IAS Prelims preparation 2018
Day 38 (April 30, 2017)
Topics of the day: History VIII NCERT Part II Chapter 5 key points
The Indian National Congress was established when 72 delegates from all over the country met at Bombay in December 1885.
Dadabhai Naoroji, a businessman and publicist settled in London, and for a time member of the British Parliament, guided the younger nationalists.
Publicist – Someone who publicises an idea by circulating information, writing reports, speaking at meetings.
Naoroji’s book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India offered a scathing criticism of the economic impact of British rule.
The Moderate leaders wanted to develop public awareness about the unjust nature of British rule. They published newspapers, wrote articles, and showed how British rule was leading to the economic ruin of the country. They criticised British rule in their speeches and sent representatives to different parts of the country to mobilise public opinion. They felt that the British had respect for the ideals of freedom and justice, and so they would accept the just demands of Indians.
Tilak raised the slogan, “Freedom is my birthright and I shall have it!.
In 1905 Viceroy Curzon partitioned Bengal. At that time Bengal was the biggest province of British India and included Bihar and parts of Orissa.
A group of Muslim landlords and nawabs formed the All India Muslim League at Dacca in 1906. The League supported the partition of Bengal. It desired separate electorates for Muslims, a demand conceded by the government in 1909.
Gandhiji, aged 46, arrived in India in 1915 from South Africa.
In 1919 Gandhiji gave a call for a satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act that the British had just passed.
The Rowlatt Act curbed fundamental rights such as the freedom of expression and strengthened police powers.
In April 1919 there were a number of demonstrations and hartals in the country and the government used brutal measures to suppress them. The Jallianwala Bagh atrocities, inflicted by General Dyer in Amritsar on Baisakhi day (13 April), were a part of this repression.On learning about the massacre, Rabindranath Tagore expressed the pain and anger of the country by renouncing his knighthood.
In 1920 the British imposed a harsh treaty on the Turkish Sultan or Khalifa. People were furious about this as they had been about the Jallianwala massacre. Also, Indian Muslims were keen that the Khalifa be allowed to retain control over Muslim sacred places in the erstwhile Ottoman Empire. The leaders of the Khilafat agitation, Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, now wished to initiate a full fledged Non-Cooperation Movement. Gandhiji supported their call and urged the Congress to campaign against “Punjab wrongs” (Jallianwala massacre), the
Khilafat wrong and demand swaraj.
Gandhiji abruptly called off the Non-Cooperation Movement when in February 1922 a crowd of peasants set fire to a police station in Chauri Chaura. Twenty two policemen were killed on that day.
Two important developments of the mid-1920s were the formation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu organisation, and the Communist Party of India.
The decade closed with the Congress resolving to fight for Purna Swaraj (complete independence) in 1929 under the presidentship of Jawaharlal Nehru. Consequently, “Independence Day” was observed on 26 January 1930 all over the country.
In 1930, Gandhiji declared that he would lead a march to break the salt law. According to this law, the state had a monopoly on the manufacture and sale of salt. Mahatma Gandhi along with other nationalists reasoned that it was sinful to
tax salt since it is such an essential item of our food.
Gandhiji and his followers marched for over 240 miles from Sabarmati to the coastal town of Dandi where they broke the government law by gathering natural salt found on the seashore, and boiling sea water to produce salt.
Ambabai, a widowed woman from Karnataka picketed foreign cloth and liquor shops in Udipi. She was arrested, served a sentence and was rearrested.
During the Salt Satyagraha, for instance, even Mahatma Gandhi was initially opposed to women’s participation. Sarojini Naidu had to persuade him to allow women to join the movement. She was the first Indian woman to become President of the Indian National Congress (1925).
The combined struggles of the Indian people bore fruit when the Government of India Act of 1935 prescribed provincial autonomy and the government announced elections to the provincial legislatures in 1937. The Congress formed governments in 7 out of 11 provinces.
Gandhiji gave Do or Die call during Quit India movement.
In 1940 the Muslim League had moved a resolution demanding “Independent States” for Muslims in the north-western and eastern areas of the country.
In January 1941, Subash Chandra Bose secretly left his Calcutta home, went to Singapore, via Germany, and raised the Azad Hind Fauj or the Indian National Army (INA), to free India from British control.
In 1944 the INA tried to invade India through Imphal and Kohima but the campaign failed.
In March 1946 the British cabinet sent a three-member mission to Delhi to examine this demand and to suggest a suitable political framework for a free India. This mission suggested that India should remain united and constitute itself as a loose confederation with some autonomy for Muslim-majority areas.
After the failure of the Cabinet Mission, the Muslim League decided on mass agitation for winning its Pakistan demand. It announced 16 August 1946 as “Direct Action Day”. On this day riots broke out in Calcutta, lasting several days and resulting in the death of thousands of people.