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

THE FIGHT RESUMED 271 gain in strength and volume without any direction from head-quarters. According to official statistics, 14,800 arrests were made in January and 17,800 in February. The Govern- ment soon realised that if arrests were continued at that rate it would be impossible to deal with the large prison population. In March, tactics were therefore changed and instead of making arrests, force was used in dealing with Congressmen and their demonstrations. Under the ordinances, the follow- ing steps among others, were taken by the local authorities all over India: orders were issued prohibiting meetings and processions; Congress organisations were declared illegal and Congress offices were taken possession of; Congress funds were seized; orders were served on people not to help the Congress in any way nor to harbour Congress volunteers, on pain of punishment; land and property were seized for not paying land revenue or other taxes; National literature was banned; the Nationalist Press was gagged; shopkeepers were ordered not to close their shops when asked by the Congress to do so; 'lathi charges' and even firing were resorted to for dispersing Congress demonstrations. Despite all these restrictions, the civil-disobedience cam- paign was in full swing. The following were some of the activities of the Congress: holding meetings and conferences in spite of Government prohibition; organising processions in defiance of police orders; picketing foreign-cloth and liquor shops; picketing British goods, banks, insurance companies, etc.; publishing unauthorised bulletins, newspapers, etc.; saluting the national flag in public and hoisting it over Government buildings; manufacturing salt; attempting to re-occupy buildings seized by the Government; withholding of land revenue and taxes. Besides these activities, during the first six months of the year, special campaigns were conducted on an all-India basis under the orders of the Congress Working Committee or of the Congress President. From April 6th to April 13th, the national week was observed in commemoration of the Amritsar massacre of 1919. This was followed by the holding of the 47th session of the Congress at Delhi on April 24th, in spite of the severest police restric- tions. The Delhi Congress was followed up by a series of