Boston Tea Party and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

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Boston Tea Party and Mahatma Gandhi 

 

The Boston Tea Party arose from two issues confronting the British Empire in 1765: the financial problems of the British East India Company, and an ongoing dispute about the extent of Parliament's authority, if any, over the British American colonies without seating any elected representation. In 1767, to help the East India Company compete with smuggled Dutch tea, Parliament passed the Indemnity Act, which lowered the tax on tea consumed in Great Britain, and gave the East India Company a refund of the 25% duty on tea that was re-exported to the colonies. Parliament finally responded to the protests by repealing the Townshend taxes in 1770, except for the tea duty, which Prime Minister Lord North kept to assert "the right of taxing the Americans". This partial repeal of the taxes was enough to bring an end to the non-importation movement by October 1770.  From 1771 to 1773, British tea was once again imported into the colonies in significant amounts, with merchants paying the Townshend duty of three pence per pound. Boston was the largest colonial importer of legal tea; smugglers still dominated the market in New York and Philadelphia. The Indemnity Act of 1767, which gave the East India Company a refund of the duty on tea that was re-exported to the colonies, expired in 1772. Parliament passed a new act in 1772 that reduced this refund, effectively leaving a 10% duty on tea imported into Britain.

Mahatma Gandhi was very sensitive of the world affairs. He gave statements on Boston tea party.  The national movement is producing a deep impression upon our people outside India. Prof. Kosambi writes from Cambridge (Mass.): The accompanying appeal for the T. S. F. was issued here about seven weeks ago and the subscription that was collected up to this date is $ 156 or Rs. 570 for which I am enclosing a cheque herewith. Most of the contributions come from the poor Indian students who have to depend upon their labour or scholarships for the maintenance in this country. . . From the time of the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Bunker Hill up to the Sinn Fein movement in Ireland, all the nations on earth had employed force as the only weapon to liberate themselves from domestic or foreign tyranny; but it was left to India under your leadership to discover a new means for freedom, which is, as the Nation (New York) puts it, “a secret not learned in centuries of warfare”. And the Press of this country from the most radical to the most conservative is unanimous in praising you and the Indian national movement. This is indeed a great gain to us.  I omit the appeal as its purport appears in the letter. The money has been earmarked for the depressed classes work. 1 

The reporters of English newspapers present at the meeting were profoundly impressed with the whole scene and gave graphic descriptions of the meeting in their papers. A description of the meeting was sent to The Daily Mail (London) by its Johannesburg correspondent, in course of which he compared the act of the Indians in burning their certificates with that of the Boston Tea Party. I do not think this comparison did more than justice to the Indians, seeing that if the whole might of the British Empire was ranged against the hundreds of thousands of able Europeans in America, herein South Africa a helpless body of 13,000 Indians had challenged the powerful Government of the Transvaal. The Indians’ only weapon was faith in the righteousness of their own cause and in God. There is no doubt that this weapon is all-sufficient and all-powerful for the devout, but so long as that is not the view of the man in the street, 13,000 unarmed Indians might appear insignificant before the well-armed Europeans of America. As God is the strength of the weak, it is as well that the world despises them. 2

 

References:

1. Young India, 19-1-1922
2. 2.      Chapter XXVII