At the Lahore High Court continues...

This reign of terror continued for about three months in the Province. In the hot summer the students of the D. A. V. College had to walk twice every day in the sun in order to have their presence recorded by the officers of the Martial Law administration. The students of the D. A. V. College in those days were regarded as rebels but there was no proof of any kind against them and this was an ingenious device to harass them.

Lala Ratan Chand, Secretary of the Indian Association, was confined in the Lahore Fort and, when permitted, I used to go and see him off and on to provide him with the necessities of life. I gave legal advice to my old friend Pandit Bishambar Nath who was looking after the cases of several other ‘disaffected’ persons including Mahsha Krishan, editor of the Pratap. My house in Anarkali became the meeting place for the victims who needed legal help during this period.

In the wake of the Martial Law regime came the session of the Indian National Congress at Amritsar during Christmas week, 1919. I was a member of the subjects committee of this session. One incident has never gone from my memory. A serious resolution was under discussion in the subjects committee meeting. A large number of the members of the subjects committee were in favour of this resolution but Gandhiji held a different opinion. Having failed to convince the committee about the correctness of his opinion, he eventually threatened to quit the meeting if the resolution was adopted. The threat worked and the resolution was dropped. The holding of this session at Amritsar restored the confidence and self-respect of the Punjabis after the hardships they had suffered during the Martial Law regime which had left many scars on the Punjab.

Among the various methods of harassing the people during the Martial Law days, restrictions on moving from one place in the Punjab to another played a very important part.

to be continued...

( This account is maintained by Har Anand Publication)