The essence of Chapter 11, for last-minute revision: definitions, names, tables, a timeline and a recap. The full explanation lives separately in the detailed notes.
SatyagrahaKhilafat MovementNon-cooperationPurna SwarajSalt monopolyGandhi-Irwin PactSeparate electoratesPrati sarkarFortnightly Reports
1 Every definition, in one place
Learn these word for word
Satyagrahathe technique of non-violent protest Gandhiji first forged in South Africa
Khilafat Movement (1919-1920)a movement of Indian Muslims, led by Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, to keep the Turkish Khalifa’s control over Muslim sacred places
Non-cooperationa “renunciation of all voluntary association” with British government: leaving schools, colleges and courts, refusing to pay taxes
Purna Swaraj“complete independence”, adopted as the Congress goal at the Lahore session, December 1929
The salt monopolythe colonial law giving the state sole right to manufacture and sell salt, the target of the 1930 Salt March
The Gandhi-Irwin Pact (March 1931)called off civil disobedience and freed prisoners in exchange for only an assurance of future talks, not independence
Separate electoratesa system of voting by which a religious or social group elects its own representatives separately; Gandhiji opposed this for the Depressed Classes, Ambedkar supported it
Prati sarkarthe “parallel government” set up by younger Satara leaders in 1943, with seba dals and tufan dals
The two-nation theorythe idea Congress rejected even after Partition, that religion alone should determine nationhood
Direct Action Day16 August 1946, called by the Muslim League to press its demand for Pakistan; triggered riots in Calcutta
Harijan / A Bunch of Old LettersGandhiji’s own journal, in which he published others’ letters to him; Nehru’s 1958 published collection of movement-era correspondence
Fortnightly Reportsconfidential Home Department reports, compiled from local police information, on political conditions across the provinces
2 The chapter’s six sections, at a glance
| Section | What to remember |
|---|---|
| 1. A Leader Announces Himself | returns from South Africa, January 1915; BHU speech, February 1916, criticises the elite’s disregard for the labouring poor; approached about Champaran, December 1916 |
| 2. Making and Unmaking of Non-cooperation | Champaran (1917), Kheda/Ahmedabad (1918); Rowlatt Act and Jallianwala Bagh (1919); Non-cooperation + Khilafat (1920-22); ends after Chauri Chaura (February 1922) |
| 3. The Salt Satyagraha | Lahore Congress and Purna Swaraj (December 1929); Dandi March (March-April 1930); Gandhi-Irwin Pact (1931); Gandhi-Ambedkar debate on separate electorates |
| 4. Quit India | Cripps Mission fails (1942); Quit India begins (August 1942); prati sarkar at Satara; Direct Action Day (1946); transfer of power (15 August 1947) |
| 5. The Last Heroic Days | Calcutta fast, 15 August 1947; peace-making in Bengal and Delhi; assassinated 30 January 1948 by Nathuram Godse |
| 6. Knowing Gandhi | the chapter’s central theme: letters, autobiographies, police records and newspapers as four different, differently biased kinds of sources |
3 The Salt March, at a glance
| Aspect | What to remember |
|---|---|
| Started | 12 March 1930, from Sabarmati Ashram |
| Salt law broken | 6 April 1930, at Dandi |
| Why salt | a universal household necessity; the monopoly was a “fourfold curse” (Gandhiji’s own phrase) |
| Arrests | nearly 60,000 Indians arrested in its wake, Gandhiji included |
| Three reasons it mattered | world attention (heavy foreign press coverage); first mass movement with large women’s participation (Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay); forced the Round Table Conferences |
| Time magazine | mocked his “spindly frame”/”spidery loins” at first, called him “Saint” and “Statesman” within a week |
| Fortnightly Reports | Home Department called it “theatrical” and “impracticable”; by April, had to admit the Salt Act was “openly defied” in the United Provinces |
4 The Gandhi-Ambedkar debate
| Position | Argument |
|---|---|
| Gandhiji (Source 5) | separate electorates for the “Untouchables” would “ensure them bondage in perpetuity”; the real need was to destroy untouchability itself |
| Ambedkar (Source 6) | Hindu society worked to “bolt every possible door” against the Depressed Classes; political power was a “paramount necessity” for such a handicapped community to protect itself |
| The outcome | the second Round Table Conference was inconclusive; Gandhiji returned to India and resumed civil disobedience |
5 Knowing Gandhi: four kinds of sources
| Source | What it reveals | Its limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Private letters | a glimpse of private thought, anger, hope, frustration | the private-public line often blurs; some letters are written knowing they may be published (Harijan, A Bunch of Old Letters) |
| Autobiographies | a rich, human account of the past | retrospective, from memory; shaped by what the author wants remembered, “a way of framing a picture of yourself” |
| Police/government records | a contemporaneous administrative view (Fortnightly Reports) | reflects what officials saw, or wanted to believe, not raw ground truth |
| Newspapers | ordinary opinion and running coverage of events | never neutral; shaped by the publisher’s own political outlook |
6 Who’s who
| Name | What to remember them for |
|---|---|
| Chandran Devanesan | historian who called South Africa “the making of the Mahatma” |
| Justice C.N. Broomfield | presided over Gandhiji’s 1922 sedition trial; praised him as a “great patriot” while sentencing him |
| Shahid Amin | historian who studied peasant rumours about Gandhiji in eastern UP (Subaltern Studies III) |
| Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay | socialist activist who persuaded Gandhiji to include women in the Salt Satyagraha |
| B.R. Ambedkar | challenged Gandhiji’s claim to represent the lowest castes; argued for separate electorates |
| Jayaprakash Narayan | socialist Congress leader, active in the Quit India underground resistance |
| D.G. Tendulkar | Gandhiji’s biographer, recorded his 1947 peace-making work in Calcutta and Delhi |
| Nathuram Godse | assassinated Mahatma Gandhi on 30 January 1948 |
7 Timeline
1915Gandhiji returns from South Africa (January)
1917Champaran movement
1918Peasant movement in Kheda; workers’ movement in Ahmedabad
1919Rowlatt Satyagraha (March-April); Jallianwala Bagh massacre (April)
1921-22Non-cooperation and Khilafat Movements; Chauri Chaura (February 1922)
1928Peasant movement in Bardoli; Simon Commission agitation
1929“Purna Swaraj” adopted at the Lahore Congress (December)
1930Civil Disobedience Movement begins; Dandi March (12 March-6 April)
1931Gandhi-Irwin Pact (March); Second Round Table Conference (late 1931)
1935Government of India Act promises limited representative government
1939Congress ministries resign (October)
1942Cripps Mission fails; Quit India Movement begins (August)
1946Direct Action Day (16 August)
1947Transfer of power and Partition (15 August); Calcutta fast
1948Assassination attempt (20 January); assassinated (30 January)
Quick Revision · read this the night before the exam
- Gandhiji’s 1916 BHU speech announced his intent to make nationalism represent peasants and workers; Champaran, Kheda and Ahmedabad (1917-18) were his first, localised campaigns.
- Non-cooperation combined with Khilafat (1920-22) unleashed mass, often locally reinterpreted, action, ending after Chauri Chaura.
- The dhoti and charkha were deliberate symbols of identification with the poor; peasant rumours about Gandhiji reveal their hopes, not his actual powers.
- The Salt March (1930) targeted a universal grievance, brought world attention, drew large-scale women’s participation, and forced the Round Table Conferences.
- Ambedkar’s challenge over separate electorates exposed real limits to Gandhiji’s claim to represent all Indians; the Conference in London was inconclusive and Gandhiji resumed civil disobedience.
- Quit India (1942) was the last and most explosive mass movement; Congress’s imprisonment let the Muslim League expand into new territory.
- Partition (15 August 1947) came at what Gandhiji judged too high a price; his final months went into peacemaking, ending in his assassination on 30 January 1948.
- The chapter’s real subject is the sources themselves: letters, autobiography, police records and newspapers each reveal something different, and each has its own bias, so no single source should be read as a plain transcript of what happened.
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