Goals, Methods and Results of Gandhi's Campaigns - Research Paper Example

Goals, Methods and Results of Gandhi's Campaigns Civil disobedience is the refusal to follow laws and commands of a particular government. Civil disobedience is a principle method of non- violent resistance. Socrates, Gandhi and King used traditional civil disobedience. These heroes believed in the need to obey a higher authority and be cleansed of self-interestedness. Traditional civil disobedience is believed to be harmonious this is between the moral order and a formed conscience. According to Gandhi, law breaking can only be justified if it respects authority and at the same time recognises antagonist’s human dignity. Civil disobedience can be distinguished from ordinary protest in that civil disobedience is the violation of a law in conflict with the principal of human dignity while the later refers to making a strong public expression or disagreement that is formal in nature and involves physically fighting the government unlike the use of Gandhi’s step of self- purification. Traditional civil disobedience is characterised by religious purity, unwillingness to bear consequences of law as well as the lack of respect for authority in recognising human dignity of opponents. The attitudes and actions necessary for an act of civil disobedience to be success as outlined by Mahatma Gandhi include; first, Satyagraha had to express no anger, second is that at times a person will be in a position to suffer the opponent’s anger. The third action is that a Satyagraha had to agree to an arrest by authorities thus should never retaliate which involves swearing or cursing. They were not to salute the Union flag be it English or Indian and had to protect the officials by putting their life at risk. Gandhi demonstrated a peaceful mass opposition to wrongful authority. Gandhi then expanded a philosophy of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience campaigns that is now in use to protest and change the unjust acts of the authority all over the world. The main goal of Gandhi’s movement was to reform the Indian society. The other goal was to create a sense of empowerment and control over the lives if the Indians. Getting the British to leave India was another goal that Gandhi aimed at and finally was to establish the foundations and institutions to the Ahimsa and Satyagraha. The presence of Satyagraha acted as a check upon the existing lawless elements (Michael 30). Satyagraha was referred to as a banyan tree that has innumerable branches and that civil disobedience was one of those branches. ‘Satya’ meaning truth and ‘ahima’ meaning non-violence makes the parent trunk. Other campaigns followed and each had certain goals to achieve. To begin with was the Champaran Campaign, 1917. Compared to other non-resistance campaigns, the Champaran was small and limited time was needed. However, it was quite significant in two ways. Firstly, it was the place where Gandhi conducted Satyagraha upon his return to India. Although it was small and in an isolated community, his defiant actions stirred the whole country. Secondly, Champaran problems were naturally local. The campaigns were conducted on a narrow focus. The economy centred on agriculture and was controlled by the British. Gandhi defied the British order and later launched his first act of civil disobedience. His image grew and called for commission of inquiry. Michael (144-138) describes that the commission issued recommendations which were incorporated in the legislation on behalf of the tenants. Champaran was critical and showed him the power of Satyagraha. It also demonstrated Gandhi’s intentions by virtue of his openness and willingness to talk to his opponents. It was also evidence that meticulous records of events and finances were important to keep. This made him have a deep connection with the people and for them to build trust, to contribute to his efforts of training and reforming them. The Rowlatt Act and a Himalayan miscalculation In 1919, Indian parliament passed the Rowlatt Acts giving the colonial authorities emergency powers to deal with revolutionary activities. Ironically, this Rowlatt Bills provided Gandhi a great opportunity to launch his campaigns. Rowlatt legislation can be categorised as one of the many causes of the current unrest. The main aim of this letter was to advise people to suspend civil disobedience temporarily so as to give the government effective support in restoring order. This was to be achieved through preaching and practice so as to gain devotion to the elementary principles (Michael 32). This was not only a nonviolent tactic but also a means to admonish the Indians to change in their way of living. Although this campaign was a failure it solidified Gandhi’s status as a powerful figure and he never lost his faith with the Satyagraha instead it was a clear message that he had more work to do in spreading the message of truth before another campaign started. The method was clear but there was a weakness of people applying the method which led to Himalayan miscalculation. Nonviolent resistance, this was in1920 when Gandhi’s power in the Indian politics rose and nonviolent resistance was adopted as they refused to cope with the governments’ authorities and institutions. He encouraged students and their teachers to quit public schools and called for the resignation of the civil servants in courts. This Swaraj goal was not attained but processes of other goals were underway such as fundraising, recruiting volunteers as well as training multitudes in the Satyagraha. Other goals were accomplished for example the boycott of British imports, closure of the public schools and the resignations. At one point Gandhi called off the campaign which had generated into violence. This made people understand that they could also effect change in their own lives if only they could be strong, disciplined, united and fearless. If this is followed then significant and long-term successes could be recorded in the area. Salt march of 1930, the method used in this particular campaign was the manipulation of the national symbols and the well organised mass civil disobedience campaign. They used the force of ahimsa or love that never burns others but itself. This demonstrated how potent this nonviolent resistance could be by gathering thousands of followers on the way to the sea. The main goals for this march was first to give people a method for giving the Indians hope of ridding the subcontinent of colonial rule. Secondly, they sought to solidify the congress hold on the independence movement. The third and the most important goal aimed at reforming Indians towards defying the British. This salt march covered more than 240 miles and lasted for one month. In this walk he could lead prayers wherever he stopped and requested the locals to sign pledges of nonviolence. Zunes (1999) argues that the tax resistance inspired Gandhi as it portrayed the moral act of an oppressed peasant using no violence in the fight against unjust government and it also illustrated how the government was impotent. This campaign achieved several objectives as the Indians were able to break away the monopoly that the British had brought about on the production of salt, sale as well as the taxation as this gave them a means of controlling the population. The first goal was that it focused on the colonial administration enforced. The act of taxing salt was seen as inhuman and satanic according to Gandhi as salt was a necessity and not a luxury. The second goal was that the march gave people especially the poor a tangible way to not just confront the British but to also do something economically helpful to their lives. Thirdly, the salt march showed the impotence of British imperial and symbolized a defeat for the British. The arrival to the sea and his breaking the salt law demonstrated his strategic genius and his desire to be truthful. Being open helped him seize the moral high ground and also placed the onus on the government. His other strategy was to carefully select the right people to join his campaigns. This was to ensure control over the marchers’ behaviour. His other campaign led to the British withdrawal from India which was in 1947. This movement of discrimination against the untouchables is currently illegal though most people still practice it. The ‘quit India’ movement became the most forceful in the history of the campaigns which resulted to unprecedented arrests and violence. This triggered a much wider civil disobedience movement which was a campaign of the nonviolent protest against the British salt tax which began in the 1930. He then led the Dandi march to produce salt without paying taxes where most Indians joined him and were able to break the salt laws which spark large scale acts of civil disobedience against the British salt laws. According to Bhattacharya (1) the salt movement was based on self discipline, self sacrifice and moral purity. This time, Gandhi advocated for India to be granted Independence and he further clarified that the movement would be a do or die as the anarchy was worse than the real one. This led to his arrest for two years in the Aga Khan Palace. He was later released due to his failing health in 1944. Although this movement had moderate success, it brought some order to the Indian society. Gandhi called off the struggle when the British indicated freedom to the Indians and over 100,000 prisoners were released. This experience of the Transvaal campaign showed him the importance of appealing not just to the fellow Indians in South Africa but for the Indians back to their place and the whites to Europe and North America. It also taught him the importance of planning and the training he had to undertake with the Satyagraha campaigns. He learned that planning is also useful because when the primary leaders are imprisoned, the secondary leaders take over. It was also critical to unite all the Indian communities such as the Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and the Parsis who had various interests and spoke different languages. The first strategic goal was to increase Indian power (Lloyd 1983). This was by measuring the level of participation. It was also meant to change the British will and power. Gandhi’s principles were basically dedicated to truth or satya. This was achieved by learning from his previous mistakes and conducting experiments of himself. He summarised his beliefs by saying that God is truth. His other principle was nonviolence which has been widely shown by the way he conducted his campaigns also known as the concept of ahimsa. Works cited Bhana, Surendra, & Goolam, Vahed. The making of a Political Reformer: Gandhi in South Africa, 1893–1914. New Delhi: Manohar, 2005. Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi. The Mahatma and the Poet, New Delhi: National Book Trust, India, 1997: p. 1. Gandhi, M. K. The Gandhi Reader: A Sourcebook of His Life and Writings. Homer Jack ed. New York: Grove Press, 1956. Lloyd, Rudolph. Gandhi, the Traditional Roots of Charisma, 1983. Michael, Nojeim. Gandhi and King: The Power of Nonviolent Resistance. U.S.A 2004:138-144 Thomas, Weber. Gandhi as Disciple and Mentor Cambridge University Press, 2004: 28–29. Zunes, Stephen. Nonviolent Social Movements: A Geographical Perspective. Blackwell Publishing. 1999.  Read More