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Page 159-212 159 50 CONFIDENTIAL HEAD POLICE OFFICE. No. 2680/H/3717. Bombay, 4th June 1930. Dear Mr. Collins, In continuation of my D. O. No. 2656/H/3717, dated the 2nd June 1930. I forward for your information copies of the Bombay Congress Bulletin Nos. 37, 38 and the Worli Special issue of the 3rd June 1930. On the 2nd and 3rd instant picketing by women volunteers was continued at Mangaldas Cloth Market, Girgaum Road, Charni Road, Vadgadi, Pydhonie, Cliakla, Lalbaug, Parel and Dadar. It is reported that the doth merchants had given an assurance to the Bombay Provincial Congress Committee and the Desh Sevika Sangh that they will not import foreign cloth after the shipment of 18th May 1930. In view of the new ordinances the Bombay Provincial Congress Committee is considering the extension of picketing to the Fort area shortly. Strenuous efforts are being made to enrol more volunteers to help the women pickets. A procession of about 600 volunteers, including about 100 ladies, was taken out from the Congress House at 5-30 p.m. on the 2nd instant It was led by Mukund Malaviya, Manibhai Gopalji Desai and Gajendranath Sharma. It went to the Esplanade Maidan via Girgaum Back Road, Bhuleshwar, Kalbadevi and Cruickshank Road raising cries at intervals of "Boycott British goods" led " Mahatma Gandhi Ki Jai". At the Esplanade Maidan a public meeting was held to congratulate the volunteers and the general public who took part in the mass raid on the Wadala salt depot on the 1st June. Jinabhai P. Joshi presided, About 2,500 persons were present. The president, S. K. Pupala, Mrs. Lilavati Munshi, Dr. Abdus Saiam, Pratap Singh and Jamiat Singh made speeches congratulating the satyagrahis on their success at the Wadala raid and condemning the assault on them by the police. Jinabhai ?. Joshi referred to the promulgation of the new ordinances and said that the Bombay Provincial Congress Committee had determined to carry on intensive propaganda by picketing cloth and liquor shops. He appealed to the people to come forward as volunteers. S. K. Pupala urged the people to join the Congress as volunteers and asked the 'cowards' to leave Bombay. Mrs. Lilavati Munishi asked the people to boycott foreign cloth and to be prepared to give their lives to end the tyrannical Government. Jamiat Singh, a Sikh satyagrahi, who was alleged to have been assaulted at Wadala, narrated how the people ran helter-skelter at Wadala when charged by the police. He blamed the Congress leaders for not leading the crowd which went to Wadala in response to their appeal, He also criticised the conduct of the Congress volunteers who went for medical treatment on the slighter injury. Dr. Abdus Salam asked the Mussalmans to help the Congress. At this time there was some excitement in the audience. Somebody was heard saying that a C. I. D. man was starting the trouble by throwing stones. An innocent man was mistaken for a C. I. D. man and roughly handled, though he 160 protested that he had nothing to do with the C. I. D. Some members of the audience took him out of the meeting and escorted him to a place of safety. Now-a-days the C. I. D. is an obsession with the Congress people and many innocent people are roughly handled on suspicion. Special Branch men who have to attend meetings and mix with the people find it an unpleasant job. Last night an S. B. man was spotted at Worli, followed and slapped. Divisional officers complain that when sepoys go to arrest street gamblers or hawkers they are molested and sometimes chased away. They are told that Gandhi's raj has replaced the British raj. The G Ward District Congress Committee held a public meeting on the open space near Saitan Chowky on the night of June 2nd. K. A. Parmeshwaram presided. About 400 millhands were present. T. R. Naravane, Govind Shankar Kanthi and K. A. Parmeshwaram asked the people to boycott foreign cloth and British goods and support home industries. On the 2nd June Virchand Panachand performed the opening ceremony of the DeLisle Road Taluka Congress Committee situated at Harharwalla Building. A meeting was held at the Bombay Development Department Chawls, DeLisle Road. About 2,500 people, mostly millhands, were present. S. K. Pupala, Khimji M. Bhujporia, B. R. Dhurandhar, Balkrishna Taralkar, Mrs. Kamalabai J. Prabhu, Mr. Janardhan Devrao Prabhu and Baburao Ghagre made speeches exhorting the people to boycott foreign cloth and liquor and to enlist as Congress volunteers. S. K. Pupala and Balkrishna Taralkar advocated the boycott of European officers in the mills if they objected to the wearing of Gandhi caps in the mills. Mrs. Kamalabai Prabhu said that the people should obey only the law of the Congress. On the morning of the 3rd the Congress volunteers imprisoned at the Worli Chawls1 displayed black flags and some of them wore black bands on their arms as a protest against the observance of the King's birthday. When they were in this mood a detachment of the 8th A. A. Battery Royal Artillery from Colaba, including Sappers and Miners, under Major H. T. Stebbing, arrived to erect an outer fencing of barbed wire outside the original fencing which was damaged by the prisoners last week. As the outer fencing blocked one of the entrances of chawl No. 25 facing chawl No. 26 in which the prisoners were kept, they came out and began abusing the police and the military. This demonstration collected a crowd of about 2,000 people outside the chawls. The police and the Magistrate Mr. Khairaz tried to pacify the prisoners but without effect. The situation became graver as time went on and the prisoners as well as the outsiders became rowdy. About 12 women, wives of millhands from chawl No. 25 squatted at the entrance to prevent the military from putting up the fencing. All efforts to conciliate the women 1. Serious troubles started in the Worli Detention Camp on 3rd June 1930, when about 4000 undertrial Wadala raiders were involved in a brush with police resulting in about 90 casualties. The urtdertrial volunteers had prctested several times against the ill-treatment accorded to them by the camp authorities. The apathy of the authorities aroused them against the authorities. 161 and to pacify the prisoners proved futile, and for some time the military had to stop work. I went to the scene shortly after 3-30 p.m. and after studying the situation asked Major Stebbing to resume work which he did. I requested the women to move away but they refused, so I asked the military to work at another part of the fencing until the reinforcements which I sent for had arrived. As soon as the reinforcements turned up, I had the women removed. The operation was carried out in my presence by the police without difficulty and there was no force used beyond catching one or two of the women by the arm. Certain of the prisoners, who were spoiling for a fight, shouted and abused the police and started puling up the barbed wire supports. I took a few policemen inside the fence and tried to get the prisoners to go back to their chawls. They were not in a mood to listen to reason and then stones began to fly, some of which hit me and others hit General Weir and Major Lane who were standing ou'side the fence. Major Stebbing was struck on the forehead and had to have it bandaged. All these stones as far as I could see were thrown by prisoners. I then ordered the police to charge which they did effectively. Shortly afterwards a crowd of prisoners came from the end chawl and stoned me and the police who were standing beside me. I ordered the police to charge them with their lathis and they did so with considerable vigour, after which there was no further rioting, and quiet was quickly restored. I telephoned for municipal ambulances which arrived without delay. Congress . ambulances were also sent. First-aid was rendered to the injured of whom 74 were sent to hospital. They were told to take them all to the J. J. Hospital, but this was not done, as I learned later that forty-eight were treated at the Congress Hospital, 25 to the J. J. Hospital and 1 to the Sir Harkisondas Hospital. The military then resumed their work which was completed at about midnight. Some of the people while returning to their homes threw stones at the police chowki at Tardeo and broke some panes of glass. In the afternoon of the 2nd June under the auspices of the Congress Muslim Party and several Muslim mercantile associations of Bombay, a Muslim procession consisting of about 3,000 people started from the Dongari Maidan and proceeded via Bhendy Bazar, J. J. Hospital, Grant Road, Two Tanks, Null Bazaar, Pydhonie, Kalbadevi Road, Shaikh Memon Street, Abdul Rehman Street, Crawford Market, Hornby Road to the Esplanade Maidan. The processionists numbered about 10,000 when they reached the Crawford Market. A public meeting was held at the Esplanode Maidan under the presidentship of Syed Abdulla Brelvi. The president, Mia Mahomed Haji Jan Mahomed Chotani, Usmao Sobhani, Haji Nur Mahomed Ahmed, Maulavi Hifzur Rahaman, Jinabhai P. Joshi, Muhammad Yusuf Dr. M. H. Giur, Nur Muhammed Mojawalla and Maulana Ahmed Saeed, made speeches. The president congratulated the Muslims of Bombay on the unique demonstration they had made that day. He said that their opponents would now be convinced that the Mussalmans were with the Gandhi movement.
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