The Swadeshi Movement and the Boycott of Imported Items in 1907 in India

 Gandhi was an influential figure in our society. He taught many people about equal rights, honouring

India began its fight on March 12, 1930 with the Salt March, led by Gandhi, to put an end to European sovereignty. The European's maltreated the Indian natives. Indians had no control in their homelands, many were even treated as slaves. Many Indians including Gandhi, grew vexed with how the Europeans had been treating them.

That incident is what many believed sparked Gandhi’s desire for change. This event immediately led to the formation of the Natal Indian Congress in 1894, which was an organization aimed to fight racial discrimination against Indians in South Africa. The next major event that Mahatma Gandhi initiated was the fight for Indian Liberation against British-ruled India thru boycotts, passive revolts, and nonviolent resistance. But the most significant act of nonviolent protest Gandhi led was the Salt March, which was an act of civil disobedience against the British salt tax, in which it was illegal for Indians to make or sell salt. This movement gained a lot of media attention all over the world, and eventually the salt tax was

In 1757, Great Britain extended its empire into India. This occupation would not fully end until 1947. In the time between, there were many movements by the Indian people to gain independence from the British. The movement that finally succeeded in winning India’s independence was led by one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Gandhi’s methods for fighting against the occupation of the British were very different from those of any of the freedom movements before. And that was why it worked. Gandhi did not agree with the general reasoning of the time: that conflicts could be solved through negotiation and forceful resistance.1 Rather, his faith led him to go

The general cause of the Indian Independence Movement was India’s desire for independence from British, French and Portuguese Rule. The aim of the movement was “Swaraj, a self-governing India” (Sharma, 2005, p. 22). One, more specific, cause of the Indian Independence Movement took place in 1905 when the province of Bengal was divided into two provinces,

The Indian resistance against the British empire is one example of opposition against imperialism. Until 1858, India was controlled by the British East India Company. Thereafter, the crown rule replaced the company rule until 1947. “The slow expansion of the Indian role in public affairs would not have occurred without mounting political pressure from Indian society” (Findley 188). The people of India had tried to cause a reform through a political channel, evident through the slow yet steady participation in political affairs from 1858-1947. In this resistance,

He outed the moral and political philosophy of satyagraha, or nonviolent resistance, which he had developed while in South Africa. His message to Indians was simple: develop your own resources and control the instincts and activities that encourage membership in colonial economy and government, and you shall achieve swaraj or self-rule. Faced with Indian self-reliance and self-control pursued nonviolently, Gandhi claimed, the British eventually would have to leave. When the Depression struck India in 1930, Gandhi asked for his people not to use salt showing his new way of civil disobedience. Salt symbolized tasked the Indians' defeat to an alien government. To break the colonial government's control, Gandhi began a 240-mile march from western India to the coast to gather sea salt for free. With him were seventy-one followers representing different regions of India. Thousands of people met around and encouraging them to hold independence from British rule. (Pollard, Rosenberg, Tignor 2015 Pages

After World War I, India established organizations known as the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League to lead their efforts toward independence. Wilson’s Fourteen Points and the Russian Revolution played a major role. Mahandes Gandhi, an Indian nationalist, led the movement toward independence for India. He was raised as a Hindu and studied law in England. He was opposed to the idea of the caste or class system especially the exclusion of the Untouchables. During his leadership, the British allowed the Indians to “self-rule”, but this lifestyle was rejected by the Muslims because the wanted complete independence. As a

Throughout the year’s many historians have compilated and examined why Indian people were so desperate to gain back their independence from the British Empire during their rule over India, from 1612 to 1947. The reasoning can most definitely be found as the British discriminated against Indian people as they believe that they were inferior; it is no surprise that Indian people fought so hard for their independence. Throughout the British Raj, they placed and put forward unbelievably racist acts and laws which discriminated against Indian people. Which of course led to Indian’s rebelling against the British rule and thus many massacres and rebellions occurred during their ruling. Thus, answering why Indian people fought so desperately for

Following the Mutiny of 1857, Indian nationalism gained much more momentum than had previously existed in the first part of the century. This movement consisted mostly of British-educated intellectuals, and ironically was made possible by the British encouragement of higher education, originally intended to create a middle management that could carry out simple administration jobs. Most of the Indian nationalists - most notably Ghandi - were educated in Western Europe and were well-read in Western notions of freedoms, civil liberties and autonomy. The Indian National Congress was the largest and most obvious nationalist group, formed so that "educated Indians...could express dissatisfaction with the British colonial administration and suggest reforms." (Cowie, 36, 1994) This Congress, however, had no power in terms of action and it can be seen as an attempt by the British to appease Indian nationalists who wanted progress. The seeming uselessness of the Indian National Congress in terms of enforcing changes and reforms can be seen as a great cause of Indian resentment of British nationalism. Even so, a nationalist

This massacre solidified the nationalist movement within India and inspired people to fight for their nationalist rights and independence. After this, Mohandas Gandhi became the leader of the Indian National Congress and expanded the nationalist group to include a wider variety of people. His nationalist beliefs also led him to boycott British manufactured goods in favor of Indian products. In one of his most famous demonstrations, the salt march, he “waded into the water and drew out a pitcherful, which he boiled to extract the salt.”

Though he is widely known for his efforts in India, Gandhi first employed civil disobedience in South Africa, when he practiced as a lawyer and the Indian community was struggling for civil rights. On his return to India, however, Gandhi realized South Africa was not the only place Indian civil liberties were being denied (Johnson). British occupation of India came with unfair policies for the Indian people, so on his return home, Gandhi began organizing protests for peasants, farmers, and urban laborers concerning excessive land-tax and discrimination (Farzani). Then in 1921, after he took leadership of the Indian National Congress, Gandhi led campaigns to ease poverty, expand women's rights, build religious and ethnic amity, put an end to the caste system, and increase economic self-reliance. Paramount to all of these issues remained, however, gaining independence for India from British rule (Lauter).

This can be seen by Mahatma Gandhi's strikes and other actions of nonviolent resistance against the British occupying India after

During World War I, Gandhi had an active part in recruiting campaigns by launching his new movement of non-violent resistance to Great Britain (Byers 202). When Parliament passed the Rowlatt Acts in 1919, Satyagraha, which means insistence on truth, spread throughout India, recruiting millions of followers. British soldiers massacred Indians at Amritsar as a demonstration against the Rowlatt Acts. In 1920 the British government failed to make peace, which resulted in Gandhi organizing a campaign of non-cooperation (Andrews 103). There was chaos in India as the public

The final Halite monopoly to be discussed will be that of the British Empire in colonial India in the late 19th century and early 20th century. This policy imposed on the Indian people was so harsh it caused food shortages almost every year along with populist uprising with the same frequency. The most famous of these uprisings would be one of nonviolence and massive civil disobedience. This revolt was led by Mohandas Gandhi in March of 1930. Gandhi