Swaraj

Also called: Self-rule · Topic: The National Movement: Gandhian Era · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 2 "Nationalism in India"; Class 12, Ch 3 "Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement"

Meaning

Swaraj means "self-rule": Indians governing themselves instead of being ruled by the British. In 1920 Gandhi made it the goal of the Non-Cooperation Movement and promised that swaraj would come within a year if Indians fully stopped cooperating with British rule.

It matters because one word united very different groups. Students, lawyers, merchants, mill workers, peasants and hill tribes all joined the same movement. Each group, however, understood "swaraj" in its own way.

Explanation

The idea: Hind Swaraj (1909)

• Gandhi set out his idea of swaraj in Hind Swaraj, which he wrote in 1909.
• His main claim: British rule did not rest on guns alone. It rested on Indian cooperation.
• Indians worked for the Raj as clerks, police, soldiers, lawyers and teachers.
• Indians bought British cloth and voted in councils the British had set up.

• So if Indians withdrew this help, British rule would fall and swaraj would follow.

• The method was satyagraha (non-violent resistance). The struggle had to stay peaceful, and the protesters' own suffering was their weapon.

Swaraj joined with Khilafat (1919–20)

• After the First World War, the winners began to break up the Ottoman Empire of Turkey. Its Sultan was also the Khalifa, the religious head of Muslims worldwide.
• The Khilafat Committee was formed at Bombay in March 1919 under Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali.
• Gandhi saw a chance to bring Hindus and Muslims into one movement. He did not see Khilafat as a bargaining chip. He saw it as a real wrong done to Indian Muslims.
• Calcutta special session, September 1920: Gandhi proposed non-cooperation for Khilafat and swaraj together and won the other leaders over. [2]
• Nagpur session, December 1920: the Congress formally adopted the non-cooperation programme as its policy. [2]

The path to swaraj: planned stages

• The plan went step by step, not all at once: 1. Give up titles granted by the government. 2. Boycott (refuse to use or take part in) the civil services, army, police, courts, legislative councils, schools and foreign goods. 3. If the government responded with repression (using force to crush protest), move to full civil disobedience, which meant openly breaking unjust laws.

• Britannica describes the same programme: give up titles, boycott government schools, courts, service, foreign goods and elections, and finally refuse to pay taxes. [2]

What swaraj meant on the ground (1921–22), and the result

• In the towns: students left government schools, teachers resigned and lawyers gave up their practice. Council elections were boycotted in most provinces. The exception was Madras, where the non-Brahman Justice Party contested the elections.
• The economic boycott: imports of foreign cloth fell from Rs 102 crore to Rs 57 crore in 1921–22. Foreign cloth was burnt in public bonfires.
• Workers: in 1921 there were 396 strikes involving 6 lakh workers.
• The same word meant different things to different groups:
• Awadh peasants refused to pay taxes and rents to talukdars (big landlords).
• Kumaun hill people refused begar, which was forced, unpaid carrying of officials' loads.
• Andhra hill tribes broke the forest laws by grazing cattle and cutting wood in closed forests.

• These groups often acted against the wishes of local Congress leaders. To them, "Gandhi's swaraj" meant an end to rent, to begar and to forest rules.

• Why the towns slowed down: khadi (hand-spun, hand-woven cloth) cost more than mill cloth, so the poor could not afford it. National schools and courts were also slow to come up, so many students and lawyers went back.

• The end: at Chauri Chaura (Gorakhpur district) in February 1922, a crowd set fire to a police station and policemen were killed. Gandhi called off the movement because the satyagrahis were not trained in non-violence.
• The result: swaraj did not come within a year. Still, the Raj was shaken more than at any time since 1857.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the Gandhian era. The idea goes back to Hind Swaraj (1909). The mass campaign for swaraj ran from January 1921 to February 1922.
• Key places: Calcutta and Nagpur (the Congress sessions), Bombay (the Khilafat Committee), Madras (the Justice Party exception), Awadh, Kumaun, the Andhra hills, and Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur district, United Provinces.
• Key people: Mahatma Gandhi, and the Ali brothers (Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali).
• How we know:
• Gandhi's own text Hind Swaraj (1909).
• Congress resolutions passed at Calcutta and Nagpur in 1920. [2]
• Trade figures for foreign cloth imports, and records of strikes and lost workdays.
• The record of Gandhi's sedition trial at Ahmedabad (March 1922). It was based on his articles in Young India and was heard before Judge C. N. Broomfield, who sentenced him to six years. [3][4]

Don't confuse with

• Hind Swaraj (1909): this is Gandhi's book. Swaraj is the goal it describes. An exam may ask for the year of the book, not of the movement.
• Purna Swaraj (Lahore Congress, 1929): this was the demand for complete independence. The 1920–22 promise of "swaraj in a year" did not spell out full independence.
• Swaraj Party (Swarajists): a group formed after Non-Cooperation was withdrawn. It chose council entry, the very thing Non-Cooperation had boycotted.
• Khilafat: a pan-Islamic cause about the Turkish Khalifa. In 1920 the Congress joined it to swaraj, but the two were separate demands.

Prelims Hooks

• Gandhi wrote Hind Swaraj in 1909. It argued that British rule survived because of Indian cooperation.
• Gandhi promised swaraj within one year if non-cooperation was carried out fully.
• Non-cooperation for Khilafat and swaraj was proposed at Calcutta (September 1920) and adopted at Nagpur (December 1920). [2]
• Group and form of protest: Awadh peasants refused taxes; Kumaun hill people refused begar; Andhra hill tribes broke forest laws.
• Trap: the Justice Party of Madras (non-Brahman) did not boycott the council elections.
• Chronology: Hind Swaraj (1909) → Khilafat Committee (March 1919) → Nagpur session (December 1920) → Chauri Chaura (February 1922).

Mains Points

• One word, many meanings. To Congress leaders, swaraj was a political goal. To Awadh peasants it meant no rent, in Kumaun no begar, and in Andhra free use of the forest. This was the strength of Gandhian mass politics, because it united very different groups. It was also its weakness, because the leaders could not control what they had started.
• Swaraj through means, not just ends. Gandhi tied swaraj to non-violence, so he withdrew the movement after Chauri Chaura instead of chasing quick gains. Critics say this demoralised the ranks and pushed younger nationalists towards revolutionary politics and Swarajist council entry. Defenders say it saved the movement from crushing repression. Either way, means over ends became the Congress's working rule.
• Swaraj and Hindu-Muslim unity. Linking swaraj to Khilafat produced the high point of joint action. But it rested on a religious issue from abroad. When Mustafa Kemal abolished the Caliphate (1924), the link broke and communal tension returned in the mid-1920s.

Related concepts

• Hind Swaraj
• Khilafat movement
• Ali brothers
• Caliphate
• Jazirat-ul-Arab
• Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
• Calcutta special session 1920
• Nagpur session 1920
• Non-cooperation movement
• Louis Fischer

Read more

• Non-Cooperation and Khilafat, 1920–22