”In the history of nationalism Gandhiji is often identified with the making of a nation'’. Describe his role in the freedom struggle of India.

OR

 Describe the harrowing experiences of ordinary people during the period of the partition of India.

Gandhiji was the most influential and revered of all the leaders who participated in the freedom struggle, that characterization is not misplaced.

 (i) Mahatma Gandhi non-cooperation initiatives in Champaran, Ahmedabad and kheda had instilled nationalistic fervour in every Indian.

 (ii) On 12th March 1930- Gandhiji began the march from his ashram at Sabarmati towards the ocean where he reached after three weeks, making a fistful of salt and thereby breaking colonial salt law. Salt March was notable for at least three reasons. First, it was this event that brought Gandhiji to world attention. The march was widely covered by the European and American Press.

 (iii) Gandhi had launched the major movement against the British which was “Quit India”. It was genuinely a mass movement, bringing into its ambit hundreds of thousands of ordinary Indians.

 (iv) He “appealed to the Sikhs, the Hindus and the Muslims to forget the past and not to dwell on their on their sufferings but to extend the right hand of fellowship to each other, and to determine to live in peace”.

 (v) At the initiative of Gandhi, India remained a democratic secular State where all citizens enjoy full rights and are equally entitled to the protection of the state, irrespective of the religion to which they belong.

 (vi) After working to bring peace to Bengal, Gandhi shifted to move on to the riot-torn districts of Punjab. He was equally concerned with the sufferings of the minority community in Pakistan.

(vii) He trusted that “the worst is over” that Indians would henceforth work collectively for the “equality of all classes and creeds, never the domination and superiority of the major community over a minor, however insignificant it may be in numbers or influence”.

 (viii) Gandhi had fought a lifelong battle for a free and United India.

 (ix) When the country was divided, he urged that the two parts respect and befriend one another.

 (x) To that end British Government convened a series of Round Table Conferences in London. First meeting was held in Nov 1930 without any pre-eminent political leader in India, thus rendering it an exercise in futility. When Gandhiji was released from jail in Jan 1931, many meetings were held with the Viceroy and it culminated in the ‘Gandhi Irwin Pact’ by which civil disobedience would be called off and all prisoners released and salt manufacture allowed along the coast. Gandhiji represented the congress at Second Round Table Conference at London. The conference in London was inconclusive, so Gandhi returned to India and resumed civil disobedience.

OR

 The harrowing experiences of ordinary people during the period of partition of India:

 (i) Several hundred thousand people were killed and innumerable women raped and abducted.

 (ii) Millions were uprooted, transformed into refugees in alien lands.

 (iii) In all probability, some 15 million had to move across hastily constructed frontiers separating India and Pakistan.

 (iv) They were rendered homeless, having suddenly lost all their immovable property and most of their movable assets.

 (v) Separated from many of their relatives and friends as well.

 (vi) Torn asunder from their moorings, from their houses and from their childhood memories.

 (vii) They were stripped of their local or regional cultures.

 (viii) They were forced to begin picking up their life from scratch.

 (ix) The bloodbath continued for about a year from March 1947 onwards.

(x) Partition generated memories, hatreds, stereotypes and identities that still continue to shape the history of people on both sides of the border.