Arrival of Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

• Birth: 2 October 1869, at Porbander in princely state of Kathiawar.
• His father was a diwan of the state.
• 1893: Went to South Africa for his client Dada Abdullah.
• His first opposition came, when he was thrown out of 1st class compartment
of a train.
• Fought for the cause of indentured Indian laborer in SA suffering from white
racism.
• He first started his Satyagrah or passive resistance in SA.
 Making of Gandhi
• The South African Experiment
➢ Witnessed the ugly face of white racism & the humiliation and contempt
to which Asians were subjected.
 Making of Gandhi
• The Indians in South Africa consisted of three categories:

➢ Indentured Indian labor from South India, who migrated to South Africa
after 1890 to work on sugar plantations.

➢ The merchants – Mostly Memon Muslims who had followed the labourers.

➢ The ex-indentured labourers who had settled down in South Africa after
the expiry of their contracts.
 Moderate Phase of Struggle (1894-1906)
• Relied on sending petitions & memorials to the authorities in South Africa &
in Britain.

• Hoping they would take sincere steps to redress their grievances as the
Indians British subjects.

• To unite different sections of Indians, he set up the Natal Indian Congress

and started a paper Indian Opinion.

• Gandhiji’s abilities as an organizer, as a fund-raiser, as a journalist & as a

propagandist, all came to the fore during this period.
 Phase of Passive Resistance(1906-14)
• Use of the method of passive resistance or civil disobedience, which Gandhi
named Satyagraha.
➢ Satyagraha against Registration Certificates (1906).

➢ Campaign against Restrictions on Indian Migration.

➢ Campaign against Poll Tax & Invalidation of Indian Marriages.

➢ Protest against Transvaal Immigration Act.

 Satyagraha Against Registration
Certificates -1906
• A new legislation in South Africa made it compulsory for Indians there to
carry at all times certificates of registration with their fingerprints.

• Indians organised a meeting on 11 September 1906, in the Empire Theatre

Johannesburg under Gandhi's leadership & decided not to submit to this
discriminatory measure.

• Gandhi formed the Passive Resistance Association to conduct the campaign of

defying the law & suffering all the penalties resulting from such a defiance.
• The Government jailed Gandhi (King Edward’s Hotel) & others who refused
to register themselves.
• Thus was born satyagraha or devotion to truth, the technique of resisting
adversaries without violence.
• General Smuts called Gandhiji for talks, & promised to withdraw the
legislation if Indians voluntarily agreed to register themselves.
• Gandhiji accepted & was the first to register.
• But Smuts had played a trick; he ordered that the voluntary registrations
ratified under the law.

• The Indians under the leadership of Gandhi retaliated by publicly burning

their registration certificates.
 Campaign Against Restrictions on
Indian Migration
• The earlier campaign was widened to include protest against a new legislation
imposing restrictions on Indian migration.

• Indians defied this law by crossing over from one province to another and by
refusing to produce licences.

• Many of these Indians were jailed.

 Setting up of Tolstoy Farm
• As it became rather difficult to sustain the high pitch of the struggle, Gandhi
decided to devote all his attention to the struggle.
• The funds for supporting the families of the Satyagrahis & for running Indian
Opinion were fast running out.
• Gandhiji’s own legal practice had virtually ceased since 1906, the year he had
started devoting all his attention to the struggle.
• At this point, Gandhiji set up Tolstoy Farm, made possible through the
generosity of his German architect friend, Kallenbach, to house the families
of the Satyagrahis & give them a way to sustain themselves.
 Continued….
• This Farm was the precursor of the later Gandhian ashrams that were to play
so important a role in the Indian national movement.

• Funds also came from India — Sir Ratan Tata sent Rs. 25,000 & the Congress
& the League, as well as the Nizam, made their contributions.
 Campaign Against Poll Tax
• Poll tax of 3 pounds was imposed on all ex-indentured Indians.

• The inclusion of demands for the abolition of poll tax (which was too much
for the poor ex-indentured Indians who earned less than 10 shillings a
month) in the ongoing struggle further widened the base of the campaign.
 Campaign Against Invalidation of
Indian Marriages
• Supreme Court order which invalidated all marriages not conducted
according to Christian rites & registered by the registrar of marriages drew
the anger of the Indians & others who were not Christians.

• By implication, Hindu, Muslim & Parsi marriages were illegal and children
born out of such marriages, illegitimate.

• The Indians treated this judgement as an insult to the honour of women &
many women were drawn into the movement because of this indignity.
 Protest Against Transvaal Immigration Act
• Indians protested by illegally migrating from Natal into Transvaal.
• The campaign was launched by the illegal crossing of the border by a group of
16 Satyagrahis, including Kasturba, who marched from Phoenix Settlement in
Natal to Transvaal, & were immediately arrested.
• Government held these Indians in jails.
• Miners and plantation workers went on a lightning strike.
• In India, Gokhale toured the whole country mobilising public opinion in
support of the Indians in South Africa.
• Even the viceroy, Lord Hardinge, condemned the repression & called for an
impartial enquiry.
 Compromise Solution
• A series of negotiations involving:
➢ Gandhi
➢ Lord Hardinge
➢ C.F. Andrews &
➢ General Smuts
• An agreement was reached by which Government of South Africa conceded
the major Indian demands relating to the poll tax, the registration certificates
& marriages solemnized according to Indian rites promised to treat the issue
of Indian immigration in a sympathetic manner.
 Important Events
• 1893: Gandhi arrives in South Africa to provide legal support.
• 1894: The Natal Indian Congress is founded.
• 1896: Gandhi is attacked by a mob after his ship, the SS Courtland, docks in
Durban when he returns to South Africa with his family after a home visit.
• 1899: Gandhi organises the Indian Ambulance Corps to serve the British in
the South African War (Second Anglo-Boer).
• 1903: Gandhi founds the weekly Indian Opinion.
• 1904: The Phoenix Settlement is established.
 Important Events
• 1909: Gandhi publishes the book Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule).

• 1910: Tolstoy Farm is established outside Johannesburg.

• 1914: Gandhi & Smuts reach an agreement to relax certain restrictions on

Indians in return for ending the satyagraha campaign. Gandhi & Kasturba
leave South Africa for good.
 Gandhi’s Experience in South Africa
• Gandhi found that the masses had immense capacity to participate in &
sacrifice for a cause that moved them.

• He was able to unite Indians belonging to different religions & classes, & men
and women alike under his leadership.

• He also came to realise that at times the leaders have to take decisions
unpopular with their enthusiastic supporters.

• He was able to evolve his own style of leadership & politics & new techniques
of struggle on a limited scale, untrammelled by the opposition of contending
political currents.
 Principles of Satyagraha
• Identify Truth (Relative Truth or Absolute Truth).
• Insist on truth.

• Fight using non-violence.

• Change the mind & heart of opponents through self-suffering.

• Make God a witness of your deeds.

• Be fearless.
 Technique of Satyagraha
• Based on truth and non-violence.
• Basic Tenets:
➢ A satyagrahi was not to submit to what he considered as wrong, but was to
always remain truthful, non-violent & fearless.
➢ A satyagrahi works on the principles of withdrawal of cooperation &
boycott.
➢ Methods of satyagraha include non-payment of taxes & declining honors &
positions of authority.
• A satyagrahi should be ready to accept suffering in his struggle against the
wrongdoer. This suffering was to be a part of his love for truth.
• Even while carrying out his struggle against the wrongdoer, a true satyagrahi
would have no ill feeling for the wrongdoer; hatred would be alien to his
nature.
• A true satyagrahi would never bow before the evil, whatever the consequence.
• Only the brave & strong could practise satyagraha; it was not for the weak &
cowardly.
• Even violence was preferred to cowardice. Thought was never to be separated
from practice. In other words, ends could not justify the means.
 Gandhi in India
• Returned to India on 9th January 1915.
• His efforts in South Africa were well known not only among the educated but
also among the masses.
• He decided to tour the country the next 1 year & see for himself the condition
of the masses.
• He also decided not to take any position on any political matter for at least
one year.
• As for the political currents prevalent at that time in India, he was convinced
about the limitations of moderate politics & was also not in favor of Home
Rule agitation which was becoming popular at that time.
• He thought that it was not the best time to agitate for Home Rule when
Britain was in the middle of a war.

• He was convinced that the only technique capable of meeting the nationalist
aims was a non-violent satyagraha.

• He also said that he would join no political organisation unless it too accepted
the creed of non-violent satyagraha.

• During 1917 & 1918, Gandhi was involved in 3 struggles—in Champaran,

Ahmedabad & Kheda—before he launched the Rowlatt Satyagraha.
 Champaran Satyagraha:
1st Civil Disobedience
• Requested by Rajkumar Shukla to look into the problems of the farmers in
context of indigo planters of Champaran.

• European planters had been forcing the peasants to grow indigo on 3/20 part
of the total land (called tinkathia system).
 Champaran Satyagraha:
1st Civil Disobedience
• When towards the end of the 19th century German synthetic dyes replaced
indigo, the European planters demanded high rents & illegal dues from the
peasants in order to maximise their profits before the peasants could shift to
other crops.

• Also, the peasants were forced to sell the produce at prices fixed by the
Europeans.

• Indigo Cultivation was destroying the productivity of the land which was the
main reason of the peasant’s protest.
• When the authorities ordered him to leave, Gandhi defied the order &
preferred to face the punishment.
• Gandhi was arrested but then later released by the magistrate.
• This passive resistance of an unjust order was a novel method at that time.
• The government appointed a committee(Indigo commission) to go into the
matter & nominated Gandhi as a member.
• Gandhi was able to convince the authorities that tinkathia should be
abolished & that the peasants should be compensated for the illegal dues
extracted from them.
• As a compromise with the planters, he agreed that only 25 % of the money
taken should be compensated.
• Gandhi’s comrades:
➢ Rajendra Prasad
➢ Mazhar-ul-Haq
➢ Narahari Parekh
➢ JB Kriplani
➢ Mahadev Desai
➢ Brajkishore Prasad
➢ Anugrah Narayan Sinha
➢ Ramnavmi Prasad
➢ Shambhu Sharan Varma
 Ahmedabad Mill Strike - 1st Hunger Strike
• Unlike Champaran, in this case both the workers & employers were Indians.

• Gandhi intervened in a dispute between cotton mill owners of Ahmedabad &

the workers over the issue of discontinuation of the plague bonus.

• The workers were demanding a rise of 50 % in their wages so that they could
manage in the times of wartime inflation (WWI).

• The mill owners were ready to give only a 20 % wage hike.

 Ahmedabad Mill Strike - 1st Hunger Strike
• Gandhi asked the workers to go on a strike & demand a 35 % increase in
wages instead of 50 %.

• This was the 1st strike called by Gandhi in India.

• Gandhi advised the workers to remain non-violent while on strike.

• When negotiations with mill owners did not progress, he himself undertook a
fast unto death (his 1st)to strengthen the workers’ resolve.
• The fast also had the effect of putting pressure on the mill owners who finally
agreed to submit the issue to a tribunal. The strike was withdrawn.

• Industrialist referred the issue to a tribunal which awarded 35% wage hike to
the workers.

• Ambalal Sarabhai’s sister, Anasuya Behn, was one of the main lieutenants of
Gandhiji in this struggle in which her brother was one of the main
adversaries.
 Kheda Satyagraha
• The crops failed in Kheda district.

• According to Revenue Code of British Government law, if the yield was less
than 1/4th the normal produce, the farmers were entitled to remission.

• The government threatened that the property of the farmers would be seized
if the taxes were not paid.
 Kheda Satyagraha
• Gandhi asked the farmers not to pay the taxes.
• Gandhiji was mainly the spiritual head of the struggle.
• It was Sardar Patel & a group of other devoted Gandhians – Narahari Parikh,
Mohanlal Pandya & Ravi Shankar Vyas, who went around the villages,
organised the villagers & guided them & gave the necessary political
leadership.
• Patel along with his colleagues organised the tax revolt which the different
ethnic & caste communities of Kheda supported.
• He left his lucrative practice at the Bar at this time to help Gandhi.
• Indulal Yagnik became Gandhi follower.

• Ultimately, the government agreed to

• Suspend the tax for the year in question, & for the next.

• Reduce the increase in rate.

&
• Return all the confiscated property.
 Gains from Champaran, Ahmedabad & Kheda
• Gandhi demonstrated to the people the efficacy of his technique of
satyagraha.

• He found his feet among the masses & came to have a surer understanding of
the strengths & weaknesses of the masses.

• He acquired respect & commitment of many, especially the youth.

 Rowlatt Act 1919
• Government on one hand gave carrot of constitutional reforms in form of GoI
Act 1919, on the other hand armed itself with extraordinary powers to
suppress the violators.

• Also known as Anarchical & Revolutionary Crimes Act, 1919.

• Rowlatt committee was a Sedition Committee appointed in 1918 by the

British Indian Government with Sir Sidney Rowlatt, an English judge, as its
president.
 Rowlatt Act 1919
• It was a legislative act passed by the Imperial Legislative Council in Delhi,
indefinitely extending the emergency measures of preventive indefinite
detention, incarceration without trial & judicial review enacted in the
Defence of India Act 1915 during the 1st World War.

• To investigate the ‘seditious conspiracy’ of the Indian people.

 Rowlatt Act 1919 Continued….
• According to this act any Indian could be arrested on the charge of sedition
even on suspicious ground & without any trial could be jailed for up to 2
years. Thus suspended right of “habeas corpus” which is foundation of the
civil liberty.
• The act allowed political activists to be tried without juries or even
imprisoned without trial.
• It allowed arrest of Indians without warrant on the mere suspicion of
‘treason’.
• Police had immense power which could be easily misused as the clause of
suspicious grounds was not specified correctly.
• Slogan of the movement was “No appeal, no daleel, no wakeel”
• Jinnah, Madan Mohan Malaviya & Mazhar Ul Haq – resigned in protest.
 Satyagraha Against the Rowlatt Act—
1st Mass Strike
• He called the Rowlatt Act the “Black Act” & argued that not everyone should
get punishment in response to isolated political crimes.

• Having seen the constitutional protest fail Gandhi organized a Satyagraha

Sabha Sarvadharma Prarthana Sabha (prayer meeting for all religions) &
roped in younger members of Home Rule Leagues & the Pan Islamists.

• The forms of protest finally chosen included observance of a nationwide

hartal accompanied by fasting & prayer, & civil disobedience against specific
laws, & courting arrest & imprisonment.
• 6 April 1919 was the 1st All India Strike Day.
• Before April 6 itself mass scale resistance grew against British rule , there
were large-scale violent, anti-British demonstrations in Calcutta, Bombay,
Delhi, Ahmedabad, etc.
• In Punjab, the situation became so very explosive due to wartime repression,
forcible recruitments and ravages of diseases. So Army was called which put
martial law there.
• The Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, Sir Michael O’Dwyer, is said to have used
aircraft strafing against the violent protests.
 Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
• Park in Amritsar
• There was a curfew imposed in Amritsar on
13 April but people from rural area had no
knowledge about it.
• 13 April was celebrated as Baisakhi &
peasants had come to celebrate at
Jallianwala.
• Incidentally a group of protestors protesting
the arrest of 2 leaders Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew
& Dr. Satypal Malik had also come to the
same place.
 Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
• General Dyer entered the place and ordered his men
to fire at the crowd killing 379 people (according to
government records).

• Media & local people said that number of people killed

were more than 1000.

• Hunter Commission was setup to look into the event.

 Hunter Commission
• The Secretary of State for India, Edwin Montagu, ordered that a committee of
inquiry to be formed to investigate this matter.
• Hunter Committee/Commission was formed, Lord William Hunter as its
chairman & having 3 Indians among the members, namely, Sir Chimanlal
Harilal Setalvad, Pandit Jagat Narayan, & Sardar Sahibzada Sultan Ahmad
Khan.
• The Commission on the Punjab atrocities proved to be an eyewash.
• In fact, House of Lords endorsed General Dyer's action & the British public
showed solidarity with Dyer by helping The Morning Post collect 30k pounds
for him. A famous contributor to the fund was Rudyard Kipling.
 Hunter Commission Continued….
• Hunter Commission did not impose any penal or disciplinary action because
Dyer's actions were condoned by various superiors (later upheld by the Army
Council).

• The Legal & Home Members on the Viceroy's Council ultimately decided that,
though Dyer had acted in a callous & brutal way, military or legal prosecution
would not be possible due to political reasons.

• He was finally found guilty of a mistaken notion of duty & relieved of his
command.
• The honouring of Dyer by the priests of Sri Darbar Sahib, Amritsar, was one
of the reasons behind the intensification of the demand for reforming the
management of Sikh shrines.

• Resulted in the launch of the Gurdwara Reform movement.

• Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood in protest when House of
Lords called this act by Gen Dyer as act of bravery.

• Gandhi gave up the title of Kaiser-i-Hind, bestowed by the British for his work
during the Boer War.

• Gandhi was overwhelmed by the atmosphere of total violence & withdrew the
movement on April 18,1919.
 Congress’ Position
• Appointed its own non-official committee that included Motilal Nehru, C.R.
Das, Abbas Tyabji, M.R. Jayakar & Gandhi.

• Congress criticized Dyer’s act as inhuman & also said that there was no
justification in the introduction of the martial law in Punjab.
 Assassination of Michael O'Dwyer
• 13 March 1940: At Caxton Hall in London, Udham Singh, who had witnessed
the events in Amritsar & was himself wounded, shot & killed Michael O'Dwyer,
the British Lieutenant- Governor of Punjab at the time of the massacre, who
had approved Dyer's action & was believed to be the main planner.
• Udham Singh, bore the name, Ram Mohammad Singh Azad.
 Continued….
• 1927: Dyer had died.

• 31 July 1940 : Udham Singh was hanged.

• At that time, many, including Nehru & Gandhi, condemned the action as
senseless even if it was courageous.

• 1952: Nehru honored Udham Singh.

• Soon after this recognition, Singh received the title of Shaheed.
 Montagu's Statement-August 1917
• “The government policy is of an increasing participation of Indians in every
branch of administration & gradual development institutions with a view to
the progressive realization of responsible government in India as an integral
part of the British empire”.
• From now onwards, the demand by nationalists for self-government or Home
Rule could not be termed as seditious since, attainment of self government
for Indians now became a government policy, unlike Morley's statement in
1909 that the reforms were not intended to give self-government to India.
 Indian Objections
• The objections of the Indian leaders to Montagu's statement were 2 fold:

➢ No specific time frame was given.

➢ The Government alone was to decide the nature & the timing of advance
towards a responsible government.
 Government of India Act 1919
• Based on Montagu – Chelmsford Reforms in line with Montague’s August
1917 statement.

• As the British Government needed India’s help in terms of both resources &
manpower for WW-1, they promised the Indian leaders that more number of
members will be included in the Executive council.
 Provisions
• Relaxation of central control over provinces:
➢ By demarcating & separating the central & provincial subjects. The central &
provincial legislatures were authorised to make laws on their respective list of
subjects. However, the structure of government continued to be centralised
and unitary.
• Bicameral Legislature at the Centre:
➢ The Indian Legislative Council was replaced by a bicameral legislature
consisting of an Upper House (Council of State) & a Lower House (Legislative
Assembly).
➢ The majority of members of both the Houses were chosen by direct election.
 Provisions Continued….
• Legislative assembly & Council of state to consist of 145 & 60 members.
• Separate Electorates also given to Sikhs, Anglo-Indians, Indian Christians, &
Europeans.
• Legislators could ask questions & supplementaries, pass adjournment motions
& vote a part of the budget, but 75% of the budget was still not votable.
• Dyarchy was introduced in the province, i.e., there were two classes of
administrators – Executive councillors & Ministers.
 Dyarchy
• Dyarchy (rule of 2) in the province.
• Term derived from the Greek word ‘di-arche’ which means double rule. This
experiment was largely unsuccessful.
• Popular ministers & governors to be executive head.
• Reserved & transferred subjects.
• Reserved subjects, were to be administered by the governor & his executive
council without being responsible to the legislative Council.
 Dyarchy
• The transferred subjects were to be administered by the governor with the aid
of ministers responsible to the legislative Council.
• Reserved subjects such as finance, Law & order, land revenue, irrigation, etc.

• Transferred subjects such as health, education, industry, local government.

• Governor could veto the bill & issue ordinances.
 Provisions Continued….
• Women were given right to vote.
• Indian legislature made more representative.

• It required that the 3 of the 6 members of the Viceroy’s executive Council

(other than the commander-in-chief) were to be Indian.

• It created a new office of the High Commissioner for India in London &
transferred to him some of the functions hitherto performed by the Secretary
of State for India.
 Provisions Continued….
• It provided for the establishment of a public service commission. Hence, a
Central Public Service Commission was set up in 1926 for recruiting civil
servants.

• It separated, for the 1st time, provincial budgets from the Central budget &
authorised the provincial legislatures to enact their budgets.

• It provided for the appointment of a statutory commission to inquire into &

report on its working after 10 years of its coming into force.