(In this post, Sarthak
Bhardwaj reviews The Great Repression: The Story of Sedition in India by Chitranshul Sinha. Sarthak is a 3rd year law student at Vivekananda Institute of
Professional Studies, Delhi).
The Great
Repression, by Chintranshul Sinha, chronicles the 150 year-old story of
sedition in India. The law of sedition is a hotly contested issue and much has
been said about it over the years – that it is colonial, oppressive, draconian,
against free speech, and so on. One might naturally ask, how did we get here,
and what is the road ahead? In answering these questions, Chintranshul Sinha
takes the reader on a socio-legal history of India, starting right from the
establishment of the first East India Company factory in Surat in 1613.
The book
covers three spheres. It discusses sedition’s origin story, its early life
during the British Raj, and then in independent India. The first part tells how
the emergence of sedition (and, in fact, the entire penal code) is proximately
linked to the revolt of 1857. After managing to quell the uprising, administrative
control and power was transferred from the East India Company to the British
Crown.
This hastened the process of codification of Indian criminal laws. The
Indian Penal Code was formulated in 1860, but Section 124A (the provision
governing sedition) was inserted only in 1870. The most immediate need for this
insertion, Chintranshul Sinha suggests, arose because of the Wahhabi Movement,
which aimed to overthrow the British government.
The
Indian Wahhabi movement, started by one Syed Ahmed, was initially against the
Sikh empire in northwest India. However, when the British defeated the Sikhs,
the movement took shape of a radical anti-British movement in India. In 1863, the Britishers unearthed a
conspiracy to supply money and ammunition to the Wahhabis to fight the British
in the North Western Frontier Province. This led to the trials of some notable
Wahhabi leaders. Thereafter, a need was felt by the British government to amend
the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and provide for seditious offences.
The
second section of the book enumerates how sedition evolved in its early life.
Here, Chintranshul Sinha familiarises the reader with the legendary trials of
Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Gandhi, Nehru, Azad, and the rest. It is observed how the
Raj used sedition as a tool to stifle dissent and liberty of their subjects. Mahatma
Gandhi’s trial exemplifies it best. His arrest was the result of four articles
published in his magazine – Young India. The articles were considered to be
incendiary by the Raj, for they supported the Khilafat Movement and exhorted
Indian sepoys to quit serving in the British army.
Interestingly,
Gandhi, without engaging a lawyer, pled guilty to the charge and refused to
call any witnesses to testify in his defence. Gandhi, during his trial,
submitted to Judge Broomfield, that he must first consider whether the law of
sedition was evil and punish him with the severest penalty if he found that it
was not. He called upon the judge to resign and dissociate himself from evil if
he found otherwise. The offence of sedition – at that time – criminalized the
mere promotion of disaffection against the government. It is known that Judge
Broomfield held Gandhi in high regard, and therefore was reluctant to punish
him.
However,
it was accepted that Gandhi was no ordinary leader, and that his political
teachings possessed a capability to spark violence amongst the masses. Thus,
Gandhi was sentenced to six years of simple imprisonment. At the same time,
Judge Broomfield expressed hope that the British government would reduce the
sentence in the future. And, this is how Gandhi’s legendary trial came to an
end. Lasting only for a glorious hundred minutes!
The third
segment studies the position of sedition in modern Indian history. One would
reasonably believe that an undeniably repressive law like sedition –
responsible for the incarceration of the most prominent figures of the Indian
independence movement – would promptly
be rejected by the framers of our Constitution. The reality, however, tells a
different story.
Leaders like Sardar Patel and C Rajagopalachari advocated for the
retention of seditious speech. This inclusion was vehemently opposed by Somnath
Lahiri, and finally the word ‘seditious’ from the proviso of Clause 8 of the
draft interim report on fundamental rights was omitted. Despite passionate debates
on freedom of speech and expression, the notorious Section 124A continued to find
a place in our statute books.
There
were some early attempts to decriminalise sedition by the courts, notably by
the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the Tara Singh Gopi Chand case. But,
in 1951, the Nehru government revalidated sedition by making it a reasonable
restriction under Article 19 (2) – through the First Amendment to the Indian
Constitution.
The
author also succinctly discusses landmark cases like Kedar Nath Singh, Balwant
Singh, and Bilal Ahmed Kaloo to reaffirm the prevailing and settled
position of sedition, i.e., to attract punishment under Section 124 A of the IPC,
incitement to violence or public disorder (and not merely promoting
disaffection towards the government) is required. However, sedition still marks
a great imbalance of power between the individual and the State, and is a tool
of oppression in the hands of the government.
As
Chintranshul explains, arrests under this provision are seldom in accordance
with the prevailing position of law. For instance, sedition charges are slapped
for celebrating a neighbouring country’s victory in a cricket match, for
refusing to stand during the national anthem or for publishing satirical
cartoons. It is interesting, therefore, to note that the book opens with a
prescient word of caution from Justice D.Y. Chandrachud. The book, quoting
Justice Chandrachud says, “the Constitution fails when a cartoonist is jailed
for sedition.”
The book,
thus, makes a strong case for the repeal of Section 124A – as has already been
done in UK – the country of its origin. The Great Repression acts as an
excellent primer in understanding the history of sedition in India. Despite its
intensive legal content, the book is readable and can quite easily be
understood by those outside the legal fraternity. The Great Repression is a
riveting tale of where this (now) antiquated law came from, its evolution, and place
(if any) in the world’s largest democracy.