GANDHI AND THE SIKHS

Evening Star, Issue 20468, 26 April 1930, Page 20

GANDHI AND THE SIKHS

KIELLI9N THREAT IK INDIA fhf ‘Morning Post,’’ London, pubKifaes .the following account, by a spe-> cial representative, of the 1 alliance befcvoeen ■ Sirdar Khamk Singh and Gandhi, the two Indian leaders, each formidable in Ms Own way, who came Ip an ominoua understanding at Lahore mi December last Gandhi is the leader of the Swaraj movement, and believes, or pretends _to believe, in obtaining independence for India by “ non-violence.” . Kharak Singh, on the other band, » called by his admirers the “ uncrowned king of the Sikhs,” the warlike sect from which a large part of the Indian army i# recruited. , (! . , Pictures ef Gandhi suggest the physical disability and the mental cunning of the down-country Hindu of the bannia (or money-lending) caste to which he belongs. Kharak Singh’s portraits indicate the courage and simplicity oi a raoe of land-owning cultivator warriors. Tii» bannift has always exploited the Sikh, and ibis present alliance » probably no exception to that rule, for the Sikh will have the Wows and the bannm the halfpence of the arrangement. Sirdar Kharak is a leader of great importance in the Punjab, ex-President of the Provincial Congress of the Central foyh League and of the Akali Dal (volunteer forces), and President of the Sikh Temple Committee. The Akali Sikhs, of whom he i* • leader, are an ageressive faction; they have secured the control of the Sikh Temple funds, and are therefore in a strong position. They have behind, them also a large number of ex-soldiers 01 the Indian armv, • and probably also the remnant -of that # Ghadr rebellion which was crushed in 1015. , , x . , The Congress Party had antagonised these Sikhs in the Nehru Constitution, which was called an “ insult” by Kharak , Singh. “ Follow me,” he exand I shall carry the flag of Indian freedom. If you find a bullet in my back don’t count me among the Sikhs.” . , , ' .. r It w/is in this spirit that the Akali Sikhs marched on Lahore. Although a tiny fraction in the population of In-

dia, the claims of their leaders were for s, commanding share in any form of government that might be coming, and their intention was to force their views upon the Congress, if necessary with the cold steel of their kirpans. Kharak Singh and his Sikhs marched into Lahore with this intention on December 29. last, to -the number of at least 10,000, some afoot, some on homehack, and some on camels, the Sirdar himself riding on an elephant. They marched in fighting array, .with their gleaming knives unsheathed, to the pipes and drums of a band of ex-sol-diers. A collision with police and Gurkhas was averted by the tact of the district magistrate and superintendent of police, and the formidable invaders mode their bivouac under the walls of the old fort. While the congress was going on Gandhi and the Sirdar held a secret conference, and on December 30 Kharak Singb announced that be had made satisfactory terms for his people. Kharak Singh (says Reuter) thorefore advised the Sikhs, to work for complete independence. Such, ia brief, is the hiatoiy of the alliance between Gandhi and. Kharak Singh— between “ non-violence ” and the sword, between “civil disobedience ” and armed rebellion. . It i« noteworthy that Gandhi has postponed his part of the rebellion until March, the significance of which date will be understood by those who remember the rebellion of 1919. It wae in March of that year that the violent agitation began which culminated in the outbreaks at Lahore, Amritsar, and elsewhere. It takes time to work a population up from agitation to rebellion, and there is official evidence that the date fixed by the conspirators for the actual outbreak was May 18, by which date, it was calculated, the British troops would have fone to their summer quarters in the ills. Fortunately for the British Government, the arrest elf Kitchlew and Satya Pal on April 9 precipitated the rising at Amritsar, with the result that it broke out prematurely elsewhere. One of the chief aims of the conspirators in that rebellion was to rouse the warlike Sikh population of the Punjab. It was for this reason that Amritsar was made a centre of the agitation. The danger was mainly averted in that area by the courage and statesGeneral Dyer, who first re-

pressed the rebellion by the shooting in the Jallianwalabagh, qnd then gave the Sikhs such proofs of the friendship and! power or the British Raj that in their enthusiasm they made General Dyer a Sikh and offered him 10,000 men as a contribution to the defence of India against the Afghan invasion. Thus the danger of a Sikh revolt was averted in 1919; but it is threatened much more formidably in 1930. For in 1919 Gandhi and his revolutionaries had no allies among the Sikh leaders. They could then only count upon a rising of the villagers, fomented by the cry that the British Government had abdicated and that everybody could loot to his heart’s content, whereas they can now reckon upon Sirdar Kharak Singh and his organised followiuf£. It is obviously the policy of Gandhi and his fellow-Hindus of the congress to find safety behind the , show, of nonviolence and civil disobedience, while getting as many as possible of the Sikhs and Mohammedans of the north to do the actual fighting. It is the opinion of those who know India well that even so there would be no reason to fear the result if only the Government showed the samo resolution and courage as was shown by the Punjab Government in 1919. Otherwise the danger may be serious indeed.