Image: Gandhi and Ahmedabad’s textile workers, historical archive.
The Ahmedabad mill strike of 1918 was one of Gandhi’s earliest labour campaigns in India. The dispute involved textile workers seeking higher wages during a period of economic pressure and rising living costs.
The dispute
Workers sought an increase in wages, while mill owners resisted the demand. Gandhi became involved after being asked to help mediate the dispute.
Gandhi’s approach
Gandhi encouraged workers to remain united and nonviolent and proposed arbitration as a way to settle the dispute.
The fast
When negotiations stalled, Gandhi undertook a fast. He presented it as a personal act of moral pressure rather than a demand for physical confrontation.
The settlement
The dispute eventually ended with an agreement involving an increase in workers’ wages.
Why Ahmedabad matters
The campaign showed Gandhi applying Satyagraha beyond anti-colonial politics, using nonviolent methods in an industrial labour dispute.
Read NewsNationOnline’s Kheda Satyagraha feature and Gandhi’s nonviolence feature.
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