Did India gain independence in $1947$

1. The Growth of Mahatma Gandhi as a Leader: 

(i) Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi came back to India in $1915$. Before that he was in South Africa, where he organised the Satyagraha Movement against racial discrimination. 

(ii) When Mahatma Gandhi came back to India Congress was a prominent political organisation. Through the Swadeshi movement, Congress created an appeal among the middle class Indians during $1905-1907$.

(iii) The Swadeshi Movement had brought some leaders to the forefront on Indian National Movement like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal. They were known as Lal-Bal-Pal. 

(iv) Another group of Congress leaders known as Moderates preferred a more gradual and persuasive approach. Among these Moderates was Gandhiji’s acknowledged political mentor, Gopal Krishna Gokhale.

(v) On Gokhale’s advice, Gandhiji spent a year travelling around British India, getting to know the land and its peoples. Mahatma Gandhi’s first major public appearance was at the opening of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in February $1916$.

(vi) He expressed his opinion that without bringing all the sections of Indian Society under the National Movement, salvation of India would not be possible. 

2. The Making and Unmaking of The Non-Cooperation Movement:

(i) In India Gandhi Ji first organised Satyagraha movement in Champaran in $1917$ for cultivators to give them the freedom to cultivate the crops of their choice.

(ii) In $1918$, Gandhiji was involved in two campaigns:

(a) In Gujarat, he intervened in a labour dispute in Ahmedabad, demanding better working conditions for the textile mill workers.

(b) Then he joined peasants in Kheda in asking the state for the remission of taxes following the failure of their harvest.

(iii) During the Great War of $1914-18$, the British had instituted censorship of the press and permitted detention without trial. These restrictions were continued even after the war in India under the Rowlatt Act.

(iv) In protest of the Rowlatt Act Gandhi called for a nationwide strike. The protest became intense in Punjab and the government tried to restrict it with stern measures.

(v) Due to that, the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre happened on $13$th April $1919$ under General Dyer, where he ordered for open fire and killed innocent men, women and children who gathered in a national meeting. $400$ People were killed in this incident.

(vi) To protest against this evil Gandhiji called for Non-Cooperation Movement based on the principles of non-violence and Satyagraha. He urged Indians not to go to British schools, colleges, courts and offices. He asked for a total non-cooperation with the British Government.

(vii) He said that if Non-cooperation was followed throughout the country, within one year India would attain Swaraj from British government.

(viii) To further broaden the struggle he had joined hands with the Khilafat Movement that sought to restore the Caliphate, a symbol of Pan-Islamism which had recently been abolished by the Turkish ruler Kemal Attaturk.

(ix) Popular Movements Started by Mahatma Gandhi:

(a) Gandhiji hoped that by coupling non-cooperation with Khilafat, India’s two major religious communities, Hindus and Muslims, could collectively bring an end to colonial rule.

(b) This movement got a wide variety of support from all sections of Indian society. Peasants, workers, and others interpreted and acted upon the call to “non-cooperate” with colonial rule in ways that best suited their interests.

(c) Mahatma Gandhi’s biographer Louis Fisher had written that the Non-cooperation was negative enough to be peaceful but positive enough to be effective. Non-Cooperation was a denial, renunciation, and self-discipline.It was a training for self-rule of Indians. 

(d) But when the movement was at its pick, Gandhi called it off because of an incident at Chauri Chaura in Uttar Pradesh. Here an agitated mob set fire in a police station resulting in the death of $22$ policemen in $1922$.

(e) Though this movement was not successful in attaining its goal, it undoubtedly established Mahatma Gandhi as a popular nationalist leader among the Indian Mass.

(xii) Mahatma Gandhi As Leader of The People: 

(a) Within $1922$, Gandhi Ji changed the nature of Indian Freedom Struggle by bringing peasants, workers under its coffer. These sections of people felt a kind of similarity with Gandhi Ji because of his simple dressing and lifestyle and use of local languages.

(b) While other nationalist leaders dressed formally, wearing a Western suit or an Indian bandhgala, Gandhiji went among the people in a simple dhoti or loincloth.

(c) He spent part of each day working on the charkha. He made charkha a national symbol of self-sufficiency. The act of spinning allowed Gandhiji to break the boundaries between mental labour and manual labour.

(d) Different myths about Gandhiji’s miraculous power increased his popularity. People thought about him like an incarnation of God or saviour who would save them from taxes or restore their dignity. Gandhiji’s success in broadening the basis of nationalism was based on careful organisation also.

(e) New branches of the Congress were set up in various parts of India. A series of “Praja Mandals” were established to promote the nationalist creed in the princely states.

(f) Gandhi ji encouraged the communication of the nationalist message in the mother tongue, rather than in the language of the rulers, English.

(g) Businessmen like G.D Birla were also among the supporters of Gandhi ji. Thus, among Gandhiji’s admirers were both poor peasants and rich industrialists.

(h) Gandhi's success also depended on his followers like Mahadev Desai, Vallabh Bhai Patel, J.B. Kripalani, Subhas Chandra Bose, Abul Kalam Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru. 

(h) After being released from prison in $1924 \mathrm{m}$ Gandhi Ji devoted his time in promotion of Khadi and upliftment of Untouchables whom he called as Harijan.

3. The Salt Satyagraha - A Case Study:

(i) In $1928$, British Government sent the Simon Commission to look into the condition of colonies and assess their credibility. 

(ii) In $1929$, the historic Lahore Session of Congress was organised. The session laid out the following: 

(a) In this session Jawaharlal Nehru was elected as Congress president.

(b) Congress had taken the pledge of attaining the Purna Swaraj.

(c) Following that pledge, on $26$th January $1930$ the first Purna Swaraj or Independence day was celebrated.

(iii) The March to Dandi: 

(a) Soon after observing the first Independence Day Mahatma Gandhi announced that he would lead a march to break the Salt law. This law has given the government monopoly over producing salt.

(b) In every Indian household, salt was indispensable; yet people were forbidden from making salt even for domestic use, compelling them to buy it from shops at a high price. By making salt law his target, Gandhiji hoped to mobilise a wider discontent against British rule.

(c) British Raj failed to understand Gandhi ji’s challenge. Although Gandhiji had given advance notice of his “Salt March” to the Viceroy Lord Irwin, failed to grasp the significance of the action.

(d) On $12$ March $1930$, Gandhiji began walking from his ashram at Sabarmati towards Dandi.

(e) After that throughout the country, different colonial rules were broken by the Indians to show their support to Gandhiji’s Civil-Disobedience Movement.

(f) From police reports of contemporary India, it was found that Mahatma Gandhi’s meetings were well attended by the people where he gave the message of unity of different religion, and caste of Indian society to attain Swaraj.

(g) The progress of the Salt March can also be traced from the American news magazine, Times. With the progress of the Salt March they became a supporter of Gandhi ji and a critic of British Government.

(v) Dialogues Between Gandhi and Other Leaders: The Salt March was notable for three reasons - 

(a) First, it was this event that first brought Mahatma Gandhi to world attention through the news reports of American and European press.

(b) Second, it was the first nationalist activity in which women participated in large numbers.

(c) Third, the Salt March made the British realise that their Raj would not last forever, and that they would have to devolve some power to the Indians.

(d) To ensure that British Government organised three Round Table Conferences to discuss the issue with the political leaders of India.

(e) The First Round Table Conference of $1930$ was a failure as no prominent political leader took part in it. So Gandhiji was released from prison and signed a pact with lord Irwin, called Gandhi-Irwin Pact.

(f) Through this pact Gandhi Ji agreed to withdraw the Civil-Disobedience movement and to take part in the Second Round Table Conference, whereas British agreed to release all political prisoners.

(g) Second Round Table Conference was also resulted in a failure as Muslim League, Princely States and B. R Ambedkar refused to accept Gandhi ji and Congress as their leader and demanded a separate electorate.

(h) Gandhi ji returned to India empty handed and resumed his Satyagraha movement. In $1935$, however, a new Government of India Act promised some form of representative government in India. 

(i) In$1939$, when the Second World War broke out Gandhi ji and Jawaharlal Nehru promised to help British with the condition that they would grant India its freedom once the war ended.

(j) The offer was refused. In protest, the Congress ministries resigned in October $1939$. In March $1940$, the Muslim League passed a resolution demanding a measure of autonomy for the Muslim-majority areas of the subcontinent.

(k) In the spring of $1942$, Churchill was persuaded to send one of his ministers, Sir Stafford Cripps, to India to try and forge a compromise with Gandhiji and the Congress.

4. Quit India:

(i) After the failure of the Cripps Mission, Mahatma Gandhi decided to launch the Quit India Movement in August $1942$. As Gandhiji along with other leaders were in jail, so the movement was led by Socialist Congress leaders like Jayprakash Narayan.

(iii) In several districts, such as Satara in the west and Medinipur in the east, “independent” governments were proclaimed. Quit India was genuinely a mass movement where thousands of Indians participated willingly.

(iv) However, while the Congress leaders languished in jail, Jinnah and his colleagues in the Muslim League  began to make a mark in the Punjab and Sind provinces. After being released from jail in $1944$ Gandhi ji wanted to have a series of talk with Muslim League and Jinnah but none of them were fruitful.

(v) In $1945$, a Labour government came to power in Britain and committed itself to granting independence to India. By $1946$, election Muslim League was successful in attaining political polarisation of India and thus got majority seats in Muslim majority provinces.

(vi) A Cabinet Mission sent in the summer of $1946$ failed to get the Congress and the League to agree on a federal system. After the failure of Cabinet Mission Jinnah called for a “Direct Action Day” to press the League’s demand for Pakistan.

(vii) On the designated day, $16$ August $1946$, bloody riots broke out in Calcutta and gradually spread over United provinces and Punjab.In $1947$ new Viceroy Lord Mountbatten tried to organise negotiations between Congress and Muslim League but it failed.

5. The Last Heroic Days:

(i) Gandhiji marked the day of India's independence with a $24$-hour fast. The freedom of India came at an unacceptable price of Partition on the basis of religion. At the initiative of Gandhiji and Nehru, the Congress passed a resolution on “the rights of minorities”.

(ii) Congress declared that India would be ‘a democratic secular State where all citizens enjoy full rights and are equally entitled to the protection of the State, irrespective of the religion to which they belong’.

 (iii) Gandhi's biographer D.G Tendulkar had written during this painful time Gandhiji travelled in different riot stricken areas to look after the people and refugees. Neglecting all hostility from consevative Hindus, he was working for Muslims, Sikh and for all people who were affected by partition.

(iv) There was an attempt on Gandhiji’s life on $20$ January $1948$, but that was not successful. At his daily prayer meeting on the evening of $30$ January, Gandhiji was shot dead by a young man, a Brahmin from Pune named Nathuram Godse.

(v) Gandhi’s death had created an extraordinary pouring of grief and condolences were sent from throughout the world. 

6. Views on Gandhi by People:

(i) Public voice and private scripts:

(a) One important source is the writings and speeches of Mahatma Gandhi and his contemporaries.

(b) In personal letters people express their anger and pain in ways in which they may not express themselves in public statements. 

(c) The fear that the letter might get published often restricts people from expressing their true opinion or feelings. Mahatma Gandhi regularly published in his journal, Harijan, letters that others wrote to him.

(ii) Framing a picture:

(a) Autobiographies are the sources of the past that are often rich in human detail.

(b) As it depends on the author's memory and one’s attempt to project a certain image of his or her, so this source should be used very carefully. 

(iii) Through police eyes:

(a) Police reports also can give ideas about the Gandhian Movement. But in those reports there was an attempt to show that the Gandhian Movement did not create any impact on common people, which might not be true.

(iv) From newspapers:

(a) Contemporary newspapers can be a source to know about Gandhi ji and his movement as well as the opinion of common Indians. However, newspapers should not be seen as unprejudiced.

(b) They were published by people who had their own political opinions and world views which must have affected the news that they published.