History · Ch 11 — Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement — Civil Disobedience and Beyond
From newspapers
From newspapers
Newspapers are a vital source for understanding the nationalist movement, but they must be read with care. They tracked every move Mahatma Gandhi made and reported on his activities, but they also reflected what ordinary Indians thought of him. This makes them a window into both the events and the public mood of the time.
However, no newspaper account is completely neutral. Every paper was published by people with their own political opinions and world views. These beliefs shaped what was printed and how events were described. A report in a London newspaper would be very different from one in an Indian nationalist paper. You cannot take every statement literally as a perfect record of what was happening on the ground.
Often, these reports reveal more about the fears and anxieties of the people writing them than about the events themselves. Colonial officials, for instance, were deeply worried because they could not control the movement and were anxious about its spread. They did not know whether to arrest Mahatma Gandhi, and they feared what an arrest might trigger. The more the colonial state watched the public and its activities, the more it worried about the very basis of its own rule.
The Fortnightly Reports mentioned in the textbook are extracts from confidential reports of the colonial Home Department. Even these official reports did not always accept what the police reported from different localities — showing that the colonial state itself was not a single, unified voice.
The textbook then poses four questions to help you think critically about these sources:
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How does the nature of the source affect what is being said? The source is a confidential government report, written by officials who were anxious and uncertain. Their fear of the movement's spread and their confusion about whether to arrest Gandhi directly shaped the tone and content of their reports. They were not neutral observers; they were worried participants in the conflict.
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Why was the Home Department continuously reporting on what people thought about the possibility of Gandhi's arrest? The colonial state was terrified of the consequences. If they arrested him, would it spark a massive uprising? If they did not, would they look weak? They were trying to gauge public reaction to decide their next move. (The textbook asks you to reread Gandhi's speech on 5 April 1930 at Dandi for his own view on arrests.)
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Why was Mahatma Gandhi not arrested immediately? The reports themselves give the answer: the officials were uncertain and afraid. They did not know what an arrest would mean for the stability of their rule. …
The print is a visual metaphor for the nationalist movement itself. At the centre, towering over everything else, is Mahatma Gandhi. He is drawn as the trunk and the main branches of a great tree — the “tree of nationalism”. His figure is the largest element in the composition, immediately drawing the eye. This placement is deliberate: it tells the viewer that Gandhi is the source and sustainer of the national movement, the living trunk from which all other efforts grow.
Around him, arranged on the branches or at the base of the tree, are small portraits of other leaders and sages. These figures are much smaller in scale, making it clear that they are part of the movement but subordinate to Gandhi’s central role. The print does not name or label these individuals in the description, so we cannot identify them from the caption alone — but the contrast in size is the key point. It shows how popular art elevated Gandhi to a near-mythic status, placing him above other historical and contemporary figures.
The entire image is a “popular print” — a cheap, mass-produced picture meant for sale on streets and in bazaars. Such prints were a powerful medium of political communication in an era when literacy was limited. By showing Gandhi as a tree, the artist draws on a very old Indian symbol: the tree as a source of life, shelter, and continuity. The tree of nationalism thus suggests that the movement is organic, rooted in the soil of India, and that Gandhi is its life-giving centre. …
Timeline — Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1915 | Mahatma Gandhi returns from South Africa |
| 1917 | Champaran movement |
| 1918 | Peasant movements in Kheda (Gujarat), and workers’ movement in Ahmedabad |
| 1919 | Rowlatt Satyagraha (March–April) |
| 1919 | Jallianwala Bagh massacre (April) |
| 1921 | Non-cooperation and Khilafat Movements |
| 1928 | Peasant movement in Bardoli |
| 1929 | “Purna Swaraj” accepted as Congress goal at the Lahore Congress (December) |
| 1930 | Civil Disobedience Movement begins; Dandi March (March–April) |
| 1931 | Gandhi-Irwin Pact (March); Second Round Table Conference (December) |
| 1935 | Government of India Act promises some form of representative government |
| 1939 | Congress ministries resign |