6.3 Indian National Movement 1905 to 1932
The Swadeshi and Boycott (1905-1908)
It had its origin in the Anti-Partition movement of Bengal. Mass meetings were held all over Bengal, where Swadeshi or the use of Indian goods and the boycott of British goods were proclaimed and pledged. Public burning of foreign cloth was organised and shops selling foreign cloth were picketed.
An important aspect of the Swadeshi Movement was the emphasis placed on self-reliance or Atmashakti.
Acharya PC Roy organised his famous Bengal Chemical Swadeshi stores.
The Swaaleshl Movement had several consequences like flowering of nationalist poetry journalism, self-reliance and opening many national educational institutions.
Nationalist Educational Institutions were founded e.g., Bengal Technical Institute, Bengal National College.
BC Pal and Chidambram Pillai led Vandemataram Movement in Madras.
Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh led the movement in Punjab. Syed Haider Raza led the movement in Delhi.
Why the Swadeshi Movement Failed?
Severe government repression.
Split in nationalists at Surat.
Lack of effective organisation.
The movement was rendered leaderless.
Formation of Muslim League
Set-up in 1906, under the leadership of Aga Khan, Nawab Salimullah of Dhaka and Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk.
The League supported the Partition of Bengal, opposed the Swadeshi Movement, demanded special safeguards for its community and a separate electorate for Muslims.
Calcutta Session of INC (1906) Dadabhai Naoroji, the President of the session, declared that Self Govern- ment or Swaraj, like that of the United Kingdom was the goal of Indian people.
SURAT SPLIT (1907)
The INC split into two groups during the session at Surat in 1907. Extremists were led by La!, Ba!, Pal, while Moderates were led by GK Gokhale.
Moderates
They demanded mild constitutional reforms, economic relief, administrative reorganisation and protection of civil rights.
Extremists
They were dissatisfied with the achievement of the moderates. They realised that the true nature of the British was exploitative.
There were 3 groups of extremists: The Maharashtrian group (headed by Bal Gangadhar Tilak), the Bengal group (represented by BC Pal and Aurobindo) and the Punjab group (led by Lala Lajpat Rai).
Aurobindo published New lamps for old in the Indu Prakash in 1893-94. It was the first systematic critique of the moderates.
Indian Councils Act of 1909 or the-Morley Minto Reforms
Number of elected members in the imperial and provincial legislative councils increased. Separate electorates introduced for Muslims.
Non-official members to be elected indirectly. Thus, elections were introduced for the first time. Legislatures could pass resolutions, ask questions and supplementary and vote for separate items on the budget.
One Indian to be taken in Viceroy’s executive council. Satvendra Sinha was the first Indian member to the executive council.
Annulment of Partition In 1911, the government announced annulment of the Partition of Bengal. Western and Eastern Bengal were to be reunited.
Ghadar Party (1913)
It was composed by Lala Hardayal, Taraknath Das and Sohan Singh Bhakna.
The war period witnessed the growth of revolutionary movement not only in India, but outside India as well, by the Indians.
Indian revolutionaries in the United States of America and Canada had established the Chadar (Rebellion) Party in 1913. Most of the members of the 'parts' were Punjabi Sikh peasants and ex-soldiers who migrated.
The party was built around the weekly paper ‘The Ghadar’, which carried the caption Angrezi raj ka Dushman.
Headquarters were in San Francisco.
The outbreak of the first World War provided the Ghadarites with an opportunity to free India from a government, which was indifferent to their cause.
They began to return India in thousands for a revolt, but unfortunately the authorities came to know about their plans and took immediate action. The rebellious regiments were disbanded and their leaders were either imprisoned or hanged.
Some of the prominent Ghadar leaders were—Baba Gurumukh Singh, Kartar Singh Saraba, Sohan Singh Bakhna. Rahmat Mi Shah, Bhai Paramanand and Mohammad Barkatullah.
To carry out other revolutionary activities. 'Swadesh Sevak Home’ at Vancouver and United India House at Seattle were set-up.
Komagata Maru Incident (1914)
Komagata Maru was a Japanese steam ship that carried Sikh and Muslim immigrants from Punjab to Vancouver. Canada. But the ship was forced to return back to India by the Canadian authorities. The ship docked at Budge Budge in Calcutta. The Britishers considered the passengers as dangerous political auditors and tried to arrest Baba Gurdit Singh from among them. Police opened fire on them and 19 passengers died in the incident.
Home Rule Movement (1916)
After Tilak’S return, having served a sentence of six years in Mandalay, he tried securing the readmission of himself and other extremists into the Indian National Congress. With the need being felt for popular pressure to attain concessions, disillusionment with Morley-Minto reforms and wartime miseries, Tilak and Annie Besant readied to assume leadership.
The Home Rule League was pioneered on lines of a similar movement in Ireland. Muslim League supported the movement. Its objective was to work for social and political reforms.
Tilak’s Home Rule Movement
It started in April, 1916 at Poona. Tilak’s league was to work in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Central Province and Berar excluding Bombay. Tilak linked up the question of Swaraj with the demand for the formation of linguistic states and education in Vernacular language.
He gave the slogan “Swaraj is my birth right and I shall have it.” Tilak’s newspapers Maratha and Kesarl were organs for home rule.
Annie Besant’S Home Rule Movement
Started with George Arundaie as Secretary at Adyar in September. 1916. Annie Besant’s league worked in the rest of India.
Annie Besant’s newspapers New India and Commonweal became important for this movement. She coined the term Commonwealth.
Many moderate nationalists, who were dissatisfied with the Congress inactivity. joined home rule agitation. In June 1917, Annie Beasant was arrested, popular pressure forced the government to release her in September. 1917.
Lucknow Session of the Congress (1916)
Presided by a moderate Ambika Charan Majumdar. The growing nationalist feeling in the country produced two historic developments at the Lucknow Session of the Indian National Congress in 1916. Firstly-the two wings of the Congress were reunited, i.e., brought about an union of moderates and
extremists.Secondly at Lucknow, the Congress and the All India Muslim League sank their old differences and put up a common political demand for representative government and dominion status, before the Government. Congress accepted the separate electorates. This led to congress-League Pact.
Montagu Declaration (1917)
A British policy was announced after the Lucknow pact, which came to be known
as the August Declaration. It aimed at “increasing association of Indians in every branch of the administration for progressive realisation of responsible government in India.The declaration formed the basis of Montague-Chelmsford Reforms of 1919.
Rowlatt Act (1919)
In 1919, a Sedition Committee headed by Justice Rowlatt led to the Rowlatt Act. This act authorised the government to imprison any person without trial and conviction by the Court of Law for 2 years. The law also enabled the government to suspend the right of Habeas Corpus, which had been the foundation of Civil Liberties in Britain. It led to a countrywide agitation and marked the foundation of
Non-Cooperation Movement.During March and April 1919, the country witnessed a remarkable political awakening. There were hartals, strikes, processions and demonstrations.
Gandhi’s Return to India
Gandhi returned to India in January 1915. He did not join any political organisation that did not accept the creed of non-violent Satyagraha. During 1917 and 1918, he was involved in three struggles .
Champaran Satyagraha (1917)
1st Civil Disobedience Movement.
To look into the problems of indigo planters .
Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (13th April, 1919)
The dissatisfaction against Rowlatt Act led to mass agitations. A large but unarmed crowd had gathered on 13th April, 1919 at Amritsar (Punjab) in Non-Cooperation Movement the Jalilanwala Bagh, to protest
against the arrest of their popular leaders Dr Saif-ud-din Kitchlew and Dr. Satyapal.General Dyer, the Military The decision to not cooperate with the Commander of Amritsar, decided to terrorise the people of Amritsar into complete submission. Jallianwala Bagh was a large open space, which was enclosed on three sides and had only one exit. General Dyer surrounded the Bagh, closed the exit with his troops and then ordered his men to shoot into the crowd. Thousands were killed and wounded.
Rabindranath Tagore returned his knighthood in protest.
The Hunter Commission was appointed to inquire into it.
On 13th March, 1940, Sardar Udham Singh killed Dyer, when the latter was addressing a meeting in Coxton Hall, London.
The Khilafat Movement (1920-1922)
During the First World War, Turkey allied with Germany and Austria against the British. The Indian Muslim regarded the Sultan of Turkey as their spiritual leader, Khalifa.
After the war, the British removed the indigo Khalifa from his power and fragmented Turkey. Hence, the Muslim started the Khilafat Movement in India, for the restoration of Khalifa’s position.
The leaders were Ali brothers (Shaukat Ali and Mohammed Ali), Maulana Azad, dabad Hakim Ajmal Khan and Hasrat Mohani. Gandhi saw this as an opportunity to bring about Hindu-Muslim unity against the British, although CR Das opposed it Due initially.
The Central Khilafat Committee met to get Allahabad. The meeting was attended by a number of Congress and Khilafat leaders. In this meeting, a programme of non-cooperation towards the government was declared. This included boycott of titles conferred by the government, boycott of civil services, army and police, i.e., of all government service.
Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22)
It was the first mass based political movement under Gandhi.
The decision to not cooperate in the most peaceful manner with the government and into its laws, was endorsed at the annual session in wala of the Congress held at Nagpur, in 1920. The Nagpur Session also made changes in the Constitution of the Congress.
Anti-Rowlatt agitation, Jallianwala Bagh tragedy, Khilafat Movement, general economic distress during and after the war were the reasons for Non-Cooperation Movement.
The Tilak Swaraj Fund started financing the Non-Cooperation Movement. The movement envisaged boycotts of school, colleges, law courts, foreign cloth and advocated the use of Charkha.
