gandhi & his movements
GANDHIJI’S EARLY CAREER
When Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi called for a nation- wide Satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act in March 1919, his first attempt at leading an all India struggle, he was already in his fiftieth year. To understand the man who was about to take over the reins of the Indian National Movement and guide its destinies through its most climactic years, it is necessary to begin his story at least twenty five years earlier, in 1893, when as a twenty-four old barrier, he began the struggle of Indians against racial discrimination in South Africa.
The story of Gandhiji in South Africa is a long one and we present it here in its briefest outline only to highlight the wide experience that Gandhiji had undergone before he came back to India. Gandhiji’s political activities from 1894 to 1906 may be classified as the ‘Moderate’ phase of the struggle of the
South African Indians. During this phase, he concentrated on petitioning and sending memorials to the South African legislatures, the Colonial Secretary in London and the presented to the Imperial Government, the British sense of justice and fair play would be aroused and the Imperial
Government would intervene on behalf of Indians who were, after all, British subjects. His attempt was to unite the different sections of Indians, and to give their demands wide publicity. This he tried to do through the setting up of the
Natal Indian Congress and by starting a paper called
Indian Opinion. Gandhiji’s abilities as an organiser, as a fund raiser, as a journalist and as a propagandist, all came to the fore during this period. But, by 1906, Gandhiji, having fully tried the ‘Moderate’ methods of struggle, was becoming convinced that these would not lead anywhere. The second phase of the struggle in South Africa, which began in 1906, was characterized by the use of the method of passive resistance or civil disobedience, which
Gandhiji named
When Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi called for a nation- wide Satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act in March 1919, his first attempt at leading an all India struggle, he was already in his fiftieth year. To understand the man who was about to take over the reins of the Indian National Movement and guide its destinies through its most climactic years, it is necessary to begin his story at least twenty five years earlier, in 1893, when as a twenty-four old barrier, he began the struggle of Indians against racial discrimination in South Africa.
The story of Gandhiji in South Africa is a long one and we present it here in its briefest outline only to highlight the wide experience that Gandhiji had undergone before he came back to India. Gandhiji’s political activities from 1894 to 1906 may be classified as the ‘Moderate’ phase of the struggle of the
South African Indians. During this phase, he concentrated on petitioning and sending memorials to the South African legislatures, the Colonial Secretary in London and the presented to the Imperial Government, the British sense of justice and fair play would be aroused and the Imperial
Government would intervene on behalf of Indians who were, after all, British subjects. His attempt was to unite the different sections of Indians, and to give their demands wide publicity. This he tried to do through the setting up of the
Natal Indian Congress and by starting a paper called
Indian Opinion. Gandhiji’s abilities as an organiser, as a fund raiser, as a journalist and as a propagandist, all came to the fore during this period. But, by 1906, Gandhiji, having fully tried the ‘Moderate’ methods of struggle, was becoming convinced that these would not lead anywhere. The second phase of the struggle in South Africa, which began in 1906, was characterized by the use of the method of passive resistance or civil disobedience, which
Gandhiji named
References: : Bipan Chandra and Others, India’s struggle for independence pg-170 Global Research Methodology Journal, V0l-II, 7th issue, Nov-Dec-Jan, 2012-13 http://www.mkgandhi.org/storyofg/chap16.htm