Mahatma Gandhi and
Nationalist Movement
Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi, Leader of Indian nationalism and known in his later life as Mahatma
(“great soul”) was one of the greatest national leaders of the twentieth
century. His methods and philosophy of nonviolent confrontation not only led
his own country to independence but affected people and events throughout the
world.
Gandhiji was born in
Porbandar Gujarat. After getting the degree of Barrister in England he moved to
South Africa, where he started his protest movement based on the principles of
Satyagraha. There he founded ashrams at Natal and Transvaal. His political guru
GK Gokhale invited him to India in 1915. In India he successfully introduced
the method of Satyagraha in Champaran, Kheda and Ahmedabad.
|
Chronological
overview of Gandhi's life: |
02 Oct. 1869 |
M.K. Gandhi born
Porbandar in Gujarat. |
1883 1888-1890 |
Married Kasturba at
the age of 13 Studied law in
England |
1891 |
Passed English
Barrister returned to India |
1893 |
went to South Africa,
employed by a Muslim firm for legal work. |
1894 |
foundation of Natal
Indian Congress. |
1896 |
returned to India
and started on behalf of South African Indians. |
1899 |
foundation of
Indian Ambulance Corps during Boer wars. |
1904 |
foundation of Indian
opinion (Magazine) |
1905 |
opposed the Bengal
partition. |
1906 |
supported “Home
Rule” for India. |
1907 |
organized
“Satyagraha” (non-violent resistance) in Transwal |
1909 |
Corresponded with
Tolstoy, Founded Tolstoy farm. |
1911 |
“Great March”
arrested at Palmford and sentenced to 3 months in jail. |
1914 |
Quits South Africa
forever and returns back to India, awarded ‘Kaisar -i - Hind’ for raising and
Indian Ambulance corps during Boer wars. |
09 Jan, 1915 |
Anived Bombay (in
India) Foundation of Satyagraha Ashrama at Kocharab near Ahmedabad. |
April 1917 |
Gandhiji entered in
active politics with Champaran campaign to redress grievances of cultivators
oppressed by Indigo planters of Bihar. |
20 May 1917 March 1918 |
:
Ashrama shifted to Sabarmati. :
Gandhiji worked for peasants of Kheda in Gujarat. |
06 April 1919 : 13 April 1919 : |
Gandhiji gave a call
for Satyagraha against the Rowlett Act. Gandhi returns
Kaisar-i-Hind gold medal to protest against Jallianwala Bagh massacre. |
Nov. 1919 |
The All India
Khilafat conference elected Gandhi as its President. |
01st Feb. 1920 |
Gandhiji leads the Non-co-operation
and Khilafat Movement. |
12 Feb. 1922 |
Gandhi calls off
movement after the violent incident at Chauri-chaura. |
1923 |
wrote Satyagraha in
South Africa and part of his Autobiography while in prison. |
1924
: |
Belgaum (Karnataka)
session of INC- for-the first and the last time Gandhi was elected President
of the congress. |
1930
: |
Gandhiji launches
the civil disobedience Movement with his Dandi March (Salt Satyagraha) |
05 Mar. 1931 1931 |
Gandhi - Irwin
pact. Gandhiji attends
the second-round table conference in London. |
1934 1939 |
Announced
retirement from Politics set up Sevagram (Vardha Ashram) Gandhi resumed
active politics. |
1942 |
Call to Quit India
Movement for which Gandhi raised the slogan, ‘Do or Die” |
22 Feb. 1944 16 Aug to 18 Aug. 19-44 July 1947 15 Aug 1947 |
:
Kasturba died in detention at Agakhan Palace near Pune. The “Great Calcutta
Killing” Independence of
India Bill Passed Pakistan created. observes complete silence
on the dawn of Indi as Independence. |
Sep. 1947 30 Jan 1948 |
Gandhiji returns
back to Delhi. Gandhiji was shot
dead by Nathuram Godse while on his way to the evening prayer meeting at
Birla House New Delhi. |
Gandhiji’s Some
Important Nationalist Movement
i) Non-Co-operation and Beyond
Non-Co-operation Movement (1920-22)
The Non -Co-Operation
Movement is considered the first mass movement under the leadership of Mahatma
Gandhi was launched to press three main issues:
1)
The Khilafat issue.
2)
The redressal of the Punjab Wrongs.
3)
The attainment of Swaraj.
The programme of the
movement had two side of coin:
1)
Destructive
2)
Constructive
The first category
came in
i)
Surrender of lilies and honorary offices and resignation
from nominated seats in local bodies.
ii)
Refusal to attend official functions.
iii)
Gradual withdrawal of children from officially controlled schools and
colleges.
iv)
Boycott of British Courts by lawyers and litigants.
v) Refusal on the part of the military
clerical and labour classes to offer themselves as recruits for service in
Mesopotamia.
vi)
Boycott the elections to the legislative council.
vii)
Boycott the foreign goods.
An unprecedented wave
of enthusiasm for the national struggle swept the length and breadth of the
country.
The Prince of Wales
visited India during this period.
Chauri - Chaura Incident (1922)
In Chauri-Chaura near
Gorakhpur (U.P.) a Police station including 22 policemen was burnt on February
5. 1922. Most of the nationalist leaders including G.R. Das, Motilal Nehru,
Subhash Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru, however expressed their bewilderment at
Gandhi’s decision to withdraw the Non-Cooperation Movement Feb. 12,1922.
In March 1922 Gandhi
ji was arrested and sentenced for six years in jail.
The Swaraj Party (1923)
C.R. Das, Motilal
Nehru and N.C. Kelkar suggested that instead of boycotting the councils they
should enter and expose them. In December 1922 Das and Motilal Nehru formed the
congress Khilafat Swaraj Party with C.R. Das as the President and Motilal Nehru
as one of the secretaries. The Swarajists contested elections to the
legislative assembly and provincial councils. In 1923 elections they got 42 seats
out of 101 elected seats in Bengal and central province. The Swaraj Party broke
in 1926 after the death of C.R. Das.
Simon Commission (1927)
In November 1927 the
British Government appointed the Indian Statutory Commission known as the Simon
Commission John Simon a British politician was appointed chairman of the
commission to review the situation in India with a view to introduce further
reforms and extension of Parliamentary Democracy. Indian leaders opposed the
Commission. At Madras session in 1927 presided over by Dr Ansari the Indian
National Congress decided to boycott the Simon Commission.
In February, 1928 the
Simon Commission reached Bombay and an all India hartal was organised wherever
the Commission went, was greeted with Hartals and black flag demonstrations
under the slogan. “Simon go back,” The police came down heavily on
demonstrators. The lathicharge at Lahore Lala Lajpat Rai beaten and died
because of injuries, (30 Oct 1928).
The Civil
Disobedience Movement (1930-34)
The Civil Disobedience
Movement was started By Gandhi on 12 March, 1930 with his famous Dandi March.
Dandi March:
Mahatma Gandhi
launched the Salt Satyagraha on 12 March 1930. Gandhiji marched from his
Sabarmati Ashram (Ahmedabad) with 78 followers. After 24 days long march he
symbolically broke the salt law at Dandi on April 6,1930. The breaking of the
salt laws formally inaugurated the civil Disobedience Movement. This movement
even sparked off patriotism among the Indian soldiers in British Army. The
Garhwali soldiers refused to open fire on the people of Peshawar.
The movement reached
the extreme north-western provinces of India and stirred the brave and hardy
Pathans. Under the leadership of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan Popularly known as
‘’the Frontier Gandhi.” The Pathans organised the society of Khudai Khidmatgars
(Servants of God) known popularly as Red sails.
Gandhi-Irwin Pact (1931)-
In March 1931 the
famous Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed. In accordance with the pact, the civil
disobedience movement was called off and all prisoners were released. The salt
law was amended so that people could collect salt from the sea-coast for
personal use. Gandhiji was appointed as the representative of the congress to
the Second Round Table Conference (1931)
The Quit India Movement - (1942)
Also known as
proposal and leaderless revolt. The Congress met at Bombay (Mumbai) on August
8, 1942 and passed the famous Quit India resolution. Gandhiji upheld the slogan
‘Do or Die’ The Quit India Movement became a powerful mass campaign galvanising
people into vehemently demanding freedom from the British rule. 09 August 1942
Gandhiji and other Congress leaders were arrested and the Congress party was
declared illegal once again. The violence that had broken out in different
parts of the country. Many government offices were destroyed, telegraph wires
were cut and communication preloved. Mahatma Gandhi disclaimed all
responsibilities for the violence which was the consequence of repressive
measure taken by the British. The government parallel government was set up in
Ballia in Pastern UP Chitlu Pandey. Tamluk Jatiya Sarkar of Satish Samant. Satara-parati
sarkar under Nana Patil Rajgopalae and the communists opposed the movement.
Usha Mehta ran an illegal radio station Irom Bombay (Mumbai) Nehru were in
Almora Jail, Maulana Azadin Bankara and Gandhiji in Agha Khan Palace (Poona).
The movement finally crushed. Span of the movement was short lived but the
importance of the movement lay in demonstrating the intensity of the
nationalist feeling that people displayed and the extent to which people would
go to make sacrifices in order to achieve freedom, The Muslim league didn’t
support the Quit India movement. Mahatma Gandhi, Achyut Patwardhan, Ram Manohar
Lohia, Jayaprakash Narayan and Aruna Asaf Ali were the movement leaders.
ii) Implementation
of Gandhian thoughts after Independence -
a) Panchayati Raj -
(Three tier system)
The Panchayati Raj
system in India is closely related to the Gandhian concept of Gram
Swaraj. India had a unique system of self-sufficient villages and their
assemblies from time immemorial. But colonial rule disrupted the existing
system and imposed their own system of village Panchayats in India which lacked
autonomy. The Government decided to organize village Panchayats all over the
country. In 1957, The Bal want Rai Mehta Committee was appointed to inquire
into this aspect. As a result of his recommendation the first Panchayat was
established in 1959 in Rajasthan. This was followed by A.P., Bihar, Gujrat. H.P., Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, U.P., West Bengal. The Maharashtra
government appointed the committee to Democratic Decentralization under the
Chairmanship of Vasantrao Naik. On the recommendation of this commission
Maharashtra Z.P and Panchayat Samiti Act was passed i n 1961. Panchayat Raj was
established on 1st May 1961 in Maharashtra.
On April 24, 1993 the
Panchayati Raj institutions were further strengthened, when the 73rd Constitutional
Amendment Act 1992 came into force. The salient features of the Act are (i) to
provide three - tier system of Panchayati Raj for all states having a
population of over 20 lakhs; (ii) to hold Panchyat elections regularly after
every five years (iii) to provide reservation of seats for scheduled castes
Scheduled Tribes and Women (not less than 33 percent) (iv) to appoint State
Finance Commission to make recommendations regarding the financial powers of
the Panchayats (v) to constitute District Planning Committee to prepare draft
development plan for the district as a whole. The Act provides the Gram Sabha
with the power of ownership of minor forest produce, development plans
approval, and control village functionaries in all sectors.
b) Co-operatives:
In 1958 the National
Development Council (NDC) had recommended a national policy on co-operatives.
But the idea of co-operatives took a concrete shape in India for the first time
in 1904 when the Co-operative Credit Societies Act, a measure designed to
combat rural indebtedness and provide for registration of credit societies was
passed. Later in 1912 the Co-operative Societies Act also provided for
registration of non-credit societies as well as federation of co-operatives.
Since then the Co-operative Movement has made noticeable progress, especially
in agricultural credit, marketing and processing of agricultural products,
supply of farm inputs and distribution of consumer goods. One important feature
is that the co-operative movement is largely village based. Governments
emphasis on institutionalisation of distribution of inputs to fanners and
marketing of their agricultural product through Cooperatives owned by them has
helped a great deal in strengthening the Co-operative sector in the rural
areas. The overall strategy in this regard has been to promote agricultural
production through provision of inputs for increasing production and
post-harvest facilities to protect the interest of farmers.
An idea of growth of
Co-operative movement in India can be inferred from the fact that there were as
many as 3.50 Lakh Co-operative societies of all types with a total membership
of about 16 Crore and total working capital of about Rs. 62,500 Crore as on 30
June 1990. Among the Cooperatives societies the following may be mentioned:
i)
Agricultural Credit Societies and Co-operative Banks which offer
loans to buy cattle, manure seeds, fertilizers and tools.
ii)
Non-Credit Societies which help the members by purchasing
and supplying seeds, manures and tools.
iii)
Consumers Co-operative societies which sell articles of everyday rise to the
village people at reasonable rates.
iv)
Co-operative marketing societies which enable the farmers to
sell their produce at a reasonable price.
D) Sarvodaya and
Bhoodan Movement
Sarvodaya
Sarvodaya, literally
meaning the uplift of all, is the most appropriate name for Gandhian Socialism.
The objective of the Sarvodaya plan is the establishment of a Sarvodaya social
order. It is not a philosophy regarding the maximisation of material well-being
as man’s only measure of social progress. It believes that institutions and
relationships should be fashioned on the twin principles of truth and
non-violence. It believes that the only enduring cohesive forms, that can weld
people together in society of the free and equal, are love and co-operation and
not constraint and coercion. These forces can neither be generated nor
strengthened by giving free plan to the competitive and combative strains in
man.
The main tenets of
the Sarvodaya Philosophy as propounded by Gandhi and subsequently reiterated
and explained by the pioneers of this movements are: -
* It reiterates belief in God and, what is
really important, it identifies that belief with faith in the goodness of man
and with service to humanity.
* It accepts Gandhiji’s ethical principle
but lays greater emphasis on their social and positive aspects.
* It provides a further clarification to the
principle of trusteeship as implying the abolition of private ownership and the
application of the principle of non-possession to public institutions is more
pronounced in it.
*
The philosophy of work and the principle of equality for all
religions find better elucidation in some of these thoughts.
*
The principle of Consensus of opinion to arrive at decisions,
will minimise the danger of majority tyranny over minority.
* It is more vocal in its denunciation of
political parties, and its idea of partyless democracy, though consistent with
ideas of Gandhi, is quite a new development.
*
It further develops Gandhi’s technique and organisation of
construction work, and his ideas on planning and Satyagraha.
The philosophical and ethical implications of Sarvodaya is that it aims
at the spiritualization of politics. It stands for integrating the principles
of religion with politics. Further the economic implication of Sarvodaya is
that it calls for villagisation, decentralisation and gifts as those of labour
(Shramdan), of land (Bhoodan), of wealth (Sampattidan), and of big shares in
village property (Gramdan). It outrightly discards the principle of
‘nationalisation’ of property by me action of the state with reasonable
compensation, or by means of force, instead it appreciates the way of
‘trusteeship’ as given by Gandhi. It desires the establishment of small village
communities in the form of Panchayats. Vinoba Bhave, Gandhiji’s spiritual
disciple and a distinguished leader of Sarvodaya movement stated it as a
principle of new philosophical, social, ethical, economic and political order
whose aim is that “all may be happy.’
Sarvodaya believed that the movement we succeed in creating a society
free from exploitation, the intellectual and spiritual talent of the people of
India will shine forth, showing the path of peach to the rest of the world. The
believers of Sarvodaya, therefore, sought to change the existing structure of
the society.
Bhoodan: -
Bhoodan or gift of
land was a unique concept pioneered by Acharya Vinoba Bhave. In his quest for a
socialistic order of society and conforming to Gandhian principle of
non-violent revolution, he sought to evoke a sense of moral obligation in the
minds of the people who owned vast tracts of I and at the time independence, to
donate land to the landless.
Bhoodan Movement
dates back to 18th April, 1951, in Telengana when the people agreed to donate their land
to the landless Harijans on the request of Vinoba Bhave within a short period,
he received about twelve thousand acres of land. This incredible phenomenon had
its immediate impact on the whole of India and soon Bhoodan became a major land
reform movement.
His aim was a three -
fold revolution. Firstly, he wanted a change in people’s hearts. Secondly, he
wanted to create a change in their lives, and thirdly, he wanted to change the
social structure. He believed that if the policy of Bhoodan was accomplished,
India would pass through the trail path to freedom and progress.
e) Secularism and Democracy
Secularism
The constitution of
India declares that India is a secular country. The word secular was inserted
into the preamble by the Forty-Second Amendment. It implies equality of all
religions and religious tolerance India, therefore does not have an official
state religion. Every person has the right to preach, practice and propagate
any religion they choose. The government must not favour or disco mi mite
against any religion. I must treat all religions with equal respect. All
citizens, irrespective of their religious beliefs, are equal in the eyes of
law. No religious instruction is imparted in government or government aided
schools. Nevertheless, general information about all established world
religions is imparted as part of the course in sociology, without giving any
importance to any one religion or the others the content presents the basic
fundamental information with regards to the fundamental beliefs, social values
and main practices and festival of each established world religions.
* Democracy
India is a democratic
country, democracy is not only viewed as a form of government but also as a
social, political and moral ideal or as a way of life. In a democracy the
people will supreme because sovereignty rests with them in the final analysis.
All adult citizens enjoy the right to franchise and, if they so desire they can
change the government in its entirely at the time of elections. The government
is responsible for its actions and policies to the people who can openly and
without fear criticize the government. Also, the government is limited by the
constitution of the country and any violation of the law of the land may be
challenged by any citizen in the court of law.
Rights of the people
in a democracy are considered very important. Some of the rights like the right
to life liberty and equality are considered sacrosanct and are included in the
constitution as Fundamental rights or as Bill or Rights. The government cannot
abridge or suspend or destroy these rights under normal circumstances. In order
to safeguard the rights of the people, there is an independent judiciary. The
government does not interfere in the functioning of the judiciary, so that it
can protect the constitution and dispense justice without fear or favour.
Another feature of a democracy
is that there are at least two major political parties one of which forms the
government and other functions as the effective opposition. There may also be
more than two parties forming coalition governments in certain situations and
several parties forming the opposition. There are pressure groups within and
outside the political parties which represent the interests of the different
sections of a society.