JHANDA
SATYAGRAHA IN MADHYA PRANT
DR.
NAVEEN GIDEON
Professor
& Head, Department of History
Govt.
Auto. Girls P.G. College of Excellence SAGAR - 470001 (M.P.)
E-mail-naveengideon@gmail.com, Mob-9425425477
ABSTARCT
This
paper examines the pivotal role played by the Central Province and Barar in
India's freedom movement, focusing particularly on the significance of the Jhanda
Satyagraha. Beginning with an overview of the socio-political landscape shaped
by both moderate and extremist ideologies of the Congress, the study highlights
how Gandhiji's nonviolent movement gained substantial support while
revolutionary activities also found expression in the region. The paper delves
into the historical context of the Jhanda Satyagraha, tracing its origins in
Jabalpur and its expansion to Nagpur and beyond. Key figures such as Pundit
Sunder Lal and Jamnalal Bajaj emerge as central to the organization and
leadership of these movements, underscoring their impact on rallying public
sentiment and challenging colonial authority. Through an analysis of primary
sources and historical accounts, the paper explores the broader implications of
these localized satyagrahas, their transition into a national movement, and
their eventual success in influencing governmental policies towards greater
autonomy and recognition of nationalist demands. Ultimately, this study argues
that the Central Province and Barar were not only integral to the Indian
National Movement but also exemplified resilience and determination in the face
of colonial repression, leaving an enduring legacy in India's struggle for
independence.
KEYWORDS: Jhanda,
Satyagrah, Central Province, Mahakaushal, Jabalpur, Sunder Lal.
INTRODUCTION
The Central Province and Barar have played
a significant role in the freedom movement of India. Many social and
educational institutions of this province have done important works in the
development of political awakening. The impact of the political ideologies of
both the moderate and the extremist parties of Congress was felt on this
movement. The nonviolence movement of Gandhiji received a great support from
the people of this province. Contrary to this, the activeness of the
revolutionary activities was also seen in this province. The Mahakoshal region
was the foremost in providing a strong leadership to the National Movement.
Apart from this, the freedom fighters of the freedom struggle of Nagpur and
Barar also gave their valuable contribution in the freedom movement.
After the
non-cooperation movement was discontinued, a political vacuum was created in
the country. During this time, the ‘Jhanda Satyagraha’ which was started in
Jabalpur gave a new direction to the National Movement. This satyagraha was not
restricted merely to this province, but rather its impact was felt on the other
provinces of the country as well. The ‘Jungle Satyagraha’, which originated and
developed in Mahakoshal region, had a great contribution in connecting the
people of the rural areas with the mainstream of the National Movement.
During
provincial autonomy, from 1937 to 1939, the Cabinet of Ministers of Congress
started many developmental and progressive programs which not only benefitted
the people of the province, but it also gave new strength to the National
Movement. The freedom fighters of this province participated in large numbers
in the “Vyaktigat Satyagraha” of 1940 and Quit India Movement of 1942 and
spurred the country towards independence.
JHANDA SATYAGRAH IN JABALPUR AND AROUND
The Jhanda
Satyagraha has its own special place in the history of the freedom movement in
Madhya Pradesh. The helmsman of this historical Jhanda Satyagraha of Jabalpur city was Pundit Sunder Lal. (GOI,
1930). The Congress Satyagraha Inquiry Committee came on a tour to Jabalpur in
February 1923. According to the proposal of the Chairman of Jabalpur City
Corporation Kanchedilal Pathak, the City Corporation decided to give citations
in honor of the members of the Satyagraha Inquiry Committee and to hoist the
National Flag on the Town Hall building on this occasion. The time decided for
the public felicitation of the members of the Satyagraha Inquiry Committee was
5pm in the evening. But before the scheduled time, the felicitation program was
cancelled by the Deputy Commissioner and the Town Hall was locked at 4pm in the
evening. The Government issued orders not to hoist the National Flag in public
places. Unknowingly, the Government of the Central Province gave the very
opportunity to the Satyagraha Inquiry Committee for which it had planned the
nationwide tour. (Pandey, 1985) n the day the citations were to be given, the
police surrounded the Town Hall and kept vigilance on the entry gates. As a
result, the City Corporation could not give the citations to the leaders on
that day. There was immense anguish among the Congress workers and youth
because they were not allowed to hoist the flag on the Town Hall building.
According to them, the tricolor flag must be hoisted on the building of the
City Corporation which was ruled by the citizens. This was a challenge for the
people of Jabalpur. They accepted the challenge and planned a program to
violate this order. (GOI, 1930).
The same evening, a huge public meeting
was organized in the Tilak ground in which Rajaji and Rajendra Babu invoked the
citizens to come forward to protect the honor of the National Flag. On this
occasion, the Chairman of the Central Province Congress Committee declared to
start a satyagraha to keep the honor of the National Flag and vowed that ‘till
he achieved the desired result, he would not eat grains, fruits or milk or any
food made from these things. He was thus given the title ‘Tapasvi’. The
day of satyagraha was decided as 18 March, 1923. (Guru, R. P., & Shukla, S.
(n.d.).
Due to the firm and fearless leadership of
Pundit Sunderlal, a new energy became visible in the people. Pundit Sunderlal
gave a concrete form to his concept of Jhanda Satyagraha. (Guru, R. P., &
Shukla, S. (n.d.). According to the program, a procession was taken out on 18
March, 1923 which reached the City Corporation building. Within no time, the
‘tricolor flag’ was hoisted there. The person who hoisted the National Flag on
the City Corporation building was a young man called Premchand Jain from Damoh,
who exhibited indomitable courage in hoisting the National Flag. (GOI,
1930). Sitaram Jadhav, Parmanand Jain and Khushalchand Jain were among those
who helped and assisted him. (Mitra, 1923).
Probably, Jabalpur was the first place
where the National Flag was hoisted on a public building. The Deputy
Commissioner was infuriated at this event and ordered the policemen to
immediately bring down the flag. The over enthusiastic policemen not only
brought down the flag, but also stamped and trampled it under their feet. On
seeing this scene, the people present on the scene got infuriated and eager to
avenge the humiliation. As a result, the Jhanda Satyagraha began very soon.
(Mitra, 1923). Violating the orders of the government, a procession was taken
out in the leadership of Sunderlal. The flag of the procession was in the hands
of Pundit Vishwambharnath Pandey. Mrs. Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, Nathuram Modi,
Badriprasad Dubey, Todarmal Swarnkar, Devi Singh Jaat, Chhingnelal Swarnkar,
Pyarelal Gopal Maharaj, Omkar Prasad Vishwakarma, Kanchhedilal Pathak,
Makhanlal Chaturvedi, Devi Prasad Shukla, Chidambara Pillai etc. also too
partin the procession and moved along shouting slogans. While they moved
towards the City Corporation building, they were stopped, and Pundit Sunderlal
was arrested and given six months imprisonment. As a mark of protest, all the
members of the District Congress Committee resigned. (Mishra, 1956)
The weekly magazine ‘Karmveer’ published
from Jabalpur wrote about the satyagraha and its demonstration in its
editorial. Similarly, due to the influence of the Jhanda Satyagraha, the
publishing of the weekly magazines ‘Uday’ and ‘Dainik Prakash’ started. The
people of the entire province were infused with awakening because of the
activities of the local officers of Jabalpur. Very soon, the Jhanda Satyagraha
of Jabalpur became province wide popular. After the arrest of Pt. Sunderlal,
the Congress Committee of Nagpur took over the conducting of the Jhanda
Satyagraha under the leadership of Jamnalal Bajaj. Thus, after Jabalpur, the
Nagpur Congress Committee accepted this challenge. Now the center of this
struggle moved from Jabalpur to Nagpur. The Mahakoshal Congress Committee sent
its leaders to Nagpur. A huge party under the leadership of Thakur Lakshman
Singh Chauhan reached Nagpur (GOI. 1923) in which special contribution was
given by Durga Prasad Mehta, Makhanlal Chaturvedi, Keshav Ramchandra Khandekar,
Thakur Lakshman Singh Chauhan, Kashmat Hussain and Mrs. Subhadra Kumari
Chauhan. Apart from these leaders of Mahakaoshal, Dr.Chandulal, Dr. Ghiya, Dr.
Hardikar, Gopaldas Talathi, Mohanlal Pandya, Pardachari Ignesia, etc and other
provincial leaders also took part in this satyagraha. (Shukla Abhinandan
Granth 1955).
JHANDA SATYAGRAH IN NAGPUR AND AROUND
In order to manage
the satyagraha, Seth Jamnalal Bajaj established an institution in Nagpur and
decided to start the satyagraha on 13 April, the day of the Jalianwala Bagh
massacre. (GOI, 1923). But
the Jhanda Satyagraha was declared as
illegal in Nagpur by the government. (Mitra, 1923). The government used the policy of suppression to
stop the progress of the satyagraha, but it did not succeed. Huge bands of
volunteers started being sent to take part in the satyagraha from every nook
and corner of Mahakoshal, Nagpur and Vidarbha, especially from Balaghat,
Chhindwara, Baitool, Narsinghpur, Jabalpur and Sagar. In fact, the satyagraha
began on 1 May 1923, when Jamnalal Bajaj took out a procession in the entire
city, holding the National Flag. (Mitra, 1923). In this way, this
movement was initiated on 1 May, 1923 in Nagpur. This movement continued for
114 days in which 1263 satyagrahis from various Hindi speaking provinces took
part. This movement became very wide spread. So, many national leaders like
Sardar Patel, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Devdas Gandhi, Rajgopalachari and T
Prakasham etc. arrived at Nagpur to see the progress of the movement. (Mishra,
1955).
This movement continued for almost two
months. In the beginning, women were not allowed to participate in the
movement. But, by the efforts of Mrs. Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, women were also
given permission to participate in this satyagraha. On the arrest of Mrs.
Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, Chakravarty Rajgopalachari, who was in Nagpur in those
days, appreciated her and said, “This brave work of Subhadra Devi will be heard
and appreciated in every house”. Kasturba Gandhi and Sardar Patel also came to
Nagpur to study the situation of the satyagraha. (Mishra, 1955)
JHANDA SATYAGRAH AT NATIONAL LEVEL
The progress of the movement soon brought
it at an all-India level. Many volunteers from not only Mahakoshal, Nagpur and
Vidarbha, but also from other regions like Utkal, Bombay, Andhra, Bihar,
Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka, etc. took part in this movement and went through
the tortures in the jail. On seeing the cooperation received from many
provinces, on 18 June, this satyagraha was declared as an All-India movement.
(GOI. 1923). The Congress Chairman Dr. Ansari published an appeal requesting to
celebrate 18 June 1923 as “Jhanda Satyagraha Diwas” and appealed the Congress
to extend their cooperation. (GOI, 1923)
On seeing the
All-India form of the satyagraha, the Indian Government was scared and on 17
June, 1923, the main leaders of the Satyagraha, Shri Jamnalal Bajaj, Mahatma
Bhagwandin and Neelkanthrao Deshmukh were arrested. The camps of the volunteers
were kept under guard. All the volunteers were arrested before the sunrise of
18 June 1923. Apart from the minister of the Nagpur Provincial Congress Committee
Abid Ali, Ganpatrao Tikekar and Jainendra Kumar were also arrested. (Shukla
Abhinandan Granth 1955). On the same day,
Jawaharlal Nehru, Purushottamdas Tandon and Makhanlal Chaturvedi along with the
satyagrahis led the procession. They were also arrested along with 275
satyagrahis. The Provincial Legislative Council passed a proposal, demanding to
lift the Prohibition Acts related to the Jhanda Satyagraha. (GOI, 1923)
A meeting of the All-India Congress
Committee was organized in the beginning of July in which the proposal to
celebrate 18 July as ‘Jhanda Diwas’ was passed. Also, a procession was decided
to be taken out by every Provincial Congress Committee along with the citizens
holding the National Flag. The day of 18 July was celebrated as ‘Jhanda Diwas’
in entire India. A procession with the National Flag was taken out in every
city of the country. (GOI, 1923). But before this, on 10 July, 1923, Seth
Jamnalal Bajaj, Neelkanthrao Deshmukh and Abid Ali were sentenced to jail for
one and half years. Also, Seth Jamnalal Bajaj was charged with rupees three
thousand penalty and Neelkanthrao Deshmukh with rupees fifteen hundred as
penalty. (Shukla Abhinandan Granth 1955).
On 22 July 1923, the reins of this
Satyagraha came into the hands of the Iron Man Sardal Vallabhai Patel. On 23
July, Vitthal Bhai Patel also came to Nagpur. The Mahakoshal Provincial
Congress Committee gave two thousand rupees, and the Marathi Central Provincial
Congress Committee gave five thousand rupees as aid to the families of the satyagrahis.
(GOI, 1923)
The Nagpur Jhanda Satyagraha took a much
larger form than expected. The people of the ‘Gaur-Mahar’ and other lower
castes from Balaghat and Seoni also came to participate in this movement. Most
of them called from outside. (GOI,1923) In this way, the All India ‘Jhanda
Diwas’ was celebrated by the satyagrahis who came from various provinces. As a
result, more than 1000 satyagrahis were arrested. In the beginning, the number
of satyagrahis arrested per day was six to eight, but later it rose to fifteen.
The number of satyagrahis who were arrested from 1 to 16 August rose to 19.
(GOI, 1923)
CONCLUSION
The Provincial
Legislative Council passed the proposal to lift the prohibitions related to the
Jhanda Satygraha and to release the satyagrahis. (GOI,
1923). Ultimately, seeing the vastness of
the movement and the opposition, the government also underwent some realization
and awakening. Finally, on 18 August 1923, a meeting was held under the
chairmanship of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel in the Town Hall of Nagpur. Talks
took place between the Governor and the leading National leaders Vallabh Bhai
Patel and Vitthal Bhai Patel. Resultantly, the Act 144 was lifted. The
satyagrahis were congratulated and the end of the ‘Jhanda Satyagraha’ was announced. Almost all the
satyagrahis were released. On 18 August, 1923, about 100 volunteers were given
permission to take out a procession with the National Flag. This procession was
led by Pundit Makhnalal Chaturvedi, Vallabh Bhai Patel and Babu Rajendra
Prasad. In this way, a prestigious event ended with a significant success on 18
August, 1923. (GOI. 1923).
From the above-described facts, it is
clear that the Central Province had a leading role in the Indian National
Movement. The participation of the common people in the ‘Bundela Revolt’ of
1842 and the great insurgency proved that there was great and widespread
dissatisfaction against the British rule from the first half of the 19th
century itself, which transformed itself in the form of powerful the emergence
and development of the national movements. The discontinuation of the
non-cooperation movement did not lead to the decline in the willingness to
continue the struggle, which is clearly evident in the ‘Jhanda
Satyagraha’.
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