describe the Satyagraha started by Gandhiji during 1962 1918
Answers
In Gujarat, Mahatma Gandhi was chiefly the spiritual head of the struggle. His chief lieutenant, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and a close coterie of devoted Gandhian, namely Indulal Yagnik, Shankarlal Banker, Mahadev Desai, Narhari Parikh, Mohanlal Pandya and Ravi Shankar Vyas toured the countryside, organised the villagers and gave them political leadership and direction.
Many aroused Gujaraties from the cities of Ahmadabad and Vadodara joined the organizers of the revolt, but Gandhi and Patel resisted the involvement of Indians from other provinces, seeking to keep it a purely Gujarati struggle.
The peasants of Kheda signed a petition calling for the tax for this year to be scrapped in wake of the famine. The government in Bombay rejected the charter. They warned that if the peasants did not pay, the lands and property would be confiscated and many arrested. And once confiscated, they would not be returned even if most complied.
None of the villages flinched. The tax withheld, the government's collectors and inspectors sent in thugs to seize property and cattle, while the police forfeited the lands and all agrarian property.
The farmers did not resist arrest, nor retaliate to the force employed with violence. Instead, they used their cash and valuables to donate to the Gujarat Sabha which was officially organizing the protest.
In 1919 Gandhiji gave a call for a satyagrah against the Rowlatt act that the British has just passed . The Act curbed fundamental rights such as the freedom of expression and strengthened police powers. Mahatma Gandhi , Mohammad ali Jinnah and others felt that the government had no right to restrict people's basic freedom , They criticised that the act wad "devilish" and tyrannical . Gandhi asked the Indian people to observe 6 April 1919 as a day of non-violent opposition to this Act as a day of "humiliation and prayer" and strike. Satyagraha Sabhas were set up to launch the movement. The rowlatt satyagraha turned out to be the first all-India struggle against the British government although it was largely restricted to cities.