Indian Nationalism

Answer : The closing decade of the 19th century and early years of 20th century witnessed the emergence of a new and younger group within the Indian National Congress which was sharply critical of the ideology and methods of the old leadership. These angry young men advocated the adoption of Swaraj as the goal of the congress to be achieved by more self-reliant and independent methods. The new group came to be called the extremist party in contrast to the older one which began to be referred to as the moderate party. Although there were lot of difference between the two groups regarding the methods and technique to counter the imperialist force, the British, but the main reasons of split in 1907 were mainly the partition of Bengal.

The agitation against the partition of Bengal made a deep impact on the Indian National Congress. All sections at the National Congress united in opposing the partition. At its session of 1905, Gokhale, the president of the Congress, roundly condemned the partition as well as the reactionary regime of Curzon. The National Congress also supported the Swadeshi and Boycott movement of Bengal. There was much public debate and disagreement between the moderate and the extremist nationalists. The latter wanted to extend the Swadeshi and Boycott movements from Bengal to the rest of the country and to extend the Boycott to every from of associations with the colonial government. The moderates wanted to confine the Boycott Movement in Bengal and even there to limit it to the boycott of foreign goods. There was a tussle between the two groups for the presidentship of the National Congress for that year (1906). In the end Dadabhai Naoroji, respected by all nationalists as a great patriot, was chosen as a compromise. Dadabhai electrified the nationalist ranks by openly declaring in his presidential address that the goal of the Indian national movement was “Self-government” or Swaraj like that of the United Kingdom or the colonies”.

But the differences dividing the two wings of the nationalist movement could not be kept in check for long. Many of the moderate nationalists did not keep pace with events. The other hand were not willing to be held back. The split between the two came at the Surat Session of the National Congress in December 1907. The moderate leaders having captured the machinery of the congress excluded the militant elements from it.

But in long run the split did not prove useful to either party. The moderate leaders lost touch with younger generation of nationalists. The British Government played the game of ‘Divide and Rule’. While suppressing the militant nationalists, it tried to win over moderate nationalists’ opinion so that the militant nationalist could be isolated and suppressed. To placate the moderate nationalists, it announced constitutional concessions through the Indian Council Act of 1909 which are known as the Marley-Minto Reforms of 1909. In 1911, the government also announced the annulment of the partition of Bengal. Western and Eastern Bengal were to be resented while a new province consisting of Bihar and Orissa was to be created. At the same time the seat of the central government was shifted from Calcutta to Delhi.

The moderate Nationalist did not fully support the Morely-Minto Reforms. They soon released that the reform had not really granted much. But they decided to cooperate with government in working the reforms. This cooperation with the government and their opposition to the programme of the militant nationalists proved very costly to them. They gradually lost the respect and support of the public and were reduced to a small political group.

The Morely-Minto reform introduced the separate electorates under which all Muslims were grouped in separate constituencies from which Muslim alone could be elected. It checked the progress of India’s unification which had been a continuous historical process. It became a potent factor in the growth of communalism—both Muslim and Hindu—in the country.

During the first world war, the Indian nationalist leaders including Lokamanya Tilak, who had been released in June 1914, decided to support the war effort of the government in the mistaken belief that grateful Britain would repay India’s loyalty with gratitude and enable India to take a long step forward on the road to self-government. They did not realize fully that the different powers were fighting the First World War precisely to safeguard their existing colonies.

Now the Indian leaders fully realized that government was not likely to give any concession unless popular pressure was brought to bear upon it. The war period also witnessed the soaring prices of the daily necessities of life and heavy taxation. The nationalist leaders were getting ready to join any militant movement of protest. Consequently the war years were the years of intense nationalist political agitation.

But this mass agitation could not be carried out under the leadership of Indian National Congress, which had become, under the moderate leadership a passive and inert political organization with no political work among the people to its credit. Therefore two Home Rule Leagues were started in 1915-16, one under the leadership of Lokmanya Tilak and the other under the leadership of Annie Besant and S. Subramanaya Iyer. The two Home Rule Leagues worked in cooperation and carried out intense propaganda all over the country in favour of the demand for grant of Home Rule or self-government to India after the War. Many moderate nationalists, who were dissatisfied with the Congress inactivity, joined the Home Rule agitation.

The war period also witnessed the growth of the revolutionary movement. The terrorist groups spread from Bengal and Maharashtra to the whole of northern India. Moreover many Indians began to plan a violent rebellion to overthrow British rule.

The nationalists soon saw that disunity in their ranks was injuring their cause and that they must put up a united front before the government. The growing nationalist feelings in the country and the urge for national unity produced two historic developments at the Lucknow Session of Indian National Congress in 1916. Firstly the two wings of Congress were reunited. The old controversies had lost their meaning and the split in the congress had led to political inactivity. Tilak, released from jail in 1914, immediately saw the change in the situation and set out to unify the two streams of Congress. On the other hand, the rising tide of nationalism compelled the old leaders to welcome back into the Congress Lokmanya Tilak and other militant nationalists. The Lucknow Congress was the first united congress since 1907. For the period of almost 9 years, the Indian national movement was directionless and without planned motive and got a severe setback, and a period of unrest and stagnation.

But one another development was the unity of congress and Muslim league. They forgot their differences and put up common political demands before the government.

Answer : Tagore’s concepts about ‘nation’ and ‘state’ were not of Indian origin. He held the view that it was of European origin. To him state is an “organization for power”. The concept of Nation state may have suffered due to it. The “Nation is the greatest evil for the nation”. They “trade on the feebleness of the rest of world”. It aims at success and not goodness. It is collective selfishness at the cost of morality. In its organic form, it reduces individual to a mere Cog. Nationalism, he felt, it has hindered the growth of humanism. Both Nation and Nationalism have a very narrow scope. He considered Nation to be opposed to the social interest of man. The ideal of the social man is unselfishness, but the ideal of the nation, like that of professional man, is selfishness. The belief in nation state and nationalism have raised barrier between the societies.

The basis of Hindu civilization is society, the basis of European civilization is the state. But if we ever think that to build up the Nation after European pattern is the only way open and the only aim of humanity, we shall be wrong. He loved all men irrespective of their racial levels. In small minds, patriotism disassociates itself from the higher ideal of humanity. It becomes the magnification of self. On a stupendous scale—magnifying our vulgarity, cruelty, greed dethroning God, to put up this bloated self in its place. Hence, “price of patriolism is not for me. I earnestly hope that I shall find my home anywhere in the world before I leave it”. His patriolism was not bound to the geographical limits. He identified himself with all humanity.

Tagore made this belief his own. He expended the spiritual unity of man and of universalism on this basis. The true freedom according to him is, the freedom of soul. Since, the common spirit is present in all; men, therefore, are equal. For this, he held that the barriers of race, nationalism, religion and caste should not be taken as more than the paper walls.

Answer : The rise of national consciousness in the 19th century was essentially the result of the British rule. The economic, political and social changes brought about by the British rule resulted in the oppression of all classes of Indian people giving rise to a wide spread dissatisfaction among the masses. The uniform system of administration, development of postal and telegraph, railways, printing press and educational institutions created by the British primarily as measures for running an effective administration also become instrumental in providing favourable conditions for the rise and growth of national movement. A new cousiousness was developing in the educated sections and middle classes. It was this middle calss consciousness, which became the chief medium for the channelisation of popular discontent, and was instrumental in the development of national consciousness in India.

The importance of western import on the regenerative process in the society in the 14th century is undesirable. However, if we regard this entire process of reform as a manifestation of colonial benevolence and limit ourselves to viewing only its positive dimensions, we shall fail to do justice to the complex character of the phenomenon. The impact of modern western culture and consiousness of defeat by a foreign power give birth to a new awakening. Thoughtful Indians began to look for the strengths and weaknesses of their society and for ways and means of removing the weaknesses. They were impressed in particular by modern science and the doctrines of reason and humanism. They also came to hold that elements of modern western thought which had to be imbibed for the regeneration of their society. The modern educational systems familiarised the educated classes with the ideas of equality, liberty and nationalism. They were exposed to the works of liberal writers and thinkers. The Indians who were studying in England found on their return to India that they were denied all the rights which were taken for granted in the European countries. These above factors gave a vision of a prosperous modern India.

Answer : The second half of the 19th century witnessed the full flowering of national political conciousness and the growth of an organised national movement in India. Its foundation lay in the fact that increasingly British rule became the major cause of India’s economic backwardness.

Every class, every section of Indian society gradually discovered that its interests were suffering at the hands of the foreign rulers. The peasant saw that the Government took away a large part of his produce as land revenue. The Government and its machinery—the police, the courts, the officials-favoured and protected the zamindars and landlords, who rack-rented him, and the merchants and money-lenders, who cheated and exploited him in diverse ways and who took away his land from him. The artisan or the handicraftsman saw that the foreign regime had helped foreign competition to ruin him and had done nothing to rehabilitate him.

As a result of the British rule, India was transformed into a colony. It was a major market for British manufactures, the big source of raw materials and food-stuff and an important field for the investment of British capital. Its agriculture was highly taxed for the benefit of imperial interests. The bulk of the transport system, modern mines and industries, foreign trade, coastal and international shipping and banks and insurance companies were all under foreign control. India provided employment to thousands of middle class Englishmen and nearly 1/3rd of its revenue was spent in paying salaries to englishmen. The Indian army acted as the chief instrument for maintaining the far-flung empire and protecting and promoting British imperial interests in various parts of the world. Above all, Indian economy and social development was completly subordinated to british economy and social development.

The National economist pointed to rising civil and military expenditure which led to heavy taxation and demanded its reduction. They demanded protection for Indian Industries and permanent fixation of the land revenue. Above all, they demanded the stoppage of the drain of wealth. None of these demands were conceded by the British. Since the British were not ready to relax their economic stronghold over the country, the Indians were driven to demand self government.

Indian nationalists developed the “theory of increasing poverty in India” and attributed it to Britain’s anti-India economic policies. They tagged poverty and foreign rule. This psychology developed hatred for foreign rule and love for Swadeshi goods and Swadeshi rule. The spirit of nationalism received a powerful stimulus in the process.

The peasants, the artisans, and the workers constituted the overwhelming majority of Indian population. They discovered that they had no political rights or powers and virtually nothing was being done for their intellectual or cultural improvement. Education did not percolate down to them. There were hardly any schools in villages and the few that were there were poorly run. The doors of higher education were barred to them in practice. Moreover, many of them belonged to the lower castes and had still to bear social and economic oppression.

The Indian national movement arose from social conditions, from the conditions of Imperialism and from the social and economic forces generated within Indian society, the rise of Indian bourgeoisie and its growing competition against the domination of the British bourgeoisie were inevitable, whatever the system of education.

The Indians resented the arrogance of the Europeans in general and Englishmen in particular. The Englishman took pleasure in calling Indians the creatures of an inferior breed. “Half Gorilla, half Negro”. They rediculed the Indians black heathens “worshipping stacks and stones and swinging themselves on bamboo trees like bees". The short-sighted acts and policies of lord lytton acted like catalytic agents and accelerated the movement against foreign rule. The maximum age limit for the ICS examination was reduced from 21 years to 19 years, thus making it impossible for Indians to compete for it. The grand Delhi Darbar of 1877, the Vernacular Press Act and Indian Arms Act (1878) provoked a great storm of opposition in the country and lead to the organisation of various political association for carrying on anti-Government propaganda in the country.

Ripon’s Government sought to abolish ‘judicial disqualification on race distinctions’ and the Ilbert Bill (1883) sought to give the Indian members of the Civil Service the same powers and rights as their European colleagues enjoyed. The Bill was opposed by the European community which proved an eye-opener to the Indian intelligensia. It became clear to them that justice and foreplay could not be expected where the interests of the European community were involved. Further, it demonstrated to them the value of organised agitation.

To sum up, it was as a result of the intrinsic nature of foreign imperialism and of its harmful impact on the lives of the Indian people that a powerful anti-imperialist movement gradually arose and developed in India. This movement was a national movement because it united people from different classes and sections of the society who sank their mutual differences to unite against the common enemy.

Answer : By the 1870s it was evident that Indian nationalism had gathered enough strength and momentum to appear asa major force on the Indian political scene. The Indian National Congress, founded in December 1885, was the first organised expression of the Indian National Movement on an all-India scale. It had, however, many predecessors. As we have seen in an earlier chapter, Raja Rammohan Roy was the first Indian leader to start an agitation for political reforms in India. Many public associations were started in different parts of India after 1836. All these associations were dominated by wealthy and aristocratic elements — called in those days prominent persons — and were provincial or local in character. They worked for reform of administration, association of Indians with the administration, and spread of education and sent long petitions, putting forward Indian demands to the British Parliament. The period after 1858 witnessed a gradual widening of the gulf between the educated Indians and the British Indian administration. As the educated Indians studied the character of British rule and its consequences for India, they became more and more critical of British policies in India. the discontent gradually found expression in political activity. The existing associations no longer satisifed the politically conscious Indians.

In 1866, Dadabhai Naoroji organised the East India Association in London to discuss the Indian questions and to influence Birtish public men to promote Indian welfare. Later he organised branches of the Association in prominent Indian cities. Born in 1825, Dadabhai devoted his entire life to the national movement and soon came to be known as the 'Grand Old Man of India'. He was also India first economic thinker. In his writings on economics he showed that the basic cause of India's poverty lay in the British exploitation of India and the drain of its wealth. Dadabhai was honoured by being thrice elected president of the Indian National Congress. In fact he was the first of the long line of popular nationalist leaders of India whose very name stirred the hearts of the people. The most important of the pre-congress nationalist organisations was the Indian Association of Calcutta. The younger nationalsits of Bengal had been gradually getting discontented with the econservative and pro-landlord policies of the British India Association. They wanted sustained political agitation on issues of wider public interest.

They found a leader in Surenderanath Bannerjee who was a brilliant writer and orator. He was unjustly turned out of the Indian Civil Service as his superiors could not tolerate the presence of an independent minded Indian in the ranks of this service. He begain his public career in 1875 by delivering brilliant addresses on nationalist topics to the students of Calcutta. Led by surendranath and Ananda Mohan Bose, the younger nationalists of Bengal founded the Indian Association in July 1876. The Indian Association set before itself the aims of creating strong public opinion in the country on political questions and the unification of the Indian people on a common political programme. In order to attract large numbers of people to its banner, it fixed a low membership fee for the poorer classes. Many branches of the Association were opened in the towns and villages of Bengal and also in many towns outside Bengal.

The Younger elements were also active in other parts of India. Justice Ranade and others organised the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha in 1870. M.Viraraghavachari, G. subramaniya Iyer, Ananda Charlu and others formed the Madras Mahajan Sabha in 1884. Pherozeshah Mehta, K.T. Telang, Badruddin Tyabji and others formed the Bombay Presidencey Association in 1885. The time was now ripe for the formation of an all-India political organisation of the nationalists who felt the need to unite politically against the common enemy — foreign rule and exploitation. The existing organisations had served a useful puprose but they were narrow in their scope and functioning. They dealt mostly with local questions and their membership and leadership were confined to a few people belonging to a single city or province. Even the Indian Association had not succeeded in becoming an all-India body.

Many Indians had been planning to form an all-India organisation of nationalist political workers. But the credit for giving the idea concrete and final shape goes to A.O. Hume, a retired English Civil Servant. He got in touch with prominent Indian leaders and organised with their cooperaiton the first session of the Indian National Congress at Bombay in December 1885. It was presided over by W.C. Banerjee and attended by 72 delegates. The aims of the National Congress were declared to be the promotion of friendly relations between nationalists political workers from different parts of the country, development and consolidation of the feeling of national unity irrespective of caste, religion or province, formulation of popular demands and their presentation before the Government, and most important of all, the training and organisation of public opinion in the country.

Answer : The foundation of the Indian nationalist movement lay in the fact that increasingly British rule became the major cause of India's economic backwardness. It became the major barrier to India's further economic, social, cultural, intellectual and political development. Eveyry class, every section of Indian society, gradually discovered that its interest were suffering at the hands of the foreign rulers. The rising intelligentsia- the educated Indians – used their newly acquired modern knowledge to understand the sad economic and political condition of their country. Those who had earlier, as in 1857, supported the British ruler in the hope that, though alien, it would modernise and industrialise the country were gradually disappointed. Economically, they had hoped that British capitalism would help develop India's productive forces as it had done at home. Instead, they found that British policies in India, guided by the British capitalists at home, were keeping the country economically backward or underdeveloped and checking the development of its productive forces.

The rising Indian capitalist class was slow in developing a national political consciousness. But it too gradually saw that it was suffering at the hands of imperialism. Its growth was severely checked by the trade, tariff, taxation, and transport policies of the government. As a new and weak class, it needed active government help to counterbalance many of its weaknesses. But not such help was given. Instead, the Government and its bureaucracy favourd foreign capitalists who came to India with their vast resources and appropriated the limited industrial field. Indian capitalists were particularly opposed to the strong competition from foreign capitalists. The Indian capitalists also, therefore, realised that there existed a contradiction between imperialism and their own independent growth, and that only a national government would create conditions for the rapid development of Indian trade and industries.

Answer : On 20 July 1905, Lord Curzon issued an order dividing the province of Bengal into two parts : Eastern Bengal and Assam with a population of 31 million, and the rest of Bengal with a population of 54 million, of whome 18 million were Bengalis and 36 million Biharis and Oriyas. It was said that the existing province of Bengal was too big to be efficiently administered by a single provincial government. However, the officials who worked out the plan had also toehr political ends in view. They hoped to stem the rising tide of nationalism in Bengal, considered at the time to be the nerve centre of Indain nationalism. The Indain National Congress and the nationalists of Bengal firmly opposed the partition. Within Bengal, different sections of the population— zamindars, merchants, lawyers, students, the city poor, and even women — rose up in spontaneous opposition to the partition of their province.

The nationalists saw the act of partition as a challenge to Indian nationalism and not merely an administrative measure. The Anti-Partition Movement was the work of the entire national leadership of Bengal and not of any one section of the movment. Its most prominent leaders at the initial stage were moderate leaders like Surendranath Banerjee and Krishna Kumar Mitra; militant and revolutionary nationalsits took over in the later stages. Both the moderate and militant nationalists co-operated with one another during the course of the movement. The streets of Calcutta were full of the cries of 'Bande Mataram' which overight became the national song of Bengal and which was soon to become the theme song of the national movement. The ceremony of Raksha Bandhan was utilised in a new way. Hindus and Muslims tied the rakhi on one another's wrists as a symbol of the unbreakable unity of the Bengalis and of the two halves of Bengal.

The cry of Swadeshi and Swaraj was son taken up by other provinces of India. Movements in support of Bengal's unity and boycott of foreign goods were organised in Bombay, Madras and northern India. The leading role in spreading the Swadeshi Movement to the rest of the country was played by Tilak. Tilak quickly saw that with the inauguration of thismovement in Bengal, a new chapter in the history of Indian nationalism had opened. Here was a challenge and an opportunity to lead a popular struggle against the British Raj and to unite the entire country in one bond of common sympathy.

Answer : While the moderates had infinite faith in the efficiency of constitutional agitation, and British sense of justice and fairplay, the extremists had no faith in the 'benevolence' of the British public or Parliament nor were they convinced of the efficiency of merely holding conferences. The new leadership sought to create a passionate love for liberty, accompained by a spirit of sacrifices and a readiness to suffer for the cause of the country. They strove to root out from the people's mind the omnipotence of the ruler and instead give them self reliance and confidence in their own strength.

The extremities advocated boycott of foreign goods, use of swadeshi goods, national education and passive resistance. Economic boycott of British made goods and use of swadeshi or home-made products was designed to encourage Indian industries and provide the people with more opportunities for work and employment. Lala Lajpat Rai explained that the original idea behind boycott of British goods was to cause pecuniary loss to the British manufacturing and thus secure their sympathy and help for getting the partition of Bengal annulled. Soon, it was discovered that economic boycott might prove a powerful weapon against economic, exploitation by the foreigners. Further, it proved a most effective weapon for injuring British interest in India. A national scheme of education was formulated to replace the boycott of government-controlled universities and colleges. The extremists tried to enlist the students in their service.

When the Government threatened to take disciplinary action against the students, the national leaders advocated national universities, independent of government control. Sir Guroodas Banerjee headed the Bengal council of National Education. A large number of national schools sprang up throughout the country. In Madras, the Pachaiappa National college was set up. In Punjab, the D.A.V. Movement made considerable headway. The extremists also encouraged co-operative organisations. Voluntary associations were set up for rural sanitation, preventive police duties and regulations of fairs and pilgrim gatherings for providing relief during famines and other natural calamities. Arbitration committees were set up to decide civil and non-cognizable dispute.