“A responsible, well-armed and trained citizenry is the best protection against domestic crime and the threat of foreign invasion.” Harry. L .Wilson.
The infamous Noakhali pogrom primarily highlight the one-sided massacre suffered by the Bengali Hindus who were a microscopic minority in the region. What is lesser known is the fact that there were a few examples of ‘Thermopylae’ like last stands from the Hindus using their firearms in the highest traditions of gallantry and sacrifice. Rai Saheb Rajendra Lal Roy Choudhury and his acquaintance Kaliprassana Rout used their muzzle loaders effectively to keep riotous hordes at bay and fought till death till their ammunition ran out. Another example is of Chittaranjan Dutta Choudhury, who literally fought till the last man and the last bullet. While the last two bullets were left, to prevent capture by the riotous mob, he shot his own mother as per her wish and shot himself with the other.
The Muslim League, having learnt a bitter lesson that an armed Hindu minority might not be easy meat, promptly issued a decree to impound the arms of the Hindus in erstwhile East Pakistan. Tathagata Ray cites one such example in his book ‘A Supressed Chapter In History”. He recalls the example of US based Dr. Brajesh Pakrashi, whose family were Zamindars in Pabna district of erstwhile East Pakistan. The local police seized all the firearms which were in their family custody for years and distributed them to Muslim teenagers for hunting pigeons. Once forming 22% of the total population of East Pakistan, the Hindu population has shrunk to a mere 8% and the downward spiral continues till date.
Fast-forwarding to modern day ‘secular’ India, witnessing the bloody exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from their traditional abode, the alarming demographic change and flight of Hindus from the border districts of Eastern India owing to cross-border crimes, to the ‘for-sale’ signs in Kairana in UP, there is a feeling of Deja vu. One wonders if an armed population would have held out against the forces inimical to India and could have significantly reversed the outcome, where an emerging superpower with her formidable resources failed to make a difference. The archaic gun-control laws need to be questioned and eventually scrapped for disarming the law abiding peaceful majority against the organised forces intimidating them. “Right to Bear Arms” should be applicable to every law-abiding citizen of India.
The draconian gun control act incidentally has colonial roots back to the discriminatory British Arms Act 1878 which sought to restrict possession of firearms by colonial Indian subjects. After the mutiny of 1857, the British realised that an armed population would be a serious challenge to their colonial suzerainty and enacted stringent provisions which nearly made firearms out of bound for the ‘natives’. Nazi Germany had similar thoughts when they disarmed the Jews in 1938.
Ironically it is the paragon of peace, Mahatma Gandhi, who voiced the strongest dissent against this colonial mala fide act intending to disarm an entire community on the basis of race. The colonial hangover crept into Indian decision making in the form of Arms Act 1959 by Nehru’s cabinet which was opposed tooth and nail by none other than former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in parliament. He described the arms act as an attitude of deep distrust and contempt towards Indians and decried it as a colonial relic. He went on to describe the right to bear arms as an inviolable and sacred right of every free citizen. The Narendra Modi government having taken bold decisions on taboo subjects like article 370, Triple Talaq and CAA has unfortunately done precious little about the draconian Arms Act of 1959. In fact matters were made worse by introducing more stringent norms. The Arms Control Amendment Act 2019, reduces the maximum number of guns owned per person from three to two.
The process of obtaining legal firearms is another sordid saga of a legal quagmire and draconian protocols. The firearm license aspirant needs to apply to his District Magistrate, justifying the need for the same. The license can be provided under broadly three categories, namely protection of crops against wild animals, license for shooting sports and self-defence. While the first two categories are restricted to a select group of people, the third category which is probably the most important reason to obtain a firearm is trapped in a bureaucratic labyrinth. Allegedly without political connections and greasing a few palms a license is almost impossible to begin with.
One needs to justify the threat to life in the form of a first information report, with the ridiculous assumption that life threatening circumstances will present a date well in advance to comply with protocols. It is taught in schools that ‘prevention is better than cure’ but politico-bureaucratic syndicate seem to have other ideas. The next episode of harassment is played out by the local law enforcement . The local police digs up the records of the applicant and tries to get his character certificate from his neighbours. After all these hurdles, the most eligible application facing a genuine security threat can be rejected at the whims and fancies of the authorities.
While we talk of being ‘atmanirbhar'(self-sufficient), in matters of self defence we need to be hopelessly dependent on the local cops. The lesser said about the police coverage per lakh of the population the better. Their legendary corruption, inefficiency and political bias provide little comfort. A textbook case may be in Kaliachak, Malda. Often touted as the appendage of the ruling party, the local police did not even move a finger as a riotous set the police station ablaze.
During school days there used to be pipe and water tank arithmetic problems, like two pipes filling water in a tank and another emptying it or that of a monkey climbing on a oiled pole, moving two steps up and one step down. Gun control in India also works in similar fashion, penny wise and a pound foolish. Just as the prohibition era in the United States spawned an underground bootlegging industry operated by organised criminals, stringent gun control laws resulted in a cottage industry of illegal arms. Munger, known as the Mecca of gunsmiths since Mughal times retains only a handful of licensed gunmakers who are going out of business owing to falling demand given the stringent laws.
The unemployed gunsmiths employ their skills in murky underground gun factories. A plethora of firearms ranging from ‘Desi kattas’ to counterfeit ‘foreign-made’ automatic weapons find their way across the length and breadth of the country through illegal couriers at dirt cheap prices. Many such illegal gun workshops were busted in disparate locations like Kulti in Burdwan to Rabindranagar in South 24 Parganas of West Bengal. The most recent seizures by NIA were from Murshidabad, from a local module operated by Al Qaeda. In popular culture, such illegal gun running is vividly described in the popular web series ‘Mirzapur’. ‘Kaleen Bhaiya’ played by Pankaj Tripathi is the local Katta king dealing in illegal arms .
Apart from the aspect of self-defence ,arms are an integral part of Indic culture. The culture dates back to ‘Dhanurveda’, an ancient treatise on the art of archery ,bow and arrow making and allied military science. This is further corroborated by the arms practice in the ancient martial art of Kalarippayattu and the practice of ‘Shastra Puja’ or ‘Ayudh Puja’ on the occasion of Vijayadashami. Home Minister Rajnath Singh recently ruffled a lot of liberal feathers when he performed Shastra Puja on the Rafael Combat Jets. There is a martial caste called Kodavas, residing in Coorg in Karnataka who are legally permitted to carry arms since the British era and enjoy exemption till date. Likewise, the Kirpan and Kukri are an inalienable part of Sikh and Gorkha culture and represent a way of life. Likewise ,there is a long tradition of armed procession on the occasion of Ram Navami where to borrow the words of Charles Dickens ,”a forest of naked arms struggle in the air like shrivelled branches of trees in a winter wind”. Disarming an Indian alienates him from his rooted culture.
Jair Bolsanaro, President of Brazil, signed a decree in 2019 to make possession of firearms easier for Brazilians, amending Brazil’s 2003 statute of disarmament. His argument being self-defence and enabling citizens to reduce violent crimes and rising homicides in the country. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte even went to the extent of saying in a speech that he allowed the citizens to fire non-lethal shots at corrupt officials and the shooter would be released on parole. In the USA , the right to keep and bear arms is protected by the second amendment to the US constitution.’ A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms ,shall not be infringed’. Despite being an inherently peaceful society and not taken part in any of the world wars, Switzerland permits acquisition of fire arms by citizens and foreigners with or without permanent residence. An argument for tighter gun control was rejected there in 2011 by a popular referendum. Being world’s largest democracy , there is little logic for India to carry forward this discriminatory colonial edict, detrimental to the very spirit of democracy and free state and smacks of authoritarianism. The government for its part , has a precedent of issuing numerous arms license in Punjab at the peak of militancy and in J &K , citizens were banded into VDCs (village defence committees) and were provided arms and training to function as civilian militia to combat insurgency in hotbeds. If we monitor the sales of CCTV cameras and other security related gadgets, is an attractive market with steep growth prospects. This also prove beyond doubt that safety and security is still a primary concern for the Indian citizen. Genuine cases such as people living in Naxal hotbeds, or dangerous neighbourhoods or vulnerable solitary senior citizens who are not strong enough to resist home invasions should be eligible candidates for firearms license with proper checks and balances in place.
Another aspect which can be revolutionized by relaxation of arms act is the aspect of women’s safety. In a country like India where a rape is reported every fifteen minutes , not to mention the unreported ones, it is almost criminal to keep our women unarmed through archaic legislations. Though martial arts such as Krav Maga or equipment such as pepper spray and taser guns are advertised for women’s security, nothing can replace a concealed a OFB made .32 Ashani Handgun in a lady’s handbag specially when dealing with organised gangs. Much more effective than a candle light vigil after a tragedy has already taken place. Perhaps even the infamous Nirbhaya episode or the more recent Hatras tragedy could have been averted, if we had inspired the ladies to let the bullets do the talking. After all the right to private defence is enumerated in sections 96 to 106 of the IPC. The arms act presents a clear contradiction to these legal sections dealing with the right of self defence. Besides, personal security can blossom into a substantial industry, adding jobs and positively contributing to GDP and can sound the death knell for illegal arms trade.
In a lighter vein, to borrow the idea of left-liberal poster girl, Gurmehar Kaur, ‘Guns don’t kill, people do’. The liberals who cry themselves hoarse about the US school shootings ignore that it is the deranged individual who caused the deaths rather than the instrument. A lot of stabbing related homicides are also reported, does that mean kitchen knives should also be banned? In Nice, France a truck was used by a terrorist to mow down scores of people. Does that mean we should now have a ‘Truck Control Act’? Gun control renders the law abiding citizen defenceless whereas the criminals and terrorists have no such constraints to obtain the same for a pittance. It basically reduces the professional hazard of an armed assailant while endangering his victim.
As per NCRB records over 91 percent of firearm related murders in 2016 involved illegal unlicensed firearms making a mockery of the formidable arms act. The arms act could not prevent 2008 Mumbai Terror attacks where terrorists armed with AK47s mowed down unarmed and defenceless citizens in cold blood. Even the first responders, namely the Mumbai Police were woefully unmatched with their antiquated service weapons against an well armed adversary. If this had happened in a place like Texas, citizens armed with their AR15s could have made short work of the terrorists and the casualty figures would be far lower and the humiliation even less.
In the wake of tensions at the LAC, experts often talk about a two-point five front war. While Indian Armed forces can take care of the twin threats of China and Pakistan, the real concern is the threat of civil war unleashed by fifth columnists within the country. We have witnessed how the country was held hostage by separatists who indulged in wanton acts of destruction at will under the garb of the anti CAA movement. The law enforcement remained paralyzed in many places while hundreds of crores of national property were consigned to flames by arsonists. While the illegal arms supply chain is primarily under the control of an organized minority , the safety of the law abiding silent majority is at the mercy of the police who in turn are controlled by their political puppet masters surviving on the staple diet of minority/caste vote bank politics. A legally armed population can be a bulwark against fifth columnists operating within the borders and can be our best bet in the event of a two-point five front war when it comes.
Arms control is tool of coercion for authoritarian governments who are deeply suspicious and scared of their citizens and by its nature is discriminatory and incompatible with the idea of democracy and freedom. It is high time to scrap this British legacy and honour the right of self defence of our citizens and make legal arms mainstream rather than making it a privilege and status symbol of a few. After all a bad guy with a gun can be stopped by a good guy with a gun.
