HISTORY PROJECT

INTRODUCTION
HISTORY PROJECT
INTRODUCTION
Advent of Gandhi
The third and final phase of the Nationalist Movement [1917-1947] is known as
the Gandhian era. During this period Mahatma Gandhi became the undisputed
leader of the National Movement. His principles of non-
violence and Satyagraha were employed against the British Government.
Gandhi made the nationalist movement a mass movement.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born at Porbandar in Gujarat on 2 October
1869. He studied law in England. He returned to India in 1891. In April 1893 he
went to South Africa and involved himself in the struggle
against apartheid (Racial discrimination against the Blacks) for twenty years.
Finally, he came to India in 1915. Thereafter, he fully involved himself in the
Indian National Movement.
Champaran Satyagraha
Gandhi's first major achievement came in 1917 with the Champaran agitation in Bihar. The
Champaran agitation pitted the local peasantry against their largely British landlords who were
backed by the local administration. The peasantry was forced to grow Indigofera, a cash crop for
Indigo dye whose demand had been declining over two decades, and were forced to sell their crops
to the planters at a fixed price. Unhappy with this, the peasantry appealed to Gandhi at his ashram in
Ahmedabad. Pursuing a strategy of nonviolent protest, Gandhi took the administration by surprise
and won concessions from the authorities.
Kheda Satyagraha
In 1918, Kheda was hit by floods and famine and the peasantry was demanding relief from taxes.
Gandhi moved his headquarters to Nadiad, organising scores of supporters and fresh volunteers
from the region, the most notable being Vallabhbhai Patel.[100] Using non-co-operation as a
technique, Gandhi initiated a signature campaign where peasants pledged non-payment of revenue
even under the threat of confiscation of land. A social boycott of mamlatdars and talatdars (revenue
officials within the district) accompanied the agitation. Gandhi worked hard to win public support for
the agitation across the country. For five months, the administration refused but finally in end-May
1918, the Government gave way on important provisions and relaxed the conditions of payment of
revenue tax until the famine ended. In Kheda, Vallabhbhai Patel represented the farmers in
negotiations with the British, who suspended revenue collection and released all the prisoners.

Rowlatt Act (1919)

 In 1917, a committee was set up under the presidentship of Sir Sydney Rowlatt
to look into the militant Nationalist activities. On the basis of its report the
Rowlatt Act was passed in March 1919 by the Central Legislative Council. As
per this Act, any person could be arrested on the basis of suspicion. No appeal
or petition could be filed against such arrests. This Act was called the Black Act
and it was widely opposed. An all-India hartal was organized on 6 April 1919.
Meetings were held all over the country. Mahatma Gandhi was arrested near
Delhi. Two prominent leaders of Punjab, Dr Satya Pal and Dr. Saifuddin
Kitchlew, were arrested in Amritsar.

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (13 April, 1919)

The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre took place on 13 April 1919 and it remained a
turning point in the history of India's freedom movement. In Punjab, there was
an unprecedented support to the Rowlatt Satyagraha. Facing a violent situation,
the Government of Punjab handed over the administration to the military
authorities under General Dyer. He banned all public meetings and detained the
political leaders. On 13th April, the Baisakhi day (harvest festival), a public
meeting was organized at the Jallianwala Bagh (garden). Dyer marched in and
without any warning opened fire on the crowd. The firing continued for about
10 to 15 minutes and it stopped only after the ammunition exhausted. According
to official report 379 people were killed and 1137 wounded in the incident.
There was a nation-wide protest against this massacre and Rabindranath Tagore
renounced his knighthood as a protest. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre gave a
tremendous impetus to the freedom struggle.

Khilafat Movement
 
The chief cause of the Khilafat Movement was the defeat of Turkey in the
First World War. The harsh terms of the Treaty of Sevres (1920) was felt by
the Muslims as a great insult to them. The whole movement was based on the
Muslim belief that the Caliph (the Sultan of Turkey) was the religious head of
the Muslims all over the world. The Muslims in India were upset over the
British attitude against Turkey and launched the Khilafat Movement. Maulana
Abul Kalam Azad, M.A. Ansari, Saifuddin Kitchlew and the Ali brothers were
the prominent leaders of this movement. A Khilafat Committee had been
formed and on 19th October 1919, the whole country had observed the Khilafat
day. On 23 November, a joint conference of the Hindus and the Muslims had
also been held under the chairmanship of Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi
was particularly interested in bringing the Hindus and the Muslims together to
achieve the country's independence. Subsequently, the Khilafat Movement
merged with the Non-Cooperation Movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi in
1920.
Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-1922)
 
Mahatma Gandhi announced his plan to begin Non-Cooperation with the
government as a sequel to the Rowlatt Act, Jallianwala Bagh massacre and the
Khilafat Movement. It was approved by the Indian National Congress at the
Nagpur session in December, 1920.
 

Programmes
The programmes of the Non-Cooperation Movement were:
  Surrender of titles and honorary positions.
   Resignation of membership from the local bodies.
 Boycott of elections held under the provisions of the 1919 Act.
Boycott of government functions.
Boycott of courts, government schools and colleges.
  Boycott of foreign goods.
Establishment of national schools, colleges and private panchayat courts.
Popularizing swadeshi goods and khadi.

The movement began with Mahatma Gandhi renouncing the titles, which
were given by the British. Other leaders and influential persons also
followed him by surrendering their honorary posts and titles. Students
came out of the government educational institutions. National schools such
as the Kashi Vidyapeeth, the Bihar Vidyapeeth and the Jamia Millia
Islamia were set up. All the prominent leaders of the country gave up their
lucrative legal practice. Legislatures were boycotted. No leader of the
Congress came forward to contest the elections for the Legislatures. In
1921, mass demonstrations were held against the Prince of Wales during
his tour of India. The government resorted to strong measures of
repression. Many leaders were arrested. The Congress and the Khilafat
Committees were proclaimed as illegal. At several places, bonfires of
foreign clothes were organised. The message of Swadeshi spread
everywhere. Most of the households took to weaving cloths with the help
of charkhas. But the whole movement was abruptly called off on
11th February 1922 by Gandhi following the Churi Chaura incident in the
Gorakpur district of U.P. Earlier on 5 th February an angry mob set fire to
the police station at Churi Chaura and twenty two police men were burnt
to death. Many top leaders of the country were stunned at this sudden
suspension of the Non-Cooperation Movement. Mahatma Gandhi was
arrested on 10 March 1922 .

Significance of the Non-Cooperation Movement

1.     It was the real mass movement with the participation of different sections of
Indian society such as peasants, workers, students, teachers and women.
2.     It witnessed the spread of nationalism to the remote corners of India.
3.     It also marked the height of Hindu-Muslim unity as a result of the merger of
Khilafat movement.
4.     It demonstrated the willingness and ability of the masses to endure hardships
and make sacrifices.

Gandhi spinning yarn, in the late 1920s Gandhi expanded his nonviolent non-co-operation
platform to include the swadeshi policy – the boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British
goods. Linked to this was his advocacy that khadi (homespun cloth) be worn by all Indians instead of
British-made textiles. Gandhi exhorted Indian men and women, rich or poor, to spend time each day
spinning khadi in support of the independence movement. In addition to boycotting British products,
Gandhi urged the people to boycott British institutions and law courts, to resign from government
employment, and to forsake British titles and honours. Gandhi thus began his journey aimed at
crippling the British India government economically, politically and administratively. The appeal of
"Non-cooperation" grew, its social popularity drew participation from all strata of Indian society.
Gandhi was arrested on 10 March 1922, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years' imprisonment.
He began his sentence on 18 March 1922. With Gandhi isolated in prison, the Indian National
Congress split into two factions, one led by Chitta Ranjan Das and Motilal Nehru favouring party
participation in the legislatures, and the other led by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel, opposing this move. Furthermore, co-operation among Hindus and Muslims
ended as Khilafat movement collapsed with the rise of Ataturk in Turkey. Muslim leaders left the
Congress and began forming Muslim organisations. The political base behind Gandhi had broken into
factions. Gandhi was released in February 1924 for an appendicitis operation, having served only two
years.
Salt Satyagraha (Salt March)
Original footage of Gandhi and his followers marching to Dandi in the Salt Satyagraha: After his
early release from prison for political crimes in 1924, over the second half of the 1920s, Gandhi
continued to pursue swaraj. He pushed through a resolution at the Calcutta Congress in December
1928 calling on the British government to grant India dominion status or face a new campaign of
non-co-operation with complete independence for the country as its goal. The British did not
respond favourably to Gandhi's proposal. British political leaders such as Lord Birkenhead and
Winston Churchill announced opposition to "the appeasers of Gandhi", in their discussions with
European diplomats who sympathised with Indian demands. On 31 December 1929, the flag of India
was unfurled in Lahore. Gandhi led Congress celebrated 26 January 1930 as India's Independence
Day in Lahore. This day was commemorated by almost every other Indian organisation. Gandhi then
launched a new Satyagraha against the tax on salt in March 1930. Gandhi sent an ultimatum in the
form of a polite letter to the viceroy of India, Lord Irwin, on 2 March. Gandhi condemned British rule
in the letter, describing it as "a curse" that "has impoverished the dumb millions by a system of
progressive exploitation and by a ruinously expensive military and civil administration... It has
reduced us politically to serfdom." Gandhi also mentioned in the letter that the viceroy received a
salary "over five thousand times India's average income." British violence, Gandhi promised, was
going to be defeated by Indian non-violence. According to Atlury Murali, Indian Congress in the
1920s appealed to Andhra Pradesh peasants by creating Telugu language plays that combined Indian
mythology and legends, linked them to Gandhi's ideas, and portrayed Gandhi as a messiah, a
reincarnation of ancient and medieval Indian nationalist leaders and saints. The plays built support
among peasants steeped in traditional Hindu culture, according to Murali, and this effort made
Gandhi a folk hero in Telugu speaking villages, a sacred messiahlike figure. Gandhi also campaigned
hard going from one rural corner of the Indian subcontinent to another. He used terminology and
phrases such as Rama-rajya from Ramayana, Prahlada as a paradigmatic icon, and such cultural
symbols as another facet of swaraj and satyagraha.[138] These ideas sounded strange outside India,
during his lifetime, but they readily and deeply resonated with the culture and historic values of his
people.