Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

FREEDOM MOVEMENT

NOTABLE TRIALS subordinate to have him dismissed — a pun- ishment far more severe than English mem- bers of the ICS received for similar oversights. Surendranath went to London to appeal to the India Office. When this was denied he ap- peared for the bar examinations but was re- fused again. He returned to Calcutta con- vinced that “the personal wrong done to me was an illustration of the impotency of our people ” and determined to spends his life “redressing our wrongs and protecting our rights, personal and collective. ” In April 1883 Surendranath Baneijea wrote a leading article in the English newspaper he was editing, The Bengalee, based on a report in the Brahmo Public Opinion that one of the judges of the Calcutta High Court, Justice Norris, had ordered a Hindu litigant to pro- duce his household deity in court. In his article Surendranath Banerjea wrote : “We have now amongst us a judge who, if he does not actually recall to mind the days of Jeffreys and Scroggs, has certainly done enough within the short time that he has filled the High Court bench to show how unworthy he is of his high office ...." The article concluded: "It does seem to us that some public steps should be taken to put a quietus to the wild eccentricities of this young man and raw dispenser of justice. ” Surendranath was served with a notice for contempt. In his affidavit, though admitting that the report on which he had written the article was inaccurate and expressing his re- gret over his observations which he withdrew unreservedly, Surendranath maintained that they were made bona fide without any motive other than to promote public good. Surendranath Banerjea was jailed for two months. Public reaction was immediate. Shops were closed and business suspended in Cal- cutta on the day of his imprisonment. Protest meetings were held. The trial generated a wave of political consciousness in India. Twice president of the Indian National Congress (1895 and 1902), Surendranath Banerjea left it in 1918 to head the All-India Liberal Foundation when the younger elements in the Congress threatened to obstruct the introduction of the Montagu- Chelmsford Reforms. His persistence in pur- suing his course surmounting difficulties earned him the nickname of “Surrender-not” Banerjea.

In November 1945 the British Govern- ment decided to try three captured INA sol- diers in public on the charge of “waging war against the King It decided to hold the trials in Delhi’s Red Fort. A Hindu, a Muslim and a Sikh — P.K.Sehgal, Shah Nawaz Khan and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon — were picked. While writing an introduction to a book on the INA trial Jawaharlal Nehru reminisced about another trial that had been held in the Red Fort eighty years ago, "the trial of the last of a great line. That trial put a final end to a chapter of India’s history. ” He was referring to the trial of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal King who was a king only in name. His jurisdiction was con- fined to the four walls of the Red Fort and he received a monthly pension of Rs. One lakh from the British. He was proclaimed Emperor by rebellious sepoys and officers from Meerut who forced their way into the Red Fort on May 11,1857 and made him give them his support and blessings. After the failure of the Revolt the aged 84-year old “Emperor" was put on trial in the Red Fort for “aiding and abetting the crime of mutiny and rebellion against the state.” Bahadur Shah’s defence was that he could not be held responsible for whatever the rebels did during the mutiny as these acts were committed not under his orders but of their own free will. He stated that his signatures on various firmans were ob- tained under duress. After a trial lasting 21 days Bahadur Shah was found guilty of all the charges and sen- tenced to be transported for life to Rangoon. He left Delhi in October 1858 and died in Rangoon in 1862. Surendranath Banerjea Surendranath Baneijea was one of the first Indians to be admitted to the Indian Civil Service, the so-called “steel frame” of British administration. He graduated from Calcutta University in 1868 and proceeded to England along with Romesh Chandra Dutt and Bihari Lai Gupta to compete for the Indian Civil Service. He passed the competitive examina- tion in 1869. There was some controversy over his exact age because of which he was disqualified. However the court in London settled the issue in his favour. He returned to India in 1871 and was posted to Sylhet as Assistant Magistrate. Mr. Sutherland, the District Magistrate, took advantage of his failure to correct a false report prepared by a

Bal Gangadhar Tilak Bal Gangadhar Tilak was tried on three occasions, in 1897,1908 and 1916 for sedition. He was tried in 1897 for publishing an article in Kesari, his Marathi weekly. He was sentenced to 18 months rigorous imprisonment. In 1908 he was again brought to trial for sedition following the publication of editorials in Kesari commenting on a bomb explosion in Muzzaffarpur (Bihar) by Bengali terrorists in which two British women were killed. Tilak was detained in jail after his arrest. A bail petition was moved on his behalf by M. A. Jinnah who argued that Tilak was under treatment for diabetes and that the English translation of the Marathi articles in Kesari, on which the charges had been based, were full of errors. However, bail was refused. As the paper was published from Poona the trial should have been held in that city. But the venue was shifted to Bombay since the Gov- ernment feared public demonstrations. Tilak conducted his own defence. He argued that the English translation of more than a dozen words used in the editorials was misleading and gave the correct translation. Tilak said: “The charge is based not upon the original Marathi but upon the translation. It should have been based upon the original Marathi articles and then the translations ought to have been put in. ” Tilak submitted that it was his duty as a public worker and a journalist to indulge in healthy criticism of the administration. The jury composed of six Europeans, two Parsis and one Jew returned a verdict of guilty. Before being sentenced to six years transpor- tation to Mandalay in Burma, he was asked by Justice Davar whether he had anything to say in his defence. He then uttered the words which are enshrined on a tablet in the central room of the Bombay High Court: “All I wish to say is that in spite of the verdict of the jury, I maintain that I am innocent. There are higher powers that rule the destiny of things and it may be the will of Providence that the cause I represent may prosper more by my suffering than by my remaining free. ” Tilak’s third trial took place in 1916 on his release after serving his six-year term in Mandalay. He was prosecuted for sedition but no jail sentence was imposed. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar Vinayak Damodar created landmarks in legal history. He was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment. Savarkar