Gandhian influence on the constitutional movement for Independence

India achieved independence mainly through a process of long peaceful and non-violent constitutional means founded on Gandhism, writes Mohan V. Katarki.

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M.K. Gandhi and Gandhism have deeply impacted the national awakening against British colonialism in India, the promotion of non-violence around the world, and the building of social harmony in the multicultural Indian society.

However, neither did Gandhi associate with framing the Indian Constitution nor did the framers of the Constitution care much for his ideas on governance. At the same time, if the entire freedom movement was essentially a political action to extract constitutional reforms and eventually independence as constitutional liberation from the British monarch, Gandhi indeed played a dominant role in the movement.

A constitutional engagement with dissent

The constitutional engagement by British imperialists with dissent in British India was the beginning of a long saga of a constitutional movement popularly known as the freedom movement.

After decades of stable colonisation, the Europeans started feeling the heat of the demand for freedom, self-rule, or constitutional liberation, particularly in the Indian subcontinent.

The British imperialists were thus forced by liberals to engage with dissenters rather than combating dissenters since the basis of the dissenters' challenge to their colonialism was not a violent revolution but a democratic and ethical demand.

The engagement parties were not free from trouble. A stiff opposition from the hawks among the conservatives was a hurdle in the task of constitutional engagement in Britain. At the same time, the Indian National Congress (INC) which was a leading voice of liberal Indians, came under the tremendous pressure of revolutionaries to act tough.