Book review: The rise of passive resistance

The author observes that Gandhi "learnt the important lesson that Indian crowds could be very violent" and that non-violence was not intrinsic to the culture of the sub-continent

Non-violent struggle for Indian Freedom, 1905-1919

David Hardiman 

C Hurst & Co 

288 pages 

Rs 3,256

Indian struggle for freedom has attracted the attention of a large number of scholars from India and abroad especially because many native leaders of mass-based anti-colonial struggles had experimented with some “novel and unique” strategies for mass mobilisation. The most important of such distinctive “methodologies” for activating the masses was that of “passive resistance” adopted by M K Gandhi and the study of “non-violent satyagraha”; these are also the focus of David Hardiman’s present book. 

In five chapters, the author has not