Modern History

• There were some working class movements in second half of 19^th century. However, they were impulsive and not very well organized.
• The early nationalists had a lukewarm attitude towards the question of workers. This war because initially Congress wanted to focus on issues which were of common concern to all the people of India.
• There was a difference in attitude of the nationalists towards workers in indigenous and European enterprises.
• The most important feature of the labour movement during the Swadeshi days was the shift from agitation and struggles on purely economic questions to the involvement of the worker with the wider political issues of the day.
• The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was founded in 1920.
• IN 1918 Gandhi founded the Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association.
• The AITUC in November 1927 took a decision to boycott the Simon Commission and many workers participated in the massive Simon boycott demonstrations.
• Alarmed by worker’s movement, the government enacted repressive laws like the Public Safety Act and Trade Disputes Acts and arrested the entire radical leadership of the labour movement and launched the Meerut Conspiracy Case against them.
• The labour movement suffered a major setback partially due to this government offensive and partially due to a shift in stance of the communist led wing of the movement.
• From the end of 1928, the communists stopped aligning them with the national movement.
• Communists got isolated within the AITUC and were thrown out in the split of 1931.
• BY 1934, the communists re-entered the mainstream nationalist politics.
• The working class of Bombay held an anti-war strike on 2 October, 1939.
• With the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, the communists changed their policy and asked the people to support the allied forces instead of holding anti-war strikes.
• The communists dissociated themselves from the Quit India movement launched in 1942.
• The last years of colonial rule also saw a remarkably sharp increase in strikes on economic issues all over the country – the all India strike of the post and telegraph department employees being the most well known among them.

• 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.

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.

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• 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.

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• Increasing number of Indians from Punjab were emigrating to North America.
• The British government thought that these emigrants would be affected by the idea of liberty. Hence, they tried to restrict emigration.
• Tarak Nath Das, an Indian student in Canada, started a paper called Free Hindustan.
• The Hindi Association was setup in Portland in May 1913.
• Under the leadership of Lala Har Dayal, a weekly paper, The Ghadar was started and a headquarters called Yugantar Ashram was set up in San Fransisco.
• On November 1, 1913, the first issue of Ghadar was published in Urdu and on December 9, the Gurumukhi edition.
• In 1914, three events influenced the course of the Ghadar movement:
  • The arrest and escape of Har Dayal
  • The Komagata Maru incident
  • Outbreak of the first world war

• Gharadites came to India and made several attempts to instill the Indian population to revolt. However, this was of no avail.
• The Ghadar movement was very secular in nature.
• Ghadar militants were distinguished by their secular, egalitarian, democratic and non-chauvinistic internationalist outlook.
• The major weakness of the Ghadar leaders was that they completely under-estimated the extent and amount of preparation at every level – organizational, ideological, strategic, tactical, financial – that was necessary before an attempt at an armed revolt could be organized.
• It also failed to generate an effective and sustained leadership that was capable of integrating the various aspects of the movement.
• Another weakness was its almost non-existent organizational structure.
• Some important leaders: Baba Gurmukh Singh, Kartar Singh Saraba, Sohan Singh Bhakna, Rahmat Ali Shah, Bhai Parmanand and Mohammad Barkatullah.
• Inspired by the Ghadar Party, 700 soldiers at Singapore revolted under the leadership of Jamadar Chisti Khan and Subedar Dundey Khan. The rebellion was crushed.
• Other revolutionaries: Jatin Mukharjee, Rash Bihari Bose, Raja Mahendra Pratab, Lala Hardayal, Abdul Rahim, Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi, Champakaraman Pillai, Sardar Singh Rana and Madame Cama

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• 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 <incomplete>

Muslim League

• 1906 by Aga Khan, the Nawab of Dhaka, and Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk
• It made no critique of colonialism, supported the partition of Bengal and demanded special safeguards for the Muslims in government services.
• ML’s political activities were directed not against the foreign rulers but against the Hindus and the INC.
• Their activities were not supported by all Muslims
  • Arhar movement was founded at this time under the leadership of Maulana Mohamed Ali, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Hasan Imam, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, and Mazhar-ul-Haq. They advocated participation in the militant nationalist movement.

Muslim Nationalists

• The war between Ottoman Empire and Italy created a wave of sympathy for Turkey
• During the war between Ottoman empire and Italy, India sent a medical mission headed by MA Ansari to help Turkey.
• As the British were not sympathetic to Turkey, the pro-Caliph sentiments in India became anti-British
• However, the militant nationalists among muslims did not accept an entirely secular approach to politics
• The most important issue they took up was not political independence but protection of the Turkish empire.
• This approach did not immediately clash with Indian nationalism. However, in the long run it proved harmful as it encouraged the habit of looking at political questions from a religious view point.

Hindu Communalism

• Some Hindus accepted the colonial view of Indian history and talked about the tyrannical Muslim rule in the medieval period
• Over language they said that Hindi was the language of Hindus and Urdu that of Muslims.
• Punjab Hindu Sabha was founded in 1909. Its leaders attached the INC for trying to unite Indians into a single nation.
• The first session of the All India Hindu Mahasabha was held in April 1915 under the presidentship of the Maharaja of Kasim Bazar.

It however remained a weak organization because the colonial government gave it few concessions and little support

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• 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

• Revolutionary young men did not try to generate a mass revolution. Instead they followed the strategy of assassinating unpopular officials
• 1904: VD Savarkar organized Abhinav Bharat
• Newspapers like The Sandhya and Yugaantar in Bengal and the Kal in Maharashtra advocated revolutionary ideology
• Kingsford Incident: In 1908, Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki threw bomb at a carriage they believed was carrying Kingsford, the unpopular judge of Muzaffarpur.
• Anushilan Samiti threw a bomb at the Viceroy Lord Hardinge
• Centres abroad
  • In London: led by VD Savarkar, Shyamaji Krishnavarma and Har Dayal
  • In Europe: Madam Cama and Ajit Singh
• They gradually petered out. It did not have any base among the people

• The sudden suspension of the non-cooperation movement led many young people to question the very basis strategy of non-violence and began to look for alternatives.
• All the major new revolutionary leaders had been enthusiastic participants in the non-violent non-cooperation movement.
• Two separate strands of revolutionary terrorism developed – one in Punjab, UP and Bihar and the other in Bengal.
• Ramprasad Bismil, Jogesh Chatterjea and Sachindranath Sanyal met in Kanpur in October 1924 and founded the Hindustan Republican Association to organize armed revolution.
• In order to carry out their activities the HRA required funding. The most important action of the HRA was the Kakori Robbery.
• On August 9, 1925, ten men held up the 8-Down train from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow at Kakori and looted its official railway cash.
• The government arrested a large number of young men and tried them in the Kakori Conspiracy Case.
• Ashfaqulla Khan, Ramprasadn Bismil, Roshan Singh and Rajendra Lahiri were hanged, four others were sent to Andaman while seventeen others were sentenced to long term imprisonment.
• New revolutionaries joined the HRA. They met at Ferozshah Kotla Ground at Delhi on 9 and 10 September 1928, created a new collective leadership, adopted socialism as their official goal and changed the name of the party to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association.
• Lala Lajpat Rai dies in a lathi-charge when he was laeding an anti-Simon Commission demonstration at Lahore on 30 October 1928.
•  On 17 December 1928, Bhagat Singh, Azad and Rajguru assassinated, at Lahore, Saunders, a police official involved in the lathi-charge on Lala Lajpat Rai.
• In order to let the people know about HSRA’s changed objectives Bhagat Singh and BK Dutt were asked to throw a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly on 8 April 1929 against the passage of the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Bill.
• He aim was not to kill but to let people know of their objectives through the leaflet they threw.
• They were later arrested and tried.
• The country was also stirred by the hunger strike the revolutionaries took as a protest against the horrible conditions in jails.
• On 13^th September, the 64^th day of the epic fast, Jatin Das died.
• Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were sentenced to be hanged. He sentence was carried out on 23 March, 1931.
• Bhagat Singh was fully secular.
  • The Punjab Naujawan Bharat Sabha organized by him acted on secular lines.
• In Bengal, after the death of C R Das, the Congress leadership in Bengal got divided into two wings: one led by S C Bose and the other by J M Sengupta. The Yugantar group joined forces with the first while the Anushilan with the second.
• Surya Sen had actively participated in the non-cooperation movement. He gathered around him a large band of revolutionary youth including Anant Singh, Ganesh Ghosh and Lokenath Baul.
• Chittagong Armoury Raid

• On 29^th January 1780, the Hickey’s Bengal Gazette or the Calcutta General Advertizer was published. It was the first English newspaper to be printed in the Indian sub-continent.
• The press was the chief instrument of forming a nationalist ideology
• The resolutions and proceedings of the Congress were propagated through press. Trivia: nearly one third of the founding fathers of congress in 1885 were journalists.

• Main news papers and editors

• The Hindu and Swadesamitran: G Subramaniya Iyer
• Kesari and Mahratta: BG Tilak
• Bengalee: S N Banerjea
• Amrita Bazar Patrika: Sisir Kumar Ghosh and Motilal Ghosh
• Sudharak: GK Gokhale
• Indian Mirror: N N Sen
• Voice of India: Dadabhai Naoroji
• Hindustani and Advocate: GP Varma
• Tribune and Akhbar-i-Am in Punjab
• Indu Prakash, Dnyan Prakahs, Kal and Gujarati in Bombay
• Som Prakash, Banganivasi and Sadharani in Bengal

• Newspaper was not confined to the literates. It would reach the villages and would be read by a reader to tens of others.
• Reading and discussing newspaper became a form of political participation.
• Nearly all the major political controversies of the day were conducted through the Press.
• ‘Oppose, oppose, oppose’ was the motto of the Indian press.
• The section 124A of the IPC was such as to punish a person who evoked feelings of disaffection to the government.
• The Indian journalists remained outside 124A by adopting methods such as quoting the socialist and anti-imperialist newspapers of England or letters from radical British citizens
• The increasing influence of the newspapers led the government to pass the Vernacular Press Act of 1978, directed only against Indian language newspapers.
  • It was passed very secretively
  • The act provided for the confiscation of the printing press, paper and other materials of a newspaper if the government believed that it was publishing seditious materials and had flouted an official warning.
  • Due to the agitations, it was repealed in 1881 by Lord Ripon.

• SN Banerjee was the first Indian to go to jail in performance of his duty as a journalist.

B G Tilak

• The man who is most frequently associated with the struggle for the freedom of Press during the nationalist movement is Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
• In 1881, along with G G Agarkar, he founded the newspapers Kesari and Mahratta.
• In 1893, he started the practice of using the traditional religious Ganapati festival to propagate nationalist ideas through patriotic songs and speeches.
• In 1896, he started the Shivaji festival to stimulate nationalism among young Maharashtrians.
• He brought peasants and farmers into the national movement.
• He organized a no-tax campaign in Maharashtra in 1896-97
• Plague in Poona in 1897.
• Popular resentment against the official plague measures resulted in the assassination of Rand, the Chairman of the Plague Committee in Poona, and Lt. Ayerst by the Chaphekar brothers on 27 June 1898.
• Since 1894, anger had been rising against the government due to the tariff, currency and famine policy.
• Tilak was arrested and sentenced to 18 month rigorous imprisonment in 1897. This led to country wide protests and Tilak was given the title of Lokmanya.
• Tilak was again arrested and tried on 24 June 1908 on the charge of sedition under article 124A. He was sentenced to 6 years of transportation. This led to nationwide protests and closing down of markets for a week. Later, in 1922 Gandhi was tried on the same act and he said that he is proud to be associated with Tilak’s name.