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Part One: Non-violent Resistance To Injustice
A British-educated lawyer, Mohandas Gandhi first employed his ideas of peaceful civil disobedience in the Indian community's struggle for civil rights in South Africa.
Gandhi found that the people who ruled South Africa were passing a law to take away more of the Indians' rights. Already, most Indians were forbidden to own homes or businesses. The new law would forced them to be finger-printed like criminals and to carry identification cards.
A huge crowd of Indians gathered in Johannesburg to decide what to do. Gandhi had called them together, but he didn't know what to tell them. He only knew it was better to die than to live with such a terrible law.
Then, while he stood before that angry crowd, a plan came to him. He remembered his hard night in the freezing railroad station at Maritzburg, when he had been thrown off the train because of the color of his skin. That night he was as angry as he had ever been. Yet he controlled his anger and he didn't fight back. Violence never makes anything better, he said to himself. That is my answer. So now he stood in front of the angry Indians and he told them his plan.
Refuse, Gandhi said. 'Refuse to obey the terrible laws and accept any punishment without violence. Don't fight back. But never give up. Never give up until we are treated fairly and equally by the law.
As Gandhi finished speaking, every man and every woman stood up. With a thousand voices, the enormous crowd spoke to Gandhi. "We refuse to obey these laws, they said. We will work together without violence, even if we are punished by death."
Gandhi called his plan "civil disobedience." He meant that the Indians would disobey the unfair laws in a sincere, calm, and respectful way. If they were hit or hurt or put in prison, they would accept it bravely without hatred or anger.
The movement of civil disobedience spread rapidly across South Africa. This was an entirely new way of fighting. Ordinary people came to Gandhi to help. Many of them were afraid, but their desire to help was stronger than their fear. They became warriors without weapons, filled with courage and determination.
Gandhi realized he needed another name for this new way of fighting against injustice. It wasn't just disobedience. It was much harder. Finally he decided to call it satyagraha, which means "holding on to truth" no matter how terribly you are treated. The struggle continued for eight years in South Africa.
Gandhi, however, had no time to rest. He had been thinking more and more about India, and how his people were suffering under the British rulers there. After twenty years in South Africa, he needed to go home.
Upon his return to India, he organized poor farmers and labourers to protest against oppressive taxation and widespread discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for the alleviation of poverty, the liberation of women, for brotherhood amongst differing religions and ethnicities, for an end to caste (class) discrimination, and eventual independence for Indian from the British Empire. Gandhi famously led Indians in the disobedience of the salt tax on the 4248 miles Dandi Salt March in 1930, and in an open call for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years on numerous occasions in both South Africa and India.
Throughout his life, Gandhi remained committed to non-violence and truth even in the most extreme situations. A student of Hindu philosophy, he lived simply, and was self-sufficient in its needs. Making his own clothes—the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl woven with a charkha, he lived on a simple vegetarian diet. He used rigorous fasts, for long periods, for both self-purification and protest. Gandhi's life and teachings inspired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and through them the American civil rights movement.
Part Two: Amritsar Massace
The Amritsar Massacre, occurred on April 13, 1919, when British Indian Army soldiers under the command of General Reginald Dyer opened fire on an unarmed gathering of men, women and children. The firing lasted about 10 minutes and 1600 rounds were fired. Official sources place the casualties at 379. According to private sources, the number was over 1600, with more than 2000 wounded.
On April 13, thousands of people gathered in the in the heart of Amritsar, one of the major cultural, religious, and commercial towns of Punjab state. The occasion was Baisakhi Day, a religious day. A tradition had been established for Hindus and Sikhs to gather in Amritsar to participate in the Baisakhi festival. Legally, the gathering in the Bagh was in violation of the law banning gatherings of five or more persons in the city, a term of martial law.
A group of British Indian Army soldiers consisting of 25 riflemen from the 1/9 armed with rifles marched to the park accompanied by two armoured cars. The vehicles were unable to due to the narrow entrance.
The troops were commanded by Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer who, immediately upon entering and without the slightest warning to the crowd to disperse, ordered his fifty riflemen to fire, concentrating especially on the areas where the crowd was thickest. The firing started at 5:15pm and lasted for about ten to fifteen minutes. During the shooting a total of 1650 rounds were discharged into the crowd.
Dyer later said"I think it quite possible that I could have dispersed the crowd without firing but they would have come back again and laughed, and I would have made, what I consider, a fool of myself.".
Dyer said he would have used his machine guns if he could have got them into the enclosure, but these were mounted on armoured cars. He said he did not stop firing when the crowd began to disperse because he thought it was his duty to keep firing until the crowd dispersed, and that a little firing would do no good. He confessed that he did not take any steps to tend to the wounded after the firing. "Certainly not. It was not my job. Hospitals were open and they could have gone there," was his response.
Questions: (on a separate piece of paper). Please attach these questions to the video questions of you missed any part of the video.
Part One
  1. What incident helped Gandhi first think of the idea of non-violence?
  2. What were Gandhi and his followers protesting in South Africa?
  3. What is satyagraha? Why did Gandhi use this word?
  4. Did Gandhi’s methods work in South Africa and why or why not?
  1. What were Gandhi’s goals in India and what methods did he use?
Part Two
  1. Why were people gathering that day at Amristar?
  2. What was the British Army response to the gathering?
  3. Did General Dyer know about the gathering, what were his plans to stop it?
  4. Why did the Genral have his troops keep firing?
  5. Did General Dyer show any remore for what happened?