Modern Indian History

The Khudai Khidmatgars (“Servants of God”) was a movement led by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. It was non violently mobilized to oppose the British in India’s Northwest Frontier Province. The main goal of the Khudai Khidmatgar was to win Indian independence and reform the social, religious, political, and economic life of the Pashtuns.

Gopal Krishna Gokhale was the political guru of Mahatma Gandhi.  Gokhale was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and founder of the Servants of India Society. On his suggestion, Gandhi had embarked on a tour of the country to observe and understand the life and miseries of ordinary Indians after his return from South Africa.

Gandhi first propagated the philosophy of Satyagraha  and propelled the country towards a no class discrimination society. The campaigners went on peaceful marches and presented themselves for arrest in protest against unjust laws. This form of action later became one of the great political tools of the 20th century.

Mahatma Gandhi was never the President of the Indian National Congress; he served as the president only once in 1924 at the Belgaum session.

The Indian Opinion was a newspaper established by Mahatma Gandhi. He decided in 1903 to launch the newspaper in response to the growing need in South Africa to voice effectively the feelings of Indians against racial intolerance of the white regime. 

Gandhi emphasized that ahimsa is an active force of love and soul-power, not merely passive tolerance or cowardice. It requires standing up against injustice, not accepting it.

Non-cooperation movement was an attempt organized by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920 to induce the British government of India to grant self-government, or swaraj, to India. Gandhi gave a call for boycott of foreign goods, surrendering all titles and honorary offices and resign from nominated seats in local bodies, etc. It was suddenly adjourned due to the violent Chauri Chaura incident in 1922.

Gandhi while in jail in 1932 had set up the All India Anti Untouchability League in September 1932 and had started the weekly Harijan in January 1933. He handed the responsibility for running it in the hands of two of his close associates, the industrialist, G.D. Birla, and the social worker, A.V. Thakkar. After the signing of Poona Pact, this organization was renamed the Harijan Sewak Sangh.

Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, often called the Frontier Gandhi, was a close associate and follower of Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence.

This statement reflects Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence and his desire for Indian independence without wishing harm upon the British people.

Gandhi frequently argued that true non-violence is the virtue of the brave, and that cowardice is incompatible with the strength required for ahimsa.

Khadi, white & coarse, was to him a sign of purity, of simplicity & poverty. Wearing it also became a symbol of nationalism, a rejection of western mill-made cloth.

He was more famous as Gandhiji's political Guru. He was elected to the Bombay Legislative Council in 1899. He became the President of the Indian National Congress at Banaras in 1905.

Mahatma Gandhi returned to India from South Africa in January 1915.

It suggested that if the cause was true, if the struggle was against injustice, then physical force was not necessary to fight the oppresor. Without seking vengeance or being aggressive a satyagrahi could win the battle through non-violence. This could only be done by appealing to the conscience of the oppressor.