NATIONALISM IN INDIA

Because of the rise of feeling of nationalism in Europe

 Formation of nation states.
 Change in people’s understand of who they were and what defined their
identity and sense of belonging.
 New symbols and icons, new songs and ideas forged the boundaries and
communities.

How did this concept developed in India??

 Nationalism is intimately connected to anti colonial movement.
i. Discovering their unity in the process of their struggling with
colonialism.
ii. But each class and group left the effects of colonialism differently, their
experiences were varied and their notions of freedom were not always
same.

 The congress under Mahatma Gandhi tried to forge these groups together
within one movement.

THE FIRST WORLD WAR (1913-1918)

First World War: 1914-1918

Was India affected by the First World War?

 Created a new economic and political situation.
i. World War increase in the defense expenditure.
ii. By war loans and increasing taxes: customs and duties were raised and
income tax introduced.
iii. Price of essential commodities increased.
iv. Extreme hardship on common people.
v. Villages were called upon to supply soldiers, and the forced recruitment
in rural areas caused widespread anger.
vi. CROP FAILURES:
Shortage of food

Outbreak of Influenza epidemic

According to the census of 1921, 12 to 13 million people perished as

result of famine and the epidemic.

 People hoped that their hardship would end after the war was over but that
did not happen.
 At this stage new leaders appeared and suggested a new mode of struggle.
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 THE IDEA OF SATYAGRAHA
 Mahatma Gandhi returned to India in January 1915.
 And came with the idea of Satyagraha.( Fought the racist regime in South
Africa with a novel method of mass agitation)
 SATYA + AGRAHA ( Satya means “truth” and Agraha means “to hold firm”)
 The idea of Satyagraha emphasized the power of truth and the need to
search for truth.
PHILOSOPHY OF SATYAGRAHA
1. If the cause was true, if the struggle was against injustice then physical
force was not necessary to fight the oppressor.
2. Without seeking vengeance or being aggressive a Satyagrahi could win
the battle through non violence.(by appealing to the conscience of the
oppressor)
3. People, including the oppressors had to be persuaded to see the truth
instead of being forced to accept truth through the use of violence.

EXPERIMENTS

 CHAMPARAN BIHAR
In 1917 he travelled to Champaran in Bihar to inspire the peasants to struggle
against the oppressive plantation system.

 KHEDA GUJARAT
Then in 1917 he organized a Satyagraha to support the peasants of the
Kheda district of Gujarat. Affected by crop failure and a plague epidemic the
peasants of Kheda could not pay the revenue and were demanding that
revenue collection be relaxed.

 AHMADABAD GUJARAT
In 1918 Mahatma Gandhi went to Ahmadabad to organize a Satyagraha
movement amongst cotton mill worker.

THE ROWLATT ACT

 A black law passed through the imperial legislative council. It gave the
government enormous power to repress political activities and allowed
detention of political prisoners without trial of two years.
 Mahatma Gandhi wanted a non-violent civil disobedience against laws and
decided to make hartal against this on 6 April 1919. Rallies were organized in
various cities, workers went in strike in railway shops and shops were closed
down.

 The British administration decided to clamp down the nationalists.

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 i. Local leaders were picked up from Amritsar.
ii. Mahatma Gandhi was barred from entering Delhi.
iii. On 10th April the police in Amritsar fired upon a peaceful procession,
provoking widespread attacks on banks, post offices and railway
stations.
 Now as violence occurred the British administration took action and Martial
law was imposed and General Dyer took command.
 On 13tn April the infamous Jallianwalla Bagh Incident took place. On that day
a large crowd gathered in the enclosed ground of Jallianwalla Bagh. People
were gathered for two reasons:
i. To protest against the government’s repressive measure.
ii. To attend the annual Baishakhi fair.
 Many villagers were unaware of the martial law that had been imposed.
 In conclusion Dyer entered the area, blocked the exit point and opened fire
on the crowd, killing hundreds of people.

IMPACTS
 Crowds took to the streets in many north Indian towns.
 There were strikes, clashes with police and attacks on government buildings.
The government responded with brutal repression. Seeking to humiliate and
terrorise people.
 Seeing such violence Mahatma Gandhi called off the movement.

KHILAFAT ISSUE
 Rowlatt Satyagraha was limited mostly to cities and towns. Mahatma Gandhi
now felt the need to launch a more broad based movement in India. But he
was certain that no such movement could be organized without bringing the
Hindus and Muslims closer together. In That situation Khalifat issue help to
bring Hindus and Muslims closer.

 The First World War ended with the defeat of Ottoman Empire (Turkey) and
there were rumors that a harsh peace treaty was going to be imposed on the
Ottoman Empire, the spiritual head of the Islamic world (The Khalifa).

 A young generation of Muslim leaders like the brothers Muhammad Ali and
Shaukat Ali, began discussing with Mahatma Gandhi about possibility of a
united mass action on the issue.

 Gandhiji saw this as an opportunity to bring Muslims under the umbrella of a

unified national movement.

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  Calcutta session of the Congress in September 1920, he convinced other
leaders of the need to start a non- cooperation movement in support of
Khilafat as well as for swaraj.

Why non- cooperation?

In his famous book HIND SWARAJ (1910), Mahatma Gandhi
 Declared that British rule was established in India with the cooperation of
Indians and had survived only because of this cooperation.
 If Indians refused to cooperate, British rule in India would collapse within a
year and swaraj would come.
How could non-cooperation become a movement?
 The movement should unfold in stages. It should begin with the surrender of
titles that the government awarded and a boycott of civil services, army,
police, courts and legislative councils, schools and foreign goods.
 In case the government used repression a full civil disobedience campaign
would be launched.

CHALLENGES
Many within the congress were reluctant to boycott the council election
scheduled for November 1920 and feared that the movement might led to
popular violence.
Now because of difference of opinion after and intense tussle with the
congress, finally at the Congress Session at Nagpur in December 1920, a
compromise was worked out and the Non- cooperation program was
adopted.

DIFFERING STRANDS WITHIN THE MOVEMENT

 Non- cooperation began in January 1921.
 Various social groups participated in the movement and each with its own
specific aspiration. (towns , cities)
 All of them responded to the call Swaraj but the term meant different things to
different people.

THE MOVEMENT IN THE TOWNS

 In cities/towns middle class participated in the non- cooperation movement.
 Thousands of students left government controlled schools and colleges,
headmaster and teachers resigned.
 Lawyers gave up their legal practices.
 The council elections were boycotted in most provinces except Madras
because Justice Party of Madras refused to boycott the election.

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 THE EFFECTS OF NON-COOPERATION ON THE ECONOMICS FRONT
WERE MORE DRAMATIC
1. Foreign goods were boycotted.
2. Liquor shops picketed.
3. Foreign cloth burnt in huge bonfires.
4. The import of foreign cloths halves between 1921 to 1922.
5. Merchants and traders refused to trade in foreign goods or finance foreign
trade.
6. People began discarding imported clothes and wearing only Indian only.
7. Indian textile mills and handlooms went up.

LIMITATION OF NCM IN TOWNS

 Khadi clothes was often more expensive than mass produced mill cloths and
poor people could not afford to buy it.
 Boycott British institution posed a problem.
 Alternative Indian institution had to be set up so that they could be used in
place of the British ones.
 These were slow to come up. So students and teachers began trickling back
to government schools and lawyers joined back work in government courts.

MOVEMENT IN COUNTRY SIDE

1. Participation by Peasants
2. Participation by Tribal

1. Participation by peasants
 In Awadh, peasants were led by Baba Ram Chandra.
 He was Sanyasi who had earlier been to Fiji as an indentured labourer.
 The movement here was against Talikdars and landlords who demanded
excess high rents.
 The peasants’ movement demanded the reduction of revenue, abolition of
beggar and social boycott of oppressive landlords.
 In many places Nai- Dhobi were organized by panchayats to deprive
landlords of the services.

In June 1920 Jawaharlal Nehru began going around the villages in

Awadh. By October Oudh Kishan Sabha was set up headed by Jawaharlal
Nehru, Baba Ramchandra and few others. Within a few months over 300
branches had been set up in the villages. The effort of the congress was
to integrate the Awadh peasants struggle into the wider struggle.

LIMITATION
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 It converted into violent movement. The houses of talukdars and merchants
were attacked, bazaars were looted and grains hoards were taken over.
 In many places local leaders told peasants that Gandhiji had declared that no
taxes were to be paid ad land was to be redistributed among the poor.
 The name of Mahatma Gandhi was being invoked to sanction all action and
aspiration.

PARTICIPATION BY TRIBALS
 In the Gudem Hill of Andra Pradesh a militant Guerrilla movement spread in
the early 1920s.
 They started to hide and attack the British officials because they made strict
forest laws. This enraged the hill people as the livelihoods of tribal people
were affected and their traditional rights were being denied.
 When the government began forcing them to contribute beggar for building,
the hill people revolted.

Alluri Sitaram Raju

1. He claimed that he had a variety of special powers as he can make
correct astrological prediction, heal people, he could survive even bullet
shots. The rebels proclaimed that he was an incarnation of God.
2. He talked of the greatness of Mahatma Gandhi and persuaded people to
wear Khadi and give up drinking. At the same time he asserted that India
could be liberated only by the use of force and not by non- violence.
3. They attacked police stations, attempted to kill British officials and carried
on Guerrilla warfare for achieving Swaraj.
4. He was captured and executed and over time became a folk hero.

SWARAJ IN THE PLANTATION

 For plantation workers in Assam, freedom meant the right to move freely in
and out of the confined space in which they were enclosed and it meant
retaining a link with the village from which they had come.
 Because according to Inland Emigration Act 1859 plantation workers were
not permitted to leave the tea garden without the permission and infact they
were rarely given such permission.
 When call was given to participate in non- cooperation movement thousands
of workers defied the authorities and left the plantation and headed home.
 They believed that Gandhi Raj was coming and everyone would be given
land in their own villages.
 They however never reached their destination. The notion of Swaraj was
interpreted in their own ways still it was Pan India Movement.
 Imagining it to be a time when all suffering and all troubles would be over
, they were also emotionally relating to an all India agitation.

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 They were identifying with a movement which went beyond the limits of their
immediate locality. Eg slogans of Swatantra Bharat

CALLING OFF NON- COOPERATION MOVEMENT (1921- FEB1922)

In February 1922 at Chaure Chaura Gorakhpur (UP) a peaceful
demonstration in a bazaar turned into a violent clash with the police. Hearing
of the incident Gandhi called a halt to the Non- cooperation movement.

TOWARDS CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

Non- Cooperation movement (1921-22)

Civil Disobedience movement (1930-31)

What happened in between? (1922-1930)

 Emphasized was given for the training of people for another mass struggle.
 Within the congress, some leaders were by now tired of mass struggle and
wanted to participate in election to the provincial councils that had been set
up by the government of Indian Act 1919.

CR Das, Motilal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru, Subash Chandra
Bose
They formed the Swaraj Party with But younger leaders pressed for more
the congress to argue for a return to radical mass agitation and for full
council politics. independence.

 In such a situation of internal debate and dissension two factors shaped

Indian politics towards the late 1920’s.
1. Economic depression
2. Simon Commission

1. ECONOMIC DEPRESSION-
i. Agricultural prices began to fall from 1926 and collapsed after
1930.
ii. Country side was on turmoil.
iii. As the demand the agricultural goods fell and exports declined.
Peasants found it difficult to sell their harvest and pay their
revenue.

2. SIMON COMMISSION
i. The new tory government in Britain constituted a Statutory
Government Commission under Sir John Simon to look into the
functioning system in India and suggest changes.

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 ii. The commission did not have a single Indian member. They were
all British.
iii. When the Simon Commission arrived in India in 1928 it was
greeted with the slogan “ Go back Simon”

The viceroy, Lord Irwin announced in October 1929 a vague offer

of “Dominion status” for India in an unspecified future and round
table conference to discuss a future constitution.

Response of the Indians

 The radicals within the congress, led by Jawaharlal Nehru and Subash
Chandra Bose became more assertive.
 The liberal and moderate who were proposing a constitutional system within
the framework of British dominion gradually lost their influence.

 LAHORECONGRESS SESSION (1929)

In December 1929 under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru the Lahore
Congress formalized the demand of Purna Swaraj or full independence for
India.
It was declared that 26th January 1930 should be celebrated as Independence
Day. But the celebration attracted very little attention

Therefore Mahatma Gandhi had to find a way to relate this abstract idea of
freedom towards concrete issues of everyday life.

THE SALT MARCH AND CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT

SALT MARCH
BACKGROUND
 On 31 Jan 1930, Gandhiji sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin stating eleven
demands.
 One demand was to abolish the salt tax.
 It was an ultimatum to be fulfilled by 11 March. If the demands were not
fulfilled by 11th March, congress would launch a civil disobedience campaign.
 Irwin was unwilling to negotiate.
 Gandhiji started his famous salt march from his ashram in Sabarmati to the
Gujarati coastal town of Dandi.
 Walked 240 miles for 24 days.
 On 6th April they reached Dandi, ceremonially violated salt law by
manufacturing salt.
 Like this there was beginning of the civil disobedience movement.

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 How was this movement different from the non- cooperation
movement?
People were now asked not only to refuse cooperation with the British but
also to break colonial laws.

How did the civil disobedience movement unfolded?

 Thousands in different parts of the country broke the salt law.
 Manufactured salt and demonstrated in front of government salt factories.
 Foreign cloth was boycotted and liquor shops were picketed.
 Peasants refused to pay revenue and chaukidari taxes, village officials
resigned.
 Many places forest people violated forest laws by going into reserved forests
to collect wood and gaze cattle.

RESONSE OF THE GOVERNMENT

 The colonial government began arresting the congress leaders one by one.
Example: Arrest of Abdul Ghaffar Khan.
 This movement turned into violent one.
 When Mahatma Gandhi himself was arrested, industrial workers in Solapur
attacked all structures that symbolized British rule.
 A frightened government responded with a policy of brutal repression.
Peaceful Satyagrahis were attacked, women and children were beaten and
about 100000 people were arrested.
 Mahatma Gandhi once again called off the movement.
 He entered into a pact with Irwin on March 1931 and is known as Gandhi-
Irwin pact.
 Gandhiji agreed to call off the movement and consented to participate in a
Round Table Conference in London and the government agreed to release
the political prisoners.

Gandhiji second round table conference and outcomes

 In December 1931, Gandhiji went to London from the conference.
 But the negotiations broken down and he returned disappointed.
 Back in India, he discovered that the government had begun a new cycle of
repression.
1. Ghaffar Khan and Jawaharlal Nehru were both in Jail.
2. The congress had been declared illegal.
3. Series of measures had been imposed to prevent meetings,
demonstrators and boycotts.
 He re- launched civil disobedience but it was not so successful because
people were not the enthusiastic as before. For over a year the movement
continued but in 1934 it lost its momentum.
How participants saw the movement?
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 Different social groups that participated in the civil disobedience
movement are:
RICH PEASANT POOR PEASANT
INDUSTRALISTS WORKERS
WOMEN

1. Participation of rich peasants in civil disobedience movement- Being

producers of commercial crops, they were very harder hit by the trade
depression and felling prices. Therefore it was difficult for them to pay
government’s revenue demands. The refusal of the government to reduce the
revenue demand led to widespread resentment.
So they supported civil disobedience movement. For them the fight for Swaraj
was a struggle against high revenues.

2. Participation of poor peasants in civil disobedience movement- Interested in

lowering of the revenue demand, they wanted the unpaid rent to the landlords
to be remitted.
They joined a variety of radical movement often led by socialists and
communists.
Congress was apprehensive of raising issues that might upset the rich
peasants and landlords; the congress was unwilling to support no rent
campaigns in most places.

3. Participation of business class in civil disobedience movement- First world

war- Indian merchants and industrialists had made huge profits and become
powerful.
Keen on expanding their business but British rules were barriers.
 They wanted protection against imports of foreign goods.
 Rupee- sterling foreign exchanges ratio that would discourage imports.
 They formed the Indian Industrialists and commercial congress in 1920.
 The Federation of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI)
in 1927.

Participation and expectation from civil disobedience movement

 Prominent industrialists like Purshottamdas Thakurdas and GD Birla
supported the supported the Civil disobedience movement.
 They gave financial assistance and refused to buy or sell imported goods.
 Most businessmen came to see Swaraj as a time when colonial restriction on
business would no longer exist and trade industry would flourished without
constrained.
 Failure of second round table conference was a disappointment to all.
 They were apprehensive of the spread of militant activities.
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 Worried about prolonged disruption of business.
 The growing influence of socialism amongst the younger members of the
congress.

4. Participation of workers in civil disobedience movement-

 Participation was not in large number, except in the Nagpur region.
 As the industrialists came closer to the congress, workers stayed aloof.
 Participation of some workers adopting the idea of the Gandhian programme.
 Boycott of foreign goods.
 There were strikes by railway workers in 1930 and dockworkers in 1932.
 In 1930 thousands of workers in Chotanagpur tin mines wore Gandhi caps
and participated in protest rallies and boycott campaigns.

5. Participation of women in civil disobedience movement-

 During Gandhi’s salt march, thousands of women came out of their homes to
listen to him.
 They participated in protest, marches, manufactured salts and picketed
foreign cloth and liquor shops.
 They began to see service to the nation as a sacred duty of woman.
 This increased public role did not necessarily mean any radical change in the
way the position of women was visualized
 Gandhi was convinced that it was the duty of women to look after home, be
good mother and good wives.
 The congress was reluctant to allow women to hold any position or authority
within the organization.

LIMITS OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

Untouchables
 Begun to call themselves dalits or oppressed.
 For long the congress had ignored the dalits for fear of offending Sanatanis
( High Caste Hindu)
 But Mahatma Gandhi declared that Swaraj would not come for a hundred
years if untouchabilility was not eliminated.

Efforts put in by Mahatma Gandhi for the upliftment of untouchabilities.

1. He called the ‘untouchables’ Hariyan or the children of God.
2. Organized Satyagraha to secure them entry into temples and access to
public wells, tanks, roads and schools.
3. He himself cleaned toilet to dignify the work of the bhangi.
4. Persuaded upper castes to change their heart and give up the sin of
untouchability.

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 But many Dalit leaders were keen on different political solutions to
the problem of the community.

Demand of the Dalit leaders for the community.

 Reserved seats in educational institutions.
 Separated electorate that would choose Dalit members for legislative
councils.
 They wanted political empowerment.
DR. BR AMDEDKAR MAHATMA GANDHI
Organized the Dalits into depressed Clashed with Mahatma Gandhi at the
classes Association in 1930. second round table conference by
demanding separate electorates for
Dalits.

When the British government conceded Ambedkar’s demand, Gandhiji began a fast
unto death.
POONA PACT OF SEPTEMBER 1932
 It gave the depressed classes (later to be known as the Schedule Castes)
reserved seats in provincial and central legislative councils but they were to
be voted in by the general electorate.
 The Dalit movement however continued to be apprehensive of the congress
led national movement.

MUSLIM HINDU
After the decline of the non- From the mid-1920s the congress
cooperation- khilafat movement a came to be more visibly associated
large section of Muslim felt alienated with openly Hindus religious
from the congress. nationalist groups like the Hindu
Mahasabha.

The relation worsened. Each community organized religious procession

with militant fervous provoking Hindu- Muslim communal clashes and riots
in various cities.

 The Congress and the Muslim League made efforts to renegotiate on alliance
and in 1927 it appeared that such a unity could be forged.
 Debate over the question of representation in the future assemblies.

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 MUHAMMAD ALI JINNAH MR JAYAKAR
Willing to give up the demand for At the All Party Conference in 1928,
separate electorates, if Muslims were MR Jayakar of the Hindu Mahasabha
assured reserved seats in Bengal and strongly opposed efforts to
Punjab. compromise.

As a consequence an atmosphere of suspicious and distrust created between two

communities.

THE SENSE OF COLLECTIVE BELONGING

With the feeling of Nationalism:
 People began to believe that they are all part of the same nation.
 When they discover some unity that binds them together.

How did people belonging to different communities, regions or

language groups, develop a sense of collective belonging?
 Through the experience of united struggle.
 Variety of cultural process through which nationalism captured people’s
imagination.

History and fiction, folklore and songs, popular prints and symbols all played
a part in the making of nationalism.

The Identify of a nation

1. Symbolized in figure or image. This helps create an image with
which people can identify the nation.
 India= Bharat Mata
 The image was first created by Bankim Chandra Chattopodhyay.
 In the 1870s he wrote “Vande Mataram’’ as a hymn to the motherland.
 Later it was included in his novel Anandamath and widely sung during the
Swadeshi movement in Bengal.
 Painting of Bharat Mata painted by Abanindranath Tagore.
 Abanindranath Tagore painted his famous image of Bharat Mata.
 Bharat Mata is portrayed as an ascetic figure. She is calm, composed, divine
and spiritual. In subsequent years the images of Bharat Mata acquired many
different forms as it circulated in popular prints and was painted by dufferent
artists.
 Devotion to this mother figure came to be seen as evidence of one’s
nationalism.

2. Movement to revive Indian folklore

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 Nationalists began recording folk tales sung by bards and they toured villages
to gather folk songs and legends.
 These tales they believed gave a true picture of traditional culture that had
been corrupted and damaged by outside forces.
 It was essential to preserve this folk tradition in order to discover one’s
nationality, identity and restore a sense of pride in one’s past.
 In Bengal Rabindranath Tagore himself began collecting ballads, nursery
rhymes and myths and led the movement for folk revival.
 In Madras Natesa Sastri published a massive four volume collection of Tamil
folk tales, the folklore of Southern India.

3. Nationalists used icons and symbols in unifying people and inspiring

in them a feeling of nationalism.
 Tricolor flag used in Swadeshi movement.
 A tricolor flag used (RED, GREEN AND YELLOW) was designed.
 It had eight lotuses representing eight province of British India.
 A crescent moon, representing Hindus and Muslims.
 Swaraj Flag- 1921, Gandhiji had designed the Swaraj flag. It was again of
tricolor (RED,GREEN AND WHITE)
 Had a spinning wheel in the centre representing the Gandhian ideal of self-
help.
 Carrying the flag, holding it aloft during marches became a symbol of
defiance.

Feelings of nationalism were created through reinterpretation

of history.

 Many Indian began feeling that to instill sense of pride in the nation; Indian
history had to be thought about differently.
 The British saw Indian as backward and primitive, incapable of governing
themselves.
 In response, Indians began looking into the past to discover India’s great
achievements.

Nationalists’ effects to reinterpreted history:

1. They wrote about the glorious developments in ancient times when art and
architecture, science and mathematics, religion and culture, law and
philosophy, crafts and trade had flourished.
2. This glorious time, in their view was followed by a history of decline when
India was colonized.

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3. Nationalist histories urged the readers to take pride in India’s great
achievement in the past and struggle to change the miserable conditions
of life under British rule.

CHALLENGES
When the past being glorified was Hindu, when the images celebrated
were drawn from Hindu iconography, then people of other communities felt
left out.

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