Professional Ethics

XVI Trimester

Legal Professionals in the Freedom Struggle

Submitted by: Aakash Narang

Roll No. 2009B.A.LL.B.34
Submitted to: Prof. P.K. Shukla
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Introduction

With the selfless guidance and statesmanship of the legal profession, the Indian national
movement gained participation and its impact reached far beyond immediate political
consequences.

The movement that began in 1857 as a sepoy mutiny took the shape of a nationwide
struggle for Independence from the British Raj. It incorporated various national and regional
campaigns, agitations and efforts of both non-violent and militant philosophies.

Humble beginnings of the Indian National Congress

After the First war of Independence in 1857 and its aftermath, the formation of Indian
National Congress in 1885 marked the beginning of a new era in the national movement.
The era was of moderates like Dadabhai Naoroji and Sundernath Bannerjee while Madan
Mohan Malviya and Motilal Nehru, amongst others, were important moderate leaders who
were lawyers by profession. The moderates believed in the system of constitutionalism.
They functioned more as a debating society that met annually to express its loyalty to the
British Raj and passed numerous resolutions on less controversial issues such as civil rights
or opportunities in government which were submitted to the Viceroys government and
occasionally to the British Parliament. But none of this made any substantive impact.

In 1905, the British announced the partition of Bengal on communal lines. This was opposed
by the Congress and the nationalist leaders who adopted policies like Swadeshi wherein
they boycotted British goods and promoted Indian goods. This created a faction in the
Congress and brought to light the underlying forces of antagonism that was prevalent in the
Indian National Congress due to the opposite ideologies of Moderates and emerging group
of the extremists.

The extremists Lal, Bal, Pal

Lawyers like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who was an extremist, gave a new direction to the INC.
Tilak began a new phase of more radical thought within the organization. He put forth new
ideas and methods of opposing the imperialist rule and advocated stronger actions like the
boycott of foreign goods and the policy of swadeshi (self reliance). He did not believe that
the British rule was beneficial and instead felt that their rule was extremely harmful. He
introduced the idea of Swaraj (complete independence) way back in 1897 with his famous
statement,Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it.

After the partition of Bengal he emerged as an important leader of the extremist faction. In
the 1906 session he was able to get his ideas of swaraj, swadeshi and boycott adopted
despite the opposition of the moderates. After the split of the Indian National Congress in
1907, the British began cracking down on extremist leaders. Bal Gangadhar Tilak was
imprisoned and deported to Mandalay for six years. During this time he wrote two books,
Gita Rahasya and the Artic Home in the Vedas. He was released in 1914 and started the
home rule league two years later in 1916, which inspired the youth to fight against the
foreign occupation of the country. Sir Valentine Chirol rightly described him as one of the
most dangerous pioneers of disaffection and truly the father of Indian unrest.

Other eminent lawyers who supported the extremist ideology were C. Rajagopalachari and
Lala Lajpat Rai.Lala Lajpat Rai was popularly known as the Punjab Kesari and Sher-e-Punjab
and was also the founder of Punjab National Bank and Lakshmi Insurance Company. He
formed the extremist faction of the congress along with Tilak and Bipin Chndra Pal, the trio
was popularly called Lal, Bal, Pal. Later, Lajpat Rai presided over the first session of
the All India Trade Union Congress in 1920. He also went to Geneva to attend the eighth
International Labour Conference in 1926 as a representative of Indian labour. His journals
Bande Mataram and People, contained his inspiring speeches to end oppression by the
foreign rulers.

Fighting the British in court

A cycle of violence and repression had ensued in some parts of the country as a result of the
partition of Bengal, and Alipore Bomb Case was a famous controversy which arose at that
time. Aurobindo Ghosh and 37 other revolutionaries were suspected to have been engaged
in illegal activities and sedition and were arrested. However, the eminent lawyer CR Das
came to the rescue, who through his brilliant handling of the case got Aurobindo and many
others was acquitted. This case brought Das to the forefront professionally and politically.
Also called Deshbandhu, CR Das, used his legal knowledge to save many other nationalists
and revolutionaries from the clutches of the British. He was the defence counsel in the
Dacca Conspiracy Case (1910-11) as well and was famed for his handling of both civil and
criminal law.

Meanwhile, in 1909, the British Government announced certain reforms in the structure of
Government in India, known as Morley-Minto Reforms. But these reforms came as a
disappointment as they did not mark any advance towards the establishment of a
representative Government. The provision of special representation of the Muslims was
seen as a threat to the Hindu-Muslim unity on which the strength of the National
Movement rested. Thus these reforms were vehemently opposed by all the nationalists. The
disgust with the reforms announced in 1909 led to the intensification of the struggle for
Swaraj. While, on one side, the extremists waged a virtual war against the British, on the
other side, the revolutionaries stepped up their violent activities. There was a widespread
unrest in the country. To add to the already growing discontent among the people, Rowlatt
Act was passed in 1919, which empowered the Government to put people in jail without
trial. This caused widespread indignation, led to massive demonstration and hartals.

Lawyer cum nationalist, Saifuddin Kitchlew was one of the leaders who protested against
this legislation. Kithclew was also a founding leader of the Naujawan Bharat Sabha (Indian
Youth Congress), which rallied hundreds of thousands of students and young Indians to
nationalist causes. He was also among the principal founders of Jamia Millia Islamia.
Mahatma Gandhi

This also marked the entrance of Mahatma Gandhi in the mainstream Indian politics.
Gandhi, also a lawyer by profession, had just returned from South Africa, where he had
carried out a successful Satyagraha against the racial discrimination and for civil liberties of
the people. Meanwhile, Gandhi had made his mark in India already by his success in
Champaran and Kheda Satyagraha. Gandhi led organized protests and strikes against the
landlords who, with the guidance of the British government, signed an agreement granting
the poor farmers of the region more compensation and control over farming, and
cancellation of revenue hikes and its collection until the famine ended. In Kheda, Sardar
Patel, a lawyer by profession, represented the farmers in negotiations with the British, who
suspended revenue collection and released all the prisoners.

Patel subsequently organised the peasants of Kheda, Borsad, and Bardoli in Gujarat in nonviolent civil disobedience against oppressive policies imposed by the British Raj; in this role,
he became one of the most influential leaders in Gujarat.

Rajendra Prasad, an eminent lawyer and the first President of India, was also involved with
Gandhi in the Champaran movement. Bhulabhai Desai, another lawyer and a politician,
represented the farmers of Gujarat in the inquiry by the British Government following the
Bardoli Satyagraha in 1928. Bhulabhai formidably represented the farmers case, and was
important to the eventual success of the struggle.

Most lawyers gave their time freely, at the cost of their own legal practice, to the defense of
scores of helpless victims of Martial Law implemented by the British, who had been
condemned to the gallows or sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.There was a shift in
ideology as well, from moderate to a more radical one.

The era of mass movements

In December 1921, Gandhi was invested with executive authority on behalf of the Indian
National Congress. Under his leadership, the Congress was reorganized with a new
constitution, with the goal of Swaraj. Membership in the party was opened to anyone
prepared to pay a token fee. Thus congress, an elitist institution was now open to masses by
Gandhi. Gandhi expanded his non-violence platform to include the swadeshi policy the
boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British goods. Linked to this was his advocacy that
khadi (homespun cloth) be worn by all Indians instead of British-made textiles. This was a
strategy to inculcate discipline and dedication to weed out the unwilling and ambitious, and
to include women in the movement at a time when many thought that such activities were
not respectable activities for women. In addition to boycotting British products, Gandhi
urged the people to boycott British educational institutions and law courts, to resign from
government employment, and to forsake British titles and honours.

Non cooperation Movement also saw the involvement of Jawaharlal Nehru who plunged
himself into the Indian freedom struggle during this time. A London educated lawyer, Nehru
had spent his time touring the nation and spreading Gandhian ideas and making himself
acquainted with the problems of the common people. Rajagopalachari, Lala Lajpat Rai,
Madan Mohan Malviya, Motilal Nehru, CR Das and Sardar Patel were other lawyers who
gave their full contribution to the non cooperation movement. Patel toured the state to
recruit more than 300,000 members and raise over Rs. 1.5 million in funds for the non
cooperation movement and helped organise bonfires of British goods in Ahmedabad and
Gujarat. He also supported Gandhis controversial suspension of resistance in wake of the
Chauri Chaura incident. He worked extensively in the following years in Gujarat against
alcoholism, untouchability and caste discrimination, as well as for the empowerment of
women.

With the suspension of the Non-Cooperation Movement, CR Das and Motilal Nehru
endeavoured to give a new orientation to Indian politics through his Council-Entry
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programme, i.e. Non-Cooperation from within the Councils. They however met with
vehement opposition from Gandhi and the No-changers. Thereafter CR Das, Motilal
Nehru, the Ali brothers, Ajmal Khan, V. J. Patel, Pratap Guha Roy and others organised the
Swarajya Party within the Congress. It was initially known as the Congress-Swaraj-Khilafat
Party. Through the efforts of the Swarajists, Maulana Azad was elected President of the
Congress Special Session at Delhi, where the programme of Council-Entry was approved.
The programme was later confirmed at the Cocanada Session.

The Swarajya Party was the largest Party in the Central Legislative Assembly as well as in
some of the Provincial Legislatures. From 1925 onwards it was recognised by the Congress
as

its

political

wing.

After the Simon Commission and the violence in its aftermath, an All-Parties Conference was
convened by Dr. Ansari, the Congress President, and a Committee, including Tej Bahadur
Sapru, an eminent lawyer and headed by Motital Nehru, was appointed to determine the
principles of a constitution for free India. The report of the Committee the Nehru Report
as it came to be called attempted a solution of the communal problem which
unfortunately failed to receive the support of a vocal section of Muslim opinion led by the
Aga Khan and Jinnah.
The Nehru Report, representing as it did the highest common denominator among a
number of heterogeneous Parties was based on the assumption that the new Indian
Constitution would be based on Dominion Status. Calcutta Congress (December 1928) over
which Motilal presided was the scene of a head-on clash between those who were prepared
to accept Dominion Status and those who would have nothing short of complete
independence. A split was averted by a via media proposed by Gandhi-ji, according to which
if Britain did not concede Dominion Status within a year, the Congress was to demand
complete independence and to fight for it, if necessary, by launching civil disobedience.
Gandhi had not only moderated the views of younger men like Subhash Chandra Bose and
Jawaharlal Nehru, who sought a demand for immediate independence, but also reduced his
own call to a one year wait, instead of two. The British did not respond. Mahatma Gandhi
led the Civil Disobedience Movement that was launched in the Congress Session of
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December 1929. The aim of this movement was a complete disobedience of the orders of
the British Government. On 31 December 1929, the flag of India was unfurled in Lahore
session of the Congress and 26 January 1930 was celebrated as Indias Independence Day by
the Indian National Congress.

The President of the historic Lahore session, Jawahar Lal Nehru was prompt to use the
platform in order to declare Purna Swaraj or Complete Independence. The monumental
Lahore Congress introduced the Civil Disobedience Movement.

This was followed by Gandhiji launching his famous Salt Satyagraha and the Dandi march in
Gujarat. During the same time, revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were
arrested on the charges of throwing a bomb in the Central Assembly Hall. Asaf Ali, a
freedom fighter and a prominent lawyer, defended the revolutionaries but they were
hanged on March 23, 1931.

The government, represented by Lord Edward Irwin, decided to negotiate with Gandhi after
the civil disobedience movement. The GandhiIrwin Pact was signed in March 1931. The
British Government agreed to free all political prisoners, in return for the suspension of the
civil disobedience movement.

After the signing of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, Patel was elected Congress president for its 1931
session in Karachihere the Congress ratified the pact, committed itself to the defence of
fundamental rights and human freedoms, and a vision of a secular nation, minimum wage
and the abolition of untouchability and serfdom. Patel used his position as Congress
president in organising the return of confiscated lands to farmers in Gujarat.

Round table conferences

As a result of the pact, Gandhi was invited to attend the Round Table Conference in London
as the sole representative of the INC. The conference was a disappointment to Gandhi and
the nationalists, because it focused on the Indian princes and Indian minorities rather than
on a transfer of power.

In 1932, another round table conference was organized and Ambedkar, an eminent lawyer
and a Dalit leader was invited to attend the same. Ambedkar had been working for the
social upliftment of the Dalits and lower caste people and was opposed to the Hindu idea of
casteism and social discrimination. Through his campaigning, the government granted
untouchables separate electorates under the new constitution. In protest Gandhi began a
fast-unto-death while imprisoned in the Yerwada Central Jail of Pune in 1932 against the
separate electorate for untouchables only. Ambedkar agreed under massive coercion from
the supporters of Gandhi for an agreement, which saw Gandhi end his fast, while dropping
the demand for separate electorates that was promised through the British Communal
Award prior to Ambedkars meeting with Gandhi. This was the start of a new campaign by
Gandhi to improve the lives of the untouchables, whom he named Harijans, the children of
God. On 8 May 1933, Gandhi began a 21-day fast of self-purification to help the Harijan
movement.

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Conclusion
As the first Home Minister andDeputy Prime Minister of India, during the partition, Patel
organised relief for refugees in Punjab and Delhi, and led efforts to restore peace across the
nation. Patel took charge of the task to forge a united India from the 565 semi-autonomous
princely states and British-era colonial provinces. Using frank diplomacy backed with the
option (and the use) of military action, Patels leadership enabled the accession of almost
every princely state. Hailed as the Iron Man of India, he is also remembered as the Patron
Saint of Indias civil servants for establishing modern all-India services. Patel was also one
of the earliest proponents of property rights and free enterprise in India.

Thus the saga of Indian freedom came to an end as India woke up to freedom in the
midnight of 14th August, 1947. The contribution of the lawyers and jurists in this struggle
for liberty, equality, justice and truth however remains unparalleled.

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