Causes of national

movement
 Synopsis

 Introduction..
 Education. ...
 Unity through Language. ...
 Vernaculars. ...
 Socio-religious Movements. ...
 British Economic Policies. ...
 Building of Infrastructure. ...
 Introduction to Press. ...
 Policies of Lord Lytton
 Causes of the National
Movement

 For any movement to take roots there are several

causes that lead up to the final culmination point.
Similarly, the making of the National Movement is
a result of many things that eventually led to the
creation of Indian National Congress. Some of
these reasons are briefly listed here.
 Education

 British came up with several educational institutes in the nation to

ensure that their local subjects could understand their language.
The motive behind was to enable the subjects to serve the Raj
better. However, things didn’t go as planned.
 The language helped the educated Indians to better understand the
world. It instilled in them ideas of liberty and equality that was
propagated by many European liberal thinkers. This helped to unite
India in a common goal
 Unity through Language

 Since the educated elite of India came from all parts of

the country, so language could often become a barrier, but
with the introduction of English language, the thinkers
from across the nation found a common language to
communicate their ideas, surpassing the barriers of
language
 Vernaculars

 These same people would take their knowledge and

spread it across to other parts of the country by
propagating them in their respective languages, thereby
spreading the revolutionary ideas far and wide
 Socio-religious Movements

 Some revolutionary thinkers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy challenged

the conventional and biased orders of the society and enlightened
people about the various social evils plaguing our nation. With the
rise of knowledge in this department, the nation witnessed the rise
of evolving new generation of revolutionaries.
 An interesting fact to know is that Indian women never had to bring
about a suffragette separately like USA or France and other
developed nations. The fight for equality of women was a part of
the freedom struggle. Many prominent Indian women were part of
the freedom movement and an example of empowered women.
 British Economic Policies

 The economic policies propounded by the British resulted

in widespread poverty and hunger in India. Famines were
a constant occurrence leading to lakhs dying. This
instilled a feeling of deep-seated resentment against
British, which in turn let to the national movement
 Building of Infrastructure

 British built infrastructure such as roads, railways, and

telegraph system in order to improve trade within the
country. This, however, helped in connecting the nation.
People could easily move from one place to another and
also communicate with each other through means of a
telegraph, which helped to propagate the idea of 
nationalism far and wide
 Introduction to Press.

 Withthe presence of the press, Indians found a

way of circulating their angst against the British
Monarch by nationalistic journals in vernacular
language and circulating it.
Policies of Lord Lytton

 Lord Lytton, the viceroy of India from 1876 to 1880 is credited

with one of the biggest famine in south India which claimed lives
of over 10 million people. At the time when India was reeling with
the shortage of food and dying of hunger, he would conduct Dilli
Durbar in the year 1877, spending obnoxiously on such luxuries.
 He is also credited with passing the Vernacular Press Act of 1878
under which all the press material was confiscated as ‘seditious
material’. He also is responsible for passing the Arms Act which
prohibited Indians from carrying arms. All these arbitrary laws led
to excessive anger in Indians which eventually led to the national
movement.