WHEN THE CENTRAL VISTA WAS USED TO GROW FOODGRAINS

 

WHEN THE CENTRAL VISTA WAS USED TO GROW FOODGRAINS

By

Maj Gen VK Singh

 

While browsing through the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, I came across some interesting facts. In early 1946 there was a severe food shortage in India due to failure of rains. This was also the period when India was on the threshold of independence from British Rule. Lord Wavell was the Viceroy and Auchinleck the Commander in Chief. World War II had just ended and the INA trials were even them going on in the Red Fort. There had been mutinies in the Royal Indian Navy (RIN); the Royal Indian Air Force (RIAF) and the Indian Army’s Signals Training Centre at Jubbulpore. Apart from this, major developments were taking place on the political front. As can be imagined Mahatma Gandhi was fully involved in the negotiations then going on between the Cripps Mission and the two major political parties, the Congress and the Muslim League.

One point that caused Gandhi a lot of anxiety was the food shortage. He realized that all available land should be used for growing food grains. He noticed that the Aga Khan Palace, where he had spent 21 months after being jailed during the Quit India movement in 1942, had a lot of land that was laying vacant. He suggested that this should be used for growing food grains and wrote to the Aga Khan about it. On 21 February he wrote to Mr.  G.E.B.  Abell, the private secretary to the Viceroy (he often wrote to Lord Wavell directly, addressing him as Dear Friend). He wrote¹:-

                                  

Nature Cure Clinic

6, Todiwala Road,Poona                February 21, 1946

DEAR MR. ABELL,

Here are a few more suggestions to meet the food situation which have been sent to me by friends.

The Indian Army should be given this unique opportunity of doing constructive work. They can be moved about easily. They could, therefore, be sent to all such places where wells need to be dug most urgently.

Regarding additional foods, fish has been mentioned. Fish abounds in the seas around the coasts of India. The war is over; there are innumerable small and medium-sized vessels which were used for doing patrol and guard duties along our shores for the last five years. The Royal Indian Navy could arrange about staffing these with the Department of Fisheries giving all assistance. If everything and anything can be done during a war, why not a peace-time war effort? Dry fish does even now form part of the normal diet of a great number of people who are very poor—that is when it is available and they can afford to buy it.

All public gardens should immediately by law made to start growing vegetables. Squads of army personnel should be put to work here too. People requiring extra labour to transform their ground or garden should also be able to obtain free help through this channel.

The distribution of food should be through co-operative societies or similar organizations. All food parcels to friends or relatives in Britain or elsewhere abroad should be stopped as also the export of groundnuts, oils, oilcakes, etc.

All stocks of foodstuffs in the hands of the military should be released forthwith and no distinction should be made between military and civil ranks. In this connection I draw His Excellency’s attention to the following A. P. I. message published in the Amrita Bazar Patrika of February 11, 1946.

It is learnt that huge quantities of composed atta are being destroyed for the last few days by throwing them into the river Shitalaksha at Narayanganj.

The campaign against despondency and for growing more food will avail nothing, unless bribery which is going on as never before is stopped and honesty and straight dealing begin to pervade the Government ranks and the public.

Yours sincerely,

M. K. GANDHI

1. Gandhiji’s Correspondence with the Government, 1944-47, pp. 141-2; also Harijan, 17-3-1946

 

Mr. George Abell replied to Mahatma Gandhi on 26 February 1946. He wrote²:-

THE VICEROY’S HOUSE, NEW DELHI,

February 26, 1946

            DEAR MR. GANDHI,

Thank you for your letter of the 21st February making suggestions to meet the food situation. His Excellency, to whom I have shown your letter, is grateful to you for writing, and will have the various proposals examined where this has not been done already.

2.         Only a day or two ago His Excellency suggested to the Commander-in-Chief that it might be possible for the R. I. N. to assist with fishing. Recent events may make this difficult, but meanwhile His Excellency has initiated enquiries about the possibility of importing dried fish from Canada and Newfoundland, and also about the securing of suitable vessels and equipment so as to make a start with developing on modern lines the fisheries industry. Already the Army is doing a good deal in the Grow More Food campaign and is releasing machinery for digging wells, levelling ground, etc.

3.         In Delhi, a considerable part of the Central Vista is to be ploughed up and the gardens of bungalows are to be used for growing vegetables on a larger scale. The sending of food parcels to friends or relatives outside India has been ordered to be stopped and an urgent examination is being undertaken of the question of exporting groundnuts, oil-cakes, etc.

4.         Bribery and corruption is admitted to be one of the worst enemies of efficient food administration. This is also one of the most difficult to defeat. The detailed implementing of the controls is mainly in the hands of Provincial Governments, and perhaps the new Ministries may be able to achieve results in this direction.

Yours sincerely,

G. E. B. ABELL

M. K. GANDHI, ESQ.

 

2.         Gandhiji’s Correspondence with the Government, 1944-47, p. 143; also Harijan, 17-3-1946

 

            The correspondence reveals some interesting facts, which most of us may not be aware of. Mahatma Gandhi spared no efforts in making up the food shortages at that time. The British authorities also took steps to alleviate to situation. The RIN and the Indian Army were also roped in, as suggested by Gandhi. Most interesting of all, the Central Vista was also to be ploughed up and used for growing vegetables, along with the gardens of bungalows. (It is not known if this was actually done).

It is said that almost 3 million people died during the Bengal Famine in 1943. Some even blame Churchill, the then Prime Minister of Britain, for the large number of deaths. At that time all prominent leaders of the freedom struggle were in jail, after the Quit India resolution. Could the number of deaths in Bengal Famine have been reduced, if Mahatma Gandhi was not incarcerated at that time? The Viceroy then was Lord Linlithgow. Would he have been as willing to listen to Gandhi, as Wavell was in 1946?  One must remember that World War II was then at its peak. Perhaps diverting food grains to troops at that time was unavoidable, as Churchill is purported to have done.

 

Maj Gen VK Singh

06 October, 2021