Chauri Chaura: Not just murdr'n mayhem
BY ANITA JOSHUA
Event, Metaphor, Memory: Chauri Chaura 1922-1992, Shahid Amin, Penguin, Rs. 295.
BY virtue of derailing the Non-Cooperation Movement called by Mahatma Gandhi, the sleepy East Uttar Pradesh hamlet of Chauri Chaura secured for itself a berth in the history of the Independence struggle. But, mainstream history — because of its preoccupation with the political class — throws very little light on what made the peasants of Chauri Chaura riot and set the police station afire on February 4, 1922; forcing Gandhi to call off the Non-Cooperation Movement.
Subaltern historian Shahid Amin pieces together the story of Chauri Chaura as available in court records and official reports of the time and peoples them with narratives by picking on the fading memories of relatives of the rioters and those killed in the arson.
While trying to give these unsung peasants a place at least along the periphery of the history of India's freedom struggle, Amin brings to light the dilemma faced by rulers of Independent India in deciding whether the violence at Chauri Chaura was a crime or a case of a "purely political nature". Another irony that stares in the face is that the police memorial set up by the British in Chauri Chaura at the site of the burnt thana in 1924 now bears the name "Martyrs' Memorial"; making it seem as if the policemen and the peasants died for India's freedom.
Essentially, the book is a revised edition from a different publishing stable. First released in 1995, the only addition by the author's own admission is the afterword.
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