Taste of Life: Satyagraha’s spice factor gave this revolution a ‘united’ flavour

The clove Satyagraha succeeded, albeit partially. The Clove Growers’ Association was disbanded, and the English monopoly over the clove trade was reduced to half. Meanwhile, the boycott continued everywhere till new shipments arrived in Bombay

Food is a great unifier. While it is utilised to bring solace to each other and is recognised as a form of comfort, it is also used as a form of resistance.

The Satyagraha effectively demonstrated that eating and cooking were two of the oldest and most powerful tools for revolution. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

On April 30, 1938, a letter appeared on page four of the newspaper “Jnanaprakash”. The author had used a pseudonym. “Since last few months, clove has been unavailable in the markets of Pune and elsewhere. It is an important ingredient of daily cooking, and depriving people of the spice for political reasons is highly condemnable. I have noticed that members of the Congress party have been threatening merchants to stop selling cloves because of the ongoing Satyagraha. But their Satyagraha is being a menace to the common public, not to mention it is depriving poor dock workers and coolies of their livelihood. I urge all the merchants to procure cloves from Ceylon, if not from Zanzibar, and start selling it immediately”, the letter read.

A week earlier, on April 24, 1 938, a small procession in Shukrawar peth in the morning hours had grabbed everybody’s attention. The participants were Congress workers who were visiting every shop selling spices to urge them to stop selling cloves. Most of the merchants had already stopped selling the spice. A few who had some stock in their shops handed it over to the Congress members.

This exercise was a part of the Satyagraha, passive resistance, to protect the rights of Indian clove traders in Zanzibar.

In the little Sultanate of Zanzibar off the east coast of Africa, there lived 180,000 natives who spoke Swahili, 33,000 Arabs, 15,000 Indians, and 278 Europeans. The Sultan of Zanzibar, His Highness Seyyid Sir Khalifa bin Harub always sought advice from an English Resident on complicated commercial matters. Zanzibar in 1937 provided 80% of the world’s supply of cloves; India, in turn, consumed 50% of Zanzibar’s output.

Most of Zanzibar’s Indians used to be in the clove business. As they prospered, they became moneylenders to the natives. Some of them, it was wrongly alleged, usurped lands from the natives when they could not repay the loans. To counter the growing influence of the Indians in Zanzibar, and to repay the Resident, the Sultan, on the advice of the Resident, set up a Clove Growers’ Association. The association’s powers were great: it had an export monopoly and it set its own price; Indians had to pay $750 to the association for annual licences.

The colonial offices of the British Government served the threefold purpose of perpetuating the political rule of the British over the colonies, of enriching the British monopolist at the expense of the Indian small trader, and of running colonial administrations with India’s property.

The Clove Decree of the Zanzibar Government was such a law designed to further Britain’s economic interests. Under this law, the purchase of cloves from growers in distant areas became a monopoly of the Clove Growers’ Association. Despite its name, the Association was not formed of the growers of clove, but consisted of an advisory body of six or more Englishmen appointed by the Government.

The Zanzibar Clove Bill came into operation on August 1, 1 937. As a measure of retaliation, Indian dealers and exporters of clove decided to resort to passive resistance. No Indian was to apply for buying the licence as an agent of the Clove Growers’ Association. No Indian was to engage in the export trade. No Indian was to serve on the advisory board of the Clove Growers’ Association. This basically meant that the Indian population in Zanzibar would go hungry.

They expected the Government of India to impose an embargo on the import of cloves from Zanzibar.

In their determination to resist the Clove Act, the Zanzibar Indians appealed to the Provincial Governments and Municipalities to assist in the embargo on cloves.

They also wrote to Mahatma Gandhi, who extended his support to the cause. A Clove Boycott Committee was created under the leadership of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The Congress Working Committee met in Wardha in August 1 937 and passed a resolution assuring the Indian clove dealers in Zanzibar of its sympathy in their plight and extending its support in the “heroic struggle” they had then decided to launch upon.

The Clove Boycott Committee then declared a complete boycott of foreign cloves. The stringent boycott of imports found resounding support from dock workers who refused to unload ships carrying those cloves. There was extensive picketing at the docks by Congress volunteers to dissuade other workers employed by the merchants to carry on the work.

Various merchant associations in Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras had also started an unofficial embargo of Zanzibar cloves on the principle that “any attempt to injure Indian interests for the advancement of British Imperialism” ought to be strongly opposed.

On March 6, 1938, Subhash Chandra Bose, appealed to the dealers in clove, both wholesale and retail, to hand over to the Congress Committees, any stock of cloves they might still be possessing. The appeal was a part of a lengthy statement on the boycott of Zanzibar cloves.

Bose repeated his appeal when he visited Pune in May, 1 938.

Jawaharlal Nehru, too, during his visit to Pune in the same month, appealed to merchants of Pune, not to sell cloves and succumb to the “divisive agenda”.

Both Bose and Nehru praised common Indians for supporting the Satyagraha. Clove was an important ingredient of Indian cooking.

The boycott of the Zanzibar clove inspired many to carry out similar boycotts. The organisation of Kirana Merchants of Cawnpore called for a complete boycott of the importation of dry fruits in India from Afghanistan. They were opposing the policy stated to be adopted by the Afghan Government who, it was alleged, was creating a monopoly for export of dry fruits from the country by having established the “Sharrkatisamar” (Afghan Dry Fruits Co.) with a state subsidy. The export of dry fruits in India had till then been handled mainly by Indians. Hejib and sons, the most prominent dealer of dry fruits in Pune then, declared in “Jnanaprakash” that he would support the boycott. A similar boycott was called against the import of foreign salt. Merchants from Pune participated for around four months.

The clove Satyagraha succeeded, albeit partially. The Clove Growers’ Association was disbanded, and the English monopoly over the clove trade was reduced to half. Meanwhile, the boycott continued everywhere till new shipments arrived in Bombay.

The Satyagraha effectively demonstrated that eating and cooking were two of the oldest and most powerful tools for revolution.