Civil Disobedience Movement in The Punjab 1930-1934

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Mahatma Gandhi started the Civil Disobedience Movement on 11 April 1930 by breaking the salt laws at Dandi. However, the Salt Satyagraha could not be as successful in other states as it was in Gujarat due to a number of factors. The Sikhs were at first indifferent to the movement but later with the intensification of the movement, they started boycotting foreign cloth. Picketing of temples and liquor shops was also started. In 1931, the movement was discontinued after the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. Later in the year, Gandhiji went to England to attend the Second Round Table Conference. Due to the failure of the Conference, the Civil Disobedience Movement was resumed but was crushed by the Government which was prepared for the step. In the Punjab, only the boycott of foreign cloth could achieve a measure of success. The author, in this book, details the factors which gave rise to the Civil Disobedience Movement, its progress and achievements in the Punjab. He also writes about the treatment meted out by the Government to the political prisoners in the Punjab.

D. R. Grover (b. 1943) is working as a Lecturer in D.N. College, Hisar. He has done his post-graduation in Political Science and History. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1983. Earlier he was working as a Lecturer in D.A.V. College, Panda, Haryana.

During the Civil Disobedience Movement, wrote Lala Duni Chand, a well known Advocate of Ambala, the Punjab was the only province in which forces opposed to growth of the sense of national unity and solidarity and inimical to the develop- ment of the spirit of nationalism, and patriotism existed in abundance. Three communities, viz. Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus inhabited this land and each one of them pulled its own way. Muslims were a majority community, yet due to various factors including differences over the withdrawal of the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1922, the Simon Commission, the Nehru Report, etc. they drifted away from the Congress and when the Civil Disobedience Movement came, majority of them decided to keep aloof. The Sikhs were a minority community, but still they were divided over their attitude towards the Nehru Report and the Civil Disobedience itself for the participation in which they wanted the price of getting their colour included in the National Flag. Nor were the Hindus united among themselves on the various political issues involved in India's struggle for freedom. They had their own groups like the Arya Samaj and Sanatan Dharam Sabha which pulled the different ways. Such was the situation in Punjab when Mr Gandhi gave a call for Civil Disobedience in 1930. The Punjab was divided not only between its three major communities which suffered from mutual rivalries between them but also among different factions and groups into which each community was further divided and which was bound to hamper the growth of nationalist movement in the province.

**Contents and Sample Pages**