THE MAKING OF THE NATIONAL MOVEMENT:1870s-1947

 

CLASS- VIII    OUR PASTS -III

11.    THE MAKING OF THE NATIONAL MOVEMENT:1870s-1947

The Emergence of Nationalism

INDIA FOR INDIANS:

·       India was the people of India – all the people irrespective of class, colour, caste, creed, language, or gender. And the country, its resources and systems, were meant for all of them.

·       The British were exercising control over the resources of India and the lives of its people, and until this control was ended India could not be for Indians.

·       This consciousness began to be clearly stated by the political associations formed after 1850, especially those that came into being in the 1870s and 1880s.

·       Most of these were led by English-educated professionals such as lawyers. The more important ones were the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, the Indian Association, the Madras Mahajan Sabha, the Bombay Presidency Association, and of course the Indian National Congress.

·       Their goals were stated as the goals of all the people of India, not those of any one region, community or class. They worked with the idea that the people should be sovereign – a modern consciousness and a key feature of nationalism.

·       In other words, they believed that the Indian people should be empowered to take decisions regarding their affairs.

·       The dissatisfaction with British rule intensified in the 1870s and 1880s. The Arms Act was passed in 1878, disallowing Indians from possessing arms.

·       In the same year the Vernacular Press Act was also enacted in an effort to silence those who were critical of the government. The Act allowed the government to confiscate the assets of newspapers including their printing presses if the newspapers published anything that was found “objectionable”.

·       In 1883, there was a furore over the attempt by the government to introduce the Ilbert Bill. The bill provided for the trial of British or European persons by Indians, and sought equality between British and Indian judges in the country. But when white opposition forced the government to withdraw the bill, Indians were enraged. The event highlighted the racial attitudes of the British in India

·       The need for an all-India organisation of educated Indians had been felt since 1880, but the Ilbert Bill controversy deepened this desire.

·       The Indian National Congress was established when 72 delegates from all over the country met at Bombay in December 1885.

·       The early leadership – DadabhaiNaoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta, Badruddin Tyabji, W.C. Bonnerji, Surendranath Banerji, Romesh Chandra Dutt, S. SubramaniaIyer, among others – was largely from Bombay and Calcutta.

·       Naoroji, a businessman and publicist settled in London, and for a time member of the British Parliament, guided the younger nationalists.

·       A retired British official, A.O. Hume, also played a part in bringing Indians from the various regions together.

A nation in the making

MODERATE GROUP:

·       It has often been said that the Congress in the first twenty years was “moderate” in its objectives and methods. During this period it demanded a greater voice for Indians in the government and in administration.

·       It wanted the Legislative Councils to be made more representative, given more power, and introduced in provinces where none existed.

·       It demanded that Indians be placed in high positions in the government.

·       For this purpose it called for civil service examinations to be held in India as well, not just in London.

·       The demand for Indianisation of the administration was part of a movement against racisim, since most important jobs at the time were monopolised by white officials, and the British generally assumed that Indians could not be given positions of responsibility. Since British officers were sending a major part of their large salaries home, Indianisation, it was hoped, would also reduce the drain of wealth to England.

·       Other demands included the separation of the judiciary from the executive, the repeal of the Arms Act and the freedom of speech and expression.

·       The early Congress also raised a number of economic issues. It declared that British rule had led to poverty and famines: increase in the land revenue had impoverished peasants and zamindars, and exports of grains to Europe had created food shortages.

·       The Congress demanded reduction of revenue, cut in military expenditure, and more funds for irrigation.

·       It passed many resolutions on the salt tax, treatment of Indian labourers abroad, and the sufferings of forest dwellers – caused by an interfering forest administration.

·       The Moderate leaders wanted to develop public awareness about the unjust nature of British rule. They published newspapers, wrote articles, and showed how British rule was leading to the economic ruin of the country.

·       They criticised British rule in their speeches and sent representatives to different parts of the country to mobilise public opinion.

·       They felt that the British had respect for the ideals of freedom and justice, and so they would accept the just demands of Indians.

EXTREMIST GROUP:

·       By the 1890s many Indians began to raise questions about the political style of the Congress.

·       In Bengal, Maharashtra and Punjab, leaders such as Bipin Chandra Pal, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai were beginning to explore more radical objectives and methods.

·       They criticised the Moderates for their “politics of prayers”, and emphasised the importance of self-reliance and constructive work.

·       They argued that people must rely on their own strength, not on the “good” intentions of the government; people must fight for swaraj.

·       Tilak raised the slogan, “Freedom is my birthright and I shall have it!”

Partition of Bengal:

·       In 1905 Viceroy Curzon partitioned Bengal. At that time Bengal was the biggest province of British India and included Bihar and parts of Orissa.

·       The British argued for dividing Bengal for reasons of administrative convenience.

·       But what did “administrative convenience” mean? Whose “convenience” did it represent? Clearly, it was closely tied to the interests of British officials and businessmen.

·       Even so, instead of removing the non-Bengali areas from the province, the government separated East Bengal and merged it with Assam. Perhaps the main British motives were to curtail the influence of Bengali politicians and to split the Bengali people.

·       The partition of Bengal infuriated people all over India. All sections of the Congress – the Moderates and the Radicals, as they may be called – opposed it. Large public  meetings and demonstrations were organised and novel methods of mass protest developed. The struggle that unfolded came to be known as the Swadeshi movement, strongest in Bengal but with echoes elsewhere too – in deltaic Andhra for instance, it was known as the Vandemataram Movement.

·       The Swadeshi movement sought to oppose British rule and encourage the ideas of self-help, swadeshi enterprise, national education, and use of Indian languages.

·       To fight for swaraj, the radicals advocated mass mobilisation and boycott of British institutions and goods.

·       Some individuals also began to suggest that “revolutionary violence” would be necessary to overthrow British rule.

·       A group of Muslim landlords and nawabs formed the All India Muslim League at Dacca in 1906. The League supported the partition of Bengal.

·       It desired separate electorates for Muslims, a demand conceded by the government in 1909. Some seats in the councils were now reserved for Muslims who would be elected by Muslim voters.

·       This tempted politicians to gather a following by distributing favours to their own religious groups.

·       Meanwhile, the Congress split in 1907. The Moderates were opposed to the use of boycott. They felt that it involved the use of force.

·       After the split the Congress came to be dominated by the Moderates with Tilak’s followers functioning from outside.

·       The two groups reunited in December 1915. Next year the Congress and the Muslim League signed the historic Lucknow Pact and decided to work together for representative government in the country.

THE GROWTH OF MASS NATIONALISM

·       After 1919 the struggle against British rule gradually became a mass movement, involving peasants, tribals, students and women in large numbers and occasionally factory workers as well.

·       Certain business groups too began to actively support the Congress in the 1920s. Why was this so?

·       The First World War altered the economic and political situation in India. It led to a huge rise in the defence expenditure of the Government of India. The government in turn increased taxes on individual incomes and business profits.

·       Increased military expenditure and the demands for war supplies led to a sharp rise in prices which created great difficulties for the common people.

·       On the other hand, business groups reaped fabulous profits from the war. The war created a demand for industrial goods (jute bags, cloth, rails) and caused a decline of imports from other countries into India.

·       SoIndian industries expanded during the war, and Indian business groups began to demand greater opportunities for development.

·       The war also lead the British to expand their army.

·       Villages were pressurised to supply soldiers for an alien cause.

·       A large number of soldiers were sent to serve abroad. Many returned after the war with an understanding of the ways in which imperialist powers were exploiting the peoples of Asia and Africa and with a desire to oppose colonial rule in India.

·       Furthermore, in 1917 there was a revolution in Russia. News about peasants’ and workers’ struggles and ideas of socialism circulated widely, inspiring Indian nationalists.

The advent of Mahatma Gandhi

·       Gandhiji, aged 46, arrived in India in 1915 from South Africa. Having led Indians in that country in non-violent marches against racist restrictions.

·       He was already a respected leader, known internationally. His South African campaigns had brought him in contact with various types of Indians: Hindus, Muslims, Parsis and Christians; Gujaratis, Tamils and north Indians; and upper-class merchants, lawyers and workers.

·       Mahatma Gandhi spent his first year in India travelling throughout the country, understanding the people, their needs and the overall situation.

·       His earliest interventions were in local movements in Champaran, Kheda and Ahmedabad where he came into contact with Rajendra Prasad and Vallabhbhai Patel. In Ahmedabad he led a successful millworkers’ strike in 1918.

 

 

 

The Rowlatt Satyagraha-1919

·       The Act curbed fundamental rights such as the freedom of expression and strengthened police powers.

·       Mahatma Gandhi, Mohammad Ali Jinnah and others felt that the government had no right to restrict people’s basic freedoms. They criticised the Act as “devilish” and tyrannical.

·       Gandhiji asked the Indian people to observe 6th April 1919 as a day of non-violent opposition to this Act, as a day of “humiliation and prayer” and hartal (strike).

·       The Rowlatt Satyagraha turned out to be the first all-India struggle against the British government although it was largely restricted to cities. In April 1919 there were a number of demonstrations and hartals in the country and the government used brutal measures to suppress them.

·       The Jallianwala Bagh atrocities, inflicted by General Dyer in Amritsar on Baisakhi day (13 April), were a part of this repression. On learning about the massacre, Rabindranath Tagore expressed the pain and anger of the country by renouncing his knighthood.

·       During the Rowlatt Satyagraha the participants tried to ensure that Hindus and Muslims were united in the fight against British rule.

Khilafat agitation and the Non-Cooperation Movement

·       In 1920 the British imposed a harsh treaty on the Turkish Sultan or Khalifa. People were furious about this.

·       Also, Indian Muslims were keen that the Khalifa be allowed to retain control over Muslim sacred places in the erstwhile Ottoman Empire.

·       The leaders of the Khilafat agitation, Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, now wished to initiate a full-fledged Non-Cooperation Movement.

·       Gandhiji supported their call and urged the Congress to campaign against “Punjab wrongs” (Jallianwala massacre), the Khilafat wrong and demand swaraj.

·       The Non-Cooperation Movement gained momentum through 1921-22. Thousands of students left governmentcontrolled schools and colleges. Many lawyers such as Motilal Nehru, C.R. Das, C. Rajagopalachari and Asaf Ali gave up their practices. British titles were surrendered and legislatures boycotted. People lit public bonfires of foreign cloth. The imports of foreign cloth fell drastically between 1920 and 1922.

People’s initiatives

·       In many cases people resisted British rule non-violently.

·       In Kheda, Gujarat, Patidar peasants organised non-violent campaigns against the high land revenue demand of the British.

·       In coastal Andhra and interior Tamil Nadu, liquor shops were picketed.

·       In the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, tribals and poor peasants staged a number of “forest satyagrahas”, sometimes sending their cattle into forests without paying grazing fee. They were protesting because the colonial statehad restricted their use of forest resources in various ways.  They believed that Gandhiji would get their taxes reduced and have the forest regulations abolished. In many forest villages, peasants proclaimed swaraj and believed that “Gandhi Raj” was about to be established.

·       In Sind (now in Pakistan), Muslim traders and peasants were very enthusiastic about the Khilafat call. In Bengal too, the Khilafat-Non-Cooperation alliance gave enormous communal unity and strength to the national movement.

·       In Punjab, the Akali agitation of the Sikhs sought to remove corrupt mahants – supported by the British – from their gurdwaras. This movement got closely identified with the Non-Cooperation Movement.

·       In Assam, tea garden labourers, shouting “Gandhi Maharaj ki Jai”, demanded a big increase in their wages. They left the British-owned plantations amidst declarations that they were following Gandhiji’s wish.

·       In the Assamese Vaishnava songs of the period the reference to Krishna was substituted by “Gandhi Raja”.

The people’s Mahatma

·       Gandhiji wished to build class unity, not class conflict, yet peasants could imagine that he would help them in their fight against zamindars, and agricultural labourers believed he would provide them land.

·       At times, ordinary people credited Gandhiji with their own achievements. For instance, at the end of a powerful movement, peasants of Pratapgarhin the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh) managed to stop illegal eviction of tenants; but they felt it was Gandhiji who had won this demand for them.

The happenings of 1922-1929

·       Chauri Chaura incident:Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, was against violent movements. He abruptly called off the Non-Cooperation Movement when in February 1922 a crowd of peasants set fire to a police station in Chauri Chaura. Twentytwo policemen were killed on that day. The peasants were provoked because the police had fired on their peaceful demonstration.

·       Once the Non-Cooperation movement was over, Gandhiji’s followers stressed that the Congress must undertake constructive work in the rural areas. Other leaders such as Chitta Ranjan Das and Motilal Nehru argued that the party should fight elections to the councils and enter them in order to influence government policies. Through sincere social work in villages in the mid-1920s, the Gandhians were able to extend their support base. This proved to be very useful in launching the Civil Disobedience movement in 1930.

·       Two important developments of the mid-1920s were the formation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu organisation, and the Communist Party of India. These parties have held very different ideas about the kind of country India should be.

·       The decade closed with the Congress resolving to fight for Purna Swaraj (complete independence) in 1929 under the presidentship of Jawaharlal Nehru. Consequently, “Independence Day” was observed on 26 January 1930 all over the country.

The march to Dandi-1930

·       Purna Swaraj would never come on its own. It had to be fought for. In 1930, Gandhiji declared that he would lead a march to break the salt law. According to this law, the state had a monopoly on the manufacture and sale of salt. Mahatma Gandhi along with other nationalists reasoned that it was sinful to tax salt since it is such an essential item of our food.

·       Gandhiji and his followers marched for over 240 miles from Sabarmati to the coastal town of Dandi where they broke the government law by gathering natural salt found on the seashore, and boiling sea water to produce salt.

·       Peasants, tribals and women participated in large numbers.

·       The combined struggles of the Indian people bore fruit when the Government of India Act of 1935 prescribed provincial autonomy and the government announced elections to the provincial legislatures in 1937. The Congress formed governments in 7 out of 11 provinces.

·       In September 1939, after two years of Congress rule in the provinces, the Second World War broke out. Critical of Hitler, Congress leaders were ready to support the British war effort. But in return they wanted that India be granted independence after the war. The British refused to concede the demand. The Congress ministries resigned in protest.

QUIT INDIA AND LATER

·       Mahatma Gandhi decided to initiate a new phase of movement against the British in the middle of the Second World War. The British must quit India immediately, he told them. To the people he said, “do or die” in your effort to fight the British – but you must fight non-violently. Gandhiji and other leaders were jailed at once but the movement spread. It specially attracted peasants and the youth who gave up their studies to join it. Communications and symbols of state authority were attacked all over the country. In many areas the people set up their own governments.

·       The first response of the British was severe repression. By the end of 1943 over 90,000 people were arrested, and around 1,000 killed in police firing. In many areas orders were given to machine-gun crowds from airplanes.

Towards Independence and Partition

·       Meanwhile, in 1940 the Muslim League had moved a resolution demanding “Independent States” for Muslims in the north-western and eastern areas of the country. The resolution did not mention partition or Pakistan.

·       From the late 1930s, the League began viewing the Muslims as a separate “nation” from the Hindus. Moreimportantly, the provincial elections of 1937 seemed to have convinced the League that Muslims were a minority, and they would always have to play second fiddle in any democratic structure. It feared that Muslims may even go unrepresented. The Congress’s rejection of the League’s desire to form a joint CongressLeague government in the United Provinces in 1937 also annoyed the League.

·       The Congress’s failure to mobilise the Muslim masses in the 1930s allowed the League to widen its social support. It sought to enlarge its support in the early 1940s when most Congress leaders were in jail. At the end of the war in 1945, the British opened negotiations between the Congress, the League and themselves for the independence of India. The talks failed because the League saw itself as the sole spokesperson of India’s Muslims. The Congress could not accept this claim since a large number of Muslims still supported it.

·       Elections to the provinces were again held in 1946. The Congress did well in the “General” constituencies but the League’s success in the seats reserved for Muslims was spectacular. It persisted with its demand for “Pakistan”.

·       In March 1946 the British cabinet sent a three-member mission to Delhi to examine this demand and to suggest a suitable political framework for a free India. This mission suggested that India should remain united and constitute itself as a loose confederation with some autonomy for Muslim-majority areas. But it could not get the Congress and the Muslim League to agree to specific details of the proposal. Partition now became more or less inevitable.

·       After the failure of the Cabinet Mission, the Muslim League decided on mass agitation for winning its Pakistan demand. It announced 16 August 1946 as “Direct  Action Day”. On this day riots broke out in Calcutta, lasting several days and resulting in the death of thousands of people. By March 1947 violence spread to different parts of northern India.

·       Many hundred thousand people were killed and numerous women had to face untold brutalities during the Partition. Millions of people were forced to flee their homes. Torn asunder from their homelands, they were reduced to being refugees in alien lands.

·       Partition also meant that India changed, many of its cities changed, and a new country – Pakistan – was born. So, the joy of our country’s independence from British rule came mixed with the pain and violence of Partition.

 

 

 

…………. the end……………