02 November 2022

MAINS QUESTIONS

Q1. Analyse the Struggle – Truce – Struggle Strategy that was propagated by Mahatma Gandhi.

 Paper & Topic: GS I – National Movement

Introduction:

• Gandhiji’s arrival in India from South Africa in January 1915 marked the beginning of a pivotal period for the Nationalist Movement that lasted from 1917 to 1947. “Gandhi Era” is another name for this period. Mahatma Gandhi now took complete charge of the National Movement. His nonviolent teachings and satyagraha were employed to topple the British government. Gandhi significantly increased public support for the nationalist struggle.

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Struggle-Truce-Struggle Strategy includes:

• He opposed the law in a peaceful manner as part of his nonviolent satyagraha.
• His tactics included large-scale protest marches, sporadic hartals, and actively seeking arrests.
• He was prepared to compromise and strike a deal.
• It’s common to refer to his confrontation with outside influence as a “struggle-truce-conflict.”
• The British’s STS tactic cost the people, but it provided them time to band together and fight back.
• All groups were encouraged to participate in Gandhi’s nationalism, including women.

Deficiencies in the Movement:

• Gandhiji has a history of starting important movements and stopping them just as they are starting to acquire traction.
• Gandhiji’s retractions of the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920–22), the Quit India Movement (1940–42), and the Civil Disobedience Movement (1930–33) are only related in that they were all made in defiance of the general public and other well-liked Congress leaders.
• When the Lahore Congress demanded the Purna Swaraj agenda, Nehru criticised the STS strategy, claiming that the Indian National Movement had reached a point when continual struggle and conflict with imperialism were necessary until it was eradicated.
• He advocated that the Congress adhere to its “continuous direct action” strategy without a constitutionalist phase.
• He believes that only two or four annas have the potential to become powerful. The conflict-and-victory strategy was promoted by Nehru.

Gandhi’s “struggle-peace-struggle” strategy’s effects:

• A period of breathing room is necessary to consolidate, recover, and gather strength for the next round of struggle, according to Gandhi’s Struggle-Truce-Struggle (STS) strategy. Mass movements naturally tend to wane once they reach a certain height, the ability of the masses to put up with oppression, suffer, and make sacrifices is limited, and a period of breathing room is necessary.
• While in South Africa, Gandhiji saw that individuals had a constrained ability to support a cause.
• Gandhiji and other prominent Congressmen believed that after the mass phase of the movement, there should be a period of calm (truce phase) before starting the next phase of the mass war (struggle phase).
• The cease-fire was intended to offer the populace some breathing room while giving the administration time to respond to nationalists’ demands. They ran out of room to make additional sacrifices.
• The movement could resurface with widespread support if the government does not act favourably.
• The fundamental strategic goal of the national movement was to wage a protracted struggle for hegemony, or a conflict of views in Gramscian terms.
• The growth of the nationalist influence through a variety of ways and through the different stages and eras of the national movement requires hegemonic combat, or the battle for men’s and women’s minds and souls.
• There were times when the movement adhered to the letter of the law and times when it participated in extralegal or unlawful mass movements. However, both phases made an effort to win over the population to the nation’s cause.
• One goal of nationalist strategy was to gradually reduce the colonial rulers’ intellectual hegemony or influence in all spheres of society.
• The STS strategy, a radical kind of political activity that transformed Indian politics, inspired millions of Indians to fight against the British Raj.
• Gandhiji’s efforts in this area resulted in Acts being passed and agreements being reached amongst the parties, proving the Satyagraha’s success. A few examples of this include the Champaran Satyagraha, the Ahmedabad Workers Strike, and the Kheda Satyagraha.
• It assisted Martin Luther King Jr. in his fight against racism.
• To end apartheid in South Africa, Nelson Mandela employed the Satyagraha tactic.
• Today, protests are held in India and other countries to uphold the Satyagraha movement’s heritage.

Conclusion:

• The Gandhian movement made extensive use of the STS (Struggle-Truce-Struggle) and PCP (Pressure-Compromise-Pressure) tactics. Due to the pressure the Gandhian movement alone exerted to get the British to leave India in 1947, it was incredibly successful.

 Q2. Having gained notoriety via his leadership of the Indian labourers’ and peasants’ uprisings in Champaran, Ahmedabad, and Kheda, Gandhi was now well prepared to lead the Indian National Movement. Comment. (250 words)

 Paper & Topic: GS I – National Movement

Introduction:

• Cooperation, honesty, selflessness, and sacrifice are the cornerstones of the Gandhian philosophy. Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer who contributed to the independence fight in his country and ingrained his personal values in the new governing elite that emerged after the British left.

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Gandhi’s trip to South Africa in:

• In 1894, he organised nonviolent demonstrations against the treatment of the African and Indian communities.
• In order to find additional Indians to serve in South Africa, he took a brief trip to India in 1896. However, a furious mob attacked Gandhi when the 800 Indians arrived.
• He established the Indian Ambulance Corps for the British at the start of the Boer War in 1899. Indians were nevertheless tormented and exposed to racial discrimination in order for the British to learn compassion.
• Gandhi established Phoenix Farm, a centre for nonviolent Satyagraha or nonviolent protest, not far from Durban. According to legend, this is where the Satyagraha began.
• Additionally, he established the Tolstoy Farm, which is credited with making Satyagraha into a form of protest.
• In order to oppose the Transvaal Asiatic Ordinance, which was implemented in order to oppress the community of local Indians, Mahatma Gandhi launched his first nonviolent Satyagraha action in September of 1906. Later, in June 1907, he organised a Satyagraha to oppose the Black Act.
• He received a prison sentence in 1908 for beginning the nonviolent campaign, but was subsequently released following discussions with British Commonwealth commander General Smuts.
• At 1909, he received a three-month prison term in Volkshurst and Pretoria. After being released free, he proceeded to London to ask the Indian community for help, but his efforts were unsuccessful.
• He attempted to block the legalisation of non-Christian unions in 1913.
• In the Transvaal, he led a new Satyagraha movement to protest the mistreatment of Indian children. Over 2,000 Indians were led by him across the Transvaal border.

India’s Mahatma Gandhi:

• After living in South Africa for 20 years, he earned a great deal of respect in India for his work as a nationalist, theorist, and organiser.
• Gopal Krishna Gokhale, a prominent member of the Indian National Congress, persuaded him to join the Indian National Movement in order to fight against the oppressive British Rule. Andrews, F.
• Gokhale gave Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi a thorough rundown of the political and social problems that India was dealing with at the time of Mahatma Gandhi’s eventual arrival.

Gandhi Started the Indian Movement:

 Satyagraha champaran (1917):

• Under the Tinkathiya government, the situation of indigo farmers in Bihar’s Champaran district significantly deteriorated.
• In order to sell their land for less money, the farmers were compelled to plant indigo on the best third of it.
• Due to the unfavourable weather and the imposition of high levies, the situation for farmers got worse.
• Rajkumar Shukla afterwards visited and greeted Mahatma Gandhi in Lucknow.
• Mahatma Gandhi organised protests and strikes against the landlords in Champaran using a strategy of civil disobedience.
• Gandhiji consequently received a position with the newly established Champaran agrarian commission.
• Because all of the growers’ demands were met, the Satyagraha was successful.

Kheda Satyagraha (1917–1918):

• In 1917, Mohan Lal Pandey launched a campaign against taxes in the Gujarati village of Kheda and asked that taxes be waived in the event of poor agricultural output or crop failure.
• The British authorities insisted that the peasants accurately pay the land tax despite famine and agricultural losses. This led to the Kheda Satyagraha, a peasant uprising. As a result, the Kheda peasants asked that no land taxes be paid.
• Mahatma Gandhi embraced the cause and accepted the invitation on March 22, 1918.
• He began the Satyagraha there. Indulal Yagnik and Vallabhbhai Patel both supported the cause.
• When the British government finally obliged with the demands, the campaign was successful.

Ahmedabad mill workers went on strike (1918):

• Anusuyya Sarabhai of the Ahmedabad Mill Owners’ Association requested Mahatma Gandhi to preside over the Ahmedabad Mill Strike.
• In Ahmedabad, Gandhi first employed Satyagraha and a hunger strike amid a labour dispute between cotton mill owners and employees.
• Even if the workers asked for a 35% wage increase, the owners intended to take away their sickness bonus.
• Gandhi went on a hunger strike to encourage nonviolent resistance.
• The Ahmedabad mill workers’ walkout was successful, and they received the desired salary increase.
• Among Gandhiji’s characteristics in the fight for Indian freedom are:
• The honesty and nonviolence that served as the cornerstone of all of Gandhiji’s important revolutions were also transmitted, along with his own personal values.
• He referred to his unique brand of political protest as “satyagraha,” which in Sanskrit means “truth power” or “the struggle for truth.”
• It is “a power which is born of truth and love or non-violence,” according to Gandhi. It implied that he had found a moral alternative to violence.
• Satyagraha advocated for protesting injustice actively rather than passively.
• The Chauri Chaura massacre put a sudden end to the non-cooperation campaign, demonstrating that the aforementioned principles are being upheld.
• Gandhiji opposed other leaders who wanted the caste system entirely destroyed and was in favour of repairing it by getting rid of the discriminatory practises.
• His first plan was to centre the discussion around a simple, everyday issue.
• Using salt as an example, the Salt Satyagraha.
• He included women, children, and indigenous people in the independence movement while touring the entire nation to assess public opinion.
• Gandhiji’s capacity for leadership
• We can learn a lot from Gandhi about leadership, life, and other topics.
• Before applying his leadership abilities in India, Gandhi honed them in South Africa.
• He had charisma by nature. When it came to “feeling” what his Follower required, he was very adept.
• However, he did create formal procedures and methods throughout time to improve as a leader.
• At every stage of his life, he sought for significant changes, and his relationship with his followers was wholly dependent upon them. He always acted in accordance with a solid set of values.
• His guiding principles in all he did were Envision, Enable, Empower, and Energize. He was a person of action.

Conclusion:

• Gandhi’s methods and entry into a single national movement that was focused on popular resistance brought all of these diverse types of opposition from various platforms together. The Indian national movement gave rise to a movement that is open, egalitarian, and welfare-oriented.