SATYAGRAHA

A  novel method of mass agitation introduced by Gandhiji  is called satyagraha.

 The idea of satyagraha emphasised the power of truth and the need to search for truth.

 It suggested that if the cause was true, if the struggle was against injustice, then physical force was not necessary to fight the oppressor.

 Without seeking vengeance or being aggressive, a satyagrahi could win the battle through nonviolence.

 Why non cooperation movement was launched?

1.Rowlatt act

2.Jallianwalla Bagh massacre

3.Khilafat issue(explain)

Why did Gandhiji withdraw the non cooperation movement in 1922?

Chauri chaura incident in1922-Gandhiji felt the movement was turning violent in many places and satyagrahis needed to be properly trained before they would be ready for mass struggles.

At Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur, a peaceful demonstration in a bazaar turned into a violent clash with the police.

The Satyagrahis  burnt the police station  at Chauri chaura and killed 22 policemen.

 Hearing of the incident, Mahatma Gandhi called  off  the Non-Cooperation Movement.

C. R. Das and Motilal Nehru formed the Swaraj Party within the Congress to argue for a return to council politics. But younger leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose pressed for more radical mass agitation and for full independence.

SIMON COMMISSION

Tory government in Britain constituted a Statutory Commission under Sir John Simon.

The commission was set up in response to the nationalist movement   to look into the functioning of the constitutional system in India and suggest changes.

 The problem was that the commission did not have a single Indian member. They were all British.

 When the Simon Commission arrived in India in 1928, it was greeted with the slogan ‘Go back Simon’.

 All parties, including the Congress and the Muslim League, participated in the demonstrations.

 In an effort to win them over, the viceroy, Lord Irwin, announced in October 1929, a vague  offer

of ‘dominion status’ for India in an unspecified future, and a Round Table Conference to discuss a future constitution

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT

Mahatma Gandhi started his famous salt march accompanied by 78 of his trusted volunteers in 1930.

 The march was over 240 miles, from Gandhiji’s ashram in Sabarmati to the Gujarati coastal town of Dandi.

 The volunteers walked for 24 days, about 10 miles a day. Thousands came to hear Mahatma Gandhi wherever he stopped, and he told them what he meant by swaraj and urged them to peacefully defy the British

. On 6 April he reached Dandi, and ceremonially violated the law, manufacturing salt by boiling sea water because salt manufacturing was the monopoly of the British.

 This marked the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Limits of civil disobedience movement

All social groups did not participate in the movement

For example the Dalits

The dalit participation was limited in many areas, particularly in  Maharashtra and Nagpur region where their organisation was quite strong.

They were actively organising movements for their own welfare under the leadership of B R Ambedkar who organised the dalits into the Depressed Classes Association in 1930,

Some of the Muslim political organisations in India were also lukewarm in their response to the Civil Disobedience Movement