Champaran being in a far away corner of India, and the press having been kept
out of the campaign, it did not attract visitors from outside. Not
so with the Kheda campaign, of which the happenings were reported in
the press from day to day.
The Gujaratis were deeply interested in the fight, which was to them
a novel experiment. They were ready to pour forth their riches for
the success of the cause. It was not easy for them to see that
Satyagraha could not be conducted simply by means of money. Money is
the thing that it least needs. In spite of my remonstrance, the
Bombay merchants sent us more money than necessary, so that we had
some balance left at the end of the campaign.
At the same time the Satyagrahi volunteers had to learn the new
lesson of simplicity. I cannot say that they imbibed it fully, but
they considerably changed their ways of life.
For the Patidar farmers, too, the fight was quite a new thing. We
had, therefore, to go about from village to village explaining the
principles of Satyagraha.
The main thing was to rid the agriculturists of their fear by making
them realize that the officials were not the masters but the
servants of the people, inasmuch as they received their salaries
from the taxpayer. And then it seemed well-nigh impossible to make
them realize the duty of combining civility with fearlessness. Once
they had shed the fear of the officials, how could they be stopped
from returning their insults? And yet if they resorted to incivility
it would spoil their Satyagraha, like a drop of arsenic in milk. I
realized later that they had less fully learnt the lesson of
civility than I had expected. Experience has taught me that civility
is the most difficult part of Satyagraha. Civility does not here
mean the mere outward gentleness of speech cultivated for the
occasion, but an inborn gentleness and desire to do the opponent good.
These should show themselves in every act of a Satyagrahi.
In the initial stages, though the people exhibited much courage, the
Government did not seem inclined to take strong action. But as the
people's firmness showed no signs of wavering, the Government began
coercion. The attachment officers sold people's cattle and seized
whatever movables they could lay hands on. Penalty notices were
served, and in some cases standing crops were attached. This
unnerved the peasants, some of whom paid up their dues, while others
desired to place safe movables in the way of the officials so that
they might attach them to realize the dues. On the other hand some
were prepared to fight to the bitter end.
While these things were
going on, one of Sjt. Shankarlal Parikh's tenants paid up the
assessment in respect of his land. This created a sensation. Sjt.
Shankarlal Parikh immediately made amends for his tenant's mistake
by giving away for charitable purposes the land for which the
assessment had been paid. He thus saved his honour and set a good
example to others.
With a view to steeling the hearts of those who were frightened, I
advised the people, under the leadership of Sjt. Mohanlal Pandya, to
remove the crop of onion, from a field which had been, in my opinion
wrongly attached. I did not regard this as civil disobedience, but
even if it was, I suggested that this attachment of standing crops,
though it might be in accordance with law, was morally wrong, and was
nothing short of looting, and that therefore it was the people's
duty to remove the onion in spite of the order of attachment. This
was a good opportunity for the people to learn a lesson in courting
fines or imprisonment, which was the necessary consequence of such
disobedience. For Sjt. Mohanlal Pandya it was a thing after his
heart. He did not like the campaign to end without someone
undergoing suffering in the shape of imprisonment for something done
consistently with the principles of Satyagraha. So he volunteered
to remove the onion crop from the field, and in this seven or eight
friends joined him.
It was impossible for the Government to leave them free. The arrest
of Sjt. Mohanlal and his companions added to the people's
enthusiasm. When the fear of jail disappears, repression puts heart
into the people. Crowds of them besieged the court-house on the day
of the hearing. Pandya and his companions were convicted and
sentenced to a brief term of imprisonment. I was of opinion that the
conviction was wrong, because the act of removing the onion crop
could not come under the definition of 'theft' in the Penal Code.
But no appeal was filed as the policy was to avoid the law courts.
A procession escorted the 'convicts' to jail, and on that day Sjt.
Mohanlal Pandya earned from the people the honoured title of dungli
chor (onion thief) which he enjoys to this day.
The conclusion of the Kheda Satyagraha I will leave to the next
chapter.