Revolutionary Movements (Phase 2)

This article deals with ‘ Revolutionary Movements (Phase 2) – UPSC.’ This is part of our series on ‘Modern History’ which is important pillar of GS-1 syllabus . For more articles , you can click here

Rise of Second Phase of Revolutionary Movement

• Most of Revolutionary Terrorists were jailed during WWI but in order to create more harmonious atmosphere for Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms government released most of them under general amnesty
• When Non Cooperation Movement (NCM) was launched, on the request of Gandhi & CR Das they stopped their activities in order to participate in it & give it a chance . But sudden suspension of NCM shattered their hopes & they began to look for alternatives .
• Many were drawn to idea that violent method alone can make India free . Two strands of revolutionary terrorism developed
  • One in Punjab, U.P. & Bihar
  • Other in Bengal

Influence on these groups

Apart from getting rid of Britishers , two things influenced these groups

1. Upsurge of working class trade unionism after the War. They could see the revolutionary potential of the new class and desired to harness it to the nationalist revolution.
2. Russian Revolution and the success of the young Socialist State in consolidating itself.

Hindustan Republican Association (HRA)

• Founded in October 1924 by  Ram Parsad Bismil, Jogesh Chandra  Chaterjee & Sachin Sanyal at Kanpur
• To organize armed revolution to overthrow colonial rule and establish in its place a Federal Republic of the United States of India whose basic principle would be adult franchise.
• To finance their activities and with objective of propaganda ,they decided to organise dacoities . Most important action of HRA was Kakori Robbery in 1925. 10 men held 8 Down train at Kakori(village near Lucknow) carrying official railway cash
• Government reaction was quick and hard. It arrested a large number of young men and tried them in the Kakori Conspiracy Case. Ashfaqulla Khan, Ramprasad Bismil, Roshan Singh and Rajendra Lahiri were hanged, four others were sent to the Andamans for life & 17 others were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. Chandrashekhar Azad remained at large.

HSRA: Hindustan  Socialist  Republican ASSOCIATION

• After Kakori Conspiracy case ,revolutionary ranks were decimated . But soon new batch of young men from Punjab & UP who also came under influence of socialism met at Pherozshah Kotla on 9 Sept 1928 & reorganised HRA as HSRA
• Founders were Bhagat Singh, Bhatukeshwar Dutt, Sukhdev etc.

Activities

1 . Saunders murder or Lahore conspiracy case,December 1928

• HSRA was rapidly moving away from individual heroic action and assassination and towards mass politics. Lala Lajpat Rai’s death, as the result of a brutal lathi-charge when he was leading an anti-Simon Commission demonstration at Lahore on 30 October 1928, led them once again to take to individual assassination
• He was killed by Bhagat Singh ,Azad and Raj Guru
• They justified their act through poster saying that murder of a leader respected by millions at unworthy hands of ordinary police official was insult on nation

Note : They wanted to kill Scott

2. Bomb in central legislative assembly, April 1929

• HSRA decided to let people know about its changed objectives & need of revolution by masses .
• Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw bomb in central assembly to create awareness among people against passage of the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Bill (to strike hard Communist Lockdowns during Depression ) which would reduce the civil liberties of citizens in general and workers in particular.
• The aim was not to kill, for the bombs were relatively harmless, but, as the leaflet they threw into the Assembly hail proclaimed, ‘to make the deaf hear’ & to get arrested & use trial court as forum for propaganda

3. Assembly Bomb Case

• Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt were tried in the Assembly Bomb Case. Then the police was able to uncover the details of Saunders assassination and Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru, and several others were tried in the Lahore Conspiracy case.
• Bhagat Singh and his comrades turned the court into a forum of propaganda.
• Their statements were published in the newspapers and widely discussed by the people. Their defiant and courageous conduct in the court won them the admiration of the people. Even believers in non-violence loved them for their patriotism.

4. Activity in the jail

• Nearly 100 revolutionaries arrested from HSRA fought for treatment as political prisoners by keeping fast . Jatin Das died on 64th day of his fast
• Bhagat Singh,  Sukhdev & Raj Guru were hung on 23/03/1931 as capital punishment for Lahore conspiracy case
• As news of their hanging spread , a death like silence engulfed the entire nation . Bhagat Singh soon became a  legend in the country with popularity rivalling that of Gandhi

5. Viceroy bomb case

• Azad was involved in attempt to blow train in which viceroy Irwin was travelling
• He killed himself in a park in Allahabad in February 1931 to avoid arrest by police

Ideological Development of North Indian Revolutionaries

HRA

• 1925 Manifesto  had set forth its objective ie establishment of Federal Republic of United States of India by an organised & armed revolution
• Basic principle of  republic would be Universal Adult Suffrage & abolition of all systems that make exploitation of man by man possible
• It advocated nationalisation of railways & large scale industries such as steel, ship building & mines

Bhagat Singh & HSRA

• Major shift – All revolutionaries of HSRA turned to Socialism & Marxism & this shift is epitomised by life & thoughts of Bhagat Singh (through his letters, statements & writings)

Bhagat Singh

Life of Bhagat Singh

• Born in 1907  in a patriotic family , son of Congressman & nephew of famous revolutionary Ajit Singh
• Was deeply influenced  by Ghadar hero, Kartar Singh Sarabha
• Was a voracious reader and had read extensive literature on Socialism, the Soviet Union and revolutionary movements the world over. At Lahore he and Sukhdev organized study circles for young students (This devotion to intensive reading was also true of other leaders such as Bejoy Sinha, Yashpal, Shiv Varma and Bhagwati Charan Vohra. Chandrashekhar Azad knew little English; but he too fully participated in political discussions and followed all major turn in the field of ideas )

Foundation of Naujawan Bharat Sabha (NBS   1926)

• Already before his arrest in 1929 ,he had abandoned his faith in terrorism & individual heroic action. He had come to believe that broad popular mass movements alone could liberate India & mankind from servitude
• For this he made NBS in 1926 to carry out political work among youth, peasants &’workers

• Bhagat Singh never identified revolution with the cult of the bomb . This was the  only reason they threw a relatively harmless bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly in 1929.Their strategy was to get arrested and then turn the courts into arenas for the propagation of their ideas.

He changed meaning & method of revolution

• Method : revolution can be achieved by  arousing the masses and organizing a mass movement. Just before his execution, Bhagat Singh declared that “the real revolutionary armies are in the villages and in factories“.
• Meaning : Revolution was no longer equated with mere militancy or violence. Its first objective was national liberation and then the building of a new socialist society (a society in which there is no exploitation of man by man & of nation by nation )
• Philosophy of Bomb (written by BC Vohra,Azad & Yashpal)  also favoured above definition of revolution

Bhagat Singh defined socialism in scientific manner . It meant abolition of capitalism & class domination . He fully accepted Marxism & class approach to society

• Bhagat Singh was the first leader who understood full dangers of communalism . According  to him Communalism was big danger than colonialism & even criticised Lala Lajpat Rai when he took communal politics after 1924 . People must free themselves from mental bondage of religion & considered religion as a matter of personal belief of man . He wrote Why am a Atheist in which he said any man who stands for progress has to challenge every item of old faith .

• His relevance in present times : Communalism, student politics,  inequality, scientific approach.

Revolutionary Terrorism in Bengal

• Began reorganizing after 1922 & started their underground activities but continued to work in Congress at same time because it provided them access to masses
• Problems – Congress divided in Bengal after CR Das’s death into SC Bose & JM Sengupta . Yugantar joined forces with Bose wing & Anushilan Samiti with Sengupta.  Hence there was always factionalism of Yugantar vs Anushilan  (YvsA)
• By 1924, they  understood utter inadequacy of individual heroic action & accepted the strategy of national liberation through armed seizure of power by mass uprisings. But, in practice, they still relied upon small scale ‘actions’, in particular dacoities and assassination of officials.
• 1 March 1924 : Gopinath Saha made an unsuccessful assassination attempt on  Commissioner of Calcutta & was hanged . This started large scale repression & put large number of revolutionaries in jails including Bose who was released in 1926
• From 1926  because of YvsA rivalry , new groups came up called REVOLT GROUPS  mainly of new revolutionaries who were fed up of old revolutionary leaders

Chittagong Armoury Raid (1930)

• Main leader was Surya Sen
  • Active participant of NCM
  • Became teacher in Nationalist School in Chittagong & commonly known as Masterda
  • Arrested in 1926 & released in 1928 . In 1929 became Secretary of Chittagong District Congress
• Soon gathered gang of youth revolutionaries & formed a plan to organise an armed rebellion on small scale to demonstrate that British rule could be challenged . To equip adequately they planned to raid several districts . First such raid in Chittagong
• Carefully prepared plan – occupied two armouries + cut telephone & telegraph + damaged railway lines connecting Chittagong with Calcutta
• First band captured Police Armoury & other captured Auxiliary Force Armoury . Raid was on name of Indian Republican Army , Chittagong Branch . Then they gathered outside police station pulled down Union Jack & raised Indian flag . Surya Sen was declared President of Provisional Revolutionary  Government
• They knew cant face troops directly &  started guerrilla war . Surya Sen was captured after 3 years because of local support in 1933 . He was tried & hanged

Points to notice about Revolt Groups

• Extremely secular (although earlier  werent  communal too but their ideology was tinged with hindu religiosity).  Many groups now included Muslims
• Large scale participation of women ( Kalpana Datta & Pritilata Waddedar in Surya group)
• Led to major revival of revolutionary activity after this . In Midnapore, 4 Magistrates were assassinated + 2 IGs assassinated + life attempt on 2 Governors + Bina Das assassinated Governor while receiving degree at Convocation in 1932

But

Unlike Bhagat Singh & his comrades, Bengal Revolutionaries failed to evolve a broader radical Socio-Economic programme

Decline of Revolutionary Terrorism

• Declined in the 1930s
• Most important reason was national movement opposed to violence & terrorism even when its leaders admired the heroism of its youthful practitioners and defended them in the courts and condemned the police repression directed against them.
• With death of Azad in encounter in Allahabad on 27 Feb 1931 came to end in North India & with capture & hanging  of Surya Sen in Bengal

Significance

• Set rare examples of death defying heroism in cause of complete independence . Their desperate deeds won them a lasting place and they became popular among  their compatriots
• Brought new ideology of socialist thought in India
• Large number of them turned to Marxism as Bhagat Singh and many of his comrades had already done in the 1920s. Many joined the Communist Party, the Congress Socialist Party, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and other left parties and groups. Others joined the Gandhian wing of the Congress.

Bardoli Satyagraha

This article deals with ‘ Bardoli Satyagraha – UPSC.’ This is part of our series on ‘Modern History’ which is important pillar of GS-1 syllabus . For more articles , you can click here

Introduction

Held in 1928 in Gujarat led by Vallabhbhai Patel, making Patel  one of the main leaders of the independence movement. 

Events that led to the Bardoli Satyagraha

• In 1925, the Taluka of Bardoli in Gujarat suffered from floods and famine, but government of the Bombay Presidency raised the tax rate by 30%  that year,
• Despite petitions from civic groups,Government refused to cancel the rise in the face of the calamities

Satyagraha

• Due to this, Bardoli Peasants decided to organize a campaign. Patel accepted Presidency of Peasants
• Gandhi also supported this movement through his writings in Young India and 2 visits although he was not directly involved  .
• Satyagraha was started by taking oath on respective gods . Those who refused to sign were subjected to social boycott
• Campaign included
  1. Non payment of taxes
  2. non-cooperation
  3. submission to arrest
  4. resignation of offices.
  5. economic boycott by refusing to supply officials and other members of the opposition with non-essential goods and services.
  6. For an official to receive any services in the Taluka, he had to have the permission of the Satyagraha headquarters, which was particularly alarming to the government.

Response of Government and Final Settlement

• Government issued final notices urging the peasants to pay the assessment or suffer forfeiture of land. The peasants refused to comply with these notices. 
• Government of Bombay became stern and took all repres­sive measures such as attachment of land, and crops, and confiscation of cattle and other movable property.

• In response, K.M. Munshi and Lalji Naranji resigned from the Bombay Legislative Council .This was followed by Vitthalbhai Patel’s threat to resign who was Presi­dent of the Bombay Legislative Council. The pressure of the Legislative Assembly was so strong that the government was obliged to take a soft stand against the movement
• Workers in Bombay textile mills went on strike and there was a threat to bring about a railway strike that would make movement of troops and supplies to Bardoli impossible.
•  Even the flames of Bardoli had reached to Punjab and many jathas of peasants were despatched to Bardoli.
• British government had high stakes in the Bardoli agitation. The Simon Commission was about to come in India and the Congress declared that it would have nation-wide boycott of the Si­mon Commission. Looking to the national importance of Bardoli , British government took a soft-line. Vallabhbhai Patel was contacted and some kind of agreement was struck.
• An enquiry committee was constituted by the government un­der the Broomfield and Maxwell (Broomfield Maxwell Commission). Committee suggested reducing the en­hancement of land tax from earlier 30% to 6% .

Note – There was social upliftment of Kaliparaj caste– who worked as landless laborers (Patidars tilled their land with traditional debt-serfs, who were Dubla tribals known as Kaliparaj (‘black people’), and who constituted 50% of the population of Bardoli. The Kaliparaj were extremely backward and were praised by Gandhi’s secretary Mahadeb Desai in his Story of Bardoli (1929) as most ‘innocuous and guileless’ and ‘law-abiding’. Kaliparaj bonded labourer was assured of a minimum of food and clothing by the Patidar, and the realities of exploitation were somewhat veiled by an element of traditional mutuality. In movement ,  Kaliparaj on the whole rejected the bait of land on easy terms being offered by government officials.

Swarajist Party

This article deals with ‘ Swarajist Party  – UPSC.’ This is part of our series on ‘Modern History’ which is important pillar of GS-1 syllabus . For more articles , you can click here

Introduction

• Non Cooperation Movement (NCM) ended in Feb 1922 . Gandhi arrested & sentenced for 6 years imprisonment for spreading disaffection against Government
• This resulted in spread of disintegration, disorganisation & demoralisation in nationalist ranks
• What congress was facing at this moment was  the basic problem that any mass movement has to face: how were they to carry on political work in the movements’ non- active phases?

Note – years from 1922 to 1927 are at first sight dominated entirely by a sense of anti-climax, were all the more acute because Gandhi’s promise in 1920 of Swaraj within a year had aroused such soaring expectation.

 -By March 1923, Congress membership (for the 16 out of 20 provinces which had sent reports to the AICC) had fallen to 106,046, less than one-third of what U.P. alone had claimed two years before. 

Formation of Swaraj Party

• At Gaya Session (1922) one faction led by CR Das(President) & Motilal Nehru (Gen Sec ) demanded that they shouldn’t boycott elections for Legislative Assembly (LA) that was coming & should continue agenda after going in L.A & making work of Assembly impossible(Pro Changers)
• Other faction led by Patel & Rajendra Prasad opposed this(No Changers)  & ultimately No changers won the vote .
• CR Das & Motilal resigned from Congress & announced formation of Congress Khilafat Swaraj Party or Swaraj Party on 1 Jan 1923.

Swarajist’s idea behind joining Legislative Assembly

• Work in the Councils was necessary to fill in the temporary political void, keep up the morale of the politicised Indians, fill the empty newspaper spaces, and enthuse the people. 
• Even without Congressmen, Councils would continue to function . Non- Congressmen would capture positions of vantage and use them to weaken the Congress. 
• By joining the councils and obstructing their work, Congressmen would prevent  Government from getting some form of legitimacy for their laws.

Swarajists claimed that they would transform the Legislatures into arenas of political struggle on which the struggle for the overthrow of the Colonial State was to be carried out.

Motilal – Das Duo

• Das (born in 1870) and Motilal (born in 1861) were highly successful Lawyers who had once been Moderates but had accepted the politics of boycott and non-cooperation in 1920.
• They had given up their legal practice, joined the movement as whole time workers and donated to the nation their magnificent houses in Calcutta and Allahabad respectively.
• They were great admirers of Gandhi . Both were brilliant and effective Parliamentarians. One deeply religious and the other a virtual atheist , both were secular to the core.
• They complemented each other and formed a legendary political combination.
  • Das was imaginative and emotional and a great orator
  • Motilal was firm,  analytical, and a great organizer and disciplinarian

Argument of No Changers

• No-Changers opposed council-entry mainly on the ground that Parliamentary work would lead to the neglect of constructive and other work among the masses, the loss of revolutionary zeal and political corruption.
• Constructive work among the masses, on the other hand, would prepare them for the next round of Civil Disobedience.

Reunion

• Fear of repetition of disastrous Split of 1907 was building up
• Both groups started to move towards mutual accommodation . Swarajists also realised that however useful parliamentry work might be, real sanctions which would compel government to accept national demand would be through mass movement & this need unity
• Special Session of the Congress held at Delhi in September 1923, the Congress suspended all propaganda against Council entry and permitted Congressmen to stand as candidates

Gandhi’s reaction towards Swarajists

• Gandhi released from jail on 5 Feb 1924 (elections were already over and Swarajists won many seats) on health grounds & he completely opposed the Swarajists in Council Entry & considered obstructing work of councils was inconsistent with Non Cooperation. Split seemed to be on horizon. Government hoped & banked for it
• But later his stance changed, courageous and uncompromising manner in which the Swarajists had functioned in the councils convinced Gandhi that, however politically wrong, they were certainly not becoming a limb of imperial administration. 
• 6 November 1924, Gandhi brought the strife between the Swarajists and no-changers to an end, by signing a joint statement with Das and Motilal that the Swarajist Party would carry on work in the legislatures on behalf of the Congress and as an integral part of the Congress. This decision was endorsed in December at the Belgaum session of the Congress over which Gandhi presided. He also gave the Swarajists a majority of seats on his Working Committee.

Election propaganda & Work inside legislature

• Held in Nov 1923,  although Swarajists got very less time to prepare & there was very limited franchise of less than 5%, they
  • won 43 out of 101 seats in Central Assembly
  • Emerged as largest party in Bengal & Bombay although not in Madras & Punjab

• They won most of seats against Liberals (who participated in 1920 elections too & were branded as government agents) but performed badly against independents who had local sympathies with them

• In Central Assembly, they formed alliance with Md Jinnah (independents) & Liberals like Madan Mohan Malviya & similar alliances in Provinces

• Although legislatures had very less power & Executive was responsible to British government . Along with that Viceroy & Governor can Veto any Bill but Swarajists forced Government to certify each legislation exposing to world real nature of Legislature

• Took three major causes & delivered powerful speeches which Press covered in detail too
  1. Problem of Constitutional advance leading to Self-Government
  2. Civil liberties, release of political prisoners, and repeal of repressive laws
  3. Development of indigenous industries

• Methods of the Swarajists
  • Destructive side emphasised rejection of the votable parts of the budgets and rejection of proposals emanating from the bureaucracy.
  • Constructive side, they sought to move resolutions calculated to promote a healthy national life and displacement of bureaucracy.

• Swarajist activity in the Legislatures was spectacular by any standards. It inspired the politicised persons and kept their political interest alive. People were thrilled each time the all- powerful foreign bureaucracy was humbled in the councils.

Local Elections

• During 1923-24, Congressmen captured a large number of Municipalities and other local bodies.
  • Das became the Mayor of Calcutta (with Subhas Bose as his Chief Executive Officer)
  • Vithalbhai Patel- the President of Bombay Corporation
  • Vallabhbhai Patel of Ahmedabad Municipality
  • Rajendra Prasad of Patna Municipality
  • Jawaharlal Nehru of Allahabad Municipality.
• The no-changers actively joined in these ventures since they believed that Local Bodies could be used to promote the constructive programme.

Constructive work by Swarajists

• Council Entry for wrecking reforms from within was the main, but by no means the sole, objective of the Swarajists. 
• Swarajists could ill-afford to ignore the constructive programme as they knew that some day they might have to leave the Councils and resort to Civil Disobedience along with those who did not go to the Councils. Hence, they were also involved in Constructive work
• It must, however, be admitted that the Swarajists, being chiefly engaged in council-entry and Parliamentary politics, could do little to implement the programme as zealously and steadfastly as the No-Changers could.

1 . Khadi

• Swarajists didn’t share the views of Gandhi on Khaddar & hand spinning . Although CR Das accepted Charkha & Khaddar as instrument of improving life of Indian people but he didn’t subscribe to commercial utility of Khadi .
• Swarajists made no fetish of Khaddar but they missed no opportunity in exhorting people to use  Khadi . The instructions issued by the Swaraj Party to all its members required them to attend the meetings of the Central Assembly and Provincial Councils dressed in pure Khaddar.

Note – Khadi was expensive as Gandhi admitted privately to Motilal in 1927 that khadi was proving an uphill task , it was still so much more expensive, after all, than either imported cloth or Indian mill-cloth.

2. Untouchability

• In Vykom, in South India , Reformers resorted to Satyagraha to secure for untouchables the right to use a public road leading to a Hindu temple. This initiative received full support from Gandhi and the Swarajists. The Swarajists passed a resolution sympathising with the satyagraha movement at Vykom.

• In Tarakeshwar incident, Swarajists took very keen interest against the autocracy of a Mahant. Under Swarajist pressure in Legislative Assembly, Temple was handed over to Committee by Mahant .

3. Other

• Made people aware of the revenue of intoxicants that British government was earning & for alien government revenue was more important than health & moral welfare of people

End of Swaraj party

• Suffered major loss with death of CR Dass in June 1925

• In absence of any National Movement , Communalism raised its ugly head & political frustration of people begun to found expression in communal riots

• Limit of obstruction was reached & government was certifying every legislation they were rejecting . They realise that there was no going forward inside legislature & anything can be done by mass movement outside

• Swarajists also could not carry their coalition partners for ever and in every respect, for the latter did not believe in the Swarajists’ tactic of ‘uniform, continuous and consistent obstruction

• By 1924, the Swarajist position had weakened because of widespread communal riots, split among Swarajists themselves on Communal and Responsivist-Non-Responsivist lines, and the death of C.R. Das in 1925 weakened it further.
  • Responsivists among Swarajists—Lala Lajpat Rai, Madan Mohan Malaviya and N.C. Kelkar—advocated cooperation with the Government and holding of office wherever possible to protect the so-called Hindu interests.They accused the Non-Responsivists like Motilal Nehru of being anti-Hindu and a beef-eater.
  • On the eve of the 1926 elections, Motilal’s old rival Madan mohan Malaviya formed an Independent Congress Party in alliance with Lajpat Rai and the Responsive Cooperators

Thus, the main leadership of the Swarajya Party reiterated faith in mass civil disobedience and withdrew from legislatures in March 1926, while another section of Swarajists went into the 1926 elections as a party in disarray, and did not fare well.

Achievements of Pro Changers

• Great achievement lay in their filling the political void at a time when the national movement was recouping its strength

• They showed that it was possible to use the legislatures in a creative manner

• They also successfully exposed the hollowness of the Reform Act of 1919 and showed the people that India was being ruled by  “lawIess laws”

• Vithalbhai Patel was elected speaker of Central Legislative Assembly in 1925.

• A noteworthy achievement was the defeat of the Public Safety Bill  which was aimed at empowering the Government to deport undesirable and subversive foreigners (because the Government was alarmed by the spread of Socialist and Communist ideas ).

• Development of considerable links between Indian business groups and Swarajist politicians, for the latter proved extremely helpful in prodding the government into granting protection to Tata’s steel industry in 1924, under the new policy of ‘discriminating protection‘ enunciated by the Fiscal Commission of 1921.

What No Changers did in meantime?

• No-Changers carried on laborious, quiet, undemonstrative, grass-roots constructive work around
  1. promotion of khadi and spinning
  2. national education
  3. Hindu-Muslim unity
  4. struggle against untouchability
  5. boycott of foreign cloth.
• This work was symbolized by hundreds of Ashrams that came up all over the country where political cadres got practical training in khadi work and work among the lower castes and tribal people
• It brought some much-needed relief to the poor, it promoted the process of the nation-in-the-making; and it made the urban-based and upper caste cadres familiar with the conditions of villages and lower castes.

Moplah Riots

This article deals with ‘ Moplah Riots  – UPSC.’ This is part of our series on ‘Modern History’ which is important pillar of GS-1 syllabus . For more articles , you can click here

Introduction

• Area = Malabar coast
• Moplahs are descendants of Arab traders who settled in this region & married local Nair & Tiyar woman & gradually they became dependent on agriculture & turned out to be cultivating tenants , landless labourers , fishermen etc

System of Agriculture in Malabar

1 . Before Britishers

Agriculture system was based on equal sharing of net produce between

• Janmi/ Jenmi ie holder of land which were generally  Nambudiri Brahmins and Nambiar chieftains)
• Cultivator mostly Moplahs

but some occupancy right of Moplahs were also there.

2 . Tipu’s Rule

• Hindu Jenmis were against Tipu’s rule . Hence, there were widespread atrocities on  Hindu population. The landowners were forced to take refuge in neighboring states. Those who could not escape were forcibly converted into Islam.
• Then Tipu’s Sultanate reached accord with the Muslim peasants and made revenue arrangement with them.

3 . British Control

• Britishers took control after 4th Anglo Mysore War .
• They made earlier Jenmis (Namboodiri Brahmins & Nayyars) ABSOLUTE OWNERS of the land.
• This reduced Moplahs to status of tenants with no occupancy rights (hence earlier system was disturbed)

Start of Revolts

• Due to above system of occupancy rights, Jenmi Landlords started to evict Moplahs as their wish.
• Revenue officials, law courts and the police also supported Jenmis.
• This forced Moplah peasantry to rose up in revolt
• First occurred in 1836 ,  then in 1882 and 1896
• Pattern was same
  • Group of Moplah youths attacked a Brahmin Jenmi or a Nayar official or a Jenmi’s servant, burning or defiling a temple or attacking the landlords’ house.
  • Police would then crack down on them and the rebels would then seek refuge in  a Mosque

Revolt/Riot of 1921

• The Moplah Movement of 1921 was altogether different. It was characterised by severe violence & Hindu-Muslim riot.

What different happened this time

• Khilafat Movement going on in whole country  united them.  Moplahs took active part in Khilafat movement .
• Main leaders of Khilafat Movement and Congress were arrested during course of events and as a reasult whole movement came under control of radical leaders like Ali Musaliar who were preaching violence
• British Government was weak after losses in World War I & not able to take strict action initially which emboldened the spirits of Moplah rioters.

=>  Moplahs became more militant after the Majlis-ul-Ulema (Council of Muslim learned men), which caIled upon the Moplah masses to launch a jihad. As a result, attacks on Jenmis increased and forcible conversions to Islam was seen. (600 Hindus were killed and some 2500 forcibly converted (according to Arya Samajist source))

Final Breakdown

• Police arrested Ali Musaliar . But as a result, people became violent . In firing , Moplahs were killed which started riots in which government offices were destroyed, records burnt and the treasury looted.
• After that, Britishers suppressed it with heavy hand and crushed it so badly and demoralised Moplahs to such an extent that till independence their participation in any form of politics was almost nil (2337 rebels killed, 1652 wounded, and no less than 45,404 prisoners)
• Ali Musaliar was among a dozen leaders who were tried and sentenced to death. 

Akali Movement

This article deals with ‘Akali Movement   – UPSC.’ This is part of our series on ‘Modern History’ which is important pillar of GS-1 syllabus . For more articles , you can click here

Introduction

• Started by Sikh reformers to purify their religious places by removal of  evil social practices that had slowly crept into them.
• During days of Sikh persecutions under Mughals , Sikh Gurudwaras passed into hands of Udasis/Mahants (udasis professed Sikhism but didn’t adhere to outer symbols ie 5Ks and hence escaped persecution) . During those times, Udasis were of high moral character and did service to Sikhism by keeping the Gurudwaras running.
• Problem started when Maharaja Ranjit Singh and other Sikh chiefs bestowed on Gurudwaras REVENUE FREE JAGIRS.  These Mahants started to convert Gurudwara properties into their personal properties and indulged into various social evils even inside Gurudwara premises. 
• When Britishers annexed Punjab , they took control of Golden Temple and Akal Takht and appointed a Committee headed by Sarbarah . Britishers were interested in controlling this because they viewed it as important institution to control Sikhs of Punjab (important pillar in British Raj Army) . But Sarbarah did not feel responsible towards the people but was busy pleasing his appointing authority- Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar. (Arur Singh, the government-appointed manager of the Amritsar Golden Temple, had even gone to the extent of inviting General Dyer to become a honorary Sikh).
• Mahants indulged in all sorts of evil practices, such as misappropriation of offerings and other valuables. The sanctity of these places was destroyed. Here brothels were run, pornographic literature sold, and innocent women visiting the temples raped.
• Reformers were anxious to free these central seats as early as possible from evil influences and official control. The British authorities in Punjab resisted any effort at reform as this would deprive them of the privilege to use these  places to consolidate their power and weaken their political opponents. 

Golden Temple Episode

• Sikhism doesn’t believe in Caste System but priests of Golden Temple didn’t allow people belonging to low castes (Mazhabi Sikhs) to offer prayers directly. They have to hire person belonging to Higher Caste to offer Prasad.
• This was contested by Khalsa Biradari of Amritsar (Middle Class Sikh Intelligentsia) . They organised a Diwan in the Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, on the 12th of October, 1920, in which Professor Teja Singh,  Bawa Harkishan Singh and Jathedar Kartar Singh Jhabbar and other prominent leaders of the reform movement participated. In the Diwan the so-called untouchables who had embraced Sikhism were baptized.
• Then they marched to Golden Temple  but priest on duty Bhai Gurbachan Singh refused to accept Prasad from the so-called low-castes . After heated exchange of arguments the matter was decided by consulting the holy book, the decision went in favour of the party of reform. However, the priests did not accept the change in the status and left the shrine in protest.
• Since the holy book (Guru Granth Sahib) was left unattended, the reformers took control of the situation and formed a committee for the management of the Golden Temple and the Akal Takht.

Nankana Tragedy (Feb 1921)

• Nankana Sahib = Birth-place of Guru Nanak Dev Ji
• Here , Gurdwara Janam Asthan & other shrines were being controlled by hereditary Mahant Narain Dass .
• He was practising a number of social & religious evils. He kept a mistress, invited dancing girls into the Gurdwara & profane singing in  holy premises
• To contest this,  Jatha of 130 reformers under the leadership of Bhai Lachhman Singh reached there. Mahant and his mercenaries  attacked these armless, peaceful reformers in which number of marchers were killed and the wounded were tied to the trees and burnt. Barbaric killing of all the 130 members  sent waves of shock and resentment throughout the country. Mahatma Gandhi and other national leaders condemned this brutal action of the Mahant. Mahatma Gandhi visited Nankana Sahib on 3rd March
• On the advice of Mahatma Gandhi and other national leaders ,  the Akali reformers decided to broaden their movement. They launched a two pronged attack. It was directed against the corrupt Mahant on the one hand and the Punjab government on the other.

Toshakhana key affairs

• After taking control of Golden Temple, Khalsa Biradari appointed Committee to run Golden Temple and Akal Takht. They aksed Government appointed Manager to hand over keys of Toshakhana (treasury) but DC of Amritsar took keys from him. This infuriated Sikhs in whole Punjab and they started powerful agitation known as Toshakhana Keys Affair.
• Since NCM was going on and Akalis were powerful force in Punjab, Gandhi decided to support them .
• Government in order to isolate Congress decided to return keys . But this victory of the  reformers was seen by the national leaders as a victory of the forces of nationalism.
• On this occasion Mahatma Gandhi sent the following telegram to Baba Kharak Singh, President of the S.G.P.C.:

“FIRST BATTLE FOR INDIA’S FREEDOM WON CONGRATULATIONS”

• After the suspension of the Non Cooperation Movement , Punjab government thought of teaching a ‘lesson’ to the Akali reformers.

Guru Ka Bagh Morcha

• Officials of Punjab government wanted to get back their lost prestige & teach Akalis a lesson
• Akali worker who was cutting dry kikkar was arrested on charge that they were committing theft from private property of mahant . To assert their right to cut timber, Akali jatha started to march towards Guru ka Bagh Gurudwara
• After arresting 5,000 there was no space in jails . Police started to beat them mercilessly till they become unconscious but Akalis didn’t picked up hand against this . This peaceful suffering won them wide sympathy & support & even Christian missionary like CF Andrews was moved and showed sympathy by visiting the scene
• After wide criticism, Governor of Punjab ordered police to stop this. All prisoners of Guru ka Bagh Morcha were released & volunteers were allowed to carry the timber from garden of Guru ka Bagh Gurudwara 

Akali Agitation  of Nabha + Gurudwara Bill,1925

• Maharaja Ripudaman Singh of Nabha was removed from his throne because he supported Akalis. Akali leadership decided to take up the cause of Ripudaman Singh  & demanded for his restoration  to his throne 
• Akalis had emerged as powerful nationalist expression in province, Congress decided to support their cause . JL Nehru came to Nabha to access situation but he was arrested & put behind bars
• During their agitation, they faced toughest opposition from administration of Nabha & Maharaja of Patiala. There was firing over Shahidi Jatha at Jaito in February 1924   . 

• Britishers were fearful  that this will affect Sikh soldiers in British army &  Congress ideology was reaching to peasants of Punjab . All these factors led Britishers to settle Akali issue once for all by passing a bill ie Gurudwara Bill, 1925 which gave following rights
  • Sikh community was given legal right to manage Gurudwaras & put the hereditary control of Mahants over gurudwaras to end . It introduced democratic control in Gurudwara management
  • According to this Act, a Sikh irrespective of his caste can be elected to any position including president of SGPC
  • Sikh women also got right to vote on par with men & they could perform all religious & social duties in Sikh shrines

Non Cooperation Movement

This article deals with ‘ Non Cooperation Movement  – UPSC.’ This is part of our series on ‘Modern History’ which is important pillar of GS-1 syllabus . For more articles , you can click here

Reasons of Non Cooperation Movement (NCM)

1 . World War 1 after effects

• High prices of basic goods. This was due to War expenditure and transport bottlenecks and disruption (e.g., the sharp fall in shipping-space available for non-military needs, causing a decline in imports) leading to a big increase in prices.
• ‘Drain of wealth’ took on during the war years the character of a massive plunder of Indian human and material resources.
• Indian army was expanded to 1.2 million, and thousands of Indians were sent off to die in a totally alien cause in campaigns which were often grossly mismanaged (like some of the offensives on the Western front, or in Mesopotamia). Theoretically, voluntary recruitment often became near-compulsory, most notably in the Punjab under Lieutenant-Governor Michael O’Dwyer, where the Congress inquiry after the 1919 disturbances found numerous instances of coercion through lambardars (village chiefs).
• 300% increase in defense expenditure inevitably meant not only war loans but a sharp rise in taxes
• After war, imports which stopped during war again started .  Indian industries started to close  & workers sent out of job
• In Political field , nationalists were disillusioned when British didn’t keep their promise of new era of democracy

2. Rowlatt act

• Already discussed in other article. Click here to read.

3. Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

• Already discussed in other article. Click here to read.

4. Montagu Chelmsford Reforms

• Government of India Act, 1919 further disillusioned the nationalists. Leaders  called it as disappointing & unsatisfactory and far from self government.

5. Khilafat Issue

• Explained below

Non-Cooperation Movement was undertaken to 

• (a)restore the status of the ruler of Turkey 
• (b) to avenge the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre and other violence in Punjab and 
• (c) to secure Swaraj (independence) for India.

Gandhi promised Swaraj in one year if his Non Cooperation Programme was fully implemented.

The another reason to start the Non-cooperation movement was that Gandhi lost faith in constitutional methods and turned from cooperator of British Rule to Non-Cooperator.

Khilafat Issue

• During war time, loyalty of Indian Muslims was purchased giving assurance of generous treatment of  Turkey after the war, a promise that British had no intention of fulfilling. Muslims regarded the Caliph of Turkey as their spiritual head and were upset when they found that he would retain no control over the holy places which  was his duty as Caliph to protect
• To oppose this ,Muslims all over the world launched Khilafat Movement . Muslims in India also launched it. So khilafat was religious and extra territorial issue
• November 1919 : Khilafat committee was formed under leadership of Ali brothers(Shaukat Ali, Mohammad Ali),  Maulana Azad, Ajmal khan (Hindustani Dwakhana, Delhi and father of Unani Medicine) and Hasrat Mohani & they published manifesto .
• Gandhi was sympathetic to their cause, especially because he felt the British had committed a breach of faith by making promises that they had no intention of keeping. On Khilafat Issue , Congress and Muslim League entered into the pact to launch collective demands against Britishers
• The pact remained from 1919-1922 ,till end of NCM

Note – It was thus a pan-Islamic movement in all its appearance, as the cause had nothing to do with India. But as Gail Minault has shown, the Khilafat was being used more as a symbol, while the leaders actually had little concern about altering the political realities in the Middle East. It was found to be a symbol that could unite the Indian Muslim community divided along many fault-lines, such as regional, linguistic, class and sectarian

Implications

• The attitudes of the Khilafat leaders increasingly revealed that they had accepted the Gandhi’s  creed of non-violence more as a matter of convenience to take advantage of Gandhi’s charismatic appeal, rather than as a matter of  faith. By bringing in the ulama and by overtly using a religious symbol, the movement evoked religious emotions among the Muslim masses.

• Violent tendencies soon appeared , as the masses lost self-discipline and the leaders  failed to control them . Eg  Moplah uprising in Malabar , where the poor Moplah peasants, emboldened by the Khilafat spirit, rose against the Hindu moneylenders and the state.
• Khilafat movement itself contributed  further to the strengthening of Muslim identity in Punjab and Bengal. 
• The Arya Samaj started a militant suddhi campaign in Punjab and UP and the Hindu Mahasabha launched its drive towards Hindu sangathan

In 1924, the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh, an overtly aggressive Hindu organisation, was also born  in the same year.

Changes in Congress after 1920

• Goal changed from the attainment of Self-Government by Constitutional and Legal Means to the attainment of Swaraj by Peaceful and Legitimate Means.
• Congress was now to have a Working Committee of 15 members to look after its day-to-day affairs (idea originally given by Tilak in 1916 but not accepted by Moderates then )
• Provincial Congress Committees were now to be organized on a linguistic basis, so that they could keep in touch with the people by using the local language.
• Congress organization was to reach down to the village & mohalla level by the formation of village & mohalla committees.
• Membership fee reduced to 4 annas/ year to enable poor to become members . This ensured mass support & source of income
• Congress was to use Hindi as far as possible

Course of Events

Gandhi laid elaborate program for this

Negative Program (Destruction)

• Boycott of:
  • Legislature +Elections (congress didn’t participate )
  • Courts
  • Education /Schools
  • Foreign cloth 
• This was led by CR Das (Gandhi was moving force )

Positive Program (Construction)

• Setting up of the national educational institutions and tribunals
• Charkha and khadi popularization
• Raising volunteer corps

Phases of Non Cooperation Movement (1921 -22)

1 . 1st Phase

• January to March 1921
• Main emphasis was on the boycott of schools, colleges, law courts and the use of Charkha. There was widespread student unrest and top lawyers like C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru gave up their legal practice.

2. 2nd Phase

• Starting from April 1921
• In this phase the basic objectives were collection of Rs. 1 crore for the Tilak Swaraj Fund by August  1921, enrolling one crore Congress members and installing 20 lakh Charkhas by 30 June

3. 3rd Phase

• Starting from August
• Stress was on boycott of foreign cloth, boycott of the forth coming visit of the Prince of Wales (Prince Edwards VIII) in November, 1921, popularisation of Charkha  and Khadi and Jail Bharo by Congress volunteers.
• All India Khilafat Movement declared that Muslims shouldn’t serve in British army . Ali Brothers arrested for sedition for this
• Congress Volunteer Corps became parallel police
• Prince of Wales welcomed by Empty streets

4. Last Phase

• From November 1921
• Shift towards radicalism was visible. Congress volunteers rallied people & country was on the verge of revolt
• Gandhi decided to launch a no revenue campaign at Bardoli, and also a mass Civil Disobedience Movement for freedom of speech, press and association.
• Ended with Chauri Chaura incident

People’s response

1 . Middle Class of presidency towns

• Middle class had a lot of reservations about Gandhi’s Programme.
• In places like Calcutta, Bombay, Madras which were centers of elite politicians, the response to Gandhi’s movement was very limited. Their response to the call for resignation from government service, surrendering of titles, etc.-was not very encouraging.  
  • Only 24 titles were surrendered out of 5186, and the number of lawyers giving up practice stood at 180 in March 1921.
  • Polling was low in many places in the November 1920 elections, falling to only 8% in Bombay city and 5% in Lahore, but candidates offered themselves in all but 6 out of 637 seats, and Council functioning could not be disrupted.
• However, the economic boycott received support from the Indian business group, because the textile industry had benefited from the nationalists emphasis on the use of Swadeshi.
• Still a section of the big business remained critical of the Non-Cooperation Movement. They were particularly afraid of labour unrest in factories

2. New Comer leaders

• New comers in Indian politics found expression of their interests and aspirations in the Gandhian movement. Leaders like Rajendra Prasad in Bihar, Vallabhbhai Patel in Gujarat provided solid support to Gandhian movement.
• They found Non-Cooperation as a viable political alternative to terrorism in order to fight against a colonial government.

3. Students & woman

• Very effective
• Thousands of students left the schools and joined newly founded Jamia Milia islamia, Kashi Vidyapeeth & Gujarat Vidyapeeth
• Women also came forward. They gave up Purdah and offered their jewellery for the Tilak Fund.

4. Peasants & workers

• Massive participation of the peasants & workers in it.
• Long-standing grievances of the toiling masses against the British, as well as the Indian masses got an opportunity through this movement to express their real feelings.
• Although the Congress leadership was against class war, the masses broke this restraint. In rural areas and some other places, the peasants turned against the landlords and the traders
• Mostly , their course of action was decided by Local Demands .
• The non-cooperation movement was most     effective where the peasants had already organised themselves. In Awadh district of   UP a radical peasant movement was being organised since 1918-19 against the oppressive taluqdars. 

5. Villages

• Gandhian programme of village reconstruction through self-help envisaged an economic revival through the spinning wheel and hand-woven cloth (charkha and khadi), panchayats or arbitration courts, national schools, and campaigns for Hindu-Muslim unity and against the evils of liquor and untouchability.
• Panchayats proved very popular in Bihar and Orissa, while in Bengal 866 arbitration courts in all were set up between February 1921 and April 1922—at their height in August 1921, ‘they considerably outnumbered the Government courts.

Spread & Variations

• NCM & Boycott got massive support from different parts of India  but movement was shaped according to local conditions & instructions from Congress leadership were not always followed –  ie Pressures from below was important factor
• It was the first countrywide popular movement. Gandhi accompanied by the Ali brothers undertook a nationwide tour. About 90,000 students left government schools and colleges and joined around 800 national schools & colleges . These educational institutions were organised under the leadership of Acharya Narendra Dev, C.R. Das, Lala Lajpat Rai, Zakir Hussain, Subhash Bose (who became the principal of National College at Calcutta) and included Jamia Millia at Aligarh, Kashi Vidyapeeth, Gujarat Vidyapeeth and Bihar Vidyapeeth.
• Many lawyers gave up their practice, some of whom were Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, C.R. Das, C. Raja- gopalachari, Saifuddin Kitchlew, Vallabhbhai Patel, Asaf Ali, T. Prakasam and Rajendra Prasad.
• Heaps of foreign cloths were burnt publicly and their imports fell by half. Picketing of shops selling foreign liquor and of toddy shops was undertaken at many places. Tilak Swaraj Fund was oversubscribed and one crore rupees collected. Congress Volunteer Corps emerged as the parallel police.
• In 1921, Ali brothers gave a call to the Muslims to resign from the Army as that was nonreligious. The Ali brothers were arrested for this in September. Gandhi echoed their call and asked local Congress committees to pass similar resolutions to that effect.

1 . Bengal

• Mass participation less enthusiastic here
• Rabindra Nath Tagore in his ‘Call for Truth‘   hailed the Mahatma’s achievement in arousing the destitute millions, but sharply criticized elements of narrowness, obscurantism and unthinking conformity in the cult of the charkha.
• But movement brought unique communal unity
• Hartals, strikes & mass courting greatly pressurised British government

2. Bihar

• Bihar won the Mahatma’s praise as ‘a Province in which the most solid work is being done in connection with Non-Cooperation. It’s leaders understand the true spirit of non-violence  .'(Young India, 2 March 1921).
• 41 high and 600 primary and middle national school with a total of 21,500 pupils had been established by June 1922, and 48 depots had been set up in 11 districts to distribute cotton and charkha. 300,000 charkhas, 89,000 handlooms, and a khadi production of 95,000 yards per month were reported from Bihar in August 1922
• Right to Graze on common land became issue of confrontation between upper & lower castes
• Issue of cow protection & rights of kisan also merged with it
• Swami Vidananda emerged as leader of the masses who was ready to take militant stand especially in Dharbanga  (which was unacceptable to Gandhi )

3. UP

• Strongest base – in cities , towns & rural areas
• In the countryside it took a different form. Here the movement got entangled with the Kisan Movement. Despite the repeated appeal for non-violence from the Congress leadership, the peasants rose in revolt not only against Taluqdars but also against merchants (outside Congress, Baba Ramchandra was main spirit here)
• Nehru was leading here
• The deep Gandhian impact on the U.P. intelligentsia was vividly reflected in the novels of Premchand, who resigned his post in a Gorakhpur government school in February 1921 to work for the nationalist journal Aj and for the Kasi Vidyapith. His Premasharam (1921) depicts a landlord with Gandhian leanings, while Rangbhumi (1925) has as its hero a blind beggar, Surdas, who fights a prolonged, non-violent struggle to prevent the pastures of his village being taken over for an Anglo-Indian cigarette factory

Demands were

• no nazarana (extra premium on rent)
• no eviction from holdings, and
• no begar(forced  labour) and rasad (forced supplies )

4. Punjab

• Akali Movement of Gurudwaras got closely identified with NCM
• Showed a remarkable communal unity between Sikhs, Muslims & Hindus

5. Maharashtra

• Relatively weak because the Tilakites were unenthusiastic about Gandhi, and Non-Brahmins felt that the Congress was a Chitpavan-led affair.
• Higher castes disliked Gandhi’s emphasis on the elevation of the depressed classes and their participation in the Non-Cooperation Movement

6. Andhra

• Grievances of Tribal and other peasants against Forest Laws got linked to the Non-Cooperation Movement. A large number of these people met Gandhi in Cudappa in September 1921 to get their taxes reduced and forest restrictions removed. Forest officials were boycotted. To assert their right they sent their cattle forcibly,into the forests without paying the grazing tax.
• Important leader – Dhuggaraya Gopal Krishna Aiyer in Guntur Area

7. Karnataka

• Remained comparatively unaffected – out of 682 title holders just 6 returned + 92 national schools opened with strength of 5000 students

8. Assam

• In the usually isolated province of Assam, Non-Cooperation attained a strength which no later phase of the national movement would ever equal. The most important development was in the tea-gardens of Surma valley, where at Chargola in May 1921 coolies demanded a big wage increase with ‘shouts of Gandhi Maharaj Ki Jai’, followed by a massive exodus of some 8000 (52% of the labour force here)  amidst declarations that such was Gandhi’s order. Rumours had apparently spread that Gandhi-Raj was coming to give them land in the villages from where they had been so forcibly or deceitfully torn away

9. Kerala

Moplah Rebellion

• Moplahs (Muslim peasantry)  of Kerala under the influence of Khilifatists started to participate in the rebellion against imperialist state .
• Although Moplah rebellions had long history but this time , there was huge mobilisation on the large scale . But after sometime , it acquired communal overtone & they started to attack Hindus

10. Tamil Nadu

• In Madras, the movement witnessed from the very beginning a Brahman-non-Brahman conflict, as the Justice Party launched an active campaign against the ‘Brahman’ Congress and its non-cooperation programme and rallied in support of the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms. Very few candidates actually withdrew and the Justice Party won the majority.
• Because of this resistance, the boycott of foreign cloth was also much weaker in the Tamil regions than in other provinces of India.

Governments’  Repression

• In beginning, Government thought it is best to leave it alone as repression will only make martyrs out of Nationalists & fan the spirit of revolt . But by end of 1921 , Government felt things are going too far . Change  in policy & declared Volunteer Corps illegal & arrested all who claimed to be its members
• CR Das was among first to be arrested followed by his wife Basantidebi . This outraged Bengali youth who came forward to court arrest . Next two months saw over 30,000 arrests
• Gandhi came under immense pressure after this from Congress ranks & was forced to enter into new phase of Civil Disobedience

Chauri Chaura Incident

• Volunteer leader (an army pensioner named Bhagwan Ahir) was beaten by Police and then they opened fire on the crowd which had come to protest before the police station. In return, agitated crowd burnt the police station killing 22 policemen 
• British alarm at the incident was vividly reflected by the fact that the sessions   court initially sentenced not less then 172 of the 225 Chauri Chaura accused to death (eventually 19 were hanged, and the rest transported).
• It must remain a matter of shame that there were virtually no nationalist protests against the barbarous attempt to take 172 lives in return for the 22 policemen killed—the only recorded protests being those made by M.N. Roy’s emigre Communist journal, Vanguard, and by the Executive Committee of the Communist International—and that even today at Chauri Chaura there remains a police memorial, but nothing in honour of the peasant martyrs.
• Chauri Chaura incident 5 February 1922 made Gandhi withdraw NCM

Was Gandhi correct in decision of withdrawal?

• If violence occurred anywhere,  it could be easily made as an excuse by Government to launch massive attack on movement as a whole & government site violence at one place as proof of likelihood of violence at other place & thus justify its repression . Gandhi’s assessment of chances of being allowed to conduct a mass civil disobedience campaign in Bardoli had receded further after Chauri Chaura. Mass civil disobedience would be defeated even before it was given a fair trial.  (True, the withdrawal itself led to considerable demoralization, especially of the active political workers, but it is likely that the repression and crushing of the movement (as happened in 1932) would have led to even greater demoralization.)
• The central theme of the agitation the Khilafat question dissipated soon. In November 1922, the people of Turkey rose under Mustafa Kamal Pasha and deprived the Sultan of political power. Turkey was made a secular state. Thus, the Khilafat question lost its relevance. A European style of legal system was established in Turkey and extensive rights granted to women. Education was nationalised and modern agriculture and industries developed. In 1924, the Caliphate was abolished.
• Mass movements have an inherent tendency to ebb after reaching a certain height, that the capacity of the masses to withstand repression, endure suffering and make sacrifices is not unlimited, that a time comes when breathing space is required to consolidate, recuperate, and gather strength for the next round of struggle

Achievements of the Non Cooperation Movement (NCM)

• Although Swaraj which Gandhi assured to be achieved in one year was no where in sight but Non Cooperation Movement was a success in many ways & foremost being it converted struggle to mass movement &  showed that Congress doesn’t represent microscopic minority
• Strength of the movement established the success of new organisation of the congress
• Movement coincided with many Local Movements as well as Praja Mandal Movement of some of the Princely States
• Women participation in such large numbers for the first time
• Economic boycott was far more intense and successful than in 1905-08, with the value of imports of foreign cloth falling from Rs 102 crores in 1920-21 to Rs 57 crores in 1921-22. While picketing remained important, a new feature was the taking of collective pledges by merchants not to indent foreign cloth for specific periods, and we hear also of interesting forms of business pressure, as when a Delhi trader’s threat not to honour hundis of Rohtak, led the latter town into joining a hartal in February 1920. However, their refusal to import foreign cloth might have also been due to a sudden fall in rupee-sterling exchange rates that made import ex- tremely unprofitable
• On Constructive Side : Emphasis was laid on eradication of social evils like untouchability , drinking as well as establishment of educational institutions like Jamia Milia, Kashi Vidyapeeth, Gujarat Vidyapeeth with 440 institutions started in Bihar and Orissa, 190 in Bengal, 189 in Bombay, and 137 in U.P. Many of these proved short-lived, as the pull of conventional degrees and jobs naturally reasserted itself when Swaraj failed to come in a year— but quite a few survived, to serve as valuable seminaries of nationalism.

Limitations of Non Cooperation Movement (NCM)

• None of the three objectives could be achieved 
• Sudden suspension of NCM led to disillusionment with the Gandhian tactics and many nationalists started looking for alternative means to struggle against the British rule
• The bridge of Hindu-Muslim unity build during NCM collapsed & could never be built again . Post NCM Jinnah emerged as the leader of Muslim league .
• At many places, peasants were mobilized on local demands and were not interested in national cause .
• There was no movement till Anti-Simon agitation

Arrival of Gandhi in India and initial movements

This article deals with ‘ Arrival of Gandhi in India and initial movements  – UPSC.’ This is part of our series on ‘Modern History’ which is important pillar of GS-1 syllabus . For more articles , you can click here

Arrival of Gandhi in India

• Came back to India in  Jan 1915 & was warmly welcomed ( now celebrated as Pravasi Bhartiya Divas) . His work in SA was well known already
• On Gokhale’s advice & by keeping his own style of never intervening in a situation without first studying it with great care,  first year he didn’t take a public stand on any political issue. He spent the year travelling around the country, watching things for himself and in organizing his ashram in Ahmedabad where he, and his devoted band of followers who had come with him from South Africa, would lead a community life. He decided he would join an organisation or movement that adopted non violent Satyagraha as its method of struggle
• From 1917 to early 1918 , he was involved in three struggles but these struggles were localised in nature & were for economic demands of masses  ( Champaran in Bihar & Kheda & Ahmedabad in Gujarat)

Gandhi’s initial years in politics

Nationalist Movement in India before arrival of Gandhi has been described by Judith Brown as “politics of studied limitations“and by Ravinder Kumar as “movement representing the classes” as opposed to the masses.  Nationalist politics was participated only by a limited group of western educated professionals , they belonged to certain specific castes & communities , certain linguistic & economic groups living primarily in Presidency towns

Breaking Policy of Limitation – Reasons for Popularity

• Famous Historian , Judith Brown suggested that Gandhi’s rise marked beginning of Breaking of the Policy of Limitation. Ie before Gandhi’s rise in the politics , nationalist movement remained limited regionally & to small class of people. It wasn’t able to penetrate into rural world.
• It was Gandhi’s achievement that he was managed to build the bridges with the countryside .
• With rise of Gandhi, new generation of leaders also rose . Center of gravity of Indian politics began to shift from maritime cities eg Bombay,  Madras & Calcutta to heartland of India (Northern plains) – Some historians have called this phenomenon as Rise of the Submerged Regions.

Reasons for his rise

• Conditions after World War I
  • There was phenomenal increase in defense expenditure during war & kept on increasing even after war was over . By 1923 national debt rose to ₹3 million & what it meant was heavy war loans & rising taxes
  • There was under production of food crops during war years  and what was produced , large amount was exported to feed fighting army . Hence there were famine like conditions throughout further compounded by outbreak of influenza epidemic(12-million people lost life )
  • Between 1914-1923,  forced recruitment for army was going on . Hence popular resentment in the countryside
  • While prices of industrial & imported goods & food crop was rising affecting poor peasantry , that of exported Indian agricultural raw material didn’t increased at same pace . In some areas organised peasant protests such as Kisan Sabha Movement in UP started
  • Growth of Industry during WW .  Wartime & post war periods witnessed super profits for businessmen but declining real wages for workers . In cities like Lahore & Bombay avg cost of living for workers increased by 70% but wages rose by just 20%
  • Number of workers increased tremendously . Sort of epidemic strike fever  affected all industrial centers in India 
  • Indian soldiers fighting abroad came in contact with new ideas there . They  spread it in India after coming back
  • The war also brought disillusionment for the educated youth, long mesmerized by the glitter of the West; suddenly they discovered the ugly face of Western civilization.

• Both the groups ie extremists & moderates had lost credibility as they had failed to achieve their stated goals .  Constitutional politics of moderates had failed to achieve their stated goal as reflected in Morley Minto reforms and Extremism was confined only to Bengal, Punjab & Maharashtra and was facing ruthless repression of government . For the younger generation of Indians, frustrated by the eternal squabbles between the moderates and extremists, he offered something refreshingly new

• There was also rift between Muslim community between Aligarh old guard & younger generation of  Muslim leaders . Gandhi alligned himself with young leaders by supporting Khilafat issue

• He had charismatic appeal which rested on skillful use of religious symbols & idioms . His simple attire, use of colloquial hindi, reference to the popular allegory of Ramrajya made him comprehensible to popular appeal . In popular myths , he was invested with supernatural power which could heal pain & deliver the common people from day to day miseries.  

• He declared  swaraj as his political goal, but never defined it and therefore could unite different communities under his umbrella type leadership.

• Due to his appeal to Ahimsa , Gandhian model would prove acceptable also to business groups, as well as to relatively better-off or locally dominant sections of the peasantry, all of whom stood to lose something if political struggle turned into uninhibited and violent social revolution

• Role of Rumours – Rumours in a predominantly illiterate society going through a period of acute strain and tensions played important role. From out of their misery and hope, varied sections of the Indian people seem to have fashioned their own images of Gandhi,  a holy man with miracle-working powers. Thus peasants could imagine that Gandhi would end zamindari exploitation & agricultural labourers of U.P. believed  that he would ‘provide holdings for them’ 

What was Gandhi to Ordinary Man

• Gandhi was something like God to the ordinary masses who felt blessed even to have one sight of him. People came from far to have ‘darshan’ of him. After hearing that Gandhi was coming to address meeting, people used to gather in thousands to have one sight of him thinking that they would be blessed after having a look of great soul.

• Rumours : Shahid Amin (Historian) has worked on how rumours about magic powers of Gandhi was spreading . Eg
  • Newspapers of UP gave account of following rumours about Gandhi . There were rumours that every person who wanted to test the power of the Mahatma had been surprised:
    • Sikandar Sahu from a village in Basti said on 15 February that he would believe in the Mahatmaji when the karah (boiling pan) full of sugar cane juice in his karkhana (where gur was produced) split into two. Immediately the karah actually split into two from the middle.
    • A cultivator in Azamgarh said that he would believe in the Mahatmaji’s authenticity if sesamum sprouted on his field planted with wheat. Next day all the wheat in that field became sesamum

• Shahid Amin has written that there were rumours that those who opposed Mahatma Gandhi met with some tragedy.
  • A gentleman from Gorakhpur city questioned the need to ply the charkha. His house caught fire.
  • In April 1921 some people were gambling in a village of Uttar Pradesh. Someone told them to stop. Only one from among group refused to stop and abused Gandhiji. The next day his goat was bitten by four of his own dogs.
  • In a village in Gorakhpur, the peasants resolved to give up drinking liquor. One person did not keep his promise. As soon as he started for the liquor shop brickbats started to rain in his path. When he spoke the name of Gandhiji the brickbats stopped flying

Tagore vs Gandhi

• Gandhi returned to India from South Africa in 1915 & one of the first place he visited was Shantiniketan . This was the start of their relationship which lasted till 1941. They had long correspondence over the years.
• Tagore can be viewed as friendly critic of Gandhi . Tagore knew that Gandhi was the person who can lead the nation and lead it in a very different way than anyone else. But he had some reservations about Gandhi.

• Best way to know about this is Public Exchange in Journal called ‘ The Modern Review‘ which started in 1921 (Tagore wrote then Gandhi replied and went on like this) 
  • Tagore was disturbed by number of things happening in Non Cooperation Movement (NCM) . He argued that, ” Idea of Non Cooperation is Political Asceticism. Our students are bringing their sacrifices to what? Not to full education but non education. NCM  has at its back a fear joy of annihilation.” But then he reminded Gandhi that he was his friend because he shared with Gandhi his disdain for material civilisation . He wrote, “You know that I don’t believe in the Civilisation of the West as I don’t believe in the physical body to be the highest truth in men. But I still less belief in the destruction of physical body. What is needed is the harmony between Physical and Spiritual nature of man maintaining the balance between the foundation & superstructure.”

• Then in 1934 , there was an Earthquake in Bihar. Gandhi issued a pronouncement that EARTHQUAKE WAS REFLECTION OF THE WRATH OF GOD . What Gandhi was refering to was earlier killing of the members of low caste by higher caste & Gandhi said this was the punishment of God for their gross misbehaviour towards lower sections of the society. Tagore was horrified after looking into his argument . Tagore opined that Indian masses were already very much superstitious and his statement would harden their superstitions. Hence, Gandhi issued rejoinder taking back his statement 

• He was also against the cult following of a leader.

• Unlike Gandhi who believed in  Handspun cotton  , swadeshi consumer goods and self sufficient villages .  Tagore held  this  point of view parochial, short sighted and  impractical. He tried  cooperative farming in the Zamindari lands.

• Tagore also has reservation about Wardha System  of Education. In his view it was very mechanical approach . Rural poor students in this scheme has limited choice of vocation and it gave precedence to material utility  over development of personality . He believed in Lively and enjoyable schools like Shantiniketan.

Initial Year Movements

1 . Champaran Satyagraha ,1917

• First Civil Disobedience Movement
• Area: Champaran District of Bihar
• European Planters forced Indian farmers to cultivate indigo on 3/20th of their land holding.
• Tinkathia System – It is an indirect system of cultivation .  Peasants leased lands from the planters binding themselves to grow indigo each year on specified land (3/20th)  in return for land . An  advance was given at the beginning of cultivation system
• Planters always forced them to sell their crop for a fixed and usually uneconomic price. At this time the demand of Indian indigo in the world market was declining due to the increasing production of synthetic indigo in Germany. Most planters at Champaran realised that indigo cultivation was no longer a paying proposition. The planters tried to save their own position by forcing  the tenants to pay the burden of their losses. They offered to release the tenants from growing indigo (which was a basic condition in their agreement with planters) if the latter paid compensation or damages. Apart from this, the planters heavily inflated the rents and imposed many illegal levies on the tenants.
• If the farmer did not want to grow indigo, he had to pay heavy fines

1916	A farmer Raj Kumar Shukla contacted Gandhi during Congress Session at Lucknow.
1917	Gandhi arrived in Bihar & started investigation in person. He was served an order to quit as he was regarded as threat to public order. But he decided to disobey that order & was arrested & tried in court . Government later ordered to abandon proceedings & released him

Result:

• Government appointed a committee to investigate, even included Gandhi as one of the member.
• Government abolished Tinkhatia System and ordered to pay 25% compensation to the farmers.
• Gandhi got new allies: Rajendra Prasad, JB Kriplani, Mahadev Desai and Braj Kishore Prasad
• This area became strong base for future Gandhian movements

2. Ahmedabad  Mill Strike, 1918

• First hunger strike
• Ahmedabad was becoming the leading industrial town in Gujarat. But the millowners often faced scarcity of labour and they had to pay high wages to attract enough millhands. In 1917, plague outbreak made labour shortage more acute because it drove many workers away from Ahmedabad to the countryside. To dissuade the workers from leaving the town, the millowners decided to pay ‘Plague Bonus’
• After Plague was over , employers wanted to withdraw bonus but workers wanted to continue due to increase in cost of living due to war . This led to strike
• British collector asked Gandhi to intervene because mill owner Ambalal Sarahbai was his friend . Gandhi persuaded both to settle this via Tribunal but later mill owner withdrew from agreement .  Gandhi asked workers to go on strike & after study concluded that they deserve 35% pay hike
• Ambalal’s sister Ansuya Behn was Gandhi’s main lieutenant
• After sometime workers started to exhibit signs of weariness . Gandhi decided to sit on Hunger Strike saying that if anybody died out of starvation he would be first . This put pressure on mill owners . They agreed to go to tribunal &  Tribunal granted 27.5% wage hike .

Although the workers ultimately got only 27.5 per cent wage rise, this movement went a long way in mobilizing   and organizing the working classes in Ahmadabad, paving the way  for the  foundation of the Textile Labour Association in February 1920.

3. Kheda Satyagraha , 1918

• First non cooperation movement
• Severe drought in Kheda District, Gujarat
• Kanbi-Patidar farmers were making decent living through cotton, tobacco and dairy. But Plague and famine during 1898-1906 reduced their income. Yet government increased Revenue demand.
• In 1917 , excessive rains &  Crops were less than 1/4th of normal yield . According to tax code in such situation they were entitled to remission of land revenue
• Gandhi said that any farmer wouldn’t pay land revenue & those who can pay would also not pay for interest of others but if government agree to demands then those who could pay can pay
• Government tried various repression measures like seizing cattle, household items , standing crop but farmers were firm not to pay
• Government too realised they cant pay taxes but cant announce this in open because this is what Gandhi was demanding . Gandhi in interest of people terminated struggle . Government ordered officials to recover Revenue only from those farmers who were willing to pay.
• Gandhi gets new allies : Vallabhbhai Patel, Indulal Yagnik etc

Importance of these movements

• Judith Brown has argued that the main importance of these early movements lay in the recruitment of ‘sub-contractors’ who would serve as his life-long lieutenants—like Rajendra Prasad, Anugraha Narayan Sinha and J.B. Kripalani in Champaran, or Vallabhbhai Patel, Mahadev Desai, Indulal Yajnik and Shankarlal Banker in the two Gujarat movements.
• Policy of Satyagraha can work was demonstrated to public at large
• Gandhi started journey of becoming leader of people
• Gandhi came to know about strength & weaknesses of people of Indian masses
• Was able to create space  for own 

Rowlatt Act, 1919

• While on one hand British government dangled carrot of Constitutional Reforms in 1919. On other hand, it decided to arm itself with extraordinary powers to suppress any discordant voices against reforms
• Rowlatt Act authorised the government to ‘Imprison any person without trial and conviction in the court of law,just on the basis of suspicion.’ This was basically to curb the revolutionary terrorism

Rowlatt Act (1919)

• In 1917 , Government of India appointed a committee under chairmanship of Justice Sydney Rowlatt (Sedition Committee) to investigate  “Revolutionary Crime” in the country & to recommend legislation for its suppression. After a review of the situation, the Rowlatt committee proposed a series of change in the machinery of law to enable government to deal effectively with the revolutionary activities.
• In  context of these recommendations the Government of India drafted two bills . New bills attempted to make war-time restrictions permanent. They provided
  • Trial of offences by a Special Court consisting of three High Court judges. There was no provision of appeal against the decision of this court which could meet in camera and take into consideration evidence not admissible under the Indian Evidence Act.
  • Give authority to the government to search a place and arrest a person without a warrant. Detention without a trial for maximum period of two years was also provided in the bills.

Anti Rowlatt Satyagraha – first mass strike

• Gandhi’s initial programme was modest . Along with few close associates, he signed Satyagraha Pledge on 24 Feb 1919 & 26 Feb he issued open letter to all Indians urging them to join Satyagraha
• Satyagraha was to be launched on April 6, 1919 but even before that there were large scale violent Anti-British demonstrations in Calcutta , Bombay and Delhi . Government was inexperienced to handle this & they arrested Gandhi on April 9 provoking mob fury
• In Punjab particularly , situation became very explosive due to wartime repression and forcible recruitment. Army had to be called in, on 10 April two main leaders of  Punjab were arrested(Dr Satyapal & Dr Saifuddin Kitchlew)  & city of Amritsar was given to control of General Dyer who issued notice prohibiting meetings & assemblies

Jallianwala Bagh massacre (April 1919)

• A large unarmed crowd had gathered in small park to protest arrest of Saifuddin Kitchlew & Satyapal .
• General Dyer ordered to shoot the people killing 379  people in 10 mins
• Incident was followed by uncivilised brutalities on the inhabitants of Amritsar like crawling on the bellies before Europeans which was placed under Martial law  ( mainly after British lady Miss Marcela Sherwood was assaulted )
• RN Tagore renounced his knighthood in protest
• Gandhi was overwhelmed by amount to violence and withdrew the movement on 18 April, 1919 but this doesn’t mean it was end of Satyagraha but a little break to prepare Indians for using this method . He admitted to have committed Himalayan Blunder by giving weapon of satyagraha to people not trained to use it. But the movement was significant nevertheless, as it was the first nationwide popular agitation, marking the beginning of a transformation of Indian nationalist politics from being the politics of some restricted classes to becoming the politics of the masses.
• Shankaran Nayyar resigned from the Central Executive Council

Analysis of Anti Rowlatt Satyagraha

• Whole of India wasn’t affected & was more effective in cities than rural areas
• In cities too , strength of movement was more due to local grievances like price rise, scarcity of basic commodities than protest against Rowlatt Act 

Gandhiji in South Africa

In this article, we will deal with basic questions which can be asked in mains exam like how South African experience influenced his role in future movements which he led in India and the racism debate ie whether Gandhiji was a racist or not.

Role of South African Experience of Gandhi

• Discrimination faced by Gandhi in South Africa directed at people of color like incident when he was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move from the first-class were a turning point in Gandhi’s life and shaped his social activism and awakened him to social injustice. 

• Tolstoy farm and Phoenix farm were precursor to Gandhi’s Ashrams in India like Ahmadebad Ashram
• Use of newspaper for political literacy and mobilisation. Indian Opinion was started by Gandhi in South Africa

• He learned that Civil Disobedience & Passive Resistance were more effective than traditional moderate methods of prayers & petition.

• Gained experienced of leading people from both genders, different religions, caste and social classes while facing resistance from both enemy and followers. Same he did in India. He spearheaded Khilafat Movement. He united people from different part of India and also paved the way for women in politics. He took break from the active politics for the emancipation of Harijans in India.

• He learned about the sacrificing  power of woman and role they can play in peaceful resistance and satyagraha. Hence, he asked women to join the protests and court arrests. [was influenced by feminist Millie Polak]

• Due to his experience in South Africa, he also realized the military might of British and was convinced that it can’t be challenged through force. Hence, peaceful means were the best way to defeat the Britishers.

Gandhi and Racism Debate

Gandhi didn’t embrace the Rights of Black people . Did it mean that he was indifferent to their cause.

• He didn’t do that because of Pragmatic Considerations. He was working in a terrain where there were large variety of Indians (area, class and language) . Just getting along all of Indians was huge task for Gandhi. Pragmatically , Gandhi didn’t take up cause of Natives because he was not in position to handle such complex movement.
• Moreover, Natives would not have accepted Gandhi as their leader.

Whether Gandhi was a Racist ?

• Initially, Gandhi was racist in some aspects . One excuse can be , everybody was racist at that time (but this doesn’t remove him from his sins) . In many other domains, Gandhi was far ahead of his times. Hence, Gandhi cant be said to be ‘creature of his times’.
• Gandhi was ignorant of the history of Black people. When his knowledge about Black people increased he started to write (especially in 1930s & 40s)  about India-Africa Solidarity. Hence, his views about Blacks changed during his lifetime.
• Gandhi was embraced by great many African leaders (like Nelson Mandella) . If Gandhi was such racist , why these great leaders admired and took inspiration from Gandhi . Hence, even leaders like Mandela were ready to excuse Gandhi of whatever his initial stand was and go ahead with his final stand .
• In 1936, Gandhi was visited by Afro-American Delegation at his Ashram . Gandhi said that next experiment in Satyagraha certainly would be taken by your people.

Hence, it can be said that whatever might be his initial views, his views in later parts of  his life weren’t racial .

As further reference, you can further refer the article by mrunal on his website. Click here to redirect to that article.

Gandhiji’s Ideology

This article deals with ‘Gandhiji’s Ideology   – UPSC.’ This is part of our series on ‘Modern History’ which is important pillar of GS-1 syllabus . For more articles , you can click here

Influence on Gandhi

• Raised in Port City (Porbandar) : people raised in port cities have tendencies to look outwards. They are less insular. Being raised on coast and interior makes large difference on psychology of people.

• Jainism : Jains are people who adhere to idea of strict non-violence (ahimsa) . He was born in Porbandar where  people belonging to Jainism were living in large number.  

• Vaishnavism : Vaishnavism is very much associated with Bhakti / idea of devotion.

• His Parents (especially mother) : He learnt devotion from his mother. She used to hold on her Karwa Chauth fast even for 36 hours but didn’t break it until she saw moon. He learnt about fast from his mother  

• His engagement with dissenting Intellectuals . These intellectuals were infact thinkers who were marginalized by the west itself. He was trying to build a coalition to the other west and tell to world that there wasn’t just one west which was oppressing them but other west too which dissent such tendencies. In a way, he was also trying to change the course of  fight as – He wasn’t only fighting for Independence of Indians but also to free Britishers from their own worst tendencies.

These intellectuals were as follows

1 . HD Thoreau – On duty of Civil Disobedience

• He was perhaps the first dissenter in US in real sense
• When US entered into war against Mexico in 1840s, Thoreau objected this war of expansionism & he objected more to the fact that taxes which he was paying to state were used to fund the military. He wrote essay against paying such taxes & duty of Civil Disobedience
• Gandhi was moved by the idea of Thoreau that if the state has passed the unjust law , then your duty is to disobey that law (note – this doesn’t mean disrespect of rule of law in general).
• A law is unjust according to Thoreau and Gandhi if your conscience tells you that you cant obey that law and if you obey that law , you will violate higher law and that higher law is law towards god & fellow human beings.

But there was difference between Gandhi and Thoreau because Thoreau at no point of time was thinking having a collectivity in this Civil Disobedience by taking  society and nation as a whole . His civil disobedience was more of individual character & not collective.

2. RW Emerson

• Essayist & Transcendentalist thinker
• Gandhi took Concept of Individualism from him

3. John Ruskin

Art critic & wrote UNTO THIS LAST . He took idea of Sarvodaya (Well Being of All => Community Living) from John Ruskin’s Unto this Last

• Unto This Last is an essay on economy by John Ruskin, first published in December 1860 . Ruskin said himself that these articles were “very violently criticized”, forcing the publisher to stop the publication after four months. Subscribers sent protest letters. But Ruskin countered the attack and published the four articles in a book in 1862.
• This essay is very critical of capital economists of the 18th and 19th century. Essay also attacks the destructive effects of industrialism upon the natural world, some historians have seen it as anticipating the Green Movement.
• Unto This Last had a very important impact on Gandhi’s philosophy. He discovered the book in March 1904 through Henry Polak, whom he had met in a vegetarian restaurant in South Africa. Polak was chief editor of the Johannesburg paper The Critic. Gandhi decided immediately not only to change his own life according to Ruskin’s teaching, but also to publish his own newspaper, Indian Opinion & start  a farm where everybody would get the same salary, without distinction of function, race or nationality, which for that time, was quite revolutionary. Thus Gandhi created Phoenix Settlement.
• Gandhi translated Unto This Last into Gujarati in 1908 under the title of Sarvodaya (“well being of all”).

4. Leo Tolstoy

• Radical anarchist Christian  – Argued that Christianity and teachings of Christ are two separate things.
• Much before he made his acquaintance through correspondence, Gandhi read Tolstoy’s The Kingdom of God is within you in South Africa. Tolstoy denounced the accumulation of wealth by men and the wielding of political power because it led to many evils and participation in fighting or war. He wrote in book that evil must never be returned with evil, but with goodness.

5. Theosophists

Encountered with Theosophists (Madame Blavatsky , Annie Besant (in India) & Vegetarians) in England

• Theosophy is a religious /spiritual doctrine which argues that there is a way for the human beings to communicate with divine directly . England during that time had become epitome of industrial materialistic society where there was little room for the common people for spiritualism 
• These Theosophists were infact challenging the Christianity which tells a path of interaction with god which was mediated through Church.

Gandhian Ideology

Note : Gandhi’s Praxis

• Praxis = Evolution of ideas over time depending upon need of the thinker to negotiate with new situation & in the process inventing new ideas.
• Gandhi’s ideology was part of Praxis which kept evolving after learning lessons from experiences of life . In the process to make bridges with hitherto neglected people, Gandhi had to re-cast some of his political ideas in new language.
• Gandhi has himself said – His ideas kept on evolving with time. Whatever he said in last was his final conclusion based on real time experiences.

1 . Satyagraha

• Comprised of two words – Satya ie Truth & Agraha ie Force .  It is tool of nonviolent political resistance. It is force of truth.
• Chief aspect of Gandhian ideology
• Satyagraha was to be used so that by self suffering and not by violence the enemy could be converted to one’s own view . It was based on the premise of superior moral power of the protestors capable of changing the heart of the oppressors through display of moral strength
• Gandhi in his Satyagraha used Force of truth (and hence it was different from Passivity of Monks which didn’t use any force)
• Mahatma Gandhi consciously feminized India’s freedom struggle to win against the brute masculinity of British power using tool of Satyagraha .He saw his mother Putlibai and his wife Kasturba  use peaceful resistance against patriarchy at home. His mother would fast to put moral pressure on his father, and his wife would refuse any act that he asked her to do if she did not agree with it. He personally experienced the power that resists rather than destroys. He incorporated this knowledge into a political tool, satyagraha

2. Non Violence

• Non-Violence formed the basis of satyagraha
• Satyagraha could assume various forms-fasting, non-violent picketing, different types of non-cooperation and ultimately in politics, civil disobedience in willing anticipation of the legal penalty. Gandhi firmly believed that all these forms of Satyagraha were pure means to achieve pure ends. It excludes the force of violence because Man is not capable of knowing the absolute truth & therefore not competent to punish

Gandhi had following problems with Violence

• Epistemological Argument – Man isn’t in possession of Absolute Truth (death sentence and later found innocent) 
• Anthological Argument -How monsterous may person appear to us, there is always spark of divinity in him
• Pragmatic Argument -It doesn’t work
• Moral Objection – It creates a split between cognition and feeling 

According to Gandhi, Non Violence doesn’t need Violence to define itself. It would be narrow to define Non-Violence as absence of violence. It has far greater meaning .  According to Gandhi, Non-Violence is a mode of being, it is a mode of living and way of thinking . It means

• How you live in world without doing injustice to anybody,
• How to live without bleeding the earth’s resources and not taking what is absolutely yours (hence, present humans consuming more than what is actually their, is also Violence)
• How do you forge social relationships.

Gandhi advocated abolition of Arms Act (which criminalises Indians from owning Fire Arms) despite the fact that he was ardent advocate of Non-Violence . Gandhi’s argument was , there is no virtue in being non-violent , when you have no other option in life. The only way to demonstrate your adherence to the idea of Non-Violence is when you have the ability to actually resort to violence but you renounce that ability. 

By Non-Violence, Gandhi didn’t mean passivity or not doing anything at all. In his idea of non-violence, first of all no harm is to be done to anybody and if situation arises in which there is need to do harm, that harm should be done to oneself and not other.

• Gandhi’s concept of ahimsa evolved through confrontations with situations giving rise to moral dilemmas. For instance, Gandhi had to explain his concept in the context of war and to explain his own participation in the First World War. “When two nations are fighting,” he wrote, “the duty of a votary of ahimsa is to stop the war. He who is not equal to that duty, he who has no power of resisting war, he who is not qualified to resist war, may take part in war, and yet wholeheartedly try to free himself, his nation and the world from war.” He knew that some destruction of non-human life was inevitable. ( ethics IR)

3. Hind Swaraj

• Other feature was illustrated in his book Hind Swaraj (written in Gujarati in 1908)   and that was  CRITIQUE OF MODERN CIVILISATION
• This can be equated with Communist Manifesto of Communism. Hind Swaraj tells us about Gandhism like Communist Manifesto tells about Communism.
• It is written in dialogue form between Reader and Editor (like Plato’s dialogues & Upanishads)

Main Aspects pondered in Hind Swaraj

• Indians constituted a nation or praja since the pre-Islamic days. The ancient Indian civilisation-“unquestionably the best”-was the fountainhead of Indian nationality, as it had an immense assimilative power of absorbing foreigners of different creed who made this country their own. This civilisation, which was “sound at the foundation” and which always tended “to elevate the moral being”, had “nothing to learn” from the “godless” modern civilisation that only “propagated immorality”

• Real enemy was not the British political domination but the modern western civilization which was luring India into its stranglehold . Indians educated in western style, particularly lawyers, doctors, teachers and industrialists, were undermining India’s ancient heritage by insidiously spreading modern ways. He criticized railways as they had spread plague and produced famines by encouraging the export of food grains.

• Indians must eschew greed and lust for consumption and revert to village based self-sufficient economy of the ancient times. On the other hand, parliamentary democracy-the foundational principle of Western liberal political system and therefore another essential aspect of modern civilisation-did not reflect in Gandhi’s view the general will of the people, but of the political parties, which represented specific interests and constricted the moral autonomy of parliamentarians in the name of party discipline. So for him it was not enough to achieve independence and then perpetuate “English rule without the Englishmen”; it was also essential to evolve an Indian alternative to Western liberal political structures. His alternative was a concept of popular sovereignty where each individual controls or restrains her/his own self and this was Gandhi’s subtle distinction between self-rule and mere home rule. “Such swaraj”, Gandhi asserted, “has to be experienced by each one for himself.”

• These ideas  look utopian and obscurantist in the context of the early twentieth century.

It is not strictly correct to say that Gandhi was outrightly rejecting modernity as a package . Throughout his career he made utmost use of print media editing Indian Opinion (in SA) + Harijan & Young India(in India) & travelled extensively by railways (& becoming man of masses due to railways) . Yet offering an ideological critique of the western civilisation in its modern phase , Gandhi was effectively contesting the moral legitimacy of Raj that rested on stated assumption of superiority of the west

Gandhi : Parliamentary democracy doesn’t represent general will of people but of political parties.Gandhis alternative was popular sovereignty where each individual controls or restrains her/his own-self.

4. Swadeshi

• Gandhi advocated swadeshi which meant the use of things belonging to one’s own country, particularly stressing the replacement of foreign machine made goods with Indian hand made cloth. This was his solution to poverty of peasants who could spin at home to supplement their income & his cure for the drain of money to England in payment for imported cloth.
• It is interesting to find that despite his pronounced opposition to the influences of Western Industrial civilization Gandhi did not take a hostile view towards emerging modern industries in India. Gandhi believed in the interdependence of capital and labour and advocated the concept of capitalists being ‘trustees’ for the workers. In fact, Gandhi never encouraged politicization of the workers on class lines and openly abhorred militant economic struggles

5. On Caste System

Gandhis idea on caste and varna were not consistent but evolved throughout his political discourse. Superficially we could say that :

• Gandhi was against the caste system & untouchability as it existed in those times but was in favor of Varna System that wasn’t based on Birth
• Gandhi looked at this institution as division of labor & symbol of stability of Indian society from early times. According to him, Varnashram reduces unnecessary competition so is a viable model for India.

6. Gandhi and Women

Gandhi was of the opinion that women were superior to men in their moral and spiritual strength. They had greater powers of self-sacrifice and suffering. On this account, women were capable of infinite strength, which they only needed to realize and channel.

Gandhi wanted to introduce a softer kind of politics (simply putting women in power doesn’t mean softening of Public Sphere). Gandhi’s model was – Men must be men but they must cultivate feminine within them. Similarly , women must remain women but they must cultivate the masculine within them. 

Gandhi’s Critique of Masculinity

• His critique of Masculinity was tied to his critique of nation state . He was of the view that Nation State is the kind of entity which is masculine form of doing politics.
• Nathuram Godse in his speech – Most important reason for murdering Gandhi was he was indulging in all things which were feminine. If India is placed in hands of person like Gandhi having feminine traits within him, India would sink into despair. Only way in which nation can earn respect in the world is by becoming masculine and strong nation state . He also argued that things like fasting and charkha were characteristics of women and weak persons and leaders of strong nations must not indulge in such things.

Gandhi and Politics of Sexuality

• Sexuality is entire corpus of feeling & emotions that one have towards someone with whom one has attachment (not sex)
• Gandhi renounced sex but not sexuality. Gandhi had lot of female companions and he loved their company.
• Gandhi in later parts of life started to think sexual intercourse as act of violence.  

Gandhi had strong views on another key subject relating value of equality between the sexes. He was against gender bias in the training of children. He asserted that girls ought not to be taught to adorn themselves as that identified them as objects of desire without any other distinct human qualities. He was also of the opinion that housework must be divided equally between boys and girls as the home belonged to both. Also, both boys & girls ought to have vocational training in some occupation so as to assure them a future livelihood when need arose.

7. View on Trusteeship

• Wealthy could not justly claim their property & wealth to be theirs entirely. The reason was that they could not accumulate their wealth without the labour and cooperation of workers and the poorer sections of society. Hence, they were logically and morally bound to share their wealth in a fair measure with their workers and the poor.
• But instead of ensuring this through legislation, Gandhi wanted wealthy people to voluntarily surrender part of their wealth and hold it in trust for those working for them.
• He defines trusteeship in simple terms: “The rich man will be left in ownership of his wealth of which he will use what he reasonably requires for his personal needs and will act as a trustee for the remainder to be used for society.”
• Gandhi did not believe in inherited wealth for he was of the view that a trustee has no heir but the public. He did not favour compulsion in the surrender of riches because he believed that forcible dispossession of the wealthy would deny to society the talents of people who could create national wealth.
• His method was to persuade the wealthy to act as trustees, failing which satyagraha could be adopted. But by the 1940s, he had come to believe that state legislation would be necessary to ensure compliance with the principle of trusteeship

8. Ethics of empathy

• Unlike many contemporary liberal political thinkers, who put rights before duties, empathy and cross-cultural understanding are the ‘hallmarks of the Gandhian view of everyday politics.
• The heart of Gandhi’s ethics of empathy is to look within oneself, change oneself and then change the world. 

9. Views on Clothing for Indians

• Mahatma Gandhi wanted Khadi to be the national cloth. He believed that if Khadi was used by every Indian, it would go a long way in bridging the gulf between the rich and the poor.
• However his idea of scant clothes did not make much sense to
  • Most people who could afford better.
  • Dalits and the Christian converts who found Western style dresses as giving them a sense of liberation from age old prejudices.
  • Khadi was costly and even difficult to maintain.
  • Muslims too did not accept Khadi.
  • Elite women too did not find home spun Khadi very attractive.
• Congress leaders who were relatively well off switched over to Khadi because in colonial India Khadi symbolized the urge for free

It would be however misleading to say that Gandhi was introducing Indians to an entirely new kind of Politics. Mass movement organised by Tilak in 1890s ,activities of Punjab extremists & Swadeshi movement in Bengal had already foreshadowed the coming of agitational politics in India.  So far as mass mobilisation was concerned  Home Rule leagues of Tilak & Besant prepared the ground of Gandhi’s initial satyagraha movements (many of the local leaders of Gandhi’s early Satyagrahas came from  Home Rule league background)