15.Emergence of gandhi Flashcards
Themes
- Info about his satyagrahas
ex. Champaran
ex. Rowlatt
ex. First succesful satyagraha
ex. First venture in all india politics - Important statements
ex. Unto this last book transformed my life
- Why Nationalist Resurgence Now
(a) Post-War Economic Hardships
1.Indians supplied men & money (extra tax burden for war)
- Industry
- Increased prices + recession + increased competition with foreign products - Workers & artisans
- unemployement & high prices
4.Peasantry
high taxation & poverty
- soldiers returned from war
- shared war experiences with village
- experienced less liberty & prosperity compared to before - Educated Urban Classes
- Unemployement + racism
(b)Expectations of Political Gains for Cooperation in the War
-efforts went unacknowledged
(c)Nationalist Disillusionment with Imperialism Worldwide
- Before war allied powers had promised colonies democracy and self determination
- From Paris Peace Conference -> became clear -> imperialists had no intention to loosen hold over colonies
(d)Impact of Russian Revolution
-Bolshevik Party overthrew Czarist regime -> under lenin -> AKA October revolution
- Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms and Government of India Act, 1919
(a) Main Features
- Intro
- Carrot : Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms
- Stick : Rowlatt act
2.Government of India Act, 1919 was enacted based on montagu-chelmsford reforms
3.Provincial Government—Introduction of
Dyarchy
-Executive dyarchy :a)rule of two—executive councillors and popular ministers
b)Subjects were divided into ,reserved & transferred subjects ->reserved list subject be administered by the governor through his executive council of bureaucrats ; transferred subjects by : ministers nominated from among the elected members
c)ministers were to be responsible to the legislature -> resign on no-confidence motion
d)if failure of constitutional machinery -> governor can work on transferred ones
- Legislature : a)70% members elected
b) communal and class electorates cotinued
c) women vote
d) legislative councils could initiate legislation ; reject budget
e) legislators had freedom of speech
4.Central Government– Still Without
Responsible Government i.e no responsible government at all India level
- executive :a) Governor generel (main authority) ; b) 2 lists central and provincial ; c) viceroy council :3/8 indians
- Legislature : a)bicameral i.e. has lower & upper house b) legislators could ask questions ,pass adjournment motions and vote on budget
(b)Drawbacks
- limited voters (electorate)
- viceroy and his executive council controlled centre -> not legislators
- division of subjects at centre & state was irrational
- The provincial ministers had no control over finances and over the bureaucrats -> ex. uddhav thakare having no control on viswas nangare.
5.Gandhi on montagu-chelmsford
for draining India of her wealth and of prolonging her servitude.
(c)Congress Reaction
it’s disappointing
3.Making of Gandhi
(a) Early Career and Experiments with
Truth in South Africa
- About
- born : 2 october 1869
- father : diwan(minister) of kathiawar
- studied law in England
- South africa (1898-1914) -> for dada abdullah ->faced racism - Types of indians in africa
a) indentured labour
b) merchants
c) ex-indentured labourers - indian sufferings in africa
- no vote
- reside in prescribed locations mostly insanitary
- can’t go out after 9PM
- Cant use footpaths - Moderate phase struggle ( 1894-1906)
- sending petitions
- set up the Natal Indian Congress and started a paper Indian Opinion - Passive Resistance or Satyagraha (1906-1914)
- passive resistance or civil disobedience, which Gandhi named satyagraha. - Satyagraha against Registration Certificates,1906
- had to carry certificates of registration with their fingerprints
- campaign of defying the law and suffering all the penalties -> was jailed -> later publicly burned certificates -> compromise by government
7.Campaign against Restrictions on Indian Migration
-put restrictions on Indian migration
-defied by crossing over from one
province to another by refusing to produce licences.
- Campaign against Poll Tax and Invalidation of Indian Marriages
- poll tax on all ex-indentured Indians & invalidated marriages done in non-christian way -> children out of invalid marriage -> illegitimate
9.Tolstoy Farm
-to house the families of the satyagrahis and to give them a way to sustain themselves
-He had set up the Phoenix Farm in 1904 in Natal, inspired by a reading of John Ruskin’s Unto This Last -> a critique of
capitalism, and a work that extolled the virtues of the simple life of love, labour, and the dignity of human beings.
-manual work was given important.
10.Protest against Transvaal Immigration Act
-protested by illegally migrating from Natal into Transvaal.
-In India, Gokhale toured the whole country
mobilising public opinion in support of the Indians in South africa.
-later compromise reached
(b)Gandhi’s Experience in South Africa
- masses had immense capacity to sacrifice
- was able to unite Indians of all religion, caste, class,gender
- had to take unpopular decisons at times
(c)Gandhi’s Technique of Satyagraha
- Intro
- based on truth & non-violence
- His philosophy had : indian elements + christian (turning the other cheek) + Tolstoy (evil could best be countered by non-violent resistance.)
2.Basics of satyagraha
-fight non-violently & fearlessly against things that one finds wrong
-use withdrawal of cooperation and boycott -> include non-payment of taxes,
and declining honours and positions of authority
-be ready to accept suffering
-have no ill feeling or hatred for the wrong-doer;
-never bow before the evil
-ends could not justify the means.
- Gandhi in India
(a) Champaran Satyagraha (1917)—First Civil Disobedience
- Intro
- felt moderate politics is useless
- not right time for home rule -> england in war
- only useful technique non-violent satyagraha - About
- indigo planters of Champaran in Bihar
- peasants forced to grow indigo on 3/20 of land(tinkathia system) by european planters
- high rents asked before the peasants could shift to other crops
- forced to sell the produce at prices fixed by europeans
- Gandhi went for enquiry -> police ordered him to leave -> he preffered punishment -> gandhi appointed member in government committee
- Tinkathia system abolished ; 25% of money extracted from farmers returned
(b) Ahmedabad Mill Strike (1918)—First
Hunger Strike
-Workers wanted the plague bonus to continue ; wanted 50% wage rise due to WWI inflation ; owners ready for 20%
-workers went to Anusuya Sarabhai social worker & sister of Ambalal sarabhai one of
the mill owners and the president of the Ahmedabad Mill Owners Association.
-Anusaya goes to gandhi ->gandhi friends of ambalal -. both still on laboures side
-Gandhi demanded 35% wage hike -> went on fast unto death -> succesful
(c) Kheda Satyagraha (1918)—First Non-Cooperation
- drought -> kheda (gujrat) -> crops failed
- Revenue code : if yield less than 1/4th the normal produce, cancel tax
- government seized property on non-payment of tax -> their relatives gave them shelter ; people buying these properties in auction socially ostricized (i.e.Valit takane)
- on ground led by vallabhbhai & other gandhians ; gandhi spiritual head
- Government agreed
(d) Gains from Champaran, Ahmedabad and Kheda
- satyagraha’s efficacy proved
- gandhi understood strengths and weaknesses of masses
- got respect & commitement of many
