Your assignment for this week focuses on your reading of Gandhi's autobiography.

Mahatma Gandhi's (1869-1948) father was a merchant caste member ("Gandhi" 
means grocer.).  He was brought up in fairly nice surroundings and then went 
to England to study law.  In 1893 Gandhi went to South Africa where he soon 
became involved in the effort to win legal and political rights for the 
Indian population there.  It was there that he developed his idea of 
satyagraha, soul force, or truth, and the idea of nonviolence.

Soon after his return to India in 1915, Hindus and the Muslim League (founded in 
1906 to support Muslim interests), signed the Lucknow pact calling for 
self-governing dominion status for India.  In August 1917,the British declared 
that the "gradual development of self-governing institutions 
and the progressive realization of responsible government" should be the 
goal for India, and in 1919, the Government of India Act appeared to be a step 
in that direction.  The Act set up a dual administration with Indians 
controlling agriculture, health and education, and the British retaining control 
of everything important such as taxes, the police and the courts.

Probably the single most important event of modern Indian history occurred at 
Amritsar when a crowd of Hindus gathered at Amritsar in the Punjab for a 
religious festival.  General Reginald Dyer (who had 
banned all public meetings) ordered his troops to fire on 
the crowd without provocation or warning (379 dead, 1137 wounded).

In response, Gandhi actively embarked on his campaign for Indian 
self-rule, a campaign that would last more than the next twenty-five years.
His tool was nonviolent resistance, the refusal to buy British goods or pay 
British taxes.  He spent time in prison, and when his efforts
did not pay off, he began to demand independence for India, not just levels of autonomy 
within the British empire.  In 1929 he undertook his famous march to the sea in protest 
against the British-imposed salt tax, leading to his further imprisonment.

Only in the dire economic conditions of post-1945 England, did the 
British government finally make the decision to undertake Indian independence.

As you read Gandhi's Autobiography, which he wrote relatively early in his life, 
please remember that you are reading the book as a historian and not as a literary critic. 
You are searching the book for evidence that reveals the main characteristics of 
Gandhi's views on non-violence and the reasoning behind his choice of non-violence 
as the tool to achieve his goals.  You are not going
to be writing about his personal love affairs.  Please focus your paper on the assigned 
question, include
an introduction, use paragraphs (each of which deals with a specific point of your
introductory thesis), review the style rules for history papers in the course and include
short pieces of quoted evidence from the document to support your analysis.