Mahatma Gandhi and the

Nationalist Movement
A Leader Announces
Himself
 Mahatma Gandhi returned to
India in 1915, after 20 years
from South Africa.
 Historian Chandran Devanesan
has rightly remarked that
“South Africa was the making
of the Mahatma”.
 It was in South Africa that
Mahatma Gandhi
 -adopted his technique of non
violent protest or Satyagraha,
 -promoted harmony between
religions, and
 -alerted upper caste Indians
for their discriminatory
treatment of low castes and
women.
Difference in India that Gandhi left
in 1893 and the India Gandhi
returned to in 1915
 The India that Mahatma Gandhi came back to in 1915 was
different from the one that he had left in 1893.
 Although still a colony of the British; it was far more active in
the political sense.
 The Indian National Congress now had branches in most major
cities and towns.
 Through the Swadeshi movement of 1905-07 it had greatly
broadened its appeal among the middle classes.
 That movement had thrown up some towering leaders -among
them Bal Gangadhar Tilak of Maharashtra, Bipin Chandra Pal of
Bengal, and Lala Lajpat Rai of Punjab known as “Lal, Bal and
Pal”.
 While these leaders advocated militant opposition to colonial
rule, there was a group of “moderates” who Preferred a more
gradual and persuasive approach. Among these moderates was
Goplala Krishna Gokhale as well as Mohammad Ali Jinnah
Importance of the speech of
BHU
 Gandhi’s first major public appearance was at the
opening of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) In February
1916.
 It was merely a statement of fact that Indian nationalism
was an elite phenomena, a creation of lawyers, doctors
and landlords.
 Gandhiji charged the Indian elite with a lack of concern for
the laboring poor
 Gandhiji chose to remind those present, of the peasants
and workers who constituted a majority of the Indian
population, yet were unrepresented in the audience.
 The first public announcement of Gandhiji’s own desire was
to make Indian nationalism more properly representative of
the Indian people as a whole.
First campaign of Mahatma
Gandhi
 At the annual congress ,held
in Lucknow in December
1916, Mahatma Gandhi was
approached by a peasant
form Champaran and he
told Mahatma Gandhi about
the harsh treatment the
peasants received by the
British. In 1917, Mahatma
Gandhi organized a
Satyagraha in Champaran
(Bihar) seeking the security
of tenure as well as the
freedom to grow crops as
per their wish.
 Campaigns launched by
Gandhiji in his home state
 Gandhiji was involved in two
campaigns in his home state of
Gujarat.
 Firstly, he participated in the
Ahmadabad textile mill strike of
February-March 1918,
demanding better working
conditions for the textile mill
workers.
 Secondly, he joined the
peasants in Kheda Satyagraha
who demanded remission of
taxes from the state following
the failure of their harvest. It
was in Kheda that Mahatma
Gandhi initiate the first
Satyagraha revolution.
Mahatma Gandhi and the
Nationalist Movement
Rowlatt Act
 The Rowlatt Act was
passed by the British
government in India in
March 1919.
 This act authorized
the government to
imprison, without trial
any person suspected
of terrorism.
 Gandhiji called for a
country wide agitation
against the Rowlatt
Act.
 Rowlatt Act
 On April 6th a hartal was
declared by Gandhiji.The
protests against the Rowlatt
Act grew progressively intense
reaching a climax in Amritsar in
April 1919, when a British
Brigadier ordered his troops to
open fire on a nationalist
meeting.
 More than 400 people were
killed in what is known as the
Jalliawala Bagh massacre.
 It was the Rowlatt Act that
Jalliawala Bagh made Gandhiji a truly national
massacre leader.
 Encouraged by its success,
 Non cooperation
movement
Factors leading to the Non-cooperation
Movement:
 The First World War (1914-18) and laws
introduced by the British
 Introduction of Rowlatt Act (1919) which
permitted detention without trial
 Campaign against Rowlatt Act
 Gandhiji detained while proceeding to
Punjab
 Prominent local congressmen arrested
 Jalliawala Bagh massacre
 Success of Rowlatt satyagraha and
Gandhiji’s call for Non cooperation Movement
Khilafat Movement
Non cooperation
movement
 Gandhi decided to couple the
khilafat issue with the Non-
Cooperation .He wanted to bring
Hindus and Muslims collectively
to end colonial rule. During non
cooperation movement
 Students stopped going to
schools and colleges run by the
British government.
 Lawyers refused to attend the
court.
 The working class went on strike
in many towns and cities.
 Hill tribes in Northern Andhra
violated the forest laws.
 Farmers in Awadh refused to pay
taxes.
Non cooperation
movement
 These protest movements were
sometimes carried out in defiance of
the local nationalist leadership.
 Gandhiji taught the people self
discipline, renunciation, self-denial,
Ahimsa, Satyagraha through Non
cooperation Movement. The aim of
the movement was self rule.
 The Movement shook the
foundation of the British rule in
India. Many Indians including
Gandhiji were put in jail.
 In February 1922, a group of
peasants attacked and fired a police
station at Chauri Chaura in
U.P.Several policemen were killed.
This act of violence prompted
Gandhi to call off the movement.
Gandhi as people’s
leader
 Gandhiji had transformed the nationalist
movement into a mass movement that was more
properly representative of the Indian masses.
 In his speech at the opening of the BHU, he
reminded people that the peasants and workers
were a majority of the Indian population who
remained unrepresented in the national
movement.
 It was Gandhiji’s desire to make Indian
nationalism representative of the Indian people.
 The people appreciated the fact that he dressed
like them, lived like them, and spoke their
language.
 He identified himself with common man. This
was strikingly reflected in his dress, while other
nationalist leaders dressed formally, wearing a
western suit or an Indian bandgala, Gandhiji went
among the people in a simple dhoti or loin cloth.
Gandhi as people’s
leader
 Meanwhile, he spent part of each day
working on the charkha (spinning
wheel) and encouraged other
nationalists to do likewise.
 The act of spinning allowed Gandhiji to
break the boundaries that prevailed
within the traditional caste system,
between mental labour and manual
labour.
 Gandhiji’s appeal among poor, and
peasants in particular was enhanced
by his ascetic life style, and his shrewd
use of symbols such as the dhoti and
the charkha.
 Gandhi appeared not just to look like
them, but also to understand them and
related to their lives and work for them
and the nation together.
 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.
 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.
 The base of Indian National
Movement under Gandhiji.
 The base of Indian National Movement broadened under
Gandhiji.
 He brought changes in the congress organization. New
branches of the congress were set up in various parts of
India.
 Prajamandals were established to promote nationalism
in the princely states.
 The provincial committees of the congress were based
on linguistic divisions rather than the artificial
boundaries set up by the British administration.
 Gandhiji advocated the spreading of the nationalist
message in the mother tongue, rather than English –
language of the British-and thus, nationalist message
was carried to parts of India and to social groups
previously untouched by it.
 The base of Indian National
Movement under Gandhiji.
 Prosperous businessmen and industrialists were
quick to recognize that in free India the favours
enjoyed by their British competitors would come
to an end.
 So they wasted no time and joined the
congress as the Indian entrepreneurs. For
example, G.D Birla supported the national
movement openly.
 Highly talented Indians attached themselves to
Gandhiji.
 Gandhiji was seen as “Mahatma” and he had a
huge following from all sections of people all
over India
 Gandhi as a social
reformer
 Gandhijiwas 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
The Salt Satyagraha-A case
study
Background: Major political events from 1928to 1930
 In 1927 the Simon Commission was appointed to enquire into
conditions in the colony.
 In 1928, there was an all India campaign in opposition to the all
white commission sent to India.
 Gandhiji did not himself participate in this movement since he was
engaged in a peasant satyagraha in Bardoli.
 In the end of December 1929, the congress held its annual session
in the city of Lahore.
 The meeting was significant for two reasons: the election of
Jawaharlal Nehru as president, signifying the passing of the
leadership of congress to younger generation, and the proclamation
of commitment to “poorna swaraj” or complete independence. On 26
January 1930,”Independence Day” was observed, with the national
flag being hoisted at different venues.
The Salt March
 Soon after the observance of this “Independence
Day”, the state monopoly over salt which was
deeply unpopular was made a target.
 Gandhiji hoped to mobilize a wider level of
discontent against British rule.
 Salt was an indispensable item in every Indian
house. People were forbidden from making salt
even for domestic use. British compelled them
buy salt from shops at a higher price.
 Gandhiji had given advance notice of his “salt
march” to the Viceroy Lord Irwin, who failed to
grasp the significance of the action.
 On 12 March 1930, Gandhi began his march
from his Sabarmati Ashram towards ocean .He
reached Dandi three weeks later and made a
handful of salt and thereby breaking the law.
 Parallel salt marches and protests were also
conducted in other parts of the country
 The Salt March
 Peasants breached the hated colonial forest laws that kept them and
then came out of the woods in which they had once roamed freely.
 In some towns, factory workers went on strike while lawyers
boycotted British courts and students refused to attend government
run educational institutions.
 As in 1920-22, now too Gandhiji’s call had encouraged Indians of all
classes to manifest their own discontent with colonial rule.
 During the march Gandhiji told the upper castes that if they want
swaraj they must serve untouchables. Hindus, Muslims, Parsis and
Sikhs have to unite and these are steps towards Swaraj.
 The police spies reported that all men and women and all castes
attended the meetings of Gandhi.
 They observed that thousands of volunteers were flocking to the
national cause.
 The Salt March of Gandhiji was reported in the American news
magazine, Time.
 In its report on the march the magazine was deeply sceptical of the
salt march reaching its destination.
 But shortly it changed its view and saluted Gandhi as a “saint” and
Significance of the Salt March

 The Salt March was notable for at least three

reasons.
 Firstly, this event brought Mahatma Gandhi to world
attention. The March was widely covered by the European
and American press.
 Secondly, it was the first nationalist activity in which
women participated in large numbers. The socialist
activists Kamaladevi Cahttopadhyay had persuaded
Gandhi not to restrict the protests t o men alone. She
herself courted arrest by breaking salt and liquor laws.
 Thirdly, it made the British realize that their rule was not
to last forever, and they would have to share some power
with the Indians. To discuss the same the British tried to
hold Round Table Conference in London to get to some
kind resolution.
 Gandhi-Irwin Pact
 InJanuary 1931, Mahatma Gandhi was
released from jail. After that many
meetings were held with the Viceroy and it
culminated in the Gandhi-Irwin pact. It
was declared to call off Civil Disobedience
Movement; all prisoners who were put in
jail without trial to be released and to
allow salt manufacturing along the coasts.
Gandhiji represented the congress at
Second Round Table Conference at London
 The Round Table
Conferences
The first Round Table Conference was held in
London in November 1930 but it ended without
any fruitful decision due to the absence of major
Indian nationalist leaders.
 A Second Round Table Conference was held in
London in the latter part of 1931.Gandhiji
represented the congress and claimed that his
party represented all of India three parties ,the
Muslim League, the Princes ,and the lawyer thinker
B.R.Ambedkar opposed that claim. The conference
in London was inconclusive, so Gandhi returned to
India and resumed civil disobedience movement
 Quit India Movement
 Background: Major events between 1935 and 1945
 The year 1935 saw the coming of the Government of
India Act of 1935, which promised some form of
representative government.
 In 1937, for the first time, elections were held on
restricted franchise and congress party held a majority in the
legislature. It won the election in 8 out of 11 provinces.
 In 1939, World War II broke out and the Indian leaders
agreed to support the British as long as they promised to
grant Indian Independence after the war.
 The offer was refused and in October 1939, congress
ministries resigned.
 In protest a series of Satyagraha were organized by the
congress to pressurize the British to promise the freedom
once the war ended
 Quit India Movement
 Background: Major events between 1935 and 1945
 In March 1940, Muslim League passed a resolution demanding
and planning to create a separate nation for Muslims.
 In 1942, worried on the continuous spread of nationalist
movement prime minister of England Winston Churchill sent
Sir Stafford Cripps to India to try to reach to a compromise
with Gandhi and the congress. The Cripps Mission failed as no
agreement to grant Independence to India could be made.
 In August 1942, Quit India Movement was launched and all
the major leaders were arrested.
 In 1944, Gandhi was released and he tried to bring the
Muslim League and congress together but was not successful.
 In 1945, the British government committed itself to grant
Independence to India.
 Quit India Movement
 After the failure of the Cripps Mission, Quit India
Movement was launched in August 1942, by
Mahatma Gandhi.
 It was the third major movement against the
British rule.
 Gandhiji and other important leaders were
arrested and jailed.
 The movement went into the hands of younger
leaders. They organized strikes and acts of
sabotage all over the country.
 Particularly active in the underground
resistance were socialist members of the
congress such as Jayaprakash Narayan.
 Quit India Movement
 Independent governments were proclaimed in
several districts, such as Satara in the west and
Midnapur in the east.
 Quit India was genuinely a mass movement,
bringing in to its ambit hundreds of thousands of
ordinary Indians.
 It especially energized the youth who, in very
large numbers, left their colleges to go to jail.
 In 1943,some of the younger leaders in the
Satara district of Maharashtra set up parallel
government (pratisarkar), with volunteer corps
(sebadals)and village units (tufan dals).They ran
people’s courts and organized constructive work
 Major developments in the
year 1945-47
 In1945, the Labour Government came to power in Brtiain. It was
committed for Indian Independence.
 In India, the Viceroy Lord Wavell, negotiated with the congress
and the Muslim League.
 Early in 1946, the provincial legislative elections were held in
which the congress won the General and League won reserved
constituencies.
 A Cabinet Mission was sent to the summer of 1946, failed to
make consensus between congress and League.
 Jinnah called for a “Direct Action Day” to force the League’s
demand for Pakistan on 16 August 1946 leading to bloody riots in
many parts of India.
 In February 1947, Lord Mount batten appointed as Viceroy .He
too held inconclusive talks and he announced that India would
be freed, but also divided. The formal transfer of power was fixed
for 15 August.
 The last heroic days
 Mahatma Gandhi refused to take part in the
Independence Day celebrations in Delhi on
15h August 1947.He was in Calcutta. He
did not attend any function or hoist a flag in
Calcutta either. The freedom he had
struggled so long for had come at an
unacceptable price with a nation
divided .Gandhi marked the day with a 24
hour fast.Gandhiji went around hospitals
and religious camps giving consolation to
distressed people.
 The last heroic days

 Gandhiji had fought a lifelong battle

for a free and united India. When the
country was divided, he urged that
the two parts respect and befriend
on another. On 30 January 1948,
Gandhiji was shot dead by Nathuram
Godse who had denounced Gandhiji
as “an appeaser of Muslims”.
 Sources used to reconstruct
the political career of Gandhiji
 There are different sources through which we can
reconstruct the political career of Gandhiji and the
history of the National Movement. Some of the
important sources are given below.
 News papers: News papers published in English
and different Indian languages tracked Mahatma
Gandhi’s movements and reported on his activities.
They represented ordinary Indian thoughts. News
paper accounts, however, should not be seen as
unprejudiced. People who had their own political
opinions and world views published them. These
ideas shaped what was published and the way
events were reported.
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. Out
of those a distinction is to be made which were for the
public and which not. It helped to hear his public
voice. Private letters gave a glimpse of his private
thoughts. Many letters are written to individuals, and
are therefore personal, but they are also meant for the
public. The language of the letters is often shaped by
the awareness that they may one day be published.
Mahatma Gandhi published letters written by others to
him in his journal Harijan. Nehru edited a collection of
letters written to him and published as A Bunch of Old
Letters
 Autobiographies
 Autobiographies give us an account of the past that is
often rich in human detail. These are written very often
from memory what the author could recollect. What he
thought to write which was important for him but not
for all. In autobiography a person presents himself in a
way he wants to be seen. But here again we have to be
careful of the way we read and interpret
autobiographies. Writing an autobiography is a way of
framing a picture about oneself. So in reading these
accounts we have to try and see what the author does
not tell us; we need to understand the reasons for that
silence-those willful or unwitting acts of forgetting. The
personal reasons why he chooses to omit some facts
and publish others.
Government records: Police
diaries
 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 the policemen and
other officials were secret at the time: but now
can be accessed in archives. Fortnightly reports
prepared by Home department based on police
information for example .Home department was
unwilling to accept that Gandhi’s actions had
worked any enthusiastic response from the
public, Dandi March was seen as a drama, an
antic, a desperate attempt to mobilize people.