EMPEROR Vs. BANOMALI MAHARANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Banomali Maharana was convicted by a Magistrate under Section 153A, Penal Code, and was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year and to pay a fine of Rs. 200, or in default-to suffer a further three months rigorous imprisonment. He appealed, and his appeal was heard and allowed by the learned Sessions Judge of Berhampore, who acquitted him. Against this acquittal the Government of Orissa has now appealed.

(2.) The case against the respondent was that he had written and published, on 3 July 1939, a small pamphlet or booklet entitled "Raiyat Bhai," and thereby, it was said, to quote the words of Section 153A "he had promoted or attempted to promote feelings of enmity or hatred between different classes of His Majesty's subjects," namely, between the zamindars as a class and the raiyats as a class.

(3.) It is unnecessary to set out the contents of the pamphlet in detail. It was written in the form of stanzas, in the highly coloured and flowery language of poetry, embodying to a very large extent the artifice of metaphor. The hard lot and miserable conditions of life of the raiyats were first set out. It was asserted that between the exactions of the zamindar's underlings and their creditors the raiyats had hardly the means even for the most miserable) subsistence. Illustrations were then given of the exactions, harsh methods and tyrannous treatment by the zamindar's men. Next, the raiyats were exhorted to unite, to stand up for themselves and to resist such exactions and unfair treatment even if they died in the attempt. Then follow some passages, decrying the zamindari system altogether and prophesying that it would come to an end; that if the raiyats only united in resistance the country would surely undergo a change. The raiyats were cautioned to look out for traitors in their own ranks, and were exhorted to be prepared even to give their lives as soldiers in the cause of peace. The pamphlet wound up by the statement that the raiyat was the real proprietor of the soil, and asserted, that if the raiyats united to oppose the zamindar other classes would eventually disappear. After this, at the bottom of the last page appeared the signature of the respondent. On the back of the cover, however, something further appeared. It was as follows: Madras Estates Land and Rent Act. Do you wish to have it sanctioned? If so, without being misguided by the soothing words of the Hon ble Biswanath Das and Pandit Nilakanta Das, combine together and gird up your loins. Pay attention to the raiyat satyagraha and bring both the Dasses to their senses, at once as the students have done. The Land and Kent Act will of its own accord receive sanction.