AP Board 10th Class Social History Notes 2nd Lesson Nationalism in India
→ Modern Nationalism in Europe came to be associated with the formation of nation states.
→ In India the growth of modern nationalism is intimately connected to the anti-colonial movement.
→ The sense of being oppressed under colonialism provided a shared bond that tied many different groups together. The Congress under Mahatma Gandhi tried to forge these groups together within one movement.
→ The World War led to a huge increase in defence expenditure. This led to rise customs j duties, Income Tax was introduced. The prices increased – doubling between 1913 : and 1918.
→ Forced recruitment of soldiers from villages caused widespread anger. In many parts of India, crops failed and it resulted in acute shortages of food. This was accompanied by an influenza epidemic.
→ As a result of famines and the epidemic 12 to 13 million people perished.
→ Mahatma Gandhi returned to India in January 1915 from South Africa. There he had successfully fought against racial discrimination in a novel method which he called i to Satyagraha.
→ After arriving in India Gandhi successfully organised Satyagraha movement in various places.
→ In 1917 he went to Champaran in Bihar to inspire the peasants who were fighting against the oppressive plantation system
→ In 1917 he organised a Satyagraha to support the peasants of the Kheda district of Gujarat.
→ In 1918 Gandhi went to Ahmedabad to organise a Satyagraha movement amongst cotton mill workers, with the success of this movements Gandhi decided to launch a nationwide Satyagraha against the proposed Rowlatt Act (1919).
→ Gandhi wanted non-violent civil disobedience against such unjust laws and they would start with a harthal on 6th April 1919.
→ On 10th April the police in Amritsar fired upon a peaceful procession. National law was imposed and General Dyer took command. Being unaware of the Martial law in Amritsar many villagers entered the city to attend annual Baisakhi fair. Some came to protest against the government’s oppressive measured.
→ Dyer blocked the exit points and opened the fire on the crowd killing hundreds.
→ After this Jallianwala Bagh massacre, crowds to the streets in many north Indian towns and there was strikes clashes with the police and attacks on government buildings with the spread of violence Gandhi called off the movement.
→ To defend Khalifa’s temporal powers, a Khilafat Committee formed in Bombay in March j 1919. A young generation of Muslim leaders like the brothers Muhammad Ali and i Saukat Ali, discussed with Gandhi about the possibility of a united mass action on this issue.
→ Gandhi saw this as an opportunity to bring Muslims under the umbrella of a unified national movement.
→ In September 1920, at the Calcutta session of Congress, Gandhi convinced other leaders to start a Non-cooperation movement in support of Khilafat as well as for Swaraj.
→ Gandhiji opinioned that with the cooperation of Indians only the British rule was established in India and it would have collapsed within in a year if Indians refused to cooperate.
→ The movement started with middle-class participation in the cities. Foreign goods were boycotted liquor shops picketed and foreign cloth burnt in huge bonfires. As the boycott movement spread, people avoided imported cloth. But, as the Khadi cloth was expensive than mill cloth poor people could not afford to buy it. As there were no Indian Institutions to substitute the British ones students and teachers went back to government schools.
→ Peasant movement demanded reduction of revenue abolition of begar, and social boycott of oppressive landlords. When the movement spread in 1921, the houses of talukdars and merchants were attacked, hazaars were looted and grain hoards were taken over.
→ In gudem hills of Andhra Pradesh, as in other forests the British closed large forest areas, preventing people from entering forests to graze their cattle, to collect fuel wood and fruits. Alluri Sitarama Raju was inspired by Gandhi’s non-cooperative movement and asked the tribal people to wear Khadi and give up drinking. As well, he told them that India could be liberated only by the use of force not non-violence, The Gudem people attacked police stations attempted to kill British officials and carried on guerrilla warfare to achieve Swaraj. Raj was captured and executed in 1924
→ The plantation workers heard the Non-cooperation movement and defied the authorities and left the plantations and headed home.
→ In February 1922, Gandhi decided to withdraw the Non-cooperation movement.
→ The new Tory government in Britain constituted a Statutory Commission under John Simon which would look into the functioning of the constitutional system in India and suggest changes. When this commission arrived in India it was greeted with the slogan “Go back Simon ”.
→ The Viceroy Lord Irwin announced a vague offer of dominion status’ for India in an unspecified future and a Round Table Conference to discuss a future constitution.
→ In December 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru the Lahore Congress formalised the demand of Purna Swaraj. It was declared that 26th January, 1930 would be celebrated-as the Independence Day.
→ On 31 January 1930, Gandhi sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin stating eleven demands. But, Irwin was unwilling to negotiate. Gandhi started Salt March also known as Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March or Dandi Satyagraha. It was an act of Non-violent Civil ; Disobedience in colonial India.
→ On 6th April Gandhi reached Dandi and manufactured salt by boiling sea water. This marked the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
→ Because of violent clashes in many places Gandhi decided to call of the movement and entered into a pact with Irwin on 5th March, 1931. Gandhi agreed to participate in a Round Table conference and in December 1931 he went to London to attend 2nd j Round Table conference (Boycotted 1st Round Table Conference).
→ By 1934 Civil Disobedience Movement lost its momentum.
→ The peasant in Uttar Pradesh found it impossible to pay the government’s revenue demand. So they supported the Civil Disobedience Movement. But the movement was called off in 1931 without revising the revenue rates. So, when the movement restarted in 1932 many of them refused to participate. The small tenants were unable to pay the rent to Landlords. But the Congress was unwilling to support ‘no rent’ campaigns in most places. So, the poor peasants remained silent and some of them joined a variety of radical movements.
→ Most businessmen came to see Swaraj as a.time when colonial restrictions on business would no longer exist but after the failure of Round Table conference the business groups were no longer enthusiastic. They worried about the growing of socialism amongst the younger members of the Congress.
→ As business groups were nearer to the Congress the industrial working classes stayed away to the movement but in some places railway workers and dock workers participated in the movement in 1930 and 1932 adopting some of the ideas of Gandhian programme like boycott of foreign goods. But the Congress was reluctant to include worker’s demands as part of its programme of struggle.
→ Dr.B.R. Ambedkar clashed with Gandhi at the Second Round Table conference by demanding separate electorates for Dalits. The British Government conceded Ambedkar’s demand. Gandhi believed that separate electorates for Dalits would slow down the process of their integration into the society. So Gandhi began a fast unto death. Ambedkar agreed with Gandhi and the result was Poona pack of September 1932.
→ The Congress and the Muslim League made efforts to renegotiate an alliance. Many Muslim leaders and intellectuals expressed their concern about the status of Muslims as a minority within India. They felt that the culture and identity of minorities would be merged under the domination of a Hindu majority.
→ The first image of Bharat Mata was created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. In 1870 he wrote ‘Vande Mataram’ as a hymn to motherland. Later it was included in his novel ‘Anandmath’.
→ Later Abanindranath Tagore painted hlis famous image of Bharatmata.
→ In Madras, Natesa Sastri published a massive four volume collection of Tamil folk tales,’The Floklore of Southern India’.
→ By 1921, Gandhi designed the Swaraj Flag’, a tricolour (red, green and white) and had a spinning wheel in the’ centre, representing the Gandhian ideal of self help.
→ Growing anger against the colonial government brought together various groups and! classes of Indians into a common struggle for freedom.
→ The Congress continuously attempted to resolve differences and ensure that the demands of one group did not alienate another.
→ The high points of Congress activity and nationalist unity were followed by phases of! disunity and inner conflict between groups.
1. Satyagraha : Novel method of agitation done by Gandhi during his stay In South Africa.
2. Rowlatt Act : This Act gave enormous power to the British Government.
3. Non-Cooperation Movement : Began in January 1921. The main aim of this movement was not to cooperate with the British.
4. Begar : It Is a practice where the worker is forced to render service to the ‘master free of charge or at a nominal charge.
5. Inland Emigration Act of 1859 : Under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859, without permission, plantation labourers were not allowed to leave tea gardens.
6. DominIon statua : A semi autonomous status to India and not full independence.
7. Sait March or Dandi March: An Act of Civil disobedience led by Gandhi in protest to British rule in India.
8. Poona Pact : An agreement between Hindu Iea4ers in India granting new rights to Dalits.
9. Gandhi-IrwIn Pact : A political agreement signed by Gandhi and Lord Irwin, Viceroy of India on 5th March 1931, before the Second Round table Conference.
10. Swadeahl Movement : A movement for national Independence in IndIa boycotting foreign goods and encouraging the use of domestic products.