Question

Role of mahatma gandhi in national movement in 500 words

Answer 1

The Swadeshi Movement declined by 1907. There was also a split in the Congress in 1907 and Tilak was imprisoned and deported in 1908. Aurobindo Ghosh and Bipin Chandra Pal retired from politics and Lala Lajpat Rai left India for some time.


All these developments led to a decline in the nationalist movement. It remained dormant for a few years but was revived during the First World War. Annie Besant and Tilak started the Home Rule Leagues and the two wings of the Congress united in 1916.

The War also witnessed the Ghadar Movement started in the United States by some Indian revolutionaries which sought to overthrow the British rule in India. However, the most important development was the arrival of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who was later popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, from South Africa.
In South Africa, Gandhi had fought for the rights of the Indians against the racist regime. From 1919 to 1947, when India attained independence, Gandhi remained the foremost leader of the national movement.

Gandhi arrived in India on 9 January, 1915. Initially, he spent a year visiting various places in India to have an understanding of the situation. His political engagement started in the 1917-18 period when he took up the issues of Champaran indigo farmers, the Ahmedabad textile workers and the Kheda peasants.

These struggles witnessed his specific method of agitation, known as Satyagraha, which had earlier developed in the South African context and through which he was partially successful in achieving his goals.