Civil Disobedience Movement

Civil disobedience is also referred to as passive resistance, which is the refusal to obey the commands or demands of any Government or occupying power without resorting to active measures or violence of the opposition. Its normal purpose is to force concessions either from the Government or occupying power.

Civil disobedience has been a primary philosophy and tactic of nationalist movements in India and Africa, of labor, anti-war, and other social movements and in the American civil rights movement in several countries. This is the simple civil disobedience movement meaning.

When did the Civil Disobedience Movement Take Place?

Following the celebration of Independence Day in 1930, the first Civil Disobedience Movement was launched under Gandhi's leadership. Towards civil disobedience movement started with the famous Dandi March of Gandhi. On March 12, 1930, Mahatma Gandhi set off on foot from the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad with 78 other Ashram members for Dandi, a village on India's western seacoast about 385 kilometres from Ahmedabad.

Towards civil disobedience movement started, on Apr 6 1930, they reached Dandi. And there, Gandhi broke the "salt law." It was said to be illegal for anyone to make salt because it was a government monopoly. Gandhi has defied the Government by picking up a handful of salt, where it had been formed by the evaporation of sea. The salt law's defiance was followed by the spread of the first Civil Disobedience Movement across the entire country. Making of this salt spread throughout the country stood in the first phase of the first civil disobedience movement, and it has become a symbol of the people's defiance of the Government.

In Tamil Nadu (South), C. Rajgopalchari has led a march similar to the Dandi march-from the place Trichinopoly to Vedaranyam. In Gujarat, in Dharsana, Sarojini Naidu, who is a famous poetess, was a prominent leader of the Congress. She had served as the president of Congress, led nonviolent satyagrahis in a march to the salt depots that are owned by the Government. Around 300 satyagrahis were heavily injured and two were killed in the brutal lathi-charge by the police. There were hartals, demonstrations, a boycott of foreign goods, and after the refusal to pay taxes. People of lakhs participated in the movement, including a large number of women on a large count.

In 1930 Nov, the British Government convened the first round table conference in London to consider the reforms that were proposed by the Simon Commission. The Congress - fighting for the independence of the country have boycotted it. But, it was attended by the representatives of the Muslim League, Indian princes, Hindu Mahasabha and a few others. But nothing has come out of it and the British Government came to know that without the participation of the Congress, no decision on the constitutional changes in India would be acceptable to all the Indians.

In the early 1931s, some efforts were made by Viceroy Irwin to persuade Congress to join the second round table conference. There was an agreement reached between Irwin and Gandhi, according to which the Government agreed to release all the political prisoners against whom there were no violence charges.

Congress was to suspend the civil disobedience movement. Several nationalist leaders were unhappy with this agreement. And, however, its Karachi session was held in March 1931 and it was presided over by Vallabhbhai Patel. After that, Congress has decided to approve the agreement and participate in the second round table conference. Followed by that, Gandhi was chosen to represent the Congress at the conference that met in 1931 Sep.

At the congress' Karachi session, an essential resolution of the economic policy and fundamental rights was passed. It laid down the nationalist movement policy on economic and social problems that the country was facing. It was mentioned that the fundamental rights would be guaranteed to the people, irrespective of religion and caste. And also, it favored the promotion of Indian industries, the nationalization of certain industries and schemes for the welfare of peasants and workers.

This resolution has shown the growing influence of the ideals of socialism on the nationalist movement. Other than Gandhi, who was the sole congress' representative, there were the other Indians who had participated in this conference. They included the Indian princes, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communal leaders. These leaders have played into the British hands. Mainly, the princes were interested in preserving their particular position as rulers.

And, the communal leaders had been chosen by the British Government to attend the conference. They have claimed to be representatives of their respective communities, but not the country, though their influences within the communities were also limited. Being alone, Gandhi as the representative of the Congress, has represented the whole country.

Neither the communal leaders nor the princes were interested in the independence of India. As a result, no agreement could be achieved, and the second round table discussion was called off. Following Gandhi's return to India, the Civil Disobedience Movement was revived. Also, the repression of the Government had been continuing even while the conference was going on and this time, it was intensified.

Gandhi, with the other leaders, was arrested. The efforts of the Government to suppress the movement may be viewed from the fact that in around a year, 120000 persons were sent to jail. In 1934, the movement was withdrawn. In 1934, Congress passed a very important resolution. It has demanded that a constituent assembly, which is elected by the people based on the adult franchise and is convened.

Then, it declared that only such an assembly could frame the constitution for India. Thus, it asserted that only the people had the right to decide the government form under which they would live. Though Congress had failed to achieve its own objective, it had succeeded in mobilizing the number of sections of the people in the second great mass struggle that happened in the country. Also, it had adopted some radical objectives for the Indian society's transformation.

An Example on the Place Associated With Civil Disobedience Movement

Let us look at an example of the civil disobedience movement started from which place, the salt march and the civil disobedience movement.

During the 1950s, the American civil rights movement rose to prominence, based in part on Gandhi's example, and sought to end racial segregation in the southern United States, which was accomplished by using civil disobedience tactics and philosophy in protests such as the Greensboro (North Carolina) sit-in (in 1960) and the Freedom Rides (1961). And, the quit india movement started in the year 1942 and the place associated with the civil disobedience movement is called Dandi.

In 1968, Jr. Martin Luther King, a leader of the movement, which is from the mid-1950s to his assassination, was an articulate defender of its nonviolent protest strategy. Later, the tactics of civil disobedience were employed by several protest groups within a wide range of movements, including the movement of women, the environmental and anti-nuclear movements, and also the economic equality and anti-globalization movements.

The principle of civil disobedience has achieved something standing in international law through the war crime trials. After World War II, the notion that individuals can be held accountable for failing to follow their respective country's laws was affirmed in Nürnberg, Germany.