Background
- After the British failed to respond to the Indian demands during WW2, there were two opinions in Congress about the launching of civil disobedience.
- Gandhi felt that the atmosphere was not in favour of civil disobedience as there were differences and indiscipline within the Congress
- Those advocating Civil disobedience were attempting to convince Gandhi that once a movement was launched differences would disappear and all would work for its success
- The Ramgarh Congress Session of 1940, called upon the people to prepare themselves for participating in a Satyagraha to be launched under Gandhi’s leadership.
- But the Socialists, Communists,Kisan Sabhaites and those belonging to the Forward Bloc were not happy with the resolution.
- They held an anti-compromise conference at Ramgarh and Subhas Chandra Bose urged the people to resist compromise with imperialism and be ready for action.
- Then came in the unsuccessful attempt by the British Government with ‘August Offer of 1940 ‘ to woo the Indians in the War effort
- Then, the government was systematically putting under preventive arrest many Congress workers – particularly those with Socialist or Left leanings.
- Also, all local leaders were under observation, while many labour leaders and youngmen were taken into custody.
- Convinced that the British would not modify their policy in India (Gandhiji had long meetings with the Viceroy at Shimla in September 1940), Gandhiji decided to start the Individual Satyagraha
The Individual Satyagraha
- The very reason for confining the movement to individual participation was that neither Gandhiji nor the Congress wished to hamper the War effort and this could not have been the case in a mass movement.
- As a result, even the aim of the Satyagraha was a limited one i.e. to disprove the British claim of India supporting the War effort whole heartedly.
- The aims of launching individual satyagraha were:
- to show that nationalist patience was not due to weakness
- to express people’s feeling that they were not interested in the war and that they made no distinction between Nazism and the double autocracy that ruled India; and
- to give another opportunity to the government to accept Congress’ demands peacefully
- The demand of the satyagrahi would be the freedom of speech against the war through an anti-war declaration.
- If the government did not arrest the satyagrahi, he or she would not only repeat it but move into villages and start a march towards Delhi, thus precipitating a movement which came to be known as the ‘Delhi Chalo Movement’.
- Thus, on 17th October 1940, Acharya Vinoba Bhave inaugurated the Satyagraha by delivering an anti-war speech at Paunar, a village near Wardha
- However, Gandhiji’s other two nominees, Vallabhai Patel and Nehru were arrested before they could offer Satyagraha
- The movement could not achieve much, due to the limited nature of participation and restrictions imposed by Gandhiji
- For example: In Bihar, many men selected to offer Satyagraha were reluctant to relinquish the positions they held in municipal bodies
- They either refused or ”were extremely slow to court arrest”
- As a result, Gandhi then called off the Individual Satyagraha movement by December 1941
- Even though, it did not achieve any tangible results, it fuelled the nationalist spirit of the Indian people and showed in no uncertain terms, that India would not settle for anything but Purna Swaraj
- Also, by this time the war had taken a new turn
- The British were forcing defeat and Japanese forces had over-run South East Asia
- Later, after the fall of Rangoon to the Japanese, the British decided to send the Cripps Mission to India
