Nationalism in India a) The nationalist movement of India Introduction a.

. 1857 First revolt against British Spread across India Failed because of lack of planning. b. Sources of Nationalist Idea i. Garibaldi & Mazzini Italian Revolutionary ii. Bismarck Man behind German Unification iii. Ho Chi Minh Vietnam iv. Gandhi India c. Just like it happened in Vietnam, it started as a freedom struggle and then turned into a nationalist movement. d. People became one to fight the colonial rule however each group developed its own method to fight British. e. Causes: i. First World War 1. India had been forced to take part in the First World War against Germany. 2. British introduced heavy taxes to collect funds to continue fighting. 3. People found it difficult to survive with commodity prices going beyond their reach. 4. Forced recruitment of Indian farmers and rural workers to fight in the World War. ii. Situation worsened in 1918 when India was hit by Crop failure and shortage of food grains. iii. Followed by famine and influenza. iv. The nationalist movements gained momentum with the arrival of Gandhi (1869 1948). 1. Launched civil disobedience during his struggle for civil rights and to fight racism in SA. 2. Experimented with the ideas of non-violence & satyagrah in South Africa to fight racism. 3. Brought revolutionaries closer & motivated them to leave aside differences & unite. b) Satyagraha Ideals and Implementation a. Unique tools shattered the British Empire. b. Returned from S.A. Jan 1915 c. Satyagraha Satya + Graha (Truth Appeal): Passive resistance used powerfully to appeal to conscience of the oppressor. d. No Brute force. e. He successfully organized Satyagraha in different parts of India f. 1916 Champaran District in Bihar. i. British forced Indian farmers to grow Indigo crop. ii. This crop was used in making textiles and reaped huge profits for British. iii. They were made to work hard, given meager wages & could not grow other crops on that land. iv. This led to the scarcity of food. g. 1917 Kheda District in Gujarat i. Villages were stricken with Poverty and Social evils. ii. After a terrible famine, people were demanding waving of taxes. iii. British government increased taxes. iv. Gandhi + Vallabhai Patel gathered support and organized Satyagrah. h. 1918 Ahmedabad in Gujarat i. The mill owners withdrew special allowance given to workers who continued working in the plague epidemic. ii. The workers demanded 35% increase in salary which was refused. iii. After days of protest, the mill owners finally granted a 20% increase in salary along with medical and educational benefits. c) Rowlatt Act and Jallianwallah Bagh Massacre a. The success of the Satyagraha movements gave a boost to the morale of Indians. b. British wanted to stop these movements from spreading further. c. Rowlatt (Sir Sidney Rowlatt) Act was introduced in 1919. d. It empowered police to arrest and detain without cause people on mere suspicion and keep them in prison for two years without trial. e. Gandhi organized a Satyagraha against Rowlatt act. th f. He suggested a Civil disobedience starting with a Hartal on 6 April 1919 g. Rallies, closing of shops, strikes by railway & mill workers. h. The day to day work across the country was badly affected. i. British knew that this movement if continued for long would have serious long term consequences.

They decided to suppress nationalist by arresting several local leaders & Gandhi was prohibited from entering Delhi. k. In Amritsar police opened fire on a peaceful procession. l. Stung by this, people attacked banks, post-offices, government buildings and government vehicles. m. Consequently Martial Law was imposed on Amritsar under the command of General (Reginald Edward Harry) Dyer. n. Jallianwala Bagh Massacre 13th April, 1919. i. Unaware of the martial law, several villagers gathered in Jallianwala Bagh to attend a cattle fair on the occasion of Baisakhi. ii. General Dyer arrived with 50 armed soldiers, blocked all exists and opened fire without any warning. iii. 100s of people died and several others were wounded. iv. It triggered many protest and attacks across North India. o. To curb satyagrah movements, British started humiliating them by forcing them to rub their noses on the ground or by forcing them to salute them. p. Gandhi withdrew Satyagraha. Though it was successful, it did not reach the rural masses. q. He wanted a bigger movement which would involve every Indian and thus came up with Non-cooperation movement. d) Launch of Non-Cooperation Movement a. A book titled, Hind Swaraj by Gandhi defined Non-cooperation and Swaraj. b. He suggested that if every Indian would stop cooperating with the British, the British rule would end within a year. c. Situation Turkey: i. After WW1, Turkey was defeated and was presented with a peace treaty. ii. The ruler was an Ottoman Khalifa (considered to be the spiritual head). iii. The news spread like wildfire and Muslims all over the world wanted resented the harsh treaty being imposed on the Khalifa. iv. In India two brothers Mohammad Ali & Shaukat Ali stood up in March 1919 to oppose this and formed Khilafat Committee in Bombay to garner support. v. Gandhi realized that to unite Hindus & Muslims towards a common goal, he must support the Khilafat movement to make himself acceptable to all Muslims. vi. He launched a non-cooperation movement in support of the Khilafat movement. vii. The non-cooperation was also against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and Rowlatt act. viii. Strategy for non-cooperation: 1. Surrender to Government titles, honors & honorary posts. 2. Shun civil cervices, army, police, British courts, schools & colleges, British goods (to be replaced by swadeshi goods). 3. In case of government suppression, launch of civil disobedience movement. 4. Gandhi & Shaukat Ali started mobilizing popular support. 5. Travel extensively throughout the country to garner support for the movement. ix. Meanwhile, many congress leaders were hesitant regarding the non-cooperation proposals. x. Hesitant to boycott council elections as they thought this could lead to violence. xi. Finally in December, 1920 Nagpur the non-cooperation movement was accepted by all. xii. It became a Non-cooperation Khilafat Movement. xiii. Diverse social and political groups supported the movement, even though each one had a different objective in its mind. xiv. People worked collectively to make Swaraj a reality. e) Non-Cooperation Movement in Towns and Country side a. Movement gained full force in Jan 1921. b. Students, teachers and headmasters joined the movement. c. Lawyers also joined. d. Most of the Indian boycotted council elections except Madras. e. People picketed (to demonstrate or protest by blocking entrance) liquor shops and foreign goods shops. f. Foreign clothes burnt in huge bonfires. Sales reduced to 50%. g. Some Indian traders also rejected foreign goods and foreign trade. h. Gradually the demand for local handmade cloth increased which breathed life into the dying textile industry. i. However owing to the fact that the khadi was expensive and hard to produce as compared with the foreign machine made goods, people slowly drifted back to using foreign goods. j. Similarly, finding no alternative to their workplace or school, workers and students started going back to their institutions.

j.

Non-cooperation movement spread to rural areas and coincided with the ongoing struggle by peasants & tribals against their oppressors. l. Different Understanding of non-cooperation and Swaraj i. Awadh Peasants 1. Baba Ram Chandra led a movement against high rents and taxes sought by zamindars. 2. He wanted tax reduction, abolition of Begar (work without payment) and social boycott of oppressive landlords. 3. Some village panchayats launched an agitation and stopped services like washer men, barber to landlords. 4. In October, 1920, Oudh Kisan Sabha was setup headed by Jawaharlal Nehru and Baba Ramchandra. 5. The congress decided to integrate peasant movement with the ongoing Non-cooperation movement. 6. However the peasant movement became violent and they went on rampage. To bring weight to their statements, they used Gandhis name. ii. Tribals of Andhra Pradesh 1. The tribals had suffered a lot of oppression under the British. 2. They started a rebellion under Alluri Sitaram Raju who was inspired by Gandhi. 3. He persuaded people to wear Khadi, give up drinking and believed that freedom can only be acquired by force and his men carried out guerilla warfare against British. 4. In 1924 he was executed but stayed in the hearts of the tribal people. f) Perception of untouchables and Muslims a. Untouchables were not moved by these movements. b. They had faced oppression from upper class Hindus. c. Even the congress was reluctant in supporting them since they wanted reservation in assembly. d. Mahatma Gandhi realized that without dalits the freedom struggle has no meaning and thus coined the term Harijans meaning the children of God. e. Dalit participation in the civil disobedience movement was limited. f. Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar formed an association for dalits called DCA (depressed class association) in 1930. g. During the second round table conference he had a war of words with Gandhi, as he wanted a separate electorate for Dalits. h. The British accepted his demand. Sensing divide and rule at work, Gandhi went on a fast to death. i. Finally Dr. Ambedkar accepted his ideology in a pact called Poona Pact in 1932. j. Muslims felt alienated because of the growing connect between Congress and the Hindu mahasabha. k. Hindu Muslim riots which happened from time to time reaffirmed that mutual understanding was missing. l. In 1927, Congress and Muslim League tried to negotiate. m. Jinnah wanted reserved seats in assembly which was opposed by Hindu mahasabha. n. In 1930 Iqbal pressed the need for a separate state for Muslims. o. Muslims believed they will be shadowed which led to a small turnout in the non-cooperation movement. g) Personification of Indian Nationalism a. People of different regions of India felt a collective belonging because they had participated together in freedom struggles against the common aggressor The British. th b. In the 20 Century, Indian nation was conceptualized visually as Bharat Mata. Over the years, this representation went through a lot of changes. c. Revival of the Indian folklore and reinterpretation of history also contributed to the growth of nationalism. d. Indians explored glories from the past and viewed the Colonial British era as an opposition to it. h) Non-Cooperation Movement in Plantations. a. Non-cooperation movement stated as a non-violent resistance of the British rule but over the time it became violent. b. The plantation workers ascribed their own meaning to Swaraj and the non-cooperation movement. c. The plantation workers worked under very strict rules & regulations and were seldom allowed to visit their homes. d. Inspired by the Non co-operation movement thousands of workers disobeyed British authorities and left the plantations to go back to their homes. e. The workers were caught and beaten mercilessly by the police.

k.