civil disobedience movement
Formed under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, the Civil Disobedience Movement set a milestone in the history of India's freedom struggle. "The Civil Disobedience Movement was formed in the year 1930 and is one of the most important phases in the Indian National Movement." (Devanshi Janmeja) "The main ideology behind the Civil Disobedience Movement is to defy the laws made by the British." (Mahatma Gandhi) Through this Rebellion, The Indians learnt how apparently philosophical tenets like "non violence and passive resistance, could be used to wage political battles" (Devanshi Janmeja)
|
“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law” |
The salt satyagraha
the salt march
Suppose, a people rise in revolt. They cannot attack the abstract constitution or lead an army against proclamations and statutes...Civil disobedience has to be directed against the salt tax or the land tax or some other particular point — not that that is our final end, but for the time being it is our aim, and we must shoot straight.
- Mahatma Gandhi
"I cannot intentionally hurt anything that lives, much less fellow human beings, even though they may do the greatest wrong to me and mine. Whilst therefore, I hold the British rule to be a curse, I do not intend to harm a single Englishman or any legitimate interest he may have in India…."
- Mahatma Gandhi
- Mahatma Gandhi
Gandhi utilized the march to breach some things other than the salt laws as well. One of these was the caste divide in the villages. "On his arrival in some villages he headed straight for the so-called ‘untouchable' quarters and drew water from the well there for his wash... made his village hosts, often from ‘higher' castes, cross those ancient and hurtful divides." (The Indian Express)
"Of course these movements exercised tremendous pressure on the British Government and shook the government machinery. But the real importance, to my mind, lay in the effect they had on our own people, and especially the village masses.... Non-cooperation dragged them out of the mire and gave them self-respect and self-reliance.... They acted courageously and did not submit so easily to unjust oppression; their outlook widened and they began to think a little in terms of India as a whole."
- Jawaharlal Nehru