The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide range of areas like political organizations, philosophies and movements which had the common aim to ending the company rule (East India Company), and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia. The independence movement saw various national and regional campaigns, agitations and efforts, some nonviolent and others not so. Movements led by Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi or Bapu (Father of Nation), was the preeminent leader of Indian nationalismin British-ruled India.
Employing non-violent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for non-violence, civil rights and freedom across the world. Khilafat movement In 1919 Gandhi, with his weak position in Congress, decided to broaden his base by increasing his appeal to Muslims. The opportunity came from the Khilafat movement, a worldwide protest by Muslims against the collapsing status of the Caliph, the leader of their religion. The Ottoman Empire had lost the World War and was dismembered, as Muslims feared for the safety of the holy places and the prestige of their religion.
Although Gandhi did not originate the All-India Muslim Conference, which directed the movement in India, he soon became its most prominent spokesman and attracted a strong base of Muslim support with local chapters in all Muslim centres in India. His success made him India’s first national leader with a multicultural base and facilitated his rise to power within Congress, which had previously been unable to reach many Muslims. In 1920 Gandhi became a major leader in Congress.
The Essay on Gandhi as a Leader
Gandhi is one of the most prominent political leaders of 20th century. According to experts he single handedly motivated the people of brutalized and oppressed country to fight a non-violent battle against the mightiest empire of the world at that time. His leadership style is talked discussed across schools, universities, management institutes, political circles and corporate organizations across ...
By the end of 1922 the Khilafat movement had collapsed. Noncooperation movement Noncooperation movement, (September 1920–February 1922), was a national movement organized by Mohandas Gandhi, to induce the British government of India to grant self-government, or swaraj, to India. It arose from the outcry over the massacre at Amritsar in April 1919, when the British killed several hundred Indians, and from later indignation at the government’s alleged failure to take adequate action against those responsible.
Gandhi strengthened the movement by supporting (on nonviolent terms) the contemporaneous Muslim campaign against the dismemberment of Turkey after World War I. The movement was to be nonviolent and to consist of the resignations of titles; the boycott of government educational institutions, the courts, government service, foreign goods, and elections; and the eventual refusal to pay taxes. Noncooperation was agreed to by the Indian National Congress at Calcutta (now Kolkata) in September 1920 and launched that December.
In 1921 the government, confronted with a united Indian front for the first time and was visibly shaken, but a revolt by the Muslim Moplahs of Kerala (southwestern India) in August 1921 and a number of violent outbreaks alarmed moderate opinion. After an angry mob murdered police officers at Chauri Chaura (February 1922), Gandhi himself called off the movement; the next month he was arrested without incident. The movement marks the transition of Indian nationalism from a middle-class to a mass basis. Civil Disobedience Movement-Salt Satyagraha (Salt March)
Formed under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, the Civil Disobedience Movement set a milestone in the history of India’s freedom struggle. The Civil Disobedience Movement was formed in the year 1930 and is one of the most important phases in the Indian National Movement. The main ideology behind the Civil Disobedience Movement was to defy the laws made by the British. 12th March 1930 is remembered as one of the important days in Indian history as the Civil Disobedience Movement was launched on that day. Gandhi launched a new Satyagraha against the tax on salt in March 1930.
The Term Paper on Indian Caste System India Castes British
Caste is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as one of the hereditary social classes in Hinduism, which is also a division in society based on wealth, inherited rank, or occupation, and allows little mobility out of the position to which a person is born. The word caste was first used by 16 th century Portuguese traders; it is taken from the Portuguese word casta. Varna, the word for caste, ...
This was highlighted by the famous Salt March to Dandi from 12 March to 6 April, where he marched 388 kilometres (241 mi) from Ahmedabad to Dandi, Gujarat to make salt himself. Thousands of Indians joined him on this march to the sea. This campaign was one of his most successful at upsetting British hold on India; Britain responded by imprisoning over 60,000 people. Quit India Movement At the outbreak of war in 1939 between Britain and Germany, India was also declared to be at war with Germany as it constituted part of the British empire.
The Congress took the view that while it opposed fascism, it could render no support to the British either: there was little to choose between the totalitarianism of the Nazis and the colonialism of the British. It was not with the consent of the Indian people that India was dragged into the war, nor was this India’s war; moreover, the Congress expected, but could not procure, an unconditional offer of British withdrawal from India as a condition of its support. Consequently, neutrality was the official policy of the Congress.
In an effort to bring the British to the negotiating table, Gandhi launched his ‘Quit India’ movement in August 1942, and issued from a large meeting ground in Bombay the famous call to ‘do or die’: Indians were to wage one last struggle to achieve independence, or die in that attempt. Elaborate plans were made to offer non-violent resistance; however, almost the entire Congress leadership, and not merely at the national level, was put into confinement less than twenty-four hours after Gandhi’s speech, and the greater number of the Congress leaders were to spend the rest of the war in jail.
