Gandhi
Debates are always on whether Gandhi got us independence or someone else. I won’t get into this debate at all. While a leader is important for any struggle, the followers and co-leaders are also part of this joint effort. So Gandhi did get us our independence, so did all the leaders and fighters and common people. Their participation secured us the independence.
This post is triggered by India’s Freedom - thoughts on how we got it 60 years down the lane.
I’ll take up just 2 things in this post. These example are not conclusive, just a side which gets sidelined.
Firstly the Dandi march. One man and his supporters trying to prove a point. Joined by countless in his journey. The Dandi march is an example of non-cooperation. The British put high taxes on basic commodities for people here. The Dandi march signified the refusal to pay taxes on salt. Salt is a natural product obtained from the sea water. And a basic ingredient in cooking. So why should we pay high taxes on a basic thing as salt. The Dandi march gave the docile public hope that by refusal to pay taxes, they are asserting their independence. It was an idea which fired up the people, who had adjusted to the fact that the British are here to stay. You can’t blame people who had adjusted to it. That is part of the Indian thinking process. Co-Existence. Live and let live. That does harm us sometimes but that is a part of us.
Secondly the charkha. Again its an idea which fired up the people. Someone who has not been a part of village life, would not be able to completely understand the significance of charkha. And Gandhi was from the elite class. But he travelled India in trains to understand how people in villages live, how they think, their needs and wants. For lack of a better word, I’ll call that a simple life. Food, clothes and shelter. Village people grow their own food, get clothes made locally and build shelter locally. More independent than city people. Food grown in India was used to feed the public as well as exported. Apart from food, British exported the cotton and other raw materials to their factories in Britain and then exported the ready made cloth to India to sell at higher prices. The charkha broke the chain, we have the raw materials present in India, we will make our own cloth and then our own clothes. Again the idea is small but its a paradigm shift in the thoughts of the people. Especially the majority of the people, who lived in villages. Get the majority to non-cooperate, you have the basic struggle self-started.
He hoped the charkha would assist the peoples of India achieve self-sufficiency and independence
