The Years After Civil Disobedience Movement 1930-31


On March 29, 1931, the Congress met in Karachi to endorse the Gandhi-Irwin or Delhi Pact. Six days prior, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru had been executed. Despite Gandhiji's best efforts to save their lives, the people, particularly the youth, were enraged that he had not refused to sign the Pact on this issue. Gandhiji was met with black flag demonstrations all along his journey to Karachi. 
 
•    The Congress passed a resolution drafted by Gandhiji that praised the three martyrs' "bravery and sacrifice" while "dissociating itself from and disapproving of political violence in any shape or form." 
 
•    The Congress endorsed the Delhi Pact and reaffirmed Poorna Swaraj's goal. 
 
•    The resolution on Fundamental Rights and the National Economic Program made the Karachi session memorable. Despite the fact that the Congress had fought for the people's economic interests, civil liberties, and political rights since its inception, this was the first time the Congress defined what Swaraj meant to them. 
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•    It also stated that "political freedom must include real economic freedom for the starving millions" in order to end "mass exploitation." 
 
Civil Disobedience Movement

The resolution guaranteed:- 

a.    The fundamental civil rights of free speech, free press, free assembly, and free association
 
b.    Equality before the law regardless of caste, creed, or sex
 
c.    State neutrality in regard to all religions; universal adult franchise in election
 
d.    Free and compulsory primary education. 
 
e.    It promised a significant reduction in rent and revenue, exemption from rent in the case of uneconomic holdings, relief of agricultural indebtedness, and control of usury
 
f.    Better working conditions, including a living wage, limited hours of work, and protection of women workers; the right to organise and form unions for workers and peasants; and state ownership or control of key industries, mines, and agribusiness. 
 
g.    It also stated that "minorities' culture, language, and script, as well as the culture, language, and script of different linguistic areas, shall be protected." 
 
In later years, the Karachi resolution would serve as the Congress's basic political and economic programme.
 
Second round table conference: On August 29, 1931, Gandhiji set sail for London to attend the Second Round Table Conference. 
•    The Imperialist political and financial forces, which ultimately controlled the British Government in London, were opposed to any political or economic concessions to India that could lead to its independence from their control, so the Conference was not expected to yield much. 
 
•    Winston Churchill, the virulent right-wing leader, was outraged that the British government was negotiating on equal terms with the "seditious fakir" and demanded strong government in India. ‘Without India, the British Commonwealth would fall apart,' the Conservative Daily Mail declared. It is our most valuable imperial asset in terms of commerce, economics, politics, and geography. It would be the worst act of treason any Briton could commit to jeopardise our hold on it.'
 
 Willingdon took over as Viceroy of India, replacing Irwin. 
•    After December 1931, Ramsay MacDonald, a Laborite, led a Conservative-dominated Cabinet, with Samuel Hoare, Secretary of State for India. Apart from a few capable individuals, the vast majority of Indian delegates to the Round Table Conference (RTC), who were hand-picked by the government, were loyalists, communalists, careerists, and place-hunters, as well as big landlords and princely representatives. 
 
•    They were used by the government to claim that the Congress did not represent all Indians' interests in relation to imperialism, and to delegitimize Gandhiji and his efforts to confront imperialist rulers on the fundamental issue of freedom.
 
•    The British Government refused to concede the basic Indian demand for freedom. Gandhiji came back at the end of December 1931 to a changed political situation.
 
•    The political impact of the Delhi Pact, which had raised the political prestige of the Congress and the political morale of the people while undermining and lowering British prestige, had taught higher British officials in India their own lessons. 
 
•    They, like the new Viceroy, thought the government had made a major mistake by negotiating and signing a truce with the Congress on an equal footing. They were now dead set on undoing everything. The government's watchwords became no pact, no truce, no Gandhi-Viceroy meetings, and no "quarter for the enemy."
 
Three major considerations dominated British policy at the time: 
1.    Gandhiji must not be allowed to set the tone for a large-scale, long-term mass movement, as he did in 1919, 1920-1, and 1930. 
 
2.    Government officials — village officials, police, and higher bureaucrats — and loyalists — ‘our friends' — should not be discouraged that Gandhiji was being ‘resurrected as a rival authority to the Government of India,' and that the Government was losing its will to rule. ‘We can, in my opinion, do without the goodwill of the Congress, and indeed I do not believe for a moment that we shall ever have it,' said Home Member H.G. Haig, ‘but we cannot afford to do without the confidence of those who have supported us in the long struggle against the Congress.'
 
3.     In particular, the nationalist movement must not be allowed to consolidate in rural areas, as it has done across India, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal, and the NWFP.
 
Government response: While Gandhiji was in London, the Indian government was secretly preparing for a showdown with nationalist forces. It decided to strike back with a "hard and immediate blow" against any revival of the movement, arresting Gandhiji right away. It drafted a set of ordinances that would effectively impose martial law while remaining under civilian control.
 
1.    IN UP: Congress was leading a campaign to reduce rent, remit rent arrears, and prevent eviction of tenants for non-payment of rents. The Congress had launched a no-rent, no-revenue campaign in five districts by the first week of December. The government retaliated by arresting Jawaharlal Nehru on his way to meet Gandhiji in Bombay on December 26. 
 
2.    IN NWFP: Khudai Khidmatgars the nonviolent Khudai Khidmatgars (servants of God), also known as Red Shirts because of the colour of their shirts, and the peasants they led against the government's policy of extracting revenue through cruel methods and torture in the North-Western Frontier Province. Their leader, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, was arrested on December 24, and the army occupied Peshawar district.
 
3.    In Bengal: The government used draconian ordinances to rule and detain thousands of political activists in the name of fighting terrorism. Two political prisoners were killed when police opened fire on them in Hijli jail in September.
 
4.    Civil martial law: On December 28, Gandhiji arrived in Bombay. The following day, the Congress Working Committee met and decided to resume civil disobedience. Gandhiji requested a meeting with the Viceroy on the 31st, offering to postpone the decision on civil disobedience until such a meeting. The Viceroy refused to meet Gandhiji for the first of many times over the next five years.
 
•    On January 4, 1932, the government launched a pre-emptive strike against the national movement by arresting Gandhiji and promulgating ordinances giving the authorities unrestricted power, resulting in the establishment of what historians refer to as "Civil Martial Law." 
 
•    Authorities could seize people and property at will, and civil liberties were no longer in effect. Leading members of Congress from across the country were arrested within a week.
 

Effect of civil martial law:

•    The Indians retaliated by becoming enraged. Despite the fact that the Congress was unprepared for the battle, the public outpouring was massive. 
 
•    Over 80,000 Satyagrahis were imprisoned in the first four months, the majority of whom were urban and rural poor, while lakhs took to the streets to picket shops selling liquor and foreign clothing. Illegal gatherings, nonviolent demonstrations, national day celebrations, and other forms of defiance of the ordinances were commonplace.
 
•    The nonviolent movement was met with a barrage of repressive measures. The Congress and its affiliates were declared illegal, and their offices and assets were seized. 
 
•    The police had taken over nearly all of the Gandhi Ashrams. 
 
•    Peaceful picketers, Satyagrahis, and precisionists were lathi-charged, beaten, and frequently sentenced to lengthy prison terms and hefty fines, which were paid by selling their lands and property at a discount.
 
•    In prison, inmates were treated inhumanely. The use of a whip as a form of punishment became more common. 
 
•    The anti-tax campaigns in various parts of rural India were dealt with harshly. Property such as land, houses, catstle, agricultural implements, and other items were confiscated at will. The police engaged in outright terror and committed a slew of atrocities. 
 
•    Non-taxpaying peasants were stripped naked, publicly whipped, and given electric shocks in Ras, Gujarat. 
 
•    Women were particularly hard hit by the government's wrath. The goal was to scare women away from the Satyagraha by making jail conditions extremely harsh. 
 
•    The press's ability to report on or comment on the movement, as well as print photographs of national leaders or Satyagrahis, was severely restricted. In the first six months of 1932, 109 journalists and 98 printing presses were targeted for prosecution. 
 
•    Nationalist literature, including poems, stories, and novels, was widely banned. The people retaliated.
 
Civil Disobedience Movement

Withdrawal of movement: 

•    However, Gandhiji and other leaders did not have enough time to increase the movement's tempo, and it could not be sustained for long. Within a few months, the movement was effectively crushed. 
 
•    By August 1932, there were only 3,047 Satyagrahis in prison, and by August 1933, there were only 4,500 Satyagrahis in prison. However, the movement persisted until early April 1934, when Gandhiji made the unavoidable decision to call it off. Political activists were dismayed by the movement's new direction.
 
•    Gandhiji's leadership was criticised harshly by Subhas Chandra Bose and Vithalbhai Patel. In a strong statement issued in 1933, Europe declared that "Mr. Gandhi as a political leader has failed" and called for "a radical reorganisation of Congress on new principles and methods, for which a new leader is essential."
 
•    The opponents of Indian nationalism gloated over the nationalists' frustration — and completely misread it. 
 
•    Willingdon declared in early 1933: ‘The Congress is in a definitely less favourable position than in 1930, and has lost its hold on the public.” 
 
•    But Willingdon and his colleagues had completely misunderstood the nature and strategy of the Indian national movement, which was essentially a battle for men's and women's minds. In this light, if Irwin's colonial policy of negotiations had failed earlier, Willingdon's policy of ruthless suppression had also failed. 
 
•    People had been intimidated by superior force, but they still had faith in Congress. Despite the fact that the Indian people were further transformed from 1930 to 1934, the movement did not achieve independence and was temporarily crushed. The desire to fight had grown even stronger, while faith in British rule had been completely destroyed. 
 
In assessing the results of the nationalists' most recent struggle, H.N. Brailsford, a Laborite journalist, wrote that the Indians "had freed their own minds, they had won independence in their hearts." And, as we've seen, the purpose of this pause in the movement was to rest and regroup. 
 
•    The heroes' welcome given to prisoners on their release in 1934 was symbolic of the real outcome, the real impact of civil disobedience. 
 
•    Despite the limited nature of the franchise, the Congress won a majority in six out of eleven provinces in the 1937 elections, demonstrating this to all.

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