Q. - Discuss the role of Gandhi in national movement.

Q.  - Discuss the role of Gandhi in national movement.

A----- Mahatma Gandhi was one of the tallest leader in Indian Freedom movement. Gandhi arrived
in India on 9 January 1915 from South Africa where he had fought for the rights of the Indians against the racist regime through Satyagraha, resistance to tyranny through mass civil resistance. He
perfected and propagated the philosophy of truth and ahimsa (nonviolence) as a weapon against
repression .
              From 1919 to 1947,Gandhi remained the foremost leader of the Indian national movement and his philosophy and leadership helped India gain independence and inspired inspired millions of people across the world. The Non-Violence, peaceful methods of Civil Disobedience, boycott of British goods , Non-Cooperation movements etc. adopted by Gandhi played a pivotal role in the freedom struggle of India. He inspired many prominent leaders like Nelson Mandela etc across the world, who applied his principles of peaceful demonstrations in their own countries against the tyrant regimes of the day.
               Gandhi first employed and pioneered successfully Civil Disobedience movement, while working as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa for the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. Gandhi returned to India in 1915 with the zeal to win Independence for India. The biggest achievement of Gandhi was to make freedom movement broad based by inclusive approach towards every possible community and religious minorities to protest against the oppressive British Government.
               His political engagement started in 1917-18, when he fought for the cause of Indigo farmers from Champaran in Bihar . Britishers, forced farmers to grow Indigo and then trapped them successfully with loans. Farmers wanted the freedom to cultivate the crops of their choice instead of Indigo . After successfully fighting for the cause of the farmers, some other noticeable movements that catapulted Mahatma Gandhi as the prominent National leader were Kheda Satyagraha (1918) where taxes were withdrawn after Gandhi ji’s campaign , Ahmedabad textiles mills workers agitation where wages were increased after campaign . He organized protests by farmers, workers , urban laborers concerning excessive land-tax, deplorable human conditions and discrimination.
             After assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women's rights, build religious and ethnic amity among communities , end untouchability, and increase economic self-reliance. Above all, he aimed to
unite the countrymen under one roof to achieve Swaraj or the independence of India from British
domination through peaceful means.
               In 1930, Gandhi started Civil Disobedience Movement, with the historic Dandi March with his 78 followers. He walked from his Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, a coastal village in Gujrat covering 400km and made salt in violation of the law,as making salt was prohibited by the colonial government. This movement was instrumental in defeating the British as repression of peaceful movement caused world outrage, and successfully receiving sympathetic coverage by world
media blemished British hypocritical moral right to continue their occupation of India. To further the
cause of Independence Gandhi launched Quit India Movement in 1942, demanding immediate
independence of India from tyrannical colonial British occupation. Gandhiji is referred to as Mahatma, an honorific title , firstly applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore. In India, Gandhi is also called Bapu and officially honored in India as the Father of the Nation. His birthday, 2 October, is commemorated as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.