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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 21
CHAPTER: 6 - PEOPLE’S RESISTANCE AGAINST BRITISH BEFORE 1857 37
CHAPTER: 7 - THE REVOLT OF 1857 48
CHAPTER: 8 - SOCIO-RELIGIOUS REFORM MOVEMENTS: GENERAL FEATURES 53
CHAPTER: 9 - GENERAL SURVEY OF SOCIO-CULTURAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 58
CHAPTER: 10 - BEGINNING OF MODERN NATIONALISM IN INDIA 68
CHAPTER: 11 - INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS: FOUNDATION AND THE MODERATE PHASE
71
CHAPTER: 12 - ERA OF MILITANT NATIONALISM (1905-1909) 73
CHAPTER: 13 - FIRST PHASE OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITIES (1907-1917) 79
CHAPTER: 14: - FIRST WORLD WAR AND NATIONALIST RESPONSE 82
CHAPTER: 15 - EMERGENCE OF GANDHI 85
CHAPTER: 16 – NON-COOPERATION MOVEMENT AND KHILAFAT AANDOLAN 92
CHAPTER: 17- EMERGENCE OF SWARAJISTS, SOCIALIST IDEAS, REVOLUTIONARY
ACTIVITIES AND OTHER NEW FORCES 95
CHAPTER: 18 - SIMON COMMISSION AND THE NEHRU REPORT 100
CHAPTER: 19 - CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT AND ROUND TABLE CONFERENCES 103
CHAPTER: 20 - DEBATES ON THE FUTURE STRATEGY AFTER CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
MOVEMENT 114
CHAPTER: 21 - CONGRESS RULE IN PROVINCES 118
CHAPTER: 22 - NATIONALIST RESPONSE IN THE WAKE OF WORLD WAR II 120
CHAPTER: 23 - QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT, DEMAND FOR PAKISTAN, AND THE INA 126
CHAPTER: 24 - POST-WAR NATIONAL SCENARIO 130
CHAPTER: 25 - INDEPENDENCE WITH PARTITION 137
CHAPTER: 26 - CONSTITUTIONAL, ADMINISTRATIVE AND JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENTS 140
CHAPTER: 27 - SURVEY OF BRITISH POLICIES IN INDIA 151
CHAPTER: 28 - ECONOMIC IMPACT OF BRITISH RULE 153
CHAPTER: 29 - DEVELOPMENT OF INDIAN PRESS 156
CHAPTER: 30 - DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION 158
CHAPTER: 31 - PEASANT MOVEMENTS 1857-1947 162
CHAPTER: 32 - THE MOVEMENT OF THE WORKING CLASS 165
CHAPTER: 33 - CHALLENGES BEFORE THE NEW-BORN NATION 167
CHAPTER: 34 - THE INDIAN STATES 170
CHAPTER: 35 - MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION FOR INDIA 172
CHAPTER: 36 - THE EVOLUTION OF NATIONALIST FOREIGN POLICY 175
CHAPTER: 37 - FIRST GENERAL ELECTIONS 178
CHAPTER: 38 - DEVELOPMENTS UNDER NEHRU’S LEADERSHIP (1947-64) 180
CHAPTER: 39 – AFTER NEHRU 184

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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
th th
history of the 17 and 18 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)
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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
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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-
NATIONALIST HISTORIOGRAPHY
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
• 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
MARXIST HISTORIOGRAPHY
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
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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.
• 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.
• 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.
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 CHAPTER: 39 – AFTER NEHRU
Immediately after Nehru's death, Gulzarilal Nanda
was appointed as the interim prime minister.
The Lal Bahadur Shastri Years (June 1964-
January 1966)
• It is generally accepted that a group within
the Congress, formed in 1963, known as the
Syndicate and included the president of the
party, K. Kamaraj, and some others, guided
the succession to the prime minister's post
after Jawaharlal Nehru. The choice was
between Morarji and Lal Bahadur Shastri.
• The former was the senior experienced
Congressman who was known for his
administrative skills and honesty but also
considered to be native, somewhat rigid and
leaning towards the 'right'; the latter was
seen to be mild, soft-spoken and flexible
even h a man of integrity and of
incorruptible nature. Shastri supported more
widely across the party than was Desai.
Early Life
• Lal Bahadur Shastri was born on October 2,
1904, in Uttar Pradesh (known as United
Provinces at the time).
• Firmly opposed to the caste system, he
decided to leave out his surname of
Srivastava. 'Shastri" was a title he got on
completing his graduation at Kashi
Vidyapeeth, Varanasi, in 1928.
• Very much opposed to the idea of dowry.
• In the Non-cooperation Movement of 1921
he was arrested for taking part in a
demonstration.
• Salt Satyagraha and the individual
Satyagraha movement and then in the 1942
Quit India Movement.
• He was elected to the Legislative Assembly
of the United Provinces in 1937.
Political Journey
• After independence, Shastri became a
minister in Uttar Pradesh state, in charge of
the Police and Transport portfolio in
Govind Ballabh Pant's cabinet. Among his
initiatives in that pošition were the
appointment of women as hue conductors,
and a direction to the police that water jets
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be used instead of lathis to disperse unruly
mobs.
• Shastri was made the General Secretary of
the All-India Congress Committee, with
Jawaharlal Nehru as the President in 1951.
The same year he was nominated to the
Rajya Sabha.
• Nehru drew him into the union cabinet.
Shastri was the railways minister, though he
resigned in 1956, taking moral
responsibility for a serious rail accident.
• But he was soon drawn back into the
cabinet, and in 1961, he was appointed
home minister; in this capacity he achieved
a reputation of being a skillful mediator,
and he also formed the Committee on
Prevention of Corruption headed by K.
Santhanam on the basis of whose
recommendations the Central Vigilance
Commission was established.
• He had also been Minister for Transport
and Communications, Minister for
Commerce.
• Prime Minister: Continuing Nehru's
Legacy but with Change Lal Bahadur
Shastri was sworn in as the second prime
minister of India on June 9, 1964. He kept
with himself the portfolios of external
affairs and atomic energy, though he later
transferred the external affairs ministry to
Swarna Singh.
• Challenges
o The country was disturbed in 1965
by major protests the non-Hindi
speaking states against the
possibility of Hindi being imposed
as the only national language of
India.
o Violent anti-Hindi demonstrations
in the state of Madras (later to be
named Tamil Nadu).
o widespread food shortages.
o the second war with Pakistan.
A Forerunner of Economic Reform
• attempt to reduce the dominance of the
Planning Commission by the setting up of a
national planning council.
• relaxation in regulations for some sectors,
such as steel and cement.
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