Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire

by Alex von Tunzelmann

The event differed neither in character nor greatly in scale from the previous riots in Bombay or Madras. Yet something about Chauri Chaura particularly upset Gandhi. “Let the opponent glory in our humiliation or so called defeat,” he wrote. “It is better to be charged with cowardice and weakness than to be guilty of denial of our oath and to sin against God.”62 He went on a five-day fast to purify himself and withdrew from all further satyagraha activities, with the exception of the boycott on British goods. He declared an intention to concentrate henceforth on “constructive” activities: absolute nonviolence; the setting up of Congress organizations in every village; a spinning wheel in every home; the rejection of ornamentation; Hindu-Muslim unity; “purification” of the Hindus by abstention from drink and drugs; and “killing the snake of untouchability.”63 Put simply, these were unachievable aims. The British themselves could not have drawn up a more prohibitive list of conditions against their own departure.