The Indian independence struggle is renowned for its remarkable story of how the British were eventually driven out of India, largely thanks to Mahatma Gandhiji, the ‘One Man Army,’ who wielded the powerful weapon of ahimsa (non-violence). The sacrifices made by those involved in the freedom struggle were immense, sometimes unimaginable to present-day Indians, and even to many people around the world. However, the struggle also had its share of ideological clashes and differing approaches. Amidst the seriousness of the fight, there are lighter moments that bring humor to the narrative. One such incident involves the cleverness of Horniman, who managed to outwit the British authorities—who had expelled him from India for his active role in the freedom movement—by returning to the country despite their efforts. Ramachandra Guha’s engaging narrative in Rebels Against the Raj: Western Fighters for India’s Freedom (Gurugram: Penguin Random House India Pvt. Ltd., 2022) tells this story with precision and a touch of humor, making it an enjoyable read.
4-12-2024, Hyderabad
British had him back on their hands
It was now more than five years since B. G. Horniman had been forcibly externed from India. Countless petitions and representations asking for his return had been ignored or rejected. Fed up with waiting, bored, lonely and without work in England, desperate to resume his interesting and active life in Bombay, he now decided to use less than straightforward means to go back to where he belonged.
In September 1925, Horniman applied for a passport to enable him to travel to France and Italy ‘for reasons of health’. A passport was granted to him on 13 October, endorsed for France and Italy, but not for India. After some weeks on the Continent, on 18 December Horniman sailed eastwards from Paris on a French boat, and without a passport valid for India. However, he did have a passport valid for France, and when the news of his adventure reached the India Office, they worried that he might land at a French by land into British India.
settlement in India (such as Pondicherry), and from there cross over
His Majesty’s Government were worried that Horniman was seeking (p. 78) to exploit a loophole in the law. Under the Indian Passport Act, local governments could direct the removal from British India of any undesirable person entering by sea into British India of through Afghanistan. But the law did not cover entry via French possessions.
From France Horniman was headed not to Pondicherry, but to British Ceylon. He had booked himself a second-class berth on the SS D’Artagnan, from Marseilles to Colombo. The ship’s list laconically described the passenger as ‘B. G. Horniman, Sans profession, Nationalité Anglaise,’ 54 {Note by New Scotland Yard, 19 February 1926, in I/PJ/12/12, Asia, Pacific, and Africa Collections, British Library, London.
The carrier was splendidly named for the ruse that the musketeer temporarily without a profession was attempting. The SS D’Artagnan, and Horniman with it, arrived at Colombo in the first week of January 1926. When the news reached Delhi, the new capital of British India, the authorities were taken aback. The Viceroy was informed that the Indian passport rules ‘do not admit of preventing his entry into British India if he proceeds from a port in Ceylon’. Writing to the Imperial Government in London on 7 January, the Viceroy said he was considering the ‘question of advisability of amending the rules, if time permits’.
The next day Horniman landed on the shores of British India sailing across the Palk Strait to the small port town of Rameswaram. He made his way from here to Madras; and from there by train to his adopted hometown, Bombay.
The Madras Government had to permit Horniman to land, as the as-yet-unamended Indian Passport Act did not allow them to prohibit it. The Viceroy, realizing that he had been tricked, wrote ruefully that ‘amendment cannot now be made applicable in this case. No action can therefore be taken against him unless he otherwise offends against the law.’ {Viceroy to Secretary of State for India, telegram of 7 and 10 January 1926, in ibid.
The Viceroy was angry that the renegade had found a way to return; the Governor of Bombay, absolutely livid. The Government of India’s Home Department, he complained, should have instructed the authorities in Madras not to let Horniman land, since an amendment to the law was being moved. Now, however, that the man was back, ‘any prosecution would probably only make things worse than they are once he has arrived in Bombay’.
Horniman’s return had made the Bombay Governor very angry (p.79) indeed. The journalist, he told the Viceroy, ‘is going to be a terrible embarrassment to me, and particularly arriving, as he does, just before my budget session, with a Bye-election in Bombay caused by [the Liberal leader M. R.] Jayakar’s resignation, which I felt certain of winning with a moderate man…’ The Governor could ‘only hope that I have exaggerated the importance of his coming; but, having read all the files concerning this gentleman, and knowing of his past relations with Governors and Government, I am certainly in for a great deal of trouble’.
Having expended his outrage, the Governor ended his letter in tones of sullen resentment. He would now have Horniman ‘very carefully watched, and every word he utters recorded; but he is clever enough to keep within the law, and at the same time use his tongue and pen to the detriment of peace and order’. {Sir Leslie Wilson, Governor of Bombay, to Lord Reading, Viceroy, 13 January 1926, in ibid.
Horniman landed on the southern coast of India on 8 January 1926. The next day, Gandhi sent this message for publication in the Bombay Chronicle: ‘My hearty greetings to Mr. Horniman. The Government deserves congratulations on redressing the grave wrong done to this brave Englishman and us. May his work prosper! India needs at the present moment all the assistance that her friends can give . {Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, (New Delhi: Publications Division, 1958-1994) XXXIX, p. 386}
Gandhi did not know that the return of the renegade was owed entirely to his own bravery and desperation. Far from facilitating his re-entry, the Government had done all they could do to stop it. Their failure led to a lot of anger and recrimination within the colonial State, with Bombay blaming New Delhi (for not amending the rules in advance), and New Delhi in turn blaming Ceylon, for allowing the journalist to enter there, even though his passport did not specifically carry an endorsement for that colony, and although the Ceylon Government had previously been warned of Horniman’s ‘antecedents and his defective passport’. Chastised by the Government of India, Colombo answered that they had allowed the renegade to land because ‘they had no quarrel with Mr. Horniman and because they understood at the time that [the Government of India] would be able to stop his entry into India from Ceylon’. {Notes by Denys Bray, 25 March 1926; by M. I. Huk, 31 March 1926, both in File 34/29/1927,Home (Political), National Archives of India, New Delhi.
It was now too late to do anything about it. Six and a half years after the British Raj had (so they thought) deported B. G. Horniman from India for ever, they had him back on their hands.—ibid. pp. 78-80
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