As result of the Indian Congress Party's support of the mutiny, the Government had...

Col. Rodney Savage:

As result of the Indian Congress Party's support of the mutiny, the Government had anticipated nationwide trouble. I was detailed to Bhowani junction with a battalion of Pathans, as emergency reserves for the civil authorities. Things weren't made any easier for us by The Congress Party. They were afraid the British might change their minds about leaving. You remember, we hadn't specified any exact date. So, they were determined to speed us on our way by every peaceful means at their disposal. The day I arrived, a local train had been derailed. The Congress Party, quite naturally, took advantage of this. Wherever the crowd was thickest, you'd always see the Party men in their little white Ghandi hats telling the people the best way to create harmless, but, well-organized confusion. The immediate idea, of course, was to bring the normal operation of Bhowani Junction, as a railway center, to a dead halt by choking it solid with crowds. Big crowds. Passive resistance means strict observance of law and order, mind you. But, in other parts of town, under the guise of genuine Party members, the Communist underground were all ready to turn genuine Passive resistance, into a bloodbath