Question

How did British government suppress civil disobedience movement?

Answer 1

Response of British Rulers

Worried by the developments, the colonial government began arresting the Congress leaders

 This led to violent clashes in many palaces.

When Abdul Ghaffar Khan, was arrested in April 1930, angry crowds demonstrated in the streets of Peshawar, facing armoured cars and police firing.

Many were killed.

 when Mahatma Gandhi himself was arrested, industrial workers in Sholapur attacked police posts, municipal buildings, lawcourts and railway stations

frightened government responded with a policy of brutal repression.

peaceful satyagrahis were attacked, women and children were beaten, and about 100,000 people were arrested.

a)rich peasants

In the countryside, rich peasant communities – like the Patidars of Gujarat and the Jats of Uttar Pradesh – were active in the movement.

Being producers of commercial crops, they were very hard hit by the trade depression and falling prices.

As their cash income disappeared, they found it impossible to pay the government’s revenue demand.

And the refusal of the government to reduce the revenue demand led to widespread resentment.

These rich peasants became enthusiastic supporters of the Civil Disobedience Movement, organising their communities, and at times forcing reluctant members, to participate in the boycott programmes.

For them the fight for swaraj was a struggle against high revenues

b) poor peasants

 

Many of them were small tenants cultivating land they had rented from landlords.

As the Depression continued and cash incomes dwindled, the small tenants found it difficult to pay their rent.

They wanted the unpaid rent to the landlord to be remitted.

They joined a variety of radical movements, often led by Socialists and Communists.

c)business men

 

During the First World War, Indian merchants and industrialists had made huge profits and become powerful .

Keen on expanding their business, they now reacted against colonial policies that restricted business activities.

They wanted protection against imports of foreign goods, and a rupee-sterling foreign exchange ratio that would discourage imports

. To organise business interests, they formed the Indian Industrial and Commercial Congress in 1920 and the Federation of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) in 1927.

Led by prominent industrialists like Purshottamdas Thakurdas and G. D. Birla, the industrialists attacked colonial control over the Indian economy, and supported the Civil Disobedience Movement when it was first launched.

They gave financial assistance and refused to buy or sell imported goods.

Most businessmen came to see swaraj as a time when colonial restrictions on business would no longer exist and trade and industry would flourish without constraints

d) industrial workers

 

The industrial working classes did not participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement in large numbers, except in the Nagpur region.

As the industrialists came closer to the Congress, workers stayed aloof.

But some workers did participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement, selectively adopting some ideas of the Gandhian programme, like boycott of foreign goods, as part of their own movements against low wages and poor working conditions.

There were strikes by railway workers in 1930 and dockworkers in 1932.

In 1930 thousands of workers in Chotanagpur tin mines wore Gandhi caps and participated in protest rallies and boycott campaigns

e) women

Another important feature of the Civil Disobedience Movement was the large-scale participation of women.

During Gandhiji’s salt march, thousands of women came out of their homes to listen to him.

They participated in protest marches, manufactured salt, and picketed foreign cloth and liquor shops.

Many went to jail.

In urban areas these women were from high-caste families; in rural areas they came from rich peasant households.

Moved by Gandhiji’s call, they began to see service to the nation as a sacred duty of women.