mahatma gandhi – indian independence

THE Salt Satyagrah had infused immense momentum into the national independence movement. Civil unrest had mounted. The government’s revenue had dropped, and at many places the local population had overpowered the police and raised the Indian national flag. The prevailing situation was embarrassing for the colonial government.

Round Table Conference - The British government was alarmed by the developments and organised the first Round Table Conference to address issues.

No Congress representative participated in it as almost all national leaders including Mahatma Gandhi were in prison. The conference was a failure, which prompted British government to release Congress leaders for their participation in the following conference. Gandhi was released from the jail on 26 January 1931.

To keep communication with the government open, Gandhi sought an interview with the viceroy. The meeting between him and viceroy Irwin started in February 1931 and after intense negotiations, the Gandhi – Irwin pact was signed in March 1931. The pact established the principle of equality between India represented by the Congress and the British government. The pact also obliged the Congress to participate in the second Round Table Conference.

The Congress elected Gandhi as the sole delegate to the second Round Table Conference. The conference comprised 112 delegates. Gandhi alone represented the Indian National Congress. Gandhi left for London to participate in the conference on 29 August and returned back to India on 28 December 1931.

The British government tried to use the conference to protect its hold on India by advocating among other policies, the formation of a federation of princely states and dividing the country on the basis of religion and specific interests. Differences among the participating parties were too conflicting to succeed. The second Round Table Conference failed. During his visit to London, Gandhi visited factories, education institutions, met sympathisers of India, prominent people and old acquaintances. On his return journey, he visited and met influential persons in Europe.

Fast unto Death - On his return to India, Gandhi learnt about Emergency Power Ordinances promulgated in the United Provinces, North-West Frontier Province and Bengal. The ordinances authorised the military to seize buildings, impound bank balances, confiscate personal wealth, arrest without warrant and commit other atrocities against the civilian population. Gandhi tried to established contact with the new viceroy, Willingdon, to discuss matters arisen due to Emergency Power Ordinances. He wrote to the viceroy for an interview. Instead of starting communication with Gandhi, the government arrested him the next day on 4 January 1932 under Regulation XXXV of 1827, and held him in Yerawada Jail, Pune.

While in jail, Gandhi had gathered from the newspapers that new British constitution of India would grant separate electorates not only to Hindus and Muslims as in the past, but to untouchables, also known as Dalit or Harijan. He was alarmed by the new development and wrote a letter to the secretary of state for India stressing the harmful effects of such a move. Despite that, Britain announced its decision in August 1932 in favour of separate electorates. Gandhi wrote to the British prime minister, ‘I have to resist your decision with my life’. He announced that he would commence his fast unto death on the 20th September. His announcement galvanised the masses of India to save his life. People petitioned government to release Gandhi.

Hindu leaders gathered in Birla House in Mumbai on 20th September, the day Gandhi started his fast unto death. The Dalit delegates including Dr Ambedkar participated in the meeting to find an amicable solution. Negotiations between parties concluded on 24th September with an agreement known as Yerawada pact. Gandhi insisted on British government’s approval of this pact. Eventually the government announced simultaneously in London and New Delhi that it had approved the Pact. Then only Gandhi broke his fast on 26th September 1932.

The event created an emotional upheaval in Hindu society. Harijans were allowed access to temples, wells, schools and public roads. The newspapers printed names of hundreds of the temples that lifted the ban under the impact of Gandhi’s fast. Orthodox Hindus accepted food from the hands of harijans. Caste Hindus dined publicly with street cleaners, cobblers and scavengers. Resolutions were adopted promising to stop discriminations against untouchables.

Still in Jail, Gandhi started Harijan Sevak Sangh and a new weekly Harijan, replacing the Young India, which the government had banned. He undertook a three-week fast for self-purification starting on 8th May 1933. He was released the same day from prison. He sought an interview with the viceroy, who refused to see him. Gandhi organised a march in protest. He was arrested and released after three days. He was ordered to remain in the city of Pune. He disobeyed the order and was arrested and sentenced to a year in prison. He began his fast in protest. Eventually due to his health deterioration, he was released on 23 August 1933.

Constructive Programs

- Between 1933 and 1939, Gandhi devoted his main energy to uplifting harijans and propagating comprehensive plans for village reconstruction and education. He handed over the Sabarmati Ashram to a harijan society and shifted his residence to Wardha. He called on leaders to engage in nation building known as Constructive Programs.

In November 1933, he began a ten-month tour to highlight and advocate for harijan welfare and visited every province in India. He preached Hindu-Muslim unity. He interrupted his tour when a severe earthquake hit a large section of Bihar in 1934. He visited stricken villages and comforted the inhabitants with advice and preaching.

With the outbreak of the

Second World War in 1939, Gandhi was dragged into the political arena. The Congress Working Committee issued a manifesto, which condemned the Fascist aggression in Poland. It also specified that the western democracies must shed their own imperialism before they could contend that they were fighting imperialism and not their rivals. A free democratic India would gladly associate herself with other free nations for mutual defence against aggression.

There were many patriots in India who felt that it was the time to strike the government to achieve independence. The majority of Congress leaders would have welcomed participation in the war effort, provided India could do so as an equal partner with Britain. Gandhi disliked the idea of conditional support of war, but accepted majority’s decision.

Quit India - He advised the nation to accept the Congress stand and pleaded with the British on its behalf. But the British were not in the mood to listen. On the front line, the British were unable to stem the Japanese advance to the Indian border. Since British seem unable to ensure India’s defence, and were not willing to let India defend herself, Gandhi called upon them to quit India and prepared to organise Satyagrah. He addressed the All India Congress Committee on 7 August 1942 and wanted to see the viceroy. However, on the early hours of the morning of August 9, he and other leaders of the Congress were arrested. Disorder broke out immediately all over India. India became a country under armed occupation.

Gandhi was interned in Aga Khan’s palace near Pune. The terror reigning in the country troubled him. He began a twentyone day fast on 10th February 1943; his condition grew critical, but he survived. His wife Kasturba fell ill in December 1943 and the following February she died.

Six weeks after Kasturba’s death, Gandhi suffered a severe attack of malaria. After two days his malaria was gone, but his anaemia was worse and twentieth British viceroy arrived in Delhi to transfer power. Gandhi travelled to Delhi to consult with Mountbatten. They met six times between 31 March and 12 April. Gandhi did not agree to any kind of partition in April and refused to approve of it until his death. On 13 April, he returned to Bihar. Action for non-violence and against hate was the only political work for him. blood pressure low. His general condition was giving rise to anxiety. Agitation for his release swept India.

The Congress working committee convened on May 1, 1947, which finally agreed to partition of the country. Gandhi travelled to Delhi to attend the session. He was opposed to it. The Muslim League had threatened a civil war. Gandhi went to see Mountbatten. His advice to the viceroy was to leave with their troops and take the risk of chaos and anarchy. He maintained that there might be chaos for a while. We would go through the fire of chaos, but that fire would purify us.

On 6th May, Gandhi and his associates were released from prison. It was Gandhi’s last time in jail. In total he spent 2,089 days in Indian and 249 days in South African prisons.

By 1945, India was too restive to be controlled. Britain realised its inability to suppress the independence movement by force. The British government announced in September 1945, that it sought an early realisation of self-government in India. Elections to the central and provincial legislatures were the first step. All parties agreed to contest the election. Congress won the majority of non-Muslim seats and the Muslim League the majority of Muslim seats.

The British Cabinet Mission arrived in Delhi and published on 16 May 1946, the British proposal to transfer its power in India. An elected national Constituent Assembly would draft India’s constitution. The Muslim League demanded a separate nation carved out of India, which Gandhi vehemently resisted. On 12th August 1946, the viceroy commissioned Jawaharlal Nehru to form a government. Nehru offered positions in his cabinet to Muslim League headed by Jinnah, who declined to join.

The Muslim League declared 16 August a “Direct Action Day”. Riots broke out in Kolkata, where thousands of people lost their life. Similar incidents occurred in other parts of the country. Gandhi travelled to Kolkata and helped restore peace in the city.

Sectarian violence spread unabated in the rural areas. Widespread Muslim attacks on Hindus occurred in Noakhali, a village in east Bengal. Gandhi went to Noakhali. He remained there from November 1946 to March 1947 until peace was restored. Violence also broke out in Bihar in retaliation of crimes against Hindus in Bengal. Gandhi went to Bihar and helped established peace there.

Lord Mountbatten, the last and

According to Gandhi, Pakistan was not possible unless the British created it, and the British would not create Pakistan unless Congress accepted it. They could not split India and antagonise the majority to placate Jinnah and minority. Therefore Congress should not accept it. Nobody listened to Gandhi on this matter. He travelled a number of times from Delhi to Bihar, Kolkata and back to Delhi during this period. Kolkata had been torn by bloody strife ever since Jinnah’s Direct Action Day on 16 August 1946.

On 15 August 1947, India became an Independent country. On this day, Gandhi was in Kolkata fighting riots. He fasted all day and prayed. He had arrived in Kolkata on 9 August 1947. After the situation in the east was stabilised, Gandhi planned to travel to Punjab, where Hindus and Sikhs were being killed. All sorts of crimes were being committed including rapes of women and forcible conversion to Islam.

Gandhi left Kolkata on 7 September for Delhi. In Delhi, the communal situation was bad. There was a feeling of revenge, for atrocities committed against Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan. He visited various camps and refugee centres and pleaded for calm.

In Delhi, he stayed in the Birla house. He used to hold daily prayer meetings, which were attended by people of all walks, religions and nationalities. A number of people thought that in his speeches and actions, Gandhi did not oppose Muslim’s atrocities against Hindus and Sikhs. They assumed that he was anti-Hindu and pro-Muslim.

On the 30th January 1948, when Gandhi was on his way to the prayer meeting, an assassin, Nathuram Godse came in his front, touched his feet, and fired three bullets in his chest. Chanting Hey Ram, Gandhi fell and died. He was cremated at Rajghat in Delhi.

Gandhi is considered to be the father of modern India. Many equate him with Buddha and Christ. During his lifetime, millions adored him, and multitudes tried to kiss his feet or the dust of his footsteps. Many believe that as an incarnation in ancient period, he relieved India from the century old chain of slavery from foreign rules.

—Awadhesh Sharma www.hinduguru.com.au