Unit 3: The emergence of Early Nationalism in India

Definition of Nationalism
Ernest Renan defines a nation as an entity based on acts of the free will of individuals forming
a collective identity. He says:

A nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things which, properly speaking, are
really one and the same constitute this soul, this spiritual principle. One is the past,
the other is the present. One is the possession in common of a rich legacy of
memories; the other is present consent, the desire to live together, the desire to
continue to invest in the heritage that we have jointly received. Messieurs, man
does not improvise. The nation, like the individual, is the outcome of a long past
of efforts, sacrifices, and devotions. Of all cults, that of the ancestors is the most
legitimate: our ancestors have made us what we are. A heroic past with great men
and glory is the social capital upon which the national idea rests.

Benedict Anderson, in his Imagined Communities, suggested that while most members of one
single nation will not know each other, they are brought together by the image of their
communion. Anderson's concept of imagined communities carries the idea that nations can be
re-imagined and therefore transformed. Anderson defines ‘the nation’ as an ‘imagined political
community that is imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign.’ The nation is
imagined because “members… will never know most of their fellow members… yet in the
minds of each lives the image of their communion.’ That is, the possession of citizenship in a
nation allows and prompts the individual to imagine the boundaries of a nation, even though
such boundaries may not physically exist.

Hans Kohn, in his book The Idea of Nationalism, defines nationalism as ‘a state of mind,
permeating the large majority of a people and claiming to permeate all its members; it
recognises the nation-state as the ideal form of political organisation and nationality as the
source of all creative cultural life and economic well-being. For him, the supreme loyalty of
man is therefore due to his nationality, as his own life is supposedly rooted in and made possible
by its welfare. A very different perspective of nationalism is defined by Karl Marx who
portrayed nationalism as no more than a bourgeois enthusiasm and depicted the government of
the nation-state as ‘nothing more than a committee for the administration of the consolidated
affairs of the bourgeois class as a whole’.

Some Approaches to Indian Nationalism

In the case of Indian nationalism, Annie Besant, in her How India Wrought for Freedom,
defines that concept of Indian nationalism was already embedded in India’s ancient past
through Aryan civilization. On the one hand, there was a proud literary heritage, through
legends, traditions, drama and songs, depicting nationality. On the other hand, religion and
pilgrimages came to consolidate further this sense of unity and national consciousness. In his
India in Transition, Marxist historian M.N. Roy vehemently denies the claim of the romantic
school that Indian nationalism originated in ancient times. To him, the historians of this school
were ‘bad readers of history’. For him, nationhood was ‘a comparatively recent phenomenon
in the annals of human history’. Nations were born at a certain stage of economic development
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whose people in a given area were welded together into a national entity. For him, India during
the age of Hindu and Muslim rule was ‘a mere geographical expressions’. However, he argued
that Maratha’s power in the 17th century marked ‘the first stage of political nationalism in the
history of India’ but it soon disintegrated. It was only with the advent of British nationalism
that the necessary objective conditions for the rise of Indian nationalism were truly laid because
they destroyed the indigenous feudal mode of production and created a capitalist mode of
production. Roy claims that what prompted the Indian intellectuals to espouse nationalism was
their desire to foster their class interest. The ideology of nationalism was borrowed from the
British bourgeoisie and aimed at creating ‘a bourgeoise nation state.’

B.T. McCully, in his English Education and the Origins of Indian Nationalism, claims that
nationalism was a global phenomenon which had touched all peoples and states. He conceives
English education as the agency through which nationalism entered India because it in the true
sense of the word was unknown to India. A common education had not only imparted a sense
of unity and shared experiences among the English educated but also burdened it with common
economic and cultural problems.

Anil Seal, in the Emergence of Indian Nationalism, focused on the processes that led to the
emergence of Indian nationalism during the late 19th century. In order to elucidate these
processes, he argues that educated played a very crucial role in bringing people together from
different regions because western education was more flourished in the presidencies of Bengal,
Bombay and Madras where there had been much impact of British rule. However, western
education and its benefits were utilised by only certain sections, i.e., bhadralok in Bengal,
Maharatta Brahman and Parsi in Bombay, and Tamil Brahmins in Madras. Thus, he argues that
there was little possibility of unity among graduates and their societies. In the early years, these
educated classes acted as collaborators with the British Raj but it was likely to be a conditional
bargain, and when their benefits got lessened, then they came to act in national terms within
the framework of the British Raj by the third quarter of the 19th century. Although they claimed
that their organisation, Indian National Congress, was found as the mouthpiece of India as a
whole, Anil Seal denied that it was a national party. He even argued that the origins of Indian
nationalism were unrelated to changes in the economic sphere. Thus, he also believes that
Indian nationalism is a modern phenomenon which, despite reflecting some peculiarities of its
environment, shares much in common with nationalist movements in other parts of the world.

The rise of nationalism in India and the development of anti-British sentiment have been linked
with the actions and policies of the British Raj. Firstly, start with the economic critique of the
British rule, which Bipan Chandra calls as ‘economic nationalism’. This phase was replaced
by the Gandhian phase of nationalism which is always defined as a ‘mass nationalism’ where
all sections of Indian society came together to fight British imperialism.

S.N. Page
3.1. Rise of Indian National Movement and Political Associations before INC 3
3.2. Foundation of Indian National Congress 15
3.3. Moderate Phase and Early Congress 21
3.4. Rise of Extremism 33
3.5. Partition of Bengal and Swadeshi Movement 1903-1908 39

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 3.1. Rise of Indian National Movement and Political Associations
before Indian National Congress
• Introduction
• Growth of Indian Nationalism
➢ Stimulus-Response Debate
➢ Impact of British Rule
➢ Political and Administrative Unification of India
➢ Development of Rapid Means of Transport and Communication
➢ Impact of Western Education
➢ Rise of Middle-class Intelligentsia
➢ Understanding of Contradiction in Indian and Colonial Interest
➢ Rediscovery of India’s Glorious Past through Historical Researches
➢ Impact of Contemporary European Movements
➢ Progressive Character of Socio-Religious Reform Movements
➢ The Memory of the Revolt of 1857
➢ Growth of Vernacular Literature
➢ Emergence of Modern Press and Newspapers
➢ Economic Exploitation by the British
➢ Racialism
➢ Lord Lytton’s Reactionary Policies
➢ The Ilbert Bill Controversy
➢ The Birth of Indian National Congress
• Political Associations before INC
➢ Political Associations in Bengal
o Bangabhasha Prakashika Sabha
o The Zamindari Association
o The Bengal British India Society
o British Indian Association
o The East India Association
o The Indian League
o The Indian Association of Calcutta
o Aim and Objective
➢ Political Associations in Bombay
o The Poona Sarvajanik Sabha
o The Bombay Presidency Association
➢ Political Associations in Madras
o The Madras Mahajan Sabha
• Other Political Bodies
• Conclusion

Introduction

The process of ‘political awakening’ in the second half of the 19th century leads to the establishment of
the Indian National Congress in 1885. The great revolt of 1857 is considered the culmination of popular
discontent against British rule and marked the beginning of a long-drawn struggle against British
imperialism. In Bengal, Bombay and Madras presidencies, where the British first set up its foothold,
the new intelligentsia, especially those who were the beneficiaries of western education, came to be
critical of the abusive character of the colonial rule. Initiatives to set up provincial political associations
first came from this elite section of society. Although the tribal people and the peasantry raised their
voices against imperialism in different parts of India, there was no unity of intent. The process of
political mobilisation took a significant shape in the latter half of the 19 th century. In this chapter, the

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emphasis is on the rise of nationalism feeling, factors associated with it. The rise of Congress and the
myth related to it is also given due attention. The formation of several provincial associations, British
administrative measures in the 1870s and 1880s, contributing towards the growth of anti-British opinion
and the foundation of the Indian National Congress is also discussed in this chapter.

Growth of Indian Nationalism

After the Revolt of 1857, Indian nationalism developed in India due to several forces working
simultaneously or in close succession. The socio-religious reform movement initiated by Raja Ram
Mohan Roy added the progressive impact of western civilisation and education. The effect of both
was greatly reinforced by the discontent produced by the economic policies of the British government,
which resulted in the ruination of Indian industries and led to the increasing poverty and misery of the
masses. It is vital to note that the birth of nationalism in India resulted from the chief motive of the
British rulers who sought to protect and promote British interests. As these interests came into conflict
with those of the Indian people, and the British rulers sacrificed the Indians’ interests for their own
sake, discontent and resentment were bound to grow. This naturally led to the growth of Indian
nationalism. Below are the factors which led to the rise of nationalism feelings amongst the Indians:

Stimulus-Response Debate
● The relationship between the ideological and cultural impact of the West on the indigenous
society or ‘colonial modernity’ and the ‘Indian renaissance’ has been discussed and debated
by historians of modern India. They believe in a kind of stimulus-response assumption and
feel that the impact of Western knowledge modernised Indian society.
⮚ The argument put forward by them is that English education and literature, administrative
practices, science and philosophy and material and technological elements of the Western
civilisation acted like a compelling force to wake up Indians from their long slumber and
brought them closer to the social conditions, processes, and discourses that had emerged
with Age of Enlightenment in Europe.
⮚ Others contradict this line of argument and believe that Western ideas and administrative
practices could not make much of a difference in traditional Indian society. Whatever
change took place as a result of Western impact was superficial, partial and open to
doubt.
● The Indian intellectuals analysed colonialism in the context of their own society. The response
had been mixed and varied. The urge to change emerged not only in the secular and cultural
field but also religious realm and literary-artistic forms.
⮚ The Indian intellectuals focused on the dynamic side of Indian history and culture. It
absorbed new elements in India’s enduring and ever-changing civilisation by selecting
some aspects of the past and borrowing some novel features from the newly encountered
Western knowledge and culture.
⮚ All this was done not just for imitation but in a spirit of critical self-enquiry. As M.G.
Ranade put it beautifully: “No mere foreign grafting can ever thrive and flourish unless the
tender plant on which the grafting is to be made first germinates and sends its roots deep
into its own indigenous soil. When the living tree is thus nourished and watered, the foreign
manure may add flavour and beauty to it.”
Impact of British Rule
● As a result of the inherent nature of foreign imperialism and its harmful impact on the lives of
the Indian people, the powerful anti-imperialist movements gradually arose and developed in
India.
⮚ The movements were the forms of national movement because these united people from
different classes and sections of the society who sank their mutual differences to unite
against the common enemy.
Political and Administrative Unification of India
● The British gradually instituted a uniform and modern governance structure in the country
and thereby administratively unified it.

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 ⮚ A professional civil service, an integrated judiciary and codified civil and criminal laws
throughout the length and breadth of the country imparted a new dimension of political
unity to the hitherto cultural unity that had existed in India for centuries.
● In addition, the introduction of railways, telegraphs and a unified postal system brought
together the various parts of the country and encouraged mutual communication among the
people, particularly the leaders.
● The launch of modern trade and industries on an all India scale had increasingly made
India’s economic life a single whole and inter-linked the economic fate of people living in
different parts of the country.
● Nationalist sentiments increased among the people because, during the 19th and 20th centuries,
India was united and welded into a nation.
Development of Rapid Means of Transport and Communication
● The requirements of administrative convenience, deliberations of military defence, and the urge
for economic dissemination and commercial exploitation all in British interests were the
dynamic forces behind the strategic development of modern means of transport and
communication in India, such as railways, roads, telegraph, and telegraph electricity.
● From the nationalists’ point of view, this means of unification had the following effect:
⮚ The economic fate of the people of diverse regions got linked together; for instance, the
failure of crops in one region affected the prices and supply in another region.
⮚ Modern means of transport and communication brought Indians, especially the leaders,
from different regions together.
o This was important for exchanging political ideas and mobilising and organisation of
public opinion on political and economic issues.
Impact of Western Education
● The indigenous people wished to acquire western knowledge and proficiency in the English
language but did not always seek to imitate the English or Europeans in all aspects of life. The
initiative to learn English and Western science amongst Indians came as early as 1817, which
can be attested by the establishment of the Hindu College in Calcutta.
● The print culture also came with colonialism. William Carey (The Baptist Missionary)
established the first modern press in 1801 at Serampore, published the translations of Bible, the
first works of modern Bengali prose, and a Bengali weekly newspaper, Samachar Darpan
(1818).
● A new class of indigenous intellectuals emerged in this process of importing western
knowledge and technology of print.
● Macaulay’s Minute (1835) accelerated the process, although his own aim was to produce
Indians who would serve the British in subordinate positions. The Wood’s dispatch (1854)
adopted a more coherent plan to develop education in India. Universities were established at
the Presidency capitals of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras in 1857.
● Between 1865-85, about 50,000 candidates passed the university entrance examination, and
about 18,000 earned a university degree.
● Some others were enrolled in specialised professional courses and institutions such as Medical
Colleges and engineering schools.
● These colonial educational institutions were sources of both employment and intellectual
influences.
⮚ The legal profession was the primary source of both employment and intellectual influences.
The legal profession was the primary source of jobs, and at the end of the 19th century, nearly
14,000 persons were employed in this in the three Presidencies.
● The Vernacular Press and teaching offered other prospects. Some scholars even relate the
emergence of Indian nationalism to the absence of good job opportunities among the
indigenous sections.
● The colonial social milieu had not only produced student clubs like the society for Acquisition
of General knowledge (Calcutta, 1838), it also became a cradle for the development of
political associations such as the British Indian Association (Calcutta, 1851), Bombay
Association (1852) and Native Association in Madras (1852).

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Rise of Middle-class Intelligentsia
● In 1817 with the formation of the Hindu College at Calcutta, mainly belonging to upper-caste
Hindus, got the opportunity to learn the English language and western science. English was
made the official language and the rising elite saw learning English as the key to power under
the British regime.
● The new colonial education enabled a section of Indians with a graduate degree, making
them eligible for government service.
⮚ However, the new graduates with ambition soon found themselves left out in the race for
coveted administrative positions in government. There were contests within Indian elites
for shares of power and resources.
⮚ It is claimed that a sense of frustration due to limited employment opportunities gave birth
to anti-British sentiments. One may not fully agree that the frustration of educated Indians
made them nationalist. Still, there was a visible change in the attitude of educated Indians
towards British rule in the second half of the 19th century.
⮚ In the early years of British rule, educated Indians were usually appreciative of the
beneficial aspects and looked towards the West for new concepts and scientific education.
The tendency began to change from the second half of the 19th century after realising
the exploitative nature of colonial rule and the growing misery of the Indian masses.

Understanding of Contradiction in Indian and Colonial Interest

● Modern Indian nationalism emerged to meet the challenge of foreign domination. The very
conditions of British rule facilitated the growth of national sentiment among the Indians.
⮚ The British rule and its direct and indirect consequences provided material, moral, and
intellectual conditions for developing a national movement in India.
● The essence of the matter lay in the clash of the interests of the Indians with British interests.
The British had conquered India to promote their own interests, and they ruled it primarily with
that purpose in view, often subordinating Indian welfare to British gain.
⮚ The Indians realised gradually that their interests were being sacrificed to those of
Lancashire manufacturers and other dominant British interests.
⮚ They now began to recognise the evils of foreign rule. Many intelligent Indians saw that
many of these evils could have been avoided and overcome if Indian and not foreign
interests had guided the policies of the Indian government.
● The primary aim of British rule was to expand and protect British interests in India. In
accomplishing its mission in India, various policies adopted by the British in economic,
political and social spheres gave birth to discontent against its rule and the idea of pan-Indian
nationalism.
● The first century of British rule witnessed the plunder of India’s resources, causing significant
famines in India. Famines were indeed not new in India, but natural calamities caused these
famines. During British rule, famines were man-made because of the British exploitative
policy.
● The new land revenue scheme, commercialisation of agriculture, the drain of wealth, and de-
industrialisation badly affected the peasants, tribals, artisans and rural economy.

Rediscovery of India’s Glorious Past through Historical Researches

● The historical research by European scholars, such as Max Mueller, Monier Williams, Roth
and Sassoon, and Indian scholars such as R.G. Bhandarkar, R.L. Mitra, and later Swami
Vivekananda, created an entirely new picture of India’s past.
⮚ This picture was characterised by well-developed political, economic and social
institutions, a flourishing trade with the outside world, a rich heritage in arts and culture
and numerous cities.
● The theory put forward by European intellectuals that the Indo-Aryans belonged to the same
ethnic group from which other nations of Europe had evolved gave a psychological boost to
the educated Indians. The self-respect and confidence gained helped the nationalists demolish
colonial myths that India had a long history of servility to foreign rulers.

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Impact of Contemporary European Movements
● The rise of several nations on the ruins of the Spanish and Portuguese empires in South America
and the national liberation movements of Greece and Italy in general and of Ireland in particular
profoundly influenced the nationalist ranks.
Progressive Character of Socio-Religious Reform Movements
● These reform movements pursued to remove social evils that divided the Indian society; this
brought different sections together and proved to be an essential factor in the growth of Indian
nationalism.
The Memory of the Revolt of 1857 and other Revolts
● The great revolt of 1857 is viewed as the outburst of accumulated anger of dispossessed
princes, angry soldiers and aggrieved peasantry. Describing this revolt as the mutiny of
sepoys simplifies the complexity of issues implicated in raising the banner of revolt by different
groups of Indians.
● In the process of extracting the highest land revenues, the traditional landed aristocracy lost
powers and privileges, and the peasantry came under the burden of hefty taxes. By promoting
British goods, British rule caused severe hardship to the artisans and handicraftsmen. Thus,
the banner of revolt raised by the sepoys soon grabbed the character of a civil rebellion having
backing from landed aristocracy, peasants, artisans and others.
● The British won in suppressing the revolt, but the revolt succeeded in creating a powerful
expression of nationalist sentiment, which was yet to take over an organised shape.
⮚ The anti-British sentiments became so sharp among Indians that even those who were the
beneficiaries of British rule in India began criticising its repressive policies.
⮚ Exemplary bravery and sacrifice of lives by rebels soon became legends and gave birth to
a sense of intense patriotism.
⮚ The spirit of protests against exploitation persisted after 1857. The indigo cultivators’
resistance to the despotic system of indigo cultivation by all European planters went for a
major revolt in 1859-60 in the province of Bengal.
⮚ Din Bandhu Mitra’s Neel Darpan (published in 1860) portrayed the subjugation of indigo
planters. Against their wishes, peasants were compelled to cultivate indigo for planters’
benefit.
● The Company’s servants were involved in plundering wealth, which even caused the famine of
1770 in Bengal. The famine led to massive starvation death. Exorbitant rent, forced cultivation,
confiscation of crops and cattle compelled peasants to raise voice against the oppression. The
eastern part of Bengal witnessed massive agrarian unrest during the second half of the 19th
century.
● In 1873 peasants organised an agrarian league in the Pabna district in Eastern Bengal and
mobilised peasants to stop paying rents to zamindars. Peasant discontent forced the British
government to enact Bengal Tenancy Act in 1885 to protect peasants.
● The new intelligentsia in Bengal epitomised by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, R.C. Dutt,
Surendranath Banerjee, and others expressed their solidarity in supporting peasants. In 1875
peasants in Poona, Ahmednagar, Satara and Sholapur of Maharashtra gave a call for social
boycott of money-lenders and later on, peasant resistance turned into agrarian riots.
● Peasant resistance forced the government to enact the Deccan Agriculturists’ Relief Act of
1879 as token protection against money-lenders. Peasants in Malabar, Punjab and other parts
of the country were pushed to raise voice against exploitation and deprivation in the 19th
century.
● In the lack of any organised leadership and obvious ideology, peasant movements might not
have directly challenged British rule during this period. Still, the courage and consciousness
shown by peasants had a substantial influence in shaping public opinion against
colonialism.
⮚ The miseries of peasants very much touched the new Indian intelligentsia, and in the
writings of the 19th century, this concern for peasants was displayed. The various popular
revolts concreted the ground for the evolution of new political consciousness against
British rule.

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 ● Indians in the important provinces of Bengal, Bombay, and Madras did not join the mutiny.
However, education, the press, European racism, and economic oppression aroused a new
political consciousness. The Revolt of 1857 and the indigo peasant resistance in 1859-60
contributed to this awakening in Bengal.

Growth of Vernacular Literature

● During this period, concepts of nationalism and patriotism were taking popular form in
songs, poems and plays. Many songs were composed for the Hindu Mela, organised for some
years from 1867 onwards by Bengali leaders.
⮚ The aim was to spread nationalist ideas and encourage indigenous arts and crafts. In
the process, British policies were condemned for deteriorating the economic conditions of
the Indians. The necessity to use swadeshi goods was also highlighted.
⮚ National literature in novels, essays, and patriotic poetry also played an important role in
arousing national consciousness. Rabindranath Tagore in Bengali, Lakshminath
Bezbaruah in Assamese; Vishnu Shastri Chiplunkar in Marathi, Subramanya Bharali
in Tamil, and Altaf Husain Hali in Urdu were some of the prominent nationalist writers of
the period.
● These concepts found expression in some drama performances also. In a play that became
popular around the 1860s entitled Neel Darpan, atrocities committed by indigo planters were
highlighted.
⮚ The most important name in this context is that of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, who
wrote historical novels highlighting the tyranny of the rulers. His most well-known work is
Anandamath (1882), which contains his immortal song ‘Bande Matram’ composed a few
years earlier, in 1875.
● Similar patriotic feelings can be observed in the literature in other languages. Bhartendu
Harishchandra, who is regarded as the father of modem Hindi, in his plays, poems ad
journalistic writings, put forward a plea for using swadeshi things.
⮚ Similar trends can be seen in Marathi literature also where there was a tremendous
increase in the number of publications from 3 between 1818- 1827 to 3,284 between 1885-
1896.
● The period since the 1860s witnessed a significant increase in literary production in
vernacular languages. Pamphlets and novels written in vernacular languages produced a new
interest to rediscover India’s golden past, especially preceding the Muslim invasions. As
against authoritarian and individualistic elements of British rule, the effort was made to search
for democratic, unifying values in Indian tradition.

Emergence of vernacular, Modern Press and Newspapers

● The vernacular press was developing with importance and had a significant influence in shaping
Indian opinion against the British. One can distinguish the effect of vernacular press in shaping
public opinion from the following testimony given by Reverend James Long before the
Indigo Commission in 1860.
● “The vernacular press raised into great importance as a genuine exponent of native opinion and
became the index of the native mind.”
● The concerns of educated Indians for poor cultivators and their critique of British rule helped
in shaping public opinion against the British. The oral traditions also aided in creating
awareness about the British government’s exploitative nature among the local people.
⮚ Folk songs and local forms of drama were utilised in exposing the misdeeds of the British.
The dawn of new political awareness among Indians rapidly became visible with the
emergence of several political associations.
● The press was the chief instrument through which the nationalist Indians spread patriotism and
created an all-India consciousness.
● Large numbers of nationalist newspapers came into existence in the second half of the 19th
century.

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 ⮚ In their columns, the official policies were continually criticised, the Indian point of view
was put forward, the people were asked to unite and work for national welfare, and ideas
of self-government, democracy, industrialisation, etc., were popularised among the people.
● The press also supported nationalist workers living in different parts of the country to exchange
views.
⮚ Some of the prominent nationalist newspapers of this phase were the Hindu Patriot, the
Amrita Bazar Patrika, the Indian Mirror, the Som Prakash, the Bengalee, and the
Sanjivani in Bengal; the Rast Goftar, the Native Opinion, the Indu Prakash, the Mahratta,
and the Kesari in Bombay; the Hindu, the Swadesamitran, the Andhra Patrika, and the
Kerala Pathrika in Madras; the Advocate, the Hindustani, and the Azad in U. P.; and the
Tribune in Punjab.

Economic Exploitation by the British

● The grounds of the Indian nationalist movement lay in the fact that gradually British rule
became the major cause of India’s economic backwardness. It became the main barrier to
India’s further socio-economic, cultural, intellectual, and political development.
⮚ Every class and section of Indian society gradually discovered that their interests were
suffering at the hands of the alien rulers.
⮚ The peasant viewed that the government took away a large part of his produce as land
revenue; that the government and its machinery, the police, the courts, the officials
favoured and protected the zamindars and landlords, who rack-rented him, and the
merchants and money-lenders, who cheated and exploited him in various ways and who
took away his land from him.
⮚ Whenever the peasant struggled against the landlord, money-lender oppression, the police
and the army silenced him in the name of law and order.
⮚ The artisan and the handicraftsman saw that British rule had helped foreign competition
ruin him and had done nothing to rehabilitate him.
● Later, in the 20th century, workers in modern factories, mines, and plantations found that the
government sided with the capitalists, especially the foreign capitalists, despite lip sympathy.
⮚ Whenever they tried to organise trade unions and improve their lot via strikes,
demonstrations, and other struggles, the government machinery was freely used against
them. Moreover, they soon realised that the growing unemployment could be checked only
by rapid industrialisation, which only an independent government could bring about.
● These three classes of Indian society, the peasants, the artisans, the workers, constituting the
overwhelming majority of the Indian population, discovered that they had no political rights or
powers.
⮚ Education did not help them as there were barely any schools in villages, and the few there
were poorly run.
⮚ The doors of higher education were barred to them in practice. Moreover, many of them
belonged to the lower castes and had still to bear social and economic oppression by the
upper castes.

Racialism
● An important factor in the evolution of national sentiments in India was the attitude of racial
superiority adopted by many Englishmen in their dealings with Indians.
● Racist arrogance and refusal of equal rights to Indians alienated educated Indians and
contributed to developing consciousness as an Indian nation.
⮚ Liberal, democratic and egalitarian ideals opened the eyes of educated Indians to become
critics of British domination. They influenced them to look back to Indian civilisation for
its unique power of assimilation.
⮚ Many Englishmen openly insulted even educated Indians and sometimes even assaulted
them; a fierce and frequent form taken by racial arrogance was the malfunction of justice
whenever an Englishman was involved in a dispute with an Indian.

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 ⮚ As G.O. Trevelyan pointed out in 1864: “The testimony of a single one of our countrymen
has more weight with the court than that of any number of Hindus, a circumstance which
puts a terrible instrument of power into the hands of an unscrupulous and grasping
Englishman”.
● Racial arrogance labelled all Indians regardless of their caste, religion, province, or class with
the symbol of inferiority. They were kept out of entirely European clubs and were often not
permitted to travel in the same compartment in a train with the European passengers. This made
them conscious of national embarrassment and thought of themselves as one people when
facing Englishmen.

Lord Lytton’s Reactionary Policies

● Lord Lytton’s tenure was full of controversy, which further enraged Indians. During Lytton’s
viceroyalty (1876-80), most of the import duties on British textile imports were removed to
please the textile manufacturers of Britain.
⮚ Indians interpreted this action as proof of the British desire to ruin India’s small but
growing textile industry. It created a wave of anger in India and led to widespread
nationalist agitation.
● The Second Anglo-Afgan War aroused vehement agitation against the high cost of this
imperialist war that the Indian Treasury was bearing. The Arms Act of 1878, which disarmed
the people, seemed to them as an effort to emasculate the entire nation.
➢ The politically conscious Indians condemned the Vernacular Press Act of 1878 to
suppress the growing nationalist criticism of the foreign government.
➢ The conducting of the Imperial Durbar at Delhi in 1877, when the country was
suffering from a horrible famine, led people to believe that their rulers did not care for
their lives.
➢ In 1878, the government announced new regulations lowering the maximum age limit
for sitting in the Indian Civil Service Examination from 21 years to 19.
o Already Indian students had observed it challenging to compete with English boys
since the examination was conducted in England and English.
o The new regulations further diminished their chances of entering the Civil Service. The
Indians now realised that the British had no intention of relaxing their near-total
monopoly of the higher grades of services in the administration.
● Thus, Lytton’s viceroyalty helped intensify discontent against foreign rule. Surendranath
Banerjee, one of the founders of the national movement, once said:
⮚ “The reactionary administration of Lord Lytton had aroused the public from its attitude of
indifference and had given a stimulus to public life. In the evolution of political progress,
bad rulers are often a blessing in disguise. They help to stir a community into life, a result
that years of agitation would perhaps have foiled to achieve.”

The Ilbert Bill Controversy

● The Ilbert Bill controversy further provided the discontent spark. In 1883, the Viceroy Ripon
tried to pass a law to enable Indian district magistrates and session judges to try Europeans in
criminal cases.
⮚ It was a very meagre effort to remove a glaring instance of racial discrimination. Under
the existing law, even Indian participants of the Indian Civil Service were not authorised
to try Europeans in their courts.
⮚ The Europeans in India organised a vehement agitation against this Bill, which became
known after Ilbert, the Law Member. They poured abuse on Indians and their culture and
character. They asserted that even the most highly educated among the Indians were unfit
to try a European. Some of them even organised a conspiracy to kidnap the Viceroy and
deport him to England. In the end, the Government of India bowed before the Europeans
and amended the Bill to meet their criticism.
● The Indians were horrified at the racial bitterness displayed by the critics of the Bill. They
also became more fully conscious of the degradation to which foreign rule had reduced them.

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 They organised an all-India campaign in favour of the Bill. And, most of all, they learnt the
valuable lesson that to get their demands accepted by the government, they too must organise
themselves on a national scale and agitate continuously and unitedly.

The Birth of Indian National Congress

● With the foundation of the National Congress in 1885, the struggle for India’s freedom from
foreign rule was launched in a small but organised manner. The national movement was to
flourish, and the country and its people were to know no rest till freedom was won.

Political Associations before INC

● The Indian National Congress was not the first political association to be established in India.
Various associations had been found earlier. The Provincial Associations brought 19 th century
India to the threshold of modern politics.
● In the beginning, religious zeal and sometimes caste solidarity encouraged people to form
associations. These associations had limited scope and programmes.
● However, many associations came to be established in different parts of the country by groups
of men united by secular interests during the century.
● The factors which held them together were a common education, shared skills and functions
and common aspirations and resentment against the policies of the British rulers.
Political Associations in Bengal
● Raja Ram Mohan Roy was the pioneer of political movement in India. Western ideas greatly
influenced him. He was a widely read man. He was the first Indian to focus the Englishmen’s
attention on India’s grievances and ask for remedial measures.
Bangabhasha Prakashika Sabha
● The Bangabhasha Prakashika Sabha was formed in 1836 by the associates of Raja
Rammohan Roy. This association or Sabha discussed topics connected with the policy and
administration of the government and sought redress by sending petitions and memorials to the
government.
The Zamindari Association
● One of the earliest associations was the ‘Zamindar Association’ founded in 1838. It was
primarily an organisation of the landholders to protect their vested interests. Although the
Zamindar Association sought to preserve the economic interests of the feudal landlords, it also
had a broader purpose and programme.
● The Zamindar Association afforded the first lesson in the art of fighting constitutionally for
their rights and taught them manfully to assert their claims and give expression to their opinions.
The Bengal British India Society
● On 20 April 1843, the ‘Bengal British India Society’ was founded at Calcutta. Its aim was;
⮚ the collection and dissemination of information concerning the actual condition of people
of British India and the laws and institutions and resources of the country, and
⮚ To employ such other means of a peaceable and lawful character, as may appear calculated
to ensure the welfare,
⮚ Extend the rights and advance the interests of all classes of our fellow-subjects.
● The Bengal British India Society did not receive much public support, and it carried on without
making itself felt political.
● Between 1843 and 1850, before the foundation of the British Indian Association, there were
only two political associations in India, the Bengal British India Society and the Zamindar
Association, which was known by a new name, the Landholder’s Society.
British Indian Association
● The British Indian Association was founded on 31 October 1851. The Landholder’s
Society and the Bengal British India Society were merged into it. The first executive
committee was composed of prominent members of both these organisations.
● When the British Indian Association promoters met at Calcutta, they decided that the society
would be formed for a period of not less than three years.

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 ⮚ The objective of the association shall be to stimulate the improvement and efficiency of
the British Indian government by every legitimate means in its powers, advance the
common interests of Great Britain and India, and facilitate the condition of the native
inhabitants of the subject country’.
● Raja Radhakant Deb was chosen as President of the Association and Debendranath Tagore
its secretary. A small but relatively representative committee was appointed to manage the
affairs of the association.
● The membership of the British Indian Association was not large. Still, it included some of the
wealthiest, ablest and influential figures of the Indian community in Calcutta, representing
different religions and professions.
⮚ The association had a regular establishment and ample funds. Though predominantly an
organisation of the Hindu Zamindar residing in Calcutta, the British Indian Association
soon established itself as a power in the land by its able and zealous advocacy of Indian
interests.
⮚ The authorities often sought its advice and assistance, and the people of Bengal looked
upon it as their ‘Parliament’. Its mouthpiece, the ‘Hindu Patriot’, became one of the most
ably conducted and widely read weekly newspapers of that time in India.
The East India Association
● The East India Association was formed by Dadabhai Naoroji in 1866 in London to discuss
the Indian question and influence public men in England to promote Indian welfare. Lord
Lyveden was its first President.
● Later, branches of the association were opened in prominent Indian cities. The association
produced a journal (Journal of the East India Association) from its inception, which included
the papers that were delivered before their meetings. Papers and proceedings of these meetings
were then produced in the Asiatic Quarterly Review, which eventually
superseded the Journal of the East India Association.
The Indian League
● Shishir Kumar Ghose formed the Indian League in 1875 with the objective of “stimulating
the sense of nationalism amongst the people” and encouraging political education.
● The League’s low annual subscription of Rs.5 was intended to attract a new kind of members
since it hoped to represent not only the middle classes but also the masses to stimulate the
sense of nationalism among the people and encourage political education.
● Within a year of its foundation, the Indian League was superseded by the Indian
Association, inaugurated at a largely attended meeting in the Albert Hall, Calcutta, on 26 July
1876. This new association echoed the argument that Bengal’s political society represented the
middle classes and ryots.
● The objectives of the Indian Association were declared to be ‘to represent the people and
promote by every legitimate means, the political, intellectual, and the national advancement of
the people. According to one of the leaders, ‘Loyalty to the British rule and agitation for a
constitutional Government are, as we have already stated, the two maxims which the Indian
Association has always promulgated’.
The Indian Association of Calcutta
Background:
● There was a lot of dissatisfaction with the exclusive character of the British Indian Association.
⮚ Manmohan Ghose and Womesh Chandra Banerjee experimented with politics in the
London Indian Society and the East India Association. In Bengal also there were various
proposals to establish new associations.
● In Calcutta, two groups were planning for a new association with countrywide branches. Shishir
Kumar Ghose and the others led by Anand Mohan Bose and Surendranath Banerjee.
● The Indian Association of Calcutta superseded the Indian League. It was founded in 1876 by
Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose, who were getting discontented with the
conservative and pro-landlord policies of the British Indian Association.

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 ⮚ Shishir Kumar Ghose formed the Indian League while the others were still formulating
their plans. Within a year of its foundation, the Indian League was superseded by the Indian
Association, inaugurated on 26 July 1876.
⮚ This new association echoed the argument that there was no political society in Bengal,
which represented the middle classes and ryots.
Aim and Objectives
● The objectives of the Indian Association were declared to be to represent the people and
promote by every legitimate means the political, intellectual, and national advancement of the
people.
⮚ The Indian Association had the following ideals in view when it was started –
o The formation of a strong public opinion in India towards political questions,
o The integration of the Indian people on a common political programme,
o The promotion of Hindu-Muslim Unity.
⮚ The Indian Association helped in realising these ideas to a large extent. The emphasis on
national unity, which was a characteristic feature of the programme of the association,
helped in realising these ideas to a large extent.
The success of the Indian Association
● The success of the Indian Association on the question of the civil service increased the belief
in the efficiency of constitutional methods.
⮚ When the Vernacular Press Act was introduced by Lord Lytton in 1878, curtailing the
freedom of the Indian newspapers, the Indian Association addressed a letter of protest to
Gladstone, the prime minister of England. This obnoxious Act was repealed by Lord Ripon,
who became the Viceroy in 1880.
⮚ The Indian Association was the most significant pre-Congress association which aimed
to promote the political, intellectual and material advancement of the people by every
legitimate means.
⮚ With the foundation of the Indian National Congress, the Indian Association lost its
political importance. Yet, it has to be remembered that the idea of holding an all-India
conference with representatives from every province was its invention.
Political Associations in Bombay
● To the Britishers, Bombay seemed loyal and well affected, a happier place than Calcutta. The
rapid development of commerce, the expansion of industrial activity, and capital accumulation
all tend to loyalty and goodwill towards governments.
● One reason for Bombay’s apparent political calm was that most of them were not organised for
politics but were concerned with improving social conditions and reforming religious
practices.
● No less than Calcutta, mid-19th century Bombay possessed wealthy men prepared to dabble into
politics. Bombay entered the age of political associations with the foundation of the Bombay
Association on 25 August 1852. Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy was elected the honorary President.

The Bombay Association and Bombay Presidency Association

● It was not until the end of 1867 that the Bombay Association was revived. With the revival of
the Bombay Association in 1867, several young graduates and lawyers, such as Bhandarkar
Ranade, Mehta, Wagle, Telang and Tyabji, were attracted to it. They also joined the Bombay
branch of the East India Association, which Dadabhoy organised in 1869. The Bombay
Association remained pretty active for about five years following its revival.
● The Bombay Presidency Association was started by Badruddin Tyabji, Pherozshah Mehta
and K.T. Telang in 1885.
The Poona Sarvajanik Sabha
● Poona was the first city in western India to follow the lead of the British India Association of
Calcutta. On 2 April 1870, Poona Sarvajanik Sabha was established by Mahadeo Govind
Ranade and others to serve as a bridge between the government and the people.
● It grew out of two different organisations. One was the association of Poona Brahmins intended
to settle the management of the hereditary religious property of the Peshwas upon a sound basis,

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 and the other was the remnant of a local association started in 1867 to act as an intermediary
between the district and the government.
● The managing committee of the Sabha was dominated by retired government servants and
lawyers. Its most active members were G. V. Joshi, S. H. Sathe and S. Chiplunkar.
● Until the Bombay Presidency Association got underway in 1885, the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha
was the leading association in western India.
⮚ It agitated a wide range of subjects such as the Bombay Forest Regulations, the License
Tax, and the Ilbert Bill and favouring local self-government.
⮚ The Sabha was the first to petition for an extension of Ripon’s viceroyalty.
⮚ In 1884 it pressed for reform of the legislative councils and recruitment to the civil
service. By building up a reputation for moderation and good sense, the Sabha succeeded
in winning some influence with the government, which it retained until Tilak took over the
Sabha in the 1890s.
Political Associations in Madras
● The first organisation in the Madras Presidency to advocate for the rights of Indians was the
Madras Native Association which publicist Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty established in 1849.
It did not survive for long and was eventually disbanded.
The Madras Mahajan Sabha
● In May 1884, M. Veeraraghavachariar, G. Subramania Iyer and P. Anandacharlu
established the Madras Mahajana Sabha. P. Rangaiah Naidu was elected its President in
1885.
● The Sabha held its first conference between 29 December 1884 and 2 January 1885. It adopted
a moderate policy in its initial days. However, its aims and objectives were considered
rebellious by the British government. In December 1895, on his visit to Madras,
the Viceroy Lord Elgin refused to receive the welcome address from the Madras Mahajana
Sabha.
Other Political Bodies
● Many other political bodies were established in India, like the Madras Mahajan Sabha, the
Bombay Presidency Association, the Allahabad People’s Association, the Indian
Association of Lahore etc.
Many of these bodies had branches in the Mofussil towns. After 1885 these became the regional
arms of the Congress.
Conclusion
The political project of imagining an Indian nation from the top had to confront the complex issue of
diversity and difference from the very beginning. The administration took advantage of such
contradictions in colonial society. Further, it encouraged them in order to create more impediments for
the budding Indian nationalists. Despite all their weaknesses and limitations, they were raising some
unpleasant questions for the Raj. In this context, the Indian National Congress was born in 1885, which
will be seen in the next chapter. During subsequent years, INC dominated the Indian nationalist
movement, resolving these contradictions with mixed successes. The establishment of the Indian
National Congress in 1885 thus marked the advent of a new era destined to see the fulfilment in a little
over sixty years of the nation’s urge for liberation, sovereignty and self-reliance. It was a visible symbol
of the growing sense of unity amongst the Indian people. In the beginning, Congress was not a well-
knit political organisation; it had no regular membership or a central office, its views were very mild
and moderate. But as someone has rightly said, great institutions have often had small beginnings.

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 3.2. Foundation of Indian National Congress

• Introduction
• Circumstances in which the Indian National Congress was founded
• Social Composition of Early Congress
• Significant Contribution of Middle/Educated/Elitist class
• Foundation of the Congress: The Myth and the Reality
➢ Foundation Laid
➢ Myth
➢ Reality
➢ Conditions under which Indian National Congress was formed
o Some Important Weaknesses at the time of Inception
o Strength
• Conclusion

Introduction
The Provincial Associations provided regional forums to articulate the economic and political
aspirations of the people in the respective areas. However, the politically conscious Indians gradually
came to realise the need to organise an all-India forum. The educated Indians from different parts of the
country increasingly became aware of the necessity to come together, formulate a common programme
of activity, and carry on public education to create a broad-based freedom struggle. These aspirations
of the early visionary leaders led to the establishment of the Indian National Congress in 1885. The
Indian National Congress, which was fated to play a dominant role in India’s struggle for independence,
was founded at a national convention held in Bombay in December 1885 under the presidency of
W.C. Bonnerjee.

With the formation of the Indian National Congress, the national movement and the struggle for
freedom from British rule was launched in an organised manner. For more than twenty years following
the foundation of the Indian National Congress, the political life of the country was utterly dominated
by it. It also gave shape and form to the ideas of administrative and constitutional reforms, which were
the chief aspects of the political programme of the nationalists. However, it is not historically correct to
say that the history of the freedom struggle in India is nothing but the history of the Indian National
Congress. There were other forces and undercurrents at work that contributed to a considerable extent
to the freedom struggle of the country. Nevertheless, it must be noted that the Indian National Congress
was the major nationalist organisation that led the country to its final liberation from the British
yoke.

Circumstances in which the Indian National Congress was founded

As the British extended their influence over India, a sullen feeling of hatred grew amongst the people.
It was centred on their perception that the new rulers were liable for their economic hardships. The
opportunities available to them for progress were insufficient. The lower sections of social and
economic hierarchy conveyed their resentment by sporadic uprisings. These were habitually directed
against immediate exploiters-the zamindars, money-lenders and tax collectors. However, these were
protests against the system built by the British. In a way, the great Revolt of 1857 itself sprang up as
an outburst of accumulated discontent of masses in different parts of the country. Following factors
are said to be leading circumstances that pushed for an integrated association at all India levels:
● Rise of the New Leaders: The failure of the 1857 Revolt revealed the inadequacy of the
traditional method of protest. It also showed that the old aristocratic classes could not be the
saviours of Indian society.
⮚ The English educated middle class appeared to be the hope of the future. This class was
aware of the benefits India had obtained from the British connection. It was also familiar
with European liberal ideas of that period.

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 ⮚ At the same time, this educated class had a sense of pride in the country’s glorious past and
gradually developed the conviction that foreign domination was inherently opposed to
fulfilling the legitimate hopes and aspirations of the Indian people.
⮚ The educated Indians considered that the benevolent rulers would redress their grievances
if they could draw their attention to them. Therefore, in the beginning, the middle-class
agitation was confined to the ventilation of some specific political and economic grievances
and demands. But later, this class realised the true colours of British Rule.
● Growth of Art and Literature: During this period, ideas of nationalism and patriotism were
given popular form in songs, poems and plays. The objective was to spread nationalist ideas
and encourage indigenous arts and crafts.
⮚ In the process, British policies were condemned for deteriorating the economic
conditions of the people. The need to utilise swadeshi goods was also emphasised. These
ideas noticed expression in some drama performances also. In a play that became popular
around the 1860s entitled Neel Darpan, atrocities committed by indigo planters were
highlighted.
● Newspapers and Journals: The newspapers and journals had played an admirable role in
building up public opinion in favour of Indian national interests and against the excesses and
inequities of the colonial administration.
⮚ Some well-known English language papers were Amrita Bazar Patrika, Hindoo Patriot
and Som Prakash, published from Calcutta, Indu Prakash and Native Opinion from
Bombay and The Hindu from Madras.
⮚ Some main papers published in Hindi were Hindustan, Bharat Mitra and Jagat Mitra.
⮚ Jam-e-Jahan Numa and Khushdil Akhbar were well known Urdu newspapers. The signs
of growing political awakening and feeling of oneness were obvious to perceptive
contemporary British Observers.
Social Composition of Early Congress
● Traits and Attributes: Historians have described the composition of early Congress as the
‘educated middle classes’, the ‘professional classes’, the ‘English educated elite’ or the
‘intelligentsia’.
⮚ The reference here is to those who had acquired knowledge of English, had grown under
the impact of British rule, and had taken to professions like law, teaching, and journalism
had secured government jobs.
⮚ Beginning from the Presidency towns of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, they had spread
like a thin covering over the whole country.
● Economic roots: This middle class had social and economic roots in tenurial landholding,
government service or professions and did not lie in industry or commerce.
⮚ This section showed pride in calling itself the middle class, i.e. a section of society below
the zamindars but above the toilers.
⮚ It looked forward to playing the same role of the middle class in western society, i.e.
helping transition from the feudal to ‘modern’ society through Renaissance, Reformation,
the democratisation of political institutions, and rapid industrialisation.
● Social Roots: The middle-class members belonged to that section of society that could not be
called poor and were usually from higher castes as per the classification of the Ancient Indian
caste system.
⮚ Most of the high caste people did not enjoy good economic status. For example,
o In Bengal and many other parts of India, well-to-do families were customary to employ
Brahmins as cooks.
o In Bombay, as per the figures collected in 1864, 10,000 beggars were listed as
Chitpavan or Saraswat Brahmins.
● “Elitist” Justification: The members of INC can be called an elite because it seemed to be the
select part or pick of the society. But the ideology of this class was different from the elitist
attitude as they were not defending its own privileges like in terms of education, in terms of
social status etc.

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 ⮚ Their one great asset was English education. Their English education did not restrict
them, but many educated Indians devoted themselves to spreading this type of education.
⮚ They did not hesitate to take up such social reforms, which could have affected their
privileges adversely.

Significance of Middle/Educated/Elitist class

● Asserting Leadership: In the Indian context, the term ‘educated middle class’ stood for groups
that acquired western education and maintained regional or national leadership.
⮚ During the 19th century, this class made a significant contribution to Indian life by
championing the cause of religious and social reforms, writing patriotic songs, plays and
novels, preparing an economic critique of British rule and establishing political
organisations.
● Microscopic minority or Dynamic Minority: Lord Dufferin, the Viceroy, once remarked that
it was ’a microscopic minority’. It was indeed a minority. However, it was a minority that
could not be ignored, as Dufferin himself realised.
⮚ It was a minority that had common principles, used similar idioms, and could take a
broad all-India view.
⮚ It is the dynamic minorities that have usually determined the shape of nations. According
to British officials, this class did not represent the masses, and it was the British who looked
after the interests of the Indian masses.
⮚ This argument was improved because it served the imperial interest of justifying the
perpetuation of the British Raj. In India, the alienation of this class was compounded by the
foreign medium of modern education. However, the knowledge of English did not mean
that people stopped knowing their own language.
⮚ It is substantial that, as a class, the educated Indians could never be bought over by the
government.

Foundation of the Congress: The Myth and the Reality

Foundation Laid
● Formation Place: The Indian National Congress (INC), which played a dominant role in
India’s struggle for independence, was formed at a national convention held in Bombay in
December 1885 under the presidency of W.C. Bonnerjee.
● First Meeting: A.O Hume is credited with organising the first meeting of the Indian
National Congress. The first meeting was held on 28th December 1885 in Gokaldas Tejpal
Sanskrit College, Bombay.
⮚ Initially, Hume and his group contemplated Calcutta as the most likely place for the
conference for Indian National Union (originally, it was this name that was adopted).
But later decided upon Poona because it was centrally located, and the Executive
Committee of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha expressed readiness to make arrangements for
the conference and provide necessary funds.
⮚ The venue had to be shifted to Bombay from Poona due to the outbreak of cholera in Poona.
● First President and precedent set: It was attended by 100 men, of whom 72 were nonofficial
and were recognised as members. The honour of being the first-ever Congress President went
to W.C. Bonnerjee of Bengal.
⮚ Bonnerjee was one of the first four Indian Barristers and one of the foremost legal personalities
in his day. His election determined the healthy precedent that the president should be chosen
from a province other than where the Congress was being held.
⮚ Surendranath Banerjee and many other leaders of Bengal had not attended the first
session of the INC as they were occupied with the Second National Conference at Calcutta.
o In 1886, they merged their forces with the National Congress, whose second session
met in Calcutta in December 1886 under Dadabhai Naoroji. From this session, the
National Congress became the whole country’s Congress.
o The INC met every year in December in a different part of the country

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 ⮚ In 1890, the INC session was addressed by Kadambini Ganguli, the first woman
graduate of Calcutta University. This was symbolic that India’s struggle for freedom
would raise Indian women from the degraded position they had been reduced for centuries
past.
● The nucleus of the Congress leadership: The nucleus of the Congress leadership consisted of
men from Bombay and Calcutta who had first come together in London in the late-1860s and
early 70s while studying for the ICS or law—Pherozeshah Mehta, Badruddin Tyabji, W.C.
Bonnerji, Manmohan and Lalmohan Ghosh, Surendranath Banerji, Anandamohan Bose, and
Romeshchandra Dutt, who all fell under the influence of Dadabhai Naoroji who was then settled
in England as businessman-cum-publicist.
● Aim and Objective: Followings are the aims and objectives of the Congress:
⮚ Promotion of personal kindness and friendship amongst the countrymen.
⮚ Destruction of all possible prejudices relating to race, creed or provinces.
⮚ Strengthening the sentiments of national unity.
⮚ Recording the opinions of educated classes on pressing problems of the day.
⮚ Laying down lines for forthcoming action in the public interest.

Myth
Some controversy has been caused by the establishment of the Indian National Congress. The
controversies or myths associated are as follows:
● Theory of ‘safety-valve’ or Conspiracy Theory: The most famous and long-term
controversy associated with Congress was Safety Valve Theory. Hume’s involvement in it
yielded a lot of controversy regarding the roots of Congress. The safety-valve theory was
construed from this simple fact, was for a long time supported by all shades of historians, in
the right, left and centre. It was even recognised by some of the stalwarts of the nationalist
movement.
⮚ Hume’s pleas to officials for concessions to educated Indians to stave off mass violence
which he repeatedly prophesied, was seen as Conspiracy Theory.
⮚ The Congress, it was argued, had been deliberately created by a British Viceroy acting
through a British ex-civilian to act as a ‘safety valve’ against popular discontent.
● Origin of ‘Safety Valve Theory’: The theory originated from William Wedderburn’s
biography of Hume, published in 1913.
⮚ Wedderburn wrote that in 1878 that Hume had come across seven volumes of secret
reports which showed that there had been seething discontent among the lower classes
and a conspiracy to overthrow British rule by force.
o Hume became disturbed, met Lord Dufferin and together decided to form an
organisation with educated Indians. This would work as a safety valve by opening
up communication between the rulers and the ruled and would thus avoid a mass
revolution.
o Thus, in the words of Wedderburn, Congress was the creation of British rule.
● Stalwarts Believer of ‘Safety Valve theory’: This safety-valve theory was assumed by the
earlier nationalist historians.
⮚ The imperialist historians applied this theory to discredit Congress.
⮚ The Marxist historians developed a conspiracy theory; for instance, R.P. Dutt wrote in
India Today that Congress was born through a conspiracy to forestall a popular uprising
in India, and the Indian bourgeois leaders were a party to it.
⮚ In his Young India (1916), the Extremist leader Lala Lajpat Rai used the safety-valve
theory to attack the Moderates in Congress.
o He suggested that the Congress was a product of Lord Dufferin’s brain.
Reality
● Proved Wrong: In the 1950s, this theory was proved to be wrong.
⮚ Firstly, those seven volumes of secret reports by William Wedderburn’s have not been
traced in any of the archives in India or London.

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 ⮚ Historians argue that given the structure of the British information system in the 1870s, it
was doubtful that so many volumes of secret reports could have existed except in
Wedderburn’s biography of Hume; nowhere else any reference to the existence of such
statements could be found.
● Discredited by Dufferin’s private papers: This ‘conspiracy theory’ has been denied by the
opening of Dufferin’s private papers, which reveal that no one in ruling circles took Hume’s
Cassandra-like predictions of imminent chaos very seriously.
⮚ Hume did meet Dufferin at Simla in May 1885, but the Viceroy’s immediate reaction was
to advise the Governor of Bombay to keep away from the proposed ‘political convention
of delegates’.
● Exaggeration of Hume’s Character: The whole story greatly exaggerates the personal role of
Hume.
⮚ Hume only took advantage of an already-created atmosphere, though he was perhaps
helped by being more acceptable to Indians as free of regional loyalties. On the other
hand, Congress leaders hoped to use Hume as a lightning conductor.
⮚ Dufferin’s private papers in the late 1950s cleared up the chaos by exploding the myth of
Dufferin’s sponsorship of the Congress or Hume.
o Both he and Lord Reay, the governor of Bombay, were sceptical and disapproved of
the proposed meeting, as they thought that they were going to start in India something
like an Irish Home Rule League movement.
o Soon after the establishment of the Congress, Dufferin was openly criticising it for its
dubious motives. In 1888, he blamed it for representing a “microscopic minority”,
and this statement, if not anything else, explodes the safety valve or conspiracy
theory.

Conditions under which Indian National Congress was formed

Some Important Weaknesses at the time of Inception
The Congress, from its initial days, suffered from some significant weaknesses, which are as follows:
● Uneven Composition: Uneven representation and total exclusion of the non-elite groups of
Indian society. The arrangement of the delegates at the first Congress reflected almost
accurately the changing patterns of organised political life in India, the Western-educated
professional groups progressively taking the lead over the landed aristocrats.
⮚ Geographically, within the overall dominance of the presidencies, Bengal was gradually
slipping from its leadership position, which was being taken over by Bombay, surging
ahead of all other regions.
● Social composition: The members of the early Congress belonged predominantly to the high
caste Hindu communities, and this pattern continued unchanged for more than two decades of
its existence.
Strength
● The limitation of the uneven and social composition of participation did not fluster the members
of the Congress, as they complacently claimed to represent the whole nation.
● In its early career, the Indian National Congress, in its political behaviour, was never a radical
organisation, as the culture of open opposition to the government had not yet taken roots.
⮚ They were cautious reformers pursuing to alleviate certain unpleasant aspects of what
Surendranath Banerjee described as the “un-British rule” in India, and their method was
sending prayers, petitions and memoranda.
● Indian National Congress was not the nest of conspirators and disloyalists, but at the onset
of their formation, they were thoroughly loyal and reliable well-wishers of the British
government.
⮚ This clarifies why the founders of the Congress had to get A.O. Hume in their project. His
association would appease official suspicion, and this was crucial,
● Historian Bipin Chandra’s analogy for Safety Valve theory is, “if Hume and other English
liberals hoped to use Congress as a safety valve, the Congress leaders hoped to use Hume as a
lightning conductor”.

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 ● The Congress started in India as a limited elitist politics for limited reforms. Nonetheless, it
represented a new and modern trend in Indian political tradition.
⮚ It sought to forge an overarching national unity and raised a significant political demand.
⮚ It was from here that the mainstream of Indian nationalist politics began to flow.

Conclusion
Thus, the early years (1885- 1905) saw the evolution of the Indian National Congress. During this
period, Congress was led by moderate leaders. Gradually a section emerged that did not agree with the
moderate policies and considered for aggressive action. Due to their aggressive posture, they were
called extremists. Both believed in different political methods to oppose British rule. Thus, their
differences led to the split in Congress in 1907. In the next chapter, we will study these developments
in Congress and how they affected the national movement.

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 3.3. Moderate Phase and Early Congress
• Moderate Phase and Early Congress
➢ Their Ideology & Objectives
o Their Ideology
o Their Objectives
➢ Methods of Political Works of Early National Leaders (1885-1905)
o Political/Constitutional Reforms
o Administrative Reforms
o Economic Reforms
➢ Contribution of Moderate Nationalists
o Economic Critique of British Colonialism
o Various Forms/Methods of Economic Exploitation Discussed Under Critique
o Nature of Economic Demands
o Constitutional Reforms and Propaganda in Legislature
o Campaign for General Administrative Reforms
o Defence in Civil Rights
➢ An Evaluation of Moderates and their Limitations
• Policy of Divide and Rule-Muslim Communalism and Evolution of Muslim
League
➢ Communalism-Brief Introduction
➢ Reasons behind Growth of Communalism
➢ Communalism in the 20th Century
• Conclusion

Moderate Phase and Early Congress (1885-1905)

● The programmes initiated by Congress during the first phase (1885-1905) was very modest. It
demanded moderate constitutional reforms, economic relief, administrative reorganisation and
the defence of civil rights.
⮚ It has often been said that Congress was “moderate” in its objectives and methods in the
first twenty years. Congress expressed opinions on all the important measures of the
government and protested against the unpopular ones.
● There was practically no change in the Congress programme during the first twenty years
(1885-1905). The major demands were almost the same as those formulated at the first three or
four sessions.
Their Ideology & Objectives
Their Ideology
The moderate leader’s ideology lies in the fact that they made modest demands from the British
rulers in a very cautious and peaceful manner, mainly for the following reasons.
● Most moderate leaders had an enduring attachment to the British way of life, a belief in the
British sense of justice and fair play and a deep sense of gratitude towards British rulers.
⮚ They believed that the association with British rule and English education had exposed
them to modern ideas such as liberty, equality, democracy, and individual dignity.
⮚ They were persuaded that it was only due to the British rule that the much-needed
law and order and effective administration had been established in India.
● The moderates were also aware that the Indian National Congress was a young organisation in
its early stage of development.
⮚ They did not want to incur the wrath of the British rulers, which could have resulted
in suppression of their activities and nipped the Congress in the bud.
● The moderates genuinely believed that India had gained from the political connection with
the British and often acknowledged their loyalty to British rule. Here, it should be clear that
admiring the British does not mean that they were not patriotic.

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 ⮚ The moderates disfavored a direct confrontation with the British rulers but changed
their rule to reflect their interests.
⮚ Later, when many moderate leaders realised that British rule had done a lot more
harm to the country than good, they changed hearts and began to press for ‘Swaraj’
or self-government for India within the British Empire.
⮚ They were aware that national consciousness among the Indian people had to be
promoted and consolidated before throwing a direct challenge to British rule.
Their Objectives
● The organisation of the provincial councils,
● Simultaneous examination for the ICS in India and England,
● The abolition of the Indian Council or its reconstitution,
● The separation of the judiciary from the executive,
● The reverse of the Arms Act,
● The selection of Indians to the commissioned ranks in the army,
● The decrease in military expenditure, and
● The induction of Permanent Settlement to other parts of India.

Methods of Political Works of Early National Leaders (1885-1905)

● The first twenty years in the history of the Congress is known as its Moderate phase, i.e. as a
single bloc. Indeed, a broad uniformity in objectives and methods of activity seems pretty
evident over the entire period.
● The Congress held its annual meeting at the end of each year for three days in what became a
great social occasion as well as a political assembly, heard and applauded along with
Presidential address and numerous speeches and dispersed after passing a roughly similar set
of resolutions dealing with three broad types of reforms—Political/Constitutional,
Administrative and Economic.

Political Reforms
● During this period, the leaders were careful in their demands. They did not want to irritate the
government and incur the risk of suppression of their activities.
⮚ From 1885 to 1892, their main demand continued to be expansion and reform of the
Legislative Councils, the membership of the Councils for elected representatives of the
people, and an increase in the powers of these councils.
• The principal political demand was reform of Supreme and Local Legislative Councils to give
them greater powers (of budget discussion and interpellation, for instance) and make them
representative by including some members elected by local bodies, chambers of commerce,
universities, etc. During this period, it demanded a greater voice for Indians in the government
and administration.
⮚ It wanted the Legislative Councils to be more representative, given more power, and
introduced in provinces where none existed.
⮚ It demanded that Indians be placed in high positions in the government. For this purpose,
it called for civil service examinations to be held in India as well, not just in London.
⮚ The demand for Indianization of the administration was part of a movement against
racism since white people monopolised most important jobs.
● The British government was forced to pass the Indian Councils Act of 1892, but the
provisions of this Act failed to satisfy the Congress leaders.
⮚ They asked for Indian control over the public purse and put up the slogan that the
Americans had earlier raised during their War of Independence, ‘No taxation without
representation’.
● By 1905 the Congress put forth the demand for Swaraj or self-rule for Indians within the
British Empire on the model of the self-governing colonies like Australia or Canada. This
demand was first referred to by G.K. Gokhale in 1905 (at Banaras) and later explicitly stated
by Dadabhai Naoroji in 1906 (at Calcutta).

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Administrative Reforms:
● The first demand of the moderates under the Administrative Reforms was for the
Indianisation of the services through simultaneous ICS examinations in England and India
and the raising of the age limit for appearing in such examinations from nineteen to twenty-
three. An Indianized civil service would be more responsive to the Indian needs, they argued.
⮚ Demand for Indianization of services was raised not just to satisfy the tiny elite who could
expect to get into the ICS, as has been sometimes argued, but associated with much broader
themes.
o Indianization was supported as a blow against racism.
o It would also slash the drain of wealth in so far as much of the fat salaries and pensions
enjoyed by white officials were being remitted to England and help make
administration more responsive to Indian needs.
⮚ The Public Service Commission, led by Charles Aitchison, recommended raising the
maximum age, but not simultaneous examination.
● One of the major demands of the moderate leaders was a proper representation of Indians on
the Legislative Councils as well as an increase in the power of these Councils. The moderate
leaders pressed for reforms in the administrative system. They vehemently argued for
⮚ Increase in the number of Indians in the higher echelons of administration
⮚ Separation of judiciary from the executive
⮚ Promotion of primary education, technical and higher education
⮚ Establishment of agricultural banks to prevent the farmer from being exploited by the
money-lender.
⮚ Development of irrigation to avoid famines.
⮚ Extension of medical and health facilities
⮚ Reform of the police system, which was dishonest, inefficient and unpopular.
● The moderate leaders voiced their opinions on issues related to territories outside India. They
opposed the annexation of Burma and the attack on Afghanistan and the tribal people of North-
western India.
● They demanded improvement in the Indian workers who had migrated to other countries like
South Africa, Malaya, Mauritius, West Indies and British Guyana.
● The moderates, who had developed a firm commitment to the principle of democracy, also
tried to safeguard the Civil Rights of the Indian people and supported social reforms in Indian
society.
⮚ According to them, a vigorous movement to eradicate social evils and backwardness was
necessary to make India fit into self-government. They defended the freedom of speech,
the press, thought and association.
● Other administrative demands included separation of the judiciary, an extension of trial by
jury, repeal of the Arms Act, higher jobs in the army for Indians, and the raising of an Indian
volunteer force which combined pleas for racial equality with a concern for civil rights.

Economic Reforms:
However, in the economic critique of colonial rule, the Moderates played their most important
role. The economic issues raised were all bound up with the general poverty of India-drain
of wealth theme.
⮚ The Moderate leaders like Dadabhai Naoroji and Mahadev Govind Ranade made
scathing criticism of the economic policies followed by the British rulers in India.
⮚ Through books, newspaper articles, and speeches, the moderate leaders exposed the British
Government’s economic exploitation of India.
⮚ The Drain Theory, in which the moderates argued that wealth from India was being
drained to England, exploded the myth that British rule was good for India.

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 ⮚ The moderates demanded changes in official policies on industry, agriculture, tariff,
transport and taxation that would improve the system of India.
⮚ Resolutions were repeatedly passed calling for an enquiry into India’s growing poverty
and famines, demanding cuts in Home Charges and military expenditure, more funds
for technical education to promote Indian industries, and an end to unfair tariffs and excise
duties.
⮚ The demand for extension of the Permanent Settlement was also related to the drain of
wealth argument, for over-assessment was held to be responsible for a forced sale by
peasants leading to the export surplus. The early Congress was not concerned solely with
the interests of the English-educated professional groups, zamindars, or industrialists
indicated by the numerous resolutions on the salt tax, treatment of Indian coolies abroad,
and the sufferings caused by forest administration.
⮚ Resolutions condemning forest laws were passed every year between 1891 and 1895.
⮚ The Indian Association launched a campaign exposing the horrors of indentured labour
in Assam tea gardens in the late 1880s, and its assistant secretary Dwarkanath Ganguli
even went to the Assam plantation area at considerable personal risk to bring back
information about the slave labour conditions prevailing there.

Contribution of Moderate Nationalists

The elaborated contribution is discussed as follows:
Economic Critique of British Colonialism
● The most important historical contribution of the moderates was that they presented an
economic critique of colonialism. This economic nationalism, as it was often referred to,
became a major theme that developed further during the subsequent period of the nationalist
movement and, to a large extent, influenced the economic policies of the Congress government
in independent India.
● Leaders who Developed the Theory: Three names are important to remember in this respect;
Dadabhai Naoroji, a successful businessman; Justice M.G. Ranade and R.C. Dutt, a retired
ICS officer, who published The Economic History of India in two volumes (1901–3).
⮚ The main focus of this economic nationalism was on Indian poverty created by applying
the classical economic theory of free trade.
⮚ Their key argument was that British colonialism had transformed itself in the 19th century
by jettisoning the older and direct modes of extraction through plunder, tribute and
mercantilism, favouring more sophisticated and less evident methods of exploitation
through free trade and foreign capital investment.
⮚ It turned India into a supplier of agricultural raw materials and foodstuffs and a consumer
of manufactured goods from the mother country. India was thus reduced to a dependent
agrarian economy and a field for British capital investment. The key to India’s
development was industrialisation with Indian capital, while foreign capital investment
means drainage of wealth through expatriation of profit.
● Effects of Economic Critique of Colonialism: The “drain theory” was the key theme of this
economic nationalism. It was argued that direct drainage of wealth took place through the
payment of home charges, military charges, and guaranteed interest payment on railway
investments.
⮚ The burden became heavier because of the falling rupee exchange rates in the 1890s and
was compounded by budget deficits, higher taxes, and military expenditure.
● Dadabhai Naoroji’s Calculation: In Naoroji’s calculation, this massive drainage amounted to
about £12 million per year. On average, this amounted to at least half of the total revenue
income of the British Indian government. This directly impoverished India and reduced the
process of capital formation.
⮚ Naoroji calculated the per capita income of the Indians was to be Rs. 20. The government
did not admit this calculation. In 1882, Ripon’s finance secretary estimated it to be Rs. 27,
while Lord Curzon in 1901 put it at Rs. 30.

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 ⮚ However, the famines and epidemics of this period revealed a different story. To quote
Dadabhai Naoroji, “materially” British rule caused only “impoverishment”; it was
like “the knife of sugar. That is to say, there is no oppression, it is all smooth and sweet,
but it is the knife, notwithstanding.” So, to rectify this situation, what the moderates wanted
was a change in economic policies.
⮚ Their recommendations included reducing expenditure and taxes, reallocating military
charges, a protectionist policy to protect Indian industries, reducing land revenue
assessment, extension of Permanent Settlement to ryotwari and mahalwari areas and
encouragement of cottage industries and handicrafts. But none of these demands was
fulfilled.
⮚ High land revenue demands led to land alienation and impoverishment of the peasantry.
At the same time, the absence of a protective tariff in the interest of the British
manufacturers hindered Indian industrialisation and destroyed the handicraft industry. This
led to overburdening of agriculture and further impoverishment; the cycle was completed
in this way.
● The ruination of traditional Handicrafts: A significant problem the early nationalists
highlighted was the progressive decline and ruin of India’s traditional handicrafts. Nor was
this industrial prostration accidental, they said. It was the consequence of the deliberate policy
of stamping out Indian industries for the benefit of British manufacturers.
● Government’s Rigidity: Income tax, abolished in the 1870s, was reimposed in 1886; the salt
tax was increased from Rs. 2 to Rs. 2.5; a customs duty was also imposed, but a countervailing
excise duty matched it on Indian cotton yarn in 1894, which was reduced to 3.5 per cent in
1896.
⮚ The Fowler Commission artificially fixed the rupee exchange rate at a high rate of 1
shilling and 4 pence.
⮚ There was no structural change in the agricultural sector either, as Indian agriculture had
already passed through its stationary stage and entered the modern growth stage. Hence,
there were more signs of progress than recession. The moderate economic agenda, like
its constitutional or administrative agenda, thus remained largely unrealised.

In 1893, Sir William Wedderburn became a member of British Parliament. He along with W.S.
Caine and Lord Clywd, established the Indian Parliamentary Committee to present the Indian
problems in the British Parliament (House of Commons) in their true shape.
Sir William Wedderburn served as the President of the Indian National Congress in 1889 and 1910.

Various Forms/Methods of Economic Exploitation Discussed Under Critique Economic Drain

Theory
● The most important contribution of Moderates in the field of economic thought is ‘Drain
Theory’ and its application to the Indian context. Influenced with Adam Smith’s ‘An Enquiry
into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations’, Naoroji turned his attention to ‘An
Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of Indian Poverty’. He enunciated his Drain Theory in his
famous book entitled ‘Poverty and Un-British Rule in India’, first published in 1901 and
revised in 1911.
● Dadabhai and his predecessors considered the economic drain as an external-cum-
internal drain.
➢ Internal Drain: External Drain: Dadabhai attributed the poverty of India to the heavy
drain on the resources of the country. According to Dadabhai, the operation of this transfer
of resources was distinctively determined by several factors such as
o India being a colonial economy governed by remote control.
o India was quite unlike white men’s colonies in the temperate zone, which attracted
labour and capital for economic development.
o India was saddled with an exclusive civil administration and an equally expensive
army of occupation.

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 o India was a strategic base of operations that had to carry the burden of empire-
building in India and beyond her borders.
o India was a colony with a different public expenditure out of the proceeds of taxation
and loans failed to generate as much of domestic employment and income as would
have been possible if the principle income earners had not been ‘birds of passage’, or
if they had spent their incomes mainly within the country or on goods and services
produced within the country.
⮚ Internal Drain: According to Dadabhai Naoroji, the external economic drain was the
counterpart of the internal economic drain.
o Resources abstracted from internal production via taxation took the form of
commodities which, in real terms, were the equivalent of the transfer of income
abroad.
o Since the quantum of external transfer was huge about the per capita income, there
was a precarious equilibrium between the internal transfer (income) and the external
transfer.
o The principal argument of Dadabhai was that the internal transfer was as much of an
economic drain as the external transfer.
o The external economic drain was a ‘drain because of unrequited exports, ‘non-
commercial’ exports, which did not bring any return in the form of imports.
● A vital point made by the nationalists during this phase was about the economic drain of India.
Dadabhai Naoroji described the British rule as ‘an everlasting and every day increasing
foreign invasion’ that gradually destroyed the country.
● In the nationalist opinion, the British were responsible for the destruction of India’s indigenous
industries. The remedy for the removal of India’s poverty was the development of modern
enterprises. The government could promote it through tariff protection and direct government
aid.
⮚ However, after seeing the government’s failure in this regard, the nationalists popularised
the idea of Swadeshi or the use of Indian goods and boycott of British goods to promote
Indian industries. They demanded:
o End of India’s economic drain,
o The reduction of land revenue to lighten the burden of taxation on the peasants.
o Improvement in the conditions of work of the plantation labourers,
o Abolition of the salt tax, and
o The reduction in the high military expenditure of the Government of India.
o They also fully recognised the value of the freedom of the press and speech and
condemned all attempts at their curtailment.
• The Indian leaders were concerned with economic development as a whole rather than economic
advance in isolated sectors. The central question for them was the overall economic growth of India.
Results in different fields were to be considered in the context of their contribution to the economic
development of the country. Even the problem of poverty was seen to be one of lack of production
and economic development.
• This nationalist economic theory may appear to be a contentious issue for economic historians.
Still, the construction of this economic critique of colonialism at this historical juncture had its own
political and ethical significance.
➢ By linking Indian poverty to colonialism, this economic theory was trying to destroy the moral
authority of colonial rule and, perhaps by implication challenging the whole concept of
paternalistic imperialism of British benevolence. In this way, the moderate politicians generated
anger against British rule, though they could convert it into an adequate agitation for its
overthrow because of their own weaknesses.

Nature of Economic Demands

● If their political demands were moderate, their economic demands were radical in nature. The
Indian leaders advocated anti-imperialist economic policies.

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 ⮚ They laid stress on basic changes in the existing economic relations between India and
England
⮚ They vehemently opposed the attempts of foreign rulers to convert India into a supplier of
raw materials and a market for British manufacturers.
⮚ They criticised the official policies on tariff, trade, transport and taxation. These were
regarded as hampering rather than helping the growth of the indigenous industry.

Constitutional Reforms and Propaganda in Legislature

● The early nationalists sought a larger share in the government of their own country and appealed
to the principle of democracy. Still, they did not ask for the immediate fulfilment of their goal.
From 1885 to 1892, they put demands for the expansion and reforms in the Legislative
Councils.
⮚ They demanded membership of the councils to be elected representatives of the people
and an increase in the powers of the boards. Their agitation forced the British government
to pass the Indian Councils Act of 1892.
o This Act increased the number of members of the Imperial Legislative Council as well
as of the provincial councils.
o Some of these members could be elected ultimately by Indians, but the official’s
majority remained.
o The councils were also granted the right to discuss the annual budgets though they
could not vote on them.
⮚ The nationalists were dissatisfied with the Act of 1892 and declared it to be a hoax. They
demanded a more significant share for Indians in the councils.
o In particular, they asked for Indian control over the public purse.
o By the early 20th century, the nationalist leaders advanced further and put forward the
claim for swarajya or self-government within the British Empire on the model of
self-governing colonies like Australia and Canada.

Campaign for General Administrative Reforms

● Indianisation of government service: On economic grounds, British civil servants got very
high emoluments while the inclusion of Indians would be more economical. On the political
ground, since salaries of British bureaucrats were remitted back home and pensions paid in
England (all drawn from Indian revenue), this amounted to the economic drain of national
resources; and on moral grounds that Indians were being discriminated against by being kept
away from positions of trust and responsibility. The moderates demanded the following
demands:
⮚ Call for separation of judiciary from executive functions.
⮚ Criticism of an oppressive and unjust bureaucracy and an expensive and time-taking
judicial system.
⮚ Criticism of an aggressive foreign policy that resulted in the annexation of Burma, attack
on Afghanistan and repression of tribals in the North-West—all costing severely for the
Indian treasury.
⮚ Call for an upsurge in welfare expenditures (health and sanitation), education (especially
elementary and technical), irrigation works and improvement of agriculture, agricultural
banks for cultivators, etc.
⮚ Demand for better treatment for Indian labour abroad in other British colonies faced
oppression and racial discrimination.

Defence in Civil Rights-Freedom of Speech and Press

• The early nationalists fully recognised the value of the freedom of speech and the press and
opposed all attempts to curtail them. The struggle for these freedoms became an integral
part of the nationalist struggle for independence.

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 ● Indian newspapers began to discover their feet in the 1870s. They became highly critical of
Lord Lytton’s administration, particularly regarding its in-human approach towards the
famine victims of 1876-77.
⮚ As a result, the government made a sudden strike at the Indian language newspapers
since they reached beyond the middle-class readership.
⮚ The Vernacular Press Act of 1878, targeted only against Indian language newspapers,
was enacted at a single sitting of the Imperial Legislative Council.
⮚ It provided for confiscating the printing press, paper, and other newspaper materials if
the government believed that it was Publishing seditious materials and had flouted an
official warning.
⮚ Indian nationalist opinion firmly opposed the Act. The first great demonstration on
public importance was organised in Calcutta on this question when a large meeting was
convened in the Town Hall. Various public bodies and the press also struggled against the
Act. Subsequently, it was repealed in 1881 by Lord Ripon.
• In 1897 the Bombay Government arrested BG Tilak and several other leaders and tried them
for spreading disaffection against the government through their speeches and writings. They
were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. Two Poona leaders, the Natu brothers, were
deported without trial at the same time. All countrymen protested against this attack on the
liberties of the people. Tilak, hitherto known mainly in Maharashtra, became overnight an all-
India leader.
⮚ The Amrita Bazar Patrika wrote: “There is scarcely a home in this vast country, where
Mr Tilak is not the subject of melancholy talk and where his imprisonment is not considered
as a domestic calamity.” Tilak’s arrest, in fact, galvanised the country and marked the
beginning of a new phase of the nationalist movement.

An Evaluation of Moderates and their Limitations

Turning to the activities and organisation of the Early phase of Congress, i.e. Moderates, an overall
evaluation and their limitations are as following:

● A.O Hume’s Presence: Till 1892, the Congress was dominated mainly by A.O Hume as
general secretary and sole full-time activist. Erratic, paternalistic and domineering, his
presence did impart a certain conspicuously absent dynamism in the succeeding years.
⮚ Congress attendance figures rose rapidly for the first five sessions, from 72 in 1885 to
nearly 2000 in 1889. The sessions of 1887 (Madras) and 1888 (Allahabad) have been
unusually broad-based compared to the Congress of the 1890s and have aroused
widespread interest.
⮚ Faced with the opposition from the Sir Sayyid Ahmed (which initially included Hindu
aristocrats like the Maharaja of Benares as well as Muslims) to Congress demands elected
Councils and service recruitment through examinations, Hume made a determined effort
to woo Muslim support in 1887-88, utilising the personal contacts of Badruddin Tyabji
and evolving a formula (at the 1887 session) by which a resolution would be rejected if the
bulk of any community opposed it.
⮚ Again at Hume’s initiative, the unique attempt was even more notable for rallying peasant
support in 1887 through two popular pamphlets translated into no less than twelve
regional languages.
● National Body in letter and Spirit: There can be some flaws in the demands put forward by
the Congress, but Indian National Congress always represented itself as a national body in the
true sense of the term.
⮚ There was nothing in its programme to which any class might take exception. Its doors
were open to all classes and communities. Its programme was broad enough to
accommodate all interests. It may be said that it was not a party but a movement.

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● Visionary leaders: It must be said to the credit of the nationalist leaders that though they
belonged to the urban educated middle class, they were too broad-minded and free from
narrow and sectional class interests.
⮚ They kept in mind the larger interests of the people in general.
⮚ Their economic policies were not influenced by the short-sighted vision of a job-hungry
middle class. This challenging critique of the financial foundations of the Raj was a unique
service that the early Congress leadership rendered to the nation.
● The British Hostility towards Moderates: The political tone of the Indian National Congress
might have been mild, but from the fourth session of the Congress onwards, the government
adopted a hostile attitude towards it.
➢ Elements hostile to the Congress were encouraged by the British. For example, they
urged the Aligarh movement against Congress.
➢ By the end of the 19th century, the British attitude became more hostile to the Congress
under Lord Curzon. His greatest ambition was to assist the Congress to a peaceful
demise. However, he took certain steps which only fanned the nationalist discontent.
In an autocratic manner, he tried to control university education and decreed the
partition of Bengal. This led to full national awakening.
● Split in Congress: During this period general impression grew that the Moderates were
political mendicants, only petitioning and praying to the British government for petty
concessions.
⮚ The Moderates had played an essential role at a critical period in the history of Indian
nationalism. The flourishing of the Moderate thought was the climax of a tradition traced
back to Raja Rammohun Roy, who stood for the rational and liberal tradition of
contemporary Europe. His ideas of reforms eventually provided the basis for the requests
put forward by the early Congress.
⮚ As with Rammohun, so with the early Congress leaders, the existence of the British
administration was essential for continued political progress. Quite understandably,
their language was vigilant and their expectation moderate. However, with changing times,
the Moderates also began to alter their position.
⮚ By 1905 Gokhale had started speaking of self-rule as the goal, and in 1906 it was Dadabhai
Naoroji who mentioned the word Swaraj as the goal of the Congress. Even so, the
Moderates found themselves in a tight corner with the emergence of extremist leadership
within Congress.
⮚ The extremists were attracting youthful sections among the political activists. The well-
meaning, loyal, but patriotic, Moderates could no longer cut ice before the manoeuvring of
the British bureaucracy. In the changed situation, Extremists came to the centre stage
of the Congress.
• The emergence of Indian Capitalists: Along with the Indian National Congress, one class
emergence was ubiquitous. Several Indian capitalists joined the Indian National Congress
and fully identified with the national movement.
⮚ Among the capitalists who got themselves fully involved in the active freedom struggle
as members of the Congress were Jamnalal Bajaj, Vadilal Lallubhai Mehta, Samuel
Aaron, Lal Shankar Lal and others.
⮚ There were other capitalists who, though they did not join the Congress, sympathised
with the freedom struggle and readily gave financial and other help to the movement.
Capitalists like GD Birla, Ambalal Sarabhai and Walchand Hirachand fall into this
category.
⮚ The Indian capitalist class grew from about the mid-19th century with primarily an
independent capital base. The Indian capitalist class, on the whole, was not tied up in a
subservient position with pro-imperialist feudal interests either economically or
politically. During 1914-1947, the capitalist class proliferated, increasing its strength and
confidence, emphasised more in Unit 8.

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 Why did the ‘Moderates’ fail to carry conviction with the nation about their proclaimed
ideology and political goals by the end of the nineteenth century?
The Moderates leader believed in the British justice system and was loyal to them. They demanded
a greater voice for Indians in the government and administration.
The ideologies and political goals of the moderates:
● Utilitarian theories influenced moderates. They believed that British rule is required for the
modernisation and betterment of India. They used peaceful and constitutional agitation to
opposed popular means of agitation.
● They wanted Legislative Councils to be made more representative, given more power and
introduced in provinces where none existed.
● They used methods like ‘created awareness’ and politicised people by exposing real British
intentions through newspapers, public speech, etc., and persuaded Britishers to introduce reforms
through petition, prayers, and protest (3ps).
Moderates- Limitations
● The first systematic critique of moderate politics was made in 1893-94 in a series of articles
entitled new lamps for old by Aurobindo Ghosh. Aurobindo rejected the English model
of slow constitutional progress admired by the moderates as inferior to the French experience
of ‘the great and terrible republic’.
⮚ He attacked Congress mendicancy and, striking a remarkable class-conscious note
which was no doubt derived from his recent European experience, urged as the most
vital of all problems the establishment of a link between ‘the burgess, or the middle
class’ which the Congress represented and ‘the proletariat’.
● The Moderates did not understand the true nature of the British government initially.
● They were alienated from the greater mass of the Indian population. Moderates mostly
belonged to propertied classes: Mainly lawyers, bankers, landowners, medical men,
journalist educationists. About 18.99% (1892-1909)-landlords, Lawyers-39.22%, Traders-
15.10%, Journalists-3.18%, Doctors-2.94%.
● The peaceful and constitutional methods were not very effective; they did not bring any
significant change in the policies of the British government.
● They failed to realise the potential of the masses for the long and sustained struggle. They
could not dispense with landed aristocracy and could not take a logical stand on peasant
questions.
● Later, The Moderate leaders wanted to develop public awareness about the unjust nature
of British rule. They tried for a broad social base, connected with the masses, attacked
colonialism, and demanded similar rights and self-rule for Indian people.
● Lord Curzon’s assessment in November 1900 that the Congress was ‘tottering to its fall’
was soon to be proved ludicrously off the mark because the Moderate Congress was
increasingly ‘reflecting only a small segment of nationalist sentiment’.
● British unpopularity was increasing under the impact of famines and plagued the
countervailing excise and Curzon’s package of aggressive measures.
⮚ The potential base for political activity was expanding fast, with the circulation of
vernacular newspapers increased from 299,000 in 1885 to 817,000 in 1905. It was
significant that some of the most famous journals were critical of the Congress for
various reasons, like the Calcutta Bangabasi or the Kesari and Kal of Poona. The soil
was becoming ripe for the rise of Extremism.
Though Moderates had certain limitations, they gained certain political rights, represented
Indians in legislative councils, and influenced laws and policies of the government. They also
initiated the people’s political awakening and worked as a beacon for upcoming leaders and
successive struggles for independence.

Policy of Divide and Rule-Muslim Communalism and Evolution of Muslim League

1857 was a major turning point for the British government and for Muslim reformers. Before
the revolt, the British had simply assumed that the Muslims and Hindus formed separate communities.
However, the mutiny showed that they could engage in united action. This scared the British;

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subsequently, they began to undertake policies to ensure that Muslims would be treated as a separate
community from the Hindus.

Communalism-Brief Introduction
● Definition: Communalism is a belief that all those who have an everyday religion also have;
as a result, common socio-economic, political and cultural interests and identities.
⮚ In another word, it is the notion that religion shapes the base of society and a basic unit
of division in society. It is a religion that determines all the other interests of man.
⮚ The human being is a multi-faceted social being who can, at the same time, have a number
of identities. Their identity can be based on their country, region, gender, occupation,
position within the family, caste or religion.
⮚ A communalist would choose only the religious identity from this wide range and
emphasise it out of proportion. As a result, social relationships, political behaviour, and
economic struggles might be defined based on religious identity.
● Communal Propaganda and Arguments: The communal propaganda and arguments had
three levels:
⮚ The interests of all religious communities were the same; for example, it was argued that
a Muslim Zamindar and a peasant had common interests because both were Muslims.
⮚ The interests of one religious community were different from another religious
community. It meant that all Hindus had different interests from all Muslims and vice-
versa.
⮚ Not only were these interests distinct, but also incompatible and conflicting. It, in other
words, meant that Hindus and Muslims could not co-exist in harmony because of
conflicting interests.

Reasons behind Growth of Communalism

The genesis of communalism should be seen with the British conquest of India, which had a
tremendous impact on the society and economy of India.
● Socio-Economic Factors: To begin with, the British conquest marked the decadence of the
upper-class Muslims.
➢ In Bengal, Muslims lost their semi-monopoly in employment in the upper army,
administration, and judiciary posts.
➢ Muslims adopted later than Hindus to such British novelties as English education, the
new professions, posts in the administration, and culture. Consequently, an intellectual
awakening, resulting in a re-assessment of the old beliefs, customs and values, was also
late among the Muslims, compared to the Hindus.
➢ The time ‘lag’ between Ram Mohan Roy and Syed Ahmed Khan would help explain a
feeling of weakness and insecurity on the part of the Muslims, leading to a reliance on
religion and traditional ways of thinking.
● Characterisation of ‘Muslims as uniformly backward’: W. W. Hunter, a civil servant,
recommended that the government pay extra attention to improving the condition of
Muslims because they were backward.
⮚ He contended that this was necessary to prevent Muslim rebellions. The government took
his analysis seriously, even though Muslims were not uniformly backward throughout
the country.
⮚ The characterisation of Muslims as uniformly backwards helped in making Muslims see
themselves as a group with special interests.
⮚ Further, in the 1890s, with Congress emerging as a threat, the government actively
promoted Muslims as a separate political interest.
⮚ The Ripon reforms of 1882 pioneered separate representation for Muslims in local bodies.
This notion was later extended by the Morley Minto Reforms of 1909 to separate
electorates in provincial councils. It laid the British open to the charge that they were
dividing Indians in order to rule.

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● British Policy of “Divide and Rule”: The British policy holds a very special responsibility
for favouring the growth of communalism. If communalism could flourish in India and reach
monstrous proportions, which it did in 1947, it was mainly possible because of the support it
received from the British government.
⮚ The British did not create communalism; specific socio-economic and cultural differences
already existed. They were not made but only taken advantage of by the British to serve
their political end.
⮚ The British policy of ‘Divide and Rule’ could succeed only because something in the
internal social, economic, cultural and political conditions of society favoured its success.
It is important to note that conditions were remarkably favourable for the use and growth
of communalism as well as for the policy of ‘divide and rule’. There were two main
objectives before the government in the Post 1857 Revolt period.
o To make some friends in the society, to offer patronage to some sections mainly in
order to exercise influence and extend control and thereby strengthen its base in the
society.
o To prevent the unity of the Indian people. If all the sections of the society could unite
under any ideological influence, they could threaten the British Empire. Communal
ideology had to be used and spread to deny the oneness of the Indian people. This was
done more effectively in the 20th century when the communal demands and
organisations were encouraged to negate the legitimacy and credibility of the
nationalist demands, ideology and organisation.
⮚ On the one hand, all attempts were made to keep the Muslims away from Congress, and
then the claims of Congress were run down because it did not represent the Muslims.
⮚ Communalism served the government in yet another way.
o Communal deadlock and the worsening communal situation could also be used to
justify the continuation of British rule. They argued that the Indian people were
divided amongst themselves and incapable of governing themselves if British rule
ended.
⮚ The growth of communalism in the 20th century could be checked by a nationalist upsurge.
The nationalist forces and ideology could defeat the communal ideology. But the Indian
National Congress, as a representative of the nationalist forces and doctrine, failed to
prevent the spread of communalism among the people.
⮚ Although fully committed to secularism and nationalism and desirous to unite the Indian
people, the Indian National Movement fought a battle against the communal forces but
ultimately lost due to various reasons.
o To begin with, Congress could not comprehensively understand the nature of
communalism. As a result of this, Congress did not have a central strategy to combat
communalism.
o Certain Hindu revivalist tendencies entered the national movement and successfully
prevented its attempts to reach out to Muslims and incorporate them into its fold.
o The use of certain religious symbols (like Ramarajya, for instance) acted as a barrier.
However, while pointing out the limitations, the complexity of the problems should not
be ignored. It became challenging to solve the communal problem mainly because of
the attitude of the government.
o The British government did all it could to prevent a settlement between various political
groups. No matter what Congress offered to the Muslims, the government always
offered more, making the arrangement redundant.

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 3.4. Rise of Extremism
• Introduction
• The Extremists
➢ Roots of Extremism
➢ Ideological Basis of Extremism
➢ Extremists in Action
• Moderates and Extremists: An Analysis
➢ Differences
➢ Personality Clash
• The Split in the Congress and Rise of Revolutionary Terrorism
➢ The Surat Split
➢ Triggering reason for split
➢ The Consequences of the Split

Introduction

This chapter attempts to place before the readers the factors which prompted the British to partition
Bengal in 1905. It also gives an account of the intense nationalist reaction the move evoked and spells
out the changes the Swadeshi movement brought about in the content and forms of the Indian struggle
for freedom. But before these topics, there is a brief introduction about extremists and a comparison
between moderates and extremists.

The Extremists
Extremism in the Indian National Struggle scene was not sudden in the first decade of the twentieth
century. In fact, it is a manifestation of many factors and has compounded invisibly since the Revolt of
1857 itself. The most acceptable factor for the rise of Extremists within the Indian National Congress
is the failure of moderate politics, which became quite apparent by the end of the 19th century.
“Extremist” is a reaction set in from within the Congress circles. The moderates were condemned for
being too cautious, and their politics were stereotyped as the politics of mendicancy. This extremism
developed in three central regions and under the leadership of three influential individuals, Bipin
Chandra Pal in Bengal, Bal Gangadhar Tilak in Maharashtra and Lala Lajpat Rai in Punjab; in
other areas, extremism was less powerful if not absent.

Roots of Extremism
● Limitations in Moderates Method: Lord Curzon’s assessment in November 1900 that the
Congress was ‘tottering to its fall’ was soon to be proved ludicrously off the mark because
the Moderate Congress was increasingly ‘reflecting only a small segment of nationalist
sentiment’.
● British Unpopularity gained Currency: British unpopularity increased under the impact
of famines and plagued the countervailing excise and Curzon’s package of aggressive
measures.
⮚ The potential base for political activity was expanding fast, with the circulation of
vernacular newspapers increased from 299,000 in 1885 to 817,000 in 1905. It was
significant that some of the most famous journals were critical of the Congress for
various reasons, like the Calcutta Bangabasi or the Kesari and Kal of Poona. The soil
was becoming ripe for the rise of extremism.

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 • Rise of Factionalism: At the turn of the century, many factions fighting at almost every
level of organised public life in India can be observed. Therefore, one could argue that the
division in Congress between the moderates and the extremists was just faction fighting
that plagued organised public life everywhere in India around this time. For instance,
⮚ In Bengal, there was a split within the Brahmo Samaj and a bitter journalistic rivalry
between the two newspaper groups, the Bengalee, edited by moderate leader
Surendranath Banerjea and the Amrita Bazar Patrika, edited by the more radical
Motilal Ghosh.
o There was also conflict fighting between Aurobindo Ghosh on one side and
Bipin Chandra Pal and Brahmabandhab Upadhyay over the editorship of
Bande Mataram.
⮚ In Maharashtra, there was a rivalry between Gokhale and Tilak for managing the Poona
Sarvajanik Sabha. The contest came to the exterior when in 1895, Tilak captured the
organisation and the following year, Gokhale started his rival organisation, the Deccan
Sabha.
⮚ In Madras, three factions, such as the Mylapur clique, the Egmore clique and the suburban
elites, fought each other.
⮚ In Punjab, the Arya Samaj was divided, after the demise of Dayanand Saraswati,
between the more moderate College group and the radical revivalist group.
• Frustration with moderate politics: The Indian National Congress under moderate
leadership was being regulated by an undemocratic constitution. Though, after repeated
attempts by Tilak, a new constitution was prepared and ratified in 1899, it was never given a
proper trial.
⮚ The Congress was financially broke, as the capitalists did not contribute and the
patronage of a few rajas and landed magnates was never sufficient.
• Social Reformism of the moderates: The social reformism of the moderates, motivated by
Western liberalism, also went against orthodoxy. This came to the shallow at the Poona
Congress of 1895, when the moderates proposed to have a national social conference running
in tandem with the regular sessions of the Congress.
⮚ The orthodox leaders like Tilak argued that the social conference would split the Congress,
ultimately dropping the proposal.
⮚ More significantly, moderate politics had become deadly, as most of their demands
remained unfulfilled, and this was undoubtedly a significant reason behind the rise of
extremism. This increased the anger against colonial rule, which was generated by the
moderates themselves through their economic critique of colonialism.
● Curzon administration: The Curzon administration further magnified nationalist anger.
Lord Curzon (1899–1905), a true believer in British virtue, dared to chastise an elite British
regiment for its racial arrogance against native Indians. He was also the last advocate of that
self-confident despotic imperialism.
⮚ He initiated several unpopular legislative and administrative measures, which harmed
the susceptibilities of the educated Indians.
⮚ The reconstitution of the Calcutta Corporation via the Calcutta Municipal Amendment
Act of 1899 decreased the number of elected representatives in it.
⮚ The Indian Universities Act of 1904 put Calcutta University under complete governmental
control.
⮚ The Indian Official Secrets Amendment Act (1904) further limited the freedom of press.

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 ⮚ The last in the series was the partition of Bengal in 1905, intended to weaken the Bengali
nationalists who allegedly controlled the Congress. However, instead of weakening the
Congress, the Curzonian measures acted as a magic potion to revitalise it, as the extremist
leaders now tried to take over Congress to commit it to a path of more direct
belligerent confrontation with colonial rule.
● Growth of Education: While, on the one hand, the spread of education brought awareness
among the masses, on the other hand, the increase in unemployment and underemployment
among the educated attracted attention to poverty and the country’s economy under British
rule. This added to the already festering discontent among the more radical nationalists.
● International Influences: Remarkable progress produced by Japan after 1868 and its
emergence as an industrial power opened the eyes of Indians to the reality that economic
progress was achievable even in an Asian country without any external assistance. The
thrashing of the Italian army by Ethiopians (1896), the Boer wars (1899-1902), where the
British faced overturns, and Japan’s victory over Russia (1905) destroyed myths of European
strength. Also, the nationalists were motivated by the nationalist movements worldwide—in
Ireland, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Persia and China. The Indians realised that a united people
willing to give sacrifices could take on the mightiest of empires.

Ideological Basis of Extremism

● Swaraj as an ultimate Goal of Extremists: The extremists’ goal was swaraj, which different
leaders interpreted differently. There were three groups of the Extremists-the Maharashtra
group, headed by B.G. Tilak; the Bengal group represented by B.C. Pal and Aurobindo and
the Punjab group led by Lala Lajpat Rai.
● Bipin Pal believed that no self-government was possible under British paramountcy. For
him, swaraj was full autonomy, absolutely free of British control. Aurobindo Ghosh also
visualised swaraj as absolute political independence. He even raised patriotism to the
pedestal of mother worship. He said in a lever, “I know my country as my mother. I adore her.
I worship her.”
⮚ For Tilak, it meant Indian control over the administration, but not a whole severance of
relations with Great Britain.
● The Ideological inspiration from the Past: The new emerging politics was highly inspired
and came from the new regional literature, which provided a discursive field for defining
the Indian nation in terms of its distinct cultural heritage of civilisation.
⮚ This was a revivalist discourse, as it sought to invoke an imagined golden past and used
symbols from a retrospectively reconstructed history to arouse nationalist passions.
⮚ Tilak initiated the Shivaji festival in Maharashtra in April 1896. These ideas also became
popular in Bengal, where a craze for national hero worship began.
o The Marathas, Rajputs and Sikhs stereotyped in colonial ethnography as ‘martial
races’ were now placed in an Aryan tradition and assumed as national heroes.
o Ranjit Singh, Shivaji and the heroes picked up from local history like Pratapaditya and
Sitaram, even Siraj-ud-daula, was idolised as champions of national glory or martyrs
for freedom.
⮚ Vivekananda made a specific intervention in this ideological discourse by introducing the
idea of an “alternative manliness”, which combined Western concepts of masculinity with
the Brahminic tradition of celibate spiritual asceticism.

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Extremists in Action
• B.G Tilak attitude towards Government: B.G Tilak resented any interference by a
foreign government into the domestic and private life of the people.
⮚ He quarrelled with the reformers over the Age of Consent Bill in 1891.
⮚ He introduced the Ganpati festival in 1893.
⮚ Tilak threw a challenge to the National Social Conference in 1895 by not allowing
it to hold its session in the Congress pavilion in Poona. The National Social Conference
was under the influence of the Moderate Wing.
⮚ In the same year, the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha was captured by the Extremists from the
Moderates.
• The division between Moderates and Extremists visible: The Shivaji festival was first
held on 15 April 1896, with the foundation of the Deccan Sabha on 4 November 1896,
the division between the Extremists the Moderates in Maharashtra was complete, but
it was not so all-over India.
⮚ B.C. Pal, the leader of the Bengal Extremists, was still in the camp of the Moderates.
In 1902, he wrote, “The Congress here and its British Committee in London, are both
begging institutions”.
⮚ Because of its soft and vacillating policy, Lajpat Rai was also not interested in the
Congress programme. Between 1893 and 1900, he did not attend any meeting of the
‘Congress. He felt during this period that the Congress leaders cared more for fame and
pomp than for the interests of the country.
• Gain in Self Confidence: While one disillusionment after the other demoralised the
Moderates and weakened their cause, the victory of Japan over Russia (1904-05) sent a
thrill of enthusiasm throughout Asia. Earlier in 1896, the Ethiopians had defeated the Italian
army. These victories pricked the bubble of European superiority and gave the Indians
self-confidence.

Moderates and Extremists: An Analysis

There were many things in common between the Moderates and the Extremists. However, they also
shared certain differences in political perspective and methods. The differences which existed between
the Moderates and Extremists, culminating in the Surat split in 1907, and how this affected the National
Movement are as follows:

Differences
● Believe in British Nation: The Old (Moderate) and New (Extremist) parties agreed that appeals
to the bureaucracy were useless. But the Old party still believed in appeals to the British nation
if not British bureaucracy, the New Party did not.
● Believe in Self-Government: The Extremists believed Indians should have the key to their
own house, and Self-Government was the goal. The Extremists wanted the Indians to realise
that their future rested entirely in their own hands and could be accessible only if they were
determined to be free.
⮚ Extremists did not want Indians to take to arms; instead, they should develop their power
of self-denial and self-abstinence so as not to assist the foreign power to rule over them.
o For instance, Tilak advised his countrymen to run their own courts and stop paying
taxes when the time came. He contended, “Swaraj is my birthright, and I will have
it”.

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 ● Radical thinking: The philosophical radicalism of Aurobindo went even further. According
to him, the existing condition of the Government in India suffered from corrupt western
influences. To escape it, she must get rid of these conditions and seek refuge in her own
superior civilisation. The work of nationalism, he added, would be to:
⮚ Win Swaraj for India so that the existing unhealthy condition of political life, full of germs
of the social and political malaise which was overtaking Europe, might be entirely and
radically cured.
⮚ Ensure that the Swaraj, when gained, would be a Swadeshi Swaraj and not an
importation of the European variety. This is why, in his opinion, the movement for Swaraj
found its first expression in an outburst for swadeshi sentiment directed not merely
against foreign goods but against foreign habits, dress, manners and education and sought
to bring the people to their own civilisation.
● Same goal but different Ways: It may appear that the Extremists used much stronger and
sharper language, but as far as the plans were concerned, they were substantially not very
different from the moderates. As referred to earlier, Gokhale in his Presidential Address
(Benaras, 1905) and Dadabhai Naoroji in his Presidential speech (Calcutta, 1906) had
respectively advocated self-government and Swaraj as the goal of the Congress. The
differences were related to the methodology for achieving the goals.

Personality Clash
● Stark Difference between B.G Tilak and Gopal Krishna Gokhale: The controversy between
the Moderates and the Extremists raged around the personality of Tilak and Gokhale. Both
Tilak and Gokhale hailed from Poona.
⮚ Tilak was an Extremist, an Orientalist who would use any stick to beat the government.
He wielded a mighty pen and exerted significant influence on public opinion through his
Mahratta and the Kesari paper.
⮚ Gokhale was gentle and soft-spoken. He had beautiful mastery over Indian financial
problems, was at his best in the Imperial Legislative Council, being an expert in exposing
the hollow claims of the government. He had established at Poona the Servants of India
Society, intending to train a band of dedicated workers who were expected to give their all
to the service of the motherland.
● The difference between Gokhale and Tilak belongs to a much earlier period: There had
been an intense clash of personalities at Poona from the beginning of the nineties of the last
century.
⮚ A quarrel ensued between Tilak and G.G. Agarkar, although they had been co-workers in
the Deccan Education Society. Ultimately Tilak was pushed out of Society. After that, there
had been a constant tussle between the followers of Tilak on the one hand and his opponents
on the other.
⮚ As the Moderates were losing their popularity and the Extremists were capturing the
imagination of the country because of the growth of the new spirit, the conflict between the
two contending groups in Maharashtra and Poona also became more pronounced.

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The Split in the Congress and Rise of Revolutionary Terrorism
The Surat Split
There were many differences in the way. Moderates and Extremists fought against British Empire.
Despite the differences in ideology and actions, their contribution to the freedom struggle cannot be
undermined. However, these differences became a reason for Surat Split.
Triggering Reason for Split:
● President Conundrum: The differences between the moderates and the extremists developed
in the Surat session of the Indian National Congress in 1907. The meeting was to be held in
Nagpur that year.
➢ The extremists desired Lala Lajpat Rai or Bal Gangadhar Tilak to be the President.
However, the moderates wanted Rash Behari Ghosh as President.
➢ In the Congress manifesto, there was a direction that the session’s President could not be
from the home province. Tilak’s home province was the Bombay Presidency, and Surat
was also situated in that province. Thus, the moderates changed the venue to Surat so that
Tilak could be barred from the presidency.
➢ The moderates also intended to drop the resolutions on swadeshi, boycott movements and
national education.
➢ Ras Behari Ghosh became the President in the session which was held at Surat.
● Extremists Extreme Reactions: Tilak was not allowed to speak, and this angered the
extremists. Extremists reacted by throwing eggs and footwear and called for the meeting to
be cancelled.
⮚ Both sides were firm on their demands, and none was inclined to find a common path.
⮚ The moderates then held an individual meeting. They reiterated the Congress objective of
self-government within the British Empire and adopted only constitutional methods to
achieve their goals. They also decided to expel the Extremists.

The Consequences of the Split

● Proved to be the National Calamity: Whoever may be responsible for the split and whatever
its cause, it was a great national calamity. Gokhale was aware of this great disaster. The
British bureaucracy was in jubilation. Lord Minto, the Viceroy, exultingly told Lord Morley,
the Secretary of State, that the ‘Congress Collapse’ (Surat split) was ’a great triumph for
us’.
● Congress Future Uncertain: The split did immense harm to Congress and the national
movement in general.
⮚ It can be said that the Moderates were the brain of the Congress and the nation, and the
Extremists were the heart; the former was the ‘law’ and the latter ‘impulse’.
⮚ The unified action of the two was necessary for the proper functioning of the organisation
and the growth of the national movement.
⮚ With the extremists in the wilderness, the Moderates were to achieve little.
● For about a decade, the Moderates were not able to show the kind of strength needed to oppose
the British seriously. It was only after 1916, with the re-entry of the Extremists in the Congress
and the Moderates’ existing from it (1918), that the Congress could be reactivated. But then it
was a new story.
● Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Gokhale’s political disciple, associating himself with the
programme of the Extremists, with his emphasis on the synthesis of the reason and faith, law
and impulse, representing the abiding strength of the Indian people was to activate and
rejuvenate the Congress and carry a new phase of action.

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 3.5. Partition of Bengal and Swadeshi Movement 1903-1908
➢ Partition of Bengal
o Background
o Curzonian Administration: The policies of Lord Curzon and their long-term
implications on the national movements. (UPSC 2020)
o The Declaration of Partition
➢ Anti-Partition Agitation and Swadeshi Movement
o Swadeshi movement and The Concept of Mass Movement, Workers and
Peasants
o Swadeshi Movement and Important sessions of INC
o Government Measures to Suppress Swadeshi Movement
➢ Annulment of Partition
➢ Drawbacks of Swadeshi Movement-A Critical Analysis
o Drawbacks
o Strengths

The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal (1905–11) that may be described as the best expression of
extremist politics, had its genesis in the anti-partition movement, which was started to oppose the
British decision to partition Bengal. The movement started as a protest against the partition of Bengal
in 1905.

Partition of Bengal
Background
● The unwieldy territory of a diverse population: The province of Bengal was an unwieldy
territory of a diverse population, using various languages and dialects and differing widely in
economic development. From the administrative point of view and the angle of equal
developmental opportunities for all the areas, some territorial reorganisation of the province
of Bengal was therefore needed.
⮚ Apart from Bengali-speaking territory, it originally comprised the whole of Bihar, Orissa
and Assam.
⮚ Earlier, the British authorities also occasionally thought of reducing the size of the province
for administrative convenience. In 1874 they separated Assam from Bengal by making it a
Chief Commissioner’s province.
● Curzon’s Short-Sighted Policy for Bengal: Bengal emerged as the cradle of the National
Movement. Curzon and his principal advisors- Sir A. Fraser, the Lieutenant Governor of
Bengal, and H.H. Risley, Secretary, Home Department, Government of India were determined
to use the plea for territorial readjustment to throttle the voice of nationalism.
● Divide and Rule: Curzon and Company were determined “to split up and thereby weaken a
solid body of opponents” to the British rule. The splitting up operations, or the arrangement
for giving effect to the maxim “divide and rule”, had to be done in such a manner as to make
the Bengalis suffer physical as well as mental division.

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Curzonian Administration: The policies of Lord Curzon and their long-term implications on the
national movements.
Lord Curzon was the youngest Viceroy of India who took over the reign in 1899 and governed till
1905. He was considered to be racist and a believer of the ‘civilising mission’ of Indian people by the
British.
Policies of Lord Curzon:
● Calcutta Corporation Act, 1899:
⮚ This Act further reduced the number of Indian people who were to be elected to the
corporation.
⮚ By doing so, the majority shifted towards the European members in the corporation, which
monopolised the entire corporation.
⮚ Lord Curzon deemed Indians to be unfit for a ruling.
● Indian Universities Act, 1904:
⮚ This Act fixed the tenures and the numbers of fellows in the University.
⮚ The provision of this Act introduced the structure of election to the Senate in the Indian
Universities.
⮚ The govt kept the veto and the overriding powers to itself in the matters of all the
Universities in India, which increased the govt control over it.
● Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1904:
⮚ This Act was passed to preserve ancient monuments, gain control over antiquities traffic,
and protect ancient monuments of historical importance.
⮚ Through this Act, the government gained the power to acquire protected areas and
regulate archaeological excavation anywhere in India.
● Partition of Bengal, 1905:
➢ Lord Curzon divided Bengal into two parts. The western part of Bengal, Odisha, and Bihar
was in one region, and the eastern part of Bengal and Assam were in another region.
➢ The justification given for this drastic step was that the size of Bengal being the hurdle for
achieving smooth administration in the region.
Implication of Lord Curzon’s Policies:
● The partition of Bengal paved the way for the rise of nationalism, and it garnered a mass
movement in the country.
● Especially the Swadeshi movement and the Vande Mataram movement was due to the ill-
thought policies of Lord Curzon.
● Communal politics had started to take deep roots in Indian society, pitting Muslims and
Hindus against each other to divide the unity.
● The manufactured communal hatred only resulted in the unity of the Hindu-Muslim
brotherhood.
● The inclusion of the Europeans in key corporations and overriding powers to the government
resulted in a lack of trust among the people of the British rulers.
● The sympathetic people of Indian origin working under the British government started to
alienate themselves and formed a substantial diaspora.
As the policies of Lord Curzon were half baked and mostly reactionary, they, in turn, helped the
cause of the people of India to unite and fight against the imperialist forces. The long-term effect of his
policies was the subsequent withdrawal of the British government years later.

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The Declaration of Partition
● The Curzonian scheme to partition Bengal took a concrete shape gradually from the time the
Viceroy wrote his minute on Territorial Redistribution on 1 June 1903 to the day the final
scheme of the division was dispatched to the home authorities in London for sanction on 2
February 1905.
● On 19 July 1905, the British government announced its decision to form the new province of
“Eastern Bengal and Assam”.
● On 16 October 1905, the province broke up Bengal and its 41.5 million Bengali speaking
people.

Anti-Partition Agitation and Swadeshi Movement

● The onset of Anti-partition Agitation and Swadeshi Movement: on 7 August 1905, the Anti-
partition agitation began in Bengal on the conventional moderate nationalist lines, though
with a great deal of noise and angry protestations.
⮚ Big conferences were held at the Town Hall, Calcutta, where delegates from districts
participated and protested their injured sentiments.
⮚ But it did not affect the indifference of the authorities in India and Britain. Therefore,
the evident failure of these methods led to a search for new techniques from the mid-
1905 and resulted in the boycott of British goods as an active weapon.
⮚ The boycott proposal first came from Krishnakumar Mitra’s Sanjivani on 3 July 1905
and was later accepted by the prominent public men at the Town Hall meeting of 7 August
1905.
● Calls of Prominent Leaders: The discovery was followed by the calls of Rabindranath
Tagore and Ramendra Sunder Trivedi, respectively, for the observance of Raksha
Bandhan and arandhan (the keeping of the hearth unlit at all the homes as a sign of mourning)
on the day the partition was put into effect. Later in the day, Anandamohan Bose and
Surendranath Banerjea addressed two huge mass gatherings. With these measures, the
movement gained a new enthusiasm.
⮚ The day partition took effect on 16 October 1905 was announced to be called a day of
mourning throughout Bengal.
⮚ People went for processions and band after band walked barefooted, bathed in the Ganges
in the morning, and then paraded the streets singing Bande Mataram, which, almost
spontaneously, became the movement’s theme song.
⮚ ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ was composed by Rabindranath Tagore and was sung by huge
crowds marching in the streets. Later, this song was made the national anthem of present-
day Bangladesh.
● Boycott of British products: The boycott of British products was followed by the advocacy
of swadeshi or encouraging purchasers to buy indigenously produced goods as a patriotic duty,
Charkha came to typify the popular concern for the country’s economic self-sufficiency, and
the holding of swadeshi melas or fairs for marketing handicrafts and other articles became a
regular feature.
● Rise of Indigenous Industries: A considerable enthusiasm was created for undertaking
swadeshi or Indian enterprises. Several exclusive Indian industrial ventures such as Bengal
Chemicals, Bange Lakshmi Cotton Mills, Mohini Mills and National Tannery were started.
➢ Various soap, matchbox and tobacco manufacturing establishments and oil mills, as well
as financial activities, like the swadeshi banks, insurance, and steam navigation
companies, also took off the ground under the impetus generated by the movement.

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 ● Boycott of British led Universities: The picketing before the shops selling British goods soon
led to a boycott of the officially controlled educational institutions.
➢ The British threat to the student-picketers through the infamous circular of 22 October 1905
issued by Carlyle, the Chief Secretary of the Government of Bengal, known otherwise as
to the “Carlyle Circular”, and the imposition of fines and rustication orders on them
resulted in the decision by a large number of students to leave these schools and colleges
of “slavery”.
● Establishment of Swadeshi Educational Institutions: Boycott of schools and colleges forced
the leaders of the Swadeshi movement to think about running a parallel education system in
Bengal.
➢ Appeals were made, donations collected, and distinguished persons came forward to
formulate programmes for national education. These efforts resulted in the establishment
of the Bengal Technical Institute, which was started on 25 July 1906, and which later
turned into the College of Engineering and Technology, Jadavpur-the nucleus of the
present-day Jadavpur University), the Bengal National College and School (which was set
up on 15 August 1906 with Aurobindo Ghosh as its Principal) and several national, primary
and secondary schools in the districts.
➢ To impart education through the vernacular medium, the National Council of Education
was also set up on August 15, 1906 to organise a system of education— literary, scientific,
and technical—on national lines and under national control.

● Movement beyond Bengali Sub-Nationalism: The non-political constructive programmes or

a self-strengthening movement in 1906 came to be criticised by the political extremists like
Aurobindo Ghosh, Bipin Chandra Pal or Brahmabandhab Upadhyay. They argued that without
freedom, no real regeneration of national life was possible.
➢ The movement hereafter began to take a new turn. Its goal no longer remained the mere
abrogation of the partition but complete independence or swaraj. In this sense, the
movement could not be considered in any way to be an expression of narrow Bengali
sub-nationalism.
➢ The programme at this stage included four things:
o Boycott of British Goods and Institutions,
o Development of Their Indigenous Alternatives,
o Violation of Unjust Laws And
o Violent agitation, if necessitated by British repression
➢ The movement also spread to other parts of the country in Poona and Bombay led by
Tilak, in Punjab under Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh, in Delhi under Syed Haider Raza,
and in Madras under Chidambaram Pillai.

Lajpat Rai was a famous nationalist in India who was also known for his proficiency in writing. To
rouse and inspire the Punjabis with patriotic zeal, he wrote the biographies of Mazzini, Garibaldi,
Shivaji, Dayanand and Shri Krishna, besides other important works in English, Hindi, and
Urdu. He was famously called the “Lion of Punjab”.

Swadeshi movement and The Concept of Mass Movement, Workers and Peasants
The national goal of swaraj, and the means to achieve it through boycott in all spheres, or through the
method of passive resistance as it was then formulated necessitated not only a widespread awakening
of the masses and invited contributions from various sections

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 ● Workers: Some swadeshi activists, notably Aswini Coomar Banerji, Prabhat Kusum
Roychoudhury, Athanasius Apurba Kumar Ghosh and Premtosh Bose, try to organise workers
in Bengal and direct their economic grievances into political channels. For instance,
⮚ A bitter strike in the government-owned presses resulted in the first real labour union,
namely the Printers’ Union, in October 1905.
⮚ A similar struggle of the employees of the Eastern Indian Railway saw the organisation of
a Railway men’s Union in July 1906.
⮚ The jute mill workers, who agitated almost on similar lines from 1905, were led by Ashwini
Kumar Banerji to form an Indian Millhands’ Union at Budge-Budge in August 1906.

• Peasants: To the bulk of the impoverished Peasants, their patriotic calls remained vague,
distant and even abstractly rhetorical.
⮚ The reason was the lack of genuine interest among these leaders in improving the agrarian
situation or formulating concrete programmes for the betterment of the peasant masses.
⮚ Undue emphasis on the Hindu revivalist symbols and idioms largely discouraged the
Muslim peasants who formed the bulk of the peasantry in east Bengal from taking a lively
interest in the great commotion.
● Women: Women, traditionally home-centred, especially those of the urban middle classes,
took an active part in processions and picketing. From now onwards, they were to play an
important role in the national movement.
● Participation by Muslims: Some Muslims participated like Barrister Abdul Rasul, Liaqat
Hussain, Guznavi,
Maulana Azad, who Swadeshi Movement and Important sessions of INC:
joined one of the ● 1905 Session: Annual Session of INC was held in
revolutionary terrorist Benares under the leadership of Gopal Krishna
groups. However, most of Gokhale, and the INC proclaimed the Swadeshi
the upper and middle- movement.
class Muslims stayed ● 1906 Session: Annual Session of INC was held in
away. They were led by Calcutta, and the difference between Moderates and
Nawab Salimullah of Extremists came to the forefront here. They agreed to
Dacca, who supported the elect Dadabhai Naoroji as President of the session.
partition to provide them ● Four resolutions on Swaraj, Boycott, Swadeshi and
with a Muslim-majority National Education were adopted.
East Bengal.
⮚ To support government interests, the All India Muslim League was upheld up on 30
December 1906 as an anti-Congress front, and reactionary elements like Nawab Salimullah
of Dacca were encouraged.
⮚ The nature of the Swadeshi Movement, with leaders suggesting Hindu festivals and
goddesses for inspiration, tended to exclude the Muslims.

Government Measures to Suppress Swadeshi Movement

• The singing of Vande Mataram was banned.
• The Seditious Meetings Act, 1911, gave the authorities arbitrary powers to stop persons from
addressing certain meetings and even refuse permission to hold those meetings. As students
were participating in large numbers, schools & colleges were warned not to allow their students
to participate in the movement or their aid would be clogged.

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 • Students found guilty of participation were disqualified for government jobs or government
scholarships, and disciplinary action— fine, expulsion, arrest, beating, etc. was to be taken
against them.
• The Extremist leaders like Lal, Bal, Pal and Aurobindo Ghosh were imprisoned and deported.
• The Newspaper (incitement to offences) Act of 1908 was passed to throttle the voice of the
press.

Annulment of Partition
● In December 1911, George V announced the revocation of the partition at the Delhi Durbar.
After some initial hesitation, Viceroy Hardinge and Secretary of State Crewe found the idea
quite attractive.
● The suggestion was strongly sanctioned by Home Member Jenkins, who was deeply worried
by the continuing revolutionary terrorism in Bengal.
● The Government of India despatch of 25 August 1911 linked the reunion of Bengal under a
Governor-in-Council with a transfer of the capital to Delhi, both as a sop to Muslim
sentiments and, much more important, on the somewhat farsighted argument that Viceregal
authority should be insulated from provincial pressures as ultimately ’a larger measure of self-
government’ was inevitable in the provinces.

Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar (1869-1912) a close associate of Sri Aurobindo was a marathi brahmin
who had settled in Bengal, Sakharam was born in Deoghar. His text, titled Desher Katha (Story of
the Nation/Country), written in 1904, warned against the colonial state’s ‘hypnotic conquest of
the mind'.
This book had an immense repercussion in Bengal, captured the mind of young Bengal and assisted
more than anything else in the preparation of the Swadeshi movement. The government of Bengal
banned the book in 1910 and confiscated all the copies. But by the time Desher Katha was banned
by the colonial state in 1910, it had sold over 15,000 copies, inspired swadeshi street plays and
folk songs, and had become a mandatory text for an entire generation of swadeshi activists. Deuskar
used ‘desh’ to mean nation. It is worth quoting part of an article “Amader Desher Katha” [About our
Country], that appeared in the children’s periodical Prakriti [Nature] in 1907.
The interpretation of Bengal as ‘desh’ can be seen in the book. Hence, use of ‘desh’ by Deuskar
was in the specific context of the region of Bengal.

Swadeshi Movement-A Critical Analysis

Drawbacks
● Negligible participation by Muslims: It could not garner the support of the Muslim mass,
especially the Muslim peasantry. The British policy of deliberately attempting to use
communalism to turn the Muslims against the Swadeshi Movement was primarily
responsible for this.
● Rise of Communalism: This was the period when the All India Muslim League was set up
with the active guidance and support of the government. In Bengal, people like Nawab Salim
Ullah of Dacca were propped up to oppose the Swadeshi Movement. Mullahs and maulvis were
taken into service, and, unsurprisingly, at the height of the Swadeshi Movement, communal
riots broke out in Bengal.
● Unintended negative consequences: Some of the forms of mobilisation adopted by the
Swadeshi Movement had inevitable unintended negative consequences for instance,

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 ⮚ The usage of traditional popular customs, festivals and institutions for mobilising the
masses, a technique used widely in most parts of the world to generate mass movements,
especially in the initial stages, was misinterpreted and distorted by communalists
supported by the state.
⮚ The communal forces witnessed narrow religious identities in the traditional forms
utilised by the Swadeshi movements. In contrast, these forms generally reflected common
popular cultural traditions that had evolved as a synthesis of different religious ‘prevalent
among the people.
● Brutal Repression by Government: The government, witnessing the revolutionary potential
of the movement, came down with a strong hand. Repression took the form of controls and
forbade public meetings, processions and the press.
⮚ The issue of the 1906 Barisal Conference, where the police forcibly dissolved the
conference and brutally beat up a large number of the participants, is a telling example of
the government’s attitude and policy.
● The Internal Squabbles: The internal disputes, especially the split in 1907 in the Congress,
the apex all-India organisation, weakened the movement. Although the Swadeshi Movement
had spread outside Bengal, the rest of the country was not fully prepared to accept the new
style and stage of politics. Both these factors reinforced the hands of the government.
● Lack of Effective Organisation: The Swadeshi Movement lacked an effective organisation
and party structure.
⮚ The movement had thrashed programmatically the entire gamut of Gandhian techniques,
i.e., passive resistance, non-violent non-cooperation, the call to fill the British jails,
constructive work, social reform etc. However, it could not give these techniques a
centralised, disciplined focus, carry- the bulk of political - India, and convert these
techniques into actual, practical political practice.
● The mass movement did not sustain: The movement declined partially because of the very
logic. They cannot be supported endlessly at the same pitch of militancy and self-sacrifice,
especially when faced with severe repression, but need to pause to consolidate their forces for
yet another struggle.

Strength
● Reversal of earlier Nationalist Approach: Swadeshi movement marked a total reversal of
the earlier nationalist approach of “petitioning and praying” to the Raj for concessions, as well
as a virtual rejection of the moderate political programme.
⮚ It set before the Indian people the goal of swaraj or independence and committed them to
the task of doing away with Britain’s imperialist stranglehold over India.
● Left Legacy of Mass Struggle: For the attainment of swaraj, it chartered out for the nation the
path of “passive resistance” or civil disobedience of British authority.
⮚ The success of such resistance being conditional on extensive participation of the masses,
the Swadeshi movement struggled hard to gain a popular base. Despite its failure to become
a full-fledged mass upsurge, it nevertheless succeeded in leaving behind the idea of
widespread mass struggle for posterity.
● Anticipated Gandhian Mass Struggle: With its scheme for “constructive swadeshi”, the
movement anticipated the Gandhian mass struggles of the post-first world war period.
⮚ Barring the principle of non-violence, Gandhi’s inspiring call from 1920 onwards for
achieving swaraj through “non-cooperation,” “civil disobedience”, and “constructive

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 programme” resembled closely with “boycott”, “passive resistance”, and “constructive
swadeshi” of the Bengali political scenario preached and practised fifteen years ago.
● Stiffest Indian resistance to the Arch Imperialist Government: The Swadeshi movement
had put up the stiffest Indian resistance to the government of an arch imperialist like Curzon
and after he departs from India in November 1905 to the succeeding Government of Minto.
⮚ It became a contributing factor in the resignation of Fuller, the Lieutenant Governor of
East Bengal and Assam, in August 1906 and forced the authorities eventually to annul the
partition and re-unify Bengal in 1911.
● A new Imaginative Direction: The Swadeshi Movement’s chief success lay in giving Indian
nationalism a new imaginative direction and raising the state of nationalist unrest to the
high plane of bitter anti-imperialist struggles.
● Deep Marks on the cultural and intellectual activities: The swadeshi movement left its deep
marks on the cultural and academic activities of Bengal, with their fallouts spread over different
parts of the country.
⮚ Apart from a rich crop of patriotic compositions, playwritings and dramatic
performances, it generated the Bengal School of Painting under the leadership of
Rabindranath Tagore, kindled scientific enquiries under the supervision of Jagadish
Chandra Bose and Prafulla Chandra Roy.
⮚ It revived interest in the folk traditions through the labours of Dinesh Chandra Sen and
invigorated historical research with the help of the findings of Rakhaldas Banerji,
Hariprasad Shastri and Akshay Kumar Maitra.
● The advance of its Time: Swadeshi movement’s failure to assume the stature of a mass
upsurge, and the fact that it was eventually cornered into a secretive position, were
manifestations of the presence of some of its weaknesses and limitations. But despite its many
weaknesses, the degree of success it achieved at the levels of ideology, organisation and
techniques of political struggle was not only astounding but also innovative and, in some
respects, far in advance of its time.

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