``NADIR SHAH looted the country only once. But the British loot us every day. Every year wealth to the tune of 4.5 million dollar is being drained out, sucking our very blood. Britain should immediately quit India.'' --- That's what the Sindh Times wrote on May 20, 1884, a year before the Indian National Congress was born and full 58 years before Gandhiji thought of the ``Quit India'' movement!
The partition of Bengal --- ``Vanga Bhanga'' --- triggering the Swadeshi movement, gave a great fillip to the freedom movement in Sindh, as elsewhere in the country. When Khudiram Bose was hanged in 1908, his portrait found its way into all patriotic homes. In the same year, Virumal Begraj (1874--1955) set up a swadeshi store in Sukkur, and Lokram Sharma in Hyderabad. They then held the first All-Sindh Political Conference in Sukkur.
When in 1907 Principal Jackson of D.J. Sind College of Karachi said, ``You Indians are liars'', leading students such as Jivat, Jawahar and Narain left the college and migrated to Baroda and Pune. Later the three of them became famous as Acharya J.B. Kripalani, Swami Govindanand and Prof. N.R. Malkani.
When in 1908 Bal Gangadhar Tilak was sentenced to six years' imprisonment, many young men began to sleep on the floor --- something unusual in a province where even beggars slept on cots.
In Shikarpur, the Pritam Dharma Sabha, set up in 1888, not only did much social reform, but also inspired the setting up of swadeshi sugar, soap, and cloth mills. The literature produced by the Sabha was considered so revolutionary that, in 1909, Seth Chetumal, Virumal Begraj and Govind Sharma were all sentenced to five years' rigorous imprisonment. Judge Boyde said in his order: ``These young men are members of a religious organisation. Their influence on the people, therefore, will be great. Their writings and activities are so seditious that they deserve death. But in view of their tender age I am handing out a lesser punishment.''
In 1910, Acharya Kripalani, Kaka Kalelkar, Swami Govind- anand, Dr. Choithram and others set up the Brahmacharya Ashram in Hyderabad --- next to Dr. Tarachand's Hospital in East Kutch. This was not only an institution to produce patriotic young men --- through song, drama and gymnastics --- but also a forum for other patriotic activities, including shelter for revolutionaries-in-hiding. Dr. Choithram, Swami Alaram, Pandit Deendayal Vachaspati and Swami Satyadev went on a cow protection tour of Sindh singing ``Bael Saheb ko karo Salaam'' (``Salute Sir Bullock!'') and collected 3,000 rupees for the Brahmacharya Ashram.
Baba Gurditt Singh was carrying a prize of 40,000 rupees on his head. He had hired the Japanese ship Komagatamaru for group migration to Canada but had been refused permission to land there and had then sailed back to Calcutta where they refused to disembark. This led to firing, resulting in many deaths. Gurditt Singh himself was safely sheltered in Sindh for three years. For the same Komagatamaru incident, Govindanand was sentenced to five years' rigorous imprisonment.
One mid-night in 1913, a lame Muslim, complaining of severe stomach-ache, arrived in a bullock cart from Kotri, at the residence of Lokram Sharma in Hyderabad. Once in, it became clear that he was Rashbehari Bose, the famous revolutionary in disguise, who had thrown a bomb at Lord Hardinge in Chandni Chowk, Delhi in 1912. Rashbehari, Lokram Sharma, (1890--1933), and his brother Vishnu Sharma had been in the same house in Delhi on that bomb-throw day. Dr. Choithram arranged money for Rashbehari and sent him to Amritsar on way to Japan via Afghanistan.
Earlier, Shikarpur had sent a sum of 10,000 rupees to Gandhiji for his movement in South Africa. Hyderabad gave a tumultuous reception to Pandit Malaviya and presented him a welcome address in Sanskrit.
When Dr. Annie Besant became Congress President, she appointed G.M. Bhurgri (1878--1924), a leading nationalist Muslim of Sindh as general secretary of the party.
When Kripalani resigned from G B.B. College of Muzaffarpur in Bihar, he left a sum of 2,000 rupees with Prof. N.R. Malkani for assistance to revolutionaries.
Sindh now published the daily Hindu in 1919, to foster and mobilize patriotic public opinion.
Sindh repeatedly sent monetary help to Madame Cama, then labouring for Indian Independence in Paris.
At a time when Gandhiji was still addressing War ``Recruitment Melas'', Dr. Tuljaram Khilnani of Nawabshah publicly campaigned against War Loan Bonds. Sindh was then part of Bombay Presidency and Sindh Congress, part of Bombay Provincial Congress Committee. When Gandhiji sought election to AICC from Bombay PCC, the delegate from Sindh opposed his election in view of his support to the British war effort.
When Tilak visited Sindh in 1920, young men pulled his carriage; women for the first time came out of their seclusion and offered arati to him. Tilak was overwhelmed. He wrote in his paper Kesari: ``If every province had men like Dr. Choithram,we could break the chains of bondage in no time.''
When Tilak died on 1 August 1920, Jairamdas and other Sindhi leaders had their heads shaved. They were afraid that the Freedom Movement would grind to a halt. They were only too delighted to see ``Karmaveer'' Gandhi --- as the Mahatma was then known --- carry the movement forward to new heights.
When Gandhiji gave the call to oppose the Rowlatt Act, Jethmal Parasram, an ardent theosophist, invited people to a course of suffering and sacrifice --- Kalalkay haat kusan jo kope wahay --- that earned him two years rigorous imprisonment When the Amritsar session of the Congress was held, Sindh sent a Jallianwala Special train with delegates. When the Prince of Wales visited Karachi on 17 March 1922, not a single man from the public went to receive him; and one could not get either a cigarette or a cup of tea anywhere in the city. Karachi also made history when Bharati Krishna Tirth, the revolutionary Shankaracharya of Puri, was put up for trial along with Maulana Mohammed Ali, Maulana Shaukat Ali and Kitchlew, in the historic Karachi Conspiracy Case in Khalikdina Hall --- from 26 September, 1921, to 4 November, 1922. Gandhiji described it as ``one of the most important of all modern trials''.
The administration was so flustered that it started to subsidize pro-government mullahs. And when it could not get actual mullahs, it did not hesitate to invent some. Ranjhe Khan Jamadar was asked to produce some Mullahs for the award of ``Peace Medals'' Being at a loss as to what to do, he submitted fictitious names of Pir Thagrial (Pir Rag-Tag) and Pir Thekrathoo (Pir Bogus). For these ``services'' he was duly presented to Collector Bolus --- and promoted as subedar!
The administration also turned a blind eye to dacoities --- to harass the Hindus, who were pro-Congress. When the people -protested, they were told to ``Go to Gandhi'' --- and ask him to catch the dacoits.
The 1930-32 ``Satyagraha'' movement was a huge success in Sindh. In town after town, people would go round, collecting foreign cloth, heaping it on donkey-backs, and then making huge bonfire of it --- RS viewers impromptu tossed their felt hats etc. into the raging fire. A penniless Muslim peasant in Jacobabad had only his saunti (thick short wooden stick) to give. 1t was put to auction, and it fetched 250 rupees.
Also, for the first time, Sindhi women came out of the four walls of their homes to join processions and picketing in a big way. Before long, Karachi and Hyderabad became two of the biggest storm-centres in the Bombay Presidency. Sindh then had a population of less than forty lakhs, 30 per cent of them Hindu, who alone were participating in the movement. Even so, 724 persons went to jail in 1930.
In its misconceived zeal, the Congress in Sindh even decided to boycott the census operations of 1931. One could only hope that not many people followed their census boycott programme.
In the Karachi firing that killed Dattatreya Mane and Meghraj Rewachand, even a leader like Jairamdas was shot in the thigh. The whole country was shocked. Gandhiji wired on 20 April, 1930: ``Consider Jairamdas most fortunate. Bullet wound thigh better than prison. Wound heart better still.'' He later wrote: ``It would exhilarate me to hear that a co-worker like Jairamdas was shot dead. I have not known anyone more pure-hearted than Jairamdas. It is with the blood of such Indians that the temple of Swaraj will be built.''
At the time of the weekly inspection by the jail superintendent even a man like Jairamdas was expected to appear in only a loose langoti and say ``Sarkar, Salaam!'' When he refused, he was shackled and put in a solitary cell.
The shooting of Jairamdas echoed in the British Parliament, where a member asked how a leading light of the Amils, the community which was prominent in loyal government service, had also entered the Freedom Movement. The Secretary of State for India cut a sorry figure, saying that he himself was surprised. His surprise could have only increased when H.B. Shivdasani, ICS, resigned from the ``Heaven-born service'' in sympathy with the national movement.
Lesser leaders outside the jail were harassed to no end. The government would see to it that they got no tonga, not even a bullock-cart, to visit the villages. Sarkari goondas would be sent to disturb their meetings or even beat them up. Gandhiji took note of ``the realities of repression in Sindh''. He said: ``I render my congratulations to them for their courage and patience under very trying circumstances. If they continue to suffer patiently and bravely, the end will be brought nearer to this unbridled and unscrupulous repression.''
The AICC report on satyagraha in Sindh noted in 1932: ``The province seems to be doing fairly well. Classification of prisoners in Sindh is a scandal. Even Jairamdas, AICC General Secretary, has been placed in C class --- as also 37 out of 40 women satyagrahis. Many young satyagrahis have been made to break stones. Twelve of them have been flogged with a dozen stripes each.''
The 1930 movement ended in the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, which was followed by the Karachi session of the Congress in March 1931. It was organized in a grand manner --- on a budget of only 90,000 rupees --- and in the course of just three weeks. Mahadev Desai grew ecstatic over ``the canopy of heaven under which the Congress is meeting for the first time in its history''. Gandhiji was ``thankful that the Reception Committee has rent it (shamiana-top) as under and put us into direct communion with God''. Built on the Takri (hillock), which now sports Jinnah's mausoleum, it was mainly organized by Jamshed Mehta, the Mayor of Karachi, and Chairman of the Reception Committee.
However, the historic Congress session was clouded by two tragedies. The British hanged Sardar Bhagat Singh and his colleagues Sukhdev and Rajguru on the eve of the session --- despite Gandhiji's best efforts to save their lives --- just to make their imperial existence felt. And when Muslims in Kanpur refused to close their shops in honour of Bhagat Singh, violence ensued. Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, PCC President of the United Provinces, and editor of the Pratap, who went to quell the rioting, lost his life in the heroic effort. Gandhiji was greeted with black flags and black cloth flowers and ``Go Back'' slogans at every station on his way to Karachi. He actually detrained at Drigh Road, to avoid an angry crowd in Karachi proper. Gandhiji said that he would keep the black flags as an ``heirloom'' --- unless the demonstrators realized their mistake and asked for their return. But he begged of them not to disturb the Congress session and ``not to mar the wonderful work by the workers of Sindh''. After that the Karachi session of the Congress passed off peacefully. A highlight of this session was the first-time participation of the Frontier Red Shirts led by Khan Abdul Ghaffar.
The Karachi session was presided over by the redoubtable Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. It was here that the Congress decided to participate in the Second Round Table Conference. The session also adopted a 20-point resolution on Fundamental Rights, promising universal adult franchise, free primary education, a living wage fore all in free India.
This session also had an interesting interlude when Maulana Zafar Ali, editor of the Zamindar of Lahore, insisted that the Congress adjourn for namaz. Gandhiji refused --- conceding only that the Congress could conduct less important business during namaz time. An infuriated Maulana walked straight out to the station, where he caught the first train to Lahore.
Before and after the 1930-32 movement, the Congress was popular enough to pit a Mochi(cobbler) againsta Mukhi --- and get him elected. In the 1937 elections, the Congress had 7 MLAs in a house of 60, enough to become a balancing factor.
The 1942 movement went better in Sindh than in the Punjab and in many other provinces. It took two young valuable lives --- Hemu Kalani, caught removing rails, and Nirmal Jivtani, poet, who was flogged, and who died soon after. Prime Minister Allah Bux Soomro was so close to the Congress that he used to carry Khadi on his shoulder and hawk it from door to door. During the ``Quit India'' movement he offered to requisition a bungalow on Clifton --- Karachi's beautiful beach --- if enough women offered satyagraha. It was this proximity to the Congress that earned him his dismissal, followed, shortly after, by his mysterious murder. Sindh never recovered from that tragedy; and it paved the way for partition --- even though the Congress bagged 22 seats in the 1946 elections.
Such in brief was the course of the freedom movement in Sindh. Its leaders, qualitatively, were among the best in the country. Kripalani (1888--1982), the best known of them, first saw Gandhiji in Santiniketan, and was hooked to him for life. He put life in Charkha Sangha and worked longest as General Secretary of the Congress. Here was a remarkable case of front- rank leadership for sixty historic years.
Jairamdas Daulatram Alimchandani (1891 --- 1978), scholar- turned-fiery-patriot, was the most Gandhian of the Congressmen of Sindh. For some time he worked as editor of The Hindustan Times and later as General Secretary of the Congress. After Independence, Jairamdas became Governor of Bihar, Union Food Minister, Governor of Assam and editor of Complete Works of Gandhi.
Dr. Choithram (1889--1957) was a life-long public worker, who started to serve the country before the Congress was even heard of. Starting with partition of Bengal, he continued to serve the country after the partition of India. On the eve of Partition, he even organized a training camp in Chittor Fort for 40 young men --- with the help of the Maharana of Udaipur --- to help defend people in Sindh. It was he who got a reluctant Jawaharlal Nehru to agree to compensate the refugees for their property losses. Way back in 1'i24, Gandhiji wrote about him in the Young India: ``Dr. Choithram has sacrificed everything and turned into a faqir, all for the cause of his country.''
Acharya A.T. Gidvani (1890--1935) resigned his cushy job as principal of Ramjas College of Delhi, to work with Gandhiji on one-fifth his old emoluments. When the Congress decided to induct top leaders in public offices and Pandit Nehru became chairman of Allahabad municipality and Sardar Patel chairman of Ahmedabad municipality and Subhas Chandra Bose, Chief Officer of Calcutta Corporation, Gidvani became Chief Education Officer of Karachi Corporation. His premature death in 1935 cut off a brilliant career.
Professor Ghanshyam Shivdasani, life-long public worker, and leader of the Sindh Assembly Congress Party, 1937-47, was an embodiment of Mathew Arnold's definition of culture as ``sweetness and light''.
Harchandrai Vishindas Bharwani (1862--1928) was chairman of the reception committee of the Karachi session of the Congress in 1913. Here, for the first time, he voiced the demand for separation of Sindh from Bombay --- and its constitution into a separate province. He was president of Karachi Corporation during 1911-- 1920. In 1920 he was elected to the Central Legislative Assembly. Speaking about the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy, he said: ``If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.'' Though on his death-bed, he left Karachi for Delhi to vote against the Simon Commission. He died in Delhi before he could cast his vote. His pall-bearers here were Motilal Nehru, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Lala Lajpatrai and Vithalbhai Patel.
Jamshed, though not a member of the Congress, was elected on Congress ticket from Dadu in 1937. He was the maker of modern Karachi. He was the arbiter in all disputes, which were many in public life.
N.R. Malkani (1860--1974) was professor in G.B.B. College of Muzaffarpur when Gandhiji stayed with him for a few days on way to Champaran in 1917. During an evening walk Gandhiji asked him: ``What next, Professor?'' That was the turning point in Malkani's life. He resigned his job, joined Gujerat Vidyapeeth, later helped build up the Harijan Colony in Delhi, and later still took up constructive work in Sindh. He helped influence Allah Bux in favour of the Congress --- and even introduced the Congress, complete with its charkha, to the formidable Pir Pagaro of the Hurs.
Among the women leaders, Ganga Behn, wife of Acharya Gidvani, Kiki Behn, sister of Kripalani, Ambi Khilnani, daughter-in- law of Kauromal, and Kumari Jethi Sipahimalani played a significant role in the public life of Sindh.
During the freedom movement, national leaders were lionized all over the country. Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose were particularly popular in Sindh. However, Pandit Nehru never felt particularly drawn to Sindh, even though the Sindhis adored him. As he wrote to Padmaja Naidu on 16 July 19 6: ``I don't know Sindh. I don't feel attracted to it.'' In another letter, 26 July, 1936, to Padmaja, from Nawabshah in Sindh he wrote: ``The Sindhi people have their good qualities and I rather like them. But they are a curious mixture of the muslim feudal classes and the Hindu bania class, neither very admirable, as classes go. Still they have push and energy and that is something to be thankful for. They seem to be singularly devoid of any artistic sense. And the colour they sport in their striped pajamas are a trial.''
In Kandiaro in 1936, the panchayat refused to present its purse to Pandit Nehru when he failed to ride through the town on horse-back, because of fatigue. Later in the evening Nehru obliged with an ``Achha Bhai''(all right, friends), when the Panchayat duly come out with its welcome address and purse.
In the case of Subhas Bose, the affection was mutual. Sindh voted unanimously for his re-election --- against Pattabhi Sitaramayya as Congress President in 1938 Once when Subhas Bose was leaving Hyderabad by train, someone humorously suggested that he should marry a Sindhi girl; he could then denote the handsome dowry to the national cause. Subhas Bose said he was willing to marry if Dr. Choithram led the way. Inquiries revealed that most of those present were unmarried. Thereupon Subhas Bose said: ``Let us form a party of the bachelors of India, with Choithram as president and myself as secretary. We'll call it `Jai Hind Party'. Our object will be to sacrifice married bliss for the joy of serving the country.'' Obviously he had ``Jai Hind'' in his mind long before he founded the I.N.A.
When Subhas Bose set up INA in the Far East, his best and biggest supporters were the Sindhi businessmen there. Both Subhas Bose and Gandhiji referred to Sindhis as ``World Citizens'' since they are to be found everywhere.
Gandhiji of course had the sweetest of relations with Sindh and the Sindhis. He told in his prayer meeting on 27 May 1947: ``Why should the Hindus of Sindh be afraid? Why should they panic? Instead of being frightened, why do they not take the name of Rama? The people of Sindh want me to go to them. I have not been to Sindh for many years but I have maintained such close relations with the people of Sindh that at one time I used to call myself a Sindhi.'' The relations of Gandhiji with Sindh constitute a saga by themselves.