12.3 India Seeks Self-Rule

Read the Section and answer the questions that follow. India Seeks Self-Rule Terms, People, and Places Amritsar massacre ahimsa civil disobedience untouchables boycott

Tensions were running high in Amritsar, a city in northern India. Protests against British rule had sparked riots and attacks on British residents. On April 13, 1919, a large but peaceful crowd of Indians jammed into an enclosed field. The British commander, General Reginald Dyer, had banned public meetings, but the crowd either ignored or did not hear the order. As Indian leaders spoke, Dyer and 50 soldiers opened fire on the unarmed crowd, killing nearly 400 people and wounding more than 1,100. The Amritsar massacre was a turning point for many Indians. It convinced them that India needed to govern itself.

Calls for Independence The tragedy at Amritsar was linked to broader Indian frustrations after World War I. During the war, more than a million Indians had served overseas. Under pressure from Indian nationalists, the British promised Indians greater self-government. But when the fighting ended, Britain proposed only a few minor reforms. Since 1885, the Indian National Congress party, called the Congress party, had pressed for self-rule within the British empire. After Amritsar, it began to call for full independence. But party members were mostly middle-class, Western-educated elite who had little in common with the masses of Indian peasants. In the 1920s, a new leader named Mohandas Gandhi emerged and united Indians across class lines. Gandhi came from a middle-class Hindu family. At age 19, he went to England to study law. Then, like many Indians, Gandhi went to South Africa. For 20 years, Gandhi fought laws that discriminated against Indians in South Africa. In 1914, Gandhi returned to India. Soon, he became the leader of the Congress party.

The Power of Nonviolence Gandhi’s ideas inspired Indians of all religious and ethnic backgrounds. His nonviolent protests caught the attention of the British government and the world.

Gandhi’s Ideas Gandhi’s theories embraced Hindu traditions. He preached the ancient doctrine of ahimsa (uh HIM sah), or nonviolence and reverence for all life. By using the power of love, he believed, people could convert even the worst wrongdoer to the right course of action. To fight against injustice, he advocated the use of nonviolent resistance. Gandhi’s philosophy reflected Western as well as Indian influences. He admired Christian teachings about love. He believed in the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau’s ideas about civil disobedience, the refusal to obey unjust laws. Gandhi was also influenced by Western ideas of democracy and nationalism. He urged equal rights for all Indians, women as well as men. He fought hard to end the harsh treatment of untouchables, who were members of the lowest caste, or class.

Gandhi Sets an Example During the 1920s and 1930s, Gandhi launched a series of nonviolent actions against British rule. He called for Indians to boycott, or refuse to buy, British goods, especially cotton textiles. He worked to restore pride in India’s traditional industries, making the spinning wheel a symbol of the nationalist movement. Gandhi’s campaigns of civil disobedience attracted wide support.

Gandhi Takes a Stand: The Salt March To mobilize mass support, Gandhi decided to take a stand against the British salt monopoly, which he saw as a symbol of British oppression. Natural salt was available in the sea, but the British government required Indians to buy only salt sold by the monopoly.

Breaking the Law On March 12, 1930, Gandhi set out with 78 followers on a 240-mile march to the sea. As the tiny band passed through villages, crowds responded to Gandhi’s message. By the time they reached the sea, the marchers numbered in the thousands. On April 6, Gandhi waded into the surf and picked up a lump of sea salt. He was soon arrested and jailed. Still, Indians followed his lead. Coastal villages started collecting salt. Indians sold salt on city streets. As Gandhi’s campaign gained force, tens of thousands of Indians were imprisoned.

Steps Toward Freedom All around the world, newspapers criticized Britain’s harsh reaction to the protests. Stories revealed how police brutally clubbed peaceful marchers who tried to occupy a government salt works. Slowly, Gandhi’s campaign forced Britain to hand over some power to Indians. Britain also agreed to meet other demands of the Congress party.

Looking Ahead In 1939, a new world war exploded. Britain outraged Indian leaders by postponing independence and bringing Indians into the war without consulting them. Angry nationalists launched a campaign of noncooperation and were jailed. Millions of Indians, however, did help Britain during World War II. When the war ended in 1945, India’s independence could no longer be delayed. As it neared, Muslim fears of the Hindu majority increased. Conflict between Hindus and Muslims would trouble the new nation in the years to come.

Mohandas Gandhi led a successful, peaceful revolution in India against British rule. In the following excerpt from his book Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule), Gandhi explains the ideas behind his nonviolent method of passive resistance in the form of an imaginary conversation between an editor and a reader. Hind Swaraj was first published in 1909 in South Africa but was banned in India. Passive resistance is a method of securing rights by personal suffering; it is the reverse of resistance by arms. When I refuse to do a thing that is repugnant [offensive] to my conscience, I use soul force. For instance, the Government of the day has passed a law which is applicable to me. I do not like it. If by using violence I force the Government to repeal the law, I am employing what may be termed body force. If I do not obey the law and accept the penalty for its breach, I use soul force. It involves the sacrifice of self. Everybody admits that the sacrifice of self is infinitely superior to the sacrifice of others. Moreover, if this kind of force is used in an unjust cause, only the person using it suffers. He does not make others suffer for his mistakes. Men have before now done many things which were subsequently found to have been wrong. No man can claim that he is absolutely in the right or that a particular thing is wrong because he thinks so, but it is wrong for him so long as that is his deliberate judgment. It is therefore meet [proper] that he should not do that which he knows to be wrong and suffer the consequence whatever it may be. This is the key to the use of soul force. You would then disregard laws—this is rank disloyalty. We have always been considered a law-abiding nation. You seem to be going even beyond the extremists. They say that we must obey the laws that have been passed, but that if the laws be bad, we must drive out the lawgivers even by force. Whether I go beyond them or whether I do not is a matter of no consequence to either of us. We simply want to find out what is right and to act accordingly. The real meaning of the statement that we are a law-abiding nation is that we are passive resisters. When we do not like certain laws, we do not break the heads of law-givers but we suffer and do not submit to the laws.

(vocab) Amritsar massacre

(vocab) ahimsa

(vocab) civil disobedience

(vocab) untouchables

(vocab) boycott

(checkpoint) What methods did Indians under Gandhi use to resist British rule?

(assessment) How did the Amritsar massacre affect the movement for Indian independence?

(assessment) Why do you think Gandhi was able to unite Indians when earlier attempts had not succeeded?

(assessment) How did the Salt March force Britain to respond to Indian demands?

(think critically) What is the goal of passive resistance?

( draw conclusions) According to Gandhi, could soul force ever be used to support an unjust cause? What does Gandhi mean when he says that a person using soul force “does not make others suffer for his mistakes”?

( objectives ) Explain what motivated the Indian independence movement after World War I.

( objectives ) Analyze how Mohandas Gandhi influenced the independence movement.

( objectives ) • Describe the impact of the Salt March on the course of the Indian independence movement.

( focus questions ) How did Gandhi and the Congress party work for independence in India?