DR.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL LAW

UNIVERSITY,LUCKNOW
2018-2019

HISTORY
FINAL DRAFT

“Indian National Congress: Before and After Gandhi ”

Submitted By: Submitted to:

Rohan Prakash Dr. Vandana Singh
Enrollment No.- 180101114 Associate Professor
IInd Semester B.A.L.L.B (Hons.) History

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 Acknowledgement

I have taken a lot of efforts for this project. However this would have not
been possible without the kind support and help of many individuals. I
would like to express my sincere thanks to all of them.
I express my deep gratitude and to my teacher for the subject Dr.
Vandana Singh for giving me her exemplary guidance, monitoring and
constant encouragement throughout the project.
I would like to express my gratitude towards my parents and members of
RMLNLU for their kind support and encouragement which helped me in
the completion of this project.
My thanks and appreciations also go to my colleague in developing the
project and people who willingly helped me out with their abilities.

Rohan Prakash

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Contents

Acknowledgement...........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Formation of Indian National Congress..........................................................................................5
Various theories, myths and realities-..........................................................................................5
Goals of the Indian National Congress........................................................................................6
Early political activities of INC.......................................................................................................8
Reasons for mild approach of moderates.....................................................................................8
Gandhi and his early days and activism in South Africa...............................................................10
Gandhi’ s early activities in India.................................................................................................12
Gandhi and national movements...................................................................................................13
Changes Gandhi brought in Congress’ strategies......................................................................13
Non Cooperation movement......................................................................................................14
Civil Disobedience movement...................................................................................................15
Freedom and Partition....................................................................................................................17
Quit India Movement.................................................................................................................17
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................19

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Introduction
Indian National Congress, the oldest political party of India, played a pivotal role in the freedom
struggle of India. It was not just a political party, but it was a movement. When we talk about the
Independence movement of India, we could never ignore Congress’ role in it. However when the
Congress was formed, its tactics, methods and goals were different from those which they
adopted after coming of Mahatma Gandhi into the national movement. Gandhi shaped INC as
well as the national movement in such a way that it completely changed the history of India and
was able to drive out the biggest imperial power of that time, i.e., the Britishers out of India. This
paper will first tell about the foundation of INC, and then it moves towards the earlier political
activities of INC and its role in swadeshi movement. Later this will discuss Gandhi’s early career
in South Africa, the strategies adopted by Gandhi for struggle against the oppressive
government, especially Satyagraha and non violence which he used in South Africa against
racial discriminatory policies of then government and was successfully able to implement this
policy and the government had to come on the negotiating table with him. What Gandhi had to
do was to implement on a much larger scale in India, which he was successful in doing later on.
Then it will tell about coming of Gandhi in India and the major political activities and
movements by Gandhi, i.e., non cooperation, civil disobedience and quit India movements and
the evolving tactics and techniques of Gandhi and how they changed the course of history of
India.

At last it will give a summarized comparison of the strategies used by INC before and after
coming of Gandhi and how he evolved the Indian National Congress. It will discuss what impact
and aura Gandhi brought to Indian National Congress and India that it would changed the course
of movement. There were leaders before him in India and INC, and also after him, who were also
very influential and charismatic, but no one proved to be so successful that Gandhi was. It might
be because he devised the new strategy of struggle which was Satyagraha, which was never
adopted anywhere in the world, and due to which India could get freedom from British rule and
Gandhi became Mahatma, (the great soul) and the father of our nation.

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Formation of Indian National Congress
The word Congress means “a formal meeting or series of meetings for discussion between
delegates, especially those from a political party, trade union, or from within a particular sphere
of activity” (according to Oxford dictionary). In United States, the national legislative assembly
is called Congress. So basically, the Indian National Congress was formed as a forum to discuss
the political events that were taking place in India during the last decades of 19th century.

Indian National Congress was founded on 28 December 1885 in Bombay by seventy-two

political workers. Allan Octavian Hume, a retired English ICS officer, played an important role
in its formation. It was the first organized expression of Indian nationalism on an all- India scale.
But what were the reasons for its formation by those seventy two persons and why at that time
only was a serious question and different historians and political leaders have different views on
it.

Various theories, myths and realities-

One of the most famous and powerful theories given at that time was ‘the safety valve’ theory.
According to this theory, Indian National Congress was formed by A.O. Hume under the official
direction and guidance of then Viceroy, Lord Dufferin to provide a safe, mild, peaceful, and
constitutional outlet or safety valve for the rising discontent among the masses which could lead
to a violent revolution. The Britishers have already faced the violent upsurge of the Indians
against the East India Company rule in the revolt of 1857; so, they knew that the growing
discontent among Indians could lead to violent uprising. Safety valve theory says that the
Congress was formed to provide an outlet to this rising discontent among the Indians. The
violent revolution was on cards and was avoided only by Congress. The radicals use it to prove
that the Congress has always been compromising, if not, loyalist to British. The extreme rightists
use it to show that the Congress has been anti-national from the beginning. While the liberals
also welcome this theory because it had helped avoiding ‘useless bloodshed’ in a violent revolt.
Extremist leader Lala Lajpat Rai in Young India in1916 used this theory to attack the moderates
in the Congress. In 1939, RSS chief, M.S. Golwalkar had also used this theory to attack
Congress’ secularism and terming it as Congress’ anti nationalism. Liberals C.F. Andrews and
Girija Mukherjee also accepted this theory in their work The Rise and Growth of the Congress
published in 1938. Historical proof of this safety valve theory was given as seven volumes of

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secret reports of Hume read in 1878 which convinced him of discontent among Indians.
Supporters of safety valve theory say that these letters were obtained from British authorities in
India and political leaders.

However, Bipan Chandra in his book India’s Struggle for Independence termed safety valve
theory as a myth. He said that Hume could not procure official secret papers and those letters
which were termed as official secret papers were actually prepared by mahatmas and Gurus, and
his friends and advisers and not Congressmen.1 Hume also tried to tell Dufferin that some
mahatmas or Gurus were acting his advisers. Chandra said that these Hume procured those
papers from these mahatmas only.

Goals of the Indian National Congress

The foundation of Indian National Congress was not just a sudden event but it was the
culmination of a process of political awakening that had begun in 1860s-70s and took a major
leap forward in late 1870s and early 1880s. The year 1885 marked a turning point in this process
as it was the year when the politically awakened and intellectual Indians who were interested in
politics who no longer saw themselves as spokesmen of narrow group interests, but as
representatives of national interest, as a ‘national party,’ saw their efforts bear fruit. The all-India
nationalist body that they brought into being was to be the platform, the organizer, the
headquarters, the symbol of the new national spirit and politics. The major goals of the Indian
National Congress were:

1. Building of National Unity

India had just entered the process of becoming a nation. The first major objective of the Indian
National movement was to build a national unity and to weld Indians into a nation Tilak and
Surendranath Banerjee said that India was a nation in making. First INC President W.C. Bannerji
said that their most basic aim was “fuller development and consolidation of those sentiments of
national unity”. In an effort to reach all regions, it was decided to rotate the Congress session
among different parts of the country. The President was to belong to a region other than where
the Congress session was being held.

1
Bipan Chandra, India’s Struggle for Independence, p.69

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To reach out to the followers of all religions and to remove the fears of the minorities a rule was
made at the 1888 session that no resolution was to be passed to which an overwhelming majority
of Hindu or Muslim delegates objected. In 1889, a minority clause was adopted in the resolution
demanding reform of legislative councils. According to the clause, wherever Parsis, Christians,
Muslims or Hindus were a minority their number elected to the Councils would not be less than
their proportion in the Population. Thus, the early national leaders were also determined to build
a secular nation, the Congress itself being intensely secular.

2. To create a common platform where political workers in different parts of country could
conduct political activities on all India basis

It wanted to educate and mobilize the people on all India base. This is the reason why the
Congress in starting did not take up regional issues as they wanted to take up only those issues
which have all India significance. That is why INC did not take up questions of social reform.

3. The arousal, training, organization and consolidation of public opinion

There was a need of politicization and unification of the opinions of the educated. Petitions,
prayers and memorials were used as methods of political struggle and it would let to
politicization of people.

4. To create a common all-India national political leadership

The founders of the Congress understood that the first requirement of a national movement was a
national leadership. The social- ideological complexion that this leadership would acquire was a
question that was different from the main objective of the creation of a national movement. This
complexion would depend on a host of factors: the role of different social classes, ideological
influences, outcomes of ideological struggles, and so on.

Congress required Hume to be their chief organizer because presence of Hume saved Congress
from government suspicion and suppression. If any other leader would have organized the
Congress then government could have clamped down the Congress but presence of Hume had
saved Congress from suppression by government. if Hume and other English liberals hoped to
use the Congress as a safety-valve, the Congress leaders hoped to use Hume as a lightning
conductor. And as later developments show, it was the Congress leaders whose hopes were
fulfilled.

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Early political activities of INC
First 20 years of INC was moderate era for Congress. Speeches and discussions were in English.
Congress was used to be a just 3-4 days annual meetings of their members where they discussed
their goals and other political activities. However after that they again went back to their work
and no considerable political activities took place in between. They filed petitions and memorials
demanding reduction in taxes, freedom of press, representation in government bodies, less
military expenditure, increase in import duties of foreign textiles so that indigenous textiles could
survive. They also wanted that British government should do higher expenditure on famine relief
and Indians should also be given right to bear arms as Englishmen were given. They were also
against Lex Loci Act which was an Indian law designed to protect the civil rights of religious
converts. It provided the right to inherit ancestral property to Hindu converts to Christianity and
therefore promoting conversion to Christianity. INC and other political activists were against this
law. Other political activities included promotion of that party by Congress workers like
Dadabhai Naoroji in London which supported the rights of Indians. INC also demanded cut in
home charges (expenditure in Secretariat and residents of English officers).

However Extremists alleged that these all were mild demands and used mild methods like
petitions and memorials which did not brought any significant pressure on government.

Reasons for mild approach of moderates

One of the major reasons that moderates took a mild approach was that they do not want to
provoke government for taking serious actions against them. They knew that if they would raise
extreme demands, government might take hard actions against them and could harshly clamp
down the entire Indian National Congress. So they went towards the government with a begging
bowl so that government could concede to their demands. Also they did not want complete
transformation of government since they believed that a government other than that of British
could be anarchical and they believed that Britishers could be best possible option as rulers
available to them. They just wanted that educated Indians should be given more rights than that
are granted to them and more autonomy should be given to Indians. If their demands would be
fulfilled by the government, then they would not have any problem with British rule. Also those
leaders were successful men in their respective professions and they did not have enough time to
launch and indulge in a more extreme approach. They preferred profession over nationalism.

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Also they were leading a luxurious and elite life and these issues did not affect much. Also they
did not consider that lower class or illiterate people should be part of government. SN Banerjee
saw lower class and illiterate as aliens. They were leading elitist lifestyle. After 1890s Gokhale
emerged as a lightning leader who was ready for full time participation in politics and was
appealing to youth.

In 1900s there is emergence of extremists in the Indian National Congress. When they saw the
moderate methods were not working to create pressure on government, they started advocating
use of extreme measures by INC. Also discriminatory rule of Lord Curzon had created huge
discontent among the masses. There is emergence of Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and
Bipin Chandra Pal (Lal, Bal, Pal) in INC which advocated extreme measures. Bal Gangadhar
Tilak famously said that ‘Swaraj is my birth right’.

On 19 July 1905, government announced partition of Bengal province. Curzon’s real motives to
introduce partition were to break the growing strength of Bengali nationalism since Bengal was
the base of Indian nationalism, to divide the Hindus and Muslims in Bengal, to show the
enormous power of the British Government in doing whatever it liked.

The Swadeshi Movement had its genesis, in the anti-partition movement which was started to
oppose the British decision to partition Bengal. The Indian National Congress, meeting in 1905
under the presidency of Gokhale, resolved to condemn the partition of Bengal and the
reactionary policies of Curzon and support the anti-partition and Swadeshi Movement of Bengal

 The militant nationalists led by Tilak, Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal and Aurobindo Ghosh
wanted the movement to be taken outside Bengal to other parts of the country and go beyond a
boycott of foreign goods to become a full-fledged political mass struggle with the goal of
attaining swaraj. But the Moderates, dominating the Congress at that time, were not willing to go
that far. However, aggressive nationalists forced Dadabhai Naoroji to speak of Swaraj (which
was not a Moderate demand) in the Calcutta Session of Congress in 1906. The Extremist
emboldened by Dadabhai Naoroji’s declaration gave a call for passive resistance in addition to
swadeshi and boycott of foreign goods.

The extremists activities included self development through constructive work. It included
promoting the use of Swadeshi and boycotting foreign goods. It also included boycotting
government institutions and creating parallel organizations to them like opening up of swadeshi

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and nationalist schools and colleges. They also recognized the importance of mass public
participation and used Hindu religious processions and atma shakti to gather mass support.
However due to this reason Muslim participation was very less during this period.

However a major setback came to the movement when the rising disagreement between
Moderate and Extremist led to the split of Congress in 1907 Surat session. The Moderate
Congressmen were unhappy as they wanted Swaraj to be achieved through constitutional
methods while the extremists believed that those methods are not useful and passive resistance
was necessary to achieve swaraj. The Moderate-Extremist dispute over techniques led to a split
in the Congress at the Surat session in 1907, popularly known as the famous Surat Split.
Extremists came out of the Congress led by Tilak and others.

In 1908 movement petered out. After the Surat split in INC, government took strict action
against extremist leaders. Most of them (like Tilak, Ajit Singh, Lala Lajpat Rai) were jailed and
those who escaped from government repression (like Bipin Chandra Pal, Aurobindo Ghosh),
retired from active politics. Also activities of moderate leaders in INC reduced and no major
developments took place in INC. Also All India Muslim League was formed which has Muslim
support and it countered INC. This failure of INC resulted in youth turning towards
revolutionary terrorism activities.

Thus, Indian National Congress and national movement faced a serious setback and it needed a
revival which was provided by Mahatma Gandhi.

Gandhi and his early days and activism in South Africa

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, gave India the path
towards independence. However before becoming the leader of India’s independence struggle,
he was an ordinary barrister who practiced as a lawyer. However his life completely took a new
turn when he went South Africa where his journey towards becoming a leader of masses has
started. In 1893 Gandhi went to Durban, South Africa on a one year contract to sort out legal
problems of Dada Abdullah, a Gujarati merchant living there. In South Africa, most of the Indian
population was comprised of three categories of people. First was the indentured labourers,
second one was merchants, mostly Meman Muslims and third group comprised of ex-indentured
labourers who came as labourers but now they were settled there. So Gandhi was one of the first

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highly educated Indian who landed in South Africa. In South Africa he faced severe racial
discrimination when he was thrown out of first class compartment during his journey from
Durban to Pretoria even having ticket just because of his race. Gandhi was very unhappy because
even when he was so much educated and higher in class as compared to labourers, even then he
was given same type of treatment. Then Gandhi realised the amount of racial discrimination
people were facing. He decided that he would fight against such discrimination.

He first started filing petitions and memorials to legislatures of South Africa and also in England.
At that time he had believe in British government that they do not endorse this and they actually
did not know about what was happening in South Africa. If they get to know about the racial
discrimination prevalent in South Africa, they would take action against this. It was the moderate
period of Gandhiji where he used moderate methods. He also started paper ‘The Indian Opinion’
and also formed Natal Indian Congress to awaken people.

However when it did not work he used method of passive resistance and civil disobedience. It
was the method of showing resistance to unjust laws by people by not following them. However
Gandhi urged the people that they should remain non violent and should not show retaliation
against government oppression. The use of non violence would act as a moral binding force on
government. He first started movement against a law which required registration of Asian people
with people and they would always have to carry those IDs. It was because government saw
them as criminals and suspicious. Gandhi urged the people not to register. Many fair minded also
criticised this law. Also Transvaal Immigration Restriction Act was passed to stop Asians
(especially Indians) from coming to Transvaal. Many Indians (also Gandhi) defied this rule and
got arrested but they did not use violence.

Gandhi also started a Tolstoy farm for the families of Satyagrahis which was run by his friend
Herman Kollenbach. Also Phoenix farm in Natal was started.

There were several other discriminatory laws like charging of poll tax from ex indentured
labourers and also invalidating marriages other than Christians. These laws arose seroius
discontent Indian masses and also among women. So this resulted in mass participation.
Government had to come on negotiating table with Gandhi. Negotiations occurred between
Gandhi, Smutts, CF Andrews and Viceroy Hardinge. Government agreed to abolish poll tax and
registration law. Indian marriages were recognised and they promised to take action on

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immigration law. This showed that Gandhian style of struggle that is use of non violence and
Satyagraha proved successful. What Gandhi had to do was to implement this in India on large
scale.

South Africa was very important phase of Gandhi because it evolved Gandhi into a leader.
Gandhi used many of his ways which he implemented in South Africa in Indian independence
struggle as well. He took the idea of non violence and Satyagraha as a new means of struggle
which anybody around the world never has used till that date. He used hartals and marches as
civil disobedience methods to protest against government. Also he insisted on need of social
reforms in the struggle. Also the idea of Sabarmati ashram for Satyagrahis and their families
came from the Tolstoy and Phoenix farms that he established in South Africa. South Africa built
up his faith in the capacity of the Indian masses to participate in and sacrifice for a cause that
moved them. Gandhiji also had had the opportunity of leading Indians belonging to different
religions: Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Parsis were all united under his leadership in South
Africa. He learnt, the hardest way, that leadership involves facing the ire not only of the enemy
but also of one’s followers. There were two occasions on which Gandhiji was faced with a
serious threat to his life. Once, when a white mob chased him down a street in Durban in 1896
and surrounded the house where he was staying, asking for his blood; he had to be whisked out
in disguise. The second, when an Indian, a Pathan, who was angry with him because of an
agreement he had reached with the Government assaulted him on the street. Gandhiji learnt that
leaders often have to take hard decisions that are unpopular with enthusiastic followers.

Thus Gandhi’s experience in South Africa was not important just for himself but also for the
India’s national independence struggle.

Gandhi’ s early activities in India

After his successful campaign in South Africa, Gandhi returned India. His successful experiences
in South Africa raised the hopes of the people in India who were indulged in national movement.
Gokhale said that Gandhi could transform ordinary people around him into extraordinary people.
People had so much faith in him that he was like god for masses and people came to darshan
him. “And then Gandhi came. He was like a powerful current of fresh air that made us stretch
ourselves and take deep breaths; like a beam of light that pierced the darkness and removed the

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scales from our eyes; like a whirlwind that upset many things, but most of all the working of
people's minds. He did not descend from the top; he seemed to emerge from the millions of
India, speaking their language and incessantly drawing attention to them and their appalling
condition.”2 However Gandhi did not take up national issues at starting because he had decided
that he would not take up any issue before having complete knowledge about it. So Gandhi
decided to travel all over Indian and study the basic problems which were caused due to British
rule. He first took up regional issues and participated in regional struggles in Champaran,
Ahmedabad and Kheda when he was called by people to join and lead their struggle. In
Champaran due to Gandhi’s efforts, government had to agree to the demands of Indian indigo
cultivators and Englishmen had to return 25% of the amount which they wrongly took from
Indian cultivators on account of getting released from teenkathiya system. Although the amount
returned was 25%, but it was a major dent on the prestige of the British government as they had
to succumb to demands of Indians. In Ahmedabad, mill owners had to agree to continue to pay
workers plague bonus. In Kheda government agreed to suspend tax collection in famine areas
from those while Gandhi also appealed that who can pay taxes should continue to pay tax to the
government. In this way an agreement was reached in Kheda as well.

Gandhi and national movements

Changes Gandhi brought in Congress’ strategies
Gandhi for the first time entered the Congress organization and immediately brought about a
complete change in its constitution. He made it democratic and a mass organization. Democratic
it had been previously also but it had so far been limited in franchise and restricted to the upper
classes. Now the peasants rolled in and, in its new garb, it began to assume the look of a vast
agrarian organization with a strong sprinkling of the middle classes. This agrarian character was
to grow. Industrial workers also came in but as individuals and not in their separate organized
capacity.

Action was to be the basis and, objective of this organization, action based on peaceful methods.
Thus far the alternatives had been just talking and passing resolutions, or terroristic activity. Both
of these were set aside and terrorism was especially condemned as opposed to the basic policy of

2
Nehru, Jawaharlal, The Discovery of India p. 356

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the Congress. “A new technique of action was evolved which, though perfectly peaceful, yet
implied non-submission to what was considered wrong and, as a consequence, a willing
acceptance of the pain and suffering involved in this.”3 Gandhi was an odd kind of pacifist, for
he was an activist full of dynamic energy. There was no submission in him to fate or anything
that he considered evil; he was full of resistance, though this was peaceful and courteous.

Gandhi made a Congress Working Committee (CWC) of 15 members which would run the day
to day working of the INC. There was also formation of All India Congress Committee (AICC)
which would review working of CWC. Also provincial Congress committees were set up.
Membership cost was reduced and Hindi was preferred for working.

The call of action was two-fold. There was, of course, the action involved in challenging and
resisting foreign rule; there was also the action which led us to fight our own social evils. Apart
from the fundamental objective of the Congress—the freedom of India— and the method of
peaceful action, the principal planks of the Congress were national unity, which involved the
solution of the minority problems, and the raising of the depressed classes and the ending of the
curse of untouchability.

Non Cooperation movement

The non-cooperation movement was a reaction to the oppressive policies of the British Indian
government such as the Rowlatt Act and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

Rowlatt Act posed restrictions on civil rights. Police could arrest anyone only on grounds of
suspicion and without warrant, there was detention without trial for 2 years. There was a famous
quote explaining situation as no appeal, no vaqeel, no daleel. People were outraged by this law.

Second event took place at a fair was held at Jallianwala Bagh near the Golden
Temple in Amritsar and the civilian were fired upon by soldiers under the command of
Brigadier-General Dyer, resulting in killing and injuring thousands of protestors. The outcry
generated by the massacre led to thousands of unrests and more deaths at the hands of the police.
The massacre became the most infamous event of British rule in India.

Gandhi was horrified. He lost all faith in the goodness of the British government and declared
that it would be a "sin" to co-operate with the "satanic" government.

3
Ibid, p. 360

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Indian Muslims who had participated in the Khilafat movement to restore the status of the Caliph
gave their support to the non-cooperation movement. In response to the Jallianwala Bagh
Massacre and other violence in Punjab, the movement sought to secure Swaraj, independence
for India. Gandhi promised Swaraj in one year if his Non-Cooperation programme was fully
implemented. The other reason to start the non-cooperation movement was that Gandhi lost faith
in constitutional methods. The success of the revolt was a total shock to British authorities and a
massive encouragement to millions of Indian nationalists. Unity in the country was strengthened
and many Indian schools and colleges were made. Indian goods were encouraged .

On 5 February 1922 a clash took place at Chauri Chaura, a small town in the district of
Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. A police officer had attacked some volunteers picketing a liquor shop.
A whole crowd of peasants that had gathered there went to the police chowki . The mob set fire
to the police chowki with some 22 police men inside it.

Mahatma Gandhi felt that the revolt was veering off-course, and was disappointed that the revolt
had lost its non-violent nature. He did not want the movement to degenerate into a contest of
violence, with police and angry mobs attacking each other back and forth, victimizing civilians
in between. Gandhi appealed to the Indian public for all resistance to end, went on a fast lasting 3
weeks, and called off the non-cooperation movement. Gandhi also said that as people’s
enthusiasm was falling and their efforts not bearing fruitful results, it became necessary to call
off movement and redesign the strategies and then again come back with another movement with
better strategy.

S-T-S (Struggle-Truce-Struggle) or pressure-compromise-pressure

Bipan Chandra analysed this as tactics of “pressure-compromise-pressure” in national

movements pursued by leadership. It means that after launching a movement to create pressure,
when leadership sees it is not yielding results and people are losing enthusiasm, then they resort
to call back movement and analyse that what are the points they require to sort out and then they
launch the movement again with better strategy and greater force.

Civil Disobedience movement

It was one of the most organized Gandhian movement. The prevalent political and social
circumstances played a vital role in the launching of the Civil Disobedience Movement. The

15
Simon Commission was formed by the British Government that included solely the members of
the British Parliament, in November 1927, to draft and formalize a constitution for India. The
chairmanship of the commission rested with Sir John Simon, who was a well known lawyer and
an English statesman. Accused of being an 'All-White Commission', the Simon Commission was
rejected by all political and social segments of the country.

In 1929 Congress changed its goal for attainment of poorna swaraj. 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. Followed by an entourage of seventy nine ashramites, Gandhi embarked on his
march from his Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi that is located on the shores of the Arabian Sea. On
6th April 1930, Gandhi with the accompaniment of seventy nine satyagrahis, violated the Salt
Law by picking up a fistful of salt lying on the sea shore. They manually made salt on the shores
of Dandi. 
Dandi Salt March had an immense impact on the entire nation. 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 entire nation amalgamated under the call of a single man,
Mahatma Gandhi. There were reports of satyagrahas and instances of law violation from
Bombay, Central and United Provinces, Bengal and Gujarat. 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, 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. Those from orthodox families did not hesitate to respond to the call of the Mahatma.
They took active part in the picketing exercises. Perturbed by the growing popularity of the
movement, the British government imprisoned Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, in a bid
to thwart it. Thus, the second struggle for attaining Swaraj launched by the Congress, under the
able guidance of Mahatma, served the critical function of mobilizing the masses on a large scale
against the British.

In the March of 1930, Gandhi met with the Viceroy, Lord Irwin and signed an agreement known
as the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. The two main clauses of the pact entailed; Congress participation in
the Round Table Conference and cessation of The Civil Disobedience Movement. The
16
Government of India released all satyagrahis from prison. Gandhi attended The Second Round
Table Conference in London. However government did not fulfill its promise and Gandhi after
coming to India again launched the movement. However this time people did not show much
support and Gandhi had to withdraw the movement.

Freedom and Partition

Quit India Movement
The Quit India Movement, or the August Movement, was a movement launched at the
Bombay session of the All-India Congress Committee by Gandhiji on 8 August 1942,
during World War II, demanding an end to British Rule of India.

The Cripps Mission had failed, and on 8 August 1942, Gandhi made a call to Do or Die in
his Quit India speech delivered in Bombay at the Gowalia Tank Maidan. The All-India Congress
Committee launched a mass protest demanding what Gandhi called "An Orderly British
Withdrawal" from India. Even though it was wartime, the British were prepared to act. Almost
the entire leadership of the Indian National Congress was imprisoned without trial within hours
of Gandhi's speech. Most spent the rest of the war in prison and out of contact with the masses.
The British had the support of the Viceroy's Council (which had a majority of Indians), of the All
India Muslim League, the princely states, the Indian Imperial Police, the British Indian
Army and the Indian Civil Service. Many Indian businessmen profiting from heavy wartime
spending did not support the Quit India Movement. Many students paid more attention to Subhas
Chandra Bose, who was in exile and supporting the Axis Powers. The only outside support came
from the Americans, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressured Prime Minister Winston
Churchill to give in to some of the Indian demands. The Quit India campaign was effectively
crushed. The British refused to grant immediate independence, saying it could happen only after
the war had ended.

Sporadic small-scale violence took place around the country and the British arrested tens of
thousands of leaders, keeping them imprisoned until 1945. In terms of immediate objectives,
Quit India failed because of heavy-handed suppression, weak co-ordination and the lack of a
clear-cut programme of action. However, the British government realized that India was

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ungovernable in the long run due to the cost of World War II, and the question for postwar
became how to exit gracefully and peacefully.

Thus government had to grant India independence. However they also agreed to Jinnah’s
demands for a separate Pakistan. Gandhi tried to stop partition and he even asked INC to allow
Jinnah to become president but INC leaders did not accept this. Partition had become inevitable
and unfortunately the country has to pay the price of its independence as partition.

Conclusion
The contribution of Gandhi and Indian National Congress in India’s freedom struggle was
immense. Indian National Congress was originally formed to represent the demands of
intellectual Indians. They have minimal support of masses and it represented only miniscule
amount of elite people. Even when extremists came to INC there base was limited. But when
Gandhi came to India he make INC realise the need for support of masses and brought changes
in INC’s structure so that masses could connect to the Indian National Congress. Without the
support of masses, INC could not have led the national movement.

Also there were two groups in INC which promoted different methods but both had its fault. The
moderate methods were not able to create significant pressure on government while the methods
of extremists’ were so radical the government could easily take the plea of violence to clamp
down the movement. Gandhi showed the middle way that it was necessary to break laws to
create pressure on government but it was equally necessary that protests should take place in a
non violent way so as government could not take plea to use brutal force to suppress the
movement. Hence his methods proved to be most effective. Also Gandhi had his previous
successful experiences of South Africa. This gave Gandhi belief that the independence struggle
without the use of violence could be successful. Thus Gandhi’s leadership provided right
direction to the movements and INC at the right time which helped India to attain its
independence from British rule.

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Bibliography

1. India’s Struggle for Independence, Bipan Chandra

2. The Discovery of India, Jawaharlal Nehru

3. Modern Indian History, V.D. Mahajan

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