It has in season and out of season, been dinned into our ears that a subject people has no politics. It was therefore that political discussions, had hitherto been carried on in the spirit of singing laudation to the administration of Government, however palpable its defects seemed to be. This mendicant spirit in politics has been overthrown by the exertions of Chitta Ranjan and his compatriots in the field of national work in this country. Chitta Ranjan's ideal of political life was neither Utopian nor Quixotic. All that he demanded was, that all men are entitled to have equal opportunities without which the progress of human society and consequently the progress of a nation comes to a stand-still. He wanted for his countrymen the opportunities for self-realisation which would render pointless and inappropriate at the present-day Matthew Arnold's remarks:--
"The East bowed low before the blast, In patient deep disdain; She heard the legions thunder past, And plunged in thought again."
Chitta Ranjan's Part in the Non-Co-operation Movement.
While on the cessation of all hostilities in Europe India stood on the tip-toe of expectation for the new age of freedom that was about to dawn and while men conjured rosy visions of the future, Lord Chelmsford inaugurated in an evil moment a policy of depriving India of even the elementary rights of personal freedom and free speech--rights which are most valued in an enlightened democracy. Towards the close of December 1917 Lord Chelmsford thought it fit to appoint a Commission presided over by Mr. Justice Rowlatt of the King's Bench Division to investigate and report on revolutionary conspiracies in India and to advise the Government to frame such legislation as might enable them to deal more effectively with the reactionary movements. The Commission was appointed without any sort of compelling necessity and, to say the least of it, at a most inopportune moment. The Commission held its sittings at different places of India and after an one-sided and unjudicial enquiry published a long report towards the close of April 1918. The war having just then successfully terminated in favour of the Allies, the Defence of India Act and other war-time measures which could only last so long as the war continued, would necessarily cease to be in force any longer and therefore the Commission suggested certain penal laws as a more effective and permanent safe-guard against the so-called anarchists of India. The report was emphatically protested against by every section of the Indian press but in spite of all popular opposition, Government drafted a bill substantially embodying the recommendations of the Rowlatt Committee and hurried it through the Imperial Legislative Council within six months of the report. The bill is generally known as the Rowlatt Bill. The effect of its provisions was two-fold: the Provincial Governments would be vested with an authority similar to that which was given to them by the Defence of India Act, and every person accused of a revolutionary crime would be summarily tried by the tribunals specially appointed for the purpose.
