The best qualities to possess in a social movement are important to know it is important to know so that the movement is successful. The Indian Freedom Struggle started in 1847 and ended in 1947. The Indian Freedom Struggle was started because Indians were fighting for equality, they were fighting for control of their own country, and to not be controlled by people who came from across the ocean. There are certain qualities a person needs to have to do well in a social movement. Also the morals of the leaders of the movement have an effect on the movements well being.
The most important character trait that people should have when they are working for social justice is determination. Determination is important to have when working for social justice especially during the Indian Freedom Struggle. It is important because determination is what kept the movement going for decades. The Indian Freedom struggle continued for 100 years, and it takes determination to keep people protesting for that long. Determination to gain indian freedom is what got the Indians to start new movements every time a new injustice arose against them. Gandhi especially showed determination because he was determined to get protestors to be peaceful and not use violence no matter the circumstance. When people used violence, Gandhi fasted until they stopped using violence no matter how long it took them to stop. Gandhi was determined for the government to know his demands and for those demands to happen he tried to negotiate with the Dutch government to get his demands for Indian freedom, this shows Gandhi’s determination in keeping the movement non violent because negotiation is a nonviolent strategy. Some would argue that determination is not the most important quality and that there are other qualities important than determination. That is incorrect because determination is the foundation, the platform to having other qualities because without determination people would just quit on their social movement. That makes determination by far the most important quality to have.
In addition to determination there are other qualities that people need to have to gain success in a social movement and a good quality for a leader or participant in the freedom struggle is to be charismatic. Being charismatic gets people to join and participate in a protest. For example in the beginning of the nonviolent protest Gandhi started with no more than 20 followers but over time those people and Gandhi influenced others till it was most of India participating in the protest. Also Gandhi influenced the protestors to not use violence because Gandhi did not believe in the use of violence. He used the media to influence indians not to use violence and to show the world how the government, police, and soldiers mistreat the people of India. Gandhi would invite reporters to his protests so that people around the world would know what was happening. The media was also influential because they would report the maltreatment the Dutch used on Indians influenced people to not support the dutch and to become Indian allies. An example of someone who was a giant influence during the Indian Freedom Struggle was someone named Naidu. Naidu was an Indian woman who was a close friend of Gandhis and a leader of the freedom movement. She influenced thousands of women to participate in the Salt March and to sell the salt on the streets with no fear. She helped get tons and tons of women to participate in the movement. The characteristic of being charismatic is a really good characteristic to have when being a participant or leader of a social movement.
Another quality the people in the Indian Freedom struggle should have is bravery. The leaders and the protesters need to be brave in order to act out civil disobedience. Civil disobedience requires bravery because the people have to break laws and risk leaving their families and go to jail if they get arrested. The Indians also risked getting beaten and they can't fight back because they are part of the nonviolence movement. For example during the Salt Raid, the Indians were peaceful and all they wanted was to walk towards the salt but the soldiers that were guarding kept attacking and beating them up. The protesters knew they are risking their safety and in some events even their lives because they knew the soldiers and police would shoot and beat them until someone of higher authority tells them to stop, but they proceeded to stay in this movement to gain freedom. Another example of being hurt and staying with the movement was the Jalianwala Bagh Massacre. A big group of Indians gathered and General Dyer came with his soldiers and ordered them to shoot at the people and they killed hundreds, but knowing this people still stayed in the freedom movement. This shows the bravery of the Indians. Some people who are especially brave are the people in the INA, which stands for the Indian National Army. The INA went against the millions of people that were set with non violence and risked being looked down upon by the people who stuck with non violence. They were using violence instead of non violence to gain back the freedom of India by force. They are fighting against an army of soldiers who have been very well trained and an army of people better equipped in weaponry. They were outnumbered and outskilled but their bravery helped them to overcome that and still fight against the Dutch army. Although these peoples bravery can be looked at as foolishness, that is wrong. This would be wrong because they are strategic protesters part of a planned out movement and if they were being foolish instead of brave then they would be reckless and just jump straight into things instead of planning it out and knowing what they are going to do. Bravery is a quality that helped the Indians in the Indian Freedom Struggle.
The moral values of Gandhi, one of the leaders of the non violence/civil disobedience movement, was to not use violence during the movement. This impacted all of the protesters. This impacted all of the protesters in a positive way. The positive impact would be that the nonviolence got the indians a lot of international allies. It also got the indians good publicity and showed the stupidity of the Dutch officers and soldiers because they were attacking people who were not being violent at all. During the salt raid the indian protesters were trying to walk towards the salt and were unarmed. The police kept beating and beating on the protesters every time they got close enough to be hit. Attending the raid were reporters who witnessed the whole thing. So when they wrote their story on it they would be talking about the Europeans cruelty and reveal what was really happening to the Indians. People around the world would read the story and withdraw their support for the Europeans or give their support to the Indians. The moral values of Gandhi had a positive impact for the protesters.
The qualities of a leader and participant of the indian freedom struggle are being charismatic, having bravery, and determination. But the most important quality is being determined. Also the morals of a leader greatly affect the participants and the movement. This struggle is like someone's everyday life! Marriage equality, gay people are fighting for the right to get married. Violence against women, people are fighting to be seen as equals and to not be abused. People who are fighting against racism, someone who is not white is fighting to be able to have the same opportunities. All these people who fight for these things possess the qualities to succeed and if someone wants to join or start a movement they need to have these qualities.