Hist 4538
March 18, 2004
Tues, March 30: Gandhi film screening: Media Library conference room (Norlin Library)
Reading Questions
• What was the role of violence in Gandhi’s work?
• How did the nature of British rule in India contribute to Gandhi’s success?
Gandhi’s Early Life
• Born 1869 to lower caste merchant family
• Travels to Britain in 1888 for legal education
• 1893: unsuccessful Indian legal career spurs move to South Africa
• 1906: takes vow of celibacy (brahmachariya)
• Begins to develop satyagraha [soulforce or truthforce]: non-violent resistance
• 1899, 1906, WWI: organizes ambulance corps, support British war aims
• 1915: return to India, having made a name for himself as civil-rights campaigner
• 1917-1918: Champaran campaign for better conditions for indigo sharecroppers
• 1919: attempts first trial of satyagraha, in protest of Rowlatt Acts
• 1920: Gandhi recognized as de facto leader of Congress
• Gandhi transforms INC into mass organization with popular appeal
• 1920: INC approves boycott in response to Amritsar massacre whitewash
◦ declares goal of “swaraj within one year” through non-violent means
• 1922: Gandhi calls off non-cooperation after police deaths at Chauri Chaura
• 1922-1924: Gandhi imprisoned
Gandhi’s Return to Political Action
• 1927: resentment at all-white Simon Commission
◦ INC refusal to support Muslim electorates alienates Muslim League
• 1929: Jawaharlal Nehru elected as INC president (Gandhi as power behind the throne)
◦ INC goal of purna swaraj (full independence)
• 1930: launch of new civil disobedience campaign
◦ Mar 1930: Salt March forces British
to arrest large numbers of protesters
• Gandhi’s insistence on non-violence successful
• Use of symbols: salt, clothing, women, Hindu mythology
• 1931: Gandhi-Irwin pact, Poona Pact with Ambedkar
◦ Gandhi not only important nationalist leader
◦ Untouchables, poor dissatisfied with his methods
• Non-violence, ahimsa (traditional Indian value, especially for Jains)
• Personal suffering and endurance (e.g. fasting)
• Family sacrifices
◦ Celibacy imposed on Kasturba
◦ Sleeping with nieces
◦ Cost to friends and colleagues of keeping Gandhi in poverty
• Respect for authority: refusal to disturb social, economic, or gender status quo
• A great film, but with a bias
• Misrepresentations:
◦ Patel a cuddly teddybear
◦ Jinnah unsympathetic
◦ Gandhi a saint
• Too great a man to be deified
• Evaluate film’s strengths and weaknesses
• Analyze it as a historical account
• Bring your kleenex!