History · Ch 11 — Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement — Civil Disobedience and Beyond
Dialogues
Dialogues
The Salt March was not merely a protest against the salt tax; it was a turning point that reshaped the nationalist movement in three fundamental ways.
First, it brought Mahatma Gandhi to world attention. European and American newspapers covered the march extensively, making it the first time the global press focused on Gandhi’s leadership. Second, it marked the first nationalist activity in which women participated in large numbers. The socialist activist Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay persuaded Gandhiji not to restrict the protests to men alone. She herself was among the many women who courted arrest by breaking the salt or liquor laws. Third, and most significant, the Salt March forced the British to realise that their Raj would not last forever and that they would have to devolve some power to Indians.
To this end, the British government convened a series of “Round Table Conferences” in London. The first meeting was held in November 1930, but without the pre-eminent political leader in India — Gandhi was still in jail — the conference was an exercise in futility.
Gandhiji was released in January 1931 and held several long meetings with the Viceroy, Lord Irwin. These talks culminated in the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, under which civil disobedience would be called off, all prisoners released, and salt manufacture allowed along the coast. The pact was criticised by radical nationalists because Gandhiji could not obtain a commitment to political independence — only an assurance of talks towards that possible end.
A second Round Table Conference was held in London in the latter part of 1931. Here, Gandhiji represented the Congress. However, his claim that the Congress represented all of India came under challenge from three parties:
- The Muslim League, which claimed to stand for the interests of the Muslim minority.
- The Princes, who argued that the Congress had no stake in their territories.
- B.R. Ambedkar, who argued that Gandhiji and the Congress did not really represent the lowest castes.
The conference was inconclusive. Gandhiji returned to India and resumed civil disobedience. The new Viceroy, Lord Willingdon, was deeply unsympathetic. In a private letter to his sister, Willingdon wrote: “It’s a beautiful world if it wasn’t for Gandhi … At the bottom of every move he makes which he always says is inspired by God, one discovers the political manoeuvre. I see the American Press is saying what a wonderful man he is … But the fact is that we live in the midst of very unpractical, mystical, and superstitious folk who look upon Gandhi as something holy.”
In 1935, a new Government of India Act promised some form of representative government. Two years later, in an election held on the basis of a restricted franchise, the Congress won a comprehensive victory. Eight out of eleven provinces now had a Congress “Prime Minister”, working under the supervision of a British Governor.
In September 1939, two years after the Congress ministries assumed office, the Second World War broke out. Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru had both been strongly critical of Hitler and the Nazis. They promised Congress support to the war effort if the British, in return, promised to grant India independence once hostilities ended. The offer was refused. In protest, the Congress ministries resigned in October 1939.
Through 1940 and 1941, the Congress organised a series of individual satyagrahas to pressure the rulers to promise freedom after the war. Meanwhile, in March 1940, the Muslim League passed a resolution demanding a measure of autonomy for the Muslim-majority areas of the subcontinent. The political landscape was now a three-way struggle between the Congress, the Muslim League, and the British.
At this time, Britain had an all-party government. Its Labour members were sympathetic to Indian aspirations, but the Conservative Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was a diehard imperialist who insisted he had not been appointed the King’s First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.
In the spring of 1942, Churchill was persuaded to send Sir Stafford Cripps to India to try to forge a compromise with Gandhiji and the Congress. Talks broke down after the Congress insisted that if it was to help the British defend India from the Axis powers, the Viceroy must first appoint an Indian as the Defence Member of his Executive Council.
The debate over separate electorates …
Source 5 — The problem with separate electorates. At the Round Table Conference Mahatma Gandhi stated his arguments against separate electorates for the Depressed Classes:
Separate electorates to the “Untouchables” will ensure them bondage in perpetuity … Do you want the “Untouchables” to remain “Untouchables” for ever? Well, the separate electorates would perpetuate the stigma. What is needed is destruction of “Untouchability”, and when you have done it, the bar-sinister, which has been imposed by an insolent “superior” class upon an “inferior” class will be destroyed. When you have destroyed the bar-sinister to whom will you give the separate electorates? …
Source 6 — Ambedkar on separate electorates. In response to Mahatma Gandhi’s opposition to the demand for separate electorates for the Depressed Classes, Ambedkar wrote:
Here is a class which is undoubtedly not in a position to sustain itself in the struggle for existence. The religion, to which they are tied, instead of providing them an honourable place, brands them as lepers, not fit for ordinary intercourse. Economically, it is a class entirely dependent upon the high-caste Hindus for earning its daily bread with no independent way of living open to it. Nor are all ways closed by reason of the social prejudices of the Hindus but there is a definite attempt all through our Hindu Society to bolt every possible door so as not to allow the Depressed Classes any opportunity to rise in the scale of life.
In these circumstances, it would be granted by all fair-minded persons that as the only path for a community so handicapped to succeed in the struggle for life against organised tyranny, some share of political power in order that it may protect itself is a paramount necessity …
— From Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, “What Congress and Gandhi have done to the Untouchables”, Writings and Speeches, Vol. 9, p. 312 …
The photograph shows a formal group seated around a large, rectangular table in a wood-panelled room in London. Mahatma Gandhi is visible at the table, dressed in his usual simple dhoti and shawl, a clear contrast to the Western suits worn by the other delegates. The image captures the tense atmosphere of the Second Round Table Conference, held in November 1931.
Gandhi attended this conference as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. The photograph is significant because it visually documents the moment when Gandhi's claim to speak for all of India was being directly challenged. Three distinct groups opposed his authority at this table: the Muslim League, which claimed to represent Muslims; the princes of the princely states, who argued the Congress had no jurisdiction over their territories; and B.R. Ambedkar, who insisted that the Congress did not represent the Depressed Classes (the "lower castes" or "untouchables").
The core conflict shown in the photograph is the debate over separate electorates. Gandhi argued that separate electorates for the Depressed Classes would permanently segregate them from caste Hindus and perpetuate the stigma of untouchability. He believed the real need was the destruction of untouchability itself, not the creation of separate political spaces. Ambedkar, by contrast, argued that without separate electorates, the Depressed Classes would remain powerless against organised tyranny, unable to protect themselves economically or socially. The conference ended inconclusively, and Gandhi returned to India to resume civil disobedience. …
The photograph shows Mahatma Gandhi and Rajendra Prasad walking together, presumably towards the Viceroy's House in New Delhi. Both men are dressed in simple white khadi — Gandhi in his characteristic dhoti and shawl, Prasad in a kurta and dhoti. The image captures a moment of quiet determination: two senior Congress leaders on their way to negotiate with the British Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, on 13 October 1939.
The meeting took place just weeks after the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939. The Congress had made a conditional offer of support to the British war effort — if Britain would promise India independence after the war ended. This photograph freezes the moment before those talks began. The negotiations ultimately failed: the British refused to make any firm commitment on independence, and in protest, all Congress ministries in the provinces resigned in October 1939.
The figure is placed in the textbook just after a discussion of the 1937 elections and the formation of Congress ministries, and just before the account of the individual satyagrahas of 1940–41. It marks a turning point — the moment when the Congress's strategy of cooperation with the British during wartime collapsed, pushing the nationalist movement toward a more confrontational phase. …
The photograph shows Mahatma Gandhi and Sir Stafford Cripps together in March 1942. The image captures a moment during the high-stakes negotiations that took place that spring, when the British government sent Cripps to India to try to secure Indian cooperation for the war effort against the Axis powers.
The context is critical. By 1942, the Second World War was raging, and Japan was advancing rapidly through Southeast Asia. Britain needed India’s full support — both military and political — to defend the subcontinent. Winston Churchill, a staunch imperialist, was reluctant to make any real concessions, but pressure from within his own coalition government (especially from Labour members sympathetic to Indian aspirations) forced him to send Cripps, a left-leaning minister, to negotiate.
The Cripps Mission proposed that after the war, India would be granted dominion status (like Canada or Australia), with the right to secede from the British Empire. In return, the Congress was asked to support the war effort immediately. However, the talks broke down over a single, decisive issue: the Congress demanded that an Indian be appointed as the Defence Member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council — in other words, real control over India’s defence during the war. The British refused, and Gandhi and the Congress rejected the offer. …