Chapter Notes

Nationalism in India

The idea of modern nationalism, which is tied to the formation of nation-states, first emerged in Europe. This process involved people changing their understanding of who they were, creating new symbols and songs, and redefining the boundaries of their communities. In India, like in many other colonies, the growth of modern nationalism is deeply connected to the anti-colonial movement. The struggle against colonialism created a shared bond among different groups of people, as they began to see themselves as united by the common experience of oppression.

However, each class and group felt the effects of colonial rule differently. Their experiences were varied, and their ideas of freedom were not always the same. Under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress party tried to bring these diverse groups together into one unified movement. This unity, however, was often marked by conflict and differing aspirations. This chapter explores the story of Indian nationalism from the 1920s onwards, focusing on the Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience Movements.

The First World War, Khilafat and Non-Cooperation

After 1919, the Indian national movement began to spread to new areas, involving new social groups and developing new methods of struggle. The First World War was a major catalyst for these changes, creating a new economic and political situation in India.

• Economic Hardship: The war led to a massive increase in British defence spending. To finance this, they took out war loans and increased taxes on Indians. Customs duties were raised, and an income tax was introduced.
• Price Rises: Between 1913 and 1918, prices of essential goods doubled, causing extreme hardship for the common people.
• Forced Recruitment: The colonial state forced people from rural areas to join the army, a policy known as forced recruitment, which caused widespread anger.
• Famine and Epidemic: In 1918-19 and 1920-21, crops failed in many parts of India, leading to severe food shortages. This was made worse by an influenza epidemic. According to the 1921 census, between 12 and 13 million people died due to famines and the epidemic.

People had hoped their struggles would end after the war, but they did not. It was at this stage that a new leader, Mahatma Gandhi, emerged with a new mode of struggle.

The Idea of Satyagraha

Mahatma Gandhi returned to India in January 1915 from South Africa. There, he had successfully fought against the racist regime with a unique method of mass agitation called satyagraha.

The idea of satyagraha emphasized the power of truth and the need to search for it. It suggested that if your cause was true and your struggle was against injustice, then physical force was not necessary to fight the oppressor. A satyagrahi could win the battle through non-violence by appealing to the conscience of the oppressor. The goal was to persuade the oppressor to see the truth, not to force them to accept it through violence. Gandhi believed this dharma of non-violence could unite all Indians.

After arriving in India, Gandhi successfully organized several satyagraha movements:

1. 1917: He travelled to Champaran in Bihar to inspire peasants to struggle against the oppressive plantation system.
2. 1917: He organized a satyagraha in the Kheda district of Gujarat to support peasants who could not pay revenue due to crop failure and a plague epidemic.
3. 1918: He went to Ahmedabad to organize a satyagraha movement for cotton mill workers.

The Rowlatt Act

Encouraged by these successes, Gandhiji decided in 1919 to launch a nationwide satyagraha against the proposed Rowlatt Act (1919). The British had hurriedly passed this Act despite the united opposition of Indian members of the Imperial Legislative Council.

Key features of the Rowlatt Act:

• It gave the government enormous powers to repress political activities.
• It allowed for the detention of political prisoners without trial for two years.

Mahatma Gandhi called for a non-violent civil disobedience campaign against this unjust law, starting with a hartal (strike) on 6 April. Rallies were organized, workers went on strike, and shops closed down. The British administration, fearing that communication lines like railways and telegraphs would be disrupted, decided to clamp down on nationalists. They arrested local leaders in Amritsar and barred Gandhi from entering Delhi.

On 10 April, the police in Amritsar fired on a peaceful procession, which led to widespread attacks on banks, post offices, and railway stations. The government imposed martial law, and General Dyer took command.

This led to the infamous Jallianwalla Bagh incident on 13 April 1919.

• On that day, a large crowd gathered in the enclosed ground of Jallianwalla Bagh. Some were there to protest the government's repressive measures, while others had come to attend the annual Baisakhi fair.
• Many villagers were unaware of the martial law that had been imposed.
• General Dyer entered the area, blocked the only exit point, and ordered his troops to open fire on the unarmed crowd, killing hundreds.
• Dyer later declared that his objective was to ‘produce a moral effect’ and create a feeling of terror and awe in the minds of satyagrahis.

As news of the massacre spread, there were strikes, clashes with the police, and attacks on government buildings in many north Indian towns. The government responded with brutal repression, forcing people to rub their noses on the ground, crawl on the streets, and salute all British officials. Seeing the violence spread, Mahatma Gandhi called off the movement.

Why Non-cooperation?

While the Rowlatt satyagraha was a widespread movement, it was mostly limited to cities and towns. Mahatma Gandhi now felt the need to launch a more broad-based movement in India. He was certain that no such movement could be organized without bringing Hindus and Muslims closer together. He saw an opportunity in the Khilafat issue.

The First World War had ended with the defeat of Ottoman Turkey. There were rumors that a harsh peace treaty would be imposed on the Ottoman emperor, who was also the spiritual head of the Islamic world (the Khalifa). To defend the Khalifa's powers, a Khilafat Committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919 by young Muslim leaders like the brothers Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali.

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 (self-rule).

In his famous book Hind Swaraj (1909), Mahatma Gandhi had declared that British rule was established in India with the cooperation of Indians and had survived only because of this cooperation. He believed that if Indians refused to cooperate, British rule would collapse within a year.

Gandhiji proposed that the movement should unfold in stages:

1. Begin with the surrender of titles awarded by the government.
2. Followed by a boycott of civil services, army, police, courts, legislative councils, schools, and foreign goods.
3. If the government used repression, a full civil disobedience campaign would be launched.

Many within the Congress were initially concerned about the proposal. They were reluctant to boycott council elections scheduled for November 1920 and feared the movement might lead to popular violence. However, a compromise was finally worked out at the Congress session at Nagpur in December 1920, and the Non-Cooperation programme was adopted.

Differing Strands within the Movement

The Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement began in January 1921. Various social groups participated, each with its own specific goals. All of them responded to the call of Swaraj, but the term meant different things to different people.

The Movement in the Towns

The movement started with middle-class participation in the cities.

• Thousands of students left government-controlled schools and colleges.
• Headmasters and teachers resigned.
• Lawyers gave up their legal practices.
• Council elections were boycotted in most provinces except Madras, where the Justice Party (a party of non-Brahmans) felt entering the council was a way to gain power.

The economic effects were dramatic.

• Foreign goods were boycotted, liquor shops were picketed, and foreign cloth was burnt in huge bonfires.
• The import of foreign cloth halved between 1921 and 1922.
• As people began wearing only Indian clothes, the production of Indian textile mills and handlooms went up.

However, the movement in the cities gradually slowed down for several reasons:

• Khadi cloth was often more expensive than mass-produced mill cloth, which poor people could not afford.
• The boycott of British institutions posed a problem because alternative Indian institutions were slow to come up. As a result, students and teachers began returning to government schools, and lawyers rejoined work in government courts.

Rebellion in the Countryside

From the cities, the Non-Cooperation Movement spread to the countryside, where it drew in the struggles of peasants and tribals.

In Awadh (modern Uttar Pradesh):

• Peasants were led by Baba Ramchandra, a sanyasi who had been an indentured labourer in Fiji.
• The movement was against talukdars (landlords) who demanded extremely high rents and forced peasants to perform begar (labour without payment).
• The peasant movement demanded a reduction of revenue, the abolition of begar, and a social boycott of oppressive landlords.
• In October 1920, the Oudh Kisan Sabha was set up, headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba Ramchandra, and a few others.
• When the Non-Cooperation Movement began, the peasant movement in Awadh developed in ways the Congress leadership was unhappy with. In 1921, the houses of talukdars were attacked, bazaars were looted, and grain hoards were taken over. Local leaders told peasants that Gandhiji had declared that no taxes were to be paid and land was to be redistributed.

In the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh:

• A militant guerrilla movement spread in the early 1920s. The colonial government had closed large forest areas, preventing people from entering the forests to graze cattle or collect fuelwood and fruits. This enraged the hill people, who felt their traditional rights were being denied.
• When the government forced them to contribute begar for road building, the hill people revolted.
• They were led by Alluri Sitaram Raju, who claimed he had special powers. He was inspired by the Non-Cooperation Movement and persuaded people to wear khadi and give up drinking.
• However, he also asserted that India could be liberated only by the use of force, not non-violence.
• The Gudem rebels attacked police stations and attempted to kill British officials. Raju was captured and executed in 1924, becoming a folk hero.

Swaraj in the Plantations

For plantation workers in Assam, freedom meant the right to move freely in and out of the confined spaces where they worked. Under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859, they were not permitted to leave the tea gardens without permission.

When they heard of the Non-Cooperation Movement, thousands of workers defied the authorities, left the plantations, and headed home. They believed that Gandhi Raj was coming and everyone would be given land in their own villages. However, they never reached their destination. Stranded on the way by a railway and steamer strike, they were caught by the police and brutally beaten up.

Towards Civil Disobedience

In February 1922, Mahatma Gandhi decided to withdraw the Non-Cooperation Movement. He felt the movement was turning violent in many places, such as the Chauri Chaura incident in Gorakhpur where a peaceful demonstration turned into a violent clash with the police. He believed that satyagrahis needed to be properly trained for mass struggles.

Within the Congress, some leaders were tired of mass struggles and wanted to participate in elections to the provincial councils. Leaders like C. R. Das and Motilal Nehru formed the Swaraj Party within the Congress to argue for a return to council politics. However, younger leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose pressed for more radical mass agitation and for full independence.

Two factors again shaped Indian politics towards the late 1920s:

1. The Worldwide Economic Depression: Agricultural prices began to fall from 1926 and collapsed after 1930. Peasants found it difficult to sell their harvests and pay their revenue.
2. The Simon Commission: The new Tory government in Britain set up a Statutory Commission under Sir John Simon to review the constitutional system in India. The problem was that the commission did not have a single Indian member; they were all British.

When the Simon Commission arrived in India in 1928, it was greeted with the slogan ‘Go back Simon’. In an effort to win over the protestors, the viceroy, Lord Irwin, announced in October 1929 a vague offer of ‘dominion status’ for India in the future and a Round Table Conference. This did not satisfy Congress leaders.

In December 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Lahore Congress formalised the demand for ‘Purna Swaraj’ or full independence for India. It was declared that 26 January 1930, would be celebrated as Independence Day.

The Salt March and the Civil Disobedience Movement

Mahatma Gandhi found in salt a powerful symbol that could unite the nation. On 31 January 1930, he sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin stating eleven demands. The most stirring of all was the demand to abolish the salt tax. Salt was an essential item of food consumed by both the rich and the poor, and the government's monopoly over its production revealed the most oppressive face of British rule.

Gandhi’s letter was an ultimatum: if the demands were not fulfilled by 11 March, the Congress would launch a civil disobedience campaign. Irwin was unwilling to negotiate.

So, Mahatma Gandhi started his famous salt march accompanied by 78 of his trusted volunteers.

• The march was over 240 miles, from Gandhiji’s ashram in Sabarmati to the Gujarati coastal town of Dandi.
• The volunteers walked for 24 days, about 10 miles a day.
• On 6 April, he reached Dandi and ceremonially violated the law by manufacturing salt from boiling sea water.

This marked the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement. [!note] This movement was different from the Non-Cooperation Movement. People were now asked not only to refuse cooperation with the British but also to break colonial laws.

Thousands across the country broke the salt law, manufactured salt, and demonstrated in front of government salt factories. As the movement spread, foreign cloth was boycotted, liquor shops were picketed, and peasants refused to pay revenue.

The colonial government responded with a policy of brutal repression. When Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a devout disciple of Gandhi, was arrested in April 1930, angry crowds demonstrated in the streets of Peshawar. A month later, when Mahatma Gandhi himself was arrested, industrial workers in Sholapur attacked police posts, municipal buildings, and railway stations. Peaceful satyagrahis were attacked, women and children were beaten, and about 100,000 people were arrested.

In this situation, Mahatma Gandhi called off the movement and entered into the Gandhi-Irwin Pact on 5 March 1931. By this pact, Gandhiji consented to participate in a Round Table Conference in London. In December 1931, Gandhiji went to London for the conference, but the negotiations broke down. When he returned to India, he discovered a new cycle of repression. With great apprehension, he relaunched the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1932. It continued for over a year but lost its momentum by 1934.

How Participants Saw the Movement

Different social groups joined the Civil Disobedience Movement for different reasons.

• Rich Peasants: Communities like the Patidars of Gujarat and the Jats of Uttar Pradesh were hard hit by the trade depression and falling prices. For them, the fight for swaraj was a struggle against high revenues. They were deeply disappointed when the movement was called off in 1931 without the revenue rates being revised, and many refused to participate when it was restarted in 1932.
• Poor Peasants: They wanted their unpaid rent to the landlord to be remitted. The Congress was often unwilling to support their ‘no rent’ campaigns because it feared upsetting the rich peasants and landlords.
• Business Classes: Industrialists wanted protection against imports of foreign goods and reacted against colonial policies that restricted business. They saw swaraj as a time when colonial restrictions would no longer exist. After the failure of the Round Table Conference, they were worried about the spread of militant activities and the growing influence of socialism within the Congress.
• Industrial Working Classes: They did not participate in large numbers, except in the Nagpur region. As industrialists came closer to the Congress, workers stayed away. Some workers did participate, adopting ideas like the boycott of foreign goods as part of their own movements against low wages.
• Women: Women participated in large numbers. They marched, manufactured salt, and picketed shops. Many went to jail. Moved by Gandhiji’s call, they began to see service to the nation as a sacred duty. However, Gandhiji was convinced that it was the duty of women to look after the home. For a long time, the Congress was reluctant to allow women to hold any position of authority within the organisation.

The Limits of Civil Disobedience

Not all social groups were moved by the abstract concept of swaraj.

• Dalits ('Untouchables'): From the 1930s, they began to call themselves dalit or oppressed. For a long time, the Congress had ignored the dalits for fear of offending conservative high-caste Hindus. Mahatma Gandhi declared that swaraj would not come for a hundred years if untouchability was not eliminated. He called the ‘untouchables’ harijan, or the ‘children of God’, and organised satyagraha to secure them entry into temples and access to public wells and schools.

• Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who organised the dalits into the Depressed Classes Association in 1930, clashed with Gandhi at the second Round Table Conference by demanding separate electorates for dalits. When the British government granted this demand, Gandhiji began a fast unto death, believing it would slow down their integration into society.

• Ambedkar ultimately accepted Gandhiji’s position in the Poona Pact of September 1932. It gave the Depressed Classes reserved seats in legislative councils, but they were to be voted in by the general electorate.

• Muslims: Many Muslim political organisations were also lukewarm in their response. After the decline of the Non-Cooperation-Khilafat movement, a large section of Muslims felt alienated from the Congress. From the mid-1920s, the Congress came to be more visibly associated with Hindu religious nationalist groups like the Hindu Mahasabha.

• In 1927, an effort to forge an alliance failed over the question of representation in future assemblies. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a leader of the Muslim League, was willing to give up the demand for separate electorates if Muslims were assured reserved seats in the Central Assembly and representation in proportion to population in Muslim-dominated provinces. However, this hope disappeared when M.R. Jayakar of the Hindu Mahasabha strongly opposed the compromise.

• Alienated from the Congress, many Muslims could not respond to the call for a united struggle, fearing that their culture and identity would be submerged under the domination of a Hindu majority.

The Sense of Collective Belonging

Nationalism spreads when people begin to believe that they are all part of the same nation. This sense of collective belonging came partly through the experience of united struggles, but also through a variety of cultural processes.

• The Image of Bharat Mata: The identity of India came to be visually associated with the image of Bharat Mata (Mother India). The image was first created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, who wrote the hymn ‘Vande Mataram’ in the 1870s. Moved by the Swadeshi movement, Abanindranath Tagore painted his famous image of Bharat Mata as a calm, composed, divine, and spiritual figure.
• Revival of Indian Folklore: In the late-nineteenth century, nationalists began recording folk tales and touring villages to gather folk songs and legends. They believed these tales gave a true picture of traditional culture that had been damaged by outside forces. In Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore himself led the movement for folk revival. In Madras, Natesa Sastri published a massive collection of Tamil folk tales.
• Icons and Symbols: During the Swadeshi movement in Bengal, a tricolour flag (red, green, and yellow) was designed. By 1921, Gandhiji had designed the Swaraj flag—a tricolour of red, green, and white with a spinning wheel in the centre, representing the Gandhian ideal of self-help. Carrying the flag during marches became a symbol of defiance.
• Reinterpretation of History: Many Indians began to feel that to instill a sense of pride, Indian history had to be reinterpreted. They wrote about the glorious developments in ancient India in art, architecture, science, and trade to counter the British view of Indians as backward and primitive.

Conclusion

A growing anger against the colonial government brought together various groups and classes of Indians into a common struggle for freedom. The Congress, under Mahatma Gandhi, tried to channel people's grievances into organized movements. However, diverse groups participated with different hopes and expectations. As a result, unity within the movement often broke down, followed by phases of internal conflict. What was emerging was a nation with many voices, all wanting freedom from colonial rule.

Quit India Movement

The failure of the Cripps Mission and the effects of World War II created widespread discontent in India. This led Gandhiji to launch a movement calling for the complete withdrawal of the British.

• On 14 July 1942, the Congress Working Committee passed the historic ‘Quit India’ resolution.
• On 8 August 1942, in Bombay, the All India Congress Committee endorsed the resolution, which called for a non-violent mass struggle on the widest possible scale.
• It was on this occasion that Gandhiji delivered the famous ‘Do or Die’ speech.

The call for ‘Quit India’ brought the state machinery to a standstill in large parts of the country. It was a true mass movement, bringing in thousands of ordinary people, including students, workers, and peasants. The British responded with much force, yet it took more than a year to suppress the movement.