CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT Flashcards
Explain the circumstances under which Gandhiji decided to call off the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1931.
Gandhiji decided to call off the Civil Disobedience movement in 1931 because:
1. Political leaders like Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan were arrested. More than one lakh people were arrested.
2. Government responded with brutal repression and peaceful satyagrahis were arrested. Women and children were beaten up.
3. It resulted in an uprising in Peshawar in 1930.
4. Industrial workers in Sholapur attacked police post. In Chittagong, the revolutionaries captured the armoury and a pitched battle was fought between the government troops and the revolutionaries. (any three)
In such a situation, Gandhiji called off the movement and the Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed
Which were the two types of demands mentioned by Gandhiji in his letter to Viceroy Irwin on 31st January 1930? Why was abolition of ‘salt tax’ most stirring demand?
Some of the demands were of general interest; others were specific demands of different classes from industrialists to peasants.
- On 31st January, 1930 Gandhiji sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin stating eleven demands, one of which was the demand to abolish Salt Tax.
- Salt was one of the most essential food items consumed by the rich and poor alike and a tax on it was considered an oppression on the people by the British Government.
- Gandhiji’s letter was an ultimatum and if his demands were not fulfilled by March 11, he had threatened to launch a civil disobedience campaign.
Explain any three reasons for the lukewarm response of some Muslim organizations to the Civil Disobedience Movement.
Three reasons for lukeivarm response of some Muslim organizations to Civil Disobedience Movement were:
- After the decline of Non-cooperation-Khilafat movement, a large section of Muslims felt alienated from the Indian National Congress.
- The visible and open association of Congress with Hindu religious nationalist groups like the Hindu Mahasabha in mid 1920s made the Muslims suspicious of Congress motives.
- The frequent communal clashes not only deepened the distance between the two communities but also there was an important difference over the question of representation in the future assemblies that were to be elected.
How did the rich peasants and women take part in Civil Disobedience Movement?
Role of rich peasants:
- Being producers of commercial crops, they were hard hit by trade-depression and falling prices.
- As their cash income reduced, they found it impossible to pay the government’s revenue demand.
- These rich peasants became ardent supporters of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
- For them fight for Swaraj was a struggle against high revenues.
Role of women:
Women participated in protest marches, manufactured salt and picketed foreign cloth and liquor shops.
2. Many women went to jail.
3. Women who participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement, came from high-caste families in urban areas and rich peasant households in rural areas.
Describe the main features of the ‘Salt March’.
Or
How did the Salt March become an effective tool of resistance against colonialism? Explain.
Mahatma Gandhi found in salt a powerful symbol that could unite the nation.
- On 31st January, 1930 he sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin stating eleven demands, one of which was the demand to abolish Salt Tax.
- Salt was one of the most essential food items consumed by the rich and poor alike and a tax on it was considered an oppression on the people by the British Government.
- Mahatma Gandhi’s letter was an ultimatum and if his demands were not fulfilled by March 11, he had threatened to launch a civil disobedience campaign.
- So, Mahatma Gandhi started his famous Salt March accompanied by 78 of his trusted volunteers. The march was over 240 miles, from Gandhiji’s ashram in Sabarmati to the Gujarati coastal town of Dandi.
- The volunteers walked for 24 days, about 10 miles a day. Thousands came to hear Mahatma Gandhi wherever he stopped, and he told them what he meant by Swaraj and urged them to peacefully defy the British.
- On 6th April, he reached Dandi, and ceremonially violated the law, manufacturing salt by boiling sea water. This marked the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
Describe the main features of ‘Poona Pact’.
The Poona Pact:
(i) Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who organised the dalits into the Depressed Classes Association in 1930 demanded separate electorates for dalits in the Second Round Table Conference organised in London.
(ii) When British accepted this demand in the name of Communal Award, Gandhiji started a fast into death. He believed that separate electorates for dalits would slow down the process of their integration into the society.
(iii) Ambedkar and Gandhi came to an agreement with Ambedkar accepting Gandhis position and the result was the Poona Pact of September, 1932.
• It gave the depressed classes (later to be known as Schedule castes) reserved seats in provincial and central legislative councils.
• But, they were to be voted in by the general electorate.
How did the Civil Disobedience Movement come into force in various parts of the country? Explain with examples.
Civil Disobedience Movement came into force in various parts of the country:
(i) Gandhiji led the salt march from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi with his followers starting the Civil Disobedience Movement.
(ii) Thousands in different parts of the country broke the salt law, manufactured salt and demonstrated in front of government salt factories.
(iii) In the countryside, the rich Patidars of Gujarat and Jats of Uttar Pradesh were active in the movement. As rich communities were very hard hit by the trade depression and falling prices, they became enthusiastic supporters of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
(iv) As the depression continued and cash invoice dwindled, the small tenants found it difficult to pay the rent. They wanted the unpaid rent to the landlords to be remitted and thus they joined the movement.
(v) Merchants and industrialists supported the movement by giving financial assistance and also by refusing to buy and sell the imported goods.
(vi) The industrial working class of Nagpur region also participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement. Railway workers, dock workers, mineral of Chota Nagpur etc. participated in protest rallies and boycott campaigns
How did people and the colonial government react to the Civil Disobedience Movement?
Reactions of people to the Civil Disobedience Movement:
(i) Mahatma Gandhi’s famous ‘Dandi March’ from Gandhiji’s ashram in Sabarmati to the coastal town of Dandi and violating the law by manufacturing salt marked the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
(ii) As the movement spread, foreign cloth was boycotted, liquor shops were picketed and peasants refused to pay revenue and chaukidari taxes. Village officers resigned and forest people ventured into reserved forests to collect wood and graze cattle, thereby violate forest laws.
Reactions of colonial government to the Civil Disobedience Movement:
• Worried by the reaction of the people the colonial government began arresting the Congress leaders one by one.
• Abdul Ghaffar Khan was arrested in Peshawar and later Mahatma Gandhi was arrested which led to violent clashes in many places.
• The Government followed a policy of brutal repression. Peaceful satyagrahis were attacked, women and children were beaten and about 1,00,000 people were arrested.
Why did Gandhiji start the ‘Civil Disobedience Movement’? Explain any four features of Civil Disobedience Movement.
Non-fulfillment of demands made by Gandhiji on behalf of all the members of the Congress led to the launching of the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930.
Gandhiji’s ‘Dandi March’ marked the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
Gandhiji started his march with 78 volunteers from his ashram at Sabarmati to the Gujarat coastal town of Dandi. On 6th April, Gandhiji reached Dandi and ceremonially violated the law, manufacturing salt by boiling sea water.
Features of Civil Disobedience Movement:
1. People were now asked not only to refuse cooperation with the British but also to break colonial laws.
2. Foreign cloth was boycotted and people were asked to picket liquor shops.
3. Peasants were asked not to pay revenue and chaukidari taxes.
4. Students, lawyers and village officials were asked not to attend English medium schools, colleges, courts and offices.
“Dalit participation was limited in the Civil Disobedience Movement”. Examine the statement.
- The abstract concept of ‘Swaraf did not move the nation’s ‘untouchables’, who from around the 1930s had begun to call themselves dalit or oppressed.
- The Congress had ignored the dalits, for the fear of offending the Sanatanis, the conservative high caste Hindus.
- Gandhiji persuaded upper castes to change their heart. He himself cleaned toilets to dignify the work of the bhangi. He called the untouchables, Harijans, organized satyagraha to secure them entry into temples and access to public wells, tanks and schools.
- The dalit leaders were keen on a different political solution. Political empowerment, they believed would resolve the problems of their social disability.
- They began demanding reserved seats in educational institutions and a separate electorate that would choose dalit members for the Legislative Council.
“Some of the Muslim political organizations in India, were lukewarm in their response to the ‘Civil Disobedient Movement’.” Examine the statement.
Muslim response was lukewarm to the Civil Disobedience Movement as a large section of Muslims felt alienated from the Congress.
1. The Congress members were seen as associates of Hindu religious nationalist groups like Hindu Mahasabha.
2. After the Non-cooperation Movement, relations between Hindus and Muslims worsened as each community organized religious processions, provoking Hindu-Muslim communal clashes and riots.
3. The important differences were over the question of representation in the future Assemblies that were to be elected.
When Civil Disobedience Movement started, there was an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust between communities. Muslims feared that they would be submerged under the domination of a Hindu majority in Independent India
How did different social groups participate in Civil Disobedience Movement? Explain with examples.
(i) Rich peasant communities, like the Patidars of Gujarat and the Jats of Uttar Pradesh, became active in the Civil Disobedience Movement.
• Being producers of commercial crops, they were hard hit by trade-depression and falling prices.
• For them fight for Swaraj was a struggle against high revenues.
(ii) Small tenants had been cultivating rented land of landlords. They were not interested in the lowering of the revenue demand.
• They wanted unpaid rent to be remitted.
• They often joined the radical movements led by the socialists and communists.
(iii) Merchants reacted against colonial policies that restricted business activities. They wanted protection against import of foreign goods and wanted a rupee-sterling foreign exchange ratio that would discourage imports.
(iv) Industrialsits formed the Indian Industrial and Commercial Congress in 1920.
They formed the Federation of the Indian Chamber
• of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) in 1927.
• They refused to sell or buy imported goods. They gave financial assistance and supported the Civil Disobedience Movement.
(v) Another important feature of the Civil Disobedience Movement was large-scale participation of women.
• They participated in protest marches, manufactured salt and picketed foreign cloth and liquor shops. Many women went to jail.
• These women came from high-caste families in urban areas and rich peasant households in rural areas.
Explain with examples the role of industrialists in the freedom struggle of India.
Or
Explain the attitude of the Indian merchants and industrialists towards the civil Disobedience Movement.
Role of merchants and the industrialists in the Civil Disobedience Movement:
- Merchants reacted against colonial policies that restricted business activities.
- They wanted protection against import of foreign goods and wanted a rupee-sterling foreign exchange ratio that would discourage imports.
- Industrialists formed the Indian Industrial and Commercial Congress in 1920.
- They formed the Federation of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) in 1927.
- They refused to sell or buy imported goods. They gave financial assistance and supported the Civil Disobedience Movement.
- Industrialists like G.D.Birla and Purshottamdas Thakurdas attacked colonial control over the Indian economy.
“The Civil Disobedience Movement was different from the Non-Cooperation Movement”. Support the statement with examples.
The Civil Disobedience Movement was different from the Non-Cooperation Movement in the following ways:
Non-Cooperation Movement:
1. The people were asked not to cooperate with the government.
2. Foreign goods and foreign cloth were boycotted. In many places merchants and traders refused to trade in foreign goods or finance foreign traders.
3. Students left the government owned schools and colleges and lawyers gave up legal practices.
Civil Disobedience Movement:
• People were asked not only to refuse cooperation with the British but also to break colonial laws.
• The countrymen broke the salt law by manufacturing salt by boiling sea water at Dandi.
• Peasants refused to pay revenue and chaukidari tax.
• Village officials resigned from their jobs. Forest people violated forest rules and laws.
Why did Mahatma Gandhiji decide to call off the Civil Disobedience Movement?
Mahatma Gandhi decided to call off the Civil Disobedience Movement because:
1. Worried by the development of Civil Disobedience Movement the colonial government began arresting the Congress leaders one by one.
2. This led to violent clashes in many places.
3. When Abdul Ghaffar khan, a devout disciple of Mahatma Gandhi was arrested in April 1930, angry crowds demonstrated in the streets of Peshawar, facing armoured cars and police firing. Many were killed.
4. A month later, when Mahatma Gandhi was arrested industrial workers in Sholapur attacked the police force, municipal buildings, law courts, railway stations and all other structures that symbolized British rule.
A frightened government responded with the policy of brutal repression. The peaceful satyagrahis were attacked, women and children were beaten and about 1 lakh people were arrested
