Indian National Congress after 1920 as a mass organization included new methods of massive

but peaceful civil disobedience, introduced under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, intended to
mobilize the passive millions of the rural population for effective boycotts of foreign goods, no
revenue campaigns, and other large-scale civil disobedience movements. Prior to 1920, the
twelve Provincial Congress Committees imposed knowledge of English as an implicit
qualification for active membership in the Congress, where members were drawn exclusively
from the professional and business classes.

Probably in no other country in the world as it is today could there grow a movement like the
one which is in full swing in India under the leadership of Mahatma M. K. Gandhi. As a protest
agains the massacre of unarmed men, women and children by General Dyer at Amritsar,
Mahatma Gandhi asked the the people of India to stop working. All India stopped. workers make
the usual demands for higher wages and better conditions, but they are using industrial action in
a revolutionary spirit to express their opposition to the government. When the government tried
to run the street cars in Calcutta and Delhi to break the strike, the strikers did picket duty in a
unique manner. They did not destroy the property; they simply laid themselves prostrate on the
tracks. It is hard to win a victory over a man who folds his arms and who is not afraid to die.

Coming back to the congress, With almost two million members, the effect of the structural
changes on the urban bias of the Congress organization was immediate. Despite the fact that the
constitutional changes facilitated the periodic mobilization of the peasantry in nationwide civil
disobedience campaigns, the new party structure did not substantially alter the class or caste
characteristics of the political leadership.

In 1910 Count Leo Tolstoy wrote to Mahatma Gandhi, Your activity in the Transvaal, as it
seems to us, at the end of the world, is the most essential work, the most important of all the
work now being done in the world, in which not only the nations of the Christian world but
of all the world, will unavoidably take part.

While Congress claimed to represent the masses, therefore, it never provided direst access to the
party organization for the majority of the rural population. The intelligentsia, most of whom were
committed to social and economic reform, feared the effect of splitting the nationalist forces by
openly supporting landless laborers against landlords, and urban workers against industrialists.
The greatest challenge to Gandhi's policy of class conciliation developed in the rural sector.
Gandhi's insistence on peaceful methods of change helped to attract large number of ad hoc
donations from the capitalist class for use in "nonpolitical" social welfare work.

Perhaps the most characteristic aspect of Gandhi's approach was his insistence that "political"
and "social" grievances be handled separately by refusal to advance the nationalist cause by
organizational techniques that capitalized on the economic complaints of tenant-cultivators
against British-created landlords.

Satyagraha:
 The Kheda satyagraha saw the beginnings of Gandhi's theory of trusteeship-his answer to the
Marxists who claimed that class war was the only effective instrument of social revolution. It
encouraged a shift in the basis of legitimacy of the upper castes.

Conclusion of the trusteeship doctrine:

The trusteeship doctrine, allied to the Constructive Program, moreover, actually held
revolutionary implications for the distribution of economic and political power. Once the secular
ethic of equality was accepted at the level of public opinion, the peasantry and workers had only
to develop the strength inherent in their numbers to enforce the transvalued norm against the
propertied classes. The budding theory of trusteeship is evident in the pledge that all participants
in the Kheda no-tax campaign were required to sign. It read: The reason why those who are able
to pay still withhold payment is that, if they pay up, the poorer riots may in a panic sell their
chattels or incur debts to pay their dues, and thereby bring suffering upon themselves.

Sir. Michael O'Dwyer says "the extremists in India are talking of establishing a Republic in
India," and Sir William Vincent, Secretary of the Interior of India, in a recent speech to the
Legislative Council in India has solemnly declared that The situation in India is very critical and
no one can exaggerate it. It is not the 6 per cent of Indian intelligenti? with whom we are to deal
now, but with the 90 per cent of peasants and laborers of India, who are following Gandhi and
his programme so blindly.

The Indian reform act is pure mockery. The so-called reform legislature of India has no authority
or control over bills dealing with factories, mines, railways, shipping, navigation, waterways,
ports, irriga? tion, water-storage, customs, currency, coinage, land revenue, the military, the
police, law, order and justice. The governor-general in council controls this vast field of
legislation and also has the absolute veto power over any law. Mahatma Gandhi wanted the
Indian people to have nothing to do with this mockery and thus presented the program of
boycotting the so-called reformed council.

The British Indian government has become so much alarmed at the success of Mahatma Gandhi's
new method of non-violent non-cooperation that it has through its officials urged the patriot-saint
of India to give up the program temporarily so that Lord Reading will have a chance to size up
the situation. Non-cooperators wmust do nothing to add to his [Lord Reading's] difficulties. We
must give His Excellency the fullest credit for meaning to do well. I will also warn them against
building hopes on Lord Reading doing anything This is a battle of self-reliance. We must create
the environment for our free nourishment, and among the things we must do, one is to secure the
goodwill of true men and women by our exemplary behavior.

Two test for non violence:

The Kheda Satyagraha represented the first test in a traditional Hindu setting of nonviolence as
a technique of political and social change. A second major opportunity to test the advantages and
limitations of a nonviolent strategy of social reform was provided by the Ahmedabad labor
strike 1919. Gandhi went further towards conciliating the millowners in subsequent advice to the
labour union.

He praised the workers for dropping their demands for higher pay, citing the "difficult situation
of the millowners at the present moment." He emphasized the duty of the labourers to "assure to
the mills flawless work" under all circumstances. He predicted that once the laborers had
convinced the millowners of their constructive attitude, they would find their employers more
receptive to remedying legitimate complaints. Above all, as in Champaran and Kheda, Gandhi
made it clear that the capitalist system was not under attack. Rather, limited "social" and
"economic" issues -working conditions and wages for laborers-were being raised.

Establishment of Fascism:

Gandhi believed that the propertied classes, frightened by the "unrestrained language" of socialist
agitators, could begin to "organize themselves and establish Fascism in our country." According
to him, Fascism does exist in our country even today, but so far not many of the rich have joined
it.

Conclusion to Fascism:

They would win independence for India in the shortest possible time by harnessing the energies
of all classes to the nationalist cause. They would even ultimately bring about a social revolution
through peaceful methods without sacrificing the other goals of the independence movement:
social cohesion, economic progress, and political liberty.

Satyagraha:

Satyagraha is a process of educating public opinion, such that it covers all the elements of
society and in the end makes itself irresistible. The pace of social change envisaged by this
strategy was very slow. It amounted to nothing more than piecemeal amelioration of the worst
living and working conditions of the masses. Yet in Gandhi's view, the very gradualness of the
process was its greatest advantage. There could be no direct attack on the institution of private
property.

Results:

The long term benefits of this strategy were so great that they more than compensated for any
immediate sacrifice in the progress towards egalitarian goals. By reassuring the propertied
classes on the one hand, and damping down popular aspirations on the other, the government
could mobilize the energies of the entire nation for constructive tasks of development.

The strategy of gradualism offered India her best hope of defending democratic political
institution against either a communist-led insurgency from below, or a preemptive fascist-style
coup carried out by the capitalist classes from above.

After actions in Bardoli, peasants in other parts of India refused payments of land revenue and
rent. If the congress called for a general no-tax campaign in rural areas, it would, on the one
hand, help the tenants in zamindari regions by indirectly legitimizing the suspension of rent
payments as well; on the other hand it would raise the class issue. The zamindars were privately
urged to grant rent remissions to tenants in situations of extreme hardship. A small number of
zamindars did announce voluntary rent remissions as a result of Gandhi’s appeal.

Tentative resolution:

In an effort to control what had undeniably become a class struggle between the zamindars and
the tenants, Gandhi issued a “Manifesto to the Kisans” on May 23, 1931. He urged all occupancy
tenants to pay at least three-quarters of the rent owed by them, and suggested payment of one
half for statutory tenants. Forcible collections, with the connivance of local government officials,
increased. On the Congress side, many workers also ignored Gandhi’s Manifesto, and advised
the tenants not to pay any rent at all. The Allahabad District Congress Committee was the first
to adopt a tentative resolution stating that in case better terms were not obtained, peasants should
withhold payment of rent and revenue. The government had issued a far-reaching ordinance
prohibiting all political activity, and announcing severe penalties for nonpayment of rent. The
propertied classes were hit hard by the Government’s drastic policy of seizure and confiscation
of properties and were thus induced to bring pressure for the suspension of the struggle.

Nehru was opposed to the strategy of class conciliation in principle, because he did not
believe it would win economic freedom for the masses. Nehru’s political credo found a strong
echo in the platform of the Congress Socialist party (CSP), which drew heavily upon Marxist
ideology: complete independence from Great Britain; and the establishment of a socialist party.
Marxism alone can guide the anti-imperialist forces to their ultimate destiny.

The Entry of Communists:

The entry of communists into the Congress party signalled a serious attempt by radical socialists
to overturn Gandhian doctrines of non violence and class conciliation as the organizational
principles of nationalist movement. The more sophisticated approach to nationalist revolution is
the creation of the Anti-Imperialist Peoples Front.

Initiatives:

The communists’ strategy rested on: the establishment of separate “factions” within CSP party
units in order to build up a cohesive parallel organization that could get communists elected to
positions of power in the provincial and national executive organs of Congress the infiltration of
mass organizations operating outside Congress in support of nationalist goals; and the use of
strategic positions inside the Congress.
Kisan sabhas and the Minimum demands:

The kisan sabhas were largely confined to Andhra, and enjoyed only minor successes in sporadic
campaigns against payment of excessive rent and revenue. “Minimum demands” advanced by
the Manifesto included abolition of all zamindari tenures without compensation, abolition of all
debts, redistribution of cultivable waste lands vesting in government to subsistence farmers and
landless laborers, and a graduated income tax in ryotwari areas, with exemption for all families
earning less than a net income of Rs 500 annually.

Gandhi agreed to appoint an agrarian subcommittee of the Working Committee to make

recommendations for improving the condition of the kisans, safeguarding the interest of the
peasants where there are intermediaries between the State and themselves.

Agrarian program:

The agrarian program adopted by Congress at Faizpur incorporated all the All-India Kisan Sabha
demands. It called for:

 “immediate relief” in the form of substantial reduction in rent and revenues;

 exemptions from uneconomic holdings from both rent or land tax;
 cancellation of arrears for rent;
 the abolition of all feudal dues and levies;
 occupancy rights for all tenants.

By 1938, the communists had succeeded in capturing the AIKS and establishing control of the
CSP. Kisan sabha deems its duty to carry on a relentless fight against the advocacy and
propagation of such a theory and for that purpose exhorts all kisan comrades all over the country
to organize their sabhas as the organs of the kisan struggle, and to pursue their present method of
agitation and struggle.

Break of control:

Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union impelled the Communist party and the AIKS to cooperate
with the British war effort. Their leadership did not take part in the Congress-led “Quit-India”
movement of 1942, and were stigmatized as tools of a foreign power.

Nevertheless, Gandhi’s hold on the younger nationalist had been broken. When they appealed to
him to intervene, he no longer had any hope of regaining control. When Socialists got hold of the
movement, Gandhi was still desperate and had no other program.

The period of Independence:

Independence was accompanied by unexpected trauma. Growing tensions between Hindus and
the Muslim minority, bloody communal riots in Bengal and Bihar and the uncompromising
demand of the Muslim League for a separate Islamic state had culminated in the bitterness of the
partition.

Gandhi’s death and the Communist Party:

Gandhi’s death on January 30, 1948, saw the end of communal violence, with several state
governments, invoking the measures of Public Safety Acts inherited from the British, declaring
the Communist Party illegal. Congress Socialists underwent a more profound transformation of
political outlook; were deeply shaken by the communal riots accompanying Independence and
the horrible circumstances of Gandhi’s death. People realized that Gandhi was right and there
must always be right means.

Forces of political disintegration ranged from demands by some Indian princes for autonomy; to
claims by linguistic and tribal groups for separate states; to insistence by untouchable and
backward castes for preferential treatment in all fields.

The Final Outcome:

The formation of the Report of the Congress Agrarian Reports Committee was the first major
product of socialist-Gandhian collaboration on an outstanding public issue after Independence.

The tenant farmers and landless labourers were encouraged to hope for a major improvement in
their conditions as a result of the establishment of a popular government after independence.

In his address to the students of Madras he exhorts them: If the rulers are doing what in our
opinion is wrong, and if we feel it our duty to let them hear our advice, even though it may be
considered sedition, I urge you to speak sedition. . . . but at your peril. You must be prepared to
suffer the conse? quences and not hit below the belt, then I think you will have made good your
right to have your advice heard even by the government. Let the world know that India's message
is not the message of physical might, but a message of love. And then it will be your privilege to
conquer the conquerers, not by blood-shed but by sheer spiritual predominance. I, as a passive r?
sister, will give you another thing to think about and prac? tice. Terrorize yourself; search within;
by all means resist tyranny wherever you find it, by all means resist encroachment upon your
liberty, but not by shedding the blood of the tyrant. That is not what is taught by our religion.
Spiritualize the