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of women, equality of religion and dignity of labour. He was opposed to
child marriage. He used hunger strikes, boycotts of foreign goods and
refusal to pay taxes as tactics in his civil disobedience movement against
the British. Gandhi s leadership galvanised the nationalists and brought
an outpouring of support from Indians from all walks of life. However,
the public did not always remain peaceful, and violence broke out on
several occasions. In 1922, when a mob in Uttar Pradesh burned down
a police station killing 22 constables inside, Gandhi called off his non-
cooperation campaign. He was imprisoned shortly afterwards and stayed
in jail for two years.
HISTORY
69
Gandhi s Salt March
Gandhi launched a new campaign of civil disobedience in March 1930,
targetting the salt tax. Salt was a government monopoly and the public
had to pay tax for the salt they bought. The sale or production of salt by
anyone other than the British government was a crime punishable by law.
In sheer defiance of the law, Gandhi asked people to produce their own
salt from sea water in protest against the unfair tax. In a symbolic gesture,
on 12 March, the 61-year-old Gandhi led a procession of 78 followers from
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, to the town of Dandi on the Arabian Sea, about 400
km away. The journey took 23 days on foot. On 6 April, when they reached
Dandi, Gandhi picked up a lump of mud and salt and boiled it in seawater to
make salt. He urged his followers to make salt and sell it all along the coast.
Gandhi was imprisoned for defying the salt law. Following the Salt March,
Gandhi and the Congress launched other campaigns, notably the boycott of
British imported goods, particularly cloth, in protest against the stifling of the
Indian textile industry by British policies. Thousands of people were jailed
and hundreds killed or injured by the British because of their involvement in
Gandhi s non-cooperation movement. Gandhi was released from jail several
months later and the British eventually conceded to some of his demands,
such as allowing Indians to make untaxed salt for their own use.
Hindu-Muslim Differences
By 1932, the framework of a new constitution for India had been worked out in
London. Under the new constitution, power was divided between the federal
and provincial governments, with a prime minister heading each province. The
different religious communities were accorded their own electorates.
The first provincial elections under the new constitution were held in
1937, and the Congress ended up winning in eight of the 11 provinces. The
remaining three provinces Bengal, Punjab and Sind were controlled by
regional parties.
The poor showing of the Muslim League during the elections caused
concern among its leadership. President Jinnah was suspicious of the Congress
and feared that Indian Muslims would become a minority in a democratic
India. He was particularly concerned that Hindi was being promoted at the
70
expense of Urdu by the new provincial governments, and that Hindus were
treating their patriotic hymn Vande Mataram as the national anthem.
In March 1940, the Muslim League s concerns were made official when it
passed a resolution at a party meeting in Lahore, stating that Muslims would
have their own states in a free India where they would not be under Hindu
rule. Jinnah and his followers began to speak of the north-east and north-west,
where Muslims resided in large numbers, as a single Muslim state Pakistan.
Pakistan, meaning pure land , was a name created from the names of the
Muslim states of the north-west: P from Punjab, A for the Afghan areas
and K for Kashmir.
The League saw rapid growth during the World War II years and
became a mass party by 1945. By 1942 and 1943, after Jinnah had installed
League members as provincial prime ministers in the provinces of Sind and
Bengal, the League had control of a total of five provinces, including Assam,
the North-west Frontier Province and Punjab, setting the foundation for the
formation of Pakistan.
Quit India Movement
During World War II, the British promised Congress Party leaders that India
would become independent if Indians supported the war. The Congress
turned down the offer and demanded immediate independence, launching
the Quit India Movement in August 1942 to press their demands; they were
not granted by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Gandhi coined the
slogan Quit India and also issued a Do or Die call at a speech during a
rally on 8 August at the Gowalia Tank Maidan grounds in Bombay, renamed
August Kranti Maidan (August Revolution Ground). In response to the
speech, the British imprisoned the entire Congress leadership. Most of the
Congress leaders spent the remaining years of World War II in jail. However,
the campaign touched a raw nerve among the masses, particularly the rural
poor suffering from the effects of the country s worst famine in 40 years.
Angry peasants across the country showed their ire against the British by
attacking police stations, post offices and other official facilities in the biggest
rebellion since the mutiny of 1857. The uprising, which caused a collapse of
government in many areas, was suppressed by mid-1943.
HISTORY
71
SUBHAS CHANDRA BOSE AND THE
INDIAN NATIONAL ARMY
A committed nationalist who was president of the Indian National
Congress, Subhas Chandra Bose went overseas during World War
II to garner support to oust the British from India. He formed
the Provisional Government of Free India and mobilised overseas
Indians, including members of the newly formed Indian National
Army (INA), to bring about the expulsion of the British. INA, made
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