Nationalism in India 3 Flashcards
when did mahatma gandhi call off the oon cooperstion mvmnt
In February 1922, Mahatma Gandhi decided to withdraw the
Non-Cooperation Movement. He felt the movement was turning
violent in many places and satyagrahis needed to be properly trained
before they would be ready for mass struggles. Within the Congress,
some leaders were by now tired of mass struggles and wanted to
participate in elections to the provincial councils that had been set
up by the Government of India Act of 1919.
why did some leader want to participate in provincial election
They felt that it was
important to oppose British policies within the councils, argue for
reform and also demonstrate that these councils were not truly
democratic. C. R. Das and Motilal Nehru formed the Swaraj Party
within the Congress to argue for a return to council politics. But
younger leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose
pressed for more radical mass agitation and for full independence.
what were the two factors that shaped indian politics towards the late 1920s
In such a situation of internal debate and dissension two factors
again shaped Indian politics towards the late 1920s. The first was
the effect of the worldwide economic depression. Agricultural prices
began to fall from 1926 and collapsed after 1930. As the demand
for agricultural goods fell and exports declined, peasants found it
difficult to sell their harvests and pay their revenue. By 1930, the
countryside was in turmoil.
Against this background the new Tory government in Britain
constituted a Statutory Commission under Sir John Simon. Set up
in response to the nationalist movement, the
commission was to look into the functioning of
the constitutional system in India and suggest
changes. The problem was that the commission
did not have a single Indian member. They were
all British.
When the Simon Commission arrived in India in
1928, it was greeted with the slogan ‘Go back
Simon’. All parties, including the Congress and the
Muslim League, participated in the demonstrations.
what did the british people do after the demonstrations against simon
In an effort to win them over, the viceroy, Lord
Irwin, announced in October 1929, a vague offer
of ‘dominion status’ for India in an unspecified
future, and a Round Table Conference to discuss a
future constitution. This did not satisfy the Congress
leaders.
what happened to the radicals and the liberals and moderates within the congress
The radicals within the Congress, led by Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose, became more assertive.
The liberals and moderates, who were proposing a constitutional
system within the framework of British dominion, gradually lost
their influence. In December 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal
Nehru, the Lahore Congress formalised the demand of ‘Purna
Swaraj’ or full independence for India. It was declared that 26 January
1930, would be celebrated as the Independence Day when people
were to take a pledge to struggle for complete independence. But
the celebrations attracted very little attention. So Mahatma Gandhi
had to find a way to relate this abstract idea of freedom to more
concrete issues of everyday life.
what did gandhi believe would bring the entire nation together
Mahatma Gandhi found in salt a powerful symbol that could unite
the nation. On 31 January 1930, he sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin
stating eleven demands. Some of these were of general interest;
others were specific demands of different classes, from industrialists
to peasants. The idea was to make the demands wide-ranging, so
that all classes within Indian society could identify with them and
everyone could be brought together in a united campaign. The most
stirring of all was the demand to abolish the salt tax. Salt was
something consumed by the rich and the poor alike, and it was one
of the most essential items of food. The tax on salt and the
government monopoly over its production, Mahatma Gandhi
declared, revealed the most oppressive face of British rule.
how did the salt march start
Mahatma Gandhi’s letter was, in a way, an ultimatum. If the
demands were not fulfilled by 11 March, the letter stated, the
Congress would launch a civil disobedience campaign. Irwin was
unwilling to negotiate. 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 6 April he reached
Dandi, and ceremonially violated the law, manufacturing salt by
boiling sea water.
This marked the beginning of the civil disobedience movement
how was the civil disobedience movement different from the non cooperation movement? what did people do after the salt march
People were now asked not only to refuse cooperationwith the British, as they had done in 1921-22, but also to break
colonial laws. Thousands in different parts of the country broke
the salt law, manufactured salt and demonstrated in front of
government salt factories. As the movement spread, foreign cloth
was boycotted, and liquor shops were picketed. Peasants refused to
pay revenue and chaukidari taxes, village officials resigned, and in
many places forest people violated forest laws – going into Reserved
Forests to collect wood and graze cattle.
what did the british govt do in retaliation
Worried by the developments, the colonial government began
arresting the Congress leaders one by one. This led to violent clashes
in many palaces. 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. A month later, when Mahatma
Gandhi himself was arrested, industrial workers in Sholapur attacked
police posts, municipal buildings, lawcourts and railway stations –
all structures that symbolised British rule. A frightened government
responded with a policy of brutal repression. Peaceful satyagrahis
were attacked, women and children were beaten, and about 100,000
people were arrested.
what did gandhi do after seeing the violence/
In such a situation, Mahatma Gandhi once again decided to call off
the movement and entered into a pact with Irwin on 5 March 1931.
By this Gandhi-Irwin Pact, Gandhiji consented to participate in a
Round Table Conference (the Congress had boycotted the first Round Table Conference) in London and the government agreed to
release the political prisoners. In December 1931, Gandhiji went to
London for the conference, but the negotiations broke down and
he returned disappointed. Back in India, he discovered that the
government had begun a new cycle of repression. Ghaffar Khan
and Jawaharlal Nehru were both in jail, the Congress had been
declared illegal, and a series of measures had been imposed to prevent
meetings, demonstrations and boycotts. With great apprehension,
Mahatma Gandhi relaunched the Civil Disobedience Movement.
For over a year, the movement continued, but by 1934 it lost
its momentum.
descrube the rich peasants and their participation in the civil disobedience mvmnt
In the countryside, rich peasant communities – like the Patidars of
Gujarat and the Jats of Uttar Pradesh – were active in the movement.
Being producers of commercial crops, they were very hard hit by
the trade depression and falling prices. As their cash income
disappeared, they found it impossible to pay the government’s revenue
demand. And the refusal of the government to reduce the revenue
demand led to widespread resentment. These rich peasants became
enthusiastic supporters of the Civil Disobedience Movement,
organising their communities, and at times forcing reluctant members,
to participate in the boycott programmes. For them the fight for
swaraj was a struggle against high revenues. But they were deeply
disappointed when the movement was called off in 1931 without
the revenue rates being revised. So when the movement was restarted
in 1932, many of them refused to participate.
wht was the participation of the poorer peasantry
The poorer peasantry were not just interested in the lowering of the
revenue demand. Many of them were small tenants cultivating land
they had rented from landlords. As the Depression continued and
cash incomes dwindled, the small tenants found it difficult to pay
their rent. They wanted the unpaid rent to the landlord to be remitted.
They joined a variety of radical movements, often led by Socialists
and Communists. Apprehensive of raising issues that might upset
the rich peasants and landlords, the Congress was unwilling to support
‘no rent’ campaigns in most places. So the relationship between the
poor peasants and the Congress remained uncertain.
What about the business classes? How did they relate to the Civil
Disobedience Movement?
During the First World War, Indian
merchants and industrialists had made huge profits and become
powerful (see Chapter 5). Keen on expanding their business, they
now reacted against colonial policies that restricted business activities.
They wanted protection against imports of foreign goods, and a
rupee-sterling foreign exchange ratio that would discourage imports.
To organise business interests, they formed the Indian Industrial
and Commercial Congress in 1920 and the Federation of the Indian
Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) in 1927. Led by
prominent industrialists like Purshottamdas Thakurdas and
G. D. Birla, the industrialists attacked colonial control over the Indian
economy, and supported the Civil Disobedience Movement when
it was first launched. They gave financial assistance and refused to
buy or sell imported goods. Most businessmen came to see swaraj
as a time when colonial restrictions on business would no longer
exist and trade and industry would flourish without constraints. But
after the failure of the Round Table Conference, business groups
were no longer uniformly enthusiastic. They were apprehensive of
the spread of militant activities, and worried about prolonged
disruption of business, as well as of the growing influence of
socialism amongst the younger members of the Congress.
what about the participation of the industral workers
The industrial working classes did not participate in the Civil
Disobedience Movement in large numbers, except in the Nagpur
region. As the industrialists came closer to the Congress, workers
stayed aloof. But in spite of that, some workers did participate in
the Civil Disobedience Movement, selectively adopting some of
the ideas of the Gandhian programme, like boycott of foreign
goods, as part of their own movements against low wages and
poor working conditions. There were strikes by railway workers in
1930 and dockworkers in 1932. In 1930 thousands of workers in
Chotanagpur tin mines wore Gandhi caps and participated in protest
rallies and boycott campaigns. But the Congress was reluctant to
include workers’ demands as part of its programme of struggle.
It felt that this would alienate industrialists and divide the antiimperial forces.
what about the participation of women in the mvnmtn
Another important feature of the Civil Disobedience Movement
was the large-scale participation of women. During Gandhiji’s salt
march, thousands of women came out of their homes to listen to
him. They participated in protest marches, manufactured salt, andpicketed foreign cloth and liquor shops. Many went to jail. In urban
areas these women were from high-caste families; in rural areas
they came from rich peasant households. Moved by Gandhiji’s call,
they began to see service to the nation as a sacred duty of women.
Yet, this increased public role did not necessarily mean any radical
change in the way the position of women was visualised. Gandhiji
was convinced that it was the duty of women to look after home
and hearth, be good mothers and good wives. And for a long time
the Congress was reluctant to allow women to hold any position
of authority within the organisation. It was keen only on their
symbolic presence.
