Thread by @sheshapatangi1

#NotMyMahatma - 6

Contd from yesterday,

Gandhi moved resolution congratulating Viceroy Irwin & his wife for escaping from bomb attack, by saying he see himself as a trustee of the safety of British lives.

But what about the lives of the Congressmen, or other freedom fighters,

who were required to sacrifice without demur. Many Congressmen opposed the resolution, eg, HD Rajah from Tamil Nadu wondered "What did it matter to them whether the bomb hit the Viceroy or a donkey?'' The resolution won by a narrow margin, 904 in favor and 823 against ''

(later the word "donkey'' was replaced by "any other'')

H D Rajah, a great SC leader from TN and proud Hindu was later sidelined by Congress & Ambedkar, got politically marginalised, this blunder of Congress gave way to EVR, DK.

Disappointed that Congress was a divided house

on approving the above resolution, Gandhi went on to condemn the revolutionaries in an article on Jan 2, 1930. The most severe fallout that he was concerned about should the revolutionaries have succeeded was that the Congress would have to cancel its annual session in Lahore in

Dec 1929: "Let us think then for a moment what would've happened if the Viceroy had been seriously injured or killed. There certainly would have been no meeting of 23rd ultimo & therefore no certainty as to the course to be adopted by the Congress. That surely would have been,

to say the least, an undersirable result. Fortunately, for us the Viceroy & his party escaped unhurt, and with great self-possession he went through the day's routine as if nothing had happened. I know that those who have no regard even for the Congress, who hope nothing from

it and whose hope lies only through violence, will not be affected by this speculative reasoning. But the others, I hope, will not fail to realize the truth of the argument and to put together several important deductions that can be drawn from the hypothetical case put by me.''

In the same article, denouncing the revolutionaries as deluded patriots, he called upon the masses to isolate them: "Let those who are not past reason then cease either secretly or openly to endorse activities such as this latest bomb outrage. Rather let them openly & heartily

condemn these outrages, so that our deluded patriots may for want of nourishment to their violent spirit realise the futility of violence and the great harm that violent activity has every time done''

(degruyter.com/document/doi/1…)

HSRA issued a counter manifesto titled

"The Philosophy of the Bomb", authored by Bhagwati Charan Vohra which dismissed Gandhi's denunciation of the revolutionaries & his support for the Viceroy with contempt: It is a pity that Gandhi does not and will not understand revolutionary psychology in spite of the

life-long experience of the public life. Life is a precious thing. It is dear to everyone. If a man becomes a revolutionary, if he goes about with his life in the hollow of his hand ready to sacrifice it at any moment, he does not do so merely for the fun of it. He does not risk

his life merely because sometimes, when the crowd is in a sympathetic mood, it cries `Bravo' in appreciation. He does it because his reason forces him to take that course, because his conscience dictates it. A revolutionary believes in reason more than anything. It is to reason,

& reason alone, that he bows. No amount of abuse, condemnation, even if it emanates from the highest of the high can turn him from his set purpose.
To think that a revolutionary will give up his ideas if public support & appreciation is withdrawn from him, is the highest folly.

Many a revolutionary has, ere now, stepped on the scaffold and laid his life down for the cause, regardless of the curses that the constitutionalist agitators rained plentifully upon him. If you will have the revolutionaries suspend their activities, reason with them squarely.

That is the one and the only way. For the rest let there be no doubt in anybody's mind. A revolutionary is the last person on Earth to submit to bullying.''

Eminent historian R C Majumdar understood the revolutionary psyche better than Gandhi: ``Like the wandering ascetics

of old, these young men willingly forsook all that was dear and near to them, to carry on a life-long struggle for their goal. Fear of death and physical sufferings worse than death did not deter them; obstacles and difficulties like Himalyan barriers could not deflect them from

their course. Deserted by friends and relatives, ignored, if not derided, by their countrymen, without means or resources to keep their body and soul together, haunted by spies and hunted by police, flying from one shelter to another, these young men carried on a heroic but

hopeless struggle, from day to day, from month to month, and from year to year. They chose the life of hardship and privations and consecrated their lives to the service of their country. Many of them rushed headlong to destruction. They died in order that others may live. ''

He would know that they cannot easily be bullied to submission.

What was the outcome of Gandhi-Irwin Pact, those with Gandhi got bailed out.
Those who were in jail for having armed struggle against British were to suffer.
This Pact Ensured The Death Of

Bhagath Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar.

#NotMyMahatma

#VANDEMATARAM