THEME-12

MAHATMA GANDHI
AND
THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT

Civil Disobedience and Beyond

Prepared by
Haridasan.naduvalath
GHSS KOTTILA, KANNUR
1869-1948
 Growth of Indian Nationalism
• Indian National Congress- 1885, Bombay-
Gokuldas Thejpal Sanscit College- 72 delegates
from different parts of the country.
• A.O.Hume – Father of the Congress
• W.C.Banerjee – First President of INC
• 3 Phases- Moderates Era(1885-1905), Extremist
Era (1905-1917), Gandhian Era (1917-1947)
 Indian National Movement
• Partition of Bengal- Swadeshi and Boycott

• Lord Curzon – 1905

• Extremist leadership
• Boycott of foreign goods
• Encouragement of Swadeshi
• Popular struggle- Anti-partition Movement
• Lord Hardinge II- cancelled the Partition in 1911.
• Surat split of 1907
 Indian National Movement
• Lucnow Pact- 1916
• Home rule movement-1916
• Rise of revolutionary movements
Mahatma Gandhi & National Movement
 MAHATHMA GANDHI
1869-1948
• Born on 2nd Oct.1869
• Porbandhar-Sudamapuri.
• Karamchand Gandhi(Kabha Ganbhi) and
Puthlibhai.
• Marriage with Kasthurbha.
• Sons-Harilal, Manilal, Ramadas, Devadas
• To England for Higher studies
• In South Africa (1893-1914)- for legal
practice.
• Sathyaghraha- New method of struggle
against racial discrimination.
 Mahatma Gandhi
Return to India- 1915.
1916- Sabarmathi Ashram.
Gokhale- Political Guru.
Early experiments of
Satyagraha in India.
On Gokhale’s advice, Gandhiji
spent a year travelling around
British India, getting to know
the land and its peoples.
 Entry in Indian Politics

•Champaran- 1917
•Kheda Sathyagraha- 1918
•Ahammedabad Mill Strike- 1918
•Sathyagraha against Rowlat Act- 1919
Champaran Satyagraha- 1917
• Bihar- Indigo plantations- European
owners- exploitation of the peasantry.
• Peasants were compelled to cultivate
indigo on 3/20 part of the land under
Tinkathiya system.
• Gandhiji reached Champaran on the
request of peasants and started
satyagraha.
• Popular support threatened the British
and they bowed before Gandhi and his
first satyagraha became victorious.
 Ahammedabad Mill Strike-1918
• Dispute between Mill owners and workers.
• Workers demanded 50% increase in their wages due
to price hike.
• The owners reacted with closing the Mill and Gandhiji
started satyagraha against the mill owners.
• Movement gradually strengthened with the support
of the masses.
• Finally owners granted 35% increase in the wages and
thus Gandhiji ended his fast unto death.
 Kheda Sathyagraha
• Crop failure in Kheda.
• Peasants demanded exemption or reduction of taxes.
• But the govt.not ready to the reduction then Gandhiji
started satyagraha.
• He advised the peasants to non-payment of taxes till
the demand accepted by the govt.
• Finally Govt.accepted the demands and Gandhi
suspended his satyagraha.
 Protest against Rowlat Act-1919
• During the Great War of 1914-18, the British had instituted censorship
of the press and permitted detention without trial. Now, on the
recommendation of a committee chaired by Sir Sidney Rowlatt, these
tough measures were continued. In response, Gandhiji called for a
countrywide campaign against the “Rowlatt Act”.
• In towns across North and West India, life came to a standstill, as shops
shut down and schools closed in response to the bandh call. The
protests were particularly intense in the Punjab, where many men had
served on the British side in the War – expecting to be rewarded for
their service. Instead they were given the Rowlatt Act. Gandhiji was
detained while proceeding to the Punjab, even as prominent local
Congressmen were arrested.
Jallianwallabagh Massacre
• The situation in the province grew
progressively more tense, reaching
a bloody climax in Amritsar in April
1919, when a British Brigadier
ordered his troops to open fire on
a nationalist meeting.
• More than four hundred people
were killed in what is known as the
Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
• It was the Rowlatt satyagraha that
made Gandhiji a truly national
leader.
 MAJOR STRUGGLES

KHILAFAT AND NON-COOPERATION

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

QUIT INDIA
 Khilafat & Non-cooperation
• After the massacre and protest Gandhiji called for a campaign
of “non-cooperation” with British rule.
• Indians who wished colonialism to end were asked to stop
attending schools, colleges and law courts, and not pay taxes.
• To further broaden the struggle he had joined hands with the
Khilafat Movement that sought to restore the Caliphate.
• In Sept.1919 under the leadership of Ali Brothers an All India
Khilafat Committee was formed and it started organizing
countrywide agitation against the British.
 The non-cooperation
• Gandhiji hoped that by coupling non-cooperation with Khilafat,
India’s two major religious communities, Hindus and Muslims,
could collectively bring an end to colonial rule.
• These movements certainly unleashed a surge of popular
action that was altogether unprecedented in colonial India.
• Students stopped going to schools and colleges run by the
government. Lawyers refused to attend court.
• The working class went on strike in many towns and cities:
according to official figures, there were 396 strikes in 1921,
involving 600,000 workers and a loss of seven million workdays.
 The Non-cooperation
• Peasants refused to pay taxes.
• As a consequence of the Non-Cooperation Movement the British
Raj was shaken to its foundations for the first time since the
Revolt of 1857.
• Then, in February 1922, a group of peasants attacked and torched
a police station in Chauri Chaura, in the United Provinces (now,
Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal). Several constables perished in the
conflagration. This act of violence prompted Gandhiji to call off
the movement altogether.
• During the Non-Cooperation Movement thousands of Indians
were put in jail. Gandhiji himself was arrested in March 1922.
 The Non-cooperation
Constructive Programme Boycott Programme

• Encouragement of national • Boycott of govt. schools, law

schools and institutions. courts.
• Promotion of indigenous goods. • Boycott of British goods and
• Popularization of charka and surrender of honours and titles.
Khadi. • Non payment of taxes.
• Prohibition of liquor. • Boycott of elections to
legislature.
• For several years after the Non-
cooperation Movement ended,
Mahatma Gandhi focused on his social
reform work.
• In 1928, however, he began to think of
re-entering politics. That year there
was an all-India campaign in
opposition to the all-White Simon
Commission, sent from England to
enquire into conditions in the colony.
• Gandhiji did not himself participate in
this movement, although he gave it his
blessings, as he also did to a peasant
satyagraha in Bardoli in the same year.
 Lahore session and Poorna swaraj
• In the end of December 1929, the Congress held its annual
session in the city of Lahore.
• The meeting was significant for two things: the election of
Jawaharlal Nehru as President, signifying the passing of the baton
of leadership to the younger generation; and the proclamation of
commitment to “Purna Swaraj”, or complete independence.
• On 26 January 1930, “Independence Day” was observed, with the
national flag being hoisted in different venues, and patriotic songs
being sung.
• Lahore session decided to start a civil disobedience movement
under the leadership of Gandhiji.
THE CIVIL DIS OBEDINENCE - SALT SATHYAGRAHA
DANDI MARCH
The civil disobedience started with famous Dandi MARCH
Mahatma Gandhi announced that he would lead a march to
break one of the most widely disliked laws in British India, which
gave the state a monopoly in the manufacture and sale of salt.
 His picking on the salt monopoly was another illustration of
Gandhiji’s tactical wisdom. For in every Indian household, salt was
indispensable; yet people were forbidden from making salt even
for domestic use, compelling them to buy it from shops at a high
price.
The state monopoly over salt was deeply unpopular; by making it
his target, Gandhiji hoped to mobilise a wider discontent against
the British rule.
 Salt Satyagraha
• On 12 March 1930, Gandhiji began walking from
his ashram at Sabarmati towards the ocean.
• He reached his destination three weeks
later(April 6,1930), making a fistful of salt as he
did and thereby making himself a criminal in the
eyes of the law.
• Meanwhile, parallel salt marches were being
conducted in other parts of the country. For eg:
Payyannur Satyagraha.
 Salt Satyagraha
• The Salt Satyagraha was notable for at least three reasons.
• First, it was this event that first brought Mahatma Gandhi to world
attention. The march was widely covered by the European and
American press.
• Second, it was the first nationalist activity in which women participated
in large numbers. The socialist activist Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay had
persuaded Gandhiji not to restrict the protests to men alone.
Kamaladevi was herself one of numerous women who courted arrest
by breaking the salt or liquor laws.
• Third, and perhaps most significant, it was the Salt March which forced
upon the British the realisation that their Raj would not last forever,
and that they would have to devolve some power to the Indians.
 Civil Dis obedience
• To that end, the British government convened a series of “Round
Table Conferences” in London. The first meeting was held in
November 1930, but no one can participate with the side of INC.
• Gandhiji was released from jail in January 1931 and the following
month had several long meetings with the Viceroy. These culminated
in what was called the “Gandhi-Irwin Pact’, by the terms of which civil
disobedience would be called off, all prisoners released, and salt
manufacture allowed along the coast.
• The pact was criticised by radical nationalists, for Gandhiji was unable
to obtain from the Viceroy a commitment to political independence
for Indians.
• A second Round Table Conference was held in London in the latter
part of 1931. Here, Gandhiji represented the Congress.
 Civil Dis obedience
• Negative attitude of Muslim League, Princess and B.R. Ambedkar.
• They argued that Gandhiji and the Congress did not really
represent the all sections of India.
• Gandhi returned to India with frustration and resumed the civil
Disobedience.
• In 1935, however, a new Government of India Act promised some
form of representative government.
• Two years later, in an election held on the basis of a restricted
franchise, the Congress won a comprehensive victory. Now eight
out of 11 provinces had a Congress “Prime Minister”, working
under the supervision of a British Governor.
 Civil Disobedience
• In 1939 the Second World War started and Viceroy Lilitgo declared that
India should join the war on the side of the British, without consulting
INC.
• In protest, the Congress ministries resigned in October 1939. Through
1940 and 1941, the Congress organised a series of individual satyagrahas
to pressure the rulers to promise freedom once the war had ended.
• Meanwhile, in March 1940, the Muslim League passed a resolution
demanding a measure of autonomy for the Muslim-majority areas of the
subcontinent.
• The political landscape was now becoming complicated: it was no longer
Indians versus the British; rather, it had become a three way struggle
between the Congress, the Muslim League, and the British.
 Japanese Threat and Cripps Mission
• Entry of Japan on the side of Germany and Italy with a surprise attack
on America.
• Japan’s occupation of Burma in March 1942 posed threat to the safety
of British India. The British now wanted the co-operation of Indians.
• So British sent a mission headed by Sir Stafford Cripps to India in March
1942. He promised India Dominion status after the war ended.
• Congress demanded immediate transfer of power to Indians. Hence
Mission proved a total failure. Gandhi described the offer as ‘post
dated cheque’.
• After the failure of the Cripps Mission, Mahatma Gandhi decided to
launch his third major movement against British rule. This was the
“Quit India” campaign, which began in August 1942.
QUIT INDIA
 QUIT INDIA
• The AICC held at Bombay on 8 August 1942, passed the historic
‘Quit India Resolution’ proposing a non-violent mass struggle under
Gandhi.
• Here Gandhi gave a mantra “Do or Die” – “we shall either free India
or die in the attempt”.
• But within no time, the govt. arrested all top leaders of Congress
including Gandhi and took them to unknown destinations.
• The news of the arrest led to unprecedented popular outbursts in
different parts of the country.
• There were hartals, demonstrations.
• The repressive policy of the British provoked the people and they
took to violence.
 Quit India
• The methods of struggle included;
Attacks of govt. buildings which were seen as symbols of British
authority.
Destruction of railway lines.
Cutting of telegraphic wires and telephones.
Destroying bridges to disrupt traffic.
The movement gained active support from people of Bombay, Andhra,
Gujarat, Orissa, Assam, UP, Karnataka and Kerala.
• “Quit India” was genuinely a mass movement, bringing into its ambit
hundreds of thousands of ordinary Indians. It especially energised the
young who, in very large numbers, left their colleges to go to jail.
 Quit India
• However, while the Congress leaders languished in jail, Jinnah
and his colleagues in the Muslim League worked patiently at
expanding their influence.
• In June 1944, with the end of the war in sight, Gandhiji was
released from prison. Later that year he held a series of
meetings with Jinnah, seeking to bridge the gap between the
Congress and the League.
• In 1945, a Labour government came to power in Britain and
committed itself to granting independence to India. Meanwhile,
back in India, the Viceroy, Lord Wavell, brought the Congress
and the League together for a series of talks.
 Quit India
• Early in 1946 fresh elections were held to the provincial legislatures.
The Congress swept the “General” category, but in the seats specifically
reserved for Muslims the League won an overwhelming majority.
• The political polarization was complete. A Cabinet Mission sent in the
summer of 1946 failed to get the Congress and the League to agree on
a federal system that would keep India together while allowing the
provinces a degree of autonomy.
• After the talks broke down, Jinnah called for a “Direct Action Day” to
press the League’s demand for Pakistan.
• On the designated day, 16 August 1946, bloody riots broke out in
Calcutta. The violence spread to rural Bengal, then to Bihar, and then
across the country to the United Provinces and the Punjab. In some
places, Muslims were the main sufferers, in other places, Hindus.
 Way to freedom……
• In February 1947, Wavell was replaced as Viceroy by Lord
Mountbatten . Mountbatten called one last round of talks, but
when these too proved inconclusive he announced that British
India would be freed, but also divided.
• The formal transfer of power was fixed for 15 August. When
that day came, it was celebrated with gusto in different parts of
India.
• In Delhi, there was “prolonged applause” when the President
of the Constituent Assembly began the meeting by invoking the
Father of the Nation – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Outside
the Assembly, the crowds shouted “Mahatma Gandhi ki jai”.
 THE LAST HEROIC DAYS
• As it happened, Mahatma Gandhi was not present at the
festivities in the capital on 15 August 1947. He was in
Calcutta, but he did not attend any function or hoist a flag
there either.
• Gandhiji marked the day with a 24-hour fast. The freedom he
had struggled so long for had come at an unacceptable price,
with a nation divided and Hindus and Muslims at each
other’s throats.
• Gandhiji went round hospitals and refugee camps giving
consolation to distressed people.
• He “appealed to the Sikhs, the Hindus and the Muslims to
forget the past and to live in peace.
 The last heroic days…..
• At the initiative of Gandhiji and Nehru, the Congress now
passed a resolution on “the rights of minorities”.
• The party had never accepted the “two-nation theory”:
forced against its will to accept Partition, it still believed that
“India is a land of many religions and many races, and must
remain so”.
• Whatever be the situation in Pakistan, India would be “a
democratic secular State where all citizens enjoy full rights
and are equally entitled to the protection of the State,
irrespective of the religion to which they belong”.
• The Congress wished to “assure the minorities in India that it
will continue to protect, to the best of its ability, their citizen
rights against aggression”.
 The last heroic days…..
• After working to bring peace to Bengal, Gandhiji now
shifted to Delhi, from where he hoped to move on to the
riot-torn districts of Punjab.
• While in the capital, his meetings were disrupted by
refugees who objected to readings from the Koran, or
shouted slogans asking why he did not speak of the
sufferings of those Hindus and Sikhs still living in Pakistan.
• There was an attempt on Gandhiji’s life on 20 January
1948, but he carried on undaunted.
• Gandhiji had fought a lifelong battle for a free and united
India; and yet, when the country was divided, he urged
that the two parts respect and befriend one another.
 The last heroic days…..
• At his daily prayer meeting on the evening of 30 January, Gandhiji was
shot dead by a young man.
• The assassin, who surrendered afterwards, was a Brahmin from Pune
named Nathuram Vinayak Godse, the editor of an extremist Hindu
newspaper who had denounced Gandhiji as “an appeaser of Muslims”.
• Gandhiji’s death led to an
extraordinary outpouring
of grief, with rich tributes
being paid to him
from across the political
spectrum in India and
from the world.
 The last heroic days…..
• Time magazine compared his
martyrdom to that of Abraham
Lincoln: it was a bigoted American
who had killed Lincoln for believing
that human beings were equal
regardless of their race or skin
colour; and it was a bigoted Hindu
who had killed Gandhiji for
believing that friendship was
possible, indeed necessary,
between Indians of different faiths.
 Gandhi as a social reformer
• Gandhiji was as much a social reformer as
he was a politician.
• He took steps to remove social evils such
as child marriage and untouchability.
• He gave emphasis on Hindu Muslim
harmony.
• Meanwhile on the economic front
Indians had to learn to become self-
reliant –hence he stressed on the
significance of wearing khadi rather than
mill-made cloth imported from overseas.
 Rumours of Gandhiji’s miraculous powers
• There were some rumours of Gandhiji’s miraculous powers.
• In some places it was said that he had been sent by the king to
redress the grievances of the farmers and that he had the
power to overrule all local officials.
• Gandhiji’s appeal among the poor and peasants, in particular,
was enhanced by his ascetic life style.
• It was also claimed that Gandhi’s power was superior to that of
the English Monarch and with his arrival colonial rulers would
flee the district.
 Rumours of Gandhiji’s miraculous powers
• Stories spread of dire consequences for those who
opposed him.
• Those who criticized Gandhi found their houses
mysteriously falling apart or their crops failing.
• Gandhiji appeared to the Indian peasant as a saviour,
who could rescue them from high taxes and
oppressive officials and restore dignity and autonomy
to their lives.
 Knowing Gandhi
• There are many different kinds of sources from which we can reconstruct
the political career of Gandhiji and the history of the nationalist
movement.
1. Public voice and private scripts
• One important source is the writings and speeches of Mahatma Gandhi
and his contemporaries, including both his associates and his political
adversaries.
• Mahatma Gandhi regularly published in his journal, Harijan, letters that
others wrote to him. Nehru edited a collection of letters written to him
during the national movement and published A Bunch of Old Letters.
2. Autobiographies similarly give us an account of the past that is often
rich in human detail.
 Knowing Gandhi

3. Through police eyes

• Another vital source is government records, for the colonial rulers
kept close tabs on those they regarded as critical of the government.
The letters and reports written by policemen and other officials were
secret at the time; but now can be accessed in archives.
4. From newspapers
• One more important source is contemporary newspapers, published
in English as well as in the different Indian languages, which tracked
Mahatma Gandhi’s movements and reported on his activities, and
also represented what ordinary Indians thought of him.
 TIME LINE
• 1915 - Mahatma Gandhi returns from South Africa
• 1917 - Champaran movement
• 1918 - Peasant movements in Kheda (Gujarat), and workers’ movement in Ahmedabad
• 1919 - Rowlatt Satyagraha (March-April)
• 1919 - Jallianwala Bagh massacre (April)
• 1921 - Non-cooperation and Khilafat Movements
• 1928 - Peasant movement in Bardoli
• 1929 - “Purna Swaraj” accepted as Congress goal at the Lahore Congress (December)
• 1930 - Civil Disobedience Movement begins; Dandi March (March-April)
• 1931 - Gandhi-Irwin Pact (March); Second Round Table Conference (December)
• 1935 - Government of India Act promises some form of representative government
• 1939 - Congress ministries resign
• 1942 - Quit India Movement begins (August)
• 1947 - Indian Independence
• 1948 - Gandhi’s martyrdom
THANK YOU