Mahatma Gandhi and The National Movement

• Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi or Gandhiji, was born on 2nd October 1869 at Porbandar in Gujarat.
• After his early education in India, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi went to England to study law.
• In 1893, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi went to South Africa to practise as a barrister.
• During his stay in South Africa, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi evolved the concept of Satyagraha, based on the principles of truth and non-violence, which he later applied to the Indian National Movement.
• Gandhi believed that a person should firmly believe in truth and nonviolence and resist evil to follow the principles of satyagraha.
• A satyagrahi must be fearless and strong and oppose evil actions.
• Gandhi followed certain methods of protest based on satyagraha during the fight for India's freedom from the British rule, including peaceful demonstrations, defiance of unjust British laws, boycott of British goods and services, non-payment of oppressive taxes, and promotion of the swadeshi spirit through the use of the Charkha and home spun Khadi.
• Gandhi’s first experiment with satyagraha in India was at Champaran in Bihar, where he took up the cause of the indigo cultivators against the planters.
• Gandhi was successful in ensuring the reduction of the rent the Indian Peasants were required to pay to the European planters.
• After his success at Champaran, Gandhi took up the cause of the peasants of Kheda in Gujarat.
• Gandhi was successful in ensuring the suspension of tax collection for a year because the crops had failed.
• In 1918, Gandhi also fought for the textile mill workers of Ahmedabad.
• Gandhi was successful in raising the wages of the workers.
• Gandhi toured the entire country and concluded that without the support of the masses no struggle for independence could be successful.
• On 13 April 1919, a public meeting was called at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar to protest against the measures of the Rowlatt Act.
• Gandhi emphasized on Hindu-Muslim unity and social justice as key aspects of his methods for achieving India’s independence.
• The Rowlatt Act created discontentment and anger against the injustice of the British rule.
• General Dyer, the British military commander, had issued an order banning all public meetings and hartals.
• Gandhi wrote, “Indian culture is neither Hindu, Islamic nor any other, wholly, but a fusion of all.”
• Gandhi believed that the path to freedom in India lay in Hindu-Muslim unity and worked tirelessly towards it.
• The Non-Cooperation Movement was one of the earliest attempts by Gandhi to bring together all Indians and force the British to grant self-government to India.
• The clauses of the Rowlatt Act included the ability to carry out arrests without a warrant, conduct the trials of certain political cases without a jury, and imprisonment for an indefinite period.
• The massacre of innocent people at Jallianwala Bagh was condemned by all Indians.
• The meeting was peaceful and the people were unarmed.
• General Dyer surrounded the Bagh with his troops, blocking its only exit and opened fire on the gathering.
• Rajendra Prasad and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel became enthusiastic and staunch supporters of Gandhi’s methods of protest.
• Gandhi fought to improve the condition of the lower castes and the attitude towards women.
• The Rowlatt Act was passed in March 1919, also known as the Black Act, which curtailed the freedom of Indian people.
• Gandhi realized that the Hindu-Muslim relations were strained and that lower classes were barely a part of the movement.
• On 6th April 1919, Gandhi called for a day of national fasting, meetings and suspension of work as an act of satyagraha to protest against the Rowlatt Act.
• Gandhi called the people of the lower castes the Harijans or ‘the children of God.’
• After Gandhi returned to India in 1915, he studied the condition of the Indian National Movement closely.
• Gandhi organized regional movements with peasants and workers to create a popular base for the national movement.
• The government, unable to control the situation, used severely repressive methods.
• With these early experiments in satyagraha, Gandhi won over popular leaders of the national movement.
• The Non-cooperation movement was the first large-scale mass movement organized by Gandhi.
• Gandhi urged people not to believe or cooperate with such a government after the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre.
• The Congress was transformed from a 'microscopic minority' into a mass-based party due to the Non-cooperation Movement.
• Martial law was declared in Punjab in response to the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre.
• Many sections of the society were drawn into the Non-cooperation Movement.