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From Labor Action, Vol. 6 No. 40, 5 October 1942, p. 1.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
In response to the vicious “go-ahead” signal given by Winston Churchill in Parliament, the British authorities in India have unleashed a new campaign of terror against 400,000,000 people struggling. for freedom.
General Sir Allan F. Hartley – assistant to the “great” General Wavell – announced that Indian demonstrators have been machine-gunned five times by airplanes within the last month.
Police and troops have been used again in Bombay and other areas where workers and students joined in independence parades. In the city of Bombay, five men were sentences to death and four banished from the city for life after a bloody clash with police at a police station.
Airplanes sprayed incendiary bombs on the homes and villages of Moslem natives (Hurs) and parachute troops were brought into use against them. General Hartley announced that 200 were arrested and forty-five killed in the war against these people. In Madras Province, demonstrations of workers at salt factories were met with gunfire and many workers were killed. Authorities ordered the arrest of students and teachers in the Dacca district of Bengal Province in a vain effort to halt demonstrations and picketing actions. Many students of nationalist beliefs were arrested and expelled from the regions of Assam Province by the police. The number of arrests and woundings mounted daily and is already in the tens of thousands! And Mr. Churchill, sitting in Parliament, states that “law and order” have returned to Britain’s India colony!
The full meaning of all this criminal activity upon the part of the British was summarized by Sir M. Usman, British-appointed leader of the Council of State (a body made up of reactionary landlords and British business men), in a report delivered by him at the opening session of this body.
|
Killed by police |
390 |
|
Total killed |
721 |
|
|
|
|
Wounded by police |
1,060 |
|
Total wounded |
1,219 |
Evidently, the British soldiers, armed with tommy guns and machine guns, are most effective in killing unarmed natives participating in parades and demonstrations!
Despite this terror, the campaign is on in full swing and now covers virtually every section of the country. British claims that they have crushed it are ludicrous and false. The only thing that has changed in the situation is the intensification of British violence and fascist-like action.
But they are finding out that a people determined to secure their full and rightful independence cannot be put down. THE STRUGGLE OF INDIA’S MASSES FOR LIBERATION FROM FOREIGN RULE IS STILL ON IN FULL FORCE!
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Last updated: 23 September 2014