Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
• Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869 to a
Hindu Modh Baniya family at Porbandar in Saurashtra in Gujarat.
His father, Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi served as the Diwan
(chief minister) of Porbandar state. The name of his was Putlibai
• In May 1883, the 13-year-old Mohandas was married to 14-year-old
Kasturbai Makhanji Kapadia popularly k/a Kasturba.
• He proceeded to England in 1888 and returned to India as a
Barrister-at law in 1891.
• He failed as a practicing lawyer both at Rajkot and in Bombay.
• In 1893, he accepted a yearlong contract from Dada Abdulla & Co.,
an Indian firm, to work as a legal representative for the Muslim
Indian Traders based in the city of Pretoria years in South Africa, a
part of the British Empire.
• Gandhi was 24 when he arrived in South Africa. He spent 21 years
in South Africa, where he developed his political views, ethics and
political leadership skills. He became the first highly educated
Indian to have some to South Africa.
• They gave enormous powers to the police to search a
place and arrest any person they disapproved of
without warrant. A well known description of the bills
at that time was:
No Dalil,No Vakil,No Appeal
i.e.,no pleas,no lawyer,no Appeal.
• Despite much opposition, the Rowlatt act was passed
in March 1919.
• Gandhi and others were extremely critical of the Act
and argued that not everyone should get punishment
in response to isolated political crimes. The Act
annoyed many Indian leaders and the public, which
caused the government to implement repressive
measures.
Gandhi and others found that constitutional opposition
to the measure was fruitless, so Gandhiji suggested
that a Satyagraha be launched. so on April 6, a " hartal
" was organized where Indians would suspend all
business and fast as a sign of their opposition and civil
disobedience would be offered against specific law.
This event is known as the Rowlatt satyagraha .
Gandhiji named the Rowlatt Act as "black act".
However Delhi observed the hartal on 30 March
because of some confusion about dates, and there was
considerable violence in the streets.
• On 10 April 1919, there was a protest at the residence of
the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar, a city in Punjab, a
large province in the northwestern part of India. The
demonstration was to demand the release of two popular
leaders of the Indian Independence Movement, Satya Pal
and Saifuddin Kitchlew, who had been earlier arrested by
the government and moved to a secret location. Both were
proponents of the Satyagraha movement led by Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi. A military picket shot at the crowd,
killing several protesters and setting off a series of violent
events. Later the same day, several banks and other
government buildings, including the Town Hall and the
railway station, were attacked and set afire. The violence
continued to escalate, culminating in the deaths of at least
five Europeans, including government employees and
civilians.
• The army was called in and the city handed over to General
Reginald Dyer who issued an order prohibiting public
meetings and assemblies however this notice was not
widely disseminated.
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, also known as the
Amritsar massacre, took place on 13 April 1919 when a
crowd of nonviolent protesters, along with Baishakhi
pilgrims, who had gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh garden
in Amritsar, Punjab to protest against the arrest of two
nationalist leaders, Dr. Satyapal, Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew,
although a curfew had been recently declared. On hearing
that a meeting had assembled at Jallianwala Bagh, Dyer
went with group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five
Balochi and Pathan soldiers to a raised bank and ordered
them to shoot at the crowd. Dyer continued the firing for
about ten minutes, until the ammunition supply was almost
exhausted; Dyer stated that 1,650 rounds had been fired, a
number which seems to have been derived by counting
empty cartridge cases picked up by the troops. Official
British Indian sources gave a figure of 379 identified dead,
with approximately 1,100 wounded. The casualty number
estimated by the Indian National Congress was more than
1,500, with approximately 1,000 dead.
• This "brutality stunned the entire nation", resulting in a
"wrenching loss of faith" of the general public in the
intentions of Britain. Rabindra Nath Tagore surrendered his
knighthood. Sir Shankarn Nair resigned his membership of
the Viceroys’ executive Council. It led to a great divide
between Indian and Britishers which could not be bridged.
The Government appointed William Hunter Commission to
investigate the incident. The commission gave his report
that it was an error of judgment and recommended
dismissal of O’ Dyre. When he went home, House of
Common presented him with Sword of British Emperors.
Gandhi ji lost his faith in Britishers and he was determined
to stamp out British emperor from Indian forever
• Gandhi Ji, overwhelmed by the total atmosphere of
violence, withdrew the movement on 18 April..
• Accepting the report of the Repressive Laws Committee,
the Government of India repealed the Rowlatt Act, the
Press Act, and twenty-two other laws in March 1922.
Khilafat Agitation and Non-Cooperation Movement
• The Immediate factor that led Gandhi Ji to launch NonCooperation Movement was Khilafat Agitation.
• The Indian Muslims were incensed when they
discovered that their loyalty had been purchased
during the War by assurances of generous treatment of
Turkey after the War — a promise British statesman
had no intention of fulfilling. The Muslims regarded the
Caliph of Turkey as their spiritual head and were
naturally upset when they found that he would retain
no control over the holy places it was his duty as Caliph
to protect. Treaty of Sevres signed with Turkey in May
1920 made it amply clear that the dismemberment of
the Turkish Empire was complete.
• Gandhi Ji, who had been in close touch with the Khilafat leaders (Ali
Brothers i.e. Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali) for quite some time, and
was a special invitee to the Khilafat Conference in November 1919. In
February 1920, he suggested to the Khilafat Committee that it adopt a
programme of non-violent non-cooperation to protest the
Government’s behavior. On 9 June 1920, the Khilafat Committee at
Allahabad unanimously accepted the suggestion of non-cooperation and
asked Gandhi Ji to lead the movement.
• Under the present circumstances, Congress agreed to consider
noncooperation. The AICC met in May 1920 and decided to convene a
special session in September to enable the Congress to decide on its
course of action. The movement was launched formally on 1 August
1920, after the expiry of the notice that Gandhi ji had given to the
Viceroy in his letter of 22 June. Lokmanya Tilak passed away in the early
hours of 1 August, and the day of mourning and of launching of the
movement merged as people all over the country observed hartal and
took out processions. The Congress met in September at Calcutta and
accepted non-cooperation as its own. The main opposition, led by C.R.
Das, was to the boycott of legislative councils. By December, when the
Congress met for its annual session at Nagpur, the opposition had
melted away; the elections were over and, therefore, the boycott of
councils was a non-issue, and it was CR. Das, who moved the main
resolution on noncooperation.
• The programme of non-cooperation included within its
ambit the surrender of titles and honours, boycott of
government-affiliated schools and colleges, law courts,
foreign cloth, and could be extended to include
resignation from government service and mass civil
disobedience including the non-payment of taxes.
National schools and colleges were to be set up,
panchayats were to be established for settling disputes,
hand spinning and weaving was to be encouraged and
people were asked to maintain Hindu- Muslim unity,
give up untouchability and observe strict non-violence.
• Gandhi ji promised that if the programme was fully
implemented, Swaraj would be ushered in within a
year.
• To enable the Congress to fulfill its new commitment, significant
changes were introduced in its creed as well as in its organizational
structure. The goal of the Congress was changed from the
attainment of self-government to the attainment of Swaraj by
peaceful and legitimate means.
• The Congress was now to have a Working Committee of fifteen
members to look after its day-to-day affairs. This proposal, when
first made by Tilak in 1916, had been shot down by the Moderate
opposition.
• The adoption of the Non-Cooperation Movement (initiated earlier
by the Khilafat Conference) by the Congress gave it a new energy
and, from January 1921, it began to register considerable success all
over the country. Gandhiji, along with the Ali brothers (who were
the foremost Khilafat leaders), undertook a nationwide tour/during
which he addressed hundreds of meetings, thousands of students
left schools and colleges and joined, more than 800 national
schools and colleges that had sprung up all over the country. The
educational boycott was particularly successful in Bengal, C.R. Das
played a major role in promoting the movement and Subhas Bose
became the principal of the National Congress in Calcutta.
• Many leading lawyers of the country, like C.R.
Das, Motilal Nehru, M.R. Jayakar, Saifuddin
Kitchlew, Vallabhbhai Patel, C.
Rajagopalachari, T. Prakasam and Asaf Ali gave
up lucrative practices, and their sacrifice
became a source of inspiration for many. The
most successful item of the programme was
the boycott of foreign clothes. Charkhas were
popularized on a wide scale and khadi became
the uniform of the national movement.
• Gandhiji had been under considerable pressure from
the Congress rank and file as well as the leadership to
start the phase of mass civil disobedience. The
Ahmadabad session of the Congress in December 1921
had appointed him the sole authority on the issue. The
Government showed no signs of relenting and had
ignored both the appeal of the All- Parties Conference
held in mid-January 1922 as well as Gandhiji’s letter to
the Viceroy announcing that, unless the Government
lifted the ban on civil liberties and released political
prisoners, he would be forced to go ahead with mass
civil disobedience. The Viceroy was unmoved and, left
with no choice, Gandhiji announced that mass civil
disobedience would begin in Bardoli of Surat district
from 7 April, 1922
• But Bardoli was destined to Wait for another six years
before it could launch a no-tax movement. Its fate was
decided by the action of members of a Congress and
Khilafat procession in Chauri-Chaura in Gorakhpur district
of U.P. on 5 February 1922. Irritated by the behavior of
some policemen, a section of the crowd attacked them. The
police opened fire. At this, the entire procession attacked
the police and when the latter hid inside the police station,
set fire to the building. Policemen who tried to escape were
hacked to pieces and thrown into the fire. In all twenty-two
policemen were done to dead. On hearing of the incident,
Gandhiji decided to withdraw the movement. He also
persuaded the Congress Working Committee to ratify his
decision and thus, on 12 February 1922, the NonCooperation Movement came to an end.
• Gandhiji’s, decision to withdraw the movement in
response to the violence at Chauri Chaura raised a
Controversy whose heat can still be felt in staid
academic seminars and sober volumes of history.
Motilal Nehru, C.R. Das, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas
Bose, and many others have recorded their utter
bewilderment on hearing the news. They could not
understand why the whole country had to pay the
price for the crazy behavior of some people in a
remote village. Many in the country thought that the
Mahatma had failed miserably as a leader and that his
days of glory were over.
• The Britishers took advantage of the division among
the nationalists forces and Gandhiji was arrested on 10
March, 1922 and was sentenced to 6 years
imprisonment.
• In 1894 he founded Natal Indian Congress to help
Indians for fighting their rights. and through this
organisation, he moulded the Indian community of
South Africa into a unified political force
• In 1899, he organized Indian Ambulance corp for
British Army in Boer was, for which he was given
Kaisar-e-Hind medal. During the Boer War, Gandhi
volunteered in 1900 to form a group of ambulance
drivers. He wanted to disprove the British idea that
Hindus were not fit for "manly" activities involving
danger and exertion. Gandhi raised eleven hundred
Indian volunteers. They were trained and medically
certified to serve on the front lines.
• In 1904, he started newspaper : Indian Opinion
His first Satyagrah was in 1906 against compulsory certificates
of registration to be carried which held their finger prints. It
was essential to carry these on person at all times. At a
mass protest meeting held in Johannesburg on 11
September that year, Gandhi adopted his still evolving
methodology of Satyagraha (devotion to the truth), or
nonviolent protest, for the first time.
He urged Indians to defy the new law and to suffer the
punishments for doing so. The community adopted this
plan, and during the struggle, thousands of Indians were
jailed, flogged, or shot for striking, refusing to register, for
burning their registration cards or engaging in other forms
of nonviolent resistance.
The government successfully repressed the Indian protesters,
but the public outcry over the harsh treatment of peaceful
Indian protesters by the South African government forced
South African leader Jan Christiaan Smuts, himself a
philosopher, to negotiate a compromise with Gandhi.
Gandhi's ideas took shape, and the concept of Satyagraha
matured during this struggle.
• In 1908 he compaigned against anti-Indian
immigration laws and as jailed.
• In 1910 he established Tolstoy Farms, helped by
German friend Kallenbach near Johannesburg,
where he nurtured his policy of peaceful
resistance. After blacks gained the right to vote in
South Africa, Gandhi was proclaimed a national
hero with numerous monuments
• His last Satyagrah in South Africa as against a
Marriage Law which declared marriages by Indian
rites ill-legal.
• Gandhi Ji came back to India on 9 January as a Pravasi
Bhartiya. He spent one year travelling all over India. His
political guru was Gopal Krishan Gokhle. In 1916 he
established Satyagrha Ashram at Sabarmati near
Ahmadabad.
• During the course of 1917 and early 1918, he was
involved in three significant struggles — in Champaran
in Bihar, in Ahmedabad and in Kheda in Gujarat. The
common feature of these struggles was that they
related to specific local issues and that they were
fought for the economic demands of the masses. Two
of these struggles, Champaran and Kheda, involved the
peasants and the one in Ahmedabad involved industrial
workers.
Champaran Satyagraha in Bihar in 1917
• Gandhi ji’s first Satyagraha in India against the
exploitation of cultivators by European planters on the
basis of tinkathia system. Tinkathia system was an
agreement under which forced peasants to cultivate
indigo on 3/20 of their holding. This was signed
between European planters and the cultivators in the
beginning of nineteenth centenary. now there was no
demand of Indigo. Planters taking benefit of their
necessity enhanced the rent and other legal dues as a
price for release. Gandhi ji went Champaran on
invitation of Raj Kumar Shukla As a result, Govt.
appointed inquiry committee and nominated Gandhi Ji
as one of its members. The committee awarded 25%
refund of the money the planter had taken illegally
from the peasants.
• Ahmadabad Mill Strike- 1918 first hunger strike
on issue of wage increase against mill owners
over the question of a ‘plague bonus’. Ambalal
Sarabhai, one of the leading mill owners of the
town, was a friend of Gandhiji, and had just saved
the Sabarmati Ashram from extinction by a
generous donation. Ambalal Sarabhai’s sister,
Anasuya Behn, was one of the main lieutenants
of Gandhiji in this struggle. The fast had the effect
of putting pressure on the mill owners and they
agreed to submit the whole issue to a tribunal.
The strike was withdrawn and the tribunal later
awarded the thirty-five per cent increase the
workers had demanded.
Kheda 1918 first non co-operative movement. peasants
of Kheda district were in extreme distress due to a
failure of crops, and that their appeals for the
remission of land revenue were being ignored by the
Government. Sardar Patel and Indulal Yagnik joined
Gandhi Ji during this Satyagrah. The agitation was
taken by people with spirit. When Gandhiji came to
know that the Government had issued secret
instructions directing that revenue should be recovered
only from those peasants who could pay. A public
declaration of this decision would have meant a blow
to Government prestige, since this was exactly what
Gandhiji had been demanding. In these circumstances,
the movement was withdrawn.
Rowlatt Act and Jallianwala Bagh massacre
• The Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, 1919
popularly known as the Rowlatt Act was a legislative act
passed by the Imperial Legislative Council in Delhi on
March 18, 1919,.Passed on the recommendations of the
Rowlatt Committee and named after its president, British
judge Sir Sidney Rowlatt, this act effectively authorized the
government to imprison any person suspected of terrorism
living in the Raj for up to two years without a trial, and gave
the imperial authorities power to deal with all
revolutionary activities. It provided for stricter control of
the press, arrests without warrant, indefinite detention
without trial, and juryless in camera trials for proscribed
political acts. The accused were denied the right to know
the accusers and the evidence used in the trial. On the
report of a sedition committee, headed by justice Rowlatt,
two bills were introduced in the central legislature in
February 1919. These bills came to be known as "black
bills".