The Making Of National

Movement:1870s-1947
 During the period of British-india
before 1870
❑BRITISHERS:
✔Conquest territories &takeover of kingdoms.
✔Introduction of new laws & administrative
intuitions.
✔Educational changes.
✔Condition of women.
✔Challenges to the caste system.
✔Social & religious reforms.
✔The revolt of 1857
✔The decline of crafts & growth of industries.
 Emergence of Nationalism
• Nationalism emerged with questions:
✔What is this country of India?
✔For whom it is meant?
• Answers gradually emerged:
✔ India was people of India-irrespective of classes,
colour, caste, creed, languages or gender.
✔Its resources & systems were meant to the people
of India.
• These answers created awareness.
• Consciousness began with formation of political
associations after 1850.
• Political associations came into being in 1870s
& 1880s.
• Associations led by English educated
professionals[lawyers].examples: Poorna sarvajanik
sabha = for all the people, INC{congress}.
• Worked in specific parts of the country.
• Used the idea – people should be
sovereign.
Sovereign- the capacity to actindependently without
outside interference. (key feature of nationalism)
• Dissatisfaction with British rule
• Arms act was passed in 1878disallowing
Indians from possessing arms.
• Vernacular press act was passed- to silence
those who were critical about govt. .
• ilbert bill –sought equality between British &
Indian judges.
• Opposition forced the govt. to withdraw the
bill
• Indians were enraged.
• This showed racial attitudes of British in India
• Need for all India organisation of educated
Indians.
• congress was established at Bombay in
December 1885.
• the early leadership- Dadabhai Naoroji,
w.c.Bonnerji, s. Subramanian Iyer.
• Dadabhai Naoroji-a businessman & a
publicist who settled in London member of
British parliament.

• A.O.Hume-brought Indians together.

Publicist- someone who publicises an idea by circulating

information, writing, reports, speaking at the meetings.
A.O.Hume
Dadabhai naoroji
W.C Bonnerji
Surrendranath bannerji
Baduruddin tyabji
Firoz Shah Mehta
 A NATION IN THE MAKING
• congress in the first twenty years “ moderate”
in its objectives and methods.
❑demanded
✔ A greater voice for Indians.
✔ high positions for Indians.
❑Wanted:
✔ Legislative Councils to be made more representative.
✔ give more power.
❖ For this purpose it called for civil service
examinations to be held in India as well, not just in
London.
• demand for Indianisation of the administration.
• important jobs were monopolized by white
officials.
• British generally assumed that Indians could not
be given positions of responsibility.
• Indianisation, it was hope, would also reduce the
drain of wealth of England.
• separation of the judiciary from the executive
• repeal of the Arms Act
• freedom of speech and expression.
• Congress raised a number of economic
issues.
❑It declared:
✔ British rule had led to poverty and famines.
✔ impoverished peasants and zamindars.
✔ created food shortages.
❑The Congress demanded:
✔ reduction of revenue.
✔ cut in military expenditure.
✔ more funds for irrigation.
❑The congress made many resolutions:
✔ on the salt tax.
✔ treatment of Indian labourers abroad.
✔ suffering of forest dwellers.
• This shows that despite being a body of the
educated elite, the Congress did not talk only
on behalf of professional groups, zamindars or
industrialists.
 Moderate leaders

• wanted to develop public awareness.

• published newspapers, wrote articles.
• showed how British rule was leading to the
economic ruin of the country.
• criticized British rule.
• sent representatives to different parts of the
country to mobilize public opinion.
• felt - the British had respect for the ideals of
freedom and justice.
• accept the just demands of Indians.
• made the government aware of the feelings of
Indians.
 “ Freedom is out birthright”

• By the 1890s- Indians began to raise questions

– about the political style of the Congress?
• In Bengal , Maharashtra and Punjab, leaders such
a Bipin Chandra Pal, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and
Lala Lajpat Rai were beginning to explore more
radical objectives and methods.
• criticized the Moderates
• emphasized the importance of self-reliance
• argued that people must rely on their own
strength, not on the “good” intentions of the
government
• people must fight for swaraj
• Tilak raised the slogan, “ Freedom is my
birthright and I shall have it!”
BAL GANGADHAR TILAK
LALA LAJPAT RAI
LAL BAL PAL
• 1905 Viceroy Curzon partitioned Bengal
• biggest province of British India - Bengal (included
Bihar and parts of Orissa).
• British argued for dividing Bengal for reasons of
administrative convenience.
• partition of Bengal infuriated people all over India.
• Congress opposed it.
• public meetings and demonstrations were organized
• novel methods of mass protest developed
• struggle that unfolded came to be known as the
Swadeshi movement.
• strongest in Bengal but with echoes elsewhere too- in
deltaic Andhra for instance, it was known as the
Vandemataram Movement.
VICEROY CURZON
 Swadeshi movement
• opposed British rule.
• encouraged
– the ideas of self – help
– swadeshi enterprise,
– national education, and
– use of Indian languages
• fight for swaraj
• advocated mass mobilization
• boycott of British institutions and goods
• Some individuals also began to suggest that
“ revolutionary violence” would be
necessary to overthrow British rule
 opening decades of the twentieth
century
• Muslim landlords and nawabs formed the “All
India Muslim League” at Dacca in 1906.
• league supported the partition of Bengal
• desired separate electorates for Muslims
• demand conceded by the government in 1909
• Some seats in the councils were now
reserved for Muslims.
• tempted politicians to gather a following
by distributing favours to their own religious
groups.
 Congress split in 1907
• Moderates were opposed to the use
of boycott.
• felt that it involved the use of force.
• Congress came to be dominated.
• two groups reunited in December 1915
{Moderates. & Tilak’s followers}.
• Congress and Muslim League signed the historic
Lucknow Pact.
• worked together for representative
government.
 The Growth of Mass Nationalism
• After 1919 the struggle against British rule
became a mass movement.
• involved peasants, tribals, students and
women in large numbers & factory workers.
• business groups too began to actively support
the Congress in the 1920s
 The First World War
• First World War created many economic and
political situation in India-
– huge rise in the defence expenditure of the
Government of India
– increased taxes
– Increased military expenditure
– demands for was supplies led to a sharp rise in prices
– Created difficulties for the common people.
– caused a decline of imports
• business groups reaped fabulous profits from the
war.
• Indian industries expanded
• lead the British to expand their army
• Villages were pressurized to supply soldiers
• soldiers were sent to serve abroad
• Many returned after the war realising that
imperialist powers were exploiting the peoples
of Asia and Africa.
• desire to oppose colonial rule in India.
• In 1917 there was a revolution in Russia.
– workers struggled and ideas of socialism
circulated widely, inspiring Indian nationalists.
 The advent of Mahatma Gandhi

• Mahatma Gandhi emerged as a mass leader

• Gandhiji , aged 46 , arrived in India in 1915 from South Africa.
• led Indians in that country in non-violent marches against racist
restrictions.
• Mahatma Gandhi spent his first year in India travelling
throughout the country.
• understanding the people, their needs and the overall situation.
• earliest interventions :
– Champaran,
– Kheda and
– Ahmadabad
• IN Ahmadabad he led a successful millworkers strike in
1918
Places where satyagraha took place
 The Rowlatt Satyagraha

• 1919- Gandhiji gave a call for satyagraha against

the Rowlatt Act.
• The Act curbed fundamental rights.
• Mahatma Gandhi, Mohammad Ali Jinnah and
felt that the government has no right to restrict
peoples basic freedoms.
• criticized the Act as” devilish” .
• Gandhi asked the Indian people to observe 6
April 1919 as a day of non-violent opposition to
this Act.
MOHAMMAD ALI JINNAH
MAHATMA GHANDHI &
MOHAMMAD ALI JINNAH
• The Rowlatt Satyagraha = first all-India
struggle against the British government
although it was largely restricted to cities.
• In April 1919 there were a number of
demonstration and hartals in the country
• the government used brutal measures to
suppress them.
• The Jallianwalla Bagh atrocities, inflicted
by General Dyer in Amritsar on Baisakhi
day ( 13 April).
6 April 1919.
Mass processions on the streets became a
common feature during the national
movement.
General Dyer
Jallianwall
a bagh
massacre
Jallianwalla Bagh
& The Martyr's‘
well at
Jallianwalla Bagh
• Rabindranath Tagore expressed the
pain and anger of the country by renouncing
his knighthood.
• During the Rowlatt Satyagraha-
– participants tried to ensure that Hindus and
Muslims were united.
• Mahatma Gandhi always wanted- Hindus and
Muslims support each other in any just cause
Rabindranath Tagore & Rabindranath
Tagore with Elbert Einstein
 Khilafat agitation and the Non
Cooperation Movement
• In 1920 - British imposed a harsh treaty on the Turkish
Sultan or Khalifa.
• People were furious about the Jallianwalla Massacre.
• Indian Muslims - Khalifa be allowed to retain control
over Muslim sacred places in the erstwhile ottoman
empire.
• Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali - wished to initiate a
full-fledged Non-Cooperation Movement.
• Gandhiji supported their call &
• urged the Congress to campaigns against “ Punjab
wrongs” ( Jallianwalla Massacre),
Ali brothers
Shaukat Ali & Mohammad Ali
 The Non-Cooperation Movement gained
momentum -1921-22
• students left government controlled schools
and colleges
• lawyers such a Motilal Nehru, CR Das, C
Rajagopalachari and Asaf Ali gave up their
practices.
• titles were surrendered.
• legislatures boycotted.
• public bonfires of foreign clothes.
• The imports of foreign cloth fell drastically
between 1920 and 1922.
MOTILAL NEHRU
Chittaranjan Das biography
Date of birth : 1870-11-05
Date of death : 1925-06-16
Birthplace : Bikrampur, Dhaka (now in
Bangladesh)
Nationality : Indian
Category : Politics
Last modified : 2010-11-05 12:18:11
Credited as : Lawyer, major figure in the
Indian independence movement, the
mayor of Calcutta Corporation
C.RAJGOPALACHARI
Non-cooperation movement by the
boycott of foreign goods
 People’s initiatives

• people resisted British rule non-violently.

• People interpreted Gandhiji’s call.
• protested in ways that were not in accordance
with his ideas.
• people linked their movements to local
grievances.
• In Kheda, Gujrat- Patidar peasants organized
non-violent campaigns.
• In coastal Andhra and interior Tamil Nadu- liquor
shops were picketed.
• In Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, tribals and
poor peasants staged a number of “ forest
satyagrahas”- sent their cattle into forests
without paying grazing fee.
• Tribals were protesting.
• Tribals believed that Gandhiji would get their
taxes reduced.
• Forest regulations abolished.
• peasants proclaimed swaraj
• and believed that “Gandhi Raj” was to be
established.
• In Sind ( now in Pakistan), Muslim traders and
peasants were very enthusiastic about the
Khilafat call.
• In Bengal too, the Khilafat Non-Cooperation
alliances gave enormous communal unity and
strength to the national movement.
• In Punjab, Akali agitation of the Sikhs sought
to remove corrupt Mahants – supported by
the British form their gurdwaras.
• In Assam,-
– tea garden labourers, shouting “Gandhi Maharaja
ki Jai”
– demanded a big increase in their wages.
– left the British owned plantations amidstration.
– declared that they were following Gandhiji’s
wish.
– The Assamese Vaishnava songs of the period the
reference to Krishna was substituted by “Gandhi
Raja”
 recapitulation
• Q.1: Why was Dissatisfaction with
British rule?
– Arms act was passed in 1878, disallowing Indians
from possessing arms.
– Vernacular press act was passed- to silence those
who were critical about govt. .
 what were the demands of
• Q.2:
congress?
✔A greater voice for Indians.
✔High positions for Indians. (civil
service examinations).
✔Legislative Councils to be made more
representative.
✔give more power.
✔reduction of revenue.
✔cut in military expenditure.
✔more funds for irrigation.
Q.2 what were the main Ideas on which the
swadeshi movement stressed on?
–the ideas of self – help.
–swadeshi enterprise.
–national education.
–use of Indian languages.
– fight for swaraj.
–boycott of British institutions and
goods.
Q.4 what were the situations created
by the world war I?
– huge rise in the defence expenditure of the
Government of India
– increased taxes
– Increased military expenditure
– demands for was supplies led to a sharp rise
in prices
– Created difficulties for the common people.
business groups reaped fabulous profits from
the war.
– Indian industries expanded
 Q.5 who partitioned
Bengal?
• Viceroy Curzon partitioned Bengal in
1905
Q.6 which was the biggest
province in British
India?
• BENGAL
 Q.7 which were the
places where the
satyagraha movement
held?
• KHEDA, GUJARAT
• CHAMPARAN, BIHAR
• AMRITSAR, PUNJAB
 Non – Cooperation Movement-1920
• Causes of Non-Cooperation Movement
. Resentment at the British after the war:
1. Internal governance .
2. Economic hardships due to World War I:
3. The Rowlatt Act and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre:
4. The Khilafat Movement:
During the First World War, Turkey, which was a German ally, had
fought against the British. After Turkey’s defeat, the Ottoman caliphate
was proposed to be dissolved. The Khilafat movement was launched by
Muslims in India to persuade the British government not to abolish the
caliphate. The leaders of this movement accepted the non-cooperation
movement of Gandhiji and led a joint protest against the
British. Leaders-Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali
 Non – Cooperation Movement-1920
• -Gandhi supported the movement as the Hindus were agitated over
‘Punjab Wrong’ (Jallianwala Tragedy) and Gandhi wanted to unite the
Hindus and the Muslims on a common cause.
• Effect- Gained momentum in 1921- 22
• -Thousands of students left govt school and colleges.
• -Many lawyers gave up practices
• -British titles surrendered
• -Legislatures boycotted
• -Public bonfire of foreign cloth ( encouraged swadeshi)
• -import of foreign cloth fell
• -People were asked not to serve in the British army.
• - The INC also demanded Swarajya or self-government.
• - Only completely non-violent means would be employed to get the
demands fulfilled.
1922 -Why was the Non-Cooperation
Movement suspended?
• Result- People interpreted the movement in their own way
and it turned violent in many places or followed protest in
their own way
• Gandhiji called off the movement in February 1922 in the
wake of the Chauri Chaura incident.
• In Chauri Chaura, Uttar Pradesh, a violent mob set fire to a
police station killing 22 policemen during a clash between
the police and protesters of the movement.
• Gandhiji called off the movement saying people were not
ready for revolt against the government through ahimsa(
non violence).
• A lot of leaders like Motilal Nehru and C R Das were against
the suspension of the movement only due to sporadic
incidents of violence.
 Significance of Non-Cooperation
Movement
• It was a truly mass movement- where lakhs of Indians
participated in the open protest against the government
through peaceful means.
• It shook the British government who were stumped by
the extent of the movement.
• It saw participation from both Hindus and Muslims
thereby showcasing communal harmony in the country.
• As a result of this movement, people became conscious of
their political rights. They were not afraid of the
government. Hordes of people thronged to jails willingly.
• The Indian merchants and mill owners enjoyed good
profits during this period as a result of the boycott of
British goods. Khaadi was promoted.
• The import of sugar from Britain reduced considerably
during this period.