The Offer of Three Thousand Rupees
November 1921, a weaving town of about 9,000 people. Since last month 280 pupils have left the government high school, and the local Congress committee of 62 members runs a 'national school' in a rented room with 95 pupils and a monthly deficit of Rs 140. A cloth merchant, who has just made a large profit on a government supply contract, offers Rs 3,000 on condition that the committee begin a no-tax campaign among the ryots of the surrounding villages, whose land revenue was raised by 20 per cent after last year's floods. The secretary is enthusiastic. Two local leaders were arrested last week; the deputy commissioner has banned processions on the main road, which both a religious procession and any Congress demonstration would have to use. The provincial committee's circular of the previous week instructs district committees to confine activity to boycott of schools, courts, titles and foreign cloth until further orders. The committee meets tonight.
1. Should the committee accept the Rs 3,000 on the merchant's condition? Separate the three distinct problems bundled inside the offer.
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Problem 1 - the condition is a policy decision, not a donation. A no-tax campaign is a higher stage of the movement, and the provincial committee has reserved that decision to itself. Accepting money to start one would mean that policy is bought by whoever can pay, and it splits the district committee from the provincial body at the moment when discipline is its only protection.
Problem 2 - the money is not clean and not free. The donor has profited from a government contract and, as a cloth merchant, may well be selling the foreign cloth the committee is pledged to boycott. Money given on terms buys influence over the recipient; the committee would be answerable to him in the bazaar even if not on paper.
Problem 3 - the timing is the worst possible. Two leaders are in jail and a route ban is in force. A tax strike now invites attachment of ryots' land and the arrest of the whole committee, and the banned road raises the risk of a clash if religious and political processions meet.
Answer: refuse the condition. If the merchant will give unconditionally, accept, record it in the minutes, publish the accounts, and spend it only on the national school and on relief - never on anything that looks like a purchased campaign.
2. The secretary argues that the revenue enhancement is plainly unjust, so a no-tax campaign is justified. Give the strongest reply and state what the committee may do about the grievance within its mandate.
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The strongest reply is not that the grievance is false - it is that a just grievance does not by itself authorise a particular method.
- Method has conditions. The movement's strength is that it is non-violent and centrally directed. A local tax strike would be met with repression the committee cannot absorb, and once land is attached and families are homeless, local leaders lose control of their own supporters.
- Local action has national cost. The route dispute with a religious procession is exactly the kind of issue on which communal goodwill can break. A district quarrel in November could cost the movement its unity far beyond the district.
- Unauthorised action is easily isolated. The government would much prefer to crush one district than to face a coordinated province.
What the committee may do within its mandate
- Form a five-member inquiry into the 20 per cent enhancement; record the flood damage, the assessment papers and affected households.
- Petition the deputy commissioner and the local board, and publicise the figures.
- Provide legal aid to any ryot facing coercive recovery, without calling for non-payment.
- Continue picketing of foreign cloth, the school boycott and enrolment of volunteers.
- Forward the inquiry report to the provincial committee, asking it to consider the question when the mandate permits.
3. Draft the three-sentence resolution the committee should adopt tonight, covering the money, the procession ban and the school, and explain briefly why each sentence is built as it is.
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Resolution
- 'This committee records its thanks to the donor but cannot accept any donation made conditional on a course of action, and resolves that all funds received shall be entered in a public account, reported monthly, and used only for the national school and for relief.'
- 'The committee will not take a procession along the road prohibited by the magistrate; it will hold its meeting on the open maidan after informing the magistrate, and will request the organisers of the religious procession to choose an alternative route so that no clash is possible.'
- 'The revenue enhancement will be examined by a five-member committee whose report will be sent to the provincial committee, and members will meanwhile continue the boycott of foreign cloth and of government schools.'
Why each is built this way
- Sentence 1 separates the money from the condition without insulting the donor, and makes the accounts public - the surest defence against the charge of buying a campaign.
- Sentence 2 concedes the legal point while keeping the right to meet. Obeying a route ban costs little; defying it hands the magistrate a pretext and risks a communal clash that would destroy the movement locally.
- Sentence 3 keeps the grievance alive and documented, and keeps escalation available for the moment when the provincial committee sanctions it. Refusing to act is not the same as refusing to prepare.