Thread by @Gandhian_

Gandhi had no role in freedom movement? His non-violent movement was ineffective? Really?

I’ll just share few quotes which will destroy this whole argument. Read🧵

[1]

“He [Gandhi] gave us a scare. His program filled our jails. You cannot go on and arrest people forever,you know, not when there are 320 million of them,and if they had taken the next step and refused to pay the taxes. God knows where we would have been.”

— George Lloyd

Lord George Lloyd was the then governor of Bombay during Salt March

(Source: Heart beats in India by CF Andrews page no. 198. Also quoted in Narahari Parikh's 'Sardar Patel' volume 1 page no. 165)

[2]

“#Gandhi was the most collosal experiment in the world history and it came within an inch of succeeding”

— Lord Lloyd

(Source: C.F. Andrews, Heartbeats in India, p.198)

[3]

“What an enigma this man [Gandhi] is.” — Viceroy Irwin

(Source: Irwin to Lionel Curtis, 6 March 1930, in Mss Eur C 152/19, APAC/BL)

[4]

“Such humiliation and defiance has not been known since the British first trod the soil of India”

— Winston Churchill, in the House Of Commons in 1931

(Source: Winston Churchill: His complete speeches, Robert Rhodes James, Volume 5 , pg 4,995)

[5]

“By far the most serious rebellion [Quit India Movement] since that of revolt of 1857”

— Viceroy Linlithgow, Viceroy of India, in a letter to Winston Churchill in August 1942

(Source - Linlithgow Papers, File number 125/58, London, India office Library)

[6]

“The romance of violent methods was replaced by serious ideas. Use of force justifiable when resorted to as a matter of terrible necessity and non-violence as policy indispensable for all mass movements.” — Bhagat Singh

(Source: Why I am an Atheist, p.7)

[7]

“Apparently I have acted like a terrorist which I never was except in the beginning of my revolutionary career. And I am convinced that we cannot gain anything through those methods.”

— #BhagatSingh

(Source: Selected Writings of Bhagat Singh edited by Shiv Varma, p.137-8)

[8]

Viceroy Lord Linlithgow wrote to Secretary Of State on 8 February 1943 about Gandhi's 21 days fast that:

“Whatever policy we may adopt for dealing with Gandhi, for we may be quite certain that he is going to give us a great deal of trouble one way or another. [...] On that point I have been beaten and the fact that I have been beaten cannot of course be known to the outside world.”

[9]

Many ppl quote Clement Attlee’s unauthentic statement which is critical of Gandhi but they forget the one he said officially in front of everyone on 30 January 1948.

“A divinely inspired saint. Mahatma Gandhi, as he was known in India, was one of the outstanding figures...+

...
in the world today. For a quarter of a century, this one man has been the major factor in every consideration of the Indian problem. He had become the expression of the aspirations of the Indian people for independence, but he was not just a nationalist.
...

... His most distinctive doctrine was that of non-violence. He believed in a method of passive resistance to those forces which he considered wrong. The sincerity & devotion with which he pursued his objectives are beyond all doubt.”

— Clement Attlee (then British PM, 01- 30-48)

And wait. One more quote! Though I don't endorse that completely but stating it for people who want to see.

[10]

“It had always been the British policy not to yield anything to force but Mahatma's non-violence had won. We decided to quit as a result of India's non-violent struggle.”

— Louis Mountbatten

(Source: CWMG, Vol 94, p.209 published by IB Ministery)

[11]

“It’s a beautiful world if it wasn’t for Gandhi who is really a perfect nuisance.”

— Lord Willingdon, the then Viceroy of India in a letter of 1933