The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 1, 1924, Page 12

be IS a known fact that England had ruled and rules India not for In- dia’s benefit but for the benefit of the English. capitalists. This does not require much explanation; the British government had done its best to dis- courage popular education; it taxes the Indian people heavily. India had more public schools before the Eng- lish conquered the country than it has today. After 950 years of British rule, we find that 90% of the males and 99% of the females are unable to read and write. The taxes imposed by the British imperialists are unbearable, being 50% of the produce. From 30 to 40 million of the population of India are systematically undernourished so that England’s annual revenue may not be diminished by a dollar. India forced to pay for its own food, — welj as the salaries of the ‘English rulers. It is forced to support the British army as well as all the mili- tary campaigns “conducted in the in- terests of India’; it is forced to pay the pensions of the many officials and officers, military and civilian, who have been employed in India. England deliberately discouraged manufacturing in India. Her dis- eriminating duties: have ruined every branch of native manufacturing and “ as a result 80% of the whole popula- tion has been thrown back upon the soil; but even here the taxation con- sumes 50% of the product of the cultivators. The “tillers of the soil, when they have sold themselves for the last time to the money lender, when they have over and over again mortgaged their crops and their bit of land, are sold by the tax-collector until they drop of starvation”. Universal Discontent Such ate some of the unfortunate results of the policy of England, which has produced a strong revolu- tionary movement in India. The discontent in India is universal; it spreads over all provinces and in- cludes all classes: it. is directed not against any particular act of Eng- land, but against the government as a whole. The “Non-Cooperative”’ movement is only one of the many movements now operating in India. Gandhi, the leader of this movement, is the typ- ical product of India—the land of mysticism and spirituality. In him are gathered all those traits that Hindus adore. He is an ascetic, im- bued with the ideas and teachings of Tolstoy. He combines in himself a messianic personality with the power of eloquent oratory. Besides duty, nothing else is important to him; his uncompromising adherence to what he believes his duty and’ the purity of his daily life exalted him almost to divinity in the minds of his followers. The Gandhi Gospel. - His gospel is that of “renewed self-respect and regenerated man- hood.” Real freedom, according to him, can be only won thru moral regeneration and not by warfare. All forms of hate must be replaced by love. His people “must put away all weakness, timid servility, de- ceitfulness, sloth, every form oz moral impurity, and put on courage, honor, self-respect, industry.” | So equipped they could assert them- selves and their mere assertion would be_ irresistible. They had only to refuse to co-operate with a govern- ment that would not meet their de- sires, and that government would find itself powerless. At the meeting of the India Na- tional Congress, in December, 1920, Gandhi succeeded in changing the constitution of the congress, and in making it adopt his “non-co-opcra- tive” schemes. These include three things: The driving of the British from India by passive resistance, the complete independence of India, and a reversion to her ancient ways, To accomplish this the people of India must gradually withdraw from ‘all co-operation with their European masters, says Gandhi. Government servants must resign their posts, lawyers their practices, students must leave the schools, and notabie individuals must give up their titles and honors, laborers must refuse to work for foreign hag erst foreign manufacturers be ycotted, obe- dience to laws and payment of taxes be refused. Thus a political and economic independence would be es- tablished, The whole activity could be succéssful only as it was carried en absolutely without violence and even without bitterness. “Once i ‘control were lost, once the [I people failed to maintain the highest standard of conduct be lost.” “Non-Co-operation” a Failure. This program of “non-violent non- co-operation” could and did not suc. ceed even in India, Indeed, when one reads the news- papers of those troubled years, one is struck with the way non-violent beginnings drifted quickly to violent ends. The policy of Gandhi resulted in a succession of failures. His ‘first appeal to the office holders and to the rich and powerful was disappointing in’ results, Only an_ insignificant number responded, The next appeal was to the stud- ents. Here the response was over. whelming. The students thronged in great crowds to place themselves at the disposal of India’s great “lead- ors for the service of their country.” Great meetings were held, speak. ers were moved to impassioned elo- quence and large sums~ of money were promised for new schools, but even here the erithusiasm seon died out and the students returned to the English schools and colleges. The vision of “a national education” was: a splendid one, but the effort of the leaders to make it more than a vision proved a complete fiasco. They could provide only a few ill-equipped schools and could offer only the same old subjects less efficiently taught. Change of Tactics. In 1921, the second year of the struggle, the non-co-operators shifted from political to ecopomice agitation. A remarkable boycott of forcign cloth began. Wearing it was de- nounced asasin. Ten million rupees were collected to popularize the char. kas or spinning wheel. In many of the principal cities great bonfires of , the cause would 7—State and Revolution 10—Marx and Marxism price $10.00. L r I’ APB ips Vide creel peste cscs scans yeas eedss oun eteeel Uniform cloth bound, good paper, handy edition. Subscri English cloth were made. Every- where homespun was; proclaimed the only possible dress for patriots, For a time the movement achieved a large measure of success, but it brought with it a burden of suffering. English cloth is better and cheaper than the Indian article. India does not. possess enough’ mills to supply the normal demand. As a result the burden fell heavily on the poor. The movement of non-violence soon changed its form. It assumed. the character of revolutionary outbreaks. In the cities “volunteers” in uniforms drilled openly in the street, and pa- raded with banners while shouting praise of Gandhi. In the rural dis- tricts armed bands were formed and the police and petty officials were brushed aside in many places. In Fysabad district a ~non-co-operator had stirred up agrarian riots. At Aligash, when a political agitator was sentenced to prison, the crowd attacked the police giards, and the result was two killed, several wound- ed, and a postoffice and other build- ings burned. At Malegaon men were prosecuted for carrying arms at a mass meeting. A crowd attacked police, killed a sub-inspector and a constable, and in quelling them three were killed and nine wounded, When the Prince of Wales landed at Bom- bay, the occasion was made one for savage and bloody rioting in.a sec- tion of the city. At Chauri-Chaura, a score of Indian policemen became engaged in an alteration with a group of non-co-operators. The al- tercation became a fight. The police were urged to escape, they were bat- tered to death with sticks. ‘These are only a few of the cases which occurred before the famous 8—The Organization of the Revolution 9—The Shaping of Bolshevism read Sp Ten volumes $7.50 The Non-Cooperative Movement in India = i001 zoon0cx If you are interested in spreading Leninism you must help immediately, begin this big undertaking. What part of this are you willing to contribute? Send it in at once! SUBSCRIBE $7.50 the set, to subscribers ONLY. ptions must be paid in advance.‘ But can also be made in three install- ment if YOU SEND IT AT ONCE! ST SL cn LENIN MEMORIAL FUND Workers Party of America 1009 N. State St., Chicago, Ill. Find enclosed $............ 1 Lenin Memorial Fund to get the Lenin Library started at once. I want to help spread 100,000 copies of Lenin’s works. T also enclose $.......... for my subscription to the Lenin | Library to be paid in ........ installments, my contribution toward the Malabor region. Moplah rebellion broke out in the The rebellion lasted several months and was mercilessly crushed by the English government. The Future, Thus we see that the Tolstoyan philosophy on non-resistance, as preached by Gandhi, has proved a failure. The main objections . to Gandhi’s program is that the people of India are not capable of such a revolution as he preached. In general the theory of pacifism is not prac- tical or possible for a whole nati to fellow. “Gandhi,” ag one nen “will be an educator for the future,” but he can hardly be the savior for the present. His scheme of non- co-operation can be useful only as a part ef a broader program, not as a program in itself, Real resistande to English rule in India in coming. A greater India, a Republic of the United States of India, is the vis’ » of every Indian, but it. can ‘be realized only thru a revolution led by men of sterner mold ‘than the mystic Gandhi. Australians. Lose Jobs. MELBOURNE, Australia, Feb. 29. —Because of the wholesale dumping of foreign textiles into Australia, most of the Australian textile manu- facturing plants have been forced to close, and thousands of operatives are unemployed. Reports received by the textile unions state that hosiery, underwear, and knit goods are imported from Germany to Britain, where the car- tons and labels are removed and the goods re-exported from Britain to Australia as British-made goods. A LENIN LIBRARY 10 VOLUMES OF LENIN’S WORKS 1—Imperialism, The Final Stage of Capitalism 2—The Agrarian Question in America 3—The Struggle Against the Second International 4—The Working Class and the Farmers 5—“Leftism”—An Infantile Malady of Communism 6—The Supprysed Peoples and the Social Revolution SEVEN NEVER PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH Three exist only in incomplete editions. 100,000 COPIES OF LENIN’S WORKS Without a knowledge of Leninism it is impossible to understand the Russian Revolution or the Communist movement of the world. The Lenin Library will publish, for the first time in English, a collection of Lenin’s works which will make Leninism understandable to the general public. Each yolume will have an explanatory preface and notes. Library edited by John Pepper. Lenin Memorial Fund We need $2,500 to Regular - tal | - . ADDREBS, i vcrceccccevdicccvcevcovescsececetsenstenvenness