• Gandhiji was arrested in 1922 and sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment. The result was the spread of disintegration, disorganization and demoralization in the nationalist ranks.
• After a defeat of their resolution of ‘either mending or ending’ in the Congress, CR Das and Motilal Nehru resigned and formed the Congress-Khilafat Swaraj Party in December 1922.
  • It was to function as a group within the congress
• How to carry on political work in the movements’ non-active phases. The swarajists said that work in the council was necessary to fill the temporary political void. The no-changers believed otherwise.
• Major no-changers: Sardar Patel, Dr Ansari, Rajendra Prasad
• The no-changers opposed council-entry mainly on the ground that parliamentary work would lead to the neglect of constructive and other work among the masses , the loss of revolutionary zeal and political corruption.
• Despite the differences, he two groups had a lot in common.
  • The need for unity was very strongly felt by all the Congressmen after the 1907 debacle.
  • Both realized that the real sanctions which would compel the government to accept the national demands would be forged only by a mass movement.
  • Both groups fully accepted the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.
• In the session held in 1923, the congressmen were permitted to stand as candidates and exercise their franchise in the forthcoming elections.
• Gandhiji was released on February 5, 1924. He did not agree with the Swarajists. However, slowly he moved towards an accommodation with the swarajists.
• On 6 November 1924, Gandhiji brought the strife between the Swarajists and no-changers to an end, by signing a joint statement with Das and Motilal that the Swarajists Party would carry on work in the legislatures on behalf of the Congress and as an integral part of the Congress. This decision was endorsed in Belgaum.
• The Swarajists did well in the elections and won 42 out of 101 seats in the Central Legislative Assembly.
• In March 1925, Vithalbhai J Patel was elected as he President (speaker) of the Central Legislative Assembly.
• The achievement of the Swarajists lay in filling the political void at a time when the national movement was recouping its strength.
  • They also exposed the hollowness of the reforms of 1919
• After the petering out of the NCM communalism took stronghold
  • Even within the Congress, a group known as ‘responsivists’, including Madan Mohan Malviya, Lala Lajpat Rai and NC Kelkar, offered cooperation to the government so that the so-called Hindu interests might be safeguarded.

Emergence of socialism in the 1920s in the nationalist ranks

• JL Nehru and SC Bose
• Raised the question of internal class oppression by capitalists and landlords
• MN Roy became the first Indian to be elected to the leadership of the Communist International
• Muzaffer Ahmed and SA Dange were tried in the Kanpur Conspiracy Case
• 1925: Communist Party of India was formed
• All India Trade Union Congress
• Various Strikes: Bombay textile mills, Jamshedpur, Kharagpur

• Bardoli Satyagraha (1928)
  • Peasants under the leadership of Sardar Patel organized no tax campaign
• Indian Youth were becoming active
  • First All Bengal Conference of Students held in 1928 presided by JL Nehru
• Hindustan Republican Association: 1924
  • Kakori Conspiracy Case (1925)
  • Four, including Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan were hanged.
• Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (1928)
  • On 17^th December 1928, Bhagat Singh, Azad and Rajguru assassinated Saunders
  • Bhagat Singh and BK Dutt threw bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly on 8 April 1929 to let the people know of their changed political objectives
• Chittagong Armoury Raid: 1030, Surya Sen
  • Participation of young women

• The Akali movement
• The movement arose with the objective of freeing the Gurudwaras from the control of ignorant and corrupt priests (mahants).
• Apart from the mahants, after the British annexation of Punjab in 1849, some control over the Gurudwaras was exercised by Government-nominated managers and custodians, who often collaborated with mahants.
• The government gave full support to the mahants. It used them to preach loyalism to the Sikhs and to keep them away from the rising nationalist movement.
• The agitation for the reform of Gurudwaras developed during 1920 when the reformers organized groups of volunteers known as jathas to compel the mahants and the government appointed managers to hand over control of the Gurudwaras to the local devotees.
• Tens of Gurudwaras were liberated within an year.
• To manage the control of Golden Temple and othe rGurudwaras the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee was formed in November 1920.
• Feeling the need to give the reform movement a structure, the Shiromani Akali Dal was established in December 1920.
• The SGPC and Akali Dal accepted complete non-violence as their creed.
• There was a clash between the mahant and the Akalis over surrendering the gurudwara at Nanakana. This led to killing of about 100 akalis.
• The Nankana tragedy led to the involvement of Sikhs on a large scale in the national movement.
• Keys Affair: In October 1921, the government refused to surrender the possession fo the keys of the Toshakhana of the golden temple of the Akalis. This led to protests. Leaders like Baba Kharak Singh and Master Tara Singh were arrested. Later, the government surrendered the keys to keep the Sikhs from revolting.
• Guru ka Bagh gurudwara in Ghokewala was under dispute as the mahant there claimed that the land attached to it was his personal possession. When few akalis cut down a tree on that land they were arrested on the complain of the mahant. Seeing this thousands of akalis came and started cutting down the trees. About 4000 akalis were arrested. Later, the government didn’t arrest but started beating them up severly. But the alakis kept turning up. Ultimately the government had to surrender.
• The akali movement made a huge contribution to the national awakening of Punjab.
• However, the movement encouraged a certain religiosity which would be later utilized by communalism.
• In 1923, the Congress decided to take active steps towards the eradication of untouchability.
• The basic strategy it adopted was to educate and mobilize opinion among caste hindus.
• Immediately after the Kakinada session, the Kerala Provincial Congress Committee (KPCC) took up the eradication of untouchability as an urgent issue.
• KPCC adeiced to organize an procession on the temple roads in Vaikom, a village in Travancore, on 30 March 1924.
• During the processions, the satyagrahis were arrested and sentenced to imprisonment.
• On the death of Maharaja in August 1924, the Maharani released the Satyagrahis.
• Gandhiji visited Kerala to discuss the opening of temple with Maharani. A compromise was reached whereby all roads except for the ones in the Sankethan of the temple were opened to the harijans.
• In his Kerala tour, Gandhi didn’t visit a single temple because avarnas were kept out of them.
• The weakness of the anti-caste movement was that through it aroused people against untouchability it lacked a strategy of ending the caste system itself.

Non Co-operation Movement

• Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms 1919: Dyarchy
• In a system called “dyarchy,” the nation-building departments of government — agriculture, education, public works, and the like — were placed under ministers who were individually responsible to the legislature. The departments that made up the “steel frame” of British rule — finance, revenue, and home affairs — were retained by executive councillors who were nominated by the Governor.
• The Hunter Committee report praised the actions of general Dyer.
• Khilafat Movement
  • For support of Turkey
  • Khilafat Committee formed under the leadership of Ali Brothers, Maulana Azad, Hakim Ajmal Khan and Hasrat Mohani
  • The promises made to the Khilafat Committee were not kept after the World War.
  • The All-India Khilafat Conference held at Delhi in November 1919 decided to withdraw all cooperation from the government if their demands were not met.
  • On June 9 1920, the Khilafat Committee at Allahabad unanimously accepted the suggestion of non-cooperation and asked Gandhiji to lead the movement.
• Khilafat movement cemented Hindu-Muslim unity
  • Gandhiji looked upon the Khilafat agitation as “an opportunity of uniting Hindus and Mohammedans as would not arise in a hundred years”
• The non-cooperation movement was launched on August 1, 1920. Lokmanya Tilak passed away on the same day.
• People countrywide observed hartal and took out processions.
• The congress met in September at Calcutta and accepted non-co-operation as its own.
• The programme of non-cooperation included:
  • Surrender of titles and honors
  • Boycott of government affiliated schools and colleges, law courts, foreign cloth and could be extended to resignation from government services.
  • Mass civil disobedience including the non-payment of taxes.
  • National schools and colleges were to be set up
  • Panchayats were to be established to settle disputes
  • Hand-spinning and weaving was encouraged
  • People were asked to maintain Hindu-Muslim unity, give up untouchability and observe strict non-violence.
• Changes in Congress to attain the new objective:
  • At the Nagpur session in 1920 changes in the Constitution of Congress were made.
  • The goal of congress was changed from the attainment of self-government by constitutional and legal means to the attainment of Swaraj by peaceful and legitimate means.
  • The Congress now had a Working Committee of fifteen members to look after its day to day affairs.
  • Provincial congress committees were now organized on a linguistic basis.
  • Mahalla and ward committees were formed.
  • The membership fee was reduced to 4 annas a years to enable poor to become members.
  • This was not without opposition however. Some members still believed in the traditional methods. Leaders like Jinnah, GS Khaparde, Bipin Chandra Pal and Annie Besant left congress during this time.
• Gandhiji, along with the Ali brother, undertook a nationwide tour to address people.
• Thousands of students left government schools and joined national schools.
• The most successful item of the programme was the boycott of foreign cloth.
• Picketing of toddy shops was also very popular.
• Students let government schools and colleges. IT was during this time that Jamia Milia Islamia of Aligarh, the Bihar Vidyapith, the Kashi Vidyapith and the Gujarat Vidyapith came into existence.
• Lawyers such as Deshbandhu CR Das, Motilal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Saifudiin Kitchlew, C Rajagopalachari, Sardar Patel, T Prakasam and Asaf Ali gave up their legal practice.
• Tilak Swarajya Fund was started to finance the NCM.
• In 1921, Khilafat Committee issued a resolution that no muslim should serve in the British Indian army.
• The visit of the Prince of Wales on 17^th November 1921 was observed as a day of hartal all over the country.
• The Congress Volunteer Corps emerged as a powerful parallel police.
• By December 1921, the government felt that things were going too far and announced a change of policy by declaring the volunteer corps illegal and arresting all those who claimed to be its members.
• Thousands of peasants and tenants participated in the movement.
• In Punjab, the Akali movement to remove corrupt mahants from the Gurudwaras was started.
• Assam: Tea plantation workers went on strike. Midnapore: peasants refused to pay Union Board taxes.             Guntur (Chirala): Agitation led by Duggirala Gopalakrishayya                        Malabar: Mohlahs (muslim peasants) created a powerful anti-zamindari movement.
• As the government refused to yield, Gandhiji announced that mass civil disobedience would begin in Bardoli taluqa of Surat.
• However, in Chauri Chaura, Gorakhpur on 5 February 1922 crowd set fire on a police station and killed some policemen. On hearing this, Gandhiji decided to withdraw the movement.
• The congress working committee ratified his decision. Thus, on February 12, 1922, the non-cooperation movement came to an end.
• Assessing the Withdrawal:
  • Some scholars say that Gandhiji withdrew the movement because he wanted to protect the interests of the propertied class.
  • Some argue that there was no logic why a small incident should lead to withdrawal of the movement itself.
  • However, government could use Chauri Chaura to justify its repression of the movement.
  • If movement was started at that time, it would have been defeated due to the repression of the government.
  • Gandhiji was protecting the movement from likely repression, and the people from demoralization.
  • Mass movements tend to ebb in some time. Hence, withdrawal is a part of the strategy of mass movements.
• Gandhiji was tried in 1922 and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment.
  • He invited the court to award him “the highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me for what in law is a deliberate crime, and what appears to be the highest duty of a citizen”.
• Positives out of the non-cooperation movement:
  • Congress started commanding the support and sympathy of vast sections of the Indian people.
  • Millions of Indians became politically involved. Women were drawn into the movement.
  • Muslims participated heavily and communal unity was maintained.
  • Strengthened the national movement. Nationalist sentiments and the national movement had reached the remotest corners of the land.
  • People gained tremendous self-confidence and self-esteem.

• Gandhi was the first Indian barrister to have come to South Africa.
• He was faced with various racial discriminations within days of his arrival in SA.
• He led the Indian struggle in SA.
• The first phase of Gandhi’s political activities from 1894-1906 may be classified as the ‘moderate’ phase.
• He set up the Natal Indian Congress and started a paper called Indian Opinion.
• By 1906, Gandhiji, having fully tried the ‘Moderate’ methods of struggle, was becoming convinced that these would not lead anywhere.
• The second phase, begun in 1906, was characterized by the use of passive resistance, Satyagraha. There was no fear of jails.
• South Africa prepared Gandhiji for leadership of the Indian national struggle:
  • He had the invaluable experience of leading poor Indian labourers.
  • SA built up his faith in the capacity of the Indian masses to participate in and sacrifice for a cause that moved them.
  • Gandhiji also had the opportunity of leading Indians belonging to different religions.
• South Africa provided Gandhiji with an opportunity for evolving his own style of politics and leadership.
• Gandhi returned to India on January 9, 1915
• He founded the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad in 1916
• Initially he was politically idle. He spent his time studying the situation of the country.
• He was deeply convinced that the only viable method of political struggle was satyagraha.
• During the course of 1917 and early 1918, he was involved in three significant struggles – in Champaran in Bihar, in Ahmedabad and in Kheda in Gujarat. The common feature of these struggles was that they related to specific local issues and that they were fought for the economic demands of the masses.
• Champaran Satyagraha (1917)
  • Peasantry on the indigo plantations in Champaran, Bihar was excessively oppressed by the Eurpoean planters.
  • On the invitation of the peasants he went to Champaran and began to conduct a detailed inquiry into the condition of the peasantry
  • The government was forced to set up a committee with Gandhi as one of the members. The sufferings of the peasants was reduced.
  • Others in this movement: Rajendra Prasad, Mazhar-ul-Haq, J B Kriplani, Narhari Parekh and Mahadev Desai.
• Ahmedabad Mill Strike (1918)
  • Dispute between workers and mill owners
  • Gandhi advised workers to go on a non-violent strike. He himself took to fast
  • Owners yielded and gave a 35 percent increase in wages to the workers
• Kheda Satyagraha (1918)
  • Despite crop failure in Kheda the government insisted on full land revenue
  • Gandhi advised the peasants to withhold payment.
  • Govt issued instructions that revenue should be collected from only those farmers who could afford to pay
  • Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel played a major role in this satyagraha.
• Impact of these early experiences
  • Brought Gandhiji in close contact with the masses
  • He identified his life and manner of living with the life of the common people
• He had three main aims
  • Hindu-Muslim Unity
  • Fight against untouchability
  • Raising the social status of the women
• Gandhiji’s first major nation-wide protest was against the Rowlatt Bills in 1919. He formed the Satyagraha Sabha whose members took a pledge to disobey the Act and thus to court arrest and imprisonment.
• Satyagraha was launched. The form of protest finally decided was the observance of a nation-wide hartal accompanied by fasting and prayer.
• However, protests were generally accompanied by violence and disorder.
• In Punjab, the situation was particularly violent. Genral Dyer was called to control the situation. On 13 April, Baisakhi Day, General Dyer ordered to open fire on unarmed crowd in Jallianwala Bagh. The government estimate was 379 dead, other estimates were considerably higher.
• Gandhiji, overwhelmed by the total atmosphere of violence, withdrew the movement on 18 April.
• Difference between earlier methods of struggle and satyagraha
  • Earlier, the movement had confined its struggle to agitation. They used to hold meetings, demonstrate, boycott etc
  • Through Satyagraha they could act now.
  • The new movement relied increasingly on the political support of the peasants, artisans and urban poor.
  • Gandhiji increasingly turned the face of nationalism towards the common man
• Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
  • On April 13, 1919 a large crowd had gathered in Amritsar to protest against the arrest of their leaders, Dr. Saifudding Kitchlew and Dr. Satyapal
  • General Dyer opened fire
  • Widespread criticism. Tagore returned his knighthood.

Lucknow Pact (1916)

• Nationalists saw that their disunity was affecting their cause
• Two important developments at the Lucknow Session of Congress
  • The two wings of the Congress were again united
  • The Congress and the Muslim League sank their old differences and put up common political demands before the government.
• INC and ML passed the same resolutions at their sessions, put forward a joint scheme of political reforms based on separate electorates, and demanded that the British Government should make a declaration that it would confer self-government on India at an early date.
• The pact accepted the principle of separate electorates
• Main clauses of the pact
  • There shall be self-government in India.
  • Muslims should be given one-third representation in the central government.
  • There should be separate electorates for all the communities until a community demanded joint electorates.
  • A system of weightage should be adopted.
  • The number of the members of Central Legislative Council should be increased to 150.
  • At the provincial level, four-fifth of the members of the Legislative Councils should be elected and one-fifth should be nominated.
  • The size of provincial legislatures should not be less than 125 in the major provinces and from 50 to 75 in the minor provinces.
  • All members, except those nominated, should be elected directly on the basis of adult franchise.
  • No bill concerning a community should be passed if the bill is opposed by three-fourth of the members of that community in the Legislative Council.
  • The term of the Legislative Council should be five years.
  • Members of Legislative Council should themselves elect their president.
  • Half of the members of Imperial Legislative Council should be Indians.
  • The Indian Council must be abolished.
  • The salaries of the Secretary of State for Indian Affairs should be paid by the British government and not from Indian funds.
  • Of the two Under Secretaries, one should be Indian.
  • The Executive should be separated from the Judiciary.
• Evaluation
  • As an immediate effect, the unity between the two factions of the congress and between INC and ML aroused great political enthusiasm in the country
  • However, it did not involve Hindu and Muslim masses and was based on the notion of bringing together the educated Hindus and Muslims as separate political entities without secularization of their political outlook
  • The pact therefore left the way open to the future resurgence of communalism in Indian politics.
• Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms
  • Provincial LC enlarged. More elected members
  • Dyarchy
    • Some subjects were reserved and remained under the direct control of the Governor; others such as education, public health and local self-government were called transferred subjects and were to be controlled by the ministers responsible to the legislature.
  • At the centre, there were two houses of legislature.
  • Response of nationalists
    • INC condemned the reforms as disappointing and unsatisfactory
    • Some others , led by Surendranath Banerjea, were in favour of accepting the government proposals. They left the Congress at this time and founded the Indian Liberal Federation
  • Evaluation
    • The governor could overrule the ministers on any grounds that he considered special
    • The legislature had virtually no control over the Governor-General and his Executive Council.
    • The central government had unrestricted control over the provincial governments

Rowlatt Act

• March 1919
• It authorized the Government to imprison any person without trial and conviction in a court of law.

Partition of Bengal

• With the partition of Bengal, Indian National Movement entered its second stage
• On 20 July, 1905, Lord Curzon issued an order dividing the province of Bengal into two parts: Eastern Bengal and Assam with a population of 31 mn and the rest of Bengal with a population of 54 mn.
• Reason given: the existing province of Bengal was too big to be efficiently administered by a single provincial government
• The partition expected to weaken the nerve centre of Indian Nationalism, Bengal.
• The partition of the state intended to curb Bengali influence by not only placing Bengalis under two administrations but by reducing them to a minority in Bengal itself as in the new proposed Bengal proper was to have seventeen million Bengali and thirty seven million Oriya and Hindi speaking people.
• The partition was also meant to foster division on the basis of religion.
• Risley, Home Secretary to the GoI, said on December 6, 1904 – ‘one of our main objects is to split up and thereby weaken a solid body of opponents to our rule.’
• the nationalists saw it as a deliberate attempt to divide the Bengalis territorially and on religious grounds

The Swadeshi Movement

• The Swadeshi movement had its genesis in the anti-partition movement which was started to oppose the British decision to partition Bengal.
• Mass protests were organized in opposition to the proposed partition.
• Despite the protests, the decision to partition Bengal was announced on July 19, 1905
• It became obvious to the nationalists that their moderate methods were not working and that a different kind of strategy was needed.
• Several meetings were held in towns such as Dinajpur Pabna, Faridpur etc. 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 7 August 1905 in a meeting held in the Calcutta town hall. The famous boycott resolution was passed.
• The leaders like SN Banerjee toured the country urging the boycott of Manchester cloth and Liverpool salt.
• The value of British cloth sold in some of the districts fell by five to fifteen times between September 1904 and September 1905.
• The day the partition took effect – 16 October 1905 – was declared a day of mourning throughout Bengal.
• The movement soon spread to the entire country.
• Militant nationalists
  • The extremists were in favor of extending the movement to the rest of India and carrying it beyond the programme of just Swadeshi and boycott to a full fledged political mass struggle. The moderates were not as willing to go that far.
  • The differences between the extremists and moderates came to had in 1907 Surat session where the party split with serious consequences for the Swadeshi Movement.
  • In Bengal, the extremists acquired a dominant influence over the Swadeshi movement.
  • They proposed the technique of extended boycott which included, apart from boycott of foreign goods, boycott of government schools and colleges, courts, titles and government services and even the organization of strikes.
  • Aurobindo Ghose: Political freedom is the lifebreath of a nation.
  • Boycott and public burning foreign cloth, picketing of shops selling foreign goods, became common in remote corners of Bengal as well as in many towns across the country.
  • The militant nationslists, however, failed to give a positive leadership to the people. They also failed to reach the real masses of the country, the peasants.
• The movement also innovated with considerable success different forms of mass mobilization such as public meetings, processions and corps of volunteers.
• The Swadesh Bandhab Samiti set up by Ashwini Kumar Dutt, a school teacher, in Barisal was the most well known volunteer organization.
• During the Swadeshi period, traditional festivals were used to reach out to the masses. The Ganapati and Shivaji festivals were popularized by Tilak. Traditional folk theatres such as jatras were also used.
• Another important aspect was the great emphasis given to self-reliance or Atmasakti as a necessary part of the struggle against the government.
• Self-reliance was the keyword. Campaigns for social reforms were carried out.
• In 1906, the National Council for Education was setup to organize the education system.
• Self-reliance also meant an effort to set up Swadeshi or indigenous enterprises.
• Marked impact in the cultural sphere
  • The songs composed by Rabindranath Tago, Mukunda Das and others became the moving spirit for nationalists.
  • Rabindranath’s ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’, written at that time, was to later inspire the liberation struggle of Bangladesh and was adopted as the national anthem of the country in 1971.
  • 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.
• The social base of the national movement was now extened to include certain zamindari section, lower middle class and school and college students. Women also participated in large numbers.
• Drawback: Was not able to garner the support of the mass of Muslims, especially the muslim peasantry. The British policy of communalism responsible for this.
• By mid-1908, the movement was almost over. The main reasons were:
  • The government, seeing the revolutionary potential of the movement, came down with a heavy hand.
  • The split of the congress in 1907 had weakened the movement.
  • The movement lacked an effective organization and party structure.
  • The movement decline dpartially because of the logic of the mass movements itself – they cannot be endlessly sustained at the same pitch of militancy and self-sacrifice.
• The anti-partition movement, however, marked a great revolutionary leap forward for Indian nationalism.
• The decline of Swadeshi engendered the rise of revolutionary terrorism.
• Assessing the movement
  • Cultural impact
  • Social Impact
  • Economic impact
  • Role of students and Women
  • All India aspect of the movement
  • From passive protest to active boycott

The Split in the Congress: Surat 1907

• Moderates were successful to some extent.
• Moderates failed in many aspects. Why?
  • They could not acquire any roots among common people.
  • They believed that they could persuade the rulers to change their policies. However, their achievement in this regard was meager.
  • They could not keep pace with the events. They failed to meet the demands of the new stage of the national movement.
• The British were keen on finishing the Congress because:
  • However moderate the leaders were, they were still nationalists and propagators of anti-colonialist ideas.
  • The British felt that moderates led congress could be finished off easily because it did not have a popular base
• In the swadeshi movement, all sections of INC united in opposing the Partition
  • However, there was much difference between the moderates and the extremists about the methods and scope of the movement
  • The extremists wanted to extend the Swadeshi and Boycott movement from Bengal to the rest of the country and to boycott every form of association with the colonial government
  • The moderates wanted to confine the boycott movement to Bengal and even there to limit it to the boycott of foreign goods
• After the Swadeshi movement the British adopted a three pronged approach to deal with congress. Repression-conciliation-suppression.
  • The extremists were reppressed
  • The moderates were conciliated thus giving them an impression that their further demands would be met if they disassociated from the extremists. The idea was to isolate the extremists.
  • Once the moderates and extremists were separate the extremists could be suppressed through the use of state force while the moderates could later be ignored.
• The congress session was held on December 26, 1907 at Surat, on the banks of the river Tapti.
  • The extremists wanted a guarantee that the four Calcutta resolutions will be passed.
  • They objected to the duly elected president of the year, Rash Behari Ghose.
  • There was a confrontation with hurling of chairs and shoes.
• The government launched a massive attack on the extremists. Newspapers were suppressed. Tilak was sent to Mandalay jail for six years.
• The extremists were not able to organize an effective alternative party or to sustain the movement.
• After 1908 the national movement as a whole declined.
• The moderates and the country as a whole were disappointed by the 1909 Minto-Morley reforms
  • The number of indirectly elected members of the Imperial and provincial legislative councils was increased.
  • Separate electorates for Muslims were introduced.
• With the split of Congress revolutionary terrorism rose.
• In 1904 V D Savarkar organized Abhinav Bharat as a secret society of revolutionaries
• In April 1908, Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose threw a bomb at a carriage which they believed was occupied by Kingsford the unpopular judge at Muzzafarpur.
• Anushilan Samity and Jugantar were two most important revolutionary groups.
• An assessment of the split
  • The split did not prove useful to either party
  • The British played the game of divide and rule
  • To placate the moderates they announced the Morley-Minto reforms which did not satisfy the demands of the nationalists. They also annulled the partition of Bengal in 1911.

Morley-Minto Reforms, 1909

• Increased the number of elected members in the Imperial Legislative Council and the provincial council
• However, most of the elected members were elected indirectly
• The reformed councils still enjoyed no real power, being merely advisory bodies.
• Introduced separate electorates under which all Muslims were grouped in separate constituencies from which Muslims alone could be elected. This was aimed at dividing the Hindus and Muslims. It was based on the notion that the political and economic interests of Hindus and Muslims were separate.
  • This later became a potent factor in the growth of communalism
  • It isolated the Muslims from the Nationalist Movement and encouraged separatist tendencies
• The real purpose of the reforms was to confuse the moderate nationalists, to divide nationalist ranks and to check the growth of unity among Indians
• Response of Moderates
  • They realized that the reforms had not granted much
  • However, they decided to cooperate with the government in working the reforms
  • This led to their loss of respect among the nationalists and masses

Growth of Communalism

• Definition
  • Communalism is the belief that because a group of people follow a particular religion they have, as a result, common secular, that is, social, political and economic interests.
  • Second stage: Secular interests of followers of one religion are dissimilar and divergent from the interests of the followers of another religion
  • Third stage: The interests of the followers of different religions or of different religious communities are seen to be mutually incompatible, antagonistic and hostile.
• Communalism is not a remnant of the medieval period. It has its roots in the modern colonial socio-economic political structure.
• Divide and Rule
  • After 1857, British initially suppressed Indian muslims. However, after the publishing of Hunter’s book ‘The Indian Mussalman’ they actively followed the policy of divide and rule and hence started supporting the Muslims.
  • They promoted provincialism by talking of Bengal domination
  • Tired to use the caste structure to turn the non-brahmins against Brahmins and the lower caste against the higher castes.
  • It readily accepted communal leaders as authentic representatives of all their co-religionists.
• Reasons for growth of communal tendencies in Muslims
  • Relative backwardness: educationally and economically