Armed Struggle for Freedom

Title: Armed Struggle for Freedom – 1857 to Subhash

Author: Balshastri Hardas

Publisher: Jagriti Prakashan, 2016 (First published 1958)

ISBN: 8186719091

Pages: 439

 

Indian students who study their country’s history of the freedom struggle from their school textbooks are led to believe that India became independent through the struggles of Congress entirely through non-violent means suggested by Gandhi. The Congress party which ruled the country for sixty years after independence has comprehensively scrubbed down all traces of effort put in by other organisations in achieving freedom. This has cast an air of inevitability on the British government’s actions after 1900 as it is observed that the constitutional process kick started by the 1909 reforms gradually blossomed into full independence by 1947 in the face of Congress struggles which were mostly exaggerated and generally insignificant. A clear line of thought existed in India that sought to wrench freedom from the colonial masters through violent means. The British government handled them mercilessly. Innumerable martyrs were hanged on the gallows and many were transported for life to the Andamans or Aden. All these known and unknown sons and daughters (yes, there were a few brave women too) of India who suffered, sacrificed and died for the freedom of their motherland cannot be denied their credit. This book corrects the psychological bias of Indians towards non-violent means and explains the brave deeds through which the revolutionaries sometimes shook the British power to its roots. Balshastri Hardas was a renowned scholar of Sanskrit and ancient Indian studies. He was a prolific author who had 27 books to his credit. He died in 1968 at the age of 50. This book which tells the story of the armed rebellion from 1857 to 1947 was published to coincide with the centenary celebrations of the first war of independence in 1957.

 

Hardas explains the sanctity of violence in a nation’s fight for freedom from bondage by an external power. Acts of terror is required to warn the administration and to arrest the course of oppressive policy. It creates self-confidence among the silent masses along with the moral courage of resistance to the tyranny. Here, the subtle difference between the word ‘terror’ used in the book to its modern meaning is to be clarified. Terrorism, especially Islamic terrorism, is the use of excessive force in which the target is destroyed along with an equally huge collateral damage, like the thousands of innocent victims of 9/11. It also aims for the killing of ordinary people without any specific target in mind as seen in 26/11. Indian freedom fighters never resorted to such inhuman ways. They targeted much-hated officials of the administration who themselves had blood of innocents on their hands. Bombs were sometimes used, but on highly specific targets such as the Viceroy’s railway cabin or the Governor’s car. The fact that the violent strikes did play a part in granting independence is amply clear by the debate in the House of Commons on the Indian Independence Act. When Churchill asked why freedom is conceded to India, Prime Minister Attlee attributed two reasons for that decision. One was that the Indian mercenary army was no longer loyal to Britain and the other was that Britain couldn’t afford to have a large British army to hold down India (p.403). It is remarkable that he made no reference to the kid gloved programs of the Congress party!

 

The book starts the narrative from the 1857 Rebellion which is disparaged by most British historians and some of the Indian ones who take inspiration from the former. Contrary to British claims, the author argues that if the rifle cartridges greased with cow and pig fat was the sole problem, it would have remained confined to the circle of sepoys who were asked to use them. Moreover, the Governor General had assured the soldiers that these cartridges won’t be used in the army and the sepoys will be permitted to make their own cartridges. 1857 was also the time when Hindus and Muslims came closest in relations in the entire history of their interactions spanning 1200 years. We find letters written by Hindu war leaders describing the British as kafirs (infidels in the Islamic sense) and highlighting the need to oust them for the protection of both religions. The two major religions came together under the tutelary figure of the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah and cried ‘maro firangi ko’ (down with the foreigner) in unison.

 

The 1857 war was a crude wake up call for the British. The Crown took over the administration of India from the trading company which had conquered it and opened up new programs to prevent recurrence of such feared resurrections in the future. It disarmed the natives by taking away their right to carry arms through the notorious arms act. Another Britisher founded the Indian National Congress to open a safety valve to give vent to pent up discontent. The government encouraged Congress by letting many of its mild demands to be accepted. The Maratha country saw the birth of some noble souls who engaged the British in armed conflicts around 1900.

 

A curious orientation seen in the book is its antagonism against social reformers who did their work in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Hardas accuses them of being dazzled and charmed by the glitter of western culture and civilization that they forsook the ideas of freedom and preferred the act of blind imitation. They were accused of believing that if we could reform our social and cultural order of life on the lines of the ruling English people, then freedom will flow automatically as a gift from the democratic English. This leadership honestly but foolishly believed that our fall was due to our social backwardness. They believed in flirting with and flattering the English as demigods and beseeching them for rights and privileges (p.106). The author thus arraigns Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Gopal Hari Deshmukh, Jotiba Phule and M G Ranade as having fallen in this British trap. The preaching of these people almost destroyed the pride of Indians in its own ancient culture, civil and social structures.

 

The history of the revolutionary Gadar movement is actually hidden from public view by academic historians. Hardas makes a valiant effort to remedy this deficiency. Gadar was a party formed overseas for an armed uprising in India. It smuggled men and material to India for a rebellion during the First World War when the British troops were occupied elsewhere in the empire for the war effort. Due to lack of strict discipline, spies leaked the assault plans to the authorities. Hundreds were hanged in the legal process which followed. This book’s greatest contribution to public knowledge is the detailed report it provides regarding the revolutionary war effort in Punjab in 1915-16. A decade later, the Hindusthan Socialist Republican Army struck in Punjab and North India under Chandrasekhar Azad and Sardar Bhagat Singh. Numerous other incidents are also narrated. Many young students, who had just completed their graduation, wielded a gun during the convocation ceremony to make an attempt on the life of the dignitary who was attending the function which usually was the provincial governor who was also the chancellor of the university.

 

The book is written with a strong, nationalist bias. The author becomes quite emotional at times while describing the great sacrifices of the revolutionaries on the altar of the nationalist spirit personified as a mother. The book’s foreword is written by M S Golwalkar, the supreme leader of the RSS at the time of publication. A drawback of the author’s narrative style is the assumption of cowardice on the enemy. Many examples can be cited in which the English are lampooned for running away from the scene of an attack to protect their lives and property. This attitude is incorrect and provides a fictional sheen to the narrative. The English are well known for their bravery during the world wars. However, this was for protecting their own homeland rather than an overseas colony. The author is also somewhat careless about dates, omitting them at many places.

 

The book is recommended.

 

Rating: 3 Star