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Authors: Gurcharan Das
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spirited defence on her behalf, but his vote did not count for much. Bhabo, as expected, had put up the biggest fight. She had vehemently protested, ‘Can’t we feed her? My friends keep asking. Why does she have to work?’
‘You obviously have the wrong kind of friends,’ he had replied.
‘Not just my friends. Your side of the family keeps needling me too,’ moaned Bhabo.
‘They are all living in the Dark Ages, woman. They are trapped in the old ideas of the village. We are now living in a modern town and it is 1942,’ he had retorted.
Chachi had supported Bhabo, but Karan had come out strongly in favour of Tara, and he counted for a great deal with Bauji. Bhabo had finally given in, and his favourite daughter had gone to work. A few months later, Tara wanted her own room, and to her surprise she got it easily. Tara furnished her room with much care. She always kept flowers in a vase, and often invited her friends there for tea. He used to enjoy the sight of her pretty friends around the house.
With that recollection, he calmly slid off to sleep.
5
The British government reacted quickly. A few hours after Gandhi called for the English to ‘Quit India’, all the members of the Congress Working Committee were arrested in Bombay. They were bundled into a special train at five a. m. the next day for the journey to prison. The arrest of the Congress leaders set off a political reaction in towns and cities across the sub-continent. And Lyallpur was one such town. As the news arrived of Gandhi’s arrest, the students of the Government College burned the Income Tax office, much to the delight of the tax payers, including Bauji. From their terrace, Bauji’s family could see the smoke coming out of the Lal Kothi, the railway accounts office. For a brief period they saw flames in the clock tower, but the fire brigade came quickly and put it out. The family stood on the roof counting the columns of smoke. There was much excitement throughout the day. Big Uncle returned home on his bicycle in the afternoon and reported that the mill workers were on strike, lamp posts had been uprooted in Kacheri Bazaar, and there were hundreds of police in the other bazaars. He had seen Karan leading a procession towards the Company Bagh; this news upset everyone, especially Tara.
Rumours flew about the house, many of them untrue: for example, that the railway bridge, which was the crucial link to the city, had been blown up. In the evening Big Uncle went out again, and he was arrested for breaking curfew. But fortunately he was released immediately through Bauji’s intercession. The entire family were enthused by the demonstrations of patriotic fervour; Bauji was shocked by the destruction of property. He warned of harsh British repression, which came the very next day. Police fired on unarmed crowds, there were mass arrests, and lathi charges broke up demonstrations. Official reports in Lyallpur said that eleven people died, forty were severely wounded. According to the people the count was at least three times bigger. Four Sikh students were killed while trying to raise the national flag over their college building. Karan miraculously escaped arrest, but the family dhobi was shot with his son, as they were passing the railway crossing on a bullock cart. The police sentry asked them to halt, but the washerman did not understand and he got scared; both he and his son ran and they were gunned down; the bullocks also died. At this news the entire family was thrown into a depression.
There were long discussions at home in which Bauji often found himself isolated. He argued that the government reaction was to be expected since this rebellion was a grave threat to the Raj. It was wrong timing on Gandhi’s part to embarrass the British when the Japanese were poised to strike against eastern India. He knew that civil disobedience could play havoc with the defence of India and loathed the thought of a Japanese conquest. He felt deeply the
‘You obviously have the wrong kind of friends,’ he had replied.
‘Not just my friends. Your side of the family keeps needling me too,’ moaned Bhabo.
‘They are all living in the Dark Ages, woman. They are trapped in the old ideas of the village. We are now living in a modern town and it is 1942,’ he had retorted.
Chachi had supported Bhabo, but Karan had come out strongly in favour of Tara, and he counted for a great deal with Bauji. Bhabo had finally given in, and his favourite daughter had gone to work. A few months later, Tara wanted her own room, and to her surprise she got it easily. Tara furnished her room with much care. She always kept flowers in a vase, and often invited her friends there for tea. He used to enjoy the sight of her pretty friends around the house.
With that recollection, he calmly slid off to sleep.
5
The British government reacted quickly. A few hours after Gandhi called for the English to ‘Quit India’, all the members of the Congress Working Committee were arrested in Bombay. They were bundled into a special train at five a. m. the next day for the journey to prison. The arrest of the Congress leaders set off a political reaction in towns and cities across the sub-continent. And Lyallpur was one such town. As the news arrived of Gandhi’s arrest, the students of the Government College burned the Income Tax office, much to the delight of the tax payers, including Bauji. From their terrace, Bauji’s family could see the smoke coming out of the Lal Kothi, the railway accounts office. For a brief period they saw flames in the clock tower, but the fire brigade came quickly and put it out. The family stood on the roof counting the columns of smoke. There was much excitement throughout the day. Big Uncle returned home on his bicycle in the afternoon and reported that the mill workers were on strike, lamp posts had been uprooted in Kacheri Bazaar, and there were hundreds of police in the other bazaars. He had seen Karan leading a procession towards the Company Bagh; this news upset everyone, especially Tara.
Rumours flew about the house, many of them untrue: for example, that the railway bridge, which was the crucial link to the city, had been blown up. In the evening Big Uncle went out again, and he was arrested for breaking curfew. But fortunately he was released immediately through Bauji’s intercession. The entire family were enthused by the demonstrations of patriotic fervour; Bauji was shocked by the destruction of property. He warned of harsh British repression, which came the very next day. Police fired on unarmed crowds, there were mass arrests, and lathi charges broke up demonstrations. Official reports in Lyallpur said that eleven people died, forty were severely wounded. According to the people the count was at least three times bigger. Four Sikh students were killed while trying to raise the national flag over their college building. Karan miraculously escaped arrest, but the family dhobi was shot with his son, as they were passing the railway crossing on a bullock cart. The police sentry asked them to halt, but the washerman did not understand and he got scared; both he and his son ran and they were gunned down; the bullocks also died. At this news the entire family was thrown into a depression.
There were long discussions at home in which Bauji often found himself isolated. He argued that the government reaction was to be expected since this rebellion was a grave threat to the Raj. It was wrong timing on Gandhi’s part to embarrass the British when the Japanese were poised to strike against eastern India. He knew that civil disobedience could play havoc with the defence of India and loathed the thought of a Japanese conquest. He felt deeply the
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