The first arrest for Gandhi, and it's on sedition

Gandhi is arrested for sedition charges of leading the Non-cooperation movement, today in 1922, marking the beginning of his long companionship with prisons and getting arrested.

Gandhi on his detention; Source: Public Domain

Gandhi had been in India for a relatively long time - if one could call 7 years as long, touring a country devastated by social unrest, poverty, and deep economic exploitation of its lands. Travelling across the length and breadth of the country, his resolution would be set - at first, to non-violently initiate a campaign of non-cooperation with the English government.

The task seemed more difficult than easy, but with significant support for the movement, it earned him not only followers, but trailers too. The British Indian authorities had had him marked - for he seemed to give them a lot of trouble. They were keen to introduce Gandhi to their own methods - punishment by detention.

In the aftermath of the terrible Jallianwala Bagh massacre, where countless people peacefully protesting against the Rowlatt Satyagraha were killed, Gandhi’s call for non cooperation was raging across the country. People left their jobs, schools and factories, demanding independence.

When Gandhi called off the movement due to the burning of Chauri Chaura police station, the British government saw its moment - Gandhi was for now, isolated. They arrested him in Bombay on the 10th of March 1922 on the charges of Sedition, and put him up on trial.

Sitting on the bench was Justice Broomfield, the District and Sessions Judge of Ahmedabad. The justice was somewhat jittery, not wanting to mistreat Gandhi and then face the wrath of a just-quieting down movement from the people. Gandhi, in true satyagraha fashion, made his job much easier - he pleaded guilty, to all charges. Sentenced for 6 years imprisonment, Gandhi’s political life had truly begun.

He would be discharged in 2 years for an appendicitis operation, but the message and pattern were clear - a cycle of arrests, detentions, long stays in prison, and then back again to revolutionary politics. It was an interesting sight to see, for neither the government nor Gandhi himself could have predicted it back in 1922.