द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

214 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE
and file have been often savagely and in some cases, even
indecently assaulted. Had these been isolated cases, they
might have been overlooked. But accounts have come to
me from Bengal, Bihar, Utkal, the United Provinces,
Delhi and Bombay, confirming the experiences of Gujerat,
of which I have ample evidence at my disposal. In Karachi,
Peshawar and Madras the firing would appear to have
been unprovoked and unnecessary. Bones have been
broken, private parts have been squeezed, for the purpose of
making volunteers give up salt which is valueless to the
Government but precious to the volunteers. At Mathura
an Assistant Magistrate is said to have snatched the National
flag from a ten-year-old boy. The crowd that demanded
restoration of the flag, thus illegally seized, is reported to
have been mercilessly beaten back. That the flag was
subsequently restored, betrayed a guilty conscience. In
Bengal, there seem to have been only a few prosecutions
and assaults about salt, but unthinkable cruelties are said
to have been practised in the act of snatching flags from
volunteers. Paddy fields are reported to have been burnt,
eatables forcibly taken. A vegetable market in Gujerat has
been raided because the dealers would not sell vegetables
to officials. These acts have taken place in front of crowds
who have submitted without retaliation in pursuance of the
Congress mandate. . . . Yet this is only the fifth week
of the struggle!’
An English disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, Miss Madeleine
Slade, paid a visit to Bulsar in Gujerat on June 6th to see
with her own eyes how the Satyagrahi volunteers engaged in
the non-violent raid on the Dharasana Salt Depot were being
treated by the police. She published her report in Young
India in the issue of June 12th, 1930. Therein she stated
that she had found evidence of the following injuries per-
petrated on the Satyagrahi volunteers:

1. Lathi¹ blows on head, chest, stomach and joints.
2. Thrusts with lathis in private parts, abdominal regions.
3. Stripping of men naked before beating.
4. Tearing off loin cloths and thrusting of sticks into
   anus.
   ¹ A lathi is an iron-shod heavy stick.