Religion Practice and Science of Non Violence

Author(s): O P Jaggi
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt Ltd

Page 79

Practice of Non-Violence
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satyagrahis was finally too much for the Brahmins. In the autumn of 1925, after a year and four months, their obstinacy broke down, and they said: “We cannot any longer resist the prayers that have been made to us, and we are ready to receive the untouchables.” The Brahmins opened the road to everybody irrespective of caste.
The success of the Vykom satyagraha had reverberations throughout India. It aided in removing similar restrictions against the untouchables in other parts of the country.
Ahmedabad Labour Satyagraha February-March 1918: In 1917, there developed a dispute over the amount of Dearness Allowance to be paid to textile workers by the mill-owners in Ahmedabad, India. Earlier the labourers were getting a special bonus as an incentive to continue working even while an epidemic of plague had broken out in the city. This plague bonus in some cases was as high as 70 to 80 per cent of the workers' wages, and had been continued after the plague danger had subsided. In January 1918, when the mill-owners made known their intention of withdrawing the bonus, workers made an appeal for at least a 50 per cent increase on the July salaries as there had been a sharp rise in prices, amounting to as much as two to four times the old prices.
Gandhi was informed of the situation first by one of the mill-owners, who requested his intervention. Gandhi went to Ahmedabad and began his investigation. Both sides agreed to submit the dispute to an arbitration board consisting of three representatives from each side; Gandhi was requested by the workers to be one of the members on their behalf. He agreed.
The arbitration proceedings had scarcely got under way, when the labourers in some of the mills, (in the absence of Gandhi from Ahmedabad) acting upon the fear of threatened lockout, struck work. Thereupon the arbitration broke down. The mill-owners declared that they would dismiss all the workers who were not willing to accept a 20 percent increase as Dearness Allowance.
Investigations conducted by Gandhi had shown that a 35 per cent increase in the worker's salary, was a just demand. Consequently he advised the workers to ask for it. But the mill-owners rejected the demand. Conflict followed.
Gandhi, who had entered the earlier situation as a conciliator,