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    Gandhi Letter To Viceroy - CloseRead

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    Ali Syed
    Gandhi wrote a letter to the Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin, on March 2, 1930 to express his views on British rule in India and plans for nonviolent civil disobedience. He believed that British rule had impoverished and degraded the Indian people by excessive taxes and land revenue that crushed the poor, as well as destroying the hand-spinning industry, undermining India's ability to produce wealth. However, Gandhi did not intend harm against Englishmen and considered some as friends. He hoped to convert the British people to the wrongs of their rule through nonviolent resistance and suffering, which he believed could melt "the stoniest hearts."

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    Gandhi Letter To Viceroy - CloseRead

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    Ali Syed
    353 views3 pages
    Gandhi wrote a letter to the Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin, on March 2, 1930 to express his views on British rule in India and plans for nonviolent civil disobedience. He believed that British rule had impoverished and degraded the Indian people by excessive taxes and land revenue that crushed the poor, as well as destroying the hand-spinning industry, undermining India's ability to produce wealth. However, Gandhi did not intend harm against Englishmen and considered some as friends. He hoped to convert the British people to the wrongs of their rule through nonviolent resistance and suffering, which he believed could melt "the stoniest hearts."

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    Gandhi wrote a letter to the Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin, on March 2, 1930 to express his views on British rule in India and plans for nonviolent civil disobedience. He believed that British rule had impoverished and degraded the Indian people by excessive taxes and land revenue that crushed the poor, as well as destroying the hand-spinning industry, undermining India's ability to produce wealth. However, Gandhi did not intend harm against Englishmen and considered some as friends. He hoped to convert the British people to the wrongs of their rule through nonviolent resistance and suffering, which he believed could melt "the stoniest hearts."

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    353 views3 pages

    Gandhi Letter To Viceroy - CloseRead

    Uploaded by

    Ali Syed
    Gandhi wrote a letter to the Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin, on March 2, 1930 to express his views on British rule in India and plans for nonviolent civil disobedience. He believed that British rule had impoverished and degraded the Indian people by excessive taxes and land revenue that crushed the poor, as well as destroying the hand-spinning industry, undermining India's ability to produce wealth. However, Gandhi did not intend harm against Englishmen and considered some as friends. He hoped to convert the British people to the wrongs of their rule through nonviolent resistance and suffering, which he believed could melt "the stoniest hearts."

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    Name________________________________________________ Period/#____________

    Close Read: Gandhi’s Letter to the Viceroy


    Read the letter that Gandhi wrote to Britain’s viceroy Lord Irwin on March 2, 1930 and answer the questions.

    1 Dear Friend, 1. Identify one piece of evidence from lines


    6-11 that demonstrates that Gandhi believed
    2 in nonviolence.
    3 Before embarking on Civil Disobedience...I would again
    4 approach you and find a way out.
    5
    6 My personal faith is absolutely clear. I cannot intentionally
    7 hurt anything that lives, much less fellow human beings,
    8 even though they may do the greatest wrong to me and
    9 mine. Whilst, therefore, I hold the British rule to be a curse, I
    10 do not intend harm to a single Englishman or to any
    11 legitimate interest he may have in India.
    12
    13 I must not be misunderstood. Though I hold the British rule 2. What are Gandhi’s views of British rule and
    of Englishmen? Are they the same thing?
    14 in India to be a curse, I do not, therefore, consider (l.13-20)
    15 Englishmen in general to be worse than any other people on
    16 earth. I have the privilege of claiming many Englishmen as
    17 dearest friends. Indeed much that I have learnt of the evil of
    18 British rule is due to the writings of frank and courageous
    19 Englishmen who have not hesitated to tell the unpalatable
    20 [unappealing] truth about that rule.
    21
    22 And why do I regard the British rule as a curse? 3. In lines 22-34, Gandhi explains why he
    regards British rule as a “curse.” In your own
    23 words, explain his reasons.
    24 It has impoverished [made poor] the dumb [unable to speak]
    25 millions by a system of progressive exploitation and by a
    26 ruinously expensive military and civil administration which
    27 the country can never afford.
    28
    29 It has reduced us politically to serfdom. It has sapped the
    30 foundations of our culture. And, by the policy of disarmament
    31 [taking away of weapons], it has degraded us spiritually.
    32 Lacking the inward strength, we have been reduced, by all
    33 but universal disarmament, to a State bordering on cowardly
    34 helplessness.
    35
    36 ...I have been recently telling the public what Independence
    37 should really mean.
    38
    39 Let me put before you some of the salient points. 4. Write a synonym for the word “salient.”

    40
    41 The terrific pressure of land revenue, which furnishes a large 5. What does Gandhi mean by “land revenue”
    in line 41?
    42 part of the total, must undergo considerable modification in
    43 an Independent India … The ryot [Indian peasant] has
    44 remained as helpless as ever... But the British system
    45 seems to be designed to crush the very life out of him ... The
    46 tax [specifically a tax on the making and selling of salt]
    47 shows itself still more burdensome on the poor man when it
    48 is remembered that salt is the one thing he must eat more
    49 than the rich man both individually and collectively. The drink
    50 and drug revenue, too, is derived from the poor. It saps the 6. According to Gandhi, identify three ways
    51 foundations both of their health and morals ... If the weight of British rule harmed the Indian economy.
    52 taxation has crushed the poor from above, the destruction of
    53 the central supplementary industry, i.e. hand-spinning, has
    54 undermined their capacity for producing wealth.
    55
    56 ...This transformation is impossible without Independence…
    57
    58 Not one of the great British political parties, it seems to me,
    59 is prepared to give up the Indian spoils to which Great
    60 Britain helps herself from day to day, often, in spite of the
    61 unanimous opposition of opinion.
    62
    63 ...if India is to live as a nation, if the slow death by starvation
    64 of her people is to stop, some remedy must be found for
    65 immediate relief… Great Britain would defend her Indian
    66 commerce and interests by all the forces at her command.
    67 India must consequently evolve force enough to free herself
    68 from that embrace of death. 7. Circle the metaphor in the passage to the
    left. What two things are being compared?
    69
    70 ... the conviction is growing deeper and deeper in me that
    71 nothing but unadulterated non-violence can check the
    72 organised violence of the British Government. Many think 8. According to Gandhi, how can Indians
    73 that non-violence is not an active force. My experience, defeat the British?

    74 limited though it undoubtedly is, shows that non-violence can


    75 be an intensely active force. It is my purpose to set in motion
    76 that force as well against the organised violent force of the
    77 British rule as the unorganised violent force of the growing
    78 party of violence. To sit still would be to give rein to both the
    79 forces above mentioned. Having an unquestioning and
    80 immovable faith in the efficacy of non-violence, as I know it, 9. Define efficacy

    81 it would be sinful on my part to wait any longer.


    82
    83 I know that in embarking on non-violence I shall be running
    84 what might fairly be termed a mad risk. But the victories of
    85 truth have never been won without risks, often of the gravest
    86 character. Conversion of a nation that has consciously or
    87 unconsciously preyed upon another, far more numerous, far
    88 more ancient and no less cultured than itself, is worth any
    89 amount of risk.
    90
    91 I have deliberately used the word conversion. For my 10. Why does Gandhi use the word
    “conversion” (l. 86) to describe the effect he
    92 ambition is no less than to convert the British people,
    hopes to have on the British people?
    93 through non-violence, and thus make them see the wrong
    94 they have done to India. I do not seek to harm your people. I
    95 want to serve them even as I want to serve my own...If the
    96 people [of India] join me as I expect they will, the sufferings
    97 they will undergo, unless the British nation sooner retraces
    98 its steps, will be enough to melt the stoniest hearts...
    99
    100 I remain
    101 Your sincerely friend
    102 M.K. Gandhi
    Source: Letter from Gandhi to the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, 2 March 1930.
    http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/india/indianindependence/indiannat/source3/

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