TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................2
MAHATAMA GANDHI .........................................................................................................................3
(Spiritual/Political Leader and Humanitarian, 1869 - 1948) ..................................................................3
THE GANDHIAN PHILOSOPHY OF SATYAGRAHA ..................................................................................5
GANDHI LEADS CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT WITH DANDI MARCH ..............................................9
SALT SATYAGRAHA AND DANDI MARCH-1930 ....................................................................................9
The March Goes on ................................................................................................................................. 10
The March Ends ...................................................................................................................................... 12
The Aftermath ......................................................................................................................................... 12
REACTION OF BRITISH ............................................................................................................................. 13
SALT SATYAGRAHA SPREADS ............................................................................................................ 14
Nationwide Civil Disobedience ............................................................................................................... 14
GANDHI- IRWIN PACT ...................................................................................................................... 14
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE RESUMED: THE POONA PACT ........................................................................... 17
QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT .................................................................................................................. 20
THE LAST HEROIC DAYS .................................................................................................................... 22
CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................... 24
Gandhis Leadership in Indian Freedom Struggle: 1930 - 1947

INTRODUCTION

Indias struggle for freedom had been a long drawn-out battle; isolated attempts were made in
various parts of the country to being the British rule in India to an end about a century earlier.
The real power in northern India passed into the hands of the British in 1757. The
loss of independence provided the motive force for the struggle for freedom and Indians in
different parts of the country began their efforts to throw off the alien rulers. It took over 100
years for the struggle to gain full momentum.

Surprisingly enough, the opposition to foreign rule in early years came more from the peasants,
laborers and the weaker sections of the society that from the educated bourgeois classes.
Unscrupulous defiance of moral principle and the reckless exploitation of the masses that
characterized the early activities of the traders made the rule of the East India Company hateful
to the people.

The Nationalist Movements in India were organized as mass movements emphasizing and
raising questions concerning the interests of the people of India. In most of these movements,
people were themselves encouraged to take action. Due to several factors, these movements
failed to win independence for India. However, they did promote a sense of nationalism among
the people of the country. The failure of these movements affected many people as they
withdrew from Government offices, schools, factories and services.

Gandhiji had an unflinching and unshakable faith in the theory of non-violence. He played a
pivotal role in the Indias struggle for freedom which was the worlds largest democratic
movement. Indian nationalism achieved its highest peak under Gandhis leadership. No doubt it
was he, who organized the movement on mass basis and tried his best to unite both Hindus and
Muslims, uplift the economic and social status of the untouchables. Gandhi evolved and
developed a powerful non-violent method, giving it the name Satyagraha. Though in
contemporary period there are various criticisms on him but we must observe him from that
particular period of freedom struggle.
I claim to be no more than an average man with less than average abilities. I have not the
shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the
same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith.

- GANDHI

MAHATAMA GANDHI

(Spiritual/Political Leader and Humanitarian, 1869 - 1948)

(Mohandas Karamchand) Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 in Porbandar, India. He became
one of the most respected spiritual and political leaders of the Twentieth Cnetury. Gandhi helped
free the Indian people from British rule through nonviolent resistance, and is honored by his
people as the father of the Indian Nation.

At age 13, Gandhi joined Kasturba, age 12, in a marriage arranged by their parents. The Gandhis
had four sons: Harilal and Manilal, born in India, and Ramdas and Devdas born in South Africa.
While Gandhi displayed loving kindness to everyone else, he was quite demanding and severe
with his wife and sons. Use the links below to learn more about Gandhi's relationship with his
family.

Gandhi studied law in London and returned to India in 1891 to practice. In 1893 he accepted a
one year contract to do legal work in South Africa. At the time South Africa was controlled by
the British. When he attempted to claim his rights as a British subject he was abused, and soon
saw that all Indians suffered similar treatment. Gandhi stayed in South Africa for 21 years
working to secure rights for Indian people. He developed a method of direct social action based
upon the principles courage, nonviolence and truth called Satyagraha. He believed that the way
people behave is more important than what they achieve. Satyagraha promoted nonviolence and
civil disobedience as the most appropriate methods for obtaining political and social goals.
In 1915 Gandhi returned to India. Within 15 years he became the leader of the Indian nationalist
movement. Using the tenets of Satyagraha he lead the campaign for Indian independence from
Britain. Gandhi was arrested many times by the British for his activities in South Africa and
India. He believed it was honorable to go to jail for a just cause. Altogether he spent seven years
in prison for his political activities.

More than once Gandhi used fasting to impress upon others the need to be nonviolent.
India was granted independence in 1947, and partitioned into India and Pakistan. Rioting
between Hindus and Muslims followed. Gandhi had been an advocate for a united India where
Hindus and Muslims lived together in peace. On January 13, 1948, at the age of 78, he began a
fast with the purpose of stopping the bloodshed. After 5 days the opposing leaders pledged to
stop the fighting and Gandhi broke his fast. Twelve days later he was assassinated by a Hindu
fanatic who opposed his program of tolerance for all creeds and religion.

Among the tributes to Gandhi upon his death were these words by the great physicist, Albert
Einstein:

Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and
blood
THE GANDHIAN PHILOSOPHY OF SATYAGRAHA

The Gandhian philosophy of satyagraha is a natural outcome of the supreme concept of truth. If
truth is the ultimate reality, then it is imperative to safeguard the criteria and foundations of truth.
A votary of God which is the highest Truth and the highest Reality must be utterly selfless and
gentle. He should have an unconquerable determination to fight for the supremacy of spiritual
and moral values.

Thus alone can he vindicate his sense of ethical devotion.

Satyagraha means the exercise of the purest soul-force against all injustice, oppression and
exploitation. Suffering and trust are attributes of soul force. The active nonviolent resistance of
the heroic meek makes an immediate appeal to the heart. It wants not to endanger the opponent
but to overwhelm him by the over flooding power of innocence. Satyagraha or stupendous effort
at conversion can be applied against the Government, the social Czars and leaders of
orthodoxy.

Satyagraha is an inherent birthright of a person. It is not merely a sacred right but it can also be a
sacred duty. If the Government does not represent the will of the people, and if it begins to
support dishonesty and terrorism, then it should be disobeyed. But one who wants to vindicate
his rights should be prepared to bear all kinds of suffering.
Gandhi referred to the teaching of Thoreau in this connection. However, Gandhi stated that
Thoreau was not a complete champion of nonviolence. Probably Thoreau limiter his breach of
governmental laws to the revenue law, i.e., he refused to pay taxes. The dynamics of satyagraha
as formulated by Gandhi are broader and more universally applicable. From the family to the
statewheresoever one meets injustice and untruthone can resort to satyagraha. In his
autobiography, Gandhi has referred to some experiences of satyagraha practiced in his own
family life. He said that the alphabet of ahimsa is learnt in the domestic school and can be
extended to national and even international levels.
According to Gandhiji fasting can be one form of satyagraha, but it has to be applied only against
those who are bound by ties of close personal affection. Voluntary migration can be another form
of satyagraha. Tyranny is a kind of plague and when it is likely to make us angry or weak, it is
wisdom to leave the scene of such temptation, said Gandhi. He even supported Hijrat. The
exodus refers to the planned flight of the Israelites. In Russia, there was the flight of the
Doukhabours who were nonviolent. Gandhi would not consider the scorched earth policy to be
a form of satyagraha. He ruled out underground activities, even though entirely innocent, as a
part of legitimate fight for freedom based on truth and nonviolence.
Satyagraha as conceived by Gandhi is not a formula of social and political disintegration.

A satyagrahi must have first rendered willing obedience to the laws of the state. Gandhi writes:
a satyagrahi obeys the laws of the society intelligently and of his own freewill, because he
considers it to be his sacred duty to do so. It is only when a person has thus obeyed the laws of
society scrupulously that he is in a position to judge as to which particular rules are good and just
and which are unjust and iniquitous and only then does the right accrue to him of the civil
disobedience of certain laws in well-defined circumstances. Gandhi claimed to have been by
nature law-abiding. The capacity for civil resistance comes from the discipline undergone in the
process of obeying the civil and moral laws of the state.

A satyagrahi while resisting the laws of the government should see that the social structure is not
subverted.
Gandhi laid down strict canons of moral discipline for the satyagrahi. He must have an
unshakeable faith in God, otherwise he will not be able to bear calmly the physical atrocities
perpetrated on his person by the authorities with superior force of violence at the command. He
must not hanker after wealth and fame. He must obey the leader of the satyagraha unit. He
should practice Brahmacharya and should be absolutely fearless and firm in his resolve. He must
have patience, single-minded purposefulness and must not be swayed from the path of duty by
anger or any other passion. Satyagraha can never be resorted to for personal gains. It is a love
process and the appeal is to the heart and not to the sense of fear of the wrong-doer. Thus,
satyagraha is based on personal purification.
The Gandhian stress on purity as a criterion for political power is a great contribution to political
thought. It is essential to employ pure means for serving a righteous cause.
There are different forms of satyagraha. Non cooperation with the evil doer is a mild form. Civil
disobedience of the laws of the government is a strong and extreme form of satyagraha. There
can be individual as well as mass civil disobedience. The latter means spontaneous action by the
masses. In the beginning, masses will have to be rigorously trained for action. According to
Gandhi, complete civil disobedience implying a refusal to render obedience to every single state-
made law can be a very powerful movement.

It can become more dangerous than an armed rebellion; because the stupendous power of
innocent suffering undergone on a great scale has potency. By bringing the scrutinizing glare of
public opinion on the evils of an autocratic state, the fall even of a despotic political regime is
ensured.
It is not correct to say that Gandhi would not sanction satyagraha in a democratic form of
government. He had no special attachment for parliamentary democracy. He did not accept the
axiomatic superiority of the majority within parliament. The basic problem, according to him,
was life in accordance with the canons of truth. Several times Gandhi opposed a law or system
even if he were in a minority of one, because for him non cooperation with evil was a sacred
duty. A democracy can be swayed by all types of passions, prejudices and petty considerations,
but a devotee of truth would no t tamely accept this. He would not be content with merely trying
to change the membership of the legislatures after four or five years. He should certainly educate
public opinion. According to the political teachings of Gandhi, satyagraha is a perpetual law
against anything repugnant to the soul. Even if alone, a man of truth and conscience will resist
the laws and commands issued by a representative legislature if they go against the higher law of
the atman. A true satyagrahi will risk all dangers for the sake of truth. Gandhi wrote: But even
so a call may come which one dare not neglect, cost it what it may.

To begin with, satyagraha is a dynamic force because it contemplates action in resistance of

injustice. Passive resistance is compatible with internal violence towards the enemy but
satyagraha stresses continuous cleansing of the mind. It emphasizes even inner purity. Passive
resistance is mainly contemplated at a political level. Satyagraha can be practiced at all levels
domestic, social and political. Satyagraha goes beyond passive resistance in its stress on spiritual
and moral teleology because the final source of hope and consolation for the satyagrahi is God.
The Gandhian theory of satyagraha is far more comprehensive than the passive resistance as
advocated in India in 1906-1908. Tilak and Aurobindo would not condemn violence on moral
grounds. But Gandhi accepted the absolution of ahimsa. The passive resistance of 1906-1908
was a political technique of limited application. Sometimes it meant only Swadeshi and boycott,
while at other times it was extended to cover disobedience of unjust laws and decrees. The
Gandhian theory of satyagraha is a philosophy of life and politics and it contemplates stupendous
mass action for paralyzing the total structure of a despotic government.
It is true that there are points of similarity between the ideas of Gandhi and the British liberals,
specially in their grudging attitude to the spheres of state action but they emerge from different
traditions. Gandhi was more radical and trenchant in his opposition to the state than any British
liberal nurtured in the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. Essentially Gandhi was a moral prophet
who had declared his unequivocal resistance to all concentrations of power, force and violence.
The influence of the individualistic spirit of the old Sanyasi and the Bhikshu tradition of India
combined with the protestant individualism of Thoreau and the radical anti-static of Tolstoy was
too pronounced in Gandhi.
GANDHI LEADS CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT WITH DANDI MARCH

On December 25, 1929, the 44th session of Indian National Congress was held at Lahore under
the president ship of Jawaharlal Nehru. By this time all the Congress leaders were convinced that
the British government would not grant Swaraj to India till it was forced to do so. It was during
this session that a resolution for complete independence was passed on December 31, 1929 and
the newly adopted tri-color flag of independence was hosted. On January 26, 1930, the first
Independence Day celebrations were held at different places. The Lahore session gave the whole
country a new hope. The Lahore Congress of 1929 had authorized the working committee to
launch a programme of civil disobedience including non-payment of taxes. It had also called
upon all members of legislatures to resign their seats. In mid-February, 1930, the working
committee entrusted Gandhi with the responsibility to launch the Civil Disobedience movement.

SALT SATYAGRAHA AND DANDI MARCH-1930

The Great March, which can be likened to Lord Buddhas Mahabhinishkraman, commenced
from the ashram premises on the banks of the river Sabarmati, Ahmedabad, at 6.30 a.m. on
March 12, 1930. Gandhiji, staff in hand, frail, but full of energy even at the age of 61, led the 78
satyagrahis. These represented a cross-section of the people from all over the country: Andhra,
Bengal, Bihar, Bombay, Gujarat, Karnatak, Kerala, Cutch, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajputana,
Sind, Tamiland, U.P.,Utkal and even Nepal. Besides Hindus, there were among them two
Muslims, one Christian and two Harijans. A huge crowd followed the satyagrahis, the roads for
miles and miles having been watered and decorated with arches, flags and torans.

Like the historic march of Ramachandra to Lanka the march of Gandhi will be memorable,
while Shri P. C. Ray compared it with the exodus of the Israelites under Moses.
The sight of the satyagrahis moved Jawaharlal Nehru to heights of eloquence, prompting him to
exclaim: Today the pilgrim marches onward on his long trek. Staff in hand he goes along the
dusty roads of Gujarat, clear-eyed and firm of step, with his faithful band trudging along behind
him. Many a journey he has undertaken in the past, many a weary road traversed. But longer than
any that have gone before is this last journey of his, and many are the obstacles in his way. But
the fire of a great resolve is in him and surpassing love of his miserable countrymen. And love of
truth that scorches and love of freedom that inspires. And none that passes him can escape the
spell, and men of common clay feel the spark of life. It is a long journey, for the goal is the
independence of India and the ending of the exploitation of her millions.
After the first days march which ended at Aslali, 13 miles from Ahmedabad, Gandhiji said to
the assembled people: The soldiers of the first batch had burnt their boats the moment the
March began. He also vowed not to return to the ashram until the Salt Act was repealed, and
swaraj won.

The March Goes on

Gandhijis energy at the age of 61 was amazing. Daily he walked 10 miles or more and
addressed public meetings. The ashram routine of prayer, spinning and writing up the daily diary
was incumbent on every Marcher. Ours is a sacred pilgrimage, he said, and we should be able
to account for every minute of our time. He retired at 9 p.m. still talking to people and giving
interviews until he fell asleep. Long before his comrades were up, he rose and began his
correspondence. At 4 a.m.in the morning he was seen writing letters by the moonlight, as his
little lamp had gone out for want of oil and he did not wish to disturb anybody. At 6 a.m. there
was the call to morning prayers. After the prayers, he delivered a sermon to the pilgrims on the
march and answered questions. Every day, the March commenced punctually at 5.30 a.m.
Unprecedented scenes of increasing enthusiasm were witnessed throughout the March from
Ahmedabad to Dandi. During his numerous speeches on the way, he exhorted people to join in
large numbers, boycott foreign cloth, adopt Khadi and desist from the evil of drinking.

In the issue of YOUNG INDIA of March 27, Gandhiji gave a call to the people in an article titled
THE DUTY OF DISLOYALITY
In it he bluntly declared that there was no half-way house between active loyalty and active
disloyalty. He added: Indeed, loyalty to a state so corrupt is a sin, disloyalty a virtue. This was
in keeping with the sentiments of a speech he had made in Borsad on March 18, where he said:
I regard this as a religious movement since sedition is our dharma.
In response to this call, several village officials resigned their posts. People everywhere were
overcome by a fresh wave of enthusiasm. Addressing the youth, Shri Jawaharlal Nehru said,
The field of battle lies before you, the flag of India beckons to you, and freedom herself awaits
your coming.He also added: Who lives if India dies? Who dies if India lives?
Shri Motilal Nehru and Shri Jawaharlal Nehru met Gandhiji at Jambusar and also marched a
little distance with him.

Fiery speeches by Gandhiji. Gandhiji speeches along the way were charged with emotion and
spared neither the Government nor the people. His speech at Bhatgam on March 29, was
introspective and as he noted in YOUNG INDIA moved both the audience and me deeply. He
expressed agony at reported extravagances saying: Extravagance has no room in this
campaign. He also reiterated his resolve to carry on the struggle. His ringing words were: it
will continue no matter how co-workers or others act. For me there is no turning back whether I
am alone or joined by thousands. I would rather die a dogs death and have my bones licked by
dogs than that I should return to the ashram a broken man. In the course for a speech at Navsari,
he said: Either I shall return with what I want or my dead body will float in the ocean. Earlier,
addressing the volunteers on March 28, Gandhiji had said: We have looked upon Dandi as
Hardwar. Let us become worthy of entering a place as holy as Hardwar.
The March Ends

The long 241 mile trek finally ended on April 5, 1930. Along the way Gandhiji and his
companions had broken journey for the night at 22 places.
On April 6, the atmosphere at Dandi was both tense and solemn.

The day began with prayers. Gandhiji then nominated shri Abbas Tyabji, and after him, Smt.
Sarojni Naidu, to lead the satyagraha if he was arrested.
After prayers, Gandhiji with his followers took a bath in the sea. Then at 8.30 a.m. he defied the
Salt Law by picking up a lump of salt. Smt. Sarojni Naidu who was there, hailed him as a law-
breaker.

The Aftermath

The nation defies the Salt Law. The first salvo of the battle was thus fired. Gandhiji in a
statement issued after breaking the Salt Law, declared Now that the technical or ceremonial
breach of the Salt Law has been committed, it is now open to anyone who would take the risk of
prosecution under the Salt Law to manufacture salt, wherever he wishes and wherever it is
convenient.
The entire nation rose as a man against what Gandhiji described as Goonda Raj. Millions
broke the Salt Law and courted imprisonment. Salt depots were raided everywhere and the
manufacture of illicit salt was undertaken. In a single raid at Dharasana, 289 volunteers were
wounded because the police now used lathis and batons freely. But even the brutality of the
mounted police failed to break the morale of the people.

At the same time, the breaking of other oppressive laws was also undertaken.
Gandhiji moves on. Gandhiji declared to the nation: The call of 1920 was a call for preparation,
today it is a call for engaging in final conflict. He said in a message: At present Indias self-
respect, in fact, her all, is symbolized as it were in a handful of salt in the satyagrahis hand. Let
the first holding it, therefore, be broken, but let there be no voluntary surrender of the salt
REACTION OF BRITISH

The Government replied by unleashing a regin of terror. By March 31, more than 95,000 were
jailed. Shri Jawaharlal Nehru was arrested on April 14 and sentenced to 6 months imprisonment.
Sporadic violence broke out in Karachi, Calcutta, Peshawar and Chittagong. The police opened
fire in Calcutta, Madras and Karachi and perpetrated acts of brutality all over the country.
Through all this Gandhiji urged the people to answer this organized hooliganism with great
suffering.
Gandhiji is arrested. The battle against the Black Regime was at its peak when Gandhiji
planned to commence the march to Dharasana. But at 12.45 a.m. on May 4, he was arrested at
Karadi,3 miles from Dandi whilst asleep in his cottage. The camp where he rested was raided by
the District Magistrate of Surat, with two police officers armed with pistols and about 30
policemen armed with rifles. Flashing a torch on Gandhiji, who was asleep in his bed, the British
officer asked him if he was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

Thus ended a glorious episode in our Freedom Struggle. The spark that the Dandi March ignited,
soon kindled the flames of a movement that engulfed the entire nation and finally succeeded in
achieving what Gandhiji in essence strove to accomplish at Dandi total independence for the
people of his beloved India.
SALT SATYAGRAHA SPREADS

Nationwide Civil Disobedience

Gandhijis arrest and internment led to hartals and strikes all over India. Some fifty thousand
textile workers downed tools in Bombay. The railway workers joined the demonstration. In
Poona, where Gandhi was interned, resignations from the honorary offices and from services
were announced at frequent intervals. In Calcutta, the police opened fire and arrested many
people. There was firing also in Delhi.

On the day of Gandhis arrest, Peshawar was surrounded by military. India rose like one man.
In Sholapur the people held possession of the town for one week, until the martial law was
proclaimed. There was trouble in Mymensingh, Calcutta, Karachi, Lucknow, Multan, Delhi,
Rawalpindi, Mardan and Peshawar. Troops, aeroplanes, tanks, guns and ammunition were freely
used in the North-West Frontier Province.

GANDHI- IRWIN PACT

In October, 1929 Lord Irwin made an unclear offer of a dominion status for India. It marked
the end of a period of civil disobedience in India against British rule. Gandhiji and his followers
had initiated the Salt March between March and April 1930. Gandhijis arrest and imprisonment
at the end of the march, for making salt, sparked off one of his more effective civil disobedience
movements.

By the end of 1930, thousands of Indians, including Jawaharlal Nehru, were in jail. The
movement had generated worldwide publicity, and Irwin was looking for a way to end it.
Gandhiji was released from custody in January 1931, and the two men began negotiating the
terms of the pact. For many conservatives in England, the meetings and talks seemed
unacceptable. They thought it was inappropriate for the Viceroy, who was the representative of
the British Monarch, to receive their arch-enemy.

Gandhiji was authorised by the then President of the Congress, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, to
negotiate with Lord Irwin. Gandhiji said he would attend the Conference in the true spirit of a
Satyagrahi. He advised the nation to wait, watch, pray and hope for a better prospect for India.
He was full of admiration for the people, their heroic struggle and hard suffering. Though many
were unhappy that Gandhiji had stopped his movement especially when the people were in high
spirit of victory, he had a different perspective. He told the people that the nation had suffered a
great deal and needed an interval to fight the next phase with more vigour.

The Viceroy, Lord Irwin, was at this time directing the sternest repression which Indian
nationalism had known, but he did not really relish the role. The British civil service and the
commercial community were in favour of even harsher measures. But Premier Ramsay
MacDonald and Secretary of State Benn were eager for peace, if they could secure it without
weakening the position of the Labour Government; they wanted to make a success of t6he Round
Table Conference and they knew that this body without the presence of Gandhi and the Congress
could not carry much weight. In January 1931, at the closing session of the Round Table
Conference, Ramsay MacDonald went so far as to express the hope that the Congress would be
represented at the next session. The Viceroy took the hint and promptly ordered the
unconditional release of Gandhi and all members of the Congress Working Committee. To this
gesture Gandhi responded by agreeing to meet the Viceroy.
"The Two Mahatmas" as Sarojini Naidu described Gandhi and Irwinhad eight meetings
which lasted for a total of 24 hours. Gandhi was impressed by Irwins sincerity. The terms of the
"Gandhi-Irwin Pact" fell manifestly short of those which Gandhi had prescribed as the minimum
for a truce. Some of his colleagues considered the Gandhi-Irwin Pact a clever manoeuvre, and
Suspected that Irwin had led the Mahatma upon the garden path of the Viceroys House.

On the other hand, it is fair to record that British official in India, and Tory politicians in
England, were outraged by the idea of a pact with a party whose avowed purpose was the
destruction of the British Raj. Winston Churchill publicly expressed his disgust "at the
nauseating and humiliating spectacle of this one-time Inner Temple lawyer, now seditious fakir,
striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceroys palace, there to negotiate and parley on equal
terms with the representative of the King Emperor".
Gandhis motives in concluding a pact with the Viceroy can be best understood in terms of his
technique. The Satyagraha movements were commonly described as "struggles", "rebellions"
and "wars without violence". Owing, however, to the common connotation of these words, they
seemed to lay a disproportionate emphasis on the negative aspect of the movements, namely,
opposition and conflict. The object of Satyagraha was, however, not to achieve the physical
elimination or moral breakdown of an adversary, but, through suffering at his hands, to initiate
those psychological processes which could make it possible for minds and hearts to meet. In such
a struggle a compromise with an opponent was neither heresy nor treason, but a natural and
necessary step. And if it turned out that the compromise was premature and the adversary was
unrepentant, there was nothing to prevent the Satyagrahi from returning to non-violent battle.
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE RESUMED: THE POONA PACT

On his return Gandhiji was dismayed to see the repression in full swing. Government violated
the agreement of honour and ruled the country by harsh ordinances. The new Viceroy regarded
the Gandhi-Irwin Pact as dead and gone. He was terribly afraid of Jawaharlal Nehru and Khan
Abdul Ghaffar Khan as most dangerous persons. Because Nehru had no faith in anything except
complete independence Ghaffar Khan had in the meanwhile raised a pathan volunteers force in
the frontier in the name of Khudai Khidmatgars. This body became a part of the Congress. The
Viceroy observing the political nerve of India decided to face the situation with utmost iron
hands.

As precautionary measures he ordered for the arrest of all prominent leaders throughout the
country. Revolutionary activities were intensified in Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Frontier
Provinces. The Civil Disobedience Movement was resumed and Gandhiji along with many other
prominent leaders were arrested on 4th January 1932. The Congress was declared an illegal body
and the Government resorted to sternest measures to crush the movement. Police excess
surpassed even its own past records of shame.

Gandhiji expressed his desire for individual Civil Disobedience instead of mass Civil
Disobedience. Accordingly the nation once again rose to suffer and sacrifice in order to carry on
the struggle. Throughout the year 1932, the movement continued in full fury. Millions of
Satyagrahis were arrested. By April 1932 the British Jails were overcrowded with the
Satyagrahis only, numbering more than one lakh and twenty thousands.

Keeping the Congress leaders inside the prison the British Government went ahead with its
constitution making. In August 1932 the British Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald announced
his communal award giving separate electorate to Muslim, Sikhs and Europeans. He also
promised to provide separate electorate for the depressed classes or the untouchables officially
known as Scheduled Castes as a separate Community. He also promised reservation for women.

The Government issued a white paper on the future of the constitution of India. The constitution
provided the proposals for the creation of several Muslim majority provinces and the formation
of legislatures on the basis of separate electorate. Thus joint electorate system of the nation was
abandoned. Gandhiji therefore on 20th September 1932 started his fast. It created a deep emotion
among the leaders of the caste Hindus and the depressed classes who reached in an agreement in
Poona to save Gandhijis life as well as the unity of the Hindu Community. This agreement
became famous as the Poona Pact.

It was decided according to the Pact that there should be reserved seats for the Depressed Classes
within the general seats and election to those seats should be by joint electorates. This Poona
Pact was considered by many as an unfortunate shifting of emphasis from the main object of the
Civil Disobedience movement. Gandhiji was more concerned with the Harijan Movement which
had an adverse affect on the Civil Disobedience Movement.

The Third Round Table Conference met in London in November 1932 with the Congress holding
away. It was attended by much smaller number of representatives than before. It served no
purpose but the British Government published a White Paper on 15th March 1933 giving an
outline of a new constitution for India. It became very clear that the Government would impose a
constitution on India against the will of the majority, whether the Congress liked it or not. The
imperialistic objective was projected in the Government of India Act of 1935 which was the
main outcome of the Third Round Table Conference.

Gandhiji felt upset at these developments. As a moral challenge he began yet another fast for 21
days on 8th May 1933 inside the Yeravda Prison but intelligently enough the Government
decided to release him on health ground. Out of prison but undergoing the fast in Poona Gandhiji
decided to change his strategy to avoid the problems of Communalism.

He therefore advised the Congress to suspend the Civil Disobedience Movement which
practically came to an end in May 1933. This decision was vehemently critised by Subhash
Chandra Bose, a prominent leader of the Congress left wing.

Officially the Civil Disobedience Movement was brought to an end in 1934. The movement was
however memorable in the history of India. All sections of the people, the women, the youth, the
students and the workers joined the movement to break the British laws. The rural masses
affected by industrial and agricultural slump showed remarkable courage in facing the police
action. To them it was a struggle against an oppressive land system.
This mass participation lent the Congress a new status and prestige. The Congress could assess
its strength when it received support of the masses and could come to the conclusion that it was
strong enough to start its final struggle for freedom. The flames of the movement died down but
the burning embers remained for a long time hot to stimulate Indias will for freedom.

The British administration was greatly demoralized. The foundation of the Empire trembled
when a poor peasant in the village broke the laws of the Government by not paying the land tax.
Any revolution of that magnitude in future appeared disastrous.
QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT

With the failure of the Cripps Mission, there was widespread discontentment among the Indians.
Japan was advancing towards India and the fall of India to Japan was imminent. Gandhiji warned
that only a free India could defend herself and he urged for the right of self-determination to
Indians.

But there was also a difference of opinion among the Indian leaders. While Gandhiji demanded
that the British should immediately withdraw from India, Subhash Chandra Bose from Berlin
urged for co-operation with Japan as with this means India would be liberated.

The difficulties of Britain would be the opportunities of India. Since the Congress was opposed
both to British and Japanese imperialism, the call of Subhas did not appeal to them. Another
eminent leader of the Congress, C. Rajagopalachari did not support the proposal of immediate
withdrawal of Britishers.

He was, rather in favour of accepting the Cripps proposal and the principle of Pakistan. Being
unable to agree with the proposals of Gandhiji, Rajagopalachari resigned from Congress.

Gandhiji adopted a stern attitude to pressurize the British Government to quit India. But when
this proposal did not receive any response from the government, the Congress Working
Committee met at Wardha on 14th July 1942 and adopted the famous Quit India Resolution.
With little modification this resolution was adopted by the All India Congress Committee at its
Bombay session on 8th August 1942. The Committee asserted Indias right to freedom and
decided to start a mass struggle on non-violent means on the widest possible scale.

Addressing the Conference, Gandhiji gave the call Do or Die, either to get India free or to die
in this attempt. But before the movement could be launched Gandhiji and all other leaders of the
Congress were imprisoned. Thus, the people were left leaderless. People took it as a challenge
and resorted to hartals, mass meetings, processions etc
The police forcefully dispersed the public meetings, lathi charged and even fired at the public.
The Congress was declared an unlawful association. In the absence of leaders, people voluntarily
did whatever they could in protest of the British rule. Under this circumstance, it was
impossible to continue the movement in non-violent means.

The people disrupted railway lines, burnt out police and railway stations, destroyed telephone
and telegraph poles. The revolt was spearheaded by the students, peasants, workers and lower
middle class people. People set up parallel government at some places. The government was able
to crush the open movement with a heavy hand. But the underground movement continued for a
long period. The Socialist Party under the leadership of Jaya Prakash Narain, Ram Manohar
Lohia, and Mrs. Aruna Asaf Ali etc. largely participated in organizing underground movement.

The Quit India Movement was not supported by the Muslim League and the Communists. When
Russia joined the war on behalf of the Allies, the communists began to demand the withdrawal
of the movement and pleaded all support to the government in its war effort. The Muslim League
considered the movement as the attempt of the Congress to turn out the British forcefully as a
result of which Muslims would be enslaved by the Hindus. Even the depressed class leader Dr.
B.R. Ambedkar described the movement as irresponsible and an act of madness.

The movement collapsed as it lacked leadership and organisation from the beginning.
Jayaprakash Narain said that the movement failed due to lack of co-ordination among the
Congress people agitating in different parts of the country. There was absence of a clear cut
programme of action. Another weakness of the movement was that it was confined only to
students, peasants and lower middle class. But the upper middle class had lost their faith in the
Gandhian methods of action.

Thus, the movement did not enjoy widespread popularity which greatly contributed to its failure.
But the movement was not a dismal failure; rather the movement of 1942 gave the death blow to
the British rule. Indias march towards freedom was hastened. This movement sparked off an
aggressive national consciousness. Many people sacrificed their careers, property and even lives.
THE LAST HEROIC DAYS

As it happened, Mahatma Gandhi was not present at the festivities in the capital on15 August
1947. He was in Calcutta, but he did not attend any function or hoist a flagthere either. Gandhiji
marked the day with a 24-hour fast. The freedom he had struggled so long for had come at an
unacceptable price, with a nation divided and Hindus and Muslims at each others throats.
Through September and October, writes his biographer D.G. Tendulkar, Gandhiji went round
hospitals and refugee camps giving consolation to distressed people. He appealed to the Sikhs,
the Hindus and the Muslims to forget the past and not to dwell on their sufferings but to extend
the right hand of fellowship to each other, and to determine to live in peace...At the initiative of
Gandhiji and Nehru, the Congress now passed a resolution on the rights of minorities. The
party had never accepted the two-nation theory: forced against its will to accept Partition, it
still believed that India is a land of many religions and many races, and must remain so.
Whatever be the situation in Pakistan, India would be a democratic secular State where all
citizens enjoy full rights and are equally entitled to the protection of the State, irrespective of the
religion to which they belong. The Congress wished to assure the minorities in India that it
will continue to protect, to the best of its ability, their citizen rights against aggression. Many
scholars have written of the months after Independence as being Gandhijis finest hour. After
working to bring peace to Bengal, Gandhiji now shifted to Delhi, from where he hoped to move
on to the riot-torn districts of Punjab. While in the capital, his meetings were disrupted by
refugees who objected to readings from the Koran,or shouted slogans asking why he did not
speak of the sufferings of those Hindus and Sikhs still living in Pakistan. In fact, as D.G.
Tendulkar writes, Gandhiji was equally concerned with the sufferings of the minority
community in Pakistan.He would have liked to be able to go to their succour. But with what face
could henow go there, when he could not guarantee full redress to the Muslims in Delhi?

There was an attempt on Gandhijis life on 20 January 1948, but he carried on undaunted. On 26
January, he spoke at his prayer meeting of how that day had been celebrated in the past as
Independence Day. Now freedom had come, but its first few months had been deeply
disillusioning. However, he trusted that the worst is over, that Indians would henceforth work
collectively for the equality of all classes and creeds, never the domination and superiority of
the major community over a minor, however insignificant it may be in numbers or influence.
He also permitted himself the hope that though geographically and politically India is divided
into two, at heart we shall ever be friends and brothers helping and respecting one another and be
one for the outside world. Gandhiji had fought a lifelong battle for a free and united India; and
yet, when the country was divided, heurged that the two parts respect and befriend one another.
Other Indians were less forgiving. At his daily prayer meeting on the evening of 30 January,
Gandhiji wasshot dead by a young man. The assassin, who surrendered afterwards, was a
Brahmin from Pune named Nathuram Godse, the editor of an extremist Hindu newspaper who
had denounced Gandhiji as an appeaser of Muslims. In the 1920s, Jawaharlal Nehru was
increasingly influenced by socialism, and he returned from Europe in 1928 deeply impressed
with the Soviet Union. As he began working closely with the socialists (Jayaprakash Narayan,
Narendra Dev, N.G. Ranga and others), a rift developed between the socialists and the
conservatives within the Congress. After becoming the Congress President in 1936, Nehru spoke
passionately against fascism, and upheld the demands of workers and peasants. Worried by
Nehrus socialist rhetoric, the conservatives, led by Rajendra Prasad and Sarda Patel, threatened
to resign from the Working Committee, and some prominent industrialists in Bombay issued a
statement attacking Nehru. Both Prasad and Nehru turned to Mahatma Gandhi and met him at his
ashram at Wardha. The latter acted as the mediator, as he often did, restraining Nehrus
radicalism and persuading Prasad and others to see the significance of Nehrus leadership.
CONCLUSION

A transformational leader makes other people feel confident and powerful, which wasnt the
case of the Indians, since they were under the rule of the British. Gandhi empowered all these
people to believe in themselves and feel influential in the change they were trying to create.
Indias independence couldnt have happened with one person; everyone had to be a part of it.
Gandhi encouraged them to believe in themselves in order to cause this great change in their
country. At the same time, he was open to new ideas and opinions from his followers, and some
of these were implemented in his campaigns. Without being humble and empowering, Gandhi's
change wouldn't have been that influential. Transformational leaders are those who work
together with a group of people, to make a difference, as well as leaving a legacy of that change.

The mass movements failed in their primary objective, achieving independence for India, as they
were often called off before they naturally concluded. However they sparked nationalist
sentiment with the Indian populace, figures like Mahatama Gandhi united a nation behind his
non-violent philosophy and undoubtedly put crucial pressure on the British occupation. While in
the later years of the Raj economic factors like the reversing trade fortunes between Britain and
India and the cost of fielding the Indian armed forces abroad lumped on the British tax payer by
the 1935 Government of India act, had mounting implication for British administration, united
resistance further drew light on the growing disparity of the British failures to achieve solidarity
over India. Indeed, Nationalist Movements in India were merely another notch on Britain's ever
scarred grip over its Raj, faced with a magnitude of issues, mass Movements attributed to but
were not solely responsible for India's independence in 1947.