Mohandas K. Gandhi is known the world over as the architect of Indian independence and the founder of the idea of mass non-violent resistance to oppression and injustice. But he also had an abiding interest in Hindu-Muslim relations, village life, various issues pertaining to the welfare of women and girls, and nearly every other aspect of the social, economic and political life of India.
This pamphlet brings together three of Gandhi's pieces. The first, a speech delivered by him at Benares Hindu University in 1916 shortly after his return to India from South Africa. This speech gives an insight into the colonization of the Indian mind and the degree of complicity that made colonial rule possible. Gandhi's speech at his trial in 1922, on charges of sedition and attempting to create disaffection towards the British government in India, is a devastating indictment of colonial rule and even a masterpiece of courtroom literature. The third document is Gandhi's letter to the Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin (1930), announcing his intention to break the iniquitious salt law and commence a new campaign of satyagraha designed to free India from the shackles of British rule.