NATIONALISM IN INDIA (PART 1 and 2)

Q1. How does war created a new economic situation ?

a) Increase in defence expenditure –

Defence expenditure was financed by war loans

Due to which taxes were increased ( custom duties were increased and income tax increased)

b) Increase in prices –

Prices got double up from 1913-18 It resulted in extreme hardship.

c) Forced recruitment –

Villagers were forcibly recruited which led to widespread anger.

d) Failure of crops and Influenza epidemic –

Crop failure resulted in shortage of food.

Influenza epidemic accompanied the crop failure .

Due to famines and epidemic 12 – 13 million people got perished.

Q2. What is Gandhian ideology of Satyagrah?

A. 1) Satygrah is the novel method of mass agitation .

2) It emphasized the power of truth and the need to search truth.

3) I t suggested that if the cause was true , if the struggle was against injustice then physical force was
not necessary to fight the oppressor.

4) This could be done by appealing to the conscience of the oppressor.

5) Mahatma Gandhi believed that this dharma of non violence could unite all Indians.

Q3. Write a note on the initial Satyagraha movements carried out by Mahatma Gandhi ?
A. Mahatma Gandhi returned to India in January 1915. After arriving in India he successfully
organised Satyagraha movements in various places .

Year Place Motive / Cause

1916 Champaran in Bihar Inspired the peasants to struggle
against the operation of
plantation system.
1917 Kheda district of Gujarat To support the peasants affected
by crop failure and a plague
epidemic due to which they
could not pay the revenue and
were demanding that revenue
collection should be relaxed.
1918 Ahmadabad To support cotton mill workers
against the exploitation caused
by cotton mill owners.

Q4. What was Rowlatt Act?

A. Rowlatt Act was proposed in 1919 by the Imperial Legislative Council.

2) Despite the United opposition of Indian members it gave the government enormous power to
repress political activities and allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years .

3) It was an unjust law.

Q5. How was Rowlatt Satyagraha organised ?

A. Introduction -Rowlatt Satyagraha was organised by Mahatma Gandhi it was a nationwide Satyagraha
against the proposed Rowlatt Act.

Mahatma Gandhi wanted non violent civil disobedience against such unjust law which could start with
hartal on 6 April.

strategies adopted to protest-

Rallies were organised .

Workers went on strike in railway workshops .

Shops closed down.

Q6. How did British government reacted to Rowlatt Satyagraha?

A. Introduction - Alarmed by the popular upsurge and scared that lines of communication such as
railway and telegraph would be disrupted the British administration decided to clamp down the Rowlatt
Satyagrah .
Methods adopted by Britishers to suppress the movement-

Nationalist local leaders were picked up from Amritsar.

Mahatma Gandhi was barred from entering Delhi .

On 10th April the police in Amritsar fired upon a peaceful procession

Martial laws were imposed

On 13th April the infamous Jallianwala Bagh incident took place.

Q7. Briefly explain the JallianWala Bagh massacre? How did Indians reacted towards it?

A. On 13th April the infamous Jallianwala Bagh incident took place .

Large crowd gathered in Jallianwala Bagh to celebrate Baisakhi.

People came from outside, unaware of the Martial Law that had been imposed.

General Dyer enter the area, blocked the exit points and opened fire on the crowd killing hundreds.

General declared later was to produce a moral effect to create in the minds of Satyagrah feeling of
terror and awe .

Reaction of Indians towards the massacre-

Crowds took over the streets in many North Indian towns.

There was strikes.

Clashes with the police and attacks on government building.

Q8. How did British government responded to the movement spread after the JallianWala Bagh
massacre?

A. Government responded with brutal repression seeking to humiliate and terrorise people –

a) Satyagrahis were forced to rub their nose on the ground.

b) Crawl on the street .

3) Offer salam to all sahibs(British men).

4) People were flogged and villages were bombed.

Q9.What was Khilafat movement ? Why was it organized by Gandhi Ji ?

A. Introduction -Rowlatt Satyagraha has been widespread movement but it was still limited mostly to
cities and town .Mahatma Gandhi wanted to unite Hindu and Muslim .

First world war had ended with the defeat of Ottoman Turkey and there were rumours that harsh peace
treaty was going to be imposed on the Ottoman Empire- the Spiritual head of Islamic world ( Khalifa)

To defend the Khalifa temporal power, Khilafat committee was formed in Bombay March 19

Young generation of Muslim leader like brothers Mohammed Ali and Shaukat Ali began discussing with
Mahatma Gandhi about the possibility of United mass action on the issue

Gandhiji saw this as an opportunity to bring Muslims under the umbrella of a unified national
movement.

At the Calcutta session of Congress in September 1920, he convinced that the leader of the need to
start non cooperation Movement in support of Khalifa as well as for Swaraj.

Q10. Why did Mahatma Gandhi chose non cooperation movement?

A. IS famous book Hind Swaraj Mahatma Gandhi declared that British rule was established in India with
the cooperation of Indians and had survived only because of this cooperation .

If Indians refused to co-operate British rule in India would collapse within a year and Swaraj would
come .

Q11. How could non cooperation become a movement?

A. Gandhiji proposed that the movement should unfold in stages-

It should begin with the surrender of titles that government awarded

Boycott of civil services , army, police, courts and legislative council ,schools and foreign good .

Than in case the government uses the oppressive measure then full civil disobedience campaign would
be launched .

Mahatma Gandhi and Shaukat Ali toure extensively mobilizing popular support for the movement .

Many within the Congress however were concerned about the proposal , they were reluctant to boycott
the council elections

They also feared that the movement might become violent

For months there had intense tussle within the Congress

Finally in the congress session of Nagpur in 1920 , a compromise was made out and the non
cooperation action movement was adopted.

Q12. How was Non Cooperation movement organized in various parts of the world?

A. Different people had different notions of Non – cooperation . The movement spread in different parts
of countries in different ways –

a) In town and cities-

• In the town movement started with middle class participation.

• In the cities thousands of students left government control schools and colleges
• Headmasters and teachers resign
• Lawyers give up their legal practices
 • The council elections were boycotted in most provinces (except Madras where the
justice party the party of non brahmins felt that and entering the Council was one way of
gaining some power something that usually only brahman had access to).
• Foreign goods were boycotted
• Liquor shop picketed
• Foreign cloth burnt in huge bonfires
• Merchants and traders refused to trade in foreign goods are finance
• People begin discarding imported clothes and wearing only Indian

b) In countryside –

Countryside

In Awadh by Baba Ramchandra In Andhra Pradesh by Alluri Sitaram Raju

Peasants movement in Awadh –

• Here, the movement was led by Baba Ramchandra- a sanyasi who had earlier been to Fiji as
indentured labour
• The movement was against taulqadars and landlords who demanded from peasants exorbitantly
higher rents and variety of other cess and also insisted them to do beggar
• Peasants had no security of tenure, being regularly evicted they have no right on the leased land
.
• Peasant movement demanded reduction of revenue , evolution of beggar and social boycott of
oppressive landlords .
• Nai dhobi were organised by Panchayat to deprive landlords of the services of even barbers and
washerman.
• Jawaharlal Nehru began going village to village and trying to understand their grievances .
• By october the Oudh Kisan Sabha was set up headed by Jawaharlal Nehru Baba & Ramchandra
whose 300 branches had been set up in the village .
• The movement later became violent .
• Peasants attacked the houses of taulqadars , merchants were attacked.
• Bazars were looted and the grains hoards were taken over.
• In many places the people told that Gandhiji declared that no taxes were to be paid and land
was to be redistributed among peasants.
• The name of Mahatma Gandhi was being invoked to complete their aspiration.

Tribal movement in Guddem Hills of Andhra Pradesh-

• It was organized under the leadership of Alluri Sitaram Raju - who claim that he had a variety of
special powers , he could make correct astrological prediction and he'll people and he could
survive in bullet shots captivated. Raju the Rebel proclaimed he was an incarnation of God.
 • The movement was against the forest act which not only affected their livelihood abut they felt
that their traditional rights were being denied.
• When the government began forcing them to contribute beggar for road building, the hill
people revolted.
• Raju talked of the greatness of Mahatma Gandhi . He was inspired by non cooperation
movement and persuade people to wear Khadi and give up drinking liquor.
• At the same time he is believe that India could be liberated only by the use of force not
nonviolence .
• Rebels attack police station attempted to kill British officials and carried on guerrilla Warfare for
achieving Swaraj .
• Raju was captured and executed in 1924 and overtime became of folk hero.

Swaraj in the plantations

• Plantation workers had their own understanding of Mahatma Gandhi and notion of Swaraj .For
plantation workers in Assam, freedom is the right to move freely in and out of the confined
spaces in which they were then closed and it meant retaining a linked 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 and infact there were really given such permission .
• When they heard of non cooperation movement thousands of workers defied the authorities
left the plantation and headed home.
• They believe that Gandhian Raj was coming and everyone would be given and in their own
villages .
• They however were never reach the destination stranded on the way by railway and steam
strike they were caught by the police and brutally beaten up.

Q13. Why did non cooperation movement slow down in towns?

A. Non cooperation movement gradually slow down and cities for variety of reason-

a) Khadi cloth was more expensive than mill cloth and poor people could not afford Khadi .

b) Boycott of British institution pose a problem - for the movement to be successful alternative Indian
Institution had to be set up so they could be used in the place of British one .

This was slow to come so students and teacher went back to the government schools and lawyers
join back work in government courts.

Q14. How did Non Co-operation movement hit hard the british economy and bloomed Indian
economy?

1. Non cooperation movement in towns hit hard the economy the import of foreign clothes half
between 1921 and 1922
 2. During the non cooperation movement in town , its value dropping from rupees 102 crore to 57
crore
3. In many places merchants and traders refused to trade in foreign goods and finance foreign
trade
4. As Boycott Movement spread and the people began discarded imported clothes and wearing
only Indian once production of Indian textile mills and handlooms went up

Q15. Why did Mahatma Gandhi halts non cooperation movement ?

A. Mahatma Gandhi hall non cooperation movement due to Chauri Chaura incident .

At Chaurichaura in Gorakhpur a peaceful demonstration in a bazaar turned into a violent clash with the
police in which 22 policemen were burnt alive with the police station.

Hearing of the incident Mahatma Gandhi called a halt to the non cooperation movement .