How did gandhiji enlighten the freedom fighters? What kind of a leadership did gandhiji take? What was the effect of kind his leadership answer in a paragraph of about 100 words
Answers
In South Africa, Gandhi had used the non-cooperation movement to great effect. India would prove to be a larger testing ground for non-cooperation & civil disobedience. “Civil Disobedience,” as a concept had been propounded by the American philosopher Thoreau in the 1800s, but no one had implemented it before Gandhi. When Gandhi gave the call for disobedience, a large Indian population by and large followed, because they now saw a means to protest against the British without losing face. The British had crushed every armed uprising before, but Gandhi’s call for mass boycott befuddled and bamboozled them. They were mostly at a loss as to how they ought to react. With Champaran, Gandhi became the first leader to be recognized nationally. Gokhale before him did not command the same respect. Tilak was a remarkable personality, but his influence was limited to modern day Maharashtra. The salt tax act was in place since 1882, yet, Gandhi always had a deep realization that unless the masses throughout India supported the cause for independence, there would be no movement. Gandhi decided to break this law, because it was the only law that affected the masses: everyone needed salt. When Gandhi proposed it to his inner circle, only Rajaji supported him. Others, including Jawaharlal Nehru, thought Gandhi was a nut. Yet once the Dandi march commenced, the people were galvanized as never before, and as Louis Fisher writes in his biography of Gandhi, after 1930, every Indian saw himself or herself as independent. A few years later the realization dawned on the British, and India was given dominion status. To understand him as a leader, it is also important to understand Gandhi’s political style. He could veer to the left or right, which is hard for people of today to fathom. In most countries we see a polarization between left and right, and yet Gandhi felt “Nehru needed Patel, and Patel needed Nehru, and neither could do without the other.” To remain the unquestioned national leader for 30 years (Champaran happened in 1918), one had to be very astute politically, and Gandhi was a consummate politician. But his ability and willingness to put his life on the line for a cause he believed in transcended everything else, and ordinary people identified with and put their faith in him.