Indian Freedom Struggle (1909-17)

Indian Freedom Struggle
(1909-17)
Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

Indian Councils Act(1909) –
Minto-Morley Reforms
● Act increased the number of elected members in the imperial &
provincial legislative councils.
● 1st attempt at introducing a representative & popular element:
Direct election for some seats along with nominations for the
others
● Most of the elected members were still elected indirectly.
● The number of members in the provincial legislative councils was
not uniform.

Continued...
● Central Legislative council will be expanded to 69 members.
● Of the 69 members of the Imperial Council, 36 were officials & 5

were nominated non-officials. Out of 27 elected members, 6
were elected by big landlords & 2 by British capitalists.
● At least 1 Indian in the Viceroy’s Executive Council ( Satyendra

Sinha was the 1st to be appointed as the law member ).

Continued...
● 2 Indians will be made members of Indian Council office in
London
● Councils, for the 1st time, referred to as 'Legislative Councils'.
● It also provide for a separate representation of Zamindars,

presidency corporations, universities, Chamber of Commerce-
Calcutta & Bombay.

Continued...
● Powers of legislatures both at the center & in provinces were
enlarged
● Legislatures could now pass resolutions (which may not be

accepted)
● Ask questions & supplementary

● Vote separate items in the budget but the budget as a whole
could not be voted upon.

Separate Electorate
● Real purpose of the Reforms was to divide the nationalist ranks &
to check the growing unity among Indians by encouraging the
growth of Muslim communalism.
● To achieve the objective, the Reforms introduced the system of

separate electorates.
● This was done to encourage the notion that the political,
economic & cultural interests of Hindus & Muslims were separate
& not common.
Continued...
● Besides separate electorates for the Muslims, representation in
excess of the strength of their population was accorded to the
Muslims.
● Income qualification for Muslim voters was kept lower than that
for Hindus.
● Act ‘legalised communalism’ & Minto came to be known as the

Father of Communal Electorate.

Delhi Darbar(1911)
❑ Set up to welcome King George V.
❑ Decisions taken during this were:
❑ Annulment of Partition of Bengal but Separation of Bihar & Orissa

from Bengal
❑ Transfer of capital from Calcutta to Delhi in 1912

2014
The partition of Bengal made by Lord Curzon in 1905 lasted until

(a)The World War I when Indian troops were needed by the British and
the partition war ended
(b)King George V abrogated Curzon’s Act at the Royal Durbar in

Delhi,1911
(c)Gandhiji launched a Civil Disobedience movement

(d)The Partition of India, in 1947 when East Bengal became East
Pakistan

The Ghadar
❑ The Ghadar Party was a revolutionary group organized around a
weekly newspaper.
❑ The Ghadar had its headquarters at San Francisco.
❑ These revolutionaries included mainly ex-soldiers & peasants who

had migrated from the Punjab in search of better employment
opportunities.

Continued…
❑ They were based in the US & Canadian cities along the western (Pacific)
coast.
❑ Pre-Ghadar revolutionary activity had been carried on by Ramdas Puri,

G.D. Kumar, Taraknath Das, Sohan Singh Bhakna & Lala Hardayal who
reached there in 1911.
❑ To carry out revolutionary activities, the earlier activists had set up a

'Swadesh Sevak Home' at Vancouver & 'United India House' in Seattle.

Continued…
❑ Tarak Nath Das, an Indian student, & one of the 1st leaders of
Indian community in North America to start a paper (called Free
Hindustan) realized that while the British government was keen
on Indians going to Fiji to work as laborers for British planters, it
did not want them to go to North America where they might be
infected by ideas of liberty.

2005
Where were the Ghadar revolutionaries , who became active during
the outbreak of the World War I based?
(a) Central America
(b) North America
(c) West America
(d) South America

Continued…
❑ Finally in 1913, the Ghadar was established.
❑ Ghadar programme was to organize assassinations of officials,

publish revolutionary & anti-imperialist literature, work among
Indian troops stationed abroad, procure arms & bring about a
simultaneous revolt in all British colonies.
❑ The moving spirits behind the Ghadar Party were Lala Hardayal,
Ramchandra, Bhagwan Singh, Kartar Singh Saraba, Bhai
Parmanand.

Continued…
❑ The ghadarites intended to bring about a revolt in India.
❑ Their plans were encouraged by 3 events in 1914:
❑ arrest & escape of Hardayal ,
❑ the Komagata Maru incident ,
❑ the outbreak of the 1st World War.

Arrest & escape of Hardayal
❑ Dayal was arrested on 25 March 1914 on the stated ground of his
anarchist activities though everybody suspected that the British
Government had much to do with it.
❑ Released on bail, he used the opportunity to slip out of the

country.
❑ With that, his active association with the Ghadar Movement came
to an abrupt end.

Komagata Maru incident
❑ Created an explosive situation in the Punjab.
❑ Komagata Maru was the name of a ship which was carrying 376
passengers, mainly Sikh & Punjabi Muslim would-be immigrants,
from Hongkong to Vancouver.
❑ They were turned back by Canadian authorities after 2 months of

privation & uncertainty.

Continued…
❑ Generally believed that the Canadians were influenced by the

British Government.
❑ The ship finally anchored at Calcutta in September 1914.
❑ The inmates refused to board the Punjab-bound train.
❑ In the ensuing with the police at Budge Budge near Calcutta, 22

persons died.

Ghadarites Activity During 1st WW
❑ Inflamed by this & with the outbreak of the War, the Ghadar
leaders decided to launch a violent attack on British rule in India.
❑ They urged fighters to go to India.
❑ Kartar Singh Sarabha & Raghubar Dayal Gupta left for India.
❑ Rashbehari Bose & Sachin Sanyal were asked to lead the

movement.

Continued…
❑ Punjab political dacoities of January-February 1915: In at least 3
out of the 5 main cases, the raiders targeted the moneylenders &
the debt records before decamping with the cash.
❑ Ghadarites fixed February 21 ,1915 as the date for an armed

revolt in Ferozepur, Lahore & Rawalpindi garrisons, the plan was
foiled at the last moment due to treachery.

Government Repression
❑ The authorities took immediate action, aided by the Defence of
India Rules, 1915.
❑ The British met the wartime threat by a formidable battery of

repressive measures — the most intensive since 1857 — & above
all by the Defence of India Act passed, in March 1915 primarily to
smash the Ghadar movement.

Continued…
❑ Rebellion regiments were disbanded, leaders arrested ,deported &
hanged.
❑ There were large scale detentions without trial, special courts giving
extremely severe sentences, numerous court - martials of army men.

Continued…
❑ Rash Behari Bose fled to Japan from where he & Abani Mukherji
made many efforts to send arms while Sachin Sanyal was
transported for life.
❑ Apart from the Bengal revolutionaries & the Punjab Ghadarites,

radical pan- Islamists — Ali brothers, Maulana Azad, Hasrat
Mohani — were interned for years.

Evaluation of Ghadar
❑ The achievement of the Ghadar movement lay in the realm of
ideology.
❑ It preached militant nationalism with a completely secular

approach.
❑ Nor did the Ghadarites betray any narrow regional loyalties.
❑ Tilak, Aurobindo Ghose, Khudi Ram Bose, Kanhia Lal Dutt,

Savarkar were all the heroes of the Ghadars.

Continued…
❑ Rash Behari Bose was accepted as the leader of the abortive
Ghadar revolt in 1915.
❑ Far from dwelling on the greatness of the Sikhs or the Punjabis,

the Ghadarites constantly criticized the loyalist role played by the
Punjabis during 1857.
❑ Democratic & egalitarian content: Ghadarites clearly stated that

their objective was the establishment of an independent republic
of India.
Continued…
❑ But politically & militarily, it failed to achieve much because it
• lacked an organised & sustained leadership,
• underestimated the extent of preparation required at every

level—organisational, ideological, financial & tactical strategic —
&
• perhaps Lala Hardayal was unsuited for the job of an organizer.

Previous Year Question
Q. The Ghadr (Ghadar) was a:
(a)Revolutionary association of Indians with headquarters at
San Francisco
(b)Nationalist organization operating from Singapore
(c)Militant organization with headquarters at Berlin
(d)Communist movement for India’s freedom with headquarters at
Tashkent
Revolutionaries in Europe
❑ The Berlin Committee for Indian Independence was established in
1915 by Virendra Nath Chattopadhyay, Bhupendranath Dutta,
Lala Hardayal, etc. With the help of the German foreign office
under Zimmerman Plan'.
❑ These revolutionaries aimed to mobilize the Indian settlers

abroad to send volunteers & arms to India to incite rebellion
among Indian troops there.

Continued…
❑ To even organize an armed invasion of British India to liberate
the country.
❑ Indian revolutionaries in Europe sent missions to Persia, Turkey,
Baghdad & Kabul to work among Indian troops & the Indian
POWs & to incite anti-British feelings amongst their people.
❑ One mission under Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh, Barkatullah &

Obaidullah Sindhi went to Kabul to organize a provisional Indian
government there with the help of crown prince Amanullah.

Home Rule League Movement
❑ Indian response to the 1st World War in a less charged but a more
effective way than the response of Indians living abroad which
took the form of the romantic Ghadar adventure.
❑ The Indian Home Rule Leagues were organized on the lines of the
Irish Home Rule Leagues & they represented the emergence of a
new trend of aggressive politics.

Continued…
❑ Tilak & Besant realized that the sanction of a Moderate-
dominated Congress as well as full cooperation of the extremists
was essential for the movement to succeed.
❑ Having failed at the 1914 session of the Congress to reach a

Moderate-Extremist rapprochement, Tilak & Besant decided to
revive political activity on their own while maintaining their
pressure on the Congress to re-admit the Extremists.

Continued…
❑ Annual Congress session in December 1914 was to prove a
disappointment — Pherozeshah Mehta & his Bombay Moderate
group succeeded, by winning over Gokhale & the Bengal
Moderates, in keeping out the Extremists.
❑ Early 1915: Besant had launched a campaign to demand self

government for India after the war on the lines of white colonies.

Continued…
❑ She campaigned through her newspapers, New India &
Commonweal, & through public meetings & conferences.
❑ At the annual session of the Congress in 1915 the efforts of Tilak

& Besant met with some success. It was decided that the
extremists be admitted to the Congress (Mehta was dead).

Continued…
❑ Although Besant failed to get the Congress to approve her
scheme of Home Rule Leagues, the Congress did commit itself to
a programme of educative propaganda & to a revival of local-
level Congress committees.
❑ Not willing to wait for too long, Besant laid the condition that if
the Congress did not implement its commitments, she would be
free to set up her own League — which she finally had to, as
there was no response from the Congress.

Factors Leading to the Movement
❑ A section of nationalists felt popular pressure was required to
attain concessions from the Government.
❑ The Moderates were disillusioned with the Morley Minto reforms
❑ People were feeling the burden of wartime miseries caused by
high taxation and a rise in prices, & were ready to participate in
any aggressive movement of protest.
❑ The War, being fought among the major imperialist powers of the
day & backed by naked propaganda against each other, exposed
the myth of white superiority.

Continued…
❑ Tilak was ready to assume leadership after his release in June
1914, & had made conciliatory gestures to reassure the
Government of his loyalty & to the Moderates that he wanted, like
the Irish Home Rulers, a reform of the administration & not an
overthrow of the Government.
❑ He urged all Indians to assist the British Government in its hour of

crisis.

Home Rule League (1916)
❑ Tilak & Annie Besant set up their separate leagues to avoid any
friction.
❑ Tilak's League was set up in April 1916 & was restricted to

Maharashtra (excluding Bombay city), Karnataka, Central
Provinces & Berar.
❑ The demands included swarajya, formation of linguistic states &

education in the vernacular Languages.

Continued…
❑ Annie Besant set up The National Home Rule League in
September, 1916 in Madras & covered the rest of India
(including Bombay city).
❑ It had 200 branches, was loosely organized as compared to

Tilak's League & had George Arundale as the organising
secretary.
❑ Besides Arundale, the main work was done by B.P. Wadia & C.P.
Ramaswamy Aiyar.

Continued…
❑ Jamnadas Dwarkadas, Shankerlal Banker & Indulal Yagnik set up
a Bombay paper Young India & launched an All India Propaganda
Fund to publish pamphlets in regional languages & in English.
❑ The Home Rule agitation was later joined by ML Nehru, JL Nehru,

Bhulabhai Desai, CR Das, MM Malaviya, Jinnah, Tej Bahadur
Sapru & Lalaji.

Continued…
❑ The movement spread far beyond the frontiers of India. Home
Rule leagues for India were established in London & New York.
❑ 1914: Lalaji went to England as a member of the Congress

delegation. From there he proceeded to the US where he stayed
for about 5 years.
❑ 1916: He founded the Indian Home Rule League in the US.

Continued…
❑ Many of the moderate Congressmen who were disillusioned with
Congress inactivity, & some members of Servants of India
Society also joined the agitation.
❑ However, Anglo-Indians, most of the Muslims & non Brahmins
from South didn’t join as they felt Home Rule would mean rule of
Hindu majority, mainly high caste.
❑ 1920: Gandhiji was elected the president of the All India Home
Rule League.
❑ 1921: The League changed its name to Swarajya Sabha.

Previous Year Question
In 1920, which of the followings changed its name to “Swarajya Sabha”?
(a) All India Home Rule League
(b) Hindu Mahasabha
(c) South Indian Liberal Federation
(d) The Servants of India Society

Home Rule League Programme
❑ Aimed to convey to the common man the message of Home Rule
as self-government.
❑ It carried a much wider appeal than the earlier mobilisations did

& also attracted the hitherto 'politically backward' regions of
Gujarat & Sindh.

The aim was to be achieved by
❑ promoting political education & discussion through public meetings,
❑ organising libraries & reading rooms containing books on national
politics,
❑ Holding conferences,
❑ organising classes for students on politics,
❑ Propaganda through newspapers, pamphlets, posters, illustrated
postcards, plays, religious songs, etc.,
❑ collecting funds,
❑ organising social work, &
❑ participating in local government activities.

Government Attitude
❑ The Government came down with severe repression, especially in
Madras where the students were prohibited from attending
political meetings.
❑ A case was instituted against Tilak which was withdrawn by the

High Court.
❑ Tilak was defended by a team of lawyers led by Jinnah.

Continued…
❑ Tilak was barred from entering the Punjab and Delhi.
❑ In 1917 Besant & her associates, B.P. Wadia & George Arundale,
were arrested.
❑ Sir S. Subramania Aiyar renounced his knighthood while Tilak

advocated a programme of passive resistance.

Why the Agitation Faded Out by 1919
❑ There was a lack of effective organisation.
❑ Communal riots were witnessed during 1917-18.
❑ Moderates who had joined the Congress after Besant's arrest were
pacified by Montagu's statement which held self government as
the long-term goal of the British rule in India & Besant's release.

Continued…
❑ Montagu-Chelmsford reforms which became known in July 1918
further divided the nationalist rank.
❑ Talk of passive resistance by the extremists kept the moderates
off from activity from September 1918 onwards.
❑ Tilak had to go abroad (September 1918) in connection with a
case while Annie Besant vacillated over her response to the
reforms & the techniques of passive resistance.
❑ With Besant unable to give a positive lead & Tilak away in
England, the movement was left leaderless.

Positive Gains
❑ The movement shifted the emphasis from the educated elite to
the masses & permanently deflected the movement from the
course mapped by the Moderates.
❑ It created an organizational link between the town & country,

which was to prove crucial in later years when the movement
entered its mass phase in a true sense.
❑ It prepared the masses for politics of the Gandhian style.

Continued…
❑ August 1917 declaration of Montagu & the Chelmsford reforms
were influenced by the Home Rule agitation.
❑ Tilak's & Besant's efforts in the Moderate-Extremist reunion

revived the Congress as an effective instrument of Indian
nationalism.
❑ It lent a new dimension and a sense of urgency to the national

movement.

Continued…
❑ It created an environment of patriotism & influenced youth to join

National Movement
❑ Leaders who emerged during this period became leaders of the

future
❑ Swaraj became a household slogan

Lucknow Session 1916
❑ Presided over by moderate Ambika Charan Majumdar
❑ Moderates & Extremists rejoined
❑ Various factors facilitated this reunion:
❖ Old controversies had become meaningless now.
❖ Both Moderates & the Extremists realized that the split had
led to political inactivity.

Continued…
❖ To allay Moderate suspicions, Tilak declared that he supported

a reform of administration & not overthrow of Government.
He also denounced acts of violence.
❖ Annie Besant & Tilak made effort for reunion into INC
❖ Gokhale & Firoz Shah Mehta both moderate died who were
opposed to the reunion

Lucknow Pact, 1916
❑ Congress and Muslim League sessions were held at the same
venue
❑ Congress & Muslim League agreed to work for Hindu Muslim Unity
❑ Madan Mohan Malviya opposed this
❑ This relationship helped in various national movements like Non -

Cooperation, Khilafat.

Lucknow Pact, 1916
❑ This happened at a time when the League, now dominated by the
younger militant nationalists, was coming closer to Congress
objectives & turning increasingly anti-imperialist.

Shift in the League's Position
❑ Britain's refusal to help Turkey in its wars in the Balkans (1912-
13) & with Italy (during 1911) had infuriated the Muslims.
❑ Announcement of cancelation partition of Bengal had annoyed

those sections of Muslims who had supported the partition.
❑ The refusal of the British Government in India to set up a

university at Aligarh with powers to affiliate colleges all over India
also alienated some Muslims.

Continued…
❑ Younger League members were turning to bolder nationalist
politics & were trying to outgrow the limited political outlook of
the Aligarh school.
❑ Calcutta session of the League (1912) had committed League to

"working with other groups for a system of Self government
suited to India, provided it didn’t come in conflict with its basic
objective of protection of interests of the Indian Muslims".

Continued…
❑ Thus, the goal of self-government similar to the Congress brought
both sides closer.
❑ Younger Muslims were infuriated by the government repression
during the War.
❑ Maulana Azad's Al Hilal & Mohammad Ali's Comrade faced
suppression while the Ali brothers, Maulana Azad & Hasrat Mohani
faced internment.
❑ This generated anti-imperialist sentiments among the "Young
Party".

Continued…
❑ While the League agreed to present joint constitutional demands with the
Congress to the Government, the Congress accepted League's position
on separate electorates.
❑ The joint demands were:

❖ Government should declare that it would confer self government on
Indians at an early date.
❖ The legislative councils should be further expanded with an elected
majority & more powers be given to them.
❖ ½ the members of the viceroy's executive council should be Indians.

Negative Fallouts
❑ Effort of the Congress & League to put up a united front was a far-
sighted one, the acceptance of the principle of separate electorates by
the Congress implied that they came together as separate political
entities.
❑ It was a major landmark in the evolution of, 2 nation theory by League.
❑ While the leaders of the 2 groups came together, efforts to bring
together the masses from the two communities were not considered.
❑ The outbreak of communal riots in Bihar, UP & Bengal soon after this
rapprochement revealed the continuing disjunction between the masses
& their leaders.

Positive Gains
❑ Despite being a controversial decision, the acceptance of the principle of
separate electorates represented serious desire to allay minority fears
of majority domination.
❑ Large amount of enthusiasm generated among the people by this

reunion.
❑ 1917: League supported the Home Rule agitation started by Besant.
❑ Even Government decided to placate nationalists by declaring its
intention to grant self-government to Indians, as contained in Montagu's
August 1917 declaration.

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Indian Freedom Struggle

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

● Of the 69 members of the Imperial Council, 36 were officials & 5

● At least 1 Indian in the Viceroy’s Executive Council ( Satyendra

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

● Councils, for the 1st time, referred to as 'Legislative Councils'.

● It also provide for a separate representation of Zamindars,

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

● Legislatures could now pass resolutions (which may not be

● Ask questions & supplementary

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

● To achieve the objective, the Reforms introduced the system of

● Act ‘legalised communalism’ & Minto came to be known as the

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

❑ Decisions taken during this were:

❑ Annulment of Partition of Bengal but Separation of Bihar & Orissa

❑ Transfer of capital from Calcutta to Delhi in 1912

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

The partition of Bengal made by Lord Curzon in 1905 lasted until

(b)King George V abrogated Curzon’s Act at the Royal Durbar in

(c)Gandhiji launched a Civil Disobedience movement

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

❑ The Ghadar had its headquarters at San Francisco.

❑ These revolutionaries included mainly ex-soldiers & peasants who

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

❑ Pre-Ghadar revolutionary activity had been carried on by Ramdas Puri,

❑ To carry out revolutionary activities, the earlier activists had set up a

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

(a) Central America

(b) North America

(c) West America

(d) South America

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

❑ Ghadar programme was to organize assassinations of officials,

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

❑ Their plans were encouraged by 3 events in 1914:

❑ arrest & escape of Hardayal ,

❑ the Komagata Maru incident ,

❑ the outbreak of the 1st World War.

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

❑ Released on bail, he used the opportunity to slip out of the

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

❑ They were turned back by Canadian authorities after 2 months of

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

❑ Generally believed that the Canadians were influenced by the

❑ The ship finally anchored at Calcutta in September 1914.

❑ The inmates refused to board the Punjab-bound train.

❑ In the ensuing with the police at Budge Budge near Calcutta, 22

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

❑ They urged fighters to go to India.

❑ Rashbehari Bose & Sachin Sanyal were asked to lead the

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

❑ Ghadarites fixed February 21 ,1915 as the date for an armed

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

❑ The British met the wartime threat by a formidable battery of

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

❑ Apart from the Bengal revolutionaries & the Punjab Ghadarites,

Modern History : MODULE XIII - Ghadar & Home Rule League

❑ It preached militant nationalism with a completely secular

❑ Nor did the Ghadarites betray any narrow regional loyalties.