How Important Was Gandhi In Creating The Conditions For Mass Nationalism?

Authors Avatar

Skandar Zaman

Shabnum Tejani

22/4/05

How Important Was Gandhi In Creating The Conditions For Mass Nationalism?

Without question Gandhi was a very influential figure who played an important role in creating mass nationalism in India. Gandhi wanted India to attain Swaraj where she would be free from foreign domination and able to govern herself. Underlying this wish was the belief that India would remain in a status of permanent childhood and would not be able to develop and mature as a nation unless independence was achieved. Gandhi realised the importance of harnessing support across barriers of caste, language and religion and was partially successful in uniting the Indian population together in opposition to colonial rule. His support of the Khilafat movement which coincided with his own Non-Cooperation movement enhanced Hindu-Muslim unity. The Civil Disobedience campaign of 1930 against the salt tax was also effective as this was an issue that concerned the entire spectrum of Indian society and especially the poorest whose incomes were worst affected by the tax. In addition, Gandhi extended nationalism by mobilising and consolidating support from a wide and diverse range of the population. He worked to improve the status and prevent discrimination of lower caste Hindu ‘Untouchables’ and mobilised peasants over the issue of excessive land revenue on a number of occasions, for example in Bardoli in 1928. Furthermore he broadened the social basis of the nationalist movement to include women who participated in huge numbers in the Civil Disobedience movement of 1930-1932 and also in the Quit India movement of 1942. Gandhi’s ideology of ahimsa, meaning non-violence, and his technique of non-violent persuasion, Satyagraha, became an essential part of Indian nationalism and certainly did help to expand the movement and erode Britain’s political legitimacy. According to Chatterjee, Satyagraha appealed to the Indian masses as it was considered a legitimate and moral form of political action against the injustices of the state. However others such as Rabindranath Tagore have argued that Satyagraha was a flawed ideology and led to despotism. The massacre at Amritsar in 1919 and the calling off of the Non-Cooperation movement after violence at Chauri Chaura in 1922 were two instances where Gandhi’s methods proved ineffective. Gandhi’s nationalist movement was also limited due to an alienation of the industrial working class and a failure to reconcile India’ Muslims. This was evident in their lack of participation in the 1930 Salt march and ultimately due to the partition of Pakistan from India in 1947. Gandhi did assist in creating mass nationalism and helping India to achieve independence but his role can still be criticised and should not be over-exaggerated.

Gandhi first applied his political strategy of non-violent non-cooperation in India between 1917 and 1918 in three local agitations.  In the Champaran district of Bihar, Gandhi’s collection and recording of complaints from over 800 villages helped to reduce revenue and bring about an end to the economic exploitation of the tinkathia system which endorsed the European planter’s exaction of indigo from peasants. Gandhi’s second peasant satyagraha took place in Kheda where he hoped to suspend revenue demands due to the hardship and was able to convince over 2,000 peasants to vow not to pay the land revenue regardless of the consequences. The campaign was called off in June 1918 after three months when the District Collector decided to suspend revenue payments for the poorer cultivators. The same year in Ahmedabad, Gandhi led a strike of cotton-mill workers who, after the loss of a bonus, wanted a 50 per cent increase in wages. This conflict between the workers and employers marked Gandhi’s first use of the weapon of the hunger-strike in order to support of the striker’s demands and led to a compromise with an agreement to increase wages by 35 per cent. After his work in Champaran and Kheda Gandhi was seen as a leader of peasants across India and his reputation was enhanced further in Ahmedabad as a defender of worker’s rights. However these agitations were confined to small areas and it was not until the 1919 satyagraha in opposition to the Rowlatt bills that Gandhi was able to launch a protest campaign that generated nation-wide participation.

Join now!

The Rowlatt bills caused outrage amongst the Indian people as they proposed to empower the British to suspend the usual civil liberties and to detain Indians without trial for two years if suspected nationalist terrorists. In opposition to the bills Gandhi instructed a hartal, or closure of business and although this did take place in many towns and cities, the movement was largely middle-class whereas the response in the country-side and amongst industrial workers was not as strong. The main flaw of the campaign was the violence which escalated in the Punjab province where on April 13th 1919, 10,000 Indians ...

This is a preview of the whole essay