Civil Disobedience Movement

As there was no response to the eleven point ultimatum, the movement of civil disobedience was launched based on the issue of salt. Salt was an item of basic necessity for all and any taxation on it would affect the poorest of the poor, thus salt became the symbol of the deprivation and oppression of the Indian people.

Both the masses and the nationalist leaders began to identify with the issue. On the 12th of March 1930, Gandhi accompanied by 72 of his followers at the Sabarmati ashram began a march upto the sea at Dandi. The dramatic Dandi march drew a great response from people. Crowds of people greeted and followed the marchers all along the way. Villagers spun yarn on charkhas, as Gandhi went past, to show their solidarity to him.

On 6th April, Gandhi reached the sea at Dandi and picked up a handful of salt at the sea side launching a country-wide civil disobedience movement by breaking the salt law. All over India people began the illegal manufacture of salt. Through careful planning and large scale recruitment of volunteers the movement spread from one part of the country to another, from Madras to Maharashtra and from Bengal and Assam to Karachi.

In the farthest north there was a massive demonstration at Peshawar, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan and his followers the Khudai Khidmatgars or the Red Shirts had been active here doing constructive work for some years and the response was tremendous. The city came under the control of the masses for at least a week and the soldiers of the Garhwali regiment refused to fire at the unarmed crowds. Nehru’s arrest on 14th April was followed by public protests in Madras, Calcutta and Karachi.

The colonial government was in a dilemma as they had not expected the salt satyagraha to create such an upheaval. Finally it decided to act and Gandhi was also arrested in May that only resulted in further intensification of the movement. The most important aspect of the civil disobedience movement was the widespread participation the youth, particularly students and also women. Women picketed liquor shops and shops that sold foreign goods.

The government started to issue ordinances curbing the civil liberties of the people and civil disobedience organizations began to be banned in the provinces. The Congress Working Committee was banned in June and the Congress President Motilal Nehru was arrested. Local Congress Committees were also banned by August. A number of local issues also become a part of the civil disobedience movement.

In the midst of government repression and the intensification of the movement the Simon Commission report was published and there was no suggestion that India might be given dominion status. This resulted in turning the most moderate of Indian political opinion against the British. The Viceroy then extended the invitation for a Round Table Conference and reiterated the intention of discussing the award of Dominion Status.

Motilal and Jawaharlal Nehru were taken to Gandhiji to discuss the offer. However no headway could be made between the Congress and the government. The First Round Table Conference was held in London in November 1930 between the Indian leaders and the British but the Congress was not represented. However it was evident that in any negotiation involving the British and Indian leaders on an equal footing the absence of the Congress would fail to bring any results.

The next Conference was scheduled to be held in the next year. The Government released Gandhiji on 25th January 1931, all other members of the Congress Working Committee were also released unconditionally. The Congress was asked to deliberate on the Viceroy’s offer to participate in the next Round Table Conference.

After a lot of deliberation and discussions with the delegates of the First Round Table Conference the Congress assigned Gandhi the task of negotiating with the Viceroy. The discussions between Gandhi and Irwin went on for a fortnight. Finally on 5th March 1931 the Gandhi-lrwin Pact was signed. The terms of the Pact were:

all people arrested for non-violent protest were to be released immediately
fines that had not been collected were to be remitted
confiscated land that had not been sold off yet was to be returned to peasants
government employees who had resigned were to be treated leniently
villages along the coast were to be given the right to make salt for consumption
the right to peaceful and non–aggressive picketing was granted

On its part the Congress agreed to withdraw the civil disobedience movement and also agreed to participate in the next Round Table Conference. Many among the nationalist leaders perceived this agreement as a temporary truce. However many were not convinced of the necessity of this settlement. This gave rise to the renewed activities of the revolutionary secret societies and the more radical communist movements. Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were executed at this time as the communist movement spread throughout the country.

The Congress in the Karachi session in March 1931 while reiterating the goal of Purna Swaraj, also in the same breath endorsed the Delhi Pact between Gandhi and Irwin. Although the Delhi Pact had made no mention of independence, the Congress at Karachi was preparing for the framing of India’s Constitution and it adopted resolutions on Fundamental Rights and a National Economic policy. This resolution was one of the landmarks of our constitutional history, where the civil liberties of free speech, free press and freedom of association was worked out. Neutrality in religious matters, equality before law, universal adult franchise, free and compulsory primary education and many other provisions anticipated Constitutional provisions of free India.

Gandhi set off to attend the second Round Table Conference in August 1931. Meanwhile the British Government’s stand was hardening in Britain and in India. Irwin was replaced by Willingdon and the favourable attitude of the Home Government had also changed. As a result not only did Gandhi gain nothing from the discussions at the Round Table but on his return in December 1931 he found that new Viceroy did not wish to meet him.

It was as if the colonial government was regretting that they had put the Congress at an equal footing with themselves by making an agreement with them. The government had also arrested Jawaharlal Nehru and had repressed the movement of the Khudai Khidmatgars in the North West Frontier Province by arresting their leader Abdul Ghaffar Khan.

Under these circumstances the Congress decided to resume the civil disobedience movement on the eve of which Gandhi had requested to meet the Viceroy to negotiate peace and the Viceroy refused. The colonial Government thereafter launched a severe offensive the first step of which was to arrest Gandhi in early January and a total curtailment of the civil liberties of the people. This was followed by the government getting the right to appropriate property and detain the people.Armed with this power the Government put all the prominent leaders of the Congress behind bars.

This was followed by a massive reaction by the people. Thus mass demonstrations, picketing of liquor shops and those selling foreign goods, ‘unlawful’ gatherings, etc occurred in a large scale which was followed by severe repression by a Government that was in no mood to come to an understanding with the nationalists. Jails were filled, the Congress was banned, Gandhian ashrams were occupied by the police.

Processions were beaten up and scattered, people who refused to pay taxes were beaten and jailed and their properties attached. The people of the country with most of the leaders in jails and on their own initiative with ruthless rep from the government managed to sustain this civil disobedience for more than two years. Finally in April Gandhi withdrew the movement.

This movement exemplified the moral strength of the common people or India and the stronghold of Gandhi as a national leader. Even at this stage the leaders arid the people alike, in spite of difference in opinion, obeyed his decisions regarding the continuance of a movement.