Chachaji

I joined D.A.V. College, Lahore in 1919, and now I had to take Sanskrit because there was no other option for me. In 1920 Mahatma Gandhi came to Lahore and advocated: “Students should leave colleges and lawyers should leave their practice.”

There was a mammoth public meeting, I remember. There were about a lakh of people in the first public meeting which Mahatma Gandhi addressed in Lahore. There I stood up and asked some questions. Everyone was surprised because I was only sixteen at that time. I was probably one of the first to leave college during the Non-cooperation Movement started by Mahatma Gandhi. When my father came to know about it, he was much disappointed and disturbed. But in the meantime, we had organised the National College at Lahore. Our professors in those days were leaders of eminence like Pandit Rambhuj Dutt, Chowdharani Sarala Devi, Swami Satya Dev, Prof. Purushottam Lal Sondhi and Pandit K. Santhanam. For about six months I was in the bungalow of Sarala Devi Chowdharani and Pandit Rambhuj Dutt.

In the meantime, my father Lala Kahan Chand, who was posted in the Settlement Department of Alwar on deputation from the Government of Punjab, came to Lahore and coerced me to go with him. Sardar Hari Singh, the chief of our family, the Mukhia, was a member of the Governor’s Council. He called me and my father and threatened us, saying: “All the members of our family are highly placed in Government services. And we are the Chiefs of Punjab. Anyone in our family who takes part in the Congress movement or in the national movement will be naturally a great slur on our family—and we will suffer.”

But even at that young age, I told him bluntly: “I am not prepared under any circumstances to agree with you, whatever you may say.”

Now those Chiefs—they were multimillionaires; they were probably the sole excise collectors in Kashmir State. I had seen with my own eyes, when I was a child, that they used to bring money on camels from Kashmir State and, without counting it, put it in cellars which were just in front of our house in Vahalee. When that money was sent out, it was never counted but only weighed! Always, the money was coming and going, coming and going…

Whereas, as I mentioned earlier, my father was only a Girdavar Kanungo, getting only Rs.30/- per month. In his department probably he was the only person who knew good English and most of the Deputy Commissioners who used to come from Britain were put under him for ‘training’. When there was some chance for him to rise to the position of a Naib Tahsildar, he requested Sardar Hari Singh to put in a word with the authorities. He said: “How can I tell the authorities that he (my father) is my cousin? He is only a Girdawar Kanungo?” He refused to recommend.

Probably that was one of the reasons which made me so angry and blunt to retort before Sardar Hari Singh himself. But in any case my father coerced me and brought me to Alwar in a tehsil called Ramgarh, where he was posted. I was there for about a month or so. But I did not know what to do. So I used to go to a nearby school in the morning which was adjacent to us and teach there without any remuneration or any appointment. It was a primary school.

One evening, my father was sitting with others. And they were talking about me. And he said: “In the whole of our family there are about two hundred or three hundred persons. Everyone has risen to a high position. They are M.As, L.L.Bs and military officers and Deputy Commissioners and Public Prosecuters and all those…And I was also thinking that one day my son will study and he will also become something!” Tears came to his eyes. And then he told me: “If one of my four sons had died I would not have minded so much. But your leaving college and your studies has very much disturbed me.” This was a great shock to me.

Without telling anybody, I left the house, although I had no money. And I came to Delhi which was the nearest city. I did not know anybody in Delhi and had never travelled alone in my life like that, except during the school holidays from my father’s place to Lahore and back. Landing here I enquired about the Congress office and went straight there. Then in a week or so, I also enquired about the Arya Samaj and I learnt that they had an Arya Kumar Sabha here also. Dr Yudhvir Singh was the president of the Arya Kumar Sabha. I became a member of the Arya Kumar Sabha and stayed in the Congress office. A special session of the Congress was to be held and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was to be the President. So, for a few months, there was great activity for holding that session. I used to eat in the common kitchen and work the whole day for the Congress. Sometimes I would go to the Arya Kumar Sabha and work with Dr Yudhvir Singh.

16-year-old Defies Martial Law!

Sharma: Mr Jauhar, If I go back a little, do you remember anything of 1919 in Lahore?

Chacha Ji: Yes, I forgot to mention that. In 1919, there was a Martial Law in Lahore and big Martial Law posters were pasted daily all around our D.A.V. School campus. And in our hostel, a very big board was put up with a clasp and a lock, and every day one or two Martial Law posters were pasted there. We were not allowed to go out because during the Martial Law the school was closed. But I was so anxious to know what it was all about, that every day I used to go on to the terrace of the hostel and could see that at every few steps gora Military Guards with bayonets were posted on the roads. Whenever I could get an opportunity, I would tear off the Martial Law posters from the school notice-board. So, many enquiries were made, and I was caught and was severely beaten up by some gora seargents, and policemen were also with them. Of course, I was too young then to know and understand all about the details. Still, I remember very well that one day the poster would say that, “all the cars were to be deposited at such and such a place”; the next day it would say that, “all the cycles were to be deposited at such and such a place” the next day, it would say that, “all wheat above 20 seers or one maund should be deposited in such and such a place”, like that.

This was so harassing, insulting and humiliating! How could any Government do that!

Then, in the course of time, after the Martial Law was lifted, an examination was conducted in the schools in Punjab, including our school; there were three papers on Martial Law regulations, and Government rules etc., set by the British Government. It was decided that if we did not succeed in that examination, we would not be allowed to appear for the matriculation examination. I do not remember the details of those papers. But I do remember that I was a keen student and that I got 80 per cent marks in the test.

After that there was a Congress session in Amritsar, where Pandit Motilal Nehru was the President. Well, we were not allowed to leave the hostel. I was too young to go to the session and I did not have money also. But somehow I managed and slipped out and went to Amritsar. There I joined the procession led by Pandit Motilal Nehru throughout the bazaars and attended the Congress session also. Then I came back to the hostel in Lahore.