Individual Satyagraha 1940-41

Launch of Individual Satyagraha 1940-41:-

The Congress was in a confused state again after the August Offer.

• The radicals and leftists wanted to launch a mass Civil Disobedience Movement, but here Gandhi insisted on Individual Satyagraha.
• The Individual Satyagraha was not to seek independence but to affirm the right of speech.
• The aims of launching individual satyagrahas were:
• (i) To show that nationalist patience was not due to weakness; 
• (ii) to express people’s feeling that they were not interested in the war and that they made no distinction between Nazism and the double autocracy that ruled India; and
• (iii) to give another opportunity to the Government to accept Congress’ demands peacefully.
•  The other reason of this Satyagraha was that a mass movement may turn violent and he would not like to see the Great Britain embarrassed by such a situation. This view was conveyed to Lord Linlithgow by Gandhi when he met him on 27 September 1940.
• The non-violence was set as the centerpiece of Individual Satyagraha. This was done by carefully selecting the Satyagrahis.
• The first Satyagrahi selected was Acharya Vinoba Bhave, who was sent to Jail when he spoke against the war in the village Panaur and he was arrested subsequently.
• Second Satyagrahi was Jawahar Lal Nehru.
• Third was Brahma Datt, one of the inmates of the Gandhi's Ashram. 
• They all were sent to jails for violating the Defense of India Act. This was followed by a lot of other people. 
• But since it was not a mass movement, it attracted little enthusiasm and in December 1940, Gandhi suspended the movement.
• The campaign started again in January 1941, this time, thousands of people joined and around 20 thousand people were arrested.