7.

7 Let Us Sum Up
7.8 Key Words
7.9 Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises

7.0 OBJECTIVES
After reading this unit you should be able to:

understand how modern Indiaas we see it was formed on the basis of a struggle
for fkedom;
see how certain legacies h m this struggle were continued from Independence

see how certain distortions came up in the process of adapting this legacy.

7.1 INTRODUCTION
The Indian nation was fonned by a two-fold process. One was the unity imposed .
by the colonial rule by giving India a centralkd administrative structure, rule of
law and modem means of communication such as the railways and telegraph. This
unity was of course forged as a result of the needs of the colonial rule and made
India an economic dependency of the British empire. This did not go unchallenged
Against the British policies and the colonial rule there developed an all-India
Movement which sought to critique the economic fhmdationsof the dritish rule
and the structures of dependence created by it. This was broadly a people's
movement in which Indians cutting across the divides of region, caste and kiigion
forged the consciousness of an Indian nation. In this the formation of the Indian
National Congress as a brosd all-India forum of Indian aspirations played a
mcialrole.

7.2 LEGACY OF NATIONALIST MOVEMENT

, The freedom struggle was perhaps the greatest mass movement in the world 37
 history. After 1919, it was built around the basic notion that the people had to
and could play a decisive role in politics and in their own liberation. It succeeded
in politicising and drawing into political action a large part of Indian people.
Mahatma Gandhi was of the opinion that it is the people and not leaders who
create a mass movement though the quality of leadership is an important criterion
for its success.

Satyagraha that is urging for truth which was fashioned by Gandhiji as a means
of active participation of the people, achieved precisely the objectives of the mass
movement. Unlike a violent movement which could only be waged by a handful
of committed cadres and fighters, a non-violent revolution required the political
mobilisation of millions and the support of a vast majority. It was this faith in the
participation of the masses that led to the support for a representative democracy
and universal adult franchise.

The national movement from the very beginning popularised democratic ideals
and institutions among the people and struggled for the introduction of parliamentary
institutions on the basis of popular elections. Much attention was also paid to the
defence of civil liberties and freedom of press.

It may be argued that the Indian National Congress did not reach the entire mass
of the Indian people. In various places historians have shown that local initiatives
were taken to mobilise people on demands which were specifically to do with
their local exploitation and miserable conditions. These movements, though not
under the Congress ideology, did draw inspiration from the life style and messages
of a leader like Gandhiji. Though these movements did not succeed in realising
their aims and objectives and were often repressed by the colonial government,
they were not total failures. In the local tradition, they symbolised and embodied
the struggle for a more just and humane existence. In the post-independence India
they gave us a rich legacy to draw upon for the purposes of achieving social and
economic transformation.

The process of looking at independent India has to be rooted in our understanding

of the struggle of the Indian National Congress and other forces that preceded
and accompanied it. Subsequently, generations of leaders and statesmen in tandem
with the Indian people forged institutions, both social and economic, which seemed
to continue the legacy of freedom struggle and build new ideals in consonance
with the changing world. In this unit we try to show you glimpses of what a c U y
happened.

The freedom struggle under the Indian National Congress was broadly an all-
India movement transcending different social and political barriers. The movement
itself was based on modem values and ideals, which reflected the broad socio-
economic and political vision of its leadership. This vision was that of a democratic,
civil libertarian and secular India based on "a self reliant egalitarian order and an
independent foreign policy." The major achievements of this struggle under the
Indian National Congress were that the movement popularized democratic ideas
and institutions in India. The Indian National Congress itself was shaped on a
demdcratic basis in the form of a parliament. In its forums free speech and opinion
was encouraged. This encouragement was linked to the nationalists in the freedom
struggle and fight against attacks on freedom of press, expression and association
and they made these freedoms an integral part of the national movement. The
ministries they formed in 1937-39 extended the scope of civil liberties. These civil
38
 liberties were not just meant for a select few but extended to include the defence Post-IndependemeIndia:
of those groups who could be politically and ideologically opposed to them or Continuity and Change
different from them e.g., Congressmen defended communists in different trials etc.
In 1928, the Public safety bill was opposed both by Conservatives and Liberals.

In post-independence India, this struggle for civil liberties had a major impact on
the way our constitution shaped up. The section on fundamental Rights & especially
Article 19 reflect this struggle for civil liberties. The right to freedom of speech,
movement and association is in a major way a contribution of the struggle waged
in times of freedom. However there weE major discontinuitiesalso. The Congress
leadership as it adjusted to the post-independenceera developed features of a
ruling party typically wedded to power. Various decisions like the dismissal of the
communist ministry of Kerala were taken in an authoritarian manner. In the period
of 1970s onwards there was a total collapse of institutions of governance and
democracy. The ideals of the national movement got a major setback with the
imposition of emergency in 1975. In this period all major civil and political W o m s
were suspended and taken away from the people. It was to the credit of the
resilience of the Indian people and the democratic processes they had undergone
that they were able to wage a struggle against emergency and vote a new
government to power. The limitations of the national movement's legacy were also
pointed out by the radical and communist groups within and outside the parliament.
They argued that the Congress regimes were not fully taking up the promise of
land reforms and economic development. They emphasised that the Indian National
Congress had a major limitation since it did not pursue the path of radical social
and economic transformation in the period of nationalist struggle or in the post-
independence period. The communists and the radical groups claimed to be now
true inheritom of the struggle and aspiration for social change which was embedded
in the diverse forms of anti-imperialist struggle.

7.3 LEGACY OF STRUGGLE FOR

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
British Legacy

The British legacy of subordination of India has been characterized as development

of underdevelopment. The liberals see it as a result of the British policies alone.
However, it was not policy alone but a structural underdevelopment which the
British rule brought. Colonialism should be seen as a distinct historical stage or
a period in the modern historical development of India which intervenes between
I the traditional pre-British society and economy and the modem capitalist society
L and economy. It is not a mere adaptation or distortion of the old. It is neither a
partially modernized society nor a transitional state of society. Colonialism is also
just not an amalgalm of positive and negative features. It is a well structured
whole, a distinct social formation or sub-formation in which the basic control of
the society is in the hands of a foreign capitalist class which functioned in the
colony through dependent and subservient economic, political, social and intellectual
structures. The forms of these structures variate with the changing conditions of
the historical development of capitalisin as a world-wide system.

/ What did this mean?

This basically meant that with colonialism India was not merely linking up with the
capitalist system but was becoming a subservient and subordinate factor in it.
Secondly, it meant that India became a producer of raw materials and a market
for finished goods of the metropolitan (i.e. the British) economy. An unequal
relationship developed at the basis of which there was a particular international
division of labour. This meant that the British and other metropolitan countries
now became producers of high technology, high productivity, high wage and
capital inclusive goods while India produced low technology, low productivity,
low wage and labour intensive goods. International trade then became an imtmment
for exploitation arid underdevelopment.The pattern of foreign trade in this period
indicates the bias of exports towards foodstuffs and raw materials and imports
towards manufacmrs.

Thirdly it was increasingly evident that whatever industrialization took place in this
period was stunted. In agriculture too the impact of colonialism was glaringly
obvious. It was marked by low and backward technology and low productivity.
There was very little impetus for modernization. High revenue demand in which
the main tax burden fell on thepoor would catch the peasantry in the vicious circle
of debt trap. This also meant that very little would be available for modernization
of techniques and technology of agriculture.

Fourthly,'of the colonial economy was marked by a drain of wealth from India
to Britain. This was realised by a unilateral tmnsfer of social surplus or potentially
investible capital to Britain by the colonial state, its officials, foreign merchants and
other capitalists through exports for which there was no equivalent return. This
drain constituted 2-3% of India's national income from 1757-1939.

Aiding the drain was a high level of miliwexpenditure which was met h m the
Indian revenue. This enabled Britain to expand and then maintain its imperialist
position in Africa and Asia. Similarly India provided highly paid employment to
a significant number of upper class Britons. Along with British capitalists and
managers in India they appropriated nearly 5% of India's national income.

As a result very little of the social surplus generated by India was going into
investment in industry or agriculture. The figures of public expenditure in this
period indicate that the major portion of revenues collected from high revenues
in land and other taxes would go to non-productive areas of civil and military
administration. On the other hand expenditure on education, health and sanitation
was constantly going down and formed aminiscule part of the total public
expenditure. In the 1 9 century
~ the colonial state also refused to take any steps
to check or slow down the decline of handicraft industries and process of
deindustrialisation. Colonialism refused to give any financial or other help to the
newly founded Indian industries as was done in Britain, Europe or Japan in the
early stages of industrialisation. In the name of free trade, no-tadT protection was
given to its infant industries.

The end result of the colonial legacy by the 1940s was :

Stagnant per capita national income.

Abysmal standard of living.
Stunted industrial development, and
Dependence of the bulk of population on stagnant, low productivity agriculture.
Colonial Legacy: Continuity and Change Post-IndependenceLndia:
Continuity and Change
The British had created a legal, communication and transport network to facilitate
their tasks of creating a dependent colonial economy. The question of this
dependence was the primary task to which the national movement had addressed
during their struggle. There were also certain positive features which had developed
alongside in the period in 1918-1930 when the British had been caught up in war.
A small but independent industrial base and the rise of substantial indigenous
industrial capitalist class with an independent economic and financial base had
grown up.

The features of this industrial development was the growth of several consumer
industries such as textiles, sugar, soap, matches and paper. There also occurred
a certain variety in industrial production. Some intermediate capital goods industries
such as iron and steel, cement, basic chemical, metallurgy and engineering also
began to develop. In the 1930s there was also a significant shift of capital from
Usury, trade and landlords to industry.

Small scale sector and also banking developed. Reversing the 19" century trend,
small scale and handicraft industries and capitalist enterprise had emerged.
Interestingly these small capitalist entrepreneurs often emerged from old craftsmen,
merchant, rich peasant and even landlords and zarnindars. The process of capitalist
development from below was on.

Furthermore, in contrast to the 19" century industrial development in the post

1918 period increasingly became oriented towards the internal or home-market
and this too on the basis of indigenous raw materials. Thus the link between
indigenous industry and agriculture became stronger and an increase in internal
trade began to show up after 1914 as the volume of international trade began to
show a decline.

By 1947, India also possessed a core of scientific and technical manpower.

Unlike the 1 P or early 2 0 century
~ situation when managerial as well as technical
personnel was mostly foreign even in Indian owned industries most of them at the
time of independence were now Indian. India also now had a small but quite well
developed skilled labour force both in the consumer goods industries such as
textiles and sugar and in the more sophisticated steel, metallurgical and engineering

These trends inspite of the basic of dependence created by colonialism were the
crux of the development strategy followed after 1947. After 1947 there emerged
a basic consensus among different political parties on the following agenda: a
multipronged strategy of economic development based on self reliance; rapid
industrialisation based on import substitution including of capital goods industries,
prevention of imperialist or foreign domination; land reforms involving abolition of
zamindari, tenancy reforms, introduction of cooperatives especially service
cooperatives for marketing of credit etc.; growth to be attempted along with
equity; growth model being reformist with a welfare pro-poor orientation; positive
discrimination or reservation, for a period in favour of the most oppressed in
Indian society, i.e. the scheduled castes or tribes; the state to play a direct central
role in promoting economic development including through direct state participation
in the production process i.e. through public sector and so on.
Emergence of Most important there was cousensus that India was to make this unique attempt
Modem India at rapid planned self-sustaining industrialization within a democratic and civil
libertarian framework. Secondly the vision of this planned development saw the
main cause of India's dependence on the advanced countries to be the absence
of an indigenous capital goods industry. It was felt that in the development of
capital goods industries and other basic and heavy industries, which required huge
finances and had a long time lag for returns, the public sector would have to play
a key role.

The shift in favour of heavy industry was to to go together with promoting labour
intensive small and cottage industries for the production of consumer goods. This,
as well as labour absorbing and capital creating community projects in agriculture
promoted by community development programmes and agricultural cooperatives
were seen as the immediate solutions to the grwing problem of unemployment.
This was to consolidate the already existing development in small scale sector.

Considerable progress was made in the Indian economy in the period upto 196bs.
Between 1951-65 the gross national product grew at an average rate of about
4 per cent per annum. This was roughly four times the rate of growth achieved
during the last half century of British rule.

An important change was the substantial increase in the investment rate. Domestic
savings and total investment in the Indian economy were both 5.5 per cent of
nation'al income in 1950-5 1 , rising to savings of 10.5 per cent and investment of
14 per cent in 1965-66. This was a definite increase from the time when drain
in various ways was cutting into potentially investible investment under colonial
rule.

On the agrarian front, a major change was introduced by comprehensive land

reform measures, the setting up of a massive network for agricultural extension
and community development work at village level, the large infrastructuralinvestment
in irrigation, power, agriculturalresearch had created the conditions for considerable
growth in this period. During the first three plans Indian agriculture grew at an
annual rate of over 3 per cent, a growth rate 7.5 times higher than that achieved
during the last half century or so of the colonial period. However, even this
growth was not sufficient to meet the growing demand for agricultural produce,
necessitating increasing imports of food grains throughout the first 3 plans. It is
only with Green Revolution in 60s that self sufficiency was achieved.

Industry during the first three plans grew even more rapidly than agriculture, at a
compound rate of 7.1% per annum between 1951-65. The industrial growth was
based on rapid import substitution, initially of consumer goods and particularly
since the second plan of capital goods and intermediate goods. The threefold
increase in aggregate index of industrial production between 1951 and 1969 was
the result of 70 per cent increase in consumer goods industries, a f four times
growth of the intermediate good production and a ten fold increase in the output
of capital goods. This was a major achievement and the increase in capital goods
production had considerably increased India's autonomy from the advanced
countries in determining her own rate of capital accumulation or growth.

Dependence on external resources, foreign andlor foreign private investment was

kept quite low. Net aid utilized by India was only 0.4 percent of the Net National
Product during the first plan, using 2.27 to 3.17 percent during the second and
third plan and again falling drastically at the end of 1%0s. Also external resources
came mainly as official aid, and according to one estimate net aid and net foreign
investment came in the ratio of 6:1 between 1948-61. More than 7 1 % of the Post-IndependenceIndia:
foreign aid in the first plan was used for wheat loans, whereas in the second and Continuity and Change
third plans foreign aid was used overwhelmingly nearly 98% to fund iron and steel
projects and general industrail development, transport, communication and power.

The weight of public sector in the overall economy increased rapidly further
marginalising the presence of an already small foreign sector.

Emphasis was on infrastructure including education and health areas greatly

neglected as we saw in the colonial past. The average plafi expenditure during
each of the first three plans on transport and communication was about Rs. 13
million a country for an average of about 26% of the total plan expenditure in
each plan. The corresponding figures for social and community service and
power were 19.9% to 10.6% respectively.

Thus there occurred a substantial attempt to lid India of the structural dependence
it was trapped in till 1947. There were debates within Indian political spectrum
about this attempt. The communists initially refused to recogmze that India had
become politically independent and was taking vital decisions on its own. After
a decade or so of independence, they did take cognizance of this but still argued
that there was a tendency to compromise with imperialism. Another strand of
thought saw neo-colonial tendencies emerging. With Britain now in the cold war
period being reduced to a smaller power, threat to national independence was
seen from countries converging along the U.S. block. This was taken note in
different United Nations conferences on trade and development. Arguments were
put across for emphasising equality in international trade and tariff agreements.

Colonial State

The colonial state was a semi hegemonic state. That is it used liberal ideas and
rule of law along with naked repression to keep the subject population in check.
The administration was normally carried out in obedience to laws interpreted by
courts. This acted as a partial check on the autocratic and arbitrary adnlinistration
and to a certain extent protected the rights and liberty of a citizen against the
arbitrary actions of bureaucracy. The laws were however often repressive. Not
being framed by Indians they left a great deal of power in the hands of the
bureaucracy and police. There was also no separation of powers between
administrative and judicial functions. The same civil servant administered a district
as a collector and dispensed justice as a magistrate.

Even though the colonial legal system was based on the concept of equality of all
but here too biases were evident: if an Englishman was brought for a trial the
courts were invariably lenient.

Colonial rules also extended certain civil liberties in the form of freedom of press,
speech and association in normal times. But as soon as mass movements arose
these liberties were curtailed. Gradually civil liberties were curtailed even during
the normal times.

Another paradox of the colonial state was that after 1858, it regularly offered
constitutional concessions even while retaining state power. Initially arguing for a
benevolent despotism for India they bowed under Indian pressure and elections
to legislatures were introduced both at the centre and provinces. The right to vote
however was so extremely narrow with only about 15% Indians voting by 1935.
The government by introducing these reforms had hoped to weaken the thrust of
the national movement. On the other hand participating in electoral processes was
an extremely useful experience for the Indians after 1947. A sense of continuity
was given to Indians who shored up by the experience of national movement
were now building up for a universal adult franchise and a genuinely representative
government.

The ~ r i t i s halso intervened in creating an educational system for the country.

English was the medium for higher education. This system was designed to create
a cadre of lower bureaucracy for the colonial rules. However, paradoxically this
education gave impetus to the process of forming an all India intelligentsia, which
tended to have a similar approach to society and which gave it a base to evolve
a critique of colonialism.

But this system of education had two extremely negative consequences. One, it
created a wide gulf between the educated and the masses. Though this gulf was
bridged to a certain extent by the national movement, it still persisted to haunt
independent India. Secondly the emphasis on English prevented fuller development
of Indian languages as also spread of education to the masses. The colonid
system of education also suffered from many weaknesses which still affect our
schools and colleges. It mainly encouraged learning by memorization. Very little
attention was given to the development of rational critical faculty of the students.
The legacy of this education still continues to haunt the institutions of learning in
post colonial India.

Check Your Progress 1

Note: i) Space given below for your answers.
ii) Check your answers with those given at the end of the Unit.

1) What were the freedoms gained as the legacy of the national movement?
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2) Can we see colonialism as a result of British policy alone? Discuss.
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3) "The industrial base for post-independence developments was built up during
the British times". Comment.

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 Post-IndepembmImlia:
Continuity and Change

LEGACY OF SECULARISM
The national movement from early. days was committed to the ideal of secularism.
The two visions of secularism one of co-existence of different religious groups and
two of separation of state from religion debated each other to give form to a
healthy respect for pluralism and diversity in our national movement. The leademhip
of the national movement fought to inculcate secular values among the people and
opposed the growth of communalism.

The national movement had met its major limitation in addressing questions of
communalism. As historians point out whenever the mass popular national
movement receded into the background communal tendencies used to gain ground.
Communal propaganda and then riots took heavy toll on the developing national
consciousness. Separatist tendencies developed which ultimately led to the partition
of India in 1947 accompanied by terrible communal riots. The memories of these
riots and the partition still influence the nature of nationalist consciousness in post-
independence India. These combined with increasing frustrations of economic
growth have tended to create increasingly fissiparous tendencies in which religious
groups and communities end up blaming each other for lack of economic
opportunities, employment etc. Inherent identities are cited as reasons for lack of
social and economic growth. This has created a situation in which the legacy of
secularism comes under daily attack. Post Independence India too has witnessed
horrendous communal riots in places like Bhiwandi etc., where old and new
antagonisms combined to distort the legacy of secularism creating an ugly social
divide.

7.5 LEGACY OF INTERNATIONALISM

The national movement was not inward looking and since the days of thinkers like
Raja Rarnrnohan Roy Indian leaders pursued a broad international outlook. Like
Rarnrnohan Roy who had positively responded to international events the Indian
national congress leaders too had evolved the practice of assessing and responding
to international events. Over the years they evolved a policy of opposition to
imperialism on a world wide scale and unity and solidarity with anti-colonial
movements in other parts of the world. Consistent with humane and outward
looking thinking on issues the nationalist leaders tried to campaign that Indians
should hate British imperialism but not British people. As a result they got support
from a large number of Englishmen, women and political groups. Nehru even
maintained that there was much truth in the British claim that Britain had brought
to India western conceptions of parliamentary democracy and personal liberties
and by transforming India into a single unitary state it had established among
Indians a sense of political unity.Besides, Nehru pointed out that the British were
responsible for 'having first opened India's window to the west and brought her
in contact with one aspect of western industrialism and science i.e., railway,
telegraph, wireless etc., C. Sankaran Nair in his Presidential Address of 1897
even argued that the British had brought a secular rule to a multi-religious society
like India.

Thus inspite of the fact that the British themselves brought racism into practice in
late 1Yhcentury the Indian national movement's leaders rose above racist outlook
to argue for a genuine non racist internationalism.

Subsequently the Indian foreign policy in the post independence period was to
carry this legacy forward. Nehru'put it succinctly that India was a non-aligned
nation in the post-Independence period and followed a temper of peace and
friendshipwith all countries. This basically meant friendly co-operation but did not
mean that when necessary positions would not be taken. As India has demonstrated
in the case of south Africa India could and did take an anti-racism position and
vocally spoke against apartheid in South Africa. Similarly Palestine Liberation
orginisation was supported in its bid to create a homeland. Thus India inspite of
being non-aligned continued to articulate positive positions on international issues
in keeping with the legacy of the national movement. As C.R. Das had pointed
out that nationalism was a process through which a nation expressed itself and
found itself not in isolation from other nations, not in opposition to other nations,
but as a part of a great scheme by which in seeking its own expression and
therefore its own identity it materially assists the self expression and self-realisation
of other nations as well".

It may be argued that the Indian foreign policy by and large has kept up with this
spirit in post-independence period. Though constrained to fight three major wars,
one with China and two with Pakistan, the five principles of Peace i.e., panchsheel
have remained the bedrock of India's foreign policy. Looking at these five principles
viz. (1) mutual respect for each other's temtorial Integrity and sovereignty (2)
mutual non-aggression (3) mutual non-interfmnce in each other's affairs(4) equality
and mutual benefit (5) peaceful co-existence we can say Indian foreign policy has
indeed consolidated the legacy of the national movement.

Check Your Progress 2

Note: 9 Space given below for your answers.

ni Check your answers with those given at the end of the Unit.

1) Discuss the legacy of secularism, which we inherited fmm the national movement.

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2) What were the featuresof internationalism that the foreign policy of Nehru canied
forward?

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