Freedom Movement

Answer: In January 1915, Gandhi ji returned to India after his struggle in South Africa, where he got the opportunity to evolve his own style of politics and leadership. Gandhiji realized that Satyagraha is the only viable way to fight against tyranny of Britishers. He also believed that non-violence and involvement of masses including poor and lower strata of society is important for the success of the freedom movement. His earliest successful Initiatives in India reflected that he had deep sympathy for poor i.e.:

• Champaran Satyagraha: European planters had involved the cultivators in agreements that forced them to cultivate indigo on 3/20th of their holdings, known as tinkathia system. Towards the end of the 19th century, German synthetic dyes forced indigo out of the market and the European planters of Champaran enhanced rents and other illegal dues. On Gandhiji’s demand, an Enquiry Committee was set up by the government to look into the grievances of the cultivators. It led to the passage of Champaran Agrarian Act which abolished the ‘tinkathia’ system and also partly addressed the grievances of the tenants.
• Ahmedabad and Kheda: In 1918, Gandhiji was involved in two campaigns in his home state of Gujarat.
  • First, he intervened in a labour dispute in Ahmedabad, demanding better working conditions for the textile mill workers. Gandhiji persuaded the mill owners and the workers to agree to arbitration by a tribunal, but the mill owners, taking advantage of a stray strike, withdrew from the agreement.
    • The breach of agreement was treated by Gandhiji as a very serious affair, and he advised the workers to go on strike.
    • Gandhiji decided to go on a fast, to rally the workers and strengthen their resolve to continue. The strike was withdrawn and the tribunal later awarded the thirty-five per cent increase in wages the workers had demanded.
  • Secondly, he joined peasants in Kheda asking the state for the remission of taxes following the failure of their harvest.
    • The Gujarat Sabha, of which Gandhiji was the President, played a leading role in the agitation. Appeals and petitions having failed, Gandhiji advised the withholding of revenue, and asked the peasants to fight unto death against it.
    • As a result, the Government had issued instructions directing that revenue should be recovered only from those peasants who could pay.

With his active involvement in the three movements, Gandhi tested his methods and consolidated his style of leadership in the Indian context:

• In the Champaran movement, Gandhiji went into the villages dressed in the sort of clothes villagers wore, speaking the vernacular, espousing causes which concerned his audience.
• With his novel methods and active involvement, he mobilised popular support, drawing in the local businessmen, educated men among others. He acted as go-between for these different groups, mediating between two tiers of public life, and in return secured a powerful provincial following.
• In the course of these movements, a group of local intelligentsia like Rajendra Prasad, Rajkumar Shukla, J. B. Kripalani, Indulal Yajnik, etc. came in close contact with Gandhi and worked as his emissaries among masses.

These initiatives established Gandhiji as a true nationalist with a compassion for the poor and needy. The impact of this image was felt in the upcoming years. It was this reservoir of goodwill, and of experience, that encouraged Gandhiji, in February 1919, to call for a nation-wide protest against the unpopular legislation (Rowlatt Act) that the British were threatening to introduce.