THE COLONY
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already enjoyed. Nor were there enough sites available for experi–
mental prisons, which required large tracts of land in the less popu–
lous regions of the country, suitably drained and reclaimed. The
administration had therefore embarked upon an intensive land devel–
opment project in the northern provinces, improving for slavery the
earth that it had considered good enough for freedom. Altogether,
it was a tremendous task, requiring careful and extensive preparation.
For, by the official census, covering the last ten years, the population
of the country stood well in excess of 400,000,000-and this, despite
some 35,000,000 deaths, attributed to the famines that had occurred
during the same period.
It was understandable that the administration should show some
reluctance to proceed with the oppression.
The district leaders, meeting in Allaban in pre-convention con–
ference, were in very low spirits. Abvan Singh, Dr. Ramdas Sodha,
and Givot Pandalamchari who had journeyed (third class) from the
Northern Province, were especially pessimistic as they gave their
reports of the pre-liminary steps the administration was taking to
incite the Resistance Party to violence. Several provocations had oc–
curred in the North, the most serious being a charge of rape brought,
curiously enough, against a white surveyor by a group of farmers
and a white tax collector. The surveyor, who had recently arrived in
the district and had not yet made any enemies, was accused of crimi–
nally assaulting a native woman, the wife of a tenant farmer. Her
body had been found mutilated and several days dead in an irrigation
ditch. The surveyor had concluded his work and was about to return
to the Central Province when he was arrested and held in a local
jail, some forty miles from the nearest court where criminal proceed–
ings were usually heard. The jail was in Lokhamadra, a city of fair
size, known for its jute industries. The body of the woman was also
taken to Lokhamadra, some twenty-five miles away from her own
village, on the outskirts of which the alleged crime had occurred. This
was an irregular procedure, since the local police in the town of
Bhingat, only three miles away, was of adequate size to conduct a
preliminary investigation and the facilities of a morgue and coroner
were available there. The dead body had been placed in an open car,
exposed to the view of the natives, and had slowly been driven through
the streets of Bhingat and of the other towns on the way to Lokha–
madra. The news had meanwhile been broadcast and as the body
approached Lokhamadra, an angry crowd began to gather. By the
