GROWTH OF MODERN NATIONALISM

 

 

 

• • Worldwide upsurge of the concepts of nationalism and the right of self-determination initiated by the French Revolution
  • Indian Renaissance
  • Offshoot of modernisation initiated by the British in India
  • Strong reaction to British imperialist policies in India

 

2. Understanding Colonial Interests

 

ImageSource- Down to Earth

 

3. Unification of the Country-Political, Administrative, and Economic

 

• The British rule in the Indian subcontinent extended from the Himalayas in the north to the Cape Comorin in the south and from Assam in the east to Khyber Pass in the west.
• The British sword imposed political unity in India.
• A professional civil service, a unified judiciary and codified civil and criminal laws throughout the length and breadth of the country imparted a new dimension of political unity to the hitherto cultural unity that had existed in India for centuries.
• The economic fate of the people of different regions got linked together; for instance, the failure of crops in one region affected the prices and supply in another region.
• Modern means of transport and communication brought people, especially the leaders, from different regions together. This was important for the exchange of political ideas and the mobilisation and organisation of public opinion on political and economic issues.

 

ImageSource-NCERT

 

Western Thought and Education

 

• The introduction of a modern system of education afforded opportunities for the assimilation of modern Western ideas.
• This, in turn, gave a new direction to Indian political thinking, although the English system of education had been conceived by the rulers in the self-interest of efficient administration.
• The liberal and radical thought of European writers like Milton, Shelley, John Stuart Mill, Rousseau, Paine, Spencer and Voltaire helped many Indians imbibe modern rational, secular, democratic, and nationalist ideas.
• This ever-expanding English-educated class formed the middle-class intelligentsia which constituted the nucleus for the newly arising political unrest.
• It was this section which provided leadership to the Indian political associations.

 

Role of Press and Literature

 

• The second half of the 19th century saw an unprecedented growth of Indian-owned English and vernacular newspapers, despite numerous restrictions imposed on the press by the colonial rulers from time to time.
• In 1877, there were about 169 newspapers published in vernacular languages and their circulation reached the neighbourhood of 1,00,000.
• The press while criticising official policies, on the one hand, urged the people to unite, on the other.
• It also helped spread modern ideas of self-government, democracy, civil rights, and industrialisation.
• The newspapers, journals, pamphlets, and nationalist literature helped in the exchange of political ideas among nationalist leaders from different regions.

 

Rediscovery of India’s Past

 

• The historical research by European scholars, such as Max Mueller, Monier Williams, Roth and Sassoon, and by Indian scholars such as R.G. Bhandarkar, R.L. Mitra, and later Swami Vivekananda, created an entirely new picture of India’s past.
• This picture was characterized by well-developed political, economic, and social institutions, a flourishing trade with the outside world, a rich heritage in arts and culture and numerous cities.
• The theory put forward by European scholars, that the Indo-Aryans belonged to the same ethnic group from which other nations of Europe had evolved, gave a psychological boost to the educated Indians.
• The self-respect and confidence so gained helped the nationalists demolish colonial myths that India had a long history of servility to foreign rulers.

 

Progressive Character of Socio-religious Reform Movements

 

• These reform movements sought to remove social evils which divided Indian society; this had the effect of bringing different sections together and proved to be an important factor in the growth of Indian nationalism.
• Rise of Middle-Class Intelligentsia British administrative and economic innovations gave rise to a new urban middle class in towns. According to Percival Spear, “The new middle class was a well-integrated all-India class with varied backgrounds but a common foreground of knowledge, ideas and values.
• It was a minority of Indian society, but a dynamic minority... It had a sense of unity of purpose and hope.”
• This class, prominent because of its education, new position, and close ties with the ruling class, came to the forefront.
• The leadership of the Indian National Congress in all its stages of growth was provided by this class.

       

Impact of Contemporary Movements in the World

 

 

 

Reactionary Policies and Racial Arrogance of Rulers

 

• Racial myths of white superiority were sought to be perpetuated by the British through a deliberate policy of discrimination and segregation.
• Indians felt deeply hurt by this. Lytton’s reactionary policies such as the reduction of the maximum age limit for the I.C.S. examination from 21 years to 19 years (1876), the grand Delhi Durbar of 1877 when the country was in the severe grip of famine, the Vernacular Press Act (1878), and the Arms Act (1878) provoked a storm of opposition in the country.
• Then came the Ilbert Bill controversy. Ripon’s Government had sought to abolish “judicial disqualification based on race distinctions” and to give the Indian members of the covenant civil service the same powers and rights as those enjoyed by their European colleagues. Ripon had to modify the bill, thus almost defeating the original purpose, because of the stiff opposition from the European community.
• It became clear to the nationalists that justice and fair play could not be expected where the interests of the European community were involved.
• However, the organized agitation by the Europeans to revoke the Ilbert Bill also taught the nationalists how to agitate for certain rights and demands.

Image Representing discussions over the Ilbert Bill controversy

 

Protests Against Vernacular Press Act 

 

Some important political organizations before the Indian National College

• 1836—Bangabhasha Prakasika Sabha Zamindari Association or Landholders’ Society
• 1843—Bengal British India Society
• 1851—British Indian Association
• 1866—East India Association
• 1870—Poona Sarvajanik Sabha 1875—Indian League
• 1876—Indian Association of Calcutta or Indian National Association 1885—Bombay Presidency Association
• 1884—Madras Mahajan Sabha

 

4. Foundations of Indian National Congress-Moderate Phase

 

• In the later 1870s and early 1880s, a solid ground had been prepared for the establishment of an all-India organization.
• The final shape to this idea was given by a retired English civil servant, A.O. Hume, who mobilized leading intellectuals of the time and, with their cooperation, organized the first session of the Indian National Congress at Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College in Bombay in December 1885.
• Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose were the main architects of the Indian National Conference
• In 1890, Kadambini Ganguly, the first woman graduate of Calcutta University, addressed the Congress session, which symbolized the commitment of the freedom struggle to give the women of India their due status in national life.

 

The purpose behind the initiation of the Indian National Congress

 

• formulate and present popular demands before the government to unify the people over a common economic and political programme;
• develop and consolidate a feeling of national unity among people irrespective of religion, caste, or province.
• carefully promote and nurture Indian nationhood.
• found a democratic, nationalist movement;
• politicize and politically educate people;
• establish the headquarters for a movement;
• promote friendly relations among nationalist political workers from different parts of the country;
• develop and propagate an anti-colonial nationalist ideology;

The Era of Moderates

 

• During the early years (1885-1905) the Indian National Congress, henceforth referred to as INC, provided a common stage for the leaders from diverse parts of the country.
• Though the Congress represented the entire nation, members of some classes, castes, occupations and provinces were more conspicuous than others.
• The members of the educated middle class were predominant in numbers.
• The members of the Brahmin caste were comparatively higher than those of other castes. While several journalists, doctors and teachers were also members, it was the lawyers who dominated the occupations.
• The members from Bombay, Bengal and Madras presidencies were more in number compared to members from other parts of the country.
• The masses and the landed class were conspicuous by their absence.
• In short, the Congress was by and large a middle-class affair, and it was but natural that the majority of the members of the INC belonged to the middle class during the early years since it was this class that took to modern education and played a pioneering role in its foundation.
• The Congress, since its establishment, was under the influence of Moderate leaders, most of whom were first-generation English-educated Indians.
• The moderate leaders were influenced by Western political ideas and practices, especially by the political philosophy of liberalism.

• • dignity of the individual
  • Individual’s right to freedom
  • Equality of all irrespective of caste, creed or sex. This liberal philosophy guided the moderate leaders of the Congress in opposing the autocratic attitude of the British government, demanding the rule of law and equality before the law, and advocating secularism.

• Some of the prominent moderate leaders who became presidents of the Congress in its early years were Dadabhai Naoroji, Badruddin Tyabji, Pherozeshah Mehta, P. Ananda Charlu, Surendranath Banerjee, Romesh Chandra Dutt, Ananda Mohan Bose and Gopal Krishna Gokhale.
• Some other moderate leaders were Mahadev Ranade, Madan Mohan Malaviya, G. Subramaniya Iyer and Dinshaw E. Wacha.

Fig - First Session of Indian National Congress

 

 Ideology and Methods of Work

                                                                  PROTEST

                        PRAYER                                                                  PETITION

 

                          

Prayer Petition

 

• The moderate leaders made modest demands from the British rulers in a very cautious and peaceful manner, mainly for two reasons.
• Firstly, most of the moderate leaders had an enduring attachment to the British way of life, a belief in the British sense of justice and fair play and a deep sense of gratitude towards British rulers.
• They believed that it was the association with British rule and English education that had exposed them to modern ideas such as liberty, equality, democracy and dignity of the individual.
• Moreover, they were convinced that it was only due to British rule that the much-needed law and order, and effective administration had been established in India.
• Secondly, the moderates were also aware that the INC was a young organization in its early stage of development.
• They did not want to incur the wrath of the British rulers, which could have resulted in suppression of their activities and nipped the Congress in the bud.
• The moderates genuinely believed that India had gained from the political connection with the British and often acknowledged their loyalty to British rule. However, this did not mean that they were not patriotic.
• The moderates disfavoured a confrontation with the British rulers but wanted to change their rule to reflect the interests of the country.
• Later, when many of the moderate leaders realized that British rule had done a lot more harm to the country than good, they changed hearts and began to press for ‘Swaraj’ or self-government for India within the British Empire.
• They were aware that national consciousness among the Indian people had to be promoted and consolidated before throwing a direct challenge to British rule.
• The historian Bipan Chandra has summed up the political method of the Moderates as “constitutional agitation within the four walls of law and slow, orderly political progress.”
• The moderate leaders adopted the strategy of influencing and organizing public opinion to compel the British to approve their (moderates’) demands bit by bit.
• Their political strategy was to emphasize building up public opinion in India as well as outside India, especially in Britain.
• In India they sought to promote national consciousness and educate the people on political issues by submitting petitions to British authorities, organizing meetings, passing resolutions and giving speeches.
• Outside India, in Britain, they made efforts to familiarize the people of Britain and the Parliament with the ‘real’ conditions in India.
• They carried out active propaganda to influence public opinion in Britain by sending delegations of leading Indians to Britain.
• In 1889, a British Committee of the INC was founded. In 1890, this Committee started a journal called ‘India’. Dadabhai Naoroji spent a major part of his life in Britain and played an exemplary role in propounding India’s case.

 

5. Contribution of Moderates

 

• One of the major demands of the moderate leaders was proper representation of Indians on the Legislative Councils as well as an increase in the power of these Councils.
• The moderate leaders also pressed for reforms in the administrative system. They vehemently argued for

• The moderate leaders voiced their opinions on issues related to territories outside India.
• They opposed the annexation of Burma and the attack on Afghanistan and the tribal people of North-western India.
• They demanded improvement in the condition of the Indian workers who had migrated to other countries like South Africa, Malaya, Mauritius, West Indies and British Guiana.
• The moderates, who had developed a firm commitment to the principle of democracy, also tried to safeguard the Civil Rights of the Indian people and supported social reforms in Indian society.
• According to them, a vigorous movement to eradicate social evils and backwardness was necessary to make India fit for self-government.
• They defended the freedom of speech, the Press thought and association. Their advocating of these ideas popularized them among the Indians. It was, however, in the economic critique of colonial rule that the Moderates played their most important role.
• Moderate leaders like Dadabhai Naoroji and Mahadev Govind Ranade made scathing criticisms of the economic policies followed by the British rulers in India.
• The moderate leaders through books, newspaper articles and speeches exposed the British Government’s economic exploitation of India.
• The Drain Theory, in which the moderates argued that wealth from India was being drained to England, exploded the myth that British rule was good for India. The moderates demanded changes in official policies on industry, agriculture, tariff, transport and taxation that would improve the system of India.

 

6. The Extremists

 

• The rise of extremism on the Indian political scene was not sudden. It had been growing steadily since the uprising of 1857.
• Though the uprising was brutally suppressed by the British, the ideas of ‘Swadharma’ and ‘Swaraj’, which had kindled the uprising continued to linger on as an undercurrent among the Indian people.
• The English-educated class had remained aloof from the uprising.
• In the latter half of the 19th century, the work of leaders like Ramkrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekanand, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, and Vishnusastri Chiplunkar and Sri Aurobindo instilled a sense of pride in the ancient Indian civilisation.
• They were successful, to a certain extent, in promoting political radicalism and bridging the gulf between the masses and the English-educated class.
• The work of the moderate leaders also exposed the evils of British rule and promoted the spread of national consciousness.
• The ‘peaceful’ methods used by the moderate leaders were not effective in making the British Government accept their demands.
• As a result several politically conscious people became frustrated and disillusioned.
• At the end of the 19th century, a strong feeling arose among the people that more radical political action was needed to force the British to accept popular demands. Various international events also gave impetus to the growth of extremism in India.
• Revolutionary movements in Ireland, Russia, Egypt, Turkey, China and the Boer War in South Africa made the Indian leaders aware that British rule could only be challenged by putting a united stand against it.
• The defeat of the Italian Army by the Ethiopians in 1896, and the Russian Army by the Japanese in 1905, showed that the Europeans were not invincible.
• All these instilled a sense of self-respect and self-confidence in the Indian Nationalists.
• The extremist leaders of INC like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai and Aurobindo Ghose articulated radical political ideas against colonial rule.
• The first three of them became famous as the trio of extremist leadership: Lal-Bal-Pal.
• They became prominent after the Partition of Bengal in 1905.
• Their radical ideology and programme became popular during the movement against Partition of Bengal, also known as the ‘Swadeshi Movement’

 

Ideologies and Methods

 

• Unlike moderates, the extremist leaders neither believed in the goodness of British rule nor their sense of justice and fair play.
• They were aware that the British were driven by selfishness and had come to India to exploit her resources.
• Since the exploitation of India was the chief motive of the British, the extremists did not expect them to take a sympathetic view of the popular demands of the Indian people.
• Therefore, it was necessary to use pressure to make them accept the demands, not by petitioning or praying like the moderates, but by openly agitating against them.
• For Extremist leaders like Lokmanya Tilak, ‘Swaraj’ was a ‘birthright’ and was not at all dependent on British assurances.
• The extremists’ programme of action was radically different from that of the moderates and aimed specifically at arousing emotive indignation against British rule and thereby promoting active involvement of the masses in the agitations.
• The extremists aimed at preparing the masses for the struggle to gain ‘Swaraj’ by educating them, uniting them and instilling in them a sense of self-respect, self-reliance, and pride in their ancient heritage.

• The Extremist leaders disfavoured the use of violence against British rule and did not approve of the methods of political murder and assassination used by the Indian revolutionaries.
• However, they did take a sympathetic view of the activities of the revolutionaries.
• For them the young revolutionaries were no doubt misguided and reckless but their violent actions were provoked by the equally violent repressive policies implemented by the British Government.

 

Significance of the Extremists

 

• There was a fundamental change like Indian nationalism under extremist leadership due to their forceful articulation of the demand for ‘Swaraj’ and the use of more radical methods than those of the moderates.
• Their concept of nationalism was emotionally charged and based on a rich interpretation of Indian religious traditions.
• The Extremist leaders tried to reorient Indian religious traditions to worldly life and link them with the national liberation struggle.
• Aurobindo Ghose reinterpreted Vedanta philosophy, which advocated the unity of man and God and based his concept of nationalism on it.
• To him, national work was the work of God, which should be done in the spirit of Karma Yoga because the true nationalist was an ideal Karma Yogi, who performed his functions in the spirit of disinterestedness.
• The service of the millions of Indians was the service of God because God was present in them.
• The extremists conceived the nation as ‘Mother India’, which represented the united power or Shakti of millions of her children.
• Tilak reinterpreted the message of the Gita in his famous book Gita Rahasya. To Tilak, the Gita gave a message of disinterested action with full self-knowledge rather than that of Bhakti or Sanyasa.
• National work done for general welfare was a type of disinterested action.
• The new nationalism of the extremists was an “attempt to create a nation in India by reviving the spirit and action of the ancient Indian character.”
• They vehemently opposed foreign rule. According to them, a good or just government was not a substitute for self-government and freedom was an inalienable right of all human beings. The extremists emphasized the mobilization of people against foreign rule by launching political movements.
• If the nation was not ready to undertake political movement, then it was the duty of the leaders to prepare the people for it.
• The extremists were ready to suffer imprisonment, deportation and other physical suffering for the sake of mobilizing the masses for struggle against foreign rule.
• They saw the struggle against foreign rule as a full-time activity and devoted their whole life to it.
• The demonstrations, and processions undertaken by the extremists brought about an involvement of the common people in agitations against British rule.
• They also made use of popular symbols like Shivaji, and religious symbols like God Ganapati and Goddess Kali for mobilizing the people.
• Thus, under the Extremist leadership, the Indian National Movement gradually began to acquire a mass character.
• However, the extremists could not fully exploit the potential of mobilized people or their radical methods like boycotts and passive resistance.
• They were successful in arousing the urban middle and lower classes, apart from mobilizing the peasants and workers.
• The Extremist leaders used religious symbols to arouse the masses; however, they did not mix religion and politics. Their concept of nationhood encompassed all religions in India. Though the ‘Dharma’ advocated by leaders like Tilak and Lajpat Rai looked like it had a Hindu connotation, for the extremists, it meant ‘universal moral law’ under whose unifying influence, the different religions and communities in India would coexist peacefully.

 

What was the Major Differentiation between Moderates and Extremists?

 

Moderates	Extremists
They believed in persuasion	They believed in passive resistance.
They believed in working with the existing bureaucracy.	They opposed bureaucracy
They wanted to win over British	They wanted to exterminate them,
They wanted self-government under British dominion.	They wanted self-government outside British dominion.
They believed in Swadeshi but on a limited scale.	They believed in Swadeshi at the national level.
They believed in mass awareness	They believed in mass participation
Peaceful bloodless persuasion	Peaceful bloodless resistance

 

• The Indian National Congress split in December 1907.
• The moderates had their share of achievements, yet their failures were numerous.
• Their basic failure however was that of not keeping pace with events. They failed to meet the demands of the new stage of the national movement.

 

7. The Revolutionaries

 

• Though the Indian National Movement was largely non-violent, a small revolutionary movement did emerge in the early decades of the 20th century. In 1897, the Chapekar brothers assassinated two unpopular British officials at Poona.

• In 1904, V.D. Savarkar established a secret revolutionary society known as the Abhinav Bharat.
• However, it was the failure of the Swadeshi movement that gave real impetus to revolutionary activities, a first of its kind.
• The brutal suppression of the Swadeshi movement by the British and the ineffectiveness of passive resistance advocated by the extremist leaders provoked the youth of Bengal to engage in individual heroic actions like assassinating unpopular officials.
• In Bengal, several societies like ‘Anushilan Samiti’ and ‘Yugantar’ came into existence and planned assassinations of unpopular British officials. Revolutionaries like Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki made attempts to kill unpopular British officials.

 

 

Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki- ImageSource-BanglaHunt

 

• Syamji Krishnavarma, V.D. Savarkar and Lala Har Dayal, Madame Cama and Ajit Singh coordinated the revolutionaries in Europe.
• The British framed several draconian laws to suppress the revolutionaries.
• In this early phase, the revolutionaries did not try to organize a mass armed revolution; instead, they focused on acts of individual heroism.
• The second wave of revolutionary activities commenced in the early 1920s.
• The withdrawal of Non-Cooperation in 1922 made the youth more radical.
• In North India, revolutionaries organized themselves under the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), and later, under the leadership of Bhagat Singh and Chandrasekhar Azad.
• In Bengal too revolutionary activities were revived under the leadership of Surya Sen.

 

Ideology and Methods

• The revolutionaries questioned the non-violent strategy of struggle adopted by the INC, as they believed passive resistance could not be effective against the British.
• They believed in adopting violent methods and aspired to organize an armed mass revolution to drive away the British from the country.
• However, they adopted the path of the Irish nationalists and Russian Nihilists in the short term- the path of heroic action or revolutionary terrorism.

 

The assassination of unpopular British officials was done by the revolutionaries to achieve three things:

 

The Second Wave

• The second wave of revolutionary activities in the 1920s had a different character.
• The revolutionaries gradually moved away from individual heroic action and were attracted by the possibility of armed mass struggle.
• A number of them also came under the influence of Socialism.
• In 1924, the Hindustan Republican Association was formed to organize an armed revolution against the British.
• But the British suppressed the movement by arresting several revolutionaries and implicating them in the Kakori Conspiracy Case in 1925.

ImageSource- Prasar Bharati

 

• The revolutionaries of North India like Bhagat Singh and Chandrasekhar Azad came under the influence of socialist ideas. In September 1928, they renamed their organization the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) to reflect their newly acquired ideology, which gave importance to socialist principles and revolution by the masses.

• Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt made public propaganda of this changed ideology during their trial in a court for throwing a harmless bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly in 1929.

 

ImageSource-TBI

• In Bengal too, individual heroic action was replaced by group action. A group of revolutionaries, led by Surya Sen, carried out a large-scale armed attack on the Chittagong armoury of the government in April 1930.

 

ImageSource- Prohor

 

Role of Revolutionaries

• The revolutionary movement in India could not survive the harsh measures initiated by the British against its leaders.
• Bhagat Singh and his fellow revolutionaries were tried for the murder of Saunders in the Lahore Conspiracy Case and were hanged on 23 March 1931.

• Chandrasekhar Azad was killed in a shooting encounter with the police at Allahabad in February 1931.

• Surya Sen was arrested in February 1933 and hanged.

ImageSource-NavrangIndia

 

• Many other revolutionaries were arrested and sentenced to jail; some were sent to the Andaman Jail.

• The revolutionaries could not sustain their activities because they failed to get the consistent and active support of the people and failed to develop a base among the Indian masses.
• Moreover, their use of violence as a political weapon gave a justification to the British to counter them by using more violence.
• The revolutionaries failed in achieving their long-term goal of armed mass revolution against the British.
• Nevertheless, the selfless sacrifice of revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh, Chandrasekhar Azad, Surya Sen and hundreds of others gained them unparalleled popularity among the people.
• Many, however, did not agree with their method of using violence to achieve independence.

 

Bhagath Singh

• Bhagat Singh was born on September 28, 1907, in the village Khatkar Kalan, tehsil Banga, district Jalandhar.
• Bhagat Singh’s family background and the political events happening in Punjab played an important role in shaping his ideas.
• His grandfather, Sardar Arjan Singh was a member of the Arya Samaj, which represented nationalist aspirations in Punjab.
• His father Kishan Singh and uncle Swaran Singh were political activists and were involved in several agitations against the oppressive British rule.
• Bhagat Singh’s elder uncle was the famous revolutionary nationalist leader, Ajit Singh, who had founded the Bharat Mata Society (Mother India Society) along with Lala Lajpat Rai in 1907.
• Bhagat Singh was educated at Dayanand Anglo Vedic High School in Lahore, where he came into contact with nationalist leaders like Lala Lajpat Rai and others.
• Bhagat Singh was inspired by the Ghadar Movement, especially by the sacrifice made by the young revolutionary Kartar Singh Saraba.
• He considered Saraba as his role model. The Russian Revolution of 1917 also made a deep impact on him by attracting him to socialist ideas.
• Events like the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (13 April 1919) and the failure of Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation movement to bring Swaraj disillusioned Bhagat Singh. He began to search for new ways to achieve independence.
• In 1926, he established the ‘Navjivan Bharat Sabha’ to train and recruit youth for revolutionary activity.
• Though Bhagat Singh started as a believer in individual heroic action, after 1927 he gradually moved away from it and began espousing radical socialist belief and mass armed action, and played an active role in the H.S.R.A. But the brutal lathi charge on an anti-Simon Commission demonstration on 30 October 1928 led to a sudden change.
• The great Extremist leader, Lala Lajpat Rai was killed due to the blows of Lathis. In retaliation, Bhagat Singh, along with Chandrasekhar Azad and Rajguru, assassinated Saunders, the British officer in charge of the Lathi charge.

• Later, on 8 April 1929, Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt threw a harmless bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly to protest against the suggested black laws and used their trial proceedings as a forum for the propaganda of their changed socialist and revolutionary ideas.
• Bhagat Singh was tried in the Lahore Conspiracy Case and executed on 23 March 1931, despite massive protests by the Indian masses.

 

Gandhi on Violence 

• Gandhi clarified his stand on the activities of the revolutionaries in many of his writings.
• He admired their courage, commitment and sacrifice but not their use of violence, as violence is counterproductive and harmful and was the wrong course to achieve Swaraj.
• Gandhi and revolutionaries were opposed to each other in approach; revolutionaries believed in violence, and did not shy away from using it to achieve independence.
• Gandhi believed that only complete adherence to non-violence would free the country.
• Gandhi and revolutionaries represented two different strands of India’s struggle for independence.

 

8. Partition of Bengal 1905

 

• The Swadeshi Movement had its genesis in the anti-partition movement which was started to oppose the British decision to partition Bengal
• The British government’s decision to partition Bengal had been made public in December 1903.
• The idea was to have two provinces: Bengal comprising Western Bengal as well as the provinces of Bihar and Orissa, and Eastern Bengal, and Assam. Bengal retained Calcutta as its capital, while Dacca became the capital of Eastern Bengal. The official reason given for the decision was that Bengal, with a population of 78 million (about a quarter of the population of British India), had become too big to be administered.
• It was also stated that partition would help in the development of Assam if it came under the direct jurisdiction of the government.
• This was true to some extent, but the real motive behind the partition plan was seen to be the British desire to weaken Bengal, the nerve centre of Indian nationalism.
• This it sought to achieve by putting the Bengalis under two administrations by dividing them
• The Swadeshi movement was one of the major significant events in the History of Freedom Movement in India.
• It was started in 1905 as an agitation against the partition of Bengal. The presidency of Bengal was the most populous province in British India. It included not only the western and eastern parts but also Bihar, Assam and most parts of Orissa.

ImageSource- Twtr

• Regarding population distribution of this huge administrative unit, the eastern part of Bengal was dominated by the Muslim population whereas the western part was by the Hindus.
• In the central part of Bengal the two communities balanced each other. As the Bengal presidency as an administrative unit was increasing in size as a result of conquest and annexations, it was thought difficult to administer.
• Therefore, the idea of reorganizing the Bengal presidency had been an issue that came for discussion among the British officials.
• The discussions of the partition of Bengal had been carried out since the time of the Orissa famine of 1866.
• In this direction, Assam was separated from Bengal in 1874.
• The proposal to transform the Chittagong division to Assam came out in 1892 and in 1896 again the proposal to transform the districts of Dacca and Mymensingh, so that Assam could become a Lieutenant Governor’s
• The Swadeshi movement was one of the major events in the History of the Indian Freedom Movement.
• It was started in 1905 as an agitation against the partition of Bengal and it spread to other parts of the country including Maharashtra.
• The Slogans of Swaraj, the concepts of boycott, National Education and the spirit of Swadeshi were spread from Bengal to Maharashtra along with other regions. The main objective of the present paper is to study the Swadeshi movement in India with special reference to Maharashtra.
• The primary sources such as Kesari and Subodh Patrika newspapers and the secondary sources such as published books and articles are utilized for the present study.
• The study highlights the role of Maharashtra in Swadeshi movement and finds that though the use of Swadeshi brought in 1905, it was used for the first time in Maharashtra in 1716 during the period of Peshwa by Goudpad Charya in Nasik and the Swadeshi initiative was started in Maharashtra by Shankar Shashtri Gokhale and Bhau Wadekar, the residents of Poona, in 1846.
• The celebrations of Ganapati Utsav, and Sivaji festivals were one of the important moves in the history of the freedom movement in Maharashtra.
• But both these proposals did not materialize.
• Up to this point, the considerations of the officials regarding the partition of Bengal were only administrative.
• But things began to change by the time of Lord Curzon. He planned a programme first in 1903, which proposed to transfer the Chittagong division, Dacca, and Mymensingh districts to Assam and Chota Nagpur to the Central Provinces; Bengal would receive in return Sambalpur and the feudatory states from Central Provinces etc.
• However, the final scheme of partition of Bengal was brought out on July 19, 1905, with some modifications over the previous plan.
• As for this plan, a new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam was constituted with all districts of Chittagong, Dhaka and Rajshahi divisions as well as Tippera, Malda and Assam. The motive behind this plan of partition was beyond the administrative grounds.
• If it was on administrative grounds, Curzon would have accepted several other logical ways of partition like linguistic division.
• But, he intended to further weaken the Congress which was little to show for its existence in 1903 (John R. McLane, 1977) and dividing the articulated Bengali community which had controlled the Congress to weaken the growing nationalism.

 

Objectives and Methodology

• The main objective of the present paper is to study the Swadeshi movement in India with special reference to Maharashtra.
• The primary sources such as Kesari and Subodh newspapers and the secondary sources such as published books and articles are utilized for the present study.

 

Anti-Partition Agitation and the Swadeshi Movement in Bengal

• At first, the plan was opposed by the Moderates when the plan was in the process of making.
• The Moderates opposed the plan by deploying moderate methods such as press campaigns, meetings, petitions and conferences at the Calcutta Town Hall in March 1904.
• Scores of petitions were sent to the British government. However, their efforts went in vain and the partition was ultimately set in.
• The day of the partition of Bengal was observed by the Moderates as a day of mourning. The ceremony of Rakshabandhan was followed all over Bengal.
• Hundreds of protest meetings were held, where people crowded to hear speeches by Surendranath Banerjea and other leaders.
• As their traditional techniques of petitioning had failed in stopping the partition, the Moderates went beyond their conventional political methods.

• Thus, Surendranath Banerjee gave a call for the boycott of British goods and institutions at a meeting in Calcutta in 1905.
• A formal boycott resolution was passed on August 7 at Calcutta Town Hall in 1905, which marked the beginning of the Swadeshi Movement.
• It was for the first time that the Moderates went beyond the literate sections; they also participated in the national educational movement as well as in labourer’s strikes.
• Their goal was to achieve the annulment of partition by deploying these unconventional methods. However, despite their shift away from their conventional methods, their philosophy remained the same.
• The annual conference of the Indian National Congress (INC) was held at Banaras in 1905 and the call for Swadeshi was formally adopted under G. K. Gokhale.
• The interesting thing here was that being a moderate, Gokhale supported the Swadeshi and boycott movement for Bengal.
• In other words the Swadeshi Movement for Moderates was to be confined to Bengal only and they did not want to make it a national movement.
• But, the militant nationalists led by Tilak, Bepin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai and Aurobindo Ghosh advocated to extend the movement to the rest of India and to carry it beyond the programme of just Swadeshi and boycott to a full-fledged political mass struggle.
• Their aim was Swaraj and the abrogation of partition had taken a back seat. Though the Extremist's goal was Swaraj it had different meanings with different leaders.
• For Tilak Swaraj meant Indian control over administration, but not a total severance of relations with Great Britain.
• Whereas Bepin Chandra Pal believed that no self-government was possible under British paramountcy; so for him Swaraj was complete autonomy, absolutely free of British control. It meant absolute political independence for Aurobindo Ghosh (Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, 2004).
• Thus, the goal of Swaraj had to be gained through more radical ways than that of the Moderates.
• Therefore the Extremists followed the method which was called passive resistance.
• It meant opposition to colonial rule through violation of unjust laws, boycott of the British goods and institutions and development of their alternatives –Swadeshi, and national education.

 

9. Swadeshi Movement in Bengal-Two Trends 

 

• The Swadeshi movement in Bengal had two trends. The first trend was the ‘constructive Swadeshi’.
• The movement during this phase was not political.
• It gave more emphasis to constructive programmes which were taken as a self-strengthening movement and therefore prepared the ground for the subsequent political agitation.
• In their way of self-strengthening programme, importance was given to Hindu religion revivalism as it was thought as a ground for imagining India as a nation.
• As a part of the constructive programme, national schools as well as the indigenous industries were established.
• The other trend of the Swadeshi movement in Bengal was political extremism.
• This trend was led by political extremists like Aurobindo Ghosh and Bepin Chandra Pal.
• They were critical of the non-politically constructive programme and argued that the political freedom of India could be the pre-condition for the regeneration of national life.
• Therefore achieving complete independence or Swaraj became their goal. The programme at this stage was passive resistance.
• This programme needed the mass to be mobilized for the movement. For the same purpose, religion was used as a tool.
• The organization of samitis was another way which was used for the mass mobilization.
• Through samitis programs like physical training and propagation of the Swadeshi message were carried out. The bureaucracy was determined to suppress the Swadeshi, boycott movement in Bengal.
• The Barisal conference showed the coercive techniques in utter ruthlessness.
• The conference was held on April 14, 1906, where the procession led by Surendranath Banerjee, Motilal Ghose, and Bhupendranath Babu was attacked by the police for the cry of the ‘Vande Mataram’.
• Kesari the Marathi newspaper welcomed the move of the Bengal leaders who had agitated for obtaining the rights and shouted the slogan of ‘Vande Mataram’ (Kesari, May 15, 1906).

Swadeshi Movement in Maharashtra 

• The Swadeshi movement was not limited to Bengal alone.
• It spread to other parts of the country and many national leaders took an active part in the movement.
• Thus the waves of movement which were started in Bengal had touched the whole of India and the leaders from various parts of the country got involved in the movement; in Maharashtra, Tilak took direct part, and in Punjab, it was Lala Lajpat Rai and in South India it was Subramaniam Bharati were among the prominent leaders.
• The present part of the article focuses on the Swadeshi movement in Maharashtra. Boycott was no longer a matter of interest to the Bengalis alone, it had become an issue of all-India importance and the Slogans of Swaraj, the concepts of Swadeshi, Boycott and National Education which emerged during the anti-partition campaign and finally, the spirit of Swadeshi had spread from Bengal to Maharashtra along with other parts of country like Madras and other provinces.

• The Swadeshi Movement in Maharashtra should be looked at as developing over the Swadeshi that was already there in Maharashtra. Therefore, it is informative to look at the history of the Swadeshi in the region before discussing the Swadeshi movement in Maharashtra.
• The Swadeshi was used for the first time in 1716 during the period of Peshwa by Goudpad Charya in Nasik (Kesari, January 30, 1906).
• On this subject, Subodh Patrika opines that the Swadeshi initiative was started by Shankar Shashtri Gokhale and Bhau Wadekar, the residents of Poona, in 1846.
• Shankar Shashtri Gokhale was of the view that unless and until the educated people of India use the Swadeshi goods, indigenous industrial development will not take place.
• Because of the same purpose they started looms at their homes and weaved Swadeshi cloth.
• Gopal Hari Deshmukh (Gopal Hari Deshmukh was an Indian social activist in the nineteenth century. He wrote a hundred letters called Shatapatre in Prabhakar newspaper, to document the Indian social scene.
• He was called Lokhitwadi, one who strives for the people’s betterment) in the columns of the Prabhakar exhorted the people to use Swadeshi articles during 1849 (Bipan Chandra, 1966), however rough and coarse they might be.

• Later, the initiative was continued by R. Joshi and R. B. Gavande in Poona in the year 1871(Subodh Patrika, December 23, 1906).
• Ranade focused on creating public attention on Swadeshi through his lectures in 1872 and 1873 at Poona (N. G. Jog, 1962).
• In these lectures, he popularized ‘the idea of Swadeshi and preferring the goods produced in one’s own country even though they may prove to be dearer or less satisfactory than finer foreign product’ (Bipan Chandra, 1966). Swadeshi was kept alive by Ganesh Vasudev Joshi alias Sarvajanik Kaka (Ganesh Vasudev Joshi called Sarvajanik Kaka with affectionate humour and because of his great interest in public activities, was a social activist in Pune.
• He was a lawyer by profession) in Maharashtra by wearing the Khadi dhotis and shirt (Kesari, January 30, 1906). Moreover, he took a vow to use only Khadi spun and the cloth woven by him. (N. G. Jog, 1962). Though the Swadeshi Movement was supported by the Moderates in Maharashtra they were not in favour of the boycott of goods.
• Gokhale, for instance, observed that the Swadeshi Movement was both patriotic and economic and that the boycott was a political weapon which should be reserved only for certain occasions (J. C. Johari, ed., 1993).
• The Ganapati Utsav was started on August 11, 1893, by Tilak to infuse sentiments of strength, cohesiveness and solidarity among the Hindus (Vishwanath Prasad Varma, 1978). He had transformed it into a public celebration where patriotic ideas could be spread.
• A couple of years later, the Shivaji festival was inaugurated in 1895 by Tilak at Raigad. It was started as a Maratha festival and later on assumed a national character (D. P. Karmarkar, 1956). The Ganapati festival was social whereas the Shivaji festival had political overtones.
• The festivals’ actual purpose was to stimulate the spirits of the people by transforming them into public performances as well as help to popularize the Indian National Congress.
• The Swadeshi movement tried to bring the middle classes and the masses into political and economic action.
• The Swadeshi boycott movement was a mighty attempt at the vindication of the rights of the people to self-government, which used various techniques of political agitation such as mass processions, public meetings, strikes, picketing, etc.
• The Swadeshi Movement became more popular when the labourers were also encouraged to participate in the movement.
• Tilak spread awareness about the Swadeshi Movement among the factory labourers.
• The main purpose of Swadeshi was to employ the people, encourage the existing indigenous industries towards prosperity and simultaneously work for the welfare of the people.
• The Bombay mill owners took advantage of the profits instead of the British officials during the Swadeshi movement in Maharashtra. This could be observed from the profit that was made by the Bombay mill owners during the Swadeshi Movement.
• It was estimated to have been Rs. 3.25 crores in 1906, as compared to a wage bill of Rs. 1.68 crores (Sumit Sarkar, 1983).
• Because of the movement the Bombay mill owners got the opportunity to produce and sell the articles in the market as well as hike the prices of the goods, when people started using Swadeshi goods.
• Thus, the industrialists became supporters of the movement but it was only their self-interest that made them supporters. It would not be an exaggeration to state that, the Swadeshi Movement of Maharashtra stood next to Bengal’s Swadeshi movement.
• Kesari the Marathi newspaper supports this when it writes that if there is Swadeshi anywhere after Bengal, it is only in Maharashtra (Kesari, January 30, 1906).
• Tilak says, Maharashtra is much better at supporting the Swadeshi Movement as Maharashtrian women wear Lugad (Lugad’ is the wearing garment of Maharashtrian women.) and even men do not give any boost to foreign clothes by using them which helps the Swadeshi movement. The demand for National Education became an important part of the Swadeshi Movement.
• Its major objective was the establishment of a three-dimensional system of education, scientific and technical combined on national lines and under national control for the realization of the national destiny.
• The Swadeshi Movement supported a movement for India's cultural autarchy which took shape in the National Council of Education or the N.C. E. which was something like a National University established by the greatest men of our country on 11 March 1906.
• The National Council of Education was set up in Calcutta the Bengal National College and School (Aug, 1906) with Aurobindo Ghosh as the Principal and Satis Mukherjee as the Superintendent.
• Vernacular was adopted as the medium of instruction from the lowest to the highest stages, while English was retained as a compulsory second language as an instrument of world culture.
• Provisions were made for the study of Hindi and Marathi languages as well as Sanskrit, Pali and Persian as sources for the firsthand historical research. The influence of the National Council outstripped the limits of Bengal and forged ahead in Bombay and Madras Presidencies and the province of Berar.
• Outside Bengal, B.G. Tilak and Lajpat Rai were the most outstanding advocates of National Education (Haridas Mukherjee).

 

What could one conclude from the Swadeshi Movement? 

• The Swadeshi movement was suppressed by the British through repressive measures like imprisonment and deportation of many of the Swadeshi leaders.
• In Maharashtra leaders like Tilak and Shivaram Mahadev Paranjape were sent to imprisonment during the movement.
• To conclude, Maharashtra played an important role in the Swadeshi movement.
• It was also important to observe that though the use of Swadeshi was brought in 1905, Swadeshi was used for the first time in Maharashtra in 1716 during the period of Peshwa by Goudpad Charya in Nasik (Kesari, January 30, 1906).
• According to Subodh Patrika, the Swadeshi initiative was started in Maharashtra by Shankar Shashtri Gokhale and Bhau Wadekar, the residents of Poona, in 1846.
• Tilak encouraged a boycott and took an active part in the Swadeshi movement of Maharashtra.
• He spread awareness about the Swadeshi Movement among the factory labourers.
• The Slogans of Swaraj, the concepts of Swadeshi, Boycott and National Education and the spirit of Swadeshi which emerged during the anti-partition campaign were well propagated in Maharashtra.
• The celebrations of the festivals such as the Ganapati utsav, and Sivaji festival were one of the important moves in the history of the freedom movement in Maharashtra.

 

10. All India Muslim League

 

• The success of the Muslim deputation that waited upon the viceroy at Shimla enthused the Muslims to start a separate Political organization. The British officialdom was also interested in counterbalancing the Congress. Consequently, on 31-Dec-1906 Muslim League was formed at Dacca. In 1906 the Aga Khan was a founding member and first president of the All India Muslim League.
• The All India Muslim League is a parallel but anti-Congress organization.
• The communalism-based league not only wholeheartedly supported the partition of Bengal but also demanded and worked for a separate electorate and special safeguards for Muslims and ensured their mainstreaming in India.
• It was from the day of its birth an unpatriotic and anti-national organism with an avowed aim of promoting loyalty towards the British government. The first Annual session was held in Karachi in December 1907.
• The first conference of the All India Muslim League was held at Amritsar under the presidentship of Sir Syed Ali Imam.
• The league leaders demand more weightage to the Muslims in the legislative councils and civil services.
• with time Muslim league started becoming a great representative of the aspirations of the Muslims in India and they started looking towards the league as their guardian.
• The Muslim League adopted self-government for India as its goal in 1913.

 

The objective of Muslim League

1. To create awareness among Muslims of the feeling of loyalty towards the British government.
2. To safeguard the political rights of the Muslims and bring them to the notice of the government.
3. To promote brotherhood between the different nations of India.
4. The Muslims should be given a place in legislature commensurate with their services rendered to the British Empire.

 

Reasons for the Establishment of All India Muslim League

1. Establishment of the Indian National Congress

• INC is a broadly based political party in India founded in 1885. Its first president was an Indian and Mr. Hume was its first general secretary.
• The main purpose for the creation of this organization was to provide a “safety valve”.
• The formation of INC was lauded by the press and was described as an important chapter in the history of British rule in India.
• Indu Prakash wrote, “It marks the beginning of a new life”.
• The Congress was the central organ of the new society which had evolved as a result of Economic, Social and cultural changes taking place during the hundred years since Plassey.
• The growing importance and strength of INC made the Muslim community as a whole fear that representative government would mean the rule of the majority community or Hindu Raj.
• Gradually the league’s antagonism led to the enunciation of the “Two Nation Theory” and the demand for separate homes for Muslims.

 

2. Hindu Extremism and Urdu-Hindu Controversy

• The Urdu Hindu Controversy began with the demand of Hindus to replace Urdu with Hindi as an official language, in Devanagari Script in 1867.
• To fulfill this demand Hindus of Banaras started a movement during the same period.
• Hindu Extremists started programs like ARYASAMAJ to reconvert the Muslims into the Hindu religion etc.
• So, there was also the cause of the creation of the Muslim League.

3. Education and economic backwardness

• Muslims had lagged behind the Hindus in education and economic progress.
• Muslims largely remained aloof from modern Western education since the British also regarded them as responsible for the 1857 rebellion, they were discriminated against.
• Muslims were not involved in the growth of any organized industry and did not take advantage of Western education to enter government services as a result they did not get any benefit as compared to Hindus.

 

4. Role of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan

• He was a great intellectual, a radical thinker, a keen historian, and an enlightened and forward-looking educationist.
• He asked the Muslims not to join INC.
• He declared that if the British were made to withdraw from India, the Hindu majority would dominate over them and such a state of affairs would be very unfair to Muslims and Islam.
• He also encouraged the Muslims to demand a separate electorate, even a separate Muslim majority state.
• Even the partition of Bengal was the first step in that direction.
• Thus, the communal problem in India was not merely religious as styled by the rulers, it was propped up for political gains.

 

5. Aligarh Movement

• The Aligarh Movement was based on a liberal interpretation of the Quran. It tried to harmonise Islam with the modern liberal culture.
• It was the first national awakening movement among the Muslims.
• This movement which aimed at making the Indian Muslims politically conscious and spreading modern education among them.
• Sir Syed Ahmed Khan was the founder of this movement.
• He played a significant role in bringing about an intellectual revolution among the Muslims. His efforts earned Sir Syed the title “Prophet of Education”.

 

• The Shimla deputation was an important issue in the history of modern India. It was unique because for the first time, Muslims were anxious to take their share in political activities and the Hindu-Muslim conflict which started with the Urdu-Hindi controversy, was lifted to constitutional plans.
• After getting the permission of the viceroy demand of a separate electorate came into existence and the result of this deputation was the Partition of India and the emergence of Pakistan.

 

7. British Strategies of “Communities, Classes and Interest”

• The Minto-Morley reform in 1909 introduced the system of separate electorate and representation for Indian Muslims.
• The Muslim League getting constitutional recognition of a separate electorate was a great achievement.
• Muslims could now have their own representatives at legislative councils.
• They were to be elected by Muslims alone.

 

8. British Policy Divide and Rule

• The unity of Hindus and Muslims reminded them about the 1857 revolt.
• The cunning Britishers knew that they could achieve their objectives by dividing the Indian people into different divisions.
• Thus, they started taking effective steps towards their cunning policy “Divide and Rule”.
• The British had always been accepting, and supporting such Muslim demands that divided the Indian people. Indian Council Act 1909, and Partition of Bengal are the main examples.

 

Jinnah’s Fourteen Points to Counter-Act Nehru Report

• Jinnah who didn’t agree with the Nehru report put forward his fourteen points as a minimum demand of the Muslims for any political settlement.
• The league was now steadily advancing from his previous demands of separate electorate and special weightage to the final full-fledged demand for Pakistan. The league at its session in Bombay in 1936 condemned and rejected the federal scheme embodied in the Government of India Act, 1935.
• As a result of its great success in the election, in 1937 Congress was able to form a government in several provinces.
• Jinnah and other Muslim leaders declared their dissatisfaction with the Congress government and the Muslim League decided to fight the elections.
• Ultimately Jinnah presented his fourteen-point formula for the Muslims in all legislature and also in central and provincial cabinets

 

Notion of Pakistan

• The claim for political self-determination of the Two Nations was put forward. The Hindu-Muslim problem culminated in the division of the sub-continent in 1947.
• Muslim League leaders kept on talking of a physical division of India.
• After that the All India Muslim League held its session at Lahore. It was an important session because the resolution embodied the demands of Pakistan or the establishment of a Sovereign state of Muslims.
• The league fixed August 16, 1946 “Direct Action”
• It was against the Hindus not Muslims. Thus the league provided an opportunity for Muslims to unite themselves on one platform.
• Following are some points which induced them to submit to the Pakistan Scheme.
  • Communal riots
  • Encouragement of the British to Muslim League Policy of the Congress
  • Congress desire to make India strong
  • Jinnah’s defiant attitude
  • Failure of interim government
  • Influence of lord Mountbatten

 

Where did the Muslim League lead

• Thus, the Muslim League exhibits a unique experimentation of religion-based mobilization for democratic politics, which has played a significant role in the political mainstreaming of Muslims.
• The engagement of religion with politics that emerge out of the specific historical and cultural context.
• So, in the end, we can say that the great achievement of the Muslim League was the creation of Pakistan under the dynamic leadership of Quaid-E-Azam the Muslims united themselves on the platform of the Muslim League and achieved Pakistan in 1947.

 

11. The Ghadar

 

• The Ghadar Party was a revolutionary group organised around a weekly newspaper The Ghadar with its headquarters in San Francisco and branches along the US coast and in the Far East.
• These revolutionaries included mainly ex-soldiers and peasants who had migrated from the Punjab to the USA and Canada in search of better employment opportunities.
• They were based in the US and Canadian cities along the western (Pacific) coast. Pre-Ghadr revolutionary activity had been carried on by Ramdas Puri, G.D. Kumar, Taraknath Das, Sohan Singh Bhakna, and Lala Hardayal who reached there in 1911.
• To carry out revolutionary activities, the earlier activists had set up a ‘Swadesh Sevak Home’ in Vancouver and a ‘United India House’ in Seattle.
• Finally, in 1913, the Ghadr was established.
• The Ghadr programme was to organise assassinations of officials, publish revolutionary and anti-imperialist literature, work among Indian troops stationed abroad, procure arms, and bring about a simultaneous revolt in all British colonies.
• The moving spirits behind the Ghadar Party were Lala Hardayal, Ramchandra, Bhagwan Singh, Kartar Singh Saraba, Barkatullah, and Bhai Parmanand.
• The Ghadrites intended to bring about a revolt in India.
• Their plans were encouraged by two events in 1914—the Komagata Maru incident and the outbreak of the First World War.

 

 

Leaders of Ghadr Party

 

Komagata Maru Incident and the Ghadr

• The importance of this event lies in the fact that it created an explosive situation in the Punjab.
• Komagata Maru was the name of a ship which was carrying 370 passengers, mainly Sikh and Punjabi Muslim would-be immigrants, from Singapore to Vancouver.
• They were turned back by Canadian authorities after two months of privation and uncertainty.
• It was generally believed that the Canadian authorities were influenced by the British government.
• The ship finally anchored at Calcutta in September 1914.
• The inmates refused to board the Punjabbound train. In the ensuing conflict with the police at Budge Budge near Calcutta, 22 persons died.
• Inflamed by this and with the outbreak of the First World War, the Ghadr leaders decided to launch a violent attack to oust British rule in India.
• They urged fighters to go to India. Kartar Singh Saraba and Raghubar Dayal Gupta left for India.
• Bengal revolutionaries were contacted; Rashbehari Bose and Sachin Sanyal were asked to lead the movement.
• Political dacoities were committed to raising funds.
• The Punjab political dacoities of January–February 1915 had a somewhat new social content.
• In at least 3 out of the 5 main cases, the raiders targeted the moneylenders and the debt records before decamping with the cash.
• Thus, an explosive situation was created in Punjab.
• The Ghadrites fixed February 21, 1915, as the date for an armed revolt in Ferozepur, Lahore, and Rawalpindi garrisons.
• The plan was foiled at the last moment due to treachery.
• The authorities took immediate action, aided by the Defence of India Rules, 1915. Rebellious regiments were disbanded, leaders arrested and deported, and 45 of them hanged.
• Rashbehari Bose fled to Japan (from where he and Abani Mukherji made many efforts to send arms), while Sachin Sanyal was transported for life.
• The British met the wartime threat with a formidable battery of repressive measures—the most intensive since 1857—and above all by the Defence of India Act passed in March 1915 primarily to smash the Ghadr movement.

Komagatamaru Incident  (ImageSource- Wikipedia)

 

• There were large-scale detentions without trial, special courts giving extremely severe sentences, and numerous court martials of army men.
• Apart from the Bengal revolutionaries and the Punjab Ghadrites, radical pan-Islamists—Ali brothers, Maulana Azad, Hasrat Mohani—were interned for years.

 

Evaluation of Ghadar

• The achievement of the Ghadar movement lay in the realm of ideology.
• It preached militant nationalism with a completely secular approach.
• But politically and militarily, it failed to achieve much because it lacked an organized and sustained leadership, underestimated the extent of preparation required at every level—organizational, ideological, financial, and tactical strategic—and perhaps Lala Hardayal was unsuited for the job of an organizer.

 

12. The Lucknow Pact 1916

 

• When All India Muslim League came into existence, it was a moderate organization with its basic aim to establish friendly relations with the
• However, due to the decision of the British Government to annul the partition of Bengal, the Muslim leadership decided to change its stance.
• In 1913, a new group of Muslim leaders entered the folds of the Muslim League to bridge the gulf between the Muslims and the Hindus.
• The most prominent amongst them was Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who was already a member of the Indian National Congress.
• The Muslim League changed its major objective and decided to join hands with the Congress to put pressure on the British government.

• Lord Chelmsford's invitation for suggestions from the Indian politicians for the post-World War I reforms further helped in the development of the situation.
• As a result of the hard work of Mr Jinnah, both the Muslim League and the Congress met for their annual sessions in Bombay in December 1915.
• The principal leaders of the two political parties assembled in one place for the first time in the history of these organizations.
• The speeches made from the platform of the two groups were similar in tone and theme.
• Within a few months of the Bombay moot, 19 Muslim and Hindu elected members of the Imperial Legislative Council addressed a memorandum to the Viceroy on the subject of reforms in October 1916.
• Their suggestions did not become news in the British circle but were discussed, amended and accepted at a subsequent meeting of the Congress and Muslim League leaders at Calcutta in November 1916.
• This meeting settled the details of an agreement about the composition of the legislatures and the quantum of representation to be allowed to the two communities.
• The agreement was confirmed by the annual sessions of the Congress and the League in their annual session held at Lucknow on December 29 and December 31, 1916, respectively.
• Sarojini Naidu gave Jinnah, the chief architect of the Lucknow Pact, the title of "the Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity".

 

The main clauses of the Lucknow Pact were:

• There shall be self-government in India.
• Muslims should be given one-third representation in the central government. There should be separate electorates for all the communities until a community demands joint electorates.
• A system of weightage should be adopted.
• The number of the members of Central Legislative Council should be increased to 150.
• At the provincial level, four-fifths of the members of the Legislative Councils should be elected and one-fifth should be nominated.
• The strength of Provincial legislation should not be less than 125 in the major provinces and from 50 to 75 in the minor provinces.
• All members, except those nominated, were to be elected directly based on adult franchise. 9. No bill concerning a community should be passed if the bill is opposed by three-fourths of the members of that community in the Legislative Council. 10. The term of the Legislative Council should be five years. Members of the Legislative Council should themselves elect their president.
• Half of the members of the Imperial Legislative Council should be Indians.
• The Indian Council must be abolished.
• The salaries of the Secretary of State for Indian Affairs should be paid by the British Government and not from Indian funds.
• Out of two Under Secretaries, one should be Indian. 16. The Executive should be separated from the Judiciary

 

 

Analysis of the Lucknow Pact

• Although this Hindu-Muslim Unity was not able to live for more than eight years, and collapsed after the development of differences between the two communities after the Khilafat Movement, it was an important event in the history of the Muslims of South Asia.
• It was the first time when Congress recognized the Muslim League as the political party representing the Muslims of the region.
• As Congress agreed to separate electorates, it agreed to consider the Muslims as a separate nation.
• They thus accepted the concept of the Two-Nation Theory.

 

13. Home Rule League Movement

 

• The Home Rule Movement was the Indian response to the First World War in a less charged but more effective way than the response of Indians living abroad which took the form of the romantic Ghadr adventure.
• Prominent leaders—Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Annie Besant, G.S. Khaparde, Sir S. Subramania Iyer, Joseph Baptista, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah among others—got together and decided that it was necessary to have a national alliance that would work throughout the year (unlike the Congress which had annual sessions) with the main objective of demanding self-government or home rule for all of India within the British commonwealth.
• This alliance was to be the All India Home Rule League along the lines of the Irish Home Rule League.
• In the end, however, two Home Rule Leagues were launched—one by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and the other by Annie Besant, both to begin a new trend of aggressive politics.

 

Leagues

• Both Tilak and Besant realized that the sanction of a Moderate-dominated Congress as well as the full cooperation of the Extremists was essential for the movement to succeed.
• Having failed at the 1914 session of the Congress to reach a Moderate-Extremist rapprochement, Tilak and Besant decided to revive political activity on their own.
• By early 1915, Annie Besant had launched a campaign to demand self-government for India after the war on the lines of white colonies.
• She campaigned through her newspapers, New India and Commonweal, and public meetings and conferences.
• At the annual session of the Congress in 1915, the efforts of Tilak and Besant met with some success.
• It was decided that the Extremists be admitted to the Congress.
• Although Besant failed to get Congress to approve her scheme of Home Rule Leagues, Congress did commit itself to a programme of educative propaganda and a revival of local-level Congress committees.
• Not willing to wait for too long, Besant laid the condition that if the Congress did not implement its commitments, she would be free to set up her own league—which she finally had to, as there was no response from the Congress.
• Tilak and Besant set up their separate leagues to avoid any friction. As Annie Besant said, some supporters of Tilak were not at ease with her and similarly, some of her own supporters were not at ease with Tilak.
• However, both leagues coordinated their efforts by confining their work to their specific areas. They cooperated where they could.

 

Tilak’s League

• Tilak set up his Indian Home Rule League in April 1916.
• Tilak held his first Home Rule meeting at Belgaum. Poona was the headquarters of his league.
• His league was restricted to Maharashtra (excluding Bombay city), Karnataka, Central Provinces, and Berar.
• It had six branches and the demands included swarajya, formation of linguistic states and education in the vernacular.
• Besant’s League Annie Besant set up her All-India Home Rule League in September 1916 in Madras (now Chennai) and covered the rest of India (including Bombay city).
• It had 200 branches, was loosely organized as compared to Tilak’s league and had George Arundale as the organizing secretary.
• Besides Arundale, the main work was done by B.W. Wadia and C.P. Ramaswamy Aiyar.

 

The Home Rule League Programme

• The League campaign aimed to convey to the common man the message of home rule as self-government.
• It carried a much wider appeal than the earlier mobilisations had and also attracted the hitherto ‘politically backward’ regions of Gujarat and Sindh.
• The aim was to be achieved by promoting political education and discussion through public meetings, organizing libraries and reading rooms containing books on national politics, holding conferences, organizing classes for students on politics, carrying out propaganda through newspapers, pamphlets, posters, illustrated postcards, plays, religious songs, etc., collecting funds, organizing social work, and participating in local government activities.
• The Russian Revolution of 1917 proved to be an added advantage for the Home Rule campaign.

Colonial Attitude towards Home Rule League

The government came down with severe repression, especially in Madras where the students were prohibited from attending political meetings.

• A case was instituted against Tilak which was, however, rescinded by the high court. Tilak was barred from entering Punjab and Delhi.
• In June 1917, Annie Besant and her associates, P. Wadia and George Arundale, were arrested.
• This invited nationwide protests.
• In a dramatic gesture, Sir S. Subramania Aiyar renounced his knighthood, while Tilak advocated a programme of passive resistance.
• The repression only served to harden the attitude of the agitators and strengthen their resolve to resist the government.
• Montagu, the Secretary of State for India, commented that “Shiva ...cut his wife into fifty-two pieces only to discover that he had fifty-two wives. This is what happens to the Government of India when it interns Mrs Besant.” Annie Besant was released in September 1917.

 

Fading Agitation

 

The Home Rule agitation proved to be short-lived. By 1919, it had petered out. The reasons for the decline were as follows:

• There was a lack of effective organisation.
• Communal riots were witnessed during 1917–18.
• The Moderates who had joined the Congress after Annie Besant’s arrest were pacified by talk of reforms (contained in Montagu’s statement of August 1917 which held self-government as the long-term goal of British rule in India) and Besant’s release.
• Talk of passive resistance by the Extremists kept the Moderates away from activity from September 1918 onwards.
• The Montagu-Chelmsford reforms, which became known in July 1918, further divided the nationalist ranks.
• Annie Besant herself was in two minds about the use of the league after the announcement of the reforms.
• Tilak had to go abroad (September 1918) in connection with a libel case against Valentine Chirol whose book, Indian Unrest, had featured Tilak as responsible for the agitational politics that had developed in India.
• With Besant unable to give a positive lead and Tilak away in England, the movement was left leaderless.
• Gandhi’s fresh approach to the struggle for freedom was slowly but surely catching the imagination of the people, and the mass movement that was gathering momentum pushed the home rule movement onto the sidelines till it petered out.

 

Impact of Home Rule Movement

 

• The movement shifted the emphasis from the educated elite to the masses and permanently deflected the movement from the course mapped by the Moderates.
• It created an organizational link between the town and the country, which was to prove crucial in later years when the national movement entered its mass phase in a true sense.
• It created a generation of ardent nationalists.
• It prepared the masses for politics of the Gandhian style.
• The August 1917 declaration of Montagu and the Montford reforms were influenced by the Home Rule agitation.
• The efforts of Tilak and Annie Besant towards the Moderate-Extremist reunion at Lucknow (1916) revived the Congress as an effective instrument of Indian nationalism.
• The home rule movement lent a new dimension and a sense of urgency to the national movement.

 

14. The August Declaration

 

• The Secretary of State for India, Edwin Samuel Montagu, made a statement on August 20, 1917, in the British House of Commons in what has come to be known as the August Declaration of 1917. The statement said: “The government policy is of an increasing participation of Indians in every branch of administration and gradual development of self-governing institutions with a view to the progressive realisation of responsible government in India as an integral part of the British Empire.”
• From now onwards, the demand by nationalists for self-government or home rule could not be termed as seditious since the attainment of self-government for Indians now became a government policy, unlike Morley’s statement in 1909 that the reforms were not intended to give self-government to India.
• Also, the use of the term ‘responsible government’ implied the condition that the rulers were to be answerable to the elected representatives, and not only to the imperial government in London.
• However, it was equally clear that the British had no intention of handing over power to predominantly elected legislatures with an Indian majority.
• So, so that the executive to be made responsible in some measure to the elected assemblies, whose size and the proportion of elected members was going to be increased in any case, the concept of ‘dyarchy’ was to be evolved.

 

The Hidden Agenda of the August Declaration

• No specific time frame was given.
• The government alone was to decide the nature and the timing of advance towards a responsible government, and the Indians were resentful that the British would decide what was good and what was bad for Indians.

 

15. Champaran Satyagraha

 

• Champaran Satyagraha is a story of Gandhiji’s first significant non-political grassroots struggle for the cause of poor and exploited peasants in Champaran district in North Bihar located in the foothills of the Himalayas.
• With the advent of Indigo (Neel) factories, about 70 in number, British Planters invaded the Champaran area in the early nineteenth century and took over the cultivation from gawky Zamindars and thekedars.
• The British planters forced the tenant farmers to cultivate indigo (Neel) in the twentieth part of a Bigha of their operational holding.
• Twenty Kathias made a Bigha – a measurement of land that was about one-third of a hectare.
• Hence, it also came to be known as the Teen Kathia system.
• The Planters chose the best portions of land for indigo cultivation and offered very low prices for the indigo output that failed even to cover the cost of cultivation.
• For about a hundred years the poor peasants suffered indignity, physical abuse and exploitation.

ImageSource-Socratic

• The British administration was at best indifferent. I
• The introduction of synthetic Indigo in the world market in 1897 hit organic indigo production adversely. A new wave of exploitation began.
• The losses were transferred to poor peasants.
• They were given the option to give up indigo cultivation by paying higher rents for the land.
• Gandhiji was accidentally introduced to this issue in early 1917 and he approached the problem differently and came out with a unique solution that had another positive impact on the minds of the downtrodden and poor peasantry in the country.
• Rajkumar Shukla, an illiterate but aware Indigo farmer from the village Murli Bharhawa in the Bettiah sub-division of Champaran district, had made up his mind to fight the severe ills of the indigo farming system. He was a sufferer.
• He had risen against the British Planters and factory management and had been punished severely. He had heard about Gandhi's work in South Africa and had perhaps intuitively felt that Gandhiji’s direct leadership would create an impact in his area and relief may come.
• He went to Kochrab Ashram in Ahmedabad only to find that Gandhiji had left for Pune.
• The local administration viewed Gandhiji’s visit suspiciously and responded by issuing local ordinances to stop him from his investigations.
• The District Magistrate asked him to leave the area immediately or face imprisonment. As Eric Erikson has noted, this set an ideal scene for Gandhiji.

 

• This became a high drama in the whole of Champaran Satyagraha right in the beginning! Gandhiji first gently refused to leave the district before completing his inquiry and then when asked to present himself in the court pleaded guilty. However, on the night before the appearance Gandhi wrote letters to Maganlal Gandhi at Ashram, Henry Polak, Mazharul Haq, Madanmohan Malaviya and many others about the possibility of his arrest. He also wrote to the Private Secretary to the Viceroy and informed him that he was returning the Kaiser-iHind Gold Medal awarded to him in South Africa for his humanitarian services by the British Royalty.
• His courage and fearlessness towards the mighty British Government electrified the minds of hitherto cowed down and hapless people.
• This could only be a Mahatma who was willing to suffer for others! The air is rented with slogans of Mahatma Gandhi ki jai. Gandhiji notes that his response of stating his intention honestly and gently defying the order instead of challenging it legally developed a kind of friendliness between the Collector, the Magistrate and the Police Chief.
• In June the Governor summoned Gandhiji to share the apprehensions and asked them to stop the work and submit a report.
• Gandhiji agreed to submit an interim report but refused to discontinue the inquiry. The Governor upon receiving the preliminary report constituted a committee in which he invited Gandhi to join as a member representing the farmers.
• Gandhiji agreed on one condition that he would be allowed to make the presentation as the aggrieved party. Gandhiji and his team had collected about 12,000 cases substantiated with evidence via a signature campaign and his presentation was very effective.
• The Committee submitted its report in October 1917 with unanimous recommendations. The Planters Association protested and tried to stop the Report from being accepted. The Report was accepted, and a Bill was introduced in the Bihar Council on 4 March 1919 which became a law soon.
• The notorious Teen Kathia was gone and tenant farmers were given relief on many other counts.
• The British Planters and factory owners were asked to pay back the farmers 25 per cent of the Tawan they had collected. An important feature that surfaced during the Champran Satyagraha was Gandhiji’s insistence on a constructive programme along with struggle.
• Gandhiji was sad and depressed to see crass insanitation and a complete lack of education and literacy. He said that abject poverty was only a minor cause explaining that.
• People had to be sensitized, made aware and educated. He invited volunteers from Ahmedabad Ashram and from elsewhere including Kasturba and two other women.
• Gandhiji through Champaran Satyagraha achieved a few things distinctly. The most significant achievement was that Gandhiji was able to demonstrably remove fear instilled deeply by the British Raj from the minds of the poor rural masses in the country.
• Farmers in Champaran witnessed that the Raj could be challenged. Secondly, he demonstrated to the middle and rich-class people that they could also become selfless public servants of people by shedding their feudalist habits and assuming the role of servant citizens.
• Third, Gandhiji also demonstrated that along with the struggle the volunteers and public servants must simultaneously engage in effective constructive programmes leading to building a new society. With Champaran Satyagraha, the world witnessed India's awakening.

 

16. Ahmedabad Mill Strike

 

• In March 1918, Gandhi intervened in a dispute between cotton mill owners of Ahmedabad and the workers over the issue of discontinuation of the plague bonus.
• The mill owners wanted to withdraw the bonus.
• The workers were demanding a rise of 50 per cent in their wages so that they could manage in the times of wartime inflation (which doubled the prices of food grains, cloth, and other necessities) caused by Britain’s involvement in World War I.
• The mill owners were ready to give only a 20 per cent wage hike.
• The workers went on strike.
• The relations between the workers and the mill owners worsened with the striking workers being arbitrarily dismissed and the mill owners deciding to bring in weavers from Bombay.
• The workers of the mill turned to Anusuya Sarabhai for help in fighting for justice. Anusuya Sarabhai was a social worker who was also the sister of Ambalal Sarabhai, one of the mill owners and the president of the Ahmedabad Mill Owners Association (founded in 1891 to develop the textile industry in Ahmedabad), for help in fighting for justice. Anusuya Behn went to Gandhi, who was respected by the mill owners and workers and asked him to intervene and help resolve the impasse between the workers and the employers.

Anusuya Sarabhai (ImageSource- Wikipedia)

 

• Though Gandhi was a friend of Ambalal, he took up the workers’ Anusuya too supported the workers and was one of the chief lieutenants of Gandhi. (It was Anusuya Behn who went on later to form the Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association in 1920.)
• Gandhi asked the workers to go on a strike and demand a 35 per cent increase in wages instead of 50 per cent. Gandhi advised the workers to remain non-violent while on strike.
• When negotiations with mill owners did not progress, he undertook a fast unto death (his first) to strengthen the workers’ resolve.
• But the fast also had the effect of putting pressure on the mill owners who finally agreed to submit the issue to a tribunal.
• The strike was withdrawn. In the end, the tribunal awarded the workers a 35 per cent wage hike.

 

17. Kheda Satyagraha (1918)—First Non-Cooperation

 

• Because of the drought in 1918, the crops failed in the Kheda district of Gujarat. According to the Revenue Code, if the yield was less than one-fourth of the normal produce, the farmers were entitled to remission.
• The Gujarat Sabha, consisting of the peasants, submitted petitions to the highest governing authorities of the province requesting that the revenue assessment for the year 1919 be suspended.
• The government, however, remained adamant and said that the property of the farmers would be seized if the taxes were not paid.
• Gandhi asked the farmers not to pay the taxes. Gandhi, however, was mainly the spiritual head of the struggle. It was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and a group of other devoted Gandhians, namely, Narahari Parikh, Mohanlal Pandya, and Ravi Shankar Vyas, who went around the villages, organized the villagers and told them what to do, and gave the necessary political leadership.
• Patel, along with his colleagues, organized the tax revolt which the different ethnic and caste communities of Kheda supported.
• The revolt was remarkable in that discipline and unity were maintained.
• Even when, on non-payment of taxes, the government seized the farmers’ personal property, land, and livelihood, a vast majority of Kheda’s farmers did not desert Sardar Patel.

 

 

• Gujaratis in other parts who sympathized with the cause of the revolt helped by sheltering the relatives and property of the protesting peasants.
• Those Indians who sought to buy the confiscated lands were socially ostracized.
• Ultimately, the government sought to bring about an agreement with the farmers. It agreed to suspend the tax for the year in question, and for the next; reduce the rate increase; and return all the confiscated property.
• The struggle at Kheda brought a new awakening among the peasantry.
• They became aware that they would not be free of injustice and exploitation unless and until their country achieved complete independence

 

Prominence of Movements led by Gandhi 

• Gandhi demonstrated to the people the efficacy of his technique of satyagraha.
• He found his feet among the masses and came to have a surer understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the masses.
• He acquired the respect and commitment of many, especially the youth.