Gandhi and the mass movements, 1915 to 1942

A new method: satyagraha

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, born in Porbandar in 1869, studied law in London and worked in South Africa, where he faced racial discrimination himself. There he shaped satyagraha, ‘insistence on truth’: passive resistance, nonviolence (ahimsa) and the acceptance of suffering. Back in India in 1915, he joined the Congress on Gokhale’s advice and used satyagraha for local causes: indigo farmers in Champaran, mill workers in Ahmedabad and peasants in Kheda. Later, Vallabhbhai Patel led the Bardoli movement of 1928 so well that Gandhi gave him the title ‘Sardar’.

1919: the Rowlatt Act and Jallianwala Bagh

World War I brought no freedom. Food was exported for the war, prices rose, and the Rowlatt Act of 1919 let the police detain people without trial. Gandhi called for a day of prayer and fasting. On 13 April 1919, at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Dyer’s troops fired on a peaceful crowd; official figures admitted nearly 400 dead, Indian estimates more than 1,000. Tagore returned his knighthood, and trust in British rule was broken for good.

Non-Cooperation and Khilafat, 1920–22

The Congress launched the Non-Cooperation Movement at Nagpur in December 1920, after Tilak’s death made Gandhi its foremost leader. People boycotted foreign goods, British schools and courts, and spun khadi, a symbol of self-reliance; Gandhi promised Swaraj within a year if they stayed nonviolent. Khilafat leaders such as the Ali brothers and Maulana Azad joined, bringing many Muslims into the movement, though some, Jinnah among them, objected to mixing religion with politics. In February 1922, protesters killed policemen at Chauri Chaura, and Gandhi called the movement off, to the dismay of many leaders.

Purna Swaraj and the Salt March

An all-British Simon Commission arrived in 1927 and was met with ‘Simon Go Back!’; Lala Lajpat Rai died after a police lathi charge in 1928. The Congress’s Lahore session of December 1929 demanded Purna Swaraj, complete independence. In March and April 1930, Gandhi walked 380 km to Dandi and made salt, breaking the British salt monopoly. Civil Disobedience spread with salt marches, boycotts and refusals to pay taxes; thousands of women joined, and Sarojini Naidu, the first Indian woman Congress president, marched with Gandhi. The Gandhi–Irwin Pact of 1931 led to a Round Table Conference, but the movement faded and was withdrawn in 1934.

Quit India, 1942

During World War II, the Cripps Mission offered dominion status after the war, with provinces allowed to stay out of post-war India; most leaders rejected it. In August 1942 Gandhi launched the Quit India Movement with the call ‘Do or Die’. Almost every Congress leader was arrested, yet strikes and protests went on, Ram Manohar Lohia and Jayaprakash Narayan kept an underground movement alive, Aruna Asaf Ali hoisted the flag at Gowalia Tank Maidan, and 17-year-old Kanaklata Barua was shot leading a procession in Assam. The repression was severe, with many deaths and mass arrests, but the message reached Britain: it could not rule India without Indian consent. See early nationalism and reform, revolutionaries of the freedom struggle, the Chapter 2 notes and the NCERT solutions.