Tag: early struggles of mahatma gandhi

In 1918 along with Kheda movement Gandhi also took part in another movement. It was known as Ahmadabad Satyagraha. Gandhiji led the mill-workers in Ahmadabad in a strike against the mill-owners who had refused to pay them higher wages. When the workers seemed to weaken, he provided support to them by undertaking a fast. Afraid of the consequences, the mill-owners agreed on the fourth day of the  fast to give a 35% increase in wages.

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. 

In his famous book 'Hind Swaraj' (1909), Mahatma Gandhi declared that British rule was established in India with the cooperation of Indians, & had survived only because of this cooperation. If Indians refused to cooperate, British rule in India would collapse within a year, and Swaraj would come.

By 1921, Gandhiji had designed the Swaraj flag. It was again a tricolour (red, green & white) & had a spinning wheel in the centre, representing the Gandhian ideal of self-help. Carrying the flag, holding it aloft, during marches became a symbol of defiance.

The title ‘Sardar’ was conferred to Vallabhbhai Patel by Mahatma Gandhi. In 1928 there was a problem for the farmers of Bardoli. British were collecting unjust taxes from them. Vallabhbhai Patel came to rescue the people and conducted many no tax campaigns.