Modern History

• Gandhi was the first Indian barrister to have come to South Africa.
• He was faced with various racial discriminations within days of his arrival in SA.
• He led the Indian struggle in SA.
• The first phase of Gandhi’s political activities from 1894-1906 may be classified as the ‘moderate’ phase.
• He set up the Natal Indian Congress and started a paper called Indian Opinion.
• By 1906, Gandhiji, having fully tried the ‘Moderate’ methods of struggle, was becoming convinced that these would not lead anywhere.
• The second phase, begun in 1906, was characterized by the use of passive resistance, Satyagraha. There was no fear of jails.
• South Africa prepared Gandhiji for leadership of the Indian national struggle:
  • He had the invaluable experience of leading poor Indian labourers.
  • SA built up his faith in the capacity of the Indian masses to participate in and sacrifice for a cause that moved them.
  • Gandhiji also had the opportunity of leading Indians belonging to different religions.
• South Africa provided Gandhiji with an opportunity for evolving his own style of politics and leadership.
• Gandhi returned to India on January 9, 1915
• He founded the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad in 1916
• Initially he was politically idle. He spent his time studying the situation of the country.
• He was deeply convinced that the only viable method of political struggle was satyagraha.
• During the course of 1917 and early 1918, he was involved in three significant struggles – in Champaran in Bihar, in Ahmedabad and in Kheda in Gujarat. The common feature of these struggles was that they related to specific local issues and that they were fought for the economic demands of the masses.
• Champaran Satyagraha (1917)
  • Peasantry on the indigo plantations in Champaran, Bihar was excessively oppressed by the Eurpoean planters.
  • On the invitation of the peasants he went to Champaran and began to conduct a detailed inquiry into the condition of the peasantry
  • The government was forced to set up a committee with Gandhi as one of the members. The sufferings of the peasants was reduced.
  • Others in this movement: Rajendra Prasad, Mazhar-ul-Haq, J B Kriplani, Narhari Parekh and Mahadev Desai.
• Ahmedabad Mill Strike (1918)
  • Dispute between workers and mill owners
  • Gandhi advised workers to go on a non-violent strike. He himself took to fast
  • Owners yielded and gave a 35 percent increase in wages to the workers
• Kheda Satyagraha (1918)
  • Despite crop failure in Kheda the government insisted on full land revenue
  • Gandhi advised the peasants to withhold payment.
  • Govt issued instructions that revenue should be collected from only those farmers who could afford to pay
  • Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel played a major role in this satyagraha.
• Impact of these early experiences
  • Brought Gandhiji in close contact with the masses
  • He identified his life and manner of living with the life of the common people
• He had three main aims
  • Hindu-Muslim Unity
  • Fight against untouchability
  • Raising the social status of the women
• Gandhiji’s first major nation-wide protest was against the Rowlatt Bills in 1919. He formed the Satyagraha Sabha whose members took a pledge to disobey the Act and thus to court arrest and imprisonment.
• Satyagraha was launched. The form of protest finally decided was the observance of a nation-wide hartal accompanied by fasting and prayer.
• However, protests were generally accompanied by violence and disorder.
• In Punjab, the situation was particularly violent. Genral Dyer was called to control the situation. On 13 April, Baisakhi Day, General Dyer ordered to open fire on unarmed crowd in Jallianwala Bagh. The government estimate was 379 dead, other estimates were considerably higher.
• Gandhiji, overwhelmed by the total atmosphere of violence, withdrew the movement on 18 April.
• Difference between earlier methods of struggle and satyagraha
  • Earlier, the movement had confined its struggle to agitation. They used to hold meetings, demonstrate, boycott etc
  • Through Satyagraha they could act now.
  • The new movement relied increasingly on the political support of the peasants, artisans and urban poor.
  • Gandhiji increasingly turned the face of nationalism towards the common man
• Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
  • On April 13, 1919 a large crowd had gathered in Amritsar to protest against the arrest of their leaders, Dr. Saifudding Kitchlew and Dr. Satyapal
  • General Dyer opened fire
  • Widespread criticism. Tagore returned his knighthood.

The Split in the Congress: Surat 1907

• Moderates were successful to some extent.
• Moderates failed in many aspects. Why?
  • They could not acquire any roots among common people.
  • They believed that they could persuade the rulers to change their policies. However, their achievement in this regard was meager.
  • They could not keep pace with the events. They failed to meet the demands of the new stage of the national movement.
• The British were keen on finishing the Congress because:
  • However moderate the leaders were, they were still nationalists and propagators of anti-colonialist ideas.
  • The British felt that moderates led congress could be finished off easily because it did not have a popular base
• In the swadeshi movement, all sections of INC united in opposing the Partition
  • However, there was much difference between the moderates and the extremists about the methods and scope of the movement
  • The extremists wanted to extend the Swadeshi and Boycott movement from Bengal to the rest of the country and to boycott every form of association with the colonial government
  • The moderates wanted to confine the boycott movement to Bengal and even there to limit it to the boycott of foreign goods
• After the Swadeshi movement the British adopted a three pronged approach to deal with congress. Repression-conciliation-suppression.
  • The extremists were reppressed
  • The moderates were conciliated thus giving them an impression that their further demands would be met if they disassociated from the extremists. The idea was to isolate the extremists.
  • Once the moderates and extremists were separate the extremists could be suppressed through the use of state force while the moderates could later be ignored.
• The congress session was held on December 26, 1907 at Surat, on the banks of the river Tapti.
  • The extremists wanted a guarantee that the four Calcutta resolutions will be passed.
  • They objected to the duly elected president of the year, Rash Behari Ghose.
  • There was a confrontation with hurling of chairs and shoes.
• The government launched a massive attack on the extremists. Newspapers were suppressed. Tilak was sent to Mandalay jail for six years.
• The extremists were not able to organize an effective alternative party or to sustain the movement.
• After 1908 the national movement as a whole declined.
• The moderates and the country as a whole were disappointed by the 1909 Minto-Morley reforms
  • The number of indirectly elected members of the Imperial and provincial legislative councils was increased.
  • Separate electorates for Muslims were introduced.
• With the split of Congress revolutionary terrorism rose.
• In 1904 V D Savarkar organized Abhinav Bharat as a secret society of revolutionaries
• In April 1908, Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose threw a bomb at a carriage which they believed was occupied by Kingsford the unpopular judge at Muzzafarpur.
• Anushilan Samity and Jugantar were two most important revolutionary groups.
• An assessment of the split
  • The split did not prove useful to either party
  • The British played the game of divide and rule
  • To placate the moderates they announced the Morley-Minto reforms which did not satisfy the demands of the nationalists. They also annulled the partition of Bengal in 1911.

Lucknow Pact (1916)

• Nationalists saw that their disunity was affecting their cause
• Two important developments at the Lucknow Session of Congress
  • The two wings of the Congress were again united
  • The Congress and the Muslim League sank their old differences and put up common political demands before the government.
• INC and ML passed the same resolutions at their sessions, put forward a joint scheme of political reforms based on separate electorates, and demanded that the British Government should make a declaration that it would confer self-government on India at an early date.
• The pact accepted the principle of separate electorates
• Main clauses of the pact
  • There shall be self-government in India.
  • Muslims should be given one-third representation in the central government.
  • There should be separate electorates for all the communities until a community demanded joint electorates.
  • A system of weightage should be adopted.
  • The number of the members of Central Legislative Council should be increased to 150.
  • At the provincial level, four-fifth of the members of the Legislative Councils should be elected and one-fifth should be nominated.
  • The size of provincial legislatures should not be less than 125 in the major provinces and from 50 to 75 in the minor provinces.
  • All members, except those nominated, should be elected directly on the basis of adult franchise.
  • No bill concerning a community should be passed if the bill is opposed by three-fourth of the members of that community in the Legislative Council.
  • The term of the Legislative Council should be five years.
  • Members of Legislative Council should themselves elect their president.
  • Half of the members of Imperial Legislative Council should be Indians.
  • The Indian Council must be abolished.
  • The salaries of the Secretary of State for Indian Affairs should be paid by the British government and not from Indian funds.
  • Of the two Under Secretaries, one should be Indian.
  • The Executive should be separated from the Judiciary.
• Evaluation
  • As an immediate effect, the unity between the two factions of the congress and between INC and ML aroused great political enthusiasm in the country
  • However, it did not involve Hindu and Muslim masses and was based on the notion of bringing together the educated Hindus and Muslims as separate political entities without secularization of their political outlook
  • The pact therefore left the way open to the future resurgence of communalism in Indian politics.
• Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms
  • 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.