Nationalism In India

Anti-colonial movement gave a common platform to the people to come along and fight for their rights. In several colonies including India the growth of modern nationalism is intimately connected to the anti-colonial movement. In the process of their struggle with colonialism people began discovering their unity. The sense of being oppressed under colonialism provided a shared bond that tied all of them together. Hence, the growth of nationalism in the colonies is linked to an anti-colonial movement.

The First World War (1914-18) pushed Britain into a brutal, destructive war. To maintain the war effort, Britain needed huge supplies of commodities and manpower. Being the biggest and the most populous colony of Britain, India got drawn into the conflict as a major source of men and material supply to the war. The massive mobilization of resources from India unsettled the impoverished country in many ways.

Effects of First World War on India:

1. It created new economics and political situations,

2. Increase in defense expenditure: It created a new economic and political situation by leading to huge expenditures in defense which were to be financed by increasing taxes, raising custom duties and introducing income tax.

3. Price hike: Through the War years prices increased leading to extreme hardships for the common mass.

4. Villages were called upon for supply of soldiers: Forced recruitment of soldiers bred resentment in villages caused widespread anger.

5. Shortages of food: The shortages of food and spread of influenza epidemic, due to failure of crops in several parts of India in 1918-19 and 1920-21 made the life of the common people miserable and led to widespread hardships.

6. Muslims were disenchanted with the treatment meted out to the Ottoman Empire by the imperial powers. This led to a groundswell of support for non-cooperation.

7. The business classes reacted against policies that restricted their business.

People hoped that their hardships would end after the war was over. But that didn’t happen. All these reasons gave birth to the national movement in the country.

The First World War had many economic and political benefits also:

1. Defense expenditure rose,

2. The war created demands for industrial goods,

3. Being Britain busy in the war Indian businessmen and individual groups got opportunities to increase business,

Example - Setting up of TISCO.

4. Political parties started influencing people.

All this triggered the political and economical situation of India through this the people started forming an alliance against British nation and thus this led to the growth of the national movement in India.

In the year 1919, the British Government passed a new rule called the Rowlatt Act, The Rowlatt Commission was appointed to investigate the 'seditious conspiracy' of the Indian people. The Law passed empowered the Viceroy Government with extraordinary power to stop all violations by silencing the press, confining political activists without trial and arresting any individual suspected of sedition and treachery and arresting individuals without any warrant. A nationwide protest was raised by calling a Hartal.

The Act was ill-famed as 'Black Act' by the people and Indians revolt in protest against the Rowlatt Act.

Indians were outraged by the Rowlatt Act because:

1. This law stated that that the Government can arrest the political leaders without any trail for 2years,

2. Political leaders were taken from Amritsar

3. Gandhi was not allowed to enter Delhi

4. Martial law was imposed

Mahatma Gandhi was extremely agitated by the enactment of the Rowlatt Act. He argued that everyone cannot be punished for an isolated political crime. This enraged Indian so, political leaders and the common public came together against the act and Government adapted more repressive measures to dominate the Native people. Gandhi and other leaders of national Congress found it futile to take the measure of constitutional opposition and thereby called a 'hartal' where Indians suspended all the business and fasted to show their hatred for the British legislation.

In February 1922, Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. People were protesting against the British policy and in return police officials fired upon them which leads to death of few individuals. People got agitated and they killed many police officials and burnt the police station. Gandhiji was against any kind of violence so hearing of this incident he called off the Non-Cooperation Movement. He felt that the movement was turning violent in many places which he never approved in any circumstances and Satyagrahi needed to be properly trained before they would be ready for mass struggles. He thought the masses have still not understood his idea of Satyagraha and thus continuing the movement may lead to complete chaos in the country. Also he was apprehended that if his movement becomes a violent one then many innocent lives will be compromised. Hence he ordered to withdraw this movement.

Satyagraha is derived from a sanskrit word 'satya' and 'agraha' which means the path followed by truth. Gandhi ji believed that if the cause was truth and the fight is against injustice then there is no need of any physical force, and Satyagrahi can win the fight with the help of truth and non-violence.

So, the idea of Satyagraha was based on truth and peace. He started the movements in January 1915, to spread the idea of Satyagraha like civil disobedience and non cooperation. He helped peasants, farmers and plantation workers to retain their liberty to reduce taxes to get freedom.

S, the idea was comprised of:

(i) Following the path of truth and non-violence to attain freedom and fight against injustice.

(ii) Philosophy of non-violent resistance adopted to end the British Raj in India.

(iii) The idea emphasized the power of truth and need to search for truth.

(iv) It advocated that for true cause and struggle against injustice, physical force is not required to fight with the oppressor.

(v) Without being aggressive, people can win battle through non-violence.

(vi) People-including the oppressors-had to be persuaded to see the truth, instead of being forced to accept truth through the use of violence.

(vii) By this struggle, truth was bound to ultimately triumph.

14th April, Amritsar

Today I visited the Jallianwalla Bagh here. Yesterday this place had witnessed the ghastly scene which exposed cruelty of the colonial government in India. A public meeting was announced here on 13^th April 1919 to listen to their leaders who were gathered to show their protest against the repressive laws. Suddenly, General Dyer came with armed troops and closed the only exit and ordered the troops to fire on the crowd. His purpose doing this was to ‘produce a moral effect’ and to create a feeling of terror in the mind of Satyagrahis. Hundreds of innocent people were killed. This agitated Indian minds resulting in strikes, clashes with the police, attacks on government buildings and converted Mahatma Gandhi into a non-cooperator.

4 February 1928, Bengal

The Indian Statutory Commission, a group of seven British Members, of Parliament of United Kingdom under the chairmanship of Sir John Simon assisted by Clement Attlee arrived in British-occupied India in 1928 to study constitutional reform in Britain's most important colonial dependency. It was commonly referred to as the Simon Commission after its chairman, Sir John Allsebrook Simon. It was set up in response to the nationalist movement and to look into the functioning of the constitutional system in India and suggest changes. But the Commission has only British members, no Indian members. Also the clauses of this Commission did not contain any hope of ‘Swaraj’ for the Indians. This was followed by a strike in Bengal on February 3^rd, 1928. So when the Simon Commission arrived in India in 1928, it was greeted with the slogan ‘Go back, Simon’. To pacify Indians, The Viceroy Lord, announced in October 1929 ‘dominion status’ for India in an unspecified future and a Round Table Conference was held to discuss a future constitution.

Both images inspired nationalists who worked very hard to unify their respective countries and to attain a liberal nation. The image of Bharat Mata is different from that of Germania in the sense that former reflects the religious basis of its making.

Different social groups which joined the non-Cooperation Movement of 1921 are given below:

(i) Middle class people: Teachers and students, merchants and traders and Lawyers.

(ii) Countryside peasants

(iii) Tribal peasants

(iv) Plantation workers in Assam

(v) Nai and Dhobi.

1. Middle class people:

(i) Teachers and students: Thousands of students left government-controlled schools and college students in large member joined the movement. Headmasters and teachers resigned from the colleges established by the government. New educational institutes such as jamia Milia Islamia and Kashi Vidyapitha were established.

(ii) Merchants and traders: Merchants and traders refused to trade in foreign goods or finance foreign trade. They joined the movement because the boycott of foreign goods would make the sale of their textiles and handlooms go up.

(iii) Lawyers: Lawyers gave up their legal practice.

2. Country side peasants:

Though the people In the country side interpreted the idea of ‘Swaraj’ in their own way but they participated in the movement on large scale. In Awadh, peasants were led by Baba Ramchandra, a sanyasi. The movement here was against talukdars and landlords who demanded high rents from peasants, and a number of other cesses. Peasants demanded reduction of revenue, abolition of beggar and social boycott of oppressive landlords. As the movement spread in 1921, the houses of talukdars and merchants were attacked, bazaars were looted and grain hoards were taken over. In several places, local leaders told peasants that Gandhiji had declared that no taxes were to be paid and land was to be redistributed among the poor.

3. Tribal peasants:

Most of the tribal people were dependent on forest for their livelihood but under the new forest policy, government had put many restrictions on the people like:

● Closing large forest area for the tribal people,

● Forcing the local people to contribute beggar,

● Preventing people to enter forest to graze their cattle, or to collect fuelwood and fruits.

4. Plantation workers in Assam: For plantation workers in Assam, freedom meant the right to move freely in and out of the confined space in which they were enclosed. It also meant retaining a link with the village from which they had come.

● Under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859, plantation workers were not permitted to leave the tea gardens without permission.

● When they heard of the Non-Cooperation Movement, thousands of workers defied the authorities, left plantations and head home.

● They believed that Gandhi Raj was coming and everyone would be given land in their own villages.

5. Nai and dhobi: the movement in the country side had different angle. In many places Nai-dhobi bandhs were organized by the Panchayats to deprive the landlords of the services of barbers, cobblers, washer men etc.

Mahatma Gandhi found in salt a powerful symbol that could unite the nation against the British government in India. Gandhi ji started his famous salt march (Dandi March) accompanied by 78 followers from his ashram in Sabarmati to the Gujarati coastal town of Dandi. On 6 April he reached Dandi, and openly violated the law, manufacturing salt by boiling sea water.

It was a smart political move against the unjustified tax. This demand was quite wide ranging which brought all the classes of Indian society can identify and walk together in a united campaign.

(i) He sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin on 31 January, 1930 stating eleven demands from specific to general in the interest of all classes.

(ii) The idea was to make the demands wide-ranging, so that all classes within Indian society could identify with them and everyone would be brought together in a united campaign.

(iii) The most stirring of all was the demand to abolish salt tax. Salt was something consumed by the rich and the poor alike. It was one of most essential items of food. Gandhi’s letter was an ultimatum.

(iv) It also threatened that if government did not exempt people from the salt tax then they would launch a campaign against it.

(v) But Irwin showed reluctance and took the warning lightly. Thus, Civil Disobedience Movement was started by Gandhi ji in the years 1930. It was an important milestone in the history of Indian nationalism.

(vi) The main ideology behind the Civil Disobedience Movement was to defy the laws made by the British.

Salt march was a symbolic movement to highlight the state of governance under British rule in which restrictions were imposed even on basic necessities of life like salt. Gandhi ji made efficient use of salt as a symbol to which each and every Indian could relate himself, thus leading to national unity in freedom struggle against colonial rule. Dandi march inspired people from all castes, religions & regions to join national forces against British ultimately led to Quit Indian Movement which made a huge dent over British prospect of ruling over Indian for long.

It was a time when women were kept inside walls. A woman’s role was considered to be of a homemaker. Though I had got good education, I was not allowed to take part in social or political activities. But I thought by participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement, I could be a part of the nation making process. So, at the call of Gandhi ji, I couldn’t resist myself. Revolting against my family traditions, and I became an active member of the movement. It was a proud moment for me to participate in Gandhi ji’s Civil Disobedience Movement. It was a motivating experience for me when I tended to those injured in the lathi charge. It was like taking care of my own brother. I was full of nationalistic fervor. It was the most memorable and proud phase of my life.

Nationalist Congress saw this movement as the seed of divide and rule which can makes the national movement weak. By this the British can rule over India as long they wish to rule. So, political leaders differed sharply over the question of separate electorates because of differences in opinion. While those supporting the cause of minorities and the dalits believed that only political empowerment would resolve their social backwardness, others like Gandhi ji thought that separate electorates would further slow down the process of their integration into society.

Also, it was feared that the system of separate electorates would gradually divide the country into numerous fragments because every community or class would then ask for separate representations.

In 1930, Sir Muhammad Iqbal, the President of the Muslim league, re-stated the importance of separate electorates for the Muslims as an important safeguard for their minority political interests.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who organized the dalits into the Depressed Classes Association in 1930, clashed with Gandhi at the Second Round Table Conference by demanding separate electorates for dalits. When the British government conceded Ambedkar’s demand, Gandhi ji began a fast unto death. Ambedkar ultimately accepted Gandhi’s position.