Gandhi realized that India needed to be free from British control as shacklement had not only brought physical misery but it had broken the spirit to its people.
During the great trial of 1922, in which Gandhi pleaded guilty to the charge of promoting disaffection, he termed the British rule as a crime against humanity which is perhaps unequalled in history.
Giving reasons for his disaffection he said that the various policies adopted by the British government had made India more helpless, politically and economically and the semi-starved masses of India are slowly sinking to lifelessness.
Freedom was desirable because a disarmed India has no power of resistance against any aggressor if she wanted to engage in an armed conflict with him.
Before starting the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1931, Gandhi wrote a letter to the Viceroy Lord Irwin, in which he explained at length why he regarded British rule as a curse.
During the Quit India Movement Gandhi said that he will not stop for anything short of complete independence and added that the people of India will either free India or die in the attempt, but they shall not live to see the perpetuation of their slavery.
Quotes:
"The greatest misfortune is that Englishmen and their Indian associates in the administration of the country do not know that they are engaged in the crime I have attempted to describe."
"They do not know that a subtle but effective system of terrorism and an organized display of force on the one hand, and the deprivation of all powers of retaliation or self-defence on the other, have emasculated the people and induced in them the habit of simulation."
"I hold it to be a virtue to be disaffected towards a Government which in its totality has done more harm to India than any previous system."
"A successful search for Truth means complete deliverance from the dual throng such as of love and hate, happiness and misery."
"It (the British rule) has reduced us politically to serfdom. It has sapped the foundations of our culture…….it had degraded us spiritually."
