INDIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT

INDIAN UPRISING OF 1857

 The Indian Mutiny (also Sepoy Mutiny) as
known to the British, or The First War of
Indian Independence as known to the Indians
was a period of uprising in northern and
central India against British rule in 1857-1858.
 Although, the First War of Indian
Independence is considered to be the first
united rebellion against colonial rule in India,
a much smaller ethnic revolt against the
Portuguese took place in Goa during 1787, and Indian Uprising of 1857
is known as the Conspiracy of the Pintos.

Causes
 The rebellion was the outcome of decades of ethnic and cultural differences between Indian
soldiers and their British officers.
 The specific reason that triggered the rebellion was the use of cow and pig fat in .557 calibre
Pattern 1853 Enfield (P/53) rifle cartridges.
 Since soldiers had to break the cartridges with their teeth before they could load them into
their rifles, this was offensive to Hindu and Muslim soldiers, who considered tasting beef
and pork to be against their respective religious tenets.
 In February 1857, sepoys (Indian soldiers in the Britain army) refused to use their new
cartridges.

This percussion-lock rifle was produced in the British Ordinance Factory at Enfield near
London. It came into use in the British army in 1853. Shortly afterwards it was sent out for
trials for the Company army in India. The 'rifling' on the inside of the barrel made the shot
more accurate and gave the weapon a greater range. It was an enormous improvement on the
Brown Bass smooth-bore flintiock musket which had been the standard weapon of all British
forces since the early eighteenth century.
 The British claimed to have replaced the cartridges with new ones and tried to make sepoys
make their own grease from beeswax and vegetable oils, but the rumour persisted.

Mangal Pandey and the March to Delhi

 In March 1857, Mangal Pandey, a solider of the 24th Native Infantry,

attacked his British sergeant and wounded an adjutant. General Hearsay,
who said Pandey was in some kind of “religious frenzy,” ordered a
jemandar to arrest him but the jemadar refused.
 Mangal Pandey was hanged on 7 April along with the jemadar. The Mangal Pandey
whole regiment was dismissed as a collective punishment. Other sepoys
felt this was too harsh.
 On May 10th, when the 11th and 20th cavalry assembled, they broke
rank and truned on their commanding officers. They then liberated the
3rd Regiment, and on 11 May, the sepoys reached Delhi.
 They were joined by other Indians from the local bazaar. They attacked
and captured the Red Fort, which was the residence of Bahadur Shah Bahadur Shah Zaffar
Zafar, the last emperor of the Mughal dynasty. The sepoys demanded
that he reclaim his throne. He was reluctant at first, but eventually
agreed to the demands and became the leader of the rebellion.
 About the same time in Jhansi, the army rebelled and killed the British
army officers. In 1858, when the British army marched towards Jhansi,
Rani Lakshmi Bai, the queen of Jhansi, assembled an army of 14,000 Rani Lakshmibai
volunteers to fight the invaders.
 The war lasted 2 weeks but eventually the British won. The queen escaped on horseback to
the fortress of Kalpi. Here she organized a few other kingdoms to rebel against the British.
 The rebel forces captured Gwalior from the British, who placed a prize of Rs. 20,000 on
the capture of Rani Lakshmibai.

The British response

 The British were slow to respond at first and eventually two columns left Meerut and Simla.
At the same time, the British moved regiments from the Crimean War and diverted
European regiments headed for China to India.
 After a march lasting two months, the British fought the main army of the rebels near Delhi
in Badl-ke-Serai and drove them back to Delhi before laying a siege on the city.
 The siege of Delhi lasted roughly from 1 July to 31 August. After a week of street fighting,
the British retook the city.
 The last significant battle was fought in Gwalior on 20 June 1858. It is during this battle
that Rani Lakshmi Bai lost her life. Sporadic fighting continued until 1859 but most of the
rebels were subdued.

Aftermath

 The war of 1857 was a major turning point in the history of modern India. The British
abolished the British East India Company and replaced it with direct rule under the British
crown. A Viceroy was appointed to represent the crown.
 In proclaiming the new direct-rule policy to “the Princes, Chiefs, and Peoples of India,”
Queen Victoria promised equal treatment under British law, but Indian mistrust of British
rule had become a legacy of the 1857 rebellion.
 The British embarked on a program of reform, trying to integrate Indian higher castes and
rulers into the government. They stopped land grabs, decreed religious tolerance and
admitted Indians into civil service, albeit mainly as subordinates.
 They also increased the number of British soldiers in relation to native ones and allowed
only British soldiers to handle artillery.
 Bahadur Shah was exiled to Rangoon, Burma where he died in 1862, finally bringing the
Mughal dynasty to an end. In 1877, Queen Victoria took the title of Empress of India.

RISE OF ORGANIZED MOVEMENTS

 The decades following the Sepoy Rebellion were a period of

growing political awareness, manifestation of Indian public
opinion, and emergence of Indian leadership at national and
provincial levels. Swami Dayanand Saraswati
 The influences of socio-religious groups, especially in a nation where religion plays a vital
role cannot be undermined. The Arya Samaj was an important Hindu organization which
sought to reform Hindu society of social evils, counter-act Christian missionary
propaganda.
 Swami Dayanand Saraswati’s work was important in increasing an attitude of self-
awareness, pride and community service in common Indian peoples. Raja Ram Mohan
Roy’s Brahmo Samaj wa also a pioneer in the reform of Indian society, fighting evils like
suttee, dowry, ignorance and illiteracy.
 The inculcation of religious reform and social pride was fundamental to the rise of a public
movement for complete independence.
 The work of men like Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Sri Aurobindo,
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Rabindranath Tagore and
Dadabhai Naoroji spread the passion for rejuvenation and freedom.

 The flames of the spirit of freedom were ignited by learned men like
them, who gave reason for common Indians to feel proud of themselves,
demand political and social freedom and seek happiness.
 They were the teachers who sparked the passion of learning and
achievement for thousands of Indians, and the poets expressing the
inner fires of the freedom-fighter’s soul.
 Inspired by a suggestion made by A.O. Hume, a retired British civil
servant, seventy-three Indian delegates met in Bombay in 1885 and
founded the Indian National Congress. A.O. Hume
 They were mostly members of the upwardly mobile and successful western-educated
provincial elites, engaged in professions such as law, teaching, and journalism.
 They had acquired political experience from regional competition in the professions and by
securing nomination to various positions in legislative councils, universities, and special
commissioners.
 It should be noted that Dadabhai Naoroji had already formed the Indian National
Association a few years before the Congress. The INA merged into the Congress Party to
form a bigger national front.
 At its inception, the Congress had no well-defined ideology and commanded few of the
resources essential to a political organization.
 It functioned more as a debating society that met annually to express its loyalty to the
British Raj and passed numerous resolutions on less controversial issues such as civil rights
or opportunities in government, especially the civil service.
 These resolutions were submitted to the Viceroy’s government and occasionally to the
British Parliament, but the Congress’s early gains were meagre.
 Despite its claim to represent all India, the Congress voiced the interests of urban elites; the
number of participants from other economic backgrounds remained negligible.
 By 1990, although the Congress had emerged as an all-India political organization, its
achievement was undermined by its singular failure to attract Muslims, who felt that their
representation in government service was inadequate.
 Attacks by Hindu reformers against religious conversion, cow slaughter, and the
preservation of Urdu in Arabic script deepened their concerns of minority status and denial
of rights if the Congress alone were to represent the people of India.
 Sir Syed Ahmed Khan launched a movement for Muslim regeneration that culminated in
the founding in 1875 of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh, Uttar
Pradesh (renamed Aligarh Muslim University in 1921). Its objective was to educate
wealthy students by emphasizing the compatibility of Islam with modern western
knowledge.
 The diversity among India’s Muslims, however, made it impossible to bring about uniform
cultural and intellectual regeneration.

PARTITION OF BENGAL

 In 1905, Lord Curzon, the Viceroy and Governor-General (1899-1905),

ordered the partition of the province of Bengal for improvements in
administrative efficiency in that huge and populous region, where the
Bengali Hindu intelligentsia exerted considerable influence on local and
national politics.
 The partition created two provinces: Eastern Bengal & Assam, with its
capital at Dhaka, and West Bengal, with its capital at Calcutta (which Lord Curzon
also served as the capital of British India).
 An ill-conceived and hastily implemented action, the partition outraged Bengalis. Not only
had the government failed to consult Indian public opinion, but the action appeared to
reflect the British resolve to “divide and rule.”
 Widespread agitation ensued in the streets and in the press, and the Congress advocated
boycotting British products under the banner of swadeshi.
 The Congress-led boycott of British goods was so successful that it unleashed anti-British
forces to an extent unknown since the Sepoy Rebellion.
 A cycle of violence and repression ensued in some parts of the country. The British tried to
mitigate the situation by announcing a series of constitutional reforms in 1909 and by
appointing a few moderates to the imperial and provincial councils.
 A Muslim deputation met with the Viceroy, Lord Minto (1905-10),
seeking concessions from the impending constitutional reforms,
including special considerations in government service and electorates.
 The All-India Muslims League was founded the same year to promote
loyalty to the British and to advance Muslim political rights, which the
British recognized by increasing the number of elective offices reserved
for Muslims in the India Councils Act of 1909.
 The Muslim League insisted on its separateness from the Hindu- Lord Minto
dominated Congress, as the voice of a “nation within a nation.”
 In what the British saw as an additional goodwill gesture, in 1911 King-Emperor George
V visited India for a durbar (a traditional court held for subjects to express fealty to their
ruler), during which he announced the reversal of the partition of Bengal and the transfer
of the capital from Calcutta to a newly planned city to be built immediately south of Delhi,
which became New Delhi.

WORLD WAR I

 World War I began with an unprecedented outpouring of loyalty and goodwill towards
Britain, contrary to initial British fears of an Indian revolt. India contributed generously to
the British war effort, by providing men and resources.
 About 1.3 million Indian soldiers and laborers served in Europe, Africa and the Middle
East, while both the Indian government and the princes sent large supplies of food, money
and ammunition.
 But high casualty rates, soaring inflation compounded by heavy taxation, a widespread
influenza epidemic, and the disruption of trade during the war escalated human suffering
in India.
 The prewar nationalist movement revived, as moderate and extremist groups within the
Congress submerged their differences in order to stand as a unified front.
 In 1916, the Congress succeeded in forgoing the Lucknow Pact, a temporary alliance with
the Muslim League over the issues of devolution of political power and the future of Islam
in the region.
 The British themselves adopted a “carrot and stick” approach in recognition of India’s
support during the war and in response to renewed nationalist demands.
 In August 1917, Edwin Montagu, the secretary of state for India, made
the historic announcement in Parliament that the British policy for India
was “increasing association of Indians in every branch of the
administration and the gradual development of self-governing institutions
with a view to the progressive realization of responsible government in
India as an integral part of the British Empire.”
 The means of achieving the proposal measure were later enshrined in the Edwin Montagu
Government of India Act of 1919, which introduced the principle of a dual
mode of administration, or diarchy, in which both elected Indian legislators and appointed
British officials shared power.
 The act also expanded the central and provincial legislatures and widened the franchise
considerably.
 Diarchy set in motion certain real changes at the provincial level: a number of non-
controversial or “transferred” portfolios, such as agriculture, local government, health,
education, and public works, were handed over to Indians, while more sensitive matters
such as finance, taxation, and maintaining law and order were retained by the provincial
British administrators.
THE ROWLATT ACT AND ITS AFTERMATH

 The positive impact of reform was seriously undermined in 1919 by the Rowlatt Act, named
after the recommendations made the previous year to the Imperial Legislature Council by
the Rowlatt Commission, which had been appointed to investigate “seditious conspiracy.”
 The Rowlatt Act, also known as the Black Act, vested the Viceroy’s government with
extraordinary powers to quell sedition by silencing the press, detaining political activists
without trail, and arresting any suspected individuals without a warrant.
 In protest, a nationwide cessation of work (hartal) was called, marking the beginning of
widespread, although not nationwide, popular discontent.
 The agitation unleashed by the acts culminated on 13 April 1919, in the Amritsar Massacre
in Amritsar, Punjab.
 The British military commander, Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer,
ordered his soldiers to fire at point-blank range into an unarmed and
unsuspecting crowd of some 10,000 persons.
 They had assembled at Jallainwala Bagh, a walled garden, to celebrate
Baisakhi, a Sikh festival, without prior knowledge of the imposition of
martial law.
 A total of 1,650 rounds was fired, killing 379 persons and wounding Reginald Dyer
1,137 in the episode, which dispelled wartime hopes and goodwill in a
frenzy of postwar reaction.

THE GANDHIAN ERA

 India's option for an entirely original path to obtaining Swaraj (self-rule, sometimes
translated as Home Rule or Independence) was due largely to Mahatma Gandhi, (or Great
Soul).
 A native of Gujarat who had been educated in Britain, he had been a
timid lawyer with a modest practice. His legal career lasted a short time,
since he immediately took to fighting for just causes on behalf of the
Indian community in South Africa.
 Gandhi had accepted an invitation in 1893 to represent indentured
Indian laborers in South Africa, where he stayed on for more than twenty
years, lobbying against racial discrimination.
 Gandhi’s battle was not only against basic discrimination and abusive Mohandas Gandhi –
labour treatment; it was in protest of suppressive police control akin to in South Africa
the Rowlatt Acts.
 After several months of non-violent protests and arrests of thousands of indentured
laborers, the ruler of South Africa, Gen. Jan Smutts released all prisoners and repealed the
oppressive legislation.
 A young, timid Indian was now blooded in the art of revolution, and on well on course to
Mahatma-hood. His victory in South Africa excited many Indians at home.
 He returned to India in 1915, virtually a stranger to public life but fired with a patriotic
vision of a new India. It should be noted, however, that Gandhi did not
yet believe that political independence from the Empire was the
solution to India's problems.
 Upon his return, he had candidly stated that if as a citizen of the Empire,
he wanted freedom and protection, it would be wrong of him not to aid
in the defense of the Empire during World War I.
 A veteran Congressman and Indian leader Gopal Krishna Gokhale
became Gandhi’s mentor, and Gandhi travelled widely across the Gopal Krishna
country for years, through different provinces, villages and cities, Gokhale
learning about India's cultures, the life of the vast majority of Indians,
their difficulties and tribulations.
 Gandhi’s ideas and strategies of nonviolent civil disobedience initially appeared
impractical to some Indians and veteran Congressmen.
 In Gandhi’s own words, “civil obedience is civil breach of unmoral statutory enactments,”
but as he viewed it, it had to be carried out non-violently by withdrawing cooperation with
the corrupt state.
 Gandhi’s ability to inspire millions of common people was initiated when he used
satyagraha during the anti-Rowlatt Act protests in Punjab.
 In Champaran, Bihar, Gandhi took up the cause of desperately poor sharecroppers,
landless farmers who were being forced to grow cash crops at the expense of crops which
formed their food supply, and pay horrendously oppressive taxes.
 Neither were they sufficiently paid to buy food. By now, Gandhi had shed his European
dress for self-woven khadi dhotis and shawls, as is seen in the picture at the head of the
article and his most famous pictures.
 This simple Gandhi instantly electrified millions of poor, common Indians. He was one of
them, not a fancy, educated elitist Indian.
 His arrest by police caused major protests throughout the province and the British
government was forced to release him, and grant the demands of Gandhi and the farmers
of Bihar, which were the freedom to grow the crops of their choosing, exemption from
taxation when hurt by famine or drought, and proper compensation for cash crops.
 It was with his victory in Champaran, that Gandhi was
lovingly accorded the title of Mahatma. It was given not
by journalists or observers, but the very millions of people
for whom he had come to fight.
 In 1920, under Gandhi’s leadership, the Congress was
reorganized and given a new constitution, whose goal was
Swaraj (independence).
 Membership in the party was opened to anyone prepared Gandhiji at Champaran
to pay a token free, and a hierarchy of committees was
established and made responsible for discipline and control over a hitherto amorphous and
diffuse movement. The party was transformed from an elite organization to one of the mass
national appeal and participation.
 Gandhi always stressed that the movement should not be directed against the British people,
but the unjust system of foreign administration.
 British officers and leaders are human beings, emphasized Gandhi, and capable of the same
mistakes of intolerance, racism and cruelty as the common Indian or any other human
being.
 Punishment for these sins was God’s task, and not
the mission of the freedom movement. But the
liberation of 350 million people from colonial
and social tyranny definitely was.
 During his first nationwide satyagraha, Gandhi
urged the people to boycott British educational
institutions, law courts, and products; to resign
from government employment; to refuse to pay
taxes; and to forsake British titles and honours.
 Although this came too late to influence the Satyagraha by Gandhiji
framing of the new Government of India Act of
1919, the magnitude of disorder resulting from
the movement was unparalleled and presented a
new challenge to foreign rule.
 Over 10 million people protested according to
Gandhi’s guidelines in all cities and thousands
of towns and villages in every part of the
country. But Gandhi made a tough decision and
called off the campaign in 1922 because of an
atrocious murder of policemen in Chauri
Chaura by a mob of agitators.
 He was deeply distressed with the act, and the
possibility that crowds of protestors would lose
Gandhiji at Chauri Chaura
control like this in different parts of the country,
causing the fight for national freedom to degenerate into a chaotic orgy of bloodshed, where
Englishmen would be murdered by mobs, and the British forces would retaliate against
innocent civilians.
 He felt Indians needed more discipline and had to understand that they were not out to
punish the British, but to expose the cruelty and evil behind their discrimination and
tyranny.
 As much as liberating India, he hoped to reform the British, see them as friends and break
the back of racism and colonialism across the world.
 He was imprisoned in 1922 for six years, but served only two. On his release from prison,
he set up the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, on the banks of river Sabarmati, established
the newspaper Young India, and inaugurated a series of reforms aimed at the socially
disadvantaged within Hindu society – the rural poor, and the untouchables.
 Emerging leaders within the Congress – Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, Subhash
Chandra Bose, and others – championed Gandhi’s leadership in articulating nationalist
aspirations.
 The Indian political spectrum was further broadened in the mid-1920s by the emergence of
both moderate and militant parties, such as the Swaraj Party, Hindu Mahasabha,
Communist Party of India and the Rashtriya Swayemsevak Sangh.
 Regional political organizations also continued to represent the interests of non-Brahmans
in Madras, Madars in Maharashtra, and Sikhs in Punjab.
DANDI MARCH AND THE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT

 Following the rejection of the

recommendations of the Simon
Commission by Indians, an all-party
conference was held at Bombay in May
1928. The conference appointed a drafting
committee under Motilal Nehru to draw up
a Constitution for India.
 The Calcutta session of the Indian National
Congress asked the British government to
accord dominion status to India by
December 1929, or a countrywide civil Dandi March
disobedience movement would be launched.
 The Indian National Congress, at its historic
Lahore session in December 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, adopted a
resolution to gain complete independence from the British.
 It authorised the Working Committee to launch a civil disobedience movement throughout
the country. It was decided that 26 January 1930 should be observed all over India as the
Purna Swaraj (complete independence) Day.
 Many Indian political parties and Indian revolutionaries of a wide spectrum united to
observe the day with honour and pride.
 Gandhi emerged from his long seclusion by undertaking his most famous campaign, a
march of about 400 kilometres from his commune in Ahmedabad to Dandi, on the coast of
Gujarat between 12 March and 6 April 1930.
 The march is usually known as the Dandi March or the Salt Satyagraha. At Dandi, in
protest against British taxes on salt, he and thousands of followers broke the law by making
their own salt from sea water.
 In April 1930 there were violent police-crowd clashes in Calcutta. Approximately over
100,000 people were imprisoned in the course of the Civil disobedience movement (1930-
31).
 While Gandhi was in jail, the first Round Table Conference was held in London in
November 1930, without representation from the Indian National Congress.
 The ban upon the Congress was removed because of economic hardship caused by the
Satyagraha. Gandhi, along with other members of the Congress Working Committee was
released from prison in January 1931.
 In March 1931, the Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed, and the government agreed to set all
political prisoners free.
 In return, Gandhi agreed to discontinue the civil disobedience movement and participate as
the sole representative of the Congress in the second Round Table Conference, which
was held in London in September 1931.
 However, the conference ended in failure in December 1931. Gandhi returned to India and
decided to resume the civil disobedience movement in January 1932.
 For the next few years, the Congress and the government were locked in conflict and
negotiations until what became the Government of India Act of 1935 could be hammered
out.
 By then, the rift between the Congress and the Muslim League had become unbridgeable
as each pointed the finger at the other acrimoniously. The Muslim League disputed the
claim of the Congress to represent all people of India, while the Congress disputed the
Muslim League’s claim to voice the aspirations of all Muslims.
REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITIES

Revolutionary activities in Punjab

 As voices inside and outside the Congress became more strident, the
British appointed a commission in 1927, under Sir John Simon, to
recommend further measures in the constitutional devolution of
power.
 The British failure to appoint an Indian member to the commission
outraged the Congress and others, and, as a result, they boycotted it
throughout India, carrying placards inscribed “Simon, Go Back.”
 In Lahore, Lala Lajpat Rai and Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya
protested to the commission in open about their displeasure. Lala Lajpat Rai
Thousands joined in the silent demonstration.
 Police troops charged the demonstration, and Lala Lajpat Rai was hit
with a lathi (bamboo stick) on the head several times by an officer
Scott. He succumbed to the injuries.
 Bhagat Singh, a young marxist from Punjab, vowed to take revenue
and with the help of Chandrashekhar Azad, Rajguru and Sukhadev,
plotted to kill Scott.
 Instead of Scott, however, he killed a junior officer named Mr. Pandit Madan Mohan
Sanders. This is widely thought to be a case of mistaken identity, yet Malaviya
the issue is not completely clear as, according to folklore, the story goes that they couldn’t
find Scott and killed Sanders instead.
 The British, under the Defence of India Act, gave more power to the police to arrest persons
to stop processions with suspicious movements and actions.
 The Act brought in the council was defeated by one vote. Even then it was to be passed in
the form of an ordiance in the “interest of the public.”
 Bhagat Singh volunteered to throw a bomb in the central assembly where the Act was to
be passed. It was a carefully laid out plot, not to cause death or injury, but to draw the
attention of the government. It was agreed that Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt would
court arrest after throwing the bomb.
 On 8 April 1929, at Delhi Central Assembly, Singh and Dutt threw
handouts, exploded a bomb in the corridor, and courted arrest after
shouting the slogan “Inquilab Zindabad!” (Long Live, Revolution!).
 Bhagat Singh thought the court would be an ideal place to get publicity
for the cause of freedom, and did not disown the crime. He was found
guilty, and was hanged on 23 March 1931.
Bhagat Singh
Revolutionary activities in Bengal

 Surya Sen, a revolutionary from the Chittagong district of Bengal

(now in Bangaldesh) was the president of Indian National Congress in
the district. By 1923, he had established revolutionary cells under the
Jugantor (New Age) party.
 Aided by Purnendu Dastidar, Kalpana Dutt and Pritilata Waddedar,
Surya Sen organized guerrilla raids on British targets. His group
successfully raided offices of Assam-Bengal railways in Chiitagong.
Surya Sen
 The Chittagong Armoury Raid took place on 18 April 1930, when the revolutionaries
under the leadership of Surya Sen attacked the British Armory in
Chittagong. However, the attack was thwarted by the British soldiers
and police.
 On 23 September 1932, Surya Sen master-minded a successful attack
on the European Club in Chittagong, which bore the notorious sign
‘Dogs and Indians Not Allowed’.
 However, Pritilata Waddedar, the leader of the group leading the
attack was surrounded and committed suicide to avoid capture.
 After spending years in hiding, Surya Sen was captured on 17 Pritilata Waddedar
February 1933.
 He was later tried and sentenced to death. Members of Jugantor party made a futile
attempt to rescue him. Surya Sen was hanged on 8 January 1934 in Chittagong Jail.

ELECTIONS AND THE LAHORE RESOLUTION

 The Government of India Act 1935, the voluminous and final constitutional effort at
governing British India, articulated three major goals: establishing a loose federal structure,
achieving provincial autonomy, and safeguarding minority interests through separate
electorates.
 The federal provisions, intended to unite princely states and British India at the center, were
not implemented because of ambiguities in safeguarding the existing privileges of princes.
 In February 1937, however, provincial autonomy became a reality when elections were
held; the Congress emerged as the dominant party with a clear majority in five provinces
and held an upper hand in two, while the Muslim League performed poorly.
 In 1939, the Viceroy Lord Linlithgow declared India's entrance into World
War II without consulting provincial governments. In protest, the Congress
asked all of its elected representatives to resign from the government.
 Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the president of the Muslim League, persuaded
participants at the annual Muslim League session at Lahore in 1940 to
adopt what later came to be known as the Lahore Resolution, demanding
the division of India into two separate sovereign states, one Muslim, the Mohammad Jinnah
Ali

other Hindu; sometimes referred as Two Nation Theory.

 Although the idea of Pakistan had been introduced as early as 1930, very few had responded
to it. However, the volatile political climate and hostilities between the Hindus and Muslims
transformed the idea of Pakistan into a stronger demand.

THE CLIMAX: WAR AND QUIT INDIA

 Indians throughout the country were divided over World War II, as the British had
unilaterally and without consulting the elected representatives of Indians, entered India into
the war.
 Some wanted to support the British, especially through the Battle of Britain, hoping for
independence eventually through this backing during the U.K.’s most critical life-death
struggle.
 Others were enraged by the British disregard for Indian intelligence and civil rights, and
were unsympathetic to the travails of the British people, which they saw as rightful revenue
for the enslavement of Indians.
 In a climate of frustration, anger and other tumultuous emotions, arose two epochal
movements that form the climax of the 100-year struggle for freedom of 350 million
Indians.

THE INDIAN NATIONAL ARMY

 The arbitrary entry of India into the war was strongly opposed by
Subhash Chandra Bose, who had been elected President of the
Congress twice, in 1937 and 1939.
 After lobbying against participation in the war, he resigned from
Congress in 1939 and started a new party, the All India Forward Bloc.
Subash Chandra Bose
 He was placed under house arrest, but escaped in 1941. He surfaced in
Germany, and enlisted German and Japanese help to
fight the British in India.
 In 1943, he travelled to Japan from Germany on board
German and Japanese submarines. In Japan, he helped
organize the Indian National Army (INA) and set up
a government-in-exile.
 During the war, the Andaman & Nicobar Islands came Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj)
under INA control, and Bose renamed them Shahid
(Martyr) and Swaraj (Independence).
 The INA engaged British troops in north-eastern India, hoping to liberate Indian territories
soldiers fighting in dense jungle and with little real support from the Japanese died by the
thousands.
 Their die-hard courage, patriotism and spirit could not overcome the disastrous odds, and
the INA’s efforts ended with the surrender of Japan in 1945. It is agreed by many that
Subhash Chandra Bose was killed in an air crash in August 1945. But his death is still
controversial.
 The Congress Party, which had not supported Bose’s use of violence, embraced the INA
martyrs and surviving soldiers as heroes.
 The Congress set up a special fund to take care of the survivors and the families of the
soldiers who lost their lives or were seriously wounded.
 To this day, Subhash Bose’s daring and courage are an awe-inspiring example for newer
generations of Indians, and the INA soldiers are treated in equal regard and honour to the
men who fought with Mahatma Gandhi, albeit the use of violence.

QUIT INDIA

 The Quit India Movement (Bharat Chhodo

Andolan) was the final call, the definitive organized
movement of civil disobedience for immediate
independence of India from British rule issued by
Mahatma Gandhi on August 8, 1942.
 Unlike the previous two Gandhi-led revolts, Quit India
was more controversial, and specifically designed to
obtain the exit of the British from Indian shores.
 In 1942, Indian were divided over World War II, as the Quit India Movement
British had unilaterally and without consultation
entered India into the war. Some wanted to support the British to support it during the Battle
of Britain, hoping for independence eventually through this support.
 Others were enraged by the British disregard for Indian intelligence and civil rights, and
were unsympathetic to the travails of the British people, which they saw as rightful revenue
for the enslavement of Indians.
 Apart from the Indian National Congress, only an extreme minority led by Bengali
nationalist Subhash Chandra Bose took any decisive action.
 Although Bose’s support for Germany, Italy and Japan was not shared by most Indians,
Bose’s audacious actions and radical initiative energized a new generation of Indians.
 The Quit India Movement tapped into this energy, channelling it into united, cohesive and
rightful action.
 The Congress Party had earlier taken the initiative upon the rebuffed when they asked for
independence in return.
 Gandhi had not supported this initiative, as he could not reconcile an endorsement for war
(Gandhi was a committed believer in non-violent resistance to tyranny, used in the Indian
Independence Movement and proposed even against Hitler, the
Japanese and Mussolini and a deep suspicion of the British attitude,
mindset and leadership realizing such support would not be rewarded
well ahead of other Congressmen.
 On July 14, 1942, the Indian National congress passed a resolution
demanding complete independence from Britain.
 The draft proposed that if the British did not accede to the demands, a
massive Civil Disobedience would be launched. However, it was an Chakravarti
extremely controversial decision. Rajgopalachari
 A prominent Congress national leader Chakravarti Rajgopalachari
quit the Congress over this decision, and so did some local and regional level organizers.
 Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Azad were apprehensive and critical of the call, but
backed it and stuck with Gandhi’s leadership till the end.
 Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Dr. Rajendra Prasad were openly and enthusiastically in
favour of this revolt, as were many veteran Gandhians and experienced freedom-fighers,
socialists like Asoka Mehta and Jaya Prakash Narayan and young, more radical
Congressmen. Tens of thousands of college students were also enthusiastic about this
revolt.
 The Congress had lesser success in rallying other political forces under a single flag and
mast. Smaller parties like the Muslim League, the Communist Party of India and the
Hindu Mahasabha opposed the call. Only the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh backed
the movement with organized volunteers and resistance to the British.

 Jinnah’s opposition of the call led to large numbers of Muslims cooperating with the
British, and the League obtaining power in the Imperial provincial governments.
 On August 8, 1942 the Quit India resolution was passed at the Bombay session of the All
India Congress Committee (AICC). At Gowalia Tank, Mumbai Gandhi urged Indians to
follow a non-violent civil disobedience.
 Gandhiji told the masses to act as an independent nation and not to follow the orders of the
British. Hundreds of thousands of people all over the country responded to the call. Many
 thousands of revolutionaries who employed violent means and were outside the Congress
rallied to the call of their non-violent resister brothers and sisters.
 The British, already alarmed by the advance of the Japanese army to the India/Burma
border, responded the next day by prisoning Gandhi at the Aga Khan Palace in Pune.
 The Congress Party’s Working Committee, or national leadership was arrested all together
and imprisoned at the Ahmednagar Fort. They also banned the party altogether. These
actions only created sympathy for the cause among the population.
 Large scale protests and demonstrations were held all over the country. Workers remained
absent collectively and strikes were called. However, not all the demonstrations were
peaceful. Bombs exploded, government buildings were set on fire, electricity was cut and
transport and communication lines were severed.
 The British swiftly responded by mass detentions. A total over 100,00 arrests were made
nationwide, mass fines were levied, bombs were air-dropped and demonstrations were
subjects to public flogging. Hundreds of resisters and innocent people were killed in police
and army firings.
 Many national leaders went underground and continued their struggle by broadcasting
messages over clandestine radio stations, distributing pamphlets and establishing parallel
governments.
 The British sense of crisis was strong enough so a battleship was specifically allotted to
take Gandhi and the Congress leaders out of India, to possibly South Africa or Yemen, but
such a step was not taken out of fear of intensifying the revolt.
 The entire Congress leadership was cut-off from the rest of the world for
over three years. Gandhi’s wife Kasturba Gandhi died and personal
secretary Mahadev Desai died in a short space of months, and Gandhi’s
own health was failing.
 Despite this, Gandhi went on protest 21-day fasts and maintained a
superhuman resolve to continuous resistance.
 Altogether the British released Gandhi on account of his failing health in Kasturba Gandhi
1944, Gandhi kept up the resistance, demanding the complete release of
the Congress leadership.
 Though the revolt shook the foundations of British rule, its forceful and quick suppression
did reduce the force of the revolt.
 By early 1944, India was mostly peaceful again, while the entire Congress leadership was
incarcerated.
 A sense that the movement had failed depressed many nationalist, while Jinnah and the
Muslim League, and Congress opponents like the Communists and Hindu extremists
sought to gain political mileage, criticizing Gandhi and the Congress Party.
 But the movement in fact, had succeeded. The war had sapped a lot of the economic,
political and military life-blood of the Empire, but the powerful Indian resistance had
shattered the spirit and will of the British government, and had made it clear that after the
war, even a greater, larger movement would be launched and would succeed, as no excuse
or distraction from the issue would remain.
 In addition, the British people and the British Army seemed unwilling to back a policy to
repression in India and other parts of the Empire even as their own country lay shattered
by the war’s ravages. The writing was on the wall, and freedom only a matter of time.
 By early 1946, all political prisoners had been released, and the British openly adopted a
political dialogue with the Indian National Congress for the eventual independence of India.
On August 15, 1947, India won freedom.
 A young, new generation of nationalists had heeded the Mahatma’s call, suffered trials and
tribulations in an extremely critical time, and come out victorious.
INDEPENDENCE 1947 TO 1950

 World War II not only changed the map of the world, it also helped mature British public
opinion on India.
 The Labour Party’s election victory in 1945 helped reassess the merits of the traditional
policies. While the British was negotiating to transfer power to India, the Muslim League
renewed its demand for the formation of Pakistan.
 Jinnah was opposed to sharing power with the Indian National Congress, he declared 16
August 1946 as Direct Action Day, which brought communal rioting in many places in
the north. Over 5000 people were killed, mostly Hindus.
 On 3 June 1947, Viscount Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last British
Viceroy, announced plans for partition of the British Indian Empire into
secular India, and Muslim Pakistan, which itself was divided into east
and west wings on either side of India.
 At midnight, on August 15, 1947, amidst ecstatic shouting of “Jai
Hind” (Victory to India), India became an independent nation, with its
first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru delivering his famous speech on
India's tryst with destiny. Lord Mountbatten
 Gandhi did not support the idea of partition of India, so he did not participate in the
celebration of Indian Independence. He spent the day fasting and praying in Kolkata.
 Concurrently, the Muslim northwest and northeast of British India were separated into the
nation of Pakistan. Violent clashes between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs followed this
partition.
 The area of Kashmir in the far north of the subcontinent quickly became a source of
controversy that erupted into the Frist Into-Pakistani War which lasted from 1947 to 1949.
 Both India and Pakistan were Dominions within the Empire, granted full self-rule, but with
the King of England as their titular head of state, and the Governor General as the King’s
representative.
 Prime Minister Nehru and Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel invited Lord
Mountbatten to continue as Governor General of India.
 He was replaced in June 1948, by Chakravarti Rajgopalachari, a veteran Congress Leader,
Mohammad Ali Jinnah took charge as Pakistan’s Governor General, and Liaquat Ali Khan
became the Muslim State’s Prime Minister. The Constituent Assemblies of both Dominions
would serve as their respective legislative bodies.
 One man rose to the challenges faced by the tumultuous birth of a gigantic nation like no
other: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. As India's Home Minister, Sardar Patel was the leader of
all-out efforts to stop communal violence; caring and rehabilitation for the 10 million Hindu
and Sikh refugees pouring in form Pakistan.
 As Minister for the States, Patel had the awesome responsibility of welding 565 princely
states, not parts of the India that would become free on August 15th 1947, leaving it half
its natural size of today.
 Patel nevertheless managed by ingenuous velvet glove and fist diplomacy to obtain the
accession of 562 states, appealing to the patriotism of the kings and if necessary, pointing
out the insurmountable and rising threat of the people’s thirst for democracy and a united
nation to live in.
 Patel also established democratic governments to rule those states while the Constitution
was being prepared.
 Sardar Patel, however, had to use force to obtain the accession of Hyderabad state. Its
Muslim ruler was holding out, and even threatening to accede to Pakistan. Its 85% Hindu
 majority population was being oppressed, entirely shunt out of political participation, and
a Muslim terrorist group propping the ruler up, called the Razakars, attacked towns and
villages in India.
 The growing danger to India's stability, security and future by Hyderabad’s oppressive
monarchy could not be tolerated, and Indian forces were sent in by Patel to liberate it in
May of 1948.
 The state of Junagadh in Gujarat was similarly liberated, after its
Muslim Nawab acceded to Pakistan despite a formidable
geographical separation from it, and an 80% Hindu majority
population.
 India's Constituent Assembly, under its President Dr. Rajendra
Prasad and Chairman of the Drafting Committee B.R. Ambedkar,
began the work of drafting the Constitution.
 On January 26, 1949, the work was officially completed and on Dr. BR Ambedkar
January 26, 1950, the Republic of India was declared. Dr. Rajendra
Prasad was elected by the Constituent Assembly to be the first President of India, taking
over from Governor General Rajagopalachari. India thus officially left the British Empire,
but opted to join the newly-formed Commonwealth of Nations.

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