Modern History

Rise of Indian National Congress

 

Predecessors of INC

• East India Association
  • By Dadabhai Naoroji in 1866 in London
  • To discuss the Indian question and to influence the British public men to discuss Indian welfare
  • Branches of the association in prominent Indian cities
• Indian Association
  • Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose in 1876, Calcutta
  • The aim of creating strong public opinion in the country on political questions and the unification of the Indian people on a common political programme
• Poona Sarvajanik Sabha
  • Justice Ranade, 1870
• Madras Mahajan Sabha
  • Viraraghavachari, Anand Charloo, G Subramanian Aiyer, 1884
• Bombay Presidency Association
  • Pherozshah Mehta, K T Telang, Badruddin Tyabji, 1885
• These organizations were narrow in their scope and functioning. They dealt mostly with local questions and their membership were confined to a few people belonging to a single city or province

 

Indian National Congress

• Indian National Congress was founded on 28 December 1885 by 72 political workers. A O Hume was the first secretary and was instrumental in establishing the Congress
• First session in Bombay. President: W C Bonnerjee
• With the formation of INC, the Indian National Movement was launched in a small but organized manner
• The Congress itself was to serve not as a party but as a movement
• Congress was democratic. The delegates to INC were elected by different local organizations and groups
• Sovereignty of the people
• In 1890, Kadambini Ganguli, the first woman graduate of Calcutta University addressed the Congress session
• Safety Valve Theory
  • The INC was started under the official direction, guidance and advice of Lord Dufferin, the Viceroy, to provide a safe, mild, peaceful and constitutional outlet or safety valve for the rising discontent among the masses, which was inevitably leading towards a popular and violent revolution.

Does the safety valve theory explain the formation of Congress?

• The safety valve theory is inadequate and misleading
• INC represented the urge of the Indian educated class to set up a national organization to work for their political and economic development
• A number of organizations, as mentioned above, had already been started by the Indians towards that end
• Hume’s presence in Congress was used to allay official suspicions

 

 

Why was there a need for an All-India organization?

• Vernacular Press Act, 1878
• Ilbert Bill (1883) which would allow Indian judges to try Europeans was opposed by the European community and was finally enacted in a highly compromised state in 1884.
• The Indians realized that they could not get the Ilbert bill passed because they were not united on all India level. Hence need for INC was felt.
• In order to give birth to the national movement
  • Creation of national leadership was important
  • Collective identification was created

 

Aims of INC

• Promotion of friendly relations between nationalist political workers from different parts of the country
• Development and consolidation of the feeling of national unity irrespective of caste, religion or province
• Formulation of popular demands and their presentation before the government
• Training and organization of public opinion in the country

 

• The first major objective of the Indian national movement was to promote weld Indians into a nation, to create an  Indian identity
• Fuller development and consolidation of sentiments of national unity
  • Efforts for unity: In an effort to reach all regions, it was decided to rotate the congress session among different parts of the country. The President was to belong to a region other than where the congress session was being held.
  • To reach out to the followers of all religions and to remove the fears of the minorities, a rule was made at the 1888 session that no resolution was to be passed to which an overwhelming majority of Hindu or Muslim delegates objected.
  • In 1889, a minority clause was adopted in the resolution demanding reform of legislative councils. According to the clause, wherever Parsis, Christians, Muslims or Hindus were a minority their number elected to the councils would not be less than their proportion in the population.
  • To build a secular nation, the congress itself had to be intensely secular
• The second major objective of the early congress was to create a common political platform or programme around which political workers in different parts of the country could gather and conduct their political activities.
  • Due to its focus solely on political issues congress did not take up the question of social reform.
• Since this form of political participation was new to India, the arousal, training, organization and consolidation of public opinion was seen as a major task by the congress leaders.
  • Going beyond the redressal of immediate grievances and organize sustained political activity.

 

• Many dispossessed peasants took to robbery and dacoity.
• Indigo Revolt of 1859-60
• By the end of 1860 indigo cultivation was virtually wiped out from the districts of Bengal
• A major reason for the success of the Indigo revolt was the tremendous initiative, cooperation, organization and discipline of the ryots.
• Another was the complete unity among Hindu and Muslim peasants
• Another significant feature was the role of intelligentsia of Bengal which organized a powerful campaign in support of the rebellious peasantry.
• The government’s response to the revolt was rather restrained and not as harsh as in the case of civil rebellions and tribal uprisings.
• The government appointed the Indigo Commission to enquire into the problems of indigo cultivation. The report of the commission exposed the coercion and corruption in indigo cultivation
• The government issued a notification in November 1960 that ryots could not be compelled to sow indigo and all disputes were to be settled by legal means.

Late Peasant Movements

• Three important peasant movements of the early twentieth century:
  • Kisan Sabha and Eka movements in Avadh in UP
  • Mappila rebellion in Malabar
  • Bardoli Satyagrah in Gujarat
• The UP Kisan Sabha was set up in February 1918 through the efforts of Gauri Shankar Mishra and Indra Narain Dwivedi with the support of Madan Mohan Malviya.
• By June 1919, it had established about 450 branches in 173 tehsils of the province.
• In August 1921, Mappila (Muslim) tenants rebelled. Their grievances related to lack of any security of tenure, renewal fees, high rents and other oppressive labndlord exactions.
• The no-tax movement was launched in Bardoli taluq of Surat district in Gujarat in 1928.

 

The Working Class Movements

• There were some working class movements in second half of 19^th 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.

 

Raja Rammohan Roy:

RRM Roy was a social reformer and intellectual in the early nineteenth century Bengal. He is most widely known for founding the Brahmo Samaj and his relentless campaign against the practice of Sati and child marriage.

Debendranath Tagore:

Brahmo Samaj:

BS was founded in 1828 by Raja Ram Mohan Roy with the purpose of purifying Hinduism and to preach monotheism or belief in one God.

• The socio-religious reforms are also referred to as the Indian renaissance
• The socio-cultural regeneration in nineteenth century India was occasioned by the colonial presence, but not created by it.
• Formation of the Brahmo Samaj in 1828.
• Paramhansa Mandali, Prathna Samaj, Arya Samaj, Kayasth Sabha: UP, Sarin Sabha: Punjab, Satya Sodhak Samaj: Maharashtra, Sri Narayana Dharma Paripalana Sabha: Kerala
• Ahmadiya and Aligarh Movements: Muslims, Singh Sabha: Sikhs, Rehnumai Mazdeyasan Sabha: Parsees
• Their attention was focused on worldly existence.
• The idea of otherworldliness and salvation were not a part of their agenda.
• At that time the influence of religion and superstition was overwhelming. Position of priests strong; that of women weak.
• Caste was another debilitating factor
• Neither a revival of the past nor a total break with tradition was contemplated.
• Rationalism and religious universalism influenced the reform movement.
• Development of universalistic perspective on religion
• Lex Loci Act propsed in 1845 and passed in 1850 provided the right to inherit ancestral property to Hindu converts to Christianity.
• The culture faced a threat from the colonial rule.

 

• During the Governor-General Lord Canning
• May 11, 1857. The Meerut incident. Capture of Delhi. Proclaiming B S Jazar as the emperor.
• Almost half the Company’s sepoy strength of 232224 opted out of their loyalty to their regimental colours.
• Kanpur: Nana Saheb; Lucknow: Begum Hazrat Mahal; Bareilly: Khan Bahadur; Jagdishpur (Ara): Kunwar Singh; Jhansi: Rani Lakshmi Bai
• Only the Madras army remained totally loyal. Sikh regiment as well remained largely loyal.

Causes for the revolt

The revolt was a result of the accumulated grievances of the people against Company’s administration and a loathing for the character and policies of the colonial rule. The causes can be classified as social, economic, religious and military.

WHY DID THE SEPOYS REVOLT?

• The conditions of service in the Company’s army and cantonments increasingly came into conflict with the religious beliefs and prejudices of the sepoys.
• The unhappiness of the sepoys first surfaced in 1824 when the 47^th Regiment of Barrackpur was ordered to go to Burma. To the religious Hindu, crossing the sea meant loss of caste. The sepoys refused. The regiment was disbanded and those who led the opposition were hanged.
• The rumors about the Government’s secret designs to promote conversions to Christianity further exasperated the sepoys.
• The greased cartridges
• They were also unhappy with the emoluments
• Discrimination and racism
• Misery brought to the peasants by the British rule. E.g. the land revenue system imposed in Oudh, where about 75000 sepoys came from, was very harsh.
• The civilians also participated

 

• After the capture of Delhi, a letter was issued to the neighboring states asking for support.
• A court of administrators was established in Delhi
• Ill-equipped, the rebels carried on the struggle for about a year
• The country as a whole was not behind them. The merchants, intelligentsia and Indian rulers not only kept aloof but actively supported the British.
• Almost half the Indian soldiers not only did not revolt but fought against their own countrymen.
• Apart from a commonly shared hatred for alien rule, the rebels had no political perspective or definite vision of the future
• Delhi fell on September 20, 1857.
• Rani of Jhansi died fighting on June 17, 1858
• Nana Saheb escaped to Nepal hoping to revive the struggle.
• Kunwar Singh died on May 9, 1958
• Tantia tope carried on guerrilla warfare until April 1959 after which he was betrayed by a zamindar, captured and put to death.

Important Persons relating to the Revolt

 

Bahadur Shah Zafar: BSZ was the last Mughal emperor of India.

 

Nana Saheb

 

Rani Lakshmi Bai

 

Kunwar Singh

 

Nawab Wajid Ali Shah

 

Birjis Qadr: The son of Wajid Ali Shah and the leader of the revolt in Lucknow.

 

Shah Mal: He belonged  to a clan of Jat cultivators in parganan Barout in UP. During the revolt, he mobilized the headmen and cultivators of chaurasee des (84 villages: his kinship area), moving at night from village to village, urging people to rebel against the British.

 

Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah: Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah was one of the many maulvis who played an

important part in the revolt of 1857. 1856, he was seen moving from village to village preaching jehad (religious war) against the British and urging people to rebel. he was elected by the mutinous 22nd Native Infantry as their leader. He fought in the famous Battle of Chinhat in which the British forces under Henry Lawrence were defeated.

 

Begum Hazrat Mahal:

 

Chapter 2: Civil Rebellions and Tribal Uprisings

• The backbone of the rebellions, their mass base and striking power came from the rack-rented peasants, ruined artisans and demobilized soldiers

CAUSES

• The major cause of the civil rebellions was the rapid changes the British introduced in the economy, administration and land revenue system.
• The revenues were enhanced by increasing taxes.
• Thousands of zamindars and poligars lost control over their land and its revenue either due to the extinction of their rights by the colonial state or by the forced sale of their rights over land because of their inability to meet the exorbitant land revenue demanded.
• The economic decline of the peasantry was reflected in twelve major and numerous minor famines from 1770 to 1857
• The new courts and legal system gave a further fillip to the dispossessors of land and encouraged the rich to oppress the poor.
• The police looted, oppressed and tortured the common people at will.
• The ruin of Indian handicraft industries pauperized millions of artisans
• The scholarly and priestly classes were also active in inciting hatred and rebellion against foreign rule.
• Very foreign character of the British rule

REBELLIONS

• From 1763 to 1856, there were more than forty major rebellions apart from hundreds of minor ones.
• Sanyasi Rebellion: (1763-1800)
• Chuar uprising (1766-1772 & 1795-1816); Rangpur and Dinajpur (1783); Bishnupur and Birbhum (1799); Orissa zamindars (1804-17) and Sambalpur (1827-40) and many others

WHY FAILED?

• These rebellions were local in their spread and were isolated from each other.
• They were the result of local causes and grievances, and were also localized in their effects.
• Socially, economically and politically, the semi-feudal leaders of these rebellions were backward looking and traditional in outlook.
• The suppression of the civil rebellions was a major reason why the revolt of 1857 did not spread to South India and most of Eastern and Western India.