Modern History Prelims Question

The rapid spread of the civil disobedience movement left the Government with little choice but to demonstrate the force that lay behind its benevolent facade.
Pressure from officials, Governors and the military establishment started building up and the Viceroy finally ordered Gandhiji’s arrest. Gandhiji’s announcement that he would now proceed to continue his defiance of the salt laws by leading a raid on the Dharasana Salt Works certainly forced the Government’s hand, but its timing of Gandhiji’s arrest was nevertheless ill-conceived.
It had neither the advantage of an early strike, which would have at least prevented Gandhiji from carefully building up the momentum of the movement, nor did it allow the Government to reap the benefits of their policy of sitting it out. Coming as it did at a high point in the movement; it only acted as a further spur to activity and caused endless trouble for the Government.
There was a massive wave of protest at Gandhiji’s arrest. In Bombay, the crowd that spilled out into the streets was so large that the police just withdrew. Its ranks were swelled by thousands of textile and railway workers. Cloth-merchants went on a six-day hartal. There were clashes and firing in Calcutta and Delhi. But it was in Sholapur, in Maharashtra, that the response was the fiercest.
The textile workers, who dominated the town went on strike with other residents, burnt liquor shops and proceeded to attack all symbols of Government authority – the railway station, law courts, police stations and municipal buildings.
But it was non-violent heroism that stole the show, as the Salt Satyagraha assumed yet another, even more potent form.
With Sarojini Naidu, the first Indian woman to become the President of the Congress and Imam Saheb, Gandhiji’s comrade of the South African struggle, at the helm, and Gandhiji’s son, Manilal, in front ranks, a band of 2000 marched towards the police cordon that had sealed off the Dharasana Salt Works. As they came close, the police rushed forward with their steel-tipped lathis and set upon the non-resisting Satyagrahis till they fell down. The injured would be carried away by their comrades on make-shift stretchers and another column would take their place, be beaten to pulp and carried away.
In the Civil Disobedience Movement, the children were organized into vanar senas (monkey armies) and the girls into manjari senas (cat armies).

The rapid spread of the civil disobedience movement left the Government with little choice but to demonstrate the force that lay behind its benevolent facade.
Pressure from officials, Governors and the military establishment started building up and the Viceroy finally ordered Gandhiji’s arrest. Gandhiji’s announcement that he would now proceed to continue his defiance of the salt laws by leading a raid on the Dharasana Salt Works certainly forced the Government’s hand, but its timing of Gandhiji’s arrest was nevertheless ill-conceived.
It had neither the advantage of an early strike, which would have at least prevented Gandhiji from carefully building up the momentum of the movement, nor did it allow the Government to reap the benefits of their policy of sitting it out. Coming as it did at a high point in the movement; it only acted as a further spur to activity and caused endless trouble for the Government.
There was a massive wave of protest at Gandhiji’s arrest. In Bombay, the crowd that spilled out into the streets was so large that the police just withdrew. Its ranks were swelled by thousands of textile and railway workers. Cloth-merchants went on a six-day hartal. There were clashes and firing in Calcutta and Delhi. But it was in Sholapur, in Maharashtra, that the response was the fiercest.
The textile workers, who dominated the town went on strike with other residents, burnt liquor shops and proceeded to attack all symbols of Government authority – the railway station, law courts, police stations and municipal buildings.
But it was non-violent heroism that stole the show, as the Salt Satyagraha assumed yet another, even more potent form.
With Sarojini Naidu, the first Indian woman to become the President of the Congress and Imam Saheb, Gandhiji’s comrade of the South African struggle, at the helm, and Gandhiji’s son, Manilal, in front ranks, a band of 2000 marched towards the police cordon that had sealed off the Dharasana Salt Works. As they came close, the police rushed forward with their steel-tipped lathis and set upon the non-resisting Satyagrahis till they fell down. The injured would be carried away by their comrades on make-shift stretchers and another column would take their place, be beaten to pulp and carried away.
In the Civil Disobedience Movement, the children were organized into vanar senas (monkey armies) and the girls into manjari senas (cat armies).

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