{"id":397776,"date":"2026-10-02T09:00:03","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T03:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?p=397776"},"modified":"2026-10-02T09:08:01","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T03:38:01","slug":"gandhi-legal-legacy-law-justice-civil-disobedience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2026\/10\/02\/gandhi-legal-legacy-law-justice-civil-disobedience\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking the Law, Building the Nation: Gandhi’s Legal Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Introduction<\/p>\n

Mahatma Gandhi occupies a unique position in India’s legal and constitutional history. Trained as a barrister, Gandhi transformed the idea of law from a mechanism of colonial authority into an instrument through which questions of justice, rights, legitimacy and political freedom could be confronted. His political philosophy was based not on a rejection of law as such, but on the distinction between lawful authority and just authority. Through satyagraha, non-cooperation and civil disobedience, Gandhi demonstrated that citizens could peacefully challenge laws that were morally unjust while accepting legal consequences for their actions. Gandhi challenged unjust colonial laws through non-violent civil disobedience, but his larger legacy was not the rejection of law itself it was the idea that law must be accountable to justice, human dignity, and the consent of the people.<\/p>\n

Gandhi deliberately broke colonial laws while simultaneously contributing to the foundations of an independent constitutional democracy. Gandhi’s greatest legal legacy lies in the tension he created between obedience to law and obedience to conscience. In colonial India, he used deliberate law-breaking as a method of exposing unjust authority. His movements including the Champaran Satyagraha, Kheda Satyagraha, Ahmedabad Mill Strike, Rowlatt Satyagraha, Non-Cooperation Movement, Salt Satyagraha, Civil Disobedience Movement and Quit India Movement provide a chronological framework for understanding this transformation. His contribution was not merely to India’s independence movement but to a broader understanding of the relationship between the citizen and the State: A citizen may owe obedience to law, but the State itself must remain accountable to justice, liberty, equality and human dignity.1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier the colonial legislation was used to regulate political dissent, economic activity, speech, assembly and civil liberties but, Gandhi’s movements challenged the legitimacy of such laws. The Rowlatt legislation became a major symbol of arbitrary colonial power because it enabled detention without the ordinary safeguards of trial and judicial review. Gandhi’s response was to mobilise satyagraha against what he regarded as fundamentally unjust legislation.2<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The Salt Satyagraha provides the clearest illustration of Gandhi’s legal philosophy. The colonial salt law created a government monopoly and imposed taxation upon an essential commodity. Gandhi deliberately violated the law by making salt at Dandi in 1930. The Dandi March therefore transformed an apparently technical economic regulation into a nationwide debate about sovereignty, legitimacy and the right of a people to determine its own laws. Government records describe the Salt Satyagraha as a nationwide campaign in which people openly violated the salt laws despite arrests and police repression.3<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The transition from colonial legality to constitutional legality after independence examined how several principles associated with Gandhi’s political thought civil liberty, equality, dignity, public participation and social justice found varying degrees of expression in the Constitution of India<\/a> and subsequent legislation. Article 17<\/a> of the Constitution<\/a>, for instance, expressly abolishes untouchability and makes its practice an offence, while Article 19 protects important freedoms including speech and expression. This distinction is particularly important because the Colonial Courts actually recorded the legal confrontation created by the satyagraha movement. In Jivanlal Varajray Desai, In re<\/span><\/a>4<\/sup><\/a>, the Bombay High Court examined the satyagraha pledge against the Rowlatt legislation, which expressly contemplated civil refusal to obey the legislation while undertaking to maintain truth and refrain from violence.5<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The lawyer and the idea of law<\/p>\n

The first case contested by Mahatma Gandhi was Dada Abdulla<\/span> v. Tyeb Sheth<\/span>, (1893—1894) a bitterly contested commercial dispute between two Gujarati merchants. Gandhi, newly arrived and briefed as junior counsel, persuaded both sides to go to arbitration rather than fight the matter to judgment. When the award went against his own client and threatened to bankrupt him, Gandhi persuaded the winning party to accept payment by easy instalments, so that the loser would not be ruined by a victory the winner did not need.6<\/sup><\/a> He later wrote that he had learned the true practice of law from that case, and that the real function of a lawyer was to unite parties who had been torn apart rather than drive them further apart for a fee.7<\/sup><\/a> That is a theory of what litigation is for, stated by a man with every professional incentive to think otherwise, and Indian law has since built it into statute rather than left it as private ethic. Section 89<\/a>, Civil Procedure Code, 1908<\/a>, requires courts to explore settlement before a civil suit proceeds to trial. The Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987<\/a>, created the Lok Adalat system, disposing of lakhs of cases every year by negotiated settlement. The Mediation Act, 2023<\/a>, makes pre-litigation mediation the default step in a wide class of disputes, giving settlements the force of a decree. Every Lok Adalat Bench in the country is, in a small way, still working from a brief Gandhi took in Pretoria in 1893.<\/p>\n

He was equally severe about what the profession could become if it lost sight of that function. In Hind Swaraj (1909) he argued that lawyers had tightened the English grip on India rather than loosened it, and that courts had normalised colonial coercion by dressing it in the language of due process.8<\/sup><\/a> This was the complaint of a man who had spent 20 years inside the profession and concluded that procedural correctness and substantive justice were not the same thing. Because so much of what circulates under Gandhi’s name is loosely paraphrased or simply invented the line about “An eye for an eye making the whole world blind,” endlessly repeated, has never been traced to anything he actually wrote or said it is worth setting out a small number of statements that are properly documented, in his own words.<\/p>\n

“An unjust law is itself a species of violence.” M.K. Gandhi, Non-Violence in Peace and War<\/span>.9<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

“I realised that the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties riven asunder.” M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography<\/span> (1927).10<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

“What belongs to me is the right to an honourable livelihood, no better than that enjoyed by millions of others. The rest of my wealth belongs to the community.” M.K. Gandhi, on the theory of trusteeship, Harijan, 3 June 1939.11<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

“I plead guilty on each count of the charge.” M.K. Gandhi, plea before Judge C.N. Broomfield, Ahmedabad, 18 March 1922.12<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The Champaran Satyagraha (1917)<\/p>\n

Gandhi’s first legal battle in India was fought over the Tinkathia system in Champaran, Bihar, under which indigo tenant-farmers were contractually bound to cultivate indigo on a fixed portion of their land for British planters, regardless of profitability. When local officials ordered Gandhi to leave the district, he refused and submitted himself for arrest turning a routine administrative order into a public test of the government’s authority.13<\/sup><\/a> The resulting inquiry, on which Gandhi served as a member, validated the farmers’ grievances and led directly to the Champaran Agrarian Act, 1918<\/a>, which abolished the Tinkathia system. Champaran mattered less for its scale than for what it proved: A single unjust contractual arrangement, backed by the machinery of the State, could be dismantled through documented, disciplined defiance rather than violent uprising.14<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

“I declared that the British could not order me about in my own country.” Gandhi, recounted in Louis Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi<\/span>.15<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(From Champaran Satyagraha to Quit India: Key Freedom Movements by Mahatma Gandhi16<\/sup><\/a>)<\/p>\n

The Rowlatt Act and the birth of Non-Cooperation<\/p>\n

The Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, the Rowlatt Act of 191917<\/sup><\/a> extended wartime emergency powers into peacetime. It allowed the government to detain suspects without trial, denied the accused the right to know the evidence against them, and permitted trial by a panel of Judges without a jury and without the right of appeal to a higher court. Indian nationalists summarised its effect in a phrase that captured exactly what made it different from ordinary repressive legislation, it left the accused “no dalil, no vakil, no appeal” no argument, no lawyer, no appeal.18<\/sup><\/a> Where earlier colonial laws had at least preserved the form of due process while abusing its substance, the Rowlatt Act dispensed with the form altogether. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre transformed what had been a legal objection into a moral rupture between Indians and colonial rule, and it is this rupture that pushed Gandhi, by 1920, toward a movement far larger than protest against a single act, the Non-Cooperation Movement.19<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Gandhi called on Indians to withdraw from the colonial legal and administrative system as a whole boycotting British Courts and government schools, surrendering official titles and honours, resigning from government service, and refusing to buy British-manufactured goods.20<\/sup><\/a> Lawyers were asked to give up their practice in Colonial Courts and students were asked to leave government-affiliated institutions. The Movement was called off in 1922 after a mob in Chauri Chaura, Uttar Pradesh, set fire to a police station, killing several policemen a turn to violence Gandhi felt undermined the Movement’s discipline and moral legitimacy.21<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Writings of Gandhi in Young India Journal22<\/sup><\/a>)<\/p>\n

What followed had no real precedent in Anglo-Indian criminal procedure. The trial opened at the Circuit House at Shahibag before a single Sessions Judge, sitting without a jury. Sir, J.T. Strangman appeared for the Crown and Gandhi and Banker appeared undefended, by their own choice, before a courtroom that included Kasturba Gandhi, Sarojini Naidu, and Madan Mohan Malaviya among the spectators. He then gave the court an unhurried account of why he had written what he wrote tracing his disillusionment from the Rowlatt Act of 1919, through the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, to his conclusion that non-cooperation was obligatory. He offered this not as mitigation but as its opposite, an argument for the heaviest sentence allowed, since anything less would look like evasion.23<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(A newspaper report of the debate in the Imperial Legislative Council on Rowlatt24<\/sup><\/a>)<\/p>\n

Inside the Ahmedabad Court: The Great Trial of 1922<\/p>\n

By March 1922, Gandhi had spent three years building the Non-Cooperation Movement through his weekly journal, Young India<\/span>. The Crown’s case rested on three articles “Tampering with Loyalty” (September 1921), “The Puzzle and its Solution” (December 1921), and “Shaking the Manes” (February 1922) which, taken together, the prosecution argued amounted to an attempt to excite disaffection towards government established by law, an offence squarely within Section 124-A<\/a>, Penal Code<\/span>, 1860<\/a>. A Police Superintendent arrived at Sabarmati Ashram on the evening of 10 March 1922 with warrants for Gandhi and for Shankarlal Banker, publisher of Young India<\/span>, and both were arrested.25<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(The Great Trial of 192226<\/sup><\/a> Gandhi being tried for the offence of Sedition)<\/p>\n

Judge C.N. Broomfield sentenced Gandhi to six years’ rigorous imprisonment the same term, he noted, that had been imposed a decade earlier on Bal Gangadhar Tilak under the same section. He then did something no textbook on judicial conduct prepares a sitting Judge for: He told the court that if the situation of the country changed and the government thought fit to reduce the term, no one would be better pleased than he. Gandhi served just under two years before an early release in 1924, following surgery for appendicitis.27<\/sup><\/a> A trial in which the accused pleads guilty, expressly invites the highest penalty, and refuses to seek mercy is no longer functioning as an ordinary criminal proceeding in the conventional sense. Gandhi’s conduct transformed the question of sentencing into a public confrontation between the authority of colonial law and the moral legitimacy he attributed to civil disobedience. It becomes the legal order cross-examining itself in public and finding no comfortable answers to give.<\/p>\n

“We seek arrest because the so-called freedom is slavery. We are challenging the might of this government because we consider its activity to be wholly evil.”28<\/sup><\/a> Gandhi’s article in his paper answering Lord Reading.<\/p>\n

“It would be impossible to ignore the fact that you are in a different category from any person I have ever tried or am likely ever to try.” Judge C.N. Broomfield, sentencing remarks, 18 March 1922.29<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Indian jurisprudence has moved some distance in that direction since independence through Sunil Batra<\/span> v. Delhi Admn.<\/span><\/a>30<\/sup><\/a>, holding that prisoners do not shed fundamental rights at the prison gate, and Maneka Gandhi<\/span> v. Union of India<\/span><\/a>31<\/sup><\/a>, reading Article 21 to require fair, just and reasonable procedure.<\/p>\n

Salt March to Dandi 1930<\/p>\n

The Salt March deserves to be studied as a legal event, not merely as a nationalist episode. On 12 March 1930 Gandhi commenced the march to Dandi. The Salt Act of 1882 formalised the British colonial government’s monopoly over salt, making it illegal for Indians to independently collect, manufacture, or sell salt.32<\/sup><\/a> People were forced to purchase salt from licensed sources and pay a tax, placing a disproportionate burden on the poor. Gandhi viewed this as a clear and universal injustice because salt was an essential necessity of life. On 12 March 1930, he began the 240-mile Dandi March with 78 followers after writing to Viceroy Lord Irwin, explaining his opposition to British rule while pledging non-violence. On 6 April, Gandhi broke the Salt Act by collecting natural salt at Dandi. The act inspired widespread civil disobedience, leading to illegal salt-making, boycotts, and mass arrests.33<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

On 6 April he broke the colonial salt law by producing or collecting salt from the seashore. The act was deliberately simple. Salt was chosen because it was an essential commodity and because the colonial State’s control over its manufacture and taxation made the law intelligible to ordinary people. A technical regulatory offence was thus converted into a question about sovereignty, economic exploitation and the legitimacy of colonial legislation.34<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(When Gandhi’s Salt March Rattled British Colonial Rule 35<\/sup><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"\"   \"\"<\/p>\n

(Salt March to Dandi36<\/sup><\/a>)<\/p>\n

What Gandhi meant by justice<\/p>\n

Gandhi’s idea of justice rested on three linked commitments and a lawyer reading them closely will recognise each as a legal proposition dressed in the language of ethics, not merely a sentiment dressed in the language of religion.<\/p>\n

Sarvodaya and antyodaya<\/span>: Gandhi encountered sarvodaya the rising of all after reading Ruskin’s “Unto This Last<\/span>” on a train in South Africa in 1904, a book he said changed his life overnight. It rejected the utilitarian calculus that treats a policy as just if it raises the average, even where it leaves a minority worse off.37<\/sup><\/a> Its operational test, antyodaya, asked that every measure be judged by its effect on the poorest person it touched.38<\/sup><\/a> That standard is strikingly close to what the Supreme Court did decades later reading Article 21 generously for undertrial prisoners in Hussainara Khatoon (V)<\/span> v. State of Bihar<\/span><\/a>39<\/sup><\/a>, bonded labourers in Bandhua Mukti Morcha<\/span> v. Union of India<\/span><\/a>40<\/sup><\/a> and pavement dwellers in Olga Tellis<\/span> v. Municipal Corpn., Bombay<\/span><\/a>41<\/sup><\/a> none citing Gandhi, but applying his test of whom a policy is actually for.<\/p>\n

Trusteeship<\/span>: Gandhi did not call for expropriation of private property and said so repeatedly to socialist critics. He asked instead that wealth be held in trust for the community, with the holder entitled to a reasonable livelihood no better, in his own phrase, than that enjoyed by millions of others and answerable for the rest.42<\/sup><\/a> This is, structurally, a fiduciary duty superimposed on ordinary ownership, traceable through Article 39(b<\/span>) and (c<\/span>)<\/a> of the Constitution<\/a>, the corporate social responsibility mandate under Section 135<\/a>, Companies Act, 2013<\/a>, and the public trust doctrine imported into Indian environmental law through M.C. Mehta<\/span> v. Kamal Nath<\/span><\/a>43<\/sup><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Duties before rights<\/span>: In 1947, Julian Huxley invited prominent figures, Gandhi among them, to contribute to what became the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Gandhi in a letter addressed to Dr Julian Huxley, replied that he had learned from his mother that rights worth having flow only from duties well performed.44<\/sup><\/a> The Constitution<\/a> carried both halves into law a quarter-century apart, rights from 1950, duties added to Article 51-A only in 1976, during the emergency circumstances.45<\/sup><\/a> Gandhi believed that rights should not be the starting point but rather the consequence of fulfilling one’s responsibilities. Gandhi’s philosophy, rooted in the Bhagavad Gita<\/span>, teaches that selfless action (nishkama karma) is essential for gaining rights, as it fosters a moral society where individuals act in accordance with their duties towards others.46<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Satyagraha and the law of protest<\/p>\n

“A Satyagrahi obeys the laws of society intelligently and of his own free will, because he considers it to be his sacred duty to do so.” by M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography<\/span>.47<\/sup><\/a> Obstruction and inconvenience were not accidental by-products of satyagraha. They were the method itself the visible cost the resister imposes on himself, so the injustice of the law becomes impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n

Indian Courts have never been entirely comfortable accommodating that method once it moves from memory back into practice. As early as 1973, in Himat Lal K. Shah<\/span> v. State<\/span><\/a>48<\/sup><\/a>, the Supreme Court held the right to hold public meetings on public streets subject to reasonable control as to time, place and manner. In Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan<\/span> v. Union of India<\/span><\/a>49<\/sup><\/a>, concerning long-running encampments at Jantar Mantar, the court held that the right to demonstrate must be balanced against nearby residents’ rights, and directed the Delhi Police to devise a regulatory mechanism for limited, time-bound protest use of that area. The sharpest recent test came from the Shaheen Bagh protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 where a group of women occupied a stretch of Delhi road for over three months.50<\/sup><\/a> In Amit Sahni (Shaheen Bagh, In re)<\/span> v. State<\/span><\/a>51<\/sup><\/a>, the Supreme Court held that Article 19 freedoms come bundled with duties towards other citizens, and that public roads cannot be occupied indefinitely, however peaceful the protest while noting it was ruling only on the means chosen, not the merits of the underlying grievance.<\/p>\n

If a doctrine permits protest only where it disturbs no one, how much protest does it actually permit?<\/p>\n

The tension runs both ways. In India, the right to protest is a constitutional right under Article 19(1)(b<\/span>), but it is subject to reasonable restrictions for public order and safety. Gandhi’s own discipline announces the action, limit its scope and duration, and accept the legal consequence is one of the few frameworks that takes both sides seriously at once. It is a discipline of self-limitation quite as much as of resistance, and it is precisely the half of satyagraha most often forgotten in contemporary invocations of his name.52<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The Ambedkar counterpoints<\/p>\n

No honest account of Gandhi’s legal legacy can leave out the sharpest objection to it, which came not from a colonial official but from the principal architect of the Constitution<\/a> itself. B.R. Ambedkar’s disagreement with Gandhi ran through political structure, caste, and method alike.53<\/sup><\/a> Ambedkar rejected Gandhi’s vision of India as a federation of self-governing village republics. In the Constituent Assembly on 4 November 1948, he argued that villages encouraged localism and narrow-mindedness and supported a centralised State with a strong judiciary.54<\/sup><\/a> He also believed caste hierarchy was often strongest at the village level. Regarding untouchability, Ambedkar considered Gandhi’s approach reformist rather than adequate for abolition.55<\/sup><\/a> He viewed the Poona Pact of 1932, which replaced separate electorates for dalits with reserved seats in joint electorates, as moral coercion.56<\/sup><\/a> While Gandhi defended satyagraha against unjust laws when constitutional remedies failed, Ambedkar warned that methods of civil disobedience, non-cooperation and satyagraha were dangerous once constitutional methods were available, describing them as the “grammar of anarchy”. His argument rested on institutional transformation: A democratic constitutional order creates lawful channels through which grievances can be expressed and corrected.57<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The contrast between Gandhi and Ambedkar is therefore not simply between two personalities. It is between two theories of political legality. Gandhi developed methods for a people denied meaningful participation in colonial government. Ambedkar helped construct a constitutional order in which citizens were intended to possess rights, representation and judicial remedies. The moral necessity of extra-constitutional resistance should consequently be assessed differently under the two systems.58<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

What survives the anniversary<\/p>\n

The advocate’s highest function is to end a dispute rather than to prolong it for professional advantage, an idea Gandhi arrived at from a single arbitration in 1893, and one now built directly into the architecture of Indian civil procedure through Lok Adalats, court-referred mediation under Section 89<\/a>, Civil Procedure<\/a> Code, 1908<\/a>, and the Mediation Act, 2023<\/a>, rather than left to depend on any individual lawyer’s private conscience.<\/p>\n

A legal system should properly be judged at its lowest point rather than at its statistical average at the undertrial who has already served longer in custody awaiting trial than the maximum sentence he actually risks on conviction, at the litigant priced entirely out of an appeal by the cost of pursuing one, at the protester whose grievance may be entirely legitimate but whose chosen method the law is not yet sure how to accommodate.<\/p>\n

Non-violence, properly understood as a legal rather than purely a moral principle, carries a specific and demanding meaning that the coercive power of the State should always be the last instrument reached for, and, once reached for, should be drawn as narrowly and as precisely as the underlying problem actually requires whether the question at hand is the scope of a speech offence, the conditions of a preventive detention order, or the degree of force used to clear a peaceful but inconvenient crowd from a public road.<\/p>\n

The central lesson is not that citizens should simply break laws they regard as unjust. That proposition would be incompatible with the stability of constitutional government. The stronger lesson is that legality and legitimacy are related but distinct concepts. A legal system must possess enforceable rules, but it must also remain open to challenge when those rules violate constitutional commitments or fundamental principles of justice. Gandhi’s method forced that challenge into the open by accepting the State’s punishment while refusing to accept the moral premise behind the law. Gandhi’s legal legacy is not a single case citation or a favourable verdict; it is the demonstrated principle, later absorbed into independent India’s own constitutional culture and still tested in its courts today, that unjust law survives only until enough people decide, openly and peacefully, to break it.<\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

1. Statement in the Great Trial of 1922, Ahmedabad, 18 March 1922, including the charges, Gandhi’s plea, his statement to the court, and Judge C. N. Broomfield’s sentencing remarks, available at gandhiashramsabarmati.org<\/a> and mkgandhi.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2. Contemporaneous account of the Great Trial, the arrest at Sabarmati Ashram, and its public significance, available at The India Forum, “The Great Trial of 1922”.<\/p>\n

3. M. K. Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth (1959 ed.), Part II, ch. XIV, p. 97, on the Dada Abdulla arbitration and the true function of a lawyer, available at gandhiashramsevagram.org<\/a> and mkgandhi.org<\/a>, “Gandhiji’s Thoughts on the Law and the Lawyers”; and Hind Swaraj (1909), ch. XI, on lawyers and courts, available at mkgandhi.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4. On sarvodaya and Ruskin’s Unto This Last, on satyagraha as distinct from passive resistance, and on the 1947 exchange with Julian Huxley concerning duties and rights, see Gandhi’s collected writings at the same sites.<\/p>\n

5. Kedar Nath Singh v. State of Bihar<\/span><\/a>59<\/sup><\/a>, full judgment available at Indian Kanoon.<\/p>\n

6. S.G. Vombatkere<\/span> v. Union of India<\/span>, W.P.(C) No. 682 of 2021, order dated 11 May 2022, available at the official Supreme Court order (PDF); case tracker at Supreme Court Observer.<\/p>\n

7. Clarification of 21 May 2026 permitting Section 124-A proceedings to continue where the accused does not object, discussed at Supreme Court Observer, “Sedition in Abeyance, But Not in Limbo”.<\/p>\n

8. Amit Sahni (Shaheen Bagh, In re) v. State<\/span><\/a>60<\/sup><\/a>, full judgment available at Indian Kanoon, discussing and applying Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan v. Union of India<\/span><\/a>61<\/sup><\/a>, at para 15.<\/p>\n

9. Constitutional challenge to Section 152<\/a>, Nyaya Sanhita, 2023<\/a> as a reformulated sedition offence, reported at The Wire and Scroll.in.<\/p>\n

10. B. R. Ambedkar, concluding speech to the Constituent Assembly, 25 November 1949 (the “grammar of anarchy” speech), and remarks on village republics before the Constituent Assembly, 4 November 1948 official text in the Constituent Assembly Debates (Lok Sabha Secretariat); excerpts available at Outlook.<\/p>\n

11. M. K. Gandhi, Non-Violence in Peace and War, Vol. II, ed. Mahadev Desai, p. 144, on unjust law as a species of violence; excerpted at libquotes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

12. M. K. Gandhi on the theory of trusteeship, Harijan, 3 June 1939, and Harijan, 16 December 1939, available in full at mkgandhi.org<\/a> (PDF) and mkgandhi.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

13. Jawaharlal Nehru, “The Light Has Gone Out”, broadcast on All India Radio, 30 January 1948, full text available at the Nehru Archive.<\/p>\n

14. Albert Einstein, tribute on Gandhi’s 70th birthday, 1939, available at mkgandhi.org<\/a>, “Albert Einstein on Gandhi, Nonviolence and India”.<\/p>\n

15. Journal Pictures: https:\/\/www.mkgandhi.org\/articles\/journals-by-Mahatma-Gandhi.php<\/a><\/p>\n

16. Journal Writings: https:\/\/www.gktoday.in\/young-india-and-gandhian-politics\/<\/a><\/p>\n

17. Qoutes: https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/india\/martyrs-day-quotes-of-world-leaders-on-mahatma-gandhi\/articleshow\/67750915.cms<\/a> https:\/\/thebetterindia.com\/35422\/20-greatest-world-leaders-and-thinkers-who-were-inspired-by-mahatma-gandhi\/<\/a> https:\/\/www.mkgandhi.org\/tributes.php<\/a><\/p>\n

18. In 1947, Julian Huxley wrote to global thinkers, including Mohandas Gandhi (via Jawaharlal Nehru), asking for their thoughts on the philosophical basis for human rights. [1, 2] https:\/\/www.mkgandhi.org\/thiswasbapu\/134rightsandduties.php<\/a><\/p>\n

19. Gandhi famously declined the traditional rights-based approach. He stated in a May 1947 letter that “all rights to be deserved and preserved came from duty well done.” [1, 2] https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/religion\/reclaiming-the-language-of-duty-in-an-age-of-human-rights-samue\/11412158<\/a> https:\/\/www.unesco.org\/en\/udhr<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

*Editorial Assistant, EBC Publishing Pvt Ltd.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

1.<\/a> Gandhi’s Non-Violent Struggle Against British Colonialism in India, Gandhi & Peace Studies<\/a>, 8-8-2025.<\/p>\n

2.<\/a> Rowlatt Act 1919, Meaning, Provisions, Rowlatt Satyagraha<\/a>.<\/p>\n

3.<\/a> Kenneth Pletcher, Salt March (1930), Encyclopedia Britannica<\/a>, 5-9-2026.<\/p>\n

4.<\/a> 1919 SCC OnLine Bom 10<\/a>.<\/p>\n

5.<\/a> Jivanlal Varajray Desai, In re<\/a><\/span>, 1919 SCC OnLine Bom 10<\/a>.<\/p>\n

6.<\/a> M.K. Gandhi, “Preparation for the Case” in S.B. Kher (Ed.), The Law and The Lawyers<\/span><\/a> (1st Edn., Navajivan Publishing House, Ahemadabad, 1962).<\/p>\n

7.<\/a> Mahadev Desai (Tr.), Mohandas K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography<\/span> (Navajivan Press, Ahmedabad, 1927).<\/a><\/p>\n

8.<\/a> Valji Govindji Desai (Tr.), Mahatma Gandhi, “The Condition of India (Continued): Lawyers” in Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule<\/span> (1st Edn., Navajivan Publishing House, Ahemadabad, 1938).<\/a><\/p>\n

9.<\/a> Mahatma Gandhi, “An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for.…<\/a>”, MuseQuotes.com.<\/p>\n

10.<\/a> Mahadev Desai (Tr.), Mohandas K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography<\/span> (Navajivan Press, Ahmedabad, 1927).<\/a><\/p>\n

11.<\/a> Mahatma Gandhi, “Theory of Trusteeship”, Gandhi’s Views.<\/a><\/p>\n

12.<\/a> Great Trial (1922) — Gandhiji’s Famous Speech<\/a>, Gandhi Ashram at Sabarmati.<\/p>\n

13.<\/a> Babu P. Remesh, “Champaran Satyagraha for Indigo Workers: A Memorable April in the Mahatma’s Diary<\/a>” (2006) 4(2) Labour File.<\/p>\n

14.<\/a> Champaran Satyagraha, InsightsIAS.<\/a><\/p>\n

15.<\/a> Louis Fischer, “Indigo<\/a>” in The Life of Mahatma Gandhi<\/span>, available at <lefl105.pdf<\/a>>.<\/p>\n

16.<\/a> Rajni Pandey, “From Champaran Satyagraha to Quit India: Key Freedom Movements by Mahatma Gandhi”, Moneycontrol<\/a>, 1-10-2025.<\/p>\n

17.<\/a> Rowlatt Act 1919, Meaning, Provisions, Rowlatt Satyagraha<\/a>.<\/p>\n

18.<\/a> NEXT IAS Contributors, Rowlatt Act of 1919: About Satyagraha & Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, nextias, 5-9-2026.<\/a><\/p>\n

19.<\/a> Kenneth Pletcher, Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, Encyclopedia Britannica<\/a>, 28-8-2026.<\/p>\n

20.<\/a> Non Cooperation Movement in Indian Freedom Struggle, Vedantu.<\/a><\/p>\n

21.<\/a> Chauri Chaura Incident, Cultural India, 5-2-1922.<\/a><\/p>\n

22.<\/a> Karthik Venkatesh, “Gandhi’s Journals: How the Mahatma Shaped a Nation’s Ideas Through Young India, Navjivan and Harijan”, Gandhi’s Journals adapted from Firstpost, 2-10-2022.<\/a><\/p>\n

23.<\/a> Great Trial (1922) — Gandhiji’s Famous Speech<\/a>, Gandhi Ashram at Sabarmati.<\/p>\n

24.<\/a> B.R. Nanda, “Rowlatt Bills” in Gandhi — A Pictorial Biography<\/span><\/a> (Publications Division, Government of India).<\/p>\n

25.<\/a> Great Trial (1922) — Gandhiji’s Famous Speech, Gandhi Ashram at Sabarmati.<\/a><\/p>\n

26.<\/a> Venu Madhav Govindu, “The Great Trial of 1922”, (9-4-2022) 76(21) Janata Weekly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

27.<\/a> Venu Madhav Govindu, “The Great Trial of 1922” (The India Forum<\/span>, 19-3-2022)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

28.<\/a> Trial of Mahatma Gandhi — 1922<\/a>.<\/p>\n

29.<\/a> Great Trial (1922) — Gandhiji’s Famous Speech, Gandhi Ashram at Sabarmati.<\/a><\/p>\n

30.<\/a> (1978) 4 SCC 494<\/a> : 1979 SCC (Cri) 155.<\/p>\n

31.<\/a> (1978) 1 SCC 248<\/a>.<\/p>\n

32.<\/a> Anshika Saxena, “The Salt Act: A Turning Point in India’s Fight for Freedom”, The Unknown India, 1-12-2025.<\/a><\/p>\n

33.<\/a> Evan Andrews, “When Gandhi’s Salt March Rattled British Colonial Rule”, History, 12-3-2015.<\/a><\/p>\n

34.<\/a> Cameron Miranda, “Salt Law: Gandhi’s Defiance for India’s Freedom”, LawShun, 19-3-2025.<\/a><\/p>\n

35.<\/a> Evan Andrews, “When Gandhi’s Salt March Rattled British Colonial Rule”, History , 12-3-2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n

36.<\/a> The 30s, ThoughtCo., available at <https:\/\/www.thoughtco.com\/gandhis-salt-march-1779287<\/a>>.<\/p>\n

37.<\/a> Shubhangi Rathi, “Gandhian Philosophy of Sarvodaya and its Principles”, Gandhi’s Views.<\/a><\/p>\n

38.<\/a> Anurodh, Antyodaya and Sarvodaya<\/a>, 28-6-2023.<\/p>\n

39.<\/a> (1980) 1 SCC 108<\/a> : 1980 SCC (Cri) 50.<\/p>\n

40.<\/a> (2000) 9 SCC 322<\/a>.<\/p>\n

41.<\/a> (1985) 3 SCC 545<\/a>.<\/p>\n

42.<\/a> Kazuya Ishii, “Gandhi’s Theory of Trusteeship”, Trusteeship.<\/a><\/p>\n

43.<\/a> (2002) 3 SCC 653<\/a>.<\/p>\n

44.<\/a> R.K. Prabhu, “Rights and Duties” in This Was Bapu: One Hundred and Fifty Anecdotes Relating to Mahatma Gandhi<\/span> (1st Edn., Navajivan Publishing House, Ahemadabad, 1954)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

45.<\/a> R.K. Prabhu, “Rights and Duties” in This Was Bapu: One Hundred and Fifty Anecdotes Relating to Mahatma Gandhi<\/span> (1st Edn., Navajivan Publishing House, Ahemadabad, 1954)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

46.<\/a> Rights and Duties in Gandhi’s Philosophy: The Inseparable Link, Gandhi & Peace Studies<\/a>, 18-9-2025.<\/p>\n

47.<\/a> Mahatma Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography<\/span>, “A Satyagrahi obeys the laws of society intellig….”.<\/p>\n

48.<\/a> (1973) 1 SCC 227<\/a> : 1973 SCC (Cri) 280.<\/p>\n

49.<\/a> (2018) 17 SCC 324<\/a>.<\/p>\n

50.<\/a> “Shaheen Bagh’s Bright Legacy Lives on”, Hindus for Human Rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n

51.<\/a> (2020) 10 SCC 439<\/a> : (2021) 1 SCC (Cri) 424.<\/p>\n

52.<\/a> Sunanda Sharma, “Gandhian Strategy — The Exclusive Mantra for Solving Problems in Modern Context”, Relevance of Gandhi.<\/a><\/p>\n

53.<\/a> Ravi Ranjan, “Gandhi and Ambedkar on Human Dignity”, Gandhi’s Views.<\/a><\/p>\n

54.<\/a> Constitution of India, Constituent Assembly Debates, Vol. 7, 4-11-1948.<\/a><\/p>\n

55.<\/a> G. Geethika, “Gandhi and the Indian Constitution: Realising the Idea of a Village-Based Polity”, (2022) 43(4) Gandhi Marg.<\/a><\/p>\n

56.<\/a> Poona Pact 1932 (B.R. Ambedkar and M.K. Gandhi), Historical Constitutions, Constitution of India<\/a>.<\/p>\n

57.<\/a> Constituent Assembly Debates, speech by<\/span> B.R. Ambedkar 11 (25-11-1949)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

58.<\/a> Michael F. Plotkin, “Resistance to the Soul: Gandhi and His Critics”, Gandhi & Myths.<\/a><\/p>\n

59.<\/a> 1962 SCC OnLine SC 6<\/a><\/p>\n

60.<\/a> (2020) 10 SCC 439<\/a> : (2021) 1 SCC (Cri) 424<\/p>\n

61.<\/a> (2018) 17 SCC 324<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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