them, Sergeant Mackenzie, and another police constable visited their
cells after midnight and made indecent gestures.
• Lilavati Munshi, a leader of the Desh Sevikas, made this incident the
subject of a rousing speech she delivered to a crowd collected to
congratulate Jawaharlal on his jail sentence.
• A huge rally was held in Bombay to protest the police decision to pick
up women demonstrators, transport them out of the city, and abandon
them in a jungle at night. Lady Jagmohandas called this action
tantamount to rape.
• The heavy hand of the police was felt in the rural areas. Newspaper
accounts and Congress reports seldom mentioned these women by
name, but reported their mistreatment as symbolic of British disregard
for Mother India and Indian womanhood.
• For example, it was reported that in January of 1931, the police beat
“women of Borsad” unconscious when they participated in
demonstrations. Kasturbabai Gandhi communicated that she had seen
police grab women by the hair, hit their breasts, and utter indecent
insults.
• The British authorities denied these charges, but occasionally, the
assaulted women pressed charges and the courts heard their cases.
The British, like many of their Indian subjects, did not regard Indian
women without male guardians worthy of protection from physical
and sexual harassment.
Investigation by India League In 1932, the Indian National Congress
invited the India League of London to investigate charges of police brutality.
The League accepted and their delegation, composed of two British women,
one British man and one Indian man, travelled to India to see conditions first-
hand.
• In India, they requested permission to see the jails and speak with
political prisoners. Eager to discredit this delegation before its work
began, British officials charged that it was dominated by
“suffragettes” and denied it interviews with political prisoners.
• The delegation found substantial evidence of violence, both in the
enforcement of ordinances and in lock-ups. After citing reliable
information that women had been sexually threatened, sexually