NCERT Complete History Section Notes PDF

Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive  INDEX S. NO. CLASS NAME 1. X India and the Contemporary World-II 2. XI Themes in World History...

Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive  INDEX S. NO. CLASS NAME 1. X India and the Contemporary World-II 2. XI Themes in World History 3. XII Themes in Indian History-I 4. XII Themes in Indian History-II 5. XII Themes in Indian History-III This file contains following books in summarized form. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive  NCERT-CLASS X-HISTORY INDIA AND THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD-II Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive  NCERT Class X History- India and the Contemporary World-II Chapter Number Chapter Name 1. The Rise of Nationalism in Europe 2. The Nationalist Movement in Indo-China 3. Nationalism in India 4. The Making of a Global World 5. The Age of Industrialisation 6. Cities in the Contemporary World 7. Print Culture and the Modern World 8. Novels, Society and History Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive CHAPTER 1: The Rise of Nationalism in Europe  During the nineteenth century, nationalism emerged as a force which brought about sweeping changes in the political and mental world of Europe. The end result of these changes was the emergence of the nation-state in place of the multi-national dynastic empires of Europe.  The concept and practices of a modern state, in which a centralized power exercised sovereign control over a clearly defined territory, had been developing over a long period of time in Europe.  But a nation-state was one in which the majority of its citizens, and not only its rulers, came to develop a sense of common identity and shared history or descent.  This commonness did not exist from time immemorial; it was forged through struggles, through the actions of leaders and the common people. Some Important Terms Absolutist – Literally, a government or system of rule that has no restraints on the power exercised. In history, the term refers to a form of monarchical government that was centralized, militarized and repressive Utopian – A vision of a society that is so ideal that it is unlikely to actually exist Plebiscite – A direct vote by which all the people of a region are asked to accept or reject a proposal 1. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE IDEA OF A NATION  The first clear expression of nationalism came with the French Revolution in 1789. France was a full-fledged territorial state in 1789 under the rule of an absolute monarch.  French Revolution gave way to the political and constitutional changes that led to the transfer of sovereignty from the monarchy to a body of French citizens.  The revolution proclaimed that it was the people who would henceforth constitute the nation and shape its destiny.  The French revolutionaries introduced various measures and practices that could create a sense of collective identity amongst the French people.  The ideas of la patrie (the fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen) emphasized the notion of a united community enjoying equal rights under a constitution.  Some changes that occurred: A new French flag, the tricolour, was chosen to replace the former royal standard. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive  The Estates General was elected by the body of active citizens and renamed the National Assembly. New hymns were composed, oaths taken and martyrs commemorated, all in the name of the nation. A centralized administrative system was put in place and it formulated uniform laws for all citizens within its territory. Internal customs duties and dues were abolished and a uniform system of weights and measures was adopted. Regional dialects were discouraged and French, as it was spoken and written in Paris, became the common language of the nation.  Impact on other European nations  When the news of the events in France reached the different cities of Europe, students and other members of educated middle classes began setting up Jacobin clubs.  Their activities and campaigns prepared the way for the French armies which moved into Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and much of Italy in the 1790s.  In 1797, Napoleon invaded Italy and Napoleonic wars began.  A wide territory came under Napoleon’s control and introduced many of the reforms that he had already introduced in France.  Although Napoleon had destroyed democracy in France, but in the administrative field he had incorporated revolutionary principles in order to make the whole system more rational and efficient.  The Civil Code of 1804 – usually known as the Napoleonic Code – removed all privileges based on birth, established equality before the law and secured the right to property. This code was extended to regions under French control.  In the Dutch Republic, in Switzerland, in Italy and Germany, Napoleon simplified administrative divisions, abolished the feudal system and freed peasants from serfdom and manorial dues.  In the towns guild restrictions were removed  Transport and communication systems were improved. Peasants, artisans, workers and new businessmen enjoyed a new-found freedom.  Businessmen and small-scale producers of goods, in particular, began to realize that uniform laws, standardized weights and measures, and a common national currency would facilitate the movement and exchange of goods and capital from one region to another. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   In many places such as Holland and Switzerland, as well as in certain cities like Brussels, Mainz, Milan and Warsaw, The initial enthusiasm soon turned to hostility, as it became clear that the new administrative arrangements did not go hand in hand with political freedom. Increased taxation, censorship, forced conscription into the French armies required to conquer the rest of Europe, all seemed to outweigh the advantages of the administrative changes. 2. THE MAKING OF NATIONALISM IN EUROPE  During the mid-eighteenth century there were no ‘nation-states’ in Europe as we see today.  Germany, Italy and Switzerland were divided into kingdoms, duchies and cantons whose rulers had their autonomous territories.  Eastern and Central Europe were under autocratic monarchies within where diverse people lived who did not see themselves as sharing a collective identity or a common culture. They even spoke different languages and belonged to different ethnic groups.  For example, the Habsburg Empire that ruled over Austria-Hungary was included the Alpine regions – the Tyrol, Austria and the Sudetenland – as well as Bohemia, where the aristocracy was predominantly German-speaking.  In Hungary, half of the population spoke Magyar while the other half spoke a variety of dialects.  The differences did not easily promote a sense of political unity. 2.1 The Aristocracy and the New Middle Class  Landed aristocracy was the social and political dominant class on the continent. It was a numerically small group.  Aristocrats: had common way of life that cut across regional divisions, owned estates in the countryside and also town-houses, spoke French for purposes of diplomacy and in high society. Their families were often connected by ties of marriage.  Peasantry formed the bulk of the population. To the west, the bulk of the land was farmed by tenants and small owners, while in Eastern and Central Europe the pattern of landholding was characterized by vast estates which were cultivated by serfs.  In Western and parts of Central Europe due the growth of industrial production and trade towns and commercial classes emerged,  Industrialization began in England in the second half of the eighteenth century, but in France and parts of the German states it occurred only during the nineteenth century.  New social groups emerged: a working-class population and middle classes made up of industrialists, businessmen, professionals. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   In Central and Eastern Europe these groups were smaller in number till late nineteenth century.  It was among the educated, liberal middle classes that ideas of national unity following the abolition of aristocratic privileges gained popularity. 2.2 What did Liberal Nationalism Stand for?  The term ‘liberalism’ derives from the Latin root liber, meaning free.  For the new middle classes liberalism stood for freedom for the individual and equality of all before the law.  Politically, it emphasized the concept of government by consent.  Since the French Revolution, liberalism had stood for the end of autocracy and clerical privileges, a constitution and representative government through parliament. Nineteenth-century liberals also stressed the inviolability of private property.  Yet, equality before the law did not necessarily stand for universal suffrage. In revolutionary France the right to vote and to get elected was granted exclusively to property-owning men.  Men without property and all women were excluded from political rights.  Napoleonic Code went back to limited suffrage and reduced women to the status of a minor, subject to the authority of fathers and husbands.  In the economic sphere, liberalism stood for the freedom of markets and the abolition of state-imposed restrictions on the movement of goods and capital.  Conditions like customs barriers and customs duty and different systems if weights and measurements in different regions were viewed as obstacles to economic exchange and growth by the new commercial classes, who argued for the creation of a unified economic territory allowing the unhindered movement of goods, people and capital.  In 1834, a customs union or zollverein was formed at the initiative of Prussia and joined by most of the German states.  The union abolished tariff barriers and reduced the number of currencies from over thirty to two. Mobility was enhanced by network of railways. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive 2.3 A New Conservatism after 1815 Conservatism – A political philosophy that stressed the importance of tradition, established institutions and customs, and preferred gradual development to quick change.  Following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, European governments were driven by a spirit of conservatism.  Conservatives believed that established, traditional institutions of state and society – like the monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and the family – should be preserved.  Most conservatives, however, did not propose a return to the society of pre-revolutionary days.  Rather, they realized, from the changes initiated by Napoleon, that modernization could in fact strengthen traditional institutions like the monarchy. It could make state power more effective and strong.  A modern army, an efficient bureaucracy, a dynamic economy, the abolition of feudalism and serfdom could strengthen the autocratic monarchies of Europe. THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA, 1815  In 1815, representatives of the European powers – Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria – who had collectively defeated Napoleon, met at Vienna to draw up a settlement for Europe.  The Congress was hosted by the Austrian Chancellor Duke Metternich.  The delegates drew up the Treaty of Vienna of 1815 with the object of undoing most of the changes that had come about in Europe during the Napoleonic wars.  The Bourbon dynasty, which had been deposed during the French Revolution, was restored to power, and France lost the territories it had annexed under Napoleon.  A series of states were set up on the boundaries of France to prevent French expansion in future.  Kingdom of the Netherlands, which included Belgium, was set up in the north.  Genoa was added to Piedmont in the south.  Prussia was given important new territories on its western frontiers.  Austria was given control of northern Italy.  The German confederation of 39 states that had been set up by Napoleon was left untouched.  In the east, Russia was given part of Poland while Prussia was given a portion of Saxony. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive  MAIN INTENTION OF THE CONGRESS  The main intention was to restore the monarchies that had been overthrown by Napoleon, and create a new conservative order in Europe.  Conservative regimes set up in 1815 were autocratic.  They did not tolerate criticism and dissent, and sought to curb activities that questioned the legitimacy of autocratic governments.  Most of them imposed censorship laws to control what was said in newspapers, books, plays and songs and reflected the ideas of liberty and freedom. 2.4 The revolutionaries  During the years following 1815, the fear of repression drove many liberal-nationalists underground.  Secret societies sprang up in many European states to train revolutionaries and spread their ideas.  Most of these revolutionaries also saw the creation of nation-states as a necessary part of this struggle for freedom.  One such individual was the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini. He founded two underground societies, first, Young Italy in Marseilles, and then, Young Europe in Berne, whose members were like-minded young men from Poland, France, Italy and the German states.  Mazzini believed that God had intended nations to be the natural units of mankind. So Italy could not continue to be a patchwork of small states and kingdoms.  Following his model, secret societies were set up in Germany, France, Switzerland and Poland. 3. THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: 1830-1848  Liberalism and nationalism came to be increasingly associated with revolution in many regions of Europe such as the Italian and German states, the provinces of the Ottoman Empire, Ireland and Poland.  These revolutions were led by the liberal-nationalists belonging to the educated middle-class elite, among whom were professors, schoolteachers, clerks and members of the commercial middle classes. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   The first upheaval took place in France in July 1830. The Bourbon kings who had been restored to power during the conservative reaction after 1815, were now overthrown by liberal revolutionaries who installed a constitutional monarchy with Louis Philippe at its head.  The July Revolution sparked an uprising in Brussels which led to Belgium breaking away from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. GREEK WAR OF INDEPENDENCE  Greece had been part of the Ottoman Empire since the fifteenth century. The growth of revolutionary nationalism in Europe triggered a struggle for independence amongst the Greeks which began in 1821.  Nationalists in Greece got support from other Greeks living in exile and also from many West Europeans who had sympathies for ancient Greek culture.  The Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 recognized Greece as an independent nation. 3.1 The Romantic Imagination and National Feeling  Culture played an important role in creating the idea of the nation: art and poetry, stories and music helped express and shape nationalist feelings.  Romanticism: a cultural movement which sought to develop a particular form of nationalist sentiment.  Romantic artists and poets generally criticized the glorification of reason and science, and focused instead on emotions, intuition and mystical feelings. Their effort was to create a sense of a shared collective heritage, a common cultural past, as the basis of a nation.  Romantics such as the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) claimed that true German culture was to be discovered among the common people – das volk and through folk songs, folk poetry and folk dances that the true spirit of the nation (volksgeist) was popularized.  The emphasis on vernacular language and the collection of local folklore was not just to recover an ancient national spirit, but also to carry the modern nationalist message to large audiences who were mostly illiterate.  Poland no longer existed as an independent territory and had been partitioned at the end of the eighteenth century by the Great Powers – Russia, Prussia and Austria but the national feelings were kept alive through music and language. Karol Kurpinski, for example, celebrated the national struggle through his operas and music, turning folk dances like the polonaise and mazurka into nationalist symbols. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   Language too played an important role in developing nationalist sentiments.  The use of Polish came to be seen as a symbol of the struggle against Russian dominance. 3.2 Hunger, Hardship and Popular Revolt  The 1830s were years of great economic hardship in Europe. The first half of the nineteenth century saw an enormous increase in population all over Europe.  In most countries there were more seekers of jobs than employment. Population from rural areas migrated to the cities to live in overcrowded slums. Small producers in towns were often faced with stiff competition from imports of cheap machine-made goods from England, where industrialization was more advanced than on the continent.  In those regions of Europe where the aristocracy still enjoyed power, peasants struggled under the burden of feudal dues and obligations. In 1848, food shortages and widespread unemployment brought the population of Paris out on the roads.  Barricades were erected and Louis Philippe was forced to flee.  A National Assembly proclaimed a Republic, granted suffrage to all adult males above 21, and guaranteed the right to work.  National workshops to provide employment were set up.  Earlier, in 1845, weavers in Silesia had led a revolt against contractors who supplied them raw material and gave them orders for finished textiles but drastically reduced their payments. 3.3 1848: The Revolution of the Liberals  Events of February 1848 in France had brought about the abdication of the monarch and a republic based on universal male suffrage had been proclaimed.  In other parts of Europe where independent nation-states did not yet exist – such as Germany, Italy, Poland, the Austro-Hungarian Empire – men and women of the liberal middle classes combined their demands for constitutionalism with national unification.  They took advantage of the growing popular unrest to push their demands for the creation of a nation-state on parliamentary principles – a constitution, freedom of the press and freedom of association.  In the German regions a large number of political associations came together in the city of Frankfurt and decided to vote for an all-German National Assembly. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   On 18 May 1848, 831 elected representatives marched in a festive procession to take their places in the Frankfurt parliament convened in the Church of St Paul. They drafted a constitution for a German nation to be headed by a monarchy subject to a parliament.  While the opposition of the aristocracy and military became stronger, the social basis of parliament eroded.  The parliament was dominated by the middle classes who resisted the demands of workers and artisans and consequently lost their support.  In the end troops were called in and the assembly was forced to disband.  The issue of extending political rights to women was a controversial one within the liberal movement, in which large numbers of women had participated actively over the years. Women had formed their own political associations, founded newspapers and taken part in political meetings and demonstrations.  Despite this they were denied suffrage rights during the election of the Assembly. When the Frankfurt parliament convened in the Church of St Paul, women were admitted only as observers to stand in the visitors’ gallery.  Though conservative forces were able to suppress liberal movements in 1848, they could not restore the old order.  Monarchs were beginning to realize that the cycles of revolution and repression could only be ended by granting concessions to the liberal-nationalist revolutionaries.  Serfdom and bonded labour were abolished both in the Habsburg dominions and in Russia. The Habsburg rulers granted more autonomy to the Hungarians in 1867. Feminist – Awareness of women’s rights and interests based on the belief of the social, economic and political equality of the genders. Ideology – System of ideas reflecting a particular social and political vision 4. THE MAKING OF GERMANY AND ITALY 4.1 Germany – Can the Army be the Architect of a Nation?  After 1848, nationalism in Europe moved away from its association with democracy and revolution.  Nationalist sentiments were often mobilized by conservatives for promoting state power and achieving political domination over Europe. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   Nationalist feelings were widespread among middle-class Germans, who in 1848 tried to unite the different regions of the German confederation into a nation-state governed by an elected parliament.  This liberal initiative to nation-building was, however, repressed by the combined forces of the monarchy and the military, supported by the large landowners (called Junkers) of Prussia.  From then on, Prussia took on the leadership of the movement for national unification.  Otto von Bismarck was the architect of unification process carried out with the help of the Prussian army and bureaucracy.  Three wars over seven years – with Austria, Denmark and France – ended in Prussian victory and completed the process of unification.  In January 1871, the Prussian king, William I, was proclaimed German Emperor in a ceremony held at Versailles. Otto von Bismarck gathered in the unheated Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles to proclaim the new German Empire headed by Kaiser William I of Prussia.  The nation-building process in Germany had demonstrated the dominance of Prussian state power where strong emphasis was placed on modernizing the currency, banking, legal and judicial systems in Germany. Prussian measures and practices often became a model for the rest of Germany. 4.2 Italy Unified  Italians were scattered over several dynastic states as well as the multi-national Habsburg Empire.  During the middle of the nineteenth century, Italy was divided into seven states, of which only one, Sardinia-Piedmont, was ruled by an Italian princely house. The north was under Austrian Habsburgs, the centre was ruled by the Pope and the southern regions were under the domination of the Bourbon kings of Spain.  Italian language had not acquired one common form and still had many regional and local variations.  During the 1830s, Giuseppe Mazzini had sought to put together a coherent programme for a unitary Italian Republic.  The failure of revolutionary uprisings both in 1831 and 1848 promopted Sardinia-Piedmont under its ruler King Victor Emmanuel II to unify the Italian states through war as it could bring about economic development and political dominance. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   Chief Minister Cavour who led the movement to unify the regions of Italy was a wealthy and educated member of the Italian elite and spoke French much better than he did Italian.  Through a tactful diplomatic alliance with France engineered by Cavour, Sardinia-Piedmont succeeded in defeating the Austrian forces in 1859.  Apart from regular troops, a large number of armed volunteers under the leadership of Giuseppe Garibaldi joined the fray. In 1860, they marched into South Italy and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and succeeded in winning the support of the local peasants in order to drive out the Spanish rulers.  In 1861 Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed king of united Italy. Much of the Italian population, among whom rates of illiteracy were very high, remained blissfully unaware of liberal nationalist ideology. 4.3 The Strange Case of Britain  In Britain the formation of the nation-state was not the result of a sudden upheaval or revolution.  There was no British nation prior to the eighteenth century.  The primary identities of the people who inhabited the British Isles were ethnic ones – such as English, Welsh, Scot or Irish. All of these ethnic groups had their own cultural and political traditions.  The English parliament, which had seized power from the monarchy in 1688 at the end of a protracted conflict, was the instrument through which a nation-state, with England at its centre, came to be forged.  The Act of Union (1707) between England and Scotland resulted in the formation of the ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain’.  England was able to impose its influence on Scotland. The British parliament was dominated by its English members.  Scotland’s distinctive culture and political institutions were systematically suppressed. The Catholic clans that inhabited the Scottish Highlands suffered terrible repression whenever they attempted to assert their independence. The Scottish Highlanders were forbidden to speak their Gaelic language or wear their national dress, and large numbers were forcibly driven out of their homeland. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   In Ireland, a deep divide existed between Catholics and Protestants. The English helped the Protestants of Ireland to establish their dominance over a largely Catholic country. Catholic revolts against British dominance were suppressed.  After a failed revolt led by Wolfe Tone and his United Irishmen (1798), Ireland was forcibly incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801.  A new ‘British nation’ was forged through the propagation of a dominant English culture. The symbols of the new Britain – the British flag (Union Jack), the national anthem (God Save Our Noble King), the English language – were actively promoted. Ethnic – Relates to a common racial, tribal, or cultural origin or background that a community identifies with or claims 5. VISUALIZING THE NATION  Artists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries found a way out by personifying a nation. In other words they represented a country as if it were a person.  Nations were then portrayed as female figures.  The female form that was chosen to personify the nation did not stand for any particular woman in real life; rather it sought to give the abstract idea of the nation a concrete form. That is, the female figure became an allegory of the nation.  During the French Revolution artists used the female allegory to portray ideas such as Liberty, Justice and the Republic.  Germania became the allegory of the German nation. In visual representations, Germania wears a crown of oak leaves, as the German oak stands for heroism. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive Chapter 2: The Nationalist Movement in Indo-China 1. EMERGING FROM THE SHADOWS OF CHINA  Indo-China comprises the modern countries of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.  Even when an independent country was established in 1945, in what is now northern and central Vietnam, its rulers continued to maintain the Chinese system of government as well as Chinese culture. 1.1 Colonial Domination and Resistance  Vietnam was colonized by the French. French troops landed in Vietnam in 1858 and by the mid-1880s they had established a firm grip over the northern region.  After the Franco-Chinese war the French assumed control of Tonkin and Anaam and, in 1887, French Indo-China was formed.  The most visible form of French control was military and economic domination but the French also built a system that tried to reshape the culture of the Vietnamese.  Nationalism in Vietnam emerged through the efforts of different sections of society to fight against the French and all they represented. 1.2 Why the French thought Colonies Necessary?  Colonies were considered essential to supply natural resources and other essential goods.  The French began by building canals and draining lands in the Mekong delta to increase cultivation.  The vast system of irrigation works – canals and earthworks – built mainly with forced labour, increased rice production and allowed the export of rice to the international market.  Vietnam exported two-thirds of its rice production and by 1931 had become the third largest exporter of rice in the world.  Next, infrastructure projects to help transport goods for trade, move military garrisons and control the entire region.  Construction of a trans-Indo-China rail network that would link the northern and southern parts of Vietnam and China began and this final link with Yunan in China was completed by 1910.  The second line was also built, linking Vietnam to Siam (as Thailand was then called), via the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. 1.3 Should Colonies be Developed?  Colonies had to serve the interests of the mother country. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   Paul Bernard, an influential writer and policy-maker, argued that the purpose of acquiring colonies was to make profits.  If the economy was developed and the standard of living of the people improved, they would buy more goods leading to market expansion and better profits for French business.  The colonial economy in Vietnam was, however, primarily based on rice cultivation and rubber plantations owned by the French and small Vietnamese elite.  Rail and port facilities were set up to service this sector.  Indentured Vietnamese labour was widely used in the rubber plantations.  The French, contrary to what Bernard would have liked, did little to industrialize the economy. In the rural areas landlordism spread and the standard of living declined. Important Term Indentured labour : A form of labour widely used in the plantations from the mid-nineteenth century. Labourers worked on the basis of contracts that did not specify any rights of labourers but gave immense power to employers. Employers could bring criminal charges against labourers and punish and jail them for non-fulfilment of contracts. 2. THE DILEMMA OF COLONIAL EDUCATION  French colonisation was not based only on economic exploitation. It was also driven by the idea of a ‘civilising mission’. Like the British in India, the French claimed that they were bringing modern civilisation to the Vietnamese.  Education was seen as one way to civilise the ‘native’. But in order to educate them, the French had to resolve a dilemma. How far were the Vietnamese to be educated?  The French needed an educated local labour force but they feared that education might create problems. Once educated, the Vietnamese may begin to question colonial domination.  French citizens living in Vietnam (called colons) began fearing that they might lose their jobs – as teachers, shopkeepers, policemen – to the educated Vietnamese.  So they opposed policies that would give the Vietnamese full access to French education. 2.1 Talking Modern  The elites in Vietnam were powerfully influenced by Chinese culture. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   To consolidate their power, the French had to counter this Chinese influence.  So they systematically dismantled the traditional educational system and established French schools for the Vietnamese.  Some policymakers emphasised the need to use the French language as the medium of instruction.  By learning the language, they felt, the Vietnamese would be introduced to the culture and civilisation of France and an ‘Asiatic France solidly tied to European France’ would be created.  Others were opposed to French being the only medium of instruction. They suggested that Vietnamese be taught in lower classes and French in the higher classes.  Only the Vietnamese elite – comprising a small fraction of the population – could enroll in the schools, and only a few among those admitted ultimately passed the school-leaving examination.  Deliberate policy of failing students, particularly in the final year was followed so that they could not qualify for the better-paid jobs.  School textbooks glorified the French and justified colonial rule. The Vietnamese were represented as primitive and backward, capable of manual labour but not of intellectual reflection; they could work in the fields but not rule themselves; they were ‘skilled copyists’ but not creative. 2.2 Looking Modern  It was not enough to learn science and Western ideas: to be modern the Vietnamese had to also look modern.  The school encouraged the adoption of Western styles such as having a short haircut. For the Vietnamese this meant a major break with their own identity since they traditionally kept long hair. 2.3 Resistance in Schools  Teachers and students did not blindly follow the curriculum. Sometimes there was open opposition, at other times there was silent resistance.  Students fought against the colonial government’s efforts to prevent the Vietnamese from qualifying for white-collar jobs.  They were inspired by patriotic feelings and the conviction that it was the duty of the educated to fight for the benefit of society. This brought them into conflict with the French as well as the traditional elite, since both saw their positions threatened. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   The battle against French colonial education became part of the larger battle against colonialism and for independence. 3. HYGIENE, DISEASE AND EVERYDAY RESISTANCE 3.1 Plague Strikes Hanoi  In 1903, the modern part of Hanoi was struck by bubonic plague.  The French part of Hanoi was built as a beautiful and clean city with wide avenues and a well-laid-out sewer system, while the ‘native quarter’ was not provided with any modern facilities.  The refuse from the old city drained straight out into the river or, during heavy rains or floods, overflowed into the streets.  Thus what was installed to create a hygienic environment in the French city became the cause of the plague.  The large sewers in the modern part of the city, a symbol of modernity, were an ideal and protected breeding ground for rats. The sewers also served as a great transport system, allowing the rats to move around the city without any problem. And rats began to enter the well-cared-for homes of the French through the sewage pipes. 3.2 The Rat Hunt  The French hired Vietnamese workers and paid them for each rat they caught.  For the Vietnamese the rat hunt seemed to provide an early lesson in the success of collective bargaining. Those who did the dirty work of entering sewers found that if they came together they could negotiate a higher bounty.  They also discovered innovative ways to profit from this situation.  Defeated by the resistance of the weak, the French were forced to scrap the bounty programme. None of this prevented the bubonic plague, which swept through.  In a way, the rat menace marks the limits of French power and the contradictions in their ‘civilizing mission. 4. RELIGION AND ANTI-COLONIALISM  Religion played an important role in strengthening colonial control, it also provided ways of resistance. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   Vietnam’s religious beliefs were a mixture of Buddhism, Confucianism and local practices.  Christianity, introduced by French missionaries, was intolerant of this easygoing attitude and viewed the Vietnamese tendency to revere the supernatural as something to be corrected.  An early movement against French control and the spread of Christianity was the Scholars Revolt in 1868.  The elites in Vietnam were educated in Chinese and Confucianism. But religious beliefs among the peasantry were shaped by a variety of syncretic traditions that combined Buddhism and local beliefs.  Some of the religious movements supported the French, but others inspired movements against colonial rule. One such movement was the Hoa Hao. It began in 1939 and gained great popularity in the fertile Mekong delta area.  The founder of Hoa Hao was a man called Huynh Phu So.  The French authorities exiled him to Laos and sent many of his followers to concentration camps. Important Terms: Syncretic – Characterised by syncretism; aims to bring together different beliefs and practices, seeing their essential unity rather than their difference. Concentration camp – A prison where people are detained without due process of law. The word evokes an image of a place of torture and brutal treatment 5. THE VISION OF MODERNISATION  Some intellectuals felt that Vietnamese traditions had to be strengthened to resist the domination of the West, while others felt that Vietnam had to learn from the West even while opposing foreign domination.  In the late nineteenth century, resistance to French domination was very often led by Confucian scholar-activists, who saw their world crumbling.  Educated in the Confucian tradition, Phan Boi Chau (1867-1940) was one such nationalist. He became a major figure in the anti-colonial resistance from the time he formed the Revolutionary Society (Duy Tan Hoi) in 1903, with Prince Cuong De as the head. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   Other nationalists strongly differed with Phan Boi Chau. One such was Phan Chu Trinh (1871- 1926). He was intensely hostile to the monarchy and opposed to the idea of resisting the French with the help of the court. His desire was to establish a democratic republic.  He accepted the French revolutionary ideal of liberty but charged the French for not abiding by the ideal. He demanded that the French set up legal and educational institutions, and develop agriculture and industries. 5.1 Other Ways of Becoming Modern: Japan and China  Early Vietnamese nationalists had a close relationship with Japan and China. They provided models for those looking to change, a refuge for those who were escaping French police, and a location where a wider Asian network of revolutionaries could be established.  Vietnamese students went to Japan to acquire modern education. For many of them the primary objective was to drive out the French from Vietnam, overthrow the puppet emperor and re-establish the Nguyen dynasty that had been deposed by the French.  They appealed to the Japanese as fellow Asians. Japan had modernised itself and had resisted colonisation by the West.  Developments in China also inspired Vietnamese nationalists. In 1911, the long established monarchy in China was overthrown by a popular movement under Sun Yat-sen, and a Republic was set up.  Vietnamese students organised the Association for the Restoration of Vietnam (Viet-Nam Quan Phuc Hoi).  The nature of the anti-French independence movement changed. The objective was no longer to set up a constitutional monarchy but a democratic republic. 6. THE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT AND VIETNAMESE NATIONALISM  The Great Depression of the 1930s had a profound impact on Vietnam. The prices of rubber and rice fell, leading to rising rural debts, unemployment and rural uprisings, such as in the provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh.  In February 1930, Ho Chi Minh brought together competing nationalist groups to establish the Vietnamese Communist (Vietnam Cong San Dang) Party, later renamed the Indo-Chinese Communist Party. He was inspired by the militant demonstrations of the European communist parties.  In 1940 Japan occupied Vietnam, as part of its imperial drive to control Southeast Asia. So nationalists now had to fight against the Japanese as well as the French. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   The League for the Independence of Vietnam (Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh), which came to be known as the Vietminh, fought the Japanese occupation and recaptured Hanoi in September 1945.  The Democratic Republic of Vietnam was formed and Ho Chi Minh became Chairman. 6.1 The New Republic of Vietnam  The new republic faced a number of challenges. The French tried to regain control by using the emperor, Bao Dai, as their puppet. Faced with the French offensive, the Vietminh were forced to retreat to the hills. After eight years of fighting, the French were defeated in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu.  In the peace negotiations in Geneva that followed the French defeat, the Vietnamese were persuaded to accept the division of the country. North and south were split: Ho Chi Minh and the communists took power in the north while Bao Dai’s regime was put in power in the south.  The Bao Dai regime was soon overthrown by a coup led by Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem built a repressive and authoritarian government. Anyone who opposed him was called a communist and was jailed and killed.  Diem retained Ordinance 10, a French law that permitted Christianity but outlawed Buddhism.  His dictatorial rule came to be opposed by a broad opposition united under the banner of the National Liberation Front (NLF).  With the help of the Ho Chi Minh government in the north, the NLF fought for the unification of the country. US watched this alliance with fear. 6.2 The Entry of the US into the War  From 1965 to 1972, over 3,403,100 US services personnel served in Vietnam (7,484 were women). Even though the US had advanced technology and good medical supplies, casualties were high.  Thousands of US troops arrived equipped with heavy weapons and tanks and backed by the most powerful bombers of the time – B52s.  The wide spread attacks and use of chemical weapons – Napalm, Agent Orange, and phosphorous bombs – destroyed many villages and decimated jungles. Civilians died in large numbers.  The war grew out of a fear among US policy-planners that the victory of the Ho Chi Minh government would start a domino effect – communist governments would be established in other countries in the area. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   They underestimated the power of nationalism to move people to action, inspire them to sacrifice their home and family, live under horrific conditions, and fight for independence.  They underestimated the power of a small country to fight the most technologically advanced country in the world. 6.3 The Ho Chi Minh Trail  It symbolizes how the Vietnamese used their limited resources to great advantage. The trail, an immense network of footpaths and roads, was used to transport men and materials from the north to the south.  The trail had support bases and hospitals along the way. In some parts supplies were transported in trucks, but mostly they were carried by porters, who were mainly women. These porters carried about 25 kilos on their backs, or about 70 kilos on their bicycles.  Most of the trail was outside Vietnam in neighbouring Laos and Cambodia with branch lines extending into South Vietnam. 7. THE NATION AND ITS HEROES 7.1 Women as Rebels  Women in Vietnam traditionally enjoyed greater equality than in China, particularly among the lower classes, but they had only limited freedom to determine their future and played no role in public life.  As the nationalist movement grew, the status of women came to be questioned and a new image of womanhood emerged.  The rebellion against social conventions marked the arrival of the new woman in Vietnamese society. 7.3 Women as Warriors  As casualties in the war increased in the 1960s, women were urged to join the struggle in larger numbers.  Many women responded and joined the resistance movement. They helped in nursing the wounded, constructing underground rooms and tunnels and fighting the enemy. 7.4 Women in Times of Peace  By the 1970s, as peace talks began to get under way and the end of the war seemed near, women were no longer represented as warriors.  Now the image of women as workers begins to predominate. They are shown working in agricultural cooperatives, factories and production units, rather than as fighters. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive 8. THE END OF THE WAR  US had failed to achieve its objectives: the Vietnamese resistance had not been crushed; the support of the Vietnamese people for US action had not been won. In the meantime, thousands of young US soldiers had lost their lives, and countless Vietnamese civilians had been killed.  A peace settlement was signed in Paris in January 1974. This ended conflict with the US but fighting between the Saigon regime and the NLF continued. The NLF occupied the presidential palace in Saigon on 30 April 1975 and unified Vietnam. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive Chapter 3. Nationalism in India  In India, as in Vietnam and many other colonies, the growth of modern nationalism is intimately connected to the anti-colonial movement.  The sense of being oppressed under colonialism provided a shared bond that tied many different groups together. But each class and group felt the effects of colonialism differently, their experiences were varied, and their notions of freedom were not always the same.  The Congress under Mahatma Gandhi tried to forge these groups together within one movement. But the unity did not emerge without conflict. 1. THE FIRST WORLD WAR, KHILAFAT AND NON-COOPERATION  The war created a new economic and political situation. It led to a huge increase in defence expenditure which was financed by war loans and increasing taxes: customs duties were raised and income tax introduced.  Villages were called upon to supply soldiers, and the forced recruitment in rural areas caused widespread anger. Then in 1918-19 and 1920-21, crops failed in many parts of India, resulting in acute shortages of food. This was accompanied by an influenza epidemic.  People hoped that their hardships would end after the war was over. But that did not happen. 1.1 The Idea of Satyagraha  The idea of satyagraha emphasised the power of truth and the need to search for truth. It suggested that if the cause was true, if the struggle was against injustice, then physical force was not necessary to fight the oppressor.  People – including the oppressors – had to be persuaded to see the truth, instead of being forced to accept truth through the use of violence.  Mahatma Gandhi believed that this dharma of non-violence could unite all Indians.  In 1916 he travelled to Champaran in Bihar to inspire the peasants to struggle against the oppressive plantation system.  Then in 1917, he organised a satyagraha to support the peasants of the Kheda district of Gujarat. Affected by crop failure and a plague epidemic, the peasants of Kheda could not pay the revenue, and were demanding that revenue collection be relaxed. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi went to Ahmedabad to organise a satyagraha movement amongst cotton mill workers. 1.2 The Rowlatt Act  Gandhiji in 1919 decided to launch a nationwide satyagraha against the proposed Rowlatt Act (1919).  The Act gave the government enormous powers to repress political activities, and allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years.  Rallies were organised in various cities, workers went on strike in railway workshops, and shops closed down. Alarmed by the popular upsurge, and scared that lines of communication such as the railways and telegraph would be disrupted, the British administration decided to clamp down on nationalists.  On 10 April, the police in Amritsar fired upon a peaceful procession, provoking widespread attacks on banks, post offices and railway stations. Martial law was imposed and General Dyer took command.  On 13 April the infamous Jallianwalla Bagh incident took place. On that day a large crowd gathered in the enclosed ground of Jallianwalla Bagh.  While the Rowlatt satyagraha had been a widespread movement, it was still limited mostly to cities and towns. Mahatma Gandhi now felt the need to launch a more broad-based movement in India.  The First World War had ended with the defeat of Ottoman Turkey. And there were rumours that a harsh peace treaty was going to be imposed on the Ottoman emperor – the spiritual head of the Islamic world (the Khalifa). To defend the Khalifa’s temporal powers, a Khilafat Committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919. A young generation of Muslim leaders like the brothers Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, began discussing with Mahatma Gandhi about the possibility of a united mass action on the issue. 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. 1.3 Why Non-cooperation?  Gandhiji proposed that the movement should unfold in stages. It should begin with the surrender of titles that the government awarded, and a boycott Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive  of civil services, army, police, courts and legislative councils, schools, and foreign goods. Then, in case the government used repression, a full civil disobedience campaign would be launched. Through the summer of 1920 Mahatma Gandhi and Shaukat Ali toured extensively, mobilising popular support for the movement.  At the Congress session at Nagpur in December 1920, a compromise was worked out and the Non-Cooperation programme was adopted.  The Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement began in January 1921. Various social groups participated in this movement, each with its own specific aspiration. All of them responded to the call of Swaraj. 2 DIFFERING STRANDS WITHIN THE MOVEMENT 2.1 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, and lawyers gave up their legal practices.  The council elections were boycotted in most provinces except Madras, where the Justice Party, the party of the non-Brahmans, felt that entering the council was one way of gaining some power – something that usually only Brahmans had access to.  Foreign goods were boycotted, liquor shops picketed, and foreign cloth burnt in huge bonfires. The import of foreign cloth halved between 1921 and 1922, its value dropping from Rs 102 crore to Rs 57 crore.  In many places merchants and traders refused to trade in foreign goods or finance foreign trade.  This movement in the cities gradually slowed down for a variety of reasons. Khadi cloth was often more expensive than massproduced mill cloth and poor people could not afford to buy it.  Boycott of British institutions posed a problem. For the movement to be successful, alternative Indian institutions had to be set up so that they could be used in place of the British ones. These were slow to come up.  Students and teachers began trickling back to government schools and lawyers joined back work in government courts. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive  2.2 Rebellion in the Countryside  In Awadh, peasants were led by Baba Ramchandra – a sanyasi who had earlier been to Fiji as an indentured labourer. The movement here was against talukdars and landlords who demanded from peasants exorbitantly high rents and a variety of other cesses.  Peasants had to do begar and work at landlords’ farms without any payment.  In many places nai – dhobi bandhs were organised by panchayats to deprive landlords of the services of even barbers and washermen.  In June 1920, Jawaharlal Nehru began going around the villages in Awadh, talking to the villagers, and trying to understand their grievances.  By October, the Oudh Kisan Sabha was set up headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba Ramchandra and a few others.  As the movement spread in 1921, the houses of talukdars and merchants were attacked, bazaars were looted, and grain hoards were taken over. In many places local leaders told peasants that Gandhiji had declared that no taxes were to be paid and land was to be redistributed among the poor. The name of the Mahatma was being invoked to sanction all action and aspirations.  Tribal peasants interpreted the message of Mahatma Gandhi and the idea of swaraj in yet another way. In the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh, for instance, a militant guerrilla movement spread in the early 1920s – not a form of struggle that the Congress could approve.  The Gudem rebels attacked police stations, attempted to kill British officials and carried on guerrilla warfare for achieving swaraj. 2.3 Swaraj in the Plantations  Under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859, plantation workers 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. They, however, never reached their destination. Stranded on the way by a railway and steamer strike, they were caught by the police and brutally beaten up. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive  3 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 and satyagrahis needed to be properly trained before they would be ready for mass struggles.  Within the Congress, some leaders were by now tired of mass struggles and wanted to participate in elections to the provincial councils that had been set up by the Government of India Act of 1919.  C. R. Das and Motilal Nehru formed the Swaraj Party within the Congress to argue for a return to council politics.  But 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. The first was the effect of the worldwide economic depression.  Agricultural prices began to fall from 1926 and collapsed after 1930. As the demand for agricultural goods fell and exports declined, peasants found it difficult to sell their harvests and pay their revenue. By 1930, the countryside was in turmoil.  Against this background the new Tory government in Britain constituted a Statutory Commission under Sir John Simon.  The commission was to look into the functioning of the constitutional system in India and suggest changes. 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’. All parties, including the Congress and the Muslim League, participated in the demonstrations.  Lord Irwin, announced in October 1929, a vague offer of ‘dominion status’ for India in an unspecified future, and a Round Table Conference to discuss a future constitution. . The radicals within the Congress, led by Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose, became more assertive.  The liberals and moderates, who were proposing a constitutional system within the framework of British dominion, gradually lost their influence.  In December 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Lahore Congress formalised the demand of ‘Purna Swaraj’ or full independence for India.  It was declared that 26 January 1930, would be celebrated as the Independence Day when people were to take a pledge to struggle for complete independence. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive  3.1 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.  Some of these were of general interest; others were specific demands of different classes, from industrialists to peasants.  The most stirring of all was the demand to abolish the salt tax. Salt was something consumed by the rich and the poor alike, and it was one of the most essential items of food. The tax on salt and the government monopoly over its production, Mahatma Gandhi declared, revealed the most oppressive face of British rule.  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.  This movement was different from the Non-Cooperation Movement as people were now asked not only to refuse cooperation with the British, as they had done in 1921- 22, but also to break colonial laws.  As the movement spread, foreign cloth was boycotted, and liquor shops were picketed. Peasants refused to pay revenue and chaukidari taxes, village officials resigned, and in many places forest people violated forest laws – going into Reserved Forests to collect wood and graze cattle.  Worried by the developments, the colonial government began arresting the Congress leaders one by one.  A frightened government responded with a policy of brutal repression. Peaceful satyagrahis were attacked, women and children were beaten, and about 100,000 people were arrested.  Mahatma Gandhi once again decided to call off the movement and entered into a pact with Irwin on 5 March 1931. By this Gandhi-Irwin Pact, Gandhiji consented to participate in a Round Table Conference (the Congress had boycotted the first Round Table Conference) in London and the government agreed to release the political prisoners.  In December 1931, Gandhiji went to London for the conference, but the negotiations broke down and he returned disappointed. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   With great apprehension, Mahatma Gandhi relaunched the Civil Disobedience Movement. For over a year, the movement continued, but by 1934 it lost its momentum. 3.2 How Participants saw the Movement  In the countryside, rich peasant communities – like the Patidars of Gujarat and the Jats of Uttar Pradesh – were active in the movement because being producers of commercial crops, they were very hard hit by the trade depression and falling prices. As their cash income disappeared, they found it impossible to pay the government’s revenue demand.  They were deeply disappointed when the movement was called off in 1931 without the revenue rates being revised. So when the movement was restarted in 1932, many of them refused to participate.  During the First World War, Indian merchants and industrialists had made huge profits and become powerful. Keen on expanding their business, they now reacted against colonial policies that restricted business activities.  To organise business interests, they formed the Indian Industrial and Commercial Congress in 1920 and the Federation of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) in 1927. Led by prominent industrialists like Purshottamdas Thakurdas and G. D. Birla, the industrialists attacked colonial control over the Indian economy, and supported the Civil Disobedience Movement when it was first launched.  After the failure of the Round Table Conference, business groups were no longer uniformly enthusiastic.  The industrial working classes did not participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement in large numbers, except in the Nagpur region.  There were strikes by railway workers in 1930 and dockworkers in 1932. In 1930 thousands of workers in Chotanagpur tin mines wore Gandhi caps and participated in protest rallies and boycott campaigns. But the Congress was reluctant to include workers’ demands as part of its programme of struggle.  Another important feature of the Civil Disobedience Movement was the large- scale participation of women. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive  3.3 The Limits of Civil Disobedience  Not all social groups were moved by the abstract concept of swaraj. One such group was the nation’s ‘untouchables’, who from around the 1930s had begun to call themselves dalit or oppressed.  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, organised satyagraha to secure them entry into temples, and access to public wells, tanks, roads and schools.  Dalit participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement was therefore limited, particularly in the Maharashtra and Nagpur region where their organisation was quite strong.  Poona Pact of September 1932 gave the Depressed Classes (later to be known as the Schedule Castes) reserved seats in provincial and central legislative councils, but they were to be voted in by the general electorate.  Some of the Muslim political organisations in India were also lukewarm in their response to the Civil Disobedience Movement.  From the mid-1920s the Congress came to be more visibly associated with openly Hindu religious nationalist groups like the Hindu Mahasabha. As relations between Hindus and Muslims worsened, each community organised religious processions with militant fervour, provoking Hindu-Muslim communal clashes and riots in various cities. Every riot deepened the distance between the two communities. 4 THE SENSE OF COLLECTIVE BELONGING  History and fiction, folklore and songs, popular prints and symbols, all played a part in the making of nationalism.  With the growth of nationalism, the identity of India came to be visually associated with the image of Bharat Mata. The image was first created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.  In the 1870s he wrote ‘Vande Mataram’ as a hymn to the motherland. Later it was included in his novel Anandamath and widely sung during the Swadeshi movement in Bengal.  In late-nineteenth-century India, nationalists began recording folk tales sung by bards and they toured villages to gather folk songs and legends. These tales, they believed, gave a true picture of traditional culture that had been corrupted and damaged by outside forces. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   During the Swadeshi movement in Bengal, a tricolour flag (red, green and yellow) was designed. It had eight lotuses representing eight provinces of British India, and a crescent moon, representing Hindus and Muslims.  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, representing the Gandhian ideal of self- help. Carrying the flag, holding it aloft, during marches became a symbol of defiance.  The British saw Indians as backward and primitive, incapable of governing themselves. In response, Indians began looking into the past to discover India’s great achievements.  They wrote about the glorious developments in ancient times when art and architecture, science and mathematics, religion and culture, law and philosophy, crafts and trade had flourished.  When the past being glorified was Hindu, when the images celebrated were drawn from Hindu iconography, then people of other communities felt left out. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive Chapter 4: The Making of a Global World 1 THE PRE-MODERN WORLD  All through history, human societies have become steadily more interlinked. From ancient times, travelers, traders, priests and pilgrims travelled vast distances for knowledge, opportunity and spiritual fulfillment, or to escape persecution.  They carried goods, money, values, skills, ideas, inventions, and even germs and diseases.  As early as 3000 BCE an active coastal trade linked the Indus valley civilizations with present- day West Asia. 1.1 Silk Routes Link the World  The name ‘silk routes’ points to the importance of West-bound Chinese silk cargoes along this route.  Historians have identified several silk routes, over land and by sea, knitting together vast regions of Asia, and linking Asia with Europe and northern Africa.  They are known to have existed since before the Christian era and thrived almost till the fifteenth century.  Chinese pottery travelled the same route, as did textiles and spices from India and Southeast Asia. In return, precious metals – gold and silver – flowed from Europe to Asia.  Buddhism emerged from eastern India and spread in several directions through intersecting points on the silk routes. 1.2 Food Travels: Spaghetti and Potato  Traders and travellers introduced new crops to the lands they travelled. Even ‘ready’ foodstuff in distant parts of the world might share common origins.  Noodles travelled west from China to become spaghetti. Or, perhaps Arab traders took pasta to fifth-century Sicily, an island now in Italy.  Many of our common foods such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies, sweet potatoes, and so on were not known to our ancestors until about five centuries ago. These foods were only introduced in Europe and Asia after Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive  Christopher Columbus accidentally discovered the vast continent that would later become known as the Americas.  Many of our common foods came from America’s original inhabitants – the American Indians.  Europe’s poor began to eat better and live longer with the introduction of the humble potato. Ireland’s poorest peasants became so dependent on potatoes that when disease destroyed the potato crop in the mid-1840s, hundreds of thousands died of starvation. 1.3 Conquest, Disease and Trade  The pre-modern world shrank greatly in the sixteenth century after European sailors found a sea route to Asia and also successfully crossed the western ocean to America. The Indian subcontinent was central to the flows of goods, people, knowledge, customs, etc. and a crucial point in their networks. The entry of the Europeans helped expand or redirect some of these flows towards Europe.  America had been cut off from regular contact with the rest of the world for millions of years. But from the sixteenth century, its vast lands and abundant crops and minerals began to transform trade and lives everywhere. The Portuguese and Spanish conquest and colonization of America was decisively under way by the mid-sixteenth century.  Precious metals, particularly silver, from mines located in present day Peru and Mexico also enhanced Europe’s wealth and financed its trade with Asia.  The most powerful weapon of the Spanish conquerors was the germs such as those of smallpox that they carried on their person.  Because of their long isolation, America’s original inhabitants had no immunity against these diseases that came from Europe. Smallpox killed and decimated whole communities.  Until the nineteenth century, poverty and hunger were common in Europe. Cities were crowded and deadly diseases were widespread. Religious conflicts were common, and religious dissenters were persecuted. Thousands therefore fled Europe for America. Here, by the eighteenth century, plantations, where slaves captured in Africa worked, were growing cotton and sugar for European markets. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   Until well into the eighteenth century, China and India were among the world’s richest countries. However, from the fifteenth century, China is said to have restricted overseas contacts and retreated into isolation.  China’s reduced role and the rising importance of the Americas gradually moved the centre of world trade westwards. Europe now emerged as the centre of world trade. 2. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY (1815-1914) 2.1 A World Economy Takes Shape  Population growth from the late eighteenth century had increased the demand for food grains in Britain. As urban centres expanded and industry grew, the demand for agricultural products went up, pushing up food grain prices. Under pressure from landed groups, the government also restricted the import of corn. The laws allowing the government to do this were commonly known as the ‘Corn Laws’. Unhappy with high food prices, industrialists and urban dwellers forced the abolition of the Corn Laws. After the Corn Laws were scrapped, food could be imported into Britain more cheaply than it could be produced within the country. British agriculture was unable to compete with imports. Vast areas of land were now left uncultivated, and thousands of men and women were thrown out of work. They flocked to the cities or migrated overseas. As food prices fell, consumption in Britain rose.  Around the world – in Eastern Europe, Russia, America and Australia – lands were cleared and food production expanded to meet the British demand.  Railways were needed to link the agricultural regions to the ports. New harbours had to be built and old ones expanded to ship the new cargoes.  Capital flowed from financial centres such as London. The demand for labour in places where labour was in short supply – as in America and Australia – led to more migration. Nearly 50 million people emigrated from Europe to America and Australia in the nineteenth century.  Thus by 1890, a global agricultural economy had taken shape, accompanied by complex changes in labour movement patterns, capital flows, ecologies and technology. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive  2.2 Role of Technology  Colonization stimulated new investments and improvements in transport: faster railways, lighter wagons and larger ships helped move food more cheaply and quickly from faraway farms to final markets.  Till the 1870s, animals were shipped live from America to Europe and then slaughtered when they arrived there. But live animals took up a lot of ship space. Many also died in voyage, fell ill, lost weight, or became unfit to eat. Meat was hence an expensive luxury beyond the reach of the European poor. High prices in turn kept demand and production down until the development of a new technology, namely, refrigerated ships, which enabled the transport of perishable foods over long distances.  Animals were slaughtered for food at the starting point – in America, Australia or New Zealand – and then transported to Europe as frozen meat. 2.3 Late nineteenth-century Colonialism  Late nineteenth-century European conquests produced many painful economic, social and ecological changes through which the colonised societies were brought into the world economy.  Britain and France made vast additions to their overseas territories in the late nineteenth century. Belgium and Germany became new colonial powers. The US also became a colonial power in the late 1890s by taking over some colonies earlier held by Spain. 2.4 Rinderpest, or the Cattle Plague  In Africa, in the 1890s, a fast-spreading disease of cattle plague or rinderpest had a terrifying impact on people’s livelihoods and the local economy.  It was carried by infected cattle imported from British Asia to feed the Italian soldiers invading Eritrea in East Africa  In the late nineteenth century, Europeans were attracted to Africa due to its vast resources of land and minerals. Europeans came to Africa hoping to establish plantations and mines to produce crops and minerals for export to Europe. But there was an unexpected problem – a shortage of labour willing to work for wages.  Employers used many methods to recruit and retain labour. Heavy taxes were imposed which could be paid only by working for wages on plantations and mines. Inheritance laws were changed so that peasants were displaced from land: only one Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive  member of a family was allowed to inherit land, as a result of which the others were pushed into the labour market. Mineworkers were also confined in compounds and not allowed to move about freely. 2.4 Indentured Labour Migration from India  In the nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands of Indian and Chinese labourers went to work on plantations, in mines, and in road and railway construction projects around the world. In India, indentured labourers were hired under contracts which promised return travel to India after they had worked five years on their employer’s plantation.  Indentured labour – A bonded labourer under contract to work for an employer for a specific amount of time, to pay off his passage to a new country or home.  The main destinations of Indian indentured migrants were the Caribbean islands (mainly Trinidad, Guyana and Surinam), Mauritius and Fiji. Closer home, Tamil migrants went to Ceylon and Malaya. Indentured workers were also recruited for tea plantations in Assam.  On arrival at the plantations, labourers found conditions to be different from what they had imagined. Living and working conditions were harsh, and there were few legal rights. 2.5 Indian Entrepreneurs Abroad  Indian traders and moneylenders also followed European colonizers into Africa. Hyderabadi Sindhi traders, however, ventured beyond European colonies. From the 1860s they established flourishing emporia at busy ports worldwide, selling local and imported curios to tourists whose numbers were beginning to swell, thanks to the development of safe and comfortable passenger vessels. 2.6 Indian Trade, Colonialism and the Global System  With industrialization , British cotton manufacture began to expand, and industrialists pressurised the government to restrict cotton imports and protect local industries. Tariffs were imposed on cloth imports into Britain. Consequently, the inflow of fine Indian cotton began to decline.  Excluded from the British market by tariff barriers, Indian textiles now faced stiff competition in other international markets.  While exports of manufactures declined rapidly, export of raw materials increased equally fast. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   Over the nineteenth century, British manufactures flooded the Indian market. Food grain and raw material exports from India to Britain and the rest of the world increased. But the value of British exports to India was much higher than the value of British imports from India. Thus Britain had a ‘trade surplus’ with India.  Britain used this surplus to balance its trade deficits with other countries – that is, with countries from which Britain was importing more than it was selling to.  By helping Britain balance its deficits, India played a crucial role in the late-nineteenth-century world economy. 3 THE INTER-WAR ECONOMY  The First World War (1914-18) was mainly fought in Europe. But its impact was felt around the world. 3.1 Wartime Transformations  The First World War was fought between two power blocs. On the one side were the Allies – Britain, France and Russia (later joined by the US); and on the opposite side were the Central Powers – Germany, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Turkey.  War was thus the first modern industrial war. It saw the use of machine guns, tanks, aircraft, chemical weapons, etc. on a massive scale. These were all increasingly products of modern largescale industry. To fight the war, millions of soldiers had to be recruited from around the world and moved to the frontlines on large ships and trains.  During the war, industries were restructured to produce war-related goods. Entire societies were also reorganised for war – as men went to battle, women stepped in to undertake jobs that earlier only men were expected to do.  the war transformed the US from being an international debtor to an international creditor. the US and its citizens owned more overseas assets than foreign governments and citizens owned in the US. 3.2 Post-war Recovery  Britain, which was the world’s leading economy in the pre-war period, in particular faced a prolonged crisis. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   After the war Britain found it difficult to recapture its earlier position of dominance in the Indian market, and to compete with Japan internationally.  When the war boom ended, production contracted and unemployment increased.  Before the war, Eastern Europe was a major supplier of wheat in the world market. When this supply was disrupted during the war, wheat production in Canada, America and Australia expanded dramatically.  But once the war was over, production in Eastern Europe revived and created a glut in wheat output. Grain prices fell, rural incomes declined, and farmers fell deeper into debt. 3.3 Rise of Mass Production and Consumption  In the US, recovery was quicker.  One important feature of the US economy of the 1920s was mass production. The move towards mass production had begun in the late nineteenth century, but in the 1920s it became a characteristic feature of industrial production in the US.  A well-known pioneer of mass production was the car manufacturer Henry Ford.  Mass production lowered costs and prices of engineered goods.  The housing and consumer boom of the 1920s created the basis of prosperity in the US. Large investments in housing and household goods seemed to create a cycle of higher employment and incomes, rising consumption demand, more investment, and yet more employment and incomes. 3.4 The Great Depression  The Great Depression began around 1929 and lasted till the mid- 1930s.  In general, agricultural regions and communities were the worst affected. This was because the fall in agricultural prices was greater and more prolonged than that in the prices of industrial goods.  Agricultural overproduction remained a problem, made worse by falling agricultural prices. As prices slumped and agricultural incomes declined, farmers tried to expand production and bring a larger volume of produce to the market to maintain their overall income. This worsened the glut in the market, pushing down prices even further. Farm produce rotted for a lack of buyer. Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive   Second: in the mid-1920s, many countries financed their investments through loans from the US. While it was often extremely easy to raise loans in the US when the going was good, US overseas lenders panicked at the first sign of trouble. In the first half of 1928, US overseas loans amounted to over $ 1 billion. A year later it was one quarter of that amount. Countries that depended crucially on US loans now faced an acute crisis.  With the fall in prices and the prospect of a depression, US banks had also slashed domestic lending and called back loans. Farms could not sell their harvests, households were ruined, and businesses collapsed.  As unemployment soared, people trudged long distances looking for any work they could find. Ultimately, the US banking system itself collapsed. 3.5 India and the Great Depression  India’s exports and imports nearly halved between 1928 and 1934.  Between 1928 and 1934, wheat prices in India fell by 50 per cent.  The colonial government refused to reduce revenue demands. Peasants producing for the world market were the worst hit.  Rural India was seething with unrest when Mahatma Gandhi launched the civil disobedience movement at the height of the depression in 1931. 4 REBUILDING A WORLD ECONOMY: THE POST-WAR ERA  The Second World War broke out a mere two decades after the end of the First World War. It was fought between the Axis powers (mainly Nazi Germany, Japan and Italy) and the Allies (Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the US).  Two crucial influences shaped post-war reconstruction. The first was the US’s emergence as the dominant economic, political and military power in the Western world. The second was the dominance of the Soviet Union. 4.1 Post-war Settlement and the Bretton Woods Institutions  First lesson learnt : an industrial society based on mass production cannot be sustained without mass consumption. But to ensure mass consumption, there was Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive  a need for high and stable incomes. Incomes could not be stable if employment was unstable. Thus stable incomes also required steady, full employment. Markets alone could not guarantee full employment. Therefore governments would have to step in to minimise fluctuations of price, output and employment.  Second lesson related to a country’s economic links with the outside world. The goal of full employment could only be achieved if governments had power to control flows of goods, capital and labour.  The main aim of the post-war international economic system was to preserve economic stability and full employment in the industrial world. Its framework was agreed upon at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held in July 1944 at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, USA.  The Bretton Woods conference established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to deal with external surpluses and deficits of its member nations. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (popularly known as the World Bank) was set up to finance postwar reconstruction.  The international monetary system is the system linking national currencies and monetary system. The Bretton Woods system was based on fixed exchange rates. In this system, national currencies, for example the Indian rupee, were pegged to the dollar at a fixed exchange rate. The dollar itself was anchored to gold at a fixed price of $35 per ounce of gold. 4.2 The Early Post-war Years  These decades saw the worldwide spread of technology and enterprise. Developing countries to catch up with the advanced industrial countries invested vast amounts of capital, imported industrial plant and equipment featuring modern technology. 4.3 Decolonisation and Independence  Over the next two decades most colonies in Asia and Africa emerged as free, independent nations. Their economies and societies were handicapped by long periods of colonial rule  The IMF and the World Bank were designed to meet the financial needs of the industrial countries. They were not equipped to cope with the challenge of Contact : @Razkr @letscrackonline , @razkrlive  poverty and lack of development in the former colonies. But as Europe and Japan rapidly rebuilt their economies, they grew less dependent on the IMF and the World Bank. Thus from the late 1950s the Bretton Woods institutions began to shift their attention more towards developing countries.  Most developing countries did not b