Freedom at Last by Robert Paul Roth

Author:Robert Paul Roth [Roth, Robert Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781498276160
Publisher: Resource Publications
Published: 2016-09-27T07:00:00+00:00

18

Diwali

A month later, on the day before Diwali, the municipal elections were held. There had been intense campaigning, both by the Congress leaders and by the Communists. Whenever a spokesman came to Chinnapur to stir up enthusiasm for his cause, crowds would gather at the railway station with banners, floats, pictures, and a most variegated assortment of musical instruments. The visitor would be garlanded with roses and gardenias and lotuses and jasmine. And then, if he was a Communist he would go to an empty plot beside the Bagshaw Tobacco Company, where he would hold forth for as long as two hours without interruption; and if he was a Congress Party leader he would assemble his audience before the Imperial Bank in the center of town, and he would harangue just as long. But regardless of whether the speaker was Congress or Communist, there was always a great deal of noise, accompanied by much toddy drinking, and concluding with a nasty street brawl which the police would have to dissipate with a cruel lathi charge and, sometimes, tear gas.

The citizens of Chinnapur unfortunately took their politics without a sense of humor. Their parades were accompanied by frantic chanting which reminded one more of a voodoo religious rite than a political rally. They worked on the principle of mass psychology, much as Hitler did, never dealing with individuals, but always exciting the populace by means of flamboyant demonstrations. There was a personal appeal at the polls, however, as both Jeremiah and Pentayya demonstrated by their frequent journeys from the compound to the voting booths. All day long agents of the candidates of both parties engaged in the pettifogging chicanery of buying votes by offering seers of rice and curling rupee notes. Ivar’s servants collected quite a comfortable store of rice that day. As Jeremiah explained, a great many dead people voted in the election. Also some who voted were dead before the day was over.

It was the first election in free India, and although the issues of the local election were no more urgent than previously, now no British officers were on hand to keep the peace. Almost all the incidents were due to clashes between Congress and Communist parades, both parties demanding full possession of the narrow streets at once. The religious rivalry between Muslims and Hindus, however, was strangely at a minimum. The seats in the Chinnapur Council were apportioned according to the relative sizes of the Hindu and Muslim communities. For this reason the Hindus and Muslims not only did not have to compete with each other, but they also had a common opponent in the Communists. The communal peace was so quiet, however, that it appeared suspicious, as if it were the calm before the storm, a subtle and auspicious omen of forthcoming evil.

Mr. Paradesi and Mr. Mukkerji attained a keen competition which was peaceful throughout the campaign. Mr. Mukkerji was applying new tactics, for the present at least. His strategy had always been to gain power

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