Murder of British Judge Ralph Garlick, Calcutta - India's freedom struggle

 Though the Indian subcontinent  came under the administration of the British crown from the company rule, the oppressive rule by them had continued  and the freedom struggle against the British started speeding up  across India.  In April 1919  the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Amritsar, Punjab, that resulted in the killing or about 1000 people (Unofficially) gained worldwide attention.  Mahatma Gandhi's  long salt  march  to Dundy coast in Gujarat with his followers in March 1930 in protest against salt taxes, the partition of Bengal in 1905 on communal line  and a host of unpalatable incidents infuriated the natives against  British government's misrule. As there  was no semblance of freedom to the Indians which was their aspiration, anger was way high  across the country, in particular, in Bengal. At variance with the  national leaders, countless young freedom fighter in Bengal and elsewhere thought violence as a means to cow down the British. Since 1906  violence committed by revolutionaries in Bengal  had gone up to 210. According to the police report  roughly 1038 persons  had some kind of link with the violence and outrages.  Through sustained efforts,  84 people  were convicted of specified crimes; out of then 30 were tried by the tribunals  constituted under the defense Act of India.  


Judge Ralph Garlick (1876-1931), British India Amazon.in.


Alipore court, Calcutta sriaurobindoinstitute.org


The British officers were rude and treated the freedom fighters shabbily.  Consequently, the whole of Bengal was in a   tumultuous state rife with violent protests and attacks against the British officers.  During this testing time .Ralph  Garlick took up the judgeship in Calcutta,. The crown made the same grave mistakes committed by the early administration under the East India company   Frustrated Indians, unable to bear the persistent unjust rule and exploitation of their lands and  people, besides racial discrimination,  ran out of tolerance and in the later  stage resorted to violence to make the  English understand how Indians had been quite tolerant, longing for freedom and be free of shackles of  oppression and foreign rule.  In the wake of very stringent action by the police against the nationalists, frustration and resentment led to more frequent protests against the colonial rule. There sprang up some nationalist revolutionary groups in Bengal that launched   murderous attacks on British officials who insulted and insinuated  Indian natives. 


Alipore Kolkata (Calcutta), WB.mapsofindia.com


Yet another reason was partition of Bengal on 16 October 1905 on communal line and it was effected by Viceroy  Lord Curzon who said it was done for better administration.  A large  Muslim population was confined to eastern areas and West Bengal  had  Hindu population. The Hindus were outraged by the division  that would make them  a minority. Though Bengal was reunited in 1911 and the capital shifted to Delhi from Bengal, the embers of hatred  and anger never died down among the Bengalis.  Bengal terrorism  is rooted in ant partition of united  Bengal. 

On  27th July 1931 in Alipore, a suburb of Calcutta  Judge Ralph returned to his courtroom  after lunch  to resume his judicial work. All of a sudden, before one could wink ones eyes, a Bengali revolutionary and architect,   Bimal Das Gupta whipped up  a revolver and  shot  the judge from the other end in the court room.  As the shot did not hit the honorable judge, Gupta  quickly moved over to the witness-box and fired at the dazed judge. The death was instant as the bullet hit his head. this time.  


Though  in mid-July 1931, Ralph received a letter threatening his life, he was unmoved and kept on carrying his court work.  Not to take any risk, the administration had put two police officers  in the court  room, besides  had some sleuths stationed there  to confront the trouble makers.

.

The media reported that  The police opened fire and killed the  assassin  Gupta on the spot. In the melee  one policeman was injured. Bimal Das Gupta was a ‘wanted’ man following the murder of a somewhat unpleasant  Mr James Peddie, district magistrate at Midapore, in April 1931.  A letter found in Gupta’s pocket stated that the murder was intended as a reprisal for the sentencing to death by Mr Ralph Garlick of Dinesh Gupta  who happened to be  Bimal’s mentor. The letter simply read, “Thou shalt be destroyed. This is the reward for the injustice done to Dinesh Gupta” and was signed by Bimal.


This  grizzly  murder of a learned judge in Calcutta  became a sensation scoop  across India and also in England. The politicians in the House of Commons  were highly critical of this murder and expressed condemnation as the  violence    begun to show up its ugly heads in many places. Obviously, the administration in London was  quite concerned about the safety of British higher-ups  in India.  Ralph Garlick's urn carrying his ash  was sent to  Stratford  to be handed over to his  family. His urn was placed in the grave of his parents.in the Cemetery on the Evesham Road.  It was in 1934 a fitting  memorial tablet was unveiled at King Edward VI School; it has recently been renovated.

 

PS: One reader from W. Bengal   pointed out certain errors in the above post and I would like to thank him for that.. The errors inadvertently made  will be corrected soon..................................................

https://drdudsdicta.com/2015/06/06/my-cousin-ralph

https://www.amazon.in/Ralph-Garlick-1876-1931-Stratford-Story/dp/1858587042

https://dokumen.pub/policing-bengali-terrorism-in-india-and-the-world-imperial-intelligence-and-revolutionary-nationalism-1905-1939-1st-ed-978-3-030-18041-6978-3-030-18042-3.html