Overview
Modern nationalism in India grew out of the anti-colonial movement: people discovered their unity in the process of their struggle with colonialism, and the sense of being oppressed provided a shared bond that tied many different groups together. This chapter picks up the story from the 1920s. It opens with the economic and political situation created by the First World War - defence expenditure financed by war loans and taxes, prices doubling between 1913 and 1918, forced recruitment in the villages, crop failures in 1918-19 and 1920-21 and an influenza epidemic in which, by the census of 1921, 12 to 13 million people perished. Into that situation came Mahatma Gandhi, back from South Africa in January 1915 with the method of satyagraha, which he used at Champaran in 1917 and at Ahmedabad and Kheda in 1918 before launching a nationwide protest against the Rowlatt Act of 1919 - answered by the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre of 13 April 1919. The chapter follows the Non-Cooperation and Khilafat Movement adopted at Nagpur in December 1920, and shows how swaraj meant different things to different people: to students and lawyers in the towns, to the peasants of Awadh under Baba Ramchandra, to the tribal rebels of the Gudem Hills under Alluri Sitaram Raju, and to the plantation workers of Assam. It traces the withdrawal of the movement after Chauri Chaura in February 1922, the Simon Commission, the Lahore Congress of December 1929 and Purna Swaraj, and then the Salt March of 1930 and the Civil Disobedience Movement - who joined it, who stayed out, and why: rich and poor peasants, the business classes and FICCI, industrial workers, the large-scale participation of women, the dalits and Ambedkar's Depressed Classes Association leading to the Poona Pact of September 1932, and the Muslim political organisations alienated after the Khilafat movement. It closes with the cultural making of nationalism - Bharat Mata, Vande Mataram, the revival of folklore, the Swadeshi and Swaraj flags, the reinterpretation of history - and with the Quit India Movement of 1942.
हिंदी में पढ़ें
भारत में आधुनिक राष्ट्रवाद औपनिवेशिक-विरोधी आंदोलन से जन्मा: लोगों ने उपनिवेशवाद के विरुद्ध संघर्ष की प्रक्रिया में ही अपनी एकता खोजी, और शोषित होने के साझे अनुभव ने अलग-अलग समूहों को एक सूत्र में बाँधा। यह अध्याय 1920 के दशक से कहानी उठाता है। पहले विश्वयुद्ध से बनी स्थिति — युद्ध-ऋण और बढ़े हुए कर, 1913 से 1918 के बीच दोगुनी हुई कीमतें, गाँवों से जबरन भर्ती, 1918-19 और 1920-21 की फ़सल बर्बादी और इन्फ़्लुएंज़ा महामारी, जिसमें 1921 की जनगणना के अनुसार 1 से 1.3 करोड़ लोग मारे गए। जनवरी 1915 में दक्षिण अफ़्रीका से लौटे महात्मा गांधी सत्याग्रह का तरीक़ा लाए — चंपारण (1917), अहमदाबाद और खेड़ा (1918) — और फिर 1919 के रौलट एक्ट के विरुद्ध देशव्यापी सत्याग्रह, जिसका उत्तर 13 अप्रैल 1919 का जलियाँवाला बाग़ हत्याकांड था। आगे असहयोग और ख़िलाफ़त आंदोलन, जिसमें स्वराज का अर्थ हर समूह के लिए अलग था — शहरों के विद्यार्थी और वकील, बाबा रामचंद्र के नेतृत्व में अवध के किसान, अल्लूरी सीताराम राजू के नेतृत्व में गूडेम पहाड़ियों के आदिवासी, और असम के बाग़ान मज़दूर। फिर फ़रवरी 1922 में चौरी-चौरा के बाद आंदोलन की वापसी, साइमन कमीशन, दिसंबर 1929 का लाहौर अधिवेशन और पूर्ण स्वराज, 1930 की दांडी यात्रा और सविनय अवज्ञा आंदोलन — कौन जुड़ा, कौन दूर रहा और क्यों: धनी और ग़रीब किसान, व्यापारी वर्ग और फ़िक्की, औद्योगिक मज़दूर, महिलाओं की बड़ी भागीदारी, दलित और अंबेडकर तथा सितंबर 1932 का पूना पैक्ट, और ख़िलाफ़त के बाद कांग्रेस से दूर होते मुस्लिम संगठन। अंत में राष्ट्रवाद का सांस्कृतिक निर्माण — भारत माता, वंदे मातरम्, लोककथाओं का पुनरुद्धार, स्वदेशी और स्वराज ध्वज, इतिहास की पुनर्व्याख्या — और 1942 का भारत छोड़ो आंदोलन।
Learning Objectives
- Explain why the growth of nationalism in the colonies is linked to the anti-colonial movement
- Describe how the First World War created the economic and political situation in which the national movement spread
- Explain the idea of satyagraha and identify Gandhiji's early satyagrahas at Champaran, Ahmedabad and Kheda
- State why Indians were outraged by the Rowlatt Act and describe the events at Jallianwalla Bagh and after
- Explain why Gandhiji took up the Khilafat issue and how the Non-Cooperation programme was adopted
- Compare how different social groups - townspeople, Awadh peasants, Gudem tribals and Assam plantation workers - understood swaraj
- Explain why Gandhiji withdrew the Non-Cooperation Movement in February 1922
- Trace the road to Civil Disobedience: the Swaraj Party, the Depression, the Simon Commission and the Purna Swaraj resolution of December 1929
- Explain why salt was an effective symbol of resistance and describe the Salt March and the Civil Disobedience Movement
- Assess why rich peasants, poor peasants, business classes, industrial workers and women joined the movement, and with what expectations
- Explain the limits of Civil Disobedience with reference to the dalits, Ambedkar and the Poona Pact, and to the Muslim political organisations
- Describe the cultural processes - Bharat Mata, folklore, flags and nationalist histories - through which a sense of collective belonging was created
Topics in this chapter
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How Nationalism Grew in a Colony
Unity discovered in struggle
Modern nationalism in Europe came to be associated with the formation of nation-states, and with a change in people’s understanding of who they were and what defined their identity and sense of belonging. In India, as in many other colonies, the growth of modern nationalism is intimately connected to the anti-colonial movement. People began discovering their unity in the process of their struggle with colonialism, and the sense of being oppressed under colonialism provided a shared bond that tied many different groups together.
But not one experience, and not one freedom
Each class and group felt the effects of colonialism differently, their experiences were varied, and their notions of freedom were not always the same. The Congress under Mahatma Gandhi tried to forge these groups together within one movement — but the unity did not emerge without conflict. That tension is the argument of the whole chapter, and it is why the conclusion describes what was emerging as ‘a nation with many voices wanting freedom from colonial rule’.
Where this chapter begins
The chapter picks up the story from the 1920s and studies the Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience Movements: how the Congress sought to develop the national movement, how different social groups participated in it, and how nationalism captured the imagination of people.
- Read the chapter as an answer to one question: what did swaraj mean to a Bombay lawyer, an Awadh tenant, a Gudem hill rebel and an Assam plantation worker? Four different answers, one movement.
The First World War and Its Aftermath
What the war did to the economy
- The war led to a huge increase in defence expenditure, financed by war loans and increasing taxes: customs duties were raised and income tax introduced.
- Through the war years prices increased - doubling between 1913 and 1918 - leading to extreme hardship for the common people.
- Villages were called upon to supply soldiers, and the forced recruitment in rural areas caused widespread anger.
Crops, famine and the influenza epidemic
In 1918-19 and 1920-21 crops failed in many parts of India, resulting in acute shortages of food. This was accompanied by an influenza epidemic. According to the census of 1921, 12 to 13 million people perished as a result of the famines and the epidemic.
The hope that was disappointed
People hoped that their hardships would end after the war was over. But that did not happen. It is at this stage that a new leader appeared and suggested a new mode of struggle — and that is how Gandhi enters the chapter, into a country already angry and already hungry.
- Forced recruitment: the process by which the colonial state forced people to join the army.
- Prices doubling in five years, then two failed harvests and an epidemic that killed 12-13 million: the mass base of the movement after 1919 is impossible to explain without these numbers.
The Idea of Satyagraha
Gandhi returns, January 1915
Mahatma Gandhi returned to India in January 1915. He had come from South Africa, where he had successfully fought the racist regime with a novel method of mass agitation which he called satyagraha.
What satyagraha means
- The idea emphasised the power of truth and the need to search for truth.
- If the cause was true, if the struggle was against injustice, then physical force was not necessary to fight the oppressor.
- Without seeking vengeance or being aggressive, a satyagrahi could win the battle through non-violence, by appealing to the conscience of the oppressor.
- People — including the oppressors — had to be persuaded to see the truth, instead of being forced to accept truth through violence. By this struggle, truth was bound ultimately to triumph.
- Gandhi believed that this dharma of non-violence could unite all Indians.
Active, not passive
In Gandhi’s own words: “It is said of ‘passive resistance’ that it is the weapon of the weak, but the power which is the subject of this article can be used only by the strong. This power is not passive resistance; indeed it calls for intense activity… Satyagraha is not physical force. A satyagrahi does not inflict pain on the adversary; he does not seek his destruction… Satyagraha is pure soul-force. Truth is the very substance of the soul.… Non-violence is the supreme dharma.”
The three early satyagrahas
| Year | Place | Cause |
|---|---|---|
| 1917 | Champaran, Bihar | To inspire the peasants to struggle against the oppressive plantation system |
| 1918 | Ahmedabad | A satyagraha among cotton mill workers |
| 1918 | Kheda district, Gujarat | Peasants hit by crop failure and a plague epidemic could not pay the revenue and demanded that its collection be relaxed |
- Satyagraha is not the same as passive resistance: Gandhi's own text insists it is a weapon of the strong and calls for intense activity.
- Champaran, Ahmedabad and Kheda are the rehearsals - a planter, a mill owner and a revenue collector - before the nationwide Rowlatt satyagraha of 1919.
The Rowlatt Act and Jallianwalla Bagh, 1919
The Act
Emboldened by his earlier success, Gandhiji in 1919 decided to launch a nationwide satyagraha against the proposed Rowlatt Act (1919). The Act had been hurriedly passed through the Imperial Legislative Council despite the united opposition of the Indian members. It gave the government enormous powers to repress political activities and allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years. Gandhi wanted non-violent civil disobedience against such unjust laws, starting with a hartal on 6 April.
The response, and the clampdown
Rallies were organised in various cities, workers went on strike in railway workshops and shops closed down. Alarmed by the popular upsurge, and scared that lines of communication such as the railways and telegraph would be disrupted, the British administration decided to clamp down: local leaders were picked up from Amritsar, and Gandhi was barred from entering Delhi. On 10 April the police in Amritsar fired upon a peaceful procession, provoking attacks on banks, post offices and railway stations. Martial law was imposed and General Dyer took command.
13 April 1919
On 13 April the infamous Jallianwalla Bagh incident took place. A large crowd gathered in the enclosed ground: some to protest against the government’s new repressive measures, others to attend the annual Baisakhi fair. Being from outside the city, many villagers were unaware of the martial law that had been imposed. Dyer entered the area, blocked the exit points, and opened fire on the crowd, killing hundreds. His object, as he declared later, was to ‘produce a moral effect’ — to create in the minds of satyagrahis a feeling of terror and awe.
After the massacre
As the news spread, crowds took to the streets in many north Indian towns; there were strikes, clashes with the police and attacks on government buildings. The government responded with brutal repression, seeking to humiliate and terrorise: satyagrahis were forced to rub their noses on the ground, crawl on the streets, and do salaam to all sahibs; people were flogged and villages around Gujranwala in Punjab were bombed. Seeing violence spread, Mahatma Gandhi called off the movement.
- Dyer's stated object - to 'produce a moral effect' - is the chapter's evidence that the massacre was policy, not panic.
- Note the pattern that repeats through the chapter: mass upsurge, then violence, then Gandhi calling the movement off. It happens in 1919, in 1922 and again in 1931.
The Khilafat Issue and the Turn to a Mass Movement
Why Gandhi looked for a new issue
The Rowlatt satyagraha had been widespread but was still limited mostly to cities and towns. Gandhi now felt the need to launch a more broad-based movement, and he was certain that no such movement could be organised without bringing the Hindus and Muslims closer together. One way of doing this, he felt, was to take up the Khilafat issue.
The issue itself
The First World War had ended with the defeat of Ottoman Turkey, and there were rumours that a harsh peace treaty was going to be imposed on the Ottoman emperor — the spiritual head of the Islamic world, the Khalifa. To defend the Khalifa’s temporal powers, a Khilafat Committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919. A young generation of Muslim leaders, the brothers Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, began discussing with Gandhi the possibility of united mass action on the issue.
Calcutta, September 1920
Gandhi saw this as an opportunity to bring Muslims under the umbrella of a unified national movement. At the Calcutta session of the Congress in September 1920, he convinced other leaders of the need to start a non-cooperation movement in support of Khilafat as well as for swaraj.
- The Khilafat alliance is the high point of Hindu-Muslim unity in the chapter - and its decline is what the later section on Muslim alienation from the Congress dates itself from.
Why Non-Cooperation?
The argument of Hind Swaraj (1909)
In his famous book Hind Swaraj (1909) Mahatma Gandhi declared that British rule was established in India with the cooperation of Indians, and had survived only because of this cooperation. If Indians refused to cooperate, British rule in India would collapse within a year, and swaraj would come.
The programme, in stages
- Begin with the surrender of titles that the government awarded.
- A boycott of civil services, army, police, courts and legislative councils, schools, and foreign goods.
- Then, in case the government used repression, a full civil disobedience campaign would be launched.
Through the summer of 1920, Mahatma Gandhi and Shaukat Ali toured extensively, mobilising popular support.
The tussle inside the Congress
Many within the Congress were concerned about the proposals. They were reluctant to boycott the council elections scheduled for November 1920, and they feared that the movement might lead to popular violence. Between September and December there was an intense tussle, with for a while no meeting point between supporters and opponents. Finally, at the Congress session at Nagpur in December 1920, a compromise was worked out and the Non-Cooperation programme was adopted.
- Boycott: the refusal to deal and associate with people, or to participate in activities, or to buy and use things - usually a form of protest.
- Gandhi's claim in Hind Swaraj is a claim about power: colonial rule is not only guns, it is Indian clerks, Indian lawyers and Indian soldiers. Withdraw them and it falls.
The Movement in the Towns
Who joined, and what they gave up
The Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement began in January 1921 and started with middle-class participation in the cities:
- Thousands of students left government-controlled schools and colleges;
- headmasters and teachers resigned;
- lawyers gave up their legal practices;
- the council elections were boycotted in most provinces except Madras, where the Justice Party, the party of the non-Brahmans, felt that entering the council was one way of gaining some power — something to which usually only Brahmans had access.
The economic front
The effects were more dramatic here. Foreign goods were boycotted, liquor shops picketed, and foreign cloth burnt in huge bonfires. The import of foreign cloth halved between 1921 and 1922, its value dropping from Rs 102 crore to Rs 57 crore. In many places merchants and traders refused to trade in foreign goods or finance foreign trade, and as people discarded imported clothes, production of Indian textile mills and handlooms went up.
Why it slowed down
- Khadi cloth was often more expensive than mass-produced mill cloth, and poor people could not afford to buy it — so how could they boycott mill cloth for long?
- For the boycott of British institutions to succeed, alternative Indian institutions had to be set up, and these were slow to come up. So students and teachers began trickling back to government schools and lawyers joined back work in government courts.
- Picket: a form of demonstration or protest by which people block the entrance to a shop, factory or office.
- Rs 102 crore to Rs 57 crore in one year is the clearest measure in the chapter of how far the boycott actually reached.
- The khadi problem is the honest limit of the swadeshi programme: a moral choice that costs more than the thing it replaces is not available to the poor.
Rebellion in the Countryside: Awadh
Baba Ramchandra and the grievances
From the cities the movement spread to the countryside, drawing in the struggles of peasants and tribals. In Awadh, peasants were led by Baba Ramchandra — a sanyasi who had earlier been to Fiji as an indentured labourer. The movement here was against talukdars and landlords who demanded exorbitantly high rents and a variety of other cesses. Peasants had to do begar and work at landlords’ farms without payment; as tenants they had no security of tenure, being regularly evicted so that they could acquire no right over the leased land.
What the peasant movement demanded
- Reduction of revenue;
- abolition of begar;
- social boycott of oppressive landlords — in many places nai-dhobi bandhs were organised by panchayats to deprive landlords of the services of even barbers and washermen.
The Oudh Kisan Sabha
In June 1920 Jawaharlal Nehru began going around the villages in Awadh, talking to villagers and trying to understand their grievances. By October the Oudh Kisan Sabha was set up, headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba Ramchandra and a few others; within a month over 300 branches had been set up in villages around the region. When the Non-Cooperation Movement began the following year, the Congress effort was to integrate the Awadh peasant struggle into the wider struggle.
Forms the Congress was unhappy with
The peasant movement developed in ways the Congress leadership did not want. As it spread in 1921, the houses of talukdars and merchants were attacked, bazaars were looted, and grain hoards were taken over. In many places local leaders told peasants that Gandhiji had declared that no taxes were to be paid and land was to be redistributed among the poor. The name of the Mahatma was being invoked to sanction all action and aspirations.
Bardoli, 1928
In 1928 Vallabhbhai Patel led the peasant movement in Bardoli, a taluka in Gujarat, against enhancement of land revenue. Known as the Bardoli Satyagraha, the movement was a success under Patel’s able leadership; the struggle was widely publicised and generated immense sympathy in many parts of India.
- Begar: labour that villagers were forced to contribute without any payment.
- Nai-dhobi bandh - denying a landlord his barber and washerman - is social boycott used as a village weapon, and it is a peasant invention, not a Congress instruction.
- Nehru's own account of the Rae Bareli firing of 6 January 1921 shows how close the line was: 'For a moment my blood was up, non-violence was almost forgotten - but for a moment only.'
Tribal Peasants in the Gudem Hills
Why the hill people were enraged
Tribal peasants interpreted the message of Mahatma Gandhi and the idea of swaraj in yet another way. In the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh a militant guerrilla movement spread in the early 1920s — not a form of struggle that the Congress could approve. Here, as in other forest regions, the colonial government had closed large forest areas, preventing people from entering to graze their cattle, or to collect fuelwood and fruits. Not only were their livelihoods affected; they felt their traditional rights were being denied. When the government began forcing them to contribute begar for road building, the hill people revolted.
Alluri Sitaram Raju
The person who came to lead them was an interesting figure. Alluri Sitaram Raju claimed a variety of special powers: he could make correct astrological predictions and heal people, and he could survive even bullet shots. Captivated by Raju, the rebels proclaimed that he was an incarnation of God.
The contradiction at the heart of it
Raju talked of the greatness of Mahatma Gandhi, said he was inspired by the Non-Cooperation Movement, and persuaded people to wear khadi and give up drinking — but at the same time he asserted that India could be liberated only by the use of force, not non-violence. The Gudem rebels attacked police stations, attempted to kill British officials and carried on guerrilla warfare for achieving swaraj. Raju was captured and executed in 1924, and over time became a folk hero.
- Raju is the sharpest example in the chapter of swaraj being taken up and rewritten: khadi and Gandhi's name, joined to the gun.
- The tribal grievance is not abstract nationalism at all - it is forest closure and forced road labour. The national movement gave it a name it could travel under.
Swaraj in the Plantations
What freedom meant to a plantation worker
Workers too had their own understanding of Mahatma Gandhi and the notion of swaraj. For plantation workers in Assam, freedom meant the right to move freely in and out of the confined space in which they were enclosed, and it meant retaining a link with the village from which they had come.
The law that held them
Under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859, plantation workers were not permitted to leave the tea gardens without permission — and in fact they were rarely given such permission.
What happened when they heard
When they heard of the Non-Cooperation Movement, thousands of workers defied the authorities, left the plantations and headed home. They believed that Gandhi Raj was coming and everyone would be given land in their own villages. They, however, never reached their destination: stranded on the way by a railway and steamer strike, they were caught by the police and brutally beaten up.
Why these movements still count as nationalism
The visions of these movements were not defined by the Congress programme. They interpreted swaraj in their own ways, imagining it to be a time when all suffering and all troubles would be over. Yet when the tribals chanted Gandhiji’s name and raised slogans demanding ‘Swatantra Bharat’, they were emotionally relating to an all-India agitation; when they acted in the name of Mahatma Gandhi, they were identifying with a movement which went beyond the limits of their immediate locality.
- Three groups, three definitions of swaraj: no taxes and land redistribution in Awadh, the forest returned in Gudem, and the right to walk out of the tea garden in Assam.
Chauri Chaura and the Withdrawal of Non-Cooperation
February 1922
At Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur, a peaceful demonstration in a bazaar turned into a violent clash with the police. Hearing of the incident, Mahatma Gandhi called a halt to the Non-Cooperation Movement. In February 1922 he decided to withdraw it: he felt the movement was turning violent in many places, and that satyagrahis needed to be properly trained before they would be ready for mass struggles.
The split inside the Congress
Within the Congress, some leaders were by now tired of mass struggles and wanted to participate in elections to the provincial councils set up by the Government of India Act of 1919. They felt it was important to oppose British policies within the councils, argue for reform, and also demonstrate that these councils were not truly democratic.
- C. R. Das and Motilal Nehru formed the Swaraj Party within the Congress to argue for a return to council politics.
- Younger leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose pressed for more radical mass agitation and for full independence.
- Gandhi's reason for withdrawing was not that the movement was failing but that it was succeeding in a way he could not control.
Revolutionary Nationalism: The HSRA and Bhagat Singh
A different answer to the same question
Many nationalists thought that the struggle against the British could not be won through non-violence. In 1928 the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (HSRA) was founded at a meeting in Ferozeshah Kotla ground in Delhi. Among its leaders were Bhagat Singh, Jatin Das and Ajoy Ghosh. In a series of dramatic actions in different parts of India, the HSRA targeted some of the symbols of British power.
The actions of 1929
- In April 1929, Bhagat Singh and Batukeswar Dutta threw a bomb in the Legislative Assembly.
- In the same year there was an attempt to blow up the train that Lord Irwin was travelling in.
What Bhagat Singh said he wanted
Bhagat Singh was 23 when he was tried and executed by the colonial government. During his trial he stated that he did not wish to glorify ‘the cult of the bomb and pistol’ but wanted a revolution in society: “Revolution is the inalienable right of mankind. Freedom is the imprescriptible birthright of all. The labourer is the real sustainer of society… To the altar of this revolution we have brought our youth as incense, for no sacrifice is too great for so magnificent a cause. We are content. We await the advent of revolution. Inquilab Zindabad!”
- Bhagat Singh's own words distinguish the method from the aim: he rejected the 'cult of the bomb and pistol' as an end and named the labourer as the real sustainer of society.
Towards Civil Disobedience: Depression, Simon and Purna Swaraj
The worldwide economic depression
Two factors shaped Indian politics towards the late 1920s. The first was the effect of the worldwide economic depression. Agricultural prices began to fall from 1926 and collapsed after 1930. As the demand for agricultural goods fell and exports declined, peasants found it difficult to sell their harvests and pay their revenue. By 1930 the countryside was in turmoil.
The Simon Commission
Against this background, the new Tory government in Britain constituted a Statutory Commission under Sir John Simon. Set up in response to the nationalist movement, the commission was to look into the functioning of the constitutional system in India and suggest changes. The problem was that the commission did not have a single Indian member. They were all British.
When the Simon Commission arrived in India in 1928, it was greeted with the slogan ‘Go back Simon’. All parties, including the Congress and the Muslim League, participated in the demonstrations. Lala Lajpat Rai was assaulted by the British police during a peaceful demonstration against the Simon Commission and succumbed to the injuries inflicted on him.
Irwin's offer, and Lahore
In an effort to win the nationalists over, the viceroy Lord Irwin announced in October 1929 a vague offer of ‘dominion status’ for India in an unspecified future, and a Round Table Conference to discuss a future constitution. This did not satisfy the Congress leaders. The radicals led by Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose became more assertive, while the liberals and moderates gradually lost their influence.
In December 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Lahore Congress formalised the demand of ‘Purna Swaraj’ or full independence for India. It was declared that 26 January 1930 would be celebrated as Independence Day, when people were to take a pledge to struggle for complete independence. But the celebrations attracted very little attention — so Gandhi had to find a way to relate this abstract idea of freedom to more concrete issues of everyday life.
The Independence Day Pledge, 26 January 1930
“We believe that it is the inalienable right of the Indian people… to have freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil… if any government deprives a people of these rights and oppresses them, the people have a further right to alter it or to abolish it. The British Government in India has not only deprived the Indian people of their freedom but has based itself on the exploitation of the masses, and has ruined India economically, politically, culturally, and spiritually. We believe, therefore, that India must sever the British connection and attain Purna Swaraj or Complete Independence.”
- The Purna Swaraj resolution failed as a public event - almost nobody noticed 26 January 1930 - and that failure is exactly what produced the Salt March.
- An all-British commission sent to decide India's constitution is the clearest possible argument for the nationalist case, which is why every party joined the protest.
The Salt March and the Civil Disobedience Movement
Why salt
Mahatma Gandhi found in salt a powerful symbol that could unite the nation. On 31 January 1930 he sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin stating eleven demands. Some were of general interest, others were specific demands of different classes, from industrialists to peasants — the idea being to make the demands wide-ranging so that all classes could identify with them.
The most stirring of all was the demand to abolish the salt tax. Salt was consumed by the rich and the poor alike and was one of the most essential items of food. The tax on salt and the government monopoly over its production, Gandhi declared, revealed the most oppressive face of British rule.
The march
The letter was, in a way, an ultimatum: if the demands were not fulfilled by 11 March, the Congress would launch a civil disobedience campaign. Irwin was unwilling to negotiate. So Gandhi started his famous salt march accompanied by 78 of his trusted volunteers. The march was over 240 miles, from his ashram in Sabarmati to the Gujarati coastal town of Dandi. The volunteers walked for 24 days, about 10 miles a day. Thousands came to hear him wherever he stopped. On 6 April he reached Dandi and ceremonially violated the law, manufacturing salt by boiling sea water.
How it differed from Non-Cooperation
People were now asked not only to refuse cooperation with the British, as they had done in 1921-22, but also to break colonial laws. Thousands broke the salt law, manufactured salt and demonstrated in front of government salt factories; foreign cloth was boycotted and liquor shops picketed; peasants refused to pay revenue and chaukidari taxes; village officials resigned; and in many places forest people violated forest laws, going into Reserved Forests to collect wood and graze cattle.
Repression
The colonial government began arresting the Congress leaders one by one, leading to violent clashes. When Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a devout disciple of Gandhi, was arrested in April 1930, angry crowds demonstrated in the streets of Peshawar, facing armoured cars and police firing, and many were killed. A month later, when Gandhi himself was arrested, industrial workers in Sholapur attacked police posts, municipal buildings, lawcourts and railway stations — all structures that symbolised British rule. A frightened government responded with brutal repression: peaceful satyagrahis were attacked, women and children were beaten, and about 100,000 people were arrested.
- Salt works as a symbol because it is simultaneously trivial and universal: nobody can do without it, and the state taxes it - so breaking one law puts every Indian on the same side.
- 78 volunteers, 240 miles, 24 days, about 10 miles a day - the march was slow on purpose, so that the news could travel ahead of it.
The Gandhi-Irwin Pact and the Round Table Conferences
5 March 1931
Faced with mass arrests and repression, Gandhi once again decided to call off the movement and entered into a pact with Irwin on 5 March 1931. By the Gandhi-Irwin Pact:
- Gandhiji consented to participate in a Round Table Conference in London — the Congress had boycotted the first Round Table Conference;
- the government agreed to release the political prisoners.
London, December 1931
In December 1931 Gandhiji went to London for the conference, but the negotiations broke down and he returned disappointed. Back in India he discovered that the government had begun a new cycle of repression: Ghaffar Khan and Jawaharlal Nehru were both in jail, the Congress had been declared illegal, and a series of measures had been imposed to prevent meetings, demonstrations and boycotts.
The relaunch, and the end
With great apprehension, Mahatma Gandhi relaunched the Civil Disobedience Movement. For over a year the movement continued, but by 1934 it lost its momentum.
- The pact is a genuine gain and a genuine defeat at once: prisoners released, but no revenue relief - which is why the rich peasants who had funded the movement refused to return to it in 1932.
How Participants Saw the Movement: Rich and Poor Peasants
The rich peasant communities
In the countryside, rich peasant communities - like the Patidars of Gujarat and the Jats of Uttar Pradesh - were active in the movement. Being producers of commercial crops, they were very hard hit by the trade depression and falling prices. As their cash income disappeared, they found it impossible to pay the government’s revenue demand, and the refusal of the government to reduce the revenue demand led to widespread resentment.
They became enthusiastic supporters of the Civil Disobedience Movement, organising their communities and at times forcing reluctant members to participate in the boycott programmes. For them the fight for swaraj was a struggle against high revenues. They were deeply disappointed when the movement was called off in 1931 without the revenue rates being revised, so when the movement was restarted in 1932, many of them refused to participate.
The poorer peasantry
The poorer peasantry were not just interested in the lowering of the revenue demand. Many were small tenants cultivating land they had rented from landlords. As the Depression continued and cash incomes dwindled, they found it difficult to pay their rent, and wanted the unpaid rent to the landlord to be remitted. They joined a variety of radical movements, often led by Socialists and Communists.
Apprehensive of raising issues that might upset the rich peasants and landlords, the Congress was unwilling to support ‘no rent’ campaigns in most places. So the relationship between the poor peasants and the Congress remained uncertain.
- Two peasant demands that cannot both be met: the rich peasant wants lower revenue to the state, the poor tenant wants his rent to the landlord remitted. The Congress chose the first.
The Business Classes and the Industrial Working Classes
The business classes
During the First World War, Indian merchants and industrialists had made huge profits and become powerful. Keen on expanding their business, they now reacted against colonial policies that restricted business activities. They wanted protection against imports of foreign goods, and a rupee-sterling foreign exchange ratio that would discourage imports.
To organise business interests they formed:
- the Indian Industrial and Commercial Congress in 1920;
- the Federation of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) in 1927.
Led by prominent industrialists like Purshottamdas Thakurdas and G. D. Birla, the industrialists attacked colonial control over the Indian economy and supported the Civil Disobedience Movement when it was first launched, giving financial assistance and refusing to buy or sell imported goods. Most businessmen came to see swaraj as a time when colonial restrictions on business would no longer exist.
But after the failure of the Round Table Conference, business groups were no longer uniformly enthusiastic. They were apprehensive of the spread of militant activities, worried about prolonged disruption of business, and uneasy at the growing influence of socialism amongst the younger members of the Congress.
The industrial working classes
The industrial working classes did not participate in large numbers, except in the Nagpur region. As the industrialists came closer to the Congress, workers stayed aloof. Some workers nevertheless participated, selectively adopting some of the ideas of the Gandhian programme, like the boycott of foreign goods, as part of their own movements against low wages and poor working conditions:
- strikes by railway workers in 1930 and dockworkers in 1932;
- in 1930, thousands of workers in Chotanagpur tin mines wore Gandhi caps and joined protest rallies and boycott campaigns.
But the Congress was reluctant to include workers’ demands as part of its programme, feeling that this would alienate industrialists and divide the anti-imperial forces.
- The same logic keeps recurring: every demand the Congress adopted risked losing another group, so it left workers' and tenants' demands out to keep industrialists and landlords in.
Women in the Civil Disobedience Movement
Large-scale participation
Another important feature of the Civil Disobedience Movement was the large-scale participation of women. During Gandhiji’s salt march, thousands of women came out of their homes to listen to him. They participated in protest marches, manufactured salt, and picketed foreign cloth and liquor shops. Many went to jail.
Who these women were
- In urban areas they were from high-caste families.
- In rural areas they came from rich peasant households.
Moved by Gandhiji’s call, they began to see service to the nation as a sacred duty of women.
The limit of the change
This increased public role did not necessarily mean any radical change in the way the position of women was visualised. Gandhiji was convinced that it was the duty of women to look after home and hearth, be good mothers and good wives. And for a long time the Congress was reluctant to allow women to hold any position of authority within the organisation; it was keen only on their symbolic presence.
- Many women left the house for the first time in their lives to walk in these processions - and returned to an organisation that wanted their presence but not their authority.
The Limits of Civil Disobedience: Dalits, Ambedkar and the Poona Pact
The group swaraj did not move
Not all social groups were moved by the abstract concept of swaraj. One such group was the nation’s ‘untouchables’, who from around the 1930s had begun to call themselves dalit or oppressed. For long the Congress had ignored the dalits, for fear of offending the sanatanis, the conservative high-caste Hindus.
What Gandhi did
Mahatma Gandhi declared that swaraj would not come for a hundred years if untouchability was not eliminated. He:
- called the ‘untouchables’ harijan, or the children of God;
- organised satyagraha to secure them entry into temples, and access to public wells, tanks, roads and schools;
- himself cleaned toilets to dignify the work of the bhangi (the sweepers);
- persuaded upper castes to change their heart and give up ‘the sin of untouchability’.
What many dalit leaders wanted instead
Many dalit leaders were keen on a different political solution. They began organising themselves, demanding reserved seats in educational institutions and a separate electorate that would choose dalit members for legislative councils. Political empowerment, they believed, would resolve the problems of their social disabilities. Dalit participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement was therefore limited, particularly in the Maharashtra and Nagpur region where their organisation was strong.
Ambedkar, the fast, and the Poona Pact
Dr B. R. Ambedkar, who organised the dalits into the Depressed Classes Association in 1930, clashed with Mahatma Gandhi at the second Round Table Conference by demanding separate electorates for dalits. When the British government conceded the demand, Gandhiji began a fast unto death, believing that separate electorates would slow down the process of their integration into society.
Ambedkar ultimately accepted Gandhiji’s position, and the result was the Poona Pact of September 1932. It gave the Depressed Classes (later the Scheduled Castes) reserved seats in provincial and central legislative councils, but they were to be voted in by the general electorate. The dalit movement, however, continued to be apprehensive of the Congress-led national movement.
- The disagreement is not about whether untouchability is wrong; both men say it is. It is about whether the remedy is a change of heart in caste Hindus or a separate political voice for dalits.
- The Poona Pact splits the difference and gives away the key point: reserved seats, but elected by the general electorate rather than by dalits alone.
The Limits of Civil Disobedience: Muslim Political Organisations
Alienation after Khilafat
Some of the Muslim political organisations in India were also lukewarm in their response to the Civil Disobedience Movement. After the decline of the Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement, a large section of Muslims felt alienated from the Congress. From the mid-1920s the Congress came to be more visibly associated with openly Hindu religious nationalist groups like the Hindu Mahasabha. As relations worsened, each community organised religious processions with militant fervour, provoking communal clashes and riots in various cities, and every riot deepened the distance between the two communities.
The failed negotiation of 1927-28
The Congress and the Muslim League made efforts to renegotiate an alliance, and in 1927 it appeared that such a unity could be forged. The important differences were over the question of representation in the future assemblies. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, one of the leaders of the Muslim League, was willing to give up the demand for separate electorates if:
- Muslims were assured reserved seats in the Central Assembly, and
- representation in proportion to population in the Muslim-dominated provinces (Bengal and Punjab).
Negotiations continued, but all hope of resolving the issue at the All Parties Conference in 1928 disappeared when M. R. Jayakar of the Hindu Mahasabha strongly opposed efforts at compromise.
What that meant for 1930
When the Civil Disobedience Movement started there was thus an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust between communities. Alienated from the Congress, large sections of Muslims could not respond to the call for a united struggle. Many Muslim leaders and intellectuals expressed concern about the status of Muslims as a minority, fearing that the culture and identity of minorities would be submerged under the domination of a Hindu majority.
Iqbal, 1930
In 1930, Sir Muhammad Iqbal, as president of the Muslim League, reiterated the importance of separate electorates as a safeguard for Muslim minority political interests — a statement supposed to have provided the intellectual justification for the Pakistan demand that came up in subsequent years. He argued that ‘the units of Indian society are not territorial as in European countries’, that the principle of European democracy cannot be applied to India without recognising the fact of communal groups, and pointed to the general economic inferiority of the Muslims, their enormous debt, especially in the Punjab, and their insufficient majorities in some of the provinces.
- 1927 is the chapter's near miss: Jinnah was willing to trade separate electorates for reserved seats and proportional representation in Bengal and Punjab, and the compromise was blocked from the other side in 1928.
The Sense of Collective Belonging: Bharat Mata
How a nation becomes real in the mind
Nationalism spreads when people begin to believe that they are all part of the same nation, when they discover some unity that binds them together. This sense of collective belonging came partly through the experience of united struggles. But there were also cultural processes through which nationalism captured people’s imagination: history and fiction, folklore and songs, popular prints and symbols all played a part.
Bharat Mata
The identity of a nation is most often symbolised in a figure or image, which helps create an image with which people can identify the nation. It was in the twentieth century, with the growth of nationalism, that the identity of India came to be visually associated with the image of Bharat Mata.
- The image was first created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. In the 1870s he wrote ‘Vande Mataram’ as a hymn to the motherland; it was later included in his novel Anandamath and widely sung during the Swadeshi movement in Bengal.
- Moved by the Swadeshi movement, Abanindranath Tagore painted his famous image of Bharat Mata in 1905. There she is portrayed as an ascetic figure - calm, composed, divine and spiritual, shown dispensing learning, food and clothing, with a mala in one hand emphasising her ascetic quality.
- In later years the image acquired many different forms as it circulated in popular prints — in one, she is shown with a trishul, standing beside a lion and an elephant, both symbols of power and authority.
Devotion to this mother figure came to be seen as evidence of one’s nationalism.
- Bharat Mata is the Indian answer to the question Chapter 1 asks about Germania: how do you give a face to a nation? Both are female allegories, but Bharat Mata is drawn as divine, which Germania is not.
- The two Bharat Mata images differ sharply - the ascetic figure of 1905 and the later one armed with a trishul beside a lion. The same nation, imagined once as renunciation and once as power.
Folklore, Flags and the Reinterpretation of History
Reviving folklore
Ideas of nationalism also developed through a movement to revive Indian folklore. In late-nineteenth-century India, nationalists began recording folk tales sung by bards and toured villages to gather folk songs and legends. These tales, they believed, gave a true picture of traditional culture that had been corrupted and damaged by outside forces, and it was essential to preserve this tradition in order to discover one’s national identity and restore a sense of pride in one’s past.
- In Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore himself began collecting ballads, nursery rhymes and myths, and led the movement for folk revival.
- In Madras, Natesa Sastri published a massive four-volume collection of Tamil folk tales, The Folklore of Southern India. He believed folklore was national literature, ‘the most trustworthy manifestation of people’s real thoughts and characteristics’.
Two flags
| Flag | Colours | What it carried |
|---|---|---|
| Swadeshi flag, during the Swadeshi movement in Bengal | Red, green and yellow | Eight lotuses representing eight provinces of British India, and a crescent moon representing Hindus and Muslims |
| Swaraj flag, designed by Gandhiji by 1921 | Red, green and white | A spinning wheel in the centre, representing the Gandhian ideal of self-help |
Carrying the flag, holding it aloft during marches, became a symbol of defiance.
Reinterpreting history
By the end of the nineteenth century many Indians felt that to instil a sense of pride in the nation, Indian history had to be thought about differently. The British saw Indians as backward and primitive, incapable of governing themselves. In response, Indians began looking into the past to discover India’s great achievements, writing about the glorious developments in ancient times when art and architecture, science and mathematics, religion and culture, law and philosophy, crafts and trade had flourished. This glorious time, in their view, was followed by a history of decline, when India was colonised. These nationalist histories urged readers to take pride in India’s past and struggle to change the miserable conditions of life under British rule.
The problem with this
These efforts to unify people were not without problems. When the past being glorified was Hindu, when the images celebrated were drawn from Hindu iconography, then people of other communities felt left out.
- Compare with Chapter 1: Herder and the Grimm brothers collecting German folktales, and Rabindranath Tagore and Natesa Sastri collecting Bengali and Tamil ones, are doing the same political work in two centuries and two continents.
- Tarinicharan Chattopadhyay's Bharatbarsher Itihas (1858) is the tone of nationalist history: a glorious Arya past, then decline, then 'a few soldiers from a tiny island far away lording it over the land of India'.
The Quit India Movement, 1942
Why it came
The failure of the Cripps Mission and the effects of World War II created widespread discontentment in India. This led Gandhiji to launch a movement calling for the complete withdrawal of the British from India.
The resolution
- The Congress Working Committee, meeting at Wardha on 14 July 1942, passed the historic ‘Quit India’ resolution demanding the immediate transfer of power to Indians.
- On 8 August 1942 in Bombay, the All India Congress Committee endorsed the resolution, which called for a non-violent mass struggle on the widest possible scale throughout the country.
- It was on this occasion that Gandhiji delivered the famous ‘Do or Die’ speech.
What happened
The call almost brought the state machinery to a standstill in large parts of the country as people voluntarily threw themselves into the movement. People observed hartals, and demonstrations and processions were accompanied by national songs and slogans. It was truly a mass movement, bringing in thousands of ordinary people — students, workers and peasants — and seeing the active participation of leaders such as Jayprakash Narayan, Aruna Asaf Ali and Ram Manohar Lohia, and many women including Matangini Hazra in Bengal, Kanaklata Barua in Assam and Rama Devi in Odisha. The British responded with much force, yet it took more than a year to suppress the movement.
- Quit India is the one movement in the chapter that Gandhi did not call off - it was suppressed, and it took the colonial state over a year to do it.
Conclusion: A Nation with Many Voices
What held it together
A growing anger against the colonial government brought together various groups and classes of Indians into a common struggle for freedom in the first half of the twentieth century. The Congress under Mahatma Gandhi tried to channel people’s grievances into organised movements for independence, and through such movements the nationalists tried to forge a national unity.
What kept pulling it apart
Diverse groups and classes participated with varied aspirations and expectations. As their grievances were wide-ranging, freedom from colonial rule also meant different things to different people. The Congress continuously attempted to resolve differences, and to ensure that the demands of one group did not alienate another. This is precisely why the unity within the movement often broke down: the high points of Congress activity and nationalist unity were followed by phases of disunity and inner conflict between groups.
The chapter's last sentence
In other words, what was emerging was a nation with many voices wanting freedom from colonial rule.
- If you remember one line from this chapter for the exam, make it this one - it is the thesis every 5-mark answer in the chapter can be hung on.
Timeline and Key Personalities
Some important dates
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1918-19 | Distressed UP peasants organised by Baba Ramchandra |
| April 1919 | Gandhian hartal against the Rowlatt Act; Jallianwala Bagh massacre |
| January 1921 | Non-Cooperation and Khilafat movement launched |
| February 1922 | Chauri Chaura; Gandhiji withdraws the Non-Cooperation movement |
| May 1924 | Alluri Sitarama Raju arrested, ending a two-year armed tribal struggle |
| December 1929 | Lahore Congress; the Congress adopts the demand for 'Purna Swaraj' |
| 1930 | Ambedkar establishes the Depressed Classes Association |
| March 1930 | Gandhiji begins the Civil Disobedience Movement by breaking the salt law at Dandi |
| March 1931 | Gandhiji ends the Civil Disobedience Movement |
| December 1931 | Second Round Table Conference |
| 1932 | Civil Disobedience re-launched |
Other dates the chapter turns on
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1909 | Gandhi writes Hind Swaraj |
| January 1915 | Mahatma Gandhi returns to India from South Africa |
| 1917 | Champaran satyagraha, Bihar |
| 1918 | Ahmedabad mill workers' satyagraha; Kheda satyagraha |
| March 1919 | Khilafat Committee formed in Bombay |
| 13 April 1919 | Jallianwalla Bagh massacre |
| September 1920 | Calcutta session: Gandhi convinces the Congress to start non-cooperation |
| December 1920 | Nagpur session: the Non-Cooperation programme is adopted |
| 1921-22 | Import of foreign cloth halves, from Rs 102 crore to Rs 57 crore |
| 1927 | FICCI founded |
| 1928 | Simon Commission arrives; 'Go back Simon'; Bardoli Satyagraha; HSRA founded |
| October 1929 | Irwin's vague offer of 'dominion status' |
| 26 January 1930 | Independence Day pledge taken |
| 31 January 1930 | Gandhi's letter of eleven demands to Viceroy Irwin |
| 6 April 1930 | Gandhi reaches Dandi and breaks the salt law |
| 5 March 1931 | Gandhi-Irwin Pact |
| September 1932 | Poona Pact |
| 1934 | The Civil Disobedience Movement loses its momentum |
| 14 July / 8 August 1942 | Quit India resolution at Wardha, endorsed in Bombay; 'Do or Die' |
Who is who
| Person | Why the chapter names them |
|---|---|
| Mahatma Gandhi | Returned January 1915; satyagraha at Champaran, Ahmedabad and Kheda; led Non-Cooperation, the Salt March and Civil Disobedience; fasted against separate electorates for dalits |
| Baba Ramchandra | Sanyasi, formerly an indentured labourer in Fiji; led the Awadh peasants |
| Jawaharlal Nehru | Toured Awadh from June 1920; headed the Oudh Kisan Sabha; presided over the Lahore Congress of December 1929 |
| Alluri Sitaram Raju | Led the Gudem Hills guerrilla movement; captured and executed in 1924; became a folk hero |
| Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali | Young Muslim leaders who took up the Khilafat issue with Gandhi |
| General Dyer | Took command under martial law and ordered the firing at Jallianwalla Bagh, to 'produce a moral effect' |
| C. R. Das and Motilal Nehru | Formed the Swaraj Party within the Congress to return to council politics |
| Subhas Chandra Bose | With Nehru, pressed for radical mass agitation and full independence |
| Vallabhbhai Patel | Led the successful Bardoli Satyagraha of 1928 against enhanced land revenue |
| Lala Lajpat Rai | Assaulted by police during the anti-Simon demonstration; died of his injuries |
| Sir John Simon | Headed the Statutory Commission with no Indian member |
| Lord Irwin | Viceroy; offered 'dominion status' in October 1929; signed the pact of 5 March 1931 |
| Bhagat Singh | HSRA leader; threw a bomb in the Legislative Assembly with B. K. Dutta in April 1929; executed at 23 |
| Abdul Ghaffar Khan | Gandhi's devout disciple; his arrest in April 1930 brought crowds into the streets of Peshawar |
| Purshottamdas Thakurdas and G. D. Birla | Industrialists who led FICCI and funded the early Civil Disobedience Movement |
| Dr B. R. Ambedkar | Organised the Depressed Classes Association in 1930; demanded separate electorates; signed the Poona Pact |
| Muhammad Ali Jinnah | Muslim League leader willing in 1927 to trade separate electorates for reserved seats and proportional representation |
| Sir Muhammad Iqbal | As Muslim League president in 1930, argued for separate electorates as a minority safeguard |
| Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay | Wrote 'Vande Mataram' in the 1870s and first created the image of Bharat Mata |
| Abanindranath Tagore | Painted the famous ascetic Bharat Mata in 1905 |
| Rabindranath Tagore | Collected ballads, nursery rhymes and myths; led the folk revival in Bengal |
| Natesa Sastri | Published the four-volume The Folklore of Southern India |
- Two movements, two withdrawals: Non-Cooperation ends after Chauri Chaura in February 1922, Civil Disobedience after the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of March 1931 - and is relaunched in 1932 before fading by 1934.
Key Concepts
- Satyagraha
- A novel method of mass agitation emphasising the power of truth and the need to search for truth: if the cause was true and the struggle against injustice, the oppressor could be won over by non-violence and an appeal to his conscience, without physical force.
- Forced recruitment
- The process by which the colonial state forced people to join the army; in rural India during the First World War it caused widespread anger.
- Boycott
- The refusal to deal and associate with people, or to participate in activities, or to buy and use things; usually a form of protest.
- Picket
- A form of demonstration or protest by which people block the entrance to a shop, factory or office.
- Begar
- Labour that villagers were forced to contribute without any payment.
- Rowlatt Act, 1919
- Rushed through the Imperial Legislative Council despite the united opposition of the Indian members; it gave the government enormous powers to repress political activities and allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years.
- Hartal
- A general strike and closure of shops and businesses as a form of protest; Gandhi's nationwide Rowlatt satyagraha was to begin with a hartal on 6 April 1919.
- Jallianwalla Bagh
- On 13 April 1919 General Dyer entered the enclosed ground, blocked the exit points and opened fire on a crowd gathered to protest and to attend the Baisakhi fair, killing hundreds; his declared object was to 'produce a moral effect'.
- Khilafat movement
- The movement to defend the temporal powers of the Ottoman emperor, the Khalifa, after the defeat of Ottoman Turkey; a Khilafat Committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919 and Gandhi joined it to the national movement.
- Hind Swaraj (1909)
- Gandhi's book arguing that British rule was established in India with the cooperation of Indians and survived only because of it - so that if Indians refused to cooperate, British rule would collapse within a year.
- Non-Cooperation Movement
- Adopted at the Nagpur Congress of December 1920 and begun in January 1921: surrender of titles, boycott of civil services, army, police, courts, legislative councils, schools and foreign goods, with full civil disobedience to follow if the government used repression.
- Justice Party
- The party of the non-Brahmans in Madras, which felt that entering the council was one way of gaining power that usually only Brahmans had access to - which is why the council boycott failed there.
- Nai-dhobi bandh
- A social boycott organised by panchayats in Awadh to deprive oppressive landlords of the services of even barbers and washermen.
- Oudh Kisan Sabha
- Set up in October 1920, headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba Ramchandra and others; over 300 village branches within a month.
- Bardoli Satyagraha, 1928
- The peasant movement in the Bardoli taluka of Gujarat against the enhancement of land revenue, led successfully by Vallabhbhai Patel.
- Inland Emigration Act, 1859
- The law under which plantation workers in Assam were not permitted to leave the tea gardens without permission - which was rarely given.
- Chauri Chaura
- The place in Gorakhpur where a peaceful demonstration in a bazaar turned into a violent clash with the police in February 1922, after which Gandhi called a halt to the Non-Cooperation Movement.
- Swaraj Party
- Formed within the Congress by C. R. Das and Motilal Nehru to argue for a return to council politics after the withdrawal of Non-Cooperation.
- Simon Commission
- The Statutory Commission under Sir John Simon, set up in response to the nationalist movement to look into the constitutional system in India; it had no Indian member and was greeted in 1928 with 'Go back Simon'.
- Purna Swaraj
- Complete independence: the demand formalised at the Lahore Congress of December 1929 under Jawaharlal Nehru's presidency, with 26 January 1930 to be celebrated as Independence Day.
- Civil Disobedience Movement
- Begun with the breaking of the salt law at Dandi on 6 April 1930; unlike Non-Cooperation, people were asked not only to refuse cooperation but to break colonial laws.
- Salt March / Dandi March
- Gandhi's 240-mile march with 78 volunteers from the Sabarmati ashram to Dandi, walking for 24 days at about 10 miles a day, ending in the ceremonial manufacture of salt by boiling sea water.
- Chaukidari tax
- A village tax which peasants refused to pay during the Civil Disobedience Movement, alongside land revenue.
- Gandhi-Irwin Pact, 5 March 1931
- Gandhi consented to attend the Round Table Conference in London and the government agreed to release the political prisoners.
- FICCI
- The Federation of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries, formed in 1927, following the Indian Industrial and Commercial Congress of 1920; led by industrialists such as Purshottamdas Thakurdas and G. D. Birla.
- Dalit
- 'Oppressed' - the name the nation's 'untouchables' had begun to use for themselves from around the 1930s.
- Harijan
- 'Children of God' - Gandhi's name for the 'untouchables', for whom he organised satyagraha to secure entry into temples and access to public wells, tanks, roads and schools.
- Sanatanis
- The conservative high-caste Hindus, for fear of offending whom the Congress had long ignored the dalits.
- Depressed Classes Association
- Organised by Dr B. R. Ambedkar in 1930; he demanded separate electorates for dalits at the second Round Table Conference.
- Poona Pact, September 1932
- The agreement after Gandhi's fast unto death: the Depressed Classes (later the Scheduled Castes) got reserved seats in provincial and central legislative councils, but were to be voted in by the general electorate.
- Bharat Mata
- The female allegory of the Indian nation - first created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, who wrote 'Vande Mataram' in the 1870s, and famously painted as an ascetic figure by Abanindranath Tagore in 1905.
- Swaraj flag
- Designed by Gandhiji by 1921: a tricolour of red, green and white with a spinning wheel in the centre, representing the Gandhian ideal of self-help. The earlier Swadeshi flag of Bengal was red, green and yellow with eight lotuses and a crescent moon.
- HSRA
- The Hindustan Socialist Republican Army, founded in 1928 at Ferozeshah Kotla ground in Delhi; among its leaders were Bhagat Singh, Jatin Das and Ajoy Ghosh.
- Quit India Movement, 1942
- Launched after the failure of the Cripps Mission: the Wardha resolution of 14 July 1942, endorsed in Bombay on 8 August, and Gandhi's 'Do or Die' speech.
End-of-Chapter Trial Paper & Test Questions
Topic-wise questions to test your understanding of every concept in this chapter.
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Define Satyagraha as introduced by Mahatma Gandhi. / महात्मा गांधी द्वारा प्रस्तुत सत्याग्रह को परिभाषित कीजिए।
Show answer
Satyagraha was a novel method of mass agitation based on the power of truth and non-violence; it emphasised that if the cause was true, no physical force was needed to fight the oppressor and the struggle could be won through truth itself. / सत्याग्रह सत्य और अहिंसा की शक्ति पर आधारित जनांदोलन की एक नई पद्धति थी; इसमें माना गया कि यदि उद्देश्य सच्चा है तो अत्याचारी से लड़ने के लिए शारीरिक बल की आवश्यकता नहीं और संघर्ष सत्य से ही जीता जा सकता है।
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Why did the Rowlatt Act (1919) anger Indians? / रौलट एक्ट (1919) ने भारतीयों को क्रोधित क्यों किया?
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The Rowlatt Act gave the government enormous powers to repress political activities and allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years, denying basic legal rights, which Indians saw as unjust and tyrannical. / रौलट एक्ट ने सरकार को राजनीतिक गतिविधियों को दबाने की भारी शक्तियाँ दीं और राजनीतिक कैदियों को बिना मुकदमे दो साल तक नजरबंद रखने की अनुमति दी, जिससे मूल कानूनी अधिकार छिन गए, और भारतीयों ने इसे अन्यायपूर्ण व अत्याचारी माना।
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Explain why Mahatma Gandhi decided to withdraw the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1922. / महात्मा गांधी ने 1922 में असहयोग आंदोलन वापस लेने का निर्णय क्यों लिया, समझाइए।
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At Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur a peaceful demonstration in a bazaar turned into a violent clash with the police. Hearing of the incident, Gandhiji called a halt to the movement and in February 1922 decided to withdraw it, because he felt the movement was turning violent in many places and that satyagrahis needed to be properly trained before they would be ready for mass struggles. / गोरखपुर के चौरी-चौरा में बाज़ार का एक शांतिपूर्ण प्रदर्शन पुलिस के साथ हिंसक टकराव में बदल गया। इस घटना की सूचना मिलते ही गांधीजी ने आंदोलन रोक दिया और फ़रवरी 1922 में उसे वापस लेने का निर्णय किया, क्योंकि उन्हें लगा कि आंदोलन कई स्थानों पर हिंसक होता जा रहा है और जन-संघर्ष के लिए तैयार होने से पहले सत्याग्रहियों को ठीक से प्रशिक्षित करना आवश्यक है।
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How did different social groups participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement? / सविनय अवज्ञा आंदोलन में विभिन्न सामाजिक समूहों ने किस प्रकार भाग लिया?
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Rich peasants and merchants joined for economic gains and against high taxes, women participated in protests and picketing, while business classes wanted protection against imports; however, dalits and many industrial workers stayed largely outside it. / धनी किसान और व्यापारी आर्थिक लाभ तथा ऊँचे करों के विरुद्ध जुड़े, महिलाओं ने विरोध और धरने में भाग लिया, और व्यापारी वर्ग आयात से सुरक्षा चाहता था; किन्तु दलित और कई औद्योगिक मजदूर प्रायः इससे बाहर रहे।
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Why was salt chosen as a powerful symbol for the Civil Disobedience Movement? / सविनय अवज्ञा आंदोलन के लिए नमक को एक शक्तिशाली प्रतीक के रूप में क्यों चुना गया?
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Salt was consumed by rich and poor alike and was one of the most essential items of food, so the government's monopoly and tax on salt was deeply resented by all; breaking the salt law united every Indian against colonial oppression. / नमक का उपयोग अमीर-गरीब सभी करते थे और यह भोजन की सबसे आवश्यक वस्तुओं में था, इसलिए सरकार के नमक पर एकाधिकार और कर से सभी असंतुष्ट थे; नमक कानून तोड़ना हर भारतीय को औपनिवेशिक दमन के विरुद्ध एकजुट कर देता था।
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What was the importance of the idea of 'Bharat Mata' in fostering nationalism? / राष्ट्रवाद को बढ़ावा देने में 'भारत माता' की कल्पना का क्या महत्व था?
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The image of Bharat Mata gave the abstract idea of the nation a concrete form with which people could identify. It was first created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, who wrote 'Vande Mataram' as a hymn to the motherland in the 1870s and later included it in his novel Anandamath, where it was widely sung during the Swadeshi movement in Bengal; moved by that movement, Abanindranath Tagore painted his famous image of Bharat Mata in 1905 as an ascetic figure - calm, composed, divine and spiritual. In later years the image took many forms in popular prints, and devotion to this mother figure came to be seen as evidence of one's nationalism. / भारत माता की छवि ने राष्ट्र की अमूर्त कल्पना को वह मूर्त रूप दिया जिससे लोग स्वयं को जोड़ सके। इसकी रचना सबसे पहले बंकिम चंद्र चट्टोपाध्याय ने की, जिन्होंने 1870 के दशक में मातृभूमि की वंदना के रूप में 'वंदे मातरम्' लिखा और बाद में उसे अपने उपन्यास 'आनंदमठ' में सम्मिलित किया, जहाँ से वह बंगाल के स्वदेशी आंदोलन में व्यापक रूप से गाया गया; उसी आंदोलन से प्रेरित होकर अबनींद्रनाथ टैगोर ने 1905 में भारत माता का प्रसिद्ध चित्र बनाया, जिसमें वे तपस्विनी रूप में — शांत, संयत, दिव्य और आध्यात्मिक — दिखाई गई हैं। बाद के वर्षों में यह छवि लोकप्रिय चित्रों में अनेक रूपों में ढली, और इस मातृ-स्वरूप के प्रति भक्ति को ही राष्ट्रवाद का प्रमाण माना जाने लगा।
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Differentiate between the Non-Cooperation Movement and the Civil Disobedience Movement. / असहयोग आंदोलन और सविनय अवज्ञा आंदोलन में अंतर बताइए।
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In Non-Cooperation people refused to cooperate with the British by boycotting schools, titles and foreign goods, whereas in Civil Disobedience people actively broke colonial laws such as the salt law and refused to pay taxes. / असहयोग में लोगों ने स्कूल, उपाधियाँ और विदेशी वस्तुओं का बहिष्कार कर अंग्रेजों से सहयोग करने से इनकार किया, जबकि सविनय अवज्ञा में लोगों ने सक्रिय रूप से नमक कानून जैसे औपनिवेशिक कानूनों को तोड़ा और कर देने से मना कर दिया।
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Why did the Congress initially ignore the demands of dalits, and how did Dr. Ambedkar respond? / कांग्रेस ने आरंभ में दलितों की माँगों की उपेक्षा क्यों की, और डॉ. अंबेडकर ने इसका क्या उत्तर दिया?
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The Congress feared antagonising conservative high-caste Hindus and so was hesitant to address untouchability strongly; Dr. Ambedkar organised the dalits and demanded separate electorates, which led to the Poona Pact of 1932 giving them reserved seats. / कांग्रेस को रूढ़िवादी उच्च-जाति हिंदुओं को नाराज करने का भय था इसलिए वह अस्पृश्यता पर सशक्त रुख लेने में हिचकिचाई; डॉ. अंबेडकर ने दलितों को संगठित कर पृथक निर्वाचन मंडल की माँग की, जिससे 1932 का पूना पैक्ट हुआ और उन्हें आरक्षित सीटें मिलीं।
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Explain why the growth of nationalism in the colonies is linked to an anti-colonial movement. / समझाइए कि उपनिवेशों में राष्ट्रवाद का विकास औपनिवेशिक-विरोधी आंदोलन से क्यों जुड़ा हुआ है।
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In the colonies people were ruled by an outside power, and it was in the process of their struggle against that power that they began discovering their unity. The sense of being oppressed under colonialism provided a shared bond that tied many different groups together, so the anti-colonial struggle itself created the feeling of being one people. But each class and group felt the effects of colonialism differently, their experiences were varied and their notions of freedom were not always the same, so this unity had to be built and rebuilt: the Congress under Mahatma Gandhi tried to forge these groups together within one movement, and the unity did not emerge without conflict. / उपनिवेशों में लोग किसी बाहरी सत्ता के अधीन थे, और उसी सत्ता के विरुद्ध संघर्ष की प्रक्रिया में उन्होंने अपनी एकता को पहचाना। उपनिवेशवाद के अधीन शोषित होने के अनुभव ने वह साझा बंधन दिया जिसने अनेक भिन्न समूहों को जोड़ा, इसलिए औपनिवेशिक-विरोधी संघर्ष ने ही एक जन होने की भावना पैदा की। परंतु हर वर्ग और समूह पर उपनिवेशवाद का प्रभाव अलग-अलग पड़ा, उनके अनुभव भिन्न थे और स्वतंत्रता की उनकी कल्पनाएँ भी एक-सी नहीं थीं; इसलिए यह एकता बार-बार गढ़नी पड़ी। महात्मा गांधी के नेतृत्व में कांग्रेस ने इन समूहों को एक आंदोलन में जोड़ने का प्रयास किया, और यह एकता बिना टकराव के नहीं बनी।
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How did the First World War help in the growth of the National Movement in India? / प्रथम विश्वयुद्ध ने भारत में राष्ट्रीय आंदोलन के विकास में किस प्रकार सहायता की?
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The war created a new economic and political situation. It led to a huge increase in defence expenditure, financed by war loans and increased taxes: customs duties were raised and income tax was introduced. Prices doubled between 1913 and 1918, causing extreme hardship for common people. Villages were called upon to supply soldiers, and forced recruitment in rural areas caused widespread anger. Then crops failed in 1918-19 and 1920-21, causing acute food shortages, and an influenza epidemic followed; according to the census of 1921, 12 to 13 million people perished from the famines and the epidemic. People hoped their hardships would end after the war, but they did not - and this widespread distress and anger gave the national movement a mass base it had not had before. / युद्ध ने एक नई आर्थिक और राजनीतिक स्थिति पैदा की। रक्षा-व्यय में भारी वृद्धि हुई, जिसे युद्ध-ऋण और बढ़े हुए करों से पूरा किया गया: सीमा-शुल्क बढ़ाए गए और आयकर लगाया गया। 1913 से 1918 के बीच कीमतें दोगुनी हो गईं, जिससे आम लोगों को अत्यधिक कठिनाई हुई। गाँवों से सैनिक देने को कहा गया और ग्रामीण क्षेत्रों में जबरन भर्ती से व्यापक क्रोध फैला। फिर 1918-19 और 1920-21 में फ़सलें नष्ट हुईं, जिससे अन्न का घोर अभाव हुआ, और साथ ही इन्फ़्लुएंज़ा महामारी फैली; 1921 की जनगणना के अनुसार अकाल और महामारी से 1 से 1.3 करोड़ लोग मारे गए। लोगों को आशा थी कि युद्ध के बाद कष्ट समाप्त होंगे, पर ऐसा नहीं हुआ — और इसी व्यापक पीड़ा तथा क्रोध ने राष्ट्रीय आंदोलन को वह जन-आधार दिया जो पहले नहीं था।
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Why were Indians outraged by the Rowlatt Act? / भारतीय रौलट एक्ट से क्यों क्षुब्ध थे?
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The Rowlatt Act of 1919 was hurriedly passed through the Imperial Legislative Council despite the united opposition of the Indian members, which showed that Indian opinion counted for nothing in their own legislature. The Act gave the government enormous powers to repress political activities and allowed the detention of political prisoners without trial for two years. Coming just after a war in which Indians had borne heavy taxes, forced recruitment, famine and epidemic, and had been led to expect greater freedom, such a repressive law was seen as unjust and tyrannical. Gandhi therefore called for non-violent civil disobedience against it, beginning with a hartal on 6 April. / 1919 का रौलट एक्ट भारतीय सदस्यों के एकजुट विरोध के बावजूद इंपीरियल लेजिस्लेटिव काउंसिल से जल्दबाज़ी में पारित किया गया, जिससे स्पष्ट हुआ कि उनकी अपनी विधायिका में भारतीय मत का कोई मूल्य नहीं। इस अधिनियम ने सरकार को राजनीतिक गतिविधियों के दमन की अपार शक्तियाँ दीं और राजनीतिक बंदियों को बिना मुक़दमे दो वर्ष तक क़ैद रखने की अनुमति दी। ऐसे युद्ध के तुरंत बाद, जिसमें भारतीयों ने भारी कर, जबरन भर्ती, अकाल और महामारी सही थी और जिनसे अधिक स्वतंत्रता की आशा जगाई गई थी, ऐसा दमनकारी क़ानून अन्यायपूर्ण और अत्याचारी लगा। इसीलिए गांधीजी ने इसके विरुद्ध अहिंसक सविनय अवज्ञा का आह्वान किया, जिसकी शुरुआत 6 अप्रैल के हड़ताल से हुई।
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Why did Gandhiji decide to withdraw the Non-Cooperation Movement? / गांधीजी ने असहयोग आंदोलन वापस लेने का निर्णय क्यों लिया?
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At Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur a peaceful demonstration in a bazaar turned into a violent clash with the police. Hearing of the incident, Mahatma Gandhi called a halt to the movement, and in February 1922 he decided to withdraw it. He felt that the movement was turning violent in many places and that satyagrahis needed to be properly trained before they would be ready for mass struggles - since satyagraha rests on non-violence, a movement that had begun to use force was no longer the movement he had called for. / गोरखपुर के चौरी-चौरा में बाज़ार का एक शांतिपूर्ण प्रदर्शन पुलिस के साथ हिंसक टकराव में बदल गया। इस घटना की सूचना मिलते ही महात्मा गांधी ने आंदोलन रोक दिया और फ़रवरी 1922 में उसे वापस लेने का निर्णय किया। उन्हें लगा कि आंदोलन कई स्थानों पर हिंसक होता जा रहा है और जन-संघर्ष के लिए तैयार होने से पहले सत्याग्रहियों को ठीक से प्रशिक्षित करना आवश्यक है — क्योंकि सत्याग्रह का आधार अहिंसा है, और बल का प्रयोग करने लगा आंदोलन वह आंदोलन नहीं रह गया था जिसका उन्होंने आह्वान किया था।
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What is meant by the idea of satyagraha? / सत्याग्रह के विचार से क्या तात्पर्य है?
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Satyagraha was the novel method of mass agitation that Mahatma Gandhi had developed in South Africa. The idea emphasised the power of truth and the need to search for truth. It suggested that if the cause was true and the struggle was against injustice, then physical force was not necessary to fight the oppressor: without seeking vengeance or being aggressive, a satyagrahi could win the battle through non-violence by appealing to the conscience of the oppressor. People - including the oppressors - had to be persuaded to see the truth rather than forced to accept it through violence, and by this struggle truth was bound ultimately to triumph. Gandhi insisted that this was not passive resistance, the weapon of the weak, but a power that could be used only by the strong and one that called for intense activity; he believed this dharma of non-violence could unite all Indians. / सत्याग्रह जन-आंदोलन की वह नई पद्धति थी जिसे महात्मा गांधी ने दक्षिण अफ़्रीका में विकसित किया था। इस विचार में सत्य की शक्ति और सत्य की खोज की आवश्यकता पर बल था। इसका आशय था कि यदि उद्देश्य सच्चा हो और संघर्ष अन्याय के विरुद्ध हो, तो अत्याचारी से लड़ने के लिए शारीरिक बल आवश्यक नहीं: बिना प्रतिशोध या आक्रामकता के सत्याग्रही अहिंसा द्वारा, अत्याचारी की अंतरात्मा को झकझोर कर, संघर्ष जीत सकता है। लोगों को — अत्याचारियों सहित — हिंसा से सत्य मानने को विवश करने के बजाय सत्य देखने के लिए मनाना था, और इस संघर्ष से अंततः सत्य की विजय निश्चित थी। गांधीजी ने ज़ोर देकर कहा कि यह 'निष्क्रिय प्रतिरोध' या दुर्बल का हथियार नहीं, बल्कि ऐसी शक्ति है जिसका प्रयोग केवल बलवान कर सकता है और जो तीव्र सक्रियता माँगती है; उनका विश्वास था कि अहिंसा का यह धर्म सभी भारतीयों को जोड़ सकता है।
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Write a newspaper report on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. / जलियाँवाला बाग़ हत्याकांड पर एक समाचार-रिपोर्ट लिखिए।
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AMRITSAR, 13 April 1919 - Hundreds are feared killed after troops opened fire this evening on a crowd assembled in the enclosed ground at Jallianwalla Bagh. Some in the gathering had come to protest against the government's new repressive measures; many others, villagers from outside the city, had come for the annual Baisakhi fair and were unaware that martial law had been imposed. General Dyer, who took command after the police fired on a peaceful procession here on 10 April, entered the area, blocked the exit points and ordered his men to fire on the trapped crowd. He has since declared that his object was to 'produce a moral effect' - to create in the minds of satyagrahis a feeling of terror and awe. As news spreads, crowds have come out in towns across north India; there are strikes, clashes with the police and attacks on government buildings, met with brutal repression - satyagrahis forced to rub their noses on the ground and crawl on the streets, people flogged, and villages around Gujranwala bombed. / अमृतसर, 13 अप्रैल 1919 — जलियाँवाला बाग़ के घिरे हुए मैदान में एकत्र भीड़ पर आज संध्या सैनिकों द्वारा गोली चलाए जाने से सैकड़ों लोगों के मारे जाने की आशंका है। भीड़ में कुछ लोग सरकार के नए दमनकारी उपायों के विरोध में आए थे; अनेक अन्य, शहर के बाहर के ग्रामीण, वार्षिक बैसाखी मेले में आए थे और उन्हें यह पता ही नहीं था कि मार्शल लॉ लागू है। जनरल डायर, जिसने 10 अप्रैल को यहाँ एक शांतिपूर्ण जुलूस पर पुलिस की गोलीबारी के बाद कमान संभाली, मैदान में घुसा, निकास द्वार बंद कर दिए और घिरी हुई भीड़ पर गोली चलाने का आदेश दिया। उसने बाद में घोषित किया कि उसका उद्देश्य 'नैतिक प्रभाव उत्पन्न करना' था — सत्याग्रहियों के मन में आतंक और भय बिठाना। समाचार फैलते ही उत्तर भारत के अनेक नगरों में भीड़ सड़कों पर उतर आई है; हड़तालें, पुलिस से झड़पें और सरकारी भवनों पर हमले हो रहे हैं, जिनका उत्तर क्रूर दमन से दिया जा रहा है — सत्याग्रहियों से ज़मीन पर नाक रगड़वाई जा रही है और सड़कों पर रेंगने को विवश किया जा रहा है, लोगों को कोड़े मारे जा रहे हैं और गुजराँवाला के आसपास के गाँवों पर बम गिराए गए हैं।
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Write a newspaper report on the Simon Commission. / साइमन कमीशन पर एक समाचार-रिपोर्ट लिखिए।
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INDIA, 1928 - The Statutory Commission constituted by the new Tory government in Britain under Sir John Simon has been greeted everywhere with the slogan 'Go back Simon'. The commission was set up in response to the nationalist movement and is to look into the functioning of the constitutional system in India and suggest changes - but it does not have a single Indian member; they are all British. All parties, including the Congress and the Muslim League, have joined the demonstrations. At one peaceful protest Lala Lajpat Rai was assaulted by the British police and has since succumbed to his injuries. In an effort to win the nationalists over, the viceroy Lord Irwin announced in October 1929 a vague offer of 'dominion status' for India at some unspecified future date, and a Round Table Conference to discuss a future constitution. Congress leaders are not satisfied. / भारत, 1928 — ब्रिटेन की नई टोरी सरकार द्वारा सर जॉन साइमन की अध्यक्षता में गठित वैधानिक आयोग का हर जगह 'साइमन वापस जाओ' के नारे से स्वागत हुआ है। यह आयोग राष्ट्रीय आंदोलन के उत्तर में बनाया गया है और इसे भारत में संवैधानिक व्यवस्था के कामकाज की जाँच कर परिवर्तन सुझाने हैं — परंतु इसमें एक भी भारतीय सदस्य नहीं है; सभी अंग्रेज़ हैं। कांग्रेस और मुस्लिम लीग सहित सभी दल प्रदर्शनों में शामिल हुए हैं। एक शांतिपूर्ण प्रदर्शन में लाला लाजपत राय पर ब्रिटिश पुलिस ने प्रहार किया और बाद में उन चोटों से उनका निधन हो गया। राष्ट्रवादियों को मनाने के प्रयास में वायसराय लॉर्ड इरविन ने अक्टूबर 1929 में किसी अनिर्दिष्ट भविष्य में भारत को 'डोमिनियन स्टेटस' देने का अस्पष्ट प्रस्ताव और भावी संविधान पर चर्चा के लिए गोलमेज़ सम्मेलन की घोषणा की। कांग्रेस नेता इससे संतुष्ट नहीं हैं।
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Compare the images of Bharat Mata in this chapter with the image of Germania in Chapter 1. / इस अध्याय की भारत माता की छवियों की तुलना अध्याय 1 की जर्मेनिया की छवि से कीजिए।
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Both are female allegories: a nation given a concrete form as a woman so that people can identify with an abstract idea. Germania, painted by Philip Veit in 1848, wears a crown of oak leaves for heroism, carries a sword for readiness to fight with an olive branch around it for willingness to make peace, wears a breastplate with an eagle for the strength of the empire, and has broken chains for being freed - her symbols are political and martial, and they refer to the liberal revolution of 1848. Abanindranath Tagore's Bharat Mata of 1905 is very different: she is an ascetic figure, calm, composed, divine and spiritual, dispensing learning, food and clothing, with a mala in one hand - her symbols are religious and giving rather than martial. But later popular prints of Bharat Mata show her with a trishul, standing beside a lion and an elephant, symbols of power and authority, which is closer to Germania. The important difference is that devotion to Bharat Mata came to be seen as evidence of one's nationalism, and because her imagery was drawn from Hindu iconography, people of other communities could feel left out - a problem Germania did not pose in the same way. / दोनों नारी-रूपक हैं: राष्ट्र को स्त्री का मूर्त रूप देकर अमूर्त विचार से लोगों को जोड़ने का प्रयास। फिलिप फाइट द्वारा 1848 में चित्रित जर्मेनिया वीरता के प्रतीक बलूत-पत्रों का मुकुट पहनती है, लड़ने की तत्परता के लिए तलवार और उस पर शांति की इच्छा दर्शाती जैतून की डाल रखती है, साम्राज्य की शक्ति दर्शाता चील वाला कवच पहनती है और मुक्ति की प्रतीक टूटी ज़ंजीरें रखती है — उसके प्रतीक राजनीतिक और सैन्य हैं तथा 1848 की उदारवादी क्रांति की ओर संकेत करते हैं। अबनींद्रनाथ टैगोर की 1905 की भारत माता बहुत भिन्न हैं: वे तपस्विनी रूप में हैं — शांत, संयत, दिव्य और आध्यात्मिक — जो विद्या, अन्न और वस्त्र प्रदान करती हैं और जिनके एक हाथ में माला है; उनके प्रतीक सैन्य नहीं, धार्मिक और दानशील हैं। परंतु बाद के लोकप्रिय चित्रों में भारत माता त्रिशूल लिए, सिंह और हाथी के साथ दिखाई जाती हैं, जो शक्ति और सत्ता के प्रतीक हैं और जर्मेनिया के अधिक निकट हैं। महत्त्वपूर्ण अंतर यह है कि भारत माता के प्रति भक्ति को ही राष्ट्रवाद का प्रमाण माना जाने लगा, और चूँकि उनकी प्रतिमा-भाषा हिंदू प्रतीकों से ली गई थी, अन्य समुदायों के लोग स्वयं को इससे बाहर अनुभव कर सकते थे — जर्मेनिया ने यह समस्या इस रूप में खड़ी नहीं की।
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List the different social groups which joined the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1921, and write about the hopes and struggles of any three of them. / 1921 के असहयोग आंदोलन में शामिल हुए विभिन्न सामाजिक समूहों की सूची बनाइए और उनमें से किन्हीं तीन की आशाओं तथा संघर्षों के बारे में लिखिए।
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The groups were: the urban middle classes - students, teachers, headmasters and lawyers; merchants and traders; the peasants of Awadh; the tribal peasants of the Gudem Hills; and the plantation workers of Assam. Three of them: (1) The urban middle classes started the movement - thousands of students left government schools and colleges, teachers and headmasters resigned and lawyers gave up their practices, and foreign cloth was burnt in bonfires so that its import halved from Rs 102 crore to Rs 57 crore between 1921 and 1922. Their struggle was that khadi cost more than mill cloth and alternative Indian institutions were slow to come up, so many drifted back. (2) The Awadh peasants under Baba Ramchandra fought talukdars and landlords who demanded exorbitant rents and cesses, forced them to do begar and evicted them at will; they demanded a reduction of revenue, the abolition of begar and the social boycott of oppressive landlords, and organised nai-dhobi bandhs. Their struggle went beyond the Congress programme - houses of talukdars were attacked and grain hoards seized in Gandhi's name. (3) The plantation workers of Assam, held by the Inland Emigration Act of 1859, took swaraj to mean the right to move freely and keep a link with their villages; thousands left the tea gardens believing Gandhi Raj was coming and that they would be given land, but they were stranded by a railway and steamer strike, caught by the police and beaten. / ये समूह थे: शहरी मध्यवर्ग — विद्यार्थी, शिक्षक, प्रधानाध्यापक और वकील; व्यापारी और सौदागर; अवध के किसान; गूडेम पहाड़ियों के आदिवासी किसान; और असम के बाग़ान मज़दूर। इनमें से तीन: (1) शहरी मध्यवर्ग ने आंदोलन आरंभ किया — हज़ारों विद्यार्थियों ने सरकारी स्कूल-कॉलेज छोड़े, शिक्षकों और प्रधानाध्यापकों ने इस्तीफ़े दिए, वकीलों ने वकालत छोड़ी, और विदेशी कपड़े की होलियाँ जलीं, जिससे 1921 और 1922 के बीच उसका आयात 102 करोड़ रुपये से घटकर 57 करोड़ रुपये रह गया। उनका संघर्ष यह था कि खादी मिल के कपड़े से महँगी थी और वैकल्पिक भारतीय संस्थाएँ धीरे बनीं, इसलिए अनेक लोग लौट गए। (2) बाबा रामचंद्र के नेतृत्व में अवध के किसान उन तालुकदारों और ज़मींदारों से लड़े जो अत्यधिक लगान और तरह-तरह के कर वसूलते थे, बेगार करवाते थे और मनमाने ढंग से बेदख़ल करते थे; उन्होंने लगान में कमी, बेगार की समाप्ति और अत्याचारी ज़मींदारों के सामाजिक बहिष्कार की माँग की तथा नाई-धोबी बंद कराए। उनका संघर्ष कांग्रेस के कार्यक्रम से आगे बढ़ गया — गांधीजी के नाम पर तालुकदारों के घरों पर हमले हुए और अनाज के भंडार लूटे गए। (3) असम के बाग़ान मज़दूर, जो 1859 के इनलैंड एमिग्रेशन एक्ट से बँधे थे, स्वराज का अर्थ स्वतंत्र आवागमन और अपने गाँव से जुड़े रहने का अधिकार समझते थे; हज़ारों ने यह मानकर बाग़ान छोड़े कि गांधी राज आ रहा है और उन्हें ज़मीन मिलेगी, पर रेल और स्टीमर हड़ताल में फँसकर वे पुलिस के हाथ पड़े और बुरी तरह पीटे गए।
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Discuss the Salt March to make clear why it was an effective symbol of resistance against colonialism. / दांडी यात्रा की चर्चा कीजिए और स्पष्ट कीजिए कि वह उपनिवेशवाद के विरुद्ध प्रतिरोध का प्रभावी प्रतीक क्यों थी।
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Salt was consumed by the rich and the poor alike and was one of the most essential items of food, so the tax on it and the government's monopoly over its production touched every Indian household and revealed, as Gandhi said, the most oppressive face of British rule. On 31 January 1930 Gandhi sent Viceroy Irwin a letter of eleven demands, some of general interest and others specific to different classes from industrialists to peasants, so that all classes could identify with them - and the most stirring was the demand to abolish the salt tax. When Irwin refused to negotiate, Gandhi marched over 240 miles from Sabarmati to Dandi with 78 volunteers, walking 24 days at about ten miles a day, so that thousands could hear him at every halt; on 6 April he ceremonially broke the law by boiling sea water. The act was effective because it was simple enough for anyone anywhere to repeat, it was non-violent, and it made an ordinary daily necessity into evidence of colonial injustice. Thousands broke the salt law across the country, foreign cloth was boycotted, liquor shops picketed, peasants refused revenue and chaukidari taxes, village officials resigned, and forest people violated forest laws. / नमक अमीर और ग़रीब दोनों खाते थे और वह भोजन की सबसे आवश्यक वस्तुओं में था, इसलिए उस पर कर और उसके उत्पादन पर सरकारी एकाधिकार हर भारतीय घर को छूता था और, जैसा गांधीजी ने कहा, ब्रिटिश शासन का सबसे दमनकारी चेहरा उजागर करता था। 31 जनवरी 1930 को गांधीजी ने वायसराय इरविन को ग्यारह माँगों का पत्र भेजा — कुछ सामान्य हित की, कुछ उद्योगपतियों से किसानों तक भिन्न वर्गों की विशेष माँगें — ताकि सभी वर्ग उनसे जुड़ सकें, और इनमें सबसे प्रभावशाली नमक कर समाप्त करने की माँग थी। इरविन के बातचीत से इनकार करने पर गांधीजी 78 स्वयंसेवकों के साथ साबरमती से दांडी तक 240 मील से अधिक चले, 24 दिन में लगभग दस मील प्रतिदिन, ताकि हर पड़ाव पर हज़ारों लोग उन्हें सुन सकें; 6 अप्रैल को उन्होंने समुद्र का पानी उबालकर विधिवत क़ानून तोड़ा। यह कार्य इसलिए प्रभावी था कि इतना सरल था कि कोई भी, कहीं भी उसे दोहरा सकता था, अहिंसक था, और रोज़ की एक साधारण आवश्यकता को औपनिवेशिक अन्याय का प्रमाण बना देता था। देश भर में हज़ारों लोगों ने नमक क़ानून तोड़ा, विदेशी कपड़े का बहिष्कार हुआ, शराब की दुकानों पर धरने दिए गए, किसानों ने लगान और चौकीदारी कर देने से इनकार किया, गाँव के अधिकारियों ने इस्तीफ़े दिए और वनवासियों ने वन-क़ानून तोड़े।
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Imagine you are a woman participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement. Explain what the experience meant to your life. / कल्पना कीजिए कि आप सविनय अवज्ञा आंदोलन में भाग ले रही एक महिला हैं। बताइए कि यह अनुभव आपके जीवन के लिए क्या अर्थ रखता था।
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I had never before walked out of my house into a public arena. When Gandhiji passed on the salt march, thousands of us came out of our homes just to listen to him, and after that I joined the protest marches, made salt with my own hands and picketed the shops that sold foreign cloth and liquor. Like most of the women beside me I came from a high-caste family in the town - in the villages they came from rich peasant households - and moved by Gandhiji's call we began to see service to the nation as a sacred duty of women. Many of us went to jail. Yet I know the limits of what changed: Gandhiji remained convinced that it was a woman's duty to look after home and hearth, to be a good mother and a good wife, and for a long time the Congress was unwilling to let women hold any position of authority in the organisation - it wanted our presence, but only as a symbol. So the experience gave me a public life and a country to belong to, and left the question of my own equality still to be won. / इससे पहले मैंने कभी घर से निकलकर सार्वजनिक जीवन में क़दम नहीं रखा था। जब गांधीजी दांडी यात्रा पर निकले, तो हम हज़ारों स्त्रियाँ केवल उन्हें सुनने के लिए घरों से बाहर आईं, और उसके बाद मैं जुलूसों में शामिल हुई, अपने हाथों नमक बनाया और विदेशी कपड़े तथा शराब की दुकानों पर धरना दिया। मेरे साथ की अधिकांश स्त्रियों की तरह मैं शहर के एक उच्च-जाति परिवार से थी — गाँवों में वे धनी किसान परिवारों से आती थीं — और गांधीजी के आह्वान से प्रेरित होकर हम राष्ट्र-सेवा को स्त्री का पवित्र कर्तव्य मानने लगीं। हममें से अनेक जेल गईं। फिर भी मैं जानती हूँ कि परिवर्तन की सीमा क्या थी: गांधीजी यह मानते रहे कि स्त्री का कर्तव्य घर-गृहस्थी सँभालना, अच्छी माँ और अच्छी पत्नी बनना है, और लंबे समय तक कांग्रेस स्त्रियों को संगठन में कोई अधिकार-पद देने को तैयार नहीं थी — उसे हमारी उपस्थिति चाहिए थी, पर केवल प्रतीक के रूप में। इसलिए इस अनुभव ने मुझे एक सार्वजनिक जीवन और अपनापन देने वाला देश दिया, और मेरी अपनी समानता का प्रश्न अभी जीता जाना बाक़ी छोड़ दिया।
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Why did political leaders differ sharply over the question of separate electorates? / पृथक निर्वाचक-मंडल के प्रश्न पर राजनीतिक नेताओं में तीव्र मतभेद क्यों थे?
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Because they disagreed about whether a minority's protection lies in political separation or in integration. Dr B. R. Ambedkar, who organised the dalits into the Depressed Classes Association in 1930, demanded separate electorates for dalits at the second Round Table Conference, believing that political empowerment - reserved seats and their own voters - would resolve the problems of their social disabilities. Mahatma Gandhi opposed this and began a fast unto death when the British conceded the demand, because he believed separate electorates would slow down the process of the dalits' integration into society; the compromise was the Poona Pact of September 1932, which gave the Depressed Classes reserved seats in the legislative councils but had them voted in by the general electorate. On the Muslim question the same argument ran differently: after the decline of the Khilafat movement and the Congress's growing association with groups like the Hindu Mahasabha, many Muslim leaders feared that the culture and identity of minorities would be submerged under a Hindu majority. In 1927 Jinnah was willing to give up separate electorates in return for reserved seats in the Central Assembly and representation in proportion to population in Bengal and Punjab, but the compromise collapsed at the All Parties Conference of 1928 when M. R. Jayakar of the Hindu Mahasabha opposed it; and in 1930 Iqbal defended separate electorates as an essential safeguard for Muslim minority interests. / क्योंकि वे इस पर असहमत थे कि अल्पसंख्यक की रक्षा राजनीतिक पृथक्करण में है या एकीकरण में। डॉ. बी. आर. अंबेडकर ने, जिन्होंने 1930 में दलितों को डिप्रेस्ड क्लासेज़ एसोसिएशन में संगठित किया, दूसरे गोलमेज़ सम्मेलन में दलितों के लिए पृथक निर्वाचक-मंडल की माँग की; उनका विश्वास था कि राजनीतिक सशक्तीकरण — आरक्षित सीटें और अपने मतदाता — ही उनकी सामाजिक अपंगताओं का हल है। महात्मा गांधी ने इसका विरोध किया और अंग्रेज़ों द्वारा माँग स्वीकार करने पर आमरण अनशन आरंभ किया, क्योंकि उनका मानना था कि पृथक निर्वाचक-मंडल दलितों के समाज में एकीकरण की प्रक्रिया को धीमा कर देगा; समझौता सितंबर 1932 का पूना पैक्ट रहा, जिसने डिप्रेस्ड क्लासेज़ को विधान परिषदों में आरक्षित सीटें तो दीं पर उन पर मतदान सामान्य निर्वाचक-मंडल से कराया। मुस्लिम प्रश्न पर यही तर्क भिन्न रूप में चला: ख़िलाफ़त आंदोलन के पतन और हिंदू महासभा जैसे समूहों से कांग्रेस के बढ़ते जुड़ाव के बाद अनेक मुस्लिम नेताओं को भय था कि अल्पसंख्यकों की संस्कृति और पहचान हिंदू बहुमत के प्रभुत्व में डूब जाएगी। 1927 में जिन्ना केंद्रीय असेंबली में आरक्षित सीटों और बंगाल तथा पंजाब में जनसंख्या के अनुपात में प्रतिनिधित्व के बदले पृथक निर्वाचक-मंडल छोड़ने को तैयार थे, पर 1928 के सर्वदलीय सम्मेलन में हिंदू महासभा के एम. आर. जयकर के विरोध से यह समझौता टूट गया; और 1930 में इक़बाल ने पृथक निर्वाचक-मंडल को मुस्लिम अल्पसंख्यक हितों की अनिवार्य सुरक्षा बताया।
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Why did various classes and groups of Indians participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement? / भारतीयों के विभिन्न वर्गों और समूहों ने सविनय अवज्ञा आंदोलन में भाग क्यों लिया?
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Rich peasants like the Patidars of Gujarat and the Jats of Uttar Pradesh, being producers of commercial crops, were hard hit by the trade depression and falling prices and could not pay the revenue demand, so for them the fight for swaraj was a struggle against high revenues; they were disappointed when the movement was called off in 1931 without revision of the rates and many refused to rejoin in 1932. Poor peasants, mostly small tenants, wanted their unpaid rent to landlords remitted and joined radical movements led by Socialists and Communists, but the Congress was unwilling to support 'no rent' campaigns, so their relationship with it remained uncertain. The business classes, having grown powerful during the First World War, wanted protection against imports and a favourable rupee-sterling ratio; through the Indian Industrial and Commercial Congress of 1920 and FICCI of 1927, led by Purshottamdas Thakurdas and G. D. Birla, they funded the movement and refused to trade in imported goods, but cooled after the Round Table Conference failed, fearing militancy, disruption and socialism. Industrial workers largely stayed aloof as the industrialists came closer to the Congress, though there were railway and dockworkers' strikes and Chotanagpur tin miners wore Gandhi caps in protest. Women participated on a large scale, marching, making salt, picketing and going to jail, seeing service to the nation as a sacred duty. Dalits and many Muslim organisations, for the reasons discussed elsewhere in the chapter, largely stayed out. / गुजरात के पाटीदार और उत्तर प्रदेश के जाट जैसे धनी किसान, जो व्यापारिक फ़सलें उगाते थे, व्यापार-मंदी और गिरती क़ीमतों से बुरी तरह प्रभावित हुए और लगान नहीं चुका पा रहे थे, इसलिए उनके लिए स्वराज का संघर्ष ऊँचे लगान के विरुद्ध संघर्ष था; 1931 में दरों में संशोधन के बिना आंदोलन वापस लिए जाने से वे निराश हुए और अनेक ने 1932 में लौटने से इनकार कर दिया। ग़रीब किसान, जो अधिकतर छोटे काश्तकार थे, ज़मींदार का बकाया लगान माफ़ कराना चाहते थे और समाजवादियों तथा कम्युनिस्टों के नेतृत्व वाले उग्र आंदोलनों में शामिल हुए, पर कांग्रेस 'नो रेंट' अभियानों का समर्थन करने को तैयार नहीं थी, इसलिए उससे उनका संबंध अनिश्चित बना रहा। प्रथम विश्वयुद्ध में शक्तिशाली हुए व्यापारी वर्ग आयात से संरक्षण और अनुकूल रुपया-स्टर्लिंग अनुपात चाहते थे; 1920 के इंडियन इंडस्ट्रियल एंड कमर्शियल कांग्रेस और 1927 के फ़िक्की के माध्यम से, पुरुषोत्तमदास ठाकुरदास और जी. डी. बिड़ला के नेतृत्व में, उन्होंने आंदोलन को धन दिया और आयातित माल का व्यापार बंद किया, पर गोलमेज़ सम्मेलन की विफलता के बाद उग्रवाद, व्यापार में लंबे व्यवधान और समाजवाद के भय से उनका उत्साह ठंडा पड़ गया। औद्योगिक मज़दूर अधिकतर दूर रहे क्योंकि उद्योगपति कांग्रेस के निकट आ रहे थे, फिर भी रेल और गोदी मज़दूरों की हड़तालें हुईं और छोटानागपुर की टिन खदानों के मज़दूरों ने गांधी टोपी पहनकर प्रदर्शन किए। महिलाओं ने बड़े पैमाने पर भाग लिया — जुलूस, नमक बनाना, धरने और जेल — और राष्ट्र-सेवा को पवित्र कर्तव्य माना। दलित और अनेक मुस्लिम संगठन, अध्याय में बताए कारणों से, अधिकतर बाहर रहे।
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