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History Class Notes
Gandhian Era

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a lawyer who had graduated Principles of Satyagraha are:-
Identify Truth (Relative Truth or Absolute
from London, became an integral part of the Indian National
Truth)
Movement from 1917. His first opposition came against the
st

Fight using Non Violence

British Rule in South Africa where he was thrown out of 1 class

Insist on Truth
compartment of a train as in South Africa only whites were
Change the mind and heart of opponents
allowed to travel in 1st class.
through self-suffering.

Make God a witness of your deeds
He vowed to fight the mighty British Empire with just two
Be Fearless
weapons Truth & Non Violence. Satyagraha was the term

used to define his policies.

Early Movements of Gandhi

The Champaran Movement 1917 (First movement of Gandhi)

Raj Kumar Shukla invited Gandhi to Champaran to represent the peasants who were protesting
against planters (British Government) as they were being forced to cultivate Indigo.
Gandhis comrades in this movement were Rajendra Prasad, Mazhar-ul-Haq, Narahari Parekh,
Mahadev Desai.
Indigo Cultivation was destroying the productivity of the land which was the main reason of the
peasants protest.
Gandhi was arrested but then later released by the magistrate. Government formed an Indigo
commission with Gandhi as a member.
This commission ordered that peasants cannot be forced to cultivate indigo and due compensation
needs to be given to them. Also no force can be used to make them grow Indigo.

Ahmedabad Mill strike 1918
Unlike Champaran, in this case both the workers and employers were Indians.
The workers demanded that bonus given to eradicate plague must be continued whereas
Industrialists stopped the bonus as according to them plague had stopped.
Gandhi advised the workers to go on strike. This was the first strike called by Gandhi in India.
It was changed to hunger strike as the numbers were dwindling. Hunger strike proved to be very
successful as it got a lot of attention.
Industrialist referred the issue to a tribunal which awarded 35% plague bonus to the workers.

Kheda Satyagraha 1918
The peasants in Kheda, Gujarat complained that they could not pay land revenue as there was
drought and hence no crop output.
According to a 20th century British Government law, land revenue should not be collected from a
peasant who has lost more than 50% of the produce.
Statements of the peasants were observed by Gandhi and he asked the peasants not to pay taxes.
The government observed this and passed a circular stating that revenue must be collected only from
those who were in a position to pay.

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Events of 1919

Rowlatt Act
According to this act any Indian could be arrested on the charge of sedation even on suspicious ground and
without any trail could be jailed for upto 2 years.
Police had immense power which could be easily misused as the clause of suspicious grounds was not
specified correctly.
Slogan of the movement was No appeal, no daleel, no wakeel
Mohammad Ali Jinnah resigned from legislative council.
Gandhi formed a Sarvadharma Prarthana Sabha which was a prayer meeting for all religions.
6 April 1919 was the First All India Strike Day

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre 13 April 1919
Jallianwala was a place in Amritsar, Punjab
There was a curfew imposed in Amritsar on 13 April but people from rural area had no knowledge about it.
13 April was celebrated as Baisakhi festival all over Punjab and peasants had come to celebrate at Jallianwala
Bagh.
Incidentally a group of protestors protesting the arrest of two leaders Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr. Satypal
Malik had also come to the same place.
Gen. Dyer entered the place and ordered his men to fire at the crowd killing 379 people (according to
government records). Media and local people said that number of people killed were more than 1000.
Hunter Commission was setup to look into the event.
Rabindranath Tagore returned his knighthood when House of Lords called this act by Gen Dyer as act of
bravery.

Government of India Act
It was based on Montagu Chelmsford Reforms
As the British Government needed Indias help in terms of both resources and manpower for WW-1, they
promised the Indian leaders that more number of members will be included in the Executive council.
Main provisions of the act were:-
o Dyarchy in the province
o Bicameral Legislature at the Centre
o Separate Electorates also given to Sikhs & Anglo Indians
o Legislators were allowed to discuss budget, could ask supplementary questions.
o 3 Lists were drawn Union List, Concurrent List, State List

Khilafat Movement
The word Khilafat means institution or office of Khalifa and the Khalifa or caliph of Turkey was regarded as
the spiritual and political head of Muslim world.
In the world war-I Turkey with Germany lost to the allied power of England, France, and USA etc.
The victory of allied forces imposed a humiliating treaty on Germany and a similar humiliating treaty was
being planned for Turkey.
The demands of the Khilafat Committee which was set up in India by Ali brothers, Maulana Mohammad Ali
Jauhar and Shaukat Ali , were:-
o The Turkish Khalifa must retain control over the Muslim sacred places.
o The Khilafat must be left with sufficient territory to enable him to defend the Islamic faith and
o The Jazirat-Ul Arale (Arabic, Syria, Iraq, and Palestine) must remain under the Muslim Sovereignty.

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NON COOPERATION MOVEMENT

Causes
Government of India Act, 1919
Rowatt Act
Jallianwala Bagh Massacre and the enquiry thereafter
Reasons for which the Khilafat movement was started was a major cause for the Muslim population
Inflation which resulted in India due to post World War 1 Depression
Unemployment due to closure of many industries

Nature
English clothes (the most commonly used article made by British) were boycotted.
Khadi clothes were propagated. Khadi and Charkha became a symbol of protest, national unity and seld
reliance.
English educational institutions were boycotted
Kashi Vidyapeeth, Gujrat Vidyapeeth, Bihar Vidyapeeth were set up
Indian Lawyers like Motilal Nehru, CR Das resigned from the Bar council
Services like milk vendors, barbers to the English colonies were boycotted

Salient Features
It was the first All India mass movement in the History
All sections of the society ranging from peasants to industrialists, works to urban intelligentsia, students to
women took active part
It was the first movement based on Swaraj or independence against the colonial rule
Strong Hindu Muslim unity was witnessed

Withdrawal of the Movement

A mob of peasants and Khilafat agitators burnt 22 policemen alive, after the policemen ordered lathi charge
on them, at Chaura Chauri in Gorakhpur district, Uttar Pradesh on 5 February 1922
Congress was planning to launch a No Tax Movement as the next phase of this movement and a meeting
was planned to be held on 12 February at Bardoli in Gujarat.
Leftist believed that peasants of Uttar Pradesh had been radicalized and had started targeting Indian
Zamindars
Impact of the Withdrawal was a division of Congress into 2 groups, one led by Gandhi who supported
Jawaharlal Nehru and the other by C.R. Das who supported Motilal Nehru

Militant Movement or Revolutionary Terrorist Movement

Causes of the Emergence
Emerged in first decade of 20th century in Bengal(Kolkata) and Maharashtra(Pune)
Revolutionaries were inspired by the Irish Republican Army and Japans victory over Russia in 1904
The British policies and the atrocities were indirect causes of this movement
Unhappiness with both Moderate and Extremist leaders
Anushilan Samiti, Sandhya, Yuganth were the groups formed in Bengal and Mithra Mela, Abhinav Bharat
were formed in Maharashtra

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Methods of Opposing the Government
Based on Individual heroic acts
They targeted Individuals, railways tracks, posts and telegraph offices
They formed secret societies throughout country
They even had women members of whom many were messengers
They organized people on religious lines and tried to inspire the young minds through the stories and deeds
of gods and goddesses
They started H.R.A. (Hindustan Republican Association) in 1924 at Kanpur. It was led by Chandrashekhar
Azad, ramprasad Bismill, Ashfaqualla Khan and others
In 1925 the looted the government train at Kakori for which Ramprasad Bismill and Ashfaqualla Khan were
hanged
H.R.A. was changed into H.S.R.A (Hindustan Socialist Republican Association) at Ferozshah Kotla in 1928
Bhagat Singh involved himself in this movement who was influenced by Marxist ideology and idolized Lenin
They wanted to abolish Zamindari System and used slogans like Inquilab Zindabad and Rang de Basanti

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