Sedition law: freedom fighters who were booked under the draconian law

As the Centre continues to defend Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the hearing on the constitutional validity of sedition law intensifies in the apex court.

The Supreme Court has questioned the need for the draconian law, which was brought in by the East India Company, even as India celebrated its 75th Independence anniversary.

Here's a look at the journey of the law in the Indian Constitution and the prominent freedom fighters who were booked under it.

The sedition law was drafted by British historian-politician Thomas Babington Macaulay in the year 1837.

However, the law did not make it to the IPC until 1870. The British Colonial government brought the section under IPC to muzzle the writings and speeches of India freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi, Lokmanya Tilak, Bhagat Singh and others.

The first known case under the sedition law was registered in 1891.
Jogendra Chandra Bose who was the then editor of newspaper named Bangobasi was booked for publishing an article criticizing the 'Age of Consent Bill'.

Two trials of Bal Gangadhar Tilak

The trial which reportedly changed the perception of Section 124A was that of Bal Gangadhar Tilak in 1897.

The British government claimed that Tilak's speeches incited murder of two British officers in Pune.

Justice James Strachey, presiding over the case, broadened the scope of sedition law by equating 'disaffection' to 'disloyalty.'

Tilak was charged with sedition and spent one year in jail.

Strachey's interpretation led to the section being used repeatedly against nationalist leaders by the colonial government.

Tilak was charged again in 1908 for his seditious articles that provoked Khudiram Bose to use an explosive device that killed two English women.

Tilak failed to prove his innocence and had to subsequently spend six years in imprisonment.

Interestingly, the judge who announced Tilak’s sentence in the second trial, Justice DD Davar, had represented him in his first trial in 1897.

In 1921, at the height of Khilafat movement, Maulana Mohammad Ali, Maulana Shaukat Ali and Shri Shankaracharya were tried jointly at Karachi for sedition.

In 1922, Gandhi was arrested on charges of sedition in Bombay for taking part in protests against the colonial government.
He was sentenced to six years in prison but was released two years after his arrest due to medical reasons.

Gandhi even termed Section 124A as the prince among the political sections of the IPC designed to suppress the liberty of the citizens.

Incidentally, the sedition charge was abolished by the United Kingdom in 2010.