Struggle And Freedom

Gandhiji returned to India after two decades of residence in South Africa on January 1915. He then joined Indian National Congress as requested by Gopal Krishna Gokhale and was introduced to the Indian politics and current situational issues prevailing in India. Later he led several agitations against British rule in a nonviolence approach that led India to its freedom. The notable major agitations in which Gandhiji participated are

• Champaran Movement (1917)

• Kheda Movement (1918)

• Khilafat Movement (1919)

• Non-Cooperation Movement (1920)

• Civil Disobedience Movement: Dandi March and Gandhi-Irwin Pact

• Quit India Movement (1942)

The Kheda peasant struggle is also known as the No-Tax peasant struggle or Kheda movement. The Peasant-Patidar community of Kheda who refused to agree to a 23% tax hike that was imposed on them despite of terrible crop failure, plague and cholera led Gandhiji to start this movement to help them stand against British’s cruel policy. The strategies that are used are

• Gandhiji and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel travelled throughout the length and breadth of the countryside and raised awareness about the rights of the farmers.

• Due to this movement, the government rejected all their demands and asked the security personnel to confiscate land, homes and cattle of the people who failed to pay their tax. As the policemen and guards stormed their cattle sheds and homes of the people - not even one person hit back but did the protest in a non-violent way until they succeed.

• The peasant donated all their available belonging to the Gujarat Sabha that was organising the Kheda Satyagraha to help them continue the movement.

• The Kheda movement was a united protest with several people involved and outstandingly disciplined thought the struggle.

Finally, as a result the Government reached to an agreement and declared that the current year and next year tax will be suspended, and all their seized property will be returned. The greatest successes of Kheda movement was that it remained non-violent until they succeed finally.

Gandhiji as a great political was well renowned for his non-violent campaigns for people’s right. The world was impressed by his charisma, courage and his ability to influence people along with several leaders to achieve freedom for the nation. His early struggles and his view of people’s sufferings laid the route to stand against British rule and to attain freedom for India in 1947.

• His early life in South Africa gave him a good understanding of politics and a reason for attaining freedom for the people’s right. In an instance, he was thrown out by a railway official just because a white man objected his presence in the first-class compartment. This railway incident and other such humiliation incidents made Gandhi feel that being quiet will not do any good. He stood up for many causes of Indian residences those who were suffering humiliation daily in South Africa through his non-violence approach.

• Gandhi used "non-cooperation", "non-violence" and "peace" as a tool during his early struggles to attain freedom against the British policies and British rule. Gandhiji and along with several leaders greatly struggled to convince people of India to take non-violence as a tool to stand against the British rule in India.

• Many movements have emerged one by one as an outcry of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre at Amritsar. With great struggle, Gandhiji made people stand against the British rule in his non-violence approach and which ultimately induced the British government to grant self-government rule in India.

• The Civil Disobedience Movement is the biggest milestone in the history of the struggles for Indian Independence. It was formed with an ideology to oppose the rules and laws of the British government for their cruel policies and rule. It also resulted in the imprisonment of Gandhiji and Nehru for establishing the movement.

• 'Satyagraha' and 'Ahimsa' were his weapons to fight against the British Rule in India. Gandhiji’s first Satyagraha was “Champaran Satyagraha” happened in Bihar in the year 1917 for the causes of peasants of Champaran.

Likewise, he struggled in several movements to stand against the British rule and their severe impose of law over the people of India. He struggled a lot to unite the entire nation with his Ahimsa way to approach the British government for the country’s freedom.

The Newspapers Act of 1908 was the law made by the British in the pretext of preventing extremist activities.

The discontent created by the unpopular acts of Lord Curzon resulted in the growth of an Extremist Party in the Indian National Congress. The growth of the Extremist Party in the house of the Indian National Congress led to the acts of violence around India to stand against British rule. The newspapers of the time greatly condemned the acts and policies of the government. The newspaper became the main instrument to reveal the bare nature of the oppressive British Government of India. To suppress this the British Government imposed “The Newspaper Act (1908)” and laid down several principles and terms & conditions.

According to the Act, the magistrates were empowered to seize the printing press and property connected to the newspapers if the published content were against their government. The publications of such content were considered as incitement to murder or acts of violence based on the act. All the local government was authorized to terminate any announcements/statements made by those printers and publisher of the newspapers. Under the Newspapers Act of 1908, the government launched the prosecutions against nine newspapers and seized seven Presses.

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre is also known as the “Amritsar massacre” which took place on April 13, 1919, at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, Punjab. A troop of the British Army under the command of Brigadier General Reginald Dyer fired rifles into the crowd of unarmed Indian civilians (men, women and children) who had gathered in the temple. This incident is named after the Jallianwala Bagh Temple of Amritsar as it has happened in that location. The crowd of at least 10,000 civilians had assembled for a peaceful protest to condemn the arrest of two national leaders “Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew”, defy the ban on public meetings and to honour the Sikh festival of Baisakhi in their own temple. It is not clear how many people of them were protesters and how many had come to the city from the surrounding region to celebrate Baisakhi, a spring Sikh festival.

Earlier Dyer has banned all public meetings to suppress the revolt against the government for Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew’s arrest, but this notice was not widely disseminated. This was the day of Baisakhi, an important Sikh festival, and many villagers had gathered in the temple to celebrate. On hearing that a meeting had assembled at Jallianwala Bagh, Dyer went with troops from the British Indian Army. On Dyer's orders, they opened fire on the civilians and the shooting lasted for about ten minutes. According to the British sources, 379 people were killed with approximately 1,100 wounded of which 192 were seriously injured. The casualty number estimated by the Indian National Congress was more than 1,500 injured with approximately 1,000 dead. The number of deaths caused due to the firing had been a disputed issue till now.

The Non-cooperation movement was started on 1st August 1920 and lasted until February 1922 and was led by Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhiji travelled the length and breadth of the country explaining the ideology and programs with an aim to reach people from all levels of the society. He organized rallies and spoke in public gatherings in a bid to gather public support and mobilize his ideas among the masses in favour of the movement.

The programs of the movement are to Surrender all British titles, renouncing honorary offices, Withdrawing of students from government schools and colleges, Boycott of British courts, Boycott of civil services like army and police, Non–payment of taxes, Boycott of elections and Boycott of foreign goods.

Though Gandhiji decided to cancel the movement because of Chauri Chaura incident, the ideas of Ahimsa and non-violence and Gandhi's ability to rally hundreds and thousands of common citizens towards the cause of Independence was first seen on a large scale in this Non-cooperation movement. For the movement initiated by Gandhiji, more than nine thousand students have left government schools and colleges in the beginning weeks. The educational boycott was most successful in Bengal and followed in Punjab as well. Areas of Bihar, Bombay, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Assam also saw active participation in this boycott movement. The impact of the movement was also seen in Madras which is far south in India. The boycott of educational institutes was more successful than the boycott of law courts by the lawyers.

The most successful program of the Non-Cooperation movement throughout India was the boycott of foreign clothes. It even reduced the value of import of foreign clothes from 102 crore rupees in 1920-21 to 57 crore rupees in 1921-22 which is almost 50% less compared to previous years.

The Chauri Chaura incident that took place on 5 February 1922 was the main reason which forced Gandhiji to withdraw the Non-cooperation movement. During the period of Non-cooperation movement, a clash took place at Chauri Chaura which is a small town in the district of Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. The incident happened after the police officers had attacked a few volunteers while picketing a liquor shop and arrested their leader. The whole crowd who had gathered in that location went to the police station and trashed the entire premises and shouted slogans against the government. This led to a clash between people and policemen and some violent mob in the crowd sets fire to the police station with 22 policemen inside, killing all of them trapped inside burned to death.

Gandhiji felt that the revolt was veering off-course and was disappointed that the revolt had lost its non-violent nature. He did not want the Non-cooperation movement to fall into a contest of violence between policemen and angry mobs attacking each other victimizing civilians in between. Gandhiji took upon himself the responsibility of the bloodshed and made an urgent appeal to the public and called off the campaign. He went on fasting that lasts for 3 weeks and called off the non-cooperation movement completely. British government however arrested Gandhiji and several leaders for leading the Non-cooperation movement mentioning that it led its way for this Chauri Chaura incident.

The “Poorna Swaraj” was propagated by the Indian National Congress on 19^th December 1929 at its Lahore session. The public declaration on the Poorna Swaraj was made on 26^th January 1930. In India, every citizen recognises 26 January as Republic Day however only a few know about another reason why this date is very much significant. Exactly 20 years before we got our Independence, our first Republic Day was treated as 26^th January 1930 when the Indian National Congress made an electrifying declaration by announcing Purna Swaraj –complete freedom from the British Rule also known as complete independence.

The declaration was a short 750-word document which did not even have a legal/constitutional structure. It is read more like a manifesto in achieving independence from British rule. It indicted cruel British rule and provided a detailed explanation of the economic, political and cultural injustice inflicted on Indians for all these years. The document spoke on behalf of every Indian and made its intention of launching the civil disobedience movement. The Poorna Swaraj resolution is considered as a critical component of the changing strategy on achieving independence from British rule in India.

On 31^st January Gandhiji addressed an ultimatum (11 demands) to Viceroy Lord Irwin, asking him to remove the evils policies of the British and informed of his decision to undertake Dandi Satyagraha wherein the laws of the government would be violated.

The list of demands consisted of the following:

1. Introduce total prohibition on intoxicants and liquors

2. Reduce the rate of land revenue by 50%

3. Abolition of the salt tax and Salt monopoly

4. Reduce military expenditure

5. Reduce expenditure on civil administration

6. Impose custom duty on foreign clothes

7. Accept the Postal Reservation Bill

8. Abolish the CID department

9. Release all political prisoners

10. Provide licenses of arms for self-protection

11. Reduce the exchange rate between rupee and sterling

The Civil Disobedience Movement was launched by Mahatma Gandhi when the British Government not given a positive response on his eleven demands. Hence, Gandhiji had decided to make salt the central formula for the Civil Disobedience Movement and initiated salt satyagraha. This movement ideology is of disobeying government laws, demands and commands. Along with this activity, the activities like no tax campaign, no revenue and no rent (land tax) campaign became very popular in different parts of India.

SALT SATYAGRAHA’s main ideology was to do a non-violent protest against the British law on putting a heavy tax on salt. Gandhiji started his march along with some Satyagrahis and reached Dandi on 6^th April 1930 and inaugurated the civil disobedience movement by manually making salt on the shores of Dandi.

This movement was to remain unmatched in the history of the Indian national movement for the country-wide mass participation that it unleashed as a result. Nearly 90,000 people from all over India participated wholeheartedly in this movement. Significantly, for all the Indian women, this movement has marked their entry into public space. Several groups participated in this movement from Rich to Poor and from Business class to Industrial class workers.

As a result of this Salt march, Gandhiji met the Viceroy Lord Irwin on March 1930 and signed an agreement known as the “Gandhi – Irwin Pact”. The two main clauses of the pact are

• Congress participation in the Round Table

• Conference and cessation on the Civil Disobedience movement

Gandhiji along with Sarojini Naidu attended the Second Round Table Conference in London. At this Conference, Gandhiji claimed that the Congress represented more than 85% of the Indian population. Gandhi's claim was not endorsed by the British officials and also the Muslim representative in the conference. The Second Round Table was a failure for the Indians and Gandhi returned to the country without any positive hope. The political scene in India thereafter was very unpleasant.

The Congress committee took the decision to restart The Civil Disobedience Movement as the British government was not prepared to co-operate to any of their views. Gandhiji resumed the movement in January 1932 and called the entire nation to join in.

As a result, the British government made several ordinances to suppress the movement and situation in India. The police were given the power to arrest any persons, even on the basis of mere suspicion. Sardar Patel, the president of Congress and Gandhiji was arrested along with other Congress members from all over India. Gandhiji started his twenty-one days of fast on 8^th May 1933 to make amends of the sins committed against the untouchables by the caste Hindus. The Civil Disobedience Movement was suspended, when Gandhiji withdrew mass satyagraha on July 14^th 1933. The movement ceased completely on April 7^th, 1934.

Although the Civil Disobedience Movement was failed to achieve any positive outcome again British rule, it was an important moment in the history of Independence. Under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, India had a beneficial impact throughout the nation. The Congress was united under the support of The Civil Disobedience Movement which was led by Gandhiji. Satyagraha put a firm footing and ideology among vast number of people in this movement. Lastly, Indian rediscovered its inherent strength and confidence to fight against the British rule for their freedom from this Civil Disobedience Movement.

Quit India movement was launched by Gandhiji on 8^th August 1942 during the period of second world war. The All India Congress Committee, under the instruction of Gandhiji, demanded the British government to end their rule in India. On the same day when Quit India Movement was declared, Gandhiji delivered a “Do or Die” speech mentioning either to get India free or to die in this attempt.

As a consequence, in the early hours of 9^th August 1942, the entire members of the Indian National Congress were immediately arrested by the British officials and imprisoned them without trial. They were imprisoned in different parts of the country and Congress party was banned. But the demonstrations of Quit India Movement statements and the protests continued across the country. The Britishers were somehow successful in suppressing the Quit India Movement as it lacked proper leadership and any organisation from the beginning to support the movement. But they realized that their days of the rule in India were over as satyagraha movements and other ahimsa strikes keep on hitting them to stop ruling their nation. By the end of the second world war, the Britishers made clear indications of handing over the powers to India and to provide complete independence. Eventually, Gandhi called off the movement resulting in the release of thousands of prisoners who were arrested in this movement.

Gandhiji spent 21 years in South Africa (1893 to 1914). This crucial 21 years thought him several things and made him a visionary man who led India to attain its freedom with the help of several leaders in India.

After completion of legal education, Gandhiji struggled to find work as a lawyer. In 1893, he got the offer from Dada Abdullah who owned a shipping business in South Africa where he was mentioned to serve as his cousin’s lawyer. He accepted the offer and went to South Africa which brought him a wide knowledge of the political situations and that was the initial turning point in his political career. During his stay in South Africa, he faced several humiliations and saw several discriminations directed towards black and Indian in that country.

The incident happened during his rail journey:

Gandhi was seated in a first-class compartment, as he had purchased a first-class ticket to Pretoria. A White person who boarded the same compartment ordered the railway officials to remove Gandhiji from that compartment mentioning “coolies” (a racist term for Indians in the foreign land) and “non-whites” were not permitted in first-class compartments. Gandhi produced his ticket but was warned that he would be forcibly removed if he did not depart the compartment. As Gandhi refused to take the order, a White police officer pushed him out of the train and also tossed his luggage out on to the platform. “This humiliation made Gandhiji an activist to fight for his rights”. He chose to protest in a non-violent way in the same station and was later allowed to board the train the next day.

10 things Gandhiji did in South Africa to stand for the people rights:

1. In the year 1894, Gandhiji organised non-violent protests against the racial discrimination directed towards the native Africans and Indians.

2. In the year 1896, Gandhiji took around 800 Indians to serve in South Africa, but they were attacked by an irate mob and Gandhiji was also injured in the attack.

3. In the year 1899, Gandhiji organised the Indian Ambulance Corps for the British during the Boer War to make them understand humanity and their nature to help them, but the racist discrimination and torture continued on Indians.

4. In the year 1904, Gandhiji set up the Phoenix farm or called Phoenix Settlement near Durban where he trained his people on the thoughts of non-violent Satyagraha. This Settlement is considered as the birthplace of Satyagraha.

5. In the year 1906, Gandhiji organised a non-violent Satyagraha campaign to protest against the Transvaal Asiatic ordinance which was constituted against the local Indians.

6. In the year 1907, Gandhiji again organized a Satyagraha campaign against the Black Act.

7. In the year 1908 and 1909, Gandhiji was sentenced to jail several times for not producing the registration certificate which he and other activist have already burned them during the protest for Black Act Satyagraha.

8. In the year 1910, Gandhiji set up another farm called Tolstoy Farm where Satyagraha was moulded into a weapon of protest.

9. In the year 1913, he fought against the override of non-Christian marriages judgement.

10. He organised a Satyagraha movement in Transvaal against the unjust treatment that Indian minors in South Africa. He then later led around 2,000 Indians to cross-across the Transvaal border.

In the World, more than 100 nations have released postage stamps depicting Gandhiji’s photos in respect for his Ahimsa way to attain freedom for the nation. There are almost 300 postages have been released about Gandhiji in the countries of World, other than India.

INDIAN STAMPS:

Here are the few stamps that are released in India in memory of Gandhiji’s service to get freedom for the nation

Stamp honouring Kasturi-Ba and Mohandas Gandhi (known as Bapuji)

A Gandhi Centenary (1869-1969)

"Gandhi as India" -- Gandhi as Father of the Nation

Stamp based on the famous cartoon by Ranga

Detail from a stamp honouring Gandhi’s contribution to India

Detail from a stamp honouring Gandhi’s contribution to India

On the occasion of the first anniversary of India's Independence Day

In 1979 (05 Mar) International Year of the Child.

OTHER COUNTRIES STAMPS:

In Recognition for his Non-Violence way to achieve freedom