MODERN INDIAN HISTORY

HANDOUT on CABINET MISSION and

REVOLUTIONARY TERRORIST MOVEMENT

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 CABINET MISSION

On 19th February 1946 The day after the RIN meeting broke out in Bombay
Clement Atlee announced the proposed visit of a Cabinet Mission. The upper most
concern in official mind was that of imperial defence, and for that purpose a united India
was considered to be in Britains best interests. The three member Mission was headed
by Pethick Lawrence, Stafford Cripps and A.V. Alexander. It was to discuss two
important issues:-

(1) The formation of an interim government based on widest possible agreement

among Indian political parties.
(2) The principle and procedure for the framing of a new constitution for granting
independence.

PROPOSALS:

1. The unity of India had to be retained and it rejected the Muslim Leagues
demand for a full-fledged Pakistan.
2. It proposed a very loose federal government for the Union of India, including
both the provinces and the Princely States.
3. There would be a union government at the top, in-charge of only Defence,
Foreign Affairs and Communication.
4. All the residual powers would be vested in the provincial governments, which
would be free to form groups.
5. Each group could also have its own executive and legislature and could
decide what provincial subjects to take on in common.
6. A Constituent Assembly was to be elected by the recently constituted
provincial assemblies to draft a Constitution for the whole of India.
7. The Cabinet Mission divided the provinces into the following three sections:-
Section A: Bombay, Madras, Central Provinces, Orissa, Bihar and United
Provinces.
Section B: NWFP, Sindh and Punjab
Section C: Bengal and Assam.

According to the Cabinet Mission Plan, the interim government was formed on
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2 September 1946 headed by J.L. Nehru, but Muslim League did not join the interim
government. On 13th October 1946, the League joined the Government.

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 The Constituent Assembly met for the first time on 9th December 1946 and on
11th December 1946, Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected as its President. On 13th
December 1946 J.L. Nehru introduced his famous Objective Resolution which was
adopted and enacted on 22nd January 1947 in the form of Preamble.

MOUNTBATTEN PLAN, JUNE 3, 1947

The British P.M. Clement Attlee announced on 20th February 1947 in the House
of Commons that Britain would vacate India by 30th June 1948, this is known as Attlees
Declaration. Lord Mountbatten, the 34th and the last Governor General and Viceroy
arrived in India on 22nd March 1947.

On June 3rd, 1947 Mountbatten published a statement outlining his partition or

the 3rd June Plan. According to the Plan, India would be divided but in a manner that
maximum unity was maintained. Pakistan would be created, but it would be as small as
possible. Other features were:

(i) The provincial legislative assembly of Bengal and Punjab would meet in two
parts separately. One representing the Muslim majority district and the other
representing the remaining district to decide by vote for the partition of the
province.
(ii) In case of Sindh and Baluchistan, Legislative Assembly was to take its own
decision at a special meeting.
(iii) A provision of referendum was provided for in the case of the NWFP and
Muslim majority district of Sylhet.
(iv) With regard to the Indian States, the British Government would cease to
exercise the powers of Paramountcy. It would then be open to the States to
enter into political relation with the successor government.

The Plan also made provisions for the setting up of a Boundary Commission to
demarcate boundaries in case partition was to be effected. Mountbatten delayed the
announcement of Boundary Commission even though it was ready by 12th August 1947.

The British Parliament introduced Indian Independence Bill on 18th July 1947
which finally became Indian Independence Act on 15th August 1947 and thus India
became independent.

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 THE REVOLUTIONARY TERRORIST MOVEMENT

The revolutionary terrorist movement was largely the outcome of the same set of
causes which gave rise to extremist wing in the nationalist politics. The revolutionaries
wanted faster results and disapproved the value of persuasion popularized by the
moderates and low-grade pressure advocated by the extremists.

As far as their methods were concerned, the revolutionaries believed that

Western imperialism could only be ended by Western methods of violence. Hence they
advocated the cult of the revolver and the bomb. The revolutionaries formed secret
societies, recruited young men and believed in bold action and sacrifice for the cause of
the country. By assassinating the European officials, they sought to demoralize the
official class, paralyse the administration and uproot the enemies of freedom both
foreign and Indians. To finance their projects, they involved themselves in dacoities,
looting of banks and offices and even train derailments. Though dacoity was endorsed
as a means of fund raising, strict conditions were attached to it. Permission was given to
rob from the households and establishments of traitors, people opposed to the cause of
revolution, spies, money lenders, hoarders and oppressors of the poor and the weak etc.
Everyone took oath not to do any harm to women, children, the weak and the sick in
those operations.

GROWTH

The first indications of revolutionary movement originated in Maharashtra and

that too among the Chitpavan Brahmins of the Poona district. The first political murder
was committed at Poona on 22nd June 1897 by the Chapekar brothers (Chitpavan
Brahmins) Damodar and Balkrishna. The British authorities believed that Tilaks
speeches and writings in Maratha and Kesari had led to this act and thus he was
arrested and awarded 18 months of rigorous imprisonment.

The beginning of the revolutionary movement in Bengal can be attributed to the

bhadralok class. In 1902, Promotha Mitra, Jatindranath Bannerjee and Barindra Kumar
Ghosh established Anushilan Samiti, a revolutionary group but their activities had been
confined initially to physical and moral training of members and were not particularly
significant till 1907 or 1908. The partition of Bengal and the Indian offensive through
boycott of British goods and Swadeshi movement infused a new spirit among the youths
of Bengal to an extent which was earlier unknown. In 1905 Aurobindo Ghosh published

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the Bhawani Mandir (Temple of the Holy Mother) which was banned along with Barindra
Kumar Ghoshs Vartaman Rananiti (The Technique of Modern Fighting) and Mukti Kon
Pathe (Which Way Freedom?). An inner circle within the Calcutta Anushilan Samiti
started the Yugantar weekly in April 1906 and attempted one or two abortive attempts in
the summer of the same year. Hemchandra Kanungo, then went abroad to get military
and political training. After Kanungos return a bomb making factory was set up at
Maniktala, a suburb of Calcutta. Gross carelessness on the part of the leadership
however, led to the arrest of the whole group including Aurobindo Ghosh within hours of
the Kenndey murders (30th April 1908) by Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki the target
Muzaffarpur District Magistrate Kingsford escaping unhurt. A total of 34 persons were
arrested including Ghosh brothers and were tried in Alipore Conspiracy case.

Meanwhile, Shyamji Krishnavarma, a native of Kathiawar (in Gujarat) set up the

Indian Home Rule Society in 1905 at London popularly known as the India House. He
also published a monthly journal, the Indian Sociologist to support Indian causes. A
group of Indian revolutionaries including V.D. Savarkar, Hardayal and Madan Lal
Dhingra became members of the India House. Earlier at Nashik, Savarkar had set up an
association called Mitra Mela which in 1904 had been merged into the secret society
called Abhinav Bharat, modelled after Mazzinis Young Italy movement of the 1830s. The
band of young enthusiasts made India House a centre for pro-India and anti-British
propaganda. In 1909, Madan Lal Dhingra shot dead Col. William Curzon Wyllie, an
officer at the India Office. In December 1912 a bomb was thrown at Lord Hardinge on his
state entry to Chandni Chowk, killing his attendants.

GHADAR MOVEMENT:

Hardayal, an intellectual giant and a fire-brand revolutionary from Punjab, was

the moving spirit behind the Ghadar Party which was formed on 1st November 1913 at
San Franscisco. He was assisted by Ram Chandra, Barkatullah and Sohan Singh
Bhakna. The party published weekly newspaper Ghadar in commemoration of the
meeting of 1857. The Ghadar party highlighted the point that Indians were not respected
in the world abroad because they were not free. The Ghadar was circulated widely
among Indians in North America, and within a few months it had reached groups settled
in Philippines, Hong Kong, China and the Malay States and to Central American
countries.

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 In 1914 three events influenced the course of the Ghadar movement:-

(i) the arrest and the escape of Hardayal

(ii) the Komagata Maru incident
(iii) the outbreak of W.W.- I.
REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT IN 1920s

The virtual failure of the Non Cooperation Movement and the phase of
despondency again created conditions calling for bold revolutionary activities. Many
young people began to question the very basic strategy of the national leadership and its
emphasis on non-violence and began to look for alternatives.

In the 1920s the revolutionary terrorism was influenced by the working class and
the Bolshevik Revolution of Russia. The revolutionaries in North India were the first to
emerge out of the mood of frustration and reorganize under the leadership of
Ramprasad Bismil, Jogesh Chatterjee and Sachindranath Sanyal. They met in Kanpur in
October 1924 and founded the Hindustan Republican Association (or Army), to organize
armed revolution to over-throw colonial rule and establish in its place a Federal Republic.
One of the daring acts of HRA was the looting of a train at Kakori (near Lucknow) on 9th
August 1925. However, the British government arrested several revolutionaries and four
among them were hanged. They were:-

(i) Ashfaqullah Khan

(ii) Ramprasad Bismil
(iii) Roshan Singh
(iv) Rajendra Lahiri

The Kakori case was a major setback to the revolutionaries of northern India; but
it was not a fatal blow. Finally, nearly all the major young revolutionaries of northern
India met at Ferozeshah Kotla ground at Delhi on 9th and 10th September 1928 and
adopted socialism as their official goal and changed the name of the party to the
Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (HSRA).

In Bengal, Surya Sen, a school teacher gathered around himself a large band of
revolutionary youth including Anant Singh, Ganesh Ghosh and Loknath Paul. They
decided to organize a rebellion, on however small a scale, to demonstrate that it was
possible to challenge the armed might of the British Empire in India. Their action

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included Chittagong Armoury Raid in 1930. He was however arrested in 1933 and
hanged in 1934.

One of the important features of the revolutionary movement in Bengal in late

1920s was shedding of religious fervour. They no longer took religious oaths and
pledges. Chittagong Indian Republican Army cadre included many Muslims like Mir
Ahmad, Sattar etc.

In India, today the freedom revolutionaries are remembered as martyrs who laid
down their lives for the cause of the motherland.