Nationalism in India
Who joined, and the limits of Civil Disobedience
Explain who joined Civil Disobedience, why, and who stayed away.
Rich peasants. The Patidars of Gujarat and Jats of Uttar Pradesh grew crops for sale, so falling prices hit them hard. They could not pay the revenue, and the government would not lower it. For them, swaraj meant a fight against high revenue. They were deeply disappointed when the movement stopped in 1931 without revenue being reduced, so many refused to rejoin in 1932.
Poor peasants. Many were small tenants renting land from landlords. As their income shrank, they could not pay rent, and wanted unpaid rent cancelled. They joined radical movements led by Socialists and Communists. The Congress, afraid of upsetting rich peasants and landlords, would not support 'no rent' campaigns in most places. So poor peasants and the Congress never fully trusted each other.
Business classes. Indian merchants and industrialists had made big profits in the war and wanted to grow. They wanted protection from foreign imports and a rupee-sterling exchange rate that would discourage imports. Their organisations were FICCI (1927) and, before it, the Indian Industrial and Commercial Congress (1920), led by men like Purshottamdas Thakurdas and G.D. Birla. At first they funded the movement and refused to deal in imported goods: to them, swaraj meant business free of colonial restrictions. After the Round Table Conference failed, they cooled off, fearing militant activity, long disruption of business, and socialist ideas among young Congress members.
Workers and women.
- Industrial workers mostly stayed away, except around Nagpur. Some joined in their own way: railway strikes (1930), dockworkers (1932), and Chotanagpur tin miners in Gandhi caps. But the Congress kept workers' demands out of its programme, fearing it would lose the industrialists.
- Women joined in large numbers: they marched, made salt, picketed cloth and liquor shops, and many went to jail. Most were from high-caste urban families or rich peasant homes. They saw serving the nation as a sacred duty. But this did not change how women's place was seen: Gandhiji believed women's duty was the home, and for a long time the Congress would not give women positions of authority.
Dalits. For long the Congress had ignored the 'untouchables' (who from around the 1930s called themselves dalit, 'oppressed'), not wanting to offend conservative high-caste Hindus. Gandhiji called them harijan ('children of God'), led satyagrahas for their entry into temples, wells, tanks, roads and schools, and said that without ending untouchability, swaraj would not come even in a hundred years. But many dalit leaders wanted a political answer: reserved seats in education and a separate electorate to choose dalit legislators.
- Dr B.R. Ambedkar, who formed the Depressed Classes Association in 1930, demanded separate electorates at the second Round Table Conference.
- The British agreed; Gandhiji began a fast unto death, believing separate electorates would slow dalits' integration into society.
- Ambedkar finally accepted Gandhiji's position: the Poona Pact (September 1932) gave dalits reserved seats, but elected by the general electorate.
The dalit movement stayed wary of the Congress-led movement.
Muslims. After Khilafat faded, many Muslims felt cut off from the Congress, which from the mid-1920s was seen with Hindu nationalist groups like the Hindu Mahasabha. Religious processions and riots widened the gap. In 1927, unity seemed possible: Jinnah was ready to drop separate electorates if Muslims got reserved seats in the Central Assembly and seats in proportion to population in Bengal and Punjab. But at the All Parties Conference (1928), M.R. Jayakar of the Hindu Mahasabha opposed the compromise. In 1930, Muhammad Iqbal, as Muslim League president, defended separate electorates as a safeguard for the Muslim minority. Many Muslims feared their culture would be swamped by a Hindu majority.
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