Emergence of Nationalism

• Indians became discontented with British rule due to issues such as the British conquest of territories, imposition of new laws, changes in peasant and tribal lives, debates regarding the condition of women plus the challenges to the caste system
• This discontentment led people to question what the country of India was and for whom it was intended.
• The answer emerged that India belonged to all its people, regardless of class, color, caste, creed, language, or gender, and its resources should benefit them all.
• Indians recognized that the British were controlling India's resources and the lives of its people.
• Political associations started forming after 1850, especially in the 1870s and 1880s.
• Most of these associations were led by English-educated professionals like lawyers.
• Prominent associations included the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, the Indian Association, the Madras Mahajan Sabha, the Bombay Presidency Association, and the Indian National Congress.
• "Sarvajanik" means "of or for all the people."
• Associations aimed to represent the goals of all Indians.
• They promoted the idea of sovereignty, empowering Indians to make decisions about their affairs.
• Dissatisfaction intensified with British policies in the 1870s and 1880s.
• The Arms Act of 1878 disallowed Indians from possessing arms.
• The Vernacular Press Act was enacted to silence critics of the government.
• This act allowed the authorities to confiscate newspaper assets if they published objectionable material.
• The Ilbert Bill in 1883 aimed to allow the trial of British or European individuals by Indians and sought equality between British and Indian judges
• White opposition forced the government to withdraw the bill, which angered Indians.
• The withdrawal of the Ilbert Bill highlighted racial attitudes of the British in India.
• Educated Indians felt the need for an all-India organization.
• The Ilbert Bill controversy deepened this desire.
• The Indian National Congress was established in December 1885 when 72 delegates from across the country met in Bombay.
• Early leaders included Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta, Badruddin Tyabji, and others from Bombay and Calcutta.
• Naoroji, settled in London, guided younger nationalists.
• A.O. Hume, a retired British official, also helped bring Indians from various regions together.
• The Congress aimed to be a nucleus of a future Parliament for India.
• Badruddin Tyabji emphasized that the Congress was composed of representatives from all communities in India.
• For the first twenty years, the Congress was considered "moderate" in its objectives and methods
• The Congress demanded a greater voice for Indians in the government and administration.
• Congress wanted Legislative Councils made more representative and introduced in more provinces.
• Congress called for the placement of Indians in high government positions via civil service exams in India.
• The demand for Indianisation was against racism.
• Indianisation would also reduce the drain of wealth to England.
• Other demands included separating the judiciary from the executive, repealing the Arms Act, and freedom of speech and expression.

Congress's Economic Concerns

• Congress stated British rule led to poverty and famines as well as land revenue increases that impoverished peasants and zamindars.
• The Congress demanded reduction of revenue, cuts in military expenditure, and more funds for irrigation.
• Resolutions addressed the salt tax, treatment of Indian laborers abroad, and the sufferings of forest dwellers.
• Moderate leaders aimed to develop public awareness about the unjust nature of British rule.
• They published articles and criticized British rule.
• Representatives were sent to mobilize public opinion in different parts of the country.
• Leaders believed the British would accept the just demands of Indians if made aware of Indian feelings.

Rise of Radical Objectives

• By the 1890s, many Indians began to question the Congress's political style.
• Leaders like Bepin Chandra Pal, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Lala Lajpat Rai explored more radical objectives.
• They criticized the Moderates' "politics of prayers" and emphasized self-reliance and constructive work.
• Tilak raised the slogan, "Freedom is my birthright and I shall have it!".

Partition of Bengal

• In 1905, Viceroy Curzon partitioned Bengal, the largest province of British India including Bihar and parts of Orissa.
• The partition was claimed as an "administrative convenience" but tied to British interests for officials and businessmen
• The government separated East Bengal and merged it with Assam.
• The partition of Bengal infuriated people all over India All sections of the Congress opposed it plus large protests and demonstrations emerged.
• This struggle became known as the Swadeshi movement, strongest in Bengal but with echoes elsewhere such as the Vandemataram Movement.
• The Swadeshi movement aimed to oppose British rule, encourage self-help, swadeshi enterprise, national education, and the use of Indian languages.
• Radicals advocated mass mobilization and boycotts like the burning of British clothes to fight for swaraj.
• Some suggested revolutionary violence was necessary.

The Muslim League & Congress Split

• A group of Muslim landlords and nawabs formed the All India Muslim League in Dacca in 1906.
• The League supported the partition of Bengal.
• It desired separate electorates for Muslims, conceded by the government in 1909, which tempted politicians to gather support by favoring their own religious groups.
• The Congress split in 1907 due to Moderates opposing the use of boycott and they reunited in December 1915.
• The Congress and the Muslim League signed the historic Lucknow Pact, deciding to work together for representative government.

World War's Impact on Nationalism

• After 1919, the struggle against British rule became a mass movement like the first world war It involved peasants, tribals, students, women, and business groups.
• The war led to a rise in defence expenditure so the government increased taxes which created difficulties for common people while business groups made profits.
• The war expanded Indian industries and the British army, and villages were pressured to supply soldiers.
• Many soldiers returned with an understanding of imperialism.

Rise of Gandhi

• In 1917, the Russian Revolution and news of socialism inspired Indian nationalists.
• Mahatma Gandhi emerged as a mass leader.
• Having led non-violent marches against racist restrictions in South Africa, he was already a respected leader when aged 46 and arrived in India in 1915.
• In South Africa, Gandhi came in contact with various types of Indians.
• Gandhi spent his first year in India travelling for understanding.

Early Interventions & Satyagraha

• Gandhi's interventions were in local movements in Champaran, Kheda, and Ahmedabad
• Gandhi led a millworkers' strike in Ahmedabad in 1918.
• In 1919, Gandhi gave a call for satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act, that curbed fundamental rights and strengthened police powers.
• Gandhi and others criticized this Act as "devilish" and tyrannical.
• Gandhi asked the Indian people to observe 6 April 1919 as a day of non-violent opposition and hartal.
• Satyagraha Sabhas were set up.

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

• The Rowlatt Satyagraha was largely restricted to cities.
• The government used brutal measures to suppress demonstrations and hartals in April 1919.
• General Dyer inflicted the Jallianwala Bagh atrocities in Amritsar on Baisakhi day (13 April).
• Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood.
• Participants in the Rowlatt Satyagraha ensured Hindus and Muslims were united.

Khilafat Agitation

• In 1920, the British imposed a harsh treaty on the Turkish Sultan i.e. Khalifa whom people were furious about because many Indian Muslims wanted the Khalifa to retain control over Muslim sacred places.
• Khilafat agitation leaders, Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, wanted a full-fledged Non-Cooperation Movement.
• Gandhi supported their call and urged the Congress to campaign against "Punjab wrongs", the Khilafat wrong, and demand swaraj.

Non-Cooperation Movement

• From 1921 to 1922 thousands of students left government schools and colleges.
• Lawyers such as Motilal Nehru and C.R. Das gave up their practices.
• British titles were surrendered and legislatures boycotted.
• People lit public bonfires of foreign cloth dropping the imports drastically.
• Protests went on non-violently with people linking movements to local grievances.
• Peasants in Kheda organized non-violent campaigns against high land revenue demands and liquor shops were picketed in Tamil Nadu while tribals staged "forest satyagrahas" in Andhra Pradesh.
• People believed Gandhi would get their taxes reduced and have forest regulations abolished proclaiming swaraj.

Akali Agitation in Punjab

• In Sind, Muslim traders and peasants supported the Khilafat call as well as strength to the national movement in Bengal.
• The Akali agitation of the Sikhs sought to remove corrupt functionaries from their gurdwaras.
• Tea garden laborers in Assam shouted “Gandhi Maharaj ki Jai” demanding wage increases.
• Sometimes people thought of Gandhi as a kind of messiah as the people credited him with their own achievements..
• Peasants in Pratapgarh managed to stop illegal eviction of tenants and tribals took actions that did not conform to Gandhian ideals.

Aftermath of Non-Cooperation

• Gandhi was against violent movements and abruptly called off the Non-Cooperation Movement in February 1922 when peasants set fire to a police station in Chauri Chaura.
• Gandhi's followers stressed constructive work in rural areas with leaders argued the party should fight elections to the councils.
• The Gandhians extended support via social work
• Important developments included the formation of the RSS and the Communist Party of India and the revolutionary nationalist Bhagat Singh was active.
• British government in England decided to send a commission headed by Lord Simon who was met with demonstrations in India since the Simon Commission had not Indian representative.
• In 1929 the the Congress resolve to fight for Purna Swaraj and on January 26, 1930 Independence Day was observed across the country.
• Revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh wanted a worker's revolution and founded the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association in 1928.
• Bhagat Singh advocated “It takes a loud voice to make the deaf hear. Inquilab Zindabad!”.

Dandi March & Salt Law

• In 1930, Gandhi declared he would break the salt law, where the state had a monopoly on the manufacture and sale of salt as well as tax salt.
• Gandhi and his followers marched over 240 miles from Sabarmati to Dandi, where they broke the law by gathering natural salt.

Participation of Women

• Women from diverse backgrounds participated in the national movement giving it an immense force.
• In 1931 Mahatma Gandhi broke the law by picking up a lump of natural salt at Dandi.
• The government tried to crush the movement and thousands were jailed.
• Independence occurred when the Government of India Act of 1935 prescribed provincial autonomy, so the government announced elections to the provincial legislatures in 1937
• The Congress formed governments in 7 out of 11 provinces up until September 1939, where Congress resigned after the Second World War broke out.
• Congress leaders were ready to support the British war effort if they got independence but the British refused.

Veer Lakhan Nayak

• Veer Lakhan Nayak protested the Second World War and the Quit India movement

Gandhi Calls for Quit India

• Gandhi decided to confront the British in the middle of the Second World War calling them to quit India immediately as it was to fight non-violently.
• Gandhi and other leaders were jailed, but the movement that attracted peasants and the youth spread.
• The British responded with repression where 90,000 people were arrested by the end of 1943, around 1,000 killed, and crowds machine-gunned.

Muslim League & Partition

• By 1940 the Muslim League wanted "Independent States" for Muslims since the elections of 1937 convinced the League that Muslims were a minority.
• The Congress's rejection of the League's desire to form a government in the United Provinces in 1937 also annoyed the League.
• The Congress's failure to mobilize the Muslim masses in the 1930s allowed the League to widen its social support up until 1945 where British opened negotiations where the talks failed because the League saw itself as the sole spokesperson and in 1946, decided on mass agitation.
• August 16, 1946 was “Direct Action Day”. On this day riots broke out in Calcutta, and the British sent a three-member mission that India should remain united though by 1947, violence spread and the failure of the mission led to inevitable partition though Badshah Khan opposed the partition.

Independence

• Many were killed and women faced brutalties during Partition plus millions turned into refugees.

A New Nation

• Partition also meant that India changed, many of its cities changed, and a new country Pakistan was born.
• However, Independence mixed with violence and bloodshed.