Report on civil disobedience movement
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The Civil disobedience movement was an important part of Indian freedom movement. It was led by Mahatma Gandhi against certain laws and commands of the ruling British Government.
In India, the Civil disobedience movement was started by Mahatma Gandhi.
In March 1930, Gandhiji wrote in the newspaper, Young India, that he might suspend his civil disobedience or law-breaking movement if the government accepted his eleven-point demands. But Lord Irwin’s government did not respond. So, Gandhiji started the Civil Disobedience Movement.
It was started with Dandi March (also Salt march, Salt satyagraha) by Mahatma Gandhi on 12th March, 1930. On 12 March, 1930 he along with his 78 followers began a march from the Sabarmati Ashram to “Dandi” on the Gujarat coast. It was a distance of 200 miles. At Dandi a few day s later they violated the salt laws by making salt from sea-water. Thus, began the civil disobedience Movement.
The Dandi March aroused great enthusiasm among the people. Everywhere the people began to break the law by selling banned political pamphlets, by showing defiance of section 144 and by with holding rents. Gandhiji called upon the women to begin spinning. In response to his call women took to spinning they also started picketing at the door of Government offices and foreign-goods shops. This participation of the women was a new thing in the freedom struggle. The movement was very tense in Bengal and the north-west. Sarojini Naidu came to the forefront during this movement. In the north-west the most famous leader was Abdul Gaffar Khan, knick-named as “Frontier Gandhi”.
Gandhi-Irwin Pact: The Government had called a round Table conference in 1930 in London. The congress did not join it. In order to make sure that the congress would participate in the second conference, Lord Irwin made a pact with Gandhiji in 1931. In this “Gandhi-Irwin Pact” the Government agreed to let off all political prisoners and to cancel the oppressive laws. The Second Round Table Conference was a failure from India’s point of view. Gandhiji’s demand for full self-government was rejected.