Civil Disobedience
Directions:
Step 1: Read the quotes below and answer the two questions in your webquest packet.
Quotes: Gandhi
Satyagraha
Satyagraha: A central element of Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence. Translates to 'soul-force' or 'truth-force'
"Passive resistance is a method of securing rights by personal suffering; it is the reverse of resistance by arms. When I refuse to do a thing that is repugnant to my conscience, I use soul-force. For instance, the government of the day has passed a law which is applicable to me: I do not like it, if, by using violence, I force the government to repeal the law, I am employing what may be termed body-force. If I do not obey the law and accept the penalty for its breach, I use soul-force, It involves sacrifice of self." -Gandhi, Chapter XVII, Hind Swaraj
Non-Violence
In The Origin of Nonviolence, Gandhi offered a warning to those who were contemplating joining the struggle for independence.
"It is not all impossible that we might have to endure every hardship that we can imagine, and wisdom lies in pledging ourselves on the understanding that we shall have to suffer all that and worse. If some one asks me when and how the struggle may end, I may say that if the entire community manfully stands the tests, the end will be near. If many of us fall back under storm and stress, the struggle will be prolonged. But I can boldly declare, and with certainty, that so long as there is even a handful of men true to their pledge, there can only be one end to the struggle, and that is victory." -Gandhi, The Origin of Nonviolence
Step 2: Watch the video clip and write down three examples of Gandhi using or advocating nonviolence and/or civil disobedience.
Video clip: Gandhi EXPLAINING and using civil disobedience and nonviolence
Step 3: Read the Salt March primary source. Then answer the questions in your webquest packet,
Salt March (March 1930)
Primary source analysis:
Mohandas Gandhi, "Letter to Lord Irwin," March 1930.
Sabarmati, India (March 1930)
Dear Friend,
Before embarking on Civil Disobedience and taking the risk I have dreaded to take all these years, I would... approach you and find a way out. I cannot intentionally hurt anything that lives, much less human beings, even though they may do the greatest wrong to me and mine. Whilst therefore I hold the British rule to be a ruse, I do not intend to harm a single Englishman or to any legitimate interest he may have in India... And why do I regard the British rule a curse? Even the salt [the peasant] must use to live is so taxed as to make the burden fall heaviest on him... The tax shows itself still more burdensome on the poor man when it is remembered that salt is one thing he must eat more than the rich man...
My ambition is no less than to covert the British people through nonviolence, and thus make them the wrong they have done to India... But if you cannot see your way to deal with these evils and if my letter makes no appeal to your heart, on the eleventh day of this month I shall proceed with such co-workers of the Ashram [Community] as I can take, to disregard the provisions of the Salt Laws...
Step 4:
March on The Dharasana Salt Factory (May 1930)
Primary source analysis:
Webb Miller, "They That Turn the Cheek," I Found No Peace: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1936.
NOTE: The event described took place shortly after Gandhi was arrested for participating in the Salt March described above. Madam Sarojini Naidu was a well-known Indian poetess who was to take Gandhi's place should he be arrested. The author of this document, Webb Miller, was a foreign correspondent present at both the raid and the hospital where the wounded (320 injured and two dead) were taken afterwards. This is the report he filled.
The Dharasana Salt Works, 150 Miles of Bombay, India (May 21, 1930)
Madame Naidu called for prayer before the march started and the entire assemblage knelt. She exhorted them: "Gandhi's body is in jail but his soul is with you. India's prestige is in your hands. You must not use any violence under any circumstances. You will be beaten but you must not resist; you must note even raise a hand to ward off blows." Wild, shrill cheers terminated her speech...
At times the spectacle of unresisting men being methodically bashed into a bloody pulp sickened me so much that I had to turn away. The Western mind finds it difficult to grasp the idea of nonresistance.