Mahatma Gandhi Dbq

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“To deprive a man of his natural liberty and to deny to him the ordinary amenities of life is worse than starving the body; it is starvation of the soul, the dweller in the body.” This is a quote by Mahatma Gandhi, which shows what the British did to the Indians by taking away their natural liberty. Mahatma Gandhi was not the only one that had fought against the British in order to gain back this natural liberty. There were many nationalist groups that formed during the time Britain ruled over India. Some of them were the Indian National Army, the Indian National Congress, the Hindu Mahasabha, and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Out of all these parties, the Indian National Congress was the most effective in driving out the British, since it created …show more content…
At that first session not many people attented, however in later years the number of delegates increased tremendously. As seen in the documentation of these sessions on the INC official website, at its 35th session in December of 1920, around 14,582 delegates attended the session! (“Sessions”). This shows how increasingly influential the INC was becoming, and how many people were joining in the effort to free their country. The Indian National Congress was also set up like a democracy, where everyone’s thoughts were expressed and taken into account, and that is why so many Indians started following the INC. The Congress also allowed all religions to be a part of the Congress, and the leaders did not discriminate against them. In his book, India’s Struggle for Independence, Bipan Chandra mentions how the Congress “included within its fold, individuals and groups which subscribed to widely divergent political and ideological perspectives” (16). This shows how diverse the Congress was and how it allowed people from every race, or a different political perspective, to have a say in the …show more content…
Whether or not the British could keep India the “jewel in the crown” with all the debt they had to pay after WW2, played a big role. In A Brief History of India, it mentions how “Instead of home charges, it was now Great Britain that was in debt to India” (Walsh, 200). With that in mind, the British Empire could not maintain its empire in India any longer. This shows how it might not have been all of the Congress’s doing, but it might have just been that the British had no other alternative to turn to. However, the INC did play a major role in this because it inspired many Indians to fight for their right and their freedoms. Walsh says in her book, A Brief History of India, that “ an Indian army mobilized at 10 times its normal strength had more than liquidated India’s debt to Great Britain”(200). Without the inspiration from the INC, the people of India would never have “mobilized at 10 times” their normal

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