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Gandhi’s Role in the American Farm Workers’ Movement How the Indian Gandhi’s Role in the American Farm Workers’ Movement How the Indian 
Activist Inspired and Agricultural Revolution a World AwayActivist Inspired and Agricultural Revolution a World Away
By: Sophie Wink

09 June, 2020
When Mohandas K. Gandhi, a small unassuming Indian man, was able to drive a revolution that finally 

freed India from the grip of the British Empire, the world took note. What was so unique about Gandhi’s breed 
of rebellion, and what truly drew international attention, was the fact that this man was able to create a revo-
lution that overtook the massive Indian subcontinent and effectively created a system of democratic rule, all 
without violence. This was a foreign concept to many and served as proof that large-scale political change could 
happen in a non-violent manner. Gandhi’s responses to the abuses of the British government included peaceful 
marches, boycotts, and fasting and would go on to inspire many great leaders including Martin Luther King Jr., 
Richard Gregg, Nelson Mandela, and César Chávez.1 Chávez was a Mexican-American activist who, especially 
inspired by the activism of King and Gandhi and by his strong Catholic religion, was able to drive significant 
change in the agricultural labor system of the United States. As is explained by authors Richard Jensen and John 
Hammerback, “Chávez could readily compare his fight with powerful agricultural, legal, and political interests 
to Gandhi’s in India,” and he used the similarities that he saw to model his own breed of activism after Gand-
hi’s.2 Chávez was exposed to Gandhi’s methods and messages early in life, and this stuck with him. In Chávez’s 
own words, “I was eleven or twelve years old, and I went to a movie. In those days, in between movies they had 
newsreels, and in one of the newsreels there was a report on Gandhi. It said that this half-naked man without 
a gun had conquered the might of the British empire. ... It really impressed me because I couldn’t conceive of 
how that had happened without guns. Even though I had never heard the name Gandhi before. . . . since then, 
I have made a life project of reading about Gandhi and his message.” 3 César Chávez was able to successfully 
adapt Gandhi’s approach to the farm workers’ movement in the U.S., taking specific influence from his use of 
fasting, nonviolent demonstrations, and boycotts.

Chávez drew from many aspects of Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance when developing his own methods 
of resistance, and one method that was particularly important to both men was the practice of fasting. Gandhi 
is well known for his many fasts, which he used on several occasions to discourage violence and as a form of 
protest. One of his most well-known fasts occurred in 1947, when Hindu-Muslim violence broke out in Calcutta 
as the result of the split of newly-free India into India and Pakistan. It worked; the violence ceased and Gand-
hi ate again. He believed that fasting was an extreme act of self control and that, beyond its political power, 
it strengthened one’s moral resolve as well if practiced regularly.4 It is clear that César Chávez was inspired 
by Gandhi’s fasting because Chávez, too, utilized fasting in similar ways. His first fast took place in 1968 and 
lasted for twenty-five days in an attempt to discourage violence in his movement to find justice for mistreat-
ed migrant workers and to serve penance for violence that had been committed. Just as it worked for Gandhi, 
Chávez’s fast stopped all discussion of violence within the farm workers’ movement and drew massive national 
attention. Chávez was fascinated with the idea of self-sacrifice for the greater good through fasting; in Anne 
Klejment’s Dorothy Day and César Chávez: American Catholic Lives in Nonviolence, Klejment explains that 
“the Mahatma’s self-discipline, such as fasting, and accepting suffering oneself without inflicting it on another, 
likewise resonated with Chávez’s faith.”5 This type of suffering for a good cause, as Gandhi had done, seemed 
to Chávez to line up perfectly with his understanding of his Catholic religion, which emphasized self-sacrifice 
and non-violence. Chávez himself credited Gandhi with inspiring his several fasts, specifically his first fast. 
In his “Letter from Delano” to California Grape and Tree Fruit League president E.L. Barr Jr., against whom 

1  Joseph Kip Kosek, “Richard Gregg, Mohandas Gandhi, and the Strategy of Nonviolence” in The Journal of American Histo-
ry, 1318;  Leonard A. Gordon. “Mahatma Gandhi’s Dialogues with Americans.” in Economic and Political Weekly, 341-342 & 350
2  Richard J. Jensen, and John C. Hammerback. “From Farmworker to Cultural Icon: Cesar Chavez’s Rhetorical Crusade.”, 88
3  Thomas Adam.  “Change Through Non-Violence: The Rationalization Of Conflict Solution.”, 146
4  Mahatma Gandhi. “Hind Swaraj.”, 91
5  Anne Klejment. “Dorothy Day and César Chávez: American Catholic Lives in Nonviolence.”, 136



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the farmworkers were striking, Chávez shed light on his motivations. “I know and accept my responsibility for 
preventing, if possible, the destruction of human life and property,” Chávez explained. “For these reasons, and 
knowing of Gandhi’s admonition that fasting is the last resort in place of the sword, during a most critical time 
in our movement last February 1968 I undertook a 25-day fast.” 6 Chávez combined Gandhi’s ideas with his 
own Catholic beliefs, as can be seen in the desire to fast as “penance” for violence within his movement. It is 
intriguing to consider religion in the cases of both men. While one was Catholic and one was Hindu, they both 
found that the basic tenets of their religions would support and, in fact, demand non-violent resistance. Gand-
hi, although he was a devout Hindu, believed in the goodness of all religions and recognized what Chávez also 
saw; religions of all types can be used to promote non-violence and a strong sense of morality. He saw how 
Gandhi had been able to keep his movement peaceful by showing his followers that he was willing to sacrifice 
his own life before he was willing to allow for violence and was inspired to lead in a similar way. 

Another aspect of Gandhi’s resistance that inspired Chávez’s nonviolent protests against the unfair 
treatment of California growers was his nonviolent demonstrations, specifically marches. Gandhi was able to 
drive great change in India by gathering supporters en masse to peacefully demonstrate and make clear their 
complaints against the British Raj. His first attempt at a nonviolent demonstration was the public burning of 
Indian identification cards in South Africa, and he would go on to apply these methods to the movement that 
would eventually win freedom for India. Most famously, Gandhi protested a British tax on Indian salt by gath-
ering a crowd, tens of thousands strong, to march to the sea and collect Indian salt. The demonstration caused 
large-scale unrest and ended up winning Gandhi a seat at the bargaining table in discussions about India’s 
future. The Salt March was a critical step towards Indian independence, and its success would famously go on 
to inspire Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington. As César Chávez attempted to build a name for his 
movement, he drew inspiration from both the Salt March and King’s March on Washington. In 1966, he would 
lead a march from Delano to Sacramento, California to draw the eyes of state politicians, garnering national 
attention for the farm workers’ movement. Massive numbers of agricultural workers and their supporters rallied 
behind Chávez, proving that people could get behind a nonviolent movement and make large-scale change. As 
Chávez explained in his Letter to Delano, “Gandhi himself admitted that if his only choice were cowardice or 
violence, he would choose violence. Men are not angels, and time and tide wait for no man…Participation and 
self-determination remain the best experience of freedom, and free men instinctively prefer democratic change 
and even protect the rights guaranteed to seek it. Only the enslaved in despair have need of violent overthrow.”7 
The march ended up putting the movement on the map and playing a pivotal role in the eventual contract nego-
tiations with farm bosses which would mandate things like fair wages, regulations on things like pesticide use, 
and contributions to employees’ health plans. 

One of the most influential ways in which Gandhi’s nonviolent battle against British colonialism in-
spired the farm workers’ movement in the United States was the use of boycotts. Gandhi was of the strong 
belief that Indians should be self-reliant so that they could become independent, so he spearheaded large-scale 
boycotts of British goods, known as the Swadeshi movement. People all over India refused to purchase British 
products and turned instead to Indian-produced products. A December 1930 article in the Voice of India news-
paper defined the movement; “the Indian… boycott, is not only a very effective political instrument, but it is a 
condition precedent to the development of Swadeshi, the manufacture of our own goods… Political indepen-
dence, without economic freedom, is a farce”.8 This movement certainly drew the attention of the British Raj 
and contributed greatly to the shift towards Britain taking Indian calls for independence seriously. As Chávez 
created his movement, he looked to Gandhi for inspiration. In Thomas Adam’s analysis of nonviolence, he ex-
plains that “inspired by Gandhi’s example and compelled by his Catholic faith, Chávez felt an ethical obligation 
and general conviction that non-violence was the only acceptable way to change society.”9 One way to create 
great change in society without the use of violence was to boycott goods in the style of Gandhi, and this proved 
hugely effective; soon, large swaths of the American population were protesting against the unfair treatment of 

6  César Chávez. “Letter From Delano.” Received by E.L. Barr Jr., 4 Apr. 1969, Delano, CA.
7  Chávez, Letter to Delano
8  Manchuria, General Situation, 1930. 1930. [Report]
9  Adam, “Change Through Non-Violence”, 146



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agricultural workers by refusing to buy agricultural products from California, driving incredible change in the 
conditions for the struggling farm workers.

Clearly, Chávez’s movement was distinctly inspired by the nonviolent work of Gandhi; he himself said 
so many times. He took influence from the Indian nationalist in many ways, most importantly through his use of 
fasting, nonviolent demonstrations, and boycotts, and like Gandhi, Chávez was able to create great and last-
ing change. Chávez’s movement was very much his own, created not exactly in the image of Gandhi but also 
drawing influence from leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., his devout Catholic faith, and his cultural tradi-
tion. As Anne Klejment eloquently explains, in order to “to gain union recognition by the politically powerful 
growers, [Chavez] would blend Gandhian nonviolence, Mexican-American religious practices, and the home 
meeting technique.”10 It is important to note the many ways in which Gandhi’s movement touched lives not only 
in India with his support of the Quit India movement but also in movements all over the world. Gandhi proved 
that nonviolence could be a very effective political tool, and the effects of this created great change beyond 
India by shaping movements such as the American Civil Rights movement and Chávez’s fight for fair treatment 
of migrant workers. Had a young César Chávez not been inspired by the actions of a “little ‘half-naked’ man” 
fighting bravely and tirelessly for the freedom of his country, the condition of agricultural work might look very 
different today.11

10  Klejment, “American Catholic Lives”, 137
11  Adam,  “Change Through Non-Violence”, 146



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