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History & Civics

Gandhiji launched the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930. In this context, answer the following questions :

(a) Policy of repression followed by the Government.

(b) Spread of the movement.

Mahatma Gandhi

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Answer

(a) To repress the Civil Disobedience Movement, the Government took the following measures:

  1. The government resorted to firing, lathi charges, and large scale imprisonment. More than a lakh of Satyagrahis were put in jails. Innocent people were tortured cruelly.
  2. Land, houses and property of the people were confiscated.
  3. The government started negotiations with Gandhiji in jail. This resulted in signing of a pact by Gandhiji and Lord Irwin, the Viceroy, in March 1931. This is known as the Gandhi-Irwin Pact.
  4. Gandhiji and other nationalist leaders were arrested.
  5. The Congress was declared an illegal organisation.
  6. Press censorship was imposed.
  7. The administration began to be carried through special ordinances.
  8. The Government announced the famous Communal Award in 1932 and gave separate electorates to the Harijans. Due to efforts of Gandhiji, the Hindus and the Harijans agreed to have joint electorates.

(b) Mahatma Gandhi was arrested in hopes that it would suppress the movement. The whole country was shocked but inspired at the news of his arrest. Swiftly, a lawbreaking movement swept across the country. A National Week was celebrated from April 6 to 13. The people of Mumbai (Bombay), Chennai (Madras), Bengal, UP and Central Provinces violated the Salt Law by making salt illegally. Where it was not possible to break the Salt Law, people violated other laws to oppose the Government. There was defiance of forest laws in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Central provinces and refusal to pay chawkidari tax in eastern India. In the North-West Frontier Province, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (the Frontier Gandhi) organised the red shirt volunteers (the Khudai Khidmatgars) and launched an intense but non-violent anti-government movement in various ways. All over the country the law and order stood suspended. The movement also reached the eastern parts of India where the people of Manipur came forward to join the movement.

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