Unit 1-5

Department of Distance and Continuing Education
University of Delhi
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B.A. (Hons.) Political Science

Semester-I
Course Credits-4
Discipline Specific Core Course (DSC-3)
COLONIALISM AND NATIONALISM IN INDIA
As per the UGCF - 2022 and National Education Policy 2020
Colonialism and Nationalism in India
Editorial Board
Dr. Shakti Pradayani Rout
Dr. Mangal Deo
Content Writers
Dr. Shakti Pradayani Rout, Dr. Mangal Deo,
Dr. Kshama Sharma, Dr. Gurdeep Kaur,
Dr. Monika Batham, Mr. Amit Mishra, Ms. Vaishali Mann,
Dr. Latika Bishnoi, Mr. Khem Chand
Academic Coordinator
Deekshant Awasthi
© Department of Distance and Continuing Education

ISBN: 978-93-95774-77-2
Ist edition: 2022
E-mail: ddceprinting@col.du.ac.in
politicalscience@col.du.ac.in
Published by:
Department of Distance and Continuing Education under
the aegis of Campus of Open Learning/School of Open Learning,
University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
Printed by:
School of Open Learning, University of Delhi
© Department of Distance & Continuing Education, Campus of Open Learning,

This Study Material is duly recommended in the meeting of Standing Committee

held on 17/11/2022 and approved in Academic Council meeting held on 22/11/2022
Vide item no. 1012 and subsequently Executive Council Meeting held on
08/12/2022 vide item no. 38 {38-1(38-1-13)}
• The study material framed and written according to the new syllabus UGCF 2022.
• Corrections/Modifications/Suggestions proposed by the Statutory Body, DU/Stakeholder/s in the Self

Learning Material (SLM) will be incorporated in the next edition. However, these
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Table of Contents
Sl. No. Title Writer Pg.

No.
Unit-I Colonialism and Nationalism
Lesson-1 Main perspectives on Colonialism: Dr. Shakti Pradayani Rout 01
Liberalism, Marxism, Post-colonialism
Lesson-2 Approaches to the Study of Nationalism in Dr. Shakti Pradayani Rout 10
India: Nationalist, Imperialist, Marxist,
and Subaltern
Unit-II Colonial Rule in India and its Impact
Lesson-3 Constitutional Developments and the Dr. Mangal Deo 23
Colonial State
Lesson-4 Colonial Ideology of Civilizing Mission: Dr. Kshama Sharma 38
Utilitarians and Missionaries Dr. Shakti Pradayani Rout
Lesson-5 Impact on Agriculture, Land Relations, Dr. Shakti Pradayani Rout 47
Industry and Ecology
Unit-III Reform and Resistance
Lesson-6 The 1857 war of Independence Dr. Shakti Pradayani Rout 60
Lesson-7 Major Social and Religious Movements Dr. Gurdeep Kaur 69
Lesson-8 Education and the Rise of the New Middle Dr. Monika Batham 95
Class
Unit-IV Nationalist Politics and Expansion of its
Social Base
Lesson-9 Nationalist Politics and Expansion of its Dr. Kshama Sharma 110
Social Base Phases of the Nationalist Dr. Shakti Pradayani Rout
Movement: Liberal constitutionalist,
Swadeshi and the Radicals, Formation of
the Muslim League
Lesson-10 Gandhi and mass mobilization: Non- Ms. Vaishali Mann 126
cooperation, Civil Disobedience, and
Quit India Movements

Lesson-11 Revolutionaries, Socialists and Dr. Latika Bishnoi 142

Communists
Lesson-12 Communalism in Indian Politics Mr. Amit Mishra 156
Lesson-13 The Two-Nation Theory, Negotiations Dr. Shakti Pradayani Rout 172
Over Partition
Unit-V Social Movements
Lesson-14 Social Movements: Peasants, Tribals, Dr. Shakti Pradayani Rout 185
Lesson-15 Workers and Women’s Movement Dr. Monika Batham 194
Lesson-16 Anti Caste Movement Mr. Khem Chand 209
About Contributors
Contributor’s Name Designation
Dr. Shakti Pradayani Assistant Professor, School of Open Learning, DU

Rout
Dr. Mangal Deo Assistant Professor, PGDAV, College, DU
Dr. Kshama Sharma Associate Professor, Ram Lal Anand College, DU
Dr. Gurdeep Kaur Assistant Professor, Sri guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce
(SGGSCC), DU
Dr. Monika Batham Assistant Professor, Noth East Frontier Technical University, Aalo
Ms. Vaishali Mann Research Scholar, JMIU
Dr. Latika Bishnoi Assistant Professor, Sri Venkatewara College, DU
Mr. Amit Mishra Research Scholar, JNU
Mr. Khem Chand Research Scholar, Department of African Studies, DU

Unit-I: Colonialism and Nationalism

LESSON-1
MAIN PERSPECTIVES ON COLONIALISM: LIBERALISM,
MARXISM, POSTCOLONIALISM
STRUCTURE
1.1 Learning Objectives

1.2 Introduction
1.3 Liberalism
1.4 Marxism
1.5 Postcolonialism
1.6 Summary
1.7 Glossary
1.8 Self-Assessment Questions
1.9 References
1.1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• thee students would be able to understand the meaning of colonialism and nationalism.
• Students would also understand the approaches to it i.e. liberal, Marxist and
Postcolonial.
1.2 INTRODUCTION
Colonialism is a way of domination or subordination where one country establishes an

administrative hold over another country. Let us try to find the meaning of colonialism. “A
colony is as the Oxford English Dictionary defines it a country or area under the full and
partial control of another country typically a distant one and occupied by settlers from that
country.” The Collins English Dictionary also seems to support the exploitative aspect of
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colonialism by defining colonialism as “the policy of acquiring and maintaining colonies,

especially for exploitation.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy adopts a historical
approach and “uses the term colonialism to describe the process of European settlement and
political control over the rest of the world, including America, Australia, and parts of Africa
and Asia.” There is not a very clear difference between colonialism and imperialism. In the
present scenario, we can look into colonialism from an Indian historical perspective where
India was colonialized for more than 200 years. The British can be said to have exploited the
political weakness of the Mughal state, and, tried to bring change to the traditional society
and economy by incorporating various administrative majors.
Let us find the difference between colonialism and imperialism. So, colonialism is
different from imperialism. Imperialism is driven by the ideology of the superiority of the
centre with the assertion and expansion of state power across the globe. Colonialism is
normally a pragmatic state of activity at the periphery or colonies. Thus, imperialism is a
much wider concept as compared to colonialism. It is a form of domination and dependency
in various overt and covert forms.
Let us discuss various aspects of imperialism forms of imperialism. Imperialism is
generally related to the activities of some dominant nations in the world. Sometimes it may
be related to Pax Britannica and now may be called neo-imperialism propagated by America.
Somehow it is a relationship of effective domination or political and economic control over
other nations across the globe. Imperialism can be propagated by the direct and indirect
intervention of imperialist powers like Portugal, France and Britain. The significant forms of
imperialism can be identified in the history of sixteenth and seventeenth-century European
states.
Lenin applied the Marxist interpretation of imperialism, which he said: “is the highest
stage of capitalism”. Lenin identified three stages of imperialism, 1) Monopoly Capitalism
2) Parasitic or decaying capitalism and 3)Moribund Capitalism. Rosa Luxemburg, Hilferding
and Nikolai Bukharin made their contribution to the Marxist theory of imperialism. This
approach was later been enriched by Paul Baran, Paul Sweezey and Harry Magdoff. Harry
Magdoff in The Age of Imperialism (1969) traced the pattern of new imperialism and a new
period in world capitalism. He distinguished between old and new imperialism. To him, new
imperialism marks a new period in the United States of America, Germany, France and Japan
to challenge England. The power of monopoly capitalism has shifted to small, integrated
industrial and financial firms–the multinationals (MNCs), which have become especially
predominant since the Second World War. He examined patterns of US aid and trade and
looked at the foundation of the ever-expanding US empire (Chilcote: 261).
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Consequences of Colonialism
Colonialism had both positive and negative effects on Indian growth and development.
According to Rupert Emerson, a few salient features of colonialism can be drawn and put
forward as a conclusion:
1. Colonialism imposes alien and authoritarian regimes on subordinate societies. The
regimes trained a few of their subjects in bureaucratic management and required
passive submission to it.
2. It had a major purpose to exploit colonies economically. Colonies were used as
sources and suppliers of raw materials and markets of the finished goods.
3. Over time, the core that is the UK became economically powerful and developed, and
India as a periphery remained underdeveloped.
4. The authoritative attitude of the British Raj stimulated national liberation movements
in India. However, colonialism remained a historical agent of change and
transformation as well as spread liberal educational ideologies (Vermani: 33).
Nationalism is the expression of collective identity by a group of people living in a
specific geographical territory who socially, culturally, economically, and politically identify
themselves as one nation to be governed as such and by themselves. Nationalism emphasizes,
the collective identity where to be a nation a group of people must be autonomous politically,
united significantly and substantially, and express a single national culture to a large extent.
However, some nationalists have argued individualism can be an important part of that
culture in some nations and thus be central to that nation’s national identity. In the modern
world national flags (like the tri-colour in India), national anthems, and other symbols of
national identity are very often regarded as sacred as if they were religious rather than
political symbols. The psychological aspect of feeling; unity also depicts the idea of
nationalism within us.
There are three perspectives to understanding Colonialism and Nationalism in India
• Liberalism
• Marxism
• Postcolonialism
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Perspectives Toward Understanding the Colonialism in India
1.3 LIBERALISM
Let us discuss, what liberals say about Colonialism in India.

The liberal perspective generally accepts that colonialism is a normal phase of economic and
political relationships which is rational. It brought changes in colonies, perhaps promoting
freedom, life, and liberty and protecting individual rights in colonies. Many of the world’s
political systems are based on the values and concepts evident in liberalism.
1.3.1 Liberals see it as Part of Capitalist Expansion
Colonialism came into world history as part of the global political-economic world order,
which has been taking shape since the sixteenth century. Colonial powers like Britain,
France, and Italy tried to search markets for their finished goods after industrialization in
their respective states. As soon as the Industrial Revolution in Britain reached its peak, India
was considered a big market for finished goods and a supplier of raw materials like cotton,
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indigo, coffee, and sugarcane. So, liberals had seen the colonial expansion of the British in
India as part of the Capitalist expansion of the market.
1.3.2 It has been seen as a Totality and a Unified Structure of the World System
India’s economy and society were completely and intricately integrated into the global
capitalist system during colonialism, which was carried out for roughly 200 years in a
subordinate or passive position. It should be noted that the colonial economy and society’s
dependence or subservience was the most important or determining factor, “not mere linkage
or integration with world capitalism or the world market.” However, the Marxists like A.R
Desai and R.P. Dutt were critical of the British administrative intervention in the Indian state.
They said that with all its limitations the British rule played a positive and progressive role in
respect of the rural life of India, as it elevated it to the status of national agriculture and
linked it up with national agriculture and linked it up with the national and even world
market.
1.3.3 Drain of wealth is the natural phenomenon of colonialism which came along with
natural foreign and foreign domination of colonies
Economic drain is the natural phenomenon of East India Company’s administrative and
economic policies. The colonial power utilized the Indian revenue, infrastructures, and
natural resources to strengthen the British administrative system. Even though the company
had profited from oppressive land policies, unequal bullion trade, and acquisition of rare
objects like diamonds and exporting them to Britain remained the priority of British rule in
India. Dada Bhai Naoroji (1901) mentioned this in his book Poverty and Un British Rule in
India. As it is been mentioned by Naoroji and Gandhi British rule was squarely responsible
for the total ruination of the rural life of India, leading to the mass popularisation of the
peasantry, handloom, and other handicraft industries.
In his book Raj to Swaraj, Pradhan elaborately wrote about these phenomena. He
wrote that the malfunctioning of British rule led to rural indebtedness, fragmentation of
landholdings, the emergence of middlemen or sahukars or money lenders, landless labourers,
and absentee landlords in the forms of Zamindars (Pradhan: 36). However, unlike liberals
Marxist interpreted colonialism of India in the context of world history. They have tried to
identify a few patterns of Colonialism in India. Let us discuss them in the next paragraph.
1.4 MARXISM
Let us examine, what Marxists say about Colonialism in India.

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1.4.1 The colonial state is a bourgeoisie state

The Marxists have seen colonialism as the contradiction and conflict that developed between
the interests of the Indian people and the British rulers and see that as the principal reason for
the development of nationalism but they also recognize the inner contradictions and conflict
of interests between the various economic classes. They highlight and bring out the difference
in the interests of the Indian rich elite and the poorer classes and integrate that into their
analysis of the development of Indian nationalism and the resistance to colonialism. They
argue the Indian national movement was a movement of the bourgeois. Indeed while agreeing
with the nationalist analysis that the British rule resulted in mass poverty because of the
exploitative destruction of the rural economy of agriculture and handicrafts they also see it as
having caused some good as it also caused a structural transformation of the Indian society by
destroying the feudal systems and modes of production and replaced that by a capitalist
machine led mode of production.
As Bipin Chandra said, the Capitalist state is the instrument for enforcing the rule and
domination of one class over another, and the colonial state is the organized power of the
metropolitan ruling class for dominating the entire colonial society( Essay on Colonialism:
13). To Marxists the colonial state is a bourgeoisie state.
1.4.2 Economy and Social Needs are determined by the Dominant Social Classes.
To Marx, colonialism is a phase when is been completely integrated into the world capitalist
system in a subordinate and subservient position. Subordination means that the fundamental
aspects of the colony’s economy and society are not determined by its own needs or the needs
and interests of its dominant social classes but by the needs and interests of its dominant
social classes but by the needs and interests of the metropolitan economy and its capitalist
class. (Bipin Chandra: Essays on Colonialism: 10)
1.4.3 Colonies as a supplier of raw materials
The next feature of colonialism is encompassed by the twin notions of unequal exchange
(Arghiri Emmanuel) and internal disarticulation of the colonial economy and articulation of
its different disarticulated parts, through the world market and imperialist hegemony, with the
metropolitan economy (S. Amin and Hamza Alavi). For example, during the British colonial
period agriculture did not directly relate to the colony’s industrial sector; rather articulated to
the world capitalist market and was linked to a metropolitan market that buys a product like
cotton, indigo, tea coffee etc. The colony in that way experienced a “disarticulated
generalized commodity production”. Thus, colonies specialized in the production of raw
materials and the metropolis was concerned with manufactured goods. Marxists look at
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colonies as a supplier of raw materials and metropolises or colonizers as specializing in

manufactured goods, high technology, and finished goods. The role of railways was to take
care of subserving the interest of British trade and the needs of British industry.
1.4.4 A substantial part of the surplus generated in the colonies is being utilized in the
imperialist centre. Another important feature is the drain of wealth or unilateral transfer of
social surplus that went to the metropolis through unreciprocated exports. Thus we can
conclude that the Marxist look at colonial intervention by the British government deformed
the economy and extended reproduction and long run led to an underdeveloped and
dependent model of the economy at colonies or peripheries like India.
1.5 POSTCOLONIALISM
Let us examine, what Post colonialist says about Colonialism in India.

Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political, and economic
legacies of colonialism and imperialism. With an emphasis on the effects of human control
and exploitation of colonized people and their territories, A critical theory analysis of the
history, culture, literature, and rhetoric of (mostly European) imperial power is what is
particularly important.
The postcolonial ideas mainly questioned the generalized understanding that colonial
powers are superior in their culture and tradition. Ultimately they wanted to destroy the main
parts of native tradition and culture. Furthermore, they wanted to continuously reform the
existing traditional pattern of life in colonies. The post-colonialists in the real sense oppose
the change offered by British power and other colonial powers. Some of the eminent
postcolonial theorists are Edward Said, Frantz Fannon, and Gayatri Spivak Chakravorty.
The ultimate goal of postcolonialism is to finish the enduring effects of colonial
cultures. It vehemently opposes the Western countries that had described all the ex-colonial
countries under a uniform umbrella label such as the ‘third world’ or ‘global south. However,
post-colonialism demonstrated a culture of heterogeneity. It can be summarized that
colonialism has an uneven impact in different places and on different cultures and places.
Postcolonialism recognizes that there is still resistance to the West among various nations.
This resistance is practised by many including subalterns, marginalized groups, and other
least powerful strata. Thus, the main objective of post-colonialist theories is to clear the space
for multiple voices. The main objective of postcolonial writings is ‘to speak their voices’.
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Many writers like Frantz Fanon from Martinique or M. K. Gandhi from India
contributed to postcolonial theory and thought. Anti-colonial thinkers emphasized what they
called ‘subaltern perspectives. The perspective talks about the tales of ordinary people and
their cultural impact on them. However, by colonial rule, all cultures have become
increasingly mixed and hybridized. Anti-colonial thinkers had always insisted that
decolonization had to begin by changing mentality. We can also summarize that the impact of
colonial rule still exists.
Let us look at its impact on the international scenario; post-colonialism is concerned
with disparities in global power and wealth accumulation. For example, global inequality,
poverty, and underdevelopment have historical traces in the British rule taking place in India.
However, post-colonialism owes a significant debt to Edward Said for his work on
developing Orientalism. Said was influenced by the writings of anti-colonial and nationalist
thinkers such as Frantz Fanon (1967) and Albert Memmi (1991), whose works discuss the
power of ‘others’.
Fanon explains that the ‘black man is made to believe in his inferiority to the white’
colonialized through psychological aspects of colonialization, such as impositions, the
colonized came to believe they are culturally inferior to others. The internalization made it
easier for colonizers to justify and maintain their rule in colonies.
1.6 SUMMARY
To sum up, we can conclude that both colonialism and the emergence of nationalism in India
have been drastic outcomes in Indian history. There are three perspectives to look at it;
Liberalism, Marxism, and Postcolonialism. All these perspectives have their way of looking
at colonialism in India. So, students are required to take multiple perspectives to understand
better colonialism and its impact on Socio-economic and political aspects of colonialism.
1.7 GLOSSARY
Colonialism: The practice by which a powerful country controls another country or

countries, to become richer.
Postcolonialism: Postcolonialism is the historical period or state of affairs representing the
aftermath of Western colonialism; the term can also be used to describe the concurrent
project to reclaim and rethink the history and agency of people subordinated under various
forms of imperialism.
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1.8 SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS
1. Critically analyse the Marxist and Postcolonial perspectives to understand Indian

colonialism.
2. Write a short essay on colonialism. Examine its three different perspectives.
1.9 REFERENCES
✓ Chandra, B. (1999) Essays on Colonialism, Hyderabad. Orient Longman, pp.1-22.

✓ Chandra, B. (1988) India’s Struggle for Independence, New Delhi. Penguin, pp.13-30.
✓ Chandra, Bipin,Amlesh Tripathi & Barun De (1992), Freedom Struggle, National Book
Trust, india
✓ Chilcote, Ronald( 1981), Theories of Comparative Politics: The Search for Paradigm,
Boulder, CO: Westview
✓ Datta, G. Sobhanlal. (2007) ‘Imperialism and Colonialism: Towards a Postcolonial
Understanding’, in Dasgupta, Jyoti Bhusan (ed.) Science, Technology, Imperialism and
War. New Delhi: Centre for Studies in Civilization Publication and DK, pp 423-466.
✓ Desai A. R.(2000), Social Background of Indian Nationalism, Popular Prakashan, New
Delhi
✓ Fulcher, J. (2004) Capitalism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
✓ Ganguly, Aditi eds. (2018), Colonialism and Nationalism in India, Study Material of
School of Open Learning, SOL, DU
✓ Metcalf, T. (1995) ‘Liberalism and Empire’ in Metcalf, Thomas. Ideologies of the Raj.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.28-65.
✓ Young, R. (2003) Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, pp. 9-68.
✓ Thapar, R. (2000) ‘Interpretations of Colonial History: Colonial, Nationalist, Post-
colonial’, in DeSouza, P.R. (ed.) Contemporary India: Transitions. New Delhi: Sage, pp.
25-36.
✓ Vermani,( 2001), Colonialism and Nationalism in India, Gitanjali Publications: New
Delhi
✓ R. Palme Dutt (1955), India Today and Tomorrow, New Age Printing Press, Delhi
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LESSON-2
APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF NATIONALISM IN INDIA:
NATIONALIST, IMPERIALIST, MARXIST, AND SUBALTERN
STRUCTURE

2.2 Introduction
2.3 Nationalist Approach
2.4 Imperialist Approach
2.5 The Colonial Approach
2.6 Marxist Approach
2.7 Subaltern Approach
2.8 Summary
2.9 Glossary
2.11 References
• The aim is to engage with theoretical explanations of colonialism and nationalism in

India.
• At the end of the lesson, the student would understand various approaches to studying
Nationalism.
2.2 INTRODUCTION
Let us discuss what you understand by nationalism.

Nationalism can be said to be the expression of a collective identity by a group of
people living in a certain geographical territory who socially, culturally, economically, and
politically identify themselves to one nation possibly governed by a government. Nationalism
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emphasizes the collective identity where a group of people must be autonomous politically,
united significantly and substantially, and express a single national culture. However, some
nationalists have argued individualism can be an important part of that culture in some
nations and thus be central to that nation’s national identity. In the modern world national
flags (like the tri-colour in India), national anthems, and other symbols of national identity
are very often regarded as sacred as if they were religious rather than political symbols.
Historically, before the emergence of nationalism in India, people were generally
loyal to a city or a particular king, ruler, or leader rather than to their nation. Indeed, they
often had no notions of belonging to a nation. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica,
nationalism in a true sense developed with the late-18th century American Revolution and
French Revolution. Let us find out who coined the word, nationalism. The term nationalism
is believed to have been coined by Johann Gottfried Herder (who used the word nationalism)
during the late 1770s. Thus, it is not a specific time where and when nationalism emerged but
its development can be said to have happened alongside the emergence of the modern
Westphalia state. The notion of rule by the people by popular will was the underlying theme
of the French Revolution and later the American Revolution in the late 18th century.
Thus, like other social phenomena nationalism also evolved historically. Along with
the emergence of social and historical conditions communities came up in various parts of the
world. They often came up through tribal, slave and feudal phases of social existence.
Nations came into being at a certain stage of social, economic and cultural development. It
was distinguished by certain specific characteristics such as:
(a) An organic whole of the members of the nation living in a distinct territory
(b) A single economy
(c) A consciousness of a common economic existence
(d) A common language and
(e) Naturally, a common culture evolved.
This process developed from the sixteenth century onwards as a part of the development of
human history. Generally speaking, the development of nationalism in various countries was
a prolonged historical process. It is in the development of historical conditions that nation-
states developed and the development of nationalism in different countries was determined by
its social and cultural history – it is political, economic and social structures. The character of
its various classes also assumed importance and often played the role of the vanguard in the
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struggle for national social existence. Therefore, every nation was born and forged unique
way (Desai: xxxi).
2.3 NATIONALIST APPROACH
Nationalism in India evolved during the British colonial period as a result of various
subjective and objective factors and forces, which developed within the Indian society under
the conditions of British rule and have impacted the world.
Pre-British India was unique, differently structured and traditionally set under various
princely states which sharply differed from the pre-capitalist medieval societies of Europe. It
was a vast country inhabited by a huge population speaking many languages with different
religions. Socially, it was dominated by a population that was Hindu in character, but there
was no homogeneity. This extreme social and religious division of the Hindus in particular
and the Indians, in general, presents a peculiar background to the growth of Indian
nationalism. It was under the conditions of political subjection that the British introduced for
their purposes certain changes that introduced new social forces that radically changed the
economic structure of Indian society. It established in particular:
(a) A centralised state (with a modern civil service, centralised administration, a
judiciary based on English common law substantially, new land ownership laws,
the zamindari system etc.)
(b) Modern education including in Western sciences (with the establishment of
universities and colleges)
(c) Modern means of transport and communication (postal system, railways, roads
etc.)
(d) The modern printing press
(e) Mechanised machine-based industries
Thus, the British Raj tried to bring changes to all social forces and tried to exploit the Indian
society for the benefit of the British Crown. Revolting against all such exploitative
characteristics of British rule Indian nationalism has raised its voice and tried to manifest into
a new nation.
It has been argued by some scholars that the development of a nationalist
consciousness happened as part of a historical process triggered by the national movement
which, to begin with, was anti-colonial but later was deeply national. Professor Bipan
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Chandra (and others) has in this context commented: ‘The national movement also played a
pivotal role in the historical process through which the Indian people got formed into a nation
or a people. National leaders from Dadabhai Naoroji, Surendranath Banerjee and Tilak to
Gandhiji and Nehru accepted that India was not yet a fully structured nation but a nation-in-
the-making and that one of the major objectives and functions of the movement was to
promote the growing unity of the Indian people through a common struggle against
colonialism. In other words, the national movement was seen both as a product of the process
of the nation-in-the-making and as an active agent of the process. This process of nation-in-
the-making was never counter-posed to the diverse regional, linguistic and ethnic identities in
India. On the contrary, the emergence of national identity and the flowering of other narrower
identities were seen as processes deriving strength from each other. (Bipan Chandra: 23)
On the very concept of nationalism in general (and not merely the development of
nationalism in India) J Anthony Smith in his book Nationalism, has argued that there is a
‘core doctrine of nationalism’ which includes three ideals: (a) collective self-determination of
the people, (b) the expression of the national character and individuality and (c) the vertical
division of the world into unique nations each contributing its special genius to the common
fund of humanity. There exist main goal of nationalism is to promote the well-being of their
population with generic goals of three 1) national autonomy 2)national identity 3)national
unity. For nationalists, a nation can not survive without a sufficient degree of all three
(Smith:9)
Thus, with the nationalist approach, it can be assumed that homogeneity between
people in a group leads to the birth of a nation. As Gellner (Nations and Nationalism,
1983)has said: ‘It is not the case that nationalism imposes homogeneity; it is rather that a
homogeneity imposed by objective, inescapable imperative eventually appears on the surface
in the form of nationalism’. The objective inescapable imperative that Gellner refers to is the
cultural homogeneity that he argued is an essential concomitant of the industrial society that
evolves from the growth of industrial capitalism. Gellner also argued nationalism though it
may define and identify itself in the name of a folk culture or original culture of a particular
people may be just an imposition of a high culture on society.
Anderson, in his study of nationalism, has found usually a historically political
community always existed before the cultural systems of a religious community and the
development of the dynastic realm. He had identified that the printing press and the spread of
Christianity particularly Protestantism had played a substantive role in the emergence of
nationalism. He has argued what made the new communities possible was an interaction
between the system of production and productive relations (capitalism), the technology of
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communication (print) and the fatality of human linguistic diversity by which he meant the
tendency of diverse linguistic groups of not staying together as one nation. He argued three
distinct models of nationalism appeared: ‘creole nationalism’ where the vertical identities
were transformed into horizontal identities because the economic interests of certain classes
clashed and the ideological criticism of imperialism strengthened the spread of that identity,
‘linguistic nationalism’ of the kind that was seen in Europe and ‘official nationalism’
typically of the type seen in Russia where there was the imposition of cultural homogeneity
from the top, through state action.
2.4 IMPERIALIST APPROACH
In many ways, India had never been a nation until the British came and ruled us for centuries.
In a land as vast and inhabited by a population as large and as varied as India’s, the process of
the growth of Indian nationalism has been very complex and interesting. The Indian
population spoke many languages and followed many religions and sects (within a religion)
and the population of the most populous faith, Hindus, was divided along caste lines. With
the existing diversity, Indian nationalism has simply been strengthened by the anti-colonial
spirit.
Thus many thinkers, particularly many British historians, have taken the view that
India could not have seen the development of nationalism and become one united nation
unless the British had come and established (as they did) a colony by uniting the nation into
one administrative whole. So, students, it's always important to think now, “Could India have
developed to a greater extent if the colonial rule had not intervened?”. We can conclude that
nationalism in India has evolved in the background to eradicate the exploitative
characteristics of the British administration and establish a nation-state based on self-rule.
Let us discuss the various definitions of nationalism and try to find out how and why
India wasn’t readily regarded as a nation by various eminent histories. It is been said that
India is a state but a “nation in Making”. Let us discuss what the British historian E.H. Carr
in his book Nationalism (1939) termed nationalism as the term nation has been used to denote
a human group with the following characteristics:
(a) The idea of a common government whether as a reality in the present or past or as an
aspiration of the future.
(b) A certain size and closeness of contact between all its members.
(c) A more or less defined territory.
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(d) Certain characteristics (of which the most frequent is language) clearly
distinguishing the nation from other nations and non-nationa1 groups.
(e) Certain interests common to the individual members.
(f) A certain degree of common feeling or will, associated with a picture of the nation in
the minds of the individual members ( Desai: xxx)
It is evident from the above definition, that India could hardly have been called a nation by
them when they arrived. The early British imperialists, before any sort of national fervour had
made a beginning, were convinced that India wasn’t a nation.
The Britishers found it difficult to mentally cope with the idea of a national India even
as late as the 1930s when the Simon Commission’s Report was published. Even as late as the
1930s the British were holding on to their belief that India was somehow being held and
governed by them and without them would break into pieces.
British scholars like L.F. Rushbrook Williams whom R.P. Dutt described as one of
the ‘modem imperialist apologists’ had tried to suggest that it was the civilised British regime
and its modernising and influence that contributed to the creation of national consciousness.
They have suggested that Indians were educated by the British in the democratic liberal ways
of English history and its gradual acquisition of popular liberties impressed British-trained
and educated Indians who then as the next step demanded or started wishing for the same
standards for themselves and the Indian people.
In the words of R.P. Dutt, the democratic evolution of the modern age, which
developed in many lands, including England as one of its earliest homes is not the peculiar
patent of England. Nor is it correct that it requires the alien domination of a country to
implant the seeds of democratic revolution. The American Declaration of Independence, and
still more the great French Revolution with its gospel of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, far
more than the already ageing English parliamentary-monarchical compromise, were the great
inspirers of the democratic movement of the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, the
Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917 performed a corresponding role as the signal and
starting point of the awakening of the peoples, and especially of the awakening consciousness
of the subject peoples of Asia and all the colonial countries to the claim of national freedom
since colonial rule. The Indian awakening has developed in unison with these world currents
can be demonstrated from the stages of its growth.
The idea of Indian nationalism evolved when Raja Ram Mohan Roy while going to
England in 1830, enthusiastically supported the principles of the French Revolution. The idea
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has also been strengthened by the creation of The Indian National Congress (INC). INC was
originally instituted under official inspiration as an intended instrument of safety valve
between the rising movement of the people and safeguarding British rule in India.
2.5 THE COLONIAL APPROACH
The colonial approach mainly supported and believed in the benevolent attitude of the British
administration. They wished to emphasise the benevolent effect of British rule and many of
them genuinely believed what they said. The colonial approach was theorised for the first
time by Bruce T. McCully, an American scholar, in 1940. The liberal academic structure to
this approach was developed by Reginald Coupland and after 1947 by Percival Spear who
argued the British proved their benevolent intentions by ultimately agreeing to grant India
independence which they could have easily refused and held on to. A new group of neo-
traditionalist historians who are referred to as the Cambridge School with prominent thinkers
being Anil Seal, John Gallagher, Judith Brown and others have also argued along essentially
adopting the colonial approach when they have argued that India was not even a ‘nation-in-
making’ but a conglomeration of castes, religious and ethnic communities and linguistic
groups of masses.
They have argued the national movement was a forum for the various divisions to
compete for favours to strengthen their positions and pursue their narrow communities. The
basic contradiction between the interests of the Indian people and the British rulers that led to
the rise of the Indian national movement is denied by them. They also vehemently deny or
refuse to accept that the economic, social, cultural and political development of India
required the overthrow of colonialism. They do not agree that India was in the process of
unfolding into a nation and insist India was just a conglomeration of castes and communities.
The nationalism that was expressed was merely a cover for political organisations that were
formed basically along caste and community lines and were competing with each other for
favours and gains from the state. Anil Seal of the Imperialist writes: ‘What from a distance
appear as their political strivings were often, on close examination, their efforts to conserve
or improve the position of their prescriptive groups’? (Anil Seal: 342) (Old Study Material,
SOL,2018)
The colonial approach ignores the effects of war, inflation, disease, drought,
depression etc as causative factors in the rise of Indian nationalism not to mention spiritual
and other reasons and the kinship of religious culture that existed between peoples from
different regions who spoke different languages but shared similar religious beliefs. The
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school of analysis that adopts the colonial approach has argued the Indian national movement
was a cover for the struggle for power between various sections of the Indian elite, and
between them and the foreign elite.
2.6 MARXIST APPROACH
The Marxist approach can be said to have been pioneered by R. Palme Dutt and later by A.R.
Desai but many others have contributed. The Marxist approach recognises the contradiction
and conflict that developed between the interests of the Indian people and the British rulers.
They have seen that as the major reason for the development of nationalism but they also
recognise the inner contradictions and conflict of interests between the various economic
classes. They highlight and bring out the difference in the interests of the Indian rich elite and
the poorer classes and integrate that into their analysis of the development of Indian
nationalism and the resistance to colonialism. They argued that the Indian national movement
of India was a movement of the bourgeoisie class.
Indeed while agreeing with the nationalist analysis that the British rule resulted in
mass poverty because of the exploitative destruction of the rural economy of agriculture and
handicrafts they also see it as having caused some good as it also caused a structural
transformation of the Indian society by destroying the feudal systems and modes of
production and replaced that by a capitalist machine led mode of production. Thus the feudal
caste and class hierarchies of the villages were weakened, and new classes emerged in Indian
society particularly as people migrated to the cities to work in factories. Also, a new state
structure was created based on a new administrative and judicial system of English.
2.6.1 Colonial Exploitation and Poverty
In the words of Prof. Irfan Habib the unification of the country on an economic plane through
the construction of railways and the introduction of the telegraph in the latter half of the
nineteenth century, undertaken for its benefit by the colonial regime, and the centralisation of
the administration which the new modes of communications and transport made possible,
played their part in making Indians view India as a prospective single political entity. The
modernization of education (undertaken in large part by indigenous effort) and the rise of the
press disseminated the ideas of India’s nationhood and the need for constitutional reform. A
substantive basis for India’s nationhood was laid when nationalists like Dadabhai Naoroji
(Poverty and Unbritish Rule in India) and R.C. Dutt (Economic History of India) raised the
issues of poverty of the Indian people and the burden of colonial exploitation, which was felt
in an equal manner throughout India. We see, then, that three complex processes enmeshed to
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bring about the emergence of India as a nation: the preceding notion of India as a country, the
influx of modern political ideas, and the struggle against colonialism. The last was decisive:
the creation of the Indian nation can well be said to be one major achievement of the national
movement.’
The imperialist exploitation of India, for instance, and the role of the British finance
capital (business groups like Andrew Yule and Jardine Skinner), the profits made by the
British ruling class, laid to the common misery of the people as a consequence of that
exploitation and the struggles, that misery inevitably led to among the masses, irrespective of
religious or racial divisions, and the ruthless suppression of those struggles by the British
administration all combined, added up, and piled up over the years to cause the birth and
growth of national consciousness among the Indian people. During British colonial rule, first
under the East Indian Company and subsequently under the British government from 1858
onwards, the Indian people entered into a period of severe repression and exploitation. There
were several peasant rebellions that were prominent in the history of eighteenth-century
India. There were, of course, a large number of famines, diseases, and deaths during this
period.
2.6.2 Rise of the Indian Bourgeoisie to the dominant position
According to Dutt, the Indian National Movement arose from social conditions, from the
conditions of imperialism and its system of exploitation, and from the social and economic
forces generated within Indian society under the conditions of that exploitation; the rise of the
Indian bourgeoisie and its growing competition against the domination of the British
bourgeoisie was inevitable. However, the system of education also strengthened the
bourgeoisie, clerks or Babus. (R. Palme Dutt: 303)
The Marxist approach sees the natural uprising of the poor in reaction to British
exploitation having been usurped by the elite bourgeois leadership that developed particularly
in the Congress. The Marxist approach has been criticised for having ignored the mass
aspects of the national movement and the emotive religious and cultural aspects and
reactions. Professor Bipan Chandra (and others) for instance has commented: ‘They see the
bourgeoisie as playing the dominant role in the movement – they tend to equate or conflate
the national leadership with the bourgeoisie or capitalist class. They also interpret the class
character of the movement in terms of its forms of struggle (i.e., in its non-violent character)
and in the fact that it made strategic retreats and compromises. (Bipan Chandra: 22)
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2.7 SUBALTERN APPROACH
The subaltern approach or school is the most recent and was mainly developed by historians
Ranjit and Ramachandra Guha, who had been deeply influenced by the writings of Gramsci,
a Neo Marxist and Italian thinker. Scholars like Shahid Amin & Gyan Pandey (1982)also
claimed that Italian Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci used the word 'subaltern' for the
subordinate, Dalit, oppressed and downtrodden people of the society. There were several
reasons for the subaltern writers to implement this definition in their writings for the study of
Indian history. The effort was to bring out the multidimensional forms of dominance and
subordination in Indian society; To free class struggle and economic conflict from the
shackles of mere economics and closely examine its social and cultural patterns and
characteristics. Subsequently, others like Partha Chatterjee and Sumit Sarkar also did notable
work following this approach. The Subaltern Studies Collective, founded in 1982, began to
establish a new critique of both colonialist and nationalist perspectives in the historiography
of colonized countries. By the term 'subaltern' They mean every form of dominance and
subservience - whether based on economic or cultural power, muscle power or military, or
'superiority' of varna, caste or gender - in history. They focused on the course of ‘subaltern
history or the history of ordinary people by studying peasant revolts, popular insurgencies
etc. to the complex processes of domination and subordination in a variety of the changing
institutions and practices of evolving modernity. They examined institutions such as colonial
law and colonial prisons, popular notions of kinship and disease, the position of women in
colonial society, popular memories of anti-colonial and sectarian violence etc. The Subaltern
Studies soon became the new ‘history from below’ which did not try to fuse the people’s
history with official nationalism. It, therefore, attracted the attention of the scholars who had
become disenchanted with the nationalistic claims as embodied in the post-colonial state.
The subaltern approach seeks to study the development of history and the evolution of
Indian nationalism from the viewpoint of subordinate masses like poor peasants, tribals,
women, untouchables and other non-elite powerless dispossessed sections of Indian society.
They argued that Indian society had always been divided into the elite and the subaltern.
There had always existed a fundamental contradiction between the interests of these two
groups. They argued history had always been studied and recorded or written for posterity
from the point of view of the elite dominant classes and groups. They also argued there was
no real conflict of interest between the Indian elite (or the elite of Indian origin like
zamindars and industrialists) and the British elite (whether business or bureaucratic) and the
Indian National Congress was only a cover under which the real battle for power was being
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fought by the competing elite groups. It was the subaltern groups who were the real victims
of colonial rule and many of the Indian elite gained. The subaltern groups reacted by
launching various small relatively unknown and un-celebrated revolts all over the country
whereas it was only the role of the Indian National Congress and elitist movements like that
were assumed to have been the main constituents of the national movement. They argued
there was a great need to study and analyse the role and contribution of these political and
social rebellions and eruptions.
The subaltern school rested their analytical structure on some Gramscian concepts:
(a) That the state is a combination of official coercion plus elite hegemony and
(b) There is a struggle for power for this hegemony or domination and for assuming the
moral and intellectual leadership of the new evolving nation which
(c) Would be like a kind of ‘passive revolution’ of the owners of capital and productive
resources. In situations where the emerging bourgeois does not have the social
conditions to establish complete hegemony over the new nation, it resorts to passive
revolution by attempting a ‘molecular transformation’. The old dominant classes
into partners in a new historical bloc and only partially appropriates the popular
masses, to first create a state as a necessary precondition for the establishment of
capitalism as a dominant mode of production. Since a frontal attack on the state is
not possible they resort to a struggle for positions, ideological political positioning
etc.
2.7.1 People’s Viewpoint/ Subaltern’s Point of View
Subaltern thinkers like Partha Chatterjee has argued in the context of the Indian national
movement that the new powerful native Indian classes that emerged tried to assert their
intellectual moral leadership over a modernizing Indian nation and stake its claim to power in
opposition to the British colonial masters. That is the analytical approach followed by the
subaltern thinkers in understanding the Indian national movement and the growth of
nationalism in India. As Ranjit Guha puts it: “The domain of politics was ‘structurally split’–
not unified, homogenous, as elite interpretations of nationalism and nation-state had made it
out to be...What is left out in this un-historical [elitist] historiography is the politics of the
people. Parallel to the domain of elite politics there existed throughout the colonial period
another domain of Indian politics in which the principal actors were not the dominant groups
of the indigenous society or the colonial authorities but the subaltern classes and groups
constituting the mass of the labouring populations and intermediate strata in town and
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country – that is, the people. This was not an autonomous domain, for it originated from elite
politics nor did its existence depend on the latter.
The subaltern thinkers argue recognizing the structural split between elite and
subaltern is fundamental to the study of colonial history, politics and culture in India. The
subalterns also reject the ‘spurious claims’ by Indian elite readings of nationalism as people’s
consent to a rule of their ‘own’ bourgeoisie in the anti-colonial movements led by the Indian
nationalist elite. They provide empirical evidence to claim “how on one occasion after
another and in the region after region the initiative of such campaigns passed from elite
leaderships to the mass of subaltern participants., who defied high command and
headquarters to make these struggles their own by framing them in codes specific to
traditions of popular resistance and phrasing them in idioms derived from the communitarian
experience of working and living together”. (ibid.)
2.8 SUMMARY
Indian nationalism had evolved and been strengthened by the notion of exploitative British
administration. It took 200 years for Indians to consolidate the idea of nationalism in India.
The national understanding can be seen through various perspectives as we have discussed
above. Each perspective had given a separate but integrated view that nationalism had forced
all Indian citizens to dream about India which is Bharat today. Thus, it is not at all an
overnight evolution. It has been deepened by the contribution of reformers, nationalists,
writers, subalterns and many who lost their precious lives to the national independence
movements.
2.9 GLOSSARY
Nationalism: Nationalism is an ideology that emphasizes loyalty, devotion, or allegiance

towards own nation and holds that some amount of obligation is also demanded.
Subaltern: “Subaltern”, meaning “of inferior rank”, is a term adopted by Antonio Gramsci to
refer to those working-class people in the Soviet Union who are subject to the hegemony of
the ruling classes. Subaltern classes may include peasants, workers and other groups denied
access to hegemonic power. Gramsci was interested in the historiography of the subaltern
‘classes’.
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1. Distinguish between the various approaches to the study of colonialism and

nationalism.
2. What is nationalism? Write a short essay on nationalism and discuss various
approaches to it.
3. Give a brief outline of colonialism and nationalism in the context of India.
2.11 REFERENCES
• Amin Shahid & G. Pandey(1982), Subaltern Studies-I in Guha, Ranjit (1982)

Subaltern Studies I, Delhi: Oxford University Press
• Chandra, B. (1999) Essays on Colonialism, Hyderabad. Orient Longman,
pp.1-22.
• Chandra, B. (1988) India’s Struggle for Independence, New Delhi. Penguin,
pp.13-30. Fulcher, J. (2004) Capitalism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
• Datta, G. Sobhanlal. (2007) ‘Imperialism and Colonialism: Towards a Postcolonial
Understanding’, in Dasgupta, Jyoti Bhusan (ed.) Science, Technology, Imperialism
and War. New Delhi: Centre for Studies in Civilization Publication and DK, pp
423-466.
• Desai A. R.(2000), Social Background of Indian Nationalism, Popular Prakashan,
New Delhi
• Metcalf, T. (1995) ‘Liberalism and Empire’ in Metcalf, Thomas. Ideologies of the
Raj. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.28-65.
• Young, R. (2003) Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford
• Guha, Ranjit (1982) Subaltern Studies I, Delhi: Oxford University Press, p.4.
• Ganguly, Aditi eds. (2018), Colonialism and Nationalism in India, Study Material
of School of Open Learning, SOL, DU
• R. Palme Dutt (1955), India Today and Tomorrow, New Age Printing Press, Delhi
• Smith, D, Anthony (2001), Nationalism: Theory, Ideology and History, Atlantic
Publishers & Distributors, New Delhi
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Unit-II: Colonial Rule in India and its Impact

LESSON-3
CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND
THE COLONIAL STATE
Dr. Mangal Deo
STRUCTURE

3.2 Introduction
3.3 Constitutional Development
3.4 Rule of the Company (1600–1857)
3.5 Rule of the Crown (1858–1947)
3.6 Transfer of power (1940–47)
3.7 Framing of the Constitution
3.8 Summary
3.9 Glossary
3.11 Reference
Study of the process and stage of constitutional development in India

• Study of constitutional development in the context of the situation of the freedom
movement
• Examining the colonial legacy in the development of the Indian state
• To study the circumstances and context of the framing of the Indian Constitution
3.2 INTRODUCTION
The constitutional development of a state is not the result of many historical events. Rather, it
is the result of long struggles waged by the citizens of that country. An independent nation-
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state emerged only after the French Revolution, the American Revolution, and similar
revolutions or struggles in many countries around the world. India also came into existence as
an independent nation-state on August 15, 1947, because of the long freedom struggle, and it
is well known that the governance and constitution in that state are meant to maintain that
empire. In India, too, the establishment of British company rule began a process of
constitutional development that did not end until the Independence Act of 1947, but many
provisions have been adopted through the Constitution even after independence, which
appears to reflect more colonial heritage.
3.3 CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The constitutional development from the establishment of the East India Company to the
Independence Act of 1947 can be divided into three phases.
1. Rule of the Company (1600–1857)
2. Rule of the Crown (1858–1947)
3. Transfer of power (1940–47)
3.4 RULE OF THE COMPANY (1600–1857)
The East India Company received a “Royal Charter of 1600,” giving it a monopoly on trade
with countries like India, etc. The sole purpose of the company was to do business. The
“Court of Directors” was formed in England, whose number of members were 24. The
following major acts came under the rule of the company, which are as follows:
Regulating Act of 1773
The then-Mughal Empire was on the verge of disintegration when the 1773
Regulating Act was passed, causing the Company to shift from trade to political power, as
evidenced by the 1757 Battle of Plassey, the 1764 Battle of Buxar, and the 1765 Diwani
Rights granted to the Company. Due to all these reasons, the tendency of looting in the
company increased, which was criticized, and the demand for intervention increased when
the company asked for loans, for which Parliament formed a secret inquiry committee. The
Committee submitted its report in 1773, based on which the Regulating Act of 1773 was
passed, the main provisions of which are as follows:
• The tenure of the Court of Directors Reformers in England has been fixed at 4 years,
and 1/4th of the members will be expelled every year.
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• The Governor of Bengal was made the Governor General of Bengal, Madras, and
Bombay.
• In a council of four members for the membership of the Governor General in which
the decision was given by a majority, the Governor General was empowered to vote
decisively.
• A supreme court was established in Calcutta, whose decisions could be appealed to
the emperor (1+3) Chief Justice + 3 Judges.
The regulating act 1773 began to deteriorate, resulting in the 1784 Pitt's India Act, which
separated business and political functions and established the Board of Control as well as the
Board of Directors for political and business work. The Charter Act of 1793 changed the
organisation of the Board of Control, and the real power was given to the Chairman of the
Board of Control, who would also be a member of the British Cabinet. The powers of the
Governor General were increased, and the company's sovereignty was secured for the next 20
years. In the Charter Act of 1813, the crown first claimed sovereignty over Indian territories
and ended the company's monopoly of doing business in India. However, opium and tea
remained monopolised by China. Every year, the company will invest Rs 1 lakh in education
in India. which means that the authority of parliament and the king was recognised over the
rule of the company, the facilitation of trade to all the British increased exploitation, and in
the field of education, the convenience of Christian missionaries started cultural imperialism.
In the Charter Act of 1833, the President of the Board of Control in England was
appointed as the Minister of India. With this, the Governor General and his council got the
right to make laws for the whole of India, and the Governor General of Bengal was given the
title of Governor General of India. (Lord William Bentinck became the first Governor
General.) Lord Macaulay was appointed as a member of the Council of Law. The monopoly
of trade with China was also abolished. In this act, a new province was created by the name
of Act of 1861 which was created by combining Agra and Western Awadh. Every person in
government services will be able to get a post according to merit. Therefore, the central
government was made powerful in this Act.
In the Charter Act of 1853, Parliament got the right to take over the rule of India at
any time it wished. The number of board directors was reduced from 24 to 18. The governor
general and council members will be appointed with the consent of the crown. In India, Six
new members were appointed to assist in making laws in the Governor General's Council, but
they were not recognised as legislative councils. A competitive examination was arranged for
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the government service. Therefore, Parliament has the right to end the rule of the company at
any time.
3.5 RULE OF THE CROWN (1858–1947)
In 1857, resentment of the corporate regime leads to a revolution. As a result, the rule of the
East India Company ended, and the Crown's direct power in India was established by the Act
of 1858. Both the Board of Directors and the Board of Control were abolished, and replaced
by the posts of Secretary of State and Council of India. The Secretary of India was entrusted
with responsibilities such as being a Member of Parliament, having ministerial status,
answering questions in Parliament, and presenting annual reports. In India, where did the first
Viceroy Lord Canning go to meet the Governor General, who will be appointed by the
Crown? The viceroy is accountable to the secretary of India and must follow his orders.
Governors and executive councils were formed in the provinces, and the examination for
district service began to be held in London without discrimination. Therefore, this Act is
considered to be the beginning of a new era of colonial rule.
After 1858, the Council of India Act of 1861 came, in which the British government,
taking control of the revolt of 1857, recognised that governance in India was not possible
without the cooperation of Indians. The Act gave the Governor General the power to veto and
ordain the proceedings of the Council. Additional members for legislative work were
recognised as the Imperial Legislative Council. Therefore, the foundation of the Indian
Legislature is considered to have come from this Act; it is also called the first charter of the
legislature, and at the same time it can also be considered the beginning of decentralisation in
the context of the provinces.
The aspiration for emerging independence in India, in the context of which the
Congress Party was founded in 1885 and by which the system of governance was sought to
improve as well as increase the participation of Indians, resulted in the Council of India Act
of 1892, which expanded the Legislative Council of the Governor General in India. Members
of the Legislative Council were granted the right to debate and ask questions but not the right
to supplementary questions or votes, and the right to ask questions required six days' notice.
The number of legislative council members also increased in the provinces. Indirect elections
to the Central and Provincial Legislative Councils were scheduled, but a limited number of
voting rights were given based on education and property. There was a provision for some
members of the Central Legislative Council to be elected by the Chambers of Commerce and
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the Provincial Legislative Council. In the provinces, some members of the legislative council
of the governor were elected by the municipality, district board, trade board, university, etc.
The activities of the growing freedom movement in India and the divisive policy of
the British government, such as The Morley-Minto Act, also known as the Council of India
Act of 1909, were enacted in the context of Bengal's partition in 1909. The British, carrying
forward their divisive intentions, introduced a communal constituency, which later became a
factor in the partition of India.
After 1909, the demand for reforms and rights increased in the Indian independence
movement, and with Gandhiji's arrival in Indian politics, against the backdrop of the Rowlett
Act and the Home Rule Movement, gave a proposal by Montagu Chelmsford known as the
Act of 1919. Under the provisions under which the Central Legislative Council was made
bicameral, the number of members was increased, and three Indian members were included
in the Executive Council. The dual rule was implemented in the provinces; central and
provincial lists were created to divide power between the centre and the states, but no
mention of authority was made.
The Act of 1919 could not satisfy Indians. The Congress, therefore, condemned the
Act as “inadequate, unsatisfactory, and disappointing.” Indian leaders condemned the Act of
1919 AD's dyarchy and demanded reforms. In 1927, the Simon Commission was appointed
so that it could give its suggestions based on its investigation regarding the Indian
Constitution. Wherever the Simon Commission went, it was welcomed with black flags. But
despite this, the Simon Commission gave its report. In 1930, 1931, and 1932, three round
table conferences were held in London to consider the report of the Commission and prepare
the Constitution of India. British Prime Minister McDonald issued communal awards on
August 16, 1932. The British government issued a white paper based on the decisions made
at the three round table conferences. The recommendations of this paper were considered by
the Joint Parliamentary Select Committee, and its suggestions were passed by the
Government of India Act 1935 of the British Parliament.
The salient features of the 1935 Act were as follows:
Lengthy and Complicated: The 1935 Act was the longest and most complex of all the Acts
passed by Parliament from 1773 to 1947. It had 451 sections and 15 schedule. This act is
approximately 450 pages long. The reason for its expansion is that it has a detailed
description of the central government and the provincial governments. It also described in
detail the system of the Indian Union and the protections and protective shields necessary for
its proper functioning.
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All-India Federation: Under 1919, the political structure in India was unitary, according to
which the central government was dominant. In the Act of 1935, the suggestion of the Union
for British India and Indian princely states was presented. This union should be made up of
11 provinces, six chief commissioner provinces, and Indian princely states. This makes it
clear that the British provinces needed to join the Union, but the Indian princely states had
their own will. While joining the Union, each princely state had to tell the Centre, through an
instrument of accession, what powers it was ready to give to the Centre. Thus, there was no
similarity among the principalities in granting powers. Equality of powers applied only in the
British provinces.
Dyarchy at the Centre: In the Act of 1919, a double rule was established in the provinces.
By the Act of 1935, the dual rule was abolished in the provinces and established at the centre.
The provinces were given complete independence. Some federal subjects were made
accountable to the federal legislature, but some important matters of the central government,
the defence department, foreign affairs, religious matters, and regional areas remained
reserved, so the Governor General had full control over them. The Central Legislature had no
control over reserved subjects. Aside from that, all remaining subjects were delegated to
ministers, who were accountable to the legislature. But in reality, based on special
responsibilities, the government could intervene in every way. The Legislature had no power
to stop the dictatorship of the Governor General.
Provinces' Autonomy: The Act of 1919 was fully under the Centre. According to the Act of
1919, the provinces were given freedom to some extent, but in 1935, full autonomy was
given to the provinces, which is a special element of this Act. All of the provinces' subjects
were assigned to ministers, who were accountable to the legislature.
There were many restrictions on the powers of the ministers of the provinces. The
governor of the province was given powers to interfere in their work, which was against the
independence of the provinces. The British government wanted to make the governor the
nominal head.Under the Act of 1935, powers were divided between the Centre and the
provinces. Three lists were described in the 1935 Act for the division of powers.
The federal list included 59 subjects. No one had the right to interfere in these
important matters. Some of these topics are as follows: army, foreign affairs, currency,
railways, postal-telegraph department, central services, taxes, arms, etc.
The preliminary list included 54 topics of provincial interest. Some of these are justice
and courts, police, prisons, education, local self-government, public health, land taxes, etc.
The concurrent list included 36 subjects over which both the Centre and the provinces had
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jurisdiction. If the Centre wanted to pass a law on a subject, the province had no right. Some
of the topics on the list were marriage and divorce, criminal and civil law, bankruptcy,
newspapers, factories, business associations, electricity, old-age pensions, etc.
The Governor General had the right to give the right to make all kinds of laws in the
Centre and the provinces.
Reservations and Safeguards: In reality, these protections greatly hurt provincial
independence, and the British government deliberately wanted to disrupt provincial
independence. There were two types of defences: (1) the Indian Legislature did not have the
power to pass laws on many subjects; and (2) the Governor General was given several
powers to limit the powers of ministers and legislators, according to which he could become a
dictator.
Federal Court: This Act also provided for a civil court, in which a chief justice and some
other judges were provided. The Federal Court was empowered to settle disputes between the
central and union units (princely states and British provinces). The Federal Court could also
hear appeals against the decisions given by the High Courts of India if there was any question
regarding the provision of the 1953 Act. He had the authority to advise the Governor General
on legal questions, but whether or not to accept the advice depended on the Governor
General. The Federal Court could interpret the Constitution. Federal court decisions were not
final because they could be appealed to the Privy Council in England. Thus, the Federal
Court was not the last.
Extension of the System of Communal Electorates: The creators of the Act of 1919
expressed the view that the communal election system would not be more useful. That is why
it should not be expanded. But Prime Minister McDonald, through the Communal Award of
1932, tried to divide more and more categories and groups of Indian voters and arranged
separate election methods for Muslims, Sikhs, Indian Christians, landlords, capitalists,
women, etc. This method of election was included in the Act of 1935 so that the Indian
people could never assemble, and the British could continue to rule India. Muslims were
given facilities under this act. Despite their population being less than this proportion,
Muslims were given 33% of the seats in British India's central legislature. Encouraged by the
special concessions, the Muslims soon started worshipping Pakistan after India was divided
in 1947 A.D.
Change in the size and nature of legislatures: The size of the legislatures in the central and
provincial legislatures was also changed. The lower house of the Central Legislature was
called the Federal Assembly, and the upper house was called the Council of States. The total
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number of members of the Federal Assembly was fixed at 375, out of which 250 were
representatives of British India and 125 were representatives of the princely states. The total
number of members of the Rajya Sabha was 260, of which 104 were from the princely states
and 156 from British India. In the Act of 1919, two houses of the Central Legislature were
provided, while in the Act of 1935, bicameral legislatures were also established in six
provinces. The lower house of the provincial legislature was called the Legislative Assembly,
and the upper house was called the Legislative Council. The strength of the assembly was
fixed at least at 60 and at most 250. The number of members of the Legislative Council
varied from province to province. The right to vote was increased by 10 per cent, and its form
was a combination of democratic and dictatorial elements. The prefectures elected their
representatives, but the princely states had the right to nominate their representatives. The
powers of the Central Legislature and the legislatures of the provinces were also increased.
Supremacy of the British Parliament: Under the 1935 Act, the supremacy of the British
Parliament was clearly described. Only the British Parliament was empowered to amend the
1935 Act. In India, the Central Legislature and the Provincial Legislature were not
empowered to amend this Act. The Indian Parliament could have at most passed a proposal to
amend this Act and sent it to the British Parliament. The British Parliament had the power to
amend this Act, repeal its section, or include a new section in it.
Abolition of the India Council: The Council of India was abolished by the Act of 1935 and
replaced by advisors to the Secretary of India. Counsellors could have been at least three and
at most six. The powers of the Secretary of India decreased somewhat, and his control over
provincial governance was almost abolished. For his special responsibilities and the exercise
of arbitrary powers, the provincial governor was only accountable to the prime minister. The
control of the Secretary of India was also reduced to the federal administration.
Burma, Aden, and Berar: Burma was separated from India by the Act of 1953. Aden was
freed from the control of the Indian government and brought under the British Colonial
Office. Berar was separated from the princely state of Hyderabad for administrative purposes
and merged into the Central Provinces.
Absence of Preamble: An important feature of the 1935 Act was that it lacked a preamble.
The preamble was not given because the framers of the act did not feel any need for it. After
all, no new policy was being announced under this act. The preamble of the 1919 Act was
considered the basis of this Act. The Preamble to the 1919 Act laid down the objective of
establishing responsible governance, and the double rule was the first step for this purpose.
The 1935 Act was the second step.
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Criticism of the Act of 1935

The Act of 1935 occupies an important place in the constitutional history of India. This Act
made significant changes to the Constitution of India. The most important features of this Act
were the establishment of autonomy in the provinces, the establishment of responsible
government in the provinces, and the establishment of the All-India Trade Union. According
to Prof. Coupland, the Act of 1935 was a great success of creative political thought, which
helped in transferring the fate of India from the hands of the British to the hands of Indians.
But despite this, this act cannot be considered successful. British politicians like Attlee
admitted that the Act did not even discuss dominion status or colonial dominion status. Indian
politicians strongly criticised the act. Muslim League leader Mohammad Ali Jinnah
expressed his view that “the new constitution is a reactionary, harmful, and conservative pug,
which is unworthy of being accepted.” (It is the most retrograde, injurious, and reactionary
measure to be acceptable.) Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru had described the Act as a “new charter of
slavery.” Dr Rajendra Prasad strongly criticised this act and suggested its complete rejection.
Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya said that “the new act has been imposed on us.” It appears
democratic from above, but it is completely hollow from the inside. The New Act has been
thrust upon us. It has a somewhat democratic appearance outwardly, but it is hollow from the
inside.
The 1935 Act was criticised mainly on the following grounds:
Strange and Defective Federation: The most serious flaw in this act was the creation of a
flawed All-India Union. The first error of this federal system was that the units involved were
quite different from each other in area, importance, and nature. On the one hand, there were
11 provinces of British India, in which responsible and democratic governance had developed
a lot, and on the other hand, there were native princely states, in which kings had arbitrary
rule and citizens did not have any freedom or rights. Thus, it was natural for the Union,
founded by units very different from each other, to be an obstacle to Indian constitutional
development. Prof. N.S. Pradarsani rightly wrote that the All India Union was a strange
constitutional alliance in which it tried to gather representatives of people moving quickly
towards autonomous rule and kings hoping for true state devotion from their subjects.
Secondly, the British provinces needed to join this union, while the joining of the princely
states depended on their will. Thirdly, the native princely states were not given any
representation in the Union because the representatives of the princely states there were to be
appointed by the rulers there. Fourthly, the Governor General was given considerable
arbitrary powers in the Union. Fourth, the number of units joining the Union was so large that
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they were not available in any Union in Parliament. Sixth, the units of the Union were not
empowered to make their constitution.
Provincial Self-Government a Farce: Provincial self-government established by this Act
was just a framework. It lacked two important features of self-government: freedom from
external control and responsible government in the internal sphere. The provincial governor
and governor-general enjoyed so many arbitrary powers that they could stifle self-
government from their seats. The provincial legislature was given some powers, but the last
power was with the governor. The governor could have rejected any proposal of the
provincial legislature by saying that the proposal was contrary to his responsibilities. The
governor and governor-general were under the provincial ministers, but it was the
responsibility of the governor to establish peace in the province, on the pretext of the
governor could crush the Congress movements and cancel any work of the ministers.
Refusal to Grant Dominion Status: The 1935 Act is also criticised because it did not grant
dominion to Indians. Indians hoped that this act would grant them dominion, but it does not
even specify when the dominion would be established. Therefore, it was natural for Indians to
criticise this Act.
No Provision for the Growth of the Constitution: This Act also disappointed Indians
because it did not provide proper arrangements for the development of the Constitution. The
progress of the Constitution of India depended entirely on the British Parliament, and there
was no desire on the part of the Indians to participate in it. The All-India Union could not be
established without the permission of the British Parliament. British Prime Minister Attlee
had also admitted that “there is no timetable in this Act for the work of India's political
progress.”
Discretionary Powers of the Governor General and the Governors: One of the important
reasons for the criticism of this act was that it gave a lot of arbitrary powers to the Governor
General and the Provincial Governor. By the way, the governor was in the provincial regime
as a constitutional president, but his arbitrary powers were so great that he could use them to
become the de facto ruler of the prefecture. No action could be taken against the Governor
General's and Provincial Governor's wishes. The powers of the Central Legislature and the
Provincial Legislature were extended, but on the other hand, the Governor General and
governors were given so many arbitrary powers that they could repeal any of their bills in the
name of their responsibilities. This Act gave the Central Legislature and provincial
legislatures some powers in economic matters, but the actual control over the budget was still
with the Governor General and the Governor. The governor had special responsibilities for
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peace and security, religious matters, protecting the interests of minority castes, and so on,
and he had great powers to abolish provincial autonomy for these.
Increased Communal Electorate: Although the communal electoral system was not in
Indian interest and was already being heavily criticised, this Act not only retained it in its
original form but expanded it further. Apart from Muslims and Sikhs, Christians, Anglo-
Indians, workers, women, landlords, industrialists, commerce, and universities were also
given the right to choose their representatives separately. Women and workers did not
demand this right. Attempts were also made to separate Harijans from Hindus, but due to
Gandhiji's efforts, the British could not succeed in this objective. The British had expanded
the communal election so that their rule could be easily maintained by dividing the Indians.
The expansion of the communal electoral system dealt a severe blow to Indian unity, and
finally, the partition of India was also the result of this system.
Refusal to Grant Right of Self-Determination: Indians were not given the right to self-
determination by this Act. In this Act, the sovereignty of the British Parliament was
emphasized. The Indian Legislature could not amend the 1935 Act or pass any legislation that
was against the 1935 Act. Only the British Parliament could amend this Act. This constitution
was a constitution imposed on Indians, which was natural to criticize.
Separation of Burma from India: Before the Act of 1935, Burma was a part of India; this
Act separated Burma. Burma was used to tear India's political unity and integrity apart from
that country.
Reservations and Safeguards: This Act described the protection of minorities and gave
special powers to the Governor General and Governors. The minorities started looking at the
faces of the Governor General and the Governor to protect their rights, and in return, they
started supporting the British Government against progressive elements. Indians were
dissatisfied with the Act of 1935, which they saw as disappointing and regressive.
3.6 TRANSFER OF POWER (1940–47)
Dissatisfaction with the 1935 Act and the immediate circumstances, including the start of
World War II (1939-1945) and the declaration of British rule to join the war and the
resignation of Congress ministers in the provinces (1939), forced the British government to
make longstanding demands such as the Constituent Assembly elected by the citizens to
make its constitution, a declaration of independence after the war, etc. In this direction, the
first proposal was made by the British Government in 8 August 1940, when the then Lord
Linlithgow announced the British policy and said that after the war, the colonial swaraj (self-
establishment) would be established. After the war, a committee will be formed that will
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decide the outline of the Constitution. Thus, the Constitution was first talked about by the
British Government, not the elected Constituent Assembly.
The growing demand for the formation of the Constituent Assembly and the
circumstances of the independence movement (1941 Japan began to conquer the eastern
colonies of the British such as the Philippines, Hong-Kong, Burma, Singapore, Malaya,
Manila and Roosevelt also expressed his views in favour of self-rule in India. Because of this,
the British government sent the Cripps Mission to India. On March 22, 1942, the Cripps
Mission came to India, whose proposals were to form a new Indian Union and Dominion
after the war. A proposal to constitute a Constituent Assembly consisting of members of the
Princely States of British India After consultation with Indian leaders, it was proposed to
expand the executive council of the Viceroy.
Political parties react strongly to the Cripps Mission proposal. The Muslim League
opposed this proposal because topics such as partial independence, dominion states, and the
declaration of the scheduled date of independence were not discussed.
The Cripps Mission was followed by wave planning and the Shimla conference, in
which no consensus could be reached. Given the pressure arising out of the circumstances of
World War II and the role of the Azad Hind Fauj, the British Government sent the Cabinet
Mission Plan to India on March 24, 1946, whose members were Pathik Lawrence and Cripps
Alexander. On March 15, 1946, Attlee announced in Parliament that the path for India's
complete independence would be paved. India will make its constitution. The government
will choose its own. His desire to remain a member of the Commonwealth will depend.
The Major Proposals of the Cabinet Plan are as follows:
1. A proposal to establish an Indian Union comprising both British India and princely
states Whoever has the best foreign policy will have jurisdiction over defence and
communication; all other powers will vest in the provinces and states.
2. The Union shall have an executive and legislature consisting of representatives from
both provinces and princely states.
3. The princely states will have all the powers that they do not transfer to the Union.
4. Provinces will be able to form groups. Will have an executive branch as well as a land
executive. The groups will decide on which provincial subjects their jurisdiction will
expand.
5. The manner of election to the Constituent Assembly shall be by a single transferable
vote of proportional representation; the members of the provincial legislatures shall
elect their representatives. All provinces will get representation based on population;
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there will be one representative for every million people, and thus there will be 296
representatives from British India. 93 representatives will be nominated from the
native princely states.
6. The supremacy of the Crown over the Indian princely states will come to an end.
7. Until a new constitution is framed, an interim government will be formed with the
support of all parties. The system of governance will function following the 1935 Act
until the new Constitution is framed.
3.7 FRAMING OF THE CONSTITUTION
Constituent Assembly
The Constituent Assembly was elected, and each province and princely state was allotted
seats in proportion to their populations, normally 1 seat for a population of 10 lahks.
The distribution of seats in each province was done among the 3 communities in proportion
to their populations; members were elected by the representatives of the General Mainly
Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh Provincial Legislative Assembly through a single transferable vote
system of proportional representation. Thus, the Constituent Assembly was not elected based
on public, compulsory voting rights. Overall, about 15 per cent of the population participated
in the election. The Constituent Assembly was a one-party constituent assembly, where
Congress had the highest number of members. But non-Congress members in the Constituent
Assembly were also given Mahanta. Hadyanath Kunzru, Alladi Krishna Swamy Iyer, D.P.
Khaitan, N. Madhavrao, S. Radhakrishnan, H.C. Mukherjee, Ambedkar, Gopal Swami
Iyengar, A.R. Jackav Jan Mathai, Sachchidananda Sinha, B. Shivaram etc. After partition, the
Constituent Assembly had a total of 299 members. Out of the total number 239 from British
India and 70 from the princely states had the highest number of Hindu representatives,
religiously, in the Constituent Assembly. Hindus were 197, Muslims 28, Christians 6, and
Sikhs 4.
Ethnically, the upper Hindu castes had the highest in number. All the resolutions in the
constituent assembly were passed by voice recognition or consensus. The Constituent
Assembly Committee was based on the system. It had the following main committees and
chairpersons: Dr Rajendra Prasad was the Chairman of the Constituent Assembly; Ambedkar
was the Chairman of the Drafting Committee, and Vallabhbhai Patel was the Chairman of the
Fundamental Rights Committee. Union Power Committee and Union Constitution
Committee was with—Jawaharlal Nehru.
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Many countries around the world influenced the Indian Constitution, which adopted
many provisions such as Britain's parliamentary governance system, the rule of law, original
citizenship, the head of parliamentary privilege, and so on. Fundamental rights and proposals
have been taken from the US, directive principles from Ireland, amendment methodology
from South Africa, and emergency provisions from Germany. In this way, the Constituent
Assembly was formed based on the Cabinet Mission Plan, and the Constitution was formed
by the Constituent Assembly in 2 years, 11 months, and 18 days, which came into force on
January 26, 1950.
Mountbatten Plan
On February 20, 1947, Attlee announced that India would be given independence by June
1948. Because of all these Indian circumstances, the British Government announced on June
3, 1947, accepting the partition of India, also known as the Mountbatten Plan, whose major
announcement is as follows: The first two separate dominions will be established and will be
known as India and Pakistan. On completion of these works, the Constitutional Assemble
will be divided into two parts. The indigenous states will have the same rights whether they
are included in India or there is also a provision for Pakistan's independence.
The India Independence Act of 1947
The British government introduced a bill based on the implementation of the Mountbatten
Plan in Parliament on July 4, 1947. On July 18, 1947, the emperor received approval for the
India Independence Act 1947, which was passed by both houses. Two new independent states
named India and Pakistan came into existence, and power was transferred. Thus, the
following results emerged from the India Independence Act of 1947:
1. The abolition of the sovereignty and responsibility of the British Parliament
2. The emperor is not the source of authority.
3. In the meantime, the Governor General and provincial governors will serve as
constitutional chairpersons.
4. The dominance of the Dominion Legislature Until the Legislature is formed, the
Constituent Assembly will function as the legislature. That is, the Constituent
Assembly is charged with both constitutional and legislative duties.
5. The Mountbatten Plan was a draft that was implemented in the Freedom Act of 1947.
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3.8 SUMMARY
Thus, the process of constitutional development in India began with the transition from
corporate rule to the Act of 1947, based on which not only the British state operated in India,
but many provisions of the Indian Constitution remained in effect after independence. about
200 articles have been taken from the Act of 1935; arrangements like the parliamentary
system and the civil service remain the basis of Indian governance. Colonial influence is also
visible in the states created by the reorganisation of the princely states and the British
provinces. Where it can ultimately go Many provisions in the present Constitution and
governance are influenced by constitutional developments.
3.9 GLOSSARY
• Constitution: Constitution is the rule book which guide the government the ideals
through which it can rule. It gives outlines the relationships between various institutions
(for instance, between the executive, legislature, and judiciary), as well as the major state
institutions.
3.10 SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS
1. Critically review the process of constitutional development in India.

2. Give a critical interpretation of the 1935 Act.
3. What was the Cabinet Mission Plan? Mention the process of constitution-making
while referring to the Constituent Assembly.
3.11 REFERENCES
• Kashyap, Dr Subhash, Constitutional Development and Constitutional of India (1996)

Hindi Madhyam Nideshalaya, Delhi Vishwavidyalaya.
• Basu Das, Durga, Introduction to the Constitution of India (2018) Lexis Nexis.
• Kashyap P.C., Subhash, Constitution of India (2019) Vitasta Publishing Pvt. Ltd.
• Pandey, Dr J.N., Constitution Law of India (2020), Central Law Agency.
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LESSON-4
COLONIAL IDEOLOGY OF CIVILIZING MISSION:
UTILITARIANS AND MISSIONARIES
STRUCTURE

4.2 Introduction
4.3 Colonial Ideology: Civilizing Mission
4.3.1 Missionaries
4.3.2 Utilitarian
4.3.3 Difference between Utilitarians and Liberals
4.4 Understanding Orientalism
4.5 Critique of Colonial Ideology of Civilising Mission
4.5.1 Mission of Civilization and Rise of National Reform and Revival
4.6 Summary
4.7 Glossary
4.9 References
4.10 Suggested Readings
After completion of this lesson,

• Students would understand the reasons and objectives of English colonial rule in
India.
• In the end, the student would get to know various angles of the intellectual
foundations of British administration in India.
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4.2 INTRODUCTION
After reading the chapter on approaches and perspectives of colonialism and nationalism in
India you may have learned what colonialism is and how colonialism is being used to
subordinate Indian people. The purpose and mission of British colonialism can better be
understood by analysing the major purpose and intention of the British Raj.
The objective of Colonial Ideology
4.3 COLONIAL IDEOLOGY: CIVILIZING MISSION
After the conquest of Ireland in the Sixteenth century, the English gradually emerged as the
biggest and on of the strongest empire in the world. It had self-incurred its duty to “civilize
the backward people” and to spread the idea of British Superiority to Asia, Africa and Latin
America. Acquiring the new territories and spreading of the imperial mission brought new
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grandeur and glories which can be summarized as “the sun never set in British Empire”. The
foundation for the ‘imperial’ attitude was instilled in the British administrative outlook and
they have established a Britishness which can be said as superior in quality.
The civilising mission was a political justification for colonialism and military
intervention that had objectives to modernise and westernize indigenous peoples, particularly
during the period from the 15th to 20th Century. In late 15th to the middle of 20th Century,
the phrase was most frequently employed to support French colonialism as a tenet of
European civilization. French Algeria, French West Africa, French Indo-China, Portuguese
Angola and Portuguese Guinea, Portuguese Mozambique, and Portuguese Timor, among
other possessions, were colonially exploited under the guise of a “civilising mission,” which
served as a cultural rationale. The colonial activities of the British, Germans, and Americans
were also often justified as part of a civilising mission. It was linked to the Russification and
the Russian invasion of Central Asia inside the Russian Empire. Western European colonial
powers asserted that they had a duty to spread Western civilization to what they saw as the
barbaric and primitive civilizations of the East since they were Christian states.
This ideology of civilizing mission justified reforming the social, cultural and
facilities of colonies. During the pre-independent era, British Raj tried to interfere with many
of the religious practices and wanted to reform them. For example, British Raj had tried to
bring Sharada Act to increase the marriageable age of girls; wanted to eradicate the Sati as a
practice etc. During the late 18th century the British government tried to reform the culture
and society to a more liberal form which is being argued by Metcalf as ‘evangelicals’.
Metcalf along with their civilizing mission recruited evangelicals who came from Britain as
free traders, law reformers, educationists and utilitarian theorists who also tried to penetrate
the socio-cultural aspects of then India and tried many times to convert them to Christianity.
They had a mission that India is in stagnant condition; so, reform is needed to liberate
Indians from the religious trap which is full of superstition and societal illusions. The
missionaries argued that rather than bringing legislative changes, teaching Western ethics and
values can bring substantive change consistently.
At the beginning of the imperial and colonial rule, the government of East India
Company functioned very apathetic way and recognized the authority of the decaying
Mughal emperors. Lord Clive himself had recommended a system of ‘double government’ as
a matter of expediency under which the criminal justice system would be left in the hands of
nawabi officials, while civil and fiscal matters would be controlled by the company
(Bandyopadhyay: 66). The policy of non-interference were very pragmatic in the context that
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the company needed to avoid civil disobedience an easy understanding of newly acquired
territory, culture, fundamental intricacies of the society.
4.3.1 Missionaries
English missionaries came to India to teach the Indian population about western ethics and
values which remain the foundational stone of Christianity reforms in a more consistent
manner. The idea of British missionaries was to help Indians to improve and strengthen their
religious outlook. During that time Indian tradition and culture were full of superstition and
prejudice.
The missionaries started a mission against Indian under development and brought a
mission to change the very nature of ‘Hindustan’. The chief exponent of the changes came
from Charles Grant who was located at Srirampur near Calcutta. The principal problem of
India, he argued in 1792, was a religious idea which perpetuates ignorance and superstition.
His ideas have been legitimated by the then-British parliament through the Charter Act of
1813, which allowed Christian missionaries to enter India without restriction.
4.3.2 Utilitarians
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory based on the moral philosophy of pleasure and pain. The
pleasure is been calculated by felicific calculus. The felicific calculus says that an action
which produces greater pleasure for a greater number of people is considered the right action
and pain needs to be avoided. It is one of the liberal ideologies of the English administration
during the 18th and 19th centuries. Based on this the whole English administration is been
reformed. The propagators of this philosophy are Bentham, James Mill, Lord William
Bentick, Lord Dalhousie and J. S Mill. James Mill also served as an administrator in British
India.
James Mill also wrote a book “History of British India” which was published in 1817
and tried to strengthen the Indian British administration by bringing new reforms. In his
book, he denied all the glorious claims of India in the field of culture, religion and tradition.
At the same time, he suggested needed changes and strengthen societal norms based on
scientific precision. James Mill was highly influenced by the Scottish Enlightenment tradition
where the true measure of civilizational value can be seen based on scientific temper.
4.3.3 Difference between Utilitarians and Liberals
Majorly utilitarianism was influenced by the liberal notion of bringing reforms to Indian
society. They wanted to assimilate India as a colony to the British Empire but there was a
difference of outlook in both in the early phase of colonialism. In the beginning, the
Orientalists viewed Indian culture as having lots of past glories but went into degradation.
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Thus, in the beginning, they administered India from the policy of ‘ least intervention’ but
later they wanted to reform the rotten and ‘decayed system’ which was been monopolized by
pundits and Maulvis (Bandoyopadhyay: 67)
Utilitarians differed from liberals majorly on the introduction of the English language
in education and administration. During the early 18th century India debated between
Orientalists and Anglicists on the nature of education to be introduced in India. For example,
the liberal Lord Macaulay in his famous Education Minute of 1835 strongly recommended
English education. But at the same time, utilitarian Mill favoured vernacular education which
was suitable for Indian needs.
Lord Bentick was an ardent follower of Mill who had tried to abolish sati and child
marriage through legislation. He justified his legislation on the ground of western education
and scientific understanding. The spread of modern western British education was
undoubtedly another great phenomenon that went a long way in ultimately forging a national
consciousness. Initially, the British government had organised huge state machinery to run
India and a large number of educated people were needed to staff the huge government
organisation such a large number of people could not be sourced from England. So it became
necessary to start schools and colleges in India, which would turn out large numbers of usable
graduates who could be used to fill the sub-ordinate posts after filling the top posts with the
British. Also, there was a school of thought among the British, which believed that the British
liberal culture of democracy and rule of law was the best in the world and favoured its
introduction in India. Britishers introduced a liberal education system during the colonial
phase. They also believed that with the introduction of this education and culture worldwide
gradually social and political unification of the world could be achieved.
Consequently, many Britishers like Macaulay were infused with a missionary zeal to
spread British education in India. Apart from the need for British imperialism for educated
people to run its shop and the missionary zeal of some of its statesmen like Macaulay, the
third important factor that played a major role was the enthusiastic adoption by some Indians
themselves like Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Raja Ram Mohan Roy became the pioneer of
progressive modern education in India and hailed English education as the key to the
treasures of scientific and democratic thought of the modern west. He declared that the
perpetuation of the traditional systems of education would only perpetuate the old
superstitions and regressive lines of social authority. Thus, some of the British Indian
administrators wanted some reforms in Indian society and others wanted to just do business
and make profits.
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4.4 UNDERSTANDING ORIENTALISM

Let us discuss what we understand by orientalism. It means ‘European idea of Orient’.
Orientalism is a type of domination, a persuasion to change and reform the Orient (the east)
for improvement. Somehow, orientalism is a cultural and political fact where Western
authority tries to reform Asian societies according to the norms of Western society. Edward
Said’s landmark text ‘Orientalism’ brought the debate on cultural imperialism into account.
Orientalism in practice in its early phase could be seen in the policies of the
Company’s government under Warren Hastings. The fundamental principle of this tradition
was that the conquered people were to be ruled by their laws (Bandopadhyay: 68). In the
initial phase, Orientalism had given respect for the ancient Indian traditions. But later on, this
policy was been abandoned and legitimized the Anglicisation of the administration. The
policy of domination was called “oriental despotism”.
The idea of despotism was something which distinguished the Oriental state from its
European counterparts. From the beginning, European wanted to free Indian society from the
despotic activities of the Rajas, the zamindars, and the local remnants of the Mughal states.
Through various new policies, the British administration wanted to reform such traditions.
For example- to bring change to the land relationship it introduced systems like the
Permanent settlement act. Lord Cornwallis introduced Permanent settlement with the hope
that the rule of law and private property rights would liberate an individual from the shackle
of customs and traditions of the zamindari system (ibid: 69). In this way British intervention
had tried to modernise and commercialized the land right.
ACTIVITY: Try to find out the difference between Occident (rational and
superior) and Orient (aberrant and inferior) in world Politics. Why the terms like
first, second, third world are being used to define developed, underdeveloped and
developing nations are being used in political writings’. What is the best term to
define Indian development today? How India would show case Indian uniqueness
to the world?
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4.5 CRITIQUE OF COLONIAL IDEOLOGY OF CIVILISING

MISSION
Many scholars argued that the colonial ideology of civilizing missions did not work very well
in India. In India, colonial control could not function properly and had not had any moral
ground for justification. There are many reasons for it, let us discuss the two most important
reasons. First, there weren’t enough financial rewards for liberal education in India, and
second, educated Indians used this knowledge to question colonial rule itself. As a result, this
civilizing mission did not result in colonial power gaining hegemony.
4.5.1 Mission of Civilization and Rise of National Reform and Revival
Through Indian modernist and nationalist ideologies, the colonial ideology of civilizing
missions also paved the way for social reform in India. Indian indigenous social reform and
Hindu revivalism emerged in response to utilitarian and missionary perspectives on reform.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Rabindra Nath Tagore, two modernist social reformers,
provided an extensive and more in-depth critique of Indian society through the lenses of
contemporary ideals like liberty, equality, justice, and rationality. Tagore argued in 1893
about the public’s rise in India during this time. Social reform became a major nationalist
agenda at that time because of this. These modern Indian nationalists demonstrated their
undying faith in the Enlightenment’s utilitarian justification of the civilizing mission. Social
reformers and patriots buckled down for bringing social changes. Indian nationalists opposed
child marriage, the dowry system, caste taboos, sati, and polygamy, among other unjust social
systems in India.
Hindu revivalism among Indian nationalists was born out of missionary, a colonial
ideology of civilizing missions. Hindu revivalists began the process of reform in Hindu
religion from within, in opposition to the missionary’s primary goal of bringing about reform
through religious conversion. Hindu revivalists attempted to define India specifically in terms
of Hindu religion, myths, and history, despite the existence of various strands and
contradictory tendencies.
Revivalists like Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Vivekananda, and later Bal Gangadhar
Tilak advocated for religious reform to protect Hindus from missionaries’ assault. As a result,
we now understand how the Civilizing mission helped the colonists to achieve their goal of
dominating the Indian population they had colonized.
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But in the end, we also realized how this process helped nationalists in India become
reformers and counter-reformers. We understood how Indian nationalism emerged in India as
a result of colonial ideology.
4.6 SUMMARY
Let us conclude and summarise that colonialism denotes a set of unequal relationships
between the colonial power and the colonies. British colonial power came into India with a
vision and mission to rule and reform. The mission was to civilize non-European and
traditional societies. At the same time, they are also trying to do some amount of trading with
us. But the way colonial power had segregated the world has an impact still exist, in the mind
of the people. The superiority and subordinate relationship that evolved during that time has
not completely disappeared from the Indian mindset.
4.7 GLOSSARY
Orientalism: Orientalism is a type of domination, a persuasion to change and reform the

Orient (the east) for improvement.
Utilitarianism: Utilitarianism is a normative ethical principle based on consequentialism.
Jeremy Bentham propounded this theory which was followed by James Mill and J.S. Mill.
According to his thesis, the world is ruled by two important aspects of pleasure and pain. The
main objective of a human being is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. The most
popular principle is called the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
Civilizing Mission: Civilising mission, is a political justification for colonialism and military
intervention that had objectives to modernise and westernize indigenous peoples, particularly
during the period from the 15th to 20th century.
Evangelical: It is related to a Christian church belief where they have the mission to convert,
non-Christian people to Christianity all over the world.
1. What do we understand by imperial or colonial ideology? How it was being used to

colonialize India.
2. Briefly discuss the utilitarian and missionary perspective of the civilizing mission.
3. Write an essay on the colonial mission to orient non-European people.
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4.9 REFERENCES
• Bandopadhyay, S. (2015 revised edition) From Plassey to Partition and After A

History of Modern India. New Delhi: Orient Longman, pp. 37-65; 66-138.
• Chandra, B. (1999) Essays on Colonialism. Hyderabad: Orient Longman, pp. 58-78.
• Chandra, B. (1988). India’s Struggle for Independence, New Delhi. Penguin
• Chandra, Bipin,Amlesh Tripathi & Barun De (1992), Freedom Struggle, National Book
Trust, India
• Metcalf and Metcalf. (2002) A Concise History of India. Cambridge: Cambridge
• Sarkar, S. (1983) Modern India (1885-1847). New Delhi: Macmillan.
• Sen, A.P. (2007), ‘The idea of Social reform and its critique among Hindus of
Nineteenth Century India’, in Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi (ed.) Development of Modern
Indian Thought and the Social Sciences. Vol X. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
• Guha, R. and Gadgil, M. (1989) ‘State Forestry and Social Conflict in British India’,
in Guha, R. and Gadgil, M. Past and Present: A Journal of Historical Studies. May:
123, pp. 141-177.
• Mann, M. (2004) ‘Torchbearers Upon the Path of Progress: Britain’s Ideology of a
Moral and Material Progress in India’, in Mann, M. and Fischer-Tine, H. (eds.)
Colonialism as Civilizing Mission: Cultural Ideology in British India. London:
Anthem, pp. 1-26.
4.10 SUGGESTED READINGS
• Chandra, B. (1988) India’s Struggle for Independence, New Delhi. Penguin.

• Chatterjee, P. (2010) ‘A Brief History of Subaltern Studies’, in Chatterjee,
ParthaEmpire& Nation: Essential Writings (1985-2005). New Delhi: Permanent
Black.
• Metcalf, T. (1995) Ideologies of the Raj. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
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LESSON-5
IMPACT ON AGRICULTURE, LAND RELATIONS,
INDUSTRY AND ECOLOGY
STRUCTURE

5.2 Introduction
5.3 Agriculture and Change in Land Relations
5.3.1 Permanent Settlement Act
5.3.2 Ryotwari Settlement
5.3.3 Mahalwari Settlement
5.3.4 Consequences of the British Land Revenue Systems
5.4 Industry
5.4.1 Decline of Indian Handicrafts
5.4.2 Decline of Village Artisans
5.4.3 Impact of British Industrialization on the Indian Market
5.5 Ecology
5.6 Summary
5.7 Glossary
5.9 References
After completing this lesson the learner would become familiar with the state of the Indian
economy during colonial times. The lesson would discuss agriculture, land relations, industry
and ecology of India during the British Raj and the new changes brought to Indian society by
the administration.
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5.2 INTRODUCTION
Before the arrival of British authority, India had a self-sufficient economy. It was regulated
by conventional style by the decrees of the Raja and implemented by the Zamindari system.
Although most people made their living via agriculture, the nation’s economy was
characterised by a variety of manufacturing industries. India was renowned for its handicraft
industries in the production of metal, precious stone, and textiles made of cotton and silk,
among other things. Based on the good reputation of the premium materials used and the high
levels of craftsmanship evident in all imports from India, these products enjoyed a global
market.
Impact of British rule on Indian Agriculture & Industries
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5.3 AGRICULTURE AND CHANGE IN LAND RELATIONS
During British colonial rule, the economy of India remained primarily agrarian. Almost 85%
of the people lived predominantly in villages and relied on agriculture for their livelihood.
Even though a major portion of the population works in agriculture, still the sector remains
static and frequently experiences drought. Agricultural productivity decreased, because of the
traditional style of land holding and methods which are old.
This stagnation in the agricultural sector was mostly brought on by the numerous land
settlement methods that the colonial authority imposed. Particularly, the zamindari system,
which was put in place in the former Bengal Presidency, entitled Zamindars to collect
revenue on behalf of the colonial authority. Both colonial authority and zamindars did
nothing to improve the condition of the state of agriculture and farmers.
All the zamindars had to collect taxes from villages and provide fixed payments to the
government of the East India Company. The East India Company also created a group of
landlords out of the military petty chiefs from the past by taking over their military, political
and administrative powers and converting their earlier ‘tributes’ into the revenue of their
government. Some persons who had aided them militarily or otherwise were gifted land and
made landlords. Later when the British found that it was economically disadvantageous to
have fixed permanent revenue from the landlords, the new land settlements were introduced
temporarily. While the landlords created under the temporary land settlements were given
proprietary rights over land, the revenue they had to pay to the government could be
subsequently revised.
Permanent Zamindari Settlements prevailed in Bengal, Bihar and sections of North
Madras and covered about 20 per cent of the British Indian territory. The Temporary
Zamindari Settlements covered the major portion of the United Provinces, certain zones of
Bengal and Bombay, the Central Provinces, and Punjab and constituted about 30 per cent of
the British Indian territory. In 1820, Sir Thomas Munro introduced the Ryotwari system in
Madras, where the Governor because he felt that the landlord system was alien to Indian
tradition. From time to time British administration brought various reforms to the land
revenue system.
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ACTIVITY
What were the various forms of revenue settlement adopted by the British in India?
Where did they implement them and to what effect? How far do you think those
settlements have a bearing on the current agricultural scenario in India? Students are also
suggested to read Dadabhai Naoroji’s book Poverty and Un-British Rule. In this book
author highlighted how British economic policies extracted wealth from India to finance
Britain’s administration The theory is popularly known as the ‘Drain of Wealth’.
5.3.1 Permanent Settlement Act

There was extreme suffering and social unrest among the cultivators as a result of the
zamindars’ exploitation of them. The British administration did nothing to alleviate it. The
low agricultural production was also persisting by low levels of technology, a lack of
irrigational infrastructure, and a minor usage of fertilisers. It was brought in 1793 by the
Company administration headed by Charles, Earl Cornwallis. The Cornwallis Code, a wider
body of legislation, brought many changes in land ownership rights and other administrative
changes. The East India Company divided the land relation system into three sections under
this: revenue, judicial, and commercial. Zamindars, native Indians who were considered to be
landowners, were assigned in charge of collecting taxes. This divide had given rise to an
Indian landed class that was backed by British rule.
5.3.2 Ryotwari Settlement
This system of land revenue was instituted in the late 18th century by Sir Thomas Munro,
Governor of Madras in 1820. This was practised in the Madras and Bombay areas, as well as
Assam and Coorg provinces. The taxes were directly collected by the government from the
peasants and Zamindar as intermediaries are being abolished. In this system, the peasants or
cultivators were regarded as the owners of the land. They had ownership rights and could
sell, mortgage or gift the land. The rates were high and unlike the Permanent System, they
were open to being increased. If they failed to pay the taxes, they were evicted by the
government. Ryot means ‘peasant cultivators’. Here there were no middlemen as in
the Zamindari system. But, since high taxes had to be paid only in cash (no option of paying
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in kind as before the British) the problem of moneylenders came into the show. They further
burdened the peasants with heavy interests.
5.3.3 Mahalwari Settlement
The Mahalwari system was introduced by Holt Mackenzie in 1822 and it was reviewed under
Lord William Bentinck in 1833. Like the Ryotwari system, it was another system of land
revenue system introduced in the North-West Frontier, Agra, Central Province, Gangetic
Valley, Punjab, etc. This had elements of both the Zamindari and the Ryotwari systems. This
system divided the land into Mahals. Sometimes, a Mahal was constituted by one or more
villages. The tax was assessed on the Mahal. All the cultivators had joint responsibility for
the payment of rent. Each farmer gave his share. The ownership rights were with the
peasants. Revenue was collected by the village headman or village leaders. It introduced the
concept of average rents for different soil classes. The state's share of the revenue was 66% of
the rental value. The settlement was agreed upon for 30 years. This system was called the
Modified Zamindari system because the village headman virtually became a Zamindar.
5.3.4 Consequences of the British Land Revenue Systems
After the intervention of the British administration, the land became a commodity. Earlier
there was no private ownership of land in rural India. Even kings and cultivators did not
consider land as their ‘private property. There was an existing ‘Jajmani System’ which was
working based on barter exchange inside a self-reliant village system. During the Mughal
period, the land revenue system was introduced and distorted. The revenue system was been
further depleted due to the exploitative nature of the British administration. Due to the very
high taxes, farmers resorted to growing cash crops instead of food crops. This led to food
insecurity and even famines. Taxes on agricultural produce were moderate during pre-British
times. The British made it very high. Insistence on cash payment of revenue led to more
indebtedness among farmers. Moneylenders became landowners in due course. Bonded
labour arose because loans were given to farmers/labourers’ who could not pay them back.
When India achieved freedom from colonial rule, 7% of the villagers
(Zamindars/landowners) owned 75% of the agricultural land. Even with all these changes, the
peasants of India were constantly struggling with starvation and exploitation by Zamindars.
Let us finally discuss on British administrative impact on agriculture, industry and
ecology. We can conclude that the commercialization of agriculture was brought by British
involvement only. Through various interventions, the British brought many changes to the
old and traditional system of zamindari system. The commercialization led by Britisher
forced Indian peasants to shift from agro-based crops to cash crops like tea, coffee, Indigo
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and cotton. In that way, India became the raw material supplier to the Manchester cotton
industry.
However, all these changes had hardly intensified the precarious condition of peasants
who had hardly any right over the land. There were some long-term consequences of land
settlement-
• Rural indebtedness
• Fragmentation of Landholdings
• The emergence of new classes in respect of rural India viz, money lenders, landless
labourers, absentee landlords in the forms of zamindars
Many Indian historians blame the British administration that it had disrupted the million-old
village systems, and destroying the social and economic fabric. Some Marxist historians like
A.R Desai and R.P Dutt linked the changes in Indian agriculture to the world market. They
looked into the matter as the capitalist core Britain and India as the periphery, supplying raw
materials. On the other hand, Gandhi looked into agricultural change by criticizing modernity
and industrialization (Desai: 62).
The most important change which affected the agricultural sector though was the
change in the system of collection of land revenue. Before the British when the village
ownership of land was recognised, the village was taken as the unit of assessment and the
village community through the headman or the panchayat paid the state or the intermediary a
specific proportion of the annual agricultural produce as revenue. This proportion may have
varied under different kings or dispensations, but it was, except in rare cases, the village
which was the unit of assessment and the payer of revenue. The British of course destroyed
this system and made the individual holders of land the unit of assessment and responsible for
paying revenue. Even more debilitating than this change was the new method of calculating
revenue. Villagers had previously always paid a specific portion of their annual produce as
revenue and hence it varied from year to year depending on the quantum of the crop.
However, the British introduced a system of fixed money payments, assessed on the size of
the land, which was regularly due in cash irrespective of the annual production of the
individual landholder.
This new system of calculating land revenue and taxes had severe consequences.
Previously the possession of the land had never been under threat because of failure of the
crop etc. or any other reason. If during any year the harvest failed, the land revenue for that
year used to be zero since the revenue was always a proportion of the realized harvest and so
there were no consequences for non-payment on the village, which was the joint or
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communal owner of the village land. But under the new system introduced by the British
since the landlord or peasant proprietor had to meet the fixed annual payment irrespective of
the failure of the crop, he often had no alternative but to go in for the mortgage and sale of
land. A.R Desai comments on these changes as follows:
‘When a landholder could not pay the land revenue due to the state out of the returns
of his harvest or his resources, he was constrained to mortgage or sell his land. Thus,
insecurity of possession and ownership of land – a phenomenon unknown to the pre-British
agrarian society – came into existence. The new land system disastrously affected the
communal character of the village, its self-sufficient economy and communal social life.
Under the new land system, the village was no longer the owner of the land and hence no
longer the superintendent of agriculture. The individual landholder was directly connected
with the centralised state to which he owed his proprietary right over land and had directly to
pay the land revenue. Further, all land disputes were now settled, not by village panchayats,
but by the courts established by the centralised state. This undermined the prestige of the
panchayats, now shorn of power. Thus, the new system not only deprived the village of its
agricultural-economic functions but also led to the loss of its judicial functions. It also broke
the bonds which organically tied the village peasant to the village collective. The organs of
the centralised state took over almost all essential functions relating to village life which were
previously performed by the self-governing village organisation. Since the fulfilment of
village needs was the objective of the village production and products, both industrial and
agricultural, in pre- British India, this objective determined the character of this produce and
production. It was on this basis that the unity of the village agricultural and industry was
possible and built and their balance maintained.’
The new land revenue system commercialized the rural and native agricultural lands.
In the meantime, it had also increased the poverty among our peasantry and raised the
dependency on the Shahukars. In the Simon Report, it was been stated that “the vast majority
of peasants live in debt to the moneylender (ibid: 51)
One of the problems of the new system was; that the farmers and the village
population was not producing anymore for self-consumption but for the market to sell
products and raise cash to pay revenue and to free themselves from the clutches of the money
lender into whose hands he had progressively fallen into because in bad years during crop
failure or lack of rain there was no alternative but to borrow from the moneylender to pay off
taxes. So naturally, this led to certain commercialisation of agriculture and new crops like
cotton, jute, wheat, sugarcane and oil seeds began to be cultivated much of which could be
sold because they were needed as raw materials for the industries of England. A.R. Desai
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says that from ‘the standpoint of the growth of a single national Indian or world economy,
this was a step forward despite the annihilation of self-sufficient village communities and
economic misery consequent on this destruction through the capitalist transformation of the
Indian economy. It contributed towards building the material foundation, namely, the
economic welding together of India and India with the world, for the national consolidation
of the Indian people and the international economic unification of the world. He further
comments on the change as follows:
However, the capitalist changes of the village economy were indeed brought about by
the transformation of village cooperation but its historically progressive role lies in the fact
that it broke the self-sufficiency of the village economic life and made the village economy a
part of the unified national economy. It was a historically necessary step towards integrating
the Indian people economically. It simultaneously broke the physical, social and cultural
isolation of the village people by creating the possibility of large-scale social exchange
through the establishment of such means of mass transport as railways and
automobiles(ibid:64). Thus, hereafter the problems related to agriculture and conditions of
the farmers became the problem of national importance.
5.4 INDUSTRY
During the British era, both urban industries and village artisans were in an underdeveloped
state. The forcible intervention of the British administration in agriculture, and related
activities and the forced import of foreign goods led to the decline of Indian handicrafts; the
decline of the village artisan system led to a decline in production and marketing. Let us
discuss how industries are suffering due to British administrative policies.
5.4.1 Decline of Indian Handicrafts
Another tragic economic consequence of the rise of British rule was the decline of town
handicrafts which happened due to the disappearance of the native Indian royal courts who
were their chief patrons, the establishment of an alien foreign rule who were not interested in
their prosperity and course the competition of a more highly developed form of industry
which British industry was. The British forced free trade on India and imposed heavy duties
on Indian manufactured goods in England leading to a lopsided trading outcome. India started
the export of raw products from India for processing in England rather than setting up
industries in India. But it was also less the idea of the self-reliant model of industries. Transit
and customs duties were imposed to stop the flow of Indian industrial goods and British
industries were given ‘special privileges. In some cases, Indian artisans were compelled to
divulge their trade secrets. The beginning of railways meant that raw materials could be
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transported from any part of India to the ports for shipping to England and manufactured
goods from England could be transported to all parts of India. Exhibitions of English goods
were held all over the country to promote their adoption. Also, the newly educated class of
Indians, mostly urban professionals took to adopting western goods which further dashed
hopes of survival of the town handicrafts because it meant that the royal courts and upper
class of earlier times were not replaced by the new bourgeois. The destruction of the pre-
capitalist urban handicrafts and the village artisan industry of India brought about by the
forces of modern industries and trade had the effect of helping in the transformation of India
into a single economic whole.
Thus, after acquiring political power in India, the Britisher forced Indian industry to work
according to their whims and fancy. They imposed heavy duties on Indian manufacturing,
granted special privileges to British companies, and promoted and favoured British
handicrafts which led to the decline of Indian industries.
5.4.2 Decline of Village Artisans
The artisans who left their village and became city workers became members of the working
class which, transcending all local and provincial limitations, began to organise on the
national front. The ex-artisans developed a wider consciousness of being members of the
Indian working class. They developed a national outlook also. This is how the middle class
emerged in cities.
Even those sections of the ruined artisans, who bought land and became peasants or
who, due to lack of means, became land labourers, developed a different and wider
consciousness. Under the new conditions created by the transformation of Indian agriculture,
they were not members of an economically self-sufficient village community but formed
economic, classes which were integral parts of the Indian nation. Now living under the same
system of land laws, the interests of all peasants or land labourers throughout India became
more or less identical. The recognition of this stimulated a wider break class and national
consciousness among them and prompted them over time, to build up or join such
organisations as the All India Kisan Sabha and others.
5.4.3 Impact of British Industrialization on the Indian Market
Modern manufacturing industry had started developing in India in the early years of the
nineteenth century but by the end of that century, Indian industrialists had made a place for
themselves, particularly in cotton and jute textiles. Very soon Indian industry began to realise
now the absence of a level playing field meant that British-owned groups always had an
advantage. They began to resent this. And a community of interest developed between these
economic interests. Many Indian nationalist economists and politicians declared that the
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substantial British domination of Indian banking that was one of the most important obstacles
to the rapid industrial development of India. Financing for the Indian-owned industry was
almost impossible compared to the British-owned industry and the British-controlled banks
and government policies were primarily designed from the point of view of British economic
interests. The Indian nationalist economists and Indian industrial interests later proposed the
‘Bombay Plan’ to suggest a change of character like industrial development. Notwithstanding
the insufficient and unbalanced development of industries, industrialization played an almost
revolutionary role in the life of the Indian people. A.R. Desai comments, that it led to the
consolidation of the unified national economy. This consolidation happened as a consequence
of the introduction of capitalist economic forms in agriculture by the British government, the
penetration of India by the commercial forces of the world and the spread of modern
transport during British rule. He comments that industrialisation made ‘the Indian economy
more unified, cohesive and organic. It raised the tone of the economic life of India and
brought into existence modern cities which became the centres of modern culture and
increasing democratic social life and from which all progressive movements, social, political
and cultural, emanated’. (ibid. p.124)
He further comments as follows:
‘The progressive social and political groups in India realized the advantages, direct
and indirect, of industrialization. Though they differed in their views regarding the social
organisation of industrial and other economic forces and resources whether, on the laissez-
faire principle of private enterprise and unlimited individual competition or a planned
national basis, capitalist or socialist, they all stood for rapid all-sided expansion of industries.
While sharply divided into many issues, they put up a united demand for it. They jointly
struggled for the removal of the various handicaps of industrial development. The demand for
industrialization thus became a national demand.’
Along with industrialization and almost as a part of it there was a rapid growth in the
modern means of transport, which it has to be said aided in the growth of national sentiment.
Railways and buses made it possible to spread progressive social and scientific ideas among
the people and modern means of transport helped spread scientific and progressive literature
(books, magazines, papers) which could not have been quickly distributed throughout the
country otherwise. Also, Railways in particular helped in dissolving orthodox social habits
regarding food, physical contact, and others. Consequently impact on Indian industries is
very all-compassing and vivid, can be concluded that brought many changes across society.
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5.5 ECOLOGY
We are discussing the colonial structure and various changes that took place during British
time.
Ecology is the study of organisms and how they interact with the environment around
them. An ecologist studies the relationship between living things and their habitats. In this
chapter, we are studying ecological concerns that took place during British colonial times in
India. There were many forset acts and procedures passed which empowered the Government
to utilize them for industrial, agricultural, mining and conserving purposes. The period
between the 17th century to the early 20th century when most of the nations in Asia, Africa
and Latin America are associated with the exploitation of natural resources like forests and
farmlands. In 1865 the first Indian Forest Act was passed. It came into effect on 1 May 1865.
The Act empowered the Government to declare any land covered with trees as Government
forests and to issue rules for conserving them. This also led to the commercialization of
forests and forest products and created a middleman ship of Sahukars or money lenders.
With the Europeans coming to India almost all the traditional relationship patterns and
utilization of resources were been changed. Firstly, with the commercialization of agricultural
products and forest products, the expectations of forest dwellers have changed. The forest
people tried to commercialize the forest products. As Gadgil and Guha say, ‘the proportion of
the population engaged in subsistence gathering and the production of food declined; that of
people engaged in manufacturing, transporting or using resources as commodities increased’
(Gadgil & Guha: 115).
Along with it, the long-standing cooperation between neighbours created during
subsistent hunting and food gathering time became less and less important. Somehow we can
conclude that British intervention in agriculture along with forestry was extremely
exploitative. They had given the foundation of the commercialisation of forest areas and tried
to induce market into the traditional life of the forest dwellers. Some scholars say that the
Indian Forest Act of 1927, which was in operation till 1980, was extremely exploitative in
character.
5.6 SUMMARY
In this lesson, we have studied Indian societal concerns, that took place during British
colonial times. Especially the changes brought by the British administration across the units
of society like agriculture, industry, societal customs land relationships etc. Thus, the lesson
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give a comprehensive explanation of India’s industry and trade relations during the British
era.
5.7 GLOSSARY
Ecology: Ecology is the study of organisms and how they interact with the environment
around them. An ecologist studies the relationship between living things and their habitats.
1. Explain the status of India’s agriculture during British time.

2. Give a comprehensive explanation of India’s industry and trade relations during the
British era.
3. India’s agriculture sector was stagnant during the British period, explain.
5.9 REFERENCES
✓ Metcalf Barbara D and Thomas R Metcalf (2006), A Concise History of Modern

India, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
✓ Environment and Ecology Under British Rule, https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/
9780199259885.003.0009, Pages 212–23
✓ Chandra, B. (1988). India’s Struggle for Independence, New Delhi. Penguin
✓ Chandra, B. (1999). Essays on Colonialism, Hyderabad. Orient Longman
✓ Chandra, Bipin,Amlesh Tripathi & Barun De (1992), Freedom Struggle, National
Book Trust, India
✓ Bandyopadhyay, S. (2015 revised edition) From Plassey to Partition and After A

History of Modern India. New Delhi: Orient Longman, pp. 37-65; 66-138.
✓ Chandra, B. (1999) Essays on Colonialism. Hyderabad: Orient Longman, pp. 58-
78.
✓ Desai A. R.(2000), Social Background of Indian Nationalism, Popular Prakashan,
New Delhi
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✓ Metcalf and Metcalf. (2002) A Concise History of India. Cambridge: Cambridge

✓ Sarkar, S. (1983) Modern India (1885-1847). New Delhi: Macmillan.
✓ Sen, A.P. (2007), ‘The idea of Social reform and its critique among Hindus of
Nineteenth Century India’, in Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi (ed.) Development of
Modern Indian Thought and the Social Sciences. Vol X. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press.
✓ Ganguly, Aditi eds.(2018), Colonialism and Nationalism in India, Study Material of
School of Open Learning, SOL, DU( Annual Mode)
✓ Guha, R. and Gadgil, M. (1989) ‘State Forestry and Social Conflict in British
India’, in Guha, R. and Gadgil, M. Past and Present: A Journal of Historical
Studies. May: 123, pp. 141-177.
✓ Mann, M. (2004) ‘Torchbearers Upon the Path of Progress: Britain’s Ideology of a
Moral and Material Progress in India’, in Mann, M. and Fischer-Tine, H. (eds.)
Colonialism as Civilizing Mission: Cultural Ideology in British India. London:
Anthem, pp. 1-26
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Unit-III: Reform and Resistance

LESSON-6
THE REVOLT OF 1857
STRUCTURE
6.2 Introduction
6.3 Major Causes of the 1857 Revolt
6.3.1 Structure of the British Indian Army during the 18th Century
6.3.2 Caste and Religion Sanctity
6.3.3 Rumor Related to Enfield Rifles
6.3.4 Discontent with Service Conditions
6.4 Partial Success of the Revolt
6.5 Major Outcomes of the Revolt
6.6 Summary
6.7 Glossary
6.9 References

After completing this lesson students will be familiar with the socio-religious and economic
circumstances which created the social base of the revolt of 1857 break out. The lesson also
gives the idea about the consequences of the revolt. It is important to study the revolt of 1857
because it was in many ways the first major organised nationwide political rejection of
British rule and thus many ways helpful in creating the spirit of nationalism.
6.2 INTRODUCTION
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India
Company’s army on 10 May 1857 in Meerut, UP. This erupted into other mutinies and
civilian rebellions nationwide but was mainly confined to northern and central India. The
major battles were fought in the towns of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and the
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Delhi region. The rebellion almost succeeded and alarmed and scared the British so much
that they decided to end the rule of the East India Company and introduce direct rule from
London.
The revolt is also referred to variously as the Uprising of 1857, the Sepoy Rebellion
or the Sepoy Mutiny, India’s First War of Independence, the Great Rebellion, or the Indian
Mutiny but most usually as the Revolt of 1857. Regions other than in northern and central
India, the Bengal province, the Bombay Presidency, and the Madras Presidency had remained
largely calm. In Punjab, the Sikh princes backed the Company by providing both soldiers and
support. The large princely states, Hyderabad, Mysore, Travancore, and Kashmir, as well as
the states of Rajputana, did not join the rebellion. In some regions, such as Oudh, the
rebellion became not just a revolt of soldiers but a general rebellion by the civil population as
well. Although not intend to do so at first, later, many leaders such as the Rani of Jhansi, who
became famous and laid down their lives in most cases, joined the revolt which took on the
general character of a nationalist movement in India.
The rebellion led to the dissolution of the East India Company in 1858 and forced the
British to reorganize the army and the administrative system in India. India was thereafter
directly governed by the Crown from London.
An Analysis of Readings
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6.3 MAJOR CAUSES OF 1857 REVOLT
Professor Bipan Chandra has called the revolt of 1857 the first major challenge to British rule
and has described its beginning in dramatic terms:
‘It was the morning of 11 May l857. The city of Delhi had not yet woken up when a
band of sepoys from Meerut, who had defied and killed the European officers the previous
day, crossed the Jamuna, set the toll bridge on fire and marched to the Red Fort. They entered
the Red Fort through the Raj Ghat gate, followed by an excited crowd, to appeal to Bahadur
Shah II, the Moghul Emperor – a pensioner of the British East India Company, who
possessed nothing but the name of the mighty Mughals – to become their leader, thus, give
legitimacy to their cause. Bahadur Shah vacillated as he was neither sure of the intentions of
the sepoys nor of his ability to play an effective role. He was however persuaded, if not
coerced, to give in and was proclaimed the Shahenshah-e-Hindustan. The sepoys, then, set
out to capture and control the imperial city of Delhi. Simon Fraser, the Political Agent and
several other Englishmen were killed; the public offices were either occupied or destroyed.
The Revolt of 1857, an unsuccessful but heroic effort to eliminate foreign rule, had begun.
The capture of Delhi and the proclamation of Bahadur Shah as the Emperor of Hindustan
gave a positive political meaning to the Revolt and provided a rallying point for the rebels by
recalling the past glory of the imperial city. Almost half the Company’s strength of 2,32,224
opted out of their loyalty to their regimental colours and overcame the ideology of the army,
meticulously constructed over some time through training and discipline. (Bipan Chandra:
31)
6.3.1 Structure of the British Indian Army during the 18th Century
The sepoys in the company’s forces were a combination of Muslim and Hindu soldiers and at
the time of the rebellion of 1857, there were over 200,000 Indians in the army compared to
about 40,000 British. The forces were divided into three presidential armies: the Bombay; the
Madras; and the Bengal. The Bengal Army was composed of higher castes, such as “Rajputs
and Brahmins”, mostly from the Avadh (or Oudh as the British called it) and regions in
Bihar.
The enlistment of lower castes in 1855 was restricted and unknown. However, the
Madras Army and Bombay Army were drawn from all castes and did not have a bias against
upper-caste men. The domination of higher castes in the Bengal Army has been seen as a
significant factor in why the mutiny unfolded. It is interesting why in the Bengal Army the
preference for upper caste men from Oudh and Bihar areas came to be. In 1772, when Warren
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Hastings was appointed the first Governor-General of the Company’s Indian territories, he
carried out a rapid expansion of the Company’s army. But the soldiers, or sepoys, from
Bengal, had fought against the Company in the Battle of Plassey and so became a suspect in
the eyes of the British and it was decided it would not be safe to have recruited from Bengal.
Hastings, therefore, moved towards the west from the high-caste rural Rajput and Brahmins
of Oudh and Bihar.
ACTIVITY
Visit nearby museum and try to recollect various regional and local leaders or
activities related to national movements.
6.3.2 Caste and Religion Sanctity

The British were not unmindful of the religious and caste sensitivities of the recruits. Respect
was shown for religious rituals and the soldiers dined in separate areas and could live
according to the rules of their caste or religion. The overseas service involving crossing the
seas was not asked for. But gradually there emerged a conflict between what was demanded,
the living conditions offered and what the sepoys could accept. As Professor Bipan Chandra
explains: ‘It is certainly true that the conditions of service in the Company’s army and
cantonments increasingly came into conflict with the religious beliefs and prejudices of the
sepoys, who were predominantly drawn from the upper caste Hindus of the North-western
Provinces and Oudh.
Initially, the administration sought to accommodate the sepoy’s demands: facilities
were provided to them to live according to the dictates of their caste and religion. But, with
the extension of the Army’s operation not only to various parts of India but also to countries
outside, it was not possible to do so anymore. Moreover, caste distinctions and segregation
within a regiment were not conducive to the cohesiveness of a fighting unit. To begin with,
the administration thought of an easy way out: discourage the recruitment of Brahmins; this
failed and, by the middle of the nineteenth century, the upper castes predominated in the
Bengal Army and were unhappy over doing duties overseas. The unhappiness of the sepoys
first surfaced in 1824 when the 47th Regiment at Barrackpur was ordered to go to Burma.
According to Hindu scriptures crossing the sea means, losing the sanctity of the caste. The
sepoys, therefore, refused to comply with the order. The regiment was disbanded and those
who led the opposition were hanged. The religious sensibilities of the sepoys who
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participated in the Afghan War were more seriously affected. During the arduous and
disastrous campaigns, the fleeing sepoys were forced to eat and drink whatever came their
way. When they returned to India, those at home correctly sensed that they could not have
observed caste stipulations and therefore, were hesitant to welcome them back into the
baradari (caste fraternity). Sitaram who had gone to Afghanistan found himself an outcaste
not only in his village but even in his barracks. The prestige of being in the pay of the
Company was not enough to hold his position in society; religion and caste proved to be more
powerful. (ibid. pp. 33-34)
6.3.3 Rumour Related to Enfield Rifles
There were rumours that the government had secret designs to convert Hindu and Muslim
sepoys to Christianity which got credence from the fact those missionaries were allowed to
address and preach inside cantonments and they openly criticised the religions of the sepoys
like Hinduism and Islam. In the 1830s, Christian evangelists such as William Carey and
William Wilberforce had successfully campaigned for the passage of social reform legislation
such as the abolition of Sati and allowing the remarriage of Hindu widows this must have
added to the suspicions. There were rumours that the company administration had mixed
bone dust with wheat flour or atta and that was being fed to vegetarian sepoys. The
introduction of Enfield rifles caused the ultimate provocation. The cartridges of the new rifle
had to be bitten off before loading and the grease was reportedly made of beef and pig fat.
The army administration had done nothing to deny and ally such rumours; this confirmed the
sepoy’s suspicion about a conspiracy to destroy their religion and caste allegiance to convert
to Christianity.
6.3.4 Discontent with Service Conditions
Not just religious sensitivity violations, but there was also discontent with service terms.
Changes in the terms may have created resentment. The soldiers were not only expected to
serve in less familiar regions (such as in Burma in the Anglo-Burmese Wars in 1856) but also
were not paid any extra “foreign service” remuneration any more that had previously been
paid. Another financial grievance stemmed from the General Service Act, which denied
retired sepoys a pension. At first, it was thought this would only apply to recruits, but it was
suspected that it would also apply to those already in service. In addition, the Bengal army
was paid less than the Madras and Bombay armies, which compounded the fears over
pensions. A major cause of resentment that arose ten months before the outbreak of the revolt
was the General Service Enlistment Act of 25 July 1856. As noted above, men of the Bengal
Army had been exempted from overseas service.
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Specifically, they were enlisted only for service in territories to which they could
march. This was seen by the Governor-General Lord Dalhousie as an anomaly since all
sepoys of the Madras and Bombay Armies (plus six “General Service” battalions of the
Bengal Army) had accepted an obligation to serve overseas if required. As a result, the
burden of providing contingents for active service in Burma (readily accessible only by sea)
and China had fallen disproportionately on the two smaller Presidency Armies. The Act
required only recruits to the Bengal Army to accept a commitment for general (that is
overseas) service. However serving high caste sepoys was fearful that it would be eventually
extended to them, as well as preventing sons from following fathers into an Army with a
strong tradition of family service. There were also grievances over the issue of promotions,
based on seniority (length of service). This, as well as the increasing number of European
officers in the battalions, made promotion slow progress and many Indian officers did not
reach commissioned rank until they were too old to be effective.
6.4 PARTIAL SUCCESS OF THE REVOLT
Let us discuss various reasons why the revolt was partially impactful to the then-British
administration.
(a) there was no united voice of India politically, culturally, or on ethnic terms and
there were many regions which are not been connected,
(b) even Indian soldiers across the country were not united in revolt
(c) many of the local rulers fought amongst each other, rather than uniting against the
British,
(d) many rebel Sepoy regiments disbanded and went home rather than fight,
(e) not all of the rebels accepted the headship of the last Moghul emperor even though
it was mainly symbolic and Bahadur Shah Zafar had no real control over the
mutineers,
(f) the revolt was largely in north and central India while the south and west remained
untouched and the Rajput kingdoms of Rajasthan supported the British with men,
arms and materials,
(g) indeed it is suggested many revolts occurred in areas not under British rule, and
against native rulers, often for local reasons,
(h) the revolt was fractured in the lines of religious, ethnic and regions.
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One major long-term benefit of the revolt in terms of the growth of Indian nationalism was
the common cause that Hindus and Muslims made against the outsiders, the British. This was
quite significant historically. Also, even though all of India did not participate this was the
first major pan-India movement. As we know Bengal and Punjab remained peaceful; entire
South India remained unaffected (Bandyopadhyay: 172). Also, it was not just the soldiers or
sepoys but a cross-section of Indian society from farmers to feudal lords made common
causes across class and caste barriers. The sepoys did not seek to revive small kingdoms in
their regions; instead, they repeatedly proclaimed a “country-wide rule” of the Moghuls and
vowed to drive out the British from “India”, as they knew it then. The declared objective of
driving out “foreigners” from not only one’s area but from their conception of the entirety of
“India”, is suggested to signify a real nationalist sentiment; given the foundation of Indian
nationalism in the mind of the Indian middle class and all other populations.
6.5 MAJOR OUTCOMES OF THE REVOLT
The most important consequence of the revolt of 1857 was the end of the rule of the British
East India Company. In August, by the Government of India Act 1858, the company was
formally dissolved and its ruling powers over India were transferred to the British Crown.
A new British government department, the India Office, was created to handle the
governance of India and its head, the Secretary of State for India, was entrusted with
formulating Indian policy. The Governor-General of India was renamed or given a new
title called Viceroy of India and was made in charge of implementing the policies devised
by the India Office in London. The British colonial administration embarked on a program of
reform, trying to integrate Indian higher castes and rulers into the government and abolishing
attempts at Westernization.
Another major consequence was the reorganisation of the army. The Bengal army
dominated the Indian army before the mutiny in 1857 and a direct result of the revolt of 1857
was the reduction in the size of the Bengali contingent in the army. Of the 67,000 Hindus in
the Bengal Army in 1842, 28,000 were identified as Rajputs and 25,000 as Brahmins, a
category that included Bhumihar Brahmins. The Brahmin presence in the Bengal Army was
reduced in the late nineteenth century because the British believed they had inspired the start
of the revolt and had led the mutineers in 1857.
The British instead started recruiting more soldiers from Punjab. The old Bengal
Army almost completely vanished. These troops were replaced by new units recruited from
castes hitherto not recruited by the British and from the so-called “Martial Races”, such as the
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Sikhs and the Gurkhas who now became the mainstay of the British army. Some of the old
rules within the armed organisation, which estranged sepoys from their officers were rectified
and the post-1857 units were mainly organised on the “irregular” system. Before the
rebellion, each Bengal Native Infantry regiment had 26 British officers, who held every
position of authority down to the second-in-command of each company but in the new. In
irregular units, there were only six or seven officers, who associated themselves far more
closely with their soldiers while more trust and responsibility were given to the Indian
officers. The British increased the ratio of British to Indian soldiers within India. Sepoy
artillery was abolished also, leaving all artillery (except some small detachments of mountain
guns) in British hands. The post-1857 changes formed the basis of the military organisation
until the early 20th century.
6.6 SUMMARY
➢ V.D. Savarkar considered this the First Indian War of Independence. The war was
fought for ‘Swadharma’ and ‘Swaraj’.
➢ Metcalf mentioned, that it was more than a sepoy mutiny, but something less than a
national revolt. The revolt was not spread to the Southern part of India.
➢ The Hindus and Muslims were equally affected and therefore, Hindu-Muslim unity
was maintained during the revolt.
➢ However, it had ended the rule of the East India Company and was directly ruled by
the British administration in London.
➢ Britishers became careful about trusting Indian People in the army. It had given the
foundation of Indian nationalism in the minds of Indian middle-class populations.
6.7 GLOSSARY
Mutiny: An act of a group of people, especially sailors or soldiers, refusing to obey the
person who is in command
Rebellion: An occasion when some of the people in a country try to change the government,
using violence
Revolt: To protest in a group, often violently, against the person or people in power
The Doctrine of Lapse: This law derecognised the adopted sons of the deceased princes as
legal heir and their kingdoms were supposed to be annexed by British administration (Lord
Dalhousie.)
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1. Discuss the various suggested socio-economic resentments that inspired the revolt of
1857.
2. What were the major consequences of the 1857 mutiny? Can it be called the First
War of Independence?
6.9 REFERENCES
✓ Irfan Habib, Understanding 1857, in Sabyasachi Bhattacharya (ed.), Rethinking 1857,

Delhi, Orient Longman, 2008
✓ Bandyopadhyay, S. (2015 revised edition) From Plassey to Partition and After A
History of Modern India. New Delhi: Orient Longman, Pp 169-181
Trust, India
✓ Chandra, B. (1988) India’s Struggle for Independence, New Delhi. Penguin.

✓ Pradhan, Ram Chandra. (2008) Raj to Swaraj. New Delhi: Macmillan.
✓ Ganguly, Aditi eds. (2018), Colonialism and Nationalism in India, Study Material of
School of Open Learning, SOL, DU
✓ R. Palme Dutt (1955), India Today and Tomorrow, New Age Printing Press, Delhi
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LESSON-7
MAJOR SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS REFORM
MOVEMENTS IN INDIA
Dr. Gurdeep Kaur
STRUCTURE

7.2 Introduction
7.3 Defining and Understanding Social and Religious Reform Movement
7.3.1 The social and Religious Reform Movements: Variant of Social Movement.
7.3.2 The Conditions in the 18th and 19th Centuries that set the Stage for the
Emergence of Social and Religious Reform Movements.
7.4 Various Social-Religious Reform Movements
7.4.1 Brahmo Samaj
7.4.2 Prarthana Samaj
7.4.3 Satya Shodhak Samaj
7.4.4 Young Bengal Movement
7.4.5 Arya Samaj
7.4.6 Ramakrishna Mission
7.4.7 Theosophical Society
7.5 Summary
7.6 Glossary
7.7 Assessment Questions
7.8 References
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After the completion of the chapter, the students will be able to

➢ Understand and define the concept of social and religious movements.
➢ Explain various factors that led to the growth of social and religious movements
across India.
➢ List the objectives and principles of various social and religious movements
➢ Identify the key personalities and their significant contributions vis-a-vis their
respective various movements.
➢ Explain the success and limitations of the various movements in India
7.2 INTRODUCTION
No society remains static forever, besides material development, the changes in the
perception and approach of people towards religion, culture, society and politics also bring
about many changes in societies, for instance, the 14th, 15th and 16th century are known for
the renaissance in Europe, especially in northern Italy. India’s history is replete with
instances of uprisings and movements to bring about the desired change. The nineteenth
century proved to be a turning point in the history of modern India. It was a period of great
awakening, challenging many existing socio-cultural and religious practices that were largely
responsible for divisive and exploitative social-political order in the country in those times.
This period witnessed the growth of many movements attempting to introduce many reforms
in the socio-cultural practices, education and political domain so that the Indian society
functions on the principles of liberty, equality, justice, and fraternity and that no individual
faces discrimination on an irrational basis. These movements are termed modern religious
and secular movements which are the manifestation of the Indian renaissance which ushered
a new era in the history of Indian thinking.
India in the 19th century witnessed a series of reform movements that were oriented
towards reforming the Indian society along the modern line. The birth and growth of social
and religious reform movements in different parts of India played an important role in
enlightening the people and inculcating the spirit of critical enquiry in matters related to faith
and religion to liberate the countrymen from rudimentary and conservative practices that
were being blindly followed. These movements also played a key role towards uniting
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Indians that were divided by caste/ class/gender/ religion and other grounds. These
movements based on principles of rationality and scientific temper were a precursor to the
growing nationalism. Many eminent personalities like Raja Rammohan Roy, Swami
Dayanand Saraswati, Ishwar Chand Vidyasagar, Swami Vivekananda and others spread the
idea of universal brotherhood, co-existence, Oneness of God, gender equality, peace, unity,
tolerance, freedom of expression etc to establish a cohesive, harmonious society and promote
the importance of education. With such initiatives, Indian people became conscious of their
social, political and other rights. The reform movements had an instrumental role in fostering
patriotic fervour among the Indians apart from addressing issues like the sati system, child
marriage, forced widowhood, the purdah system, the supremacy of Brahmins, and
untouchability. This chapter will shed light on the various movements that emerged during
the 19th century and will enable the students to acquire an in-depth understanding of the
various movements.
7.2 DEFINING AND UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS

REFORM MOVEMENT
Before the readers are familiarized with different social and religious movements, it is
important that a basic understanding of movements and their importance is understood. In
common parlance movement refers to mobility which brings about the displacement of an
object i.e. change in position or location. The word movement is used in various contexts, it
may also be understood as an act of mobilizing people for bringing about the desired change/
resisting a change. A movement can hence be defined as a collective and an organized action
on a mass scale to tackle some widespread problem of social, political, economic, religious or
cultural that has been in existence in the society for a long time and there is a shared concern
for addressing the root cause of the problem and to bring about the needed change. A
movement begins in a certain localized social set up and gradually it gets established and
spreads far and wide depending on various factors like the purpose and objective,
involvement of people, supporting factors etc. Social and religious reform movements fall in
the ambit of social movements meaning that social movements are a broader category within
which various movements like peasants' movements, women's movements, tribal movements,
religious movements and others fall. According to Herbert Blumer “The social movement
can be considered a collective effort to establish a new system of life” (Blumer, 1951,199). In
the words of Sidney Tarrow social movements refer to “collective challenges, based on
common purposes and social solidarities in sustained interaction with elites, opponents and
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authorities” (Tarrow,2011, 9). According to Gusfield “social movements are socially shared
demand for change in some aspect of social order” (Gusfield, 1968,445).
7.3.1 The Social and Religious Reform Movements: Variant of Social Movement
The social and religious reform movements are an important variant of social movement in
the sense that they are initiated to bring about the needed changes in the social and religious
domains. Religion and social aspects are intricately intertwined as almost every social custom
and institution in India derive sustenance from religious injunctions and sanctions. It
henceforth was understood by every Indian social reformer that religious reform must
precede social reforms. The reform movements, therefore, besides addressing issues of social
inequality and injustices, aimed to establish a modified social order by introducing modified
values and practices in social institutions including religion as well.
According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the word ‘reform’ refers
to ‘making changes (in something, especially an institution or practice) to improve.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as ‘improvement by removing or correcting faults,
problems, etc. Social reform movement refers to mobilizing society and the resources to
bring about a change in the social order, practices or institutions that have become partially or
completely redundant and are a reason for the deterioration of quality of life in any given
society. According to Sociologist Prof M. S. Gore social reform ‘involves a deliberate effort
to bring about a change in social attitudes, culturally defined role expectations and actual
patterns of behaviour of people in the desired direction through processes of persuasion and
public education. Abolition of Sati, promoting women's education, advocating women's
rights, abolition of the caste system, and the abolition of untouchability, are some of the key
areas of a social and religious reform movement in India.
These movements can be broadly categorized as:
1. Reformist movements (Brahmo Samaj, the Prarthana Samaj)
2. Revivalists movements (Arya Samaj)
A fair understanding of different social and religious movements cannot be acquired without
the knowledge of the socio-religious and cultural milieu of 18th and 19th century India which
happened to be the reason/ factors for the emergence of various movements.
7.3.2 The Conditions in the 18th and 19th Century that set the Stage for the
Emergence of Social and Religious Reform Movements
Rigid casteism was one of the major social evils during the 18th century. According to the
Hindu religion, caste is determined by birth. In hierarchical social organization, Brahmins
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enjoyed supremacy while the shudras, the lowest in the hierarchy, were exploited and
marginalized. Rigid caste division proved to be unhealthy, unfair and immoral. All privileges
including the right to education were denied to the shudras which further compounded their
challenges and threatened their survival.
Gender inequality and discrimination against women: Discrimination and ill-treatment of
women during the 19th century was a very common practice. Besides denial of opportunities
for education and presence in the public domain, women were victims of many social and
cultural malpractices like child marriage, the purdah system, the sati system, the dowry
system, the devadasi tradition, etc which relegated women to an inferior position and made
them subjects of exploitation, humiliation and enslavement.
Backwardness and stagnation: The Muslim rulers established their political control in India
from 1200 AD till the advent of the Britishers in 1800 AD. This period is known as the dark
period of Indian history, during this time liberal and rational outlook was largely not
encouraged. The colonial rule, however, paved the way for progressive reforms and inspired
by Western liberal and reasonable approach, many thoughtful Indians set out to initiate social
reforms with the desire to establish democratic, inclusive, cohesive order.
Development of a sense of pride for India’s ancient culture: During the 19th century many
European and Indian scholars showed interest in studying India’s ancient history, religions,
philosophies and literature etc and spreading awareness about the same. The renewed interest
instilled a sense of pride in Indian civilisation among the masses that encouraged the social
reformers to address the rudimentary practices.
Exposure to western education and ideas: During the 19th century many Indian
intellectuals and reformers had exposure to western education and liberal ideas through their
formal education from English and Missionary institutions which encouraged them to
mobilize the people for progressive reforms. Moreover, the rising tide of nationalism and
democracy also found expression in movements to reform and democratize the social
institutions and religious outlook of the Indian people.
In addition to the above many other factors like growing connectivity, the legislation,
the increased role of Christian missionaries etc played an important role in the emergence and
growth of social religious reform movements.
7.4 VARIOUS SOCIAL-RELIGIOUS REFORM MOVEMENTS
Let us discuss various streams of socio-religious movements taken place during nationalist
movements
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7.4.1 Brahmo Samaj

Ram Mohan Roy played a pioneering role in initiating progressive and radical social reforms
in the then Indian society by opposing idolatry social practices like the sati system,
polygamy, and rigid caste divide among other social malpractices which earned him the title
of “Father of Indian Renaissance”. Social order and practices of those times were seen and
evaluated by Raja Ram Mohan Roy in light of principles of rationality, religious universalism
and scientific thinking. Through his early philosophical works “Tuhfat-ul-Muwahhidin” in
1805 and the organization- Atmiya Sabha (Society of Friends) in 1815, he began his
journey as a social reformer. In his scholarly and philosophical work, Tuhfat-ul-
Muwahhidin he rejected the idea that religion was solely a matter of faith and that it cannot
be subjected to scrutiny in light of reason, social comfort and acceptance. Raja Ram Mohan
Roy’s in-depth knowledge of Eastern philosophy and exposure to Western liberal and
reasoned approach encouraged him to awaken countrymen for establishing society on
principles of justice, equality and the development of all.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s birth in a well-to-do Brahmin family in Bengal facilitated his
intellectual and academic growth. Besides being well-versed in Sanskrit, he learnt English,
Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian in addition to French and Latin. His scholarly works in
Bengali, Hindi, Sanskrit, Persian and English are a testimony of his command over different
languages. His knowledge and wisdom inspired him to bring about progressive reforms and
enlighten people to give up hollow, irrational and rudimentary practices that were largely
responsible for the degeneration of society. As a reformist ideologue having a critical bent of
mind he made an in-depth study of various religions including Hinduism, Islam,
Christianity and Judaism.
As an ardent champion of human dignity, human rights and civil liberties, he opposed
the restrictions on the freedom of the press and through his efforts, Charles Metcalfe in 1835
liberated the press in India. And the liberal press policy resulted in the rapid growth of
newspapers which proved to be a significant step towards the spread of nationalistic
sentiments among Indians. Raja Ram Mohan Roy himself edited two newspapers namely,
Sambad Kaumudi and Mirat-ul-Akhbar in Bengali and Persian respectively.
Ram Mohan Roy was a liberal social reformer who knew that without education,
people will lack the readiness to change the social order and practices, so to encourage
Indians to develop a scientific temper and reasoned approach, he strongly advocated for the
introduction of English education in the country. With his efforts, the Hindu College, the City
College, Vedanta College, and English Schools were established in Calcutta that offered
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courses both in Indian classical philosophy and Western social and physical sciences. His
initiatives and role gave a new turn to India’s educational system.
Ram Mohan Roy’s ideas on the subject of internationalism reflected his personality as
a true humanist favouring international co-existence and harmony. He stressed that all nations
big or small, rich or poor must be placed on an equal footing and that people irrespective of
their nationality must come together for shared global prosperity and growth. He stood for the
cooperation of thought, activity and brotherhood among nations.
Raja Rammohan Roy was a strong advocate of monotheism. He opposed polytheism
and in 1803 Roy published his famous tract called Tuhfat-ul-Muwahhidin (a gift of
monotheists), laid the common foundation of universal religion in the doctrine of the unity of
Godhead and also translated the Vedas and the Upanishads into Bengali to prove his
conviction that ancient Hindu texts support monotheism. Through Brahmo samaj and other
initiatives attempts were made to propagate the idea of a universal religion based on the
principle of one supreme God.
In August 1828, Raja Ram Mohan Roy founded the Brahma Sabha which was later
renamed ‘Brahmo samaj’ (The society of God). Brahmo means “one who worships
Brahman”, and Samaj means “community of men”. Brahmo samaj refers to the community of
men who worship Brahman (a Vedic Sanskrit word for the ultimate reality, referring to the
single binding unity behind the diversity in all that exists in the universe.)
The main objective of Brahmo Samaj was the worship and adoration of the eternal,
unsearchable, Immutable God and it sought to unite the various communities irrespective of
their religion and make them realize that they are all the children of One God. The
membership of the Samaj was open to all, irrespective of religion, caste or creed, to realize
the core ideal of the movement. It was the first modern Hindu reform movement that can also
be understood as a deliberate intellectual revolt led by a small influential group of
Westernized Indians against the rudimentary and orthodox rituals and practices. The
movement paved the way for the Indian Renaissance as the country witnessed many other
movements in the ensuing years almost on similar lines. The prominent leaders' Raja Ram
Mohan Roy Dwarkanath Tagore, Maharishi Debendranath Tagore, Keshub Chandra
Sen, of Brahmo Samaj inspired many other personalities to pull out Indians from the
darkness of ignorance, illiteracy, superstitions etc.
Brahmo Samaj
a. Denounced the practice of idol worship, sacrifice and supremacy of Brahmins. Raja
Ram Mohan Roy spearheaded the cause of purifying the Hindu religion, especially
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about social impurities that had crept in over time. The movement mobilized people to
not blindly follow rituals as were interpreted and dictated to them by the priestly class
and instead must become learned and educated to understand and interpret religion
based on their intellect and wisdom.
b. Discarded faith in divine avatars or the incarnation of God. Raja Ram Mohan Roy
strongly held that all the principal ancient texts of the Hindus preached monotheism
or worship of one God and urged for the return to the original principles of
Vedantism. To promote his radical thoughts, Raja Ram Mohan Roy besides
translating Vedas and the Upanishads in Bengali, wrote pamphlets and tracts in
defence of monotheism.
c. Condemned the rigid caste system which not only led to the exploitation of the lowest
in the hierarchy but also disunited Indians to fight against colonialism. The movement
promoted the idea of establishing a casteless society with a dual objective of
protecting humanism and bringing together the Indians for the cause of the country’s
freedom from foreign rule.
d. Emphasized humanitarian values of benevolence, and kindness and strengthened the
bonds of union between all men irrespective of social and religious background. The
movement promoted the idea of brotherhood and co-existence by making
arrangements for its members to assemble and pray together irrespective of socio-
religious description. It encouraged its members to extend help to the needy with
monetary and other assistance.
e. The purpose of the movement was to encourage people to develop the capacity of
rational inquiry into the practices and rituals that were established in the name of
religion and not condemn any religion or faith.
f. Attacked the age-old social taboos and raised concern over the plight of women and
the less privileged section of society who were victimized and ill-treated in the name
of conservative, inhuman and repressive socio-religious customs. To promote the idea
of gender equality and to address restrictions and prejudices against women that had
their roots in religion, the movement advocated for multi-pronged measures that
included legislation against the sati system, encouraging inter-caste marriage and
widow remarriage and also pushed for educating the women folk to become confident
and self-reliant. Bamabodhini Patrika was also started by Brahmo Samaj activists to
spread awareness on some of the pressing women's issues of those times and provide
a forum for women to pen their thoughts and experiences for sensitizing society.
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g. Rejecting the idea of sacrifice, offerings, and idol worship, the movement encouraged
the practice of prayers, meditation and scripture reading and accorded equal respect to
all religions. It was a cosmopolitan movement among the educated class of people
which guided the orthodox Hindus to work for the revival of their religion.
Evaluation
The role of the Brahmo Samaj as the first intellectual reform movement in India is undeniable
as it laid the foundation for the spread of rational thoughts and liberal ideas of justice,
equality, democracy and civil rights etc. Its liberal approach to social and religious questions
was applauded by Europeans and Indians alike. Its educational and social reform activities
instilled confidence among the less privileged including women and played an important role
in stimulating national consciousness among Indians. However, the movement was not able
to mobilize the masses as the participation in the movement remained confined to the
intellectuals and educationally enlightened Bengalis. The movement faced opposition from
the orthodox Hindus led by Raja Radhakant Deb who organized the Dharma Sabha 1830
which firmly opposed the propaganda of Brahmo Samaj and stood for the preservation of
status-quo in matters of religion and faith, including the practice of sati. Further, the early
death of Ram Mohan Roy in 1833 left the Brahmo Samaj without a guiding and binding force
following which the dissensions and differences between those leading the movement
became apparent causing the decline of the movement
7.4.2 Prarthana Samaj
Inspired by the works and ideology of Brahmo samaj, a Maharashtrian social reformer and
physician by profession sought to enlighten the people to address the issues of social
disorder, discrimination and exploitation in society. The precursor to the Prarthana Samaj was
the Paramahansa Sabha, a society that was formed in 1849 and functioned secretly to avoid
confrontation with the people of an orthodox and conservative mindset. Under the auspices of
the Paramhansa Sabha, notable social reformers like Jyotiba Phule and orientalist R.G.
Bhandarkar took the cause of spreading awareness about the ill effects of blind ritualism,
superstitions and inhuman religious customs. After a few years of working the Paramahansa
Sabha became non-functional and soon the agenda and purpose it was taken forward by the
Prarthana samaj (Prayer society) established in 1867 under the leadership of Dr Atmaram
Pandurang.
Dr AtmaramPandurang, a physician by profession and a passionate social reformer
belonged to a reputable, educated family in Maharashtra and was a close associate of many
reformers. including Keshab Chandra Sen, who was a prominent Brahmo samaj leader and
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deeply engaged in bringing radical reforms to infuse a new lease of life in the stratified and
unprogressive Hindu society. Immensely influenced by the Western liberal values and also
the Indian religious and spiritual tradition, Dr Atmaram Pandurang along with a few other
like-minded people like Jagannath Shanker Sethi, Balshastri Jambhekar, Vishnu Shastri
Bapat, and Krishna Shastri Chiplunkar started Prarthana samaj as a theistic
organization that reconciled both the Western and Eastern philosophy in theory and
practice. As supporters of liberal faith, their approach towards all religions was eclectic,
however, the Indian religious and devotional literature, especially that of the Bhakti School of
thought in Maharashtra, was the foundational basis of the ideology and principles of
Prarthana Samaj. It happened to be a major modern socio-religious reform movement to
come up in Western India that took forward the spirit and activities of Brahmo samaj yet
maintained its distinct identity as a Hindu organization. Unlike Brahmo samaj, Prarthana
samaj was less iconoclastic and heretical as the radical elements of the Brahmo movement
were skilfully discouraged by the two chief ideologues of the Prarthana Samaj namely, M. G.
Ranade and R. G. Bhandarkar. Prarthna samaj was thus not seen as a sect outside the Hindu
fold. They sought to bring reforms through persuasion - by appealing to the conscience and
sense of justice of its followers and not by completely disassociating the movement from its
roots. The devout followers of the Prarthana samaj propagated the idea that God can be
realized only by serving fellow men and not through rituals, ceremonies, sacrifices, offerings
etc which happen to be meaningless and hollow without the practice of civic virtues.
The Principal doctrines of Prarthana Samaj
1. The faith in God and the essentiality of worshipping One Supreme God with all
devotion and spirituality was central to the socio-religious philosophy of the
movement. The word Prarthana means prayer and the members of the samaj were
encouraged to pray to God to be blessed with wisdom, intelligence and morality. The
mission of the samaj in the words of Justice Ranade was to “humanize, equalize and
spiritualize”.
2. Followers of Prarthana Samaj held no faith in incarnations and revelations and
denounced idol worship. Instead, M. G. Ranade, the guiding force of the movement
stressed that the true mode of divine adoration is through meditation, contemplation,
singing devotional poems and that worshipping different deities works as a divisive
force in the Hindu society.
3. Prarthna samaj did not see religion in isolation from humanity and therefore, stressed
that salvation can be best achieved through benevolence, kindness, tolerance, honesty
and affection for one and all irrespective of socio-economic differences. The most
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fundamental principle of Prarthana samaj was the ‘Fatherland of God and brotherhood
of man’ and by adhering to this all social disparities and inequalities can be bridged.
4. It opposed the irrational religious rituals, idol worship, and customs and did not
acknowledge any book as the infallible word of God, but accepted those ideas in the
scriptures which stood the test of reason.
5. The faith in God and the essentiality of worshipping God with all devotion and
spirituality were central to the socio-religious philosophy of the movement. The word
Prarthana means prayer and the members of the samaj were encouraged to pray to
God to be blessed with wisdom, intelligence and morality. The mission of the samaj
in the words of Justice Ranade was to “humanize, equalize and spiritualize”.
6. The movement championed the cause of the complete eradication of caste and
untouchability and promoted the idea of equality and social justice.
Initiatives undertaken by the movement:
➢ Promoted the cause of education to both boys and girls. Opened schools including
night schools for imparting education.
➢ Opened Asylums and Orphanages at various religious centres like Pandharpur, Dehu
and Alandi.
➢ Worked for the upliftment of women, raised voices against child marriage, purdah and
dowry system, promoted the cause of education among women, widow re-marriage
and raising the marriageable age for both boys and girls
➢ Sought to spiritually awaken people and encouraged people to inculcate the habit of
rightful conduct and ethical behaviour through its weekly periodical, Subodha Patrika.
➢ Mobilized people to extend services to the untouchables and poor of society by
organizing Sunday services and Sunday schools etc.
Evaluation
Prarthana Samaj and the personalities leading the movement like M. G. Ranade, R. G.
Bhandarkar, G. K. Gokhale, Talang and N. G. Chandavarkar were men of intellect and
wisdom with a very clear vision to focus on social reforms and did not radically oppose the
Hindu religion. Ideologically, both Brahmo samaj and Prarthana samaj were similar as they
professed worship of One God and denounced the need for intermediaries to connect with
God but Prarthana samaj was less eclectic and advocated modernisation gradually without the
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detachment from the cultural roots which gained it more popularity. The Prarthana Samaj
entered into the field of social reform through its most effective depressed classes Mission of
India, founded in 1906 and came to run 30 educational institutions by 1913. Inspired by the
activities of Prarthana Samaj, a similar movement was led by the Telugu reformer
VeerasalingamPantulu from Mysore Presidency.
7.4.3 Satya Shodhak Samaj
Unlike Brahmo samaj and Prarthana samaj, which were the movements led by the elite class,
Satya shodhak samaj was the movement of the so-called backward segment of the society(
Malis, Telis, Kunbis, Saris, and Dhangars). It was the movement of the depressed classes
against Brahmin supremacy, the movement under the leadership of Jyotirao Govindrao Phule
who was also known as Jyotirao Phule, mobilized the low caste people to educate themselves
and oppose the unjust and cruel practices that denied them the opportunities to live with
respect and dignity. Satya Shodhak Samaj (Truth Seekers’ Society) was founded in 1873 with
the core objective of arousing self-respect among the less privileged and toiling masses.
Jyotirao Phule was born in a remote village of the Satara district of Maharashtra, in a
family of fruits, flowers and vegetable growers (mali). Due to the family's profession of
growing and supplying flowers added the suffix ‘Phule’ to his name. Being born in a low
caste community, as per the customs of those times he was denied education from schools
that predominantly served the upper castes. Despite all challenges, he completed his early
education at a missionary school where students from all communities were admitted,
followed by completing secondary education at a Scottish Mission High School, in Pune.
Since childhood he grew up facing and observing discrimination and exploitation, the
upliftment of low caste thus became the mission of Jyotirao Phule after the completion of his
secondary education in 1847. He drew inspiration from the egalitarian philosophy of Buddha
and Kabir and was equally influenced by the Western liberal democracies of the West and by
the ideology of the French revolution too (Begari, J.,2010, p.399) English education taught
him the need for and importance of concepts like human dignity and human rights. As an
avid reader, he enjoyed reading biographies of Shivaji and George Washington which infused
feelings of heroism and patriotism in him. Another important book that made a long-lasting
impact on Jyotirao Phule was Thomas Paine’s work “Rights of Man” which guided him in his
mission to promote humanitarian values of equality and freedom.
The hardships in life made Jyotirao Phule determined to take forward his mission
passionately, of emancipating the low castes, women, children, orphans and destitute. He
devoted his life to the cause of the needy which earned him a lot of respect and honour.
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People affectionately addressed him as Mahatma Jyotiba Phule. Mahatma Jyotiba Phule as he
is popularly known was the first person in modern India to launch a movement for the
liberation of caste-oppressed toilers and women irrespective of their caste. He founded the
satyashodhak samaj on the foundational pillars of rationalism and self-emancipation. Satya
shodhak samaj encouraged its members to search for truth all by themselves and not accept
and follow what was being dictated to them by the so-called learned class. The purpose of the
society was to encourage the low-caste people towards English education that would facilitate
altering the caste and gender hierarchy. Besides being a leader and organizer of the
underprivileged class movement, Phule was a writer, poet and philosopher in his own right
with several books and articles to his credit. He emerged as a radical social reformer and an
activist who dared to speak, write and mobilize the masses against those who were
responsible for the perpetuation of human rights abuse, which made him a dauntless hero of
the downtrodden. He brought into practice the principles and human values that he preached
and professed. Encouraging his wife to learn reading and writing is evidence of Jyotiba
Phule’s open liberal outlook and of bringing principles to practice.
The Objectives of the movement were to:
1. Liberate non-Brahmins from the exploitation of the Brahmin/ priestly class. Satya
Shodhak Samaj worked to undermine the social and religious sanction for the
priesthood by conducting rituals and ceremonies without Brahmins. Its attack on the
caste system rested on the foundational ideas of both Western rationalisms as well as
indigenous sources of social revolt like the Bhakti cults.
2. Denounce Vedas as sacrosanct. The movement propagated the idea that no religious
text or scripture is infallible so must be scrutinized in light of reason and rationality.
Jyoti Rao Phule was of the view that blind acceptance of customs and traditions is a
reason behind the absolute authority enjoyed by the Brahmins and the denial of
human rights to the less privileged.
3. Reject the chaturvarna system- caste-based social order that divided society into four
varnas - Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. Jyoti Rao Phule strongly
advocated for overthrowing the hierarchical social order in which those at the lower
stratum were ill-treated. He encouraged his associates to muster the courage to
question prejudice and hatred meted out to them and not be silent victims. Jyoti Rao
Phule believed that unquestioned acceptance of rituals and traditions legitimized
exploitation.
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4. Establish a new social system based on freedom, equality, brotherhood, human

dignity, economic justice and fairness. To spread the message and purpose of the
satyashodhak samaj, Jyotirao Phule started Deen Bandhu, a weekly journal with the
help of Narayan Meghaji Lokhande, who was his close associate and a trade union
leader. The weekly journal helped the members articulate their views on human rights
and social justice and also provided a platform for the exploited class to express their
concerns and plight.
5. Initiate campaigns to remove the economic and social handicaps that breed blind faith
among women, Shudras and ati-shudras. It raised its voice against social slavery and
demanded social justice. It was the voice of suppressed people in India.
Activities Undertaken
➢ Promoted education among women and girls. The first ever girls’ school in the
country was opened in 1848 by Jyotiba Phule.
➢ Spread awareness among people about social evils.
➢ Opened facilities for women who were exploited and victimized.
➢ Promoted education among the shudras/Ati Shudras and mobilized them for their self-
amelioration.
➢ Activism for agrarian reforms was among the activities of the Samaj. Satya shodhak
samaj played an important role in spreading awareness of the need for soil
conservation, building embankments, and usage of technology for agriculture and
allied activities to improve the social and economic conditions of the peasantry.
➢ Encouraged people to hold marriage ceremonies that were simple, and inexpensive
and made the Brahmin Priest’s services redundant. Jyotiba Phule wrote,” Sarvajanik
Satya Dharma “in which he described a simple marriage ceremony, enabling all to
participate and understand the procedure without any ambiguity, unlike the Vedic
marriage ceremony that could be conducted by a Brahmin only.
➢ Spread awareness among the toiling peasants to oppose the heavy tax imposed on
them.
➢ Jyotiba Phule with his in-depth knowledge of the rural economy and the agriculture
sector offered solutions to problems associated with the agriculture sector to both the
government and people alike so that agriculture could be a profitable enterprise.
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➢ Promoted the idea of universal religion based on principles of liberty and equality. His
Sarvajanik Satya Dharma emphasized truth-seeking without the aid of any Guru or
text. Satyashodhak Samaj offered a critique of Hinduism but didn’t reject the idea of
Dharma/religion. The samaj offered a secular outlook in matters of faith and religion
and strongly condemned the practice of the colonial government of giving grants to
temples from the taxes collected from poor people
The movement successfully worked to realize its mission of serving the poor, low caste and
women; spreading awareness among them for infusing a sense of self-respect and identity so
that the supremacy of the Brahmins could be challenged. Both Jyotiba Phule and his wife
Savitri Phule were the guiding spirit and force of the movement who made extraordinary
efforts for the ordinary people. Unlike the pioneers of Brahmo samaj and Prarthana samaj, he
offered a radical critique of the Indian social order and Hinduism. Mahatma Phule led the
movement for the cause of the downtrodden and the neglected masses and openly condemned
the Brahmins, the upper caste, and the colonial government for their excesses and took
necessary steps to empower the less privileged. To connect to the local and uneducated
masses, the movement relied on folklore, street plays, and folk dramas to communicate their
ideas. The Satya Shodhak Samaj was the first institution to launch a social movement by
common people and it was the shrill voice of dissent of the long-suppressed Indians. The
Satya Shodhak Samaj was criticized for its inclination towards British, Christianity and
Mahatma Phule’s interpretation of history, it henceforth lacked the support of major
intellects. The movement, nevertheless, played a key role in spreading liberal ideas and
spearheaded progressive reforms.
7.4.4 Young Bengal Movement
Among the galaxy of stalwarts who are credited to have awakened the people of India from
the slumber of ignorance, blind faith, superstitions and irrationality shine bright the name of
Henry Vivian Derozio who initiated the Young Bengal Movement to liberate the society from
the social ills. Derozio was born in 1809 in a Portuguese – Indian family in Calcutta. He
completed his schooling at the “Dharmatala Academy” run by Henry Drummond, a Scottish
poet, free thinker, and rationalist. Derozio studied English Literature, History and Philosophy
under Mr Drummond which polished his personality to a great extent to become a
distinguished teacher and social reformer later in his life. Following the footsteps of his
teacher, Derozio grew up as a man of free and open ideas and was deeply inclined to work for
the intellectual and moral progress of the then-Indian society, which was lifeless and
stagnant.
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In 1828, Derozio was appointed at Hindu College, Calcutta to teach English and
History. Soon, he was able to influence young minds with his wisdom, sharp intellect,
academic genius and reasoned approach. He enlightened the young students about the
philosophy and thoughts of great liberal thinkers like Jeremy Bentham, John Locke, David
Hume, his mentor, Henry Drummond and many others. Gradually students developed the
curiosity to know, understand, interpret and judge life in the light of new thought and
consciousness. Derozio’s students became actively engaged in various activities and
influenced by the concepts of equality, liberty, justice, fraternity and others, formed the
“Academic Association”- a debating society that served as a platform to freely debate on
many pertinent issues like child marriage, casteism, untouchability, idol worship etc.
Derozio did not stick to teaching the prescribed curriculum of the subject that he
taught but as a true teacher, guide, mentor and philosopher taught his students a new way of
life and encouraged them to chart their destiny without fear, compulsion and threat of any
kind. He facilitated open discussions, aggressive debates, and free expression of opinions and
instilled in his students, a deep quest for knowledge and truth. Derozio combined in him the
qualities of a great teacher, gifted poet, daring journalist, leader, humanist and rebel who
cultivated in his students a sense of justice, patriotism and philanthropy. Endorsing the spirit
of the renaissance, the youth became enlightened and crossed the barriers of religion, caste,
language, time and space that were gifted to them by birth and started looking upon the
human race as one big family. His students liberated themselves from the shackles of customs
and tradition that had kept their ancestors enslaved for generations and declared all practices
obsolete that failed to stand the test of reason and scientific inquiry.
Apart from the students at the Hindu College young people across Bengal were also
got fascinated by Derozio’s charismatic personality and well-reasoned ideas so they were
irresistibly drawn to the activities of the Academic Association. With such developments, the
academic association evolved as the Young Bengal movement. It can be rightly stated that
the intellectual awakening among the students of the Hindu College paved the way for a
movement of social change across Bengal that popularly came to be known as the Young
Bengal movement and those drawn to the movement came to be known as Derozians.
Alarmed by the activities of Derozio and cautious of the numerical increase of
Derozians, Hindu orthodoxy forced Derozio to resign from the Hindu College on 25th of
April, 1831 on charges of radicalizing the youth. After their resignation, Derozio continued
his life’s mission by starting a daily newspaper, the ‘East Indian’. He preached through this
paper to make reason the sole guide in life, to have the courage of conviction, practising what
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they believed to be right. And he left his ideas as a legacy to his students who were
distinguished as ‘Young Bengal and played a prominent role in the Renaissance of Bengal.
Activities are undertaken under the Young Bengal Movement
1. The Young Bengal movement played an important role in spreading awareness
among the Indians on matters of social and economic justice.
2. The movement carried public agitation on issues related to freedom of the press,
better treatment for Indian workers in British colonies abroad, trial by jury, and
protection of the ryots from oppressive zamindars.
3. It raised the demand for the appointment of Indians to high pay positions in
government offices.
4. It articulated views on the education of women; equality of all, caste, class and gender
discrimination through writing in journals like Parthenon, Hesperus, Jnanannesan,
Enquirer, Hindu Pioneer, Quill and the Bengal Spectator.
5. It drew attention to the plight of indentured Indian labourers in British colonies
abroad and demanded the provision of a better work environment for them and their
human rights.
Evaluation
The Derozians, however, failed to have a long-term impact. Derozio was removed from the
Hindu College in 1831 because of his radicalism. ‘Derozians’ represented a radical stream
within the reform movement and ignored the cultural traditions of Indian society. The
prevailing social conditions of those times were not ripe enough for the adoption of radical
ideas. Further, support from any other social group or class was absent. The Derozians lacked
any real connection with the masses; for instance, they failed to take up the peasants’ cause.
Derozians were labelled as misguided youths. Their radicalism was bookish. But, despite
their limitations, the Derozians carried forward Roy’s tradition of spreading awareness
among the people on various issues.
7.4.5 Arya Samaj
The key figure associated with the founding of the Arya Samaj was Swami Dayanand
Saraswati. Brahmo Samaj and Prarthana samaj were an outcome of the exposure of their
respective founders to Western ideas and thoughts. while Arya samaj derived its inspiration
from India’s ancient scriptures, philosophy and religion, especially those of the Vedic Age.
Arya Samaj was founded on the 10th of April 1875 by Swami Dayanand Saraswati who was
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an ardent champion of Vedic Hinduism. The literal meaning of Arya Samaj is “ Society of
Nobles” which gave a position of eminence to the Aryans and the doctrinal basis of the
society held Vedas as the source of ultimate knowledge. It can be understood as a Hindu
revivalist movement that made a considerable influence in North India. Unlike the
universalistic outlook of Raja Rammohun Roy, Swami Dayanand was extremely critical of
other religions especially Islam and Christianity, so besides taking initiatives towards social
and religious reforms, the movement aimed to help Muslim and Christian converts to return
to their parent faith.
The philosophical basis of the Arya Samaj
1) God is the fundamental source of all true knowledge. God is all truth- immortal,
creator of the universe. God alone is worthy of worship. Arya samaj also holds that
God has no physical form and with this thought, opposes the idea of reincarnation
and denounces idol worship.
2) The Vedas are the books of true knowledge and the knowledge contained therein
cannot be challenged.
4) A true Aryan is always ready to accept the truth and renounce untruth.
5) All actions must be performed after analyzing right and wrong
6) The principal aim of this Samaj is to promote the world’s well-being ( material,
spiritual and social).
7) All persons should be treated with love and justice.
8) Ignorance should be dispelled and knowledge increased.
9) Everybody should consider his good along with others.
10) Social well-being of mankind should be placed above the individual’s well-being.
Contributions of Arya Samaj
The Arya Samaj has been instrumental in addressing the socio-economic inequities and
discrimination existing in society. It has a distinguished role towards establishing an inclusive
social order by undertaking efforts in multifarious domains:
1. It played a key role in the National awakening. Swami Dayanand Saraswati was a
self-learned scholar of Vedic studies and unlike other reformers, he did not appreciate
Western education or Western philosophy. Arya Samaj sought to revive the lost glory
of Hinduism and the Aryan traditions and disseminated among the people that British
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rule has ruined India economically, socially and culturally. Arya samaj played an
important role in arousing patriotic fervour among the Indians by boldly speaking
against British rule. Many of the prominent freedom fighters like Dadabhai Naoroji,
Ram Prasad Bismil, Lala Lajpat Rai, and Swami Shardhanand to name a few were
Arya Samajists.
2. It promoted the study of Vedas: Emphasizing that Vedas are the source of all
knowledge and wisdom and that the true Aryan must study Vedas, Arya samaj took
efforts to reintroduce the ancient Gurukul system of education where the Aryan type
of education was imparted and pupils were taught to live a controlled and simple life
on principles of truth, chastity and obedience. The most known was the Gurukul at
Kangri, Haridwar and thereafter several other Gurukuls for Vedic research scholars
were also established.
3. Women's emancipation was given special attention by Arya Samaj. Arya samaj
strongly believes in equal treatment and the enjoyment of rights by all. As a measure
to improve the status of women who were victims of evil practices like child
marriage, dowry, purdah system, and sati system and had no presence in the public
domain, Arya Samaj advocated for making education accessible for women folk too
and established several educational institutions for girls. In 1886, Kanya Maha
vidyalaya was opened. Today across India there are numerous DAV schools &
colleges that are imparting education to boys and girls alike.
4. Arya Samaj conducted a fiery crusade against many social ills. In times when Arya
samaj came into existence people blindly followed customs and rituals that were
dictated to them by the Brahmins. Social evils like untouchability, child marriage, the
purdha system etc proved to be very inhuman. Arya samaj aggressively attacked the
supremacy of Brahmins and condemned the rituals and practices that had no
foundation in the Vedas. Arya Samaj was successful in rallying public opinion on
such issues. It condemned untouchability and stressed that an individual is great or
inferior not by birth but by his deeds, the idea of inter-caste marriages was promoted
by Arya Samajists to address untouchability; it was successful in fixing the minimum
marriageable age at sixteen for girls and twenty-five for boys on the principle of the
Vedas; Arya Samajists denounced forced widow-hood and encouraged widow
remarriage; they also strongly condemned the practice of sati system and mobilized
the society to bring about progressive reforms
5. Arya Samaj performed a pioneering role in reviving Hinduism. The goal of Arya
samaj was to revive Vedic Hinduism trying to bring back the Muslim and Christian
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converts to their original faith. The samaj being a Vedic church received considerable
success in bringing back thousands of converted Hindus and Muslims to the fold of
Hinduism by launching the Shuddhi ceremony.
6. Arya Samajists worked tirelessly for the orphans, poor, women and destitute by taking
many measures. Arya Samaj opened its first orphanage in Ferozepur, Punjab followed
by a chain of orphanages all over the country. Arya Samaj also opened homes for
widows and destitute women to accommodate and train them in some vocational
skills so that they can become self-reliant and productive members of society. Arya
Samajists also made arrangements for the marriage of poor girls and widows. Many
old age homes known by the name Vanaprastha Ashram and homes for the destitute
were also established by Arya Samaj.
7. Swami Dayanand Saraswati and Arya Samaj gave impetus to the idea of swadeshi.
Swami Dayanand Saraswati didn’t favour foreign rule in any form and any domain.
People of the country were made aware of the drainage of India’s wealth that was
happening under British rule so they were encouraged to buy homemade products and
help the local industry become self-reliant.
Evaluation
The Arya Samajists played a progressive role in furthering the cause of social reform in
North India. Although the Vedas were venerated as infallible, the reforms advocated,
however, were the product of modern rational thinking. Arya samaj worked zealously for the
emancipation of women and social justice by facilitating education for girls and women; it
denounced untouchability and caste rigidities. It indeed played an important role in
progressive developments and national awakening in the country but its popularity was
confined to orthodox Hindus. The negative attitude that it held towards Islam, led Muslims to
mobilise on a corresponding communal basis. In the course of defending and promoting
Hinduism, Arya Samaj became an obstacle to the growth of Indian nationalism by
contributing, though unconsciously to the creation of a hostile religion-communal
atmosphere.
7.4.6 Ramakrishna Mission
Ramakrishna Mission came into existence in the year 1888 through Swami Vivekananda’s
efforts to spread the philosophy of his Guru Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa who passed away
on the 16th of August 1886. The mission functioned on the foundational principles of Swami
Ramakrishna Paramhansa, a mystic saint who strongly believed in selfless devotion to God
and complete absorption in Him for experiencing spiritual ecstasy by following one’s way of
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devotion. According to Sri Paramahamsa Ramakrishna “whichever path one follows with
sincerity and full devotion to reach God, that sincerity and Devotion will surely pave the
way to ultimately connect with God”. Sri Paramahamsa Ramakrishna’s philosophy resting
on truth in religion and spirituality encouraged his young disciples to
❖ Engage in selfless devotion to God.
❖ Serve mankind to serve God
❖ Live a life of simplicity, free of passions, desires, hatred and pride.
❖ Love and respect all;
❖ Adhere to the fact that Reality is one and only one. It is eternal, real, infinite,
unchangeable and perfect.
Among his many young disciples was Narendranath Dutta who later came to be known as
Swami Vivekananda. Swami Vivekananda after the death of his Guru Ramakrishna played an
important role in spreading the Vedanta philosophy which stressed that God alone is true and
the rest of everything is untrue. The foundation of the Ramakrishna Mission was laid to bring
into practice the teachings and spread the philosophy of Sri Paramahamsa Ramakrishna.
The theology of the mission emphasized the following:
1. Reality is one and only One which is eternal, real and perfect. And this reality is
present in every individual being meaning that God is within each human. Therefore
each soul is part and parcel of the One Universal Soul. Based on Vedantic philosophy
the mission sought to spiritually uplift society.
2. Denouncing the life of renunciation, the mission promoted the principle of dedicating
life to the service to mankind. The fundamental precept of the mission “Jagat Hitaya
Cha” promoted the idea that salvation can be attained by serving mankind selflessly
and unconditionally.
3. The foundational principle of ‘As many faiths, as many paths’ promoted universal
tolerance and believed that different religious faiths were different paths to reach the
goal of liberation. The mission neither recognized the superiority of a particular
religion nor did it prescribe the necessity of shastras (religious texts) and anushthana
(rites and rituals).
The mission henceforth was engaged in selfless service of the people and sought to reawaken
the spirit of India. It undertook various welfare and humanitarian activities and mobilized the
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people to develop solidarity and oneness of the spirit by the eradication of social evils,
superstitions and caste arrogance. The mission was instrumental in bringing progressive
transformation in society by addressing pertinent areas:
1. Swami Vivekananda and the mission held high for the rights of women. Women's
upliftment was central to all the educational and philanthropic activities undertaken
by the mission.
2. The mission established educational, technical and vocational training institutions for
the capacity building of the youth.
3. It worked towards carrying out relief work at the time of natural disasters/calamities
such as famine, earthquake, flood, epidemics, pandemics, etc., and other natural
calamities.
4. It opened hospitals and dispensaries for ill and sick people.
5. It engaged in various kinds of philanthropic activities like providing food and shelter
to the needy, opening orphanages and old age homes,
6. It took measures to bring about religious reforms and bind people in bonds of
understanding and brotherhood stressing that all religions teach mutual respect, co-
existence and tolerance.
7. It encouraged the people of the country to feel pride in India’s cultural history and
work for the revival of the lost glory, oppose feudal and colonial oppression, and
overthrow caste rigidities and gender divide. And that the people of the country must
come together for nation-building.
Evaluation
Ramakrishna's mission was to emphasize service towards other fellow beings for
temporal and spiritual satisfaction. It thus continues to play an important role by
working for the poor, less privileged, destitute, women, orphans, and victims of
violence, war and disasters by providing educational and medical facilities; relief and
rehabilitation works; youth and women welfare programs; promoting cultural and
spiritual growth; care facilities for orphans, old and abandoned adults, recreational
facilities etc. With its branches worldwide, Ramakrishna Mission to date has provided
relief and rehabilitation to hundreds of people in India, Burma, Bangladesh and Sri
Lanka, in times of disasters and calamities.
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7.4.7 Theosophical Society

The term theosophical is derived from ‘Theosophy’ which means divine wisdom. The origins
of the Theosophical movement were rooted in the socio-religious dissent within the western
civilization that utilized the Oriental religions and their values for legitimizing the
condemnation of contemporary life in Europe and America. It was founded by two
westerners, Madame H. P. Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott in New York in 1875, sharing the
belief in spirit and occultism with seventeen other people. Olcott and Blavatsky both agreed
in 1878 to abandon New York for India, which was perceived to be one of the key centres of
theological knowledge. The Indian Theosophical Society was founded in 1886 with its
headquarters in Adyar near Madras.
The roots of the movement lay in the inquisitiveness of the westerners who were
curious to explore the mysteries of the universe and also to understand the unique relationship
between the universe, humanity and the divine. The Theosophists were greatly influenced by
Hinduism and adopted a modified concept of rebirth and spiritual progress fused with the
Hindu idea of karma. Hindu terms and concepts were added to the western spiritualists’
tradition. With such developments, the theosophists glorified India’s religious, spiritual and
philosophical traditions. The Theosophical movement worked for the attainment of three
goals: The society rested on the following principles:
1. Universal brotherhood without distinction on socio-economic grounds.
2. Believed in the theory of transmigration of the soul and the theory of Karma. It
strongly advocated for the belief in the philosophy of the Upanishads and Samkhya,
Yoga, and Vedanta School of thought.
3. Promoted the idea of respecting all religions and emphasized the study of comparative
religion and philosophy to draw the best out of all religions. The society worked for
the revival of religions like Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism.
4. Obedience to the law of evolution; the development of spiritual powers of a human
being through meditation, thought control, love and service and it sought to develop
the divine powers latent in man
5. The hidden mysteries of the universe and the bonds that unite the universe, humanity,
and the divine need to be explored and understood.
Activities undertaken:
1. Opposed to conversions and believed in the transmigration of the soul and occult
mysticism.
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2. Worked for the revival of Hinduism and sought to infuse a sense of self-respect, pride
in the past, and a belief in the future and as an inevitable result, played an important
role towards nation-building.
3. Worked to promote the philosophy of assimilation by condemning the practice of
untouchability and rigid caste divide. Society to improve upon the life and living of
marginalized sections by taking up many initiatives like
4. Promoted the universal principles of ancient Indian religions and philosophies
5. Opened educational institutions and set up various educational societies to propagate
modern education. Annie Besant laid the foundation of the Central Hindu College in
Benaras which was an integration of Hindu religion and western science
6. Raised voices against social problems like child marriage, illiteracy and alcoholism
7. Advocated the upliftment of women and worked for empowering women
Evaluation
The Theosophical society played an important role in revising the glory and richness of
Indian history, culture and religion and instilled a sense of pride among Indians for the same.
It worked to ameliorate the conditions of the poor, downtrodden and women by taking
important initiatives. It fostered harmony, peace and coexistence among all and encouraged
people to develop tolerance and acceptance towards all. Despite its achievements, the spread
of theosophical society and its ideals were limited to upper-class communities oriented to
western liberal values.
7.5 SUMMARY
The detailed explanation of the various social-religious reform movements brings us to
prudently summarize the key findings of the lesson. It is found that the discriminatory and
exploitative tendencies that manifested themselves in the form of untouchability, gender
inequality, Brahminism, denial of freedom to the marginalized etc combined with other
factors led to the emergence of social and religious movements that can be broadly
categorised as Reform movements like Brahmo samaj, Prarthana samaj and Revivalist
movements like Arya Samaj. Both the set of movements sought to introduce social and
religious reforms but differed in terms of the degree to which they relied on tradition or
reason and conscience. These movements focus on some common challenges that were
distorting the social fabric of the Indian society and irrespective of the place of origin these
movements, these addressed many social malpractices, redundant customs and traditions,
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promoted women's education, widow remarriage, opposed polygamy, child marriage, purdah
etc in addition to enhancing solidarity and unity among Indians to fight against oppressive
foreign rule. The social and religious reform movements can be credited to have awakened
the Indians, facilitated their empowerment, infused among the Indians a spirit of rational and
critical inquiry into the happenings around and provided platforms to those who could lead
from the front for the needed social and economic changes. The movements were
instrumental in liberating the less privileged from slavery and exploitation, instilling in them
a sense of self-respect and dignity, and emboldening their spirit through many capacity-
building endeavours. All in all, the movements looked for social unity and strived towards
liberty, equality and fraternity.
7.6 GLOSSARY
Monotheism: Belief in one God
Rationalism: The practice of giving an opinion based on reason and logic
Emancipation: The fact or process of being set free from legal, social, or political
restrictions.
Polygamy: The practice or custom of having more than one wife or husband at the same
time.
Liberal: Open and free-mindedness.
Sati system: A practice that was once prevalent in India whereby a widow threw herself
onto her husband’s funeral pyre.
7.7 ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS
1. Discuss the backdrop against which the social and religious reform movements took
place.
2. Discuss the contribution of Brahmo samaj in the context of social-religious reforms
undertaken.
3. Compare and contrast Prarthana Samaj and Arya Samaj. How were these movements
significant in awakening the masses against social ills?
4. Who were Derozians? What role did they play as social reformers?
5. Discuss the contributions of Satyashodhak Samaj.
6. What is the main philosophy of Ramakrishna's mission?
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7.8 REFERENCES
• Blumer, Herbert. (1951) "Collective behavior”, pp 166-222 in Alfred McClung Lee

(ed) New Outline of the Principles of Sociology. New York: Barnes and Noble
Books.
• Gusfield Joseph R. (1968) "The Study of Social Movements", p. 445. in Sills (Ed.),
International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 14, New York: The
Macmillan Company and the Free Press.
• Tarrow, S.G. (2011) “Power in Movement: Social movements and Contentious
Politics”, pp. 9-11 3rd edition, New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Begari, J. (2010) “JYOTIRAO PHULE: A Revolutionary Social Reformer”, pp. 399-
412 The Indian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 71, No. 2 published by Indian
Political Science Association.
1. Bandopadhyay, S. (2015, revised edition) From Plassey to Partition and After A

History of Modern India. New Delhi: Orient Longman, pp. 139-169.
2. Sen, A.P. (2007), ‘The idea of Social reform and its critique among Hindus of
3. Bandopadhyay, S. (2008) Eighteen-Fifty-Seven and Its Many Histories, in 1857:
Essays from Economic and Political Weekly, Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan. pp.1-22.
4. Desai, A.R., Social Background of Indian Nationalism, Bombay, Popular Prakashan,
1996.
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LESSON-8
EDUCATION AND THE RISE OF THE NEW MIDDLE CLASS
Dr. Monika Batham
STRUCTURE

8.2 Introduction: Modern Education Development in India
8.2.1 Purpose for developing education institutions in India
8.2.2 Individual Efforts
8.2.3 Charter Act of 1813
8.2.4 Thomas Macaulay Commission
8.2.5 Wood’s Dispatch, 1854
8.2.5.1 Main characteristics of Wood’s Dispatch
8.2.5.2 Effects of Wood’s Dispatch
8.2.6 Hunter Education Commission (1882-83)
8.2.6.1 Main recommendations of the Hunter Commission
8.2.6.2 Effects of Hunter Commission
8.2.7 Indian Universities Act, 1904
8.2.8 Government Resolution on Education Policy, 1913
8.2.9 Sadler University Commission (1917-19)
8.2.9.1 Recommendations of Sadler Commission
8.2.9.2 Impacts of Sadler Commission
8.2.10 Wardha Scheme,1937
8.2.10.1 Features of Wardha Scheme of Education
8.2.11 Sergeant Plan of Education, 1944
8.2.11.1 Major recommendations
8.3 Introduction: Emergence of the middle-class in Europe
8.3.1 Emergence of the Indian Middle-class
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8.3.2 Role of the Indian Middle-class in Indian History

8.3.3 Political Influences
8.4 Summary
8.5 Glossary
8.7 References
In this chapter you will gain in-depth information about the various perspectives of British
colonialism. How Britishers attempted to forcibly establish English as a common language to
obtain jobs in the British system and how they used Western Education to replace our
traditional method of education. It's not as easy as it seems to make this modification. As a
result, India gained a completely new class known as the Middle Class. Let's delve deeper
into these concerns.
8.2 INTRODUCTION: MODERN EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT IN

INDIA
8.2.1 Purpose for Developing Education Institutions in India
For loyal workers from natives- East India Company which is a foreign company required
group C and D level personnel who were diligent. They were unable to hire their British
workers for lower-paying, patience-testing jobs. But they wanted to understand Indian
society, and culture for their benefit. Thus wanted some trained people in British language.
Christian Missionaries- Through the Charter Act of 1813, The British adopted the idea of
propagating contemporary scientific knowledge and fostering learning among Indians. These
missionaries' covert goal was to preach Christianity while Britain was in power.
Indian reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Dayanand Saraswati and many other thinkers
considered British education as a rescue of Indian society from backwardness. They desire to
build India in their genuine sense since they have seen the world. At that time we were far
behind in our approach to modernity.
The East India Company did nothing to advance modern education in India during its
first 60 years of existence, but they began doing so after they understood that by teaching
Indians, they could obtain devoted and skilled laborers. They also wanted education in
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administration and customary laws, to know society better for making laws and controlling
Indians in their own ways.
8.2.2 Individual Efforts
Under the company rule, the first step taken by three individuals mainly
1. Governor General Warren Hastings established one Madrasa in Calcutta (1781)
for the study of Muslim laws and related subjects.
2. Jonathan Duncan- He established a Sanskrit college, at Benaras (Varanasi) in
1791 for the study of Hindu laws and philosophy.
3. William Carry (Baptist Missionary, minister, translator, social reformer and
cultural anthropologist who founded the Serampore College and University,
Bengal Schools. He first began with schools for impoverished children where they
were taught reading, writing, accounting and Christianity.
These individual efforts too aligned with Company policies to know locals in a better
way, and to train them in their favour. So that they can rule India in a better way and spread
Christianity in the Company occupied areas.
8.2.3 Charter Act of 1813
At the British government level or central level, the first law which was passed was the
Charter Act of 1813. This allowed Christian Missionaries to spread Western Education and
Christianity. According to this act, one lakh rupees were sanctioned. Because at the policy
level Britishers were not clear about the medium of instruction i.e., vernacular or English and
what kind of education should be given to students- traditional (orientalist) or modern
(Anglicist). But it has initiated the process of modernization of education by Britishers.
Orientalist Anglicist
According to them, western sciences and They believed that the British government
literature should be taught to prepare should be exclusively for the Modern
students to take up jobs. But emphasis education system which can produce loyal
should be given to the traditional/ servants to them.
indigenous Indian learning which is passed
on from generation to generation.
From the above table, it was clear that there is a divide between Anglicists and Orientals.
Even Anglicists were further divided over the medium of instruction among Indians. One
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group was for the English language while the other group was for vernacular languages
(regional languages).
8.2.4 Thomas Macaulay Commission
In 1835, Lord William Bentinck made it clear that education would be provided in English
medium. He appointed Thomas Macaulay Commission for education. Based on this
commission Macaulay's minutes were released where they criticized outragedly Indian
regional languages and the Indian education system. English should be the medium of
education in India. Education is available for a few upper and middle classes. After getting
the education these classes have the moral responsibility to teach the masses. It’s also known
as the ‘downward filtration theory. This commission didn’t discuss girls’ education. After
1835, the Persian and Farsi language was eliminated from school books and it remained
prevalent as a court language. The commission wished to create a class of Indians who were
Indians in colour and blood but English in taste and affiliation.
James Thompson -Lieutenant Governor of North West Provinces (1843-53) has evolved a
scheme for Village education through the medium of vernacular languages. His main purpose
was to train personnel for the newly set up Revenue and Public Works Department.
8.2.5 Wood’s Dispatch, 1854 (Magna Carta of English Education in India)
Charles Wood was the President of the Board of Control of East India Company. In 1854 he
sent a dispatch to Lord Dalhousie, the then Governor General of India, to regularize the
education system in India. It asked the Government of India to assume responsibility for the
education of the masses, thus denying the ‘Downward Filtration theory’ at least on paper.
According to this, in villages at the primary level vernacular languages and at the high school
level use anglo-vernacular mediums and English should be the medium for college-level
education and affiliating universities (in the presidency towns of Calcutta, Bombay and
Madras). This has been still practised in rural or interior India.
8.2.5.1 Main characteristics of Wood’s Dispatch
• It laid stress on the education of women on all levels.
• Vernacular languages were to be used at the Primary level i.e., village. At least one
government school will be opened in every district.
• The importance of the English language became evident. Now English will be the
medium of instruction for higher studies.
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• Hierarchy in education was systemized – Primary at the bottom, High schools at the
middle level and affiliated colleges at district levels and Universities in the presidency
towns.
• Promoting Teacher training at all levels will be part of education.
• Secular education will be an approach to imparting education.
• In private colleges, Grant-in-aid came to promote education.
8.2.5.2 Implications of Wood’s Dispatch
• The Bethune school was founded by J. E. D. Bethune at Calcutta in 1849 for women’s
education.
• The Department of education was set up in all provinces.
• The universities were set up in 1857 at Bombay, Madras and Calcutta.
• Agriculture Institute at Pusa (Bihar) and Engineering Institute at Roorkee were
started.
• India witnessed rapid westernization of education.
• Private Indian educators appeared.
8.2.6 Hunter Education Commission (1882-83)
To review the progress of education in British India since the Woods’ Dispatch, in 1882 the
government appointed a commission under the leadership of Sir William Hunter was
appointed by Lord Ripon, the then viceroy of India. Its main objectives were to consider
different aspects of education in India, specifically primary education and to enquire about
the execution of Woods Dispatch.
8.2.6.1 Main recommendations of the Hunter Commission
• State special care should be given to extend and improve primary education in the
country. Vernacular languages should be the medium of instruction in primary
education.
• The district and municipal boards will be taking control of primary education, under
the Local Self-Government Act. For this, the funds were separated for the rural and
urban areas for future misunderstanding.
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• Secondary education should have two separate divisions- Literary which will lead up
to university and vocational courses will be for commercial careers, which again
diversified into different branches.
• It discouraged Missionary schools and Indian participation in the private school
system was solicited by British rule.
• Women’s education should be promoted because the opportunities for women have
been inadequate, especially in rural India.
8.2.6.2 Effects of Hunter Commission
Although these changes do bring some positivity to the system, it is restricted to primary
education only. The traditional style of the Indian learning system completely collapsed
because of a lack of funding and enrollment. During these days the government schools were
overburdened, with less experience in teaching. The initial phase has its systematic problems
like Vernacular vs English medium debate, lack of teachers and resources etc.
There was an overall decline in the quality. Raleigh Commission was set up in 1902
to see the prospects of Higher education especially the university system in India. This
suggested some measures for improvement in their constitution and working.
8.2.7 Indian Universities Act 1904
Based on the Raleigh Commission recommendations the Indian Universities Act was passed
in 1904. According to this act -
• Universities now play a crucial role in education, both in terms of study and research.
• The selection of fellows becomes a political decision because they are nominated by
the government and their working hours in the office are reduced.
• The size of the Senates was to be decreased, and the university governing bodies were
to be reconfigured. Minimum and maximum Senate memberships are 50 and 100,
respectively. Each of them would serve a six-year term in office.
• For better education and research, a grant of 5 lakh per annum for 5 years was also
accepted. This was the beginning of the University Grant Commission which later
became a permanent feature of the Indian education system for higher education.
• For the Universities in three presidencies i.e., Bombay, Calcutta and Madras, the
elected fellows were to be 50 and for the rest of the universities, 15 numbers are fixed.
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• Affiliation of private colleges is made stricter since education in India for the British
Government has its political agenda; they want to discourage any kind of freedom
which includes freedom of thought.
• Gopal Krishna Gokhale called this move a ‘retrograde measure’.
In 1906, the state of Baroda introduced compulsory primary education throughout its
territories. This provoked the Indian National Congress to demand compulsory primary
education in the whole of British India. As a result, the 1913 Resolution on Education Policy
came.
8.2.8 Government Resolution on Education Policy, 1913
• Although the government refused to take up the responsibility of compulsory
education but accepted to remove illiteracy while making a policy for it.
• It urged the Provincial government to take the early steps to provide elementary
education.
• For this purpose, private players were encouraged.
• It was decided that a university was to be established in each province and teaching
activities of universities were to be encouraged.
8.2.9 Sadler University Commission (1917-19)
To study and report on the problems of Calcutta University, Sadler university commission
after its chairman Michael Sadler was set in 1917. The commission included Indian Members
too namely Sir Ashutosh Mukherji and Dr Ziauddin Ahmad. But its recommendations were
applicable more or less to other universities also.
8.2.9.1 Recommendations of Sadler Commission
1. The school course should last 12 years. Students should enter university after an
intermediate stage (rather than matriculation) for a three-year degree program. This
was done to prepare students for the university stage; relieve universities of a large
number of below-university-standard students, and provide collegiate education to
those who do not intend to attend university.
2. For administrative purposes and to control, a separate secondary and intermediate
education board should be made.
3. University regulations should not be so rigidly framed.
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4. A university should function as a centralized unit, with unitary residential-teaching

autonomous bodies.
5. The area of Female education should be broadened which means it is applied to
scientific and technological education too, and
6. Teacher training, including that for professional and vocational colleges, should all be
prioritized for quality education.
8.2.9.2 Impact of Sadler Commission
1. Seven new universities were established: Mysore, Patna, Benaras, Aligarh, Dacca,
Lucknow, and Osmania in 1916-1921.
2. Earlier teaching had been the responsibility of degree colleges, and there was no
provision for post-graduate education. But now things have changed in favour of
students.
3. The Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras universities were responsible for providing
affiliation, conducting examinations, and conferring degrees.
4. The number of teaching and residential universities has increased.
5. Academic activities in universities and colleges increased. The study of various Indian
languages began. Higher education and research facilities were also built.
6. In universities, the position of the professor was created.
7. Education departments were established at Calcutta and Dacca universities.
8. The internal university administration has improved.
9. The Academic Council was established to oversee curriculum development,
examination, and research.
10. All teaching staff in Calcutta must be organized so that Calcutta University can fully
transform into a teaching university.
11. More universities must be established, and older universities must be re-envisioned as
residential and teaching institutions. Colleges must establish new centres to gradually
expand into universities.
12. All universities must be free of all excessive official controls, and government
meddling in academic matters must be stopped.
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13. To improve university administration, the Syndicate and Senate must be replaced by
the Court and Executive Council.
14. To become the administrative head of the university, a full-time salaried vice-
chancellor must be appointed.
15. Teaching and teaching work must be linked with research, which must be organized
into different departments.
16. It is necessary to establish study boards, facilities boards, and statutory bodies.
While the Hunter Commission had reported on problems of secondary education and the
University Commission of 1902 mainly on the different aspects of university education, the
Saddler commission reviewed the entire field from school education to university education.
8.2.10 Wardha Scheme, 1937
In 1937 when the seven provincial administrations were established with native participation,
they focused on instituting educational reforms. A national educational conference for all of
India was held in Wardha in October 1937, and the conference decided to accept Mahatma
Gandhi's proposal that all children in India receive free, mandatory education in their mother
tongue for seven years, with the majority of that time spent engaged in manual labour. Nai
Talim, Basic Education, Buniyadi Talim (Shiksha), and Basic Shiksha are additional names
for the Wardha Scheme of Education.
Therefore in this context ‘All India National Educational Conference’ was held at Wardha on
22-23 October 1937, with three basic resolutions passed –
1. Free and compulsory education: 7-14 ages.
2. Mother tongue will be the medium of instruction
3. Education will be centered on manual or productive work, not just for degrees and
examinations.
Based on these recommendations, a committee under the chairmanship of Dr Zakir Hussain
was formed. This committee submitted a report named “The Wardha Scheme of Basic
Education” the first extensive National Basic Education Scheme in March 1938.
8.2.10.1 Features of Wardha Scheme of Education
• Free and compulsory education for 7 years.
• Craft centered education
• Self-supporting element
• Education should be in the mother tongue
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• Education should be based on non-violence

8.2.11 Sergeant Plan of Education, 1944
After World War II the Central Advisory Board of Education prepared a comprehensive
report on educational development known as Sergeant Report in 1944.
8.2.11.1 Major recommendations
1. It talks about pre-primary education for the 3-6 years age group for free, universal.
2. Compulsory elementary education for the 6-11 years age group (Junior Basic)
3. High school education for the 11-17 years age group (Senior Basic) for selected
students and
4. A university course for 3 years after higher secondary education
5. The high schools should be of two main types (a) academic, and (b) technical. Degree
courses should be for three years for selected students.
6. To provide adequate technical, commercial and arts education among students.
7. Abolition of intermediate courses.
8. Liquidation of adult illiteracy in 20 years.
9. Major focus on teacher's training, physical education, and education for the physically
and mentally handicapped students too.
8.3 INTRODUCTION: EMERGENCE OF MIDDLE-CLASS IN

EUROPE
In world history, we witness the emergence of the middle class with the induction of the
industrial revolution. The industrial revolution changed the mode of production from
handmade products to machine-made products, before the industrial revolution there was a
dominance of feudal lords, but the industrial revolution promoted trade and commerce which
led to the emergence of the middle class. It was composed of industrialists, businessmen, and
professionals like doctors, lawyers etc. They were educated and wanted a social structure
based on merit rather than on birth. They were influenced by the liberals’ values which were
talking about liberty, equality and justice. The industrialists were part of the middle class, but
with the growth of trade and commerce, they reaped huge profits and came to be known as
capitalists.
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8.3.1 Emergence of the Indian Middle Class

In India, the middle class was the product of the English education system brought by the
British in 1935. The middle class of India was well-educated and well-aware of western
values such as Democracy, Liberty and Equality. They were mainly Government servants, in
British India, lawyers, doctors, small traders and teachers etc. Middle-class played the most
significant role in Indian Nationalism by awakening the consciousness of Indians in a proper
and presentable way. Their role was most important in the Indian freedom struggle since
most of them joined the Indian National Congress. Furthermost our maximum freedom
fighters belonged to this group.
The middle class in India was the product of two things altogether,
1. Colonial Economy:
During colonialism, the overall economy shifted from a traditional one to a more
industrial type of economy. The Indian economy has seen a drastic transformation in the
economy. The sustainability of the economy is challenged by large-scale industrialization. At
that time manufactured goods were imported from the United Kingdom. The British
introduced an economy based on money and mechanical production and destroyed the
indigenous enterprises and traditional panchayat system. The introduction of education, and
physical and occupational mobility in a static society, created a class structure in the society,
which ultimately leads to class differences in Indian society.
2. Indian Renaissance Period and Social & Educational Policy of Britishers
Modern educational systems with English as the medium of instruction generated
physical and occupational mobility of particular Indians. This is the time when Raja Ram
Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and all; worked hard with the British government to
improve women’s condition and to revive Vedic culture, this period is also known as the
Indian Renaissance period. It has brought a structural change in India because those who
were kind to know English can do occupational mobility to get certain types of employment.
Therefore, the income level of this English-speaking group has improved and it has nothing
to do with any caste or strata. English education gave birth to a class that would support the
colonial masters and was socially and psychologically distant from the majority of Indians
who did not understand English.
Therefore, the two classes were made
• the landlords (by permanent land settlement) and
• Intellectuals (through English education) formed the New Middle-Class who were
alienated from the culture and tradition of the masses.
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No one is certain of the role that the middle class may play in modernizing India, yet this
modernization is not truly Indian from a western perspective. Members of the middle class
became more aware people as a result of their exposure to western education and values. The
middle class, however, was cut off from the majority of the Indian populace who adhered to
tradition and became poor in terms of collective orientation as a result. This class is removed
from that tradition. Individualism peaked throughout this time, but society as a whole isn't
cooperating. Its lack of roots made it a "counterfeit class," and as a result, the quality of its
labor in the social spheres of politics, culture, and education, as well as the economy, was
inevitably counterfeit.
8.3.2 Role of the Indian middle-class in Indian History
• Initially, it contributed to the consolidation of British rule.
• It led to a successful nationalist struggle against the British regime.
• It launched a socialist struggle within the country.
• It brought about the partition of the country
• It became the main force behind planned social change in post-independent India.
The British became the main agent of modernization in India through the new middle class.
The changes generated by the middle class which are introduced in Indian society are
promoted by the East India Company. Indian intellectuals got exposure to be modern West
only through the English language. English became the new elite’s deep fascination. The
middle class, with all its characteristic contradictions, wanted to modernize Indian society,
obviously following the western or more specifically, the Victorian English model of
development. It was heavily influenced by the western liberal notions of progress and
equality. The values cherished in England- materialistic and secular values as against Indian
spiritualism, and individualism as against traditional Indian collectivistic orientation. Another
interesting feature of this class is that most of the social reforms are coming from this middle
class. Although we can’t deny their good intentions behind all these reforms, they lacked an
adequate understanding of the collectivistic life of Indian people which they wanted to
change.
The middle class as the agent of change had faced three major constraints-
1. The fact that economic and political power belonged to foreigners,
2. The inflexibility and flexibility of traditions
3. Contradiction in their middle-class character.
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Therefore, the whole idea of middle-class progress lies in a materialistic sense but it should
be balanced in terms of unity, harmony and welfare of the society which is a part of Indian
tradition. The overall outlook of an Indian nationalist who belong to the middle class, they
were radical in politics but equally conservative and revivalist in social thought and practice.
The middle-class family structure remained feudal and patriarchal. Although evident changes
are occurring in family structure, the status of women, village economy, caste system etc., at
a much slower pace than what the middle-class youth thought should be in the political
domain.
8.3.3 Political influences
In Europe, the middle classes emerged as a result of economic and technological change. In
post-industrialisation, they were engaged in trade and industry; whereas, in India, they
emerged more in consequence of changes in the system of law and public administration than
in economic development, and they mainly belonged to the learned profession”.
Education is the need of the hour; several educated individuals were required to staff
administrative institutions like servicing sectors such as the press and postal departments and
Indian Railways. It was not possible to get all of them from Britain. Therefore, the British
opened schools and colleges in different parts of India, particularly in big cities like Calcutta,
Bombay and Madras.
Those educated in these institutions were to not only work for the British but they
were to also think like them. This intention of creating a native middle class that would
become the carrier of Western culture in India was expressed quite openly by Lord Macaulay
in 1935. As the economy began to change in response to the new administrative policies of
the colonial rulers, many of the merchants moved to newly emerging towns and cities and
became independent traders. The growing economic activity gave a boost to trade and
mercantile activity and some of the local traders accumulated enough savings and began to
invest in the modem industry. The swadeshi movement started by the nationalist leadership
gave a boost to the native industry. Apart from giving employment to the labour
force, this industry also employed white-collared skilled workers. Thus, along with those
employed in administrative positions by the colonial rulers, the white-collared employees of
the industrial sector were also a part of the newly emerging middle classes in India.
8.4 SUMMARY/ TO SUM UP
Although the education system evolved during British times and we are growing till now but
despite many policies for women education few women benefitted. No real efforts are taken
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place to spread education. It’s all in the documents. Neglect of mass education, even though it
is available still it’s an expensive affair. The modern education system withered away the
Indian traditional education system. The real purpose of these provisions was to ensure a
supply of cheap educated Indians to manage the British administration. This has projected the
British as saviors’ of India thus creating loyalty for the British Government. Modern
education was used as a tool to strengthen British political authority. The downward filtration
theory did not percolate education downward to the masses, but it did create inferiority
among the masses by popularizing English at upper levels (the language of elites). But we
can’t deny the fact that modern ideas spread substantially, to the disadvantage of the rulers.
Influenced by Western liberal values but also fortifying community identities among Indians.
Middle class emerged as a result of the British adoption of Western education and
contemporary economics. They were concentrated in colonial cities such as Calcutta,
Bombay, and Madras. The development of the middle class in India is different from the
west. In the nineteenth century, under the patronage of colonial rule, the English-educated
middle classes began to emerge. Initially, they were loyal to the British government but soon
realized the real motive of their, they played an important role in India’s struggle for
independence from colonial rule.
8.5 GLOSSARY
Vernacular: The language that is spoken in a particular area or by a particular group of

people, especially one that is not the official or written language or in other words regional
languages.
The downward filtration theory - According to the downward filtration theory, education
was offered to a tiny percentage of the population, and education was transmitted to the
masses through them.
1. What are the main features and impact of Wood’s Despatch?

2. What are the recommendations of the Hunter Commission?
3. Why was the Sadler Commission formed? Discuss its main features.
4. Discuss the role of the Indian middle class in shaping the freedom struggle.
5. How Indian middle-class is different from the western middle class?
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8.7 REFERENCES
• Chandra B (ed.) (1988), ‘India’s Struggle for Independence, 1857-1947’, Penguin

New Delhi
• Bandopadhyay, S. (2015, revised edition) From Plassey to Partition and After A
• Bandopadhyay, S. (2008) Eighteen-Fifty-Seven and Its Many Histories, in 1857:
Essays from Economic and Political Weekly, Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan. pp.1-
22.
• Mishra, B.B. (1961), The Indian Middle Class - Their Growth in Modern Times,
Bombay, Oxford University Press.
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Unit-IV: Nationalist Politics and Expansion of its Social Base

LESSON-9
PHASES OF THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT: LIBERAL
CONSTITUTIONALIST, SWADESHI AND THE RADICALS,
FORMATION OF THE MUSLIM LEAGUE
STRUCTURE

9.2 Introduction
9.3 Phases of Nationalist Movement
9.3.1 Emergence of Indian National Congress (INC)
9.3.2 Congress representing Indian Aspiration
9.4 Liberal Constitutionalist
9.5 Swadeshi and Radicals
9.5.1 Demand for Purna Swaraj
9.5.2 Moderates vs. Extremists
9.6 Formation of the Muslim League
9.7 Summary
9.8 Glossary
9.10 References
After reading this lesson the student will be familiar with, the phases and different streams of
the Nationalist movement and the partition of Bengal and its post-partition effect.
The chapter would also make students understand the idea of economic Nationalism
and various cultural and psychological identities.
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9.2 INTRODUCTION
The lesson would discuss various streams of the Nationalist movement, especially Moderates
and extremist ways of working during the partition of Bengal in the year 1905. During this
phase, both Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League were been created. During this time all the
streams of Congress were aspiring for Purna Swaraj. Let us discuss how nationalist ideas
were propagated and the Indian national movement took shape. In the first phase, we will
discuss the emergence of the Nationalist movement.
9.3 PHASES OF NATIONALIST MOVEMENT
9.3.1 Emergence of Indian National Congress (INC)

The impact of colonialism gradually over time in the latter half of the 1800s caused a
nationalist impact and leaders and groups began to emerge who started thinking in terms of
an Indian nation self-ruled by the Indian people themselves, at least partly.
The Indian National Congress which historian R.P. Dutt describes as the ‘premier
organisation and ‘the leading organisation of the Indian National Movement was started in
1885. There was some disagreement among historians as to the circumstances surrounding
the birth of the Congress with an earlier generation of historians like R.P. Dutt believing that
the British had actively encouraged the birth of the Congress almost as a secret conspiracy to
create a vent for Indian angst and resentment and to elicit the views of Indians but the modem
generation of Indian historians like Bipan Chandra researched the subject in the fifties and
sixties after the independence of India and came to the conclusion that the Indians who were
at the foundation of the Congress were not exactly innocent victims of a quite British plan of
enlightened British officers but wise men who wished to play along with any British
encouragement if there was any to ultimately achieve their ends. As Bipan Chandra and
others put it if the English liberals had hoped to use the Congress as a ‘safety valve’ then the
Congress leaders hoped to use the opportunity provided to use them as ‘lightning conductors’
and ultimately it was the Congress leaders whose hopes were fulfilled. (Bipan Chandra: 81)
R.P. Dutt introduced the birth of the Congress with the following chronological
account:
‘The origins of Indian Nationalism are commonly traced to the foundation of the
National Congress in 1885, in fact; however, the development of the movement can be traced
through the preceding half-century. Reference has already been made to the reform
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movement which found expression in the Brahmo Samaj established in 1828. In 1843 was
founded the British India Society in Bengal, sought to “secure the welfare, extend the just
rights and advance the interests of all classes of our fellow subjects”. In 1851, this was
merged into the British Indian Association, which in the following year “they cannot but feel
that they have not profited by their connection with Great Britain to the extent which they had
a right to expect”, setting forth grievances concerning the revenue system, the
discouragement of manufacturers, education and the question of admission to the higher
administrative services, and demanding a Legislative Council “possessing a popular character
so as in some respects to represent the sentiments of the people.” These earlier associations
were still mainly linked up with the landowning interests; and indeed the merger by which
the British Indian Association was formed, including the Bengal Landholders Society. In
1875, the Indian Association founded by Surendranath Banerjee, was the first organisation
representative of the educated middle class in opposition to the domination of the big
landowners. Branches, both of the more reactionary British Indian Association and the more
progressive Indian Association were founded in various parts of India. In 1883, the Indian
Association of Calcutta called the first all-India National Conference, which was attended by
representatives from Bengal, Madras, Bombay and the United Provinces.
The National Conference of 1883 was held under the presidency of Ananda Mohan
Bose who later became President of the National Congress in 1898; in his opening address,
he declared the conference to be the first stage of a National Parliament. Thus the conception
of an Indian National Congress had already been formed and was maturing from the initiative
and activity of the Indian representatives themselves when the Government intervened to take
a hand. The Government did not find a movement which had no previous existence or basis.
The Government stepped in to take charge of a movement which was, in any case, coming
into existence and whose development it foresaw was inevitable.’(Dutt: 310-311)
9.3.2 Congress representing Indian Aspiration
So, by the 28th of December, 1885 when the Congress met for the first time, there was a clear
realisation in the intelligentsia nationwide that there were common objectives for which the
people of India needed to struggle for. Even as colonial administrators and ideologues argued
that India could never be a free and united nation because India was merely a conglomeration
of different races, castes and creeds, Indian leaders like Surendranath Banerjee and Tilak kept
countering by saying that India was a ‘nation in the making’. The Congress leaders were
convinced that objective historical forces were bringing the Indian people together and the
main objective at that stage of the national struggle at that time was to promote national unity
and nationalism. So, that became the main objective of Congress. To create national unity or
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what we seek to do by giving out calls nowadays for ‘national integration’ or ‘unity in
diversity was the main theme of the exertion of the founding leaders. The aims and objectives
of the Congress laid down by the first president W.C.Bonnerjee were the ‘fuller development
and consolidation of the sentiments of national unity. The Indu Prakash, a prominent Bombay
newspaper wrote of the first congress session as marking the ‘beginning of a new life it will
greatly help in creating a national feeling and binding together distant people by common
sympathies, and common ends’. (Bipan Chandra: 75)
To balance regional aspirations and promote unity, even at that early stage it was
decided that the Congress session would be rotated among different parts of the country and
the president would belong to a region other than where the session of the Congress was
being held. To promote communal harmony and prevent any potential discord or cause for
disunity a rule was passed that no resolution was to be passed which had an overwhelming
majority of Hindu or Muslim delegates objecting to it.
The Congress also decided very early that to be a national organisation it must confine
itself to causes which were common to people all over the country in their dealings with the
British. Hence agitation on social reform issues, it was decided, had to be kept away from!
Dadabhai Naoroji had maintained that they must meet, as a political body to represent to our
rulers our political aspirations.
9.4 LIBERAL CONSTITUTIONALIST
The Congress also decided very early that to be a national organisation it must confine itself
to causes which were common to people all over the country in their dealings with the
British. Dadabhai Naoroji had maintained that they must meet ‘as a political body to
represent to our rulers our political aspirations.
The political action of the early leaders consisted of organising popular participation,
mobilisation and agitations and also of course not only making repeated representations and
appeals to the British governments and legislatures but also directly to the British people in
whose good sense there was much faith in sections of the Indian leadership. Also, Indians
were not familiar with the democratic notion that politics and political opinion are not the
sole preserve of the upper strata of society and it was important for the whole of the people to
form a political opinion for it to carry democratic weight. Among the first and most important
objectives of the Congress was to organise the arousal of this consciousness and then train
and consolidate public opinion. It was felt by the leaders of the movement at the time that as
a first step, the educated classes should be politicised and united from all regions of the
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country and thereafter the process could be extended to other sections. W.C. Bonnerji had
declared as the first Congress President that one of the major congress objectives was the
‘eradication, by direct friendly personal intercourse, of all possible race, creed, or provincial
intimacy amongst all lovers of our country and the promotion of personal intimacy and
friendship amongst all the more earnest workers in our country’s cause in (all) parts of the
Empire’.
The Congress, even though conceived as a movement rather than as a party, was at
first, not inclined towards mass demonstrations and protest marches etc. The principal tools
of political action continued to be petitions, prayers and memorials. Later leaders who
were not as moderate and hence came to be described by historians as extremists were
extremely critical of these methods but the fact remains that in a situation of relatively zero
sense of political nationalism and unity, the moderate phase did play an important role. Some
moderate leaders even saw the initial phase as such. When Gokhale had expressed
disappointment with the two-line reply that the government had sent to a carefully and
laboriously prepared memorial by the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, Justice Ranade had told him:’
You don’t realise our place in the history of our country. These memorials are nominally
addressed to the Government, in reality; they are addressed to the people, so that they may
learn how to think in these matters. The preaching and adoption of the methods of political
democracy were amongst the main aims from the beginning the Congress was organised like
a parliament with issues being decided through debate and discussion and occasionally
through the vote.
9.5 SWADESHI AND RADICALS
At the turn of the century and in the decades immediately before and after, important changes
took place in the character of the national movement In brief, the era of the moderates
gradually gave way to the era of the extremists.
It was a combination of factors that resulted in the hardening of views leading up to
the beginning of an extremist approach. On the one hand, was the total failure of the old
guard moderates to achieve much in terms of concessions and rights won from the British and
a very hostile attitude that they (the British) adopted towards Indian leaders and on the other
hand was the coming forward of a much larger class of Indians, particularly young people,
who were growing very impatient and disappointed with their lot. They were upset with both
their economic lot and the total lack of advancement of political rights and freedoms under
the Congress leadership of the moderates. For the first time, there was a class of educated
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unemployed. Also, the economic misery of the peasants and workers continued to increase
throughout the second half of the nineteenth century and by the turn of the century, it was
worse than at any time before, with famines being a regular affair in the countryside and near
slavery-like conditions of workers in plantations and factories and mines, even in those
owned by Indians. In such dire circumstances, the role of religious revivalists also became
important who reminded Hindus in particular of their glorious past of the Vedas and
Upanishads and inspired them to bold action and the spirit of sacrifice of the sort they had not
contemplated before.
The moderates were dearly failing in their tactics and aim. Gokhale, almost the chief
ideologue of the moderates, expressed their frustration when he complained in his last years
that, “the bureaucracy was growing frankly selfish and openly hostile to National aspirations.
It was not so in the past”. (OLD Material, SOL). There was a constant attempt to pass
draconian legislation and firmly deal with the ever-restless Congress leaders by arrests and
deportations. There was even an attempt made to undermine the movement by separating
Muslims and encouraging them to see Congress as a Hindu organisation. Ultimately, this
effort was to bear tremendous fruits for the British because first Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and
later M.A. Jinnah broke away from the Congress effort and ultimately caused the partition of
India at the time of independence.
However, the immediate cause or trigger of the rise of the extremists was the decision
of the British to partition Bengal, which gave a huge boost to the Swadeshi Movement and
made it a nationwide mainstream mass movement. This was a dramatic development which
changed the course of the freedom struggle. Bipan Chandra and others comment on the rise
of the movement and cite the evidence for it as follows:
‘The Swadeshi Movement’ had its genesis in the anti-partition movement which was
started to oppose the British decision to partition Bengal. There was no questioning the fact
that Bengal with a population of 78 million (about a quarter of the population of British
India) had indeed become administratively unwieldy. Equally, there was no escaping the fact
that the real motive for partitioning Bengal was political. Indian nationalism was gaining in
strength and partition was expected to weaken what was perceived as the nerve centre of
Indian nationalism at the time. The attempt, in the words of Lord Curzon, the Viceroy (1899-
1905). was to ‘dethrone Calcutta’ from its position as the ‘centre from which the Congress
Party is manipulated throughout Bengal, and indeed, the whole of India.....The centre of
successful intrigue,’ and ‘divide the Bengali-speaking population.’ Accordingly, the Home
Secretary to the Government of India was more critical of the movement. He said on 6
December 1904: ‘Bengal united- is power, Bengal divided, will pull several different ways.
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That is what the Congress leaders feel; their apprehensions are perfectly correct and they
form one of the great merits of the scheme...in this scheme, one of our main objects is to split
up and thereby weaken a solid body of opponents to our rule.’ (Bipan Chandra: 124-125) The
main purpose of the Bengal partition was to divide the nationalist spirit among Bengali-
speaking Hindus and Muslims.
When faced with the huge public outrage and fury over the decision, the reaction of
Lord Curzon was firm and despotic. He wrote to the Secretary of State saying: ‘If we are
weak enough to yield to their clamour now, we shall not be able to dismember or reduce
Bengal again; and you will be cementing and solidifying a force already formidable, and
certain to be a source of increasing trouble in the future. (ibid.) The most sinister aspect of the
move though was the attempt at communalising the situation and dividing Hindus and
Muslims to prop up Muslim communalists as a counter to the Congress and the National
Movement. Curzon was blunt in his wooing of Muslims. In a speech at Dacca, he told
Bengali Muslims that partition would enable them to have Dacca as the capital of a new
Muslim majority province and which would ‘invest the Mohammedans in Eastern Bengal
with a unity which they have never enjoyed since the days of the old Mussulman Viceroys
and Kings’ and the Muslims would get a ‘better deal’ and would be freed of the ‘pernicious
influence of Calcutta’. (ibid: 125)
The public outrage and spontaneous protest against it were unprecedented. In the first
two months following the announcement, 500 meetings were held in Eastern Bengal alone.
Fifty thousand pamphlets authored by leaders like Surendranath Banerjee were distributed
and the nationalist vernacular press launched a sustained attack in its daily publications. Vast
protest meetings were held in the town halls, particularly in Calcutta and petitions were sent
to the secretary of state. Of the petitions, sixty-nine memoranda were sent from the Dacca
division alone and some were signed by as many as 70000 people. This shows there was a
huge politicization of the partition. Leaders like Surendranath Banerjee, even though he was
moderate toured the country asking people to boycott Manchester cloth and Liverpool salt.
On September 1st, 1905 the government announced that partition would take effect from the
16th of October. Immediately protest meetings were held all over Bengal the very next day.
Many of these meetings drew crowds of ten to twelve thousand, a very large number for
those days, which rattled the British administration. The success of the movement can be
gauged from the fact that the value of British cloth sold in some of the mofussil districts fell
by five to fifteen times between September 1904 and September 1905. The actual day of
partition was declared a day of mourning in Bengal and people fasted and no fires were lit at
the cooking hearth. In Calcutta, a hartal was declared. People took out processions and band
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after band walked barefoot, bathed in the Ganges in the morning and then paraded the streets
singing Vande Mataram which almost became the anthem of the movement. People tied
rakhis on each other’s bands as a symbol of the unity of the two halves of Bengal. Later in the
day Ananda Mohan Bose and Surendranath Banerjee addressed two huge mass meetings,
which drew crowds of 50,000 to 70,000 people. This was the biggest meeting ever held under
the nationalist banner ever anywhere before. Within a few hours of the meeting, Rs. 50000 of
the donation was raised for the movement.
Up to this time, notwithstanding the strong Hindu cultural undercurrent in terms of
symbolisms that had come to the fore in the movement and the constant efforts to divide the
people along Hindu-Muslim lines by the British, there was some level of unity which was to
be destroyed later. For instance, while describing the success of the movement against the
partition of Bengal, Abdul Rasul, the President of the Barisal Congress in April 1906 said:
‘What we could not have accomplished in 50 or 100 years, the great disaster, the partition of
Bengal, has done for us in six months. Its fruits have been the great national movement
known as the Swadeshi Movement. (ibid: 127)
The leaders running the show were mostly moderate Congress leaders who were
professionals and liberals from professions like law, journalism and academics. It is
interesting to note that this was the time when moderate techniques had full sway. The people
and their leaders were content to adopt methods like petitions, memoranda, speeches, public
meetings and press campaigns. No violent or even mildly confrontationist in a violent sense
was contemplated at all. This was possibly why even zamindars and rich merchants who had
hitherto kept away from supporting the congress joined and offered support to the cause.
Also, of course for the first time, perhaps women came out in the struggle as well. But the
real moving forces behind the movement for the first time were students who formed the
bulwark of the anti-partition and Swadeshi campaigns.
The leaders had hoped that with their political action sufficient force of public opinion
would be created in India and England to force the government to relent and reverse the
partition of Bengal. Needless to say, no such thing happened. This was to prove to be a major
disappointment, which among other reasons, one may safely assume caused the eventual
subconscious shift in public consciousness towards a more extremist approach.
Even though the Swadeshi Movement was started with a resolution in the Town Hall
of Calcutta on the 7th of August, 1905 in a meeting called to protest the partition decision,
the partition movement and the Swadeshi movement were the work of the entire national
leadership and the whole of the national movement against British rule got energised as a
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consequence. Gokhale presiding over the Benaras Congress referred to the partition as a
‘cruel wrong’ and “a complete illustration of the worst features of the present system of
bureaucratic rule, its utter contempt for public opinion, its arrogant pretensions to superior
wisdom, its reckless disregard of the most cherished feeling of the people...It’s the cool
preference of service interests to those of the governed’. (Bipan Chandra, Amales Trpathi,
Barun Dey: 83)
The idea of Swadeshi had not been new though by this time. Gopal Rao Deshmukh,
G.V. Joshi M.G. Ranade of Maharashtra and Nabagopal Mitra and the Tagore Family of
Bengal had been votaries of Swadeshi for a long. As early as 1870 Bholanath Chandra had
recommended a boycott of British goods to bring pressure on the British public. Tilak had run
a constant boycott campaign. So he worked very hard in making the Swadeshi Movement a
success in Poona and Bombay. Ajit Singh and Lala Lajpat Rai spread the message of boycott
in Punjab and other parts of India and Syed Haider Raza led the movement in Delhi.
Chidambaram Pillai led the movement in the Madras Presidency where B.C. Pal also carried
out a fiery lecture tour. The boycott message also spread to Kangra, Multan and Haridwar.
The Swadeshi Movement in many ways created the statures or identities of Bal Gangadhar
Tilak, B.C. Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai in the combined famous christening of ‘Lal-Bal-Pal’ that
became so famous. It had been realised by the end of the first decade of the new century that
Swadeshi and boycott should be complementary and one can’t succeed without the other.
This though did for the first time bring out in the open the differences in approach and beliefs
of the Moderates and the Extremists. The moderates were not opposed to the idea of adopting
‘Swadeshi’ but they were against the idea of adopting a boycott of English goods as a
political weapon. They felt this would harm the movement because they still saw the English
people and Parliament as reasonable quarters in whose sense of reason and fair play a
successful appeal could be made. Many of the moderates were not fighting for complete
independence but for some sort of self-rule or self-governing system that they agreed to call
‘Swaraj’.
Here lay a major difference between the moderates and the extremists and also the
major reason why extremists progressively began to appeal more to the masses than the
moderates. The moderates all through had taken a public position that was ultimately
accepting of British rule in a sense and merely sought some form of partial self-government
at best like in Australia or Canada. There is a belief among historians that this approach was
basically strategic and was adopted merely because the moderates realised that they were in
no position to take on the might of the British Empire. While that may have been true of
some of the leaders if not all, it is nevertheless instructive to peruse some of the public
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declarations of the early nationalists or moderates which made it easy for the extremist later
to attack them or their pro-western orientation and consequent unfitness for running the
national movement. Ananda Mohan Bose, for instance, the President of the 1998 Congress
had declared in that meeting that “the educated classes are the friends and not the foes of
England her natural and necessary allies in the great work that lies before her”. Sir
Pherozeshah Mehta, later to be the chief of the moderate camp in the power struggle against
the extremists had declared in 1890: “I have no fears but that British statesmen will
ultimately respond to the Call”. Surendranath Banerjee, another moderate stalwart, had
proclaimed that the ideal of Congressmen was to “work with unwavering loyalty to the
British connection – for the object was not the suppression of British rule in India, but the
broadening of its basis, the liberalising of its spirit the ennobling of its character and placing
it on the unchangeable foundation of a nation’s affections” (Dutt: 322)
Even as the moderate leaders took such positions the economic lot of the people,
particularly farmers and workers continued to worsen. Even educated people began to find it
difficult to be economically successful. With that emerged particularly in Bengal and
Maharashtra a sort of cultural revivalism based on Hinduism that hadn’t been seen before.
Bankimchandra’s hymn Vande Mataram in Bengal helped revive the cult of the Mother
Goddess and the culture of violent physical revolution to overthrow enemies that went along
with it. In Maharashtra, Tilak played the most important role, successfully giving a nationalist
edge to the movement based on Hindu culture. The institution of celebrating Ganesh Puja,
which was started at about this time played a very important role in consolidating this
process.
A major benefit of this, cultural revivalism was that Indians felt the need for full self-
reliance on economic activity. Indians, therefore, started chemical factories and soap factories
and even a team ship company was started so that dependence on British companies could be
avoided. The hare capital of the Tata Steel Company was easily subscribed to by Indians and
the company could start operation eventually.
9.5.1 Demand for Purna Swaraj
B.G. Tilak was the most important leader of the extremists. Other important leaders were
B.C. Pal and Aurobindo Ghosh from Bengal. Lala Lajpat Rai also supported the extremists
when the difference between the moderates and extremists came out in the open. The
extremists asked for three important changes from that of the moderates:
First, they wanted the people of India to arise and demand complete freedom or Purna
Swaraj as opposed to some sort of self-governing system won by appealing to the
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benevolence and sense of fair play of the British parliament and people. They believed that
full freedom should be snatched from the British by the Indian people rising together as one
and in doing so no suffering or sacrifice should be too much for the Indian people. Therefore
they were quite willing to boycott foreign goods in the adoption of Swadeshi even if by doing
that they hurt the interests of common businessmen and workers of Britain as opposed to the
British Indian Government and thereby create ill will.
Secondly, they repudiated the notion that India needed the ‘benevolent guidance and
assistance of Britain and the British system of advanced education and technical and
scientific capabilities for rapid development. They believed that because they were the sons
and daughters of an ancient and possibly superior culture they were good enough to bring
about all the development that the people of India needed. They, therefore, wanted complete
independence immediately.
Thirdly, unlike the moderates who were ever wary of the power of the British Empire to quell
any attempt by Indians to seek freedom at once by use of their superior military and
administrative strengths, the extremists had a fanatical and almost mythological belief in the
power of the Indian masses to prevail and win freedom through mass action.
Apart from the Swadeshi and the boycott of foreign goods to which the moderates had
agreed with the greatest of reluctance and only for a temporary period, the extremists
extended the tool of boycott to government schools and colleges, courts, and titles
government services. They also took to the organisation of massive strikes to make the
operation of the British government impossible. They declared that they aimed to ‘make the
administration under present conditions impossible by an organised refusal to do anything
which shall help either the British Commerce in the exploitation of the country or British
officialdom in the administration of it. They took control of the Swadeshi movement in
Bengal after 1905 and launched a fierce campaign of boycotts and resistance. Initially, they
intended only to oppose by the power of peaceful resistance but some like Aurobindo Ghosh
had kept open the option of resorting to violence if all else failed and the British resorted to
ruthless suppression as he feared they would.
Aurobindo Ghosh also chose to describe the Indian nation as a mother goddess, the
first time this was done and declared that participation in the struggle was worship. Later,
during the revolutionary terrorist phase, taking purifying dips in the Ganges and praying in
Kali temples before launching attacks became the norm for the terrorists. Initially, though
they imagined that perfectly peacefully when everybody from the chowkidar to the constable,
the deputy and the clerk to the sepoys and the soldiers of the armed forces all unitedly and
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together resigned from their functions, British rule would find it difficult to operate for even
half a second.
The boycott of foreign goods was the technique of resistance of the extremists that
met with the greatest success. Apart from the boycott of foreign goods, even picketing of
shops selling foreign goods became common place in remote towns and villages. Women
refused to wear bangles that were not Indian and washermen refused to wash foreign clothes
in some places, even priests refused to accept offerings that contained foreign sugar.
Unlike at any time before mass protests, processions and public meetings now became
important tools to make the depth of Swadeshi nationalist sentiment obvious because for the
first time masses were participating. Corps of volunteers or samitis was another tool that was
developed by the extremists with great effect. The Swadeshi Bandhab Samiti set up by
Ashwani Kumar Dutt, a school teacher, in Barisal in eastern Bengal attracted great attention
because it had 159 branches that covered the remotest corners of the district and Dutt was
able to generate a mass following that distinguished itself by the fact that while he, the leader,
was Hindu, most of his followers were the Muslim peasantry of the region. The samitis took
the message of Swadeshi to the villages through lectures and songs with the help of magic
lanterns and gave physical and moral training to their members. They also did social work
during famines and epidemics, organised schools, trained people in Swadeshi crafts and ran
arbitration courts so that people could solve their disputes without turning to the British legal
system.
The Ganapati and Shivaji Festivals made popular by Tilak in Maharashtra became a
powerful tool to spread the message and were also adopted in Bengal where jatras (village
drama shows) were extensively used to transmit political ideas at the village level where
people got exposed to modern political ideas (of representative democracy) for the first time.
Tilak’s role cannot be overemphasised. He devoted his entire life to the freedom movement.
He was a graduate of Bombay University and started many newspapers and journals. He used
his talent for journalism to mould public opinion in favour of the political aims and objectives
of the national struggle.
Along with G.G. Agarkar, he founded the English newspaper Maratha and another in
Marathi called the Kesari. Significantly, Tilak was the first one to advise peasants in
Maharashtra to not pay the exploitative and destructive land revenues when their crops failed
due to drought famine or pestilence. When Viceroy Elgin imposed an excise duty on Indian
mill-made cloth to aid British imports, he launched a campaign for the boycott of English
cloth. The British got very alarmed with Tilak and arrested him in 1897. He was charged with
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spreading hatred and disaffection against the Government which led to the killing of British
Plague Officers, Rand and Ayerst. His defence was bold and unflinching and he roared like a
lion in court, which was reported by the nationalist press on a day-to-day basis. He refused to
apologise for having spread disaffection and accepted the 18 months of rigorous
imprisonment that was laid down for him with pride. His bold example and sacrifice had a
huge impact on the nation and the whole nation was filled with a surge of nationalist emotion.
Marxist historians like R.P. Dutt have taken a less than lionising view of the stance
and activities of the extremists. He comments as follows on the rise and growth of the
extremists: “The starting point of the opposition leadership, as against the Old Guard, was
undoubtedly the desire to make a break with compromising policies of conciliation with
imperialism, and to enter on a path of decisive and uncompromising struggle against
imperialism. To this extent, they were a radical and potentially revolutionary force. But this
desire was still a subjective desire on their part. There was no basis yet for the mass
movement to make such a decisive struggle possible. Their appeal reached the discontented
lower middle class and the hearts of the literate youth, especially to the poorer students and
the new growing army of unemployed or poorly paid intellectuals, whose situation was
becoming increasingly desperate in the opening years of the twentieth century, as it became
manifest that there was no avenue or fulfilment for them under imperialist conditions, and
who were little inclined to be patient with the slow and comfortable doctrines of gradual
advance preached by the solidly established upper-class leaders. Such elements can provide,
in periods of social transition and the impending break-up of an old order, very considerable
dynamic forces of unrest and potential revolutionary energy; but they are by the nature of
their situation incapable of realising their aspirations, until they find their role concerning the
mass movement, and can only seek satisfaction either in exalted verbal protest or in anarchist
individualist and ultimately politically ineffective forms of action.
9.5.2 Moderates vs. Extremists
By 1908 the extremist phase in the national movement, for all its impact, had begun to fail.
The British were quite alarmed by the violent revolutionary potential of the movement that
was developing and decided to finish it off with a two-pronged strategy. One, by cruelly and
ruthlessly curbing the extremists and the other by accentuating and encouraging the
difference between the moderates and the extremists. They decided to pretend to take
measures, which would create the impression that the moderates were achieving success in
their goals so that the extremist’s approach would get discredited and people would feel wary
of following them. The repressive measures that were introduced were bans and controls on
meetings, rallies processions and the press. Students who participated in the Swadeshi
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movement were expelled from schools and colleges, debarred from applying for government
service (the principal economic attraction in seeking an education it may be imagined) and
also fined School students were arrested merely for singing national songs.
In 1907 and 1908 nine major leaders of the movement in Bengal including Ashwani
Kumar Dutt and Krishna Kumar Mitra were deported. Tilak was given six years
imprisonment and in Punjab, Ajit Singh and Lajpat Rai were also deported. In Madras
Chidambaram Pillai and Andhra Harisarvottam Rao were arrested. B.C. Pal retired from
active politics because of this advancing age and in the face of severe police repression.
Aurobindo Ghosh had a spiritual transformation and decided that he wanted to spend the rest
of his life like a Sanyasi in search of the higher truths of Upanishadic Hinduism. He went
away to Pondicherry and founded an ashram there.
The resolution was passed at the Surat Congress, INC had accepted for the first time
the idea of a Swaraj, support for the boycott of foreign goods which the moderates were very
uncomfortable about, support for Swadeshi or indigenous industries and a campaign of
National Education. So Swaraj, Boycott, Swadeshi and National Education had become the
four cardinal points of the Congress programme. Also apart from the rumour, there had been
mass meetings held in Surat over three days before the session in which much ridicule and
venom had been heaped on the Moderates, which had deeply hurt their senior leaders. When
the session started the Extremists wanted a guarantee on the four resolutions that they would
be passed and to force the Moderates to do so they opposed the duly elected President for the
year, Rash Behari Ghosh who was a Moderate. As soon as the session started because there
were people on both sides who had come prepared for confrontation, there was chaos and
people were fighting each other by shouting at each other and throwing blows and chairs.
Somebody in the crowd threw a shoe at the dias, where Pherozshah Mehta and Surendranath
Banerjee were sitting and a shoe hit Sir Pherozshah. As soon as this happened the police
came and cleared the hall and the Congress Session was over. When the news spread of the
breakdown of the Congress there was gloom all over the country among nationalists but the
British were triumphant. Lord Minto wrote to Lord Morley that the ‘Congress collapse’ at
Surat was a great triumph for us. Bipan Chandra and others comment on the opposing
positions that the Extremists and the Moderates took as follows:
‘Both sides had it wrong – from the nationalist point of view as well as their factional
point of view. The Moderates did not see that the colonial state was negotiating with them not
because of their inherent political strength but because of the fear of the Extremists. The
Extremists did not see that the Moderates were their natural outer defence line (in terms of
civil liberties and so on) and that they did not possess the required strength to face the
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colonial state’s juggernaut. Neither saw that in a vast country like India run by a powerful
imperialist nation only a broad-based united movement had any chance of success. (ibid: 139)
9.6 FORMATION OF THE MUSLIM LEAGUE

A racial divide was created when Bengal was partitioned. Under the direction of Aga Khan,
the Nawab of Dhaka, and Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk, the Muslim League was formed on
December 30, 1906, to protect the rights of Indian Muslims. At first, the British gave it a lot
of support, but when it adopted the idea of self-rule, they stopped supporting it. The League’s
Amritsar session in 1908, which was presided over by Sir Syed Ali Imam and called for a
separate Muslim electorate, was granted by his Morley-Minto Reform in 1909. To spread his
anti-league views, Maulana Muhammad Ali started the English journal “Comrade” and the
Urdu journal “Hamdard”. Additionally, he started “Al-Hilal”, which was a platform for his
nationalist beliefs.
There are many factors which contributed creations to the Muslim League. The party
had a separatist plan and philosophy which was sometimes adhering to the British Plan. For
instance, there was a separate electorate similar to the caste politics played out between
Brahmins and non-Brahmins. Muslims were certainly feeling excluded from Indian
mainstream activities in Bengal. During the 1857 revolt in the battle of Plassey Britishers had
overthrown the Mughal Empire. Most historians and radical nationalists glorified India’s one
side of our composite culture. Their praises were biased because Shivaji, Rana Pratap etc.
were praises but they remained silent on Akbar, Sher Shah Suri, Allauddin Khalji, Tipu
Sultan etc.
The main objective of the creation of the Muslim League was to promote the loyalty
of Indian Muslims towards the British government. It was been created to protect the political
and other rights of the Indian Muslims and to place their needs and aspirations before the
Government.
9.7 SUMMARY
Hence, India’s struggle for independence can be traced back to the 18th-century development
of the partition of Bengal and the development that took place after the creation of Hindu
Revivalist activities and the creation of the Muslim League. This is the period which had
consolidated the idea of complete freedom as Purna Swaraj.
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9.8 GLOSSARY
Moderates: They believed in the British sense of justice and fair play. Moderates believed in
the efficacy of peaceful agitation and always went in favour of constitutional means for
appeal and petition.
Extremists: They were radical in their approach. Demands of extremists were aggressive in
their demands and protests. They believed in self-reliance as a weapon against domination
and demanded Purna Swaraj. They were guided by four cardinal principles of Swarajya,
Swadeshi, and Boycott of foreign goods and National education to make Indians aware of
their national identity.

1. What were the various phases of the nationalist movement? Discuss.
2. Examine how extremists are different from moderates to pursue their objective of
Purna Swaraj.
9.10 REFERENCES
• Bipan Chandra (eds) (1989), India’s Struggle for Independence, Penguin, New Delhi
• Desai, A R. (1966), Social Background of Indian Nationalism, Popular Prakashan,
Bombay
ofSchool of Open Learning, SOL, DU
• Chandra, B. (1999). Essays on Colonialism, Hyderabad. Orient Longman
• Chandra, Bipin,Amlesh Tripathi & Barun De (1992), Freedom Struggle, National
Book Trust, India
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LESSON-10
GANDHI AND MASS MOBILIZATION: CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE,
NON COOPERATION AND QUIT INDIA MOVEMENTS
Ms Vaishali Mann
STRUCTURE

10.2 Introduction
10.3 The Rise of Mahatma Gandhi
10.3.1 Ideals of True Satyagrahi
10.3.2 Return to India
10.3.3 Initial Journey in India
10.3.3.1 Champaran Satyagraha
10.3.3.2 Ahehmdabad Mill Strike
10.3.3.3 Kheda Satyagraha
10.3.3.4 Rowlatt Act
10.3.3.5 Jalliwala Bagh Masaccre
10.4 Khilafat and non Cooperation Movement
10.4.1 Background
10.4.2 Khilafat Issue
10.4.3 Gandhi’s Stand
10.4.4 Spread of the Movement
10.4.5 Aftermath
10.5 Civil Disobedience Movement
10.5.1 Background
10.5.2 Independence Pledge
10.5.3 Gandhi’s Demands
10.5.4 Dandi March
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10.5.6 Gandhi Irwin Pact
10.5.7 Difference between Civil Disobedience and Non Coopertion
10.5.8 Poona Pact and Communal Award
10.5.9 Gandhi’s Response
10.6 Quit India Movement
10.6.1 Background
10.6.2 Quit India Resolution
10.6.4 Participation
10.6.5 Governements Response
10.7 Summary
10.8 Answers to in Text Questions
10.9 Self Assessment Questions
10.10 References
Students in this chapter will learn about the most significant episode in the modern Indian
history i.e. the freedom struggle, lead by some of the most prominent leaders who lead the
masses into the same.
10.2 INTRODUCTION
The third and the last phase of the national movement are regarded to be as the GANDHIAN
PHASE. It was the era when large number of people from different sections of the society
came along and the era of popular mass mobilization began. The movements lead by
Mahatma Gandhi came to be known as the greatest mass struggle in the world. He was the
first leader of the freedom struggle with whom the masses identified with, the most. His
manner of living the life like a common man was the first and foremost reason for it. He
came out as a symbol of poor India and also the nationalist India at the same time.
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He said-“I shall work for India in which the poorest shall feel that it is their country,
where there shall be no higher and lower class, where women are treated equally as men and
where there is no untouchability. This is India of my dreams.” [Bipin Chandra.]
Three causes that were closest to Gandhi’s heart were – Hindu Muslim unity, fight
against untouchability and to raise the standard of women in the Indian society. Now let us
trace the journey of the Indian freedom struggle and the massive role played by Gandhi
through the three most important movements. Before we begin, let us understand first the
background of Mahatma Gandhi and then the ground reality of the British India.
10.3 THE RISE OF MAHATMA GANDHI
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2nd October 1869 at Porbandar, Gujarat, India.
He completed his legal education in Britain and then went to South Africa to practice law. In
South Africa, Gandhi was a force to reckon with. He fiercely revolted against the racial
injustice and discrimination that was meted out to Indians in South African colonies. These
Indian immigrants suffered from extreme categorization and racial behavior that was
imparted to them. They were denied the right to vote. They were forced to live in congested
and unhygienic places. They also had to pay tax and were not allowed to step outside after 9
PM. Gandhi tried to engage with the authorities in South Africa in order to make them well
aware of the conditions of Indians. For this, he set up an organization THE NATAL INDIAN
CONGRESS and started a paper called INDIAN OPINION.
It was during his struggle in South Africa he developed a technique of
SATYAGRAHA based on truth and non violence. Now the next question that arises is what
was meant by Satyagraha and what it was to become a true satyagrahi. Let us explore this
now.
10.3.1 Ideals of a True Satyagrahi
Gandhi was inspired by many western thinkers like Henry David Thoreau, John Ruskin and
Leo Tolstoy and was equally influenced by Vaishnavism and Jainism. All of it impacted
gandhian philosophy that ultimately was based on principle of non violence and truth. He
urged everyone to be a true satyagrahi by heart. For him, it meant the following-
• True satyagrahi was to be truthful and peaceful and at the same time should not
submit to any wrong.
• He should work according to the principles of cooperation and boycott.
• He should adopt moderate, passive methods of resistance or protest like nonpayment
of taxes, declining the positions of power, instead of any violent method.
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• He should have no hatred for evil doer, rather love and compassion for him in his
heart.
• He should never bow down in front of evil.
Gandhi believed that only strong and brave could practice non violence. Violence was an
attribute or quality of a weak person. He said –“the only quality I want to claim is truth and
non violence.”
10.3.2 Return to India
Mahatma Gandhi returned to India in 1915. His efforts in South Africa by this time were well
known all over the world but only among the educated masses. Gandhi believed in the
“power of common masses” and he felt that in order to unite all Indians against the British
rule, it was important to first understand the situation at ground level.
For this, he travelled extensively to all over India and talked and engaged with people.
10.3.3 Initial Journey in India
His initial journey in India can be divided into following phases- [Bipin Chandra.]
Champaran Ahmadabad Kheda Rowlatt act Jalliawala

c
Satyagraha mill strike Satyagraha 1919 bagh
1917 1918 1918 massacre
1919
1
Now let us look at all of it in detail, one by one –
1919
10.3.3.1 Champaran Satyagraha 1917– Champaran Satyagraha is regarded to be as the
first civil disobedience that started in India. The peasants in champaran who were engaged in
the indigo plantation were being exploited by the British planters. The system was called
TINKATHIA SYSTEM where the peasants were forced to grow indigo on 3/20th part of their
total land and sell it to the planters at the price of not their choice but the prices fixed by the
planters.
Gandhi reached champaran and inquired into the conditions of peasants on the request
of one the peasant, Raj Kumar Shukla. His intervention helped vanish fear from the minds of
poor peasants who stood against authority of British and European planters.
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The local leaders got motivated a lot and asked the people to join the struggle in the
name of Gandhi and as a result masses joined in large numbers and the first local mass
movement of Gandhi in India was successful.
10.3.3.2 Ahemdabad Mill Strike 1918– Gandhi tried to resolve the dispute/fight between
workers and the mill owners in Ahemdabad and here he advised the workers to demand 35%
increase in the wages using the Satyagraha technique.
10.3.3.3 Kheda Satyagraha 1918– Kheda Satyagraha was regarded to be as the first non
cooperation movement. In this movement, Gandhi asked the farmers to not to pay
unnecessary tax/remission to the British due to crop failure.
The British at the end decided not to charge tax and gave back all the confiscated
(forcefully taken away) property of farmers back to them. Kheda Satyagraha brought a new
awakening in the minds of people and Gandhi emerged as a mass leader.
10.3.3.4 Rowlatt Act and Jalliawala Bagh Massacre 1919
Under a committee headed by Justice S Rowlatt, it was decided to give Britishers some extra
powers. They were given unnecessary overpowering authority. It demanded that all the
political activists should be put behind jail for two years and should be imprisoned without a
trial. There was also very strict control over the press that was established. [Bipin Chandra.]
The entire movement resulted in a tragic episode for entire India when General Dyer
opened fire on peaceful satyagrahis and killed 379 people in Amritsar, Punjab. Also Gandhi
felt that in many other parts of India the movement was turning violent in its course. As a
result, Gandhi called off the movement.
IN-TEXT QUESTIONS
1. Name all the western thinkers Mahatma Gandhi was inspired by.
2. When did Mahatma Gandhi return to India-
a) 1915 c) 1918
b) 1912 d) 1930
3. You can divide the initial journey of Mahatma Gandhi into how many phases.
4. Name the system of exploitation followed by British in Champaran.
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Let us look at the role played by Mahatma Gandhi in mobilizing the masses in three of the
most crucial movements in the history of Indian freedom struggle.
10.4 KHILAFAT AND THE NON COOPERATION MOVEMENT
The nationalist agitation that took place against rowlatt act was successful in one important
front – bringing the Hindus and Muslims together against British rule. A new educated
middle class emerged during this time.
10.4.1 Background of the Movement
• The economic situation of the country after First World War was worrisome. The
conditions were high price rise of the goods and decrease in the production of
industries.
• Rowlatt act and Jalliawala bagh massacre made people rise collectively against
British now.
• The hunter commission that was formed after jalliawala bagh massacre did not punish
general dyer and this further lead people to believe in the anti Indian attitude of
Britishers.
• There were constitutional reforms introduced like the Montague Chelmsford reforms
of 1919 by the British which took away the right of self government from the Indians.
These reforms introduced a system of diarchy where some subjects like finance, law,
order, regarded as ‘reserved subjects’ were under the governor and other subjects like
education, public health, local self government called as the ‘transferred subjects’
were to be under the ministers responsible to British legislature.
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10.4.2 The Khilafat Issue

• The politically conscious Muslims in India were critical to the treatment given to the
Ottoman Empire (Turkey) by Britain after First World War. Muslims all over the
world regarded the Sultan of Turkey as their spiritual leader. Since Turkey sided with
Germany and against British in World War 1, Britain in anger and resentment
removed the Turkish Khalifa (Sultan) from the power.
• Indian Muslims demanded that khalifa’s (sultan) control should be reestablished and
he should be given certain territories.
• In 1919, a khilafat conference was organized under the leadership of Ali brothers
(Shaukat Ali and Mohammad Ali), Ajmal khan, Hasrat Mohani to force the British
government to change their aggressive attitude towards turkey in particular and
towards Indians in general. This paved the way for a country wide agitation.
• A wider call was made at the movement to boycott all the British goods.
10.4.3 Gandhi’s Stand
Mahatma Gandhi viewed khilafat as a golden opportunity to unite the Hindus and Muslims
and further bring Muslims closer to the nationalist struggle. He felt that now all the sections
of the people- Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians, peasants, women, artisans, youth,
tribal people and people from different region would see that British were always against
Indians.
He saw it as “opportunity of uniting Hindus and Muslims as would not arise in 100
years.”
• Gandhi along with Ali brothers travelled all across the nation to motivate people to
join the movement.
• Thousands of students left government schools, colleges and joined the national
institutions.
• Lawyers gave up their practice including Jawaharlal Nehru, CR Das, and C
Rajagopalachari.
• Foreign cloth was burnt down and British imports declined severely. There was also
picketing of foreign liquor shops.
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• Peasant’s participation in the movement was massive where peasants turned against
their landlords, traders in places like Rajasthan, Sindh, Awadh, Assam, and
Maharashtra.
• Women too came forward and participated with enthusiasm and gave up Purdah and
also their accessories to TILAK FUND- a fund that was collected for the movement.
10.4.5 Aftermath
However, the final blow to the movement came due to Chauri chaura incident in Gorakhpur
district of Uttar Pradesh in 1922 when villagers burnt alive 22 policemen in a local police
station. Another aftermath of the movement was that the khilafat issue had died completely
and the alliance between Muslim league and congress faded away by this time. Gandhi felt
the masses have crossed the line and he saw this as destruction of his principal of non
violence. As a result, he called the movement off. [Sumit Sarkar]
IN-TEXT QUESTIONS
5. System of Diarchy was introduced as part of which reforms by the British.
Name it along with the year.
6. Khilafat conference was organized in 1919 under the leadership of Ali brothers-
True/False.
7. Name the fund where women deposited all their accessories.
8. Chauri Chaura incident took place when and at which place.
10.5 THE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT
After the withdrawal of the non cooperation movement, Congress and Gandhi both were not
in the position to launch another mass movement. But also at the same time there were
significant changes taking place in form of agitations against the British. Various peasants
and landholders in Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh were frustrated due to crop
failure and subsequent decline in food production. Let us explore the movement further.
[Bipin Chandra.]
10.5.1 Background
• In Calcutta session of congress in 1928, leaders like Nehru, Subash Chandra Bose
expressed their dissatisfaction against the dominion status that was demanded by the
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congress. This group of leaders was called ‘the swarajists’. These leaders wanted
complete swaraj called the PURNA SAWARAJ or full independence from the British
rule. Gandhi feared that this would further disintegrate the movement as the
consensus was developed with lot of efforts. He felt that instead of political demands
like full independence it was better to stick to constructive work like non cooperation.
• Gandhi travelled a lot in 1929 preparing people to organize constructive work in
villages i.e. boycotting foreign clothes and public burning of foreign cloth. It was
further organized by congress working committee.
• Irwin’s declaration, 1929- the main purpose behind the declaration by then viceroy
lord Irwin was to restore the faith in the ultimate purpose of British policy. The
dominion status was promised by Irwin. He also promised the round table conference.
• Delhi manifesto 1929- in Delhi manifesto there were certain demands that were put
forward by the Indian leaders like majority representation for congress in the
conference and release of the political prisoners.
However, these demands were completely rejected by Lord Irwin.
10.5.2 The Independence Pledge of 26th January 1930
There were several public meetings organized all over the towns and villages all over India.
The pledge consisted of the following points-
• Freedom was the inalienable right of the Indians.
• The British government was the reason India was pulled backward politically,
economically, culturally, spiritually and now it was the ultimate right of Indians to
attain complete independence.
10.5.3 Gandhi’s Demands the Lahore session of the congress, Gandhi presented following
demands that included the issues of general interest, demands of the peasants and also
demands of the educated elite and business class.
The demands were as follow–
• Reduce the expenditure on army and civil services by 50%.
• Carry out changes in criminal investigation.
• Allow control of firearms licenses through regulation.
• Release all the political prisoners.
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• Introduce textile production.

• Reserve coastal shipping for Indians.
• Reduce land revenue by 50%.
• Abolish salt tax. [Sumit Sarkar]
10.5.4 Dandi March 1930
On 12th march 1930, Gandhi along with members of Sabarmati ashram marched from
Ahemdabad to the coast of Dandi. This historic march marked the beginning of the civil
disobedience movement. Gandhi asked the people to make salt from sea water and break the
salt law as part of which the British were charging tax on people for salt. In Gujarat, around
300 villages resigned accepting Gandhi’s appeal. [Bipin Chandra.]
There were large sections of people who participated in the civil disobedience movement.
These were as follow–
• Women– Gandhi requested women to be at the forefront of the movement. Women
participated in the movement in huge number. They picketed liquor shops, burnt
foreign cloth.
• Students– students and youth played very important role in the movement.
• Muslims– some areas like north western frontier province saw majority participation
on the part of Muslims. The Muslim weaving community in Bihar, Delhi and
Lucknow were at the forefront of mobilizing people.
• Merchants– traders association and commercial bodies organized boycott at many
different places.
• Tribal– in Maharashtra, Karnataka, central India the tribal organized the movement.
• Peasants– were active in Bihar and Gujarat.
10.5.6 Gandhi Irwin Pact 1931
It is also known as Delhi pact. Irwin finally agreed to accept demands like–
• Immediate release of political prisoners.
• Return of all the land forcefully taken by British.
• Right to make salt in coastal villages for personal consumption.
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• Right to peaceful and non aggressive picketing. [Shekhar Bandhyopadhyay.]

10.5.7 Difference between Civil Disobedience and Non Cooperation-
• The objective in civil disobedience was now complete independence.
• It went beyond the gandhian idea of non cooperation and now the Indians wanted
complete self rule.
• However there was a bit decrease in number of students and lawyers protesting but
the merchants and traders protested in large number.
• The congress was now stronger than before.
10.5.8 Poona Pact and the Communal Award 1932- [Bipin Chandra]
The communal award was declared by British Prime Minister Ramsay McDonald in 1932. It
established separate electorate and reserved seat in favor of the depressed classes of society-
Muslims, Sikhs, Anglo Indians, and other depressed classes, Marathas in Bombay. BR
Ambedkar who was the leader of the backward class was in favor of separate electorates. But
Gandhi and congress saw it as British policy of divide and rule i.e. to divide the Indian people
among themselves and then rule them. There was a lot of debate around this issue. As a result
Ramsay McDonald decided to solve this issue by introduction of what came to be known as
the communal award.
Let us look at its provisions–
• In provincial legislatures, seats were to be distributed on communal basis.
• Muslims were to be favored wherever they were in minority.
• Doubling of existing seats of provincial legislatures.
• 3% reservation of seats for women.
• Double vote for depressed classes- one through separate electorate and another
through general electorate.
• In province of Bombay, 7 seats to be given to Marathas.
10.5.9 Gandhi’s Response
Gandhi response was that he thought that this was a clear and direct attack on the unity of
India.
He believed that it is by eliminating untouchability, the depressed classes can be
protected. Not by providing separate electorates. Gandhi went on an indefinite fast. As a
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result, BR Ambedkar had to step down and he signed the Poona pact of 1932. In this, he gave
up his demand of separate electorates for depressed classes. [Sumit Sarkar]
IN-TEXT QUESTIONS
9. Name the leaders who were called as THE SWARAJISTS.
10. In which year was Irwin’s Declaration signed?
11. The demands in Delhi manifesto were accepted by Lord Irwin- True/False.
12. When was the Independence pledge signed?
13. When was Dandi march organized?
14. Communal Award was declared by whom?
10.6 THE QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT
10.6.1 Background
• The Cripps mission of 1942 was a failure. Cripps mission granted the dominion status
to India but defense of India was to remain with British only. Congress objected to
this partial transfer of power. And by the time, Muslim league wanted a separate state
of Pakistan to be created.
• There was popular discontent among the masses due to price rise, failure of crop.[
Shekhar Bandhyopadhyay.]
10.6.2 The Quit India Resolution
The congress working committee in 1942 created a resolution. This resolution was created by
Nehru and supported by Sardar Patel. It was accepted at a congress meeting in Bombay on 8th
august 1942 .[ Bipin Chandra.]
The demands of the resolution were as follow-
• Immediate end to British rule in India.
• Form a provisional government of India after British withdrawal
• Declare a commitment of free India to defend itself against any foreign rule.
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Gandhi gave certain instructions for people of different classes to follow. These instructions
were-
• He asked the lawyers to not resign but declare their obedience to congress.
• He asked the soldiers not to leave the army.
• Asked students to leave their studies.
• Asked peasants to not pay rent.
• Asked princes to support the masses.
• Asked people of princely state to support only those rulers who were anti government.
• He gave the final call to all- “DO OR DIE”.
However the British were in every mood to suppress the movement. As a result, all the
top congress leaders were arrested on 9th august 1942. The congress working committee
and other organizations like all India congress committee and provincial congress
committees were declared unconstitutional. [Shekhar Bandhyopadhyay.]
10.6.4 Participation– large number of people participated in the movement students of
schools, colleges; women leaders like Aruna Asif Ali, Usha Mehta all lead the movement.
Workers, peasants and even the zamindars participated. Muslims helped by giving
shelter to underground activists.
The communists however supported British in Second World War against Germany.
The Muslim league by this time opposed the movement because they feared that if British left
India they would be treated like minorities and would be oppressed by Hindus.
10.6.5 Government Response
British response was severe suppression of the movement. They lathi charged people; tear
gasses them and even fired upon them. It is believed that over ten thousand people were dead.
Villages were fined heavily. Main storm centers of this movement were places like eastern
united province, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Midnapore. [Sumit Sarkar]
But it is to be noted that the movement itself was of great significance as it declared
the ultimate goal of the complete independence by the masses. This was considered as
FINAL CALL. All the three movements saw great participation by people in huge numbers.
They displayed unparalleled strength and enthusiasm. Even in the face of force and brutalities
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used by the British in all the movements, Indians stood faced it with lot of courage. Though
there times when the Gandhian principal of non violence was not followed and also the
movement was suppressed due to both britishers and also due to differences tall that emerged
in hearts and minds of Indian people themselves but the final goal of independence was never
given up and was ultimately achieved in later years.
IN-TEXT QUESTIONS
15. Quit India resolution was created by which two leaders?
16. Name all the five storm centers of this movement.
10.7 SUMMARY
Gandhi emerged truly as the LEADER OF THE MASSES in all these movements. The
ability to inspire and motivate and take along such a diverse population of the nation was a
daunting task and Mahatma Gandhi in the wide spectrum of the leaders came across one such
leader who used his policy of Satyagraha and his ideal of non violence as his weapons against
the British power. His persona and teaching affected every class of the Indian society. This
was the reason that in all the three movement studied above we noticed participation of
people belonging to wide sections of the society. His will to preach what he believed in and
his ability to connect even to a person residing in the remotest village of the country is
nothing short of excellent leadership. His use of symbols like khadi, dhoti and his ideas did
not seem alien to Indian people, rather they connected with it the most. Gandhi truly led the
movement of the Indian nationalist struggle against a foreign rule and came out as a force or
a link that succeeded in connecting all loose threads.
10.8 ANSWERS TO IN TEXT QUESTIONS
1. Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, John Ruskin.

2. 1915
3. Five phases.
4. Tinkathia system.
5. Montague Chelmsford reforms of 1919.
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6. True.
7. Tilak fund.
8. Gorakhpur district, Uttar Pradesh.
9. Jawaharlal Nehru , Subash Chandra Bose
10. 1929
11. False.
12. 26th Jan. 1930
13. 12th March 1930
14. Ramsay McDonald.
15. Sardar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru.
16. Midnapore, eastern united province, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka.
1. What were the ideals of a true satyagrahi as envisaged by Gandhi?

2. Upon his return to India, what were the movements Gandhi engaged himself in, for
mobilizing the masses. Explain the movements.
3. Explain the background of the khilafat and non cooperation movement.
4. Trace the evolution of the civil disobedience movement. State the basic points of
difference between the civil disobedience movement and the non cooperation
movement.
5. What was the quit India movement. Analyze the movement in detail. Do you feel
that Gandhi was a major force in mobilizing the masses in this movement?
10.10 REFERENCES
• Bipin Chandra., The nationalist movement [1905-1918]., History of Modern

India(2009)
• Ram Chandra Pradhan., The mainstream of the Indian national movement., Raj to
Swaraj(2008)
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Book Trust, India
• Bipin Chandra ., Essays On Colonialism(1999)
• Partha Chatterjee., colonial and the post colonial histories, The Nation And Its
Fragments.
• Shekhar Bandhyopadhyay., The age of Gandhian politics., Freedom with partition.,
From Plassey to Partition and After: A History of Modern India(2004)
• Sumit Sarkar., Modern India 1885-1947(1983)
• Bipin Chandra., The nationalist movement [1905-1918]., History of Modern

India(2009)
• Ram Chandra Pradhan., The mainstream of the Indian national movement., Raj to
Swaraj(2008)
• Kalpana Rajaram,. A Brief History of Modern India., (1995)
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LESSON-11
REVOLUTIONARIES, SOCIALISTS AND COMMUNISTS
Dr. Latika Bishnoi
STRUCTURE

11.2 Introduction
113 The Revolutionaries
11.3.1 Hindu Revivalism
11.3.2 Revolutionary Extremism
11.3.3 Trends of the Revolutionaries
11.3.4 Impact of the Revolutionaries
11.4 The Socialists
11.5 The Communists
11.6 Summary
11.7 Glossary
11.9 References
The objective of the lesson is to understand the role of the revolutionaries, socialists and
communists in the Indian National Movement. The study brings to light different ideologies
that functioned during the national movement; and different organisations and leaders who
played an important role in enlightening the feeling of nationalism and making it a
mobilisation of the masses. The student will know the names of the leaders and their
organisations in this chapter and also how their leadership brought a new trajectory to the
national movement.
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11.2 INTRODUCTION
The scholarship on the rise of revolutionaries, socialism and communism across the world
brings to light the idea of resistance in societies that were controlled by an imperial power
and faced colonial subjugation. In developing societies like that of India, the idea of
resistance came in the form of nationalism and national movement against the British rule
that controlled India through its oriental methods. Economic deterioration, policies that
intervened with the traditional society and oriental methods were all reasons that led to the
rise of Indian nationalism. Most of all the idea lay in the fact that India as a nation should be
indigenously ruled by the Indians. Sekhar Bandyopadhyay points out that idea of nationalism
in India was a product of ‘colonial modernity,’ and national consciousness was realised in
several forms. The early nationalist school where the feeling of nationalism emerges from the
pride in India’s ancient tradition, the neo-traditionalists. The Cambridge school saw
nationalism in the emergence of localised movements of various local groups in competition
of favour for their groups or clans. The Marxist school characterises the national movement
within the parameters of economic development and rise of marker society where the
bourgeoisie leadership directed the mobilisation to suit the interests of a certain class and
ignored the working class altogether. The subaltern school observes the ‘blinkered
historiography’; where the national movement and the bourgeois ledearship fails to
appropriate the role of the subalterns.
The Indian National Movement was a mobilisation that took root in the form of
resistance in India against the British Raj. The mobilisation tried to encompass all sections of
people under its umbrella. Revolutionary ideas in Indian nationalism can go back to the
period of 1857 when the mutiny of the sepoys stood against the British Empire on the issue of
rifles, which came against the backdrop of the British’s state policies and arrogance of
superiority of English culture. It was a loud voice of the rural society of India who fought
against the subjecthood of the British and the orientalist ideology. The mutiny was severely
suppressed but a few historians still refer to it as the First war of Indian independence.’
11.3 THE REVOLUTIONARIES
Revolutionaries are generally considered people who take a stand against the state or the
state’s policy.
Across the world, there have been several revolutionaries that have paved the way for
certain changes through mostly extremist methods. Some revolutionaries challenge the
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system or the society’s norms as well but they do not take the extremist procedure. They are
mostly observed at places where the state control has been strong and mostly where the
colonial system has paved way for the subjugation of the society. In India, the idea of the
revolutionary idea pre-independence adhered to the notion of freedom from the British
Empire, and from poverty that had paved the way for the system. The strong belief is that the
indigenous people belonging to the nation should rule the country and the colonial rule
should uproot completely.
The Indian National Movement was largely dominated by the western educated
leaders who were moderates under the Indian National Congress. Indian National Congress
was founded in 1885 and its main goal was independence from the British. The methods of
the Congress have kept changing now and again but initially until the late 19th century and
the early 20th century, it believed in working with the British. The British however looked at
them with contempt. The Congress failed to mobilise the masses to a large level. It was only
when the Partition of Bengal took place in 1905 that there was a rise of new ideology within
the movement. The fact that India belonged to them and there were other methods needed to
get self-rule as largely propagated. Bengal was considered an important place of nationalist
sentiments. It was also here and largely in North India that a new set of revolutionary ideas
became to emerge. Some of the sides were based on Hindu Revivalism while the others were
based on Socialist and Communist principles.
ACTIVITY
Watch the movie Mangal Pandey: The Rising (2005).
The movie would give an idea of the fact that why the sepoy mutiny took place in
India. The issue of the rifle and the Indian community gathering to stand against the
British would give an idea of the Indian discontent against an empire due to which
several villages and common man faced subjugation.
11.3.1 Hindu Revivalism

Revolutionary ideas have now and again also upsurged in different symbols and literature
where the idea of Mother India was put forward. Religious symbols were given importance
by the Hindu revivalists. Festivals like the Ganpati and Shivaji festivals by Bal Gangadhar
Tilak were used as places to influence the masses and make them understand the strength of
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their traditions and culture. Nationalism found its way in the form of symbols which were
used to mobilise the masses. Hindu religious symbols like cow protection, when it came to
the age of consent of marriage, language, Hindu Festivals, and British interference in Hindu
traditional beliefs; projected a threat to the Indian society and the revivalists believed that the
Indian traditions and ancient scripts were superior to any alien western education.
Religious awakening played a pivot role in Hindu revivalism. Contempt for Western
education and British interference in Indian cultures and traditions miffed the revivalists and
Bal Gangadhar and V.D Savarkar led the movement in Maharashtra while Aurobindo Ghosh,
Vivekanand Bankim Chandra played an important role in Bengal. Tilak was inspired by the
Bhagwad Geeta and laid strong emphasis on the Shivaji and Ganpati festivals to influence the
masses. Influenced by him the Chapekar brothers formed the Hindu Dharma Sanrakshini
Sabha, responsible for the assassination of a few British Officers. V.D Savarkar formed an
association called the Mitra Mela in Nasik in 1900. The society actively participated in the
Ganpati and Shivaji festivals to influence the masse. The works of Bankim Chandra
Chatterjee and Swami Vivekanand influenced several young leaders. Bande Matram from
Chatterjee’s Anand Math became a symbolic slogan, which taught the masses the importance
of the motherland.
11.3.2 Revolutionary Extremism
Dissatisfied by Gandhi’s withdrawal from the Non-Cooperation Movement, post-1922 saw a
rise of extremist ideas in India. India witnessed a rise of revolutionaries with different
socialist and communist ideologies who believed that passive resistance would not help in
gaining independence from British repression. Post-1920s also saw a change in the ideology
within the Congress and a group of younger leaders emerged moving towards socialist and
communist ideas.
India’s struggle for independence witnessed a rise of several resistances at the root at
a local and higher level. It was during this time the pattern or manner of resistance that paved
way for different ideologies.
Several foreign influences have had an impact on the revolutionary, socialist and
communist ideology of India like the American war of independence, the Irish struggle, the
Unification of Italy, the lives of Mazzini and Garibaldi, when Japan won against Russia, and
mostly the October Revolution of 1917 of Russia.
The nationalist sentiments united the people altogether and put forward the idea of the
nation. The Partition of Bengal in 1905, which came to bifurcate the state based on
administration, was also seen as a way to divide the religious Hindu and Muslim
Communities of Bengal. The partition saw a huge mobilisation and people gathering against
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the British to undo the policy. This was perhaps also the ground of disillusionment and the
further rise of revolutionary ideas.
Indian nationalism has had variegated ideologies and their struggle for independence.
Socialism was one such ideology that was adopted by the younger generation who sought a
different pathway from the mainstream moderates.
The Non-Cooperation Movement launched by Gandhi was taken aback and shattered
the hopes of many sections of youth, who sought a revolutionary path. Swarajists’ method for
independence was considered obsolete and a new method that intensified the struggle for
revolution through violent means was given importance as an alternative to the methods of
the Congress.
11.3.3 Trends of the Revolutionaries
Two trends of revolutionary terrorism paved the way among the young leaders, one in
Punjab, north UP and Bihar and the other in Bengal. Their influence emerged from three
places, one was the rise of the working class and trade unionism after the First World War,
the Bolshevik revolution that took place in Russia and the lastly on the emergence of new
groups based on the communist trends and understanding of the Marxist ideologies.
Several organisations and cases emphasize the fact that the Indian revolutionaries
tried to bring to light the issues of the Indian masses and resort to violence as a method to
gain complete independence. Ramprasad Bismil, Jogesh Chatterjee and Sachindranath Sanyal
were among the first to bring in revolutionary mobilisation in northern India, their book
Bandi Jiwan was a source of inspiration for several revolutionaries. They formed the
Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) in Kanpur in October 1924 to strategize on
revolutionary methods to overthrow the British and establish a republic of the Federal
Republic of the United States of India based on adult franchises.
The Kakori Robbery Case of Lucknow was their first revolutionary step but
backfired when several leaders were arrested and hanged. Influenced by socialist ideas the
HRA was reorganised under the leadership of Chandra Shekhar Azad by young leaders from
UP- Bejoy Kumar Sinha, Shiv Varma and Jaidev Kapur; and Punjab -Bhagat Singh,
Bhagwati Charan Vohra and Sukhdev. On September 1928, the name of the HRA was
changed to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (Army).
The mechanism of the revolutionaries was to shift to mass politics instead of violent
means but the death of Lala Lajpat Rai during the Anti- Simon protests in 1928 affected the
revolutionaries and in December 1928, Bhagat Singh, Azad and Rajguru took to the
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assassination of a police official Saunders at Lahore, Saunders responsible for the lathi charge
of Lala Lajpat Rai.
The incident was to bring to notice the new modus operandi of the revolutionaries that
laid much emphasis on a revolution by the masses. In April 1929, another incident was to
take place, throwing a bomb at the Assembly. The act was to take place against the Public
Safety Bill and the Trade Dispute Bill, which worked against the rights of the workers and
curtailed the civil liberties of the people. The objective was to use the platform for larger
propaganda by getting arrested. They were tried in the conspiracy case and hanged in March
1931, but their slogans like Inquilab Zindabad, Long live the proletariat, down with
imperialism, make the deaf hear and the song rang de Basanti Chola won them nationwide
sympathy while their death stirred the soul of every human struggling for freedom under the
colonial power.
Several such incidents where the revolutionaries stood up against the British atrocities
brought the idea of revolution into Indian minds. Jatin Das took to a hunger strike against the
British for the plight of Indians in jails, to be treated as political prisoners and not as
criminals. His death paved way for another mass sympathy and stir. The Lahore Conspiracy
Case further saw several revolutionaries being convicted or deported to Andaman.
In Bengal, the revolutionaries worked simultaneously with Congress, which provided
them with a base. They helped C.R Das and his Swarajist work. His death divided the
Congress into two groups – one led by Subhash Chandra Bose, the Yugantar group and the
second Anushilan Samiti led by J.M Sengupta. Their revolutionaries’ goal was to assassinate
Charles Target, the commissioner of Calcutta. The attempt was made by Gopinath Saha in
September 1934. Unfortunately, another Englishman was assassinated leading to the arrest of
several revolutionaries and their death which brought the downfall of the revolutionary
movement. Further setback to the movement was also due to the multiple issues that led to
factions among the two leading groups. Among these revolutionised groups was a group led
by Surya Sen called the Chittagong group. Surya Sen’s main belief was “humanism is a
special virtue of the revolutionary.” With a group of several other young revolutionaries, the
group took to occupy two Chittagong armouries. Their target was to seize arms and destroy
telegraphs and communications and destroy the railway communication between Chittagong
and the rest of Bengal. In April 1930, the raid was made but unfortunately, no arms were
found they did succeed in disrupting the telecommunication services and the railways. The
raid was taken under the banner of the Indian republican Army, Chittagong Branch. The
revolutionaries then fled and Surya Sen hid for three years in nearby villages, only to be
found and hanged in January 1934.
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ACTIVITY
Watch the movie The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002).
The movie is a source of understanding of the life of Bhagat Singh a revolutionary
who resorted to revel against the British witnessing the Jallainwala massacre at a
young age. While the Non- Cooperation movement was at its peak, the Chauri
Chaura incident brought a setback to the movement because of which Gandhi
withdrew the movement. Also, it was a time when Simon Commission comes to
India and Lala Lajpat Rai is beaten to death. Death of such an honourable leader
made youth like Bhagat Singh and his comrades take up arms. They decided to bomb
the assembly, not with the intention to hurt but to make the government and people
understand the atrocities of the people against the two bills that were being
introduced. While imprisoned, they take up hunger strike against the atrocities of the
prisoners where Jatin Das dies. The movie brings to light the sacrifices by the Indian
revolutionaries while also popularising the song of Rang de Basanti Chola.
11.3.4 Impact of the Revolutionaries

These incidents impacted the country largely and stirred the imagination of the youth. In
1931 and 1932 more incidents emerged. In Midnapore, three district judges were
assassinated. The government brought in several repressive acts to suppress the
revolutionaries. Jawaharlal Nehru was arrested in the year 1933 for his Calcutta speech where
he praised the revolutionaries and condemned imperialism.
The Chittagong group was more based on group revolutionaries than individualistic.
Several revolutionaries like Kalpana Dutt (captured along with Surya Sen) and Pritilata
Waddedar (died in a raid) played an important role in the revolution for freedom. Some of
these revolutionaries even shed their religiosity for the revolution. Their mechanism was to
follow the Russian Nihilists and the Irish terrorists.
The enlargement in the ideology of the revolutionary was made by Bhagat Singh and
his comrades. Who believed in the abolition of all systems that exploited the common man,
nationalisation of the railways, organising peasants and workers and formulating an armed
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resistance. Bhagat Singh in later years adapted to Marxist ideology and believed in mass
mobilisation as a means to popular revolution.
He helped establish Punjab Naujawan Bharat sabha in the year 1926, an organisation
that helped in political work and membership for several revolutionaries. He and Ramprasad
Bismil under the banner of the HRA even dismissed the violent methods. Ramprasad Bismil
even appealed to the people to work with Congress. Chandrashekhar Azad defined revolution
as independence economic, political and social
CASE STUDY
Observe the Kakori Robbery Case in August 1925, where the HRA members
Ramprasad Bismil and Asfaqullah Khan looted the train travelling from
Shahjanpir to Lucknow in the village Kakori. The belief was that the train
carried money that the British intended to take. The money belonged to the
people of India and it had to be taken back.
11.4 THE SOCIALISTS
The 1920 to 1930 period witnessed the radicalisation of the national movement with the rise
of socialist ideas under Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose. Gradually two political
parties formed in India- the Communist Party of India and the Congress Socialist Party.
Russia witnessed the rise of the Bolsheviks based on the communist ideology paving way for
the Russian revolution of 1917 that brought down the despotic Czarist rule. The doctrine
further attracted several Asian leaders. Socialist ideas influenced the younger generation
leaders who were dissatisfied with the outcome of the Non-cooperation movement and
wanted India to be independent fast. The idea behind this was that there was a constant
struggle between the Indian elite and the working class that is the Kisan sabhas and the trade
unions.
Several youth programmes were organised across the country and Subhash Chandra
Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru toured the country and attacked imperialism, the feudal structures
and propagated socialist ideas. The revolutionary terrorists turned to socialism. Economic
depression, world war and the rise of unemployment under capitalism across the world
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further paved the way for further socialist ideals, which the youth believed could free the
workers from the misery of subjugation by the landlords and the British Raj.
Jawaharlal Nehru was the first to preach the socialist ideals in the national movement
and in the idea of adapting to its ideology in 1929. He was elected the president of the Lahore
Congress in 1929 and believed that only through the economic emancipation of the masses
that political freedom can be achieved. He pioneered the socialist orientation in the Indian
youth. In 1927, he attended the Brussels conference on imperialism and colonialism and met
several anti-colonial fighters and the Marxists. The same year he visited Russia where he saw
the implementation of socialist ideals. In 1928, he joined Subhash Chandra Bose to form the
India league for complete freedom. In Whither India he wrote ‘surely to the great human goal
of social and economic equality, to the ending of all exploitation of nation by nation and class
by class.’ Further, in 1933 he went on to say ‘The true civic ideal is the socialist ideal, the
communist ideal.’ In his presidential address in Lucknow in 1936, he proclaimed his clear
passion for socialism which he believed was the only solution to poverty, degradation of
society and unemployment. In his own words, “I am convinced that the only key to the
solution of the world’s problems and India’s problems lies in socialism, and when I use this
world I do so not in a vague humanitarian way but in the scientific, economic sense… I see
no way of ending the poverty, the vast unemployment, the degradation, and the subjection of
the Indian people except through socialism.”
His ideas found contradiction with Gandhi's idea of peaceful resistance. He praised
Gandhi for his important role in reaching the masses and raising mass consciousness but he
failed to see the class difference in Indian society and propounded harmony between the
exploiters and the exploited.
He proclaimed that he is a socialist and a republican at the Lahore session of the
Congress held in 1929. Nehru’s socialist ideals though had a political framework, he believed
in ‘nationalism and political freedom as represented by the Congress and social freedom as
represented by socialism’ the idea was to bring these two uphill tasks together. He did not
want to be separate from the Congress but to influence the Congress in a more socialist ideal
by bringing the larger masses of peasants and workers under its banner. He did not believe
that the Left organisations should work separately from Congress.
11.5 THE COMMUNISTS

The Communist ideology of the Soviets attracted several Indian political leaders towards
them. The most prominent among them was M. N Roy, who helped formulate the
International Communist ideology towards the colonies along with Lenin. Seven Indians
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along with him met at Tashkent after October 1920 and organised a Communist Party of
India. Post-1920s also saw a rise in several communist organisations in India. An all-India
organisation was formed in Kanpur in December 1925 under the banner of the Communist
Party of India with S V Ghate as its secretary. A clarion call was given to enrol under its
banner and radicalise the Congress party.
Important work for the organisation was to bring together the workers and the
peasants. The labour part was formed in Bengal in November 1925 led by Muzaffar Ahmed,
Qazi Nazrul Islam, and Hemant Kumar Sarkar. Congress labour party in Bombay and Kirti
Kisan party in Punjab was formed in the year 1926. Hindustan’s labour party worked in
Madras since 1926. All these organisations were organised under the banner Workers’ and
Peasants’ Party, with its base in Rajasthan, where the communists of India got together. The
idea was to work together with Congress and radicalise it into a larger mass movement, make
it ‘the party of the people,’ bring together the subalterns, achieve freedom and implement the
socialist principles. Leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru further played an important role in making
it stronger. Trade unions saw the greatest mobilisation of the communist ideology in 1927-
1929.
The communist influence however got a setback in 1929 after the repression of the
British. Their effort in trying to come to India in 1922, conspiracy cases in Peshawar; and
their role in the Kanpur conspiracy case made the British vigilant in striking and arresting
most of the communist leaders. In 1929 several communist leaders were further arrested.
The concern of the British was to try and suppress the growing influence of the trade
movement among the workers; and the communist influence among the Indian masses.
Almost thirty-two were convicted in the Meerut conspiracy case. The case led to the wide
publication of communist support in newspapers. The government’s strategy was to segregate
the communists from mainstream politics.
In the latter period, the communist broke their connection with the National Congress
asserting sectarian politics, calling it the party of the elites and supportive towards imperialist
power. The idea of mass mobilisation under the banner of Poorna Swaraj was seen as a
mechanism of influencing the masses by the bourgeoisie class who worked with the British.
Even leaders like Nehru and Bose were looked upon as more profound of the Congress's
mainstream ideology. The communist ideology was now that of armed struggle against the
British imperialist policy. There was a fear of the peasants falling prey to the bourgeoisie
influence of the congress leaders hence the communists moved away to form a more
independent centralised communist party. There were further splits in the group, which
further benefitted the British, who in 1934 declared the communist party illegal.
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The communist organisations’ saving point was because of their support in the civil
disobedience movement and the spread of the ideology in the nation where several young
revolutionaries stood up under the influence of Marxism, Soviet Union and socialism.
In 1936, the communists under the Dun-Bradley thesis, the communist agreed to
make congress the sole organisation for national mobilisation. Their whole ideology under
the leadership of P.C Joshi was to now stand against imperialism and support the congress
and its struggle against the British.
In October 1934, Congress Socialist Party was formed under the leadership of
Jayaprakash Narayan, Acharya Narendra Dev and Minoo Masani as an alternative to the
present communist party but with a similar ideology and to work within the parameters of
Congress. They however still believed in reorganising the peasants and the workers but
within the umbrella of the Congress. The idea was to transform the Congress and still
strengthen it. They believed that the congress eldership did not have the potential to influence
the masses and hence there was a need for transformation to reach the masses to make the
national movement stranger. The Meerut Thesis of 1935 made it clear that the bourgeoisie
leadership of the congress needs to be replaced and there was a need for a more radical
socialist leadership. The CSP ideology comprised three principles, the Marxists, Fabian and
the Gandhian influence. In the latter era, the party was divided into two groups, one that
followed the congress and the other that bifurcated from it.
But, despite the difference, the CSP identified socialism with Marxism. JP Narayan in
his book depicted socialism clearly with Marxism. In the 1930s several groups were further
formed like the Royalists by M. N Roy. Subhash Bose founded the Forward Bloc in 1939,
after his compulsive resignation from Congress.
Though differences existed, all groups worked together after 1935 to make socialism
stronger in India. Their ideology rested on bringing together the workers and the peasants
were anti-imperial in their struggle for a social transformation of the society. The left firmly
fought the dominant Congress, opposed the Congress who sought support from the British
and in 1947 confronted the Congress against their strategy of negotiation of transfer for
power.
Several academicians observe the left groups failed to understand Indian politics and
limited themselves to the criticism of the congress's dominance. There was a need for the
Congress to function in the manner it adopted and the communists overlooked that. Their
prime focus was limited to the changes and Indian socialism. The target to radicalise the
movement was restricted to its persistence in armed struggle, without understanding the fact
if the masses were even ready for a struggle like that. They further failed to group different
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left organisations. Even Nehru and Bose could not work together after a while due to their
differences. Their impact however was prominent when congress brought to light the misery
of the poor to the forefront and the fact that poverty can only be eliminated if the colonial
power was uprooted. The impact of communism was visible in several trade union
movements and the rising working-class support. Rise of workers and peasents party in
Bengal (1928), workers’ jute mill strike (1929 and 1937) are some examples where the
communist influence was witnessed under the leadership of the bhadralok community who
were the middle- intelligentsia and were trained in Moscow. Several workers strike in
Bombay by the Bombay Cotton mill workers in 1924 for the bonus. All these strikes saw the
communist presence which Chadavarkar observes that these strikes were not just against the
state or a certain class, their social relations, or their exclusion from the mainstream. They not
just worked as workers but organised community ties to network building strong communist
support among the masses. There was also a further rise of the communists after the Civil
Disobedience Movement around 1933-1934 and several Congressmen were supportive. Their
strong support of the labour class was visible. In the Quit India Movement, the communists
drew huge support from the masses through the trade unions and AITUC, which had a
membership of approximately 337, 695. The role of the communists in organising these
masses into a formed struggle could not be overlooked by the Congress during the Indian
National Movement.
11.6 SUMMARY
Conclusively, one can see that while the Indian national movement was forming its base
against the British, several groups in India came under the banner of revolutionaries,
socialists and Communists. Revolutionaries came in the wake of the withdrawal of the Non-
Cooperation movement in the year 1922. While Gandhian ideology was considered different
by the moderates and the extremists who ruled Congress then, it was also seen as an ideology
that did not befit the Indian national movement by the revolutionaries. The Non- Cooperation
as launched when the Rowlatt Act and the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre were seen as the
highest form of British atrocity. And despite all the common masses and leaders joining
hands with the Movement, the movement was taken aback due to the Chauri Chaura
incident. The revolutionaries saw this as a blow to their effort and new alternatives were
taken under. While the revolutionary ideals were taken into account, several followed the
principles of socialism and Marxism for a just and classless society. Importance was also
given to the working class and the peasants who had long been overlooked due to economic
and social differences that divided the society. It was also considered that while congress
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worked for freedom, it did not take into account the issues of the subaltern classes whose
woes were overlooked. The congress comprised the educated elite who only worked on the
lines of the British. The revolutionaries saw the flaw and the atrocities and took to violence to
spread their message against the British. While the government struck down the
revolutionaries, their message was heard loud and afar. The socialist methods resorted to the
ideal of a just and equal society by Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose. Freedom
could not be achieved unless everyone was also economically independent.
The difference in the methods also led to further diversities in the socialist cause. The
communists on the other hand brought to light the Marxist Leninists ideology and believed
that the new industrial policy was followed by the Congress and that the congress overlooked
the subaltern working class. It is to be noted, while these organisations were completely
different in their strategies; they took their roots from congress and their slow method of
freedom. These methods and ideologies were taken into account to reach the common
masses, but in the end, it cannot also be overlooked that the Congress emerged as the larger
party and despite the efforts of the left wings; it was considered that Freedom can only be
achieved under one banner of the Congress. The freedom Movement saw the unification of
all organisations and ideologies despite their differences in methodologies. Needless to say,
the socialist foundations and beliefs were so strong that even when India gained freedom in
1947 and Jawaharlal Nehru went on to become the Prime Minister of India, he adhered to and
made an effort to integrate the socialist principles into the Indian Constitution and for a long
time, socialism was perhaps the main goal of the Indian Planning Commission of India.
ACTIVITY
Watch the movie Gandhi (1982).
The movie is a based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi. A biographical understanding and
his journey of the Mahatma from South Africa to India; and how he took to several
mobilisations like the Non-Cooperation movement, Civil Disobedience Movement and
the Quit India Movement. The movie gives an idea of his ideology of passive resistance,
his struggle against the British Empire and his several imprisonments. The picture
would give an understanding of the national movement that took place in India leading
to the Indian independence from colonial power.
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11.7 GLOSSARY
AITUC: All India Trade Union Congress.

HRA: Hindustan Rebulican Assosciation.
HSRA: Hindustan Socialist Republic Association.
1. Discuss the revolutionary movement in India.

2. Elaborate on the Kakori Robbery Case.
3. Discuss the role of Jawaharlal Nehru in Indian Socialism.
4. What were the main beliefs of the Communists of India?
11.9 REFERENCES
• Bandyopadhyay, S. (2015 revised edition) From Plassey to Partition and after a

History of Modern India. New Delhi: Orient Longman.
• Chandra, B. (1988) India’s Struggle for Independence, New Delhi. Penguin.
• Chatterjee, P. (2010) ‘A Brief History of Subaltern Studies’, in Chatterjee, Partha
Empire & Nation: Essential Writings (1985-2005). New Delhi: Permanent Black.
• Guha, Ranajit. (1982). Subaltern Studies, I. Oxford University Press. Delhi.
• Sarkar, S. (1983) Modern India (1885-1847). New Delhi: Macmillan.
Indian Thought and the Social Sciences. Vol X. New Delhi: Oxford University Press
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LESSON-12
COMMUNALISM IN INDIAN POLITICS
Amit Mishra
STRUCTURE

12.2 Introduction
12.3 Religious Polarization (Muslims and Hindus)
12.4 The Political and Religious Mobilisation Since 1857
12.5 Divide and Rule: British India
12.6 Partition of Bengal: Since1905
12.7 Creation of the Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha
12.8 The Gandhian Idea of Hindu-Muslim Unity: Khilafat and Partition
12.9 Two Nations Theory
12.10 Conclusion
12.12 Glossary
12.13 References
The major objectives of the lesson will be to understand communalism from an Indian
perspective; further, this lesson tries to discuss the evolution of communalism in Indian
politics during the British Indian administration.
12.2 INTRODUCTION
India has been a place for all, irrespective of one’s personal beliefs, traditions, race, culture
and food habits. India is often referred to as the land of cultural pluralism and diversity,
where two contrasting worldviews – the traditional and continuous and the formal and
official thrive (Thakur, 2011). In such a dicey scenario, communal clashes are quite
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inevitable. One of the prime reasons for these clashes was the stuffy economy of India,
during the British administration, which was a crucial factor for the expansion of
communalism in India, including detestation and differences of faith. However, the
discrepancy in faith alone was not the central reason for the quarrel. The differences emerged
only during the colonial course when many consequences were seen, and they were
accountable for the advancement and maturation of communalism in modern India. The
colonial majesties presented it as the concern of the justification of minorities. Another factor
for promoting communalism in India was that in the 19th Century, several religious
associations were formed by the Hindu and Muslim residents, whose purposes were very
distinct as compared to the present. These were organizations that began to play communal
politics. In many instances, communal riots are usually politically motivated (Micheli, 2021).
This would lead to a chain of occurrences that would eventually lead to the partition of India.
A communal and malformed view of Indian history, especially of the ancient and medieval
terms, was also liable for its growth. In this regard, the British historian James Mill in the
early 19th century represented the ancient period of Indian history as the Hindu era and the
medieval period as the Muslim era. Consequently, many other British and Indian historians
pursued him in this respect.
The upper-class Muslims during the first 70 years of the nineteenth century were also
very anti-British, conservative and hostile to modern education. The comparative
backwardness of the Muslims and their neglect to satisfy themselves from the socio-cultural
reforms of the 19th century made them view Hindus as competitors and aspire for political
dominance. Therefore, the religious unlikeness between communities overlapped with social
and class distinctions resulting in communal disharmony (Anshu, 2020). According to Bipan
Chandra (1984), communalism developed as a tool of economically and politically
reactionary social forces and political groups. During the national movement, a substantial
religious component was oriented toward nationalist reflection and propaganda. Hindu idiom
was introduced to its day-to-day political agitation. For instance, Bal Gangadhar Tilak used
the Ganesh pooja and Shivaji Mahotsav to propagate nationalism. Preeminent personalities
like Bankim Chandra Chatterjee often quoted Muslims as outsiders in their writings. All these
happenings were recreated with the sentiments of the Muslims and estranged them from the
Hindus.
On the other hand, through the ages, India has been extending a broader hand to the
humiliated and persecuted communities and races for their survival and development.
Ranging from Jews to Persian, India's approach to a peaceful world could never be denied.
India has also hosted shelters for refugees from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bengalis from
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East Pakistan, which reveals the greatness of India towards protecting the world communities
(Kothari, 1989). The multi-lingual, multi-ethnic, multi-religious identity of India has had a
contested history which reveals the diversity in India. Despite such a diversified arrangement,
religious radicalisation in India has degraded its historical ethos and fractured the very nature
of India's tolerant mentality, not only at the social level, but the rise of religious identity in
politics is also a grave concern (Saurabh, 2022). Indian Constitution has been framed to shut
down religious intolerance through different Fundamental Rights such as Article 14, Article
25 to 28 and so on. Despite such a comprehensive arrangement, many political parties have
been functioning under the purview of a distinct religious identity, making the political party
more selective regarding their actions and orientations (Malviya, 2021).
Religious denomination in politics has been a severe challenge for Indian politics
since the pre-independence period. Probably, the communal parties are using the religious
policies and programmes in their election manifesto to extract the consent of the masses;
therefore, it becomes pertinent for the electorates to check the promises and commitments of
the parties not in terms of commonality but instead in terms of development (Devji, 2014).
The subsequent sections will explain the meaning and development of communalism and its
application in Indian politics; moreover, the sub-sections will reflect the evolution of
communal politics at both regional and national levels. Further, this lesson will explain the
disastrous results of communal politics in India, which need to be eradicated through
conscious political and social reforms at all levels of government. After a detailed analysis of
all the aspects of communalism in Indian politics, this lesson will conclude with significant
recommendations that will be helpful for the eradication of the menace of communalism from
Indian politics.
12.3 RELIGIOUS POLARIZATION (MUSLIMS AND HINDUS)
The communal clash reached a stage where the claims of the supporters of distinct
religions or other religious 'communities' are seen to be mutually conflicting, confrontational
and opposing. Thus, at this phase, the communalists argue that Hindus and Muslims cannot
have shared secular interests and that their material inducements are bound to differ
(Varshney, 2002). It primarily started in the colonial era, when the colonial administration
treated Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs as distinct communities (Jalal, 1994). They facilitated
provincialism by emitting Bengali domination. They attempted to employ the caste
arrangement to turn non-Brahmins against Brahmins and the lower castes against the upper
castes (Jaffrelot, 2003). In Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where Hindus and Muslims had forever
lived in amicability, they vigorously provoked the tendency to replace Urdu as the court
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language with Hindi (Varshney, 2002). In other terms, they endeavoured to use even the fair
needs of various sections of Indian society to build walls of hatred and insecurity among the
Indian people (Brass, 2003). Even though Hindus and Muslims followed different religious
practices, their economic and political interests were not distinguishable on that basis (Yadav,
2000). Hindus were separated from fellow Hindus, and Muslims from fellow Muslims, by
lingua franca, culture, caste, rank, social group, food and dressing style, social habits,
religious practices and so on. The Hindu and Muslim masses had developed prevalent ways
of life also in social and cultural aspects. A Bengali Muslim and a Bengali Hindu had
considerably more in common than a Punjabi Muslim and a Bengali Muslim had (Bhargava,
1998). Moreover, British imperialism oppressed and exploited Hindus and Muslims equally
and jointly (Metcalf, 1982).
The notion that communalism in India originated with Mohammad Bin Qasim's
invasion in 712 A.D. is a simplification of a complex history. While it's true that Bin Qasim's
invasion was a significant event, scholars generally view communalism as emerging from a
multi-layered interplay of social, political, and economic factors over centuries (Chandra,
1984). The invasion did divide populations along religious lines to some extent, and taxes
like Jizya were imposed on non-Muslims in certain periods. However, these acts were part of
larger imperial practices and not solely aimed at creating communal divisions (Metcalfe &
Metcalfe, 2006).
However, some Muslim rulers were at the forefront of withdrawing those taxes; for
instance, King Akbar freed all the Hindus from religious taxes. During the reign of
Aurangzeb, the exploitation of Hindus increased in all the social and economic spheres. After
the rise of the British Raj, the communal tendency widened in the Indian political spheres. In
1905, the British's official Lord Curzon divided Bengal into East Bengal and West Bengal
because of better administration and effective governance. This initiative transformed the
plural Bengal into Hindu-majority West Bengal and Muslim-majority East Bengal. One of
the most aggressive steps from the side of British India was the Morley-Minto reform of
1909. This reform introduced the separate electorate system, which later became the
foundation stone for communal polarization.
Another pressing example was the Bengal partition based on community. The
franchise qualification varied with each community; some communities were given more
representation than their voting strength warranted (Rao, 1956). The communal
representation was further expanded under the Montagu-Chelmsford reform of 1919, where
the separate electoral system for Sikhs was introduced.
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12.4 THE POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS MOBILISATION

SINCE 1857
The mutiny of 1857 stood as a great testimony to Hindu-Muslim unity traditions that
stood out as a benchmark for succeeding years (Bayly, 1990; Metcalf, 1982). 'What is
noteworthy is that despite mobilizing under the banner of 'deen' and 'dharma', the revolution
was connected in every sense. There was no wall between Hindus and Muslims in their
opposition to foreign domination. This mutiny erased the sense of all communal barriers, and
the feeling of brotherhood among Hindus and Muslims was found in the army and among the
civil population. There is no record of a single confrontation or conflict on a religious cause
even though there are several instances where British authorities strained to fatigue the Indian
camp by accentuating such disparities (Metcalf, 1982). India encountered the trial of 1857 as
one community.'
Both the Hindus and the Muslims had a common way of life. One cannot depart from
the other. That is why, when the problem arose of their survival, they both began to fight
together to remove the yoke of foreign rule, i.e., the British government (Metcalf, 1982;
Bayly, 1990). The Hindus never felt the Mughal rule was foreign because the Mughals did
not differentiate themselves from the Indians the way the English did with the Indians
(Richards, 1993). The Hindu-Muslim unity played an essential role in the Revolt of 1857
(Bayly, 1990; Metcalf, 1982). The Hindu and Muslim soldiers had enrolled in the British
army. They both had faced a common problem, i.e., the greased cartridges. These cartridges
were to be bitten before they were loaded into the rifles (David, 2002).
The use of animal fat in cartridges during the 1857 Indian Rebellion is often cited as a
cause for the revolt among Hindu and Muslim soldiers. However, it's crucial to note that this
was just one among multiple grievances against British rule. The controversy over greased
cartridges did contribute to uniting soldiers of different faiths against the British (Brown,
1994). It brought both the Hindu and Muslim sepoys together. So they declared Bahadur
Shah as their leader and marched together from Meerut to Delhi. Similarly, the Afghan
nobles escorted Rani Lakshmi Bai. Maulvi Ahmadullah led the revolt in Faizabad, and
whenever the Muslims succeeded in raising the revolt, they showed full respect to the
religious sentiments of their Hindu brothers, and they stopped the slaughter of cows. This
kind of Hindu- Muslim unity and cooperation lasted longer until the British decided to divide
them with their policy of 'divide and rule' as they found it difficult to continue their rule if the
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Hindus and the Muslims were united. For a long time, the Hindus and the Muslims were fed
up with the attitudes of the English.
After the famine of 1837, the poor and the hungry people, the servants of the
Company and the sepoys were compelled to convert to Christianity. Laws were passed to
suppress sati and infanticide, which affected the religious sentiments of the Hindus. At the
same time, the last Mughal ruler was deprived of his title, and his wife and children were not
given the pension promised by the English, which infuriated the Muslims. Moreover, the
Hindu and the Muslim soldiers were discriminated against in their salaries and promotion
comparatively with the English sepoys. The Hindu and Muslim soldiers were regarded as
inferior to the European soldiers. So, we can conclude that the sentimental unity in the social,
moral and military spheres and their common sufferings in the hands of the British brought
unity among the Hindus and the Muslims.
12.5 PARTITION OF BENGAL: SINCE 1905
The mobilization of Hindus and Muslims and the partial success of the 1857 revolt
stunned the British governance so much that after quashing the Mutiny, they determined to
form the policy of divide and rule (Metcalf, 1982; Bayly, 1990). However, it is quite evident
that the development of communal feelings in India is the product of historical faults (Brass,
2003). Different factors were responsible for igniting communalism in India. One of the
leading causes was the 'Two Nation Theory' perpetuated by M.A. Jinnah, which eventually
gave birth to Pakistan based on Islamic radicalization. The British Government's 'Divide and
Rule' policy opened up the ground for communalism in Indian politics. Moreover, the
separate electoral process for Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs significantly impacted India's
pluralist ethos (Varshney, 2002). Communalism in India materialized on the legacy of
historical fault lines (Bhargava, 1998).
The Divide and Rule strategy, also known as the "divide and conquer" policy, was a
British colonialist approach employed in India to keep the various Indian religions and
ethnicities diverged. This permitted the British to preserve their strength and command over
India for centuries. The Imperial approach of Divide and Rule became one of the significant
grounds for the explosion of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The Britishers had flourished in
playing off one party against another and provoking communal friction. However, the Indians
joined in throwing out the British during the mutiny. In the Post-Rebellion period, the
Britishers changed their strategy and embraced the approach of Dividing and maintaining to
contain any such united act against them. They succeeded in creating this turmoil by playing
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off distinct parties against each other and developing communal conflict. The British also
employed divide and rule to contain the advancement of any moderator who could unite the
people against them. Hence, this policy successfully prevented any further united front
against the British government. The policy of divide and rule was formed in the early 20th
century with the rise of personalities such as Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, who
were able to encourage the people against British rule. The divide-and-rule approach also
contributed to the development of separatist movements, such as the Muslim League and the
Sikh separatist campaign. The British could also not discourage the growth of communist and
socialist groups, which joined the people against the British government. The policy of
divide-and-rule finally tumbled with India and Pakistan's independence in 1947.
12.6 THE PLAN BEHIND SPLITTING BENGAL
The division of Bengal took place on the 16th of October, 1905, under the governance of
Viceroy Lord Curzon, resulting in the separation of Bengal into Eastern Bengal and Western
Bengal. In the Bengal Presidency, there were many states of Bihar & Bengal, including some
regions of Orissa, Chhattisgarh, and Assam were all part of the same. The Bengal partition
was only recommended for administrative intentions (Sarkar, 1983). Periodically, the
communal flavour was added to this rhetoric when Muslims favoured division, commanded
by Dhaka's Nawab Sallimullah (Majumdar, 1970), while Hindus opposed it. The reason
behind this initiative from the British was to destabilise the nerve core of nationalism
(Bengal) to protect their interests (Chatterjee, 1993). Hence, this partition caused volatile
effects and transformed into a militant nationalism.
Many Bengali Muslims backed this action since they believed that if they were the
majority in the new province, this would promote their educational, financial, and political
interests (Ahmed, 1996). Gradually, some people in the region revealed that this division is
the output of the strategy of 'divide & rule’ (Robinson, 1974). Further, the initial goal of such
a rift was to break the bonds between the two communities and dilute the nation's patriotic
sentiments (Minault, 1982). Subsequently, a few Muslims also rejected the separation. When
the authorities were capable of quashing the protests, then the dividend way out was reversed
by the British, and with this move, Muslims in Bengal were surprised as they had assumed
that the government would safeguard their welfare claims, assessing the prevalence of
Muslims in East Bengal.
Thus, the true rationale for the separation of Bengal was a desire to strain the state,
which had been the heart of Indian nationalism in the early twentieth century (Chatterjee,
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1993). Despite such a massive populace, Bengal was split because it had grown difficult to
control. In this context, Lord Curzon made a concerted effort to win the Muslims (Majumdar,
1970). As a result, he believes that Dhaka may be established as the new province's capital,
giving the Muslim inhabitants a sense of brotherhood. To oppose the Congress and the
national movement, the British thus attempted to stimulate Muslim communalists (Sarkar,
1983). Hence, this serious & significant religious disharmony in the country became a
significant reason for the composition of the Muslim League around the year 1906 (Minault,
1982)."
12.7 CREATION OF THE MUSLIM LEAGUE AND HINDU

MAHASABHA
During the freedom struggle, different political parties were equipped with communal
sentiments and commitment to the people. For instance, Muslim League and Hindu
Mahasabha were formed for the communal identity of both Muslims and Hindus (Jalal, 1994;
Sarkar, 1983). Several thinkers, such as Allama Iqbal and V.D. Savarkar, advocated their
political system based on their religion; for instance, Iqbal advocated a separate Muslim State
(Ahmed, 1997), and Savarkar defended the Hindu nation through his writings and speeches
(Jaffrelot, 1996). Finally, under the Mountbatten Plan, the partition happened that gave rise to
Pakistan as the Muslim majority country (Talbot, 2009). The death of MK Gandhi was the
most visible impact of communalism in India after independence (Brown, 1989). Gandhi's
assassination shifted India from a plural and tolerant society into a violent and communal one
(Guha, 2007). Despite a democratic constitution, Indian constitution makers were reluctant to
impose the word 'secular' in the constitution because of the natural tendency of India where
nobody is denied their basic requirements (Austin, 1966). The entire history of India shows a
transformation from a state that had an identity of respect and acceptance into a state of
majoritarian politics (Chandra et al., 1988)."
In many cases, communalism has been used to eliminate minorities from the political
circle; therefore, it seems necessary to understand the exclusionary vision of communalism
(Varshney, 2002). In the 21st century, almost all countries have a diverse population in terms
of religion, culture, and ethnicity, and this has been possible due to the cross-territorial trade
and commerce. Nevertheless, unfortunately, the process of selective exclusion from politics
has been arising in every possible way, and its effects are adversely impacting minorities
(Sen, 2006). The fruit of development, especially in a democratic set-up, should be
distributed equally without special treatment to a particular section (Dreze & Sen, 2013). In
India, some sections have been enjoying special treatment under constitutional schemes
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(Basu, 2015). For instance, people from SC/ST category get reservations in education and
government jobs. Unlikely, a particular focus on religious denominations might fracture the
democratic spirit by dividing the social sphere into antagonistic pieces. Communalism
appears to rival social inclusion and multi-culturalism; furthermore, several hate incidents
and crimes are also a part of communal feelings. Many political parties, probably in India,
cite their affiliation to a religious group and organisation. Organisations like RSS, Vishva
Hindu Parishad, Sunni Student's Federation, and Rashtriya Sikh Sangat are prime institutions
for preparing manifestos. Communal politics divides political life through crude religious
hardlines; therefore, politics has become a game for communal groups, those who have the
consent of the majority through persuasion and religious hypnotism (Pani, 2022). Towards a
democratic and equal social order, communal feelings are the foremost obstacles through
which the aspiration of the entire population gets undermined. Communal politics affects the
entire caricature of a political system; further, it affects the country's colourful history, with a
history of inter-cultural and inter-religious inhabitation. The spectre of communalism is
haunting every possible stake of people in politics.
12.8 GANDHIAN IDEA OF HINDU-MUSLIM UNITY: KHILAFAT

AND PARTITION
Khilafat Movement: A Push towards Unity

After the withdrawal of the Rowlatt Satyagraha, Gandhi got involved in the Khilafat
movement, in which he saw a splendid opportunity to unite the Hindus and the Muslims in a
common struggle against the British (Brown, 1989). In the early twentieth century, a new
Muslim leadership emerged, moving away from the loyalist politics of Sir Sayyid Ahmed
Khan and the elitism of the older Aligarh generation (Metcalf, 1982). These younger leaders
looked for the support of the entire community behind them, finding no fundamental
contradiction between Muslim self-affirmation and Indian nationalism (Minault, 1982).
Around this time, some new issues emerged, shaking their faith in British patronage. The
Muslim university campaign, renewed after 1910, suffered a setback when the government
insisted on strict government control and vetoed the idea of making it an affiliating body
(Robinson, 1974). The movement, launched by a Khilafat Committee formed in Bombay in
March 1919, had three main demands: control over Muslim holy places, the Khalifa's control
over pre-war territories, and the non-sovereignty of non-Muslims over Jazirat-ul-Arab
(Lelyveld, 1978)."
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The agitation of the Khilafat movement by Indian Muslims, associated with Indian
nationalists, pressured the British regime to maintain the sovereignty of the Ottoman Sultan
as Caliph of Islam after World War I. The leaders gradually united with Mahatma Gandhi's
non-cooperation campaign for India's independence, pledging nonviolence in return for
backing the Khilafat movement. This movement reflected the extraordinary level of Hindu-
Muslim unity. With Gandhi's lead, the Khilafat movement's leaders, the brothers Maulanas
Mahomed Ali and Shaukat Ali brought his ideal of Hindu-Muslim unity to near-fruition.
Mohandas Karam Chand Gandhi linked the issue of Swaraj with the Khilafat issue to
associate Hindus with the wave. The succeeding movement was the foremost widespread
countrywide movement and was anti-British, which inspired Gandhi to support the cause of
bringing the Muslims into the mainstream of Indian nationalism (Sarkar, 1983). The whole
movement began with a hartal on the 1st of August (Metcalf, 1982). Muslim opinion on non-
cooperation was still divided, and throughout the summer of 1920, Gandhi and Shaukat Ali
travelled vastly, mobilising widespread consent for the agenda (Brown, 1989). The hartal was
a grand success, as it coincided with the death of Tilak (Chandra, 1989), and from then on,
support for non-cooperation began to rise. Besides other events, the arrest of the Ali brothers
in September 1921 gave a severe blow to the Khilafat Movement (Lelyveld, 1978). Gandhi,
who was using this movement to accelerate India's advance towards Swaraj, also withdrew
his support for the Muslim cause in the aftermath of the Chauri Chaura incident in February
1922. Using the excuse that the national volunteers were responsible for the murder of 22
police officers, thus leading to violence, he called off the whole movement.
12.9 TWO NATIONS THEORY
Muslim scholars were prompted to maintain the sanctity of Islam due to the Bhakti
movement, Deen-e-Ilahi, and many other similar doctrines, which tried to absorb Islam into
Hinduism (Smith, 1963). After the occupation of the subcontinent by the British, the
backwardness of Muslims and the threat to their survival, including the domination by
Hindus, coupled with periodic clashes between them, rooted the conception of the two-nation
theory (Talbot, 1996). Communal brutality exploded between Hindus and Muslims as time
passed in the Indian National Movement. These illustrations of revulsion made Jinnah
consider a crucial reality: attaining Hindu-Muslim harmony would become problematic and
ultimately ineffective (Ahmed, 1997). One such move was the Nehru Report of 1928, which
declined to give a separate electorate to Muslims and authorized reservations for Muslims
only in regions where they were a minority (Chandra et al., 1988). Jinnah was thus drawn
towards the Muslim League and sought more rights and prospects for the Muslim
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community. An independent and separate State for the Muslims in the subcontinent was
demanded under the two-nation theory (Jalal, 1994).
Jinnah's Two Nation Approach harped on three essential components. First, he
believed that the two communities (Hindus and Muslims) inhabiting the vast subcontinent are
not just two communities but should be considered as two different nations in all aspects
(Jalal, 1994). Secondly, in the strict sense of the term, Hinduism and Islam are not just two
religions but different and separate social orders. Hence, they require a separate territory for
their existence, as they are incompatible with each other (Ahmed, 2009). Mainly two
contrasting religious philosophies having two distinct lineages were being followed by
Hindus and Muslims. Since they follow two diverse strands of thought, their co-existence is
almost impossible as a community. The idea indicates Muslims as a nation with different
civilizations, lineages, values, and cultures. By 1939 Jinnah came to acknowledge that the
survival of Muslims in India was only possible with a Muslim motherland on the Indian
subcontinent (Jalal, 1994).
It is vital to review the Presidential discourse of Jinnah to the Muslim League in
Lahore held in 1940 to understand the two-nation theory deeply. In his speech, Jinnah
emphasised that the Muslim League was the sole organisation committed to voicing the
concerns of Muslims in colonial India. He argued that Muslim interests had not been
adequately looked into and betrayed after the 1937 elections in Congress-led Provinces. He
advised the Muslims to arrange themselves into an autonomous political community detached
from Congress. Jinnah emphasised that Hindus and Muslims comprised different nations.
Since Muslims comprised a distinct nation, they were qualified for their homeland or territory
for their survival and upliftment. He argued, "The Muslims cannot separate their religion
from politics. In Islam, religious and political sentiments are not detached from each other. If
the British were worried about the stability in the region, they would need to help the
composition of independent homelands for Hindus and Muslims. This would be the only way
of evading communal clashes because once these two nations would have space for political
self-expression, there would remain no grounds for resistance. He imagined a prospective
future for India and Pakistan, with utmost harmony and sharing friendly linkages.
The method to divide British India into two states was declared on the 3rd of June,
1947. It was decided that India and Pakistan would be the two different states. The North
West Frontier Province, Baluchistan, 16 districts from Punjab, East Bengal, and Muslim
majority provinces of Sind had to be part of Pakistan. Scholars differed and had many
disagreements about the elements ushering to Partition. The role played by the Indian
National Congress, Muslim League and the British authorities significantly shaped the course
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of Independence in the Sub-Continent (Zamindar, 2007). Some have argued that the
separatism of Muslims occurred due to Indian National Congress could not ally with the
Muslim League (Guha, 2007). It has also been asserted that the prime reason for Partition
was the strength and popularity of the Muslim League's demand for Pakistan (Jalal, 1994).
Some indicate that it was the British strategy of divide and rule, which consequently
resulted in Partition. Following the Chauri Chaura incident, the movement itself was
terminated by MK Gandhi, as some British policemen were massacred due to some activity
instigated by the members of the Non-Cooperation movement. The Muslim leaders felt
backstabbed since their rationale for revolting against the expulsion of the Caliphate was left
undone due to the discontinuation of the movement. From then onward, the discrepancies
between the Hindus and the Muslims only elevated over a while and finally evolved
irreconcilably. After 1930 the ultimatum for an independent Muslim Nation after liberation
commenced being communicated. By 1930 Sir Muhammad Iqbal emerged as the leader of
the Muslim League and, for the first time, enunciated a demand for an independent Muslim
state. He contended that Muslims and Hindus are from two different nations in themselves
and were conflicting. Congress repudiated this idea and differed in favour of a one-integrated
India based on congruence between all religious sects.
Britishers realized by 1946 they had to end their colonial rule and transfer power to
the Indian subcontinent. The central friction that occurred now was between the visions of
independence harboured by Congress and the Muslim League. The Muslim League wanted to
build two states wherein one would be an Islamic republic, whereas the Congress wanted
power to be assigned to one united nation.
Similarly, The Cabinet Mission plan of 1946 began by pleading for the transfer of
authority to India as a whole with interim independence to Muslim majority provinces. A
provisional government was instituted in September 1946, but it only had representatives
from Congress as the Muslim League was reluctant to compromise for anything less than an
autonomous and liberated Pakistan (Talbot, 2009). On the 16th of August 1946, Jinnah
announced Direct Action Day, and the Muslim League extended the directive for an
independent Pakistan (Khan, 2005). There were communal apprehensions between the
Hindus and the Muslims in places including Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Bihar, and Punjab.
Communal agitation was forming to build in several locations of India (Wolpert, 2006).
Finally, on the 3rd of June 1947, the Mountbatten plan was announced, stating that authority
would be transferred from the British administration to two states- India and Pakistan. To
ensure Dominion status for India and to escape from their responsibility to restrain the rapidly
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degenerating communal situation, the British declared the date of independence as the 15th of
August 1947 (Sarila, 2005).
12.10 CONCLUSION
The Indian model of communalism is more social-centric rather than political. Communal
politics in India has an inner tendency to retaliate against the establishment of foreign rule
and their ideology. However, after India's partition and the creation of Pakistan, the Muslim
community in India has developed a distinct political and social identity. They often
considered India as a guest house due to the bloody partition and the Hindu radicalisation.
Many political parties, having Islamic hardlines, are being used as a voice for their
community. Conscious involvement of citizens in political affairs would bring development
and a sound socio-economic environment. Due to communal atrocities, the democratic
aspirations of the people are getting affected in multifarious ways. Electoral processes and
social perspectives have characterised communalism in Indian politics. Both politics and
society are suspected to be the worst affected areas of communalism. The people of India
must wake up to counter the communal feelings which are being used by political parties and
leaders to spread their networks of authority. The people of India should consider the
Constitutional values and India's plural ethos rather than the political parties and their
communal agendas.
Furthermore, harmony in politics and society could only be possible when people are
been taught the lesson of tolerance. The political parties, across the party lines, should imbibe
the tradition of debate, discussion and accommodation of different viewpoints. We should
embrace all the values of humanism existing across communities and their viewpoints
without hurting anybody's sentiments related to religion.
1. Define the term Communalism and its origin in India from a historical perspective?
2. How does communalism affect Indian Politics, and to what extent?
3. What were the leading causes behind Communalism in India, and how can we deal
with it?
4. Explain the changing nature of Communalism in Indian politics?
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12.12 GLOSSARY
Cultural pluralism - Cultural pluralism is a term used when smaller groups within a larger
society maintain their unique cultural identities, whereby their values and practices are
accepted by the dominant culture, provided such is consistent with the laws and values of the
wider society.
Religious polarization - Religiously polarizing is the act of finding the disagreements in
religious beliefs and on that basis separating ourselves from those of differing beliefs. It is the
idea of moving to opposite ends of a spectrum.
12.13 REFERENCES
Ahmed, A. (1997). Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity: The Search for Saladin. Routledge.
Ahmed, F. (1996). The Bengal Muslims, 1871-1906: A Quest for Identity. Oxford University
Press.
Ahmed, F. (1997). The Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan. Journal of South Asian
Studies, 21(2), 145-164.
Anshu, A. (2020). Changing trends of religious communalism in India. Scholarly Research
Journal for Humanity Science and English Language, 10536-10541.
Austin, G. (1966). The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation. Oxford University
Press.
Basu, D. (2015). Introduction to the Constitution of India. LexisNexis.
Bayly, C. A. (1990). Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire. Cambridge
University Press.
Bhargava, R. (1998). What is Secularism for? New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Brass, P. R. (2003). The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India.
University of Washington Press.
Brown, J. M. (1989). Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope. Yale University Press.
Brown, J. M. (1994). Modern India: The origins of an Asian democracy. Oxford University
Press.
Chandra, B. (1984). Communalism in modern India. Vikas Publishing House.
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Chandra, B., Mukherjee, M., Mukherjee, A., Panikkar, K. N., & Mahajan, S. (1988). India's
Struggle for Independence. Penguin Books India.
Chatterjee, P. (1993). The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories.
Princeton University Press.
Devji, F. (2014, December 19). Nationalism as antonym of communalism. The Hindu.
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/Nationalism-as-antonym-of-
communalism/article62115830.ece
Dreze, J., & Sen, A. (2013). An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions. Princeton
University Press.
Guha, R. (2007). India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy.
Macmillan.
Jaffrelot, C. (1996). The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India. Columbia University Press.
Jalal, A. (1994). The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for
Pakistan. Cambridge University Press.
Khan, Y. (2005). The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan. Yale University
Press.
Kothari, R. (1989). Cultural context of communalism in India. Economic and Political
Weekly, 81-85.
Lelyveld, D. (1978). Aligarh's First Generation: Muslim Solidarity in British India. Princeton
University Press.
Majumdar, R. C. (1970). History of the Freedom Movement in India. Firma K. L.
Mukhopadhyay.
Malviya, S. (2021, September 14). Communalism in India. Times of India.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readerblog/know-your-rights/communalism-in-india-
37421
Metcalf, B. D. (1982). A Concise History of Modern India. Cambridge University Press.
Metcalf, B. D. (1982). Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1860–1900. Princeton
University Press.
Metcalfe, B., & Metcalfe, T. R. (2006). A concise history of modern India. Cambridge
University Press.
Micheli, R. R. (2021). Communalism in India: Genesis and counter measures. Academia
Letters, 1-7.
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Minault, G. (1982). The Khilafat Movement: Religious Symbolism and Political Mobilization
in India. Columbia University Press.
Pani, N. (2022, May 6). The last barrier against communalism in India. The Wire.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.thewire.in/article/communalism/the-last-barrier-against-
communalism-in-india/amp
Rao, P. K. (1956). Communalism in India. Current History, 79-84.
Robinson, F. (1974). Separatism Among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United
Provinces' Muslims, 1860-1923. Cambridge University Press.
Sarila, N. (2005). The Shadow of the Great Game: The Untold Story of India's Partition.
Carroll & Graf.
Sarkar, S. (1983). Modern India: 1885-1947. Macmillan India Ltd.
Saurabh, S. (2022, May 5). Communalism remains a political weapon. The Avenue Mail.
Retrieved from https://avenuemail.in/communalism-remains-a-political-weapon/
Sen, A. (2006). Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny. W. W. Norton & Company.
Smith, W. C. (1963). Modern Islam in India. Victor Gollancz Ltd.
Talbot, I. (1996). Freedom's Cry: The Popular Dimension in the Pakistan Movement and
Partition Experience in Northwest India. Oxford University Press.
Talbot, I. (2009). Partition of British India: The Human Dimension. Cultural and Social
History, 6(4), 403-410.
Talbot, I. (2009). Partition: The Story of Indian Independence and the Creation of Pakistan in
1947. Yale University Press.
Thakur, N. (2011). Indian cultural landscapes: Religious pluralism, tolerance, and ground
reality. Journal of SPA.
Varshney, A. (2002). Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India. Yale
University Press.
Wolpert, S. (1984). Jinnah of Pakistan. Oxford University Press.
Zamindar, V. F. (2007). The Long Partition and the Making of Modern South Asia:
Refugees, Boundaries, Histories. Columbia University Press.
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LESSON-13
THE TWO-NATION THEORY, NEGOTIATIONS
OVER PARTITION
STRUCTURE

13.2 Introduction
13.3 Two Nations Theory
13.4 Negotiation over Partition and Independence
13.4.1 Elections to Constituent Assembly and League’s Reaction
13.4.2 Gandhi: India of His Dream
13.5 End of British Rule and Partition
13.6 Consequences of Partition
13.7 Summary
13.8 Glossary
13.10 References
After completing this lesson, the student would be familiar with the idea of 1) the two-nations
theory, 2) issues related to the Partition and the events that took place during the
independence of India, and 3) Consequences of Partition and its effects.
13.2 INTRODUCTION
The Partition of India in 1947 was an uncommon and horrifying historical event in modern
Indian history. It brought massive and unpleasant suffering for both Indians and Pakistanis.
Approximately half a million people were killed; ten million have been displaced and
uprooted from their land and homes. Thousands of children and women were killed and
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butchered. The trauma of Partition is still alive and haunting millions of minds living across
the border of India and Pakistan.
Let us discuss what were the factors primarily held responsible for it. Who were the
leaders who propagated the inevitability of Partition, and why? Why did many leaders oppose
it?
13.3 TWO NATIONS THEORY
Let us discuss how the theory has evolved and is fuelled by the most popular conception that
Hindus and Muslims are communities with different value systems that cannot remain in one
nation-state.
The movement for Muslim self-awakening and identity was started by Sir Syed
Ahmad Khan (1817-1898) and the Aligarh school. Poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1877-
1938) became a significant voice providing philosophical explanations, but it was the lawyer
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1871-1948) who executed the political plan by making Pakistan a
political reality, an independent nation-state for the Muslims in South Asia.
However, Sumit Sarkar has found that for all the advocacy of the two-nation theory
by the Muslim communalist leaders, none seriously considered pursuing the breakup of India
and creating an independent state for Muslims until much later. He explains: 'British
instigation was not absent in the final stages of the evolution of the Pakistan slogan which
was adopted by the Lahore session of the Muslim League in March 1940. The genesis of this
demand has sometimes been traced to Iqbal's reference to the need for a 'North West Indian
Muslim state' in his presidential address to the Muslim League in 1930, but the context of his
speech makes it clear that the great Urdu poet and patriot were visualizing not Partition but a
re-organization of Muslim majority areas in N.W. India into an autonomous unit within a
single weak Indian federation. Choudhary Rehmat Ali's group of Punjabi Muslim students in
Cambridge have a much better claim to be regarded as the original proponents of the idea. In
two pamphlets, written in 1933 and 1935, Rehmat Ali demanded a separate national status for
a new entity for which he coined the name Pakstan (From Punjab, Afghan province,
Kashmir, Sindh and Baluchistan). No one took this very seriously at the time, least of the
League and other Muslim delegates to the Round Table Conference who dismissed the idea
as a student’s pipe dream.’ (Sumit Sarkar: 378)
At the heart of the case for demanding a separate Pakistan was what is referred to as
the ‘two-nation theory’. Many believe it was Allama Iqbal's presidential address to the
Muslim League on the 29th of December, 1930, in which the first introduction of the two-
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nation theory was made, which was later used to support the demand for Pakistan. After the
humiliating defeat of the Muslim League in the 1937 elections, especially in the Muslim-
majority part of Punjab, the idea of a separate nation for Muslims was being fuelled and
strengthened. To preserve his leadership, he adopted alternative strategies to unify Muslims.
At this juncture, Jinnah tilted decisively towards Mohammad Iqbal's prescription to create a
homogenous Muslim nation-state. Standing on the philosophical ground prescribed by Iqbal,
Jinnah wanted to unite the Muslim-populated areas of Punjab, NWFP, Sindh and Baluchistan
into a single state (To read more on historical aspects of Partition, see Jha: 2022; Mahajan:
2000). So, why Iqbal has been considered as 'intellectual godfather' of Jinnah; the real
founder of Pakistan.
The other famous address where the two-nation theory was publicly articulated was
the speech of Jinnah on the 22nd of March, 1940, in Lahore, where he stated Hindus and
Muslims belonged to two different religious philosophies, with different social customs and
literature, with no inter-marriage and based on conflicting ideas and concepts. Their outlook
on life and of life was different, and despite 1,000 years of history, the relations between the
Hindus and Muslims could not attain the level of cordiality. He stated his position thus in that
speech:
“It is extremely difficult to appreciate why our Hindu friends fail to understand the
real nature of Islam and Hinduism. They are not religions in the strict sense of the word, but
are, in fact, different and distinct social orders, and it is a dream that the Hindus and Muslims
can ever evolve into a common nationality, and this misconception of one Indian nation has
troubles and will lead India to destruction if we fail to revise our notions in time. Hindus and
Muslims in India have distinct religious foundations, social customs, and literary traditions.
While Hinduism draws from epics like the Mahabharata and Ramayana, Islam is rooted in the
teachings of the Quran. Intermarriage and inter-dining are less common between these
groups, although the level of social integration varies by region and individual choice. Both
communities are diverse internally, with various sects and interpretations of faith. Very often
the hero of one is a foe of the other hand, likewise, their victories and defeats overlap. To
yoke together two such nations under a single state, one as a numerical minority and the other
as a majority must lead to growing discontent and final destruction of any fabric that may be
so built for the government of such a state.”
The Two-Nation Theory thus asserted that India was not a nation because of the
significant variations in people's ways of life from these two faiths. It was conceded by the
proponents of this theory that within each of the religious groups, there was a great variety of
language, culture and ethnicity. So, the two communities cannot form a single nation.
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Therefore, undivided India could have been considered a confederation type. The Muslim
communalists argued that a Muslim of one country has far more sympathies with a Muslim
living in another than a non-Muslim living in the same country. Hence, while the conception
of Indian Muslims as a nation may not be ethnically correct, socially, it was correct. Iqbal had
also championed the notion of pan-Islamic nationhood or Ummah and community well-being
across regions.
While Hindu communalists concurred with the two-nation theory, which posits
Hindus and Muslims as separate nations, their stance diverged significantly regarding the
territorial Partition of India. Under the leadership of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, also known
as Veer Savarkar, the Hindu Mahasabha opposed the creation of Pakistan and the bifurcation
of India. During his presidential address at the 19th session of the Hindu Mahasabha in
Ahmedabad in 1937, Savarkar articulated that India could not be regarded as a "unitary and
homogeneous" nation; instead, it comprised two predominant communities—Hindus and
Muslims. However, his endorsement of the two-nation theory did not extend to advocating
for separate nations based on religious identity.
The British policy of divide and rule fueled the idea. The separate electorates for
Muslims, created by the colonial government in 1909 and expanded in 1919, crucially shaped
the nature of communal politics in India. Communal riots and conflicts also occur in different
parts of the country.
Various leaders' secular and radical viewpoints alarmed conservative Muslims and
community elites. The Pakistan Resolution of the 23rd of March 1940, demanding a measure
of autonomy for the Muslim majority areas of the subcontinent, opened the way for the
Partition. The Mountbatten Plan legitimized and formalized the Partition of the country in
1947. From 1940 onwards, Britishers fuelled up the Muslim League, ultimately leading to the
path of Partition.
The freedom with Partition was accepted by both Jinnah and secularists. The
significant points of the plan were as follows: 1) Punjab and Bengal legislative assemblies
would meet in two groups, Hindu and Muslim, to vote for Partition. If a simple majority of
either group voted for Partition, these provinces would be partitioned. 2) In the case of
Partition, two dominions and two constituent assemblies would be created. 3) Sindh would
take their own decision.4) Referendums in NWFP and Sylhet district of Bengal would decide
the fate of these areas. However, Congress had also accepted the Dominion status of both
units. On the 16th of August 1946, Jinnah launched ‘Direct Action Day’.
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When the League conducted Direct Action Day in August 1946, the situation quickly
got severe. As a forced migration between two territories began, in a sense, on its own, the
communal holocaust was unprecedented and among the deadliest in human history. The two
provinces that would be divided between India and Pakistan due to the Partition, Bengal and
Punjab, had the worst riots. The rapes, bloodshed, and destruction of property were horrifying
and widespread. Bandopadhyay has described it as 'on this day that all hell was let loose on
Calcutta'. The Muslims were meant to observe the day through nationwide hartal, protest
meetings and demonstrations to explain the meaning of Pakistan and reasons for rejecting the
Cabinet Mission plan' (Bandopadhyay: 451).
The situation deteriorated over time, leading to escalating tensions between Muslim
and Hindu communities, particularly in Calcutta and Dhaka. This period witnessed some of
the most significant religious unrest in the subcontinent's history. Communal riots erupted in
cities such as Dhaka, Chittagong, Mymensingh, Barisal, and Pabna, with particularly severe
violence reported in the districts of Noakhali and Tippera (Bandopadhyay: 452). This turmoil
period is often called the 'Great Calcutta Killing.'
The communal polarisation during the 1940s was not an isolated phenomenon nor
limited to Bengal. It was part of a broader pattern of sectarian tension that Christopher
Jaffrelot (1996) argues was also gripping the entire northern belt of India. Muslim
communities formed groups like the Muslim National Guard, parallel to the mobilization of
Hindu communities under the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Arya Samaj, and Hindu
Mahasabha. The RSS was incredibly influential in Maharashtra, Bihar, Delhi, Himachal
Pradesh, and the Central Provinces. This growing divide mirrored the rise of communal
politics during the Great Calcutta Killings and the Direct Action Day. These incidents served
as grim precursors to the violence that would accompany Partition. Historian Bandopadhyay
suggests that the seeds of discord sown in Calcutta eventually ignited a communal
conflagration that swept across the subcontinent, profoundly influencing India and Pakistan's
subsequent political and social landscapes. With the horrifying events across the countryside
and insecurity across the subcontinent, the British government had proposed a plan for two
successor Dominion governments of India and Pakistan. The partition plan was otherwise
known as Mountbatten's plan—the plan provided for the Partition of Bengal and Punjab, the
Hindu majority. The Mountbatten Plan was another name for the 3rd of June 1947 Plan.
• The British Government approved the Partition of British India as a principle.
• Successor governments would be granted dominion status, giving both countries
autonomy and sovereignty. It allowed both to the ability to create their constitution.
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• Princely States were chosen to join Pakistan or India based on two primary
considerations: geographic proximity and popular preference.
According to Nehru and the nationalist leaders, accepting Partition to halt the slaughter
seemed to be the most pressing need if law and order were to be restored. Hence, Nehru,
Jinnah and Sardar Baldev Singh, on behalf of Sikhs, endorsed the plan, and the process of
Partition was accepted by all the communities.
As Jinnah said and believed, Muslims who are opposing Pakistan will spend the rest
of their lives proving loyalty to India (1945). He did not want provincialism spelt by the
British and wanted to build an independent Pakistan that would protect all Muslims' socio-
political and religious rights. This made him disagree with the British government's plan of
dominion status for both India and Pakistan. However, the performance in the 1946 elections
did not give a mandate to the Muslim League. The Congress won the election as the majority.
This severely disappointed Jinnah, and he declared 'Direct Action Day' and insisted on his
plan for an independent Muslim-majority Pakistan.
13.4 NEGOTIATION OVER PARTITION AND INDEPENDENCE
The independence of India is celebrated, but it is often not adequately remembered what the
tragic circumstances in which the independence finally came about. During their final
parting, the British decided to 'divide and quit' or were forced to (depending on which view
one accepts) accept the formation of India and Pakistan by dividing united India. Many
controversies and debates have yet to end, even after a half-century, as to precisely what had
transpired and why. Why were the rivers of blood in the communal riots that happened not
averted? There are many questions and very few final answers.
As Professor Bipan Chandra has rightly said: 'Two questions arise. Why did the
British finally quit? Why did Congress accept Partition? The imperialist answer is that
independence was simply the fulfilment of Britain's self-appointed mission to assist the
Indian people in self-government. Partition was the unfortunate consequence of the age-old
Hindu-Muslim rift between the two communities. During the negotiations, both the Muslim
League and Indian National Congress disagreed on how and to whom the power was to be
transferred. All the representatives failed to bring out any blueprint for transferring power and
sharing assets and liabilities.
In this context, Professor Bipan Chandra proceeds to lay out his interpretation of what
had happened: ‘These visions of noble design or revolutionary intent, frustrated by traditional
religious conflict or worldly profit, attractive as they may seem, blur rather than illumine, the
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sombre reality. Independence-partition duality reflects the success-failure dichotomy of the

anti-imperialist movement led by Congress. The Congress had a two-fold task: structuring
diverse classes, communities, groups and regions into a nation and securing independence
from the British rulers for this emerging nation. While the Congress succeeded in building up
nationalist consciousness sufficient to exert pressure on the British to quit India, it could not
complete the task of welding the nation and particularly failed to integrate the Muslims into
this nation. It is this contradiction – the success and failure of the national movement – which
is reflected in the other contradiction – Independence, but with it Partition.’ (Source: Bipan
Chandra, India’s Struggle for Independence, p. 487-88) (Old Study Material: SOL)
Indian Independence Act: On the 5th of July, 1947, the British Parliament passed the
Indian Independence Act, which was based on the Mountbatten Plan; the Act got royal assent
on the 18th of July, 1947.
13.4.1 Elections to Constituent Assembly and League’s Reaction
Let us discuss the outcome of the elections, which took place in July 1946. Out of 210 seats
allocated to the British provinces, Congress received 199. Out of the remaining 11, the
Unionist party got 2, communists 1, Scheduled caste federations 2 and independent 6. Out of
78 Muslim seats, the League got 73, Congress Muslims 3, Unionist Party 1 and Bengal Praja
Party. In other words, in a House of 296, the Congress enjoyed a majority of 212 members.
The thumping majority of Congress in the Constituent Assembly disappointed and irritated
the Muslim League (Vermani: 2010). However, the League successfully won 442 of 509
Muslim seats in provinces. Unlike in 1937, it had established itself as the Muslim dominant
party (Sarkar: 426).
However, Jinnah decided to create an independent Pakistan and not participate in the
Constituent Assembly debate. He also declared that none of the League representatives
participate in the Assembly debate and refused to recognize Nehru as head of the interim
government. The Constituent Assembly met on the 9th of December 1946, with 205 members
attending and 73 League members abstaining. This created a deadlock in the negotiation over
united India's dominion status and independence.
13.4.2 Gandhi: India of His Dream
Gandhi had persistently rejected the two-nation notion from the beginning. "My whole soul
resists the notion that Hinduism and Islam constitute two opposed cultures and philosophies,"
he had remarked. To agree with such a doctrine is to deny God. According to Bhikhu Parekh,
"India was not (Gandhi claimed) a nation, but a civilization that had over the centuries
benefited from the contributions of different races and religions and was unique by its
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plurality, diversity, and tolerance." It was a society where communities coexisted in a

broader, shared framework while each enjoyed a fair amount of autonomy. Hindus and
Muslims had coexisted in villages and cities for generations without ever feeling oppressed or
at odds with one another. (Old Study Material: SOL)
Only Gandhiji remained consistent in his ‘India of his dream’, which he had
enunciated as follows: ‘I shall work for an India in which there shall be no high class and low
class of people; an India in which all communities shall live in perfect harmony. Women will
enjoy the same rights as men. We shall be at peace with all the rest of the world. This is the
India of my dreams. (Pradhan: 413)
It cannot be denied that numerous obstacles are standing in the way of amity. This
was a demand to end the heartaches and repercussions of Partition, not to undo the Partition
itself. The unification of East Germany and West Germany brought back the idea of 'Akhand
Bharat' propagated by philosophers like Sri Aurobindo and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
Many who opposed Partition supported the idea of undivided British India. Likewise, the
Aligarh scheme of Zafrul Hasan and Husain Qadri suggested four independent states of
Pakistan, Bengal, Hyderabad and Hindustan, with a loose Indian confederation. On a similar
line, the Punjab Unionist premier Sikandar Hayat Khan also suggested a three–tier structure
with autonomous provinces grouped into seven regions with their regional legislatures. The
centre was supposed to handle matters like defence, external affairs, customs and currency
(anticipation of the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946). (Sarkar: 378)
Despite all these plans, Jinnah was determined to create a newly independent nation
for the Muslims. The uncalculated mass displacement and murders of both the community
showcase the failure of the British Indian administration and the failed dialogue or
negotiation between all stakeholders at that point. Consequently, it is challenging to go back
to history and correct it.
13.5 END OF BRITISH RULE AND PARTITION
The British Empire withdrew from India on the 15th of August, 1947, and the country was
divided into Pakistan and India, each of which subsequently attained independence. Each of
those states would be given the authority that the former British administration in India had.
The Secretary of State for India's post will be abolished, and Punjab and Bengal's frontiers
were divided by a border panel headed by Mr Redcliff.
A Governor-General was to be nominated by the Queen of England at the request of
the Dominion government, and each territory was to have one. He was to carry out his duties
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as the state's constitutional head of state, not based on his judgment or discretion. A sovereign
legislature must pass the regulations before they are effective.
On the 15th of August, 1947, British control over India's states and tribal territories
ended. Power will be transferred to states rather than dominions under this structure, and
states will be free to choose whether to remain in Pakistan or India. The Office of
Commonwealth Affairs will now manage the U.K. government's relationship with India.
East Bengal, West Pakistan, Sindh, and British Baluchistan are all Pakistani
provinces; the King of England relinquished the title of King and Emperor of India. This
territory will become a part of Pakistan if the NWFP votes in a referendum to do so.
Adopting the Indian Independence Act of 1947 represented a watershed moment in
India's constitutional evolution. Although the Act faced domestic criticism, it indisputably
inaugurated India's new era of independence. The legislation terminated British rule and laid
the groundwork for the separate national identities of India and Pakistan. Enacted on August
15, 1947, the Act formally partitioned British India into two independent dominions,
effective from the same date. Thus, despite its shortcomings, the Act was a seminal
instrument in shaping the postcolonial landscapes of both nations.
13.6 CONSEQUENCES OF PARTITION
Let us discuss the significant consequences of Partition and how it has affected the present
Indo-Pakistan relationship.
Communal Violence: The imperial British government could not maintain law and
order. The leaders and administrative regime lacked the notion of accountability and had no
plan for the execution of the Partition. They needed to assist administrators attempting to
handle everyday provincial politics more. Just as India's army was becoming fragmented and
unable to be counted on to suppress unrest, the British Army started to leave the British. As
Bandopadhyay writes, 'the subcontinent was soon plunged into large-scale violence, which in
modern terms could only be described as a serious case of ethnic cleansing in recent history'
(Bandopadhyay: 478).
Most significant Migration Movement: It drastically altered their lives, uprooted them
from the homes and communities they had known for decades and left them with extensive
damage and hardship. They lost family members, property, inheritance, languages, and ways
of life. For example, the most prominent effect was that many Sindhis' lost their homeland.
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With this, they gradually lost their culture and language. Since independence, the Mohajirs,
the Baluchis, the Pakhtuns and the Sindhis have offered alternative versions of nationhood.
Refugee Crisis: The displaced people from the newly created sovereign states who
were not voluntarily leaving their homes are called 'refugees'. As Bandopadhyay mentioned
'the refugees arrived at various places: in Delhi alone, as Gyanendra Pandey enumerates,
about 500,000 non-Muslims, primarily Hindu and Sikh - arrived in 1947-48. Some became
refugees in their land, as thousands of Muslims in Delhi sought shelter in the refugee camp at
the old fort and Humayun’s Tomb to escape from violence that had been unleashed;
eventually, 330,000 Muslims left the city for Pakistan’ (ibid: 478).
Unending Enmity between India and Pakistan: The enduring tension between India
and Pakistan can be traced back to the communal distrust that initially fueled the idea of
Partition, separating Hindu and Muslim communities into distinct nations. This historical
animosity has had lasting consequences on bilateral relations. In contemporary times, the
resurgence of identity politics rooted in religious affiliations perpetuates this polarization.
Consequently, despite various diplomatic efforts, the enmity remains unresolved, influencing
not just territorial disputes like that of Jammu and Kashmir but also affecting regional
stability and international diplomacy.
Unsolved question of Jammu and Kashmir: The enduring question of Jammu and
Kashmir has instigated three wars between India and Pakistan, contributing to a fragile
bilateral relationship. Post-Partition in 1947, the princely state opted for a unique form of
accession to India, codified in Article 370. This provision granted special autonomy until its
revocation in 2019, integrating Jammu and Kashmir as an equal state within India. Despite
these constitutional changes, ongoing border infiltrations and historical animosities continue
to exacerbate Indo-Pakistani tensions, leaving the status of Jammu and Kashmir as an
unresolved issue that weighs heavily on both nations' diplomatic engagements.
Cross-border Terrorism: The phrase "cross-border" denotes a movement or activity
that takes place across a border between two countries, i.e., of Pakistan and India. Cross-
Border Terrorism is a kind of terrorism where the territory of one country is exploited to sow
terror in bordering states. It is an undeclared war known as a "grey zone conflict" and is
considered the ideal way to bleed a country for a long time with little effort. However, cross-
border terrorism across the border was the main issue during the 1990s. India and Pakistan
have fought many wars to stop terrorism since Partition.
Creation of Bangladesh: However, during Partition only, 42 per cent of the non-
Muslim population was left in East Pakistan (present Bangladesh); by June 1948, as
mentioned by Bandopadhyay, about 1.1 million had migrated to West Bengal. This created
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internal pressure on the security affairs of West Bengal. Somehow, the violence in Bengal
was relatively less violent than in Punjab (ibid: 478). The growth of Bengali language
nationalism and the subsequent establishment of Bangladesh (East Pakistan) in 1971 brought
a new direction to India and Pakistan's relationship. However, Pakistani nationhood also
faced its greatest crisis during this phase.
However, the historical legacy of the Partition showcases many trajectories from
different communities. It has created different memories in Indian Muslims residing in India
after independence; similarly, it has strengthened the Islamic nationalism spirit across present
Pakistan. In post-independent India, the issue of communal identity remained a significant
challenge for Indian internal security.
13.7 SUMMARY
However, we can trace the genesis of the Partition of India and Pakistan to the 1900s. It had
the unfortunate consequence of Partition of the age-old Hindu-Muslim rift, of the two
communities' failure to agree on how and to whom power would be transferred. The tragic
consequences took place because of the final withdrawal of the British decision to 'divide and
quit', which ultimately led to the formation of India and Pakistan by dividing united British
India. To conclude, we can sum up a partition as a historical event which brought a new
change in the history of both India and Pakistan. In the postcolonial phase, Pakistan adopted
itself as a religious nation based on Sharia law, and India remained a liberal, democratic and
secular state.
13.8 GLOSSARY
Partition: A mechanism to Separate British imperial India into two different states of India
and Pakistan on the 14th and 15th of 1947 can be called the Partition. A blueprint for
execution had never accompanied the administrative decision to implement the Indian
Independence Act. Consequently, this led to the end of the British raj, massive displacement
of people, migration on an enormous scale, mass casualties, and communal riots across India.
Refugees: People/persons or citizens forced to leave their country to escape war, persecution,
or natural disaster. Here, we discuss the division and dissolution of British rule and the
creation of India and Pakistan.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS): This organization of Hindus primarily focused on
the social and psychological construction of the Hindu Nation. The volunteers are called
Swayamsevaks.
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Two-nation theory: The two-nation theory is a principle of religious nationalism that

influenced the decolonization of the British Raj in South Asia. It states that Muslims and
Hindus are two separate nations in many aspects. Therefore, Muslims should be able to have
a different homeland in Muslim-majority areas, and Hindus should have their home in Hindu-
majority areas. This became the basis of the creation of a separate homeland for Muslims-
Pakistan.
13.9 SELF ASSESMENT QUESTIONS
1. What circumstances led to partition? How partition has impacted the Indo-Pakistan
relationship after independence.
2. What is the two-nation theory? Explain and trace its origins.
3. Discuss the various factors underlying the tragedy of the partition of India.
4. The turbulent 1940s paved the way for the partition of India. Elucidate.
13.10 REFERENCES
✓ Bandopadhyay, S. (2004). From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India. Orient

Longman.
✓ Chakrabarti, Shantanu (2016), Interpreting the Legacy of Partition in the Subcontinent:
Indian and Pakistani Perspectives, Politeja, No.40, Modern South Asia: A Space of
Intercultural Dialogue, Pp 21-30 (URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable /10.2307/24920193)
Trust, india
✓ Datta, G. Sobhanlal. (2007). 'Imperialism and Colonialism: Towards a Postcolonial
Understanding', in Dasgupta, Jyoti Bhusan (ed.) Science, Technology, Imperialism and
War. New Delhi: Centre for Studies in Civilization Publication and DK
✓ https://news.stanford.edu/2019/03/08/partition-1947-continues-haunt-india-pakistan-
stanford-scholar-says/
✓ https://www.crackias.com/uploads/pdf_books/samples/HISTORY.pdf
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✓ https://www.newsbharati.com/Encyc/2020/8/14/Akhand-Bharat-It-was-a-reality-and-not-
just-an-imaginary-idea.html
✓ Jha, B. K. (2022). Political Voices, Colonial State and Partition of India, A History of
Colonial India 1757 to 1947, Himanshu Roy and Jawaid Alam, eds., Pp 221–249,
DOI:10.4324/9781003246510-13
✓ Metcalf, T. (1995). 'Liberalism and Empire' in Metcalf, Thomas. Ideologies of the Raj.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
✓ Pradhan, Ram Chandra (2015). Raj to Swaraj, Trinity Press, New Delhi
✓ Sarkar, S. (2006). Modern India: 1885-1947, Macmillan India Ltd., New Delhi, Pp 426-
455
✓ Thapar, R. (2000) ‘Interpretations of Colonial History: Colonial, Nationalist, Post-
colonial’, in DeSouza, P.R. (ed.) Contemporary India: Transitions. New Delhi: Sage,
✓ Vermani, R. (2010). Colonialism and Nationalism in India, Gitanjali Publishing House,
New Delhi.
✓ Young, R. (2003). Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford
University Press
• Bipan Chandra (1981). Nationalism and Colonialism in Modern India, Orient Black
Swan Classic: New Delhi
• Pradhan, Ram Chandra (2015). Raj to Swaraj: A textbook on Colonialism and
Nationalism in India, Trinity Press: New Delhi
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Unit-V: Social Movements

LESSON-14
THE TRIBES AND PEASANTS
STRUCTURE

14.2 Introduction
14.3 Tribal Movements
14.4 Peasant Movements
14.5 Summary
14.6 Conclusions
14.7 Glossary
14.9 References
➢ How did tribal movements and peasant movements contribute to India’s freedom
struggle and enhance the dynamics of nationalism?
➢ What are the major components and objectives of these movements? How they had
helped to evolve the idea of nationalism.
14.2 INTRODUCTION
Like all the other sections of Indian society, the tribal people also made their contribution to
the national independence movement. The tribal groups in India were scattered all over the
country, the bulk of them were located in Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, central Provinces,
Rajasthan, Maharastra and Gujarat. In South India, they were located in Andhra Pradesh and
part of the Godavari basin. However, tribal people constituted around 8 per cent of the total
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Indian population. In the beginning, the British administration did not interfere in the tribal
political and social lifestyle. With the invention of roads, transport and communication
British administration tried to explore the wildlife, flora and fauna of the jungle. Thus,
introduced modern means of lifestyle, communication, transportation and financial
transactions.
14.3 TRIBAL MOVEMENTS
The term ‘tribe’ is used to distinguish people so socially organised from ‘caste’ and should
not convey a sense of complete isolation from the mainstream of Indian life. Apart from some
isolated and primitive food gatherers, the tribals were and are very much a part of Indian
society as the lowest strata of peasantry subsisting through shifting cultivation, agricultural
labourers, and increasingly, coolies recruited for work in distant plantations, mines and
factories.
British rule and its accompanying commercialisation strengthened already present
tendencies towards penetration of tribal areas by outsiders from the plains - money lenders,
traders, land-grabbers, and contractors, the dikus so hated by the Santhals. They are the
subgroup that revolted and carried out movements during the British era contributing to the
national struggle. The method of their struggle was very violent and bandit in nature. As
Sarkar had rightly commented: ‘As in earlier or later periods, the most militant outbreaks
tended to be of tribal communities, which, in the words of a recent scholar, ‘revolted more
often and far more violently than any other community including peasants in India’
(Sarkar:46).
British legal conceptions of absolute private property eroded traditions of joint
ownership (like the khuntkatti tenure in Chota Nagpur) and sharpened tensions within tribal
society. A new but increasingly important factor from the 1870s and 80s was the tightening
of control by the colonial state over forest zones for revenue purposes. Shifting cultivation -
which required no plough animals and therefore was often essential for the survival of the
poorest in rural society – was banned or restricted in the ‘reserved’ forests from 1867
onwards, and attempts were made to monopolise forest wealth through curbs on use of timber
and grazing facilities. The tribal response included, as before, occasional violent outbursts,
but also movements of internal religious and socio-cultural reform. Such movements of
‘revitalisation’, borrowing elements from Christianity or Hinduism and promising a sudden
miraculous entry into a golden age, became increasingly typical in the period 1860-1920,
generally following in the wake of defeated uprisings under traditional chiefs.
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Thus the Santhal Rebellion (1855) was followed by the Kherwar or Sapha Har
movement of the 1870s, which preached monotheism and internal social reform at first but
had begun to turn into a campaign against revenue settlement operations just before it was
suppressed.’ (Source; Sumit Sarkar, Modern India, pp. 44-45)
There were various scattered revolts under different inspirations from time to time. In
1868 the Naikda forest tribe attacked police stations in a bid to establish a dharma-raj. In
1882 the Kacha Nagas of Cachar attacked the whites inspired by a miracle worker called
Sambhudan who claimed magical powers which would make his followers immune to
bullets. Similarly, in 1900 there was a revolt by Konda Doras when a tribesman Korra
Mallaya claimed he was a re-incarnation of the Pandavas and could drive out the British and
gathered around him an inspired crowd of four to five thousand people. They were
suppressed by the British with eleven of them shot dead and sixty put on trial and two
hanged. There was a massive rebellion in 1879-80 by the Konda Dora and Koyatribals when
their chiefs rose against their overlord (a mansabdar family) when he tried to raise taxes.
One of the most dramatic rebellions was by the Ulgulan (Great Tumult) under the
leadership of Birsa Munda in 1899-1900 in the Ranchi region. The Munda tribes had seen
over some time in the nineteenth century their traditional khuntkatti land system (Joint
holdings by khunts or tribal lineages) being replaced by the rule of jagirdars and thikadars
coming from the northern plains as money lenders and merchants. The areas had also become
a happy hunting ground for Diku (the people who propagated the idea of exploitation,
exactions and forced labour). In 1899, Birsa mobilized a force of 6,000 Mundas and a
rebellion against the Diku. However, he was captured in 1900 and subsequently died in jail
(Pradhan: 279).
Birsa’s own experience as a young boy, driven from place to place in search of
employment, gave him an insight into the fate of his people and forest matters. He was very
intelligent and always an active participant in the movements going on in the neighbourhood.
Later in life, he claimed to be a messenger of God and founded a kind new sect and within his
sect converts from Christianity, mostly Sardars. His simple message was against the church
which levied a tax. He laid down new rules which saved some expense of sacrifices and a
strict code of conduct was laid down: theft, lying and murder were declared bad and begging
was prohibited. The stories of Birsa as a healer, a miracle man, and a preacher spread. The
Mundas, Oraons, and Kharias flocked to Chalkad to hear him and to be healed of their
diseases. The British colonial system as mentioned above had started causing a
transformation of the tribal agrarian system into a feudal one dominated by jagirdars.
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As the tribals with their primitive technology could not generate a surplus, the non-
tribal peasantry was invited by the chiefs in Chhota Nagpur to settle on and cultivate the land.
This led to the tribes losing their lands and that built up resentment. In 1856, the number of
the Jagirdars stood at about 600 and by 1874, the authority of the old Munda or Oraon chiefs
had been almost entirely ended by the new landlords. In some villages, the tribal had lost all
their land rights and had been reduced to being labourers. So naturally because of the agrarian
breakdown and the forced cultural changes the tribes responded with a series of revolts and
uprisings under Birsa’s leadership. The movement sought to gain back the land of the
Mundas and throw out the middlemen and the British. Ultimately however even though the
struggle was brave and achieved some initial successes against the authorities Birsa was
treacherously caught on 3 February 1900 and he died under mysterious conditions on 9 June
1900 in a Ranchi Jail. Though he lived a very short life of only 25 years he mobilised the
tribal like never before and taught them to think about their conditions and for a short time
became a terror to the British rulers.
14.4 PEASANT MOVEMENTS
The Indian peasantry it may be argued raised for the first time in protest during the 1857
revolt, tired of the high land revenue taxes imposed by the British which was breaking their
back. That revolt is not seen as a peasant revolt as farmers were not the only people who
revolted nor was land revenue the only reason but that was one of the major issues underlying
the upsurge.
The farmers in India raised against two kinds of exploitation - one from the
Zamindars and jagirdars and the other from the British. The Kisan Sabha movement started
in Bihar under the leadership of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati who had formed 1929 the
Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) to mobilise peasants against the exploitation of
zamindars who on flimsy pretexts usurped the land occupancy rights of farmers. Gradually
the peasant movement intensified and spread across the rest of India. There were also farmer
movements in 1907 under the leadership of Sardar Ajit Singh.
The final phase of the Indian freedom struggle also saw peasant struggles rising to
new heights of militancy. Throughout the country, Kisan Sabhas had been active in the
1930s. After the Quit-India call, peasants of all classes joined in the freedom struggle in
Eastern UP, Bihar, Midnapur in Bengal, Satara in Maharashtra, and also in Andhra, Gujarat
and Kerala. Even some of the Zamindars (landlords) joined in. The Raja of Darbbanga was
one of the most supportive of the resisting peasants. Adivasis and landless peasants were
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particularly heroic in their struggles. Crushed by the inhumane demands of the Zamindari
system, they had to fight a dual war – one against the British and the other against the Indian
landlords who collaborated with British rule. Amongst the most significant of these struggles
were those of Tebhaga, Punnapra Vayalar, the Worli Adivasis and above all the historic
Telangana peasants’ armed struggle which was directed against the Nizam of Hyderabad who
had collaborated with the British.
The Kisan Sabhas were initially the main articulating vehicle for peasant demands. As
the zamindari influence over Congress was quite strong and the peasants were not seeing the
Congress take up their particular concerns, they drifted away later. Sumit Sarkar points out:
‘Disillusioned by the repeated Congress failure to unequivocally take up their demands, some
peasant activists by mid-1920s had started groping towards new ideologies. In 1922, Swami
Vidyanand raised the demand for the abolition of zamindari, and Baba Ramchandra, in
November 1925, referred to Lenin as ‘the dear leader of the kisans the peasants are still
slaves except in Russia’. The strong links of the Congressmen – with the zamindari or
intermediate tenure-holding made it generally unresponsive to peasant demands for rent-
reduction and sharecropper efforts at a fairer division of the harvest in Bengal, Bihar and U.P.
This was clearest and ultimately most disastrous in Bengal, a province where share-cropping
(Barga) was rapidly spreading in the 1920s. The Swarajists here bitterly opposed any
proposal to give tenancy status to bargadars and showed no sympathy at all for some
Namasudra and Muslim baradari movements in the mid-1920s in districts like Mymensingh,
Dacca, Pabna, Khulna and Nadia. The U.P. Congress did take up a slightly more pro-peasant
stance, and in 1924 started a U.P. Kisan Sangh to pressurise the government into modifying
some pro-Zamindar clauses in a tenancy amendment bill then being discussed for Agra
province. It was made clear, however, that ‘the policy of the Sangha has been not to
antagonise the zamindars by saying even one word against them, but to attack the
government in whose bands the zamindars are blindly playing’.
The one peasant grievance about which the Congress was generally unequivocal was
revenue enhancement in ryotwari areas. Enhancement was resisted with some success in
Tanjore in 1923-24, with its prosperous mirasdars. In coastal Andhra N.G. Ranga started
work among the upper stratum of the peasantry in 1923, founding the first Ryot’s Association
in Guntur in that year. The British bid in 1927 to enhance revenue by 18 per cent in the
Krishna Godavari delta led to a powerful Kisan movement in coastal Andhra.’ (ibid, pp. 241-
242)
Mahatma Gandhi had led two very successful revolts one against the taxation and
allied landlords in Champaran, Bihar, and another in Kheda, Gujarat. Success in both
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struggles had shown the farmers that economic and civil rights could be won if movements
were launched and carried with determination. In 1920, the Indian National Congress under
Gandhi’s leadership launched the Non-Cooperation Movement and there was peasant
participation. The Bardoli Satyagraha of 1925 in the state of Gujarat was almost entirely a
peasant uprising in 1925, the taluka of Bardoli in Gujarat suffered from floods and famine,
which hurt crop production, leaving farmers facing great financial troubles. Still, the
government raised the tax rate by 30% that year, and despite many petitions from civic
groups, refused to cancel the increase. The situation was very much that the farmers barely
had enough property and crops to pay off the tax and would most certainly have faced
starvation. Leaders like activists Narhari Parikh, Ravi Shankar Vyas and Mohanlal Pandya
talked to village chieftains and farmers and solicited the help of Vallabhbhai Patel. Patel had
previously led Gujarat’s farmers during the Kheda struggle. Patel and Gandhi decided that the
struggle should be left entirely to the people of Bardoli taluka. The Governor of Bombay
ignored the requests made by Patel to reduce the taxes and instead announced the date of
collection. Patel instructed all the farmers of Bardoli to refuse payment. Patel had instructed
the farmers to remain completely non-violent, and not respond physically to any incitements
or aggressive actions from officials. He reassured them that the struggle would not end until
not only the cancellation of all taxes for the year but also when all the seized property and
lands were returned to their rightful owners. The Government declared its intention to crush
the revolt and along with tax inspectors forcibly took all property, including cattle. The
government then began auctioning the houses and the lands but not a single man from
Gujarat or anywhere else in India came forward to buy them. Patel had appointed volunteers
in every village to keep watch and as soon as officials were sighted who were coming to
auction the property, the volunteers would sound bugles and the farmers would leave the
village and hide in the jungles. The officials would then find the entire village empty and
could not determine who owned a particular house. The movement was successful and in
1928, an agreement was finally brokered by a Parsi member of the Bombay government and
the Government agreed to return the confiscated lands and properties as well as cancel
revenue payment not only for that year but also cancelled the 30% increase.
Later the various peasant revolts under different umbrellas culminated in the
formation of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) at the Lucknow session of the Indian National
Congress in April 1936 with Swami Sahajanand Saraswati elected as its first President. In the
closing years of British rule, there were two spectacular peasant struggles – The Tebhaga
movement in Bengal and the Telangana movement in Andhra.
The Tebhaga started as a campaign initiated in Bengal by the Kisan Sabha (peasants'
front of the Communist Party of India) in 1946. At that time share-cropping peasants
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(essentially, tenants) had to give half of their harvest to the owners of the land. The demand
of the Tebhaga (sharing by thirds) movement was to reduce the share given to landlords to
one-third. In many areas, the agitations turned violent, and landlords fled villages leaving
parts of the countryside in the hands of the Kisan Sabha. Thus, it has become almost like an
overthrow of the zamindari class by the exploited peasant classes. As a response to the
agitations, the then Muslim League ministry in the province launched the Bargadar Act,
which provided that the share of the harvest given to the landlords would be limited to one-
third of the total. However, the law was not fully implemented. The former Chief Minister of
West Bengal comments thus on the Tebhaga movement: “The farmers waited for years.
When it was realised that the Bill was only a dream, it was then decided that the Tebhaga
demand would have to take an agitation route. After the Second World War, the farmers took
to active struggle. The movement was already taking place in bits and starts in many districts.
However, at the beginning of 1947, it took the form of an organised movement throughout
the State, particularly in North Bengal. There was a general awakening in places like
Mymensingh, Jalpaiguri, Jessore, Khulna, Rangpur, Dinajpur and 24-Parganas. The
catchword that went around was; “We want Tebhaga. We will give our lives but not our
crop”. With law and order being the easiest excuse, the Police went on torturing the farmers;
firing and lathi charges on peaceful gatherings were the order of the day. In the early part of
1947, I moved extensively to Mymensingh, Khulna and Jalpaiguri. My report was as an
eyewitness. At least 70 farmers died because of unjustified police firing. There was arson by
the Police. Even women were not spared. But this sort of atrocity could not stop the progress
of the movement. The movement went ahead even though the police torture grew.” ( Study
material, SOL)
The Telangana Rebellion was a Communist-led peasant revolt that took place in the
former princely state of Hyderabad between 1946 and 1951 and was led by the Communist
Party of India. Peasants revolted against the Nizam and local feudal landlords (jagirdars and
Deshmukh) who owed allegiance to him and exploited the farmers by turning them into
bonded labour. The peasants also demanded writing off of all the debts of the peasants that
were not genuine real but manipulated and shown falsely by the feudal lords. The movement
was an armed struggle and the peasants declared independence after major successes. They
were ultimately defeated only after the central government sent in the army.
14.5 SUMMARY
The resistance to British rule was persisting across India by both Peasants and Tribes. Some
of them are sporadic and some are violent. Generalizing about their nature and origin is very
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cynical. The peasants were fighting for increased rent over the crops and corrupt practices,
commercialization of land holdings and violent ways of collecting revenue from the land.
Yet, in an abroad sense, it can be said that the changing economic relations in the colonial
period contributed to peasant grievances and their anguish found expression in these
rebellions. In the early traditional Indian times, agricultural activities were done at a basic
subsistence level and based on the ethical practices of rural areas. With British rule, the
commercialization of land and land holding led to the ‘ revitalization of landlordism’.
14.6 CONCLUSIONS
The peasant and tribal movements of India during the pre-independent era remain the
backbone of the mainstream Indian independence revolution. All these struggles might have
not solved many problems but they all tried to imbibe the spirit of nationalism in each section
of the Indian people. These movements forced the British government to take many
administrative measures to solve the rising problems of the time. In the final stage Indian
constitution also successfully implemented the Zamindari Abolition Act.
14.7 GLOSSARY
Revolt: A movement or expression of vigorous dissent
1. What were the major peasant revolts?

2. Why and how did the tribal populations revolt against the British?
14.9 REFERENCES
• Sarkar Sumit, (2006) Modern India, Macmillan India Ltd., New Delhi
• Bandyopadhyay, S. (2015 revised edition) From Plassey to Partition and After A
• Desai, A.R. (2019, reprint- 6th edition) Crusade Against Caste System, in Social
Background of Indian Nationalism, Sage.
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ofSchool of Open Learning, SOL, DU
• Chandra, B. (1999). Essays on Colonialism, Hyderabad. Orient Longman
Book Trust, India
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LESSON-15
WORKERS AND WOMEN’S MOVEMENT
Dr. Monika Batham
STRUCTURE

15.2 Workers Movements
15.2.1 First Phase of Movements
15.2.2 Second Phase of Movement
15.3 Summary
15.4 Women Movements
15.4.1 Women during the British period
15.4.1.1 Social Reform Movements
15.4.1.2 Nationalist Movements
15.4.2 Women’s Movement Organisations
15.5 Summary
15.6 Glossary
15.8 References
Indian trade unions have grown over time in the specific circumstances of colonialism and an
undeveloped economy. The British introduced the capitalist economy to India in the 19th
century. Plantations and railroads were the first businesses, but they rapidly grew into other
sectors like cotton and jute mills, mining, a dockyard, and roads. Following the 1857
uprising, British colonial capitalism was given increased attention. Indian workers frequently
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find themselves engaged in over-exploitation at work with inadequate wages, and in certain
situations, they are retained as bonded laborers, as they lack any expertise in professional job.
Whereas, the first systematic women's movement emerged in the 19th century, during
the British era, as a social reform movement. Women's movements in India experienced some
unique historical circumstances at this period, and the social climate fueled social reform
movements, which led to fresh perspectives on a range of social institutions, practices, and
social reform laws. The intellectual and social content of the women's movement altered with
time and has persisted into the present. Let's attempt to comprehend the evolution of the labor
movement and women’s movement throughout this time.
After completing this chapter, you will be able to comprehend
a) How are worker's movements and women's movements contributed to India’s
freedom struggle and a stepping stone for empowered India?
b) What are the major components and objectives of these movements?
15.2 WORKERS MOVEMENT
Introduction
The modern working class arose in India in the nineteenth century. This development was
due to the establishment of modern factories, railways, dockyards and construction activities
relating to roads and buildings. Initially, industrialisation was mainly confined to the cotton
and jute industries. The first textile industry started production in 1854 in Bombay. The
cotton textile was mainly concentrated in the cotton-producing region of India and Bombay,
Ahmedabad, Sholapur, Nagpur and Kanpur were the main centres for the cotton textile
industry. In 1914, 264 cotton mills were employing 2, 60,000 workers. Around 60 Jute mills
alone in Bengal province with 2, 00,000 employees in 1912. By 1914, the railways employed
about 6, 00,000 workers. The mining industry employed 1, 50,000 workers and Plantations
employed 7, 00,000 largest workers at that time (Chandra B.: 1988: 281).
15.2.1 First Phase of the Workers' Movement
Labour historians categorised the whole workers' movement into distinct phases. The first
phase was from the 1850s till 1918. During this period the earliest phase was more
unorganised and ineffective. In the late nineteenth century in Madras and from the second
decade of the twentieth century in Bombay some serious efforts were made by the workers
for making associations that could work for their welfare and work against capitalist
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exploitation. Before any organised associations/ Unions, a few well-wishers and influential
individuals like S. S. Bengalee in Bombay, Sasipada Banerjee in Bengal and Narayan
Lokhandya in Maharashtra urged British authorities to legislate for improving worker's
conditions under Britishers. Earlier before any organised union, there has been a pattern of at
least two strikes or rebellions against bad administration and working conditions, poor wages,
and imposition of unnecessary fines and dismissal of a worker. However, these strikes are
often spontaneous, sporadic, localised and short-lived.
15.2.2 Second Phase of the Workers' Movement
The Second Phase began from 1918-1947. After the First World War, with the exchange of
knowledge and literature of the world, trade unions were also constituted in modern ways. It
became more organised than before. Several political organizations, including Congress and
the Communists, communicated with unions directly during the 1920s. The working class is
persuaded and organized to join the national movement.
All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was formed with Bal Gangadhar Tilak,
N.M.Joshi, B.P. Wadia, Lala Lajpat Rai, Joseph Baptista and many others; became the office
bearers of AITUC. Lala Lajpat Rai became the first president of the AITUC and Joseph
Baptista was its vice president. At the international level formation of the International
Labour Organisation (ILO) in 1919 gave a strong basis to develop the same kind of dignified
values for workers. The strikes and protests during this phase were much more organised,
prolonged and well-participated by the workers. Congress took a special interest in the
workers' movement, why? Because of two reasons, first, they knew that workers and the
working class are not involved in any kind of national movement. It’s the right time to
include them and second, we need to launch an effective protest movement against
imperialism, and we already knew that the number of working classes by the 1920s has
grown tremendously. Indian Congress appointed a committee to look at workers' issues in the
year 1936. Not only Congress the Communists became interested in the working class.
Let us find out why the communist party was formed in India. This is the period when
the Communist Party of the Soviet Union at the world level became more influential and the
formation of the Communist Party of India on 17 October 1920 at Tashkent under the
leadership of M. N. Roy. They mobilise the working class through the Workers and Peasant
Parties (WPPs). At that time WPPs were effective in organising strikes in Bombay in 1928
and in other cities in India too.
Workers were not happy and went on many strikes. In 1920 followed by 1921 where
396 strikes alone took place with 6,00,000 workers. Now not only Bombay but almost every
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factory including Jute mills in Calcutta, Eastern Railways, Cotton mills etc experiencing
these strikes. There was a fundamental change happening in the working class, now they are
aware, united and conscious of the national movement. Along with that, they were facing
serious concerns too because of growing differences between the Moderates and the
Communists. There was a bifurcation between the parent organisations and now one is called
All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and the other one is the National Trade Union
Federation (NTUF).
The AITUC is the oldest trade union federation in India. It was formed in Bombay by
Lala Lajpat Rai, Joseph Baptista, N. M. Joshi, Diwan Chaman Lal and a few others, until
1945 when unions became organised on party lines; it was the primary trade union
organisation in India. Since then, it has been associated with the Communist Party of India.
AITUC further broke away and formed the India Red Trade Union under the leadership of S.
K. Deshpande and B.T. Ranadive, because of the difference of opinion among leftists. They
are the radical ones among Leftists. Whereas NTUF was formed by the moderate leaders of
congress like N.M. Joshi, V. V. Giri, B. Shivrao and others.
After a period of high activism of trade unions in India during the 1920s, there was a
marked decline in strikes and protests in the early 1930s. Chamanlal Revri claims that the
Meerut Conspiracy case, in which some major Communist leaders were detained, was the
cause of the entire trade union movement's setback during that time. Subsequent fractures
within the Trade Union Congress are also likely contributing factors. 1940’s decade was a
remarkable period because India became independent in 1947. This phase coincided with the
final phase of the Quit India Movement of 1942. After the end of World War II, the working
class faced two different problems. First, there is the issue of widespread layoffs, and then
there is the issue of declining earnings. Due to the fact that the number of strikes peaked in
1947 with approximately 1840 workers involved, this scenario grew difficult. (Chandra B.:
1988: 284).
15.3 SUMMARY
Introduction to the capitalist economy by Britishers led to the emergence of modern working-
class movements in the Indian subcontinent. Various profit-generating industries for Britons
were introduced on Indian soil like tea and coffee plantations and manufacturing units,
railways, cotton and jute mills, coal mining etc. Lakhs of workers were recruited without
dignified conditions and labour laws for decades which resulted in the rise of protests locally.
But after the emergence of a few labourers-concerned organisations and trade unions, things
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became organised. The worker’s strength becomes so visible that the Indian Congress also
appeals to workers to participate in the national freedom struggle.
15.4 WOMEN’S MOVEMENT
Introduction
When we are talking about historical sources generally, we are referring to sources which are
preserved by the elite sections of society because other classes and tribal backgrounds had
different norms. Tribal women and women from the labouring castes and classes are rarely
visible as they represent those groups which did not have a literary culture and therefore did
not leave behind much evidence. The economic surplus is accumulated by a ruling class but
for the hunter-gatherers, we see no such accumulation of wealth and resources and because of
that, their society was relatively egalitarian. It is through the rise of sedentary settlements that
we see that stratification according to accumulation as well as based on work. The one who is
most of the time taking care of outdoor activities and is physically strongholds the power.
Women, on the other hand, received protection and in return, they became property to men.
But it’s a gradual process and one should not be so casual about these comments. Let’s find
out what the real situation of the women’s movement was in the British period.
15.4.1 Women during the British Period
Initially, Europeans did not change the situation of women. Like other Western powers, the
primary objective of the British in the earlier days was traded. Later when they were faced
with the administration of newly conquered areas, they thought it safe not only to keep the
existing social structure intact but also to induce its religious pundits (Brahmins) to interpret
its rules when necessary. The introduction of modern English education first started to train
Indians for jobs under the British administration. This created upper-class elites who began to
doubt the rationale of many of the existing practices in their society. The establishment and
expansion of British rule also encouraged British missionaries to enter their colonies and start
schools, orphanages and destitute homes, especially for widows. They stood against sati,
child marriage, purdah and polygamy. The new Indian elite exposed to European liberalism
of the 18th century through Western education, felt the urgency for reform of their society.
This produced tangible results in the subsequent periods.
The women’s movements in the colonial period are mainly of two different concerns:
(1) social reform movements and (2) nationalist movements.
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15.4.1.1 Social Reform Movement

The women’s movement began as a social reform movement in Indian society (19th century).
The British conquest and its rule over India brought about a transformation in the Indian
economy as well as in society. The new land revenue settlements, commercial agriculture and
infrastructural facilities like roads, railways, postal and telegraph services etc. ushered in by
the British led to a significant change in the Indian village economy. The new economic
system and administrative machinery required a new type of educated personnel which
resulted in the establishment of Western educational institutions imparting modern education.
The Indians who were the beneficiaries of the new economic system were attracted towards
this and as a result, a new class of intelligentsia evolved in Indian society. The articulate
intelligentsia became the pioneers of all progressive democratic movements: social, political,
economic and cultural.
There was diversity among these reform movements. Share a concern for eliminating
social ills, partly in response to the colonial authorities' accusations of barbarism. This was a
time of hegemonic rule and colonial ideology's influence. It was a period of transition marked
by the emergence of the bourgeoisie and the values of new schools of thought.
The colonial intervention intruded into the areas of our culture and society and
affected the transformation of our social fabric. This potential threat was sensed by the Indian
intellectual reformers, exposed to western ideas and values. At this juncture, the Indian
intellectual reformer sensitive to the power of colonial domination and responding to Western
ideas of rationalism and liberalism sought ways and means of resisting this colonial
hegemony by resorting to what K. N. Panniker (Presidential address, Indian History
Congress, 1975) refers to cultural defence.
This cultural defence resulted in a paradoxical situation. The reformers tried to create
a new society, modern yet rooted in Indian tradition. They began a critical appraisal of Indian
society in an attempt to create a new ethos devoid of all overt social aberrations like
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polytheism, polygamy, casteism, sati, child marriage, illiteracy etc. all of which they believed
were impediments to the progress of women. To the reformers, the position of Indian women,
as it was in the 19th century was awfully low and hence their efforts were directed at an
overall improvement in the status of women. This is considered the first wave of feminism in
the west and focused on basic rights for women.
It did not radically challenge the existing patriarchal structure of society or question
gender relations. They picked up only those issues which the British were pointing out as
evidence of degeneration in Indian society. Even when women were speaking for themselves,
they were speaking only the language of the men, defined by male parameters.
Women were seen as passive recipients of a more humanitarian treatment to be given
by Western-educated elite men. The attempt was to create a new Indian woman, truly Indian
and yet sufficiently educated and tutored in 19th-century values to suit the new emerging
society. Thus, education for girls was not meant to equip them to be self-sufficient,
independent and emancipated and train them to follow some profession but to be good
housewives (Pande and Kameshwari, 1987).
Social reformers such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Keshab Chandra Sen, Iswarachandra
Vidya Sagar, M. G. Ranade, Karve, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayanand Saraswathi and
others provided leadership to the women’s movement by frankly acknowledging the
degraded position of Indian women.
Within this group there were two groups of social reformers, 1) Liberal Reformers and 2) The
Revivalists.
Liberal Reformers believed in liberal philosophy and put forth their work for the
cause of women. The best exponent of liberalism was Raja Ram Mohan Roy who was the
first Indian to initiate a social reform movement and campaign for the cause of women. He
believes in equality between both genders and women are not inferior to men at any level. He
drew attention towards the inhuman practice of sati. From 1818 onwards he began his active
propaganda through speeches and writings against sati. The East India Company declared the
sati practice illegal and a punishable offence in 1829. He also opposed other evils like early
marriage, polygamy etc. He supported female education and widow and inter-caste marriage.
He wanted women to have the right to inheritance and property. Roy’s Brahmo Samaj played
a significant role in the reform activities concerning women's issues.
The Brahmo Samaj, soon after its inception became a vigorous social reform
movement first in Bengal which then quickly spread to other parts of the country and added
to the volume and strength of similarly aimed local reformist movements. The members of
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the Brahmo Samaj opposed the caste system and they concentrated greatly on improving the
low conditions of women and played a very important role in the introduction of several
beneficial measures.
Like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar also helped women. He did
so by propagating widow remarriage. The child marriage evil resulted in large numbers of
young girls ending up as widows whose lives were miserable due to the severe restrictions
imposed on them. He argued in favour of widow remarriage and published his work on
“Widow Remarriage” in 1853. Both Brahmo Samaj and Prarthana Samaj made strong
efforts to prove that Hindu religious traditions were not responsible for the poor condition of
women in society and to restore women to dignified positions.
Revivalist Reformers believe in a programme for the revival of Vedic society in
modern India. (Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayananda Saraswati and Annie Besant)
Dayanand Saraswati 1875 established Arya Samaj. He emphasised compulsory
education for both boys and girls. A series of schools for women- Arya Kanya Pathasalas -
was the first concerted effort of the Samaj to promote women’s education systematically.
Prarthana Samaj founded by some Maharashtra Brahmins in 1867 had leaders like M. G.
Ranade, N. G. Chandrasarkar and R. G. Bhandarkar. It concentrated more on sponsoring
education for women.
Whether it was the widow remarriage movement or age at marriage was aggressively
fought by these social reformers. For the widow remarriage act of 1856 the efforts of Vidya
Sagar, Keshub Chandra Sen and D. K. Karve cannot be forgotten. Kandukuri Veeresalingam
from Madras presidency for the widow movement in south in the 1874, where he encouraged
and performed 63 widow marriages and gave financial aid (houses and other benefits) to
couples.
Another aspect of these social calls was the age of girls at marriage. Vidya Sagar and
other reformers extensively advertise this issue and as a result, the British government
legislate to improve the condition of minor girls. The age of consent bill was passed in 1860
which made sexual intercourse with a girl of fewer than 10 years of age as m rape. Further
social reformers like Mahadev Govind Ranade, Behramji Malabari and Tej Bahadur Sapru in
their attempts to raise the age of marriage cited several cases of the consummation at the age
of 10 or 11 which led to serious physical and psychological disturbances. Behramji, a Parsi
journalist published his notes on infant marriage and enforced widowhood in 1884 suggesting
certain reforms to be adopted in the educational institutions to discourage child marriage and
also suggested some corrective measures to the Government. It was between 1884 and 1889
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that enormous pressure was brought to bear on the government to enact a law to further raise
the age at marriage of the girl. At last due to the collective efforts of the reformers in 1891,
the Bill known as the Age of Consent was passed, which rose the marriageable age for girls
to 12 years. From 8 years to 12 years of age marriage is a remarkable job done by these
reformers.
Female education was extensively supported and promoted by liberal as well as
orthodox reformers. While serving as a school inspector from 1855 to 1858, Vidya Sagar
founded 48 girls' schools. In 1884, M. G. Ranade and his wife established a girls' high school
as part of their efforts to promote female education. D. K. Karve recognized the limited
application and viability of laws like the widow remarriage act of 1856 and others in a culture
that was firmly rooted in tradition. As a result, he focused his efforts on advancing education
for widows. With the goal of empowering widows to become self-sufficient, Karve and 15 of
his colleagues formed the Ananth Balikashram for widow education in 1896. Additionally, he
established two independent institutions of higher learning for women: S. N. D. T. Women's
University in 1916 and Mahila Vidyalaya in 1907.
Pandita Ramabai started Sharda Sadan in Bombay in 1889 to provide an ashram to destitute
high-caste widows. In 1912-1913 a widow’s home was established by sister Subbulakshmi,
another widow in Madras.
Property rights for Hindu women were another important aspect taken care of by
these reformers (Mukharjee 1975a). The existing practice was particularly harsh on the Hindu
widow. Particularly Raja Ram Mohan Roy's effort can be seen in the Special Marriage Act of
1872 with its provision for divorce and succession to the property to women. The married
women’s property act of 1874 widened the scope of Streedhan (women’s property) and
expanded the right to own and acquire property for women.
Muslim women in India made little progress in their position both in the pre-British
period and later British period. Only small segments of the population of educated Muslim
families in the 19th century were confined to urban areas in the country. Badruddin Tyabji
who graduated from Elphinstone College founded a Muslim self-help association in 1876.
Later on, his female relative started a Muslim girl’s school (Amina Binte Badruddin Tyabji)
and a girl’s orphanage (Begum Nawale Misra) and started nursing centres (Shareefa Hamid
Ali).
15.4.1.2 Nationalist Movements
The expansion of women’s education and their admission to educational institutions had
produced a sizable number of English-educated middle-class women by the late 19th century-
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and they made their presence felt in political activities. For the first time, many women
belongings particularly jewellery to the middle class started taking part in political activities.
Till 1919, the national movement was limited to the urban upper class and it was later with
Gandhi’s entrance into the national movement, participation of the masses began to take
place.
Women performed admirably throughout the entire protest following the nationalists'
introduction of the Swadeshi movement, despite the fact that there was limited female
leadership. Meetings were organized and women took on the task of khadi spinning. Women
gave the national fund their priceless jewelry. The Arya Samaj promoted national pride and
made an effort to encourage young women to get involved in the national movement.
Rabindranath Tagore's sister Swarna Kumari and her daughter Sarala Devi were ardent
advocates of the Swadeshi movement. Among the Indian revolutionaries residing in Europe,
Mrs. Shyamji Krishna Verma, Ms. P. Nauroji, Ms. M. Chattopadhyay, and Madam
Bhikaji Rustum Cama and K. R. Kame were a few familiar names who coordinated the
operations of the revolutionaries.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, M K Gandhi gave the call for a non-
cooperation movement. He made appeals to women to come out of seclusion (Purdah) and
come along with men. He knew that the nation could not be united against the British if we
kept half of its population. Though the non-cooperation movement failed, it awakened the
women of all sections and imparted the first lessons in Satyagraha. He launched an all-India
Satyagraha in 1919 against the provocative enactment of the Rowlett Act. Women took out
processions, propagated the use of Khadi and even courted jail. Though a few women were
arrested, a beginning was made.
After the struggle for the franchise, for the first time, Indian women exercised their
vote in the elections of 1926. The franchise granted to women was very restricted. The first
woman to stand for election was Kamala Devi Chattopadhyay. Madras was the first state
which nominated a woman member, Dr Muttu Lakshmi Reddy to the Legislative Council.
A large number of women, including Sarojini Naidu, actively took part in the Dandi
March. Women participated by breaking salt laws, and forest laws taking out processions,
and picketing schools, colleges, legislative councils and clubs. In 1931 Sarojini Naidu
attended the Second Round Table Conference as an official representative of the women of
India. During the Civil Disobedience Movement of 1930, Kamala Devi Chattopadhyaya
addressed meetings and picketed foreign cloth and liquor shops. She was in charge of the
women’s wing of the Hindustan Seva Dal. The inauguration of provincial autonomy under
the India Act of 1935 gave women an opportunity to be elected to the state legislatures and
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also become administrators. In the elections of 1937, 8 women were elected from the general
constituencies, 42 from the reserved constituencies and 5 were nominated to the Upper House
when the ministries were formed, 10 women took office one as minister and others as deputy
speakers and parliamentary secretaries.
The Quit India Movement was launched by Gandhi in 1942 with a significant slogan
“Do or Die”. In the absence of lead male leaders, women carried on the movement and bore
the brunt of the British wrath, the women not only led processions and held demonstrations
but also organised camps in which they were given training in civil duties and first aid and
were educated on democracy. Women organised political prisoners’ relief funds while some
women went underground and directed the movement secretly. In the Indian National Army
of Subhash Chandra Bose, Rani Jhansi Regiment was created for women.
15.4.2 Women’s Movement Organisations
In 1882 Sakhi Samiti was the first women’s organisation founded by Swarna Kumari Devi
(sister of Rabindra Nath Tagore), but later it was converted into a craft centre for widows.
Pandita Ramabai set up Arya Mahila Samaj at Poona in the same year. Gujarat Stree Mandal
was set in Ahmedabad in 1908. Mahila Sewa Samaj was set up at Mysore in 1913 and at
Poona in 1916. Bharat Stree MahaMandal (all India Organisation) was set by Sarla Devi
Chaudhurani in 1901. In 1917, Annie Basant established the Women’s Indian Association in
Madras. Several other organisations came up at the regional level but these names were
prominent.
In 1926, the first all-India organisation came up with the name National Council of
Women in India (NCWI). It worked under the patronage of the British, mostly to secure
women’s rights through social reform. At that time every district had its centre, generally
headed by the Collector’s wife. The NCWI never contributed as a main organisation of
women but kept confined to running constructive work centres.
In 1927 at Poona the second all India organisation was set up named All India
Women’s Conference (AIWC). Its reach spread all over India, under the leadership of
princely states, upper-middle-class women and women members of the Indian congress
Party, Communist Party, doctors, educationists and social workers. Their main thrust was on
women’s education with compelling issues like a campaign against Child Marriage, the
Purdah system (seclusion), women's legal rights (in the matter of marriage, maintenance,
guardianship or in the property of their fathers and husbands) to ensure a better life for
women.
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Prominent leaders of the AIWC included Sarojini Naidu, Kamala Devi

Chattopadhyay, Annie Basant, Anusuya Kale, Hansa Mehta, Aruna Asaf Ali, Rameshwari
Nehru, Mathulaxmi Reddy, Sarala Devi Chaudhurani, Hajrah Begum, Renu Chakravorty,
Perin Ramesh Chandra, Begum Hamid Ali, Begum Jahanara Shah Nawaz, Masoma Begum,
Ranis of Mysore, Travancore, Baroda, Gwalior and several of others.
Trade Union and Women
In the 1920s in Bombay, Madras, Kanpur and Coimbatore (main textile centres) there
was a trend of women joining trade unions. Whenever trade unions united on labour issues
these women participated actively in them. Some of the names were Ushatai Dange,
Parvatibai Bhor, Meenakshi Sane, Maniben Kara, and Shanta Bhalero. They not only
organised for the cause of trade unions but also to educate them about their problems and
increase their political consciousness.
Peasants Struggles and Women
The history of the women’s movement was not limited to a few major organisations
but they were participating in various peasants' struggles. Like in the Tebhaga struggle in
1946-47, North Bengal drew in its large members of women who remained at the forefront of
the battle against landlord exploitation. The Tebhaga movement for the first time in India
brought awakening to such a large section of rural women.
The Telangana movement is another remarkable struggle in which women played a
heroic role against Nizam and his supporters the big landlords in 1947. It was an armed
struggle and many women gave their lives. Arutla Kamala Devi, Dr Atchuamba, SuriyaVathi,
Swarajam and Jamalunissa Begum were a few important leaders of this movement.
Armed Struggle and Women
In early 1930, some young girls participated in the armed struggle whom the British
called terrorists. The few best names among these are Priti Lata Waddedar, Bina Das,
Kalpana Dutt, Shanti Das and Suniti Ghosh. Violence at any point cannot be justified but
they risked their lives and showed rare bravery. Their actions inspired many women and
evoked self-confidence among them. They proved that women were not weak. Later Kalpana
Dutt joined the CPI
Tribal Women Resistance
Tribal women fought bravely almost everywhere, for their rights. Rani Guidallo
(leader of Zeliangupang tribe) in Manipur rebels against Britishers. The no-tax campaign led
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by her became very popular, experiencing the rage of the British. She kept on leading her
people till her last breath.
15.5 SUMMARY
The Indian freedom struggle did not encourage a second line of leadership. A second line of
leadership was not encouraged by the Indian freedom struggle. It had disregarded the
demands made by the women. Women took over leadership during the Quit India campaign,
and many of them bravely displayed their courage by getting jailed. They possessed a
surprisingly weak organizational power. Women in India now have full equality under the
constitution thanks to the efforts of women and their participation in the liberation struggle.
Before saying that women have gained equality since independence, however, there is still a
long way to go.
Although the workers' and women's movements went through growth and decline
periods, they had a long-lasting effect on Indian society. They widened the range of political
engagement and prepared the basis for subsequent movements. They were still, however, in
some ways constrained by issues of ideology, caste, and class. Their goal-achieving
procedure is still in progress.
15.6 GLOSSARY
Trade Union: an organisation made up of members (a membership-based organisation) and

its membership must be made up mainly of workers.
Patriarchy: a social system that gives power and control to men rather than women
Gender: the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed. This
includes norms, behaviours and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy, as
well as relationships with each other.
Tribe: a group of people that have the same language and customs and that have a leader (a
chief).
1) Discuss the emergence and growth of trade unions in India.

2) Write the main features of working-class movements in India.
3) Discuss the difference between Liberal and Revivalist reformist activities.
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4) What was the status of women in the colonial period in India?

5) Discuss how social reform movements contributed towards the emancipation of
women.
6) Write an essay on the participation of women and its impact on the freedom struggle.
15.8 REFERENCES
• Bandyopadhyay, S. (2015 revised edition) ‘From Plassey to Partition and after a

History of Modern India’, New Delhi: Orient Longman, pp. 334-381.
• Desai, A.R. (2019, reprint- 6th edition) ‘Crusade Against Untouchability’, Social
Background of Indian Nationalism, Sage.
• Desai, A.R. (2019, reprint- 6th edition) ‘Movement for the Emancipation of
Women’, Social Background of Indian Nationalism, Sage.
• Chandra, B. (ed.) (1988) ‘India’s Struggle for Independence’, New Delhi. Penguin.
• Pradhan, Ram Chandra. (2008) ‘Raj to Swaraj’, New Delhi: Macmillan.
• Sangari, Kumkum and Vaid, S. (1989) ‘Recasting Woman: Essays in Colonial
History’, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
• Mani, B.R. (2005) ‘Debrahmanising History, Dominance and Resistance in Indian
Society’, New Delhi: Manohar Publishers.
• Vimla Farooqui (1996) ‘A Short History of Women’s Movement in India’, New
Delhi. People’s Publishing House, pp. 14-24.
• Banerjee, Narayan (1992) ‘Grassroots Empowerment Mimeograph’, New Delhi:
Center for Women’s Development Studies.
• Kumar, Radha (1993) ‘History of Doing’, New Delhi: Kali for Women.
• Panniker, K.N. (1975) “Presidential Address”. Proceedings of Indian History
Congress
• Tharu, Susie and K. Lalit (eds). (1991) ‘Women Writing in India’, Vol. 11. New
Delhi: Oxford University Press.
• https://cpim.org/history/formation-communist-party-india-tashkent-1920
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_India_Trade_Union_Congress
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• Altekar, A.S. (1962) The Position of Women in Hindu Civilization. New Delhi:
Motilal Banarsidas.
• Subbamma, Malladi (1994) Women’s Movements and Associations. Hyderabad:
MahilabhyudayaSamastha.
• Thomas R. (1964) Indian Women through the Ages, Bombay: Asia Publishing House.
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LESSON-16
ANTI-CASTE MOVEMENT
Khem Chand
STRUCTURE

16.2 Introduction
16.3 Development of Caste in the British Era
16.3.1 Mahatma Jyotiba Phule (1827-1890)
16.3.2 Pandita Ramabai (1858–1922)
16.4 Non-Brahman Movement
16.4.1 Self-Respect Movement in South India
16.4.2 Justice Party and Non-Brahman Movement
16.4.3 E.V. Ramaswamy ‘Periyar’ (1879-1973)
16.5 Dalit Protests in India During British Era
16.5.1 Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar (1891-1956)
16.5.2 Mahatma Gandhi’s Idea (1869-1948)
16.6 Summary
16.7 Glossary
16.9 References
This lesson will help students and scholars to understand what caste was and how
• Anti-caste movement provided awareness to the people of Dalit and backward caste
societies for their rights.
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• Students will learn what the social and religious Impact was of the anti-caste
movement in India;
• How the Self-Respect Movement impacted the social and cultural changes in
Southern India.
• Dr Ambedkar united the people of Dalit society and fought for their rights.
16.2 INTRODUCTION
The English word "caste" is derived from the Portuguese term "casta," which refers to
lineage, race, or social distinction. In this sense, the caste system is based on racial or birth-
based distinction. As will be clear later, the Indian caste system cannot be understood on this
basis. For many people, including scholars, the term "Hinduism" often goes unquestioned,
equated with the religion of the people of India. From ancient texts like the Rig Veda to the
writings of philosophers and modern political figures, Hinduism is often perceived as a
singular spiritual tradition intimately connected to daily life, rooted in the geographical
diversity of the Indian subcontinent. However, this perspective may oversimplify a complex
tapestry of beliefs, practices, and local variations that make up the Hindu tradition. Therefore,
it is essential to approach the concept of Hinduism with nuance and an awareness of its
multifaceted nature. Although invasions, conquests and disturbances have occasionally
broken its stability, it has maintained a fair continuity. It has given birth to rampant and
unjustifiable social inequalities and spawned protests against them. Its greatest virtue has
been its elasticity, its pluralism, and its lack of dogma. Hinduism, it is said, has no
‘orthodoxy’ (though it may have an ‘orthopraxy’). With a core in the religious traditions
going to the Vedas and Upanishads, it has brought forth other sisters/child religions –
Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism- all born out of the same traditions.
The modern caste system in India is approximately 3,000 years old, with its earliest
references found in the Rig Veda. Initially, the system may have been based on skin colour,
with light-skinned Aryans distinguishing themselves from the darker-skinned indigenous
Dasyus, who had different physical characteristics.
To begin with, there were only three divisions among the Aryans: the Brahmins, who
were priests and scholars occupying the highest positions, followed by the Kshatriyas, who
were warriors and rulers. Moreover, the Vaishya were people looking after cattle. While the
three varnas did form a hierarchy, the system was open, more like classes than castes. It is
important to remember that in the hymns of the Rig Veda, there is little trace of the rigid
restrictions typically of the caste, change of occupations or compensability (Majumdar et al.
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1965:33). However, towards the end of the Rig Vedas (1500-900 BC), The system seems to
have congealed into four castes, with the Shudras being the fourth. Their duty was to serve
the other three Varnas.
Varnas system in Indian Society
The caste system in India is deeply ingrained, affecting daily interactions and underpinned by
historical Hindu philosophical tenets. It serves as both a social and moral framework,
influencing legal norms as well. Although originally a fluid social stratification, it has
become a rigid system perpetuating discrimination and inequality. Dalits are outcastes or
people who fall outside the fourfold caste system: Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra.
Dalits also mention other non-Aryan groups besides the Chandala: Ayogava, Paulksha and
Nishada. However, for the Nishada, the others were looked down upon. The four varnas and
the Nishada were collectively referred to in the later Vedas as the ‘Panchajanah’ (five
people).
The Vedas also mention some occupations such as the blacksmith, leather worker,
barber, physician, goldsmith, merchant and chariot-builder, but we do know if these
occupations were not comprised in any of the four orders, nor can we say each of them
constituted a separate class. We know for certain that the status of the Rathakara, the chariot-
builder, was high enough to preclude his being classified with the Shudras. The exact
evolution of untouchability from the four Vedic varnas is unclear, but it's closely tied to
evolving notions of spiritual purity and impurity. These ideas have increasingly influenced
daily practices, life-cycle ceremonies, and festivals among the "twice-born" castes, ultimately
affecting inter-caste relations.
Concerning the part played by purity-impurity ideas in inter-caste relations, the
original Vedic Varnashrama system was legitimate and virtuous. It divided society into four
natural groups depending on individual characteristics and dispositions, prescribed in
Shastras as the four varnas. Over time, the four primary Varnas of ancient Indian society
evolved into a complex web of numerous sub-castes or Jatis, often tied to specific
geographical or linguistic regions. While members of a particular Varna typically adhered to
certain behavioral norms and married within their Varna, Kshatriyas often constituted an
exception to these practices. This proliferation of sub-castes has had long-lasting impacts,
including perpetuating social stratification and affecting inter-caste relations. Although
originally intended to be a flexible social structure, the Varna system became increasingly
rigid, further complicated by the rise of numerous Jatis, which now play a significant role in
modern Indian society. ‘The original caste or varna system existed all over India and has been
considered by many sociologists and social anthropologists as an Indian phenomenon. Since
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the caste and caste system existing today originated from the earlier varna system or caste
system in the broader sense, it also developed and spread throughout India, though there does
not exist uniformity, neither in their local names nor in their ranks in the local caste-
hierarchy. Ghurye views, ‘The caste system gave rise to hierarchical gradation and social
discriminations regarding privileges, marriage, social inter-course, choice of occupation, etc.
16.3 DEVELOPMENT OF CASTE IN BRITISH ERA
Colonial rule disengaged the caste system from its pre-colonial political context but gave it a
new lease of life by redefining and revitalising it within its new knowledge structure,
institutions and policies. First of all, during its non-interventionist phase, it created
opportunities which were “in theory caste-free”: land became a marketable commodity;
equality before the law became an established principle of judicial administration;
educational institutions and public employment was thrown open to talent, irrespective of
caste and creed. Nevertheless, the principle of non-intervention helped maintain the pre-
existing social order and reinforced the position of the privileged groups. Only the higher
castes with previous literary traditions and surplus resources could go for English education
and new professions and could take advantage of the new judicial system.
Moreover, in matters of personal law, the Hindus were governed by the Dharma
Shastra, which upheld the privileges of caste order. As the orientalist scholars, immersed in
classical textual studies, discovered the most essential forms of Hindu social organisations in
the caste system, more and more information was collected through official ethnographic
surveys, which gave further currency to the notions of caste hierarchy. Furthermore, the
foremost of such colonial ethnographers, Herbert Risley, following Alfred Lyall and the
French racial theorist Paul Topinard, now provided a racial dimension to the concept of caste,
arguing that the fair-skinned higher castes represented the invading Aryan autochthons of the
land.
The racial stereotype and the scriptural view of caste were gradually given
enumerated shape and, above all, an official legitimacy, through the described as the “single
master exercise of tabulations” of the entire colonial subject’s society. When Risley became
the census commissioner in 1901, he proposed not only to enumerate all castes but also to
determine and record their locations in the caste hierarchy. To the Indian public, this
appeared to be an official attempt to freeze the hierarchy, which had been constantly, though
imperceptibly, changing over time. This redefined caste now becomes what Nicholas Dirks
has called the “Indian colonial form of civil society”. Voluntary caste associations in India
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have become influential in shaping public perception, often lobbying census officials for
higher ritual rankings. This modern phenomenon has ironically made caste-based identity
more institutionalized within secular public spaces, even as it reflects efforts to renegotiate
traditional hierarchies in a contemporary context.
First of all, there were signs of “westernisation”. Because of improved
communications, there was greater horizontal solidarity among the caste members, who
formed regional caste associations. There was also a growing realisation of the signification
of the new sources of status, i.e., education, jobs and political representation and awareness
that those new sinews of power were monopolised by the Brahman and the upper caste. This
led to organised demands for more special privileges and reservations from the colonial state.
This involved conflict and contestations, particularly when the education of Dalit groups was
concerned, as the colonial bureaucracy, despite the much-publicised policy of supporting
Dalit education, often showed ambivalence in the face of caste Hindu oppositions. It required
the Dalit groups to protest like the Mahar students in Dapoli in Maharashtra, sitting on the
Verandah of the local municipal school to induce the colonial colony civil servants to take
measures to ensure their educational rights. In this particular case, however, they were
ultimately allowed to sit in a classroom far from the caste Hindu students. These efforts at
“westernisations” were not, therefore, just attempts at imaging themselves in the light of their
colonial masters, but to claim their legitimate rights to education and other opportunities from
a reluctant state bureaucracy.
On the other hand, these upwardly mobile groups also engaged in the cultural
movement, which noted sociologist M.N. Srinivas (1966) has called the process of
“Sanskritization”, as status was still being defined and expressed in the language of caste,
which enjoyed both official legitimacy and social currency the upwardly mobile groups
sought to legitimacy their new status by emulating the cultural and ritual practices of the
upper castes. This was one of the reasons why customs like sati, prohibitions of widow
remarriage, and child marriage, the performance of which was graded as hallmarks of high
caste status, were more widely practised by the upwardly mobile lower peasants’ groups in
the nineteenth century. Ironically, this behaviour signified an endorsement of the caste system
and sought a positional readjustment within the existing ritual hierarchy. However, not all
castes at all times followed this same behavioural trajectory.
16.3.1 Mahatma Jyotiba Phule (1827-1890)
Jyotiba Phule was born on April 11 1827, in Pune in a backward Mali caste of Maharashtra.
Jyotiba’s father’s name was Govindrao, and his mother was Vimala Bai. Mahatma Jyotiba
Phule was the forerunner of the social revolution of modern Maharashtra, the first great man
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to raise his voice against the traditional social order and the first to challenge the religious
dictatorship that had been going on for thousands of years. Through revolutionary reformism,
Mahatma Phule provided concrete work that was not there in other reformist efforts of that
time. Mahatma Phule used to talk of an egalitarian and just and based society.
Role of Satyashodhak Samaj: The Satya Shodhak Samaj under Phule led campaigns
to remove the economic and social discriminations, arguing that the rules of religious texts
were outwardly religious but, in essence, motivated by a desire to exploit and maintain
superior positions of the upper castes. He accused the Brahmins of upholding the teachings of
religion but refused to rationally analyse the principles. Phule was a pioneering social
reformer who challenged conventional religious beliefs and social structures. Unlike many of
his contemporaries, he questioned the very basis of blind faith and divine authority. Phule
provocatively asked why, if there is a singular God concerned for all humanity, were sacred
texts like the Vedas written exclusively in Sanskrit, a language inaccessible to many. He
argued that the notion of divinely-ordained religious texts was a construct to maintain the
status quo and serve the interests of the privileged classes. Phule posited that all religious
teachings and scriptures were man-made, designed to perpetuate systemic inequality. His
views were radical for his time, making him unique among social reformers. He advocated
for a complete overhaul of a system that kept people dependent, illiterate, and impoverished
for the benefit of a few. By doing so, Phule laid the groundwork for questioning not just
religious but also social and educational norms, aiming to disrupt systemic exploitation. He
initiated widow- remarriage and started a home for upper caste widows in 1854 and a home
for newborn infants to prevent female infanticide. Phule tried to eliminate the stigma of
untouchability surrounding the lower castes by opening his house and the use of his water
well to the members of the lower castes. Thus, he pioneered the later social reform
movements against caste discrimination, including those by Gandhi during the national
movement.
Most interestingly, Phule had a favourable opinion about the effects of British Rule in
India as he felt they were introducing modern notions of justice and equality in Indian
society, and he became a member of Pune municipality from 1876 to 1882.
Even after Jotiba died in 1890, his followers continued spreading the movement to the
remotest parts of Maharashtra. Shabu Maharaj, the ruler of the Kolhapur princely state,
interestingly had supported the Samaj and had given a lot of financial and moral support to
Satya Shodhak Samaj, presumably in the face of opposition from his caste fellows and the
other upper castes. In its new incarnation, the party carried on the work of superstition
removal vigorously.
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Objectives of Satyashodhak Samaj

• To free people from mental and religious slavery of Brahminical scriptures.
• Stop the exploitation by the priests.
• To promote education.
• To educate women.
• Eradicate untouchability by saving the untouchables.
• To be sympathetic towards the oppressed children and people who are blind.
• Adoption of truthfulness and integrity.
16.3.2 Pandita Ramabai (1858–1922)
Pandita Ramabai was born on April 23 1858, in an upper-class Brahmin family of Malheranji
village in the South Kanara district of Karnataka. His father was Anant Shastri Dongre, and
his mother was Lakshmi Bai Dongre. Pandita Ramabai was born into a high Brahmin family
but fought an effective fight against Hindu society's divisive and unequal nature. She raised
wide-ranging issues related to the orthodox and oppressive methods of Brahminical
domination from society. These conservative and oppressive issue rules made women of
Shudra Varna victims of exploitation.
Hindu caste system and Pandita Ramabai: Indeed, whatever was written in the scriptures
was not written with the opinion of all the people of the society and no advice was taken from
the Shudras and women while writing the scriptures. This way, different kinds of one-sided
social bonds were imposed on Shudras and women. Which were illegal and inhumane? For
example, the caste system came into existence only due to the Chaturvarna system of
Hinduism. Pandita Ramabai was well aware of this. She always identified ‘India’ with
‘Hinduism’. The ‘Aryan model’ also states that women were completely ignored and entirely
dependent on men.
Domination of High Caste: Pandita Ramabai was very upset with the discrimination done
by the upper castes in Hinduism, and she had also made up her mind to break casteism and
the high and low system of Hinduism. Pandit Ramabai’s approach was humanistic, so she
disliked Hindu society's caste division and caste traditions, in which one caste is high, the
other is subordinate, one is touchable, and the other is untouchable. He also believed that this
practice had been going on for thousands of years because of this. Because Hindu society not
only wanted to give freedom to certain classes but also wanted to keep them as enslaved
people. Women and untouchables had the same conditions and destiny in those few classes.
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16.4 NON-BRAHMAN MOVEMENT
16.4.1 Self-Respect Movement in South India

The promoter of “Self-Respect movement was E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker, “Periyar”. He was
an enthusiastic campaigner for the non-cooperation programme; he left the Congress in 1925,
believing that it was neither able nor willing to offer “substantive” citizenship to the non-
brahmans. He was incensed by Gandhi’s pro-brahman and pro-varnashrama dharma
utterances during his tour of Madras in 1927. He constructed a trenchant critique of
Aryanism, Brahmanism and Hinduism, which he thought created multiple structures of
subjection for Sudras, Adi-Dravida (untouchables) and women. So, before self-rule, self-
respect was needed, and its ideology was predicated upon a sense of pride in, though not an
uncritical valorisation of, the Dravidian antiquity and Tamil culture and language. Indeed,
Ramaswamy had reservations about privileging Tamil, as this could alienate the other non-
Tamil-speaking Dravidians of south India. Yet, the Tamil language remained at the centre of
the movement, sometimes creating tensions between ‘Tamil’ and ‘Dravidian identities.
The movement, however, was clearer in identifying its oppositional other, as it
mounted scathing attacks on the Sanskrit language and literature, being the cultural symbols
of the Aryan colonisation of the south. The story of the Ramayana was inverted to make
Ravana an ideal Dravidian and Rama an evil Aryan. Unlike the Justice Party, this ideology
was more inclusive in its appeal. What is significant is that the Self-Respect movement also
drew its inspiration from and gave more currency to the earlier writings of the Adi-Dravida
intellectuals like Iyothee Thass and M. Masilamani. Both were published in the first decade
of the twentieth century in numerous articles against the caste system, Brahman dominations
and Indian nationalism. During the 1930s, as the Congress gradually became more powerful,
the non-Brahman movement became more radical and populist in its appeal, with more
emphasis on the boycott of Brahman priests, more and more incidents of the public burning
of Manusmriti and attempts to forcibly enter temples which denied access to low caste
people.
Eugene Irschick (1969) has shown how the non-Brahman movement in Madras
gradually took the shape of an articulate Tamil regional separatism, particularly when, in
1937, the congress government under C. Rajagopalachari proposed to introduce Hindi as a
compulsory school subject in the province. There were massive demonstrations in the city of
Madras, Identifying Hindi as an evil force trying to destroy the Tamil language and its
speakers, and with this, the Tamil language movement spread from elite circles to the masses.
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This political campaign slowly propelled into a demand for a separate land or “Dravida Nad.”
In August 1944, the Justice Party, of which Ramaswamy was now the president, changed its
name to Dravida Kazhagam (D.K.), with its primary objectives supposedly being the
realisation of a separate non-Brahman or Dravidian land. But in its essence, E.V.
Ramaswamy’s concept of nations, as M.S.S Pandian has recently claimed, was “not
constrained by the rigid territoriality of the nations-space”. He visualised “equal and free
citizenship for the oppressed in the anticipatory mode”. i.e., in a relentless struggle, and for
him, “Dravidian” was “an inclusive trope” for all the oppressed people living across the
territorial and linguistic boundaries. In other words, the social equality movement nurtured a
millennial hope of a society that would be free of caste dominations, untouchability or gender
discrimination.
16.4.2 Justice Party and Non-Brahman Movement
In 1916, a political organisation ‘South Indian Liberation Association’ was established. Its
main objective was to oppose the Brahmin community's economic and political power and
the non-Brahmins' social upliftment. This organisation later became the ‘Justice Party. To
gain the support of the masses, it propagated the ideology of equality among non-Brahmin
castes. However, this unity of leftists and caste opponents was eclipsed initially. The
antiquarians present within the non-Brahmin movement protested. In 1933, Periyar was
arrested and sent to jail. So, it became clear that the pressure of the British Government is
falling against this solidarity. Ramaswamy broke the backbone of Brahmanism by forming
the Justice Party. The main task of this Justice Party was to stop the exploitation arising out
of Brahminism and to protect the rights of Dalits. But later, this Justice Party became a
political party.
The non-Brahman movement in Maharashtra, as Gail Omvedt (1976) has shown,
developed two parallel tendencies at the turn of the century. One was conservative, led by
richer non-brahman, who responded their faith in the British government for their salvation,
and after the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms of 1919, organised a separate and loyalist
political party, the Non-Brahman Associations, which hoped to prosper under the benevolent
paternal rule of the British. But the movement also had a radical trend, represented by the
Satyashodhak Samaj, which developed “class content” by articulating the social dichotomy
between the “Bahujan Samaj” or the majority community or the masses, and the “Shetji-
bhaji”.i.e. the merchants and Brahmans. Although opposed initially to the Brahman-
dominated congress nationalism, by the 1930s, the non-brahman movement in Maharashtra
was gradually drawn into the Gandhian Congress. The power of nationalism, the growing
willingness of the Congress to accommodate non-brahman aspirations, the leadership of the
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young Poona-based non-Brahman leader Kesavrao Jedhe and his alliance with N.V. Gadgil,
representing a new brand of younger Brahman congress leadership in Maharashtra, brought
about this significant shift. In 1938, at Vidarbha, the non-brahman movement of the Bombay
Presidency formally decided to merge into Congress, providing it with a broad mass base.
If in western India, the non-brahman movement was associated with the Kunbis and
the Maratha identity, in Madras Presidency, it was associated with the Vellalas and a
Dravidian identity. It arose in a late nineteenth-century context where the Brahman,
constituting less than three per cent of the population, monopolised 42 per cent of
government jobs. Advanced in their English education, they valorised Sanskrit as the
language of a classical past and showed a public disdain for Tamil, the language of the
ordinary people. This motivated the Vellala elite to uphold their Dravidian identity. For some
time, Christian missionaries like Rev. Robert Caldwell and G.E. Pope were talking about the
antiquity of Dravidian culture. Tamil language, they argued, did not owe its origin to
Sanskrit, which had been brought to the south by the colonising Aryans Brahmans, while the
Vellalas and other non-brahman could be described as Sudras, as this was a status imposed on
them by the Brahman colonists trying to thrust on them their idolatrous religion. The non-
brahman elite appropriated some of these ideas and began to talk about their Tamil language,
literature and culture as an “empowering discourse” and to assert that the caste system was
not indigenous to the Tamil language.
This cultural movement to construct a non-brahman identity, which began like its
Western Indian counterpart with an inversion of the Aryan theory of Indian civilisations,
always had as its central theme an emotional devotion to the Tamil language, which could
bring disparate groups of people into a “ devotional community” on the political front the
movement followed a familiar trajectory that began with the publication of a ‘Non-Brahman
Manifesto’ and the formations of the Justice Party in 1916, as a formal political party of thee
non-brahman. It opposed the Congress as a Brahman-dominated organisation and claimed
separate communal representation for the non-brahmans had been granted to the Muslims in
the Morley Minto reforms. This demand, supported by the colonial bureaucracy, was granted
in the Montague Chelmsford reform of 1919, as it allowed twenty-eight reserved seats to the
non-brahman in the Madras Legislative Council. Opposed to the Congress and its programme
of non-cooperation, the Justice Party had no qualms in contesting the elections in 1920,
during which the Congress had given a call for a boycott. As a result, the council boycott
movement had no chance of success in Madras, where the Justice Party won 63 of the 98
elected seats and eventually came to form a government under the new reforms.
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16.4.3 E.V. Ramaswamy ‘Periyar’ (1879-1973)

Periyar E.V. Ramaswami Nayakar was a prominent and influential Dravidian of the Dalit
movement. He had made a deep study of the Brahmanical system. Periyar was the pioneer of
Dalits' political movements in South India. First, Periyar Ramaswamy joined the Indian
National Congress in 1919 after quitting his business and resigning from all public posts
under the British. In the 1920s, Periyar emerged as a pivotal social reformer in Tamil Nadu.
As Chairman of Erode Municipality, he advocated for Khadi and led protests against toddy
shops, resulting in his arrest. A vocal critic of untouchability, his activism gained momentum
when he was elected President of the Madras Presidency Congress Committee in 1922. At the
Tirupur session, he championed reservations for lower castes in government jobs and
education. Additionally, Periyar was a vocal atheist who founded the Self-Respect Movement
to challenge traditional Hindu norms and uplift marginalized communities, cementing his
legacy as a multifaceted crusader for social justice. His attempts were defeated by the other
leaders in the Congress party, which was why Periyar quit the party on those grounds in
1925, as he felt the party was only serving the interests of the Brahmins. ln 1924, Periyar led
a very successful nonviolent agitation (Satyagraha) in Vaikom, Kerala, for promoting the
rights of lower castes and had some disagreements with Gandhi as well. From 1929 to 1932,
he toured Malaysia, Europe, and Russia, which profoundly influenced him and strengthened
his resolve to fight for social justice for the depressed castes. In 1939, Periyar became the
Justice Party's bead; in 1944, he changed its name to Dravidar Kazhagam. The party later
split, and one group led by C. N. Annadurai formed the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
(D.M.K.) in 1949. While continuing the Self-Respect Movement, be advocated for an
independent Dravida Nadu (Dravidistan).
Ideologically, Periyar advanced on the principles of rationalism and self-respect rights
for women and eradicating the caste system. He said the non-Brahmin indigenous Dravidian
peoples of South India had been exploited by the imposition of what he called Indo-Aryan
India from the north.
The other significant movement in which Periyar played a major role was the Self-
Respect Movement. Whereas Periyar and his followers focused on asking the government to
take measures to remove social injustice against lower castes, other nationalist leaders
focused on the general political struggle for independence, which is what distinguished
Periyar’s s movements. From the beginning, the Self-Respect Movement was described as
“dedicated to the goal of giving non-Brahmins a sense of pride based on their Dravidian
past”.
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Periyar critically examined the root causes of systemic inequality, targeting not just visible
institutions but also deeply entrenched customs and beliefs. Fiercely opposing the caste
system, he aimed to dismantle it along with other birth-based social hierarchies. His work
extended to challenging untouchability and advocating for a unified society that transcended
divisions of caste and religion. Further distinguishing his activism was his focus on women's
rights. Periyar campaigned vigorously against oppressive practices like child marriage, and
instead promoted progressive concepts like love marriages, inter-caste and inter-religious
unions, as well as widow remarriages. He encouraged these marriages to be registered under
civil laws, as opposed to traditional religious ceremonies, to sidestep the influence of
religious institutions on social norms. Complementing his ideological work, Periyar took
practical steps such as founding homes for orphans and widows and establishing educational
institutions. Through this multi-faceted activism, he aimed to create a more equitable society
and left an indelible mark on Tamil Nadu and beyond.
16.5 DALIT PROTESTS IN INDIA DURING BRITISH ERA
Dalit protests in India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries followed somewhat
different -but not entirely dissimilar trajectories. As the Christian missionaries started
working among the Dalits and the colonial government-sponsored special institutions for the
spread of education among them, not only was a small educated elite group created among
these classes, but in general, a new consciousness was visible among the masses as well.
However, it should be emphasised here that the colonial bureaucracy, as noted earlier, often
vacillated in implementing the professed public policies on Dalit education, and it required
the Dalit groups to protest and assert themselves to protect their rights to education.
Similarly, the Christian missionaries were not always the aggressive agents of improvement
among the Dalit, as they too often succumbed to the pressures of an intolerant traditional
society and an ambivalent bureaucracy. It is often believed that one way of protesting against
the caste system was conservation to Christianity, as Dalits took recourse to this method in
large numbers in some parts of south India.
Without denying the distinctiveness of each movement, we may discuss here some of
the shared features of these Dalit protests. What some of these organised groups (not all)
tried, first of all, was to appropriate collectively some visible symbols of high ritual status,
such as wearing of sacred thread, participation in ritual ceremonies such as community pujas,
and entering temples from where the Hindu priests historically barred them. Some organised
temple entry movements took place in the early twentieth century, the most important of
them being the Vaikkam Satyagraha in 1924-25 and the Guruvayur Satyagraha in 1931-33 in
220 | P a g e

Malabar, the Munshiganj Kali temple Satyagraha in Bengal in 1929 and the Kalaram temple
Satyagraha in Nasik in western India in 1930-35. Apart from such religious rights, the
organised Dalit groups also demanded social rights from high-caste Hindus, and when
denied, they took recourse to various forms of direct action. For example, when the higher
castes resisted the Nadar women’s attempt to cover their breasts like high caste women, this
resulted in rioting in Travancore in 1859. The issue remained an irritant in the relationship
between the Ezhavas and Nairs, again leading to disturbances in 1905 in Quilon. In Bengal,
when the high caste Kayasthas refused to attend the funeral ceremony of a Namasudra in
1872, the latter, for six months, refused to work in their land in a vast tract covering four
eastern districts. In Maharashtra, the celebrated Mahar leader, Dr Ambedkar, organised 1927
a massive Satyagraha with ten to fifteen thousand Dalits to claim the rights to use water from
a public tank in Mahad under the control of the local Municipality.
16.5.1 Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar (1891-1956)
Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar was born on April 14, 1891, in Mau (Madhya Pradesh). Dr Ambedkar
was the last (fourteenth) child of Ramji Sakpal and Bhimabai. Ramji Sakpal’s other sons
were Balram and Anandrao, and their daughters were Manjula and Tulsi. All the rest of the
children died due to deprivation and diseases. Dr Ambedkar’s ancestors had been serving in
the army of ‘The East India Company for a long time. Ramji Sakpal worked as a Subedar in
the army and as a headmaster in the army school for 14 years. Realising the importance of
education, he paid special attention to his children's education. Ramji Sakpal was
unsuccessful in his initial efforts, but after a lot of effort, Anandrao and Bhimrao got
admission to an army school. Both brothers had to go through bitter experiences of
untouchability in school. He had to sit separately from all the students. The upper caste
teachers and students used to keep a distance from them and did not even allow them to touch
anything. When he felt thirsty, water was given to him by a third person. The reason was
clear. He belonged to the Mahar caste, which was considered untouchable. India has an
ancient history of caste system, which has been present in the society for thousands of years
in its most inhuman form.
Untouchability and Social Inequality: Ambedkar
At Columbia University, Dr Ambedkar submitted his doctoral dissertation in June 1916 on
the topic ‘National Dividend for India: A Historical and Analytic Study’, which was later
published under the title ‘The Development of the Provincial Economy in British India’. At
the end of this discourse, he threw light on social oppression and social injustice and
emphasised how a country can progress without political power. After finishing higher
education in America, in June 1916, he was admitted admission in ‘The London School of
221 | P a g e

Economics and Political Science and ‘Grey’s Inn’ as a barrister. But after a year of education
in London, he had to go through a new crisis. According to the contract, Maharaja Sayajirao
of Baroda did not increase his scholarship, nor did he allow him to study in Britain. Little did
they know this man would be great, the Messiah of humanity.
Participation in Dalit Caste Conference
In November 1917, two sessions of Dalit castes were held in Bombay. Through a resolution
in a conference, it was demanded that the government should protect the interests of the
untouchables and for this, according to the proportion of their population, the Dalit castes
should be given the right to elect their representatives in the Legislative Assemblies. In a
resolution, the convention supported the Congress-League agreement. So that the
disqualifications that were imposed on the Dalit castes in the name of customs and religion
can be removed, and for this, the upper caste Hindus can be influenced. On March 23 and 24,
1918, under the chairmanship of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaikwad of Baroda, the All India
Depressed Classes Conference was organised in Bombay in which prominent leaders
participated. The main objective of this conference was to call for eradicating untouchability
spread in the country. Tilak even went so far as to say that he would not accept God as the
authority if the stigma of untouchability was not removed. But this anti-untouchability
campaign carried out by the upper caste Hindus was like an antelope in the eyes of Dr
Ambedkar.
Path of Struggle: Direct Action (Mahad Talab Satyagraha)
The period of 1926-27 is very important in the history of the Dalit movement. It was the path
of direct action or struggle. In the Bombay Legislative Council,” S.K. Bole, through a
resolution, demanded the use of public water sources, wells, government-built Dharamshala,
government schools, courts, offices and dispensaries for the untouchables. According to the
government order dated September 11 1923, the said proposal was implemented. Yet the
local bodies and municipal boards disobeyed this order and deprived the Dalits of civil rights.
As a result, at the end of the conference, with the inspiration for. Ambedkar, about 10,000
delegates went towards Chavadar Talab to drink water to exercise their fundamental right. At
that time, mischievous elements spread a rumour that Dalits had entered the Vireshwar
temple. On this, the mischievous upper caste Hindus organised and broke into the pandal of
the conference and thrashed the representatives. The representatives saved their lives by
entering the homes of Muslim people. Dr Ambedkar had to take refuge in the police station
for his life. In the history of the Dalit movement, another struggle chapter has thus been
added for fundamental rights. Now, the issue of social boycott of Dalits in the upper castes
started. They started being evicted from agricultural land. They were attacked in their
222 | P a g e

villages. Dr Ambedkar asked his followers to fight fiercely. Go to public places, fill and drink
water from wells and ponds, and do not waste time entering the temple. It was a call to Do or
die and direct action. According to a thinker, ‘The rich Hindu used to fight with the British
for power. Untouchables, Dalits used to fight with superstitious-hardcore Hinduism for
human rights.
On December 25, 1927, a conference of satyagrahis was convened in Mahad, led by
Dr. Ambedkar. Despite facing boycotts from local businessmen, they persisted, securing a
venue offered by a Muslim citizen. Essentials like food and drink had to be arranged from
outside the area. Dr. Ambedkar traveled to Bombay to gather 200 satyagrahis, while 3,000
others were prepared to join locally. Despite appeals from the District Magistrate to postpone
the event, Dr. Ambedkar remained resolute. He asserted that the caste system was the root
cause of societal evils and inequality, making the satyagraha imperative. He said equality
means equal opportunity and transforming the hidden qualities in the person into power. He
insisted that Hindu society should be fully formed on two principles: recognition of equality
and boycott of the caste system.
16.5.2 Mahatma Gandhi’s Idea (1869- 1948)
For the first time, Gandhi made untouchability an issue of public concern, and the 1920 Non-
Cooperation Resolution mentioned the removal of untouchability as a necessary pre-
condition for attaining swaraj. But his subsequent campaign for the welfare of the Hari Jans
after withdrawal of the non-cooperation movement could neither arouse much caste Hindu
interest in the reformist agenda nor satisfy the Dalits. He condemned untouchability as
distortion, but until the 1940s, he upheld Varnashrama dharma or caste system as an ideal
non-competitive economic system of the social division of labour as opposed to the class
system of the West. This theory could not satisfy the socially ambitious group among the
untouchables as it denied them the chance of achieving social mobility. Gandhi took a
religious approach to eradicating untouchability essentially: the temple entry movement of
“Bhangi”, the self-sacrificing domestic sweeper, was the answer to the problems.
This campaign significantly undermined untouchability's moral and religious basis
but, as Bhikhu Parekh has argued, failed to deal with its “economic and political roots”. It
signified the untouchables but failed to empower them. The Dalit leaders argued that if they
were given a proper share of economic and political power, the gates of temples would
automatically open for them. The Gandhian approach, in other words, failed to satisfy Dalit
leaders like Ambedkar, who preferred a political solution through guaranteed access to
education, employment and political representations. Ambedkar (1945) later charged Gandhi
and the Congress for obfuscating the real issue, and the demand for a separate political
223 | P a g e

identity for the Dalits became a sticky point in the relationship between the Dalit political
groups and the Congress.
The differences persisted when the Communal Award in September 1932 recognised
the right to separate the electorate for the untouchables, now called the Schedule Castes, and
Gandhi embarked on his epics fast unto death to get it revoked. Ambedkar now had little
choice but to succumb to the moral pressure to save Mahatma’s life and accepted a
compromise known as the Poona Pact, which provided for 151 reserved seats for the
Schedule Castes in a joint electorate. For the time being, it seemed as if all conflicts had been
resolved. There was a nationwide interest in the temple entry movement and Gandhi’s
Harijan campaign. Even there was cooperation between Gandhi and Ambedkar regarding the
activities of the newly founded Harijan Sevak Sangh. The pact's provisions were later
incorporated into the Government of India Act of 1935. Although there were many critics of
the pact at the time, Ravinder Kumar has argued that it represented a triumph for Gandhi,
who prevented a rift in India’s body politics and offered nationalist solutions to the
untouchability problems. But disunity reappeared very soon, as Congress and Ambedkar
again began to drift apart; while Gandhi’s Harijan Sevak Sangh was involved in social issues,
the other Congress leader had little interest in his mission. They needed a political front to
Mobilise Dalit voters to win the reserved seats in the coming election. For this purpose, they
founded in March 1935 the All-India Depressed Classes League, with Jagjivan Ramm, a
nationalist Dalit leader from Bihar, as the president. But still, in the elections of 1937, the
Congress won only 73 out of 151 reserved seats all over India. Subsequently, situations
changed in different areas in different ways, depending on the nature of commitment the local
Congress leaders had towards the Gandhian creed of eliminating untouchability. In the non-
congress provinces like Bengal, the leaders were more sensitive to electoral arithmetic and
assiduously cultivated the friendship of the Dalit leaders. However, in the eight provinces
where the Congress formed ministries and remained in power for nearly two years, they
performed in such a way that not just critics like Ambedkar were unimpressed, but even those
Dalit leaders like M.C. Rajah of Madras who once sympathised with Congress were
gradually alienated.
16.6 SUMMARY
The vicissitudes of India's caste system can be partially attributed to external influences,
notably the Mughal and British colonial eras, which intensified and institutionalized caste
divisions for administrative convenience and control. However, a cadre of indigenous social
reformers, including Jyotiba Phule, Pandit Ramabai, Periyar, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, and
224 | P a g e

Mahatma Gandhi, sought to redress these entrenched inequalities. Through their efforts,
significant social transformations occurred within marginalized communities, especially
among Dalits and Bahujans.
These luminaries didn't merely espouse egalitarian ideals; they instantiated them
through concrete measures. Educational initiatives were launched to uplift the
disenfranchised, and socially inclusive policies were advocated. Temple entry for Dalits,
equal dining facilities, and non-discriminatory public transportation became focal points of
their reform agendas. Collectively, these leaders significantly altered the social landscape,
positioning Dalits and Bahujans closer to the constitutional ideal of equal citizenship.
Through educational empowerment and social integration, they laid the foundation for a more
equitable societal Structure in India.
16.7 GLOSSARY
Dalit: Untouchable, also called Dalit officially in Scheduled Caste. Harijan etc.
Movement: The act or process of moving especially a change of place or position.
Satyagraha: A determined but nonviolent resistance to evil.
Satyashodhak Samaj: It is a kind of social reform society founded by Jyotiba Phule in Pune,
Maharashtra.
1) How did Jyotiba Phule raise the voice for education for the Dalits and Backward?
2) How did Pandit Rambai criticise Brahmanism and its ritual?
3) How did Dr Ambedkar criticise social inequality?
4) What was the Idea of Mahatma Gandhi on caste?
16.9 REFERENCES
➢ Chancharik, Kanhaiyalal, (2006). An Evaluation of India’s Dalit Movement.

Publication: Srishti Book Distributors, New Delhi-110092
➢ Chandra, B. (1988) India’s Struggle for Independence, New Delhi. Penguin.
225 | P a g e

➢ Bandopadhyay, S. (2015 revised edition) From Plassey to Partition and After: A

History of Modern India. New Delhi: Orient Longman, pp. 342-358
➢ दबु े, अभयकुमार, (2002). आधनु िकता के आईिे में दनित. प्रकाशि : वाणी प्रकाशन वसी.एस.डी.एस. नई ददल्ली.
➢ गौतम, रूपचंद. (2009).आज़ाद भारत में दनित, प्रकाशन: श्रीनटराज प्रकशन, नई ददल्ली-110002
➢ डॉ. एन. दसंह. (2013). संत नशरोमनि रै दास वािी और नवचार, प्रकाशन: वाणी प्रकाशन, नई ददल्ली-110002
➢ Karade, Jagan. (2006). Caste Discrimination. Publication: Rawat Publication.

➢ कुमार, युवराज. (2020), भारतीय दनित नचन्तक, SAGE पदललके शन इदं डया, Private Ltd. नई ं ददल्ली -110044
➢ माइकल, एस.एम. (2010)., आधनु िक भारत में दनित. प्रकाशन : प्रेम रावत फॉर रावत पदललके शन, जवाहर नगर, जयपरु .
➢ नैदमशराय, मोहनदास. (2013). भारतीय दनित आदं ोिि का इनतहास, प्रकाशन : राधाकृ ष्ण प्राइवेट दलदमटेड, दररया गजं , नई
ददल्ली-110002
➢ ओमवेट, गेल.(2009). दनित और प्रजा तानन्िक क्ांनत, उपनिवेशीय भारत में डॉ. अम्बेडकर एवं दनित आंदोिि. प्रकाशन : प्रेम
रावत फॉर रावत पदललके शन, जवाहर नगर, जयपुर.
➢ Omvedt, Gail. (2006). Dalit vision of the anti-caste movement and the construction of
an Indian identity. Publications: Orient Longman Private Limited. Asaf Ali Road,
New Delhi-110002
➢ Ranjan. Pramod, (2020). Caste System and Patriarchy, Periyar E.V. Ramasamy,
Publication: Radhakrishna Publications Pvt Ltd, New Delhi. 110051
➢ Rodrigues, Valerian. (2002). The Essential Writings of B.R. Ambedkar. Publication:
Oxford University Press. New Delhi-110001
➢ Shima, Iwao. (2009). The Historical Development of the Bhakti Movement in India.
Publication: The Japanese Associations for South Asian Studies.
➢ Bandopadhyay, S. (2015 revised edition) From Plassey to Partition and After: A

History of Modern India. New Delhi: Orient Longman, pp. 342-358
➢ Chandra, B. (1988) India’s Struggle for Independence, New Delhi. Penguin.
➢ कुमार, युवराज. (2020), भारतीय दनित नचन्तक, SAGE पदललके शन इदं डया, Private Ltd.नई ददल्ली -110044
226 | P a g e

➢ Omvedt, Gail. (2006). Dalit visions the anti-caste movement and the construction of
an Indian identity. Publications: Orient Longman Private Limited. Asaf Ali Road,
New Delhi-110002
➢ ओमवेट, गेल. (2009). दनित और प्रजा तानन्िक क्ांनत, उपनिवेशीय भारत में डॉ. अम्बेडकर एवं दनित आंदोिि. प्रकाशन : प्रेम
रावत फॉर रावत पदललके शन, जवाहर नगर, जयपुर.
➢ Ranjan. Pramod, (2020). Caste System and Patriarchy, Periyar E.V. Ramasamy,
Publication: Radhakrishna Publications Pvt Ltd, New Delhi. 110051
227 | P a g e

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Department of Distance and Continuing Education

B.A. (Hons.) Political Science

© Department of Distance and Continuing Education

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This Study Material is duly recommended in the meeting of Standing Committee

• Corrections/Modifications/Suggestions proposed by the Statutory Body, DU/Stakeholder/s in the Self

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Sl. No. Title Writer Pg.

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Lesson-11 Revolutionaries, Socialists and Dr. Latika Bishnoi 142

Lesson-15 Workers and Women’s Movement Dr. Monika Batham 194

Lesson-16 Anti Caste Movement Mr. Khem Chand 209

Contributor’s Name Designation

Dr. Shakti Pradayani Assistant Professor, School of Open Learning, DU

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Unit-I: Colonialism and Nationalism

1.1 Learning Objectives

1.1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Colonialism is a way of domination or subordination where one country establishes an

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colonialism by defining colonialism as “the policy of acquiring and maintaining colonies,

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Perspectives Toward Understanding the Colonialism in India

Let us discuss, what liberals say about Colonialism in India.

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Let us examine, what Marxists say about Colonialism in India.

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1.4.1 The colonial state is a bourgeoisie state

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colonies as a supplier of raw materials and metropolises or colonizers as specializing in

Let us examine, what Post colonialist says about Colonialism in India.

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Colonialism: The practice by which a powerful country controls another country or

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1.8 SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

1. Critically analyse the Marxist and Postcolonial perspectives to understand Indian

✓ Chandra, B. (1999) Essays on Colonialism, Hyderabad. Orient Longman, pp.1-22.

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2.1 Learning Objectives

2.1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• The aim is to engage with theoretical explanations of colonialism and nationalism in

Let us discuss what you understand by nationalism.

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2.3 NATIONALIST APPROACH

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2.4 IMPERIALIST APPROACH

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2.5 THE COLONIAL APPROACH

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2.6 MARXIST APPROACH

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2.7 SUBALTERN APPROACH

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Nationalism: Nationalism is an ideology that emphasizes loyalty, devotion, or allegiance

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2.10 SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

1. Distinguish between the various approaches to the study of colonialism and