Hinduinfopedia

  The documented record from 1919 to 1922 shows Gandhi responding to different forms of violence and political crisis at different stages of his career. Jallianwala Bagh and Chauri Chaura were separate events with different circumstances, but placing them in chronological context highlights a notable difference in the political decisions that followed. On 13 April 1919, Brigadier General Reginald Dyer ordered troops to fire on a gathering at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. The firing lasted approximately ten minutes, with about 1,650 rounds fired. The official death figure was 379. Indian enumerations recorded higher numbers, including 490 documented names. Gandhi was in Bombay when the incident occurred. His early response was measured. His autobiography and Young India record a distinction between responsibility for the governing system and responsibility for individual actions. He did not present the entire British population as collectively responsible. Gandhi also supporte...

  In 1920, Gandhi connected the Indian National Congress with the Khilafat movement as part of the wider Non-Cooperation Movement. The two movements had different immediate objectives. Congress was engaged in India's political struggle against colonial rule, while the Khilafat movement sought restoration of the Ottoman Caliphate. The Khilafat leadership in India included Mohammad Ali, Shaukat Ali and the Khilafat Committee. For these leaders, the Caliphate had religious importance. Its restoration was presented as a religious obligation. The cause was therefore not limited to India's constitutional politics. It concerned an institution that combined religious authority with political sovereignty within the Ottoman system. Gandhi supported this cause and brought Congress's organisational strength into the wider mobilisation. Congress had accumulated political influence and organisational capacity through decades of political activity. Gandhi's strategy was to connect...

  The Non-Cooperation Movement of 1920-22 and the Civil Disobedience Movement of 1930-31 stand among the most significant mass campaigns associated with Gandhi's leadership of India's independence movement. Nearly a decade separates them, and their immediate circumstances were different. Yet examining the two together raises important historical questions about political objectives, mass pressure, leadership decisions, negotiations, and the outcomes experienced by participants. The Non-Cooperation Movement began in 1920 with Swaraj within one year as its stated objective. Gandhi publicly committed to this goal at the Calcutta special session of the Congress in September 1920. During 1920 and 1921, the movement expanded across urban and rural areas and generated increasing pressure on the British administration. By November 1921, British authorities were recording serious concern. Viceroy Reading's despatches to Montagu described the movement as threatening the basic ope...

The events of Calcutta in 1946 brought different approaches to communal violence and self-defence into direct contrast. Gandhi’s method centred on non-violence, while Gopal Chandra Mukherjee, known as Gopal Patha, organised armed Hindu self-defence in Mirzapur Street during the Great Calcutta Killings. The violence began on August 16, 1946, and continued through August 19. Gandhi was at Sevagram when the killings began and reached Calcutta after the documented death toll had already accumulated. In Mirzapur Street, Gopal Patha organised armed resistance to protect the Hindu population of his locality. His methods were not Gandhian. Gopal Patha maintained that the arms had helped protect women in his area. His position therefore rested on a different understanding of the circumstances confronting his locality and the means required for protection. The significance of the case became clearer in 1947, when Gandhi toured Bengal and met Gopal Patha. Gandhi asked him to surrender his a...

  Historical movements can be examined not only by asking what they achieved, but also by asking who received those gains, which structures remained intact, and how political leadership changed during the process. Gandhi’s political career between 1914 and 1931 offers four important cases for such a comparison. In South Africa in 1914, the Smuts-Gandhi Agreement produced specific reforms. Indian marriages were recognised and the three-pound tax was abolished. These measures represented important gains for Indian workers. However, the wider discriminatory structure remained. The Gujarati merchant community retained protection for commercial and property interests. Gandhi returned to India in 1915 with an international reputation gained through the South African Satyagraha campaigns. Tamil indentured labourers remained among the most structurally disadvantaged groups. Champaran in 1917 produced a different but related set of results. The Tinkathia system was abolished, ending com...

The events of February 1922 reveal an important feature of political leadership during India’s freedom movement. Mahatma Gandhi had become the principal figure associated with the Non-Cooperation Movement, but the suspension of the movement demonstrated the extent to which his authority could determine its practical direction. By November 1921, the movement had placed serious pressure on the British administration. Colonial officials faced a large-scale political mobilisation that challenged the normal functioning of government. The administration had to consider the consequences of suppressing the movement as well as the possibility of allowing it to continue. Gandhi then made a decisive choice. On 12 February 1922, he suspended the movement. He did so without extracting a documented concession from the British administration. He also acted despite opposition from several important leaders of the nationalist movement. Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, Chittaranjan Das, an...