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

THE FIGHT RESUMED 271
gain in strength and volume without any direction from
head-quarters. According to official statistics, 14,800 arrests
were made in January and 17,800 in February. The Govern-
ment soon realised that if arrests were continued at that rate
it would be impossible to deal with the large prison population.
In March, tactics were therefore changed and instead of
making arrests, force was used in dealing with Congressmen
and their demonstrations. Under the ordinances, the follow-
ing steps among others, were taken by the local authorities
all over India: orders were issued prohibiting meetings and
processions; Congress organisations were declared illegal and
Congress offices were taken possession of; Congress funds
were seized; orders were served on people not to help the
Congress in any way nor to harbour Congress volunteers, on
pain of punishment; land and property were seized for not
paying land revenue or other taxes; National literature was
banned; the Nationalist Press was gagged; shopkeepers
were ordered not to close their shops when asked by the
Congress to do so; 'lathi charges' and even firing were
resorted to for dispersing Congress demonstrations.
Despite all these restrictions, the civil-disobedience cam-
paign was in full swing. The following were some of the
activities of the Congress: holding meetings and conferences
in spite of Government prohibition; organising processions
in defiance of police orders; picketing foreign-cloth and liquor
shops; picketing British goods, banks, insurance companies,
etc.; publishing unauthorised bulletins, newspapers, etc.;
saluting the national flag in public and hoisting it over
Government buildings; manufacturing salt; attempting to
re-occupy buildings seized by the Government; withholding
of land revenue and taxes. Besides these activities, during the
first six months of the year, special campaigns were conducted
on an all-India basis under the orders of the Congress
Working Committee or of the Congress President. From
April 6th to April 13th, the national week was observed in
commemoration of the Amritsar massacre of 1919. This was
followed by the holding of the 47th session of the Congress
at Delhi on April 24th, in spite of the severest police restric-
tions. The Delhi Congress was followed up by a series of