CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

MOVEMENT
Earth Day Presentation
Organization Name

MADE BY:- MANSI AND PRIYANSHU

WHAT IS CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE ?
 Civil disobedience is the active,
professed refusal to obey certain
laws, demands, or commands of a
government, or of an occupying
international power.
 Civil disobedience is sometimes,
though not always, defined as
being nonviolent resistance.
HOW DID IT START?
 On 31st January 1930, Mahatma Gandhi sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin
stating 11 wide-ranging demands that involved all classes of the Indian
society. The most stirring of all was the demand to abolish the Salt Tax.
 Salt was something consumed by rich and poor alike and the Salt Tax
and the Government monopoly on salt production revealed the most
oppressive face of British rule.
 Gandhi said that if his demands were not fulfilled by 11th March, he
would launch a Civil Disobedience Campaign.
 Irwin was unwilling to negotiate and so Gandhiji started his famous
Dandi March with 78 volunteers and walked 240 miles from Sabarmati
to Dandi in 24 days.
 On 6th April, he reached Dandi and ceremonially violated the law,
manufacturing salt by boiling sea water. This marked the beginning of
the Civil Disobedience Movement.
HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM NON –
COOPERATION MOVEMENT?
People were now asked not only to refuse
cooperation, as they had done during the
Non-Cooperation Movement in 1921-22, but
also break colonial laws.
Thousands of people in different parts of
the country broke the Salt Law and
demonstrated in front of government salt
factories.
EFFECTS:
As the Movement spread, foreign cloth was
boycotted, and liquor shops were picketed.
 Peasants refused to pay revenue and
chaukidari taxes and village officials
resigned.
 In many places, people violated forest laws
by going into Reserved Forests to collect
wood and graze cattle.
BRITISH RESPONSE:
 Worried by the Movement, the colonial
government began arresting Congress
leaders one by one, leading to violent
clashes at many places.
 When Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a devout
disciple of Mahatma Gandhi was arrested in
April 1930, angry crowds demonstrated in
the streets of Peshawar, facing armoured
cars and police firing. Many were killed.
INDIANS RETALIATE:
 When Mahatma Gandhi himself was
arrested, industrial workers in Sholapur
attacked police posts, municipal buildings,
law courts and railway stations – all
structures that symbolized the British rule.
 A frightened government responded with
brutal repression, Peaceful Satyagrahis were
attacked, women and children were beaten
up and about 1,00,000 people were arrested.
GANDHI IRWIN:
o In such a situation, Gandhiji decided to call off the
Movement and entered into a pact with Irwin on
5th March 1931.
o He agreed to participate in the Second Round
Table Conference in London and the Government
agreed to release the political prisoners.
o Gandhiji went to London for the Conference, but
the negotiations broke down and he returned
disappointed.
RENEWAL OF THE MOVEMENT
When he came back to India, Gandhiji
discovered that Jawaharlal Nehru and Ghaffar
Khan were both in jail.
The Congress had been declared illegal, and a
series of measures had been imposed to prevent
meetings, demonstrations and boycotts.
Gandhiji relaunched the Civil Disobedience
Movement. For over a year, the movement
continued, but by 1934, it lost its momentum
HOW PARTICIPANTS SAW THE
MOVEMENT?
1. In the Countryside
 Many activists were the rich peasant communities
like the Patidars of Gujarat and Jats of UP
 They were mostly producers of commercial crops,
badly affected by trade depression and falling prices
Hence , they could not pay the revenue demands of
the government.
 Government refused to reduce the revenue tax
 Resulted in peasants joining National Movement.
2. The Poor
o The Depression made them unable to pay the rents to landlords. Their own income
dwindle swiftly
o They wanted Congress to help them in getting the unpaid rent remitted.

3. The Business Classes

o Indian industrialists and merchants had made huge profits during the First World War .
o They now reacted against colonial policies that restricted their trade .
o They wanted to protection against import of foreign goods.
o A rupee sterling exchange ratio that would discourage imports
4. Industrial Working Class
o Did not participate in Civil Disobedience Mov. ,except Nagpur.
o They adopted Gandhian Ideas- boycott of foreign goods as part of their own movement
against low wages and poor working conditions,
There were strikes
 Railway workers (1930)
 Dockworkers (1932)

o Thousands of workers in Nagpur took part in letters and boycott campaigns, but the
Congress was reluctant to include workers demands in their struggle as it alienate the
industrialists
 THE LIMITS OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
The 1930 campaign saw one social group who did not
actively participate in it .
They were the “Untouchables” now called “Dalits” or
the oppressed.
Mahatma Gandhi called them Harijans and declared
that India would not achieve ‘Swaraj’ for hundreds of
years ,if untouchability was not completely eliminated
He organised Satyagraha to secure them entry to the
temples, and access to public wells , tanks, roads and
schools
DALITS:
 They demanded reservation of seats , in educational institutions ,
separate electorate to choose their own candidate to the
Legislative Council.They wanted to solve their social problems.
 Dr.B.R.Ambedkar , the leader of Dalits, formed an association in
1930, called the “Depressed Class Association”. He clashed with
Gandhiji at Second Round Table Conference by demanding
separate electorates for Dalits which was later accepted by British
Council.
 Gandhiji began a fast unto death.He believed that the Dalits
would never be integrated into society,if they got separate
electorates Dr Ambedkar finally signed a pact with him on
September 1932 called Poona Act .
DALITS