Gandhian era

1. Gandhian methods and early experiments

Gandhi developed satyagraha during struggles against racial discrimination in South Africa. Literally associated with holding firmly to truth, it sought to resist injustice through non-violent action and voluntary suffering rather than coercion or retaliation. It was not passive acceptance: strikes, boycotts, marches and deliberate breaches of unjust laws could become instruments of organised resistance. Ahimsa, discipline and the relationship between ethical means and political ends were central.

In Hind Swaraj, written in 1909, Gandhi criticised modern industrial civilisation and argued that swaraj required more than replacing British rulers with Indians. Self-restraint, local self-government and freedom from dependence were essential. His constructive programme subsequently emphasised khadi, village industries, communal harmony, sanitation, basic education and the removal of untouchability.

After returning to India, Gandhi established an ashram at Kochrab near Ahmedabad in 1915; it shifted to Sabarmati in 1917. His initial interventions addressed concrete grievances. Champaran challenged indigo planters’ coercive practices, Ahmedabad concerned textile workers’ wages, and Kheda demanded revenue relief after crop failure. These campaigns created networks of local organisers and demonstrated the political potential of disciplined popular participation.

• Non-cooperation meant withdrawing assistance from colonial institutions; civil disobedience involved openly violating selected laws.
• Satyagraha required readiness to accept punishment, not merely avoidance of physical violence.
• Gandhi’s trusteeship envisaged socially responsible use of wealth rather than violent class expropriation.

2. Rowlatt agitation and Non-Cooperation, 1919–1922

The Rowlatt Act of 1919 continued extraordinary powers of detention and trial associated with wartime repression. Gandhi organised a nationwide satyagraha, including the hartal of 6 April. On 13 April, troops commanded by Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer fired on a gathering at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. Repression in Punjab gravely damaged the legitimacy of British rule; Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood in protest.

Non-Cooperation brought together anger over Punjab, the Khilafat grievance and the demand for swaraj. The Khilafat movement, led prominently by Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, sought to protect the position of the Ottoman caliph after the First World War. Gandhi supported this alliance as an opportunity for Hindu-Muslim unity. Congress approved Non-Cooperation at its special Calcutta session in September 1920 and reaffirmed it at Nagpur in December.

The programme included surrender of titles, boycott of government schools, law courts and legislative councils, rejection of foreign cloth, and promotion of national education and khadi. At Nagpur, Congress reorganised its provincial committees on linguistic lines and broadened membership. Students, traders, workers and peasants participated, although local movements frequently expressed demands beyond the centrally prescribed programme.

Following the killing of policemen by a crowd at Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur district on 5 February 1922, Gandhi halted the movement. He considered non-violent discipline indispensable. His arrest followed in March. The withdrawal generated debate within Congress and encouraged C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru to establish the Swaraj Party in 1923 to contest councils and obstruct colonial governance from within.

3. Civil Disobedience and constitutional negotiations, 1930–1934

The all-British Simon Commission, appointed in 1927, faced widespread boycott when it arrived in India in 1928. At the Lahore Congress session of December 1929, presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru, complete independence became the Congress goal. The first Independence Day was observed on 26 January 1930. After Gandhi’s eleven demands failed to secure a satisfactory response, salt became the focal point of civil disobedience because its taxation affected everyday life across social divisions.

Gandhi left Sabarmati Ashram with 78 selected volunteers on 12 March 1930 and broke the salt law at Dandi on 6 April. Salt manufacture, foreign-cloth boycott, liquor-shop picketing and, in some regions, refusal of taxes or violation of forest laws spread across India. Women participated conspicuously. C. Rajagopalachari led the Vedaranyam march, while Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan’s Khudai Khidmatgars mobilised in the North-West Frontier Province.

The Gandhi-Irwin Pact of 5 March 1931 suspended Civil Disobedience and enabled Congress participation in the Second Round Table Conference. The government agreed to release political prisoners not convicted of violence and made other concessions, including limited salt-making rights for coastal communities. It did not concede independence. The Karachi Congress of March 1931 endorsed the pact and adopted resolutions on fundamental rights and a national economic programme.

After negotiations failed in London, Civil Disobedience resumed in 1932 amid severe repression. The Communal Award of August 1932 provided separate electorates for the Depressed Classes. Gandhi’s fast against this provision led to negotiations with B.R. Ambedkar and the Poona Pact of 24 September. The pact substituted reserved seats within joint electorates and increased provincial reserved seats from 71 to 148. Civil Disobedience was finally withdrawn in 1934.

4. War, individual satyagraha and Quit India

In September 1939, the Viceroy declared India at war without consulting Indian representatives. Congress ministries resigned later that year. After the August Offer of 1940 failed to resolve the political impasse, Gandhi launched Individual Satyagraha to assert the right to oppose the war without initiating an immediate mass struggle. Vinoba Bhave was the first satyagrahi and Jawaharlal Nehru the second.

The Cripps Mission of March–April 1942 offered a post-war constitutional arrangement but failed over issues including immediate power-sharing and provisions allowing provinces not to join the proposed Union. With Japanese advances intensifying wartime insecurity, Congress adopted Quit India at Bombay on 8 August 1942. Gandhi gave the call ‘Do or Die’.

The arrest of major leaders on 9 August left much of the uprising locally organised. Strikes, demonstrations, attacks on communication networks and underground activity followed. Aruna Asaf Ali, Usha Mehta, Jayaprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia became associated with resistance. Parallel governments emerged in Ballia, Tamluk and Satara. Colonial repression suppressed the immediate uprising, but the movement demonstrated deep opposition to continued British rule.

5. Social reach, limitations and historical assessment

Gandhian politics connected national sovereignty with village society, clothing, consumption and public morality. Khadi and the spinning wheel became accessible symbols of self-reliance. Women entered public protest in greater numbers, while peasants, workers and marginalised communities adapted nationalist language to their own concerns. Regional organisers and pre-existing associations were indispensable; mass mobilisation cannot be explained through Gandhi’s leadership alone.

Participation remained uneven, and significant disagreements persisted. Ambedkar questioned whether moral reform could adequately dismantle caste oppression and demanded enforceable political safeguards. Revolutionary nationalists, socialists and Subhas Chandra Bose differed from Gandhi over strategy, economic transformation or the use of force. Communal tensions also exposed the limits of nationalist unity.

During the violence preceding and accompanying Partition, Gandhi worked for reconciliation in places including Noakhali, Calcutta and Delhi. He was assassinated in Delhi on 30 January 1948. Independence resulted from interacting forces: sustained mass politics, constitutional struggles, revolutionary and military challenges, wartime changes and Britain’s weakened position. Gandhi’s distinctive contribution was to make anti-colonial action widely participatory while placing non-violence and ethical accountability at its centre.

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