Making of Mahatma Gandhi: From South Africa to India’s Independence Movement

• Tolstoy Farm, founded in 1910, was named after the Russian writer Tolstoy, admired by Mahatma Gandhi.
• Established by Mahatma Gandhi as an educational experiment and to house satyagrahi families for self-sustainability.
• The second farm of its kind, with the first being Phoenix Farm in 1904, was inspired by John Ruskin’s critique of capitalism.
• Mahatma Gandhi aimed to instill ideals of social service, citizenship, and respect for manual work from early years. Tolstoy Farm operated until 1913.

• Cause: Indigo planters exploiting farmers in Champaran, Bihar.
• Participants: Mahatma Gandhi was requested by Rajkumar Shukla and later joined by Rajendra Prasad, Mazharul-Haq, Mahadev Desai, Narhari Parekh, and J.B. Kripalani.
• Resistance: Mahatma Gandhi defied orders to leave and faced punishment.
• Outcome: Tinkathia system (Indigo to be grown on 3/20 parts of land) was abolished, peasants were compensated, first victory of civil disobedience in India. [UPSC 2018]

• Dispute: Cotton mill owners vs. workers over plague bonus.
• Mahatma Gandhi got a letter from Anusuya Sarabhai, sister of Ambalal Sarabhai (mill owner and the president of the Ahmedabad Mill Owners Association) for help in fighting for justice.
• Intervention: Mahatma Gandhi mediated, advised a non-violent strike and undertook a hunger strike.
• Outcome: The tribunal settled, and workers were awarded a 35% wage hike.

• Cause: Tax refusal due to crop failure and drought in Kheda, Gujarat.
• Leadership: Sardar Patel and Mahatma Gandhians led the tax revolt.
• Unity: Communities supported the revolt, maintaining discipline.
• Outcome: The government agreed to suspend taxes, reduce the rate increase, and return confiscated property.

• Introduced just before the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms (1919). 
• The Rowlatt Act was based on the recommendations of the ‘Sedition Committee’.[UPSC 2015]

• To empower the government with extraordinary powers to suppress dissent.

• Officially named the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, popularly known as Rowlatt Act.

• Proposed  Rowlatt Commission to investigate ‘seditious conspiracy.’

• Allowed trial without juries, arrest without a warrant on suspicion of treason, and suspension of Habeas Corpus.

• Imposed wartime restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly.

• Mahatma Gandhi’s Response: Called the Rowlatt Act the “Black Act,” urged mass protest. Peasants, artisans, and the urban poor became active in the struggle. [UPSC 2015]
• Forms of Protest: Nationwide hartal (strike), fasting, prayer, civil disobedience, and courting arrest. 
  • All the elected Indian members, including Muhammed Ali Jinnah, Madan Mohan Malaviya, and Mazhar Ul Haq, resigned in protest.
• Launch Date: April 6, 1919.
• Violent Demonstrations: Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi, Ahmedabad, and Punjab saw the largest anti-British upsurge since 1857.

• The Jallianwala Bagh massacre prompted an inquiry. 
• Hence, The Secretary of State for India, Edwin Montagu established the Disorders Inquiry Committee, widely known as the Hunter Committee.

• Lord William Hunter, former Solicitor General for Scotland.

• Investigate recent disturbances in Bombay, Delhi, and Punjab, along with causes and measures taken.

• Sir Chimanlal Harilal Setalvad, Vice-Chancellor of Bombay University.
• Pandit Jagat Narayan, lawyer and Member of the Legislative Council.
• Sardar Sahibzada Sultan Ahmad Khan, a lawyer from Gwalior State.

• Did not impose any penal or disciplinary action but only condemned Dyer for lack of notice to disperse before firing, he was held for overstepping authority.
• Minority Report (Indian Members) held: Innocent people were present; no prior violence in the Bagh, and Dyer’s actions were deemed “inhuman and un-British.”

• Indemnity Act: Passed before proceedings, protected officers from legal consequences; criticized as the “white washing bill.”
• Dyer’s Dismissal: Winston Churchill, reviewing the report, found Dyer dangerous; Dyer was dismissed in March 1920.
• Public Support in British: Dyer was not universally condemned; support in the House of Lords; funds raised for him, including by Rudyard Kipling.

• Honoring of Dyer: Golden Temple clergy honoured Dyer, intensifying demand for Sikh shrine management reform.
• Gurudwara Reform Movement: Resulted from discontent with shrine management

• Congress Committee (Motilal Nehru, C.R. Das, Abbas Tyabji, M.R. Jayakar, and Mahatma Gandhi) criticized Dyer’s act as inhuman and held that there was no justification in the introduction of martial law in Punjab.

NCERT Notes 

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