Assignment 1

Sheherin Parvin
ID -2019-3-10-007
Gen 226
Section -10
Changing Regime

The main aspect of this chapter is how Indian National Congress leaders over the times
changed the way of dealing with British Empire and forcefully took back their freedom from
them.

Differences of opinion and ideologies , notions in congress leaders led the league to split into
two divisions during 1907 : moderate and extremist .

Moderate phase : Early nationalists leaders like Pherozeshah Mehta , Dadabhai Naoroji they
used to think that British really wanted to help and develop Indians .Therefor they had the
ideology back then that people of India should stand for their petitions and demands to the
British government through systematic way . They didn’t want any activities through violence
and aggression. They were just a representative of the whole mass people thinking those
demands should be expressed through peaceful meaning . But the truth is the formation of the
Congress initially was for listen to all local issue entirely of a country in a systematic way so that
the British don’t have to listen all those minor issues . Congress was told that if they can’t
handle any issue thentheh should hand over the issue to British government . So initially
Congress was noting but a representative of a British who used keep remaining the false hopes
of local those used to think that their suffering will be resolved anytime soon .
Extremist phase : The reason behind splitting the Congress into two groups was failure of
moderate leaders to get any results from British empire . Extremist leaders at the beginning of
the 20th century leaders like Lala Lajpat Rai , Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandrakar Pal didn’t
want the increased number of shares in administration anymore; they wanted complete
autonomy and freedom from British rule. They involved lower -middle class people too . They
were the one first started boycotts , strikes, banned and burnt foreign goods .

In this way I believe extremists leaders could bring more nationalism into Indians and make
people think that they should sacrifice their lives in order to gain freedom which they had a
birthright . That’s why the Congress party got divided into two different ideologies and beliefs
yet they had the one sole purpose to get the best for the Indian people but in a different way.

Rises of Revolutionary leaders :

On 3rd September 1939 when British declared war against Germany they sought help from
Indian’s support without even counselling with them. Later Congress offered British to hand over
total autonomy and leave the country. Meanwhile Shubhash Chandra Bose was ready with his
70,000 mass military with help of Japan and Malay . Unfortunately they failed the war and
British won the battle of World WarII . The British definitely didn’t listen to their offers and
rejected them . But back then two great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Subhash Chandra
Bose couldn’t agree to the same point of view and their views got conflicting. Where Subhash
Chandra Bose wanted civil disobedience with violence if needed and Gandhi wanted civil
disobedience with only non violence. Meanwhile Jawaharlal Nehru neither supported Subhash
Bose nor Gandhi as he wanted to stand up with British .
Gandhians era : Gandhi had the idea of fighting for British, British needed to give them
incentives as complete Independence. Because they can’t fight for any country’s freedom when
they themselves have no freedom. Later on British had Cripps mission where British was ready
for giving them dominion status and there were no positive aspect for Muslim league as they
wanted separate country for only Muslim . So none of the people were happy with the offer the
British made . Since Indian economy collapsed during WWII and there was constant fear of
Japan taking control over India if British lost against them . There for Gandhi tonight, if he
wanted to save India’s economic situation and save India from Japan, India would definitely
force the British out of India . Here they started the Quit India movement where Gandhi said,
“Do or Die”. Gandhi told the nation to either get full independence or sacrifice their lives for it .
But within a few hours of Gandhi’s speech all leaders of Congress were put inside the jail . Even
Gandhi was also arrested.

According to me although this quit India movement couldn’t make the British leave the country
they prepared the whole nation for getting close to independence, got rising of nationalism and
the Anti-British movement in Indian people.

However during this period Muslim league were in the limelight as all the significant leaders
were behind jail and made their positions strong than before . They agreed to fight for the British
in World War II and in return they demanded for a separate nation .

Post World War II scenario of Congress and overall Indian people :

On 14th June 1945 little time after the end of World War II the biggest Congress leader got out
of jail. But British were furious that the act of Subhash Chandra Bose resulted in naval ratings to
get arrested for scrawling the Quit India Movement during World War II and jailed three biggest
leaders of the Indian National Army regarding the revolt against them . They were Sitah Nawaz
Khan , Prem Sahgal and Gureksh Singh Dhillion. British decided to have a first public open trial
in the red fort . However this trial made the situation worse for the British government as they
made the whole Indian mad about it . For the last time Indian Congress , Muslim league and all
the people across the country joined together to condemn the trial . Indian National Congress
made a committee of best lawyers across the country including Bhulabhai Desai , Asas Ali ,
Jawahar Lal Nehru to defend the team of Indian National Army . This trial made the whole
Indian nation as well as the National Indian Army to break out in anger . This was the first time
INC joined with the Congress party . This joining of the INC resulted in locals having courage
and fighting back against British . As a result, different people across the country from general
people like drivers to press workers, peasant workers of cotton mills all started revolting against
British . Indians started mocking British on the street . For example many naval ratings got
offended by the trials happening and led to a major strike like “ No food no work”. They also
wrote on the ship's flag “ Leave the country British” banner . On 17th February a large number
of navals decided to make the agenda of food and take that strike with slogans and went to
Mumbai street . The local people showed great level of sympathy by offering food to the ratings .
But national leaders didn’t support it so they had to end it on February 23rd 1946 .

How British made the mind of leaving the country as soon as possible:
This continuous revolt against them and the merger of the Royal Indian Army with Congress
made the British empire have anxiety and insecurities about their lives around the revolutionary
people around them . That trial made the RIN to break out their anger and British got realised
that they no longer can stay here and better take over the power as fast as possible if they want
to go back to their motherland safe and sound .

Whom to take over the power :

7th July 1945 Britain's government changed where Churchill lost to Clement Attlee of the Labour
Party . This made British leave the country sooner than ever . If it was Churchill then it would
take more time to take back the independence. He sent three people group on March 24th 1946
forming the independent Indian constitution form where to establish constitution, interim
government and to break political deadlock of Indian Congress party and Muslim league .
Nevertheless there were different interpretations of grouping provinces based on religion which
led to the failure of this plan .

Provincial election took place (1945-46 ):

On 19th September 1945 Viceroy Lord Wavell announced the Indian general election yet it was
postponed till 1946 as princely states were unable to join . Therefore only 102 seats were there .
The major two league Indian National Congress and Muslim league. In which Indian Congress
were for entire Indian population and Muslim league were only sole representative of Muslims .
In this election the touch point of both leagues were Pakistan and both leagues were playing
with religious sentiments by bringing some religious appeal . Congress attracted their people by
saying vote Congress if you do not want to see India divided. On the other hand Muslim league
Zinnah was like if anyone vite against then he/ she would have to think of the ultimate
consequences in the day if judgement. Eventually INC got won by 59 votes and Muslim league
lost with 30 votes. However Muslim league won 429 seats out of 492 seats reserved for Muslim
which proved that they are solely representative of Muslim only and this made clear for needing
the Pakistani as separate country .

Conclusion:
In my opinion this chapter was about the evolution of Indian Congress, changes of how the
league had formed with different ideologies and notions through the different time periods .
From starting moderate leaders to extremist and revolutionary leaders who had different
ideologies than Gandhi had . Moreover Gandhi wanted to resolve the Congress party after
getting independence as he used to think of this league as a movement whose sole purpose is
to get India free from British colonists. He was afraid that people might misuse the power in the
name of Congress . However Jawaharlal Nehru didn't think that way which brought some
contradictory statements between them . Although I believe this revolutionary act of the
Congress Party won the independence from the British empire by giving the sense of
nationalism to the entire nation.