Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

FREEDOMMOVEMENT

EMERGENCE ON INDIAN SCENE

“And then Gandhi came. He was like a powerful current of fresh air that made us stretch ourselves and take deep breaths; like a beam of light that pierced the darkness and re- moved the scales from our eyes; like whirlwind that upset

violent method of warfare open or secret, "if only because it is impracticable”. He then proceeds: "The power that an individual or a nation forswearing violence can generate, is a power that is irresistible.... Non-co- operation is, therefore, the only remedy left open to us. It is the clearest remedy, as it is the most effective, when it is free from all violence. It becomes a duty when co-opera- tion means degradation or humiliation, or an injury to one's cherished religious senti- ment. England cannot expect a meek sub- mission by us to an unjust usurpation of rights which to Muslims means a matter of life and death ". BIRTH OF KHADI Mahatma took the lead in arousing members of the Ashram and the general public to wear hand-woven cloth made from Indian yarn only. Gradually the number of people wearing Khadi started swelling. Gandhi impressed upon men and women the need to clothe themselves through their own effort with a clear consciousness of the ideals of Ahimsa and self-sufficiency. Khadi work was suggested to be adopted not as an isolated economic activity but as a means for the regeneration of the entire shattered economy of village life.

"I recognise no God except the God that is to be found in the hearts of the dumb millions.... and I worship the God. that is Truth.... through the service of these millions'’. 1917 : Gandhi successfully used the weapon of Satyagraha against the Euro- pean indigo planters of Champaran who were ruthlessly exploiting the peasants. 1918 : Gandhi tried to recruit Indian troops for the British Army in World War I. In Ahmedabad Gandhi went on his first public fast over dispute between textile workers and employers over payment of bonus. The mill owners agreed to pay 35 per cent bo- nus. At this time Gandhi had full faith in the love of justice of the Englishman. How- ever when the Rowlatt Act was passed in 1919, Gandhi was convinced that British rule in India was satanic. In 1919 the Row- latt Bill was passed. In protest against this Gandhi called for a country-wide hartal on April 6. He asked the people to observe it as a day of fasting and prayer. Throughout the country the hartal was a complete suc- cess. However because of certain violent, incidents in Ahmedabad Gandhi came to the conclusion that the country was not ready for Satyagraha which demanded non-vio- lence. Realising that he had made a 'Hima- layan miscalculation', he called off the civil disobedience movement. On April 13, the Jallianwalla massacre took place at Amritsar in Punjab, when Gen. Dyer fired on a crowd which had gathered at an enclosed place called Jallianwalla Bagh for a public meeting, killing 379 and wound- ing 1200. Gandhi returned the awards he had received from the British Government including the Zulu War memorial and the Kaiser-I-Hind medal declaring “that co- operation in any shape or form with this satanic government is sinful”. During this time Gandhi was drawn into the Khilafat movement. He had been interested in Hindu-Muslim unity since his days in South Africa. In Nov. 1919 he was elected President of the Khilafat confer- ence. Gandhi issued a manifesto on March 10,1920 embodying his ideas on the future course of action to be pursued by the Khi- lafatists if their demands were not granted. This manifesto is historically important as it contains the first definite elaboration of Gandhi's doctrine of non-violent non-co- operation which was shortly to play a domi- nant role in Indian politics. He ruled out the

many things but most of all the working of people's minds. He did not descend from the top; he seemed to emerge from the millions of India, speaking their appalling condition. Get off the backs of these peasants and workers, he told us, all you who live by their exploitation; get rid of the system that produces this poverty and misery. Political freedom took new shape then and acquired a new content. The es- sence of his teaching was fearlessness and truth, and action allied to these, al- ways keeping the welfare of the masses in view. The greatest gift for an individual or a nation, so we had been told in our ancient books, was abhaya (fearless- ness), not merely bodily courage but the absence of fear from the mind. ” 1915 : Gandhi landed in Bombay on Jan. 9. He set up an ashram in Ahmedabad on the banks of the Sabarmati river. The chief ob- ject of this ashram was to acquaint India with the method of Satyagraha. - Jawaharlal Nehru, Discovery of India.

“The wheel could very well be a sym- bol of violence as well as of non-violence. Under the East India Company's regime, the spinning-wheel had become the symbol of the exploitation and slavery of the arti- sans, and the arrogance of the rulers. Gandhi on the other hand, had taken up the wheel as the symbol of non-violence and deliverance of the masses through it. The same knife that took away life in the hands of a butcher could become the means of saving life in the hands of a surgeon.” Charka "God dwells neither in the temple nor in the

The main objects of the Ashram : i. Education, with a view to serve our motherland. ii. To speak Truth and follow the right path. iii.Take the vow of celibacy. Control of the palate. iv.Vow of non-possession. v.Vow of Non-stealing. vi.Must use home-made “Swadeshi'. vii.Must conquer fear. viii.Make all efforts to eradicate un- touchability.

mosque, neither within nor without, if at all he is

anywhere, it is in hunger and thirst of the humble

folk. Let us spin daily in order to satisfy their hunger

and quench their thirst or with Ramnam on our lips,

engage ourselves in some such labour for their

sake".

M. K. Gandhi