Gandhiji’s activities in India during the crucial period 1915-1948 can be construed as ‘Gandhian era’ in Indian National Movement. His use of hunger strikes, mass demonstrations, deliberate courting of jails were the principal weapons which he added to the nationalist struggle. The period between 1919 to independence is marked by three important struggles – Non-cooperation movement of 1919, Civil Disobedience movement of 1930, with its call of complete independence and the famous Quit Indian Movement of 1942.

While Mahatma Gandhi’s mass appeal was undoubtedly genuine – and in the context of Indian politics, without precedent – it must also be stressed that his success in broadening the basis of nationalism was based on careful organisation.

Mahatma  Gandhi’s  leading  ascended  from  grass-root  level  to  the  top.  He never forced his authority upon the people. Here lies the distinction between Mr. Gandhi and the early leaders of Congress.  His  idea  of Swaraj was  that  of  kingdom  of  God  that  worked  for the advantage of the masses.

Leaders:

• Between 1917 and 1922, a group of highly talented Indians attached themselves to Gandhiji.
• They included Mahadev Desai, Vallabh Bhai Patel, J.B. Kripalani, Subhas Chandra Bose, Abul Kalam Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, Govind Ballabh Pant and C. Rajagopalachari.
• Notably, these close associates of Gandhiji came from different regions as well as different religious traditions.
• In turn, they inspired countless other Indians to join the Congress and work for it.
• Many recognized leaders like Nehru, Motilal Nehru, Lala Lajpat Rai etc. surrendered their legal  practice  and  supported  the 
• Vallabh Bhai Patel
  • Patel supported Gandhi’s non-cooperation Movement and toured the state to recruit more than 300,000 members and raise over Rs. 1.5 million in funds.
  • Helping organise bonfires in Ahmedabad in which British goods were burned, Patel threw in all his English-style clothes.
  • Patel also supported Gandhi’s suspension of resistance in the wake of the Chauri Chaura incident.
  • In Gujarat he worked extensively in the following years against alcoholism, untouchability, and caste discrimination, as well as for the empowerment of women.
  • In the Congress, he was a resolute supporter of Gandhi against his Swarajist critics.
• Sarojini Naidu 
  • In 1931, she participated in the second round-table conference with Gandhiji and Madan Mohan Malaviya. She was jailed, along with Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Madan Mohan Malaviya, and others for participating in the Salt March, when 1st Round Table Conference took place in London.
  • The poet Sarojini  Naidu drove  2,500  marchers  on  the Dharasana Salt Works, around 150 miles north of Bombay. A few hundred British-drove Indian police-men met them and violently  beat  the  peaceful 
  • She played a leading role in the Civil Disobedience Movement and was jailed along with Gandhi and other leaders. In 1942, she was arrested during period of the “Quit India Movement”
• J B Kripalani:
  • Kripalani was a Gandhian socialist, environmentalist, mystic and independence activist.
  • He grew close to Gandhi and at one point, he was one of Gandhi’s most ardent disciples.
  • Kripalani was a familiar figure to generations of dissenters, from the Non-Cooperation Movements of the 1920s to the Emergency of the 1970s.
• SC Bose:
  • In the eventful years of World War II, when Gandhi gave a call of ”Do or Die” and Netaji led the Indian National Army to make a fierce assault on the eastern front.
  • Although traversing divergent paths to attain the country’s freedom, legendary figures Subhas Chandra Bose and Mahatma Gandhi were locked in affectionate bonds, with the Mahatma in later years admitting the greatness of his ”adventurist son.”
• Khan Abdul Gaffer
  • In the North western Frontier Province Khan Abdul Gaffer who came to be known as Frontier Gandhi drove his devotees in a monstrous uprising.
  • His adherents were referred to as ‘red shirts’ as they wore red coloured kurtas. The association  that  he  had  made  with  workers  and  small landowners  was  known  as  the  Khudai Khidmatgar  (the  servants  of  God). 
  • Gaffer Khan turned into a committed adherent of Gandhi and leading member of the Congress.
• Acharya Vinoba Bhave:
  • An ardent supporter of Gandhi,  was chosen by him to start the movement.
  • He even participated in the individual satyagraha. Later, he started off the Bhoodan movement.

Citizens of India:

• On Gokhale’s advice, Gandhiji spent a year  travelling  around  British  India, getting  to  know  the  land  and  its people.
• The Banaras Hindu University Speech in 1916 was first  public announcement  of  Gandhiji’s own  desire  to  make  Indian nationalism  more  properly representative  of  the  Indian  people  as  a 
• By 1922, Gandhiji had transformed Indian nationalism, thereby redeeming the promise he made in his BHU speech of February 1916.
• During the  Non-Cooperation  Movement  thousands of  Indians  were  put  in    Gandhiji himself was arrested in March 1922, and charged with sedition.
• It was no longer a movement  of  professionals  and  intellectuals;  now, hundreds  of  thousands  of  peasants,  workers  and artisans  also  participated  in 
• Many of them venerated Gandhiji, referring to him as their ‘Mahatma’.
• Some of the entrepreneurs, such as G.D. Birla, supported the national movement openly; others did so tacitly. Thus, among Gandhiji’s admirers were both poor peasants and rich industrialists, although the reasons varied.
• The non-cooperation movement was a serious test for the people at all levels especially in terms of their self-reliance and awareness over their political rights

Conclusion:

His simple lifestyle and love of working with his hands allowed him to empathise more fully with the labouring poor and for them, in turn, to empathise with him.