NCERT Book Class 12 History Chapter 11 Mahatma Gandhi and National Movements

286 THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY – PART III

Mahatma Gandhi and
THEME
the Nationalist Movement
ELEVEN
Civil Disobedience and Be yond

In the history of nationalism a single individual is often identified with
the making of a nation. Thus, for example, we associate Garibaldi
with the making of Italy, George Washington with the American War
of Independence, and Ho Chi Minh with the struggle to free Vietnam
from colonial rule. In the same manner, Mahatma Gandhi has been
regarded as the ‘Father’ of the Indian nation.
In so far as Gandhiji was the most influential and revered of all the
leaders who participated in the freedom struggle, that characterisation
is not misplaced. However, like Washington or Ho Chi-Minh, Mahatma
Gandhi’s political career was shaped and constrained by the society
in which he lived. For individuals, even great ones, are made by history
even as they make history.
This chapter analyses Gandhiji’s activities in India during the
crucial period 1915-1948. It explores his interactions with different
sections of the Indian society and the popular struggles that he
inspired and led. It introduces the student to the different kinds of
sources that historians use in reconstructing the career of a leader
and of the social movements that he was associated with.

Fig. 11.1
People gather on the banks of the Sabarmati River to hear Mahatma Gandhi speak before starting
out on the Salt March in 1930