Civil Disobedience Movement

There are three distinct phases that mark the development of Indian Nationalism. In the first phase, the ideology of the moderates dominated the political scenario.This was followed by the prominence of the extremist ideologies. In the third phase of Indian Nationalism the most significant incident was the rise of MK Gandhi.Under his spirited guidance, the National Movements of the country took shape.The Gandhi Era in the Indian Freedom Struggle started with the Non Cooperation Movement(1920).Before the Non-Coperation movement Gandhi led  Champaran agitation and Kheda satyagraha but they were not National movements against British rule because they were confined to certain regions of the country.The other major national movements led by Gandhi are Civil Disobedience movement and Quit India movement.The Civil Disobedience Movement  led by M K Gandhi, in the year 1930 was an important milestone in the history of Indian Nationalism.

What is Civil Disobedience Movement ?

The civil disobedience was organized against repressive laws.It was a Civil movement against the rules and policies of the british government (non-violent movement).Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is a symbolic or ritualistic violation of the law, rather than a rejection of the system as a whole.The Civil Disobedience movement can be divided into two phases - Phase 1 (1930-1931) and Phase 2 (1932-1934).

Events leading to the Civil Disobedience Movement

• The Simon Commission formed by the British Government in November 1927, to draft and formalize a constitution for India included solely the members of the British Parliament.Accused of being an 'All-White Commission', the Simon Commission was rejected by all political and social segments of the country.
• Death of leaders like Lala Lajpat Rai in the agitations against Simon Commission and increasing support to violence and revolutionary terrorism.
• 1929-33-Great Depression: The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II.Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by approximately 60%.Facing plummeting demand with few alternate sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as cash cropping, mining and logging suffered the most.In India the economic crisis resulted in closure of industries and incresed unemployment. Indians were not allowed to manufacture salt and other products to support the British imports and industries.Government imposed ban on some news papers ,books,etc.
•  An All-Party Conference was organized in Bombay in May of 1928. Dr MA Ansari was the president of the conference. Motilal Nehru was given the responsibility to preside over the drafting committee, appointed at the conference to prepare a constitution for India. Motilal Nehru Report called for dominion status for India.Some leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose demanded Poorn Swaraj.Congress accepted the Motilal Nehru Report.The Indian National Congress pressurized the British government to accept all the parts the Nehru Report, in December 1928. At the Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress held in December, 1928, the British government was warned that if India was not granted the status of a dominion, a Civil Disobedience Movement would be initiated in the entire country.
• Lord Irwin met with Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Tej Bahadur Sapru in New Delhi in the month of December 1929. Erwin however, could not arrive at an agreement for framing a constitution under `Dominion Status`. Indian National Congress also refused to attend the London Round Table Conference due to communal division and the lack of British support for Indian freedom.
• 1929 Congress in Lahore - Jawaharlal Nehru was the president.The congress passed resolution for poorn swaraj. Gandhi supported poorn swaraj.
• Indian National Congress started the agitation for reduction in land revenue, abolition of the salt tax, cutting down military expenditure, levying duty on foreign cloth,prohibition of intoxicating drinks,release of political prisoners,protection of native industries,reduction of rupee-sterling exchange ratio,change in Arms Act,etc.

 There was no favorable response from the British government. The patience of the Indian masses were wearing out. The political intelligentsia of the country was sure that the technique of persuasion would not be effective with the British government. The Congress had no other recourse but to launch the Civil Disobedience Movement. In Bardoli, the peasants had already taken to satyagraha under the guidance of Sardar Patel in the year 1928. Their non tax agitations were partially successful. The Congress took the decision to use the non violent weapon of satyagraha on a nation wide scale against the government.

Progress of the movement 

•  MK Gandhi was urged by the Congress to render his much needed leadership to the Civil Disobedience Movement. On the historic day of 12th March 1930, Gandhi inaugurated The Civil Disobedience Movement by conducting the historic Dandi Salt March, where he broke the Salt Laws imposed by the British Government. Gandhi commenced his march from sabarmati ashram  with seventy-eight volunteers,by the time he reached Dandi the movement was joined by thousands of people.The movement spread to all coastal areas of India.Each and every corner of the country was gripped in a unique fervor of nationalism. Soon this act of violation of the Salt Laws assumed an all India character.

•  The program of the Civil Disobedience Movement incorporated besides the breaking of the Salt Laws, picketing of shops selling foreign goods and liquor, bonfire of cloth, breaking forest rules, refusal to pay taxes and avoidance of offices by the public officers and schools by the students. Even the women joined forces against the British.

•  In the North-West Frontier Province, the movement was led by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, popularly known as ‘Frontier Gandhi’.

• In Tamil Nadu, C Rajagopalchari led a similar march from Trichinopoly to Vedaranyam.

• The Economic depression brought agricultural prices crashing down to half of less of their normal levels dealt a severe blow to the already impoverished peasants burdened with high taxes and rents. Therefore the peasants were placed in a situation where they had to continue to pay taxes, rents and debts at pre-depression rates while their incomes continued to spiral steadily downward. The civil disobedience movement was launched in this atmosphere of discontent in 1930s and in many parts of the country it soon took on the form of no-tax and no-rent campaign. Peasants emboldened by the recent success of the Bardoli Satyagraha (1928) joined the protest in large numbers. In Bihar and Bengal powerful movements were launched against the hated chowkidar tax by which villages were made to pay for the upkeep of their own oppressors.

• In Punjab a no-revenue campaign was accompanied by the emergence of Kisan Sabhas that demanded a reduction in land revenue and water rates and the scaling down of debts. The consolidation of left after the formation of the Congress Socialist Party in 1934 acted as a spur to the formation of an all India body to coordinate the Kisan Movement a process that was already underway through the efforts of N.G Ranga and other Kisan leaders. 

 Perturbed by the growing popularity of the movement, the British government imprisoned many leaders of the movement including Gandhi.

Round Table Conferences and Gandhi-Irwin Pact 

The three Round Table Conferences of 1930–32 were a series of conferences organized by the British government to discuss constitutional reforms in India. They were conducted as per the recommendation by the report submitted by the Simon Commission in May 1930. Demands for swaraj, or self-rule, in India had been growing increasingly strong. By the 1930s, many British politicians believed that India needed to move towards dominion status. However, there were significant disagreements between the Indian and the British political parties that the Conferences would not resolve.

The Round Table Conference was opened officially by King George V on November 12, 1930 at London and chaired by the British Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald. The three British political parties were represented by sixteen delegates. There were fifty-seven political leaders from British India and sixteen delegates from the princely states. However, the Indian National Congress, along with Indian business leaders, kept away from the conference. Many of them were in jail for their participation in civil disobedience.

After the conclusion of the First Round Table Conference, the British government realized that the cooperation of the Indian National Congress was necessary for further advancement in the making of the Indian constitution. Thus, Lord Irwin, the Viceroy, extended an invitation to Gandhi for talks.In the March of 1930, Gandhi met with the Viceroy, Lord Irwin and signed an agreement known as the Gandhi-Irwin Pact.

The agreement between Gandhi and Irwin was signed on March 5, 1931. Following are the salient points of this agreement:

1.The Congress would discontinue the Civil Disobedience Movement.

2.The Congress would participate in the Round Table Conference.

3.The Government would withdraw all ordinances issued to curb the Congress.

4.The Government would withdraw all prosecutions relating to offenses not involving violence.

5.The Government would release all persons undergoing sentences of imprisonment for their activities in the civil disobedience movement.

6.Government would restore confiscated properties of the satyagrahis.

7.Government would permit free collection or manufacture of salt by persons near the sea-coast.

The pact shows that the British Government was anxious to bring the Congress to the conference table.

Gandhi attended The Second Round Table Conference in London accompanied by Sarojini Naidu.  The main task of the conference was done through the two committees on federal structure and minorities. Gandhi was a member of both the committees. At this Conference, it was claimed by MK Gandhi that the Congress represented more than eighty five percent of the Indian population. Gandhi's claim was not endorsed by the British and also the Muslim representatives.During the Conference, Gandhi could not reach agreement with the Muslims, ,the depressed classes, the Indian Christians, the Anglo-Indians, and the Europeans on representation-safeguards.

At the end of the conference(Third Conference) Ramsay MacDonald undertook to produce a Communal Award for minority representation, with the provision that any free agreement between the parties could be substituted for his award.According to the Award, the right of separate electorate was not only given to the Muslims of India but also to all the minority communities in the country. The Award also declared untouchables as a minority and thus the Hindu depressed classes were given a number of special seats, to be filled from special depressed class electorates in the area where their voters were concentrated.

Gandhi took particular exception to the treatment of untouchables as a minority separate from the rest of the Hindu community. He clashed with the leader of depressed classes, B. R. Ambedkar, over this issue.The two eventually resolved the situation with the Poona Pact of September,1932.

Second Phase of Civil Disobedience Movement 

The Viceroy, Lord Willingdon, who succeeded Lord Irwin adopted the policy of repression. The Gandhi-Irwin Pact was violated and the Viceroy took to the suppression of the Congress. The Conservative party, which was in power in England, complied with the decision to assume a repressive stance against the Congress and the Indians. The Congress was held responsible by the government to have instigated the 'Red Shirts' to participate in The Civil Disobedience Movement, led by Khan Abdul Ghaffar and provoking the cultivators of U.P to refuse to pay land revenue. Adding to this was the serious economic crisis that took hold of the country. Under such circumstances,the Congress Working Committee took the decision to restart the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Gandhi resumed the movement in January 1932 and appealed to the entire nation to join in. The Viceroy was also informed of the stance assumed by the Congress. Four ordinances were promulgated by the government to deal with the situation. The police was given the power to arrest any person, even on the basis of mere suspicion. Sardar Patel, the President of Congress and Gandhi were arrested, along with other Congressmen. The second phase of The Civil Disobedience Movement lacked the organization that marked its first phase. Nonetheless the entire nation put up a tough fight and the movement continued for six months. Gandhi commenced his twenty one days of fast on May 8th, 1933, to make amends for the sins committed against the untouchables by the caste Hindus. The Civil Disobedience Movement was suspended, when Mahatma Gandi withdrew mass satyagraha on July 14th 1933. The movement ceased completely on April 7th 1934.

Salient features of Civil Disobedience Movement

• The Civil Disobedience movement was a mass movement spread across the country.The salt laws were challenged in all parts of the country. Salt became the symbol of people’s defiance of the government.Besides the breaking  the Salt Laws, picketing of shops selling foreign goods and liquor, bonfire of cloth, breaking forest rules, refusal to pay taxes and avoidance of offices by the public officers and schools by the students.  
•  The Congress took the decision to use the non violent weapon of satyagraha on a nation wide scale against the government.People faced the batons and bullets of the police with supreme courage. No one retaliated ,the reports and photographs of this extraordinary protest began to appear in newspapers across the world, there was a growing tide of support for India’s freedom struggle.
• Anti liquor movement became part of civil disobedience movement - it was a non political movement to engage common people for social and village development who would later join the political movement for independence.
• Imports from the Europe came down because of the large scale mass movement.
• The first phase of the civil disobedience movement ended with historic pact - Gandhi Irwin Pact.Govt agreed to release all political prisoners.Govt agreed to return all confiscated properties during the movement to the owners .Govt agreed to allow Indians to protest against liquor peacefully.People living in coastal areas are allowed to manufacture salt. Congress agreed to participated second round table conference.
• The Civil Disobedience movement united  the people of different sections and prepared ground for a large scale movement for independence in future.The major drawback is lack of participation of muslims in large scale.Hindu muslim unity seen in 1920-22 during non-cooperation movement was missing in CDM. 

 Although The Civil Disobedience Movement failed to achieve any positive outcome, it was an important juncture in the history of Indian independence. The leadership of  Gandhi had a beneficial impact. The warring factions within the Congress united under the aegis of The Civil Disobedience Movement, led by Gandhi.It united the people of different sections and prepared ground for a large scale movement for independence in future.Satyagraha was put on a firm footing through its large scale usage in the movement. Last but not the least India rediscovered its inherent strength and confidence to crusade against the British for its freedom.