Two years ago, Burma (Myanmar) saw a huge non-violent movement of civic disobedience in response to a military putsch. However, it was ultimately forced to engage in armed self-defense in the face of merciless repression. Was it any different in India? Was independence, the liberation from British colonial rule in 1947, effectively won through the civil disobedience movement embodied by Gandhi? We put this question to Sushovan Dhar.
"It was a brave decision to step into the middle of a carnage and it was certainly well thought out if not an audacious plan. The ripple effect of more heinous rioting in Kolkata would have been disastrous for the entire country," said Dr Kingshuk Chatterjee of Calcutta University s department of history who has specialised in political Islam.
Sir Ibrahim Rahimtoola lobbied for greater fiscal autonomy for India in the Raj years. Sir Purshottamdas Thakurdas resigned from the Legislative Assembly to protest differential duties on British and non-British cotton goods, and co-founded FICCI along with G.D. Birla.
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