After the First World War: –

• Huge increase in defense expenditure after I World War.
• Start war loans and increasing taxes.
• Custom duties were raised and income tax introduced.
• Prices increased.
• Forced recruitment in rural areas.
• Resulting in acute shortage of food.
• Spread influenza epidemic.
• According Census of 1921, 12 to 13 million people died as a result of famines and epidemic.

The idea of Satyagraha: –

• Gandhiji returned to India in January 1915.
• The idea of Satyagraha emphasized the power of truth and the need to search for truth.
• It suggested that if the cause was true, if the struggle was against injustice, then physical force was not necessary to fight the oppressor.
• Without seeking vengeance or being aggressive, a satyagrahi could win the battle through non-violence.
• Gandhiji believed that this dharma of non-violence could unite all Indians.
• In 1917- Satyagraha for peasants of Champaran (Bihar), who struggle against the oppressive plantation system.
• In 1918- Satyagraha for peasants of Khera (Gujarat), who affected by crop failure and a plague epidemic. The peasants could not pay the revenue and were demanding that the revenue collection be relaxed.
• In 1918- Satyagraha for cotton mill workers of Ahmedabad.

The Rowlatt Act- 1919: –

• Passed by Imperial Legislative Council in 1919.
• According to this Act government repress political activities and allowed detention of political prisoners without trail for two years.
• On 10^th April police fired upon a peaceful procession in Amritsar.
• After that widespread attacks on Banks, offices and railway stations by public.
• Martial Law was imposed and General Dyer took command.

The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre: –

• On 13^th April 1919, a large crowd gathered to attend the Annual Baisakhi fair in the closed ground of Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar.
• Some people gathered for protest against the government’s new repressive Act.
• General Dyer entered the area, blocked the exit points and opened fire on the crowd.

Khilafat Movement: –

• The First World War had ended with the defeat of Ottoman Turkey.
• Public thought that a harsh peace treaty was going to imposed on the Ottoman Emperor- the spiritual head of the Islamic World (the Khalifa).
• To defend the Khalifa’s temporal powers, a khilafat committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919.
• It was against British for the ill-treatment with Turkey after First World War.
• Main leaders were Ali brothers- Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali.

Non-Cooperation: –

• Non-Cooperation Programme was adopted in December 1920 at the Congress Session in Nagpur.
• The movement began in January 1921.
• It was first major movement of Gandhiji.
• It was a mass movement in which different section of people were involved.
• Non-Violence was the basic difference of this movement.
• It boycotted British institutions and commodities.
• Students and teachers gradually returned from schools.
• The movement was withdrawn in 1922 due to the violence in Chauri-Chaura near Gorakhpur.

Simon Commission: –

• It was appointed in 1927 in the leadership of Sir John Simon.
• It was appointed to look into the functioning of the constitutional system in India and suggest changes.
• It arrived India in 1928.
• It was greeted with the slogan “Simon go back”, because the Commission did not have a single Indian member. They were all British.

Towards Civil Disobedience: –

• In December 1929, under the presidency of Jawahar Lal Nehru, the Lahore Congress formalized the demand for ‘Purna Swaraj’ or full independence for India.
• It was declared that 26 January 1930, would be celebrated as Independence Day.
• But the celebration attracted very little attention.

The Salt March and the Civil Disobedience Movement: –

• Mahatma Gandhi started his famous Salt March with his 78 trusted volunteers.
• The march was over 240 miles, from Gandhiji’s Ashram in Sabarmati to the Gujarati coastal town of Dandi.
• The volunteers walked for 24 days about 10 miles a day.
• On 6^th April 1930, he reached Dandi and ceremonially violated the law, manufacturing salt by boiling seawater.
• This marked the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
• As the movement spread, foreign clothes were boycotted and liquor shops were picketed.
• Peasants refused to pay revenue taxes.
• After the government began arresting the Congress leaders one by one.
• Mahatma Gandhi was arrested in April 1930.
• Peaceful Satyagrahis were attacked, women and children were beaten and about 1 lakh people were arrested.
• In such situation, Mahatma Gandhi once again decided to call off the movement and entered into a pact with Irwin on 5^th March 1931.
• By this Gandhi-Irwin pact, Gandhiji consented to participate in a Round Table Conference in London and the government agreed to release the political prisoners.
• In Dec.1931 Gandhiji went to London for the conference, but the negotiations broke down and he returned disappointed.
• Gandhiji re-launched the Civil Dis-obedience Movement but by 1934 it lost its momentum.

The limits of Civil Disobedience: –

• Limited participation of Dalits.
• The industrial working classes did not participate in the movement in large numbers.
• Poona Pact of 24 September 1932 between Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and Gandhiji.
• Limited participation of Muslims.

Sense of collective belonging: –

• Nationalism gives feelings of same nation for all communities.
• Role of cultural factors history and fiction, folklore and songs, popular prints and symbols played their part in national struggle.
• Representations the idea of Bharatmata.
• Role playing by bards, for collecting songs in popularization of folklore.
• Use of Tricolour during swadeshi movement.
• Role of reconstruction of India’s past history.
• Writings on art, religion, law, philosophy in building pride of nation.
• Emerging many voices wanting freedom from colonial rule.