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

THE STORM BREAKS 81
pretext of being transferred to some other prison or of being
interviewed by their relatives and there they would be set
free. When this trick was discovered, no prisoner would
leave his cell when called by a prison-official. Prisoners
were thereupon taken forcibly to the prison-gate and set
at liberty. Outside prison, tactics were changed. Arrests
were stopped and orders were given that sticks and batons
should be used freely by the police in dealing with crowds
and demonstrators. In some cases demonstrators were
removed in police-vans to out-of-the-way places thirty
miles from the city and there asked to walk back home. A
liberal use was also made of the hose in order to give the
demonstrators free cold baths in winter.
But it was clear to everybody that these makeshift arrange-
ments and tactics would not do. The situation was going out
of hand from the official point of view. The novelty of the
tactics employed by the Congress had non-plussed the
Government. They could of course have made a reckless and
ruthless use of force on a large scale to put down the movement
as they did subsequently, but they were embarrassed by the
presence of the Prince of Wales in India. The Prince of
Wales was due to arrive in Calcutta—the storm centre of the
1921 movement—on December 24th, and about a week before
that, the Viceroy, Lord Reading, arrived there. The members
of the Calcutta Bar had previously agreed to invite him to a
banquet, as he was ex-Lord Chief Justice of England. But
in view of the arrest of Deshbandhu Das, they cancelled the
engagement. The Government of India thus found themselves
in an exceedingly difficult position as they met with opposition
everywhere. In the first place, though the civil disobedience
movement was strongest in Bengal, it was fairly strong
throughout Upper India and no province was free from it.
In addition to this the Akali Movement in the Punjab, the
no-tax campaign in the Midnapore District in Bengal, and
the Moplah Rebellion in Malabar in South India inten-
sified the crisis. Outside India, the Sinn Fein Movement in
Ireland had been largely successful, a treaty with Great
Britain having been signed on December 6th, 1921. Some
months earlier, Afghanistan had entered into a treaty with
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