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some from the crowd to take the dying policemen to the Hospital.
I proceeded then to the scene, a little further up, where I saw a fire rising. There were two tram cars which were burnt by the crowd. On returning I wit- nessed a burning motor car. I appealed to the crowd to disperse, told them that they had damaged the cause of the Khilafat, the Punjab and Swaraj. I returned sick at heart and in a chastened mood.
At about 5 a few brave Hindu young men came to report that in Bhmdi Bazar the crowd was molesting every passer-by who had a foreign cap on and even seri- ously beating him if he refused to give up his cap. A brave old Parsi who defied the crowd and would not give up his pugree was badly handled. Moulana Azad Sobhani and I went to Bhmdi Bazar and reasoned with the crowd- We told them that they were denyirfg their religion by hurting innocent men. The crowd made a show of dispersing. The police were there, but they were exceedingly restrained. We went further on and retracing our steps found to our horror a liquor shop on fire; even the fire brigade was obstructed in its work. Thanks to the efforts of Pandit Nekiram Kharan and others, the inmates of the shop were able to come out.
NATURE OF THE CROWD.
The crowd did not consist of hooligans only or boys. It was not an unintelligent crowd. They were not all mill-hands. It was essentially a mixed crov/d, unprepared and unwilling to listen to anybody. For the moment it had lost its head and it was not a crowd, but several crowds numbering in all less than twenty thousand. It was bent upon mischief and destruction.
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