Nationalism in India

Introduction

Modern nationalism was associated with the formation of nation-states.

In India like many other colonies, the growth of modern nationalism is connected to the
anti-colonial movement.

The First World War, Khilafat and Non-Cooperation

The First World War (1914-1918) created a new political and economic situation.

India faced various problems during war period:

• Increase in defence expenditure.

• Prices increased through the war years.
• Forced recruitment in rural areas.

During 1918-19 and 1920-21, crops failure in many parts of India.

Hardships did not end after the war was over.

The Idea of Satyagraha

• Satyagraha is a novel way of fighting the colonial rule in India.

• It is a non-aggressive, peaceful mass agitation against oppression and injustice.
• Satyagraha means insistence on truth.
• It is a moral force, not passive resistance.
• In January 1915, Mahatma Gandhi returned to India.
• Gandhiji organised Satyagraha Movements in Champaran, Bihar (1916), Kheda
district of Gujarat (1917) and amongst cotton mill workers in Ahmedabad (1918).
• This act gave the government enormous powers to repress political activities and
allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years.

Jallianwala Bagh massacre

• On 13th April 1919, a huge crowd gathered in the enclosed ground of Jallianwalla
Bagh.
• Dyer entered the area, blocked the exit points, and opened fire on the crowd, killing
hundreds.
• As the news spread, strikes, clashes with the police and attacks on government
buildings started.
• The government responded with brutal repression.
 • Gandhi called off the Rowlatt satyagraha as the violence spread.

Khilafat Movement

• Khilafat Movement was led by two brothers Shaukat Ali and Muhammad Ali.
• Khilafat Committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919 to defend the Khalifa’s
temporal powers.
• Gandhiji convinced the Congress to join hands with the Khilafat Movement and start
a Non-Cooperation Campaign for Swaraj.
• At the Congress session at Nagpur in December 1920, the Non-Cooperation
programme was adopted.
• Differing strands within the movement
• The Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement began in January 1921.

The Movement in the Towns

• It started with middle class participation in cities.

• Students, teachers, lawyers gave up studies, jobs, legal practices and joined
movements.
• Council elections were boycotted.
• Foreign goods were boycotted.
• Liquor shops were picketed.

Movement in the countryside

• Peasants and tribals took over the struggle which turned violent gradually.
• Peasant Movement in Awadh
• The peasants were led by Baba Ramchandra in Awadh against landlords and
talukdars.
• In 1920, the Oudh Kisan Sabha was set up headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba
Ramchandra and a few others.

Movement of Tribals in Andhra Pradesh

• Alluri Sitaram Raju led the guerrilla warfare in the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh.
• The rebels attacked police stations.
• Raju was captured and executed in 1924.
• Swaraj in the Plantations , For the plantation workers, Swaraj means moving freely.
• They protested against the Inland Emigration Act (1859) which prevented them from
leaving the plantation without permission.
 • Younger leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose pressed for more
radical mass agitation and for full independence.

Factors that shaped Indian politics towards the late 1920s

• The Worldwide Economic Depression

• Agricultural prices collapsed after 1930 as the demand for agricultural goods fell
and exports declined.

Simon Commission

• It was constituted by the Tory government of Britain to look into the demands of the
nationalists and suggest changes in the constitutional structure of India.
• The Commission arrived in India in 1928.
• The Congress protested against this commission.
• In December, 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Lahore session
of Congress formalized the demand of “Purna Swaraj”.
The Salt March and the Civil Disobedience Movement
• Gandhiji chose salt as the medium that could unite the nation as it is consumed by
all the sections of the society.

Salt March

• Salt or Dandi March began on March 12, 1930.

• On 6th April 1930, Gandhiji reached Dandi, a village in Gujarat and broke the Salt Law
by boiling water and manufacturing salt.
• Thus, it began the Civil Disobedience Movement.
• It was different from Non-Cooperation Movement as people were now asked not
only to refuse cooperation but also to break colonial laws.
• Boycott of foreign goods, non-payment of taxes, breaking forest laws were its main
features.
• The British Government followed a policy of brutal repression.
• British government arrested all the leaders including Gandhiji and Nehru.
• Mahatma Gandhi called off the movement.

Gandhi-Irwin Pact

On 5 March, 1931, Lord Irwin, the Viceroy, signed a pact with Gandhi.

In December, 1931, Gandhiji went to London for the Second Round Table Conference but
returned disappointed.
Gandhi relaunched the Civil Disobedience Movement but by 1934 it lost its momentum.

How Participants saw the Movement

Rich peasants

Rich peasant communities expected the revenue tax to be reduced, when the British
refused to do so, they did join the movement.

They did not rejoin the movement as the movement was called without revising the revenue
rates.

Poor Peasants

The poor peasants wanted rents of lands to be remitted.

The Congress was unwilling to support the “no rent” campaigns due to the fear of upsetting
the rich peasants and landlords.

Business Classes

After the war, their huge profits were reduced, wanted protection against import of foreign
goods.

The spread of militant activities, worries of prolonged business disruptions, growing

influences of socialism amongst the young Congress forced them not to join the
movement.

Women

Women also participated in protest marches, manufactured salt, and picketed foreign
cloth and liquor shops.

Congress was reluctant to allow women to hold any position of authority within the
organisation.

Limits of Civil Disobedience

The Dalits or the Untouchables did not actively participate in the movement, they
demanded reservation of seats, separate electorates.

Dr B.R. Ambedkar, the leader of the Dalits, formed an association in 1930, called the
Depressed Classes Association.

He clashed with Gandhiji.

Poona Pact between the Gandhiji and B.R. Ambedkar (1932) gave reserved seats in
Provincial and Central Councils but were voted by general electorate.

The leader of the Muslim League M.A. Jinnah wanted reserved seats for Muslims in Central
Assembly.

Large sections of Muslims did not participate in the Civil disobedience movement.

The Sense of Collective Belonging

• The sense of collective belonging came partly through the experience of united
struggles.
• History and fiction, folklore and songs, popular prints and symbols, all played a part
in the making of nationalism.
• By 1921, Gandhiji had designed the Swaraj flag. It was again a tricolour (red, green
and white) and had a spinning wheel in the centre.