HISTORY(X) LESSON- 3 NATIONALISM IN INDIA (LESSON NOTES)

HISTORY(X) LESSON- 3

NATIONALISM IN INDIA

(LESSON NOTES)

____________________________________________________________

v INTRODUCTION

Ø As you know that modern nationalism in Europe associated with the formation of nation-states but In India and other colonies, the growth of modern nationalism is intimately connected to the anti-colonial movement. People united to struggle against colonialism. It provided a shared bond that tied many different groups together. The Congress under Mahatma Gandhi tried to forge these groups together within one movement But the unity did not emerge without conflict.

Ø In this chapter we will pick up the story from the 1920s and study the Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience Movements. We will explore how the Congress sought to develop the national movement, how different social groups participated in the movement.

v FIRST WORLD WAR

Ø First word was fought during 1914 to 1918 between two groups-allied (Britian, France, Russia, USA ) and central power (Germany, Austria- hungry). It create new economical and political situation which led to the development of nationalism in India-

§  Defence expenditure increased due to war which was financed by war loans and increasing taxes.

§   Customs duties were raised and income tax introduced.

§  The prices of essential things increased by double.

§  Forced recruitment for war in rural areas caused widespread anger.

§  Due to the failure of crop and influenza epidemic millions of people died.

§  People started to think that these problems arise due to colonial government. So they started to unite against this government.

v MAHATMA GANDHI AND THE IDEA OF SATYAGRAHA

Ø Mahatma Gandhi returned to India in 1915 from South Africa. He had successfully fought against racism in South Africa.

Ø His novel method of mass agitation is known as ‘Satyagraha’ which emphasized on truth.

SATYAGARAHA

Ø Gandhiji believed that if the cause is true, if the struggle is against injustice, then physical force was not necessary to fight the oppressor.

Ø A satyagrahi can win the battle through non-violence. Truth was bound to ultimately triumph.

v INTIALLY SATYAGRAH MOVEMENT OF MAHTAM GANDHIJI

Ø Champaran Satyagraha

§  It was the first Satyagraha of Mahatma Gandhi launched in 1917 at Champaran In Bihar to inspire plantation workers to struggle against oppressive Indigo plantation system.

Ø Satyagraha at Ahmadabad

     §  In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi went to Ahmadabad to organize a satyagraha movement amongst cotton mill workers to increase the wages of mill workers.

Ø Kheda Satyagraha

§  Gandhiji started second styagraha to support the peasants of the Kheda district of Gujarat in 1918. The peasants of Kheda could

not pay the revenue due to crop failure and a plague epidemic. They were demanding that revenue collection be relaxed.

v    THE ROWLATT ACT OF 1919: 

Ø The Rowlatt act was passed by British parliament in 1919. It gave the enormous power to British government to repress political activities and allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years.

Ø Mahatma Gandhi started a non-violent civil disobedience against such unjust laws, which would start with a hartal on 6 April. Rallies were organised in various cities, workers went on strike in railway workshops, and shops closed down.

Ø The British administration decided to clamp down on nationalists Local leaders were picked up from and Mahatma Gandhi was barred from entering Delhi. Police fired upon a peaceful procession. Martial law was imposed in many places.

v JALLIANWALA BAGH INCIDENT

Ø On 13th April 1919, people gathered in the enclosed ground of Jallianwala Bagh to attend Baisakhi fair.

Ø Many were not aware of the martial law that had been imposed as a repressive measure.

JALLIANWALA BAGH 

Ø Than General Dyer came with his British troops and closed the only exit point and ordered to fire on the crowd. It killed thousands of people.

Ø This brutal act of General Dyer provoked unparalleled indignation. When the news of Jallianwala Bagh spread, crowds took to the streets in many North Indian towns.

v REPRESSION AFTER JALLIANWALA BAGH MASSACRE

Ø As the news of massacre spread people go on strike.

Ø But the government responded with brutal repression to humiliate and terrorise people.

Ø Satyagrahis were forced to rub their noses on the ground, crawl on the streets, and do salaam (salute) to all sahibs.

Ø People were flogged and villages (around Gujranwala in Punjab, now in Pakistan) were bombed

v KHILAFAT MOVEMENT-1919

Ø Khilafat movement was started by Muslim on the issue of Turkey Khalifa.

Ø As in the First World War Ottoman Turkey was defeated by allies.

Ø It was the rumors that a harsh peace treaty was going to be imposed on the Ottoman emperor who was the spiritual head of the Islamic world (the Khalifa)

Ø So, Khilafat Committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919 and launch a movement under the leadership of the brothers Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali. It was supported by congress also for a mass participation.

v NON-COOPERATION MOVEMENT

Ø Mahatma Gandhi wanted to launch a more broad-based movement in India.

Ø In his book Hind Sawaraj Mahatma Gandhi declared that British rule survived only because of cooperation of Indians.

Ø In September 1920,Calcutta session of the Congress in, he convinced other leaders to start a non-cooperation movement in support of Khilafat.

BOYCOTT PROGRAMMES

Ø Finally in December 1920 Congress session at Nagpur Non cooperation movement programme was adopted as-

§  The movement should begin with the surrender of titles that the government awarded.

§  Boycott of foreign goods.

§  Boycott of civil services, army, police, courts schools and councils.

§  After that a full civil disobedience campaign would be launched.

v NCM IN TOWNS

Ø The movement started with middle-class participation in the cities.

Ø Thousands of students left government schools and colleges, headmasters and teachers resigned, and lawyers gave up their legal practices.

Ø The council elections were boycotted in most provinces except Madras, where the Justice Party, the party of the non-Brahmans.

Ø Foreign goods were boycotted, liquor shops were picketed and foreign cloth was burnt.

v EFFECTS OF THE NCM ON THE ECONOMY OF INDIA

Ø The import of foreign cloth halved between 1921-1922. Its value dropped from Rs 102 crore to Rs 57 crore.

Ø Many merchants and traders refused to trade in foreign goods or finance foreign trade.

Ø People began discarding imported clothes and wearing Indian ones.

Ø The production of Indian textile mills and hand looms went up. Use of khadi was popularized.

v DECLINE OF NCM IN CITIES

Ø Khadi cloth was more expensive than mill cloth and poor people could not afford to buy it.

Ø Alternative Indian institutions were very less so students started to go in government school.

Ø Lawyers and government officers joined back work in government courts and offices.

Ø So the movement declined in the cities but it moves in countryside.

v NON-COOPERATION MOVEMENT IN THE COUNTRYSIDE

Ø IN AWADH

§  In the countryside the NCM spread in a different way not according to the programme adopted by congress.

§  In Adawh the peasants’ movement led by a sanyasi Baba Ramchandra (an indentured labourer from Fizi) was against talukdars and landlords because

·       They demanded high rents.

·       Peasants were forced to work in landlords’ farms without any payment (beggar).

·       Peasants had no security of tenure, They had no right over the leased land.

§  So they led the NCM and demanded reduction of revenue, abolition of beggar and social boycott of oppressive landlords.

§  To organize this movement Oudh Kisan Sabha was formed under Pt Jawaharla Nehru and Baba Ramchandra and other.

§  But congress was unhappy by peasant movement as houses of talukdars and merchants were attacked, bazaars were looted, and grain hoards were taken over.

Ø IN GUDEM HILLS OF ANDHRA PRADESH

§  A militant guerrilla movement spread in the early 1920 against the closure of forest areas by the colonial government.

§  They preventing people from entering the forests to graze their cattle, or to collect fuel wood and fruits.

§  They led a movement for their traditional rights under the leadership of Alluri Sita ram Raju. He claimed that he had a variety of special powers,he could make correct astrological predictions and heal people, and he could survive even bullet shots.

§  He was inspired by the Non-Cooperation Movement, and persuaded people to wear khadi and give up drinking. But he did not follow non-violence.

§  The tribals fought for swaraj but Raju was captured and executed in 1924, and over time became a folk hero.

v SWARAJ IN THE PLANTATIONS

Ø The plantation workers also have their own notion of swaraj.

Ø Under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859, plantation workers were not permitted to leave tea gardens without permission.

Ø  In fact the permission was hardly granted. When they heard of the Non-Cooperation Movement, thousands of workers defied the authorities and left for their homes.

Ø They believed that Gandhi Raj was coming and everyone would be given land in their own villages.

Ø However they never reached to their destination. They were caught by the police and brutally beaten up.

v WITHDRAWAL OF NCM

Ø Gandhiji felt that the movement was turning violent and that the satyagrahis should trained .

Ø Some leaders of congress wanted to participate in elections to the provincial councils.

Ø Within the Congress, some leaders were by now tired of mass struggles of long duration.

CHAURI CAURA INCIDENT 1922

Ø On 5 February 1922, at Chauri Chaura in Uttar Pradesh police opened fire at the people who were taking part in a demonstration, without any provocation. Than the people attacked the police station and set fire to it. Which kill 22 policemen . So Mahatma Gandhi called off the movement.

v SWARAJ PARTY

Ø It was founded in 1923 by C.R. Das and Moti Lai Nehru for return to council Politics.

Ø They felt that it was important to oppose British policies within the councils.

Ø They can pressurizes the government for reform and also demonstrate that these councils were not truly democratic

v  SIMON COMMISSION

Ø The Tory government in Britain constituted a Statutory Commission under Sir John Simon in 1927.

Ø The commission reached India in 1928 to look out the functioning of the constitutional system in India and suggest changes.

Ø But the commission did not have a single Indian member so when it arrived in India in 1928, it was greeted with the slogan ‘Go back Simon’.

Ø All parties, including the Congress and the Muslim League, participated in the demonstrations.

v ECONOMIC DEPRESSION-1930

Ø Indian politics was also affected by the world wide economic depression which occurred in 1929-30.

Ø Agricultural prices began to fall from 1926 and collapsed after 1930.

Ø As the demand for agricultural goods fell and exports declined so peasants found it difficult to sell their harvests and pay their revenue.

Ø By 1930, the countryside was in turmoil.

v LAHORE CONGRESS SESSION

Ø In 1929 Lord Irwin, announced a vague offer of ‘dominion status’ for India.

Ø But this did not satisfy the radical Congress leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose.

Ø So in December 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Lahore Congress formalised the demand of ‘Purna Swaraj’ or full independence for India.

Ø It was declared that 26 January 1930, would be celebrated as the Independence Day.

Ø All leaders pledged to struggle for complete independence.

v SALT MARCH

Ø On 31 January 1930, he sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin stating eleven demands of industrialist to common people.

Ø The most stirring of all was the demand to abolish the salt tax. Mahatma Gandhi choose the salt to launch the movement because

§  Salt was one of the most essential items of food for all people.

§  The tax on salt was high and the government has monopoly on its production.

SALT MARCH

§  So mahatma Gandhi chose salt for a movement so that all person can involve in the movement.

Ø When Irwin ignored the demand of Mahatma Gandhi , he started his famous salt march on 12 March 1930 from Sabarmati Ashram Ahmadabad to Dandi with his 78 trusted volunteers.

Ø On the way he told the people about the swaraj and urged them to peacefully defy the British.

Ø Finally after 24 days on 6 April he reached to Dandi and ceremonially violated the law, manufacturing salt by boiling sea water and start Civil Disobedience Movement.

v Features of Civil Disobedience Movement:

Ø People were now asked not only to refuse cooperation with the British but also to break colonial laws.

Ø Foreign cloth was boycotted and people were asked to picket liquor shops.

Ø Peasants were asked not to pay revenue and chaukidari taxes.

Ø Students, lawyers and village officials were asked not to attend English medium schools, colleges, courts and offices.

v SUPRESSMENT OF CDM BY BRITISH GOVERNMENT

Ø As the movement spread, the colonial government began arresting the Congress leaders one by one to suppress the movement. It led to violence.

Ø In Peshawar police fired upon the demonstration when Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a devout disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, was arrested in April 1930 Many were killed.

Ø Industrial workers in Sholapur also attacked police posts, municipal buildings, lawcourts and railway stations .

Ø A frightened government responded with a policy of brutal repression. Peaceful satyagrahis were attacked, women and children were beaten, and about 100,000 people were arrested.

v GANDHI IRWIN PACT

Ø When the violence spread Gandhiji decided to call off the movement and entered into a pact with Lord Irwin which was known as Irwin pact in 1931.

Ø According this pact Gandhiji have to participate in second round Table Conference which will be held in London in Dec 1931.

Ø The British government agreed to release the political prisoners.

v ROUND TABLE CONFERENCE

Ø When Indian were not happy with Simon commission, the viceroy, Lord Irwin, announced in October 1929, offer of ‘dominion status’ for India a Round Table Conference to discuss a future constitution.

Ø There were total three round table conferences held in London during 1930 to 1932.

Ø Congress Participated only in second round table conference but negotiations broke down and he returned India and relaunched the movement in 1932.

v HOW PARTICIPANTS SAW THE CDM MOVEMENT

Ø RICH PEASANT COMMUNITIES

§  The rich Patidars of Gujarat and Jats of Uttar Pradesh were very hard hit by the trade depression and falling prices so they actively participated in the movement.

§  They demanded to reduce the revenue but the government refused to reduce the revenue.

§  So they organising their communities to participate in the boycott programmes. For them the fight for swaraj was a struggle against high revenues.

§  But they were deeply disappointed when the movement was called off in 1931 without the revenue rates being revised. in 1932, many of them refused to participate.

Ø POOR PEASANT COMMUNITIES

§  Due to depression incomes of poor peasants dwindled, so they found difficulty to pay their rent.

§  They wanted the unpaid rent to the landlord to be remitted.

§  So they joined a variety of radical movements led by Socialists and Communists.

§  But the Congress was unwilling to support ‘no rent’ campaigns in most places. So they did not participate again.

Ø BUSINESS CLASSES

§  During the First World War, Indian merchants and industrialists become powerful due to high profits.

§  They formed the Indian Industrial and Commercial Congress(IICC) in 1920 and the Federation of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) in 1927.

§  They wanted protection against imports of foreign goods and also wanted that trade and industry would flourish without constraints.

§  So prominent industrialists like Purshottamdas Thakurdas and G. D. Birla, supported the Civil Disobedience Movement and gave financial assistance and refused to buy or sell imported goods.

§  But after the failure of the Round Table Conference, business groups were worried about prolonged disruption of business, as well as of the growing influence of socialism.

Ø INDUSTRIAL WORKING CLASSES

§  The industrial working classes did not participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement in large numbers as congress supported industrialists.

§  But in spite of that Railway workers, dock workers, mineral of Chhota Nagpur participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement against low wages and poor working conditions.

§  They organized strikes, wore Gandhi caps and participated in protest rallies and boycott campaigns.

§  But the Congress was reluctant to include workers demands as part of its programmes of struggle.

Ø WOMEN

§  In Civil Disobedience Movement women participated in large-scale.

§  They participated in protest marches, manufactured salt, and picketed foreign cloth and liquor shops. Many went to jail.

§  Women began to see service to the nation as their sacred duty .

§  But they become disappointed when Gandhiji was convinced that it was the duty of women to look after home and hearth, be good mothers and good wives.

v LIMITATIONS OF THE CDM MOVEMENT

Ø Though Civil Disobedience movement spread throughout India but there are some limitation of this movement as-

Ø One social group who called themselves as Dalits or oppressed class did not participate in the movement as they feel that they were ignored by congress due to conservative high-caste Hindus.

Ø Dalits organizing themselves into Depressed Classes Association in 1930 under the leadership of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, demanding the separate electorate which slows down the process of their integration into society.

Ø Muslim political organisations in India were also lukewarm in their response to the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Ø During this time many religious associations like Hindu Mahasabha, RSS etc. provoking Hindu-Muslim communal clashes and riots in various cities.

Ø Though congress leaders tried to negotiate but it failed.

v GANDHIJI WORK FOR DEPRESSED CLASS

Ø Mahatma Gandhi declared that swaraj would not come for a hundred years if untouchability was not eliminated.

Ø He called the ‘untouchables’ harijan, or the children of God.

Ø He organised Satyagraha to secure them entry into temples, and access to public wells, tanks, roads and schools.

Ø He himself cleaned toilets to dignify the work of the bhangi (the sweepers), and persuaded upper castes to change their heart and give up ‘the sin of untouchability’.

v POONA PACT OF 1932

Ø Dr B.R. Ambedkar organised the dalits into the Depressed Classes Association in 1930.

Ø He clashed with Mahatma Gandhi at the second Round Table Conference by demanding separate electorates for dalits.

Ø When the British government conceded Ambedkar’s demand, Gandhiji began a fast unto death.

Ø Gandhiji believed that separate electorates for dalits would slow down the process of their integration into society.

Ø In September 1932 a pact was signed by Gandhiji and Ambedkar which gave the Depressed Classes (the Schedule Castes) reserved seats in provincial and central legislative councils, but they were to be voted in by the general electorate. This was known as Poona pact.

v RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HINDUS AND MUSLIMS

Ø The relationship between Hindu and Muslims were not so worst before 1920, but after that it changed.

Ø After 1920, Congress came to be more visibly associated with openly Hindu religious nationalist groups like the Hindu Mahasabha.

Ø It provokes Hindu-Muslim communal clashes and riots in various cities.

Ø The Congress and the Muslim League made efforts to renegotiate an alliance in 1927 but there was a clashed on the question of representation in assemblies.

Ø But all hope of resolving the issue at the All Parties Conference in 1928 disappeared when M.R. Jayakar of the Hindu Mahasabha strongly opposed efforts at compromise

v THE SENSE OF COLLECTIVE BELONGING 

Though nationalism spread through the experience of united struggle but a variety of cultural processes captured the imagination of Indians and promoted a sense of collective belonging:

v USE OF FIGURES OR IMAGES

Ø As the growth of Nationalism increase, the identity of India came to be visually associated with the image of Bharat Mata.

Ø The image was first created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and wrote ‘Vande Mataram’ as a hymn to the motherland.

Ø Abanindranath Tagore painted his famous image of Bharat Mata  In this painting Bharat Mata is portrayed as an ascetic figure; she is calm, composed, divine and spiritual.

Ø After that many images of Bharat mata was painted by different artists Devotion to this mother figure came to be seen as evidence of one’s nationalism.

v INDIAN FOLKLORE

Ø Nationalists started recording and using folklore’s and tales, which they believed, gave a true picture of traditional culture that had been corrupted and damaged by outside forces.

Ø In Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore himself began collecting ballads, nursery rhymes and myths, and led the movement for folk tales.

Ø In Madras, Natesa Sastri published a massive four-volume collection of Tamil folk tales, The Folklore of Southern India.

Ø So,preservation of these became a way to discover one’s national identity and restore a sense of price in one’s past.

v USE OF ICONS AND SYMBOLS

Ø As the national movement developed, nationalist leaders used many icons and symbols to unifying people and inspiring in them a feeling of nationalism.

Ø During the Swadeshi movemen a tricolour flag (red, green and yellow) was designed. It had eight lotuses representing eight provinces of British India, and a crescent moon, representing Hindus and Muslims.

Ø By 1921, Gandhiji had designed the Swaraj flag. It was again a tricolor (red, green and white) and had a spinning wheel in the center, representing the Gandhian ideal of self-help.

v REINTERPRETATION OF HISTORY

Ø Indians began looking into the past to rediscover the glorious developments in ancient times in the field of art, science, mathematics, religion and culture, etc.

Ø This glorious time was followed by a history of decline when India got colonized, as Indian history was miserably written by the colonizers.

Ø These nationalist histories urged the readers to take pride in India’s great achievements in the past and struggle to change the miserable conditions of life under British rule.