Famous Personalities of Fredom Struggle of India

Keshab Chander Sen :-

? was an Indian Bengali Hindu philosopher and social reformer who attempted to incorporate Christian theology within the framework of Hindu thought.He was born on 19th November 1838 in Kolkata. He was a descendant of the medieval Sena kings of Bengal.

? He was so influenced by the ideas of Brahmo Samaj that he joined the Calcutta Brahmo Samaj in 1857.

? At the age of 19, Keshab Chandra Sen started social work by establishing an evening school for adults.

? He used the medium of Press to spread social consciousness and development.

? he started a fortnightly journal ‘Indian Mirror’

? Keshab Chandra Sen was associated with many revolutionary programs of social reform like liberation of women from the social bindings, education of women and the poor workers, eradication of social evils like untouchability and casteism, spread of vernacular and various charitable works for the oppressed people.

? He took the initiative to introduce legislation to curb polygamy and child marriage and promoted inter-caste marriage.

? he was given the title of ‘Acharya’ of the ‘Brahmo Samaj’ by Devendranath Tagore. But due to the differences in the beliefs and philosophies of Devendranath Tagore and Keshab Chandra Sen, Brahmo Samaj split into two.

? founded his own breakaway “Brahmo Samaj of India” in 1866

? he propagated the Navavidhan, the New Dispensation or the Religion of Harmony. He preached bhakti, which was inspired from both Chaitanya and Christ.

 


Theodore Beck:-
was a British educationalist working for the British Raj in India, who was invited by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan to serve as the first principal of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at the age 24. in Aligarh, which would later evolve into the Aligarh Muslim University. He was also opposed to join the Congress.


Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

? An Afghan Pashtun political and spiritual leader known for his non-violent opposition to British Rule in India.

? A lifelong pacifist, a devout Muslim,and a close friend of Mohandas Gandhi

? he was also known as Fakhri Afghan (“The Afghan pride”), Badshah Khan and Sarhaddi Gandhi (Urdu, Hindi lit.,
“Frontier Gandhi”)

? he decided social activism and reform would be more beneficial for Pashtuns. This ultimately led to the formation of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement (Servants of God). The movement’s success triggered a harsh crackdown

against him and his supporters and he was sent into exile.

? It was at this stage in the late 1920s that he formed an alliance with Gandhi and the Indian National Congress. This alliance was to last till the 1947 partition of India.

? Ghaffar Khan strongly opposed the Muslim League’s demand for the partition of India.
? In 1987 he became the first person without Indian citizenship to be awarded the Bharat Ratna


Sajjad Zaheer

? was a renowned Urdu writer, Marxist thinker

? Famously known as Bannay Mian, Zaheer was born in Lukhnow, the former state of Oudh

? He was one of the founding members of the Communist Party of India and later in 1948, the Communist Party of Pakistan, along with Faiz Ahmad Faiz.

? A collection of short stories, Angaray, which had stories by Sajjad Zaheer

? and was immediately banned in India by the British Government in 1933, “for hurting the religious susceptibilities of a section of the community.” This gave rise to the All-India Progressive Writers’ Movement & Association of which both Sajjad Zaheer and Ahmed Ali were co-founders.

? The first official conference of the Association was held in Lucknow in 1936 which was presided over by Munshi Premchand.

? LITERARY CONTRIBUTION:-London Ki Ek Raat- a novel.,Roshnai, a collection of essays on progressive writing and the progressive writers movement., Zikre Hafiz, his research based book on Persian poet Hafez.,Pighla Nilam, his last book,a collection of his poetry.


WW HUNTER

? Scottish historian, statistician, a compiler and a member of theIndian Civil Service, who later became Vice President of Royal Asiatic Society

? In 1869 Lord Mayo, the then governor-general, asked Hunter to submit a scheme for a comprehensive Statistical Survey of India. And the The Imperial Gazetteer of India was published in 1881.

? In 1882 presided over the commission on Indian Education

? in 1886 he was elected vice-chancellor of the University of Calcutta.


Achyut Patwardhan

? was an Indian independence activist and political leader and founder of the Socialist Party of India. He was also a philosopher who believed fundamental change in society begins with man himself,

? He studied Communist and Socialist literature, resigned his Professorship and plunged in 1932 into Gandhiji’s civil disobedience movement. He was imprisoned several times.
? In 1934 he and his associates in jail formed the Congress Socialistic Party with a view to working for socialistic objectives from within the Congress.

? He took a prominent part in the Quit India movement. he went underground, and ably directed the movement of a parallel government mainly in the Satara district.

? In 1947 they formed the Socialist Party of India, independently of the Congress. In 1950 Achyut retired from politics


LALA HAR DAYAL

? Indian revolutionary and scholar who was dedicated to the removal of British influence in India.

? On a Government of India scholarship to St. John’s College at Oxford, he became a supporter of the Indian revolutionary movement. In 1907 Har Dayal resigned his scholarship

? He returned to India in 1908 to further indigenous political institutions and to arouse his countrymen against British rule, butthe government thwarted his work, and he soon returned to Europe.

? In 1913 he formed the Ghadar rebellion (Gadar) Party to organize a against the British government of India.


Jiddu Krishnamurti

? was an Indian writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual subjects. His subject matter included: psychological revolution, the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships, and bringing about positive change in society

? He constantly stressed the need for a revolution in the psyche of every human being and emphasized that such revolution cannot be brought about by any external entity, be it religious, political, or social.

? He claimed allegiance to no nationality, caste, religion, or philosophy, and spent the most of his life traveling the world, speaking to large and small groups and individuals

? His supporters, working through non-profit foundations in India, Great Britain and the United States, oversee several independent schools based on his views on education.


Gopi Krishna

? was a yogi, mystic, teacher, social reformer, and writer

? His autobiography is known under the title Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man.,in it he has put this amazing aspect of our nature in a logical, consistent and scientific light, and presented us with a new understanding of the goal of evolution, both as individuals and as a species.

? he himself has started to search the life of geniuses and enlightented persons in history for clues of kundalini awakening. He proposed an organisation to be erected to conduct scientific research on the matter. The research should, according to him, consist of research on biological processes in the body, psychological and sociological
research of living persons. According to Mr. Krishna the lives of historical persons should also be investigated.


Sir Muhammad Iqbal or Allama Iqbal
? was a philosopher,poet and politician in British India who is widely regarded as having inspired the Pakistan Movement.

? He is considered one of the most important figures in Urdu literature, with literary work in both the Urdu and Persian languages

? his best known Urdu works are Bang-i-Dara, Bal-i-Jibril, Zarb-i Kalim and a part of Armughan-e-Hijaz.

? Iqbal became a member of the London branch of the All India Muslim League,in one of his most famous speeches, Iqbal pushed for the creation of a Muslim state in Northwest India.

? Pakistan Government had recognised him as its “national poet”


Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu

? was an Indian politician and Freedom Fighter , prominent Telugu barrister and the first Chief Minister of the Indian province Andhra state. He was also known as Andhra Kesari

?  He was elected the general secretary of the Congress Party in December 1921 at the Ahmedabad session


Maulana Mohammad  Ali and Maulana Shaukat Ali

? were Indian Muslim leaders, activists, scholars, journalists and poets, and was among the leading figures of the Khilafat Movement

? Maulana Mohammad Ali Jouhar had spent four years in prison for advocating resistance to the British and support for the caliphate.

? publish the Urdu weekly Hamdard and the English weekly Comrade.

? form the All India Khilafat Committee. The organization was based in Lucknow,

? In 1920 an alliance was made between Khilafat leaders and the Indian National Congress, to work and fight together for the causes of Khilafat and Swaraj.

? Many Hindu religious and political leaders identified the Khilafat cause as Islamic fundamentalism based on a pan-Islamic agenda. And many Muslim leaders viewed the Indian National Congress as becoming increasingly dominated by Hindu fundamentalists and thus the Ali brothers began distancing themselves from Gandhi
and the Congress.


Dr. Dhondo Keshav Karve

? popularly known as Maharishi Karve, was a social reformer in India in the field of women’s welfare.

? Mr Karve decided to continue the work of promoting women’s education in India. The Government of India awarded Dhondo Keshav Karve its highest civilian award, Bh?rat Ratna,

? founded Widhaw?-Wiw?hottejak Mandali, which, besides encouraging marriages of widows, also helped the needy children of widows.

? established a Hindu Widows’ Home Association


Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna

? was as Indian revolutionary, the founding president of the Ghadar Party, and a leading member of the party involved in the Ghadar Conspiracy of 1915.

? Tried at the Lahore Conspiracy trial, Sohan Singh served sixteen years of a life sentence for his part in the conspiracy before he was released in 1930.

? He later worked closely with the Indian labour movement, devoting considerable time to the Kisan Sabha and
the Communist Party of India.


Alluri Sita Rama Raju

? was an Indian revolutionary involved in the independence movement.

? Raju led the ill-fated “Rampa Rebellion” of 1922–24, during which a band of tribal leaders and other sympathizers fought against the British Raj. He was referred to as “Manyam Veerudu” (“Hero of the Jungles”) by the local people.


Baba Ram Chandra or Shridhar Balwant Jodhpurkar

? was an Indian trade unionist ,who organised the farmers of Oudh, India into forming a united front to fight against the abuses of landlords in the 1920s and 1930s ,and formed the Oudh Kisan Sabha

? He was also an influential figure in the history of Fiji, and owed his inspiration to take up the cause of the down-trodden to his 12 years as an indentured labourer in Fiji and to his efforts to end the indenture system. He was a Brahmin, of Maharashtrian origin. He left for Fiji as an indentured labourer in 1904


Sir Thomas Roe

? diplomat and author who advanced England’s mercantile interest in Asia and was prominent in negotiations during the Thirty Years’ War.

? Roe began his diplomatic career in India as ambassador to the court of the Mogul emperor J?h?ng?r.

? As ambassador to Constantinople (1621–28), Roe obtained increased privileges for the English merchants trading in the Ottoman Empire.

? He negotiated a treaty with Algiers, then subject to Ottoman rule, resulting in the release of several hundred Englishmen captured by the Barbary pirates


Romesh Chunder Dutt

? was an Indian civil servant, economic historian, writer, and translator of Ramayana and Mahabharata.

? As an ics officier Dutt was especially troubled by the lack of assured tenants’ rights or rights of transfer for those who tilled the land. He considered the land taxes to be ruinous, a block to savings, and the source of famines.

? .He was president of the Indian National Congress in 1899.

? Dutt served as the first president of Bangiya Sahitya Parishad

? Dutt traced a decline in standards of living to the nineteenth-century deindustrialization of the subcontinent and
the narrowing of sources of wealth

? Wrote economic history of india under british rule


Lakshmi Bai, the Rani of Jhansi

? was the queen of the Maratha-ruled princely state of Jhansi, situated in the north-central part of India.

? She was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and a symbol of resistance to the rule of the British East India Company in the subcontinent.after she was forcibly retired by the British due to a controversial law of “Doctrine of Lapse”

? Hugh Rose ,the army commander ,commented that the Jhansi Rani Lakshmibai is “personable, clever and beautiful” and she is “the most dangerous of all Indian leaders ”


Lala Har Dayal
? was a Indian nationalist revolutionary who founded the Ghadar Party in America.

? The movement began with a group of immigrants known as the Hindustani Workers of the Pacific Coast.

? In a letter toThe Indian Sociologist he started , published in 1907, to explore anarchist ideas, In April 1914, he was arrested by the United States government for spreading anarchist literature and fled to Berlin, Germany.


 

 

World War I and Gadar movement

World War I and Indian Nationalism

  • Increasing number of Indians from Punjab were emigrating to North America.
  • The British government thought that these emigrants would be affected by the idea of liberty. Hence, they tried to restrict emigration.
  • Tarak Nath Das, an Indian student in Canada, started a paper called Free Hindustan.
  • The Hindi Association was setup in Portland in May 1913.
  • Under the leadership of Lala Har Dayal, a weekly paper, The Ghadar was started and a headquarters called Yugantar Ashram was set up in San Fransisco.
  • On November 1, 1913, the first issue of Ghadar was published in Urdu and on December 9, the Gurumukhi edition.
  • In 1914, three events influenced the course of the Ghadar movement:
    • The arrest and escape of Har Dayal
    • The Komagata Maru incident
    • Outbreak of the first world war
  • Gharadites came to India and made several attempts to instill the Indian population to revolt. However, this was of no avail.
  • The Ghadar movement was very secular in nature.
  • Ghadar militants were distinguished by their secular, egalitarian, democratic and non-chauvinistic internationalist outlook.
  • The major weakness of the Ghadar leaders was that they completely under-estimated the extent and amount of preparation at every level – organizational, ideological, strategic, tactical, financial – that was necessary before an attempt at an armed revolt could be organized.
  • It also failed to generate an effective and sustained leadership that was capable of integrating the various aspects of the movement.
  • Another weakness was its almost non-existent organizational structure.
  • Some important leaders: Baba Gurmukh Singh, Kartar Singh Saraba, Sohan Singh Bhakna, Rahmat Ali Shah, Bhai Parmanand and Mohammad Barkatullah.
  • Inspired by the Ghadar Party, 700 soldiers at Singapore revolted under the leadership of Jamadar Chisti Khan and Subedar Dundey Khan. The rebellion was crushed.
  • Other revolutionaries: Jatin Mukharjee, Rash Bihari Bose, Raja Mahendra Pratab, Lala Hardayal, Abdul Rahim, Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi, Champakaraman Pillai, Sardar Singh Rana and Madame Cama

 

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Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms and Rowalt act

    • Provincial LC enlarged. More elected members
    • Dyarchy
      • Some subjects were reserved and remained under the direct control of the Governor; others such as education, public health and local self-government were called transferred subjects and were to be controlled by the ministers responsible to the legislature.
    • At the centre, there were two houses of legislature.
    • Response of nationalists
      • INC condemned the reforms as disappointing and unsatisfactory
      • Some others , led by Surendranath Banerjea, were in favour of accepting the government proposals. They left the Congress at this time and founded the Indian Liberal Federation
    • Evaluation
      • The  governor could overrule the ministers on any grounds that he considered special
      • The legislature had virtually no control over the Governor-General and his Executive Council.

The central government had unrestricted control over the provincial governments

Rowlatt Act

  • March 1919
  • It authorized the Government to imprison any person without trial and conviction in a court of law.

 

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Revolutionary Terrorism and Bhagat Singh

  • Revolutionary young men did not try to generate a mass revolution. Instead they followed the strategy of assassinating unpopular officials
  • 1904: VD Savarkar organized Abhinav Bharat
  • Newspapers like The Sandhya and Yugaantar in Bengal and the Kal in Maharashtra advocated revolutionary ideology
  • Kingsford Incident: In 1908, Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki threw bomb at a carriage they believed was carrying Kingsford, the unpopular judge of Muzaffarpur.
  • Anushilan Samiti threw a bomb at the Viceroy Lord Hardinge
  • Centres abroad
    • In London: led by VD Savarkar, Shyamaji Krishnavarma and Har Dayal
    • In Europe: Madam Cama and Ajit Singh
  • They gradually petered out. It did not have any base among the people
  • The sudden suspension of the non-cooperation movement led many young people to question the very basis strategy of non-violence and began to look for alternatives.
  • All the major new revolutionary leaders had been enthusiastic participants in the non-violent non-cooperation movement.
  • Two separate strands of revolutionary terrorism developed – one in Punjab, UP and Bihar and the other in Bengal.
  • Ramprasad Bismil, Jogesh Chatterjea and Sachindranath Sanyal met in Kanpur in October 1924 and founded the Hindustan Republican Association to organize armed revolution.
  • In order to carry out their activities the HRA required funding. The most important action of the HRA was the Kakori Robbery.
  • On August 9, 1925, ten men held up the 8-Down train from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow at Kakori and looted its official railway cash.
  • The government arrested a large number of young men and tried them in the Kakori Conspiracy Case.
  • Ashfaqulla Khan, Ramprasadn Bismil, Roshan Singh and Rajendra Lahiri were hanged, four others were sent to Andaman while seventeen others were sentenced to long term imprisonment.
  • New revolutionaries joined the HRA. They met at Ferozshah Kotla Ground at Delhi on 9 and 10 September 1928, created a new collective leadership, adopted socialism as their official goal and changed the name of the party to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association.
  • Lala Lajpat Rai dies in a lathi-charge when he was laeding an anti-Simon Commission demonstration at Lahore on 30 October 1928.
  •  On 17 December 1928, Bhagat Singh, Azad and Rajguru assassinated, at Lahore, Saunders, a police official involved in the lathi-charge on Lala Lajpat Rai.
  • In order to let the people know about HSRA’s changed objectives Bhagat Singh and BK Dutt were asked to throw a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly on 8 April 1929 against the passage of the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Bill.
  • He aim was not to kill but to let people know of their objectives through the leaflet they threw.
  • They were later arrested and tried.
  • The country was also stirred by the hunger strike the revolutionaries took as a protest against the horrible conditions in jails.
  • On 13th September, the 64th day of the epic fast, Jatin Das died.
  • Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were sentenced to be hanged. He sentence was carried out on 23 March, 1931.
  • Bhagat Singh was fully secular.
    • The Punjab Naujawan Bharat Sabha organized by him acted on secular lines.
  • In Bengal, after the death of C R Das, the Congress leadership in Bengal got divided into two wings: one led by S C Bose and the other by J M Sengupta. The Yugantar group joined forces with the first while the Anushilan with the second.
  • Surya Sen had actively participated in the non-cooperation movement. He gathered around him a large band of revolutionary youth including Anant Singh, Ganesh Ghosh and Lokenath Baul.
  • Chittagong Armoury Raid

 

Morley-Minto Reforms, 1909 and Growth of Communalism

Morley-Minto Reforms, 1909

  • Increased the number of elected members in the Imperial Legislative Council and the provincial council
  • However, most of the elected members were elected indirectly
  • The reformed councils still enjoyed no real power, being merely advisory bodies.
  • Introduced separate electorates under which all Muslims were grouped in separate constituencies from which Muslims alone could be elected. This was aimed at dividing the Hindus and Muslims. It was based on the notion that the political and economic interests of Hindus and Muslims were separate.
    • This later became a potent factor in the growth of communalism
    • It isolated the Muslims from the Nationalist Movement and encouraged separatist tendencies
  • The real purpose of the reforms was to confuse the moderate nationalists, to divide nationalist ranks and to check the growth of unity among Indians
  • Response of Moderates
    • They realized that the reforms had not granted much
    • However, they decided to cooperate with the government in working the reforms
    • This led to their loss of respect among the nationalists and masses

Growth of Communalism

  • Definition
    • Communalism is the belief that because a group of people follow a particular religion they have, as a result, common secular, that is, social, political and economic interests.
    • Second stage: Secular interests of followers of one religion are dissimilar and divergent from the interests of the followers of another religion
    • Third stage: The interests of the followers of different religions or of different religious communities are seen to be mutually incompatible, antagonistic and hostile.
  • Communalism is not a remnant of the medieval period. It has its roots in the modern colonial socio-economic political structure.
  • Divide and Rule
    • After 1857, British initially suppressed Indian muslims. However, after the publishing of Hunter’s book ‘The Indian Mussalman’ they actively followed the policy of divide and rule and hence started supporting the Muslims.
    • They promoted provincialism by talking of Bengal domination
    • Tired to use the caste structure to turn the non-brahmins against Brahmins and the lower caste against the higher castes.
    • It readily accepted communal leaders as authentic representatives of all their co-religionists.
  • Reasons for growth of communal tendencies in Muslims
    • Relative backwardness: educationally and economically

 

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The Indian National Army or Azad Hind Fauj

 

? was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II. The aim of the army was to liberate India from the British occupation with Japanese assistance. Initially composed of Indian prisoners of war captured by Japan in the Malayan campaign and at Singapore, it later drew volunteers from Indian expatriate population in Malaya and Burma.

? The INA also was at the forefront of women’s equality and the formation of a women’s regiment, the Rani of
Jhansi regiment was formed as an all volunteer women’s unit to fight the British occupiers as well as provide medical services to the INA.

? Initially formed in 1942 immediately after the fall of Singapore under Mohan Singh, the first INA collapsed in December that year before it was revived under the leadership of Subhas Chandra Bose in 1943 and proclaimed the army of Bose’s Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind (The Provisional Government of Free India).

? This second INA fought along with the Imperial Japanese Army against the British andCommonwealth forces in the campaigns in Burma, Imphal and Kohima, and later, against the successful Burma Campaign of the Allies

? . The end of the war saw a large number of the troops repatriated to India where some faced trial for treason and became a galvanising point of the Indian Independence movement

? the Red Fort trials of captured INA officers in India provoked massive public outcries in support of their efforts to fight for Indian independence against the Raj, eventually triggering the Bombay mutiny in the British Indian

 

Social and Religious Reform movements in the 19th and 20th century.

Raja Rammohan Roy:

RRM Roy was a social reformer and intellectual in the early nineteenth century Bengal. He is most widely known for founding the Brahmo Samaj and his relentless campaign against the practice of Sati and child marriage.

Debendranath Tagore:

Brahmo Samaj:

BS was founded in 1828 by Raja Ram Mohan Roy with the purpose of purifying Hinduism and to preach monotheism or belief in one God.

  • The socio-religious reforms are also referred to as the Indian renaissance
  • The socio-cultural regeneration in nineteenth century India was occasioned by the colonial presence, but not created by it.
  • Formation of the Brahmo Samaj in 1828.
  • Paramhansa Mandali, Prathna Samaj, Arya Samaj, Kayasth Sabha: UP, Sarin Sabha: Punjab, Satya Sodhak Samaj: Maharashtra, Sri Narayana Dharma Paripalana Sabha: Kerala
  • Ahmadiya and Aligarh Movements: Muslims, Singh Sabha: Sikhs, Rehnumai Mazdeyasan Sabha: Parsees
  • Their attention was focused on worldly existence.
  • The idea of otherworldliness and salvation were not a part of their agenda.
  • At that time the influence of religion and superstition was overwhelming. Position of priests strong; that of women weak.
  • Caste was another debilitating factor
  • Neither a revival of the past nor a total break with tradition was contemplated.
  • Rationalism and religious universalism influenced the reform movement.
  • Development of universalistic perspective on religion
  • Lex Loci Act propsed in 1845 and passed in 1850 provided the right to inherit ancestral property to Hindu converts to Christianity.
  • The culture faced a threat from the colonial rule.

 

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Reasons for the growth of militant nationalism

Disillusionment of the nationalists with moderate policies

  • The moderates thought that the British could be reformed from within
  • Politically conscious Indians were convinced that the purpose of the British rule was to exploit India economically
  • The nationalists realized that Indian industries could not flourish except under an Indian government
  • Disastrous famines from 1896 to 1900 took a toll of over 90 lakh lives
  • The Indian Councils Act of 1892 was a disappointment
  • The Natu brothers were deported in 1897 without trial
  • In 1897 B G Tilak was sentenced to long term imprisonment for arousing the people against the government
  • In 1904, the Indian Official Secrets Act was passed restricting the freedom of the Press
  • Primary and technical education was not making any progress
  • Thus, increasing number of Indians were getting convinced that self-government was essential for the sake of economic, political and cultural progress of the country

 

Growth of Self-respect and  self-confidence

  • Tilak, Aurobindo and Pal preached the message of self-respect
  • They said to the people that remedy to their condition lay in their own hand and they should therefore become strong
  • Swami Vivekananda’s messages

 

Growth of education and unemployment

 

International Influences

  • Rise of modern Japan after 1868
  • Defeat of the Italian army by the Ethiopians in 1896 and of Russia by Japan in 1905 exploded the myth of European superiority

Existence of a Militant Nationalist School of Thought

 

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Wars and Treaties

War Year Treaty Gov General Battles et al
Anglo Marathas
First 1775-82 Began: Treaty of Surat

End: Treaty of Salbai

Warren Hastings Battle of Wadgaon
Second 1803-05 Began: treaty of Bassein Lord Wellesley Battle of Assaye
Third 1816-19 Treaty of Gwalior Marquess  of Hastings Battle of Pindari

End of Peshwa rule

Anglo French
First 1746-48 Treaty of Aix-la-Chepelle Reason: Austrian succession in Europe 1746: Battle of Adyar/San Thome
Second 1749-54 War of succession between Nasir Jung (English) and Muzaffar Jung (French) after death of Nizam 1749: Battle of Ambur

 

Rise of Robert Clive

Third 1758-63 Treaty of Paris Reason: 7 years war in Europe 1760: Battle of Wandiwash (French defeat)
Anglo Mysore
First 1766-69
Second 1780-1784 Treaty of Mangalore Warren Hastings After death of Hyder Ali in 1782 Tipu led the war
Third 1789-92 Treaty of Seringapatnam Cornwallis Defeat of Tipu
Fourth 1799 Wellesley Battle of Seringapatnam. Death of Tipu.
Anglo Sikh War
First 1845-46 Treaty of Lahore Hardinge
Second 1848-49 Dalhousie Final Subjugation of the Sikhs

Read moreWars and Treaties

Revolt of 1857: first war of indian independence

  • During the Governor-General Lord Canning
  • May 11, 1857. The Meerut incident. Capture of Delhi. Proclaiming B S Jazar as the emperor.
  • Almost half the Company’s sepoy strength of 232224 opted out of their loyalty to their regimental colours.
  • Kanpur: Nana Saheb; Lucknow: Begum Hazrat Mahal; Bareilly: Khan Bahadur; Jagdishpur (Ara): Kunwar Singh; Jhansi: Rani Lakshmi Bai
  • Only the Madras army remained totally loyal. Sikh regiment as well remained largely loyal.

Causes for the revolt

The revolt was a result of the accumulated grievances of the people against Company’s administration and a loathing for the character and policies of the colonial rule. The causes can be classified as social, economic, religious and military.

WHY DID THE SEPOYS REVOLT?

  • The conditions of service in the Company’s army and cantonments increasingly came into conflict with the religious beliefs and prejudices of the sepoys.
  • The unhappiness of the sepoys first surfaced in 1824 when the 47th Regiment of Barrackpur was ordered to go to Burma. To the religious Hindu, crossing the sea meant loss of caste. The sepoys refused. The regiment was disbanded and those who led the opposition were hanged.
  • The rumors about the Government’s secret designs to promote conversions to Christianity further exasperated the sepoys.
  • The greased cartridges
  • They were also unhappy with the emoluments
  • Discrimination and racism
  • Misery brought to the peasants by the British rule. E.g. the land revenue system imposed in Oudh, where about 75000 sepoys came from, was very harsh.
  • The civilians also participated

 

  • After the capture of Delhi, a letter was issued to the neighboring states asking for support.
  • A court of administrators was established in Delhi
  • Ill-equipped, the rebels carried on the struggle for about a year
  • The country as a whole was not behind them. The merchants, intelligentsia and Indian rulers not only kept aloof but actively supported the British.
  • Almost half the Indian soldiers not only did not revolt but fought against their own countrymen.
  • Apart from a commonly shared hatred for alien rule, the rebels had no political perspective or definite vision of the future
  • Delhi fell on September 20, 1857.
  • Rani of Jhansi died fighting on June 17, 1858
  • Nana Saheb escaped to Nepal hoping to revive the struggle.
  • Kunwar Singh died on May 9, 1958
  • Tantia tope carried on guerrilla warfare until April 1959 after which he was betrayed by a zamindar, captured and put to death.

Important Persons relating to the Revolt

 

Bahadur Shah Zafar: BSZ was the last Mughal emperor of India.

 

Nana Saheb

 

Rani Lakshmi Bai

 

Kunwar Singh

 

Nawab Wajid Ali Shah

 

Birjis Qadr: The son of Wajid Ali Shah and the leader of the revolt in Lucknow.

 

Shah Mal: He belonged  to a clan of Jat cultivators in parganan Barout in UP. During the revolt, he mobilized the headmen and cultivators of chaurasee des (84 villages: his kinship area), moving at night from village to village, urging people to rebel against the British.

 

Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah: Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah was one of the many maulvis who played an

important part in the revolt of 1857. 1856, he was seen moving from village to village preaching jehad (religious war) against the British and urging people to rebel. he was elected by the mutinous 22nd Native Infantry as their leader. He fought in the famous Battle of Chinhat in which the British forces under Henry Lawrence were defeated.

 

Begum Hazrat Mahal:

 

Chapter 2: Civil Rebellions and Tribal Uprisings

  • The backbone of the rebellions, their mass base and striking power came from the rack-rented peasants, ruined artisans and demobilized soldiers

CAUSES

  • The major cause of the civil rebellions was the rapid changes the British introduced in the economy, administration and land revenue system.
  • The revenues were enhanced by increasing taxes.
  • Thousands of zamindars and poligars lost control over their land and its revenue either due to the extinction of their rights by the colonial state or by the forced sale of their rights over land because of their inability to meet the exorbitant land revenue demanded.
  • The economic decline of the peasantry was reflected in twelve major and numerous minor famines from 1770 to 1857
  • The new courts and legal system gave a further fillip to the dispossessors of land and encouraged the rich to oppress the poor.
  • The police looted, oppressed and tortured the common people at will.
  • The ruin of Indian handicraft industries pauperized millions of artisans
  • The scholarly and priestly classes were also active in inciting hatred and rebellion against foreign rule.
  • Very foreign character of the British rule

REBELLIONS

  • From 1763 to 1856, there were more than forty major rebellions apart from hundreds of minor ones.
  • Sanyasi Rebellion: (1763-1800)
  • Chuar uprising (1766-1772 & 1795-1816); Rangpur and Dinajpur (1783); Bishnupur and Birbhum (1799); Orissa zamindars (1804-17) and Sambalpur (1827-40) and many others

WHY FAILED?

  • These rebellions were local in their spread and were isolated from each other.
  • They were the result of local causes and grievances, and were also localized in their effects.
  • Socially, economically and politically, the semi-feudal leaders of these rebellions were backward looking and traditional in outlook.
  • The suppression of the civil rebellions was a major reason why the revolt of 1857 did not spread to South India and most of Eastern and Western India.

 

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