NDA (II) 2019 General Ability Test · Question 107 of 148

Correct — C, Ahmedabad. The Ahmedabad satyagraha of 1918 was Gandhi's struggle on behalf of the textile mill workers, making it the movement based on satyagraha that involved the industrial working class. He used a hunger strike to win the mill hands a wage rise in their dispute with the mill owners. Champaran, Kheda and Bardoli were all agrarian (peasant) struggles.

• (a)Champaran — The Champaran satyagraha (1917) was on behalf of indigo-growing peasants of Bihar — an agrarian struggle, not one of industrial workers.
• (b)Kheda — The Kheda satyagraha (1918) supported peasants of Gujarat seeking remission of land revenue after crop failure — again an agrarian, not industrial, movement.
• (d)Bardoli — The Bardoli satyagraha (1928), led by Vallabhbhai Patel, was a no-tax campaign by peasants against a revenue hike, not a workers' movement.

Gandhi's early satyagrahas (1917–1918) applied non-violent resistance to different social groups. Champaran, Kheda and Bardoli mobilised peasants over land and revenue grievances, while the Ahmedabad episode of 1918 was a labour dispute in which Gandhi backed textile mill workers against the mill owners — the one involving the industrial working class.

Read the qualifier 'industrial working class'. Three options are peasant (agrarian) satyagrahas; only Ahmedabad concerned factory labour. The trap is that all four are famous early Gandhian struggles, so the group involved — workers versus peasants — is what decides it.

• The Ahmedabad Mill Strike satyagraha took place in 1918.
• Gandhi undertook a hunger strike to support the textile mill workers there.
• The workers won a 35 percent wage increase.
• Champaran (1917), Kheda (1918) and Bardoli (1928) were peasant struggles.

• Grouping all early satyagrahas as peasant movements — Ahmedabad was a workers' (industrial labour) struggle.
• Confusing Bardoli's no-tax peasant campaign with a labour movement.

Given several early Gandhian struggles, pick the one defined by a specific group — here the industrial working class points to Ahmedabad.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Gandhi's first fast (hunger strike) as a means of satyagraha was undertaken during the

  • (a)Champaran satyagraha
  • (b)Ahmedabad mill strike
  • (c)Kheda satyagraha
  • (d)Bardoli satyagraha

  Answer(b) Ahmedabad mill strike — Gandhi fasted to support the textile workers in 1918.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Champaran satyagraha of 1917 was launched on behalf of

  • (a)textile mill workers
  • (b)indigo-cultivating peasants
  • (c)railway employees
  • (d)plantation owners

  Answer(b) indigo-cultivating peasants — an agrarian struggle in Bihar.