4 marks:

Q: What was the Wardah Scheme?

June 2010:
The Wardah Scheme was a basic education scheme introduced
by Gandhi. Hindu was to be the sole language for education.
There were no religious studies and students had to spin
cotton. They were also expected to bow down in front of a
picture of Gandhi.
Q: What was the Day of deliverance?

Muslim league celebrated the Day of Deliverance on 16th

August 1946 to celebrate the end of Congress rule.The day was
widely supported by muslims. Quaid-e-Azam had asked for
peaceful protests but there was widespread rioting. Congress
was offended by this celebration.
Q: Describe the Nehru Report.

June 2011:

Ans: The Nehru report was introduced in 1928 as a response to

British’s challenge to form their own constitution. An All-party
conference decided on Dominion status for India, India to
become a federation with a two-chamber parliament,
protection of minorities and voting rights for all women and
men.
Nov 2010:
Q: Who was Dr. Allama Iqbal?
Ans: He was a philosopher, politician and poet who practiced
law in England. He was knighted in 1922 in recognition for his
poetry. He believed that Muslims need a separate country and
he voiced his opinion in his famous address as Allahabad in
1930. He was buried outside Badshahi Mosque in Lahore.
May 2012:
Q: Who was Chaudri Rehmat Ali?
Ans: Chaudri Rehmat Ali left India to study law at Cambridge in
1930. He attended conferences on Hindu- Muslim relationships
while he was here. He believed that muslims should have a
separate homeland and in his phamplet, ‘Now or Never’ argued
in favour of partition, giving the country it’s name, ‘Pakistan’
which was also adopted later.
CONGRESS RULE
14 MARKS:
May 2012 and June 2008:
Qa: ‘ The main reason why Congress rule( 1937- 1939) was so
hated was because of the introduction of the Wardah Scheme.’
Do you agree or disagree. Explain your answer.
Qb:… Bande Matram
Ans:
The Government of India Act of 1935 was practically
implemented in 1937. The provincial elections were held in the
winter of 1936- 1937.The Indian National Congress won a clear
victory in five provinces and was the largest single party in four
others. The muslim League, however, did not fare well and won
only 109 out of the 482 seats allotted to it. Some of the
Congress leaders even stated that they would take revenge
from the muslims for 700 years of slavery.
The congress proved to be a pure hindu party and worked only
for the interests of hindus. The Bande Matram was a
nationalist Hindu song which encouraged hindus to expel
muslims from ‘hindustan’. It also openly preaching hatred. This
was not a Congress policy, but the singing of the song was
made compulsory before the start of business. The muslims
were offended and worried. However, there were other
reasons why the hated the Congress rule.
Education Schemes like the Wardah Scheme were
introduced .The basic principle was that the first seven years of
schooling woild be devoted to manual labour and spinning
cotton was introduced in the school curriculum. This was
severely resented as it was a medival form of education. There
was no religious education, teaching was to be in hindi and all
students were expected to bow in front of Gandhi’s
picture.Another scheme, the Vidya Mandar Scheme indirectly
aimed at converting all non-hindus to Hinduism. It was
introduced in all schools and collages. It’s objective was to
glorify Hindu myths and heroes and adopt them as national
icons. Muslims felt it was an attempt to subvert a love for Islam.
The Congress ministires resolved that all government officers in
all the provinces ruled by the Congress must wear uniform
mafe of Khaddar (rough-spun cotton). This reinforced Ganshi’s
teaching as a result threatening muslim’s religion. Hindu was
declared the official language and Devangari was declared as
the official script.Congress insisted on flying it’s tri-colour flags
on all public and local buildings, as if they had conquered these
bulidings. It was given the status of a national flag. The
Congress closed the doors of government offices for muslims
which was the main source of income for them.
Muslims feared that a major aim of the Hindus was to erase
muslim culture. In some places Hindu extremists behaved in an
appalling way . Muslims were forbidden to eat beef and
received harsh punishments if they slaughtered cows. Azaan
was forbidden and attacks were carried out on mosques. Noisy
processions were arranged near mosques at prayer time and
pigs were sometimes pushed into the mosques. Sometimes
there were anti-Muslim riots in which muslims were attacked
and their houses and property set on fire. Muslims felt that
when they reported such incidents, decisions were taken
against them.
It seemed to many that the Congress was aiming for nothing
short of drowning Muslim identity and culture in a wave of
hindu nationalism. Sir William Barton in the ‘national Review’ in
june 1939 talked of Congress rule as ‘ the rising tide of political
Hindiusm’.Lord Linlithglow also talked of ‘ many instances of
continued oppression in small ways’. The main reason for
hating Congress rule was the tyranny they carried our against
the muslims for if they hadn’t happened, other things may not
have been hated so much.
7 marks;
The Bande Matram was a nationalist Hindu song which
encouraged hindus to expel muslims from ‘hindustan’. This was
not a Congress policy, but the singing of the song was made
compulsory before the start of business. The muslims were
offended and worried. Education Schemes like the Wardah
Scheme were introduced . There was no religious education,
teaching was to be in hindi, spinning cotton was introduced and
all students were expected to bow in front of Gandhi’s
picture.Another scheme, the Vidya Mandar Scheme introduced
in all schools and collages had it’s objective to glorify Hindu
myths and heroes and adopt them as national icons. Muslims
felt it was an attempt to subvert a love for Islam.
Hindi was declared the official language and the Congress flag
was given the status of the national flag.Muslims were
forbidden to eat beef and received harsh punishments if they
slaughtered cows. Azaan was forbidden and attacks were
carried out on mosques. Noisy processions were arranged near
mosques at prayer time and pigs were sometimes pushed into
the mosques. Sometimes there were anti-Muslim riots in which
muslims were attacked and their houses and property set on
fire. Muslim economy was also affected as the Congress
stopped their main source of income in government jobs.
Nov 2006:
Q: Importance of G.O.I.
Indians had increasingly been demanding a greater role in the
government of their country since the late nineteenth
century.The most important feature of the Act was that for
the first time the British raj had allowed a certain amount of
provincial autonomy. Parliamentary systems with two
chamber had been set up and Indian provincial ministers
could carry out their own programmes in the provinces.
N.w.f.p was given the status of a fully-fledged province and
two new provinces were created, Orissa and Sindh. Jinnah had
demanded for Sindh to be a separate province.
Although the British had no intention of giving up India, their
power over the provinces was weakening and eventual
independence came closer.Provisions for a federal
government were established at the centre for the first time
and the princely states could get involved politically in affairs
which concered the subcontinent. The Act was also important
because it gave a larger proportion of the local population the
opportunity to exercise some power and voice their opinions.
The property qualification was lowered which give the vote to
a total of 35 million people out of which 5 million were
women.

Nov 2008
Q: Why was there so much opposition to the G.O.I.A of 1935?
The Government of India Act was opposed on all sides in India.
The indian hopes of achieving dominion status like Canada and
Australia had been dashed. The act seemed to give more seats
and representation, however Provincial governors had special
rights and could dismiss a minister or the whole
administration .Though the voting was reduced and 35 million
more people could vote, it was only 25 % of the population due
to the property qualification. The finances of both the
federation and the provinces were kept under very tight control
by the British.
The system of diarchy was to be introduced at the central level.
That would mean that the Governor- general would gain power
over the steelwork of the country: defence, security and foreign
policy. The representative of the British crown in India was the
Viceroy, and an Executive council, once again made up solely of
Englishmen.The princes resented a loss of power it would entail
and did not like the Act.Nehru called it a ‘Charter of Slavery’
and Jinnah called it ‘throughly rotten, fundamentally bad and
totally unacceptable.