CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT
Civil disobedience
movement is a symbolic ritualistic violation of law rather than rejection of
system as a whole. Man who formulated this concept of civil disobedience was
Mohandas karamchand Gandhi. basically it was from mingling of eastern and
western thought ,gandhi developed philosophy of satyagraha to obtain equal
rights and freedom.
variety of criticism is
there in this movement in which radical critique is not accpting existing
political structure on other hand see it as right of individual to break any
law he chooses at any time.The philosophical roots of civil disobedience lies
in deep western thought of Cicero, Saint Thomas , John Lock all sought to
justify conduct by virtue of its harmony with some superhuman moral law.The
Simon commission was formed by britishers not including any Indian member in
parliament to formalize the constitution for India. Being solely white it was
rejected by all segments of the country.All party conference was there in May
,1928 and Dr. MA Ansari was president of the conference. Motilal Nehru was
given drafting committee responsibilities.The INC pressurized British
government to accept everything written in Nehru report. In December, 1928
british government was warned if they do not release India as a status of
dominion ,Civil disobedience movement will be launched.Lord Irwin after few
months declared that they grant status of dominion than Gandhi requested the
governer general to release the political prisoners and hold Round table
conference.The mass waited for long but no response was there so there was no
option accept launching the movement.In Bardoli peasants already started
satyagraha under Sardar Patel in 1928.
The Launch of the Civil Disobedience Movement
On the historic day of
12th March 1930, Gandhi inaugurated The Civil Disobedience Movement by conducting historic dandi march.
Gandhi came out of his
room, calm and composed, accompanied by Prabhashankar Patani, Mahadev Desai and Pyarelal. He offered prayers, looked at his watch
and exactly at 6.30 A.M. commenced his march with seventy-eight volunteers to
break salt laws formulated by the britishers.
The second halt of dandi
march was at Bareja , with population 2500 where he emphasizes the importance
of Khadi. The salt satyagraha was based
on Gandhi’s principle of non violence ,in 1930’s INC made their main tactic for winning
independence from British rule.Gandhi chose 1882 salt act as their first target
in satyagraha. The beating by british police to hundreds of non violent
protestors in Dharasana included worldwide coverage ,led to rrest of Gandhi in
may first week
Gandhi Irwin Pact
Salt
satyagraha succeeded in drawing attention from the world and time magazine
declared Gandhi man of the year . civil disobedience continued till 1931 when
Gandhi was released from prison to hold talks with Irwin. The two main clauses
which were there ,Congress participating in second round table conference and
cessation of the civil disobedience movement.Government of India released all satyagrahis from the
prison. But after the second round table conference there was a renewal of
civil disobedience movement.
End of the Civil disobedience movement
The movement was suspended when
Gandhi withdrew mass satyagraha on july 14th ,1933 as about one lakh of congress activists were arrested meetings were banned and national literature was prohibited and nationalist press was suppressed..
Although it failed to achieve its
outcome it was really important in Indian history of independence .The
leadership of Gandhi was a beneficial impact. India rediscovered its inherent
strength and confidence to crusade against Britishers for the freedom.
