Writings by an individual are one of the most important sources to understand him/her. Private letters written by an individual give us a glimpse of his or her private thoughts. In letters we see people expressing their anger and pain, their dismay and anxiety, their hopes and frustrations in a way, which they may not express themselves in public statements.
Autobiographies give us an account of the past that is often rich in human detail. But while reading and interpreting an autobiography, one must remember that it is a retrospective account written from memory. An autobiography tells us what the author could recollect, what he saw as important, or was keen on recounting, or how a person wanted his or her life to be viewed by the readers. Through an autobiography, the writer frames a picture of himself. So, while reading an autobiography, one must remember that the author may not have disclosed everything. We need to understand the reason for that silence – those willful or unwitting acts of forgetting.
Unlike personal letters and autobiographies, official accounts are based on police information and reports written by other officials. These official records are often secret.
Official accounts that were secret during the British era can now be accessed in archives. These reports express what the higher authorities saw or wanted to believe. While noticing the possibility of rebellion and sedition, they assured themselves that the fears were unwarranted. For example, the Fortnight Reports of the Salt March era reveal that the Home Department was reluctant to accept that Gandhi’s actions had evoked enthusiasm among the masses. The march was seen as a ‘drama’, an ‘antic’ to mobilize people who were ‘busy’ with their lives and ‘happy’ under British Raj.
Mahatma Gandhi came back to India in 1915. On Gokhale’s advice, Gandhi spent a year travelling around India, interacting with people and understanding their problems. In February 1916, he made his first major speech at the opening of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU). Among the invitees to this event were the princes and philanthropists whose donations had contributed to the establishment of the BHU. Important Congress leaders like Annie Besant were also present at the event. Compared to these dignitaries, Gandhi was relatively unknown.
In his speech, Gandhi charged the Indian elite for having lack of concern for the poor labour class. Though he termed the opening of BHU as “certainly a most gorgeous show” but he expressed his worry that rich noblemen were present and “millions of the poor” Indians were absent. He further stressed “our salvation can only come through the farmer. Neither the lawyers, nor the doctors, nor the rich landlords are going to secure it.” Thus, through his speech at BHU, Gandhi expressed the fact that Indian nationalism was nothing but an elite phenomenon, a creation of lawyers, doctors and landlords.
While at the annual Congress at Lucknow in December 1916, Gandhi got an opportunity to put his precepts into practice. A peasant from Champaran, Bihar told him about the harsh treatment by British Indigo planters.
Mahatma Gandhi spent much of 1917 in Champaran, seeking to obtain for the peasants security of tenure as well as the freedom to cultivate the crops of their choice. The following year, 1918, Gandhi was involved in textile mill workers’ movement in Ahmedabad. Then he joined a peasants’ movement in Kheda asking the state for the reduction of taxes following the failure of their harvest.
In 1919, Mahatma Gandhi called for the Rowlatt satyagraha – a campaign against the Rowlatt Act. This satyagraha turned Gandhi into a national leader. Emboldened by the success of Rowlatt satyagraha, he called for Non-Cooperation with the British rulers. As a result, students stopped going to schools, lawyers gave up practice and workers went on strike.
Thus, by 1922, Gandhi had transformed Indian nationalism, thereby redeeming the promise he made in his BHU speech of February 1916. The nationalist movement was no longer a movement of lawyers, doctors and intellectuals. Now, thousands of peasants, workers and artisans were also part of the movement.
The Salt March was an event that brought Mahatma Gandhi to world attention. The British realised for the first time that their rule would not last forever and they would have to transfer some power to the Indians.
Therefore, the British government held a series of “Round Table Conferences” in London. The first meeting was held in November 1930, but without the pre-eminent political leader in India, thus making the entire exercise futile. In January 1931, Mahatma Gandhi was released from jail and had several meetings with the Viceroy. These meetings resulted in what was called the “Gandhi-Irwin Pact’. By the terms of this Pact civil disobedience would be called off, all prisoners released, and salt manufacture allowed along the coast. However, the radical nationalists criticised this pact as Gandhi could not obtain from the Viceroy a commitment to political independence for the Indians. He could only get an assurance of further talks in this regard.
In the latter half of 1931, the Second Round Table Conference was held in London. Here, Gandhi represented the Congress. However, his claims that the Congress represented the interests of all the Indians were refuted by three parties – the Muslim League, the Princes and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. The Muslim League claimed to stand for the interests of the Muslim minority; The Princes claimed that the Congress had no stake in their territories; and the brilliant lawyer and thinker B.R. Ambedkar argued that Gandhi and the Congress did not really represent the lowest castes. Thus, this Conference in London was also inconclusive. Consequently, Gandhi came back to India and resumed civil disobedience.
Mahatma Gandhi had participated in Champaran movement, Textile Mill workers’ movement in Ahmedabad and the Kheda movement. But these were localized movements.
In 1919, the Rowlatt Act provided Gandhi the opportunity to start a countrywide movement against the British government. During the First World War, the British government had permitted detention without trial and called for censorship of the press. But when the war got over in 1918, these tough measures were continued on the recommendation of Sir Rowlatt Committee. In response, Mahatma Gandhi called for a nationwide campaign. People started protesting against this Act throughout the country. It was the Rowlatt satyagraha that turned Gandhi into a truly national leader. Encouraged by the success of the Rowlatt satyagraha, Mahatma Gandhi called for non-cooperation with the British government. Indians who wished to attain independence from colonialism were asked to stop attending schools, colleges and law courts, and not pay taxes. Indians were asked to sever all ties and association with British rule.
According to Gandhi, if non-cooperation was effectively carried out India would win swaraj within a year. To further broaden the struggle he had joined hands with the Khilafat Movement. Mahatma Gandhi’s American biographer Louis Fischer wrote “Non-Cooperation became the name of an epoch in the life of India and of Gandhi. Non-cooperation was negative enough to be peaceful but positive enough to be effective. It entailed denial, renunciation, and self-discipline. It was training for self-rule.” As a consequence of the Non-Cooperation Movement the British Raj was shaken to its foundations for the first time since the Revolt of 1857.
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