Citizens for Peace condemn demolition of structure at Mussoorie graveyard

Citizens for Peace condemn demolition of structure at Mussoorie graveyard

Dehradun, Aug 2

Citizens for Peace, a group of concerned citizens has severely condemned the reported action of the Mussoorie administration in demolishing a structure in the 200 years’ old graveyard where the leading freedom fighter Abbas Tyabji (1853-1936) is buried. The administration has overzealously demolished the structure in the graveyard claiming it to be municipal land. This structure had been utilized for years for ‘janazas’ to rest, especially in inclement or rainy weather.

It is a shocking commentary on the irresponsibility of the authorities that at a time when serious civic issues need to be attended to, the administration is resorting to such diversionary tactics, presumably to subserve obscure agendas. Their reckless action comes at a time when, for instance, the Mussoorie-Dehradun road has been in a state of repeated jeopardy and serious disrepair.

The authorities and the people of India need reminding at this time of the life and work of Abbas Tyabji, erstwhile Chief Justice of Baroda state, who succeeded Mahatma Gandhi as leader of India’s national struggle after latter’s arrest in May 1930.

Abbas Tyabji was, more than once Acting President of Indian National Congress. Earlier, he was a leading Member of the Congress Inquiry into Colonial atrocities in Punjab in 1919. Abbas Sahib, known as the Grand Old Man of Gujarat, had passed away in Mussoorie on 9 June 1936. He is buried in Landour graveyard in the Mussoorie Hills. Apart from the Anjuman institution managing the cemetery, over the years the Uttarakhand Freedom Fighters Association and the Abbas Tyabji Charitable Trust have been working to keep his memory alive.

Abbas Tyabji played a prominent role in the Non-cooperation movement of the 1920s. Gandhiji wrote that a Political Conference presided over by Abbas Tyabji in Gujarat in August 1920 endorsed the Non-co-operation decision even before the Congress endorsed it in the following month (at Calcutta in September 1920).

Abbas Sahib continued, until his death, to play a key role in all programmes for national reconstruction and all national satyagrahas. Of the struggle in Bardoli in 1927-28 , Mahatma Gandhi once asked the peasants of Gujarat , “Would you have been able to keep together without the consummate tact of the Sardar and the presence of an Abbas Tyabji or an Imam Sahib in your midst?”  (Young India, 13 September 1928, CWMG, Vol 37, p. 168) [Imam Bawazeer was Gandhiji’s companion from his South Africa days who had returned with him to India]

On 5 May 1930, Mahatma Gandhi was arrested and held without trial under an old law, Regulation 25 of 1827. Upon the Mahatma’s arrest, Abbas Tyabji took over as the national leader of India’s Civil Disobedience Movement.

After Abbas Tyabji took the Mahatma’s place as the national leader in 1930, a popular slogan in India was: “Khara Rupaiya Chandi ka, Raj Tyab-Gandhi Ka” . Abbas Tyabji’s wife, Amina, a freedom fighter herself, died four years after Abbas Tyabji. In Baroda a girls school still runs in the name of Amina Tyabji. After independence in 1947, Southwood, their Mussoorie house, was dedicated to nation by Tyabji family after independence. CPWD became custodian on behalf of President of India. In 1996 concerned citizens from Mussoorie and across India foiled a CPWD plan to demolish it. On that occasion two portraits of Abbas Tyabji (in a Gandhi cap) and Amina Tyabji (in a khadi sari) were found lying on the floor in Southwood, Mussoorie, when some citizens had gone to see the Tyabjis cottage there on Abbas Tyabjis anniversary in 1996.The portraits have been in the CPWD’s custody.

“The road from Kincraig, Mussoorie, to Gandhi Chowk had been named after Abbas Tyabji. However, under pretext of a recent road widening the sign board indicating the name of the road was also removed and, it is understood, has not been replaced,” said Anil Nauriya, a senior Supreme Cort Lawyer and member of the Citizens for Peace .

The grave of veteran freedom fighter Abbas Tyabbji at Landour graveyard in Mussoorie was  damaged by some miscreants in 2006 also.

Citizens for Peace call upon the State of Uttarakhand and the Municipal authorities to note that their conduct has caused and continues to cause severe damage to the composite heritage of India and of our state and the people It is expected that all the authorities concerned will retrace their steps and make due rectification wherever required and make proper recompense for the damage caused