E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi – His Life & Times'No,' Patel admonished, 'your fight is not for a few hundred thousand rupees,but for a principle... You are fighting for self-respect which ultimately leads toSwaraj.'The government undertook to denude whole villages of movable property. Thepeasants barricaded themselves in their huts with their animals. The collectorsthen made off with carts. 'Pull your carts to pieces,' the Sardar ordered. 'Keepthe body in one place and the wheels in another. Bury the shaft.'The government stated in a public announcement that some seized land hadbeen sold to new occupants and that all farms in Bardoli would be auctioned iftaxes remained unpaid. Vallabhbhai Patel's elder brother Vithalbhai, presidentof the national Legislative Assembly, wrote to the Viceroy with the charge that'the measures adopted have crossed in several instances the bounds of law,order and decency.' Gandhi hailed the letter as breaking 'that unhealthy andslavish tradition' of neutrality when the people defied the government.At the instance of Gandhi, India celebrated a hartal, or cessation of work andbusiness, on June 12, in honour of Bardoli. Huge sums were thrust upon SardarPatel by Indians at home and abroad.Gandhi went on a brief visit to Bardoli. Processions greeted him everywhere.Indians of national importance, Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, the great constitutionallawyer, K. M. Munshi, a member of the Legislative Council of Bombay, andothers expressed sympathy with the Bardoli resisters and demanded that justicebe done by the government. On July 13, with the Satyagraha movement at itsheight, the Governor of the province of Bombay went to Simla to consult LordIrwin. He returned five days later and summoned Vallabhbhai Patel, AbbasTyebji and four other leading Satyagrahis to a conference. Negotiation is alwayswelcome to the civil resister; it may lead to compromise. No compromise onBardoli was possible, however, and on July 23, Sir Leslie Wilson, opening thesession of the Bombay Legislative Council, declared the issue was 'whether thewrit of his Majesty the King-Emperor is to run in a portion of His Majesty'sdominions.'www.mkgandhi.org Page 289