UNIT 3 GANDHI’S EMERGENCE IN THE INDIAN POLITICS: TOWARDS A GREAT FUTURE Structure 3.0 Objectives 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Gandhi’s return to India 3.2.1 Gokhale’s Assurance to Gandhi 3.3 Improving Hindu – Muslim Relations 3.4 Gandhi’s Middle Path 3.4.1 The Champaran Satyagraha 3.5 The Cause of Mill Workers and Kheda Cultivators 3.6 Towards the Non-Cooperation Movement 3.6.1 Rowlatt Committee Recommendations 3.6.2 Jallianwala Bagh Tragedy 3.6.3 The Khilafat Committee 3.7 Let Us Sum Up 3.0 OBJECTIVES This unit explains Mahatma Gandhi’s role in Indian politics after his return from South Africa in 1915. After going through this unit you should be able to: recall that when Gandhi returned to India, he was already a hero; trace his journey across India to rediscover the country; explain that politically Gandhi chose a middle path between Annie Besant’s Home Rule and Tilak’s Purna Swaraj; highlight the causes and events of Champaran Satyagraha; and discuss the major events/causes leading to the non-cooperation movement. 3.1 INTRODUCTION In unit 2, you have read how Gandhi became a staunch satyagrahi by fighting against oppression and injustice in South Africa. This unit begins with the return of Gandhi from South Africa in 1915, and the welcome he received not only on his arrival at Bombay but also in different parts of the country that he visited to acquaint himself with the conditions of people in India. During the first five years after his return, Gandhi came in contact with various leaders – Moderates like Gokhale, Home Rule champion, Besant and Extremists like Tilak. He chose a middle path and emerged as a prominent leader who showed the way of peaceful struggle to the peasants as well as the workers. 15 Gandhi worked hard for Hindu Muslim unity. You will read in this unit, how he utilised the Khilafat agitation along with people’s anger against Rowlatt Bills and Jallianwala Massacre to plan and launch the non-violent, non-cooperation movement. 3.2 GANDHI’S RETURN TO INDIA Gandhi returned to India in 1915 with the hope of using his passive resistance to get Home Rule for India. He was convinced that Indians in South Africa, despite their great cultural heritage, could not expect to get the respect they deserve, unless they get their due respect in their own country. He was also convinced that India was far better a ground to experiment with satyagraha and he would be able to achieve his goal in a not too distant future. In India, Gandhi was well known at least in the educated circles, led by persons like Gokhale, Tilak and Besant. Some newspapers highlighted his thoughts and work in South Africa. His name was no longer uncommon among the people of India. Thus, when Gandhi returned to India, he was already a hero. There was another salutary situation, which proved helpful to Gandhi: India was in the insipient stage of resurgence and a great debate on how to move forward was on. The extremist youth were getting ready to strike at the very base of the British Raj. They wanted to throw away the British from the Indian soil using the same means (guns), which the British had used to subjugate India. Then, on the other extreme were those who were not against the British Empire as such but wanted the British to involve Indians more closely with the administration. In between were people who were fully in agreement with the ideals of the extremists but not with their means because if the uprising of 1857 could not dislodge the British, then terrorism, even if well organised, could not have achieved that goal. They were on the look-out for a middle path between terrorism and petitioning, which could force the British to give Home Rule for India. In 1917, no one except the Extremists was thinking of an independent India in the near future. Home Rule as enjoyed by Canada and Australia with just a loose link with the Crown was the goal. Gandhi praised the Extremists as patriots, but overzealous and misguided because they wanted India to be a replica of the West and the means they had adopted to make the country free was also Western. Gandhi considered them to be misguided also because they did not know the strength of the Indian culture and civilisation and did not know the real meaning of freedom. Gandhi was not happy with the Moderates either. He was convinced that the petitions bring result only if they are backed by a force, which is superior to the one the oppressors have. And that force was passive resistance, a moral force backed by truth and non-violence, which the people of India had been practicing since time immemorial. 16 Gandhi landed at Bombay on January 9, 1915. He was received by several Indian leaders and was greeted by hundreds of common people on the way. On 12th January, over 800 elite of Bombay representing all walks of life welcomed Gandhi in Jehangir Petit’s house. Sir Ferozshah Mehta praised the services and sufferings of Gandhi and Kasturba in South Africa. The Gujarati community gave a special reception in which Jinnah, a Gujarati, was also present. The Governor of Bombay also called on him. From Bombay, Gandhi went to Poona to meet Gokhale. Gokhale was keen to make Gandhi a member of the Servants of India Society but it never materialised, as the other members were not sure of his suitability for membership. 3.2.1 Gokhale’s Assurance to Gandhi Gokhale assured Gandhi all the help he needed to start his activities including the opening of an Ashram where passive resisters could be trained. From Poona he went to Rajkot, Porbandar and other places in Kathiawad and came to know about the problems people face due to Viramgaon customs. Gandhi approached the Government of India but without any favourable response. Gandhi’s next halt was at Shantiniketan at Bolpur to meet the poet Tagore and his Phoenix colleagues who were lodged there. It was here that he met his future colleagues like Kaka Kalelkar and Chintaman Shasri. On being informed that Gokhale had passed away, Gandhi left for Poona along with Kasturba and Maganlal. In a condolence meeting at Shantiniketan, he said:”I set out to find a true hero and I found only one in the whole of India. That hero was Gokhale.” Gandhi once again tried to become a member of the Servants of India Society, but some of the members wanted him to become familiar with the country before his membership could be considered. Gandhi withdrew his application. “Therein I thought lay my loyalty to the society and Gokhale.” To get a first hand picture of India and its problems, Gandhi travelled in third class railway compartment in ordinary dress. He visited Rangoon, Calcutta, Hardwar, Madras, Mayavaram, Nellore, Poona, Kathiawad etc. During these visits, he addressed many gatherings. He did not like the way he was honoured at different places with flattering speeches and garlands. Nor did he agree with what the leading figures of India were doing for the country. Gandhi considered Gokhale his guru. At Nellore, he said: “Gokhale’s life, his message, his words, his methods, have been to me a guiding star, and they will still remain an important guide; and we can best revere his memory by translating some part of his life into our own. My life is dedicated to that, and I appeal to you, my countrymen not spoil us, not to isolate us in the service, not to overrate what we have done in South Africa. …You may spoil us for two reasons. We may lose our heads and so be lost to the country. The other is that you may raise enormous expectations about us and disappointment may at last be the result.” He decided to have his Ashram near Ahmedabad because he expected the business community there to help him financially. He set up Satyagraha Ashram at Kochrab with 25 men and women as the first inmates. They lived together, ate together and worked together. “Our creed is devotion to truth, and our business is the search for an insistence on 17 truth.” The Ashramites had to observe eight vows: 1) Vow of truth 2) Vow of ahimsa 3) Vow of celibacy 4) Control of palate 5) Vow of non-stealing 6) Vow of non-possession 7) Swadeshi, and 8) Fearlessness The first crisis in the Ashram arose when an untouchable family was invited to the Ashram. There was opposition from the Ashramites for the fear of losing financial aid. Gandhi decided to fight this social menace and even thought of shifting the Ashram to the untouchable’s quarters. He ultimately succeeded in convincing everyone of the need to treat all human beings as equal. A person should be known by his deeds, not by religion or caste. Gandhi’s next experiment was Khadi, started in 1915. “The object that was set before us was to be able to clothe ourselves entirely in cloth manufactured by ourselves. We, therefore, discarded the use of mill-woven clothes made from Indian yarn.” Everyone had to learn to spin and weave. One Gangubai Mazumdar, a social worker at Baroda found out that spinning wheel was being used in some villages to make yarn. Methods to make slivers of cotton were also found. Soon the spinning wheel, in an improved version, was being manufactured to produce Khadi in the Ashram.