Page 76 - GANDHI A Biography for Children and Beginners

GANDHI – A Biography for children and beginners

trusted colleague, Sardar Patel to organize the struggle in Bardoli. The British

Government decided' to crush the movement with ruthless repression. The huts

and pots and pans of the poor peasants were confiscated. Their oxen and
buffaloes were impounded and removed. Their ploughs were taken away. The

Government announced that the lands that had been confiscated would be sold

in auction. Peasants starved; hid their belongings; dismembered their carts and

buried the parts to hide them from the eyes of the police. But no one yielded.
Reports of the atrocious repression and the courageous resistance of the people

spread all over India. Contributions started pouring in from all over India.

Gandhi announced that he would personally take over the leadership of the
campaign if the Sardar was arrested. He moved to Bardoli. Meanwhile, the

Governor of Bombay went to consult the Viceroy. He told the Viceroy that the

question was whether the writ of the Government was to run in the District.

But in a few days, the Government decided to climb down.

It revoked the increase in taxes; released all prisoners; returned confiscated

lands and property; and returned the cattle, or paid compensation for their

loss. People agreed to pay taxes at the old rates. Th6 peasants of Bardoli and
their leaders Sardar Patel and Gandhi had set an example that other districts in

India could follow.

Meanwhile, there was increasing scepticism about the Governments' talk of

constitutional reforms. Hardly anyone believed that the Government was ready

to transfer power. Even moderate Congressmen were disillusioned. The younger

leaders in the Congress were no longer prepared to countenance British rule in
India. They, therefore, wanted the Congress to declare that it was no longer

satisfied with "Dominion Status" within the British Empire. Nothing short of total

Independence could satisfy Indian aspirations. They felt that the time had come

to demand complete Independence, and the ending of the chapter of Imperial
presence in India. Young leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Chandra

Bose were for complete Independence. Gandhi had begun as a loyal subject,

but turned a rebel. He too had been in support of Dominion Status. But he too
had begun to feel that the economic, political and moral ruin of India that had

www.mkgandhi.org Page 75