Civil Disobedience in Indian Tradition, with Some Early Nineteenth Century Documents c4.3

c4.3

I shared this passage of Gandhiji with a number of friends several of whom had known Gandhiji personally and had many times participated in his non-cooperation and civil disobedience movements. I found them similarly fascinated with the information I had acquired. The fascination however, to an extent, was tinged with incredulity. It seemed to many that the above observation of Gandhiji was more symbolic of his idealisation of the past than a confirmation that non-cooperation and civil disobedience had been one of the traditional modes of protest against authority in India. The never ending repetition of claims that the ordinary people of India had from time immemorial been subservient to whoever ruled over them; that they had little or no regard for such mundane things as society or politics seemed to have had a deep impact not only on those who knew Gandhiji well and followed him into battle but equally on those who were considered hostile or even indifferent to him. Such incredulity, it seemed to me, could be met only through a more detailed search and assembling of primary material on the subject.