Satyagraha and European Internationalism

The interwar era (1919–1939) in Europe received a large impetus of revolutionary potential from the advent of communism in the Soviet Union, but nonviolent action was also increasingly evident in the German resistance to the French and Belgian occupation of the Ruhr. In India, Gandhi had a firm hand on the Non-Cooperation/Khilafat Movement that came to a halt when in 1922 it deviated from nonviolence as a mob of protesters burned a police station at Chauri Chaura, killing dozens of Indian policemen sheltering inside. By 1930, resistance had galvanized into Gandhi’s widely covered nonviolent Salt March as well as the simultaneous rise of armed resistance exemplified in the Chittagong Armory Raid by Surjya Sen’s guerrilla band. Also marking the increasing radicalism of the era, were assassinations and a staged bombing attack by Bhagat Singh, whom the British executed making him a widely celebrated martyr. This was also an exciting and prolific era with the work of W. E. B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey set against a background of race riots.