Nationalism in India

Introduction

• Modern nationalism was associated with the formation of nation-states.

• In India like many other colonies, the growth of modern nationalism is connected to
the anti-colonial movement.

The First World War, Khilafat and Non-Cooperation

1. The First World War (1914-1918) created a new political and economic
situation the years after 1919.
2. India faced various problems during war period:
3. Income tax introduced and the prices of custom duties were doubled between
1913 and 1918
4. which led to a very difficult life for common people.
5. Increase in defence expenditure.
6. Prices increased through the war years.
7. Forced recruitment in rural areas.
8. During 1918-19 and 1920-21, crops failure in many parts of India, resulting in
shortage of food accompanied by an influenza epidemic.
9. Hardships did not end after the war was over.

At this stage, a new leader appeared and suggested a new mode of struggle.

The Idea of Satyagraha

1. In January 1915, Mahatma Gandhi returned to India from South Africa and
started the movement Satyagraha.
2. Satyagraha is a novel way of fighting the colonial rule in India.
3. It is a non-aggressive, peaceful mass agitation against oppression and injustice.
4. Satyagraha means insistence on truth.
5. Satyagraha emphasised the power of truth and the need to search for truth.
6. According to Mahatma Gandhi, people can win a battle with non-violence
which will unite all Indians.
7. It is a moral force, not passive resistance.
8. Gandhiji organised Satyagraha Movements in Champaran, In 1917,
9. He travelled to Champaran in Bihar to inspire the peasants to struggle against
the oppressive plantation system.
10. Kheda district of Gujarat (1917): In the same year, he organised satyagraha to
support the peasants of the Kheda district of Gujarat
11. In Ahmedabad (1918): In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi went to Ahmedabad to
organise a satyagraha movement amongst cotton mill worker.
The Rowlatt Act (1919)
provisions of Rowlatt Act :-

Allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for 2 years.

Aims of Rowlatt Act :-

To repress political activities.

Why the Rowlatt Act was Unfair :-

An Attack on civil liberties of Indians. despite the opposition of Indian

members passed

Consequences of Rowlatt Act :-

 An all India Hartal planned by M. Gandhi on 6 April 1919 against this

unjust law.
 Rallies were orgainsed in various cities.
 Workers went on strike in railway workshops.
 Shops closed down.
 Local leaders were picked up from Amritsar.
 Attacks on banks. post offices and railways.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION;

 In 1919, Mahatma Gandhi launched a nationwide satyagraha against the

proposed Rowlatt Act.
 This act gave the government enormous powers to repress political activities
and allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years.
 The British government decided to clamp down on nationalists by witnessing
the outrage of the people.
 On April 10th, police in Amritsar fired on a peaceful procession, which
provoked widespread attacks on banks, post offices and railway stations.
 Martial law was imposed and General Dyer took command.

Impact of Jallianwala Bagh :-

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  Crowds took to the streets in many north Indian towns.
 There were strikes, clashes with the police, attacks on government
buildings.
 British government became more brutal, people were humiliated and
terrorised.
 Satyagrahis were forced to rub their nose on the ground, crawl on the
streets, do salaam (Salute) to all sahibs (British).
 People were flogged villages in Punjab around Gujranwala were bombed.
Jallianwala Bagh massacre

1. On 13th April 1919, the Jallianwalla Bagh incident took place.

2. A huge crowd gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh where a few people came to
protest against the government’s new repressive measures, while some came to
attend the annual Baisakhi fair.
3. Dyer entered the area, blocked the exit points, and opened fire on the crowd,
killing hundreds.
4. After the Jallianwala Bagh massacre news spread, strikes, clashes with the
police and attacks on government buildings started.
5. The government responded with brutal repression.
6. Mahatma Gandhi called off the satyagraha movement as the violence spread.

Khilafat Movement

1. Mahatma Gandhi then took up the Khilafat issue by bringing Hindus and
Muslims together
2. Khilafat Movement was led by two brothers Shaukat Ali and Muhammad Ali.
3. The First World War ended with the defeat of Ottoman Turkey.
4. Khilafat Committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919 to defend the
Khalifa’s temporal powers.
5. Mahatma Gandhiji convinced the Congress leaders to support the Khilafat
Movement and start a Non-Cooperation Campaign for Swaraj.

Why Non-cooperation?

1. According to Mahatma Gandhi, British rule was established in India with the
cooperation of Indians.
2. If india refused to cooperate, british rule in india would collapse within a year,
and swaraj would come.
3. Non-cooperation movement is proposed in stages.
4. It should begin with the surrender of titles that the government awarded and a
boycott of civil services, army, police, courts and legislative councils, schools
and foreign goods.

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 5. After many hurdles and campaigning between the supporters and opponents of
the movement. finally, At the Congress session at Nagpur in December 1920,
the Non-Cooperation programme was adopted.

Differing strands within the movement

 The Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement began in January 1921.

 In this movement, various social groups participated, but the term meant
different things to different people.

The Movement in the Towns

1. It started with middle-class participation in cities.

2. Thousands of Students, teachers, and headmasters left government-controlled
schools and colleges, and lawyers gave up studies, jobs, and legal practices and
joined movements.
3. council elections were boycotted.
4. On the economic front, the effects of non-cooperation were more dramatic
5. The production of Indian textile mills and handlooms went up
6. people started boycotting Foreign.
7. Liquor shops were picketed.

Reasons for the slow down of Movement:

1. This movement slowed down due to a variety of reasons such as Khadi clothes
are expensive.
2. less Indian institutions for students and teachers to choose from, so they went
back to government schools and lawyers joined back government courts.

Movement in the countryside

 The Non-Cooperation Movement spread to the countryside where peasants and

tribals were developing in different parts of India.
 Peasants and tribals took over the struggle which turned violent gradually.

Peasant Movement in Awadh

1. The peasants were led by Baba Ramchandra in Awadh against landlords and
talukdars.
2. The peasant movement started against talukdars and landlords who demanded
high rents and a variety of other cesses.
3. It demanded reduction of revenue, abolition of begar and social boycott of
oppressive landlords.
4. Jawaharlal Nehru in June 1920, started going around the villages in Awadh to
understand their grievances.
5. In October, he along with few others set up the Oudh Kisan Sabha and within a
month 300 branches had been set up.

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 6. In 1921, the peasant movement spread and the houses of talukdars and
merchants were attacked, bazaars were looted and grain boards were taken
over.

Movement of Tribals in Andhra Pradesh

1. In the early 1920s, Alluri Sitaram Raju led the guerrilla warfare in the Gudem
Hills of Andhra Pradesh.
2. The government started closing down forest areas due to which their livelihood
was affected.
3. Finally, the hill people revolted, which was led by Alluri Sitaram Raju who
claimed that he had a variety of special powers.
4. The rebels attacked police stations.
5. Raju was captured and executed in 1924.

Swaraj in the Plantations

1. For the plantation workers in Assam, freedom means moving freely in and out
and retaining a link with the village from which they had come
2. They protested against the Inland Emigration Act (1859):
3. Under the Inland Emigration Act plantation workers were not permitted to
leave the tea gardens without permission.
4. After they heard of the Non-Cooperation Movement, thousands of workers left
the plantations and headed home.
5. But, unfortunately, they never reached their destination and were caught by the
police and brutally beaten up.
6. Each group interpreted the term swaraj in their own ways.

Towards Civil Disobedience

• In February 1922, Mahatma Gandhi decided to withdraw the Non-Cooperation

Movement, because Mahatma Gandhi felt that it was turning violent.

• Many leaders such as C. R. Das and Motilal Nehru formed the Swaraj Party within
the Congress to argue for a return to council politics.

• Younger leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose pressed for more
radical mass agitation and for full independence.

Factors that shaped Indian politics towards the late 1920s

The first effect was the worldwide economic depression and the second effect was the
falling agricultural prices

• The Worldwide Economic Depression

→ Agricultural prices collapsed after 1930 as the demand for agricultural goods fell
and exports declined.

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→ Peasants found it difficult to sell their harvests and pay their revenue.

• Simon Commission

 The Statutory Commission was set up by the Tory government of Britain to

look into the demands of the nationalists and suggest changes in the
constitutional structure of India.
 The Commission arrived in India in 1928.
 The Congress protested against this commission, and it was greeted by the
slogan ‘Go back Simon’.
 In December, 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Lahore
session of Congress formalized the demand of “Purna Swaraj”or full
independence for India.
 It was declared that 26 January 1930 would be celebrated as Independence
Day.

The Salt March and the Civil Disobedience Movement

1. Mahatma Gandhiji chose salt as the powerful symbol or medium that could
unite the nation as it is consumed by all the sections of the society.
2. On 31 January 1930, Mahatma Gandhi sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin stating
eleven demands.
3. Among the demands, the most stirring of all was the demand to abolish the salt
tax which is consumed by the rich and the poor.
4. The demands needed to be fulfilled by 11 March or else Congress would start a
civil disobedience campaign.

Salt March

1. The famous Salt or Dandi March began by Mahatma Gandhi accompanied by

78 of his trusted volunteers on March 12, 1930.
2. The march was over 240 miles, from Gandhiji’s ashram in Sabarmati to the
Gujarati coastal town of Dandi.
3. The volunteers walked for 24 days, about 10 miles a day.
4. On 6th April 1930, Gandhiji reached Dandi, a village in Gujarat and broke the
Salt Law by boiling water and manufacturing salt.
5. Thus, it began the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Civil disobedience movement

1. It was different from Non-Cooperation Movement as people were now asked

not only to refuse cooperation with the British as they had done in 1921-22 but
also to break colonial laws.
2. Boycott of foreign goods, non-payment of taxes, and breaking forest laws were
its main features.
3. The movement spread across the world and salt law was broken in different
parts of the country

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 4. As the movement spread Foreign cloth was boycotted, peasants refused to pay
revenue and in many places, forest law was violated.
5. Peasants refused to pay taxes and liquor shops were picketed.
6. In April 1930, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a devout disciple of Mahatma Gandhi was
arrested.
7. Mahatma Gandhi was arrested a month later which led to attacks to all
structures that symbolised British rule.
8. The British Government followed a policy of brutal repression.
9. By witnessing the horrific situation, Mahatma Gandhi decided to call off the
movement.

Gandhi-Irwin Pact

1. On 5 March 1931, Lord Irwin, the Viceroy, signed a pact with Gandhi.
2. Gandhi-Irwin Pact, Gandhiji consented to participate in a Round Table
Conference in London.
3. In December 1931, Gandhiji went to London for the Second Round Table
Conference but returned disappointed.
4. Gandhi relaunched the Civil Disobedience Movement but by 1934 it lost its
momentum.

How Participants saw the Movement

Rich peasants

1. The Patidars of Reve Gujarat and the Jats of Uttar Pradesh – were active in the
movement.
2. The producers of commercial crops, they were very hard hit by to the trade
depression and falling prices.
3. Cash income disappeared, they found it impossible to pay the government’s
revenue demand.
4. The refusal of the government to reduce the revenue demand led to widespread
resentment.
5. These rich peasants became enthusiastic supporters of the Civil Disobedience
Movement, organizing their communities, and at times forcing reluctant
members, to participate in the boycott programs.
6. For them the fight for swaraj was a struggle against high revenues.
7. But they were deeply disappointed when the movement was called off in 1931
without the revenue rates being revised.
8. when the movement was restarted in 1932, many of them refused to participatel

Poor Peasants

1. The poorer peasantry were not just interested in the lowering of the revenue
demand.

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 2. Many of them were small tenants cultivating land they had rented from
landlords.
3. As the Depression continued and cash incomes dwindled, the small tenants
found it difficult to pay their rent.
4. They wanted the unpaid rent to the landlord to be remitted, they joined a
variety of radical movements, often led by Socialists and Communists.
5. Apprehensive of raising issues that might upset the rich peasants and landlords,
the Congress was unwilling to support ‘ no rent ‘ campaigns in most places.
6. The relationship between the poor peasant and the Congress remained
uncertain.

Business Classes

1. After the war, their huge profits were reduced, wanted protection against
import of foreign goods.
2. To organise business interests, the Indian Industrial and Commercial Congress
in 1920 and the Federation of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries
(FICCI) in 1927 was formed.
3. The industrialists attacked colonial control over the Indian economy and
supported the Civil Disobedience Movement when it was first launched.
4. Some of the industrial workers did participate in the Civil Disobedience
Movement. In 1930 and 1932 railway workers and dock workers were on
strike.
5. The spread of militant activities, worries of prolonged business disruptions,
growing influences of socialism amongst the young Congress forced them not
to join the movement.

Women

1. Another important feature of the Civil Disobedience Movement was the large-
scale participation of women.
2. Women participated and protest marches, manufactured salt, and picketed
foreign cloth and liquor shops.
3. Congress was reluctant to allow women to hold any position of authority within
the organisation.

Limits of Civil Disobedience

 One such group was the nation’s ‘ untouchables ‘, who from around the 1930s
had begun to call themselves dalit or oppressed.
 For long the Congress had ignored the dalits, for fear of offending the
sanatanis, the conservative high caste Hindus.
 Mahatma Gandhi declared that swaraj would not come for a hundred years if
untouchability was not eliminated.
 He called the untouchables’ harijan or the children of God.

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  He organised satyagraha for the untouchables but they were keen on a different
political solution to the problems of the community. They demanded reserved
seats in educational institutions and a separate electorate
 Dr B.R. Ambedkar, the leader of the Dalits, formed an association in 1930,
called the Depressed Classes Association.
 He clashed with Gandhiji at the second Round Table Conference by demanding
separate electorates for Dalits.
 Poona Pact of September 1932, between the Gandhiji and B.R. Ambedkar
(1932) gave the Depressed Classes (later to be known as the Scheduled
Castes) reserved seats in Provincial and Central Councils but were voted by
general electorate.
 After the decline of the Non-Cooperation-Khilafat movement, Muslims felt
alienated from the Congress due to which the relations between Hindus and
Muslims worsened.
 The leader of the Muslim League M.A. Jinnah wanted reserved seats for
Muslims in Central Assembly and representation in proportion to population in
the Muslim-dominated provinces.
 Large sections of Muslims did not participate in the Civil disobedience
movement.

The Sense of Collective Belonging

 The sense of collective belonging came partly through the experience of united
struggles.
 History and fiction, folklore and songs, popular prints and symbols, all played a
part in the making of nationalism.
 In the twentieth century, the identity of India came to be visually associated
with the image of Bharat Mata.
 Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay created the image and in the 1870s he wrote
‘Vande Mataram’ as a hymn to the motherland.
 Abanindranath Tagore painted his famous image of Bharat Mata portrayed as
an ascetic figure; she is calm, composed, divine and spiritual.
 In late-nineteenth-century India, nationalists began recording folk tales sung by
bards and they toured villages to gather folk songs and legends.
 During the Swadeshi movement in Bengal, a tricolour flag (red, green and
yellow) was designed which had eight lotuses representing eight provinces of
British India, and a crescent moon, representing Hindus and Muslims.
 By 1921, Gandhiji had designed the Swaraj flag. It was again a tricolour (red,
green and white) and had a spinning wheel in the centre.

Conclusion

 In the first half of the twentieth century, various groups and classes of Indians
came together for the struggle of independence.
 The Congress under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi attempted to resolve
differences and ensure that the demands of one group did not alienate another.

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  In other words, what was emerging was a nation with many voices wanting
freedom from colonial rule.

Time line

 India’s First Freedom Struggle took place in 1857.

 In 1870 Bankim Chandra composed Vande Matram.
 In 1885, Congress was formed in Mumbai. W.C. Banerjee chaired the
first meeting of Congress.
 In 1905, Lord Curzon proposed the division of Bengal.
 In 1905, Abanindra Nath Tagore made a Portrait of Bharat Mata.
 In 1906, Aaga Khan and Nawab Salimullah established Muslim League.
 In 1907, Congress was divided into extremists and moderate.
 In 1911, Delhi Durbar was organized.
 Bengal Division was abolished in Delhi Durbar.
 In Delhi Durbar capital was transferred from (Calcutta) Kolkatta to
Delhi.
 In 1914, First World War started.
 In 1915, Mahatama Gandhi returned to India.
 In 1917, Mahatma Gandhi started Champaran Satyagrah in Protest of
Indigo plantation.
 In 1917, Mahatma Gandhi organized Satyagrah for farmers in Kheda
Gujarat.
 In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi started Satyagrah for Craftsman of Cotton
Textile mill Gujarat.
 1918, the first World War ended.
 The British Government turmed down the demand of Self rule of Indian.
 In 1919, British Government gave Rawlatt Act.
 On 13 April 1919, Jallianwala Bagh massacre took Place in Punjab.
 In 1919, the Khilafat movement was started by Muhammad Ali and
Shaukat Ali.
 In 1920, Mahatama Gandhi started non- cooperation movement.

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  In 1922, Mahatma Gandhi withdrew the non-cooperation movement after
the violence took place at Chauri-chaura.
 on August 9, 1925 revolutionaries in Kakori looted the train carrying
English treasure.
 In 1928, Simon Commission came to India. Lala Lajpart Rai was killed
while protesting.
 on April 8, 1929 Bhagat singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw a bomb in
the assembly.
 on 12 March 1930, Mahatma Gandhi started the march from Sabarmati
to Dandi.
 on 6 April 1930, Mahatma Gandhi broke the Salt Law and started Civil-
disobedience Movement at Dandi.
 In 1930, Dr. Ambedkar organized Scheduled caste into depressed Classes
Association.
 On 23rd March 1931, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru was hanged.
 In 1931 Gandhi-Irwin pact was signed and Civil disobedience movement
was suspended.
 In 1931, Mahatma Gandhi participated in Second round table conference
but did not get expected success.
 In 1932, Poona Pact was signed between Mahatma Gandhi and Dr.
Ambedkar.
 In 1933, Choudhary Rahmat Ali first coined the idea of Pakistan.
 In 1935, Indian Government Act was passed and regional government
was formed.
 1939 World war Il was started.
 In 1940, A resolution was passed by muslim League for seprate
homeland for muslims named Pakistan.
 In 1942, the Quit India movement was started by Mahatma Gandhi. He
gave the slogan ‘Do or Die.
 IN 1945, USA dropped nuclear Bomb on Japan and Second World War
was ended.
 In 1946, Cabinet Mission came to India with the proposal of constituent
assembly.

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