Mahatma Gandhi Movement Analysis

Date Accessed 4 May 2017

Source C deals with the non-cooperation movement of 1920–22 in which Gandhi sought to induce the British government of India to grant self-government to govern themselves. It was one of Gandhi’s first organized acts of large-scale civil disobedience (satyagraha). This was brought about by the widespread outcry in India over the massacre at Amritsar in April 1919. The massacre relates to British troops killing hundreds of Indians resulting in widespread anger due to little or no consequence against the perpetrators. The non-cooperation and civil disobedience movement was once again premised on nonviolence in which Indians resigned from their titles, boycotted government educational institutions, the courts, government

The source illustrates how the British exploited farmers. The farmers were required to grow indigo on a portion of their land as a condition of their tenancy. The indigo was used to make a dye which the British (land-lords) sold for profit. The colonial era laws subjected the farmers to excessive land taxes. Farmers could not afford the high taxes because of the limited land space to grow enough food because a portion of the land was reserved for growing indigo. They therefore paid all the money they could raise in taxes and in the process went hungry. This resulted in anger and resentment towards the landlords. Many tenants alleged that Landlords had used strong-arm tactics to exact illegal ceases and to extort them in other

The source outlines mass protest on non-violent lines, in which Gandhi called for an orderly British withdrawal from India. Through his passionate speeches, most notably titled “do or die”, Gandhi appealed to all Indians who desired freedom to take up the mantle of Satyagraha and consider himself a free man. Soon after the speech titled “do or die”, Gandhi together with most of the Indian National Congress leaders was arrested. Many of the leaders spent the next three years in jail, until World War II ended. Isolated incidents of violence broke out around the country, but the British acted quickly, arrested thousands of people, and kept them in jail. Apart from filling up jails with rebellious leaders, the British also went ahead and abolished civil rights, freedom of speech and freedom of