The Making of the National

Chapter 8
Movement: 1870s -1947
The Emergence of Nationalism
➢ The dissatisfaction with British rule
intensified in the 1870s and 1880s.
➢ The Arms Act was passed in 1878,
disallowing Indians from possessing arms.
➢ In the same year the Vernacular Press Act
was also enacted in an effort to silence those
who were critical of the government.
➢ The Act allowed the government to
confiscate the assets of newspapers
including their printing presses if the
newspapers published anything that was
found “objectionable”.
The Emergence of Nationalism
➢ In 1883, there was a furore over the
attempt by the government to
introduce the Ilbert Bill.
➢ The bill provided for the trial of
British or European persons by
Indians, and sought equality between
British and Indian judges in the
country.
➢ But when white opposition forced the
government to withdraw the bill,
Indians were enraged.
A nation in the making
➢ It has often been said that the Congress in the first
twenty years was “moderate” in its objectives and
methods.
➢ During this period it demanded a greater voice for
Indians in the government and in administration.
➢ It wanted the Legislative Councils to be made more
representative, given more power, and introduced in
provinces where none existed.
➢ It demanded that Indians be placed in high positions
in the government.
➢ For this purpose it called for civil service
examinations to be held in India as well, not just in
London.
“Freedom is our birthright”
➢ In Bengal, Maharashtra and Punjab,
leaders such as Bepin Chandra Pal,
Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Lala Lajpat
Rai were beginning to explore more
radical objectives and methods.
➢ Tilak raised the slogan, “Freedom is
my birthright and I shall have it!”
➢ In 1905 Viceroy Curzon partitioned
Bengal.
➢ At that time Bengal was the biggest
province of British India and included
Bihar and parts of Orissa.
“Freedom is our birthright”
➢The partition of Bengal infuriated people all over
India.
➢All sections of the Congress – the Moderates and
the Radicals, as they may be called – opposed it.
➢Large public meetings and demonstrations were
organised and novel methods of mass protest
developed.
➢The struggle that unfolded came to be known as
the Swadeshi movement, strongest in Bengal but
with echoes elsewhere too – in deltaic Andhra for
instance, it was known as the Vandemataram
Movement.
Fig. 3 – Balgangadhar Tilak Notice Fig. 5 – Lala Lajpat Rai A nationalist
the name of the newspaper that lies from Punjab, he was one of the leading
on the table. Kesari, a Marathi members of the Radical group which
newspaper edited by Tilak, became was critical of the politics of petitions.
one of the strongest critics of British He was also an active member of the
rule. Arya Samaj.
The Growth of Mass Nationalism
After 1919 the struggle against
British rule gradually became a mass
movement, involving peasants,
tribals, students and women in large
numbers and occasionally factory
workers as well.
The advent of Mahatma Gandhi
➢ Gandhiji, aged 46, arrived in India in 1915 from
South Africa.
➢ Having led Indians in that country in non-violent
marches against racist restrictions, he was
already a respected leader, known
internationally.
➢ His earliest interventions were in local
movements in Champaran, Kheda and
Ahmedabad where he came into contact with
Rajendra Prasad and Vallabhbhai Patel.
➢ In Ahmedabad he led a successful millworkers’
strike in 1918.
The Rowlatt Satyagraha
➢ In 1919 Gandhiji gave a call for a satyagraha
against the Rowlatt Act that the British had
just passed.
➢ Gandhiji asked the Indian people to observe
6 April 1919 as a day of non-violent
opposition to this Act, as a day of
“humiliation and prayer” and hartal (strike).
➢ The Rowlatt Satyagraha turned out to be the
first all-India struggle against the British
government although it was largely restricted
to cities.
The Rowlatt Satyagraha
➢ In April 1919 there were a number of
demonstrations and hartals in the country
and the government used brutal measures
to suppress them.
➢ The Jallianwala Bagh atrocities, inflicted
by General Dyer in Amritsar on Baisakhi
day (13 April), were a part of this
repression.
➢ On learning about the massacre,
Rabindranath Tagore expressed the pain
and anger of the country by renouncing
his knighthood.
Khilafat agitation and the Non-Cooperation Movement
➢ In 1920 the British imposed a harsh treaty on
the Turkish Sultan or Khalifa.
➢ Indian Muslims were keen that the Khalifa be
allowed to retain control over Muslim sacred
places in the erstwhile Ottoman Empire.
➢ The leaders of the Khilafat agitation,
Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, now wished
to initiate a full-fledged Non-Cooperation
Movement.
➢ Gandhiji supported their call and urged the
Congress to campaign against “Punjab wrongs”
(Jallianwala massacre), the Khilafat wrong and
demand swaraj.
Khilafat agitation and the Non-Cooperation Movement
➢ The Non-Cooperation Movement gained
momentum through 1921-22.
➢ Thousands of students left government
controlled schools and colleges.
➢ Many lawyers such as Motilal Nehru, C.R.
Das, C. Rajagopalachari and Asaf Ali gave
up their practices.
➢ British titles were surrendered and
legislatures boycotted.
➢ People lit public bonfires of foreign cloth.
The happenings of 1922 -1929
➢ Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, was
against violent movements.
➢ He abruptly called off the Non-
Cooperation Movement when in
February 1922 a crowd of peasants
set fire to a police station in Chauri
Chaura.
➢ Twentytwo policemen were killed on
that day.
➢ The peasants were provoked because
the police had fired on their peaceful
demonstration.
The happenings of 1922 -1929
➢ Leaders such as Chitta Ranjan Das
and Motilal Nehru argued that the
party should fight elections to the
councils and enter them in order to
influence government policies.
➢ Two important developments of the
mid-1920s were the formation of the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS), a Hindu organisation, and the Fig. 9 – Chitta Ranjan Das A
Communist Party of India. major figure in the freedom
movement, Das was a lawyer
from East Bengal. He was
especially active in the
Noncooperation Movement.
Simon Commission
➢ In 1927 the British government in
England decided to send a commission
headed by Lord Simon to decide India’s
political future.
➢ The Commission had no Indian
representative.
➢ The decison created an outrage in India.
➢ All political groups decided to boycott
the Commission.
➢ When the Commission arrived it was
met with demonstrations with banners
saying “Simon Go Back”.
“It takes a loud voice to make the deaf hear.
Inquilab Zindabad !”
➢ Revolutionary nationalists such as Bhagat
Singh and his comrades wanted to fight colonial
rule and the rich exploiting classes through a
revolution of workers and peasants.
➢ For this purpose they founded the Hindustan
Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) in
1928 at Ferozeshah Kotla in Delhi.
➢ Members of the HSRA assassinated Saunders, a
police officer who had led a lathicharge that
caused the death of Lala Lajpat Rai.
“It takes a loud voice to make the deaf hear.
Inquilab Zindabad !”
➢ Along with his fellow nationalist B.K. Dutt,
he threw a bomb in the Central Legislative
Assembly on 8 April 1929.
➢ The aim, as their leaflet explained, was not
to kill but, “to make the deaf hear”, to
remind the foreign government of its
callous exploitation.
➢ Bhagat Singh was tried and executed at the
age of 23.
The March to Dandi
➢Purna Swaraj would never come on its
own. It had to be fought for.
➢In 1930, Gandhiji declared that he would
lead a march to break the salt law.
➢According to this law, the state had a
monopoly on the manufacture and sale of
salt.
➢Gandhiji and his followers marched for
over 240 miles from Sabarmati to the
coastal town of Dandi where they broke
the government law by gathering natural
Fig. 12 – Mahatma Gandhi breaking
salt found on the seashore, and boiling the salt law by picking up a lump of
sea water to produce salt. natural salt, Dandi, 6 April 1930
 The March to Dandi
➢ Government announced elections to the provincial
legislatures in 1937.
➢ The Congress formed governments in 7 out of 11
provinces.
➢ In September 1939, after two years of Congress
rule in the provinces, the Second World War broke
out.
➢ Critical of Hitler, Congress leaders were ready to
support the British war effort. Fig. 13 – Sarojini Naidu with Mahatma
Gandhi, Paris, 1931 Active in the
➢ But in return they wanted that India be granted national movement since the early
independence after the war. 1920s, Naidu was a significant leader
of the Dandi March. She was the first
➢ The British refused to concede the demand. The Indian woman to become President of
Congress ministries resigned in protest. the Indian National Congress (1925).
Quit India and Later
➢ Mahatma Gandhi decided to initiate a new phase
of movement against the British in the middle of
the Second World War.
➢ The British must quit India immediately, he told
them.
➢ To the people he said, “do or die” in your effort
to fight the British – but you must fight non- Fig. 14 – Quit India movement, August
violently. 1942 Demonstrators clashed with the
➢ The first response of the British was severe police everywhere. Many thousands
were arrested, over a thousand killed,
repression. many more were injured.
➢ In many areas orders were given to machine-gun
crowds from airplanes. The rebellion, however,
ultimately brought the Raj to its knees.
Towards Independence and Partition
➢Meanwhile, in 1940 the Muslim League
had moved a resolution demanding
“Independent States” for Muslims in the
north-western and eastern areas of the
country.
➢From the late 1930s, the League began
viewing the Muslims as a separate
“nation” from the Hindus.
➢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.
Towards Independence and Partition
➢At the end of the war in 1945, the
British opened negotiations between the
Congress, the League and themselves
for the independence of India.
➢Partition now became more or less
inevitable.
➢After the failure of the Cabinet Mission,
the Muslim League decided on mass
agitation for winning its Pakistan
demand.
➢It announced 16 August 1946 as “Direct
Action Day”.
Towards Independence and Partition
➢Many hundred thousand people were
killed and numerous women had to face
untold brutalities during the Partition.

➢Partition also meant that India changed,

➢So, the joy of our country’s Fig. 22 – Refugees from riot-torn Punjab
independence from British rule came gather in New Delhi, in search of shelter and
food
mixed with the pain and violence of
Partition.
His Ch.8 The Quit India Movement

His Ch.8 On the Road Of Independance and Partition

His Ch.8 Jallianwala Bagh

His Ch.8 Causes of the Rise of Nationalism