Chauri Chaura is a town near
GorakhpurGorakhpur is a city in the eastern part of the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, near the border with Nepal. It is the administrative headquarters of Gorakhpur District and Gorakhpur Division and of Baba Gorakshanath...
,
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
,
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
. The town is famous for an event that took place on 4 February 1922 during
British ruleThe British Raj was the British colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; it can also refer to the period of dominion, and even the region under the rule...
when a police
chowki (pron.-chau key) (station) was set on fire by a nationalist mob, killing 23 of the police occupants.
In the years of 1920 & 1921, Indians launched a nationwide revolt now recognized as the
Non-Cooperation MovementThe non-cooperation movement , was the first-ever series of nationwide people's movements of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience, led by Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress...
, which protested authoritarian laws like the Rowlatt Acts of 1919, and lack of human freedom and self-government for Indians in their own country.
Mahatma GandhiMohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
was the leader of the nationwide revolts organised by the
Indian National CongressThe Indian National Congress is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian...
based upon
civil disobedienceCivil disobedience is the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government, or of an occupying power, without resorting to physical violence. It is one of the primary methods of nonviolent resistance...
, or
SatyagrahaSatyagraha is a philosophy and practice of nonviolent resistance developed by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi . Gandhi deployed satyagraha in campaigns for Indian independence and also during his earlier struggles in South Africa. Satyagraha theory also influenced Martin Luther King, Jr...
by peaceful means alone.
On February 4, 1922, around 2,000 protesters gathered for picketing of the liquor shop at the local market in Chauri Chaura.
Chauri Chaura is a town near
GorakhpurGorakhpur is a city in the eastern part of the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, near the border with Nepal. It is the administrative headquarters of Gorakhpur District and Gorakhpur Division and of Baba Gorakshanath...
,
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
,
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
. The town is famous for an event that took place on 4 February 1922 during
British ruleThe British Raj was the British colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; it can also refer to the period of dominion, and even the region under the rule...
when a police
chowki (pron.-chau key) (station) was set on fire by a nationalist mob, killing 23 of the police occupants.
Background
In the years of 1920 & 1921, Indians launched a nationwide revolt now recognized as the
Non-Cooperation MovementThe non-cooperation movement , was the first-ever series of nationwide people's movements of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience, led by Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress...
, which protested authoritarian laws like the Rowlatt Acts of 1919, and lack of human freedom and self-government for Indians in their own country.
Mahatma GandhiMohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
was the leader of the nationwide revolts organised by the
Indian National CongressThe Indian National Congress is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian...
based upon
civil disobedienceCivil disobedience is the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government, or of an occupying power, without resorting to physical violence. It is one of the primary methods of nonviolent resistance...
, or
SatyagrahaSatyagraha is a philosophy and practice of nonviolent resistance developed by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi . Gandhi deployed satyagraha in campaigns for Indian independence and also during his earlier struggles in South Africa. Satyagraha theory also influenced Martin Luther King, Jr...
by peaceful means alone.
The Incident
On February 4, 1922, around 2,000 protesters gathered for picketing of the liquor shop at the local market in Chauri Chaura. Sensing the trouble, armed policemen were sent to the city police station to control the situation. The crowd marched towards the market and started shouting anti-government slogans. The policemen fired into the air as a warning signal. However, it had the reverse effect on the crowd who were in no mood to retreat and started pelting stones at the armed policemen. Seeing the situation was getting out of control, the sub inspector ordered the policemen to commence firing on the advancing crowd. Three protesters were killed on the spot and several others were injured. Seeing this, the crowd became violent and attacked the police from all the sides. The armed policemen lost their courage to fire, seeing thousands of protesters marching towards them. They retreated to the shelter of the police station. The crowd decided to take revenge for their dead comrades and set fire to the building from all the sides. Twenty-two policemen were burnt alive, including the station sub inspector.
Consequences
Mahatma Gandhi asked all Indians to end the
Non-cooperation movementThe non-cooperation movement , was the first-ever series of nationwide people's movements of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience, led by Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress...
, and went on a five-day fast to absolve himself of what he perceived as his role in inciting the attacks. Gandhi felt that he had acted too hastily in encouraging a revolt against the
British RajThe British Raj was the British colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; it can also refer to the period of dominion, and even the region under the rule...
, while not emphasizing the importance of
ahimsaAhimsa is a Sanskrit term meaning to do no harm . It is an important tenet of the religions that originated in ancient India . Ahimsa is a rule of conduct that bars the killing or injuring of living beings...
(non-violence) and not training the resisters enough. Due to his fast and the exhortation of Congress leaders, Indians gave up civil resistance.
The Trial and the Judgement
The British government was furious after this incident and imposed martial law in the city of Chauri Chaura and surrounding areas. All the areas were raided and hundreds of people were arrested. 172 people were charged and put on the trial. On April 20, 1923 Allahabad high court awarded death sentence to 19, various jail terms including life imprisonment to 2 years jail to 113 accused, and acquitted 38 due to lack of evidence, whereas 3 accused died during the course of the trial.
Modern assessment
Many modern historians view the Chauri Chaura incident as a minor episode of violence, which while regrettable, did not merit the cancellation of a nation's demand for political freedom.
Supporters of Gandhi's point of view agree with his decision, as it was feared by Gandhi that Chauri Chaura was not an isolated incident, but a shocking episode in a rising trend of violence between protesters and police, which could have degenerated into an orgy of mob violence, which would justify martial law and police suppression of even more civil liberties.
Thus (in Gandhi's view) the spiral of violence would have wrecked the wider agenda and organization, while maligning India's patriots as bloodthirsty murderers in the eyes of the world.
The nationalist version of
historiographyHistoriography is the history of history, the aspect of history and of semiotics that considers how knowledge of the past, either recent or distant, is obtained and transmitted...
in
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
has linked it with the larger conscious call of Gandhi in
Non-cooperation movementThe non-cooperation movement , was the first-ever series of nationwide people's movements of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience, led by Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress...
. However, the recent subaltern scholarship has tried to dug more substantive meanings of the incidence. The metaphor of Gandhi in the consciousness of masses, the way he moved in masses and his symbolic gestures had a myriad 'meanings' to the masses. Shahid Amin in his book
Event, Metaphor, MemoryEvent, Metaphor, Memory: Chauri Chaura 1922-1992 is a 1995 book by Shahid Amin. A Professor of History at Delhi University, Amin was a Visiting Fellow at Stanford, Princeton, and Berlin...
has portrayed the chain of events that were occurring in
GorakhpurGorakhpur is a city in the eastern part of the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, near the border with Nepal. It is the administrative headquarters of Gorakhpur District and Gorakhpur Division and of Baba Gorakshanath...
in that time. He had tried to argue that the nationalist meta-narrative of
Indian National CongressThe Indian National Congress is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian...
has failed to bring out the history from below. The reason of the masses to act in a manner they did in
GorakhpurGorakhpur is a city in the eastern part of the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, near the border with Nepal. It is the administrative headquarters of Gorakhpur District and Gorakhpur Division and of Baba Gorakshanath...
was as diverse as caste tensions, belief as Gandhi as liberator that enabled them to defy authority of local zamindars or the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
.
Therefore, there can be alternative versions of
historyHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
. The over-arching explanation of event like Chauri Chaura in the Nationalist
historiographyHistoriography is the history of history, the aspect of history and of semiotics that considers how knowledge of the past, either recent or distant, is obtained and transmitted...
can be concealing if not read with other accounts.
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