New Delhi: Mahatma Gandhi had returned the prestigious 'Kaisar-i-Hind' medal and two war medals to the British as part of his support for the Khilafat movement in 1920, saying he could not wear them "with an easy conscience" so long as Muslim countrymen laboured under a "wrong done to their religious sentiment".
In a letter written to the viceroy Lord Chelmsford five years after his return from South Africa, Gandhi had criticised the imperial government and said it had acted in the Khilafat matter in an "unscrupulous, immoral and unjust manner".
An original copy of his letter dated August 2, 1920 and several other rare documents from the long period of India's freedom struggle are on display currently as part of an exhibition at the National Archives of India here being hosted under the 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav'.
"It is not without a pang that I return the Kaisar-i-Hind Gold Medal granted to me by your predecessor for my humanitarian work in South Africa, the Zulu War Medal granted in South Africa for my services as Officer in Charge of the Indian Volunteer Ambulance Corps in 1906 and the Boer War Medal for my service as Assistant Superintendent of the Indian Volunteer Stretcher Bearer Corps during the Boer War of 1899-1900," Gandhi wrote in the letter.
Gandhi and his wife Kasturba returned to India from South Africa on January 9, 1915 and were accorded a warm reception by the people.
The same year he was awarded the Kaisar-i-Hind gold medal in the King's birthday honours list, according to the official website of a Gandhian institution, Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal.
He was decorated with the Kaisar-i-Hind medal by the then viceroy Lord Hardinge who is known to have admired the ideals espoused by Gandhi.
In the 112-year-old letter neatly preserved at the National Archives, Gandhi further writes: "I venture to return these medals in pursuance of the scheme of non-cooperation inaugurated today in connection with the Khilafat movement."
"Valuable as these honours have been to me, I cannot wear them with an easy conscience, so long as my Mussalman countrymen have to labour under a wrong done to their religious sentiment".
"Events that have happened during the past month have confirmed me in the opinion that the Imperial Government have acted in the Khilafat matter in an unscrupulous, immoral and unjust manner, and have been moving from wrong to wrong to defend their immortality. I can retain neither respect nor affection for such a Government," wrote Gandhi, who would later go on to lead the freedom movement that would see the birth of an independent India on August 15, 1947.
His return of the medals also came a year after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar on April 13, 1919 where people had gathered to protest against the government's Rowlatt Act.
In the letter, Gandhi also wrote that the attitude of the Imperial and Your Excellency's Government on the Punjab question has "given me additional cause for grave dissatisfaction".