Independence Day Special: Crime and Punishment

Kala Sunder’s moving account of the pre-Independence times captures the then and now concepts of crime and punishment that leave us pondering. 

August is generally when we shift attention briefly from current affairs to the freedom movement. As the years pass, fewer and fewer people have personal memories of those turbulent years. Textbooks give the impression that people and political organisations all over India actively and enthusiastically supported the independence movement. When one talks to ordinary people old enough to remember those times, a somewhat different picture emerges.

From family lore, I know that my grandfather wanted to join the protests in his college, but his brothers convinced him not to because their jobs in the British government would be threatened. My grandmother was a lifelong admirer of Gandhiji and other freedom fighters but was no supporter of the Swadeshi movement because she was made to throw an imported georgette sari into a bonfire. “It was French georgette,” she would lament all through her long life, “not even British. And a full nine yards. What a waste!”

In August 2001 many members of the Nightingales Elders Enrichment Centre in Bangalore still had vivid memories of the 1930s and ’40s. At a Chat Session, some spoke about how they would shout slogans or sing patriotic songs, both banned activities. Others described joining protest marches and getting lathi-charged by the police. “I escaped being lathi-charged but lost my slippers while running away and got caned by my father for that,” recalled a 76-year-old man.

PM Nehru addressing the nation from the Red Fort On August 15, 1947

In most families, participation in such activities was not encouraged even while the ideal of independence was supported. This gave rise to a piquant situation in the case of Mr B L Chandrashekar. He was an 8th standard student in the Government School Basavanagudi, Bangalore when one day, he joined other children on the street outside shouting slogans against the British. The police rounded them all up and brought them before the magistrate, who took a dim view of such activism. He ordered the police to drive the boys some 5 miles out of the city and leave them there. “Let them walk back home,” was their punishment.

Chandrashekar happened to be the magistrate’s son but the father gave no sign that he had noticed him in the group. The police driver, however, recognised the boy, left the other children outside the city but drove Chandrashekar straight back home. When the magistrate entered the house he was surprised to see his son already sitting there when he should have been trudging through the outskirts of the city! The police driver was punished for disobeying orders.

Would that have happened today? As we approach the 74th anniversary of our Independence, that is a disturbing thought.

Cover Image: A glimpse of the Swadeshi Movement

Cover Image Courtesy: Cultural India

Every August, Silver Talkies records memories and instances of humanity, fortitude and courage during the Independence Years — stories of life in a newly independent India; crossing over during Partition and stories of finding freedom. You can access our archive here: The Independence Year.