Role of Gandhiji in Independence

                         Role of Gandhiji in Indian Independence

Introduction

Mahatma Gandhi was born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on 2nd October at Porbandar located in Gujarat. He went off to South Africa after marriage and worked as barrister there for twenty years. In South Africa, he had his first brush with apartheid. Once while he was traveling in a train, he was thrown out of the first class compartment despite having a ticket. This made him swear that he would do his best to erase apartheid from the face of his world. He went back to India only to find that his own country was being ruled by the British and his fellow citizens were being treated harshly by the British.

Some of the major movements and freedom struggles led by him are discussed below :

Civil Disobedience Movement

Gandhi again took off with another non-violent movement known as the civil disobedience movement. This movement aimed at bringing the British administration to a stop by withdrawing support from everything. There was agitation against land revenue, abolition of salt tax, cutting down military expenditure, levying duty on foreign cloth, etc. A very important movement was that of Salt Satyagraha where Gandhi undertook the Dandi march as a protest against the salt tax.

Champaran Satyagraha [1917]

Gandhiji’s first experience in satyagraha came in 1917 in Champaran, a district in Bihar. The peasantry on the indigo plantations was excessively oppressed by the European planters.  The  district officials ordered him to leave Champaran, but he defied the order, it forced the Government to cancel its earlier order and to appoint a committee of inquiry on which Gandhiji served as a member. Ultimately the disabilities from which the peasantry was suffering were reduced and Gandhiji had won his first battle of civil obedience in India.

Ahmedabad Mill Strike [1918]

In 1918, Gandhiji intervened in a dispute between the workers and mill-owners of Ahmedabad. He advised the workers to goon strike and to demand a 35% increase in wages. He undertook a fast unto death to strengthen the workers resolve to continue the strike. His fast put pressure on the mill-owners who relented on the fourth day and agreed to give the workers a 35% increase in wages.

Kheda Peasant Struggle [1918]

In 1918 crops failed in the Kheda district in Gujarat but the government refused to reduce land revenue and insisted on its full collection. In time he became the symbol of poor India, nationalist India and rebellious India. Thousands of peasants in U.P and Bengal responded to the call of non-co-operation.The first was Hindu-Muslim unity, the second, the fight against untouchability, and the third, the raising of the social status of women in the country.

The Rowlatt Act [1919] 

While trying to appease the Indians, the Government of India was ready with repression. The Government decided to arm itself with more far-reaching powers, which went against the accepted principles of rule of rule, to be able to suppress those nationalists who would refuse to be satisfied with the reforms. In March 1919, it passed the Rowlatt Act. This Act authorized the Government to imprison any person without trial. 

The Non-Cooperation Movement 

The Congress met in a special session in September 1920 at Calcutta. The people were asked to boycott government educational institutions, law courts and legislatures, to give up foreign cloth and to practice hand-spinning and hand-weaving for producing khadi. It became the leader of the masses in their national struggle for freedom from foreign rule. Moreover, Hindus and Muslims were marching shoulder to shoulder.

On 5th February 1922 a Congress procession of 3000 peasants at Chauri-Chaura, a village in U.P. was fired upon by the police. The angry crowd attacked and burnt the police station causing the death of 22 policemen.  He therefore decided to suspend the non-cooperation movement.

Boycott of the Simon Commission

In 1927, the British government appointed the Indian Statutory Commission, known popularly after the name of its chairman as the Simon Commission, to go into the question of further constitutional reform. All the members of the commission were Englishmen. This announcement was greeted by a chorus of protest from all Indians. On 3 February 1922, the day the Commission reached Bombay, an all India hartal was organized. Where ever the Commission went, it was greeted with hartals and black flag demonstrations under the slogan 'Simon Go Back'. The government used brutal suppression and police attacks to break the popular opposition. Lala Lajpat Rai succumbed to the injuries which he received in the police lathi charge at Lahore.