False Social Media Propaganda against Gandhi : A Factual Analysis

8 minutes read

Siby K. Joseph

A false propaganda against Gandhi is gaining momentum through social media in connection with the allowance for the upkeep of Gandhi as a State Prisoner in 1930 by the British Government. Usually this type of propaganda coincides with Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday or martyrdom. I received a WhatsApp message a couple of days back from a person associated with a Gandhian organization for quite a long time. I noticed that this message was forwarded many times. It is as follows: “Finally, that letter was found in national records. In 1930, MK Gandhi was getting ₹100 per month from the British for personal expenses. At that time, the market price of 10 grams of gold was ₹18. The market value of ₹100 of that time is currently around ₹2.88 lakhs. But why were they paying Gandhi? To help the British crush the real freedom fighters? It must be remembered that at that time the non-cooperation movement had reached its peak.” This message was not a new one and I immediately shared Gandhi’s letter in this regard. The person expressed the desire to have more light on this issue and I noticed that it is still continuing in the social media platforms.

This post has been going on since October 2022 and the archival document of the allowance was shared by Vikram Sampath, a biographer of Savarkar, with citation of relevant link https://x.com/vikramsampath/status/1576792826779643904?lang=en

In an accompanied twitter post (currently X) it was even described as a pension to Gandhi! I noticed the same message in social media platforms with allegations such as “But why did he get the money? To help the British in their work? … This country did not become Independent by spinning wheels. For sure. He was a British agent brought from South Africa & cleverly planted in India and he worked for Britishers along with so called Panditji!”

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/tdzJN

“But why did he get the money? About the payment to help the British in any work?” https://ghostarchive.org/archive/qJjJF were made.

In recent times it became a political issue because Savarkar who was under house arrest in Ratnagiri district till 1937 used to receive Rs. 60 from British Government as allowance and those following his path raised this question. They also raised the issue that the allowance was subsequently increased in his later prison terms.

The first question is why was this allowance made? It is very clear from the letter dated June 15, 1930 from the Secretary of Government of Bombay to the Secretary of Government of India. The allowance of Rs.100 was for maintenance of . M. K. Gandhi who was a State Prisoner in the Yervada Central Prison under Regulation XXV of 1827.

It is known fact that Gandhi was arrested on May 4/5 at 12.45 a.m., at Karadi, a village near Dandi where Gandhi had broken Salt law on March 5, by the British District Magistrate of Surat under Regulation XXXV of 1827 and sent to Yeravda Prison.

It must be remembered there was no trial, no sentence in this regard. It is true that the Civil Disobedience movement was its peak and the Salt March conducted under the leadership of Gandhi received worldwide attention.

It was really a battle of right against the mighty British Empire. The British government in India was widely criticized for its unjust treatment of Indians. Therefore, the British Government was cautious about the treatment meted out to Gandhi as a prisoner.

The said letter is forwarded with a copy of Bombay Government Resolution No. SD 1361 dated May 5, 1930. Thus it is clear that it was decided on the very day of his arrest. The Bombay Government Resolution No. SD 1361 clearly states that this should be remitted to the Superintendent of Yervada Central Prison.

It was strictly in accordance with the Bengal State Prisoners Regulation of 1818 which had provisions to provide an allowance to state prisoners who were under detention. It was debited on account of the confinement of the prisoner under the head ‘29-Political Central Refugees and State Prisoners- other Refugees and State Prisoners’, in accordance with the then prevailing law.

It was not directly given to Gandhi and said the amount was used for his maintenance by jail authorities. It is pertinent to note that the allowance granted by the government was not exclusive to Gandhi but was extended to numerous political prisoners and even revolutionaries. The quantum of allowance varied from person to person and it was at the sole discretion of concerned government officials. Therefore, describing it as pension and to cover Gandhi’s personal expenses is ridiculous and capricious.

https://www.indianculture.gov.in/archives/recovery-over-drawals-personal-allowance-detents-who-have-become-state-prisoners-under

What was Gandhi’s approach to this allowance? From the letter Gandhi wrote to Major EE Doyle May 10, 1930 it is clear that it was communicated to him and both of them had conversations on the matter. Gandhi strongly felt that he must avoid, as much as possible, the special privileges offered to him by the Government!

He expressed his preference for The Bombay Chronicle, The Times of India, Indian Social Reformer, Modern Review, Young India and Navajivan (Hindi and Gujarati) if permitted. At the same time Gandhi made it clear that the books and newspapers should not be from the government allowance.

He further wrote about the suggested Rs. 100 as monthly allowance. “I hope I shall need nothing near it. I know that my food is a costly affair. It grieves me, but it has become a physical necessity with me. “He also expressed the hope that neither the Major nor the Government would consider him ungrateful for not accepting all the facilities offered to him.

He explains the ground why he wants to save money which was an obsession in his life and work. “It is an obsession (if it is to be so called) with me that we are all living at the expense of the toiling semi-starved millions. I know too that the saving caused by my economy can but be an infinitesimal drop in the limitless ocean of waste I see going on round me, whether in prison or outside of it—much more out of it. I admit nevertheless it is given to man only to do very little. He dare not omit to do that little.“

The views Gandhi held about prison treatment and classifications were radical. That is why he said “I have never taken kindly to the classification recently made. I hold that a murderer is just as much entitled to have his needs supplied as any other prisoner. What is therefore needed is not a mechanical makeshift, but a human adjustment.” The only favour he sought in the letter was to remain in touch with satyagrahis who were imprisoned in the prison along with him. “I do feel the necessity of contact with the satyagrahi prisoners who are in this jail. It is wholly unnecessary, it is cruel, to isolate me from them.”

It is true that Gandhi was loyal to the British Government and cooperated during South African days. M. K. Gandhi in his written Statement in the Great Trial of 1922 explained how he changed from a staunch loyalist and cooperator to an uncompromising disaffectionist and non-co-operator.

n the verybeginning of the statement he wrote :“I owe it perhaps to the Indian public and to the public in England, to placate which this prosecution is mainly taken up, that I should explain why from a staunch loyalist and cooperator, I have become an uncompromising disaffectionist and non-co-operator. To the court too I should say why I plead guilty to the charge of promoting disaffection towards the Government established by law in India.” Gandhi went to the extent of saying it is sin to have affection for the British system. But it was not a personal ill will against any person.

“I have no personal ill-will against any single administrator, much less can I have any disaffection towards the King’s person. But I hold it to be a virtue to be disaffected towards a Government which in its totality has done more harm to India than any previous system.

India is less manly under the British rule than she ever was before. Holding such a belief, I consider it to be a sin to have affection for the system”. He was not begging before the Judge to reduce his penalty. On the contrary he said “I am here, therefore, to invite and submit cheerfully to the highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me for what in law is deliberate crime, and what appears to me to be the highest duty of a citizen.

The only course open to you, the Judge and the assessors, is either to resign your posts and thus dissociate yourselves from evil, if you feel that the law you are called upon to administer is an evil, and that in reality I am innocent, or to inflict on me the severest penalty, if you believe that the system and the law you are assisting to administer are good for the people of this country, and that my activity is, therefore, injurious to the common weal.”

In subsequent political activities including the Salt Satyagraha his approach was consistent and continued till his death. In fact through Salt Satyagraha Gandhi literally rattled the British colonial rule. Gandhi was interviewed in Yervada Central Prison by George Slocombe for The New York Times and it appeared in May 21, 1930. In that Interview Gandhi demanded complete freedom for India from British rule.T

he highlight of the article was “ His Resisters, He Says Will Fill All the Prisons, Making Government by British Impossible-Calls Campaign “ Mad Risk” But “Justifiable One” Time Magazine named Mahatma Gandhi Person of the Year in 1930. In 1930, TIME wrote, “It was exactly twelve months ago that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s Indian National Congress promulgated the Declaration of Indian Independence. It was in March that he marched to the sea to defy Britain’s salt tax as some New Englanders once defied a British tea tax.”

“It was in May that Britain jailed Gandhi at Poona. Last week he was still there, and some 30,000 members of his Independence movement were caged elsewhere. The British Empire was still wondering fearfully what to do about them all, the Empire’s most staggering problem … it was in a jail that the year’s end found the little half-naked brown man whose 1930 mark on world history will undoubtedly loom largest of all.”

This was how the world media looked upon Gandhi’s struggle against British Raj. Therefore, the new narrative that is going round in social media that Gandhi helped the British and he was a British agent is not tenable. The reason for unconditional release is also well known.

In January 1931, at the closing session of the Round Table Conference; Ramsay MacDonald expressed the hope for Congress representation at the next session. The Viceroy, taking the clue from it, promptly ordered the unconditional release of Gandhi and all members of the Congress Working Committee. As a result M. K. Gandhi was released from Yervada Central Prison, Poona on 26th January 1931.