For UPSC Civil Services and State PCS Exam

A BRIEF HISTORY OF
MODERN INDIA
SPECTRUM

SUMMARY NOTES MODERN HISTORY

SPECTRUM
CHAPTER:- 1 TO 38
RAJIV AHIR
NOTES FOR 2020 & 2021.

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 CONTENT

CHAPTER: 1 - SOURCES FOR THE HISTORY OF MODERN INDIA 3

CHAPTER: 2 - MAJOR APPROACHES TO THE HISTORY OF MODERN INDIA 6
CHAPTER: 3 - ADVENT OF THE EUROPEANS IN INDIA 8
CHAPTER: 4 - INDIA ON THE EVE OF BRITISH CONQUEST 15
CHAPTER: 5 - EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH POWER IN INDIA 20
CHAPTER: 6 - PEOPLE’S RESISTANCE AGAINST BRITISH BEFORE 1857 33
CHAPTER: 7 - THE REVOLT OF 1857 42
CHAPTER: 8 - SOCIO-RELIGIOUS REFORM MOVEMENTS: GENERAL FEATURES 47
CHAPTER: 9 - GENERAL SURVEY OF SOCIO-CULTURAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 51
CHAPTER: 10 - BEGINNING OF MODERN NATIONALISM IN INDIA 59
CHAPTER: 11 - INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS: FOUNDATION AND THE MODERATE PHASE 61
CHAPTER: 12 - ERA OF MILITANT NATIONALISM (1905-1909) 63
CHAPTER: 13 - FIRST PHASE OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITIES (1907-1917) 69
CHAPTER-14: - FIRST WORLD WAR AND NATIONALIST RESPONSE 72
CHAPTER: 15 - EMERGENCE OF GANDHI 75
CHAPTER NO: 16 – NON-COOPERATION MOVEMENT AND KHILAFAT AANDOLAN 81
CHAPTER: 17- EMERGENCE OF SWARAJISTS, SOCIALIST IDEAS, REVOLUTIONARY
ACTIVITIES AND OTHER NEW FORCES 84
CHAPTER: 18 - SIMON COMMISSION AND THE NEHRU REPORT 89
CHAPTER: 19 - CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT AND ROUND TABLE CONFERENCES 92
CHAPTER: 20 - DEBATES ON THE FUTURE STRATEGY AFTER CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
MOVEMENT 100
CHAPTER: 21 - CONGRESS RULE IN PROVINCES 103
CHAPTER: 22 - NATIONALIST RESPONSE IN THE WAKE OF WORLD WAR II 105
CHAPTER: 23 - QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT, DEMAND FOR PAKISTAN, AND THE INA 110
CHAPTER: 24 - POST-WAR NATIONAL SCENARIO 114
CHAPTER: 25 - INDEPENDENCE WITH PARTITION 120
CHAPTER: 26 - CONSTITUTIONAL, ADMINISTRATIVE AND JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENTS 123
CHAPTER: 27 - SURVEY OF BRITISH POLICIES IN INDIA 132
CHAPTER: 28 - ECONOMIC IMPACT OF BRITISH RULE 134
CHAPTER: 29 - DEVELOPMENT OF INDIAN PRESS 137
CHAPTER: 30 - DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION 139
CHAPTER: 31 - PEASANT MOVEMENTS 1857-1947 143
CHAPTER: 32 - THE MOVEMENT OF THE WORKING CLASS 146
CHAPTER: 33 - CHALLENGES BEFORE THE NEW-BORN NATION 148
CHAPTER: 34 - THE INDIAN STATES 151
CHAPTER: 35 - MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION FOR INDIA 153
CHAPTER: 36 - THE EVOLUTION OF NATIONALIST FOREIGN POLICY 155
CHAPTER: 37 - FIRST GENERAL ELECTIONS 158
CHAPTER: 38 - DEVELOPMENTS UNDER NEHRU’S LEADERSHIP (1947-64) 160

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 CHAPTER: 1 - SOURCES FOR THE HISTORY OF MODERN INDIA
 The records of the East India Company provide a detailed account of trading conditions during the
period 1600-1857. When the British crown took over the administration, it also kept a large variety and
volume of official records.
 These records help historians to trace every important development stage-by-stage and follow the
processes of decision-making and the psychology of the policy-makers. The records of the other
European East India companies (the Portuguese, Dutch and French) are also useful for constructing the
history of the 17th and 18th centuries.
ARCHIVAL MATERIALS
 Central government archives,
 The National Archives of India, located in New Delhi, contains most of the archives of the
Government of India. These provide authentic and reliable source materials on varied aspects of
modern Indian history.
 The records with the National Archives come under various groups, representing different
branches of the secretariat at different stages of its development. This happened as the work of
the East India Company was distributed among various branches—public or general, revenue,
political, military, secret, commercial, judicial, education, etc.—and a separate set of records was
kept for each of these branches or departments.
 With the appointment of James Rennell as the first Surveyor General of Bengal in 1767, the
Survey of India began to scientifically map the unknown regions of the country and its bordering
lands.
 Archives of the State Governments
 The source material in the state archives comprise the records of (i) the former British Indian
provinces, (ii) the erstwhile princely states which were incorporated in the Indian Union after
1947, and (iii) the foreign administrations other than those of the British.
 Archives of Three Presidencies
 The early records of Fort Williams (Bengal Presidency) were lost during the sack of Calcutta in
1756, but the archives of the Bengal presidency after the British victory at Plassey have survived
more or less in a complete series,
 Which are partly available in the National Archives of India and partly in the State Archives of
West Bengal. The records of the Madras Presidency begin from AD 1670 and include records of
the Governor and Council of Fort St. George
 Archives of Other European Powers
 The archives related to the Portuguese preserved in Goa, mainly belonging to the period from
1700 to 1900, are valuable for the history of Portuguese possessions in India.
 The Dutch records of Cochin and Malabar are in the Madras Record Office and those of
Chinsura in the state archives of West Bengal.
 The French archives of Chandernagore and Pondicherry (now Puducherry) were taken to Paris
by the French authorities before they relinquished these settlements.
 The remaining Danish records, mainly relating to Tranquebar (1777-1845), are now housed in
the Madras Record Office.
 Judicial Records
 Housed in the Madras Record Office, the archives of the Mayor’s Court at Fort St. George,
beginning from AD 1689, are the earliest available judicial archives.

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  The pre-Plassey records of the Mayor’s Court at Fort Williams have been lost, but those for the
years 1757-73 are kept in the record room of the Calcutta High Court, along with the archives of
the Supreme Court of Bengal (1774-1861.
 Published Archives
 The most significant archival publications are the Parliamentary Papers which include many
excerpts from the records of the East India Company and the Government of India under the
Crown.
 Private Archives
 Private archives comprise papers and documents of individuals and families of note, who played
a significant role in the development of modern India.
 Foreign Repositories
 In England, the India Office Records, London and the records kept in the British Museum are
very valuable. The India Office Records possesses various important documents: the minutes of
the Courts of Directors and the General Court of the East India Company and various
committees constituted from time to time; the minutes and correspondence of the Board of
Control or the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India; and the records of the Secretary
of State and the India Council.
 The British Museum possesses collections of papers of British viceroys, secretaries of states and
other high ranked civil and military officials who were posted in India. The archives of the
missionary societies, for instance, of the Church Missionary Society of London, provide insight
into the educational and social development in pre-independent India.
 Biographies, Memoirs and Travel Accounts
 Many travellers, traders, missionaries and civil servants who came to India, have left accounts of
their experiences and their impressions of various parts of India. An important group among
these writers was that of the missionaries who wrote to encourage their respective societies to
send more missionaries to India for the purpose of evangelising its inhabitants.
 In this genre, Bishop Heber’s Journal and Abbe Dubois’s Hindu Manners and Customs, provide
useful information on the socio-economic life of India during the period of decline of the Indian
powers and the rise of the British.
 Newspapers and Journals
 Newspapers and journals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, published in English as well
as in the different vernacular languages, form an important and authentic source of information
for the construction of the history of modern India. The first attempts to publish newspapers in
India were made by the disgruntled employees of the
 In 1780, James Augustus Hickey published the first newspaper in India entitled The Bengal
Gazette or Calcutta General Advertiser. Hickey’s press was seized within two years, owing to his
outspoken criticism of government officials. Afterwards, many publications appeared such as
The Calcutta Gazette (1784), The Madras Courier (1788) and The Bombay Herald (1789).
 From the second half of the 19th century, some of their publications were: The Hindu and
Swadesamitran under the editorship of G. Subramaniya Iyer, Kesari and Mahratta under Bal
Gangadhar Tilak, Bengalee under Surendranath Banerjea.
 Oral Evidence
 Oral history refers to the construction of history with the help of non-written sources, for
instance, personal reminiscence.
 Creative literature
 The most significant outcome of the Indo-European contact was the novel which emerged in the
latter half of the 19th century. The first important writer of that period was the famous Bengali
novelist, Bankim Chandra Chatterji (1838 - 94). His novels are mostly historical, the best known
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 among them being Anand Math (1882), especially for its powerful lyric ‘Vandemataram’ and
depiction of the Sanyasi Revolt (1760s).
 G.V. Krishna Rao’s Kilubommalu (The Puppets, 1956) in Telugu was concerned with the moral
aspects and behaviour of the rural people.
 Vaikom Muhammad Basheer (19101994) was one of the eminent writers in Malayalam whose
famous novel Balyakala Sakhi (The Childhood Friends, 1944) was a tragic tale of love.
 Painting
 Some information on the socio-economic, political and cultural life during the colonial period can be
obtained from the paintings of that period.
 The Company Paintings, also referred as ‘Patna Kalam’ emerged under the patronage of the East India
Company. They picturise the people and scenes as they existed at the time. Trades, festivals, dances and
the attire of people were visible in these works.
 Another painting of this period, In Memoriam by Joseph Noel Paton, recorded in painting two years of
the revolt of 1857. One can see English women and children huddled in a circle, looking helpless and
innocent, seemingly waiting for the inevitable—dishonour, violence and death.

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 CHAPTER: 2 - MAJOR APPROACHES TO THE HISTORY OF MODERN INDIA
 The modern history of India, for the convenience of understanding, can be broadly read under four
approaches— the Colonial (or the Imperialist), Nationalist, Marxist, and Subaltern—each with its own
distinct characteristics and modes of interpretation.
 However, there are other approaches— Communalist, Cambridge, Liberal and Neo-liberal, and
Feminist interpretations—which have also influenced historical writing on modern India.

The production of histories of India has become very frequent in recent years and may well
call for some explanations… The reason is a two-fold one: changes in the Indian scene
requiring a reinterpretation of the facts and changes in the attitudes of historians about the
essential elements of Indian history. —Percival Spear

Colonial Approach/ Historiography

 For the major part of the 19th century the Colonial School occupied a high position in India. The term
‘colonial approach’ has been used in two senses. One relates to the history of the colonial countries,
while the other refers to the works which were influenced by the colonial ideology of domination. It is in
the second sense that most historians today write about the colonial historiography.
 Certain characteristics common to most of the works of these historians are the following:
 ‘Orientalist’ representation of India;
 the opinion that the British brought unity to India;
 the notions of Social Darwinism—the English considered themselves superior to the ‘natives’
and the fittest to rule;
 India viewed as a stagnant society which required guidance from the British (White Man’s
burden); and
 Establishing Pax Britannica to bring law and order and peace to a bickering society.
Nationalist Historiography/ Approach
 The nationalist approach to Indian history can be described as one which tended to contribute to the
growth of nationalist feelings and to unify people in the face of religious, caste, or linguistic differences
or class differentiation. This approach looks at the national movement as a movement of the Indian
people, which grew out of the growing awareness among all people of the exploitative nature of colonial
rule.
 This approach developed as a response to and in confrontation with the colonial approach. It should be
noted that the nationalist historians of modern India didn’t exist before 1947. Before 1947 , nationalist
historiography mainly dealt with the ancient and medieval periods of Indian history.
 The only accounts of the national movement was by nationalist leaders (not historians) such as R.G.
Pradhan, A.C. Mazumdar, J.L. Nehru and Pattabhi Sitaramayya. R.C. Majumdar and Tara Chand are
noted nationalist historians of modern India.
Marxist Historiography/ Approach
 The beginning of the Marxist approach in India was heralded by two classic books—Rajni Palme Dutt’s
India Today and A.R. Desai’s Social Background of Indian Nationalism. Originally written for the
famous Left Book Club in England, India Today, first published in 1940 in England, was later published
in India in 1947. A.R. Desai’s Social Background of Indian Nationalism, was first published in 1948.

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  Unlike the imperialist/colonial approach, the Marxist historians clearly see the primary contradiction
between the interests of the colonial masters and the subject people, as well as the process of the nation-
in-the-making. Unlike the nationalists, they also take full note of the inner contradictions between the
different sections of the people of the Indian society.
Subaltern Approach/ Historiography
 This school of thought began in the early 1980s under the editorship of Ranajit Guha, as a critique of the
existing historiography, which was faulted for ignoring the voice of the people.
 Right from the beginning, subaltern historiography took the position that the entire tradition of Indian
historiography had had an elitist bias.
 For the subaltern historians, the basic contradiction in Indian society in the colonial epoch was between
the elite, both Indian and foreign, on the one hand, and the subaltern groups, on the other, and not
between colonialism and the Indian people.
 A few historians have of late initiated a new trend, described by its proponents as subaltern, which
dismisses all previous historical writing, including that based on a Marxist perspective, as elite
historiography, and claims to replace this old, ‘blinkered’ historiography with what it claims is a new
people’s or subaltern approach. —Bipan Chandra
 Nationalism, say the subalterns, ignored the internal contradictions within the society as well as what the
marginalised represented or had to say. They believe that the Indian people were never united in a
common anti-imperialist struggle, that there was no such entity as the Indian national movement.
Communalist Approach
 The historians of this school, relying completely on the colonial historiography of medieval India and
colonial era textbooks, viewed Hindus and Muslims as permanent hostile groups whose interests were
mutually different and antagonistic to each other.
 This view was not only reflected in the writings of the historians but it also found a more virulent form
in the hands of the communal political leaders.
Cambridge school
 Fundamental contradiction under colonial rule was among the Indians themselves.
 It takes the mind or ideals out of human behaviour and reduces nationalism to ‘animal politics’
Liberal and Neo-Liberal Interpretations
 According to this interpretation, the economic exploitation of the colonies was not beneficial to the
British people as a whole.
 The availability of markets for British industrial goods in the colonial world and capital investment in
overseas markets (like laying of railways in India) might have actually discouraged domestic investment
and delayed the development of the ‘new’ industries in Britain.
Feminist Historiography
 The shift in terms of the writing of women’s history began with the women’s movement of the 1970s
which provided the context and impetus for the emergence of women’s studies in India. Very soon,
women’s history broadened and assumed the more complex shape of gender history.
 In the colonial period, two works based upon the women’s question in India—The High Caste Hindu
Woman (1887) by Pandita Ramabai, and Mother India (1927) by Katherine Mayo—attracted
international attention.

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