Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement

A. The South African Crucible (1893–1914):

Trained as a lawyer in London, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi went to South Africa in 1893 to handle a legal case. There, he confronted institutionalized racial discrimination:

• He pioneered the philosophy of Satyagraha (Truth-Force / Soul-Force)—the relentless pursuit of truth through radical non-violence (Ahimsa) and voluntary acceptance of suffering without hatred toward the oppressor.
• He organized passive resistance campaigns against discriminatory immigration passes and anti-Indian marriage laws, uniting diverse linguistic and religious Indian communities in South Africa.

B. Return to India & Early Local Campaigns (1915–1918):

Gandhi returned to India in January 1915. On the advice of his political mentor, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Gandhi spent his first year traveling across India third-class by train to intimately understand the realities of the common people:

1. Champaran Satyagraha (Bihar, 1917): Defended poor peasant farmers forced by European planters under the exploitative Tinkathia system to cultivate indigo on 3/20th of their land, securing an end to illegal exactions.
2. Kheda Satyagraha (Gujarat, 1918): Demanded land revenue remission for peasant farmers whose crops had failed due to torrential rains and famine.
3. Ahmedabad Mill Strike (Gujarat, 1918): Led a successful strike and undertook his first hunger strike in support of textile mill workers demanding a 35% wage increase following the withdrawal of the plague bonus.

A. The Rowlatt Satyagraha & Jallianwala Bagh (1919):

• In 1919, the British enacted the Rowlatt Act, authorizing the detention of political prisoners without trial for up to two years. Gandhi organized an all-India general strike (Hartal) on 6 April 1919.
• Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (13 April 1919, Amritsar): On Baisakhi day, a peaceful unarmed crowd gathered in an enclosed garden to protest the arrest of leaders Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr. Satyapal. Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer blocked the sole narrow exit and ordered troops to open fire without warning, murdering hundreds. In profound anguish, Rabindranath Tagore renounced his British Knighthood.

B. The Non-Cooperation and Khilafat Movement (1920–1922):

Gandhi linked the Indian nationalist demand for Swaraj (Self-Rule) with the Khilafat Movement (led by the Ali brothers, Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, seeking to protect the Ottoman Caliphate):

• Methods: Surrender of British titles and honors; boycott of government schools, law courts, legislative councils, and foreign cloth; picketing of liquor shops; promotion of hand-woven Khadi and the spinning wheel (Charkha).
• Chauri Chaura & Abrupt Withdrawal (February 1922): On 4 February 1922, an angry peasant mob in Chauri Chaura (Gorakhpur, UP) clashed with police and burned a police station, killing 22 policemen. Committed to absolute non-violence, Gandhi unilaterally withdrew the entire Non-Cooperation Movement, arguing that the masses were not yet adequately trained in non-violent discipline.

A. The Transformation into the "Mahatma":

Unlike earlier nationalist leaders who spoke elite English and wore European suits (like Motilal Nehru and Jinnah), Gandhi transformed his personal identity:

• He dressed only in a simple hand-woven white khadi dhoti (peasant dress), lived in austere ashrams, spoke Hindustani, traveled third-class, and spent hours daily spinning yarn on the Charkha.
• To ordinary villagers, he was not a distant politician; he was a sage—a "Mahatma" (Great Soul) who shared their poverty and understood their suffering.

B. The Salt March to Dandi (Civil Disobedience Movement, 1930):

• The British state claimed an absolute monopoly on the manufacture and sale of salt, levying a regressive tax on this universal daily food necessity.
• The Epic March: On 12 March 1930, Gandhi and 78 chosen ashram disciples began a 240-mile march on foot from Sabarmati Ashram to the coastal town of Dandi in Gujarat.
• On 6 April 1930, Gandhi reached Dandi, walked into the sea, picked up a handful of natural salt, and broke the colonial salt law, inaugurating the Civil Disobedience Movement.
• Across India, millions manufactured illicit salt, picketed foreign cloth shops, refused to pay forest taxes, and resigned from government jobs. Over 60,000 Indians, including Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, were arrested.

A. The Gandhi-Irwin Pact (1931) & Round Table Conferences:

• In March 1931, the Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed: the British agreed to release non-violent political prisoners and allow coastal villagers to gather salt, and Gandhi suspended civil disobedience to attend the Second Round Table Conference in London as the sole representative of the Congress. The conference collapsed due to British insistence on separate communal electorates.

B. The "Quit India" Movement (August 1942):

Following the failure of the British Cripps Mission in 1942 during World War II, the All India Congress Committee met in Bombay on 8 August 1942, launching the historic Quit India Movement:

• Gandhi gave the nation the electrifying mantra: "Do or Die" (Karo ya Maro).
• The British panicked, arresting all top Congress leaders before sunrise on 9 August. In the absence of leaders, a spontaneous mass youth revolution exploded: railway tracks were torn up, telegraph lines cut, and parallel independent governments (Prati Sarkar in Satara, Jatiya Sarkar in Tamluk) were established.

C. Communal Polarization, Partition & Martyrdom (1947–1948):

• The Muslim League under Muhammad Ali Jinnah demanded an independent sovereign Muslim state (Pakistan), launching Direct Action Day (16 August 1946), triggering horrific communal massacres in Calcutta, Noakhali, Bihar, and Punjab.
• On 15 August 1947, India attained independence, but was partitioned into India and Pakistan amid horrific refugee massacres. Gandhi boycotted all independence celebrations in New Delhi, walking barefoot through the blood-soaked villages of Noakhali and fasting to death in Calcutta to restore communal peace.
• On 30 January 1948, while walking to his evening prayer meeting at Birla House in New Delhi, Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead by Hindu fanatic Nathuram Godse. His final dying words were *"He Ram!"*