The Making of the National Movement: 1870s-1947

The Emergence of Nationalism:

(i) India was the people of India- all the people irrespective of class,
colour, caste, creed, language or gender are Indians.
(ii) The awareness of being Indian and that its resources and systems
were meant for all of them led to see the trace nature and role of British
in India.
(iii) The political associations came into being in the 1870s and 1880s.
(iv) Poona Sarvajanik Sabha and many such associations functioned in
specific parts of country their goals were stated as the goals of all the
people of India, not those of any one region.
(v) They worked with the idea that the people should be sovereign – a
modern consciousness and a key feature of nationalism.
(vi) The Arms Act was passed in 1878, disallowing Indians from
possessing arms.
(vii) The Vernacular Act, 1878 which allowed the government to
confiscate the assets of newspapers including their printing presses if
the newspapers published anything that was found ‘objectionable’.
(viii) In 1883 Lord Ripon’s Law Member, Sir Courtenay llbert introduced
a bill called llbert Bill.
(ix) The bill provided for the trail of British or European persons by
Indians, and sought equality between British and Indian judges in the
country.
(x) The bill caused widespread agitation among the Whites who
strongly opposed the bill and forced the government to withdraw it.
(xi) The Indian National Congress which was established in 1885 by a
British servant Allan Octavian Hume. It includes 72 delegates from
different parts of the country. The main leaders of the organization
were- DadaBhai Naoroji, W.C. Bannerji, Surendranath Bannerji,
Romesh Chandra Dutt, S. Subramania Iyer, Pherozeshah Mehta, and
Badruddin Tyabji.
A Nation in the Making:
(i) Indian National Congress has 2 groups, namely- Moderates and
Radicals.

 Moderates were those who believed in pleading with the

British government to bring about reforms.
 Radicals were those who wanted to oppose the British
strongly; they were in favour of strikes & boycott.
(ii) A greater voice for Indians in the government and in administration
was their demand.

(iii) It demanded the separation of judiciary from the executive,

the repeal (abolition) of Arms Act and freedom of speech and
expression.
(iv) It also demanded the separation of judiciary from the executive, the
repeal of Arms Act and freedom of speech and expression.

(v) The early Congress raised a number of economic issues. It declared

that British rule had led to poverty and famines, increase in land
revenue had impoverished peasants and Zamindars and there was
food shortage because of exports and grains to Europe.

Freedom is Our Birth Right:

(i) In Bengal, Maharashtra, and Punjab, leaders such as Bipin Chandra
Pal, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai was popularly known as
‘Lal, Bal, Pal’, strongly criticized the policies of the colonial government.

(ii) They demanded ‘Swaraj’. Tilak declared, ‘Freedom is my

birthright and I shall have it’.
(iii) In 1905, Viceroy Curzon announced the partition of the biggest
province British of India, Bengal which included Bihar and parts of
Odisha.
(iv) The partition of Bengal infuriated people all over India. Both, the
moderates and the radicals protested the partition.

(v) Large public meetings and demonstrations were organized; People

in order to show that they are united tied ‘rakhi’ on each other’s wrist
and celebrated ‘Raksha Bandhan’ and this led to the birth of Swadeshi
Movement.
The Growth of Mass Nationalism:
(i) After 1919, the struggle against Britain rule gradually became a
mass movement, involving peasants, tribals, students and women in
large numbers and factory workers.

(ii) The first World War broke out in 1914 and altered the economic and
political situation in India

(iii) India was dragged into the war and this led to a huge rise in
defense expenditure of the government of India.

(iv) Increased military expenditure and the demands for war supplies
led to a sharp rise in prices which create great difficulties for the
common people.

(v) The war leads the British to expand their army. The government
forced the villages in India to send their soldiers for an alien cause.

The Advent of Mahatma Gandhi:

(i) Mahatma Gandhi was born on 2nd October 1869 at Porbandar in
Gujarat.

(ii) He studied law in England and went to South Africa to practice law
and stayed there for 20 years.

(iii) He emerged as a mass leader of India.

(iv) In South Africa, Gandhiji struggle for the Indians in non-violent

marches against racist (skin colour) discrimination and had earned
great respect and popularity both at national and international level.
(v) Mahatma Gandhi spent his initial years in India traveling throughout
the country, understanding the people, their needs and the overall
situation.

(vi) Gandhiji launched local movements in Champaran, Kheda, and

Ahmedabad in which he received success.

(vii) Gandhiji’s method of fighting was known as “Satyagraha” which

was based on the principles of- ‘Truth’ and ‘Non-Violence’.
The Rowlatt Satyagraha:
(i) In 1919, the government passes the Rowlatt Act and empowered the
provincial government to search any place and arrest any person whom
it suspected without a warrant.

(ii) Gandhiji launched a Satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act which

curbed the fundamental rights such as the freedom of expression and
strengthened police powers.

(iii) Mahatma Gandhi and Mohammad Ali Jinnah criticized the act as
‘devilish’ and tyrannical.

(iv) In April 1919, a nation-wide hartal was launched and government

used brutal measures to suppress them. The Jallianwala Bagh
massacre inflicted by General Dyer in Amritsar on Baisakhi day was a
part of this repression.

The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

i) On April 13th, 1919, on the day of Baisakhi, people gathered at
Jallianwala Bagh for celebration and for public meeting.

ii) General Dyer, a British officer entered Jallianwala Bagh locked all the
entries and ordered his troops to start firing at the crowd.

iii) Thousands of people were killed.

iv) The country was shocked by this incident.

v) All national leaders protested strongly against this cruel act.

Khilafat Agitation and the Non-Cooperation Movement:
(i) In 1920, the British imposed a harsh treaty on the Turkish Sultan or
Khalifa and he was deprived of his political powers and authority.

(ii) The Khilafat Movement was launched by Mohammad Ali and

Shaukat Ali who wished to initated a full-fledged Non-Cooperation
Movement against the British under the leadership of Gandhiji and
demanded Swaraj.

(iii) In 1921-22, the Non-Cooperation Movement gained momentum.

Thousands of students left government controlled schools and colleges.
Many lawyers such as Moti Lal Nehru, C.R. Das, C. Rajagopalachari
and Asaf Ali gave up their practices.

(iv) British titles were surrendered and legislatures boycotted. People lit
public bonfires of foreign cloth.

People’s Initiatives:
(i) In Kheda, Gujarat, Patidar peasants organized non-violent
campaigns against the high revenue demand of the British.

(ii) In coastal Andhra and interior Tamil Nadu, liquor shops were
picketed.

(iii) In Bengal, the Khilafat-Non-Cooperation alliance gave enormous

communal unity and strength to the national movement.

(iv) In Punjab, the Akali agitation of the Sikhs sought to remove

corrupt mahants-supported by the British from their gurudwaras.
The People’s Mahatma:
(i) People thought of Gandhiji as a kind of messiah, as someone who
could help them to overcome their misery and poverty.

(ii) Gandhiji wished to build class unity, not class conflict, still peasants
could imagine that he could help them in their fight against zamindars
and agricultural labourers believed he would provide them land.

The Happenings of 1922-29:

(i) In February 1922 a crowd of peasants set fire to a police station in
Chauri Chaura, Gandhiji was against violence and thus called off the
Non-Cooperation Movement immediately.

(ii) Chittaranjan Dass and Motilal Nehru argued that the party should
fight elections to the councils and enter them in order to influence
government policies.

(iii) Civil disobedience Movement was launched in 1930 under the

leadership of Gandhiji.

(iv) The formation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the
Communist Party of India were the two important development of the
mid-1920s.

(v) The Congress resolved to fight for ‘Purna Swaraj’ (Complete

Independence) in 1929 under the presidentship of Jawaharlal Nehru
and 26 January 1930 was consequently observed as ‘Independence
Day’ all over the country.

The March to Dandi:

(i) In 1930, Gandhiji started the march to break the Salt Law. According
to this law,the state had a monopoly on the manufacture and sale of
salt.

(ii) Gandhiji and his followers marched from Sabarmati Ashram(in

Ahmedabad) to the coastal town of Dandi (in Surat) where they broke
the Salt law by gathering natural salt found on the sea-shore are boiling
sea water to produce salt.

(iii) The combined struggles of the Indian people bore fruit when the
Government of India Act of 1935 prescribed provincial autonomy and
the government announced election to the provincial legislature in
1937.

(iv) The Second World War broke out in September 1939. The
Congress leaders were ready to support the British war effort. But in
return, they wanted that India be granted Independence after the war.
The British refused to concede the demand and the Congress ministers
resigned in protest.

Quit India Movement and Later:

(i) Mahatma Gandhi decided to initiate a new phase of movement

against the British in the middle of the Second World War which was
Quit India Movement.

(ii) The first response of the British was severe repression and the end
of 1943 over 90,000 people were arrested, and around 1,000 killed in
police firing.

Towards Independence and Partition:

(i) In 1940, the Muslim League had moved a resolution demanding
‘Independent States’ for Muslims in the north-western and eastern
areas of the country.

(ii) The provincial elections of 1937 seemed to have convinced the

League that Muslims were a minority, and they would always have to
play second fiddle in any democratic structure.

(iii) The Congress’s rejection of the League’s desire to form a joint

Congress-League government in the United Provinces in 1937 also
annoyed the League.

(iv) In 1945, after the end of the war, the British opened negotiations
between the Congress, the League and themselves for the
Independence of India. The talks failed because the league accelerated
the demand for Pakistan.

(v) In March 1946, the British cabinet sent a three-member mission to

Delhi to examine this demand. 16 August 1946 was declared as the
‘Direct Action Day’ by the league.
(vi) On 3 June 1947, the Partition Plan was announced and Pakistan
came into existence. The joy of our country’s Independence from British
rule came mixed with the pain and violence of Partition.