ERA OF MILITANT NATIONALISM (1905-1909)

1. Growth of Militant Nationalism

True Nature of British Rule

• The British government was not conceding any of their important demands; the more militant among those politically conscious got disillusioned and started looking for a more effective mode of political action.
• The feeling that only an Indian government could lead India on to a path of progress started attracting more and more people.
• The economic miseries of the 1890s further exposed the exploitative character of colonial rule.
• Severe famines killed 90 lakh persons between 1896 and 1900.
• Bubonic plague affected large areas of the Deccan. There were large-scale riots in the Deccan.
• The nationalists were widely aware of the fact that instead of giving more rights to the Indians, the government was taking away even the existing ones.

1. 1892-The Indian Councils Act was criticised by nationalists as it failed to satisfy them.
2. 1897-The Natu brothers were deported without trial and Tilak and others were imprisoned on charges of sedition.
3. 1898-Repressive laws under IPC Section 124A were further amplified with new provisions under IPC Section 156A.
4. 1899-The number of Indian members in Calcutta Corporation was reduced.
5. 1904-Official Secrets Act curbed freedom of the press
6. 1904-The Indian Universities Act ensured greater government control over universities, (factories producing political revolutionaries)

• British rule was no longer progressive socially and culturally.
• It was suppressing the spread of education especially mass and technical education.

International Influences

• Indians first realised that economic development was feasible in Asia 
• Without Outside assistance thanks to Japan's amazing progress after  1868 and its rise to Industrial dominance. 
• Myths of European invincibility were disproved by the Ethiopian army’s victory over the Italian army in 1896, The British army’s defeats in the Boer Wars (1899-1902) and Japan’s triumph over Russia in 1905.
• The nationalist movements around the world, including those in Ireland, Russia, Egypt, Turkey, Persia and China also served as inspiration.
• The Indians came to understand that even the most powerful empires might be defeated by a united people willing to make sacrifices.

Increasing Westernisation

• The new leadership recognised imperial plans to engulf the Indian national identity in the British Empire and felt the chokehold of excessive westernisation.
• Indian culture served as the new leadership’s intellectual and moral inspiration.
• Many young nationalists were motivated by intellectuals like Swami Vivekananda, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Swami Dayananda Saraswati painted India’s history in more vivid hues than the British ideologues had done.
• By citing the historical wealth of Indian culture, these intellectuals debunked the Western superiority myth.
• India for the Indians was the political slogan used by Dayananda.

The basic tenets of this school of thought were:

1. Hatred for foreign rule; Since no hope could be derived from it, Indians should work out their salvation;
2. Swaraj to be the goal of the national movement:
3. Direct political action required
4. Belief in the capacity of the masses to challenge the authority
5. Personal sacrifices are required and a true nationalist is always ready for it.

2. The Swadeshi and Boycott Movement

Partition of Bengal to Divide People

• The British government’s decision to partition Bengal had been made public in December 1903.
• It has 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 Bengal's population of 78 million had become too big to administer.
• 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.

1. Based on language, thus reducing the Bengalis to a minority in Bengal itself and
2. Based on religion the western half was to be a Hindu-majority area and the eastern half was to be a Muslim-majority area.

• Muslims argued that Dacca could become the capital of the new Muslim majority province, which would provide them with a unity not experienced by them since the days of old Muslim viceroys and kings.
• It was clear that the government was up to its old policy of propping up Muslim communalists to counter the Congress and the national movement.

Anti-Partition Campaign under Moderates (1903–05)

• The leadership was provided by men like Surendranath Banerjea, K.K. Mitra and Prithwihschandra Ray.
• The methods adopted were petitions to the government, public meetings, memoranda and propaganda through pamphlets and newspapers such as Hibabadi, Sanjibani and Bengalee.
• Their objective was to exert sufficient pressure on the government through an educated public opinion in India and England to prevent the unjust partition of Bengal from being implemented.

Swadeshi Movement

• Ignoring a loud public opinion against the partition proposal, the government announced the partition of Bengal in July 1905.
• Protest meetings were held in small towns all over Bengal.
• It was in these meetings that the pledge to boycott foreign goods was first taken.
• The formal proclamation of the Swadeshi Movement was made on August 7, 1905, with the passage of the Boycott Resolution in a massive meeting held in the Calcutta Town hall.
• The leaders move to other parts of Bengal to propagate the message of a boycott of Manchester cloth and Liverpool salt.

The theme song of the movement

• Partition formally came into force on October 16, 1905, and was observed as a day of mourning throughout Bengal.
• People fasted, bathed in the Ganga and walked barefoot in the processions singing Vande Mataram (It became the theme song of the movement).
• Amar Sonar Bangla the national anthem of Bangladesh was composed by Rabindranath Tagore and sung by huge crowds marching in the streets.
• Rabindranath Tagore and Ramendrasundar Trivedi, secretary of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad at the time, appealed to the people to observe Rakshabandhan day on the date the partition came into effect, i.e., on October 6, 1905.
• People tied rakhis on each other’s hands as a symbol of unity of the two halves of Bengal.
• Later in the day, Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose addressed huge gatherings (perhaps the largest till then under the nationalist banner). Within a few hours of the meeting, Rs 50,000 was raised for the movement.
• Soon, the movement spread to other parts of the country—in Poona and Bombay under Tilak; in Punjab under Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh; in Delhi under Syed Haider Raza; and in Madras under Chidambaram Pillai.

The Congress Position

The INC meeting in 1905 under the presidentship of Gokhale resolved to: Condemn the partition of Bengal and the reactionary policies of Curzon and Support the anti-partition and Swadeshi Movement of Bengal. 

 Militant nationalists

• The militant nationalists led by Tilak, Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal and Aurobindo Ghosh wanted the movement to be taken outside Bengal to other parts of the country and go beyond a boycott of foreign goods to becoming a full-fledged political mass struggle to attain Swaraj.
• But the Moderates, dominating the Congress at that time, were not willing to go that far.
• The Congress session held at Calcutta (1906) under the presidentship of Dadabhai Naoroji, where it was declared that the goal of the Indian National Congress was “self-government or Swaraj like the United Kingdom or the colonies” of Australia or Canada.
• The Moderate-Extremist dispute over the pace of the movement and techniques of struggle reached a deadlock at the Surat session of the Indian National Congress (1907) where the party split with serious consequences for the Swadeshi Movement.

3. The Movement under Extremist Leadership

After 1905, the Extremists acquired a dominant influence over the Swadeshi Movement in Bengal. There were three reasons for this:

1. The Moderate-led movement had failed to yield results.
2. The divisive tactics of the governments of both the Bengals had embittered the nationalists.
3. The government had resorted to suppressive measures including:
4. Atrocities on students many of whom were given corporal punishment;
5. A ban on public singing of Vande Mataram;
6. Restriction on public meetings;
7. Prosecution and long imprisonment of Swadeshi workers;
8. Clashes between the police and the people in many towns;
9. Arrests and deportation of leaders; and
10. Suppression of freedom of the press.

The Extremist Programme

• Dadabhai Naoroji’s declaration at the Calcutta session (1906) that self-government or Swaraj was to be the goal of the Congress, the Extremists gave a call for passive resistance in addition to swadeshi and boycott would include a boycott of government schools and colleges, government service, courts, legislative councils, municipalities, government titles, etc.
• The militant nationalists tried to transform the anti-partition and Swadeshi movements into a mass struggle and gave the slogan of India’s independence from foreign rule.
• Political freedom is the “life breath of a nation,” declared
• The Extremists gave the idea of India’s independence the central place in India’s politics.
• The goal of independence was to be achieved through self-sacrifice.

4. New Forms of Struggle and Impact

• Boycott of Foreign Goods: Boycotts included boycotts and public burning of foreign cloth, a boycott of foreign-made salt or sugar, refusal by priests to ritualise marriages involving the exchange of foreign goods, and refusal by washermen to wash foreign clothes.
• Public Meetings and Processions: They emerged as a major method of mass mobilisation and Simultaneously, they were forms of popular expression.
• Corps of Volunteers or “Samitis”: Samitis such as the Swadesh Bandhab Samiti of Ashwini Kumar Dutta (in Barisal) emerged as a very popular and powerful means of mass mobilisation.
• Swadeshi Sangam: In Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, V.O. Chidambaram Pillai, Subramania Siva and some lawyers formed the Swadeshi Sangam which inspired the local masses. These Samitis generated political consciousness among the masses through magic lantern lectures, swadeshi songs, providing physical and moral training to their members, social work during famines and epidemics, organisation of schools and training in swadeshi crafts and arbitration courts.
• Imaginative use of Traditional Popular festivals and Melas: The idea was to use traditional festivals and occasions as a means of reaching out to the masses and spreading political messages. For instance, Tilak’s Ganapati and Shivaji festivals became a medium of Swadeshi propaganda not only in Western India but also in Bengal. In Bengal also, the traditional folk theatre forms were used for this purpose.
• Emphasis Given to Self-Reliance: Self-reliance or ‘Atma shakti’ was encouraged. The implied re-assertion of national dignity, honour and, confidence and social and economic regeneration of the villages. In practical terms, it included social reform and campaigns against caste oppression, early marriage, the dowry system, consumption of alcohol, etc.
• Programme of Swadeshi or National Education: The movement to boycott British educational institutions gathered momentum in the wake of the British government’s efforts to suppress the participation of students in the Swadeshi Movement and the threat to stop grants, affiliation, and scholarships of the institutions that were dominated by nationalists.

National University in Bengal

• The British action led to the founding of national schools. In this context, it may be recalled that Raja Subodh Mullick made a contribution of Rs 100,000 towards the foundation of a national university in Bengal.
• A National Council of Education was set up on August 15, 1906, and the Bengal National College and Bengal Technical Institute were established.
• The first principal of the Bengal National College was Aurobindo Ghosh and its first president was Rashbehari Ghosh.
• The college was inspired by Tagore’s school at Shantiniketan which had been set up in 1901.
• Several more national schools were established in Bengal and Bihar.

Dawn Society

• Satishchandra Mukherjee’s role in encouraging national education should not be ignored.
• His newspaper Dawn, in circulation since 1897, and his Dawn Society, set up in 1902, had already been propagating the message of self-help in industry and education.
• Mukherjee pioneered the national education movement by founding the Bhagabat Chatuspathi in 1895.
• He took a leading part in the formation of the National Council of Education and later became a lecturer at the Bengal National College, and its principal when Aurobindo resigned.
• The National Council of Education was set up to organise a system of education—literary, scientific, and technical—on national lines and under national control.
• Education was to be imparted through the vernacular medium.
• Funds were even raised to send students to Japan for advanced learning.

Swadeshi or Indigenous Enterprises

• The Swadeshi spirit also found expression in the establishment of Swadeshi textile mills, soap and match factories, tanneries, banks, insurance companies, shops, etc.
• These enterprises were based more on patriotic zeal than on business acumen.
• O. Chidambaram Pillai’s venture into a national shipbuilding enterprise Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company at Tuticorin, however, gave a challenge to the British Indian Steam Navigation Company.
• There had been a consciousness even in the 1890s that Indian products should be encouraged in the face of the onslaught of imported foreign goods.
• To this effect, members of the Tagore family and other leaders had been organising Melas (fairs) to exhibit Indian handicrafts and putting up stores for their sale so that their products could be encouraged.
• Rabindranath’s Swadeshi Bhandar (1897), Jogeshchandra Chaudhuri’s Indian Stores (1901), and Sarala Debi’s Lakshmir Bhandar (1903) were all efforts in this direction.
• The Bengal Chemicals factory had been established by Prafullachandra Ray in 1893, and attempts were made to manufacture porcelain in 1901, as pointed out by Sumit Sarkar.
• Such efforts gained momentum with the mood of the Swadeshi Movement.

Impact on the Cultural Sphere

• The nationalists of all hues took inspiration from songs written by Rabindranath Tagore, Rajnikant Sen, Dwijendralal Ray, Mukunda Das, Syed Abu Muhammad, and others.
• Tagore’s Amar Sonar Bangla written on this occasion was later to inspire the liberation struggle of Bangladesh and was adopted by it as its national anthem. In Tamil Nadu, Subramania Bharati wrote Sudesha Geetham.
• In painting, Abanindranath Tagore broke the domination of Victorian naturalism over the Indian art scene and took inspiration from Ajanta, Mughal, and Rajput paintings.
• Nandalal Bose, who left a major imprint on Indian art, was the first recipient of a scholarship offered by the Indian Society of Oriental Art, founded in 1907.
• In science, Jagdish Chandra Bose, Prafulla Chandra Roy, and others pioneered original research which was praised the world over.

5. Mass participation

Students

• Students came out in large numbers to propagate and practise swadeshi and to take the lead in organising the picketing of shops selling foreign goods.
• Student participation was visible in Bengal, and Maharashtra, especially in Poona and in many parts of the South Guntur, Madras, and Salem.
• Police adopted a repressive attitude towards the students.
• Schools and colleges whose students participated in the agitation were to be penalised by disaffiliation of them or stopping grants and privileges to them.
• Students who were found guilty of participation were to be disqualified for government jobs or government scholarships and disciplinary action fine, expulsion, arrest, beating etc. was to be taken against them.

Stand of Muslims

• Some of the Muslims participated Barrister Abdul Rasul, Liaqat Hussain, Guznavi, and Maulana Azad(who joined one of the revolutionary terrorist groups); but most of the upper and middle-class Muslims stayed away or, led by Nawab Salimullah of Dacca, supported the partition on the plea that it would give them a Muslim-majority East Bengal.
• To further government interests, the All-India Muslim League was propped up on December 30, 1905, as an anti-Congress front, and reactionary elements like Nawab Salimullah of Dacca were encouraged.
• Also, the nature of the Swadeshi Movement, with leaders evoking Hindu festivals and goddesses for inspiration, tended to exclude the Muslims.

Labour Unrest and Trade Unions

• In the beginning, some strikes were organised on the issue of rising prices and racial insult, primarily in the foreign-owned companies.
• In September 1905, more than 250 Bengali clerks of the Burn Company, Howrah, walked out in protest against a derogatory work regulation.
• In July 1906, a strike of workers in the East Indian Railway resulted in the formation of a Railwaymen’s Union.
• Between 1906 and 1908, strikes in the jute mills were very frequent, at times affecting 18 out of 18 mills.
• Subramania Siva and Chidambaram Pillai led strikes in Tuticorin and Tirunelveli in a foreign-owned cotton mill.
• In Rawalpindi (Punjab), the arsenal and railway workers went on strike led by Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh.
• However, by the summer of 1908, the labour unrest subsided under strict action.
• The social base of the movement expanded to include certain sections of the zamindari, the students, the women, and the lower middle classes in cities and towns.
• An attempt was also made to give political expression to the economic grievances of the working class by organising strikes.
• the movement was not able to garner the support of the Muslims, especially the Muslim peasantry, because of a conscious government policy of divide and rule helped by the overlap of class and community at places.

6. Annulment of Partition

Evaluation of the Swadeshi Movement

The Movement Fizzles Out

By 1908, the open phase (different from the underground revolutionary phase) of the Swadeshi and Boycott movement was almost over. This was due to many reasons:

1. The movement failed to create an effective organisation or a party structure. It threw up an entire gamut of techniques that later came to be associated with Gandhian Politics non-cooperation, passive resistance, filling of British jails, social reform and constructive work but failed to give these techniques a discipline focus.
2. The movement was rendered leaderless with most of the leaders either arrested or deported by 1908 and with Aurobindo Ghosh and Bipin Chandra Pal retiring from active politics.
3. Internal squabbles among leaders, magnified by the Surat Split (1907) did much harm to the movement.
4. The movement aroused the people but did not know how to tap the newly released energy or how to find new forms to give expression to popular resentment.
5. The movement largely remained confined to the upper and middle classes and Zamindars and failed to reach the masses, especially the peasantry.
6. Non-cooperation and passive resistance remained mere ideas.
7. It is difficult to sustain a mass-based movement at a high pitch for too long.

Movement a Turning Point

Despite its gradual decline into inactivity, the movement was a turning point in modern Indian history.

1. It proved to be a leap forward in more ways than one. Hitherto untouched students, women, and workers some sections of urban and rural populations participated. All the major trends of the national movement, from conservative moderation to political extremism, from revolutionary activities to incipient socialism, from petitions and prayers to passive resistance and non-cooperation emerged during the Swadeshi movement.
2. The richness of the movement was not confined to the political sphere but encompassed art, literature, science and industry also.
3. People were aroused from slumber and now they learned to take bold political positions and participate in new forms of political work.
4. The Swadeshi campaign undermines the hegemony of colonial ideas and institutions.
5. The future struggle was to draw heavily from the experience gained.

Difference between the Moderates and Extremists

Moderate Methods Give Way to Extremist Modes

• The Swadeshi and Boycott Movement became clear that the Moderates had outlived their utility and their politics of petitions and speeches had become obsolete.
• They had not succeeded in keeping pace with time, and this was highlighted by their failure to get the support of the younger generation for their style of politics.
• Their failure to work among the masses meant that their ideas did not take root among the masses.
• Even the propaganda by the Moderates did not reach the masses.
• No all-India campaigns of the scale of the Swadeshi and Boycott Movement had been organised earlier by the Moderates and, in this campaign, they discovered that they were not its leaders, which was rather natural.

Extremist ideology

• The Extremist ideology and its functioning also lacked consistency.
• Its advocates ranged from open members and secret sympathisers to those opposed to any kind of political violence.
• Its leaders Aurobindo, Tilak, B.C. Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai had different perceptions of their goal. For Tilak, Swaraj meant some sort of self-government, while for Aurobindo it meant complete independence from foreign rule.
• But at the politico-ideological level, their emphasis on mass participation and the need to broaden the social base of the movement was a progressive improvement upon Moderate politics.
• They raised patriotism from a level of ‘academic pastime’ to one of ‘service and sacrifice for the country’. However, the politically progressive Extremists proved to be social reactionaries. They had revivalist and obscurantist undertones attached to their thoughts.

Age of Consent Bill

• Tilak’s opposition to the Age of Consent Bill (which would have raised the marriageable age for girls from 10 years to 12 years, even though his objection was mainly that such reforms must come from people governing themselves and not under an alien rule), his organising of Ganapati and Shivaji festivals as national festivals, his support to anti-cow killing campaigns, etc., portrayed him as a Hindu nationalist.
• Similarly, B.C. Pal and Aurobindo spoke of a Hindu nation and Hindu interests. This alienated many Muslims from the movement.
• Though the seemingly revivalist and obscurantist tactics of the Extremists were directed against the foreign rulers, they had the effect of promoting a very unhealthy relationship between politics and religion, the bitter harvests of which the Indians had to reap in later years.

7. The Surat Split

The Congress split at Surat came in December 1907, around the time when revolutionary activity had gained momentum. The two events were not unconnected.

Run-up to Surat

• In December 1905, at the Benaras session of the INC presided over by Gokhale, the Moderate-Extremist differences came to the fore.
• The Extremists wanted to extend the Boycott and Swadeshi Movement to regions outside Bengal and also to include all forms of associations (Such as government service, law courts, legislative councils etc) within the boycott programme and thus start a nationwide mass movement.
• The Extremists wanted a strong resolution supporting their programme at the Benaras session.
• The Moderates on the other hand were not in favour of extending the movement beyond Bengal and were opposed to the boycott of councils and similar associations.
• They advocated constitutional methods to protest against the partition of Bengal.
• As a compromise, a relatively mild resolution condemning the partition of Bengal and the reactionary policies of Curzon and supporting the Swadeshi and boycott programme in Bengal was passed.
• This succeeded in averting a split for the moment.

7.1. Calcutta session of the Congress

Extremists vs. Moderates

• At the Calcutta session of the Congress in December 1906, the Moderate enthusiasm had cooled a bit because of the popularity of the Extremists and the revolutionaries and because of communal riots.
• The Extremists wanted either Tilak or Lajpat Rai as the President, while the Moderates proposed the name of Dadabhai Naoroji, who was widely respected by all the nationalists.
• Dadabhai Naoroji was elected as the president and as a concession to the militants, the goal of the Indian National Congress was defined as “Swarajya or self-government” like the United Kingdom or the colonies of Australia and Canada.
• Also, a resolution supporting the programme of Swadeshi, boycott and national education was passed.
• The word Swaraj was mentioned for the first time but its connotation was not spelt out, which left the field open for differing interpretations by the Moderates and the Extremists.
• The Extremists, encouraged by the proceedings at the Calcutta session gave a call for wide passive resistance and boycott of schools, colleges, legislative councils, municipalities, law courts etc.
• The Moderates, encouraged by the news that council reforms were on the anvil, decided to tone down the Calcutta programme.
• The two sides seemed to be heading for a showdown.
• The Extremists thought that the people had been aroused and the battle for freedom had begun.
• They felt the time had come for the big push to drive the British out and considered the Moderates to be a drag on the movement.
• They decided that it was necessary to Part Company with the Moderates, even if it meant a split in the Congress.
• The Moderates thought that it would be dangerous at that stage to associate with the Extremists whose anti-imperialist agitation, it was felt, would be ruthlessly suppressed by the mighty colonial forces.
• The Moderates saw the council reforms as an opportunity to realise their dream of Indian participation in the administration.
• Any hasty action by the Congress, the Moderates felt, under Extremist pressure was bound to annoy the Liberals, then in power in England.
• The Moderates were also ready to Part Company with the Extremists.
• The Moderates failed to realise that the council reforms were meant by the government more to isolate the Extremists than to reward the Moderates.
• The Extremists did not realise that the Moderates could act as their front line of defence against state repression.
• And neither side realised that in a vast country like India ruled by a strong imperialist power, only a broad-based nationalist movement could succeed.

Split Takes Place

• The Extremists wanted the 1907 session to be held in Nagpur (Central Provinces) with Tilak or Lajpat Rai as the president along with a reiteration of the swadeshi, boycott, and national education resolutions.
• The Moderates wanted the session at Surat to exclude Tilak from the presidency since a leader from the host province could not be session president (Surat being in Tilak’s home province of Bombay).
• Instead, they wanted Rashbehari Ghosh as the president and sought to drop the resolutions on swadeshi, boycott, and national education.
• Both sides adopted rigid positions, leaving no room for compromise.
• The split became inevitable, and the Congress was now dominated by the Moderates who lost no time in reiterating Congress’ commitment to the goal of self-government within the British Empire and to the use of constitutional methods only to achieve this goal.

Government Repression

The government launched a massive attack on the Extremists. Between 1907 and 1911, five new laws were brought into force to check anti-government activity. These legislations included

1. The Seditious Meetings Act, 1907;
2. Indian Newspapers (Incitement to Offences) Act, 1908;
3. Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1908; and
4. The Indian Press Act, 1910.

Tilak

• Tilak, the main Extremist leader, was tried in 1909 for sedition for what he had written in 1908 in his Kesari about a bomb thrown by Bengal revolutionaries in Muzaffarpur, resulting in the death of two innocent European women.
• Tilak had written: “This, no doubt, will inspire many with hatred against the people belonging to the party of rebels. It is not possible to cause British rule to disappear from this country by such monstrous deeds. But rulers who exercise unrestricted power must always remember that there is also a limit to the patience of humanity ... many newspapers had warned the government that if they resorted to Russian methods, then Indians too will be compelled to imitate the Russian methods.”
• In another article, Tilak wrote that the real means of stopping the bombs consisted in making a beginning towards the grant of rights of ‘Swarajya’ to the people.
• Tilak was again arrested; judged guilty, and sentenced to six years’ transportation and a fine of Rs 1,000.
• He was sent to Mandalay (Burma) jail for six years.
• When the judge asked Tilak if he had anything to say, Tilak said: “Despite the verdict of the jury, I maintain that I am innocent.
• There are higher powers that rule the destiny of men and nations and it may be the will of providence that the cause which I represent may prosper more by my suffering than my remaining free.”
• (In 1956, the then Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, M.C. Chagla, unveiled a marble plaque with these words engraved on it outside the central courtroom 46 – where Tilak was tried in the Bombay High Court.)
• Aurobindo and B.C. Pal retired from active politics. Lajpat Rai left for abroad.
• The Extremists were not able to organise an effective alternative party to sustain the movement.
• The Moderates were left with no popular base or support, especially as the youth rallied behind the Extremists.
• After 1908, the national movement as a whole declined for a time. In 1914, Tilak was released and he picked up the threads of the movement.

8. The Government Strategy

• The British government in India had been hostile to the Congress from the beginning.
• Even after the Moderates dominated the Congress from the beginning, and began distancing themselves from the militant nationalist trend which had become visible during the last decade of the 19th century itself, government hostility did not stop.
• This was because, in the government’s view, the Moderates still represented an anti-imperialist force consisting of basically patriotic and liberal intellectuals.
• With the coming of the Swadeshi and Boycott Movement and the emergence of militant nationalist trends in a big way, the government modified its strategy towards the nationalists.
• Now, the policy was to be of ‘rallying them’ (John Morley— the secretary of state) or the policy of ‘carrot and stick’.
• It may be described as a three-pronged approach of repression- conciliation-suppression.

9. Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909

• In October 1906, a group of Muslim elites called the Simla Deputation, led by the Agha Khan, met Lord Minto and demanded separate electorates for the Muslims and representation over their numerical strength given ‘the value of the contribution’ Muslims were making ‘to the defence of the empire’.
• The same group quickly took over the Muslim League, initially floated by Nawab Salimullah of Dacca along with Nawabs Mohsin-ul-Mulk and Waqar-ul-Mulk in December 1906.
• The Muslim League intended to preach loyalty to the empire and to keep the Muslim intelligentsia away from the Congress.
• Gopal Krishna Gokhale also went to England to meet the Secretary of State for India, John Morley, to put Congress's demands of a self-governing system similar to that in the other British colonies.

The Reforms

1. The elective principle was recognised for the non-official membership of the councils in India. Indians were allowed to participate in the election of various legislative councils, though based on class and community.
2. For the first time, separate electorates for Muslims for election to the central council were established—a most detrimental step for India.
3. The number of elected members in the Imperial Legislative Council and the Provincial Legislative Councils was increased.
4. In the provincial councils, a non-official majority was introduced, but since some of these non-officials were nominated and not elected, the overall non-elected majority remained.
5. According to Sumit Sarkar, in the Imperial Legislative Council, of the total 69 members, 37 were to be the officials and of the 32 non-officials, 5 were to be nominated. Of the 27 elected non-officials, 8 seats were reserved for the Muslims under separate electorates (only Muslims could vote here for the Muslim candidates), while 4 seats were reserved for the British capitalists, 2 for the landlords, and 13 seats came under the general electorate.
6. The elected members were to be indirectly elected. The local bodies were to elect an electoral college, which in turn would elect members of provincial legislatures, who, in turn, would elect members of the central legislature.
7. Besides separate electorates for the Muslims, representation over the strength of their population was accorded to the Muslims.
8. Also, the income qualification for Muslim voters was kept lower than that for Hindus.
9. Powers of legislatures both at the centre and in provinces were enlarged and the legislatures could now pass resolutions (which may or may not be accepted), ask questions and Supplementary, vote separate items in the budget through the budget as a whole could not be voted upon.
10. One Indian was to be appointed to the viceroy’s executive council (Satyendra Sinha was the first Indian to be appointed in 1909).

Constitutional reforms

• The ‘constitutional’ reforms were aimed at dividing the nationalist ranks by confusing the Moderates and at checking the growth of unity among Indians through the obnoxious instrument of separate electorates.
• The government aimed at rallying the Moderates and the Muslims against the rising tide of nationalism.
• The officials and the Muslim leaders often talked of the entire community when they talked of the separate electorates, but in reality, it meant the appeasement of just a small section of the Muslim elite.
• Besides, the system of election was too indirect and it gave the impression of “infiltration of legislators through several sieves”.
• And, while parliamentary forms were introduced, no responsibility was conceded, which sometimes led to thoughtless and irresponsible criticism of the government.
• Only some members like Gokhale put to constructive use the opportunity to debate in the councils by demanding universal primary education, attacking repressive policies, and drawing attention to the plight of indentured labour and Indian workers in South Africa.
• What the reforms of 1909 gave to the people of the country was a shadow rather than substance.
• The people had demanded self-government, but what they were given instead was ‘benevolent despotism’.