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To violate the treaty of Amritsar and enter into the territory of British India. This automatically forced
the British interfere into the Sikh politics leading to the 1st Anglo-Sikh war. In this war, the British
and the Sikh had to sign the treaty of Lahore (1846). The provisions include:

A. The Sikhs had to pay 1.5 crore rupees as war indemnity charges.
B. Dalip Singh was accepted as the ruler of Sikh kingdom by the British.
C. The new raja signed subsidiary alliance and hence the Sikh kingdom also became a
protectorate state of the British.

NOTE:

The Sikhs could not pay the full amount at the time of signing the treaty and so they had to
pledge the Kashmir province to the British as collateral security. But the adjacent kingdom of
Jammu ruled by the Doghra dynasty ruler Gulab singh purchased Kashmir from the British for 50
lakhs and from then onwards he was titled as the raja of Jammu and Kashmir.

LORD DALHOUSIE 1848-1856:

He was the youngest person to become the governor general of India in 1848 A.D.

He is generally considered as the true maker of modern India as his period witnessed many
technological developments and the institutions established by him still survive and serve in the
present times also.

In 1852 A.D., lower Burma region was annexed into British India as the Burmese kings
violated the friendship treaty of Yandaboo (1826 A.D) that actually established friendly relations
between India and Burma as the treaty was dishonoured during Dalhousie period, the 2nd Anglo-
Burmese war was fought, and half of Burma kingdom was annexed into British India.

NOTE:

The 1st Anglo-Burmese war was fought between 1824-1826 during the governor general
Lord Amherst and thus the treaty of Yandaboo came into effect in 1826 A.D., through which Burma
kingdom became a protectorate state of the British.

In 1849, the 2nd Anglo- Sikh war was fought and this time the British annexed Sikh kingdom
and sent Dalip Singh to England for higher studies along with his family on pension basis.

Dalhousie wanted to increase the size of British India by reducing the territories ruled by
Indian nawabs and rajas and thus he brought a new political weapon- ‘’Doctrine of Lapse’’ (1848).:

 Since ancient times, from the arrival of Aryans into India, patriarchy became the common/
basic feature of Indian society and as time went on, the importance of male child became
significant. The mythological belief that a son can only bring salvation had brought a
compulsory need to bare a male child. If it was not possible biologically, the facility of
adoption was the solution. Those rulers of regional kingdoms, who did not either have
children or had no male child, they adopted sons and inherited their kingdom to such
adopted children.
 Dalhousie found a loophole in this tradition and declared that those kings who died without
biological sons could not transfer their kingdoms to the adopted sons. Only the private
belongings of the dynasty could be inherited by such children and not the right to
 governance of the kingdom. Dalhousie’s intention behind this policy was to maximise the
direct rule so that he could attract investments from British investors who preferred to do
business only in British India.
 According to historians, Doctrine of Lapse was a historical blunder of the East India Company
as it lapsed the company’s rule itself in less than a decade period. In between 1848-56,
many kingdoms starting from Satara (1848), Jaitpur, Sambhalpur, Bhagatpur, Jhansi (1853),
Nagpur (1854) were annexed by Dalhousie and most of the west and central Indian
territories got added to the British empire.

In 1856 A.D, another political blunder of Dalhousie was annexation of Awadh kingdom. The
ruler of Awadh at that time Wajid Alishah neglected the state affairs and his court was always
occupied with patrons of various arts, the nawab himself was an expert in dance, music, literature
etc., and so the administration mostly was looked after the British resident General Outram.
Dalhousie right from beginning was searching for an opportunity to annex Awadh kingdom and he
got the right reason of misgovernance or maladministration and declared the annexation in people’s
welfare in 1856 A.D. This event had a deep impact on the 1857 revolt.

CHARTER ACT OF 1853:

It is the last in the series of charter acts. (1793,1813,1833,1853)

Under the governor general of India, a new body called Legislative council was created with
6 members as the strength and this body would make the laws for whole British India and the
executive council remains as it is by implementing the laws. The newly created legislative council
would act as mini parliament of India and follows all the similar rules and procedures of British
parliament in making laws in India.

A separate governor of Bengal post was created to reduce the workload of governor general
of India. This act proposed for conducting an open competitive exam for recruitments in ICS and laid
the foundation for competitive exams in India.

NOTE:

1856- 1st time exam was conducted at Hedengley college in London.

1861- 1st Indian to crack the exam: Satyendra Nath Tagore

1923- 1st exam centre in India in Delhi

1926- UPSC was established

1959- LBSNAA was founded

1979- Prelims was conducted for the first time.

2011- CSAT was introduced

2013- Ethics paper in mains introduced.

1853- The 1st successful railway experiment was done; the 1st passenger train ran from Bombay to
thane and gradually the railway network started spreading in India. Dalhousie’s intention was
actually to increase the volume of British trade and commerce by connecting the ports in coastal
areas with the agricultural fields located in the core part of Indian subcontinent. Large investments
came from England primarily on railway projects only and as Indian population is relatively high, the
railway gave good profits to England from India

1854- The 1st telegraphic line was laid in India between Agra to Calcutta and in between 1869-70,
red sea cable the telegraphic line between India and Britain came into existence.

1854- The Indian coastal act was passed that laid the foundation of modern coastal system in India.
In order to prevent corruption, postal stamps were introduced. Initially, 1/2 ana was charged (1
rupee=16 anas) to send a letter weighing ½ tula (5 gms) to any location within British India.

The introduction of railways, postal and telegraphic systems revolutionised the

communication network in India. On one hand, it increased the political authority of British in India,
and the side effect was the Indian national movement. Without these institutions, Indian national
movement wouldn’t have been possible.

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THE WOODS DISPATCH OF 1854:

The president of board of control Sir Charles wood dispatched a document of recommendations
regarding the education policy to be implemented in India. In Indian history, this was a milestone
event as it laid the foundation of modern education system in India and so, this is popularly referred
to as the Magna carta of Indian education. Its salient features include-

a. For the 1st time, the British took the responsibility of mass education of India. (Previously,
their education policy targeted only a few Indians)
b. To lead the Indian education system, a Director General of Education (DGE) would be
appointed to supervise on country wide.
c. Every major province in British India must have a university in the similar model of
universities of Europe.
d. Education was divided into 2 categories- school and college levels. The universities would
monitor the college education while the provincial govts. would look after the school
education.
e. The school education contains 2 stages- primary level preferably taught in vernacular
medium and higher level preferably to be taught in English medium.
f. The curriculum (syllabus) must contain those subjects that are secular and technical in
nature. Religious education maybe included in the literature.

PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT (1854):

Before arrival of Dalhousie, all the public works like construction of roads, railways, irrigation
canals, bridges etc., were handled by the military board of India and due to hectic workload of
military department, the work on the civil side was highly neglected. So, Dalhousie relieved the
military board from civil constructions and established a separate public works department, allotted
huge funds to boost up infrastructural developments in British India. Many expertised engineers
were called from England and appointed as executive engineers, AEE etc., who have rendered their
best services in India, and it is noteworthy that many of the constructions made during the British
times are still operational even in 21st century. After establishment of this department, the
profession of engineers became a great source of attraction for Indians and led to the foundation of
many technical colleges in India. Dalhousie laid the foundation of ‘Indian Engineering Services’.
SOCIAL LEGISLATIONS PASSED BY DALHOUSIE:

1. Religious disability act-1850:

The Christian missionaries were actively campaigning in British India, and they were
converting many Indians into Christianity. But the conversion process had some obstacles from
orthodox sections who tried to control their children from changing the religion by not accepting
to pass the ancestral property to the converted progeny. To remove such obstacle, the British
govt. passed this act removing disqualification of converted Indians from inheriting their
ancestral properties. This act was looked with hatred and suspicion by Indians.

2. Widow remarriage act 1856:

Many social reformers of India, more specifically Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar championed
the cause of widows in Indian society and supported for their remarriage. Taking Vidyasagar’s
support Dalhousie could enact this act through which legal protection was given to such widows
who desired to get remarried, and they could also claim the share of the ancestral property of
her deceased husband. This act also received severe criticism from orthodox Hindus and more
opposition came from the Indian sepoys.

LORD CANNING (1856-1862):

THE GREAT REVOLT OF 1857-

Among the various incidents recorded in modern India, the revolt of 1857 lies as the
benchmark event thar changed the course of future India and no doubt laid the foundations of
India’s struggle for independence. The 100-year rule of a private trading company of England
produced many political, economic, and social changes in India and its impact fell on the life of
Indians who couldn’t further tolerate the wrongdoings of English East India Company and bursted
their anger in the form of a violent revolt in 1857. As the famous saying in Mahabharata tells ‘There
are 100 reasons for death of Karna’, similarly there are a wide variety of reasons which together
brought the 1857 revolt.

Causes/Reasons of 1857 revolt:

It can be classified into 4-

1. Politico economic causes

2. Socio religious causes
3. Military causes
4. Immediate causes

Politico-economic reasons:

 The introduction of doctrine of lapse by Dalhousie created a sense of insecurity among

some Indian princes who gave their background support to the rebels.
 The annexation of Awadh kingdom was a wrong step taken by Dalhousie’s govt. as it created
a sense of suspicion among other rulers.
 The introduction of revenue settlement programmes modelled on European style of
economy disturbed the conventional relationship between the land and the peasants in
India. In these settlements the British neglected peasant interest and they were targeted
only to increase more and more revenue to the British. These settlements made the peasant
 communities vulnerable to the greedy zamindars and moneylenders and so the peasants
actively supported the revolt.
 Some zamindars in the settlement programmes defaulted the payments to the British govt.
and their lands and properties were confiscated and they were thrown on to the roads. Such
zamindars who were the losers in these programmes also joined hands with the rebels
during the revolt.
 The British who spoke with high tone the principle of equality, didn’t sincerely apply this in
judiciary and they discriminated Indians by passing favourable judgements towards the
Englishmen in all the British courts and this inequality was not tolerated by Indians.

Socio-religious causes:

 The hyperactive role of Christian missionaries in India annoyed Indians. Basically, Indians
didn’t have objections on peaceful campaigning of these organisations but the Christian
missionaries claiming monopoly of truth for their god and religion became objectionable to
Indians. The missionaries on several occasions criticised and abused Indian gods which was
an insult to the religious sentiments of Indians.
 The govt. also believed that Christianity was a source of progress for Indians and the govt.
officials gave their direct participations in the religious programmes conducted by these
missionaries.
 The passing of several social legislations- ban on sati, female infanticide, slavery, human
sacrifices etc., and promoting widow remarriages and legalising conversions, all these steps
taken by British govt. were not acceptable to Indians and Indians felt that the British were
trying to interfere into their private affairs.

Military causes:

 The 1857 revolt was actually brought out by the sepoys working in the company’s armies
and so the historian Surendranath Sen (S.N. Sen) rightly calls the revolt as the SEPOY
MUTINY.
 The Indian sepoys had many grievances in the military administration. There was a big
difference in the pay and allowances of English soldier and Indian sepoy. A newly recruited
English soldier had a higher pay than a senior most Indian sepoy. Even the prospects of
promotion for Indian sepoys were very much limited when compared to the English
counterpart.
 In general, the Hindu sepoys believed that they would lose their religion and social identity if
they crossed the Indian borders. Against to their beliefs, the British govt. forced Indian
sepoys to serve the British even in the wars fought outside India by passing the General
services enlistment act of 1856. Even the provision of paying the extra allowance for foreign
service (called as Battha) was denied on several occasions.
 The food served to the sepoys in military canteens was believed to have been mixed with
bone dust extracted from beef which was a sin for Hindus.
 Racial discrimination was openly practised as we see on several occasions where the
Englishmen used filthy language and abusive words like Suvvar and Niggar (Blackman) while
addressing Indian sepoys. This was a great insult to the self-respect of Indians.
 The role of Christian missionaries in the military camps and the passing of several social
legislations was not liked by Indian sepoys.
 Nearly 3/5th of the sepoys serving in 63 regiments of Bengal came from Awadh region. The
annexation of Awadh in 1856 hampered the emotions of these soldiers and the annexation
 increased economic burden on their families. As historian Bipin Chandra rightly points out
that ‘Awadh was the nursery of sepoys and every sepoy in Bengal was a peasant in military
uniform’, the annexation automatically aroused the feeling of resentment among the Indian
sepoys.
 In 1850s, the Enfield company of England developed a lightweight rifle which increased the
efficiency of soldiers in the war field. The British govt. wanted to modernise the artillery in
India by replacing the old heavy brown muskets with these new rifles. To use this rifle in the
war field a soldier must tear the sachet of gunpowder with his teeth, and it was rumoured
that the greasy substance lining the sachet was made from the fat content of pig and cow
meat. Pig is hatred to Muslims and cow is sacred to Hindus; naturally both Hindu and Muslim
sepoys had objections to use this rifle. The forceful attitude of the British in introducing this
rifle triggered the revolt in 1857.

EVENTS:

In March 1857, most of the English officials were on summer vacation to England and most
of the local regiments were under the supervision of Indian subedars. The Viceroy’s office was also
in Shimla and most of the military was shifted to that place.

On 29th March 1857, an Indian sepoy named Mangal Pandey belonging to 34th infantry
regiment in Barackpore refused to the new rifle, killed his 2 superior officers, surrendered, and was
hanged to death within a week. This incident stood as the starting point of the revolt.

In April 1857, some cavalry men in Meerut followed the footsteps of Mangal Pandey and
they too were disbanded and awarded a 10-year rigorous imprisonment.

On 10th May 1857, the other Indian sepoys of Meerut cavalry raised the banner of revolt,
killed all the English officials, stormed the Meerut jail, and released their colleagues. They all pledged
to spread the revolt and liberate India from the British rule and started their journey towards Delhi.
On their way similar incidents happened in different locations in north and central India with the
joining of the local regiments.

On 12th May 1857, the sepoys reached Delhi, knocked the doors of red fort, and requested
the 80-year-old Mughal heir Bahadur shah Zafar to lead the revolt and proclaimed him as the
Padshah of Hindustan. The Mughal emperor half-heartedly accepted to be the leader of the revolt.

28-10-2023
From Meerut and Delhi, the revolt spread to different places. The rebels were supported by
public, and the biggest contribution came from the peasant communities and the rebels attacked
the public buildings, killed many English citizens who came on their way, they destroyed the
telegraphic lines, pulled out the railway tracks and burnt all the residences of the English colonies.

The 1st half episode of the revolt was successful on Indian side. But the 2nd half episode
turned down their fortunes. The British govt. deployed special forces from England who came to
India and step by step, the British once again recaptured all the disturbed zones and by June,1858
the incidents of the revolt almost came to an end. Politically the British were successful in gaining
back control, but the later consequences definitely should be attributed to the impact of the revolt.
THE POPULAR PLACES AND PERSONS:

. Delhi- Bahadur Shah Zafar, General Bakht khan

. Lucknow- Bijris Qadar, Begum Hazrat mahal

. Allahabad-Maulvi liyaqat ali

. Faizabad-Maulvi Ahmadullah

He was the most aggressive Muslim leader of the revolt who gave a call to his followers that
the revolt was a jihad against the British.

. Jhansi- Rani laxmi bai

. Kanpur-Nana saheb, tantya tope

. Bihar-Kunwar singh

. Bareily- khan bahadur khan

. Hyderabad-Turrebaz khan

CRITICAL ANALYSIS ON THE NATURE OF THE REVOLT AND THE REASONS FOR FAILURE:

One of the salient features of 1857 revolt was the Hindu-Muslim unity against one common
enemy- the British. After the revolt, the British followed a cautious policy of divide and rule to create
a rift between these 2 communities that led to partition of the country during independence.

Though the Indian rebels got temporary success in the beginning, the arrival of new British
forces commanded by committed Englishmen were more superior to the Indian forces. Many
dedicated British commanders like Sir Collin Campbell, General Hudson, General Havelock, Sir Henry
Lawrence, Sir Hugh Rose etc were the products of English nationalism and they fought to their best
level to protect the honour of their motherland. On the other hand, the leaders of the revolt lacked
these qualities and after tasting success in their respective zones, they fought among themselves
with mutual hatred and jealousy. They lacked an organised effort and common goal at the end of the
revolt.

In the beginning, the peasants actively participated in the revolt, they attacked the revenue
officers and the bungalows of zamindars and moneylenders, demolished all their revenue records.
Once their goal was fulfilled, they became passive and stopped supporting the revolt in the second
half.

The educated class of Indians did not support the revolt as the rebels wanted to bring back
the outdated medieval, political, and social order back once again. The educated Indians wanted a
more progressive and modern political system like democracy and not the monarchy. Hence the lack
of intellectual support to the revolt was also a major reason for failure. England, having tasted the
benefits of industrialisation, could bring more advanced weapons with high chances of success while
Indians used outdated weapons like bows and arrows, swords, spears, and spikes which could not
match with the English weapons.
CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLT:

Many English citizens (nearly 6000 as per British census) lost their lives in India and hence
huge public support in England demanding for abolition of company’s rule in India. Accordingly, the
British govt, enacted the Govt. of India act of 1858 that transferred the power of rule in India from
company’s hands to the crown of England.

. GOVT OF INDIA ACT 1858:

A. The Governor General of India was also to be called as the Viceroy of India (The 1st person to
hold this post was Lord Canning).
B. Both the Board of control and court of directors were abolished, and, in their place, a
separate office called the Indian council was established as an attached body of British
parliament; It would have 15 members and headed by the secretary of state for India.
C. The secretary and the viceroy would function in coordination to look after the Indian affairs
and recommend to the parliament in making all the legislations for the betterment of British
India.
D. The Indian council would frame all the council, regarding the syllabus and method of
competitive exam for recruitment of ICS officers.

. QUEEN’S PROCLOMATION 1858:

On 1st November 1858, Lord Canning conducted an open Darbar at Allahabad to explain the
provisions of GOI act of 1858 and also to present the speech of queen Victoria addressed to
Indians. She promised certain guarantees to Indians:

a. Cancellation of doctrine of lapse and no more annexations of Indians countries.

b. No laws would be made by the British related to Indian religions, customs, and traditions.
c. More and more Indians would be taken into different institutions and branches of
administration to make it more Indian and less British in nature.
d. Equal right for opportunities would be granted to Indians on par with those enjoyed by the
citizens of England.

IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS THAT HAPPENED IN BETWEEN 1858-1885:

Due to huge expenditure incurred on suppression of 1857 revolt, there was a budget deficit
of nearly 36 million rupees in British India and Canning had to tackle the situation. 2 economic
experts from England were invited to India- James Wilson and Samuel Laig to suggest revenue
reforms. On their recommendations, for the first-time income tax was introduced on those Indians
who earned at least Rs. 500 per annum at the rate of 5%.

In 1858, the Indian Penal Code (IPC) drafted by Lord Macauly was enacted and from then
onwards became the basis of legal system of India.

In 1857, as per the recommendations of Wood’s Dispatch, 3 universities were established in

Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay presidencies.

The Indian Council’s act of 1861 was enacted by British parliament to partially fulfil the
promise of Queen Victoria in the matters of accommodating Indians into legislative councils. This
act also empowered the Viceroy to issue ordinances in times of emergency which would have a 6-
week validity. The Viceroy could also establish new legislative councils for other provinces. New
Legislative Councils were created for Bengal, Punjab, and North-west frontier province (NWFP). The
law-making powers of Bombay and Madras governors were restored.
 For the 1st time 3 Indians- the Raja of Banaras, the Raja of Patiala, the economic historian Sir
Dinakar Rao entered the Viceroy’s legislative council as non-official members.

The British parliament also enacted the Indian High Court act of 1861 giving powers to the
viceroy to establish High courts in British provinces. Accordingly, in 1865, 3 High courts came into
functioning in Bengal, Bombay and Madras.

Sir John Lawrence became the Viceroy of India in between 1864-1869, he was previously the
st
1 chief commissioner of Punjab province and prevented the Sikhs from participating in the 1857
revolt and so titled as ‘Saviour of British empire and Organiser of Victory’. He established in 1864,
the Indian Forest Department. After introduction of railways and telegraphic systems, many British
investors-built railway projects in India and in general, railways utilise lot of wood and so the British
industrialists exploited Indian forests leading to deforestation.

Throughout ancient and medieval times, the rulers never made any forest laws and so tribal
autonomy was a permanent feature before the arrival of the British. But the exploitation that started
in mid-19th century compelled the British govt. to protect the forest cover and hence forest laws
were made through this department. Some endangered forests of India were classified as Reserved
forests, and all types of human activities were prohibited in such forests. Even the forests in princely
states also came under this category.

The govt. also had done reclamation in some unreserved forests and converted the forest
land into crop lands which automatically came under revenue settlement programmes. Overall, both
the forest laws and revenue laws opened the gates of forests to outsiders (non-tribes). The entry of
these outsiders into forest zones disturbed the autonomous tribal life that brought many tribal
revolts in modern India. A common word called Dikhus was referred to non-tribes who created
troubles. The zamindars, the moneylenders, the police, military, forest officers all came under this
category, and they treated the tribes with exploitation. Hence the British disturbed the healthy
relation between the tribes and non-tribes of India which is still an issue of national security even
today.

Dr. Dietrich Brandis, a German forest expert, became the 1st Director General of Forest
Department.

LORD MAYO (1869-1872):

. Founded Mayo college at Ajmer in order to provide high standards education to the children of
Indian princes. It was a long pending demand from the ruling dynasties of India for such dedicated
institutions for their children.

. 1869-70: Red sea cable establishment.

. 1872- He established the statistical survey of India in Calcutta to perform census and accordingly
the 1st census was conducted in the same year. (NOTE: The 1st regular census was conducted from
1881 onwards during the rule of Viceroy Lord Rippon).

. He was the only Viceroy of India to be murdered in office when he went for inspection to Port Blair
for supervising the administration of the cellular jail. He was killed by a Wahabi leader Sherkhan.
30-10-23

LORD LYTTON (1876-1880):

Lytton is considered as a controversial viceroy of India as many events and decisions taken in
his period created unrest amongst Indians.

In between 1876-78, in majority of the British provinces there was a severe famine due to
crop failure, as per official estimate nearly 20 lakh people died, and another 1 crore displaced. The
govt. failed to tackle the situation and further it added more anger in the public opinion. Lytton
appointed Sir Richard Strachey commission to look into the causes and consequences of this famine
and the commission recommended for more govt. investment in irrigation canals and railway
networks to be extended to famine prone areas of India and a need to draft a permanent famine
code.

In 1877 A.D., Queen Victoria of England gave an official visit to India and the monument
Gateway of India in Bombay was built in giving her a grand welcome to India. A grand Durbar was
held at Delhi to felicitate the Queen and for this purpose the govt. has spent huge expenditure on
pomp and luxury during the celebrations. The Delhi Darbar also proclaimed the queen with the title
‘kaisr-i-hind’ under the provisions of the Royal Titles act of 1876. Many rajas and nawabs, zamindars
and other elite Indians attended the Delhi Darbar and received certificates of recognition for their
support to the British during the 1857 revolt.

The event of Delhi Darbar angered Indians greatly as the govt. instead of taking relief
measures for the famine victims diverted public money for the happiness of the queen.

After the Delhi Darbar event, Lytton faced severe challenges from Indian public who turned
to take up violent means, the newspapers were circulating news against the govt. policies and
further added fuel to the fire. To curb the anti-British sentiment, he took repressive measures to
suppress any events that might imitate the 1857 revolt.

In 1878, he passed 3 controversial laws- ‘Arms act’ that prohibited only Indians from
possessing any weapons without license; ‘Vernacular press act’ that brought all the local newspapers
under censorship of provincial govts.; the maximum age limit for Indian students for appearing in ICS
exam was reduced from 21 to 19.

Lytton’s govt. also monopolised salt manufacturing in India by paying some compensation to
the Indian rulers.

LORD RIPPON (1880-1884):

He is considered as the most liberal viceroy or governor general of India.

On his arrival in 1880, he found that the public opinion in India towards the British rule was
highly critical due to Lytton’s controversial rule. In order to reduce the political tensions, he
immediately repealed all the 3 decisions of Lytton taken in 1878.

In 1881, Rippon passed a resolution on implementing the system of local self-government in

India to improve the conditions of the people living in rural areas. It also aimed to improvise the
sanitation and hygiene conditions in the major towns and cities. Through this resolution, he
established municipal corporations in the major urban centres and panchayats at village level. These
institutions were empowered to collect some local taxes and decide the budget by themselves on the
local affairs. The revenue heads of the govt. were divided into- Imperial head, provincial head, and
divided head. Some portion of all these revenues must be diverted to the local bodies for
strengthening the towns and villages. Hence, Rippon is rightly called as the “Father of Local self-
government in India”.

Taking the recommendation of the famine commission Rippon drafted the Famine code of
India in 1882. According to it, any revenue division within British India if registered a crop-failure of
more than 50%, it must be declared under famine category, the govt. must give tax exemption for
crops that financial year, implement food for work scheme, also provide fodder to the cattle.

In 1881, Rippon enacted the 1st Factory act of India that laid the foundation of all the future
labour legislations of India. It provided legal protection to the working hours and working conditions
in Indian factories.

In 1883, Rippon brought the Ilbert bill in his council. Previously, Indian judges were barred
from hearing such cases in which at least one litigant was an English man. The Ilbert bill tried to
remove this disqualification on Indian judges and tried to bring them in par with the English judges.
This bill invited severe criticism from the Englishmen and the British parliament was forced to
convince Rippon to modify the bill by making it compulsory for an Indian judge to accompany an
English judge while hearing such cases. The dilution of Ilbert Bill exposed the original character of
the British rule in India and especially the educated class of Indians were deeply hurt in dilution of
this bill.

In 1884, Rippon was removed from service and the people of Calcutta did a 3-day protest
demanding for his reappointment.

LORD DUFFERIN (1884-1889):

The foundation of INC 1885:

The establishment of the Indian National Congress in the 2nd half of the 19th century was a
landmark event in Indian history and it can be considered as the beginning of the Indian National
Movement. There were several reasons for the rise of nationalism in 19th century which can be
summarised as follows-

a. Due to large scale annexations, nearly 2/3rd part of Indian sub-continent became a product of
British imperialism. The direct rule of the British in major portion of India brought political
unification and uniformity in administration, many distant areas (Bengal, Bombay, Madras,
Punjab etc.) came under one centralised rule and so the impact was also equal in the areas.
b. Before 1835, there was no common language for Indians and there was less communication
among men from different parts of the country. The introduction of English language
provided a common linguistic platform for Indians coming from different languages. They
could exchange their ideas in one language and thus English played an important role in
bringing the seeds of nationalism.
c. The economic exploitation of the British rule was clearly visible as on one hand England was
the richest nation of the world with high standards of industrialisation, on the other hand
India was poverty-striken, there was de-industrialisation of native industries and standard of
Indian life was very low. Dadabai Navroji’s book ‘Poverty and Un-British rule in India’
explained the theory of Drain of wealth that aroused the national consciousness of Indians.
d. Many Indians mostly coming from rich backgrounds were able to go to England and pursue
higher education in European Universities. They could differentiate the developmental
aspects between colonisers and the colonies politically, economically, and socially. These
 people wanted the development in their homeland after comparing them with the European
nations.
e. Indians could clearly realise the real intentions of the British rule and the failure of the
promises given by the British govt. They joined hands with such leaders (of INC) readily to
fight all the injustice that was happening in the British govt.
f. The foundation of INC in 1885 was the ultimate product of the forces of nationalism. An
Englishman Allen Octavian Hume who had a deep concern for Indians wanted them to have
a political institution to arouse nationalism and gradually fight for their independence.
Hence, he is rightly called as the ‘Father of INC’.

Some basic aspects of the framework of INC:

The whole journey of INC in Indian history maybe classified into 3 phases in pre-
independence period. The 1st generation of congressmen popularly called as the moderates were
rich Indians, mostly educated in England and settled in various professions. They were Indians
by blood and colour but British in taste and opinions. They have spent some part of their lifetime
in England and tasted the original essence of British rule. They were very much fascinated
towards the all-round development of England and greatly admired their civilization. Being
beneficiaries of English education, they wanted the same style of English life in India also. They
considered the British rule as a boon to Indians, according to them Indians were not fit to rule
themselves. They expected only changes within the British system of India and not its
replacement. Their main demands included:

A. A similar style of British rule existent in England

B. To stop diversion of Indian revenues for sponsoring the British wars outside India.
C. To reduce expenditure on military and a lot more budget on public welfare.
D. They demanded for more Indianisation of ICS exam- the syllabus must include more Indian
subjects and the examination centre must be in India also.
E. Separation of legislature and executive and to include more Indian representatives through
the concept of elections and also to increase the size of the legislative councils.
F. To spread education to all Indians and bring out political awakening in India, to convert India
from a mere geographical expression to a nation.
G. To adopt only constitutional means to represent the Indian grievances to the British govt.

The 1st session of INC in 1885 was conducted at Sir Tejpal Sanskrit Vidyalaya in Bombay town.
The basic framework for running this organisation was designed by A.O.Hume-

1. Annual meeting must be conducted.

2. For every meeting a president must be elected
3. To give INC a national outlook, the place of meeting must be changed every year and to be
selected on rotational basis; the president of a particular session must not come from that
region.
4. The topics to be discussed in the INC meeting must be national and secular in character.

The moderates were successful in sowing the seeds of nationalism in India and it was
because of their efforts the Indians councils act of 1892 was enacted by British parliament
which increased the strength of legislative councils, introduced for the 1st time the concept
of Elections (based on limited franchise). Initially, the British govt. patronized INC, the
viceroy Lord Duffrine offered a tea party to INC delegates in 1886 at Calcutta. But gradually
rift developed between INC and the British when congress started demanding more and
 more political concessions from the British govt. The same viceroy in 1888 criticised INC as
the ‘mouthpiece of the microscopic community in India’ and warned the princely states not
to entertain congress activities in their kingdoms.

Moderates also had certain failures. The moderates never demanded freedom for
India which didn’t attract the masses. Moreover, the moderates became active only in the
annual sessions and rest of the year they were engaged in their professions and took the
congress work only as a part-time job. Their goals were limited and their methods of struggle
couldnot generate enough heat to convince the British towards their demands.

31-10-2023

RISE OF EXTREMISTS IN INC IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY:

The extremist phase of INC roughly existed between 1906-1916 and the INC members who
belong to this phase mostly entered the organisation in their younger ages itself and so there was a
wide gap in the age and experience of senior moderates and junior extremists. The slow progress of
moderate phase did not satisfy the boiling blood of the youngsters who wanted radical and fast
changes within the system. They criticised the moderates that they were too much obedient to the
British and they did not actually demand for freedom. The rise of extremism was also a product of
Hindu revivalism that took place as a part of the socio-religious reform movements in the same
period. While the moderates believed in petitions and prayers, the extremists believed in violence
and mass movements. The Russio-Japanese war of 1905 in which an Asian nation Japan defeated
the European kingdom of Russia gave an inspiration to the Indian youth that India could also fight
with England in battlefield. While the moderates disqualified Indians for self-governance, the
extremists strongly advocated that Indians could rule themselves by coating examples from the Great
emperors in ancient and medieval Indian history. Extremists linked the fight with the British as a
defence for Hinduism from the Christian British. Extremists were the 1st to demand ‘Swaraj’ which
ofcourse ranged from dominion status like that of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand within the
British commonwealth ranging upto complete freedom. Historian ‘Sumit Sarkar’ calls the extremist
phase as Gandhian era plus violence.

The extremist trio Lal, Bal, Pal refers to Lala Rajpat Rai from Punjab, Bal Gangadhar Tilak
from Bombay, and Bipin Chandra Pal from Bengal. These 3 leaders played a prominent role in
developing extremist feelings in their respective provinces.

Tilak who was affectionately referred to as ‘Lokamanya’ was a popular figure in Bombay
province and also called as ‘Father of Indian Unrest’. Before Gandhi, he was the popular leader of
INC. He was associated with a social organisation ‘Poona Sarvajanik Sabha’, and he was the first to
link national movement with religion. The celebration of public festivals like Ganesh chaturdi,
Shivaji’s birthday, Navratri of Dasara were started by him as a reaction against the westerner’s’ attack
on Hinduism. Tilak supported the Chapekar brothers of Poona when they killed 2 British officers
Rande and Amherst in 1896 when the British govt. of Bombay failed to tackle the plague disease that
killed lots of people. Tilak was arrested by the British govt. on several occasions and his cases were
mostly dealt by one of his close associates ‘Mohd Ali Jinnah’.

The phase of extremism was short-lived in INC as the ideology couldn’t sustain for a long
time due to various reasons. The extremists adopting violent methods easily attracted the attention
of the govt. and provided opportunity for their custody and arrest. The long absence of leadership
diluted their followers and moreover it is a natural phenomenon that extremist thoughts need
continuous supply of excitement and inspiration which was not sufficiently provided by the extremist
leadership. The arrival of Gandhi in 1915 and consequent entry into Indian national movement from
1917 onwards completely closed the doors of extremism. However even within Gandhian era, we see
revolutionary nationalists like Bhagat Singh, Chandrasekhar Azad, Subhash Chandra Bose etc., who
tried similar methods inspired from the extremist leaders.

CURZON’S RULE (1898-1905):

Lord Curzon was the most controversial viceroy of India whose period witnessed many
political and administrative reforms in India.

In order to put a permanent check on famines in India and to improve the agricultural
productivity, he made several agri-reforms. He appointed McDonell commission on famines, Volvin
Scott Moncrieff commission on irrigation. Taking the recommendations of these 2 commissions,
Curzon formed famine fund, a separate contingency fund in all the British provinces with a
mandatory budget to be reserved every year. The Moncrieff commission emphasized upon
expansion of irrigation network in India and made a 20-year plan in which govt. must spend 44
crores of rupees on irrigation projects that can bring 6.5 million acres of barren land under
cultivation and the British govt. successfully implemented it.

Curzon established the agriculture research institute of India at Pusa in Bengal for studying
the aspects of tropical agriculture and educate the peasant communities on scientific farming. He
also passed the co-operative credit societies act of 1904 to help the rural population for forming
societies for loans and deposits to save them from the clutches of private money lenders. He also
passed the Punjab land alienation act of 1904 that prohibited transfer of agricultural lands from
peasants to non-peasant communities.

Curzon appointed Frazer commission to restructure the police organisation in India that
existed from Cornwallis period. It recommended-

a. Direct recruitment must be done to higher cadres of police organisation instead of only the
promotion channel followed at that time.
b. Before deputing the recruit into the direct field job, he must undergo a training module in
the police training schools in the provinces.
c. Previously, the police organisation worked under judiciary, but it was transferred under the
executive.
d. The minimum pay was fixed for the police personnels at the rate of at least Rs. 8 per month
in order to prevent corruptive practices within the organisation.
e. Every British province must have a criminal investigation department to undertake spot
investigation and reduce the crime rate in India.

Curzon introduced railway reforms based on the recommendations of the railway’s expert
‘Thomas Robertson’. Previously, the govt. projects on railways were undertaken by public
works department which neglected railways due to burden of other civil projects. TO
overcome this problem, Curzon established a separate railway board to give exclusive
importance for expansion of railway networks in India and this body still functions in post-
independence India also.
CONTROVERSIAL DECISIONS OF CURZON:

Curzon by nature was a racist and believed in the white civilization mission in India. He did
not believe that Indians were fit to be a part of Indian administration. His biggest enemy in India was
INC and he made statements on several occasions that he wanted to complete the task of giving a
peaceful death of INC which was demanding more Indianisation. Curzon was a mixture of opposites-
on one hand he introduced many administrative reforms, he was a great admirer of India’s past but
still disbelieved Indians of their capabilities for self-rule. He was quite opposite to Lord Rippon-
Rippon favoured decentralization but Curzon favoured centralisation of power.

Curzon was not in favour of allowing Indians to have control on various branches of
administration. His 1st target was the Calcutta corporation- it was a brainchild of Lord Rippon and the
corporation had more elected members (Indians) than the nominated officials (Englishmen). He
passed the Calcutta municipal corporation act of 1904 and reduced the strength of elected
members to make it more British in nature.

Taking the recommendations of Releigh commission, he passed the Indian Universities act
of 1904 that abolished the syndicates of universities and brought them under direct govt. control.
Curzon’s complaint was that there were more politics than education in the universities and INC was
using universities as a political base for their campaigning.

Curzon also made the British pound legal in India by fixing it at the rate of 1:15 for Indian
rupee to give opportunity for the English citizens of India for transferring their Indian wealth into
British currency.

Curzon passed the ancient monuments protection act of 1904 through which he made govt.
responsible for protection of ancient monuments. Through this act museums were established in
India for preserving the monuments. The archaeological survey of India was given good funding for
historical research work and so came into limelight the excavations of Indus valley civilization.

Curzon tried to increase the level of confidentiality and secrecy of British govt. he passed a
controversial act called the Official secrets act of 1904, included even civil matters under this act and
prohibited the general public from asking any questions related to the matters covered under this
act. The INC bitterly protested that this act prevented Indians from knowing the basic information of
Indian governance.

Partition of Bengal:

Curzon’s goal to close the INC brought a new controversial act to bifurcate Bengal province into west
and east provinces so that INC would lose its prominence in divided Bengal. The west part of Bengal
was populated mostly by Hindus who were Bengali, Hindi, and Oriya speakers while the eastern part
was mostly populated by Muslims. The Hindus in the western part received the benefits of English
education, occupied most of the important jobs in Bengal province, they were politically awakened,
and they were the part of INC. By bifurcating Bengal, the east province would be Muslim dominated
and can act as a counter for INC which was active in the west part.
01-11-2023

SWADESHI MOVEMENT- BACKGROUND EVENT AND CONSEQUENCES:

Lord Curzon’s decision of dividing Bengal into 2 provinces had a different official reason from
the real intention. The govt. declared that partition was on administrative convenience, but it was a
conspiracy to break the Hindu-Muslim unity of the undivided Bengal.

The effective date for partition was declared to be on 16th October 1905. Though Curzon
passed the bill, his successor Lord Minto-II had to implement it and face the consequences. The
general public opinion in Bengal province was against to partition and so they decided to express
their disapproval on the partition through mass rallies and street protests. 16th October 1905 was
declared as ‘Day of Mourning’. People went in groups to river Ganges, took holy bath, performed
certain rituals, and rallied in the streets and colonies raising slogans against partition. The famous
Benali poet Rabindranath Tagore wrote and composed “Amar Sonar Bangla” (my golden Bengal)
that enriched the culture and heritage of Bengal. (NOTE: This song was adopted by Bangladesh as
their National Anthem when it formed into a separate nation in 1971). Another Bengali poet ‘Bankim
Chandra Chatterjee’ wrote “Vande Maataram” song. Both these songs became popular in this
incident. Hindus and Muslims came onto the roads and celebrated together ‘Raksha Bandhan’
festival to express to the govt. about their brotherhood.

INC decided to convert the public anger into a mass movement in Bengal and the decision
was taken in 1906-Calcutta session of INC presided by Dadabai Navroji. By this time, INC had both
moderates and extremists in equal strength, there were long series of discussions on how to design
the Anti-partition movement. The moderates preferred the same old style of protest which was to be
peaceful and constitutional. They preferred to gather public opinion and thus pressurize the govt. to
withdraw the partition decision. They also wanted any protest movement to happen only restricted
to Bengal province. But the extremists had a different design of programme- it must be an All-Inda
movement, Tilak proposed the term ‘Swadeshi’. According to him, the British could enforce their
rule on Indians due to strong political power supported by the military and the police. The reason
behind this political power was economic power. The British trade and commerce with India is the
backbone of British imperialism and we need to break this support by boycotting the purchase of
foreign goods in India. At the end of the session, the ‘Swadeshi Resolution’ was passed with lots of
happiness among the extremists and half-hearted support from the moderates. The movement
broadly included-

A. Boycott of all British goods

B. Boycott of British educational institutions.
C. Promotion of Indian made goods.
D. Boycott of British courts.

The movement officially started on 7th August 1906 and from 2015 onwards this day in India
is being celebrated as ‘National Handloom Day’. Tilak called this movement as ‘Bahishkar Yojana’.
This was the 1st episode of Indian National Movement under INC’s leadership and not under Gandhi’s
leadership. People actively supported the movement, there were certain violent incidents recorded
in several places and the moderates feared that INC would be blamed and penalised by the British
anytime if this situation continues. They wanted to amend the Swadeshi Resolution of 1906 and
reduce the intensity. Consequently, the next INC session held at Surat in 1907 presided by ‘Rash
Bihari Gose’ made the conflicts within INC open to the public. There were violent attacks among the
congressmen in the Surat session that ranged from exchange of words to exchange to shoes. The
moderates took the police help and expelled the extremists out of the session. Tilak was deported
Rangoon jail where he was detained till 1913. Many extremist leaders went into dark to escape
arrest. The moderates made certain amendments and continued the movement with low intensity
till 1910 A.D.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF SWADESHI MOVEMENT:

1. This movement for the 1st time expressed the national sentiment to the British as even
other British provinces supported the regional issue of Bengal province. The programme of
boycott definitely created pressure on the British economy and the British bosses came
down to settle the grievances in the form of the official visit of King James-V of England in
1911.
2. This movement also created new problems in Indian society. The slogans raised during the
movement mostly contained religious chantings that automatically alienated the Muslims.
3. This movement also exposed the drawbacks of INC.
4. Swadeshi movement had only urban character as it happened only in towns and cities while
the villages were completely untouched. It means INC was popular only in urban areas and
still did not penetrate into rural sections.
5. The Swadeshi movement was not supported by the elite Muslim group of East Bengal who
formed an alternate organisation for Indian Muslims in 1906 at Dacca calling it as Muslim
League. Its aims and objectives in the beginning were no doubt national and secular in
nature but it turned out to be communal after 1935 and eventually became the primary
reason for partition of Indian Sub-continent.
6. The British realised the need to suppress any further events and so they temporarily came
into an agreement with Indians by declaring the cancellation of Bengal partition in the Delhi
Darbar of 1911.
7. The British also realised that Bengal became too much politically activated, especially the
extremist phase brought a fear that Indians would not step back even to use violence against
the British and so, they shifted the political base by transferring the capital of British India
from Calcutta to Delhi in 1911. Their prediction came true when there was bomb attack on
Lord Hardinge-II in 1912 during the inauguration ceremony of viceroy’s office in Delhi. (delhi
conspiracy case; Gadr party conspiracy).

. Govt. of India act 1909- separate electorals

. 1906- formation of Muslim league

Arrival of Gandhi- the background and ideology:

On 9th January 1915, Gandhi arrived in India after completing his successful campaign in
South Africa against the racial discrimination of the British rule on non-English. This day every
year is celebrated as ‘Pravas Bharatiya Divas’.

Mohandas Karam Chand Gandhi was born on 2nd October 1869 at Porbandar in Khatiawar
district of Gujarat. His father was a deewan (Prime minister) in the court of Khatiawar raja and so
Gandhi basically came from an affluent family. He pursued his schooling in India itself and left to
England at the age of 19 to study law. By 1891, he completed his law education and returned to
India. He started his law practice in Bombay High Court. But the profession did not suit to his
nature, and he failed as practitioner as the destiny was differently decided for him.
 In 1893, he left to South Africa to work as a legal advisor in a firm established by his
childhood friend and stayed there for the next 21 years. Before leaving to Africa, he came in
contact with a Jaina poet and scholar ‘Raj Chandra Raviji Bhai’ in Bombay who instilled the
principles of truth and non-violence in Gandhi’s mind. Gandhi was influenced from the doctrines
of all the religions. According to him there was no bigger divine book in the world than the Gita
and frequently mentioned that whenever he could not decide on any situation, he would look
into the Gita to find a definite solution. The story of Harishchandra had a deep impact on his
mind that made him to stick on to the principle of truth for rest of his life. It was Gandhi who 1st
termed the word ‘Rama Rajya’ and advised all the rulers to rule like Lord Rama.

He was also influenced from European writers like ‘Ruskin’ and ‘Leo Tolstoy’. Gandhi learned
the principle of dignity of labour from Ruskin and all his ashrams adopted this principle of self-
work. Leo Tolstoy in one of his writings named ‘a letter to Hindu’ mentions that if at all Indians
need to free themselves from the chains of the foreign rule, the only way was to adopt was
passive resistance. Gandhi was very much impressed from Tolstoy’s opinion and designed the
technique of Satyagraha based on this idea. However, Gandhi himself accepted that he never
created any ideology or doctrine called as Gandhism and clearly said that if any such works under
the title of Gandhism emerge after his death, they must be burnt down into ashes.

Gandhi faced racial discrimination during his stay in Africa. The 1st incident took place when
he was thrown out of the compartment due to his disqualification being a non-white. Though
Gandhi had a faith in British system of justice, he found that the colonial administration was
different from the style of England administration, and he took up the cause to rectify the
defects. The African govt. treated all the non-whites in a sense of inferiority. Gandhi published a
magazine called ‘Indian opinion’ in South Africa through which he could gather the Indian
diaspora into a mass movement to fight the injustice of the British. He founded 2 ashrams in
Africa- ‘Phoenix’ and ‘Tolstoy’ ashrams to train up Indians for sustaining the Satyagraha
technique.

Gandhi launched his 1st satyagraha movement on the ‘Asiatic Registration act of 1906’
passed by the African-British govt. It made mandatory for all the non-whites residing in Africa to
acquire a license from the govt. by registering themselves with their thumbprints. Moreover, the
British govt. did not recognise marriages in Africa that happened in non-Christian tradition. The
protest movement was supported by thousands of followers in South Africa and pressurised the
British govt. to withdraw this act. Consequently, Gandhi’s 1st experiment became successful, and
he was impressed and satisfied with the capabilities of Indians to sustain the satyagraha. It was a
small sample of the future Indian National Movement he had to lead with a big sample in India.
Conclusively, the South African experiment of Gandhi made him popular both in England and
India also as the newspapers published these incidents, on the day of his arrival in India in 1915,
he was already a popular figure among Indians though he did not still achieve anything on the
Indian mainland.

LORD HARDINGE-II SOME IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS:

In 1913, 2 extremist leaders of Punjab- Lal Hardayal singh, Lal sohan singh founded Gadr
party at San Francisco in the New York province of USA with an aim of starting a revolutionary
movement on the British with the help of those Indians settled outside India. It aimed at raising
funds and purchasing weapons to launch the attack.
 The 1st world war also started in this viceroy’s period and India was made a part of the 1st
world war. INC which was mostly under the moderates control unconditionally accepted to support
the British in the war and anticipating fulfilment of many longstanding demands probably after the
war for the timely support of Indians.

In 1916, Mahatma Gandhi went on an All-India tour (Bharat Darshan) on the advice of his
political guru Gopala Krishna Gokhale to understand the grass-root life of Indians specially in the
rural areas.

02-11-2023

In 1916, in mid of the world war-1 period, 2 important episodes were recorded in the
national movement- the home rule movement, and the Lucknow session of INC.

After release of Bal Gangadhar Tilak in 1913, he had completely transformed his methods
and ideologies. Once an aggressive extremist leader now turned out to be a compromising moderate
and he favoured for a peaceful and non-violent agitation methods. He wanted to 1st bring political
awareness among the masses as he found that the Swadeshi movement highlighted the absence of
political consciousness among the general public. He coined the term ‘Home rule’ taking inspiration
from the Irish home rule league (that fought for a dominion status within British empire).

This movement in India aimed at attaining self-governance and gather public opinion and
pressurize the British to take steps for granting self-government in India. Both Tilak and Dr. Annie
Besant (an Irish lady who settled in India through her association with the Theosophical society)
launched this movement- Tilak in Bombay and central provinces, Annie Besant in rest of British India.
They published many articles in their respective newspapers (Tilak edited Mahratta in English and
Kesari in Marathi languages, Annie Besant edited Common weal newspaper in English). The British
govt. could not tolerate the activities of home rule leaders and so arrested them, Mohd. Ali Jinnah
supported these leaders and took many legal discourses for their release.

In 1916, the Lucknow session of INC presided by A.C. Majumdar was a historical session in
which 2 decisions were taken by INC. There was a compromise between moderates and extremists as
Tilak favoured for reunion of congress leaders. INC made an agreement with Muslim league that
both would unite together in all the future events of INC. The viceroy of India Lord Chelmsford (1916-
1921) invited suggestions from Indians for the next act (GOI 1919) to come up in 1919. The Lucknow
session gave a joint declaration to the British govt. with the following points-

A. Attainment of self-government in India within British empire.

B. 4/5th of the members in provincial assemblies must be elected.
C. 1/3rd of the seats in central legislative council must be reserved for Muslims and in the
provinces the seats must be allocated based on the proportion of their population.
D. Separate electorates must continue for Muslims and other minorities of India.

The Lucknow session was a historical blunder in INC’s history as the secular outlook of congress
and its image as an All-India organisation was damaged when it accepted the demand of
separate electorate for Muslims which gave a meaning that congress officially admitted that
Hindus and Muslims cannot have one political system; this sowed the seeds of separatism and
ultimately broke the country into 2 political units in 1947.
 The year 1917 marked the 1st event of Gandhian era in the form of the 1st Indian experiment
called ‘Champaran satyagraha’. In Bihar, the English traders and zamindars having aligned
together forced the peasant communities to produce compulsorily Indigo in a fixed share of their
lands. The production of Indigo was complex process that involved a lot of manual labour, it had
disastrous effects on the health of the Indigo workers and also spoiled the natural vigour of the
soil, it reduced the amount of food grain production leading to food grain crisis. The peasants
even did not get a share of the profits of Indigo trade and suffered from poverty. The police
supported the zamindars and so the peasants were helpless. Gandhi took up the grievances of
these people and experimented his satyagraha technique which was successful making the
British govt. enact laws to abolish forceful practices of Indigo cultivation.

In 1918, the 2nd satyagraha experiment was done on behalf of the mill workers in
Ahmedabad on the issue of war bonus and this also gave a successful output. In the same year
another experiment happened in the Kheda region of Gujarat on tax relief issue, and it was also
successful. The events of home rule movement and the satyagraha experiment of Gandhi
convinced the British that the national movement geared up its speed under these 2 popular
leaders and to curb any further events the govt. brought a new controversial act called as
‘Rowlatt Act of 1919’ that gave immense powers to the govt. to detain any Indian for a period of
2 years on the grounds of suspicion that there is a threat to the national security and they can be
arrested without trail and jury.

The Rowlatt act was bitterly criticised by the Indians, and it was called as the ‘Black act’.
Mohd. Ali Jinnah who was member of the central legislative council resigned his membership
protesting this act. INC decided to launch a nation-wide movement against this act and Gandhi
named it as Rowlatt act satyagraha. He founded an association called ‘Sarva Dharma Prarthana
Sabha’ in order to mobilise people from all communities to participate in the movement. 6th April
1919 was decided to observe an All-India strike and the later events would proceed. The slogans
cried by the protestors were ‘No Appeal, No Vakeel, No Daleel’.

JALLIANWALA BAGH INCIDENT AND AFTERMANTH EVENTS:

During the Rowlatt act satyagraha, a parallel incident in the Punjab province shook the whole
nation and is still remembered as the most painful event of Indian history. The lieutenant
governor of Punjab, Michael O Dawyer arrested 2 popular regional leaders of Punjab- Dr.
Satyapal and Dr. Saifuddin kitchlew under the provisions of Defence act of Punjab. Their arrest
created political disturbances in Punjab province and hence the governor issued curfew orders
for the whole province on 12th April 1919. The govt. orders were not properly communicated to
the local areas in the province and people were unaware about the curfew.

The very next day on the eve of Baisakhi festival (harvest festival of Punjabis), people
gathered across various public places to celebrate community lunch programmes. One such
gathering happened in Amritsar at the Jallianwala Bagh. Nearly 6000 people gathered in the
park. The local police officer of Amritsar General Dyer arrived with a battalion and armoured cars
and entered the park. The architecture of the park consisted of 3 sided long walls, one narrow
entrance at the 4th side and a well at the centre. Dyer gave a warning to the public with 3
minutes time to vacate the spot and ordered for shooting at the innocent public. Nearly 1600
rounds of bullets were fired at the public leading to massacre of many innocent people. Many
were wounded and were not even provided medical support for one whole night. The whole
nation was shocked at this event and all the national leaders visited the spot and protested for
punishing the culprits.
 The British parliament appointed Hunter committee to examine the incident and it gave a
favourable report for General Dyer. The House of Lords passed a resolution praising General
Dyer’s action as a brave act. Even the general public of England raised funding in support of
General Dyer. All these events deeply hurt the Indian sentiment and the sense of revenge further
intensified among Indians. The ‘Sher-i-Hind’ title of Gandhi given to him by African British govt.
and the title of Knighthood of Rabindranath Tagore both were denounced by these people in
protest against the House of Lords praising General Dyer. This incident changed Gandhi’s stand
towards the British rule, and he lost trust in the British system of Justice. It was Sardar Uddam
Singh; a direct witness of the incident took revenge for the victims of the massacre by killing
Michael O Dawyer in 1940 at Caxton Hall in London when he attended as the chief guest to an
occasion of East India Company. The British prime minister on his official visit to India in 2019 on
the occasion of 100 years of this event expressed apology to Indians on this incident.

GOVT. OF INDIA ACT OF 1919/ MONTAGUE-CHELMSFORD REFORMS:

After the completion of world war-I in 1918, the British govt. tried to bring a gift to Indians
for their moral and material support offered to the British govt. during the world war-I. They also
constructed the Indian gate at Delhi in honour of those Indian soldiers who sacrificed their lives in
the world war. This act also came at one such point of time when the Indian mood was highly
disturbed due to the Jallianwala Bagh incident and the Rowlatt act. The provisions of the act include-

A. This act did not fulfil the demand of self-government in India but increased the Indian
representatives in the legislative bodies of India.
B. It introduced bi-cameral legislature at the centre- a legislative assembly of 145 members to
be directly elected with 3-year duration and a council of states with 60 members (38 elected
by provincial councils and 22 nominated by the viceroy).
C. It introduced diarchy in the provinces dividing the council of ministers into nominated and
elected officials with special powers with the governor.
D. 3 lists were created- union, provincial, and concurrent lists with residuary powers with the
centre.
E. The system of separate electorates was extended even to Sikhs and Ango-Indians. (refer to
laxmikant for full provisions of the act)

This act was like giving a stone to a hungry person who was demanding for bread. (this line reference
was used in previous gs mains question)

THE KHILAFAT ISSUE (1919):

At the end of the world war I, a series of treaties were signed between the winners and the
losers of the war as a part of the Versailles conference. One of them was the Treaty of Sevres being
discussed between Turkey and England. The Calipha was the political head of Turkey and also the
spiritual head of all the Muslims in the world. So, whatever happened with him had a link with all the
Muslims. There were rumours during the treaty discussions that England was treating Turkey in the
same way like that of Germany and the Calipha was humiliated, his authority was to be abolished
and the British would also damage the holy places of Islam across her colonies. Indian Muslims also
raised their voice in support of Calipha and the Khilafat movement started in India under the
leadership of Ali brothers in Bihar- Shaukat Ali and Mohammad Ali. Gandhi insisted INC to include
the Khilafat issue in the next non-cooperation movement to be launched by INC. Right from its
inception, though congress exhibited secular nature and many Muslim leaders were associated with
it, Indian Muslims remained distant from INC due to a call given by the Muslim reformist Sir Syed
Ahmed Khan. Except Muslims all were now integral part of congress and according to Gandhi’s logic,
the Khilafat issue was the right opportunity to bridge the gap between INC and Muslims. There are
diverse opinions on Gandhi’s initiative of bringing a religious issue into national movement.

03-11-2023

THE NAGPUR SESSION OF INC 1920:

. President- Vijayaraghavachari

This is considered as a historical session of INC as it marks the beginning of Gandhian era in
the national movement. All the previous ideologies and differences within INC all vanished and
Gandhi emerged as an unquestionable leader within the organisation. The membership of INC
drastically increased by this time and it became the voice of every section of India- men and women,
zamindars and peasants, industrialists and workers, upper caste and the Dalits, Hindus and Muslims
etc.

This session recorded 2 milestone events- the reorganisation of INC and the passing of non-
cooperation movement resolution. Gandhi restructured the INC by establishing the Congress
Working Committee (CWC) at central level, Provincial Congress Committees (PCC) at regional level
followed by the district and village committees. The prominent feature was that the PCCs were
founded on linguistic basis which was a symbolic promise given by INC to Indians that after
independence the reorganisation of states would be done on linguistic criteria.

NON-COOPERATION MOVEMENT:

According to Gandhi, any govt. cannot run without the cooperation of the citizens and even
despotic rulers forcefully take this cooperation from their people. If this cooperation is broken down,
the govt. would automatically collapse. This was his logic behind launching the Non-cooperation
movement. He designed a 7-point formula that included-

i. Boycott of British schools and colleges.

ii. Boycott of British goods.
iii. Boycott of British durbars.
iv. Boycott of British elections to be conducted under the provisions of Government of India
act of 1919.
v. Boycott of British courts and resignation of Indian lawyers from the membership of bar
councils.
vi. Boycott of civil services, police, and army services of the British.
vii. Constructive programme must be a part of the movement.

Originally the NCM had to start on 1st August 1920, but the sudden demise of Balgangadhar Tilak
on the same day compelled the INC leaders to postpone it to 1st January 1921. Gandhi felt that as
Tilak was the most cherished leader in Bombay province and his physical absence in the non-
cooperation movement must be replaced with his symbolic presence. So, he raised a funding
programme in the name of Tilak and called it as ‘The Swaraj fund’ as Tilak’s favourite word was
‘Swaraj’. The donations that flowed into this account were beyond the expectations of Gandhi, there
were many instances where people donated all their properties, women sacrificed their gold and
jewellery. The funding was actually required to support those lawyers who have resigned from their
membership in the British courts. The programme started on 1st January 1921 with an overwhelming
response. For the 1st time, Indians were seen to have engaged in the national movement as full-time
dedication, their confidence came from Gandhi’s statement ‘If this NCM successfully runs for 1 year
we would get independence immediately.’ The whole year of 1921 witnessed successful events of
NCM, even Gandhi was surprised to see Indians sticking to tolerance and non-violence in spite of the
government’s suppressive measures. Nearly 90,000 students boycotted educational institutions, 800
schools were established by Indians and were branded as National schools affiliated to the National
Council of Education founded at Calcutta. The Hindu-Muslim unity was a striking feature of NCM-
Swami Shraddhananda of Arya Samaj addressed a gathering in the main pulpit of Jama Masjid in
Delhi; Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew was handed over the keys of the Golden temple of Amritsar and the
Shankaracharya of Puri addressed the All-India Khilafat committee meeting.

NCM was linked with constructive programmes. According to Gandhi, there are much more
bigger problems in India than the British rule. He found that the backwardness of Indians primarily
comes from unclean and unhygienic environment. He felt that Swaraj not only needs a free India but
also a clean India. He and other INC leaders toured across different villages and performed Swacha
Bharat programmes by involving the village people in cleaning their surroundings. The main
backbone of any nation comes from self-reliance and for this purpose a nation must be capable of
producing what it needs. As the British destroyed the traditional industries of India, Indians were
forced to buy the British goods. So, revival of cottage industries was found necessary and so Gandhi
promoted self-spinning programme by making ‘Charaka’ as a symbol of NCM. The swaraj fund was
used to sponsor charakas to the families in rural areas and promote Khadi production. Women
played for the 1st time an active role in the national movement, they participated in the anti-liquor
programme that included picketing of those shops selling liquor and other British goods.

Poverty was also seen as a curse of Indians society, and he gave a message to all the rich that
they have to convert themselves from the status of owners to the status of trustees to their
properties and use their wealth for eradication of poverty in India popularly called as Gandhi’s theory
of trusteeship. He was the 1st man to put this principle into practice, he abandoned his luxurious life
in 1921 and lived with a dhoti for the rest of his life pledging himself that he would once again live
back a comfortable life when his last fellowmate has all the basic needs of his life.

THE CHAURI CHAURA EVENT 1922:

The NCM progressed very well in 1921. The British govt. tried its best to suppress and divert
people from the movement. Prince of Wales gave official visit in 1921 but he was invited by empty
roads and streets in India. The govt. repealed the Rowlatt act of 1919 and even declared Delhi as the
ICS exam centre in the same year expecting that people would stop the movement with these mere
concessions, but all attempts failed.

On 4th February 1922, a violent incident was recorded in the chauri chaura village in the
Gorakhpur district of United provinces. A small argument between a local police and the peasants
who were doing a peaceful rally turned into a very big incident leading to burning of the local police
station by the peasants and death of 22 policemen, ironically all were Indians. This incident shocked
Gandhi and there were also news that the story of chauri chaura was passing to other areas and
predictions came on repetition of similar incidents across nation-wide. Gandhi was convinced that
the NCM lost its non-violence nature and if not stopped may lead to death of many other people. He
declared on 12th February 1922 that he was suspending the NCM. He urged the British govt. to purely
blame him for the incident and he maybe allotted the highest punishment in the law. He was
arrested in March 1922 and sentenced for 6 years jail term for leading the NCM.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE SUDDEN WITHDRAWAL OF NCM:

1. Before starting the NCM, Gandhi raised the hopes of all Indians and he almost promised
independence to the nation. As an unquestionable leader, people had great faith in him and
blindly followed him. But, the sudden suspension of NCM brought many anti-gandhians in
the national movement who questioned his capabilities of leading the movement.
2. The 1st opposition to his leadership came from within his own people, i.e, in INC. some noted
lawyers of INC like Motilal Nehru, C.R. Das, Asaf Ali etc. who resigned from the bar councils
were deeply disheartened on the failure of NCM and were no more ready to accept Gandhi’s
leadership. The congress split into 2 groups- one group who opposed Gandhi called as Pro-
changers and other group who still believed in him called as No-changers. The pro-changers
stepped out of INC and founded the ‘Swaraj party’ in 1923. Though they shared the basic
principles of INC, they decided to contest in 1923 elections, capture seats in the legislative
bodies and fight with the govt. by being within the system.
3. On the grounds of ill-health, Gandhi was released in 1924 and he favoured for reunion of the
factions of INC. In the Belgam session of INC (1924), Gandhi himself presided the meeting
and brought reconciliation between INC and swaraj party. The swarajists would act as the
legal wing extension of INC and represent the INC’s voice in the legislative bodies.
4. In 1915, the Hindu Mahasabha was founded by Madan Mohan Malviya (an INC member) and
he too resigned from congress in 1923 and made the HMS as a political organisation. In
1925, the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh was founded by an ex-INC member ‘Kesahav
Bahram Hedgewar’ to train up Indian youth and prepare a volunteer group to fight for
protection of Hindu culture and make an undivided India.
5. The failure of khilafat movement due to the revolution of ‘Mustafa Kamal Pasha’ in Turkey
against Calipha and the suspension of NCM together had a deep impact on Indian Muslims
and they too moved away from INC and gradually Muslim league developed into a strong
political base in the future.

All these developments signify the rise of communal politics in India. Another development in
1925 was the foundation of communist party of India due to the efforts of ‘M.N. Roy’ (ex-INC
member) witnessed the rise of socialist ideas within Indian politics.

Certain youngsters who actively participated in all the boycott programmes of INC and even
got arrested had great hopes about NCM that it would change their destiny. But the dilution of
NCM created unrest among the young blood who decided to discard non-violence and take up
arms against the British rule by establishing secret organisations and this marks the rise of
revolutionary nationalism.

. Lord Chelmsford (1916-1921)

. Lord Reading (1921-1926)

LORD IRWIN (1926-1931):

After a break of 5 years, after NCM, once again an All-India political activity started in 1927
with the appointment of the Simon commission.

The British made it a policy to revise the act that governed India once in every 10 years right
from 1909 onwards. As the deadline of the govt. of India act of 1919 was approaching in 1929,
the British parliament appointed a 7 membered constitutional commission under ‘Sir Herbert
Simon’ to examine the defects of 1919 act and propose new recommendations for the next act.
All the 7 members of this commission were chosen from different political parties of England and
so it was exclusively a white commission. The absence of Indian membership in the commission
was criticised from Indian side. Indians felt the commission as an insult on their self-respect and
their aspiration of self-rule. It was decided not to co-operate the commission and conduct a
nation-wide boycott. The INC in its Madras session of 1927 presided by ‘M.A. Ansari’ passed a
resolution on ‘Anti-Simon commission’.

The commission visited India in February 1928 and arrived at the Bombay port. Indians
welcomed the commission with placards having the slogan ‘Go back Simon’ and also sealed their
mouths with black plasters expressing their protests. The commission faced same situation in
different parts of the country. The secretary of states for India ‘Lord Birkenhed’ who was
responsible behind for forming this commission was annoyed with the Indian’s stand and threw
an open challenge to prepare a draft copy of Indian constitution acceptable to majority of Indians
and then the British would accept their demand of self-governance.

04-11-2023

Nehru committee report (1928):

The challenge thrown by the secretary of state for India was readily accepted by all the
national leaders of India, they all joined hands together and conducted all parties’ conferences
and decided to appoint a constitutional committee which was formed under ‘Motilal Nehru’ and
hence named as ‘Nehru committee’. Jawaharlal Nehru was the secretary and even Subhash
Chandra Bose was also a member of this committee. It drafted the constitutional copy called as
the Nehru report and submitted for discussion in august 1928 in the all parties conference held
at Lucknow. The key points of this report were:

a. A federation of India must be established with both British provinces and princely states.
b. The powers must be divided between the centre and the provincial govts. with the residuary
powers with the centre.
c. Dominion status to India in which the governor general would be the constitutional head
appointed by the British crown.
d. Universal adult franchise and gender equality.
e. Reservation of seats for minorities at the centre based on the proportion of their population.
f. End of separate electorate system.
g. Reservation to Muslims in states where they were in minority (it means in Punjab and Bengal
provinces there must not be any reservations for Muslims). Reservation for Hindus in North-
West Frontier Province (NWFP) where they were in minority.
h. Replacement of English with Hindustani language as the official language of India.
i. No religion would be recognised as the official religion of the state.

JINNAH’S OBJECTIONS ON NEHRU’S REPORT:

Jinnah joined the Muslim League organisation from 1913 onwards as an observer whereas
he became a full-time member from 1924 onwards and converted the league into a strong
political organisation within the elite Muslims. He had certain reservations on the features of
Nehru’s report and demanded for their incorporation into the report. He demanded –
 a. The provinces must be stronger than the centre and the residuary power must lie with the
provinces.
b. 1/3rd of the seats in the central legislature must be reserved for the Muslims; 1/3rd of the
ministers both at centre and in state must be Muslims.
c. All the provinces must have reservations for Muslims irrespective of whether they were in
minority or not.
d. Continuation of separate electorate system.
e. If 3/4th members of a community at centre and in provincial legislatures oppose a bill related
to the matters of religion, the bill must not be introduced in the legislatures.
f. Constitutional guarantees must be provided for minorities for protection of their culture,
language, education, and holy places.

Jinnah’s demands were not acceptable to other parties and even INC Muslims opposed them.
The Nehru report was passed with a majority vote without considering Jinnah’s demands; the
Muslim League walked out of the conference and held a separate meeting at Delhi and
submitted a separate report to the British govt. called as ‘Jinnah’s 14-point formula’.

. Dominion status Vs complete independence:

The all-parties’ conference gave a deadline to the British govt. as 31st December 1929 to
accept the Nehru committee and awaited for response. Meanwhile a group of young congress
leaders led by Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose expressed their discontent over the
clause of dominion status in Nehru report. They demanded for revision of the report with the
amendment of complete independence. A compromise was arrived in such a manner that- we would
stick to the dominion status if the report was accepted within the deadline and if not the next
demand of INC would be nothing less than complete independence.

THE ROLE OF REVOLUTIONARY NATIONALISM IN INDIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT:

Though the main course of INM went under INC’s leadership in a non-violent manner, there
were also other trends that believed in violent struggle. The rise of extremism within INC no doubt
was the source of inspiration for these revolutionary leaders. The trend greatly increased in
Gandhian era after suspension of NCM.

The 1st notable revolutionary organisation was the ‘Anushilan Samiti’ established by ‘Satish
Chandra Basu’ in 1902 at Calcutta. The leader of Hindutva ‘Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’ (he gave
himself the title ‘Veer’) also founded ‘Abhinav Bharat Mandir’ (Young Indian Society) in 1904, the
‘Yugantar’ was founded by ‘Aurobindo Ghose’ in 1906. These were followed by the foundation of
‘Gadr party’ in 1913 and the most important role was played by the ‘Hindustan socialist republican
association’ (HSRA) in 1924 by merging all the previous revolutionary organisations.

These organisations performed many attempts to terrorize the British officials- the Delhi
conspiracy case of 1912 also called as ‘Hardinge’s bomb case’, the Muzaffar conspiracy case of Bihar
in which Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki assassinated the local magistrate of Bihar, the Nasik
conspiracy of 1909 in which Anant Laxman kanhare assassinated the Nasik district court magistrate.
In this case, V.D Savarkar was found to be associated by sending a pistol to this revolutionary leader
and so was given lifetime imprisonment in 1910 in Andaman and Nicobar cellular jail. He kept
repeated mercy petitions with the govt. and after pledging his obedience, he was released
conditionally in 1924 and from then onwards, he kept aside his anti-British struggle and focussed on
Hindu nationalism. He advocated the 2-nation theory stating that Hindus and Muslims cannot exist
under one political system on equality basis and the minority must accept 2nd grade citizenship in
Bharat. His statements became a string basis for the Muslim League to intensify their 2-nation
theory.

The HSRA organisation was the combination of revolutionaries coming from Punjab, United
provinces, central provinces, and Bengal province mostly. Its aim was to attack British officials and
create a terror to the govt. to convince it to exit India. It was based on individual heroism in which a
single revolutionary leader would be associated with one particular event and his success would
gather more followers for him. Chandra Shekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Jatin Das, Rajendra Lahiri,
Sachin Sanyal, Ashvaq-ul-lakhan, Bathukeswar Dutt, Sukhdev etc were the most prominent leaders of
HSRA. They also had the goal to loot govt. treasuries which they called as ‘swaraj fund’ to gather
weapons for making revolutionary events.

This organisation attempted to perform a loot of govt. treasuries in the famous Kakori
railway incident of 1925. The HSRA actively supported the boycott of Simon commission by
participating in a rally organised under the leadership of the most admired leader of Punjab ‘Lala
Lajpat Roy’ in October 1928. The peaceful rally was violently attacked by the local SP of Lahore
‘James A Scott’ and he personally attacked Roy and gave severe blows. Roy was admitted to hospital
and unable to recover, died on 17th November 1928. The HSRA members were deeply moved on
Roy’s death and pledged to take revenge on James Scott. In the Lahore conspiracy case, Bhagat Singh
and his fellowmen plotted a plan to kill James Scott on 17th December 1928 but accidentally killed the
ASP of Lahore J.P. Saunders.

The HSRA members escaped and went into dark for a period of time. But the Lahore police
chased the case and arrested many of its members, unearthed a bomb factory in Lahore and solved
the mystery of Saunders’ death. Many HSRA members surrendered to the police. The others were
branded as anti-nationals and terrorists, Bhagat Singh decided to continue his fight by being in the
limelight and not as a coward in the dark. He and his friend Bathukeswar Dutt entered the audience
hall of Central legislative assembly building in Delhi and dropped a low intensity bomb in the central
corridor to alert the police for their arrest. Thus, he continued to spread his ideas through his court
speeches which were published in different newspapers of those days and became a popular figure
across the country.

Bhagat Singh and his friends did a hunger strike in Lahore jail against the unequal treatment
given by jail officials between Indian and British prisoners. Jatin Das died in this hunger strike and
was the 1st Indian to have died of the hunger strike. On the death case of J.P. Saunders, Bhagat Singh,
Sukhdev, and Rajguru were awarded death sentence by the British and were executed in 1931. The
death of Chandra Sekhar Azad in a public park at Lucknow finally ended the role of HSRA. The last
attempt of revolutionary nationalism was done by Surya Sen in Chittagong region of Bengal (today in
Bangladesh) and he too was caught and hanged to death in 1934 that marks the end of revolutionary
nationalism in Indian history.

***THE LAHORE SESSION OF INC (1929):

. President: Jawaharlal Nehru

The deadline for the Nehru report was approaching and there was no response from the
British side. The annual session of INC of 1929 was as important as the Nagpur session of 1920. The
1st demanded self-government (dominion status) and the 2nd demanded complete independence.
Nehru passed the ‘POORNA SWARRAJ DECLARATION’ that made all the further goals of INC to be
fought only for complete independence. 26th January 1930 was declared as the ‘day of Indian
independence’ and that INC must celebrate it every year. After independence, to commemorate this
day of Indian history, Jawaharlal Nehru insisted to make it as the ‘Republic Day of India’. On 31st
December 1929, Nehru and some other congress leaders hoisted for the 1st time the tri-coloured
national flag of India on banks of River Ravi. In the same session, Gandhi was once again asked to
design the next programme and thus, the resolution of civil disobedience movement was passed,
and Gandhi drafted the pledge of Indian independence taking inspiration from the declaration of the
2nd continental congress before starting the American war of independence. It was decided to launch
the movement on 12th March 1930.

06-11-2023

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT (1930-1934):

The civil disobedience movement was drafted by Gandhi that included all the previous
features of non-cooperation movement and additionally, violation of discriminative British laws and
no tax campaign were further added to the programme. The movement would start on 12th March
1930, Gandhi chose to break the salt law and hence CDM is also called as ‘salt satyagraha’. Gandhi’s
logic behind choosing salt had many dimensions- it represented a symbol of equality for all Indians
irrespective of religion, caste, language, race, gender etc., and that everyone was affected from the
salt law. Moreover, the location of British India mostly consisted coastal provinces and so, this would
attract majority of Indians in British India.

On 12th March 1930, Gandhi picked up 78 followers from Sabarmati ashram and started a
padayatra to the coastal village of ‘Dandi’ in Gujarat. The journey happened for 24 continuous days
covering a distance of approximately 400kms, 1000s of followers joined Gandhi on his way and lakhs
of crowds gathered at Dandi by the time he reached there on 6th April 1930. Subhash Chandra Bose
compared this padayatra as Napoleon’s campaign on Paris and Mussolini’s attack on Rome. Motilal
Nehru compared this event to, ‘this Dandi yatra is the same dandayatra done by King Rama on
Lanka’. The movement recorded successful events and the people this time kept the hopes of Gandhi
by their strict adherence to non-violence. Even the pathans in NWFP who generally symbolised
aggressive and violent character maintained high levels of tolerance in spite of police and military
action by the govt.

The properties of the non-taxpayers were confiscated by the govt. and even then, the people
did not surrender. Jails lost their character of terror and jail life became a badge of honour. The jails
were overcrowded, law and order came to a standstill and economic situation became worse. The
British govt. initially neglected but slowly felt the heat and pressure of the movement and decided to
reconcile with INC. The British PM Ramsay Mac Donald organised the 1st round table conference
(RTC) in November 1930 by inviting all the major political parties of India for discussions on India’s
future. INC boycotted it as a part of CDM programme, but other delegates attended it. The poor
attendance of 1st RTC failed it and all the participants recommended for a 2nd session by convincing
INC to give its participation. Lord Irwin, the viceroy of India released the congress leaders from jails
and requested Gandhi for a meeting at Delhi.

GANDHI-IRWIN PACT (5TH MARCH 1931):

This was an important episode in Indian national movement as for the first time an Indian
was invited by the boss of the British govt. in India namely, the Viceroy to come and have discussions
for a compromise. It was a heroic victory for INC as the viceroy’s invitation legitimised INC as the
official political opponent of the British and congress got veto power for all the future discussions on
India’s future. Lord Irwin requested Gandhi to suspend the CDM and accept the invitation for
attending the 2nd RTC to be held in England. Gandhi’s proposals were:

A. He would not completely suspend the movement but relax some of the provisions
temporarily so that he would re-launch it if the 2nd RTC failed.
B. All the political prisoners who were arrested as a part of CDM for adhering non-violence
must immediately be released and INC has no accountability for such political prisoners who
were arrested on the charges of violence.
C. All the confiscated properties of non-taxpayers must be returned back to their original
owners if they were not yet auctioned to a 3rd party.
D. To consider the representation of INC to convert the death sentence of HSRA members into
imprisonment.

Except the last provision the rest of Gandhi’s proposals were accepted, and it led to the signing
of the Gandhi-Irwin pact. A special session of INC was held at Karachi in March 1931 presided by
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to ratify the Gandhi-Irwin pact. Some leaders like Nehru and Bose criticised
this pact as a compromise qualified to be unworthy. But it was passed with a majority vote and
Gandhi was nominated as the spokesperson of INC for the 2nd RTC. In this session one more
important event took place- the congress for the 1st time defined its official stand on the term
‘swaraj’ and it included both the goals of political freedom and inclusive development (sarvoday).
Jawaharlal Nehru and M.N Roy also drafted the economic policy of India that derived most of the
principles from the socialist ideas of Russia.

2nd RTC (1931):

The 2ND RTC held at London was attended by many national leaders of India. Gandhi
represented INC, Sarojini Naidu represented Indian women, Jinnah and Aga Khan represented
Muslim League, Madan Mohan Malviya represented Hindus, Ambedkar represented the depressed
classes. This conference had heated debates and arguments among Indian leaders. Gandhi
demanded form the British that for any discussions about the future of India, only INC must be
recognised as the official spokespersons of Indians. He also criticised Jinnah’s demand of separate
electorate system for Muslims and held that Hindus and Muslims do not belong to different political
systems, and they must exist together. Dr.B.R. Ambedkar demanded from the British for recognising
the depressed classes of India as minorities and allot them the privilege of separate electorates.
Gandhi also opposed Ambedkar’s demand of treating the depressed classes as minorities. Overall,
the conference could not arrive a workable solution due to uncompromising attitude among Indian
leaders and so the British govt. withdrew the 2nd RTC.

CDM 2ND PHASE (1932-1934):

After the failure of 2nd RTC, Gandhi was disheartened and returned back to India with the
decision of re-launching the CDM as he arrived in India in January 1932, he was immediately arrested
and kept in the ‘Yerrawadi jail’ in Poona. All the other INC leaders were also imprisoned at different
locations and all the communication channels were cut among them. INC was declared as an illegal
organisation of India, all its offices were ceased by the govt. and even the bank accounts were
freezed. In spite of this, the 2nd phase of CDM continued, the govt. took severe action- the press was
censored, ‘Bengal Regulation act of 1932’ was enacted that brought every aspect of Indian life under
vigilance of govt. that made the life of a freedom fighter very tough.

MAC DONALD’S COMMUNAL AWARD OF 1932:

 In the mid of the 2nd phase of CDM, the British brought a controversial declaration
announced by the prime minister Mac Donald in august 1932. In this announcement, the PM
referred to the demands made by Dr.B.R. Ambedkar in the round table conferences about giving
minority status to the depressed classes so that they too can have their separate electorates. The
real intention of the PM was to create a rift within Hindu society and dilute the freedom movement
by playing diversion politics. He declared that in the next act to be drafted by the British parliament,
the depressed classes would get the minority status and nearly 71 seats in all the provinces would be
recognised as separate electorates for them. The depressed classes were happy over this
announcement, but Gandhi expressed his resentment and wrote a letter to British PM not to divide
the Hindu society and withdraw his decision unconditionally. As there was no response from the
British side, Gandhi undertook a fast-unto-death hunger strike from 20th September 1932. After 5
days his health deteriorated and there were predictions about his death. All the national leaders
were worried about this situation and immediately requested Ambedkar to meet Gandhi and arrive
at a compromise. On 25th September 1932, ‘Poona pact’ was signed between both these leaders in
which Ambedkar compromised on separate electorates and accepted Gandhi’s proposal of
demanding ‘Reserved constituencies’ and double the number (71-> 142) given by Mac Donald award.
Poona pact had a misunderstanding consequence on Indian mind. People who could not understand
the inner meaning of its provisions blamed Gandhi as pro-upper caste. Astonishingly, even the upper
caste Hindus also branded him as pro-Dalit. The Poona pact diverted the mood of the nation from
freedom struggle to divide and rule politics. Gandhi suspended the CDM in 1934 as he found
diminishing of political enthusiasm among the general public. After his release from jail, he kept
aloof himself from active politics and dedicated full-time contribution in eradication of untouchability
through his ‘Harijan Seva Sangh’ and the newspaper ‘Harijan’. Even Ambedkar established ‘Bahishkrit
Hitakarni Sabha’ (the untouchables’ welfare society).

THE 3rd RTC (1932):

During the 2nd phase of CDM another event was the 3rd RTC OF 1932. Except INC all the other
national leaders attended this conference. INC did not attend as it was banned in India and no
invitation was received. A representative of Indian college student from Cambridge university named
‘Chaudary Rehmat Ali’ demanded for creation of a separate homeland for Indian Muslims and named
it as Pakistan that would include the regions of Punjab, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan.
All the Muslim leaders of the conference laughed at this demand and even Jinnah ridiculed this as an
illogical and irrational thought. Sarojini Naidu praised Jinnah as a bridge between Indian Hindus and
Muslims unaware of the fact that the same person would become the Father of Pakistan in future.
The main inspiration for Rehmat Ali came from the writings of a Urdu poet ‘Mohammad Iqbal’ who
1st conceived the idea of a separate nation for Indian Muslims. Dr.B.R. Ambedkar supported the idea
Of Pakistan and suggested for gradual transfer of population between the 2 nations if it came true.

At the end of 3rd RTC, the British govt. released a ‘white paper’ listing out its objectives on
the future of India. It was the 1st document that spoke about the provision of making a constitution
for India. Based on this white paper document and the Simon commission’s report, the ‘Government
of India act of 1935’ was enacted by British parliament, and this was the last act that would govern
India from the side of the British crown. Its salient features include:

a. formation of an Indian federation consisting of both British provinces and such princely
states that desired to join the union.
b. Establishment of a federal court in India that would have jurisdiction on all those conflicts
between centre and the states, inter-provincial conflicts.
 c. Establishment of a federal bank for India to be called as RBI to supervise the monetary policy
of both British India and Burma.
d. Diarchy was abolished in provinces and introduced at the centre. The viceroy would
nominate officials for reserved subjects like defence, communications, finance, trade and
commerce while the ministers for transferred subjects would come from the central
legislative assembly.
e. Bicameral legislature was introduced in provinces and the governors still enjoyed
extraordinary powers.
f. Establishment of provincial public service commissions and if needed joint service
commissions for recruitment of officers in regional administration.

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Whether England would exist or not after the war. Even Musim League rejected Cripps mission that
their demand of 2 nation theory was not at all mentioned in the proposals. Finally, the Cripps mission
failed, and Indians lost all the hopes about discussions and deliberations with the British on the
question of Indian independence. This dissatisfaction turned into anger leading to the Quit India
movement.

QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT (1942):

This was the last episode in the Indian national movement. The main reasons include-

1. Failure of Cripps mission.

2. The threat of Japanese invasions.
3. High inflation of food prices in India due to war conditions.

2nd point explanation- the role of Subhash Chandra Bose and Indian national army was a parallel
episode in Indian national movement which had profound influence on Indians. The background of
INA comes from the efforts of ex-INC member Rash Bihari Gose who was the chief suspect in the
Hardinges bomb case of 1912. He fled away to Japan and in 1940, he founded the Indian
Independence league at Tokyo that is the mother organisation of INA. During the 2 nd world war,
nearly 20,000 Indian soldiers commanded by captain Mohan Singh were caught as prisoners of war
by Japan during the military operation in Singapore. As Japan was in need of auxiliary forces to
further proceed into South Asia, it made a deal with Mohan Singh to turn their allegiance from
England to Japan. Mohan Singh accepted the deal; the Indian POWs were released, and that group
formed into the 1st INA. Later, differences erupted between Mohan SINGH AND Japanese
commanders on ill-treatment of Indian soldiers, and he was arrested. Subhash Chanra Bose found it
difficult in India to run the operations of forward bloc as he was house arrested in Calcutta on
detention charges. He somehow escaped from India and decided to ally himself with the axis powers
to liberate India from British rule. He took the leadership of INA in Singapore and reorganised it into
different brigades- Gandhi’s brigade, Nehru’s brigade, and Rani Laxmibai’s brigade. His plan was to
attack India through the mountainous ranges of the north-east. With the help of Japan, he 1 st
conquered the Andaman and Nicobar islands and renamed them as ‘Shahij’ and ‘Swaraj’ islands. He
next conquered the Nagaland area and waited for more help to come from Japan. From there he
gave a call- ‘Chalo Delhi’ and invited Indian youth to join INA with an inspirational slogan- ‘Give me
blood, I will give you freedom’. He also addressed in 1944, Mahatma Gandhi as ‘Father of the nation’.
During that period, Bose also felt regret in his speeches with the local Indian commanders in INA
about the maltreatment of Japanese authorities over Indian soldiers in the military camps.
Unfortunately for Bose Japan lost in the 2nd world war with its surrender on 14th August 1945 when
USA dropped 2 nuclear bombs. The situation of Bose became very critical, and he had to quit India
and left for Tokyo on 16th August 1945. His plane went missing and believed to have been crashed
near Taiwan. All the INA associates were captured by the British army of India and a special trail was
conducted at red fort in Delhi. The INC passed a resolution to give legal support to INA soldiers in the
court trails and called them as misguided patriots of India. Prominent lawyers of INC Gula bhai Desai,
Jawaharlal Nehru, Asaf Ali, K.N. Katju etc., attended the case in defence of INA and the British were
convinced to give pardon as the situations in India were not in favour of British and punishment to
INA may escalate more problems.

GANDHI VS BOSE ON NATIONALISM:

The launch of the Quit India movement came out on account of Japanese preparations allied
with INA to attack India in the mid of the 2nd world war. Japan successfully completed the invasion of
the other south-east Asian colonies of Britain. England evacuated all the white citizens residing in
Singapore and Burma and left the other people to their own fate. The horrific stories of the
treatment of Japanese soldiers on the indigenous populations of conquered territories were carried
to India by those refugees who returned back to India. Even the American and Australian soldiers
stationed in India committed several atrocities on women. All these incidents convinced Gandhi that
we cannot take the risk of allowing Japan to repeat similar incidents on Indians too. So, he wanted to
immediately bring a situation that can avoid Japanese invasion on India. He was critical about Bose
joining hands with colonial-hungry nation like Japan to liberate India which would transform India’s
fate from European slavery to Asian slavery. He also felt that Indian independence must be the
product of Indian struggle but not at the mercy of a foreign power. The only way to avoid Japanese
aggression was the exit of the British immediately form India. So, he launched the Quit India
movement in 1942 with the above reasons.

The resolution of Quit India movement was passed by CWC in the Wardha session of INC in
July 1942 and was decided to launch the movement on 8th August 1942. Gandhi addressed the public
at Gowalia Tank Maidan (it was later renamed as August Kranthi Maidan) where he gave a call for ‘Do
or die’. He also stressed on the point that we would not surrender until we achieve the goal, and it
was very clear that Gandhi was also in a militant mood as for him the Japanese threat was much
bigger than the British rule. Once again, INC was banned, all the leaders were arrested, and it
became a leaderless movement for some time. On 11th august 1942, 7 school students were shot
dead near Patna secretariat building and this event excited the emotion of the public who turned out
to be violent and the whole Quit India movement turned into a violent movement. The govt.
responded with ruthless repression and the movement abruptly came to an end by December 1942.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT:

1. This movement though started by INC; it could not be led by its leaders as the British govt.
arrested Gandhi and other INC leaders at the beginning of the movement itself. Though it
started with the principle of non-violence, it shortly turned into a violent movement and it
being a war period the govt. was able to use highest force to suppress it ruthlessly.
2. The movement was politically insignificant, but the consequences had a greater impact on
India’s future. It convinced the British that their days in India were numbered. Indian
historians call the Quit India movement as ‘the last nail in the British coffin’.
3. The movement was solely supported by INC and all the other non-congress leaders and
organisations opposed the movement and stood with the British side.
 4. The Muslim League gave a call to all its followers to boycott the movement and render the
British their support by joining into the British army in large numbers.
5. Jinnah commented the Quit India movement as an attempt to establish Hindu-raj and make
Muslims sub-ordinate citizens of India. Even then we see a good participation of Muslims in
rural areas where Muslim League was not so popular among the masses.
6. The communists also opposed the movement as their high command namely Russia was on
the side of Britain in the allied powers and so the communists did not want to disturb the
British in India during the world war. They gave a call to all their followers (the worker’s
classes and peasants) not to participate in the movement but against to their expectations
there was a large-scale participation of labour classes and the peasants in the movement.
7. The Indian bureaucracy which is generally referred to as the steel frame of British empire
also ideologically supported the movement unofficially. It was a mixture of patriarchism and
favouritism. They were convinced that an independent India would definitely come under
INC’s rule, and this was the right time for them to record their names in the good books of
INC.
8. Many Indian princes did not join the Quit India movement and used their muscle power to
suppress its activities in their kingdoms. It was a blessing in disguise for national leaders as
the people in the princely states stood with Indian govt. during the integration process.
9. This movement though was not led by INC leaders, we see emergence of a 2nd generation
Indian leadership within INC who took political shelter in other parties and implemented the
agenda of INC. Ram Manohar Lohiya in Delhi, Jai Prakash Narayan in Bihar, Chittu Pandey in
United Provinces, Usha Mehta in Bombay province, Aruna Asaf Ali in Central provinces were
the prominent socialist leaders of INC who established parallel revolutionary govts. secretly
and guided the followers to continue the movement.

TRANSFER OF POWER/PERIOD OF NEGOTIATIONS (1944-1947):

After the Quit India movement, the Indian national movement went into a standstill and
there was political silence for the next 2 years in India. Lord Wavell (1943-Feb 1947) arrived as the
next viceroy in 1943 and by this time the British were convinced to transfer the power of India into
Indian hands as soon as possible. In 1944, all the INC leaders were released from jails to create a
favourable environment for discussions on granting independence. But the main obstacle in this
process came between INC and Muslim League who had different views about independence. While
INC wanted an undivided India (Akhand Bharat), the Muslim League demanded for a divided India.
Jinnah became the most uncompromising leader who was not ready to dilute any of his stubborn
demands. He presented only 2 options- his 14-point formula of 1928 within undivided India with
British as guarantor or a separate Pakistan for Muslims. INC was not in favour of any of these 2
options as both were detrimental for India’s future. Understanding the critical situation, Gandhi
focussed upon building a middle way mechanism to resolve the tie.

Chakravarthi Raja Gopala Chari, an ex-INC member was requested by Gandhi to frame a plan
to settle the issue between both the parties. He devised a scheme according to which-

a. Muslim League must join hands with INC to accept independence from the British.
b. All the Muslim majority districts in north-west and north-east regions will be identified and a
plebiscite would be conducted on the question of partition.
c. If people give a favourable vote, partition would come into effect and some areas of govt.
like the defence, international affairs, communications would be handled together.
 Jinnah rejected this plan as he viewed that it would create a weak Pakistan. The next talks
continued between Gandhi and Jinnah, and also between Bhulabai Desai and Liyaqat Ali Khan.
All the attempts made from Indian side bitterly failed.

SHIMLA CONFERENCE (1945):

The 1st attempt made by the British govt. to reconcile INC and ML was the Viceroy’s
conference held at Shimla in June 1945. All the major political parties were invited. Lord Wavell
brought 2 proposals infront of the leaders-

a. Establishment of an Interim government at the centre with 14 members (8 from INC ? and 6
from muslims). Only the viceroy and chief commander posts would be under the British.
b. A constituent assembly would be elected with members both from British India and princely
states to draft a constitution for India.
c. The British would completely exit by handing over the power to the interim govt. after the
constitution became ready.

Initially, both INC and ML accepted this plan but once again there was a deadlock. (point
missing) All the 6 muslim candidates in the interim govt. must be nominated only by Muslim
league party. INC objected to this demand as it was not ready to repeat the mistake of 1916
Lucknow pact. Wavell cancelled the meeting in the mid-way and declared it as a failure.

23-11-2023

The cancellation of conference mid-way by the viceroy was the biggest blunder from the
British side as it violated the principle of democracy by giving unnecessary veto power to Muslim
League which was the spokesperson of only a small group of Indians.

The Viceroy decided to 1st conduct the general elections both for the centre and the
provinces to understand the political mood of Indians and the strength of the political parties. There
was also a hidden intention behind this decision- if partition becomes inevitable along with
independence, there would definitely arise a civil war in India because of communal riots that can
happen during the shift of populations. The British realised that the state force may not be sufficient
to control such vast violence and so the British were not ready to take the blame of leading the
country in such circumstances.

THE ELECTIONS OF 1945-46:

After the resignation of congress ministries in 1939 there was political silence under
governor’s rule in the provinces. The elections of 1945-46 were once again intended to awaken
political activity in India and understand the public pulse on the question of Indian independence.
Once again, all the major political parties vigorously campaigned to capture seats- the main
ideological conflict was whether they desired for a united India or a divided India. The results were
quite different from 1936 elections. Muslim League could capture majority of separate electorate
constituencies in provinces, all the 30 seats in central legislative assembly with a vote bank of 86.6%
of muslim votes in India. As usual, majority of the non-muslim seats were captured by congress and
put of its allies. INC secured 57 out of 102 seats in the centre with a clear-cut majority to form the
interim govt.

THE CABINET MISSION PLAN 1946:

After failure of Shimla conference, the British govt. made one more attempt to reconcile the
differences among Indian leaders by sending a high-power committee called cabinet mission that
included Sir Stafford Cripps, Sir Pethick Lawrence, and Sir A.V. Alexander. the mission consulted all
the political parties and designed a plan for transfer of power. The main provisions include-

1. It proposed for a union of India that should include both British provinces and princely
states. (this was the major demand of INC).
2. The provinces would retain maximum powers along with residuary powers, the centre would
manage only defence, communications, and external affairs. (This proposal aimed at strong
provinces and weak centre as demanded by Muslim League).
3. All the British provinces would be grouped into 3 categories-
Group A- all non-muslim majority provinces (6)
Group-B-all muslim majority provinces in north-west (3)
Group-C-all muslim majority provinces in north-east (2)
Total-11
Each group would frame a constitution for itself, and all the groups would sit together to
frame a constitution for whole India.
The constituent assembly would be indirectly elected from the representatives of the
provinces (approximately 1 representative for 1 million of population). (389)

The election results that came out in July 1946 brought a major share for INC in the constituent
assembly- 205 out of 210 seats in general category came to INC, the Muslim league secured 73 out of
78 seats in muslim category, the princely states did not send any representatives. The constituent
assembly was formed on 6th December 1946 and functioned upto 24th January 1950 with 2 years 11
months and 18 days duration. In reality only 299 members functioned in the Indian constituent
assembly as the Muslim League boycotted and after Pakistan formation, they formed a separate
assembly.

At first, the cabinet mission plan was accepted by both INC and ML. But later disapproval came from
both the sides on the provision of grouping the states. INC wanted oluntary grouping while the
muslim league stood for compulsory grouping. Finally, except the provision of constituent assembly,
all the other clauses were rejected.

Direct Action Day of Muslim League (16th august 1946):

Jinnah suspected that the cabinet mission members were moving more close to INC and it
means according to him, the British were giving more preference to congress. The rejection of
partition proposal further increased his fear and insecurity. Meanwhile, the results of constituent
assembly elections showed an overwhelming majority for INC. Lord Wavell was also initiating
administrative procedure to form the interim govt. at the centre by inviting INC to form the 1 st
government. all these events irritated and enraged Jinnah. He decided that it is useless to participate
in conferences and darbars and the power must be exhibited on streets and roads. He gave an ill-
conceived call to all his followers to show their power through violence and declared 16 th august
1946 as direct-action day. On this day, in Bengal particularly, under Muslim League govt. encouraged
muslims to attack Hindus and counter action came from the Hindu side too. The communal riots
broke out across the province leading to the death of many innocent people from both the groups.
Gandhi visited Noakhali and Calcutta, both being most sensitive areas of violence to appeal to the
people to drop down their weapons. In spite of warning given by the intelligence department to
Gandhi not to visit these disturbed areas, he answered ‘better I die in the hands of my own men than
to witness dying of my own men’. The slogans of the direct day action were- ‘Ladke Lenge Pakistan,
Lekar rahenge Pakistan’. The situation of communal riots bothered the viceroy greatly and he was
not further ready to take a chance of blaming his administration, he immediately sent an invitation to
INC to form the interim govt. and transfer the responsibility (i.e, the risk) into the hands of Indian
leaders to curb the violence. On 2nd September 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru became the 1st prime
minister of India and retained that post till his death in 1964. 3 seats were purposefully kept vacant
with a hope that muslim league would also join hands with the govt. so that being a part of the govt.,
it would also share the accountability of communal violence. In October 1946, the Muslim league
sent its nominees with Liyaqat Ali Khan popularly known as right hand of Jinnah played the most
decisive role of implementing muslim league’s agenda. He was given finance portfolio and everyday
Nehru and Patel had to fight with him. The muslim league joined the interim govt. not to cooperate
and rule but to exercise their non-cooperation attitude to convince the INC for partition. This interim
govt. with both INC and muslim league coalition served as a sample of how the nature and character
of Indian govt. would be in future had partition not taken place. Nehru wrote a letter to Viceroy
asking for a resignation of muslim league ministers and this letter was an indirect acceptance from
INC’s side favoring partition.

LORD MOUNTBATTEN (FEB 1947-JUNE 1948):

The last viceroy of pre-independence India and the 1st viceroy of independent India is Lord
Mountbatten who is remembered in Indian history in finalising the Indian independence.

Mountbatten came with a firm commitment to execute the task of completion of transfer of
power as a dedicated bureaucrat of British govt.

On 27th February 1947, the new prime minister of England, Sir Clement Attlee, coming from
the labour party of England was committed both as opposition leader in the past and the present
head of the English govt. to fulfil the task. The English public were also sympathetic towards Indian’s
cause and moreover the post-war conditions did not favour the European masters to further hold
their colonies as they had to set right the things at their own homes. The UNO was also formed at
that time and UK being a permanent member cannot afford to practice imperialism and colonialism
against to the UN’s resolution. Attlee officially declared in the house of commons that India would be
liberated not later than June 1948, he also warned all the political leaders of India to immediately
settle their disputes and accept independence and if not, the British would themselves decide whom
to hand over Indian power in the larger interests of Indians. His statement created political tensions
in India and Jinnah further intensified his speeches leading to large scale communal violence to
pressurize INC for accepting partition.

Mountbatten after having a series of discussions with all the major leaders proposed his
famous 3rd June plan/ Mountbatten plan and placed it in front of Indian leaders-

a. The decision of partition must be taken by Bengal and Punjab provinces as they were to be
directly affected. The MLAs of both these provinces would sit as 2 separate groups-one
representing as muslim majority districts and other MLAs from non-muslim districts. Even if
one group in the province vote for partition, that province would be bifurcated.
b. The assemblies of Sindh and Balochistan would decide through a resolution whether they
wanted to join India or Pakistan if partition comes into effect.
c. A boundary commission would be appointed to draw the international border between both
these nations.
d. The princely states would either join India or Pakistan based on geographical continuity.
e. Each nation would have a governor general separately or jointly who would rule till their
respective constitutions became ready.
This plan was accepted by INC and Muslim league. INC half-heartedly accepted this plan as it
considered partition as a lesser evil than a disastrous civil war. INC was also highly utopian in
its thoughts that the partition could be reversed some time in the future. A political diplomat
rightly said that ‘in reality, a 2-India is going to be a permanent foe than friends.’
The 3rd june plan was implemented, favourable votes for partition came from Bengal
and Punjab muslim MLAs. Sindh and Balochistan expressed their willingness to join Pakistan,
the referendum in North-west frontier province also favoureed for Pakistan. The Sylhet
district in the east favoured a plebiscite to join east Pakistan. Sir Radcliff, a Scottish
cartographer who had little knowledge on India designed the boundary on both the sides
which was more unscientific. The plan and the results were submitted to the British
parliament and on that basis it enacted the Indian independence act of 1947-

a.It divided British India into 2 dominions- India and Pakistan with their heads the governor generals.

NOTE: Mountbatten was accepted to continue his service as governor general of India while Jinnah
rejected for a joint governor general and he himself became the 1st governor general of Pakistan.
Historians found this as a major mistake for all the disturbances that happened between India and
Pakistan in the early years of partition. On 14th august 1947, Pakistan came into existence with
Karachi as capital and on 15th August 1947 Indian independence came into effect.

b. The British paramountacy on princely states was ended and they were now free to decide about
their future by negotiating with the governments of India and Pakistan.

c. all the officials serving in British India would continue in their respective positions in their
respective nations.

d. till the constitutions were ready for both the nations, the govts. would be run according to the
provisions of govt. of India act of 1935.
The act was passed in the British parliament on 5th July 1947 and received royal assent from King
George VI of England on 18th July 1947.

PARTITION- A CRITICAL ANALYSIS:

The question- who should be blamed for partition has a multi-dimensional approach as there
are many stakeholders. The British, the INC, the Muslim league, and other right-wing organisations,
all share the blame for the partition in different degrees.

The British successfully implemented 2 policies for their reputation in the world history- one
is divide and rule, the other is divide and quit. These 2 policies placed the 2 communities in India on
contradictory sides and created lifetime problems for both the nations.

Even the execution of partition plan was not scientifically implemented- the British fairly
neglected the Indian interest and only God knows why they were in so much hurry to partition the
2nd largest populated land of the world. Probably, they did not want to take the blame of the
consequences and did not want Indians to enjoy their freedom. The police and the military were
diverted for protecting the lives of English citizens but no measures were taken for saving Indian lives
during the process of partition.

24-11-2023

The INC also shares a blame for the partition due to inevitable mistakes done in different
phases. The swadeshi movement that followed from the partition of Bengal was led by INC and so it
must have been more secular in outlook. The Muslims of Bengal who initially supported the
movement started departing away as the slogans used by their Hindu colleagues included religious
symbols mostly depicting the mother goddess of Calcutta. Probably, the extremist leaders like Tilak
who encouraged such religious agenda in national movement could not forecast the problems it
would create in the future.

When the British introduced the system of separate electorates after swadeshi movement,
INC must have boycotted such policy as it was the against to the principle of secularism. The INC
approved separate electorates while aligning with muslim league in 1916 Lucknow pact. There itself
congress lost its credibility as an organisation committed to nationalism.

The 1936 elections also witnessed (point missing) making an alliance with the Muslim league
in the United provinces. After the results, atleast it must have prevented another mistake by keeping
the promise of alliance during the formation of govt. The violation of promise by INC became a
fodder for Jinnah to popularise his anti-Hindu agenda. (point missing), INC failed to control the
communal forces, many INC leaders were also members of religious based organisations. These
people turned out to be a headache to the congress leadership even after independence.

The role of right-wing organisations largely contributed for polarisation of hindus and
muslims to such extent that the differences could not be reconciled both by the British and other
national leaders. The right-wing leaders slogan that ‘Religion in danger’ largely influenced their
followers and created unresolvable rift between hindus and muslims and so partition was the final
remedy to avoid a bigger civil war. The tendencies that arised in pre-independent period still
bothered the security of the nation till date.