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The East India Company had established
its control over almost all parts of India by the middle of
the 19th century. There were numerous risings in the first
hundred years of British rule in India. They were, however,
local and isolated in character. Some of them were led by
the nobility who were refusing to accept the changing
patterns of the time and wanted the past to be restored. But
the risings developed a tradition of resistance offoreign
rule, culminating in the 1857 revolt.
The Revolt of 1857, which was called a
Sepoy Mutiny by British historians and their imitators in
India but described as "the First War of Indian
Independence" by many Indian historians, shook the British
authority in India from its very foundations.
The Revolt of 1857, an unsuccessful but
heroic effort to eliminate foreign rule, had begun. The
capture of Delhi and the proclamation of Bahadurshah as the
Emperor of Hindustan are a positive meaning to the Revolt
and provided a rallying point for the rebels by recalling
the past glory of the imperial city.
On May 10, 1857, soldiers at Meerut
refused to touch the new Enfield rifle cartridges. The
soldiers along with other group of civilians, went on a
rampage shouting 'Maro Firangi Ko'. They broke open jails,
murdered European men and women, burnt their houses and
marched to Delhi. The appearance of the marching soldiers
next morning in Delhi was a'signal to the local soldiers,
who in turn revolted, seized the city and proclaimed the
80-year old Bahadurshah Zafar, as Emperor of India.
Within a month of the capture of Delhi,
the Revolt spread to the different parts of the country.
Kanpur, Lucknow, Benaras, Allahabad, Bareilly,
Jagdishpur and Jhansi. In the absence of any leader from
their own ranks, the insurgents turned to the traditional
leaders of Indian society. At Kanpur, NanaSaheb, the adopted
son of last Peshwa, Baji Rao II, led the forces. Rani
Lakshmi Bai in Jhansi, Begum Hazrat Mahal in Lucknow and
.Khan Bahadur in Bareilly were in command. However, apart
from a commonly shared hatred for alien rule, the rebels had
no political perspective or a definite vision of the future.
They were all prisoners of their own past, fighting
primarily to regain their lost privileges. Unsurprisingly,
they proved incapable of ushering in a new political order.
Queen Victoria issued a proclamation on November 1, 1858,
placing India under direct government of the Crown, whereby:
(a) A viceroy was appointed in India
(b) Princes were given the right to adopt a son (abolition
of Doctrine of Lapse)
(c) Treaties were honoured
(d) Religious freedom was restored and equality treatment
promised to Indians
The Proclamation was called the 'Magna
Carta of Indian Liberty'. The British rule in India was
strongest between 1858 and 1905. The British also started
treating India as its most precious possession and their
rule over India seemed set to continue for centuries to
come. Because of various subjective and objective factors
which came into existence during this era, the feeling of
nationalism in Indians started and grow.
Although the British succeeded in suppressing the 1857
Revolt, they could not stop the growth of political
awareness in India. The Indian National Congress was founded
in December 1885. It was the visible embodiment of the
national awakening in the country. Its founder was an
Englishman, Allan Octavian Hume, a retired member of the
Indian Civil Service. The Indian leaders, who cooperated
with Hume in launching the Congress, were patriots of high
character. The first President of the Congress was W.C.
Bannerjee.
The aims of the Congress were: promotion
of friendship and cooperation amongst the nationalist
political workers from the different parts of the country;
the eradication of racial, creed or provincial prejudices
and promotion of national unity; formulation of popular
demands and their presentation before the Government; and,
most important of all, the training and organisation of
public opinion in the country.
On December 30, 1898, Lord Curzon took over as the new
Viceroy of India. The partition of Bengal came into effect
on October 16, 1905, through a Royal Proclamation, reducing
the old province of Bengal in size by creating a new
province of East Bengal, which later on became East Pakistan
and present day Bangladesh. The government explained that it
was done to stimulate growth of underdeveloped eastern
region of the Bengal. But, actually, the main objective was
to 'Divide and Rule' the most advanced region of the country
at that time.
In 1906, All India Muslim League was set up under the
leadership of Aga Khan, Nawab Salimullab of Dacca and
Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk. The League supported the partition of
Bengal, opposed the Swadeshi Movement, and demanded special
safegurds for its community and a separate electorates of
Muslims. This led to communal differences between Hindus and
Muslims.
The Swadeshi movement has its genesis in the anti-partition
movement which was started to oppose the British decision
to divide Bengal. With the start of the Swadeshi movement at
the turn of the century, the Indian National Movement took a
major leap forward.
The Indian National Congress took up the
Swadeshi call in Benaras Session, 1905, presided over by G.K.
Gokhale, supported the Swadeshi and Boycott Movement of
Bengal, Militant Nationalism spearheaded by Bal Gangadhar
Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai, and Aurobindo
Ghosh was, however, in favour of extending the movement of
the rest of India and carrying it beyond the programme of
just Swadeshi and boycott of goods to full-fledged political
mass struggle.
Morley-Minto Reforms were introduced in 1909 during the
period when Lord Minto was the GovernorGeneral of India.
The reforms envisaged a separate electorate for Muslims
besides other constitutional measures. The government
thereby sought to create a rift within the Congress on the
one hand by winning the support of the moderates,
and on the other, to win favour of
Muslims against Bindus. To achieve the latter objective, the
reforms introduced the system of separate electorates under
which Muslims could only vote for Muslim candidates. This
was done to encourage the notion that the political,
economic and cultural interests of Hindus and Muslims were
separate and not common. Indian political leaders were
however dissatisfied by these reforms.
An important step forward in achieving Hindu-Muslim unity
was the Lucknow Pact 1916. AntiBritish feelings were
generated among the Muslims following a war between Britain
and Turkey which opened way for Congress and Muslim League
unity. Both the Congress and the Muslim League held
sessions at Lucknow in 1916 and concluded the famous Lucknow
Pact. The Congress accepted the separate electorates, and
both organizations jointly demanded dominion status for the
country.
Hindu-Muslim unity weakened the British
attitude and forced the government to announce its future
policy. In 1916 a British policy was announced whereby
association of Indians was increased and there was to be a
gradual development of local self-governing institutions.
Dr. Annie Besant, inspired by the Irish rebellion, started a
Home Rule Movement in India in September 1916. The movement
spread rapidly and branches of the Rome Rule League were
established all over India. Bal Gangadhar Tilak
wholeheartedly supported this movement. Rejoined forces with
Dr. Besant and persuaded the Muslim League to support this
programme.
Mahatma Gandhi dominated the Indian political scene from
19181947. This period of the Indian National Congress is
also referred to as the Gandhian Era. It was the most
intense and eventful phase of India's
freedom struggle. Mahatma Gandhi provided the leadership of
the highest order and his philosophy of non-violent
Satyagraha became the most potent weapon to drive out .the
British from the Indian soil.
The Caliph, Sultan of Turkey, was looked upon by the Muslims
as their religious head. During the First World War, when
the safety and the welfare of Turkey were threatened by the
British thereby weakening the Caliph's position, Indian
Muslims adopted an aggressive anti-British attitude. The two
brothers, Mohammed Ah and Shaukat Ali launched an
antiBritish movement in 1920-the Khilafat Movement for the
restoration.
While trying to appease Indians, the British Government was
following a policy of repression. Throughout the First World
War, repression of freedom fighters had continued. The
revolutionaries had been hunted down, hanged or imprisoned.
The Government now decided to arm itself with more powers in
order to suppress the freedom fighters. In March 1919, it
passed the Rowlatt Act. This Act authorised the government
to detain any person without trial. The Rowlatt Act came
like a sudden blow. The Indians had been promised extension
of democracy during the war. They felt humiliated and were
filled with anger when they found that their civil liberties
were going to be curtailed still further. Unrest gripped the
country and a powerful agitation against the Act started.
During this agitation, Gandhiji took command of the
nationalist movement. March and April 1919 witnessed a
remarkable political awakening in the country. There were
hartals, strikes and demonstrations at various places. The
slogans of Hindu-Muslim unity filled the air.
The Government was bent on suppressing the mass agitation.
In Bombay; Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Delhi and at other places
demonstrators were lathi-charged and fired upon. Gandhiji
gave a call for a general hartal on April 6, 1919. The call
was responded to with great enthusiasm. The Government
decided to resort to repression to suppress the agitation.
At this time the British Government committed one of the
worst political crimes in modem history. An unarmed but a
large crowd had gathered in Jallianwalla Bagh, Amritsar
(Punjab) on April, 13, 1919 for a meeting. General Dyer
ordered his troops to open fire on them without warning.
This massacre of unarmed people (hundreds died and thousands
were wounded) in an enclosed place from which there was no
exit, was followed by a reign of terror in several
districts under martial law.
With the Congress support of the Khilafat movement,
Hindu-Muslim unity was achieved which encouraged Gandhiji to
launch his non-violent, non-cooperation movement. At the
Calcutta Session in September 1920, the Congress resolved in
favour of the non-violent, non-cooperation movement and
defined Swaraj as its ultimate aim. The movement envisaged:
(i) Surrender of titles and honorary officers; (ii)
Resignation from nominated offices and posts in the local
bodies; (iii) Refusal to attend government darbars and
official functions and boycott of British courts by the
lawyers; (iv) Refusal of general public to offer themselves
for military and other government jobs, and boycott of
foreign goods, etc.
The non-cooperation movement also saw
picketing of shops selling foreign cloth and boycott of the
foreign cloth by the followers of Gandhiji.
The Congress session held at Ahmedabad in December 1921
decided to launch a Civil Disobedience Movement while
reiterating its stand on the non-violent, noncooperation
movement of which Gandhiji was appointed the leader. Before
Gandhiji could launch the Civil Disobedience Movement, a mob
of countrymen at Chauri Chaura, a place near Gorakhpur in
D.P., clashed with the police which opened fire. In
retaliation the mob burnt the police-station and killed 22
policemen. This compelled Gandhiji to call off the Civil
Disobedience Movement on February 12, 1922.
Despite this Gandhiji was arrested and
sentenced to six years imprisonment. The Chauri Chaura
incident convinced Gandhiji that the nation was not yet
ready for the mass-dis6bedience and he prevailed upon
Congress Working Committee in Bardoli on February 12, 1922
to call off the Non-Cooperation Movement.
Gandhiji's decision to call off the agitation caused
frustration among masses. His decision came in for severe
criticism from his colleagues like Motilal Nehru, C.R. Das
and N.C. Kelkar, who organized the Swaraj Party. The
foundations of the 'Swaraj Party' were laid on January 1,
1923, as the 'CongressKhilafat-Swarajya Patty'. It proposed
then an alternative programme of diverting the movement from
widespread civil disobedience programme to restrictive one
which would encourage its member to enter into legislative
councils (established under Montford Reforms of 1919) by
contesting elections in order to wreck the legislature from
within and to use moral pressure to compel the authority to
concede to the popular demand for self-government.
Under the 1919 Act, a statutory commission was to be
appointed by the British Government at the end of ten years
from the passing of the Act to inquire into the working of
the system of government in the country and to recommend
further reforms. Thus the commission was scheduled to be
appointed in 1929. It was actually appointed two years
earlier in 1927. The commission consisted of seven members
of the British Parliament. It was headed by Sir John Simon.
As all its members were British, the Congress decided to
boycott it. The Commission arrived in India in Feb. 1928. It
was greeted with black flags and hostile demonstrations
everywhere it went. In one such demonstration at Lahore,
Lala Lajpat Rai was seriously injured in a wanton police
lathi-charge on the demonstrators. Lalaji died soon after
from wounds received during the demonstration.
Also called the 'Salt Satyagraha'. To achieve the goal of
complete independence, Gandhiji launched another civil
disobedience movement. Along with 79 followers, Gandhiji
started his famous march from Sabarmati Ashram on March
20,1930, for the small village Dandi to break the Salt Law.
While Gandhiji was marching to Dandi,
Congress leaders and workers had been
busy at various levels with the hard organizational tasks of
enrolling volunteers and members, forming grassroot Congress
Committees, collecting funds, and touring villages and towns
to spread nationalist messages.
On reaching the seashore on April 6,
1930, he broke the Salt Law by picking up salt from the
seashore. By picking a handful of salt, Gandhiji inaugurated
the Civil Disobedience Movement, a movement that was to
remain unsurpassed in the history of the Indian National
Movement for the countrywide mass participation it
unleashed. The movement became so powerful that it sparked
off partriotism even among the Indian soldiers in the Army.
The Garhwal soldiers refused to fire on the people at
Peshawar.
Early in 1931 two moderate statesmen, Sapru and Jayakar,
initiated efforts to bring about rapprochement between
Gandhiji and the government. Six meetings with Viceroy Lord
Irwin finally led to the signing of a pact between the two
on March 5, 1931, whereby the Congress called off the
movement and agreed to join the Second Round Table
Conference. The terms of the agreement included the
immediate release of all political prisoners not convicted
for violence, the remission of all fines not yet collected,
the return of confiscated land not yet sold to third
parties, and lenient treatment of all the government
officials who had resigned.
Gandhiji and other leaders were
released from jail as Irwin agreed to release most political
prisoners and to return the properties that had been seized
by the governments. The government also conceded the right
to make the salt for consumption of villages along the
coast, and also the right to peaceful and non-aggressive
picketing. The Congress on its part, agreed to discontinue
the Civil Disobedience Movement and to participate in the
next Round Table Conference.
The Simon Commission report submitted in 1930 formed the
basis for the Government of India Act 1935. The new
Government of India Act received the royal assent on August
4, 1935.
The Act continued and extended all the
existing features of the Indian constitution. Popular
representation, which went back to 1892, dyarchy and
ministerial responsibility, which dated from 1921,
provincial autonomy, whose chequered history went back to
eighteenth century presidencies, communal representation,
which first received recognition in 1909, and the safeguards
devised in 1919, were all continued and in most cases
extended. But in addition there were certain new principles
introduced. It provided for a federal type of government.
Thus, the act:
(a) Introduced provincial autonomy
(b) Abolished dyarchy in provinces I
(c) Made ministers responsible to the legislative and
federation at the centre
The Act of 1935 was condemned by nearly
all sections of Indian public opinion and was unanimously
rejected by the Congress. The Congress demanded instead, the
convening of a Constituent Assembly elected on the basis of
adult franchise to frame a constitution for an independent
India.
On August 8, 1942, the Congress in its meeting at Bombay
passed a resolution known as 'Quit India' resolution,
whereby Gandhiji asked the British to quit India and gave a
call for 'Do or die' to his countrymen. On August 9, 1942,
Gandhiji was arrested but the other leaders continued the
revolutionary struggle. Violence spread throughout the
country, several government officers were destroyed and
damaged, telegraph wires were cut and communication
paralyzed. The movement was, however, crushed by the
government.
The struggle for freedom entered a
decisive phase in the year 1945-46. The British Prime
Minister, Lord Attlee, made a declaration on March 15, 1946,
that British Cabinet Mission would visit India to make
recommendations regarding constitutional reforms to be
introduced in India. The Cabinet Mission which constituted
of Lord Lawrence, Sir Stafford Cripps and A.V. Alexander
visited India and met the representatives of different
political parties but a satisfactory solution to the
constitutional difficulties could not be found. The Mission
envisaged the establishment of a Constituent Assembly to
frame the Constitution as well as an interim government. The
Muslim League accepted the plan on June 6, 1946, while
maintaining its rights of striving for a separate Muslim
state. The Congress also partially accepted the plan.
On September 2, 1946, an interim government was formed.
Congress members led by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru joined it
but the Muslim League did not as it withdrew its earlier
acceptance of the Cabinet Mission Plan.
The Constituent Assembly met on December 9, 1946, and Dr.
Rajendra Prasad was elected its President. The Muslim League
did not join the Assembly.
In March 1947, Lord Mountbatten replaced Lord Wavell. He
announced his plan on June 3, 1947. It offered a key to the
political and constitutional deadlock created by the refusal
of the Muslim League to join the Constituent Assembly formed
to frame the Constitution of India. Mountbatten's formula
was to divide India but retain maximum unity. The country
would be partitioned but so would be Punjab and Bengal, so
that the limited Pakistan that emerged would meet both the
Congress and the League's position to some extent. The
League's position on Pakistan was conceded in that it would
be created, but the Congress position on unity would be
taken into account to make Pakistan as small as possible. He
laid down detailed principles for the partition of the
country and speedy transfer of political powers in the form
of dominion status to the newly formed dominions of India
and Pakistan. Its acceptance by the Congress and the Muslim'
League resulted in the birth of Pakistan.
The Bill containing the provisions of the Mountbatten Plan
of June 3, 1947, was introduced in the British Parliament
and passed as the Indian Independence Act,
1947. The Act laid down detailed
measures for the partition of India and speedy transfer of
political powers to the new government of India and
Pakistan.
In accordance with the Indian Independence Act, 1947, India
was partitioned on August 15, 1947 into India and Pakistan.
The Act made India and Pakistan independent dominions.
Bloodshed and violence marked the exodus of refugees. The
state of Kashmir acceded to the Indian Union, after the
raiders were helped by Pakistan, in October 1947. Lord
Mountbatten was appointed the Governor-General of free1ndia
and M.A. Jinnah the first Governor-General of Pakistan. |
