My Science School

 

 

               Salt has enormous significance as it is an indispensable ingredient in our food. Ever since the East India Company established its power, it became a criminal offence for Indians to produce and sell salt.

               Gandhiji disobeyed this law laid down by the British. The ruling government imposed tax even on salt and earned a large profit from that too. Not surprisingly, the salt tax represented 8.2 per cent of the British Raj tax revenue. The British believed that they would be able to establish their full control over natural resources by manufacturing salt. Indians found this hard to digest.

               Many were sceptical of Gandhiji’s choice of salt as a means of civil disobedience. But some leaders like C. Rajagopalachari understood Gandhiji’s viewpoint. After the protest gathered momentum, leaders recognized the value of salt as a symbol and appreciated Gandhiji’s genius in choosing salt. 

            The civil disobedience movement of the year 1930 was a landmark in the history of Indian nationalism. Disobeying British laws was the core of this movement.

            Indians had lost faith in the British and their government because of their continuous neglect of the local people. The Congress had no option other than to launch the civil disobedience movement.

            It was then that Gandhiji wrote a letter to Lord Irwin, the Viceroy of India narrating the many injustices of British rule. The decision to launch the ‘satyagraha’ campaign by producing salt at Dandi was also conveyed through the letter. The British ignored the letter. Therefore, Gandhiji and the Congress decided to launch the massive civil disobedience movement to defy the British.

            Gandhiji inaugurated the movement in 1930, by violating the salt law. Salt was produced everywhere. Indians dared to do anything, even at the cost of their lives, for their dream of a free India. The Dandi Salt March with its spirit united Indian and had an immense effect on the whole nation.

            Indians dreamt of a free nation. But the Simon Commission instigated a difference of opinion among Indians regarding self-government.

            Only Gandhiji was capable of mending this gap. Despite the fact that Indians were suspicious of the intentions of the British, they were unified in their desire for the making of a free India. Thus, the Congress decided to celebrate the Purna Swaraj declaration, or the announcement of the Indian Independence. Gandhiji hoisted the Indian flag on 31st December 1929, in Lahore.

            The Indian flag was hoisted publicly everywhere by the congress volunteers. People were asked to celebrate Independence Day on 26th January.

            Gandhiji and other Indian leaders began to plan for a massive non-violent campaign to encourage the common people to embrace peace, even if they were attacked by the British. 

            Everywhere, the Simon Commission was received by angry protesters waving black flags and shouting the slogan, ‘Simon Go Back!’ The conditions in Punjab were even worse, where Lala Lajpat Rai, the prominent leader, died during the protests.

            Simon Commission had arrived in Lahore on 30th October 1928 and the protest there was headed by Lala Lajpat Rai. He had risen to fame through his resolution against the Commission in the Legislative Assembly of Punjab in February 1928. In order to make way for the Commission, the local police force began to beat protesters in which Lala Lajpat Rai was killed. This made the Commission even more infamous.

               The commission published its two volume report in May 1930. But the report was not accepted by the Indians. 

            The British Government decided that a commission should be sent to India to examine the effects and operations of the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms and also to suggest more reforms in India. The commission was a group of seven Members of Parliament of the United Kingdom, under the chairmanship of Sir John Simon, assisted by Clement Attlee.

            The Simon Commission arrived India, in 1928. They came to study the constitutional reforms in India, but the Indian political parties were completely ignored in this process. They were neither approached, nor asked to participate in the discussions.

            The Indians felt insulted and took a decision to boycott the Simon Commission. This decision was taken at the meeting of the Indian National Congress in Madras.

           They also challenged Lord Birkenhead, the Secretary of State for India, to draft a constitution that would be satisfactory to the Indian masses.

            Gandhiji was frustrated by the approach of the Simon Commission towards Indians. 

          The British authorities were worried about the consequences of arresting Gandhiji. However, when the unhappy incident occurred at Chauri Chaura, they seized the opportunity to arrest him. Gandhiji was taken into custody in the evening of March 10th, 1922 from his ashram. He was accused of revolting against the government and was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment.

          Gandhiji spent his prison days in a fruitful way. He got acquainted with many books, and he found time also to spin his charka. Some of the books that dominated his reading time were Bernard Shaw’s ‘Man and Superman’, Buckle’s ‘History of Civilization in England’, H. G. Wells’ ‘Outline of History’, Goethe’s ‘Faust’ and Kipling’s ‘The Barrack-Room Ballads’.

          His interest in literary studies that had been neglected due to his busy schedule was revived during these prison days. He was released in 1924 for an operation for severe appendicitis. 

            The Chauri Chaura incident is a black mark in the pages of Indian history. This happened on 5th February 1922. On this day, a large group of peaceful protesters participating in a procession had an encounter with the police, who opened fire.

            Combat broke out between the police and the mob. Then, the demonstrators set fire to a police station in Chauri Chaura, killing all of its occupants. This incident led to the deaths of three civilians and 22 policemen. Gandhiji was dis-heartened by this incident and halted the non-cooperation movement on the national level.

            On the other hand, British declared a martial law in response to the incident. Numerous raids were conducted and hundreds of people were arrested. Gandhi went on a fast for five days after this incident. Thus, Chauri Chaura became a backlash for the Indian way of peaceful resistance.

 

          The Swadeshi policy was part and parcel of non-cooperation movement. Gandhiji urged people to boycott British goods and to throw their foreign clothes into the fire. Gathering at crossroads, people burnt their imported clothes. They picketed the shops selling western goods. People took firm decisions like using only goods made in India and this was famously called the Swadeshi movement.

          Gandhiji always wanted Indians to spin their clothes by themselves. He promoted Khadi products as an alternative to British made clothes. Every day Gandhiji would spin 182 metres of yarn. He would never take rest without completing his daily chores. He perceived the spinning wheel as a symbol of liberation. It was common in the congress meetings and also wherever nationalists gathered. The spinning wheel was viewed as one of Gandhiji’s efforts to revive village economy, and to help the village folk to come out of their poverty. 

            Gandhiji published two journals, ‘Young India’ and ‘Navjivan’ to air his views and to educate the public about Satyagraha. Educating his countrymen was his priority when he started these newspapers. Young India was one of the prominent newspapers introduced by Gandhiji. He used Young India to propagate his unique propaganda regarding the use of non violence in organizing movements. He urged the readers to consider, organize and plan for India’s eventual struggle for Independence from the British imperialism.

            He began publishing another weekly newspaper called Harijan in 1933 in English. The word ‘Harijan’ means ‘the people of God’. The newspaper lost its popularity in 1948. During this time, Gandhiji also published Harijan Bandu in Gujarati and Harjan Sevak in Hindi. ‘Young India’ and ‘Harijan’ became the influential voices of his own views on all subjects. The language in which he wrote in newspapers was passionate and powerful, and he wrote about burning issues of the time. 

            The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885, by a British named A.O. Hume. It started as an elitist organization and was an association of intelligentsia.

            In 1924, Gandhiji emerged as the president of the Indian National Congress. He put forth a number of reforms within the party. The first major change was in the party’s reach to the masses who resided in the remote villages of India, thereby eliminating the elitist status of the party. Gandhiji famously stated that the soul of India lies in our villages, both in monetary and in logistical terms. Hence, no movement can be truly fruitful without the whole hearted support of the dwellers of the Indian villages. After taking the presidential ship of the Indian National Congress, he introduced the principles of Satyagraha. The party witnessed the birth of many charismatic leaders with great public appeal. They were also loyal to Gandhiji. Thus the non-cooperation movement naturally reached massive national dimensions with a huge number of followers. This movement marked the beginning of the life of Gandhiji as the leader of the masses. 

            Non-cooperation was a highly powerful weapon of protest and mass action introduced by Gandhiji. This became immensely popular after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. This movement later became an intrinsic part of India’s freedom struggle and was launched on 1st August, 1920.

            The purpose of this movement was to fight British rule in India through peaceful means. It encompassed numerous actions like refusal to buy British goods, encouragement of the use of local handicrafts and picketing liquor shops. The dictum of non-cooperation movement was ahimsa or non-violence. Gandhiji’s ability to rally thousands of common citizens towards the cause of Indian Independence under the umbrella of non-cooperation was noticeable. Gandhiji feared that the movement might lead to widespread violence. The motivation behind such a movement was nothing but Gandhiji’s lost faith in the constitutional methods and he was evolved into a non-cooperator. 

          We cannot trivialize the Rowlatt Act as a black act. The introduction of this act, acted as a catalyst for many other events that led to India’s Independence. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre was one such event.

          On April 13th, 1919 a peaceful protest meeting was going on in Amritsar, in a garden surrounded on three sides by high walls. This place was called Jallianwala Bagh. The crowd consisted of some non-violent protesters and pilgrims who had come for Baishakhi celebrations. The British commander General Dyer decided to crush the meeting with utmost brutality. The innocent crowd was fired at without giving them a warning to disperse.

          About 379 lives were lost in the massacre and more than 1200 were injured. This brutality traumatized Indians. Many Indians, who were at once staunch believers of peace, took to weapons, in reaction to the callous attitude of the British.

          Gandhiji was horrified and was determined to free India from the pitiless hands of the British without bloodshed. As an act of protest, he returned the medals which he was given by the British during the Boer War. 

                       The legal fight against the Rowlatt Act seemed futile. Do you know what Gandhiji did? Gandhiji accepted this fact and decided to conduct a hartal or a general strike as a way of demonstrating his objection to the implementation of this act. A day of hartal was declared, where everything came to a standstill. Stores had to be closed. Employees went on strike. These were attempts of civil disobedience on a mass scale. The Indians hoped that these actions would deliver a message of repudiation and resistance to the Britishers. Remarkable support against the unfair law received from all streams of the society was appreciable. But Satyagraha was an unfamiliar weapon to many in India. In many places people turned violent. Gandhi recognized the seriousness of the situation and cancelled the hartal. Then, Gandhiji launched a 72-hour fast as a penance for the violence in the hartal. 

            The Rowlatt Act was the legislation passed by the Imperial Legislative Council, and it was officially named as the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act. It was passed on March 18th, 1919. The act was based on the report of Rowlatt committee, and it was also named after its president, British judge, Sir Sidney Rowlatt.

     

 

            The act aroused protests among Indians. It endangered the basic civil rights of people who participated in political activities against the government. This act gave enormous powers to the police for inspection and to arrest any person on any grounds without a warrant. It aimed at curtailing the freedom of the Indian citizens, and to suppress any nationalist uprising in the country.

The act injured the civil rights and even the nationality of the Indians. Gandhiji was extremely critical of this act. It caused the government to enact repressive measures against the Indian citizens.

 

          When Gandhiji entered the Indian political scene, there was great communal disharmony among the people. Gandhiji asserted that Indians should be united to fight against the mighty imperial power of the British. It was in this background that the Khilafat issue came up.

          After Turkey was defeated in the First World War, its territories were divided among European powers. The Ottoman emperor in Turkey was also the Sultan-Khalifa of the global Muslim community. There was great worry among the Indian Muslims over the fate of the holy places of Islam which were under the custodianship of the Khalifa. Gandhiji feared that their resentment would turn into violent channels and he wanted to prevent this. Therefore, he offered to lead the Muslim community on this issue, if they accepted his nonviolent methods. His decision to help the Khilafat Movement was questioned by many. After the termination of the Khilafat Movement when Turkey gained a more favourable diplomatic position, communal riots started in many places in India, much to the displeasure of Gandhiji.