UPSC IAS exam preparation - India's Independence Struggle - Lecture 11

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The Civil Disobedience Movement

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

The catalyst to the new phase of the Congress movement was provided when, in November 1927, the British Government appointed the Indian Statutory Commission, known popularly after the name of its chairman as the ‘Simon Commission’, to go into the question of further constitutional reform. 

2.0 The Simon Commission

The Government of India Act 1919 had introduced a system of diarchy to govern the provinces in India. According to the provisions of this Act, a commission was to be appointed after 10 years to investigate the progress under this Act and suggest a scheme of further reforms. In March 1927, the British Government announced its decision to appoint a Statutory Commission in advance of the prescribed date. The composition of the commission and its mandate was announced in November 1927. It consisted of seven members picked up from the three main political parties of the British parliament under the chairmanship of Sir John Simon.

This announcement was greeted by a chorus of protest from all Indians. What angered them most was the exclusion of Indians from the Commission and the basic notion behind this exclusion that foreigners would discuss and decide upon India's fitness for self-government. In other words, the British action was seen as a violation of the principle of self-determination and a deliberate insult to the self-respect of the Indians. At its Madras session in 1927, presided over by Dr. Ansari, the National Congress decided to boycott the Commission "at every stage and in every form." There was split in the Muslim League on the response to be articulated regarding the Simon Commission. One group led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah was in favor of boycotting the Commission. Another group led by Mohammad Shafi supported the Government. There were two parallel sessions of the Muslim league in 1927. One led by Jinnah at Calcutta and the other led by Shafi at Lahore. The Hindu Mahasabha also decided to support the Congress decision. In fact, the Simon Commission united, at least temporarily, different groups and parties in the country, except the Shafi faction of the Muslime league.

All important Indian leaders and parties also tried to meet the challenge of the Simon Commission by getting together and trying to evolve an alternative scheme of constitutional reforms. Tens of conferences and joint meetings of leading political workers were held. The end result was the Nehru Report named after its chief architect, Motilal Nehru, and finalised in August 1928. Unfortunately, the All Party Convention, held at Calcutta in December 1928, failed to pass the Report. Objections were raised by some of the communal-minded leaders belonging to the Muslim League.

2.1 Jinnah's 14 points

In a meeting of the Muslim League held in 1929 in Delhi, Mr. Jinnah repudiating the Nehru Report emphasized the need of a vigorous movement for the protection of the security and interests of the Muslim community. Jinnah also put forward his famous "Fourteen Points", which embodied among other things demand for a separate electorate, reservation of seats for the Muslims in the Provincial Assemblies, etc.

Jinnah's Fourteen Points were as follows: 

1. The future constitution of India should be federal in form.
2. A uniform measure of autonomy should be enforced in all the Provinces.
3. There should be adequate and effective representation of Minorities in every Province.
4. In the Central Legislature the Muslim representation should not be less than one- third.
5. Communal groups should be represented by means of separate electorates as at present.
6. The territorial redistribution should not in any way affect the Muslim majority in the Punjab, Bengal and North-West Frontier Province.
7. Full religious and political liberty should be guaranteed to all communities.
8. No Bill or resolution should be passed that might be injurious to any of the Minority communities. 
9. Sindh should be separated from the Bombay Presidency.
10. Reforms should be introduced; in the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan on the same line as in other Provinces.
11. The Muslims should get an adequate share in the governmental services and local self-governing bodies.
12. The Constitution should include provisions adequately safeguarding the Muslim culture and learning.
13. In all the Provincial and Central Cabinets Muslim Ministers should be taken in at least in the proportion of one-third, and 
14. Any change in the Constitution should have the concurrence of the Provincial Assemblies.

It should also be noted that there existed a basic difference between the politics of the nationalists and the politics of the communalists. The nationalists carried on a political struggle against the alien Government to win political rights and freedom for the country. This was not the case with the communalists, Hindu or Muslim. Their demands were made on the nationalists; and on the other hand, they usually looked to the foreign government for support and favours. They frequently struggled against the Congress and cooperated with the Government.

2.2 The protests

Far more important than the proceedings of the All Parties Conference was the popular upsurge against the Simon Commission. The Commission's arrival in India led to a powerful protest movement in which nationalist enthusiasm and unity reached new heights. 

On 3 February, the day the Commission reached Bombay, an all India hartal was organised. Whenever the Commission went, it was greeted with hartals and black-flag demonstrations under the slogan 'Simon Go Back'. The Government used brutal suppression and police attacks to break the popular opposition.

The anti-Simon Commission movement did not immediately lead to wider political struggle because Gandhi, the unquestioned though undeclared leader of the national movement, was not yet convinced that the time for struggle had come. But popular enthusiasm could not be held back for long for the country was once again in a mood of struggle.

2.3 Poorna Swaraj

The National Congress soon reflected this new mood. Gandhi came back to active politics and attended the Calcutta session of the Congress in December 1928. He now began to consolidate the nationalist ranks. The first step was to reconcile the militant left-wing of the Congress. Jawaharlal Nehru was now made the President of the Congress at the historic Lahore session of 1929. This event had its romantic side too. Son had succeeded the father (Motilal Nehru was the President of the Congress in 1928) as the official head of the national-movement, marking a unique family triumph in the annals of modem history.

The Lahore session of the Congress gave voice to the new, militant spirit. It passed a resolution declaring Poorna Swaraj (Complete Independence) to be the Congress objective. On 31 December 1928 was hoisted the newly adopted tri-colour flag of freedom! 26 January 1930 was fixed as the first Independence Day, which was to be so celebrated every year with the people taking the pledge that it was "a Crime against man and God to submit any longer" to the British rule. The Congress session also announced the launching of a civil disobedience movement. But it aid not draw up a programme of struggle. That was left to Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress organisation being placed at his disposal. Once again the nationalist movement led by Gandhi faced the government. The country was again filled with hope and exhilaration and the determination to be free.

3.0 The Civil Disobedience Movement and the Salt Satyagraha

In 1930 in order to help free India from British control, Mahatma Gandhi proposed a non-violent march protesting the British Salt Tax, continuing Gandhi's pleas for civil disobedience. The Salt Tax essentially made it illegal to sell or produce salt, allowing a complete British monopoly. Since salt is necessary in everyone's daily diet, everyone in India was affected. The Salt Tax made it illegal for workers to freely collect their own salt from the coasts of India, making them buy salt they couldn't really afford.

Before embarking on the 240-mile journey from Sabarmati to Dandi, Gandhi sent a letter to the Viceroy himself, forewarning their plans of civil disobedience:

"If my letter makes no appeal to your heart, on the eleventh day of this month I shall proceed with such co-workers of the Ashram as I can take, to disregard the provisions of the Salt Laws.  I regard this tax to be the most iniquitous of all from the poor man's standpoint. As the Independence movement is essentially for the poorest in the land, the beginning will be made with this evil."

The Civil Disobedience Movement was started by Gandhi on 12 March 1930 with his famous Dandi March. Together with 78 chosen followers, Gandhi walked nearly 375 km from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, a village on the Gujarat sea-coast. Day after day, newspapers reported his progress, his speeches and the impact on the people. Hundreds of village officials on his route resigned their jobs.

On April 5, 1930 Gandhi and his satyagrahis reached the coast. After prayers were offered, Gandhi spoke to the large crowd. He picked up a tiny lump of salt, breaking the law. Within moments, the satyagrahis followed Gandhi's passive defiance, picking up salt everywhere along the coast. A month later, Gandhi was arrested and thrown into prison, already full with fellow protestors.

The Salt March started a series of protests, closing many British shops and British mills. A march to Dharshana resulted in horrible violence. The non-violent satyagrahis did not defend themselves against the clubs of policemen, and many were killed instantly.  Gandhiji declared:

"The British rule in India has brought about moral, material, cultural, and spiritual ruination of this great country. I regard this rule as a curse. I am out to destroy this system of Government... Sedition has become my religion. Ours is a non-violent battle. We are not to kill anybody but it is our dharma to see that the curse of this Government is blotted out."

The movement now spread rapidly. Violation of salt laws all over the country was soon followed by defiance of forest laws in Maharashtra, Karnataka and the Central Provinces and refusal to pay the rural chaukidari tax in Eastern India. Every where in the country people joined hartals, demonstrations, and the campaign to boycott foreign goods and to refuse to pay taxes. Lakhs of Indians offered Satyagraha. In many parts of the country, the peasants refused to pay land revenue and rent and had their land confiscated. A notable feature of the movement was the wide participation of women. Thousands of them left the seclusion of their homes and offered Satyagraha. They took active part in picketing shops selling foreign cloth or liquor. They marched shoulder to shoulder with the men in processions.

The movement reached the extreme north-western comer of India and stirred the brave and hardy Pathans. Under the leadership of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, popularly known as the ‘Frontier Gandhi’, the Pathans organised the society of Khudai Khidmatgars (or Servants of God), known popularly as Red Shirts. They were pledged to non-violence and the freedom struggle. Another noteworthy incident occurred in Peshawar at this time. Two platoons of Garhwali soldiers refused to open fire on non-violent mass demonstrators even though it meant facing court martial and long terms of imprisonment. This episode showed that nationalism was beginning to penetrate the Indian army, the chief instrument of the British ruler.  

Similarly, the movement found an echo in the eastern-most corners of India. The  Manipuris took a brave part in it and Nagaland produced a brave heroine in Rani Gaidilieu, who at the age of 13 responded to the call of Gandhi and the Congress and raised the banner of rebellion against foreign rule. The young Rani was captured in 1932 and sentenced to life imprisonment. She wasted her bright youthful years in the dark cells of various Assam jails, to be released only in 1947 by the Government of free India. 

Jawaharlal Nehru was to write of her in 1937: "A day will come when India also will remember her and cherish her".

3.1 The British Government's reaction

The government's reply to the national struggle was the same as before - an effort to crush it through ruthless repression, lathi charges and firing on unarmed crowds of men and women. Over 90,000 satyagrahis, including Gandhiji and other Congress leaders, were imprisoned. The Congress was declared illegal. The nationalist Press was gagged through strict censorship of news. According to official figures over 110 persons were killed and over 300 wounded in police firings. Unofficial estimates place the number of dead far higher. Moreover, thousands of persons had their heads and bones broken in lathi charges. South India in particular experienced repression in its most severe form. The police often beat up men just for wearing khadi or Gandhi caps.

3.2 The Round Table conferences

Meanwhile, the British Government summoned in London in 1930 the first Round Table Conference of Indian leaders and spokesmen of the British Government to discuss the Simon Commission Report. But the National Congress boycotted the Conference and its proceedings proved abortive.

The Government now made attempts to negotiate an agreement with the Congress so that it would attend the Round Table Conference. Finally, Lord Irwin and Gandhiji negotiated a settlement in March 1931. The Government agreed to release those political prisoners who had remained non-violent and conceded the right to make salt for consumption as also the right to peaceful picketing of liquor and foreign cloth shops; the Congress suspended the Civil Disobedience Movement and agreed to take part in the Second Round Table Conference. Many of the Congress leaders, particularly, the younger, left-wing section, were opposed to the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, for the government had not accepted even one of the major nationalist demands. It had not agreed even to the demand that the death sentence on Bhagat Singh and his two comrades be commuted to life imprisonment. This, till today, remains a very controversial decisions taken by Gandhiji during the Congress movement for Independence.

But Gandhiji was convinced about the sincerity of Lord Irwin and the British in their desire to negotiate on Indian demands. His concept of Satyagraha included the need to give the opponent every chance to show a change of heart. His strategy was based on the understanding that a mass movement must necessarily be of short duration and could not go on for ever, for the people's capacity to sacrifice was not endless. Consequently, a phase of extra-legal mass struggle must be followed by a more passive phase when political struggle was carried on within the four walls of the law. Gandhiji had moreover negotiated with the Viceroy on equal terms and, thus, at one stroke enhanced the prestige of the Congress as the equal of the Government. He prevailed upon the Karachi session of the Congress to approve the agreement.

The Second Round Table Conference was held in London in September 1931. Gandhi went to England to attend it along with Sarojini Naidu, Mahadev Desai, G.D. Birla and Madan Mohan Malviya. He powerfully advocated for the immediate grant of Dominion status to India which was refused. This led to the failure of the Second Round Table Conference. Moreover, Gandhi discovered how the British wanted to apply "divide and rule" policy through their proposed constitution. On his return Gandhi resumed the Civil Disobedience movement in 1932.

When the Civil Disobedience movement was resumed, the Government took stern measures to suppress it. The new Viceroy, Lord Willingdon was determined to crush it. The Congress was declared an illegal body and special ordinances were made to arrest the Satyagrahis. Gandhi and many other Congress leaders were arrested in January 1932. Over a lakh of Satyagrahis were jailed and the properties of some of them were confiscated.

3.3 The Communal Award and the Poona Pact

 In August 1932, the Government announced the communal Award which provided separate electorates for Muslims, Sikhs and depressed classes.  Mahatma Gandhi termed the Communal Award of Ramsay MacDonald as "injection of a poison calculated to destroy Hinduism and do no good whatever". 

Gandhi strongly opposed the communal award on the grounds that it would disintegrate Hindu society. He began an indefinite hunger strike from September 20, 1932 to protest this award. In view of the mass upsurge generated in the country to save the life of Gandhi, and appeals of orthodox Hindu leaders, Congress politicians and activists, Dr. Ambedkar, the leader of the Dalits and an attendee at the Round Table Conference, was compelled to soften his stand and agreed to joint electorates. As a result of the agreement, a compromise between the leaders of upper caste Hindus and the depressed classes was reached on September 24, 1932, popularly known as the Poona Pact signed in the Yerwada Jail where Mahatma Gandhi was on hunger strike. The resolution announced in a public meeting on September 25 in Bombay confirmed -"henceforth, amongst Hindus no one shall be regarded as an untouchable by reason of his birth and they will have the same rights in all the social institutions as the other Hindus have".

In the meanwhile, peasant unrest had developed in several parts of the country as peasants found that the fall in the prices of agricultural products because of world depression had made the burden of land revenue and rent unbearable. In U.P., the Congress agitated for reduction of rent and prevention of eviction of tenants. In December 1931, the Congress started a no-rent, no-tax, campaign. The government's response was to arrest Jawaharlal Nehru on 26 December, In the North-West Frontier Province the Khudai Khidmatgars were leading a peasant movement against the Government's land revenue policy. On 24 December, their leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, was arrested. Peasant struggles were also developing in Bihar, Andhra, U.P., Bengal and Punjab. On his return to India, Gandhiji had no choice but to resume the Civil Disobedience Movement.

3.4 The end of the Civil Disobedience movement

The new Viceroy Lord Willingdon believed that a major error had been made in signing a truce with the Congress and this time the British were fully determined and prepared to crush the Congress. In fact, the bureaucracy in India had never relented. Just after the signing of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, a crowd had been fired upon in East Godavari, in Andhra, and four persons were killed simply because the people had put up Gandhi's portrait. 

On 4 January 1932, Gandhiji and other leaders of the Congress were again arrested and the Congress declared illegal. The normal working of laws was suspended and the administration carried on through special ordinances. The police indulged in naked terror and committed innumerable atrocities on the freedom fighters. Over a lakh of satyagrahis were arrested; the lands, houses, and other property of thousands was confiscated. Nationalist literature was banned while the nationalist newspapers were again placed under censorship.

Human ability to withstand pain is inherently not infinite. Government repression succeeded in the end. It was also helped as it was by the differences among Indian leaders on communal and other questions due to the policy of Divide and Rule followed by the British Government. The Civil Disobedience Movement gradually waned. 

The Congress officially suspended the movement in May 1933 and withdrew it in May 1934. Gandhiji once again withdrew from active politics. Once again many political activists felt despair. As early as 1933, Subhas Bose and Vithalbhai Patel had declared that "the Mahatma as a political leader has failed". 

Willingdon, the Viceroy, had also declared: "The Congress is in a definitely less favourable position than in 1930, and has lost its hold on the public". But in reality this was not so. True, the movement had not succeeded in winning freedom, but it had succeeded in further politicising the people, and in further deepening the social roots of the freedom struggle. As R.N. Brailsford, the British journalist, put it, as a result of the recent struggle Indians "had freed their own minds, they had won independence in their hearts". A true measure of the real outcome, the real impact, of the Civil Disobedience Movement was the heroes' welcome given to political prisoners on their release in 1934.

Leading individuals in Indian Independence movement in 1920s and 30s

1. Perhaps the great proponent of non-violence, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1890–1988) is needed today by the Pakhtuns, who have been victims of extreme violence for the last thirty seven years. He started a secular non-violent movement in 1929 by establishing a movement called 'Khudai Khidmatgaar' (Servants of God). That earned him the title of the 'Frontier Gandhi'. This was a progressive and non-violent movement in a very conservative Islamic and violent Pakhtun society.
2. Lovingly called 'Bacha Khan' by his followers, he was close to Mahatma Gandhi and was part of the All India Congress. He did not believe in the communal slogan of having a separate homeland for Indian Muslims. But once Partition became inevitable, he opposed the referendum, which gave the people of North West Frontier Province (NWFP, now known as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) two options: they could either join India or they could join Pakistan.
3. Ghaffar Khan and his brother Khan Sahib, then Chief Minister of NWFP, wanted the referendum to include a third option of an autonomous Pakhtunistan after the withdrawal of the British. But their demands were not agreed upon — they encouraged the big Khans to join hands with the mullahs of NWFP and support All-India Muslim League. A Cunningham policy note of 23 September, 1942 reads: “Continuously preach the danger to Muslims of connivance with the revolutionary Hindu body. Most tribesmen seem to respond to this.” In another paper, referring to the period 1939–43, he says: “Our propaganda since the beginning of the war had been most successful. It had played throughout on the Islamic theme.” (Adeel Khan 2005)
4. But once Pakistan came into existence, Ghaffar Khan expressed allegiance to the new country by taking oath in the Assembly in 1948. He tried to reconcile with Muhammad Ali Jinnah and, during a meeting in Karachi, invited him to visit the Khudai Khidmatgar office in Peshawar. But the meeting never happened as the new Chief Minister Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan sabotaged it with Ghaffar Khan — he told Jinnah that he would be assassinated if he came to NWFP for the meeting.
5. At the same time Jinnah removed the government of Ghaffar Khan’s brother Khan Sahib soon after the inception of Pakistan. This political move also pulled Ghaffar Khan away from Jinnah. To top it all, Ghaffar Khan was arrested in 1948 without any charges and imprisoned until 1954.
6. After his short-lived freedom, he was arrested for protesting against the establishment of One Unit in West Pakistan in 1956. One Unit was made to undermine the majority of East Pakistan by creating an artificial parity between the East and West wing of the country. It also merged the NWFP, Sindh and Punjab provinces.
7. General Ayub's government offered ministry to Ghaffar Khan which was declined by him. He was kept in prison by the Ayub regime until 1964 when he was released due to deteriorating health conditions.
8. After his treatment in Britain, he went into exile in Afghanistan. He came back to Pakistan in 1972 when the National Awami Party, led by his son Khan Abdul Wali Khan, established the government in NWFP and Balochistan. But again the freedom was short lived and he was arrested by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s government in 1973 in Multan. On his release he lamented: "I had to go to prison many a time in the days of the British. Although we were at loggerheads with them, yet their treatment was to some extent tolerant and polite. But the treatment which was meted out to me in this Islamic state of ours was such that I would not even like to mention it to you."
9. His last political activity was a movement against building of Kala Bagh Dam, which he considered would damage vast areas of NWFP.
10. He died in Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar in 1988. And according to his wish he was buried in Jalalabad. This is still held against him by his critics who consider him a traitor to Pakistan. This is in spite of him coming to terms with the creation of Pakistan and taking oath in the Assembly. Pakhtun nationalists have reconciled with the idea because over the last seventy years of Pakistan their businessmen, middle class and working class have developed strong economic interests in other provinces of the country. Ghaffar Khan throughout his life continued to struggle for the maximum autonomy of his province within the framework of Pakistan — a political position that was not acceptable to the strong centre advocates in the establishment.

1. Sarojini Naidu was born on 13 February, 1879 in Hyderabad to a philosopher and scientist Aghor Nath Chattopadhyay and Barada Sundari Devi. She was also known as "Nightingale of India" or “Bharatiya Kokila” and was an Indian Independence activist, poet and politician. Do you know at the childhood stage she wrote a play "Maher Muneer" and due to it she earned a scholarship and went to abroad for further studies. At the age of 12, she started a career in literature. She went for higher education in London and Cambridge at the early age. This play also impressed the Nawab of Hyderabad and gained popularity.
2. She received scholarship at the age of 16 from the Nizam of Hyderabad and went to London King's College. There, Nobel Laureates Arthur Simon and Edmond Gausse advised her to focus on Indian themes for writing. To depict her poetry, she covered Indian Contemporary life and events. No doubt she became an incredible poet of the 20th century by expressing her feelings, emotions and her experiences through poems.
3. In London, during her college days she fell in love with Padipati Govindarajulu Naidu a non-Brahmin and a physician. She was brave enough and showed honesty for her love and got married at the age of 19 in 1898. She had four children namely Jayasurya, Padmaja, Randheer and Leilaman.
4. Her political career started in 1905 when she became the part of Indian National Movement. In India in 1915-18, she travelled different regions, places and deliver lectures on social welfare, women's empowerment and nationalism. In 1917, she established Women's Indian Association (WIA).
5. In 1925, she became the president of Indian National Congress. She participated in Salt Satyagraha in 1930 and in South Africa she also presided the East African Indian Congress.
6. Do you know that British government also awarded her the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal for her work during the plague epidemic in India. She played an important role in Quit India Movement. During this period, British government arrested and put her in jail.
7. In 1905, her first collection of poems was published named 'The Golden Threshold'. Also, in 1961, Padmaja Naidu the daughter of Sarojini Naidu, published her second collection of poems named 'The Feather of the Dawn' which was written in 1927.
8. Sarojini Naidu became the first women governor of India and served as the governor of United Provinces of Agra and Awadh from 1947 to 1949.
9. Several institutions like Sarojini Naidu Medical College, Sarojini Naidu College for Women, Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication, Sarojini Devi Eye hospital have been attributed to the most influential personality of India i.e. Sarojini Naidu.
10. She died on 2 March, 1949 due to cardiac arrest at the Government House in Lucknow. She had been the strongest advocate of the Father of the Nation "Gandhiji" and had supported him in every ideology to make India free form the British rule. She was nick named as Mahatma Gandhi’s “Mickey Mouse”.

1. Early life : Mahadev Desai was born on 1 January 1892 in the village of Saras in Surat District of Gujarat to Haribhai Desai a school teacher and his wife Jamnabehn. Jamnabehn died when Desai was only seven years of age. In 1905, aged 13, Mahadev was married to Durgabehn. He was educated at the Surat High School and the Elphinstone College, Mumbai. Graduated with a BA Degree, he passed his L.L.B in 1913 and took job as inspector in central co-operative bank in Bombay. 
2. Gandhi's associate : Mahadev Desai first met Gandhi in 1915 when he went to meet him to seek his advice on how best to publish his book (a Gujrati translation of John Morley's English book On Compromise).Desai joined Gandhi's Ashram in 1917 and with Durgabehn accompanied him to Champaran that year. He maintained a diary from 13 November 1917 to 14 August 1942, the day before his death, chronicling his life with Gandhi. In 1919 when the colonial government arrested Gandhi in Punjab, he named Desai his heir. Desai was for the first time arrested and sentenced to a year in prison in 1921. He was Gandhi's personal secretary for 25 years, but as Verrier Elwin wrote of him, "he was much more than that. He was in fact Home and Foreign Secretary combined. He managed everything. He made all the arrangements. He was equally at home in the office, the guest-house and the kitchen. He looked after many guests and must have saved 10 years of Gandhi's life by diverting from him unwanted visitors". Rajmohan Gandhi writes of Mahadev Desai thus: "Waking up before Gandhi in pre-dawn darkness, and going to sleep long after his Master, Desai lived Gandhi's day thrice over — first in an attempt to anticipate it, next in spending it alongside Gandhi, and finally in recording it into his diary".
3. Political activism : In 1920, Motilal Nehru requisitioned the services of Mahadev Desai from Gandhi to run his newspaper, the Independent, from Allahabad. Desai created a sensation by bringing out a hand-written cyclostyled newspaper after the Independent's printing press was confiscated by the British government. Desai was sentenced to a year's rigorous imprisonment for his writings in 1921 – his first stint in prison. In prison, Desai saw that the jail authorities mistreated prisoners, frequently flogging them. His report describing the life inside an Indian jail, published in Young India and Navajivan, compelled the British authorities to bring about some drastic jail reform measures. Desai took over as editor of Navajivan in 1924 and from 1925 he began the translation into English of Gandhi's autobiography and its serial publication in the Young India. The following year he became chairman of the executive committee of the Satyagraha Ashram and won a prize from the Gujarati Sahitya Parishad for his article in Navajivan. He took part in the Bardoli Satyagraha along with Sardar Patel and wrote a history of the Satyagraha in Gujarati which he translated into English as The Story of Bardoli.[4] For his participation in the Salt Satyagraha, he was arrested and imprisoned but following the Gandhi- Irwin Pact, he was released from jail and accompanied Gandhi to the Second round Table Conference along with Mirabehn, Devdas Gandhi and Pyarelal. He was the only person to accompany Gandhi when the latter met with King George V. Following the collapse of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and the deadlock at the Round Table Conference, Gandhi restarted the Civil Disobedience Movement. The colonial government, under the new Viceroy, Lord Willingdon, was determined to crush the movement and ordered a clampdown on the Indian National Congress and its activists. In 1932, Desai was arrested again and sent to prison with Gandhi and Sardar Patel. Following his release in 1933, he was re-arrested and detained in the Belgaum Jail. It was during this time in prison that he wrote Gita According to Gandhi which was posthumously published in 1946. He also played a role in organising people's movements in the princely states of Rajkot and Mysore in 1939 and was put in charge of selecting satyagrahis during the Individual Satyagraha of 1940. Desai's final prison term followed the Quit India Declaration of 8 August 1942. He was arrested on the morning of 9 August 1942 and, till his death of a massive heart-attack six days later, was interred with Gandhi at the Aga Khan Palace. Desai was 51 at the time of his death.
4. Death and legacy : Mahadev Desai died of a heart attack on the morning of 15 August 1942 at the Aga Khan Palace where he was interned with Gandhi. When Desai stopped breathing, Gandhi called out to him in agitation: "Mahadev! Mahadev!" When he was later asked why he had done so, Gandhi answered: "I felt that if Mahadev opened his eyes and looked at me, I would tell him to get up. He had never disobeyed me in his life. I was confident that if had he heard those words, he would have defied even death and got up". Gandhi himself washed Desai's body and he was cremated on the Palace's grounds, where his samadhi lies today.

1. Ambedkar was born on 14th of April 1891 in Madhya Pradesh. He extensively campaigned against social discrimination of Untouchables (Dalits). He was the architect of the Constitution of India which came into effect on 26th January 1950. Ambedkar was very good at studies and earned various doctorates. His full name is Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar & his famously known as Babasaheb.  
2. He was a social reformer, politician, economist, professor & lawyer. He was the 14th child of his parents & was born in low-caste (Mahar - Dalit). His father was a ranked army officer in British East India army & his ancestors have worked for long in British East India Company's army.
3. His Brahmin teacher, Mahadev Ambedkar, who was fond of him changed his surname from Ambavadekar to Ambedkar. His alma mater includes University of Mumbai, Columbia University, University of London & London School of Commerce. Ambedkar was India's first Law Minister. He was also the first Indian to pursue a doctorate in Economics abroad.
4. Ambedkar married twice, first to Ramabai and next to Dr. Sharada Kabir. His son from the second wife was Yashwanth. Ambedkar's grandson, Ambedkar Prakash Yashwanth is the chief advisor of Buddhist Society of India.  
5. He was the person responsible for reducing the Factory working hours from 14 hours to 8 hours.
6. He framed many laws for Woman Labors of India which includes Mines Maternity Benefit, Woman Labor welfare fund, Woman & Child, Labor Protection Act.
7. He resigned from the cabinet when the Parliament was unable to pass his bill to support Women & gender equality.
8. Reserve Bank of India has been adopted based on Ambedkar's instructions only.
9. It took 2 years & 11 months time for Ambedkar to prepare the Constitution of World's Largest Democracy. He is also known Father of Indian Constitution. Ambedkar has made research on various constitutions which were available at that time. But preparing a Constitution in just under 3 years is a great achievement.
10. Since 1948, Ambedkar suffered from Diabetes and was bed ridden from 1954. He died in his sleep on 6th December 1956. In 1990, he was posthumously conferred with India's highest honor Bharat Ratna  

Dr Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi in the Round Table Conference

Mahatma Gandhi in London, 1931

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