In this article, we discuss the objectives of individual satyagraha from 1940 to 1941.
Congress had resigned from all the posts and Congress could not understand what to do next. Congress had also rejected the August Offer.
Congress went to Gandhiji with this problem and Gandhiji did not want to do any big movement.
The first reason for this was that the public becomes uncontrollable in the mass movement and starts doing violence and Gandhiji wanted non-violence.
The second reason was that the Britishers were busy in World War II and at this time they did not want to embarrass them.
Gandhiji thought of doing Individual Satyagraha at this time and convinced everyone.
Objectives of Individual Satyagraha:
The objective of the Individual Satyagraha was not Purna Swaraj but that everyone should have the right to speak.
Gandhiji wanted to bring Right to Speech because every time Britishers used to suppress the voice of Indians like -
1. Lord Linlithgow decide the Indian leaders to fight in World War II without asking.
2. In order to suppress Indian revolutionary activities, the Britishers imposed the Defense of India Act 1940.
3. To prevent Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Press, and Right to Organise, the British Government had also imposed a lot of Ordinances.
With the Individual Satyagraha, Gandhiji wanted to tell the whole world that the Britishers are asking us to participate in World War II without asking. This means even the right to speak has been taken away from India.
Apart from this, Gandhiji wanted to give this message to the world that the claim of the British government is absolutely wrong, we are not with the Britishers in World War II.
For all these reasons, Gandhiji kept the Individual Satyagraha objective Freedom of Speech.
Individual Satyagraha took place in Two Phases. The first phase took place from October 1940 to December 1940. The second phase took place from January 1941 to December 1941.
In the first phase, Satyagrahis used to go from village to village and give speeches until the police arrested them.
Before giving the speech, the satyagrahi used to inform the district magistrate about both the place and time of giving the speech.
Acharya Vinoba Bhave was the first Satyagrahi of Individual Satyagraha. He was the spiritual disciple of gandhiji. He started giving speeches on 11 October 1940 from Pawanar, Maharashtra.
He almost went from village to village and gave speeches for 10 days. He was arrested on 21 October 1940.
The second Satyagrahi was Jawaharlal Nehru. He was also arrested on 31 October 1940.
The third Satyagrahi was Brahmadatta. Most people could not join this phase.
On 14 December 1940, Gandhiji stopped this movement for some time. But a few days later, on January 1941, the movement was started again, hence it is also called phase II.
A large number of people joined this phase. The reason for this was that the individual satyagrahi used to give speeches and also used to ask people to go to Delhi with him.
At that time the slogan "Chalo Delhi" was also given. That is why this movement is also called the "Delhi Chalo" movement.
Thousands of people went to Delhi with the Satyagrahis. By 18 May 1941, about 20,000 people were arrested in Individual Satyagraha under the Defense of India Act, 1941.
With this, the movement gradually cooled down. Then in December 1941, the Congress Working Committee passed a resolution that they could support the British in World War II but the British government will have to give complete freedom after the war is over.
With this resolution, the second phase of Individual Satyagraha came to an end.
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