NCERT Solutions For Class 12 History Chapter 10 Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement

• Mahatma Gandhi saw the charkha as a symbol of a human society that would not glorify machines and technology. The spinning wheel, moreover, could provide the poor with supplementary income and make them self-reliant.
• He spent some time everyday working on the charkha (spinning wheel), and encouraged other nationalists to do the same.
• In this way, he broke the boundaries that prevailed within the traditional caste system, between mental labour and manual labour.
• Gandhi was extremely critical of the modern age in which machines enslaved humans and displaced labour.
• He stated, “What I object to is the craze for machinery as such. The craze is for what they call labour saving machinery. Men go on “saving labour”, till thousands are without work and thrown on the open streets to die of starvation. I want to save time and labour, not for a fraction of mankind, but for all; I want the concentration of wealth, not in the hands of few, but in the hands of all.”

• Newspapers are an important source for the study of national movement because they contain contemporary reports.
• They were published in English as well as in other Indian languages.
• Newspaper reports tracked Mahatma Gandhi’s movements and reported on his activities, and also speak of what ordinary Indians thought of him.
• Newspaper accounts, however, should not be seen as unbiased. They were published by people who had their own political opinions and views. They reported their own point of view.
• The accounts that were published in a London newspaper would be different from the report in an Indian nationalist paper.
• They also reflect the fears and anxieties of officials who were unable to control a movement and were anxious about its spread.

• Salt laws were the most widely disliked laws in colonial India. Soon after the observance of “Independence Day”, Mahatma Gandhi announced that he would break these laws.
• The salt laws gave the state a monopoly in the manufacture and sale of salt.
• Mahatma Gandhi’s attack on the salt monopoly was an illustration of his tactical wisdom.
• Salt was an important item of use in every India household, yet Indians were not allowed to produce it even for domestic use.
• They were forced to buy salt on expensive rates from shops.
• By making salt his target, Gandhi hoped to mobilise a wider discontent against British rule. While most Indians understood the significance of Gandhi’s challenge, the British Raj apparently did not.
• Although Gandhi had given advance notice of his “Salt March” to the Viceroy Lord Irwin, Irwin failed to grasp the significance of the action.
• On 12 March 1930, Gandhi began walking from Sabarmati Ashram towards the ocean. He reached his destination three weeks later, making a fistful of salt.
• Meanwhile, parallel salt marches were being organised in other parts of the country.

• Mahatma Gandhi had become very popular among the peasants. They had developed a superhuman image of him in their minds. Wherever Gandhi went, rumours spread of his miraculous powers.
• In some places it was said that he had been sent by the King to redress the problems of the farmers, and that he had the power to overrule all local officials.
• In other places it was claimed that his power was superior to that of the English monarch, and that with his arrival the colonial rulers would flee the district.
• Stories were circulated of how people who opposed him faced calamities like their houses fell apart or their crops failed.
• Known variously as “Gandhi baba”, “Gandhi Maharaj”, or simply as “Mahatma”, Gandhi appeared to the Indian peasant as a saviour, who would rescue them from high taxes and oppressive officials and restore dignity and autonomy to their lives.

• Mahatma Gandhi travelled throughout India on the advice of Gokhale and met common people including peasants and labourers. He spoke for peasants and workers in his first address during the opening of BHU in 1916.
• He also took part in peasant movement in Champaran, intervened in labour dispute in Ahmedabad and then joined peasants in Kheda. Thus, he gained confidence of the peasants and workers.
• Gandhi dressed like them, lived like them, and even spoke their language. He did not stand apart from the common people as other leaders did. He understood their problems and identified them.
• This identification was reflected in his dressing style. While other nationalist leaders dressed formally, wearing a Western suit or an Indian bandgala, Gandhi wore a simple dhoti. He spent a part of each day working on the charkha, and encouraged other nationalists to do the same.
• The act of spinning allowed him to break the boundaries that prevailed within the traditional caste system, between mental labour and manual labour.

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.