Mahatma Gandhi 49 - Non Co-Operation & Imprisonment Poem by Geeta Radhakrishna Menon

From 1930 onwards,
A feverish crusade pervaded in India
The main objective was independence,
To gain freedom from foreign rule!
Though the movement was called
Non-co-operation Movement,
It was a glorious period of great co-operation
And cordiality between the people of India!
In spite of differences of opinion and ideologies,
They remained united
For One Big Goal,
The goal of freedom from the British rule!

Gandhiji encouraged Non-co-operation
Across the whole country,
To defy the bans made by the British Government.
At the same time, Gandhiji urged the people
To follow non-violence at every step,
Of the agitation against the rules and
To enjoy imprisonment as well!
The response to Gandhiji's call was stupendous!
Hundreds of people were imprisoned
The prominent leaders who went to jail
Included the Nehrus, Lala Lajpatrai, C.R.Das,
Azad and other eminent personalities.

Gandhiji worked in close association with
The Congress from 1921 onwards.
The participation in Amritsar proceedings was
The first major and real entrance into Congress Politics.
The All India Congress Committee resolved to discuss
And deliberate on the Non-Co-operation Movement.
At the request of Maulana Shaukat Ali
Gandhiji drafted the Non-Co-operation resolution.
Motilal Nehru was the first to join the movement.
He suggested changes in phraseology adopted by Gandhiji.
Deshabandhu who was sceptical in the beginning,
Whole heartedly accepted the movement. So did Lala Lajpatrai.

The spirited demand from
Motilalji and Vijayaraghavachariji
To include ‘Swaraj' in
The Non- co-operation resolution was
Accepted and incorporated in by Gandhiji.
‘The absence of Swaraj was
The biggest wrong
That the country was laboring under'.
Finally, the Congress Committee
Passed the resolution
‘After an exhaustive, serious
And somewhat stormy discussion'!

The resolutions adopted
At the Calcutta session were confirmed
At the annual meet of Congress in Nagpur.
It was a mammoth gathering.
Around fourteen thousand people were present.
The Non-co-operation resolution was
Passed unanimously!
The main objective of the Congress was
The attainment of ‘Swaraj' or Home rule!
'Resolutions about Hindu Muslim unity,
The removal of untouchability and
Khadi too were passed in this Congress'!

The adoption of Non-co-operation for
The sake of Khilafat was itself
A great practical attempt
Made by the Congress
To bring about Hindu-Muslim unity.'
Gandhiji fearlessly took a sweeping step
Towards Swaraj and India's independence
With the historical Salt March to Dandi
It not only created a sensational uproar amongst
The multitudes but elevated
Gandhiji to the status of a Prophet -
The Messiah of the people of India.

Gandhiji was arrested on night of 4th May 1930,
While he camped at Karadi, five miles away from Dandi.
Gandhiji was his calm self, unperturbed and dignified.
He requested Pandit Khare to sing ‘Vaishnava Jana' -
His favourite bhajan while they commenced the March,
With the permission of the officers who were to arrest him.
He was taken by Frontier Mail to Bombay and
Then, driven in a Buick to Yervada jail in Poona.
Later, the seventy five year old Jurist -
Abbas Tyabji and Jagatram Dave,
Gandhiji's ardent supporters who continued
The Salt Satyagraha were arrested and jailed too.

Gandhiji was in jail for the sixth time in his life.
His first and second imprisonment happened
In South Africa - Johannesburg in 1908
For the very first Satyagraha movement!
The third imprisonment took place in London,
When Gandhiji supported the cause of
The South African Indian Interests in 1909.
The fourth imprisonment was for the great march of
Satyagrahis from Charlestown to Volksrust in 1913,
To protest against the anti Indian legislation.
The fifth imprisonment sentenced Gandhiji for nearly
Two years from March 1922 to February 1924.

This was the Chaura Chauri massacre of
Twenty one Indian policemen killed by
A frenzied mob of protestors.
This incident shocked Gandhiji so much that
He vowed to ban the Satyagraha movement.
For Gandhiji, Ahimsa or Non-violence had
To be adhered at all realms of Satyagraha.
'Non-violence is the law of our species
As violence is the law of the brute. The spirit lies
Dormant in the brute and he knows no law but
That of physical might. The dignity of man requires
Obedience to a higher law - to the strength of the spirit.'
































After Gandhiji's release from Jail on 26th Jan 1931,
Gandhiji did not rest at all. He swung into action
For the dignity of the untouchables
Gandhiji began a fast to protest against the proposed
Separate electorate for the untouchables.
Gandhiji was imprisoned for the seventh time in 1932.
This was followed by two more imprisonments.
Meanwhile, Gandhiji published the English weekly-
‘Harijan' projecting various issues of the untouchables.
A new Ashram -‘Sevagram' was founded in Wardha.
In 1942, Gandhiji launched the Quit India movement.
Once again, he was jailed for two years, his tenth imprisonment!

Gandhiji's faithful and courageous wife -
Kasturba, too was in prison with Gandhiji.
She was ailing and had suffered three heart attacks.
Their sons -Ramdas and Devdas, visited them regularly.
While son Manilal was away working in South Africa
On 22 February 1944, Kasturba breathed her last
In her husband's arms, while Devadas sobbed like
Like a little child, with his head on his mother's chest.
An irreplaceable void was created in Gandhiji's life.
She was his life partner for sixty two years.
Gandhiji repeated his estranged eldest son Harilal's remark.
'It is because of her that I am today what I am.'

India became independent on 15 August 1947.
In 1948, Gandhiji once again, began a fast, this time
For the Hindu-Muslim-Sikh unity and peace.
In Delhi, on 29th January 1948, Gandhiji wrote
A draft constitution for the Indian National Congress.
Gandhiji had a premonition and posed a question to himself.
' Have I that non-violence of the brave in me?
My death alone will show that. If someone killed me
And I died with a prayer for the assassin on my lips,
And God's remembrance and consciousness of
His living presence in the sanctuary of my heart, then alone
Would I be said to have had the non-violence of the brave.'