Truth to power

In 1936, I was a student in the sixth standard, in a small town in Ferozepur district of Punjab. At the time, the British repression was matched only by the peoples8217; patriotic spirit. Once the deputy commissioner and the education officer of the district, both British, were coming to visit our town. Hectic preparations were made by the government officials. The area around the town8217;s main gate was cleaned and decorated, and the Union Jack was unfurled above the gate.

But in our school, secret preparations were being made under the guidance of the school manager, Lala Pohlo Ram. Some young men wrote 8220;Inquilab Zindabad8221; and 8220;Vande Mataram8221; on the arch of the gate with coal tar. The panicked managers of the show put mud plaster on the slogans. But to their chagrin, when the officers were just near the gate, the plaster was washed away by rain showers, exposing the officers to the slogans8217; painted scorn. When the visiting party was near the gate, some students, including me, removed the Union Jack and replaced it with the Congress party flag. We escaped by jumping on the continuous rows of house roofs near the gate. Seeing the Congress flag and slogans, the officers were red with rage and the event managers were trembling with fear 8212; next they were to visit our school. And sure enough, there too the officers were greeted with anti-Raj slogans.

Retribution was quick in coming. The students were promptly lathi-charged and dispersed. The officers then called a meeting of the town elders 8211; including the thirteen who paid income tax and voted on the Viceroy8217;s Council. The school was derecognised and its grant was withdrawn. The fire-arm licenses of all the town8217;s license-holders were cancelled. Later, the income tax of the payees who gave donations to the school was doubled and Lala Pohlo Ram, the school manager, was given a two-year jail term.