The period between 1932 and 1938 was characterized by the worsening of the constitutional crisis and the rekindling of the struggle for independence. The culminating episode of it was, at the end of 1937, reached with the refusal by the Indian nationalists to recognize the validity of the new constitution approved for India by the English parliament; the central figure of the nationalist movement, intended as a fusion of the various castes for the continuation of the struggle, has remained that of the mah ā tm ā Gandhi. A new campaign of civil disobedience began in January 1932, the president of the congress of Allahabad, Jawarharlal Nehru, and, subsequently, the pundit Malaviya, one of the delegates to the Round Table conference, Gandhi himself, his wife and children, were arrested. The resumption movement was ordered by the Pan-Indian Congress following the British viceroy’s refusal of the invitation to discuss with Gandhi the measures taken by the government after the troubles in Bengal: the campaign of passive disobedience, canon of the fight sponsored by the mah ā tm to, followed the boycott of English commerce, telegraphs and the courts. On January 4, the viceroy decided to delegate exceptional powers to the government, aggravated shortly after by new measures and a strengthening of the English troops. Arrests, searches, confiscations followed one another; the nationalists responded with acts of sabotage and riots, of which the one in Bombay at the end of January was very serious, followed by violent measures of repression. The annual meeting of the Pan-Indian Congress in Delhi banned, Gandhi and the leaders of nationalism in the Andaman Islands exiled – in order to empty the overflowing prisons – the government then preferred to hold the mah ā tm ā in the Yeralda prison. From there, following the decision to give a separate representation in the new Indian constitution to the pariahs, the untouchables, Gandhi announced a hunger strike in September 1932. Driven by his act, the delegates of the pariahs and Hindus come to an agreement which establishes equal political representation in favor of the untouchables. Several months pass between Gandhi’s liberation practices and attempts to reach an agreement with the viceregal government, always aborted. At the end of March 1933 the British government publishes the White Paper, concerning the proposals relating to the Indian constitutional reform. The system chosen by the government for India proves to be federative: the country was divided into eleven provinces, autonomous, governed by a federal central government, responsible for everything, except as regards “matters reserved” to the authority of the English government. Likewise, certain “special responsibilities” were directly delegated to the governor general appointed by England: among these “responsibilities”, it was the maintenance of order and peace within. With the intention of the delegates of the Pan-Indian Congress, despite the government ban, to meet, holding the new session, more than a thousand arrests were made by the police. The health conditions of the mah ā tm ā, he was released on May 8, 1933: the viceregal government, on the other hand, declared that if Gandhi, instead of continuing only his action in favor of the untouchables, resumed his political activity, they would soon be new, more serious, measures have been adopted. And this happens: after a few weeks of pause, the civil disobedience campaign resumed and on July 31 Gandhi, shortly followed by his followers, was arrested and a few days later sentenced to one year in harsh prison. Countless arrests follow the condemnation of the mah ā tm ā. For India 2001, please check naturegnosis.com.
Falling ill in the prison of Jevarda where he had been translated, on 23 August Gandhi was released and, for an attempt at pacification, the viceregal government decided to refrain from new imminent arrests and to release many nationalists. For his part, Gandhi declares to abstain from any form of political activity for a year. But in December he resumed nationalist propaganda on numerous trips across the regions and in the following April he reaffirmed his faith in the methods of passive resistance. In June 1934 the Nationalist Congress decided to end the civil disobedience campaign; in mid-July, the head of the Indian parliament, Patel Vallabhai, was released. In early August, a symptom of the detente of relations between the nationalists and the British government, the formation of a new agrarian party was decided, with the aim of establishing an autonomous government with constitutional methods. Gandhi, however, reserved the right to act personally, albeit without reactivating the campaign he had already supported. And in fact in December 1934, seeming that he was about to resume his agitating action, the viceroy sent him serious threats of reprisals. The mah ā tm ā he is not intimidated and continues to preach his program. However, we enter a period in which the young nationalists dissolve themselves from the absolute faith in the great agitator, who appears weakened by diseases and years, and try new ways to reach the realization of their ideal. The promulgation of the new constitution attracts all interest; even the usual contrasts between the various castes are silent for the moment. Between the end of 1934 and the beginning of 1935 the constitution was voted on and the publication of the results of the vote took place towards the end of January; subject to royal signature, the constitution enters into force, preceded by a short transitional period. Viceroy Lord Wellington, from August 1935, was called to succeed in the difficult government of India Lord Linlithgow, former author of a report on the new Indian constitution and one of the most influential members of the House of Peers. But from the first months after its application the discontent aroused by the new constitution loomed serious, giving rise to sharp opposition by the Council of Bombay and in other places, and finally provoking, at the end of December 1936, a decided act of rejection by the National Congress. On August 4, 1937, the caste disagreements between untouchables, Hindus and Mohammedans having intensified in the previous months, and the contrary demonstrations having reached extraordinary violence in many cities of India, the new viceroy called the mah ā tm ā Gandhi, listening to his complaints and suggestions about the improvement of the poor classes, especially those of the northern provinces, where, due to the continuous state of guerrilla warfare with neighboring and mountain tribes, the Indian agitator had always been prevented from going. In the last months of the year and in early 1938 the movement against the new constitution, judged to be imposed, flared up again, and, as a result, relations between the government and the leaders of the nationalist movement entered a new critical phase.
