When Punekars Served Jalebi, Puran Poli to Satyagrahis

The opening words of our Constitution - "We, The People" - represent the idea that power and sovereignty reside with the people, not just the government or specific groups.

- Chinmay Damle

They give freedom to people to celebrate their rights. They assert that everyone belongs in a democratic society, regardless of wealth, faith, caste, gender, sexuality or other differences.

On March 7, 1931, a large crowd waited outside the Yerawada prison in Pune to welcome the political prisoners released from the jail. Mr. Perry, the district collector, and his assistants were keeping an eye on the enthusiastic crowd, which had been growing since before sunrise.

Prominent political leaders like Haribhau Tulpule, Vasukaka Joshi, Haribhau Waghire, Trimbakrao Deogirikar, and Lakshmibai Thuse were present, anxiously making arrangements to welcome the prisoners, according to Marathi newspaper "Dnyanaprakash".

The Gandhi-Irwin Pact, signed on March 5, 1931, before the second Round Table Conference in London, by Mahatma Gandhi and Lord Irwin, Viceroy of India, was a crowning event - Gandhi, the "one-time Inner Temple lawyer, now seditious faqir, striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceroy's palace" as Churchill put it, negotiated on equal terms with a representative of the king-emperor. Under the terms of this pact, all political prisoners, except those guilty of violence, were to be released. The government allowed the picketing of liquor and foreign cloth shops, and confiscated properties of the satyagrahis were restored. Free collection or manufacture of salt by people near the seacoast was permitted and the ban over the Congress was lifted. However, Gandhiji's demand of converting the death penalty of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev to a lesser punishment was rejected.

Gandhiji managed to secure the release of 90,000 political prisoners in India under the pact.