Gandhi's Law-Breaking: Justified Or Not?

Mahatma Gandhi's legacy as a lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist is renowned for employing nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. However, Gandhi's path to becoming the Father of the Nation in India was not without controversy, as he was often deliberately breaking the law.

Gandhi's philosophy centred on the belief that his cause was just and that non-violent civil disobedience was morally acceptable. He argued that if a law was iniquitous, violated human rights, or went against his conscience, then it was the duty of citizens to break it. This stance was not without criticism, and Gandhi was arrested and imprisoned numerous times for his actions.

Gandhi's approach to civil disobedience was influenced by his reading of Henry David Thoreau's essay Civil Disobedience while in jail. He adopted the term to describe his strategy of non-violently refusing to cooperate with injustice but preferred the Sanskrit word satyagraha, meaning devotion to truth.

Gandhi's non-violent campaigns in India and South Africa inspired civil rights movements worldwide and continue to influence political thought today.

Gandhi's non-violent civil disobedience

Gandhi's strategy of non-violent protest was influenced by his time in South Africa, where he experienced racial discrimination and witnessed the injustice of the British Empire firsthand. He sympathised with the Boers during the Boer War but ultimately sided with Britain, believing that the Empire "existed for the benefit of the world". However, he soon became disillusioned with the Empire as he witnessed the negative impact of British rule on the Indian people, such as the destruction of their village-based cloth-making industry, which left millions impoverished.

Gandhi's non-violent approach was also evident in his response to religious violence between Hindus and Muslims. He opposed the partition of India and worked tirelessly to foster peace and unity between the two religious groups. Even in the face of threats and criticism from some Hindus, he persisted in his efforts to broker peace, ultimately giving his life for his beliefs.

The British salt tax

The tax was first imposed in 1835, with special taxes on Indian salt to facilitate its import, benefiting traders of the British East India Company. When the Crown took over the administration of India from the Company in 1858, the taxes remained.

The Great Hedge of India

The British sought to monopolise the salt trade and prevent the smuggling of cheaper salt from other regions. To achieve this, they constructed the Great Hedge of India, also known as the Indian Salt Hedge, a 2,500-mile-long barrier of thorny trees and bushes that served as a customs line. This physical barrier, guarded by thousands of officers, was designed to prevent desperate residents from obtaining salt from outside the areas controlled by the British.

The Great Hedge was a true feat of landscape design, requiring immense labour and underpinned by state-sponsored violence. It exacerbated famines, contributing to the deaths and sickness of millions through starvation and salt deprivation.

Opposition and Protests

The Indian public protested the salt tax from its inception. In 1885, at the first session of the Indian National Congress in Bombay, Congress Leader S. A. Saminatha Iyer raised the issue. Protests continued throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with Mahatma Gandhi's Salt Satyagraha in 1930 being a notable example.

Gandhi's famous Dandi March, during which he walked 240 miles to the sea to collect a pinch of salt, was a turning point in India's independence movement. Despite facing imprisonment, Gandhi and his followers persevered, and their actions eventually led to negotiations with British authorities.

Repeal of the Salt Tax

The salt tax remained in effect until 1946, when Jawaharlal Nehru became the prime minister of the interim government and repealed it. After independence, a salt tax was reintroduced in India in 1953 but was later scrapped and replaced by the Goods and Services Tax in 2017, which does not include a tax on salt.

Gandhi's imprisonment

Gandhi was imprisoned many times and for many years in both South Africa and India. Here is a timeline of his imprisonments:

South Africa Imprisonments:

Gandhi was imprisoned several times during his 21 years in South Africa. In 1907, he was arrested and put in jail for refusing to obey a law that required all Indians to register with the police and be fingerprinted. This was the first of many imprisonments for disobeying what he believed to be unjust laws.

In 1908, Gandhi was arrested and sentenced to two months of simple imprisonment for not registering or leaving Transvaal. He was released after a compromise was reached. Later that same year, he was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour for being unable to show his registration, which he had burned.

In 1909, Gandhi was arrested and sentenced to three months of imprisonment for not producing the required registration certificate.

In 1913, Gandhi was arrested three times during the 'great march' from Natal to Transvaal. The march was a protest against discriminatory laws that made it difficult for Asians in South Africa to move around the country and illegalised non-Christian marriages.

India Imprisonments:

Gandhi was also imprisoned several times in India during his leadership of the Indian independence movement. On April 10, 1919, he was arrested and taken to Bombay, where he was released the next day.

On March 10, 1922, Gandhi was arrested in Bombay on sedition charges and sentenced to six years in prison for protesting against the British colonial government. He was released after serving two years due to appendicitis.

On May 8, 1933, Gandhi was released from Yerawada Jail after starting a fast.

On August 1, 1933, Gandhi was arrested in Bombay and sentenced to one year of imprisonment. He was released on August 23 due to a serious health condition after starting a fast.

On May 5, 1930, Gandhi was arrested without trial and jailed for violating the British Indian government's salt laws during the Dandi March. He was released unconditionally on January 26, 1931.

On August 9, 1942, Gandhi was arrested under the Defence of India Rules and lodged in the Agakhan Palace Jail. He was released unconditionally on May 6, 1944.

The British Raj

One of the most significant acts of civil disobedience against the British Raj was the Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, led by Mahatma Gandhi in 1930. The 24-day march from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi was a nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly and the salt tax they imposed. On April 6, 1930, Gandhi symbolically broke the British Raj salt laws by making salt from seawater, inspiring millions of Indians to join the independence movement and challenging British authority. This act of civil disobedience was a turning point in India's struggle for independence and marked the beginning of a new phase in the freedom struggle.

The Indian National Congress

Gandhi's political career took off when he went to lead the satyagraha against the indigo merchants at Champaran in Bihar. He raised his voice against the unbearable exploitation of the indigo farmers of the region, employing his usual methods of non-violence, and he met with success. The British authorities were forced to accept the demands of the indigo workers. He repeated this success in Kheda, Gujarat, against the increasing revenues and taxes imposed by the government on the farmers in rural Gujarat. With these successes, Gandhi was hailed as the new light in the Indian political scenario.

Gandhi was elected as the president of the INC in 1921. He immediately introduced a number of reforms within the party ranks. The first responsibility that Gandhi undertook as president was to increase the reach of the party among the masses in remote corners in order to eradicate its elitist status. Gandhi famously stated that rural India was the very backbone of the country, both in economic and logistical terms. Therefore, no movement could be truly successful unless it was whole-heartedly supported by the inhabitants of the Indian villages. The first step that he took was to considerably reduce the membership fee of the party. Then he restructured the entire party hierarchy and opened new party branches in various provinces and princely states of India. Soon, Congress took on a national dimension, with membership multiplied manifold. Gandhi became the new guiding star of Indian politics, operating under the umbrella of the INC.

As president of the INC, Gandhi introduced the tenets and ideals of satyagraha, and the party saw the emergence of many new and charismatic leaders with great public appeal, who were loyal followers of Gandhi. By then, Lala Lajpat Rai had also become an admirer of Gandhi, despite their former differences. With such great following, the non-cooperation movement against the Rowlatt Act and the Amritsar tragedy naturally took on a massive national dimension.

Gandhi's innate belief in secularism was hurt by the British government's Communal Award rule, which reserved separate electorates for untouchables. He led Congress towards a full-fledged revolution. The highlight of the movement was the fast Gandhi undertook on 20 September 1932. His condition deteriorated, and soon the warring factions were forced to come to terms of commonality. There would be a common election for the Hindus, with the Harijans and other backward categories having seats reserved for them. The meeting with Ambedkar was successful, and a great cessation was avoided at Gandhi's initiative. The British policy of divide and rule suffered a setback. The elections proved a great success for Gandhi and the INC.

The Second World War placed a new dilemma for the INC. Congressmen were not very sure about which side to take. First, the INC, much under the influence of Gandhi, preferred to steer clear of what they thought was an exclusively European problem and a fight between imperialism and fascism. However, there were divisions within Congress, and it was gradually becoming difficult even for Gandhi to harness the contrasting ideologies under a single rein. The deadlock was broken when the British government promised to grant India self-rule in return for their support of the British forces in the war. Congress complied, and India extended its support to the British. However, the British authorities were in no mood to keep their promise, leading Gandhi to give the clarion call for satyagraha. Finally, the Quit India Movement was formally launched in 1942, with Gandhi inviting the nationalists to embark on a program of 'do or die'.

Gandhi's association with the INC ushered in one of the most glorious periods of the Indian nationalist movement. Throughout the troubled times, Gandhi, either in the capacity of president or as a guiding force within the party structure, successfully steered India towards its much-cherished dream of freedom, which was ultimately realised in 1947.

Frequently asked questions