![]() Increased party membership and funds to support the cause followed the surprise of the arrest and the public news of the conviction. The arrest signified his recognition by the British government as the principal leader of the national independence movement, and the Congress became an organization with broad geographic and social boundaries. Instead, it had another consequence it strengthened his resolve and his reputation in the eyes of the Indians. The sentence of six years’ imprisonment could have marked the end of the struggle that Gandhi had supported up to that moment for the liberation of India. When he was harshly criticized throughout India for canceling the campaign, he replied, “God spoke clearly through Chauri Chaura.” “We dare not enter the Kingdom of Liberty with mere lip-homage to Truth and Nonviolence.” A strengthening sentence the Indian Nationalist Party, and canceled the campaign of civil disobedience he imposed on himself five days of fasting to atone for the violence of the massacre. As soon as he was informed of the incident, Gandhi convened a meeting of the Congress Party, i.e. The few policemen who came out were either killed outright or pushed back into the fire, where they died. In anger, the demonstrators set fire to the barracks. The police fired a few shots and then took refuge in the barracks. A group of latecomers, who were catching up with the procession, were insulted by the police a brawl ensued. On February 5, in Chauri Chaura, a demonstration took place in an orderly manner, passing in front of the police station. One was particularly dramatic, with 22 deaths. For the viceroy, accepting the demand was impossible, as it seemed like a surrender of the government. The viceroy was called on to restore “the freedoms of speech, association and the press and release the innocent people who had been imprisoned,” otherwise civil disobedience would begin. ![]() A successful outcome would give him the opportunity to extend it to all of India. All possible measures must be taken to avoid any manifestation of violence.” On February 1, Gandhi called for civil disobedience, but only in the Bardoli district of his province. Civil disobedience never leads to anarchy. He wrote in January 1922: “I hope to be able to persuade everyone that civil disobedience is an inalienable right of every citizen. The campaign was launched on the basis of three social aims: the unity between Hindus and Muslims, the abolition of the caste of the “untouchables,” and the use of local raw materials, with the promotion of khadi, that is the wide-ranging invitation to wear clothes made of cotton cloth personally hand-woven by each individual, to boycott clothes manufactured in Britain. He called it by an innovative term, satyagraha, the force of truth, synonymous with nonviolent resistance. Gandhi launched his first campaign for independence in November 1921. This was “the great trial.” Civil disobedience After 1922, he was arrested many more times, but a trial never followed. However, he added that he saw in Gandhi “a man of high ideals and noble life, declaring himself sorry that such a man had made it impossible for the government to let him go free.” This was Gandhi’s last trial. Therefore, he sentenced him to six years in prison. It was not difficult for the magistrate to prove that the bloody events of the previous months in Chauri Chaura and Bombay called into question the responsibility of the accused. I have no doubt whatsoever that England will have to answer, if there is a God above, for this crime against humanity, which is perhaps unequalled in history I am endeavoring to show to my countrymen that violent non-co-operation only multiplies evil, and that as evil can only be sustained by violence, withdrawal of the support of evil requires complete abstention from violence.” Therefore, he asked the judge for the maximum sentence for the crime, or – if he agreed with him – to resign from office. Before the judge he declared himself a “weaver and farmer,” guilty of having instigated “non-co-operation” with the British government and to have fomented disaffection because “the government established by law in British India is constituted for the exploitation of the masses. We want to compel its submission to the people’s will.” March 18, 1922: the great trial In the first he had written: “The British Empire, built on the systematic exploitation of the physically weaker races of the earth and on a deployment of brute force, cannot last, if there is a just God who rules the universe.” In the third article he openly proclaimed, “We want to overthrow the Government. He was accused of sedition because of three articles published in his weekly magazine, Young India. A century ago, in March 1922, Mahatma Gandhi was arrested.
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