212 CONFIDENTIAL No. 3040/H/3770. Bombay, 20Th June
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212 64 CONFIDENTIAL HEAD POLICE OFFICE. No. 3040/H/3770. Bombay, 20th June 1930. My dear Collins, In continuation of my D. O. No. 3011/H/3717, dated the 19th June 1930. I send you herewith a copy of the Bombay Congress Bulletin, dated the 19th June 1930. Two Congress volunteers named Balkrishna M. Jothady and M. D. Dandekar were arrested at the Alexandra Dock for distributing leaflets exciting disaffection among the police. They were convicted and sentenced to 4 months' rigorous imprisonment each on the 19th. One Dulabhdas Mulji was arrested this morning at Lamington Road for directly exhorting a party of policemen to resign their jobs. He is being prosecuted. Picketing of foreign cloth shops by women volunteers was continued at Null Bazaar and Bhendy Bazaar yesterday as well as today. About 150 volunteers paraded on the Gowalia Tank Maidan, 9 on the Esplanade Maidan and about 50 on the maidan opposite the K. E. M. Hospital this morning. P'cketing of liquor shops was continued in E and F wards yesterday. About 42 shops were picketed by about 50 volunteers. Last evening 3 picketers were arrested for preventing a Parsi from entering the Dadar Bar under Section 4 of Ordinance V of 1930. They were convicted today and sentenced to 6 months' rigorous imprisonment each. A public meeting of workers, under the auspices of the F Ward District Congress Committee, was held on the maidan opposite the K. E. M. Hospital on the night of the 19th to hear Motilal Nehru. About 10,000 persons, including about 100 women, attended. Mrs. Perin Captain presided. Pandit Motilal Nehru, V. B. Purandare, Mrs. Mayadevi, Dr. M. H. Gour, Dr. Abdus Salam and Mrs. Dastur (wife of a doctor of Parel), made speeches exhorting the workers to join the Congress and carry out the programme for the boycott of foreign cloth and prohibition. Pandit Motilal Nehru said that the Congress was not fighting for one community or one class of people. It was carrying on the struggle for independence for the people of India irrespective of caste or creed If the workers joined the movement and carried out the programme of boycott and prohibition they would be doing their bit in the cause of Indian freedom. V. B. Purandare (who was released yesterday) welcomed Pandit Motilal on behalf of the workers and asked him and the other Congress leaders to include in the Congress programme the question of the amelioration of the condition of the labourers. 213 Dr. M. H. Gour and Dr. Abdus Salam appealed to the Muslims to join Congress and make the boycott of foreign cloth and prohibition successful. A verbatim report of the proceedings will be sent when ready. The Bhuleshwar District Congress Committee held a meeting at Bhangwadi last night. About 600 people were present. One Chotubhai Shah presided. The president, Miss Kanta Khandwala, Professor V. P. Jani, Manilal Mehta, Dr. Abdus Salam, Umashankar Dixit, and G. B. Mahashabde made speeches exhorting the people to concentrate their attention on the boycott of foreign cloth and the use of khaddar. The people were advised not to purchase any cloth for one year. Miss Kanta Khandwala appealed to the students to join the movement. When the meeting was about to be dispersed somebody shouted that there was some disturbance on the Kalbadevi Road and that C. I. D. men were concerned in it. The people began to run to the scene of disturbance. It was ascertained that the disturbance was due to a quarrel between two drunken Christians who went away on seeing the police. A verbatim report of the proceedings of the public meeting addressed by Pandit Motilal Nehru and Vithalbhai Patel on the 18th accompanies. At about 11-30 a.m. today one Gulam Hussein Jamaluddin, a taifor, residing at No. 267, Frere Road was assaulted by 4 Sikh motor-drivers, with sticks and fists. He sustained injuries to his left wrist and had also been beaten on the back. Gulam Hussein states that he had sewn some clothes for Shaukat Ali which he took away this morning at 11 a.m. The Sikh drivers saw him and started abusing him. Gulam Hussein remonstrated with them for abusing him behind his back. The Sikhs therefore assaulted him. A complaint has been lodged with the police. B. F. Bharucha attempted to convene a meeting of the Parsi residents of Balaram Street last night but was frustrated in the attempt by some Parsi priests who disapproved of the idea. 11 more volunteers, who were arrested in the Fort yesterday were convicted and sentenced to 4 months' rigorous imprisonment each. 19 volunteers were arrested today ; of these 16 have been sentenced to 4 months' rigorous imprisonment each. A few schoolboys from, the Fort area went in procession to Whiteaway Laidlaw's premises this morning and went away after making a demonstration in front of it. It is expected that the colleges, which open tomorrow morning, will be picketed by the students. The Chief Presidency Magistrate has issued an order under Section 144, C. P. Code prohibiting drilling on the Esplanade Maidan for a period of two months. A copy of his order is attached. I also attach for your information a copy of Superintendent Home's report and the statement of the Police Naik who was assaulted at Whiteaway's.1 1 Not reproduced here. 214 BOMBAY CONGRESS BULLETIN No. 50. Bombay, 19th June 1930. BANNED STATEMENT OF MINU COYAJI.—Sjt. Minu Coyaji, the Parsi satyagrahi, was sentenced to seven and a half months' R. I. for distributing leaflets among the police. He submitted a written-statement which was disallowed by the Magistrate either to go on record or be published by the press. The learned Magistrate has forgotten that truth cannot be suppressed by Magisterial mandates. We publish below the full text of statement : — " I had the privilege to sign and distribute among the members of the Police force an appeal to their humanity to desist from atrocities and to join the Congress in the fight of Justice and Freedom ". " It is due to myself, he Court and the public to explain why this ste, which is very likely to precipitate matters has been taken at this tense moment. Government have been intensifying their efforts at terrorising, the people who are making a determined effort to regain their freedom. By fraud and violence the rulers seek to kill with terrorism this regenerating activity which our country is putting forth to end the inequitable system, degrading to us and demoralising the rulers. In pursuance of that ruthless policy our brothers in the police force, who have no way out of the trap into which they have fallen, have been utilised to perpetuate the most inhuman atrocities on their fellowmen. In our fear of penalties, in the lethargy into which we had fallen, in our disregard for their welfare we had failed to: appeal to the men in the forces who are out off from the life and the better thought that is growing up in the world outside. That apathy was twice cursed. It was the source of humiliation and violence perpetrated on peaceful satyagrahis and the public at large, and the dehumanisation of the members of the forces, who had joined the ranks for protection of the life and property, and found themselves unwilling instruments of perpetuating our country's slavery and violating that very life and property which they had intended to safeguard ". "It was also my intention, in spite of the pretext that Government may derive for opening out its fierce claws, to bring our fight to a stage of leanest intensity when our Mahatma breathes his warm prayers of universal brotherhood behind the bars of Yervada prison". " I shall cheerfully submit to tihe penalty of which I mafy be deemed worthy, if only as atoken of atonement for our disregard for our neglected brothers in the forces, and the violence that has, in some places, been done by the people to the helpless members of the police force. Assuring you that I and my own people, my wife and my children, will relentlessly carry on the fight for justice and humanity till the doom of the inequitous reign of terror, I unhesitatingly refer the appeal complained of to you as to one of the generating centres of the atrocities forming the basis of my appeal. I ask you whether your son and mine shall walk arm in arm in peace and concord, or whether your son shall again have to condemn mine to a dehumanising house of detention". 215 I refuse to own that this trial is mine any more than yours; and in the name of justice and humanity, I beseech you to resign. Our country, the world, will deem it no dereliction of duty, but shall cherish you as faithful servant of justice which is your avowed duty to administer". HUNGER STRIKE IN ARTHUR ROAD JAIL.—It has been reported to us that owing to the bad quality of the food supplied to them the Satyagrahi Prisoners in the 'C’ class have gone on hunger strike for the last two days. Sjt. Ekambara Iyer, the Capt. of our volunteers called at the jail this morning and requested permission to interview the hunger strike prisoners. He was made to wait for three hours and then curtly refused. INDIAN MOTOR ACCESSORIES AND PETROL DEALERS BOYCOTT BRITISH GOODS.— The Indian Motor Accessories and Petrol Dealer's Union which includes 105 important firms interested in the automobile trade passed the following resolutions at its meeting held on the 3rd June : — Resolved that the fund created from the petrol profit, which was originally intended to be sent to Mahatmaji be transferred and given to the Congress Hospital.