RISE OF NATIONALISM

IN INDIA
Himangshu Sen (PGT Geography)
JNV Chamoli, Pipalkoti
Uttarakhand, 246472
Outline of the Chapter:

• The First World War, Khilafat and Non-Cooperation.

• Differing Strands within the Movement.
• Towards Civil Disobedience.
• The Sense of Collective Belonging.
 The World War I and its Effect in India
(1914-1918)
• Fought between the The First World War played an important role in shaping
Central Powers—mainly India’s freedom struggle and developing new modes of
Germany, Austria- struggle in the following ways:
Hungary, and Turkey— • Increase in Defense expenditure due to the war led to the
against the Allies— increase in taxes, custom duties, prices and the
mainly introduction of war loans.
France, Great Britain,
Russia, Italy, Japan, and, • During the war, prices increased dramatically (almost
from 1917, the United doubled) which led to extreme hardships.
States. • Poverty and forced recruitments in the army made people
hostile to the British rule.
• During 1918–19 and 1920–21, food shortages due to the
failure of crops and famines and epidemics, that took a
heavy toll of life, created resentment among the people
of India against the foreign rule.
 The Idea of Satyagraha
• Gandhi returned to India from South
in 1915, where he successfully fought
against the racist regime with a novel
method of mass agitation, known as
Satyagraha.
• The idea of satyagraha emphasized
the power of truth and the need to
search for truth.
• It suggested that if the cause was
true, if the struggle was against
injustice, then physical force was not
necessary to fight the oppressor.
• Mahatma Gandhi believed satyagraha
could unite all Indians.
Some Early Satyagraha Movements by
Gandhi:
• In 1916 Gandhiji organised a
satyagraha against the oppressive
plantation system in Champaran
(Indigo movement).
• In 1917 Gandhiji led a satyagraha in
Kheda district of Gujarat, demanding
relaxation of the revenue tax owing to
the poverty experienced by the
farmers because of the outbreak of
plague and crop failure.
• In 1918 Gandhiji organised a
Satyagraha against the cotton mill
worker in Ahmedabad.
 The Rowlatt Act: 1919
• This act gave the Opposition :
government enormous • Mahatma Gandhi wanted non-violent civil
powers for repressing disobedience against such unjust laws, which
political activities and would start with a hartal on 6 April.
allowed detention of
political prisoners for • Shops were closed down, rallies were organised
two years without any and rail workshop workers went on strike.
trail. • On 10th April, 1919 in Amritsar widespread
attacks on banks, post offices and railway stations
took place.
British's Response: Government brutally repressed
the nationalists. Martial law was imposed and
General Dyer took command. And Jallianwala Bagh
Massacre.
While the Rowlatt satyagraha had been a widespread movement, it was still
limited mostly to cities and towns. Mahatma Gandhi now felt the need to
launch a more broad-based movement in India. But he was certain that no
such movement could be organised without bringing the Hindus and Muslims
closer together. One way of doing this, he felt, was to take up the Khilafat
issue.
The First World War had ended with the defeat of Ottoman Turkey. And there
were rumours that a harsh peace treaty was going to be imposed on the
Ottoman emperor – the spiritual head of the Islamic world (the Khalifa). To
defend the Khalifa’s temporal powers, a Khilafat Committee was formed in
Bombay in March 1919. A young generation of Muslim leaders like the
brothers Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, began discussing with Mahatma
Gandhi about the possibility of a united mass action on the issue. Gandhiji
saw this as an opportunity to bring Muslims under the umbrella of a unified
national movement. At the Calcutta session of the Congress in September
1920, he convinced other leaders of the need to start a non-cooperation
movement in support of Khilafat as well as for swaraj.
 Why Non-cooperation? How?
• In his famous book Hind Swaraj
(1909) Mahatma Gandhi declared
that British rule was established in
India with the cooperation of Indians,
and had survived only because of this
cooperation. If Indians refused to
cooperate, British rule in India would
collapse within a year, and swaraj
would come.
• Non-Cooperation movement began
in January 1921.
• Various social groups participated in
this Movement.
• Each social groups had their own
aspiration but all fought together for
the Swaraj but the term meant
differently from group to group.
• Main Causes: Khilafat issue, Rowlatt
Act, Jallianwala Bagh.
 Methods of Non-Cooperation:
• Surrendered government titles,
• Boycotted civil services, army,
police, courts and legislative
councils, school, and foreign goods.
• And if the British Government used
repression , a full civil disobedience
campaign would be launched.
Disagreements:
• Few Congress members were not in
support of the idea of boycotting the
council elections as they wanted to
bring about changes in the system by
being in power.
• C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru formed
the Swaraj Party within the Congress
to argue for a return to council
politics.
• Some leaders feared the movement
to turn violent.