Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement
Chapter Title & Core Theme
- NCERT Chapter Name: Theme Eleven, Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement: Civil Disobedience and Beyond (Themes in Indian History, Part III)
- Central Theme: The chapter analyses Gandhiji’s activities in India during 1915-1948. It studies his interactions with different sections of Indian society and the popular struggles he inspired and led. It also shows that “individuals, even great ones, are made by history even as they make history”. Finally, it introduces the different kinds of sources historians use to reconstruct a leader’s career and social movements.
A Leader Announces Himself (1915-1916)
Key Concepts & Flow
- January 1915: Gandhiji returned after two decades abroad, mostly in South Africa, where he went as a lawyer and became a leader of the Indian community. Historian Chandran Devanesan called South Africa “the making of the Mahatma”.
- In South Africa he first forged satyagraha, promoted harmony between religions, and alerted upper-caste Indians to their discriminatory treatment of low castes and women.
- The India of 1915 was politically more active than in 1893. The Indian National Congress had branches in most major towns, and the Swadeshi movement (1905-07) had broadened its middle-class appeal.
- Swadeshi leaders were Lal, Bal, Pal (Lala Lajpat Rai of Punjab, Bal Gangadhar Tilak of Maharashtra, Bipin Chandra Pal of Bengal). The alliteration conveyed the all-India character of the struggle.
- Moderates preferred a gradual and persuasive approach. They included Gopal Krishna Gokhale (Gandhiji’s acknowledged political mentor) and Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
- On Gokhale’s advice, Gandhiji spent a year travelling around British India.
- February 1916, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) opening:
- He was relatively unknown and was invited for his South Africa work.
- He called the event “a most gorgeous show” and contrasted the “richly bedecked noblemen” with the “millions of the poor” who were absent.
- He said “Our salvation can only come through the farmer.”
- Significance: At one level, a statement of fact that nationalism was an elite phenomenon. At another level, a statement of intent to make nationalism more representative of the Indian people.
- December 1916, Lucknow Congress: a peasant from Champaran (Bihar) told him about the harsh treatment of peasants by British indigo planters.
Source/Box Notes: The BHU speech quotations are the chapter’s evidence for Gandhiji’s early view of nationalism as elite-dominated.
The Making and Unmaking of Non-cooperation (1917-1922)
Key Concepts & Flow
- Local struggles:
- 1917, Champaran: security of tenure and freedom to cultivate crops of choice.
- 1918, Ahmedabad: a labour dispute, with textile mill workers demanding better working conditions.
- 1918, Kheda: peasants asked the state for remission of taxes after harvest failure.
- These marked him as a nationalist with deep sympathy for the poor, but they were localised.
- 1919, Rowlatt Act:
- Wartime press censorship and detention without trial were continued on the recommendation of a committee chaired by Sir Sidney Rowlatt.
- Gandhiji called a countrywide campaign (Rowlatt Satyagraha), with a bandh in North and West India.
- Protests were especially intense in Punjab, where men had served the British in the War.
- April 1919: a British Brigadier ordered troops to fire on a nationalist meeting in Amritsar. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre killed more than 400
- The Rowlatt Satyagraha made him “a truly national leader”. He then called for non-cooperation, meaning a “renunciation of (all) voluntary association with the (British) Government”. Indians were to stop attending schools, colleges and law courts and to not pay taxes. If carried out effectively, swaraj within a year.
- He joined hands with the Khilafat Movement (restoration of the Caliphate, a symbol of Pan-Islamism, abolished by Kemal Attaturk).
Knitting a Popular Movement
- Hindus and Muslims were to jointly end colonial rule.
- Students left government institutions and lawyers boycotted courts.
- 396 strikes in 1921, involving 600,000 workers, with seven million workdays
- Countryside: hill tribes in northern Andhra violated forest laws, farmers in Awadh did not pay taxes, and peasants in Kumaun refused to carry loads for officials.
- Many protests occurred in defiance of local nationalist leadership. People interpreted “non-cooperate” in ways that suited their own interests.
- Louis Fischer: non-cooperation was “negative enough to be peaceful but positive enough to be effective… It was training for self-rule.” It shook the British Raj to its foundations for the first time since the Revolt of 1857.
- February 1922, Chauri Chaura (United Provinces): peasants torched a police station, and several constables died. Gandhiji called off the movement: “No provocation can possibly justify (the) brutal murder of men who had been rendered defenceless”.
- March 1922: Gandhiji was arrested and charged with sedition. Justice C.N. Broomfield acknowledged that Gandhiji was “a great patriot and a leader” in the eyes of millions. The sentence was six years’ imprisonment.
Source/Box Notes
- Khilafat box: Movement of Indian Muslims (1919-1920) led by Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali. Demands: the Turkish Sultan/Khalifa to retain control over Muslim sacred places in the erstwhile Ottoman empire; jazirat-ul-Arab (Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Palestine) to remain under Muslim sovereignty; the Khalifa to have sufficient territory to defend the Islamic faith. The Congress supported it.
- 11.4: Foreign cloth collected for bonfires (July 1922), showing the boycott of foreign cloth.
A People’s Leader
Key Concepts & Flow
- By 1922 he had transformed nationalism from a movement of professionals and intellectuals into one including peasants, workers and artisans. This redeemed the promise of his BHU speech.
- People called him “Mahatma” because he dressed like them, lived like them and spoke their language.
- Other leaders wore Western suits or Indian bandgala. Gandhiji wore a dhoti/loincloth and spun on the charkha Spinning broke the caste boundary between mental and manual labour.
- 1921: during a South India tour he shaved his head and adopted the loincloth. This symbolised asceticism and abstinence, opposed to the consumerist culture of the modern world.
- Shahid Amin’s study traced his image among the peasants of eastern Uttar Pradesh through local press reports and rumours. He was known as “Gandhi baba”, “Gandhi Maharaj” or simply “Mahatma”, a saviour from high taxes and oppressive officials.
- Rumours: that the King had sent him to redress farmers’ grievances, that his power was superior to the English monarch’s, and that his opponents met misfortune.
- Careful organisation:
- New Congress branches were set up.
- Praja Mandals were established in the princely states.
- The nationalist message was spread in the mother tongue, not English.
- Provincial committees were based on linguistic regions, not the artificial boundaries of British India.
- Supporters: Businessmen and industrialists such as G.D. Birla supported the movement because the favours enjoyed by British competitors would end in free India. Peasants and industrialists followed him for different, even opposed, reasons.
- Followers (1917-1922): Mahadev Desai, Vallabhbhai Patel, J.B. Kripalani, Subhas Chandra Bose, Abul Kalam Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, Govind Ballabh Pant, C. Rajagopalachari. They came from different regions and religious traditions.
- After release (February 1924): he promoted khadi and the abolition of untouchability. He was “as much a social reformer as a politician”. He wanted Indians to get rid of child marriage and untouchability, cultivate Hindu-Muslim harmony, and become self-reliant.
Source/Box Notes
- Source 1 (Charkha): From Young India (13 Nov 1924; 17 March 1927). Gandhiji was critical of the craze for labour-saving machinery that leaves thousands jobless. He wanted wealth in “the hands of all” and not of the few. The charkha could give the poor supplementary income and self-reliance, and khaddar “regulates” machinery without destroying it.
- Source 2 (Gorakhpur newspaper and rumours): Crowds of 15,000-20,000 at stations on his 1921 tour, with bhent (donations) and darshan. The rumours reflect the peasants’ belief in him as a saviour with miraculous powers, the structure of belief of the time.
The Salt Satyagraha: A Case Study (1928-1934)
Key Concepts & Flow
- 1928: Gandhiji blessed the all-India agitation against the all-White Simon Commission and the Bardoli peasant satyagraha, but did not participate.
- December 1929, Lahore Congress: Jawaharlal Nehru elected President (passing of the baton to the younger generation), and Purna Swaraj (complete independence) proclaimed.
- 26 January 1930: “Independence Day” observed with flag hoisting and constructive work such as spinning, service of ‘untouchables’, Hindu-Muslim reunion, prohibition work.
- Why salt? Salt was indispensable in every household, yet the state held a monopoly on manufacture and sale. People had to buy it at high prices, so the issue could mobilise wider discontent. This showed Gandhiji’s tactical wisdom.
- 12 March 1930: he began the march from his Sabarmati ashram to Dandi, reaching the sea three weeks later. By making a fistful of salt he became “a criminal in the eyes of the law”. He had given advance notice to Viceroy Lord Irwin, who failed to grasp its significance. Parallel salt marches occurred elsewhere.
- Other streams of protest: peasants breached forest laws, factory workers struck, lawyers boycotted courts, and students boycotted government institutions. Nearly 60,000 arrested after the march, including Gandhiji.
- At Wasna village he told the upper castes, “You must serve untouchables… Hindus, Muslims, Parsis and Sikhs will have to unite”.
- Time magazine first mocked his “spindly frame” and then called him a “Saint” and “Statesman”.
Significance of the Salt March (three reasons)
- It first brought Gandhiji to world attention, with wide European and American press coverage.
- It was the first nationalist activity with large-scale participation of women. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay persuaded Gandhiji not to restrict it to men.
- It forced the British to realise that their Raj would not last forever and that they would have to devolve some power to Indians.
Dialogues: Round Table Conferences
- First Round Table Conference (November 1930): held without the pre-eminent political leader, so “an exercise in futility”.
- January 1931: Gandhiji was released. Gandhi-Irwin Pact (March 1931): civil disobedience called off, all prisoners released, salt manufacture allowed along the coast. Radical nationalists criticised it because no commitment to political independence was obtained, only talks towards it.
- Second Round Table Conference (late 1931), London: Gandhiji represented the Congress. His claim to represent all India was challenged by the Muslim League (Muslim minority), the Princes (the Congress had no stake in their territories), and B.R. Ambedkar (the Congress did not represent the lowest castes).
- It was inconclusive. Gandhiji returned and resumed civil disobedience. The new Viceroy, Lord Willingdon, was deeply unsympathetic.
- Government of India Act, 1935: promised some form of representative government. 1937 elections (restricted franchise): Congress won eight out of 11 provinces.
Source/Box Notes
- Source 3 (Why salt?): From CWMG, Vol. 49. Salt tax was at times fourteen times its value, and the government destroyed salt it could not sell profitably. Gandhiji called the monopoly a “fourfold curse”: it deprives people of an easy village industry, destroys property that nature produces in abundance, adds national expenditure, and levies a tax of more than 1,000 per cent on a starving people.
- Source 4 (Dandi speech, 5 April 1930): He credited the “power of peace and non-violence” for reaching Dandi. The government did not arrest the “army of peace” perhaps from fear of world opinion. “When a whole nation is roused and on the march no leader is necessary.”
- Sources 5 & 6 (Separate electorates):
- Gandhiji (Round Table Conference): separate electorates would ensure the Untouchables “bondage in perpetuity”, perpetuate the stigma, and what is needed is the destruction of untouchability. (Fig. 11.9 caption: he feared they would be segregated from caste Hindus.)
- Ambedkar (Writings and Speeches, Vol. 9): the Depressed Classes are economically dependent on high-caste Hindus and socially branded. Some share of political power is “a paramount necessity” for protection.
- 11.8: Congress leaders at Allahabad after Gandhiji’s January 1931 release.
Quit India and the Road to Independence (1939-1947)
Key Concepts & Flow
- September 1939: Second World War began. Gandhiji and Nehru were critical of Hitler and the Nazis. The Congress offered support if Britain promised independence after the war. The offer was refused, and the Congress ministries resigned (October 1939).
- 1940-41: individual satyagrahas.
- March 1940: the Muslim League demanded autonomy for Muslim-majority areas. Politics became a three-way struggle between the Congress, the Muslim League and the British.
- Churchill was a “diehard imperialist”. 1942, Cripps Mission: talks broke down when the Congress insisted that the Viceroy first appoint an Indian as Defence Member of his Executive Council.
- August 1942, Quit India:
- Gandhiji’s third major movement.
- He was jailed at once, but younger activists organised strikes and sabotage. Jayaprakash Narayan and other socialist Congressmen were active in the underground resistance.
- “Independent” governments were proclaimed in Satara (west) and Medinipur (east).
- It took more than a year to suppress.
- It was “genuinely a mass movement”, especially energising the young.
- Meanwhile, the Muslim League expanded its influence, notably in Punjab and Sind.
- June 1944: Gandhiji was released and held meetings with Jinnah.
- 1945: a Labour government in Britain committed to granting independence. Viceroy Lord Wavell convened Congress-League talks.
- Early 1946: provincial elections. The Congress swept the General category and the League won an overwhelming majority of reserved Muslim seats. “The political polarisation was complete.”
- Summer 1946, Cabinet Mission: failed to get agreement on a federal system. Jinnah called for Direct Action Day (16 August 1946) to press the demand for Pakistan, and riots broke out in Calcutta and spread to Bengal, Bihar, the United Provinces and the Punjab.
- February 1947: Mountbatten replaced Wavell and announced that British India would be freed but divided. Formal transfer of power: 15 August.
Source/Box Notes
- Satara box (1943): Rooted in the non-Brahman movement, which opposed the caste system and landlordism. Younger leaders set up a parallel government (prati sarkar) with volunteer corps (seba dals) and village units (tufan dals), ran people’s courts, and organised constructive work. Dominated by kunbi peasants and supported by dalits, it functioned until the 1946 elections, despite repression and later Congress disapproval.
- 11.13: Nehru and Patel represented the socialist and the conservative tendencies within the Congress, and Gandhiji often mediated between them.
The Last Heroic Days (1947-1948)
Key Concepts & Flow
- 15 August 1947: Gandhiji was in Calcutta and marked the day with a 24-hour fast. Freedom had come at an “unacceptable price”.
- Biographer D.G. Tendulkar, he visited hospitals and refugee camps, appealing for peace and fellowship.
- A Congress resolution (initiated by Gandhiji and Nehru) on the “rights of minorities”: the party never accepted the “two-nation theory”. India would be “a democratic secular State where all citizens enjoy full rights… irrespective of the religion”.
- Many scholars call the months after Independence his “finest hour”. He moved from Bengal to Delhi, where refugees disrupted his meetings.
- 20 January 1948: an attempt on his life. 30 January 1948: shot dead at his daily prayer meeting by Nathuram Godse.
- Tributes: from George Orwell and Albert Einstein. Time compared his martyrdom to Abraham Lincoln’s: a bigoted Hindu killed him for believing that friendship was possible between Indians of different faiths.
Source/Box Notes: Fig. 11.15 is a popular print in which Gandhiji is deified as the unifying force, blessing Nehru and Patel standing on either side of his pyre.
Knowing Gandhi: Sources for the Historian
Key Concepts & Flow
- 1 Public voice and private scripts:
- Speeches give the public voice and private letters give private thoughts.
- The private-public distinction often breaks down. Letters may be shaped by awareness of future publication.
- Gandhiji published letters in his journal Harijan. Nehru edited A Bunch of Old Letters.
- 2 Framing a picture (Autobiographies):
- They are retrospective accounts written from memory.
- They show how the author wants to be viewed. Historians must see “what the author does not tell us”, including wilful or unwitting acts of forgetting.
- 3 Through police eyes (Government records):
- Fortnightly Reports of the Home Department.
- They often expressed what higher officials wanted to believe.
- They dismissed the Salt March as a “drama” or “antic” but also betrayed anxiety.
- 4 From newspapers:
- They are not unprejudiced, since owners had their own political opinions and world views.
- A London newspaper reported differently from an Indian nationalist paper.
- Reports reflect the fears and anxieties of officials. The more the state watched, “the more it worried about the basis of its rule”.
Source/Box Notes
- Source 7 (A Bunch of Old Letters, 1936): Context: Nehru’s socialist leanings, a rift between socialists and conservatives (Rajendra Prasad, Patel), and Gandhiji’s role as mediator.
- Prasad (1 July 1936): complained that Nehru acted as “mouthpiece of the minority” and that the conservatives were treated as “persons whose time is over”.
- Nehru (5 July): felt “weak in body and troubled in mind”; defended his socialist views.
- Gandhiji (15 July): “Keep it on (the crown of thorns), though the head be bruised.” He urged Nehru to see it “in a lighter vein”.
- Shows how Congress ideals developed, Gandhiji’s role as mediator and moral anchor, and the internal functioning of the Congress.
- Source 8 (Fortnightly Reports, March-April 1930): Reports from provinces (Madras, Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, Central Provinces, United Provinces, Punjab). They say the march was “theatrical”, that meetings “excite little or no interest”, and that the peasantry was busy with rabi harvest and students with exams, yet they also note ladies attending in increasing numbers, open defiance of the Salt Act in the United Provinces (Agra, Cawnpore, Benaras, etc.), and Nehru’s arrest (14 April). This shows the gap between official perception and reality.
- 11.17: Popular print showing Gandhiji as the central figure in the “tree of nationalism”, with other leaders and sages around him.
