After the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919, Mahatma Gandhi wrote that the British regime perpetuated itself by employing the doctrine of frightfulness. It struck fear in the hearts of people who were expected to meekly surrender before the colonial authorities by accepting falsehoods spun by them and forsaking not just protest but even a questioning attitude either in public or through the media.
That doctrine of frightfulness is being replayed in the India of 2024. Those sections of the media which question the Modi regime are under attack and opposition parties are being split. People’s representatives, some of whom occupy high constitutional positions, are not spared. Many of them face jail, the threat of incarceration or repeated coercive action at the hands of government agencies.
Jail or BJP
On February 12, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and a veteran leader of Congress resigned from the party. He was facing several corruption cases. A day later, he joined the BJP. The political buzz is that he was told he had two options – join the BJP or go to jail.
This exemplifies how the doctrine of fear is used to actuate a former chief minister of a major state like Maharashtra to resign from his party and embrace the BJP. In Maharashtra, the opposition Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party were split as the doctrine of fear was invoked against key leaders.
Targeting media With doctrine of frightfulness
Several newspapers and independent media platforms such as Newsclick, Caravan, The Wire and Newslaundry have faced punitive action. In Kashmir, the press club was shut down and several journalists were jailed on trumped up charges. In the case of Newsclick, its founding editor Prabir Purkayastha faces terrorism charges under the draconian UAPA law for discharging journalistic responsibilities.
Prime Minister Modi often takes pride in saying that India is the mother of democracy and yet his regime is acting contrary to basic democratic values. The relentless penal measures directed against the media flow from the doctrine of frightfulness which is applied with impunity to make independent and critical media subservient to the government, just as corporate media already is.
These developments remind us of the dark days of martial law imposed in Punjab following the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and the suppression of the press. Mahatma Gandhi in his report on the Punjab Disorders observed that “The existence of independent journalism became an impossibility during the Martial Law regime and The Tribune, the Punjabee, and the Pratap stopped publishing”. Those words of Gandhi resonate in India now when there is a great threat posed to independent journalism and those media platforms who dare to question the powers that be.
Gandhi’s prophetic observations
A few days after drafting “Punjab Disorder” his Punjab report, Gandhi, in his speech delivered on 23rd August 1920 at Bezwada, stated that the British Government “…does not scruple to use means fair or foul in order to gain its ends”. As the massive crowd attentively listening to him cried, “Shame!” he remarked, “No craft is above that Government”. He then forcefully added, “It resorts to frightfulness, terrorism. It resorts to bribery in the shape of titles, honours and high offices”. The crowd again cried, “Shame!”
Gandhi’s possibly would have used the words, “frightfulness, terrorism,” if he had been alive in the India of 2024. He charged that titles, honours and high offices offered by the British rulers amounted to bribery. In retrospect those words assume relevance in the context of the recent announcement of Bharat Ratnas for personalities such as Karpoori Thakur, L.K. Advani, Charan Singh, P.V. Narasimha Rao and M.S. Swaminathan.
In that speech, Gandhi very critically observed, “It administers opiates in the form of reforms… In any sense it is autocracy doubly distilled, appearing in the guise of democracy for the greatest gifts of a crafty, cunning man are worthless so long as cunning resides in his heart”. Very prescient articulations indeed!
Gandhi was also clear about the message he had for the people. “I have given to you these qualities of this Government not in order to excite your angry passions but in order that you may appreciate fully the forces that are matched against you”. “Anger”, Gandhi said, “will serve no purpose.” He then firmly stated, “ We shall have to meet their untruth by truth. We shall have to meet terrorism, their frightfulness by bravery, and it is an unbending bravery.”
There is now a replay of the doctrine of frightfulness and it is amply manifested in India. The assertion of Gandhi that truth has to be employed to counter untruth and terrorism and frightfulness by bravery and, that too unbending bravery, is surely a manifesto for our times.
S.N. Sahu served as Officer on Special Duty to President of India K.R. Narayanan.
This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.
