How Freedom was Won
India was no stranger to invaders, both external, and
internal, as many kingdoms vied with one another for territory and power. The
invaders adopted the sub-continent as their home, contributing culturally and
economically. The Mughal empire was producing about 25% of the world's economy.
By contrast the British colonial enterprise, which began
with a foothold by the East India Company in Surat in 1607, until its reluctant
departure in 1947, drained India of its wealth for the benefit of the British
economy, leaving it in poverty, and social and political turmoil.
A few thousand
British officers subjugated a country of 300 million for more than 200 years.
They protected their presence with military might, a police force, inventing
laws, and establishing social authority. Ironically, the army and police were
inducted from the local population, to imprison, execute or open fire on their
fellow countrymen. Amitav Ghosh writes “How do you fight an enemy who fights with
neither enmity nor anger but in submission to orders from superiors, without
protest and without conscience?”
The native population was
bewitched by Colonial pomp and circumstance, outdoing maharajahs with their own
magnificent durbars, splendid military uniforms, formal tailcoats and
ballgowns, and law courts with judges in formidable wigs. An opaque
administration with complicated red tape kept the local population going from
office to office to get approvals. Imposing official buildings and churches in
European architectural styles transformed cities. The educated were no longer
defined by their knowledge of Sanskrit, Persian or Arabic, but by an English education,
and the cultivation of European etiquette, only to become an object of ridicule
for not getting it right, as Lord Curzon has amusingly recorded in his
notebooks.
The princely states were traditionally militaristic, offering
hazari ( 1000) or panjhazari ( 5000) troops to the Emperor. The East India
Company, and later the British Crown, offered their own military, appointed
Residents in each state who ‘advised’ on and monitored all state business.
Their approval was necessary in appointing an heir and even marriages. With not
enough officers to manage all of India, the princely states were enlisted to
keep their people in check. Allowed their lavish lifestyles, they were left
competing for the number of gun salutes.
It is all the more remarkable that the populace rose up,
faced imprisonments, executions, and harsh suppression of every uprising. There
are varying estimates of deaths ranging from 35 million to 100 million.
The many peasant rebellions, such as the Santhal Rebellions of
1883, grew out of harsh taxation, confiscation of lands, closure of industries
to create markets for British made goods, trapping people in a cycle of poverty
and loss of dignity. Great Battles were
fought by Siraj ud Daulah, Tipu Sultan, Hazrat Mahal and Rani Lakshmi Bai, and
the 1857 rebellion by the troops. All were ruthlessly crushed.
The 20th Century saw
more organized resistance in the Swadeshi Movement, The Khilafat
Movement and Non-Cooperation Movement, The Civil Disobedience Movement, The
Quit India Movement and the Naval Mutiny. One of the first Quit India calls was
made in the Sindh Times in 1884, 58 years before Gandhi’s call. The Congress
and All India Muslim League, the Khudai Khidmatgar, bold journalism, and
inspiring poetry and anthems spread the resistance far and wide.
Non- cooperation created the first
mass movement. Many civil servants resigned, and British cloth was burnt
publicly. Men, women and the youth came
out in great numbers. Mass detentions with 100,000 arrests, fines, and public
flogging merely sent leaders underground, broadcasting messages over
clandestine radios, and distributing pamphlets, keeping intelligence agencies
busy.
When 14 year-old Fatima Sughra replaced
the Union Jack at the Lahore Civil Secretariat with the All-India Muslim League
flag in 1947, it was on the back of 200 years of courageous resistance.
Durriya Kazi
April 8, 2023
Karachi
Comments
Post a Comment