Page:The Independent Hindustan Volume I Number 4.djvu/5

 . I apply that rule of Christ to India. What does it imply? Does it not mean simply that I ought to wish for Indians the very same freedom and independence which I value so highly myself?"

In this connection, we wish to draw the attention of our readers to the article in this issue—"Secession or Federation?" The British Parliament may debate, and the Royal Colonial Institute may map out plans, Indians have definitely decided to continue their program to attain complete independence.

Nearly 125,000 Indian Soldiers are being forcibly conscripted and taken by the British government to subjugate Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt and other Near Eastern countries. The sole motive which inspired the British imperialists to use Indian Troops is to create the bitter feeling among the Persians, Arabs and Egyptians and other people with whom the people of India are on happy and cordial terms.

The British government recognises that India is preparing to perfect the plan of final overthrow of the British rule. When that day comes, England hopes to utilise the man-power of the Near East to suppress the Indians. Commenting on this, the Akali, published in Lahore, Punjab, October 17, 1920, says:

The British government knows that it is not child's play to keep 315 million people under subjugation indefinitely. India is awakened. At the outbreak of the revolution, as the Indian soldiers will refuse to fire upon their own brethren, the British government hopes to recruit troops from the conquered territories of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia and other Near Eastern countries. In the meanwhile, it has doled out a reform scheme to have the Indians fight over the crumbs. Eight years hence the British government will strengthen her imperial position. Now is therefore the opportune moment for us to strike a final blow.

The world should pause for a moment and reflect about the hideousness of Hessianism in the twentieth century by the same government which tried to suppress American revolution. The Akali has signaled timely warning, which, we hope, will be heeded by the Indians as well as the people of Near Eastern countries.

The dispatches from India state that the British government, in a frightened, frenzied frame of mind, has proscribed the booklets British Terror in India, by Surendra Karr, published by the Hindustan Gadar Party, and The Labor Revolt in India, by Basanta Koomar Roy, published by the Friends of Freedom for India, New York, and other pamphlets.

The materials used in both these books have been taken from the British official documents. The facts and figures have been presented in a manner that may enable the reader to discern the truth. In the foreword of British Terror in India, the author says thus:

"This illustrated booklet is a record of red months India passed through in 1919. It describes plainly and frankly the naked truth of the British character in exercising unlicensed criminalities . ..

"Materials used in preparation of this brochure are taken from authentic, original sources, such as reports, official publications, etc. Reports of the Indian National Congress, which investigated the British atrocities in perfectly cool and juristic manner, have freely been used." The author of British Terror in India has been explicit in exposing British imperialism, and has truly said that "Dyer is not an isolated character in British imperialism." That "history bristles with glowing examples of misdeeds, inhuman activities, ruthless repression, oppression and persecution wherever the British has gone" can never be disputed and the author has tried to prove his thesis, taking Amritsar Massacre and the Punjab atrocities as instances.

The labor consciousness which is urging the vast majority of the toiling masses to establish their rights in society is also awakening the peasants and proletariats in India. The Labor Revolt in India is full of information and the author, endowed as he is with journalistic ability, has compared the conditions of labor in India with those of other countries in a manner which leaves no doubt in the minds of the thinking persons that the question of labor is one. The author rightly concludes:

"Neglected in education, maltreated in offices, ruinously exploited in the factories and on the farms, fruitlessly slaughtered on the fields of France, Flanders and Palestine, the patient workingman of India has at last risen in revolt against the English exploiter, and is perfecting plans to deal a deadly blow to the British rule in India, for he realizes that until the country is completely free from the yoke of the foreigner, he can never expect to be truly free."

The books may be barred and news may be censored, but the ideas will find way through a great many avenues to blast the very foundation of the British rule based on fraud, forgery and hypocrisy.