Chapter-Nationalism In India

Indian nationalism refers to the many underlying forces that molded the Indian independence movement, and strongly continue to influence the politics of India, as well as being the heart of many contrasting ideologies that have caused ethnic and religious conflict in Indian society. Indian nationalism often imbibes the consciousness of Indians that prior to 1947, India embodied the broader Indian subcontinent and influenced a part of Asia, known as Greater India.

• Growth of nationalism in India is connected to anti colonial movement.
• People began discovering their unity in the process of their struggle against colonialism.
• The sense of being oppressed under colonialism provided a shared bond that tied many different groups together.
• Each class or group was affected by colonialism differently. So their notions of freedom were different.
• The Congress under Mahatma Gandhi tried to forge these groups together within one movement.

The First World War created a new economic and political situation. It led to a huge increase in defense expenditure which was 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.

Then 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 famines and the epidemic. People hoped that their hardships would end after the war was over. But that did not happen.

Mahatma Gandhi returned to India in January 1915. Gandhiji had come from South Africa where he had successfully fought the racist regime with a novel method of mass agitation, which he called satyagraha. The idea of satyagraha emphasised the power of truth and the need to search for truth. It suggested that 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 nonviolence. This could be done 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 the use of violence. By this struggle, truth was bound to ultimately triumph. Mahatma Gandhi believed that this dharma of non-violence could unite all Indians.

After arriving in India, Mahatma Gandhi successfully organized satyagraha movements in various places. In 1916 he travelled to Champaran in Bihar to inspire the peasants to struggle against the oppressive plantation system. Then in 1917, he organised a satyagraha to support the peasants of the Kheda district of Gujarat. Affected by crop failure and a plague epidemic, the peasants of Kheda could not pay the revenue, and were demanding that revenue collection be relaxed. In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi went to Ahmedabad to organize a satyagraha movement amongst cotton mill workers.

Gandhi ji in 1919 decided to launch a nationwide satyagraha against the proposed Rowlatt Act (1919). Mahatma Gandhi wanted non-violent civil disobedience against such unjust laws, which would start with a hartal on 6 April.

• Rallies were organized in various cities; workers went on strike in railways workshops, shops were closed down.
• The Britisher decided to clamp down on nationalists. Local leader were picked up from Amritsar, police fired on peaceful processions in Amritsar and the provoked Indians attacked the banks, post offices, railway stations etc.
•  Martial law was imposed and General Dyer took command.

On 10 April, the police in Amritsar fired upon a peaceful procession, provoking widespread attacks on banks, post offices and railway stations. Martial law was imposed and General Dyer took command.

•  Crowds took to the streets in many north Indian towns. There were strikes, clashes with the police and attacks on the government buildings.
•  The government responded with brutal repression. Satyagrahis were forced to rub their noses on the ground, crawl on the streets, do salaam to all sahibs. Villages were bombed.
•  Seeing violence spread, Gandhiji called off the movement.

1. The Ottoman Turkish Empire was defeated in the First World War.
2. A harsh peace treaty was imposed on the Turkish Emperor -The Khalifa. The Khalifa was considered the spiritual head of the Muslim world and protector of their holy places.
3. The Turkish Empire was totally dismembered by 1920.

1. Two brothers, Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali. Muslim leaders founded a Khilafat common in March 1919, to defend the Khilafat's rights.
2. The anti Rowlatt Satyagraha was limited to cities and towns. Gandhi ji wanted to launch a broader -based movement. This could only be done by bringing Hindus and Muslims together. He took up the khilafat issue.
3. 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.

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.

Gandhiji proposed that the movement should unfold in stages. It should begin with the surrender of titles that the government awarded, and 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 for the movement. Many within the Congress were, however, 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. In the months between September and December there was an intense tussle within the Congress. For a while there seemed no meeting point between the supporters and the opponents of the movement. Finally, at the Congress session at Nagpur in December 1920, a compromise was worked out and the Non-Cooperation programme was adopted.

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. 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. 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.

The visions of these movements were not defined by the Congress programme. They interpreted the term 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 also emotionally relating to an all-India agitation. When they acted in the name of Mahatma Gandhi, or linked their movement to that of the Congress, they were identifying with a movement which went beyond the limits of their immediate locality.

• In February 1922 Mahatma ji decided to withdraw the Non-cooperation movement. He felt the movement was turning violent in many places and the Satyagrahis are needed to be properly trained before they would be ready for mass struggle.
• At Chauri Chara in U.P. a peaceful demonstration was fired upon. The angry mob in turn attacked the police station burning alive 22 policemen.
• Gandhiji was alarmed by the violence hence he called off the movement.

• Within the congress, some leaders were by now tired of mass struggle and wanted to participate in the elections to the provincial councils that had been set up by the government of India act of 1919.
• They felt it was important to oppose the British policies within the councils.
• C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru formed the Swaraj Party within the Congress to argue for a return to council politics.
• Young leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose wanted more radical mass struggle for independence.

• ➢ The first factor was the effect of the world wide economic depression. Agricultural prices began to fall from 1927 and collapsed after 1930.
• ➢ Demand for agricultural goods fell and exports declined. The peasants found it difficult to sell their harvests and pay revenue.
• ➢ The second factor the new Tory government in Britain sent the Simon commission. It was to look into the functioning of the constitutional system in India and suggest changes.
• ➢ All parties, including the Congress and the Muslim League, participated in the demonstrations.
• ➢ In an effort to win them 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 within the Congress, led by Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose, became more assertive.
• ➢ The liberals and moderates, who were proposing a constitutional system within the framework of British dominion, gradually lost their influence.

In February 1922, Mahatma Gandhi decided to withdraw the Non-Cooperation Movement. He felt the movement was turning violent in many places and satyagrahis needed to be properly trained before they would be ready for mass struggles. Within the Congress, some leaders were by now tired of mass struggles and wanted to participate in elections to the provincial councils that had been set up by the Government of India Act of 1919. They felt that 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. But younger leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose pressed for more radical mass agitation and for full independence. In such a situation of internal debate and dissension two factors again 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.

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. In an effort to win them 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 within the Congress, led by Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose, became more assertive. The liberals and moderates, who were proposing a constitutional system within the framework of British dominion, 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 the Independence Day when people were to take a pledge to struggle for complete independence. But the celebrations attracted very little attention. So Mahatma Gandhi had to find a way to relate this abstract idea of freedom to more concrete issues of everyday life.

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 of these were of general interest; others were specific demands of different classes, from industrialists to peasants. The idea was to make the demands wide-ranging, so that all classes within Indian society could identify with them and everyone could be brought together in a united campaign. The most stirring of all was the demand to abolish the salt tax. Salt was something consumed by the rich and the poor alike, and it was one of the most essential items of food. The tax on salt and the government monopoly over its production, Mahatma Gandhi declared, revealed the most oppressive face of British rule.

Mahatma Gandhi's letter was, in a way, an ultimatum. If the demands were not fulfilled by 11 March, the letter stated, the Congress would launch a civil disobedience campaign. Irwin was unwilling to negotiate. So Mahatma Gandhi started his famous salt march accompanied by 78 of his trusted volunteers. The march was over 240 miles, from Gandhiji's 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 Mahatma Gandhi wherever he stopped, and he told them what he meant by swaraj and urged them to peacefully defy the British. On 6 April he reached Dandi, and ceremonially violated the law, manufacturing salt by boiling sea water.

This marked the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement. This was altogether different from the Non-cooperation Movement. 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 in different parts of the country broke the salt law, manufactured salt and demonstrated in front of government salt factories. As the movement spread, foreign cloth was boycotted, and liquor shops were 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.

Worried by the developments, the colonial government began arresting the Congress leaders one by one. This led to violent clashes in many palaces. When Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a devout disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, was arrested in April 1930, angry crowds demonstrated in the streets of Peshawar, facing armoured cars and police firing. Many were killed. A month later, when Mahatma Gandhi himself was arrested, industrial workers in Sholapur attacked police posts, municipal buildings, law courts and railway stations – all structures that symbolised British rule. A frightened government responded with a policy of brutal repression. Peaceful satyagrahis were attacked, women and children were beaten, and about 100,000 people were arrested.

• Rich peasant communities: The patidars of Gujrat and the Jats of U.P. were active in the movement. They were the producers of commercial crops and were hard hit by the trade depression.
• The refusal of the government to reduce the revenue demand led to wide spread resentment. They supported the civil disobedience movement because for them the fight for Swaraj was struggle against high revenues.
• Poor peasants: They were small tenants cultivating land they had rented from the landlords. As the depression continued cash incomes became lesser, they found it difficult to pay the rent.
• Business class: During the First World War Indian merchants had made huge profits and had become powerful. They now reacted against colonial policies which restricted their business activities.
• They formed the Indian Industrial and commercial congress and the federation of the Indian chamber of commerce and industries (FICCI). Led by Purushottamdas Thakur & G.D. Birla they joined civil Disobedience movement.
• They saw Swaraj as a time when there would be no restriction on trade and industry.
• ndustrial working lass: They fought against low wages, poor working condition. There were strikes, protest rallies and boycott campaigns. Although they kept their distance away from the INC as INC was close to Businessmen.
• Women: For Gandhiji salt march thousands of women came out of their homes to listen to

The Limits of Civil Disobedience:

Not all social groups were moved by the abstract concept of swaraj.

(i) One such group was the "Untouchables" who now called themselves "Dalits" or the oppressed, Mahatma Gandhi called the untouchables, harijans and declared that India would not achieve ‘Swaraj' for hundred years, if untouchability was not totally eliminated. He organized Satyagraha to secure them entry into temples, and access to public wells, tanks, roads and schools. The Dalits - Wanted a political solution for their problems. They demanded reservation of seats, in educational institutes, separate electorate to choose their own candidates to the legislative councils. They wanted to solve their social problems. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the leader of the Dalits, formed an association in 1930, called the Depressed Classes Association. He clashed with Gandhiji at the Second Round Table Conference by demanding separate electorates for dalits. The British Government accepted Dr. Ambedkar's demand. Gandhiji began a fast unto death. He believed that the Dalits would never be integrated into society, if they got separate electorates Dr. Ambedkar finally signed a pact with Gandhiji in September 1932, called the Poona Pact. It gave reserved seats in provincial and Central Legislative Councils to the Depressed Classes. They were to be voted in by the general electorate.

(ii) Muslim political organisations also kept away from Civil Disobedience Movement.

(A) Muslims felt alienated from Congress after the decline of Non-Cooperation - Khilafat Movement.

(B) From mid-1920's the Congress seemed to be more visibly associated with Hindu religions nationalist groups like the Hindu Mahasabha.

(C) There were Hindu-Muslim Clashes and riots in many cities, which further worsened the relations between the two communities. Attempt was made in 1927 by the Congress and Muslim League to form an alliance. It seemed possible as M.A. Jinnah, one of the leaders of Muslim League, agreed to give up the demand for separate electorates if:

(A) Muslims were assured reserved seats in Central Assembly.

B) Representation in proportion to population in the Muslim dominated provinces, (Bengal and Punjab). Negotiations failed in 1928 when M.R. Jayakar of the Hindu Mahasabha strongly opposed efforts at compromise. So the Civil Disobedience Movement started in an atmosphere of distrust and suspicion between the two communities. Muslims feared that their culture and identity would be submerged under the Hindu majority dominance.

Tthe Sense of Collective Belonging:

➢ A sense of collective belonging came partly through the experience of united struggles.

➢ These were also a variety of cultural processes through which nationalism captured people’s imagination.

➢ Like history, fiction folklore and son popular prints and symbols all played a part in the making of nationalism.

Bharat Mata

The identity of India came to visually associated with the image of Bharat Mata. The image was first created by Bankim Chandra Chatatopadhyay. In the 1870s he wrote `Vande Materam' as a hymn to the motherland. Later it was included in his novel Anandamath and widely sung during the Swadeshi movement in Bengal. Moved by the Swadeshi movement, Rabindranath Tagore painted his famous image of Bharat Mata. In this painting Bharat Mata is portrayed as an ascetic figure: she is calm, composed, divine and spiritual. Devotion to this mother figure came to be seen as evidence of one's nationalism.

National Song: 

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhya in the 1870 wrote Vande Mataram as a hymn to the motherland. Later it was included in his novel “Anandmath.”

Folklores: