Part-Iii Central Provinces Police Abstracts Of

873 PART-III CENTRAL PROVINCES POLICE ABSTRACTS OF INTELLIGENCE This part of the Volume furnishes the source material culled from the Central Provinces Police Abstracts of Intelligence. As stated earlier, these Abstracts of Intelligence are yet secret and not accessible to students of History. They are, however, very authentic documents which were originally intended for helping the framing of policy and execution of measures of maintenance of law and order. These Abstracts of Intelligence furnish the reports for all the districts then in the Central Provinces and Berar. The districts included all the districts now included in Vidarbha, besides the Hindi-speaking districts of Chhindwada, Betul, Jubbulpore, Khandawa, Raipur, Drug, Bilaspur, Mandla, Nimarr, Saugor, Hoshangabad, Balaghat and Narsingpur. We have culled in this Volume the Police reports pertaining to the following districts now, included in Maharashtra:—(1) Buldhana, (2) Amravati, (3) Akola, (4) Yeotmal, (5) Wardha, (6) Nagpur, (7) Chanda (now called Chandrapur), and (8) Bhandara. CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IN VIDARBHA In the Central Provinces and Berar the Salt Satyagraha was symbolic and not widespread due to ihe absence of easy targets as salt works or the sea shore. Manufacture of salt was possible only at Dahihanda in Akola district and at Bhamod, about five kilometres away from Dahihanda in Amravati district. This tract was selected by the Berar P. C. C. for satyagraha. Four wells at Dahihanda were suitable for salt-making as they contained salt water. These wells, owned by some individuals, had earlier been yielding salt under Government permit. The salt yielding capacity of ihe well at Bhamod was very limited. Once the salt satyagraha was announced to be taken up by Gandhiji Congressmen from 874 Vidarbha, and particularly those from Amravati, Akola, Wardha and Nugpur, proceeded in batches of volunteers to Dahihanda for undertaking salt, manufacture. The first bach of volunteers arrived at Dahihanda on 12 April 1930 and a was followed by several others from all over the Province. Initially the satyagrahis had a problem with the owners of well who refused them to draw water. The enthusiastic volunteers then proceeded to Bhamod and launched upon soli making. On the very first day (13 April) two and a half seers (about two and a quarter kilograms) of salt was manufactured by boiling water from the Bhamod well. It was an encouraging endeavour which continued for some days. Meanwhile the owners of wells at Dahihanda came round and yielded to the satyagrahis. Salt making continued at Dahihanda for many days in April and May. But the natural target in the Central Provinces and Berar was forest regulations. Although there was less civil disobedience in the Central Provinces and Berar during the early months of the country-wide movement, the wave of forest satyagraha gathered momentum from June 1930. The Governor of Central Provinces and Berar, Sir Montagu Butler, expressed his fears at the spreading movement which was attracting women, children and villagers at the end of July 1930. He reported that the situation was out of hand in Nagpur and Juobulpore. The situation, from Government's point of view, deteriorated so much that the police fired six times and punitive police were imposed in twelve areas. It is noteworthy that a Responsivist leader like B. S. Moonje joined the movement as late as July, and that too with an eye on publicity for the forthcoming elections. It is also noteworthy that Moonje like Khaparde was temperamently a Tilakite, and was hardly in favour of Gandhiji's mass movement of civil disobedience. Moonje like his Poona counter part, N. C. Kelkar, favoured the Council-entry policy and clamoured to get seats in the Legislatures. However, by the end of June the Responsivists realised that civil disobedience as a mass continental movement has awakened the masses and it was no use remaining on the fences. It is also remarkable that although Moonje actively participated in civil disobedience from June, he was preparing himself to attend the Round Table Conference of November 1930. Moonje and his associate S. B. Tambe did attend the Round Table Conference of November 1930 in spite of Congress opposition. The Congressmen and even the masses in Vidarbha were opposed to their attendance in the Round Table Conference as it was going to be a futile exercise. An echo of the same was experienced during the burning of effigies of B. S. Moonje and S. B. Tambe in September 1930 (See page 1043). M. S. Aney joined the war council in the third week of April 1930. The prominent Responsivists, who had been entrenched in marry positions of power in Government and local bodies, followed Aney's lead. The stalwarts among the Responsivists to participate in civil disobedience were Dr. Munje, Ramrao Deshmukh and Dr. Hedgewar. They declared their support to Gandhiji's Civil Disobedience Movement and joined the Congress volunteers in the preparation of salt at Dahihanda. The temper 875 of the movement rose high in May. It was at this stage that Government undertook the most repressive measures to suppress the movement. But the people were in an unrelenting mood. The boycott of foreign cloth and the anti-liquor movement became more intense. Picketing gathered momentum and occasionally resulted in violence. Picketer ladies marched through Nagpur and Amravati wearing wnite khadi and sinking national songs. This was an unprecedented scene in the region. The student fraternity became more volatile and the authorities were obliged to close many high schools and colleges. This was probably the firsl truly "mass" agitation ever launched in the territory. The next phase of civil disobedience, namely, forest satyagraha, began in June-July.1 Wamanrao Joshi better known as Veer Waman, the great Marathi playwright, Brijlal Biyani, Moreshwar Abhyankar, P. B. Gole, Poonam-chand Ranka, Jamnalal, Bajaj Dr. N. B. Khare, Nilkantharao R. Deshmukh, Durgabai Joshi, Aney, Bhagwandin Sharma, Abbas Tyabji, K. V. Sahasrabudhe, S. T. Dharmadhikari. Sunderlal, N. M. Ghatwai were the principal leaders of the people's movement. They activated public opinion to such an extent that the bureaucracy was surprised as the fact that the people of C. P. and Berar who were hitherto friendly and hospitable to the Government now adopted a sullen hostility and determination.2 Wamanrao Gopal Joshi had been a terrorist revolutionary of Amravati. In the course of time he became a follower of Tilak and discarded his earlier terrorist ideology. He had been propagating the Tilak school of thought in Berar for long. After Tilak's death he advocated that Gandhiji was the natural heir to Tilak, and that Gandhiji's satyagraha had a continental mass appeal and there is no alternative to it. Moreshwar Vasudeo Abhyankar had been another staunch Home Rule activist in the Tiiak era. Now he took a big lead in activating the masses in Vidarbha for civil disobedience. The Police regarded Joshi and Abhyankar very dangerous as they could arouse public opinion very effectively. Jamnalal Bajaj, Ravi Shankar Shukla, Veer Wamanrao, Abhyankar, Sunderlal and Bhagwandin had earlier taken the lead in popularising the Non-Co-operation Movement and in making the Nagpur Congress of 1920 a grand success. All these persons along with Poonamchand Ranka, Manchersa Awari, A. R. Tijare, Vinoba Bhave, G. N. Tikekar, N. R. Deshmukh and Abid Ali, had made the Nagpur Flag Satyagraha of 1923 a grand success. Each and every one of them exerted his full might during the Civil Disobedience Movement throughout. Jamnalal Bajaj moved on to the national political stage in 1925. By this time Moreshwar Abhyankar became the leader of the Congress in Nagpur Division. He brought in new elements into the Congress and gave the organisation a new look. Soon Dr. N. B. Khare became his Chief Lieutenant in Nagpur. The Veer Wamanrao—Abhyankar unity inducted new men into the Congress, such as P. B. Gole and Durgabai 1 K. K. Chiudhari, Maharashtra and Indian Freedom Struggle, p. 89. 2 For detailed analysis See ibid, pp. 91-93. 876 Joshi, both of A kola. The most influential youngman to emerge in Vidarbha by 1930 was Brijlal Biyani. His role in the freedom struggle from 1930 to 1945 was spectacular. M. S. Aney's joining the war council in the third week of April 1930 was significant due to many reasons. Not only was he a Tilakite but was also popular. He had also not identified himself with the Ministry formation of 1924 or 1929. He had, therefore, a clean image. It was the Civil Disobedience Movement which took. Aney to the height of his political career, and he became the Congress President for few days in 1933-34. But Aney's later wedding with the British Government during the days of the individual Satyagraha and the Quit India Movement brougitt him discharge in the eye of the Congress and nationalist forces in India. Aney was then a Member in the Viceroy’s Executive Council which spared no effort to bury the Quit India Movement and to massacre thousands of Indians. The politics in the Central Provinces and Berar prior to the Civil Disobeaience Movement was a very, complicated affair. The Swarajist Party, in opposition to the Congress, was invited by the Governor to form a Ministry under Dr. Moonje, in 1924-25. But the Swaraj Party declined the offer because its acceptance would have been opposed by the Congress. Between 1925-26, Swarajists' unity collapsed as the three factions or the Swaraj Party vied with each other to form a Ministry. The Governor, therefore, appointed S. B. Tambe as Home Minister, which portfollo had earlier been held by Sir Moreshwar Joshi, Later the Marathi leaders of the Swarajist Party formed a Ministry in the C.

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