste persons,
who never took part in movement. Irony is that even in police station
memorial salami is given, but not to 19 martyrs!
Subhas Chander Kushwaha has written the book with labour of love and with
concern for the victims of Chauri Chaura movement. Earlier major
publication was of Shahid Amin’s Event, Metaphor, MemoryChauri Chaura,
written from subaltern angle. Shahid Amin’s book and research is also
appreciable, but Subhas Kushwaha has done much more elaborate research and
hard work He got even the photographs of police station with dead bodies
scattered and many other documents from British library London. He had to
struggle hard to get the copies of documents from Indian offices, often
through RTI. SubhasKushwaha’s 12 appendices carry documents of tremendous
historic value, which include names of all policemen killed in police
station, Gandhi’s confidential letters to Congress party, Dates and
details of execution of 19 convicts, List of 225 accused, extracts from
judgements, names of different jails, where the convicts were sent.Book is
very rich in historic documentation. To say in brief, writer has produced
a commendable volume. Yet he will not get much credit from Indian
academicians, as the book is written in Hindi, even though published by
international publishing house-Penguin books!
Indian academicians/historians never acknowledged Pandit Sunder Lal’s
great two-volume history-Bharat Men Angrezi Raj, despite being proscribed
by British colonial authorities, nor Chauri Chaura is likely to be
recognised as work of great significance, just because it is written in
Indian language. Many major works in Bengali on revolutionary movement
history have still not been translated in either Hindi or English, though
these are the source books of Indian history. Yet hopefully this book will
perform its primary task of spreading awareness about the reality of
Chauri Chaura, which has remained obliterated due to Indian politicians,
particularly of Congress variety’s deliberate ignore as Gandhi has
condemned the movement as ‘violent’ movement. Fact of the matter is that
poor peasants with hatred for oppressors led Charui Chaura movement.
Because of Mahatma Gandhi’s withdrawal of this movement, both Bhagat Singh
and Chandershekhar Azad got disillusioned from Mahatma Gandhi and Congress
party and decided to chart a new path of revolutionary movement.
Chandershekhar Azad has 30 lashes on his back in 1921 non-cooperation
movement in Banaras by every time shouting ‘Mahatma Gandhi ki Jai’! In a
way, Chauri Chaura proved to be a catalyst for revolutionary movement for
India or one may say that had there been no Chauri Chaura, there would
have been no Bhagat Singh, Chandershekhar Azad and his comrades!
Kudos to Subhash Chander Kushwaha for writing this well researched book on
one of the most significant episode of Indian freedom struggle!
Chaman Lal,
Professor-Coordinator, Centre for Comparative Literature/Centre for
Punjabi Language, Literature&Culture/Professor-Incharge, CUP, Library
Central University of Punjab, Bathinda.
Professor(Retired), JNU, New Delhi
Former President JNU Teachers Association(JNUTA)
Cell no. +919646494538,
Former Visiting Professor
Centre for Language Learning(CLL)
Faculty of Humanities and Education(FHE)
University of West Indies,St. Augustine Campus
Trinidad&Tobago(West Indies)
Blogs-www.bhagatsinghstudy.blogspot.com
www.drchaman.wordpress.com
www.twitter.com/ProfChaman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaman_Lal
www.facebook.com/Dr.Chaman.JNU
http://in.linkedin.com/in/chamanlaljnu
http://jawaharlalanehrunewdelhiindia.academia.edu/ChamanJnu
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