Mahatma Gandhi and THEME THIRTEEN the …

1 THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART III346 Mahatma Gandhi andthe nationalist MovementCivil disobedience and BeCivil disobedience and BeCivil disobedience and BeCivil disobedience and BeCivil disobedience and BeyyyyyondondondondondTHEMETHIRTEENFig. gather on the banks of the Sabarmati River to hear Mahatma Gandhi speak before startingout on the Salt March in 1930In the history of nationalism a single individual is often identified withthe making of a nation. Thus, for example, we associate Garibaldiwith the making of Italy, George Washington with the American Warof Independence, and Ho Chi Minh with the struggle to free Vietnamfrom colonial rule.

2 In the same manner, Mahatma Gandhi has beenregarded as the Father of the Indian nation. In so far as Gandhiji was the most influential and revered of all theleaders who participated in the freedom struggle, that characterisationis not misplaced. However, like Washington or Ho Chi-Minh, MahatmaGandhi s political career was shaped and constrained by the societyin which he lived. For individuals, even great ones, are made by historyeven as they make history. This chapter analyses Gandhiji s activities in India during thecrucial period 1915-1948. It explores his interactions with differentsections of the Indian society and the popular struggles that heinspired and led.

3 It introduces the student to the different kinds ofsources that historians use in reconstructing the career of a leaderand of the social movements that he was associated with. NCERTnot to be republished3471. A Leader Announces HimselfIn January 1915, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhireturned to his homeland after two decades ofresidence abroad. These years had been spent forthe most part in South Africa, where he went as alawyer, and in time became a leader of the Indiancommunity in that territory. As the historianChandran Devanesan has remarked, South Africa was the making of the Mahatma .

4 It was in South Africathat Mahatma Gandhi first forged the distinctivetechniques of non-violent protest known assatyagraha, first promoted harmony between religions,and first alerted upper-caste Indians to theirdiscriminatory treatment of low castes and India that Mahatma Gandhi came back to in1915 was rather different from the one that he hadleft in 1893. Although still a colony of the British,it was far more active in a political sense. The IndianNational Congress now had branches in most majorcities and towns. Through the Swadeshi movementof 1905-07 it had greatly broadened its appealamong the middle classes.

5 That movement hadthrown up some towering leaders among themBal Gangadhar Tilak of Maharashtra, BipinChandra Pal of Bengal, and Lala Lajpat Rai ofPunjab. The three were known as Lal, Bal and Pal ,the alliteration conveying the all-India characterof their struggle, since their native provinces werevery distant from one another. Wherethese leaders advocated militantopposition to colonial rule, there wasa group of Moderates who preferreda more gradual and persuasiveapproach. Among these Moderateswas Gandhiji s acknowledged politicalmentor, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, aswell as Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who,like Gandhiji, was a lawyer of Gujaratiextraction trained in Gokhale s advice, Gandhiji spenta year travelling around British India,getting to know the land and itspeoples.

6 His first major publicappearance was at the opening of theBanaras Hindu University (BHU) inFebruary 1916. Among the invitees toFig. Gandhi in Johannesburg,South Africa, February 1908 Mahatma Gandhi AND THE nationalist movement NCERTnot to be republished THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART III348this event were the princes and philanthropists whosedonations had contributed to the founding of theBHU. Also present were important leaders of theCongress, such as Annie Besant. Compared to thesedignitaries, Gandhiji was relatively unknown.

7 He hadbeen invited on account of his work in South Africa,rather than his status within his turn came to speak, Gandhiji chargedthe Indian elite with a lack of concern for thelabouring poor. The opening of the BHU, he said,was certainly a most gorgeous show . But he worriedabout the contrast between the richly bedeckednoblemen present and millions of the poor Indianswho were absent. Gandhiji told the privileged inviteesthat there is no salvation for India unless you stripyourself of this jewellery and hold it in trust for yourcountrymen in India.

8 There can be no spirit of self-government about us, he went on, if we take awayor allow others to take away from the peasants almostthe whole of the results of their labour. Our salvationcan only come through the farmer. Neither thelawyers, nor the doctors, nor the rich landlords aregoing to secure it. The opening of the BHU was an occasion forcelebration, marking as it did the opening of anationalist university, sustained by Indian moneyand Indian initiative. But rather than adopt a toneof self-congratulation, Gandhiji chose instead toremind those present of the peasants and workerswho constituted a majorityof the Indian population,yet were unrepresented inthe s speech atBanaras in February 1916was, at one level, merely astatement of fact namely,that Indian nationalismwas an elite phenomenon,a creation of lawyers anddoctors and , at another level.

9 Itwas also a statement ofintent the first publicannouncement of Gandhiji sown desire to make Indiannationalism more properlyFig. Gandhi in Karachi,March 1916 NCERTnot to be republished349representative of the Indian people as a whole. In thelast month of that year, Gandhiji was presented withan opportunity to put his precepts into practice. At theannual Congress, held in Lucknow in December 1916,he was approached by a peasant from Champaran inBihar, who told him about the harsh treatment ofpeasants by British indigo The Making and Unmaking of Non-cooperationMahatma Gandhi was to spend much of 1917 inChamparan, seeking to obtain for the peasants securityof tenure as well as the freedom to cultivate the cropsof their choice.

10 The following year, 1918, Gandhiji wasinvolved in two campaigns in his home state ofGujarat. First, he intervened in a labour dispute inAhmedabad, demanding better working conditions forthe textile mill workers. Then he joined peasants inKheda in asking the state for the remission of taxesfollowing the failure of their initiatives in Champaran, Ahmedabad andKheda marked Gandhiji out as a nationalist witha deep sympathy for the poor. At the same time,these were all localised struggles. Then, in 1919,the colonial rulers delivered into Gandhiji s lapan issue from which he could construct a muchwider movement .