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

 

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.

 

 

World War I and Indian Nationalism

• 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

 

• After being released in 1914, Tilak sought re-entry into Congress. Annie Besant and Gokhale supported. But finally Pherozshah Mehta won and Tilak was not admitted.
• Tilak and Besant decided to start the home rule movement on their own.
• In early 1915, Annie Besant (and S Subramaniya Iyer) launched a campaign through her two newspapers, New India and Commonweal, and organized public meetings and conferences to demand that India be granted self-government on the lines of the White colonies after the War. From April 1915, her tone became more peremptory and her stance more aggressive.
• At the annual session of the Congress in December 1915 it was decided that the extremists be allowed to rejoin the Congress. The opposition from the Bombay group has been greatly weakened by the death of Pherozshah Mehta.
• Tilak and Annie Besant set up two different home rule leagues.
• Tilak’s league was to work in Maharashtra (excluding Bombay city), Karnataka, the central provinces and Berar and Annie Besant’s league was given the charged of the rest of India.
• Tilak was totally secular in nature. There was no trace of religious appeal. The demand for Home Rule was made on a wholly secular basis.
  • “Home rule is my birthright, and I will have it”
• The British were aliens not because they belonged to another religion but because they did not act in the Indian interest
• Tilak’s league was organized into six branches, one each in Central Maharashtrra, Bombay city, Karnataka, and Central Provinces, and two in Berar.
• On 23^rd July 1916, on Tilak’s sixtieth birthday the government sent a notice asking him to show cause why he should not be bound over for good behavior for a period of one year and demanding securities of Rs 60000
• Tilak was defended by a team of lawyers led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He won. Tilak used the opportunity to further the Home Rule movement.
• In Besant’s league, the main thrust of activity was directed towards building up an agitation around the demand for Home Rule. This was to be achieved by promoting political education and discussion.
• Lucknow Pact: 1916 in the Congress Session at Lucknow. Also known as Congress League Pact. Extremists were accepted back in congress. An agreement was reached between Muslim League and Congress.
• The turning point in the movement came with the arrest of Annie Besant in June 1917
• There was wide agitation and many leaders joined the league.
• The government agreed to grant self rule but the timing for such a change was to be decided by the government alone.
• After the great advance in 1917, the movement gradually dissolved.
  • The moderates were pacified by the government’s assurance of reforms after Besant’s release.
  • The publication of scheme of government reforms in July 1918 further created divisions. Many rejected it while others were for giving it a trial.
  • Later, Tilak went to England to fight a case. With Besant unable to give a firm lead, and Tilak away in England, the movement was left leaderless.
• Achievements of the movement
  • The achievement of the Home Rule movement was that it created a generation of ardent nationalists who formed the backbone of the national movement in the coming years.
  • The Home rule leagues also created organizational links between town and country which were to prove invaluable in later years.
  • By popularizing the idea of self-government, it generated a widespread pro-nationalist atmosphere in the country.
  • The movement set the right mood for the entry of Mahatma Gandhi and take the leadership.

 

Disillusionment of the nationalists with moderate policies

• The moderates thought that the British could be reformed from within
• Politically conscious Indians were convinced that the purpose of the British rule was to exploit India economically
• The nationalists realized that Indian industries could not flourish except under an Indian government
• Disastrous famines from 1896 to 1900 took a toll of over 90 lakh lives
• The Indian Councils Act of 1892 was a disappointment
• The Natu brothers were deported in 1897 without trial
• In 1897 B G Tilak was sentenced to long term imprisonment for arousing the people against the government
• In 1904, the Indian Official Secrets Act was passed restricting the freedom of the Press
• Primary and technical education was not making any progress
• Thus, increasing number of Indians were getting convinced that self-government was essential for the sake of economic, political and cultural progress of the country

 

Growth of Self-respect and  self-confidence

• Tilak, Aurobindo and Pal preached the message of self-respect
• They said to the people that remedy to their condition lay in their own hand and they should therefore become strong
• Swami Vivekananda’s messages

 

Growth of education and unemployment

 

International Influences

• Rise of modern Japan after 1868
• Defeat of the Italian army by the Ethiopians in 1896 and of Russia by Japan in 1905 exploded the myth of European superiority

Existence of a Militant Nationalist School of Thought

 

Contribution of early nationalists

• Early nationalists believed that a direct struggle for the political emancipation of the country was not yet on the agenda of history. On agenda was:
  • Creation of public interest in political questions and the organization of public opinion
  • Popular demands had to be formulated on a country-wide basis
  • National unity had to be created. Indian nationhood had to be carefully promoted.
• Early national leaders did not organize mass movement against the British. But they did carry out an ideological struggle against them. (Important from a Gramscian perspective)
• Economic critique of imperialism
  • Economic critique of imperialism was the most important contribution of the early nationalists
  • They recognized that the essence of British economic imperialism lay in the subordination of the Indian economy to the British economy
  • They complained of India’s growing poverty and economic backwardness and the failure of modern industry and agriculture to grow
  • They wanted the government to promote modern industries through tariff protection and direct government aid
  • Popularized the idea of swadeshi and the boycott of British goods
  • They propounded the ‘drain of wealth’ theory and demanded that this drain be stopped
  • Demanded reduction of taxes and land revenue
  • Condemned the high military expenditure
• Constitutional reforms
  • They were extremely cautious. From 1885 to 1892 they demanded the expansion and reform of the Legislative Councils
  • Due to their demands, the British passed the Indian Councils Act of 1892
  • They failed to broaden the base of their democratic demands. Did not demand the right to vote for the masses or for women
• Administrative and other reforms
  • They demanded Indianisation of the higher grades of the administrative services.
  • They had economic political reasons for this. Economically, appointment of British only to ICS made Indian administration costly because they were paid very high. Politically, appointment of Indians would make the administration more responsive to Indian needs
  • Demanded separation of the judicial from executive powers so that the people might get some protection from the arbitrary acts of the police and the bureaucracy.
  • Urged the government to undertake and develop welfare activities and education
• Defense of Civil Rights

Methods of work of early nationalists

• Dominated by moderates till 1905
• Method of moderates: Constitutional agitation within the four walls of the law, and slow, orderly political progress. Their work had two pronged direction:
  • To build a strong public opinion in India to arouse the political consciousness and national spirit of the people, and to educate and unite them on political questions
  • They wanted to persuade the British government and British public opinion to introduce reforms along directions laid down by the nationalists.
• In 1889, a British Committee of the INC was founded. In 1890 this committee started a journal called India.

What about the role of the masses?

• The basic weakness of the early national movement lay in its narrow social base.
• The leaders lacked political faith in the masses.
• Hence, masses were assigned a passive role in the early phase of the national movement.

Evaluation

• The basic objectives of the early nationalist leaders were to lay the foundations of a secular and democratic national movement, to politicize and politically educate the people, to form the headquarters of the movement, that is, to form an all-India leadership group, and to develop and propagate an anti-colonial nationalist ideology.
• Very few of the reforms for which the nationalists agitated were introduced by the government
• It succeeded in creating a wide national awakening and arousing the feeling of nationhood. It made the people conscious of the bonds of common political, economic and social interests and the existence of a common enemy in imperialism
• They exposed the true character of the British rule through their economic critique.
• All this was to become a base for the national movement in the later period.

 

WHY HUME?

• The leaders assumed that the rulers would be less suspicious and less likely to attack a potentially subversive organization if its chief organizer was a retired British civil servant.
• Gokhale himself stated explicitly in 1913 that if any Indian had started such a movement the officials wouldn’t have let it happen.

 

• First, the Indian intellectuals co-operated with the British in the hope that British would help modernize India.
• However, the reality of social development in India failed to conform to their hopes.
• Three people who carried out the economic analysis of British India:
  • Dadabhai Naoroji: the grand old man of India. Born in 1825, he became a successful businessman but devoted his entire life and wealth to the creation of national movement in India
  • Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade: He taught an entire generation of Indians the value of modern industrial development.
  • Romesh Chandra Dutt: a retired ICS officer, published The Economic History of India at the beginning of the 20^th century in which he examined in minute detail the entire economic record of colonial rule since 1757.
• They concluded that colonialism was the main obstacle to India’s economic development.
• Three aspects of domination of British: trade, industry, finance
• The problem of poverty was seen as a problem of national development. This approach made poverty a broad national issue and helped to unite, instead of divide, different regions and sections of Indian society.
• The early nationalists accepted that the complete economic transformation of the country on the basis of modern technology and capitalist enterprise was the primary goal of their economic policies.
• Because their whole-ted devotion to the cause of industrialization, the early nationalists looked upon all other issues such as foreign trade, railways, tariffs, finance and labour legislations in relation to this paramount aspect. (and hence the obsession of Nehru with industrialization)
• However great the need of India for industrialization, it had to be based on Indian capital and not foreign capital.
• The early nationalists saw foreign capital as an unmitigated evil which did not develop a country but exploited and impoverished it.
• Expenditure on railways could be seen as Indian subsidy to British industries.
• A major obstacle in the process of industrial development was the policy of free trade
• High expenditure on the army
• Drain theory was the focal point of nationalist critique of colonialism.
  • A large part of India’a capital and wealth was being transferred or drained to Britain in the form of salaries and pensions of British civil and military officials working in India, interest on loans taken by the Indian government, profits of British capitalists in India, and the Home Charges or expenses of the Indian Government in Britain.
  • This drain amounted to one-half of government revenues, more than the entire land revenue collection, and over one-third of India’s total savings.
  • The Drain theory was put forward by Dadabhai Naoroji. He declared that the drain was the basic cause of India’s poverty.
  • Through the drain theory, the exploitative character of the British rule was made visible.
  • The drain theory possessed the merit of being easily grasped and understood by a nation of peasants. No idea could arouse people more than the thought that they were being taxed so that others in far off lands might live in comfort.
  • This agitation on economic issues contributed to the undermining of the ideological hegemony of the alien rulers over Indian minds.
  • The nationalist economic agitation undermined the moral foundations inculcated by the British that foreign rule is beneficial for India.

 Freedom of Press

• 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.

 

 

 

• The Indian Councils Act of 1861 enlarged the Governor-General’s Executive Council for the purpose of making laws.
• The GG could add 6-12 members to the Executive Council. This came to be known as the Imperial Legislative Council. It didn’t have any powers.
• ‘Despotism controlled from home’ was the fundamental feature of British rule in India.
• The Indians nominated to the council were not representative of the nationalist movement.
• Despite the early nationalists believing that India should eventually become self-governing, they moved very cautiously in putting forward political demands regarding the structure of the state, for they were afraid of the Government declaring their activities seditious and disloyal and suppressing them.
• Till 1892, they only demanded reforms in the council.

 

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.

 

India in the Eighteenth

 CenturyBahadur Shah 1 (1707-12)

• Muzam succeeded Aurungzeb after latter’s death in 1707
• He acquired the title of Bahadur Shah.
• Though he was quite old (65) and his rule quite short there are many significant achievements he made
• He reversed the narrow minded and antagonistic policies of Aurungzeb
• Made agreements with Rajput states
• Granted sardeshmukhi to Marathas but not Chauth
• Released Shahuji (son of Sambhaji) from prison (who later fought with Tarabai)
• Tried to make peace with Guru Gobind Sahib by giving him a high Mansab. After Guru’s death, Sikhs again revolted under the leadership of Banda Bahadur. This led to a prolonged war with the Sikhs.
• Made peace with Chhatarsal, the Bundela chief and Churaman, the Jat chief.
• State finances deteriorated

Jahandar Shah (1712-13)

• Death of Bahadur Shah plunged the empire into a civil war
• A noted feature of this time was the prominence of the nobles
• Jahandar Shah, son of Bahadur Shah, ascended the throne in 1712 with help from Zulfikar Khan
• Was a weak ruler devoted only to pleasures
• Zulfikar Khan, his wazir, was virtually the head of the administration
• ZK abolished jizyah
• Peace with Rajputs: Jai Singh of Amber was made the Governor of Malwa. Ajit Singh of Marwar was made the Governor of Gujarat.
• Chauth and Sardeshmukh granted to Marathas. However, Mughals were to collect it and then hand it over to the Marathas.
• Continued the policy of suppression towards Banda Bahadur and Sikhs
• Ijarah: (revenue farming) the government began to contract with revenue farmers and middlemen to pay the government a fixed amount of money while they were left free to collect whatever they could from the peasants
• Jahandhar Shah defeated in January 1713 by his nephew Farrukh Siyar at Agra

Farrukh Siyar (1713-19)

• Owed his victory to Saiyid Brothers: Hussain Ali Khan Barahow and Abdullah Khan
• Abdullah Khan: Wazir, Hussain Ali: Mir Bakshi
• FS was an incapable ruler. Saiyid brothers were the real rulers.
• Saiyid Brothers
  • Known the Indian History as King Makers
  • adopted the policy of religious tolerance. Abolished jizyah (again?). Pilgrim tax was abolished from a number of places
  • Marathas: Granted Shahuji swarajya and the right to collect chauth and sardeshmukhi of the six provinces of the Deccan
  • They failed in their effort to contain rebellion because they were faced with constant political rivalry, quarrels and conspiracies at the court.
  • Nobles headed by Nizam-ul-Mulk and Muhammad Amin Khan began to conspire against them
  • In 1719, the Saiyid Brothers killed and overthrew FS.
  • This was followed by placing, in quick succession, of two young princes who died of consumption
  • Murder of the emperor created a wave of revulsion against the SB. They were looked down as ‘namak haram’
• Now, they placed 18 year old Muhammad Shah as the emperor of India
• In 1720, the nobles assassinated Hussain Ali Khan, the younger of the SB. Abdullah Khan was also defeated at Agra

Muhammad Shah ‘Rangeela’ (1719-1748)

• Weak-minded, frivolous and over-fond of a life of ease
• Neglected the affairs of the state
• Intrigued against his own ministers
• Naizam ul Mulk Qin Qulich Khan, the wazir, relinquished his office and founded the state of Hyderabad in 1724
  • “His departure was symbolic of the flight of loyalty and virtue from the Empire”
• Heriditary nawabs arose in Bengal, Hyderabad, Awadh and Punjab
• Marathas conquered Malwa, Gujarat and Bundelkhand
• 1738: Invasion of Nadir Shah

 

Nadir Shah’s Invasion (1738)

• Attracted to India by its fabulous wealth. Continual campaigns had made Persia bankrupt
• Also, the Mughal empire was weak.
• Didn’t meet any resistance as the defense of the north-west frontier had been neglected for years
• The two armies met at Karnal on 13^th Feb 1739. Mughal army was summarily defeated. MS taken prisoner
• Massacre in Delhi in response to the killing of some of his soldiers
• Plunder of about 70 crore rupees. Carried away the Peacock throne and Koh-i-noor
• MS ceded to him all the provinces of the Empire west of the river Indus
• Significance: Nadir Shah’s invasion exposed the hidden weakness of the empire to the Maratha sardars and the foreign trading companies

Ahmed Shah Abdali

• One of the generals of Nadir Shah
• Repeatedly invaded and plundered India right down to Delhi and Mathura between 1748 and 1761. He invaded India five times.
• 1761: Third battle of Panipat. Defeat of Marathas.
• As a result of invasions of Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah, the Mughal empire ceased to be an all-India empire. By 1761 it was reduced merely to the Kingdom of Delhi

Shah Alam II (1759-

• Ahmed Bahadur (1748-54) succeeded Muhammad Shah
• Ahmed Bahadur was succeeded by Alamgir II (1754-59)
  • 1756: Abdali plundered Mathura
• Alamgir II was succeeded by Shah Jahan III
• Shah Jahan III succeeded by Shah Alam II in 1759
• Shah Alam spent initial years wandering for he lived under the fear of his wazir
• In 1764, he joined forces with Mir Qasim of Bengal and Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh in declaring a war upon the British East India company. This resulted in the Battle of Buxar
• Pensioned at Allahabad
• Returned to Delhi in 1772 under the protection of Marathas

Decline of the Mughal Empire

• After 1759, Mughal empire ceased to be a military power.
• It continued from 1759 till 1857 only due to the powerful hold that the Mughal dynasty had on the minds of the people of India as a symbol of the political unity of the country
• In 1803, the British occupied Delhi
• From 1803 to 1857, the Mughal emperors merely served as a political front of the British.
• The most important consequence of the fall of the Mughal empire was that it paved way for the British to conquer India as there was no other Indian power strong enough to unite and hold India.

Succession States

• These states arose as a result of the assertion of autonomy by governors of Mughal provinces with the decay of the central power
• Bengal, Awadh, Hyderabad

Hyderabad and the Carnatic

• Founded by Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah in 1724
• Tolerant policy towards Hindus
  • A Hindu, Puran Chand, was his Dewan.
• Established an orderly administration in Deccan on the basis of the jagirdari system on the Mughal pattern
• He died in 1748
• Nawab of Carnatic freed himself of the control of the Viceroy of the Deccan and made his office hereditary
  • Saadutullah Khan of Carnatic made his nephew Dost Ali his successor

Bengal

• 1700: Murshid Quli Khan made the Dewan of Bengal
• Freed himself of the central control
• Freed Bengal of major uprisings
  • Three major uprisings during his time: Sitaram Ray, Udai Narayan and Ghulam Muhammad, and then by Shujat Khan, and finally by Najat Khan
• Carried out fresh revenue settlement. Introduced the system of revenue-farming.
• Revenue farming led to the increased distress of the farmers
• Laid the foundations of the new landed aristocracy in Bengal
• MQK died in 1727. Succeeded by Shuja-ud-din.
• 1739: Alivardi Khan killed and deposed Shuja-ud-din’s son, Sarfaraz Khan, and made himself the Nawab
• All three Nawabs encouraged merchants, both Indian and foreign.
• Safety of roads and rivers. Thanas and Chowkies at regular intervals.
• Maintained strict control over the foreign trading companies
• They, however, did not firmly put down the increasing tendency of the English East India Company to use military force, or to threaten its use, to get its demands accepted.
• They also neglected to build a strong army

Awadh

• 1722: Saadat Khan Burhan-ul-Mulk
• Suppressed rebellions and disciplined the Zamindars
• Fresh revenue settlement in 1723
• Did not discriminate between Hindus and Muslims. The highest post in his government was held by a Hindu, Maharaja Nawab Rai
• Died in 1739. Succeeded by Safdar Jung.
• SJ’s reign was an era of peace
• made an alliance with the Maratha sardars
• Carried out warfare against Rohelas and Bangash Pathans
• Organized an equitable system of justice
• Distinct culture of Lucknow developed during his period

Mysore

• Haidar Ali, in 1761, overthrew Nanjaraj and established his own authority over Mysore
• 1755: Established a modern arsenal at Dindigal with the help of French experts
• Conquered Bidnur, Sunda, Sera, Canara and Malabar
• He conquered Malabar because he wanted access to the Indian Ocean
• First and Second Anglo-Mysore War
• 1782: Succeeded by Tipu Sultan
• TS was an innovator. Introduced a new calendar, a new system of coinage and new scales of weights and measures.
• Keen interest in French Revolution
  • Planted a ‘tree of liberty’ at Srirangapatnam and became a member of the Jacobin Club
• Made efforts to build a modern navy
• Mysore flourished economically under Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan
• Sent missions to France, Turkey, Iran and Pegu Myanmar to develop foreign trade
• Some historians say that Tipu was a religious fanatic. But facts don’t support this assertion.

 

 

Kerala

• Divided into large number of feudal chiefs in the 18^th century
• Four important states
  • Calicut (under Zamorin), Chirakkal, Cochin and Travancore
• In 1729, Travancore rose to prominence under King Martanda Varma
• Conquered Quilon and Elayadam, and defeated the Dutch
• From 1766 Haidar Ali invaded Kerala and annexed northern Kerala up to Cochin
• Revival of Malyalam literature
  • Trivandram became a famous centre of Sanskrit scholarship

Rajput States

• Rajputana states continued to be divided as before
• Raja Sawai Jai Singh of Amber was the most outstanding ruler of the era
  • Founded the city of Jaipur
  • Made Jaipur a great seat of science and art
  • Erected observatories at Jaipur, Ujjain, Varanasi, and Mathura
  • Drew up a set of tables, entitled Zij Muhammadshahi, to enable people to make astronomical observations
  • Translated Euclid’s “Elements of Geometry” into Sanskrit
  • Social reformers. Reduce lavish marriage expenditures.

Jats

• Jat peasants revolted in 1669 and 1688
• Jat state of Bharatpur set up by Churaman and Badan Singh
• Reached its highest glory under Suraj Mal, who ruled from 1756 to 1763

Sikhs

• Sikhsim transformed into a militant religion during Guru Hargobind (1606-45), the sixth guru.
• Guru Gobind Singh waged constant war against the armies of Aurangzeb and the hill rajas
• After Guru Gobind Singh’s death (1708), leadership passed to Banda Singh (Banda Bahadur)
  • He struggled with the Mughal army for 8 years
  • Put to death in 1715
• Banda Bahadur failed because
  • Mughal centre was still strong
  • Upper classes and castes of Punjab joined forces against him
  • He could not integrate all the anti-Mughal forces because of his religious bigotry
• After the withdrawal of Abdali from Punjab, Sikhs were again resurgent
• Between 1765 and 1800 they brought the Punjab and Jammu under their control
• They were organized into 12 misls
• Ranjit Singh
  • Chief of the Sukerchakia Misl
  • Captured Lahore (1799) and Amritsar (1802)
  • Conquered Kashmir, Peshawar and Multan
  • Possessed the second best army in Asia
  • Tolerant and liberal
  • Fakir Azizuddin and Dewan Dina Nath were his important ministers
  • “known to step down from his throne to wipe the dust off the feet of Muslim mendicants with his long grey beard”
  • Negative point: He did not remove the threat of British. He only left it over to his successors. And so, after his death, when his kingdom was torn by intense internal struggle, English conquered it.

Marathas

• Maratha Families
  • Peshwa – Pune
  • Gaekwad – Baroda
  • Bhosle – Nagpur
  • Holkar – Indore
  • Scindia – Gwalior
• The most powerful of the succession states
• Could not fill the political vacuum because
  • Maratha Sardars lacked unity
  • Lacked the outlook and programme which were necessary for founding an all-India empire
• Shahuji
  • Son of Sambhaji
  • Imprisoned by Aurungzeb
  • Released in 1707
  • Civil war between Shahu and his aunt Tarabai who ruled in the name of her infant son Shivaji II
  • The conflict gave rise to a new era of Maratha leadership, the era of Peshwa leadership
• Balaji Vishwnath
  • 1713: Peshwa of King Shahu
  • Induced Zulfikar Khan to grant the chauth and sardeshmukhi of the Deccan
  • Helped the Saiyid brothers in overthrowing Farukh Siyar
  • Maratha sardars were becoming individually strong but collectively weak
  • Died in 1720. Succeeded by his son Baji Rao I
• Baji Rao I
  • the greatest extent of guerrilla tactics after Shivaji
  • Vast areas ceded by the Mughals
  • Marathas won control over Malwa, Gujarat and parts of Bundelkhand
  • Rivalry with Nizam ul Mulk
  • Compelled the Nizam to grant chauth and sardeshmukhi of the Deccan provinces
  • 1733: Campaign against Sidis of Janjira and the Portuguese (Salsette and Bassein)
  • Died in 1740
  • Captured territories but failed to lay the foundations of an empire
  • Succeeded by Balaji Baji Rao (Nana Saheb)
• Balaji Baji Rao (1740-61)
  • Shahu died in 1749. Peshwas became the de facto rulers
  • Shifted the capital to Poona
  • Captured Orissa
  • Mysore forced to pay tributes
  • In 1752, helped Imad-ul-Mulk to become the wazir
  • Brought Punjab under their control and expelled the agent of Ahmad Shah Abdali
    • This led AS Abdali to come to India to settle accounts with Marathas in the Third Battle of Panipat
  • Third Battle of Panipat
    • ASA formed an alliance with Najib-ud-daulah of Rohilkhand and Shuja-ud-daulah of Awadh.

Saranjami system?

Social and economic condition

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Administrative Organization of the British

Army

Army fulfilled four important functions:

1. Instrument to conquer Indian powers
2. Defended the British Empire in India against foreign rivals
3. Safe-guarded against internal revolt
4. Chief instrument for extending and defending the British Empire in Asia and Africa.

Bulk of the army consisted of Indians. In 1857, of the total strength of 311400, about 265900 were Indians. Highest Indian rank was that of Subedar.

British could conquer and control India through a predominantly Indian army because:

1. There was absence of modern nationalism at that time
2. The company paid its soldiers regularly and well, as opposed to the Indian rulers and chieftains.

Police

Cornwallis was responsible for the creation of a modern police system in India. He established a system of Thanas (or circles) headed by a daroga. The police:

1. Prevented organization of a large-scale conspiracy against foreign control
2. Was used to suppress the national movement.

Judiciary

Though started by Hastings, the system was stabilized by Cornwallis.

Civil Cases

District: Diwani Adalat (civil court) presided over by the District Judge

Provincial Court: Appeal from civil court

Sardar Diwani Adalat: Highest appeal

There were also, below the District Court, Registrar’s Court (headed by Europeans) and subordinate courts headed by Indians known as munsifs or amins.

Criminal Cases

4 divisions of Bengal presidency. Each had a Court of Circuit presided over by the civil servants. Appeals could be made to Sardar Nizamat Adalat.

William Bentinck:

• Abolished the provincial courts of appeal and circuit
• Their work was assigned to District Collectors
• Raised the status and power of Indians in the Judicial service.

In 1865, High Courts were established at Madras, Calcutta and Bombay.

British brought about  uniformity in the system of law. In 1833, the government appointed Law Commission headed by Macaulay to codify Indian Laws. This eventually resulted in the Indian Penal Code, Code of Civil and Criminal Procedures and other codes of laws.

Spread of Modern Education

1781: Hastings set up the Calcutta Madrasah for the study and teaching of Muslim law and related subjects

1791: Jonathan Duncan started a Sanskrit College at Varanasi for the study of Hindu law and philosophy.

1813: Charter of 1813 directed the Company to spend Rs. 1 lakh for promoting modern sciences in the country. This sum was however made available only in 1823.

1835: Macaulay’s minute.

English was made the medium of instruction in schools. Education of masses was however neglected. British advocated the ‘downward filtration theory’ for education. As per this theory, since the allocated funds could educate only a handful of Indians, it was decided to spend them in educating a few persons from the upper and middle classes who were expected to assume the task of educating the masses and spreading modern ideas among them.

1844: Compulsion for applicants for government employment to possess knowledge of English. This made the English medium schools more popular.

1854: Wood’s Dispatch asked the government of India to assume responsibility for the education of the masses. It thus repudiated the ‘downward filtration theory’. As a result, Departments of Education were instituted in all provinces and universities were setup in 1857 at Madras, Calcutta and Bombay.

The main reason why British adopted some measures towards education in India was because:

1. They needed educated people to man their system of administration. It was not possible to get enough Englishmen to man all the posts.
2. Another important motive was the belief that educated Indians would help expand the market for British manufactures in India.
3. Lastly, it was expected to reconcile the people of India to British rule.

Major drawbacks of the English education system:

1. Neglect of mass education. Mass literacy in India was hardly better in 1921 than in 1821. High fees in schools and colleges led to the education becoming a monopoly of the rich.
2. Almost total neglect of the education of girls. As late as 1921 only 2 percent Indian women could read and write.
3. Neglect of scientific and technical education.
4. The government was never willing to spend more than a scanty sum on education.

Development of Education

 

• Charter act of 1813
  • Sanctioned 1 lakh rupees annually for promoting education and modern sciences
  • Not made available till 1823
• Orientalist-Anglicist Controversy
• Lord Macaulay’s minute (1835)
• Wood’s Despatch (1854)
  • Rejected the downward filtration theory
  • Asked the government of India to assume the responsibility of education of the masses
  • English as medium for higher studies and vernaculars at school level
• 1857: University of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras
• Hunter Commission (1882-83)
  • State care required for promotion and spread of primary and secondary education
  • Transfer control of primary education to district and municipal boards
• Raleigh Commission, 1902
• Universities Act 1904
• Saddler Education Commission (1917-19)
  • School course should cover 12 years
  • Less rigidity in framing university regulations
• Hartog Committee (1929)
  • No hasty expansion or compulsion of education
• Wardha Scheme of basic education (1937)
  • Vocation based education