dar1905-1917

 Lord Curzon
o 1899 – Calcutta Corporation Act – number of Indian members in Calcutta corporation was reduced
o In 1899, Lord Curzon, the Viceroy, said that foreign capital was ‘a sine qua non to the national advancement’
of India
o 1902 - Lord Curzon created the Criminal Intelligence Department (CID) to secretly collect information on the
activities of nationalists
o 1904 - Official Secrets Act was amended to curb the nationalist tone of Indian newspapers
o 1904 - Indian Universities Act – greater government control
o 1905 – Partition of Bengal
 Militant school of thought
o Raj Narain Bose, Ashwini Kumar Datta, Aurobindo Ghosh and Bipin Chandra Pal in Bengal;
o Vishnu Shastri Chiplunkar and Bal Gangadhar Tilak in Maharashtra; and
o Lala Lajpat Rai in Punjab

Partition of Bengal:

 December 1903 – Partition plans made public

o Divide and Rule policy
o in December 1903, Curzon drew up a scheme in his Minutes on Territorial Redistribution of India, which was
later modified and published as the Risely Papers
 Population of then Bengal – 78 million (about a quarter of the population of British India)
 1903-05 – Anti partition movement under Moderates (Surendranath Bannerjea, Anand Mohan Bose, Krsihna Kumar
Mitra)
 17 July 1905 – At Calcutta Conference, Surendranath Banerjee called for a boycott of British goods and institutions
 19 July 1905 – Partition was announced

Anti Partition movement or Swadeshi movement/ Vande Mataram movement: (1905-11)

 August 07, 1905 – Boycott resolution in Calcutta Townhall – formal proclamation of Swadeshi Movement
 October 16, 1905 – Partition came into force
o Later in the day, Surendranath Banerjea and Ananda Mohan Bose addressed huge gatherings (perhaps the
largest till then under the nationalist banner)
 Aim
o To reunify divided Bengal
o To attain Swaraj
 Method of struggle: Passive Resistance
o Boycott of foreign goods (textiles) – promotion of indigenous goods and industries
o Boycott of government educational institutions
o Promotion of nationalist schools
 Soon, the movement spread to other parts of the country
o Poona and Bombay under Tilak,
o in Punjab under Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh,
o in Delhi under Syed Haider Raza, and
o in Madras under Chidambaram Pillai
 1905 – Benares Congress Session – Gopala Krishna Gokhale
o condemn the partition of Bengal and the reactionary policies of Curzon, and
o support the anti-partition and Swadeshi Movement of Bengal.
o Dadabhai categorically asserted: ‘Self-government is the only remedy for India’s woes and wrongs.’
 Industries
o Indian industrialization began here. Capitalism in India bred at this juncture
o TISCO at Jamshedpur (1907) – production of steel started in 1912
o Bengal Chemical Factory
 o In Tuticorin V O Chidambara Pillai started Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company – 1906 against the monopoly
of British India Steam Navigation Company – First indigenous Indian Freight service between Tuticorin and
Colombo at competitive price
 Called as Kappalottiya Tamizhan or “The Tamil Helmsman”
 Member of INC
 Education
o 1902 – Dawn Society in Calcutta by Satish Chandra Mukherjee in response to the agitation against Raleigh
Commission 1902. Saw the founding of National Council of Education in 1906. Members – Tagore, Rajendra
Prasad, Aurobindo Gosh
o Bengal National College, inspired by Tagore’s Shantiniketan, was set up with Aurobindo Ghosh as its
principal.
o On August 15, 1906, the National Council of Education was set up to organise a system of education—
literary, scientific and technical—on national lines and under national control.
o A Bengal Institute of Technology was set up for technical education and funds were raised to send students
to Japan for advanced learning
 Cultural sphere
o Amar Sonar Bangla – Rabindranath Tagore
o Sudesha Geetham – Subramania Bharati
o Bharatendu Harishchandra – Hindi Nationalist Poet
o In painting, Abanindranath Tagore broke the domination of Victorian naturalism over the Indian art scene
and took inspiration from Ajanta, Mughal and Rajput paintings.
 He popularized Bharat Mata portrait painting
 Bankim Chandra Chatterjee introduced the Bharat Mata in his work Anandmath in 1882
 The book explains about Sanyasi rebellion – India’s first revolt against the British in 1760’s
 National Song – Vande Mataram from Anandmath became the anthem of the swadeshi
movement
o Nandalal Bose - first recipient of a scholarship offered by the Indian Society of Oriental Art, founded in 1907.
o In science, Jagdish Chandra Bose (Biologist, Physicist), Prafullachandra Roy (Chemist) and others pioneered
original research which was praised the world over.
 Samitis (Corps of Volunteers)
o Samitis such as the Swadesh Bandhab Samiti of Ashwini Kumar Dutta (in Barisal in Bangladesh) emerged as
a very popular and powerful means of mass mobilisation.
o In Tamil Nadu, V.O. Chidambaram Pillai, Subramania Siva and some lawyers formed the Swadeshi Sangam in
Tirunelveli which inspired the local masses.
 Spread od movement
o Students
 1906 – Calcutta session – Dadabhai Naoroji
o The goal of the Indian National Congress was defined as ‘swarajya or self-government’ like the United
Kingdom or the colonies of Australia and Canada.
o Also a resolution supporting the programme of swadeshi, boycott and national education was passed.
o The word swaraj was mentioned for the first time, but its connotation was not spelt out, which left the field
open for differing interpretations by the Moderates and the Extremists.
 1906 – All India Muslim League was formed by Nawab Salimullah of Dacca, Agha Khan and others
o Nawab Salimullah was the first president of Muslim League

Spread of Swadeshi movement:

 It remained confined to the upper and middle classes and zamindars and failed to reach masses especially the
peasantry.

Annulment of Partition:

 Government Acts for Repression of Swadeshi Movement and the subsequent revolutionary movements
o Seditious Meetings Act (1907)
o Criminal Law (Amendment) Act (1908)
 o Indian Newspapers (Incitement to Offences) Act (1908)
o Explosive Substances Act (1908)
o Indian Press Act (1910)
 1911 - Annulment of Partition (Lord Hardinge II) – Bihar and Orissa was taken out of Bengal and Assam was made a
separate province.
o Mainly to curb revolutionary terrorism
o Appeasement of Muslims – Divide and Rule

Surat Split:

 1907 Surat Split

o Extremists wanted the session to be held at Nagpur (which was a part of Central Provinces) with Tilak or Lala
Lajpat Rai as president.
o Moderates wanted a session at Surat with Rashbehari Gosh as president
o Extremists were expelled
 1908-1914 - Tilak tried for sedition for what he had written in his Kesari about a bomb thrown by Bengal
revolutionaries (Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki) in Muzaffarpur, resulting in the death of two innocent European
women.
o Sentenced to six years’ transportation and a fine of Rs 1,000. He was sent to Mandalay (Burma) jail for six
years.
o Jinnah appeared in Tilak’s defence
o In Bombay, textile workers and railway workshop workers took on the Army in streets and went on strike for
days. Lenin hailed this as the entrance of the Indian working class on the political stage.
 Aurobindo and B.C. Pal retired from active politics. Lajpat Rai left for abroad (USA).
 1907-16 – Congress was dominated by moderates led by Pherozshah Mehta. Thus this phase was called Mehta
Congress

Backdrop of Home rule leagues:

 Tilak released in June 1914

 Besant first visited India in 1893 and later settled here (Gandhi went to South Africa in 1893; Theosophical Society
set up their headquarters in Adyar in 1882)
o Earlier active in Irish Home Rule movement and Fabian Socialist movement
o With the death of H. S. Olcott in 1907, Besant succeeded him as the international president of the
Theosophical Society.
o She founded the Central Hindu College in Benaras in 1898. Established Benares Hindu University along with
Madan Mohan Malaviya in 1916.
o 1913, Besant joined the Indian National Congress and the next year she started two publications: weekly the
journal Commonweal (1914) and the daily New India
o She published a book How India Wrought for Freedom in 1915
o She gave the call, 'The moment of England's difficulty is the moment of India's opportunity
o First woman president of INC – 1917 in Calcutta; First Indian woman is Sarojini Naidu in 1925 Kanpur session
 1914 Congress session – failed to reach a Moderate Extremist rapprochement
o Pherozeshah Mehta and his Bombay Moderate group succeeded, by winning over Gokhale and the Bengal
Moderates, in keeping out the Extremists.
 1915 – Bombay session – extremists be admitted to the Congress.
o Pherozshah Mehta died in November 1915
o On September 28, 1915, Besant made a formal declaration that she would start the Home Rule League
Movement for India
o Although Besant failed to get the Congress to approve her scheme of Home Rule Leagues, the Congress did
commit itself to a programme of educative propaganda and to a revival of local-level Congress committees.
o Besant laid the condition that if the Congress did not implement her commitments before September 1916,
she would be free to set up her own league—which she finally had to, as there was no response from the
Congress.
 1916 – Lucknow session – Moderate Extremist reunion
o Ambika Charan Majumdar was the president welcomed the extremists
Delhi Durbar

 The Delhi Durbars were grand events organised by the Viceroys to mark the coronations of Emperors or Empresses
of Great Britain. Hence, these were also known as the Coronation Durbars. Durbar, which means a 'court of a ruler'
in Persian, was adopted by the British from the Mughals. The idea was to come across to the people of India as the
'heirs of the Mughals'.
 Delhi Durbar 1877: Queen Victoria in addition to her title of 'Queen of Great Britain and Ireland' assumed the title of
'Empress of India'.
 Delhi Durbar 1903: It marked the succession of Edward VII.
 Delhi Durbar 1911: It marked the succession of King George V. It was historic for two reasons; one it was the only
one attended by the Emperor himself and second, this was where the shifting of the Imperial Capital from Calcutta to
Delhi was announced.

Home Rule League:

 Aim:
o To attain Home Rule (self government within British)
 Method of struggle (mild methods)
o Teaching politics to people (Politicizing the people) through debate, public meeting, rally
 Tilak’s Indian Home Rule League
o April 1916
o First meeting at Belgaum
o Headquarters – Poona
o Maharashtra (excluding Bombay city), Karnataka, Central Provinces and Berar (Maharashtra).
o It had six branches and the demands included swarajya, formation of linguistic states and education in the
vernacular.
o Joseph Baptista was the first president of Indian Home Rule League
 Annie Besant’s All India Home Rule League
o September 1916
o Headquarters - Madras
o Covered the rest of India (including Bombay city).
o It had 200 branches, was loosely organised as compared to Tilak’s league. It had branches at Kanpur,
Allahabad, Benaras, Mathura, Calicut and Ahmednagar
o She declared that "the price of India's loyalty is India's Freedom".
o George Arundale as the organising secretary.
o Besides Arundale, the main work was done by B. P. Wadia, C.P. Ramaswamy Aiyar, S Subramania Iyer
o Mohammad Ali Jinnah led the Bombay division.
 The Home Rule agitation was later joined by Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Bhulabhai Desai, Chittaranjan Das,
K.M. Munshi, B. Chakravarti, Saifuddin Kitchlew, Madan Mohan Malaviya, Surendranath Bannerjea, Mohammad Ali
Jinnah, Tej Bahadur Sapru and Lala Lajpat Rai.
 Some members of Gokhale’s Servants of India Society also joined the agitation.
 However, Anglo-Indians, most of the Muslims and non-brahmins from the South did not join as they felt Home Rule
would mean rule of the Hindu majority, and that too mainly by the high caste.
 Internment of Annie Besant
o June 1917 – September 1917
o Besant, B P Wadia and George Arundale were arrested.
o Montague – 52 pieces - Parvati
o Sir S Subramniya Aiyer renounced his knighthood
o At the AICC meeting convened on 28 July 1917 Tilak advocated the use of civil disobedience if they were not
released
o When she was released, she was elected the President of Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress in
1917 – First women President of Congress
 By 1919, Home Rule agitation petered out.
o Montague’s statement of August 1917
 o Tilak had to go abroad (September 1918) in connection with a libel case against Valentine Chirol whose
book, Indian Unrest, had featured Tilak as responsible for the agitational politics that had developed in India.
With Besant unable to give a positive lead and Tilak away in England, the movement was left leaderless.
o In 1920, Gandhi accepted the presidentship of the All India Home Rule League, and changed the
organisation’s name to Swarajya Sabha under the Presidentship of Gandhi. Within a year, however, the
league joined the Indian National Congress.
o The Indian Home Rule League was renamed the Commonwealth of India League and used to lobby British
MPs in support of self-government for India within the empire, or dominion status along the lines of Canada
and Australia. It was transformed by V.K. Krishna Menon into the India League in 1929.

Lucknow Pact: (1916)

 Change in Muslim League’s attitude

o The Calcutta session of the Muslim League (1912) had committed the League to “working with other groups
for a system of self-government suited to India, provided it did not come in conflict with its basic objective of
protection of interests of the Indian Muslims”.
o Maulana Azad’s Al Hilal and Mohammad Ali’s Comrade faced suppression while the leaders such as Ali
brothers, Maulana Azad and Hasrat Mohani faced internment.
 Lucknow Pact features
o Government should declare that it would confer self government on Indians at an early date.
o The representative assemblies at the central as well as provincial level should be further expanded with an
elected majority and more powers given to them.
 This was accepted in 1919 act
o The term of the legislative council should be five years.
 1919 act – Legislative Assembly (3 years) and Legislative Council (5 years)
o The relations of the Secretary of State with the Government of India should be similar to those of the
Colonial Secretary with the Governments of the Dominions, and India should have an equal status with that
of the Dominions in any body concerned with imperial affairs.
o The salaries of the Secretary of State for India should be paid by the British treasury and not drawn from
Indian funds.
 This was accepted in 1919 Act
o Half the members of the viceroy’s and provincial governors’ executive councils should be Indians.
 This was accepted in 1919 Act
o The Governments, Central and Provincial, should be bound to act in accordance with resolutions passed by
their Legislative Councils unless they were vetoed by the Governor-General or Governors–in–Council and, in
that event, if the resolution was passed again after an interval of not less than one year, it should be put into
effect
o The Congress also agreed to separate electorates for Muslims in provincial council elections and for
preferences in their favour (beyond the proportions indicated by population) in all provinces except the
Punjab and Bengal, where some ground was given to the Hindu and Sikh minorities.
o Sarojini Ammaiyar called Jinnah, the chief architect of the Lucknow Pact, “the Ambassador of Hindu–Muslim
Unity”.

August Declaration of 1917 or Montague Statement (20th August 1917) in British House of Commons

 “The government policy is of an increasing participation of Indians in every branch of administration and gradual
development of self governing institutions with a view to the progressive realisation of responsible government in
India as an integral part of the British Empire.”
 From now onwards, the demand by nationalists for self government or home rule could not be termed as seditious
since attainment of self-government for Indians now became a government policy, unlike Morley’s statement in
1909 that the reforms were not intended to give self-government to India.
 the term ‘responsible government’ was implied the condition that the rulers were to be answerable to the elected
representatives, and not only to the imperial government in London
 With this declaration the home rule movement can be termed successful.
 Objections to Montague statement
o No specific time frame was given.
 o The government alone was to decide the nature and the timing of advance towards a responsible
government, and the Indians were resentful that the British would decide what was good and what was bad
for Indians.

Congress’s reaction to Montague Chelmsford Reforms:

 The Congress met in a special session in August 1918 at Bombay under Hasan Imam’s presidency and declared the
reforms to be “disappointing” and “unsatisfactory” and demanded effective self-government instead.
 The Montford reforms were termed “unworthy and disappointing—a sunless dawn” by Tilak, even as Annie Besant
found them “unworthy of England to offer and India to accept”.

Lala Lajpat Rai:

 Known as Punjab Kesari

 1897 - He had founded the Hindu Relief Movement to provide help to the famine-stricken people.
 He visited USA and Japan where he kept in touch with the Indian revolutionaries. In England, he also became a
member of the British Labour party.
 He founded the Home Rule League of America in 1917 in New York.
 He was president of a special session of Congress in 1920 in Calcutta. Was then made the President of AITUC in 1920
 Lala Lajpat Rai and Arya Samaj
o He was influenced by Swami Dayananda Saraswati and joined the Arya Samaj in Lahore.
o He was the editor of Arya Gazette.
o He established the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic School in Lahore.
 He authored the book ‘Young India: An Interpretation’.
 Other works – “Unhappy India”, “History of Arya Samaj”, “England’s Debt to India” and a series of popular
biographies on Mazzini, Garibaldi and Swami Dayanand.
o Dadabhai Naoroji – English Debt to India
 He founded the Punjab National Bank, the Lakshmi Insurance Company and the Servants of the Peoples Society at
Lahore.

Gopala Krishna Gokhale:

 Gopal Krishna Gokhale was born in Maharashtra.

 Between 1899 and 1902, he was a member of the Bombay Legislative Council followed by work at the Imperial
Legislative Council from 1902 till his death (1915).
 At the Imperial legislature, Gokhale played a key role in framing the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909.
 He became president of INC in 1905 in Banaras session.
 Despite the ideological difference, in 1907, he intensely campaigned for the release of Lala Lajpat Rai, who was
imprisoned that year by the British at Mandalay in Myanmar.
 He established the Servants of India Society in 1905 in Bombay for the expansion of Indian education. It was the first
secular organization in the country to devote itself to the betterment of underprivileged, rural and tribal people.
Headquarters at Poona
 He was also associated with the Sarvajanik Sabha journal started by Govind Ranade.
 In 1908, Gokhale founded the Ranade Institute of Economics.
 He started English weekly newspaper, The Hitavada (The people's paper).
 Gokhale was a mentor to both Mohammed Jinnah and Mahatma Gandhi.
 Mahatma Gandhi even wrote a book called, ‘Gokhale, My Political Guru’. Gandhi wrote a book in Gujarati dedicated
to the leader titled ‘Dharmatma Gokhale’.

Abanindranath Tagore:

 Abanindranath, a nephew of Rabindranath Tagore, is considered the leading light of the Bengal School of Art.
 He was also the first major exponent of Swadeshi values in Indian art.
 Abanindranath Tagore sought to modernise the Mughal and the Rajput styles in order to counter the influence of
Western models of art under the colonial regime.
 He was also a noted writer, particularly for children. Popularly known as ‘Aban Thakur’, his books Rajkahini, Buro
Angla, Nalak, and Khirer Putul were landmarks in Bengali language children’s literature.
  1907 - Abanindranath Tagore and Gaganendranath Tagore (brother of Abanindranth Tagore) founded the ‘Indian
Society of Oriental Art’.
o Nandalal Bose - first recipient of a scholarship offered by the Indian Society of Oriental Art.
 Victory of Buddha, My Mother, Bharatmata are among his famous paintings.

Nandlal Bose:

 Nandalal Bose was a key figure of Contextual Modernism.

 A pupil of Abanindranath Tagore, Bose was known for his "Indian style" of painting.
 He became the principal of Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan.
 Nandlal Bose decorated the Hindi version of the original constitution.
o Beohar Rammanohar Sinha decorated the original preamble calligraphed by Prem Behari Narain Raizada.