Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

FREEDOM MOVEMENT

Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah

and trade union leaders. N.B. Das Gupta, M.S. Usmani, Muzaffar Ahmed and S.A. Dange were tried and sentenced to 4 years R.I. The main accused, M.N. Mahendra Nath Roy, could not be proceeded against as he was out of India. M.N! Roy returned to India secretly in December 1930. He evaded arrest for seven months. He was arrested at Bombay on July 21,1931. He was sent to Kanpur to stand trial. Kanpur had been selected as the venue of the trial to avoid trial by jury and public demon- strations. The charge against Roy was that he was a member of the Third Communist Inter- national which had established a branch in British India under the control of M.N.Roy with the object of depriving “the King Em- peror of his Sovereignty of British India. ” During the trial which was not held in open court but in the jail where he was held, M.N. Roy wanted to make a statement in his defence but was not allowed. It was later smuggled out and published under the title “My Defence. ” He contended that the evi- dence on record did not prove the charge of conspiracy as the documents produced indi- cated differences of opinion among the al- leged conspirators and no plan to commit any crime. “The only law for the oppressed and exploited people of India is the law of revolt, the majestic law of revolutionary struggle for freedom. The imperialist rulers of India violate it every day; this is the only law that the people of India can observe under the present condition. My arrest and trial represent an instance of such violation of our law. To accuse me of any offence is to add insult to injury. I stand here not to answer any such absurd charge and insolent accusation. I stand here to indict the British Government of India at the Bar of the civilised world for war and aggression against one-fifth of the human race, for robbing our land, for obstructing our progress in every sense. ” The trial concluded on January 6 1932. Roy was sentenced to 12 years transportation which was reduced to 6 years R.I. on appeal. He said:

On April 8,1929 Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt threw two bombs from the visitors' gallery on to the floor of the Central Assembly. They did not attempt to escape though they could have done so in the ensuing confusion. They courted arrest after raising revolutionary slogans and throwing leaflets in the Central Hall. The trial of Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt for throwing the bombs in the Central Assem- bly began on May 8, 1929. They were de- fended by Asaf Ali, a young lawyer from Delhi who on behalf of the accused read out the following statement after the prosecution evidence had been completed : “ The bomb was necessary to awaken England from her dreams. We dropped the bomb on the floor of the Assembly chamber to register our protest on behalf of those who had no other means left to give expression to their heart-rending ag- ony. Our sole purpose was to make the deaf hear and give the heedless a timely warning. Others have as keenly felt as we have done and from such seeming stillness of the sea of In- dian humanity, a veritable storm is about to break out; we have only hoisted the danger signal to warn those who are speeding along without heeding to the grave dangers ahead. We have only marked the end of an era of Utopian non-violence of whose futility the rising generation has been convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt. ” Justifying the use of force and disagreeing with the policy of non-violence, the statement continued: “ Force used in the furtherance of a legitimate cause has its moral justification. The elimination of force at all costs is Utopian and the new movement which has risen in the country and of whose dawn we have given a warning is inspired by the ideals which Guru Govind Singh and Shivaji, Kamal Pasha and Rem Khan, Washington and Garibaldi, Lafay- ette and Lenin preached. ” Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt was sen- tenced to transportation for life. The Saunders Murder case or the Lahore conspiracy case as it came to be known, began on May 5 1930 before a special tribunal with Justice J. Cold- stream as its President and Mr. Justice Agha Haider and Mr. Justice G.C. Hilton as its members. Judgement was pronounced on October 7 1930. Bhagat Singh and his com- rades Sukhdev and Raj Guru were sentenced to death. They were executed on March 23, 1931. Kanpur Conspiracy Case Like the Meerut conspiracy the Kanpur conspiracy case of 1924 involved Communist

The trial of Sheikh Abdullah, the “Lion of Kashmir”, in July 1946 at Srinagar is as im- portant as that of the freedom fighters in British India. Abdullah fought against the autocratic rule of a Maharajah. Like Mahatma Gandhi, Abdullah too gave a “Quit Kashmir” call. The people of Kashmir soon rose against the misrule of the Maharajah Hari Singh. Sheikh Abdullah was arrested and put on trial for sedition by the Government of Kashmir in the court of Lala Barkat Rai, Sessions Judge, Srinagar in July 1946. While concluding his submission before the Sessions Court, Abdullah said:

“It is a small matter whether I am imprisoned and tried and convicted. But it is no small matter that the people of Jammu and Kashmi r suffer poverty, humiliation and degrada- tion. It has been no small matter what they have endured during the violent repression and horror of the past two months and more, and what they are enduring now. These very events have demonstrated the justice of our demand and of our cry of “Quit Kashmir. For a system of government that subsists only by pursuing such meth- ods stands condemned. If my impris- onment and that of my colleagues serves the cause to which we have dedicated ourselves then it will be well with us and we shall take pride in thus serving our people and the land of our forefathers.... ”

Abdullah was sentenced to three years simple imprisonment on September 10, 1946. He was set free on September 29,1947 by the Maharaja after India became independent.