Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement: Civil Disobedience and Beyond

Gandhiji sought to identify with common people by living like them and dressing like them. He wore a simple dhoti or loincloth instead of formal clothes, shaved his head, and worked daily on the charkha. He also spoke in the mother tongue, travelled widely to know the land and its people, and stressed issues of peasants, workers, untouchables, and women. In this way he broke the distance between the leader and the ordinary people.

The peasants saw Mahatma Gandhi as a saviour and often called him “Gandhi baba,” “Gandhi Maharaj,” or simply “Mahatma”. They believed he would rescue them from high taxes and oppressive officials and restore dignity and autonomy to their lives. Many also thought he had miraculous powers, such as the power to punish those who opposed him or to solve their problems.

The salt laws became an important issue of struggle because salt was indispensable in every Indian household, yet Indians were forbidden to make even salt for domestic use and had to buy it at a high price from the government. Gandhi chose salt because the state monopoly over salt was deeply unpopular and could mobilise widespread discontent against British rule. He also argued that the salt tax was especially oppressive because it taxed a vital necessity and burdened even a starving people.

Newspapers are important because they tracked Mahatma Gandhi’s movements, reported on his activities, and reflected what ordinary Indians thought of him. They help historians see how events were publicly represented and how the movement spread in different regions. At the same time, newspapers show the political opinions, fears, and hopes of the people who wrote them, so they are valuable sources for understanding the national movement.

The charkha was chosen as a symbol of nationalism because Gandhi saw it as a sign of a self-reliant India. Spinning could provide the poor with supplementary income, and khadi encouraged the use of cloth made by Indians themselves rather than imported mill cloth. Gandhi also used the charkha to symbolise opposition to the consumerist and machine-dominated modern world and to break the divide between mental and manual labour.

Non-cooperation was a form of protest because Indians were asked to withdraw all voluntary support from British rule. This meant stopping attendance at schools, colleges, and law courts, not paying taxes, and refusing to cooperate with colonial institutions. It was called non-violent because it depended on denial, renunciation, and self-discipline rather than armed rebellion, but it was still powerful because it aimed to weaken the colonial government by withdrawing popular support.