MAHATMA GANDHI, NATIONAL MOVEMENT
* In 1887, Gandhi went to England for higher education and returned to India in 1892 after becoming a Barrister.
* In 1893 he went to South Africa – for a year – spent twenty two years in that country.
* He returned to India on January 9 – NRI Day.
* Gandhi recorded his initial thoughts in 1909 in Hind Swaraj.
* Gandhi’s four preconditions – a) perfect chastity b) adopt poverty c) follow truth and d) cultivate fearless.
*
Gandhi began his experiments with Satyagraha – Champaran in Bihar in
1917 – Indigo Planters.Committee of enquiry of which Mahatma Gandhi
himself was made a member.
*
The Committee of Enquiry recommended some measures to alleviate the
miseries of the Indigo cultivators thereby bringing the Satyagraha to
an end.
*
The movement launched by the peasants at Kheda(1917) in Gujarat was
another instance – Peasants not able to pay rent. Vallabhbhai Patel,
who became one of the most active and dedicated followers of Mahatma
Gandhi from Kheda.
* In 1918 the mill workers of Ahmedabad got into dispute – 35 Percent increases.
* Gopal Krishna Gokhale as his political Guru (mentor).
* On 30th
March 1919 it was decided to launch first nationwide hartal against
Rowlatt Act which was called Black Law and which empowered arrest
without reasons.. But, as the decision could not reach everywhere in
the country, the date was postponed to 6 April
* Satyagarha Sabha – organized at Bombay – Hindu Muslim unity was seen.
* In Delhi – hartal – organized on 30 March 1919. * On April 1919 Gandhi – arrested.
* Jallianwala Bagh
- 13 April – day of Baisakhi – Punjab as a special day to celebrate
the harvesting season – Government proclaimed a ban.* At 4.00 p.m on
the same day a public meeting was called – Jallianwala Bagh was not a
garden – rather it was an open space near the Golden Temple in
Amristar.At one point of time it was a personal property of a person
named Jalli.
* General Dyre – when speakers reciting the poem ‘Fariyad’ –ordered troops to shoot at the crowd from the exit point.
*
As per Government Report – 179 people were killed in the accident -
according to the Congress Committee the number of people who died
could around one thousand.
* An enquiry committee under the Chairmanship of Hunter was setup on 19 October 1919. The committee submitted its report after about a year on 26 May 1920.Some
*
Called him as the ‘the defender of the British Empire’ and honored
him with sword and an amount of 2,00,000 pound – Gandhi after this
event the British lost the moral authority to rule over India – Rabindranath Tagore renounced knight hood titles as a mark of protest.
* Khilafat
– Sultan of Turkey was regarded as the Caliph or the religious head
of the Muslims all over the worlds – a movement to express the Muslim
support for the Caliph of Turkey against the allied powers,
particularly Britain.
*
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Dr. M.A. Ansari, Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew,
Maulvi Abdulbari (Lucknown), Hakin Ajmal Khan and the Ali brothers
were the prominent leaders of this movement.
*
On October 1919, he whole country had observed the Khilafat day –
Committee had been formed in September 1919. – March 1920 committee
under the leadership of Maulanan Shaukat Ali and Mohammad Ali was also
sent to England.
*
British Government – signed Treaty of Tibers on 10 August 1920 –
Turkey was partitioned – Sultan was made a prisoner and sent to
Constantinople.
* On
1, August 1920, in a communication to the governor General, Mahatma
Gandhi announced his plan to begin non-cooperation with the Government
as a sequel to the Rowlat Act, Jallianwala Bagh massacre and the
Khilafat movement.
*
Gandhi’s plan was approved by the Indian national congress in a
special session at Calcutta in December 1920.C.R.Das opposed it.
*
Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Annie Besant and Bipin Chandra Pal were not in
agreement with the congress declaration of non-cooperation and, thus
they left the Congress.
Features
of Non Cooperation: Boycott of Law Courts, foreign clothes,
establishment of panhayattis, promotion of Khadi.Prince of
Walesboycotted in Nov 1921 during his visit.
*
The Khilafat meeting in Malabar incited so much of communal feelings
among the Muslims peasants (The Moplahs) that it took an anti-Hindu
turn in July 1921 – Moplah rebellion.
* On 5 February an agitated crowd gheraoed the police station at Chauri chaura
in the Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh and set fire it. Twenty
two policemen including the station officer died in the incident.
*Gandhi announced the suspension of the movement.
Revolutionary movements :
Kakori Robbery:
* Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil occupies a special place. He published
book with the title ‘How did America get Freedom’ and a pamphlet with
the heading ‘A Message for the countrymen’ * On 9, August 1925 when
the money sent by the government from Saharnpur to Lucknow by train
was looted at the Kakori railway station. In December 1927, on the
charges of conspiracy, Ram Prasad bismil, Rajendra Lahiri, Roshan
singh and Ashfaquallah Kahn were hanged.
* Ashfaqualah Khan was the first Muslim revolutionary of India to be hanged for the sake of the country’s freedom.
Saunder’s Murder and Central hall Bomb throwing: *
On 9, June 1931 Harishen was hanged on the grievous charges of
murder. Sardar Bhagat Singh born in Banga in Layalpur district – found
the Punjab Naujawan Bharat Sabha in 1926.
*
Lala Lajpat Rai owing to a police lathi charged led by Saunders was
taken as a national humiliation and the later was assassinated on 17
December 1928.
*
Bhagat Singh in the mean time had left Lahore in disguise. He had
also participated in the congress Session at Calcutta in 1928 – he
chose the Central legislative Assembly at Delhi as his targets * The
throwing of the bomb in the Assembly on 8 April 1929 by Bhagat
Singhand Batukeshwar Dutt shook up the whole country into a new
enthusiasm – Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged.
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT
Swaraj party- Pro and No Changers:
* The leaders of the congress were spilt into two groups. The first
group comprised of those who wanted a change in the programme of the
Congress and in reality did not approve the Non-Cooperation Movement.
Prominent among such leaders were Deshbandhu Chittranjan Das and
Motilal Nehru, who were called ‘pro-changers’.
*
The other groups consisted of those members who supported the
non-cooperation movement and retained full faith in the leadership of
Mahatma Gandhi. This group came to be known as ‘no-changers’.
Prominent among the no-changers were C.Rajagopalachari and Dr. M.A.
Ansari.
*
In March 1923, Chittaranjan Das along with Motilal Nehru formed the
Swaraj Party at Allahabad to take parting November 1923 council
elections.
*
Elections – in November 1923 – Motilal Nehru became the leader of the
party whereas in Bengal the party was headed by Chittranjan Das.
* Simon Commission – the act of 1919 included a provision for its review after a lapse of ten years. Thus, such a review was due in 1929.
* The Conservative Party appointed the review commission two years ahead of its schedule, in 1927.
*
Simon commission after the name of its chairman, Sir John Simon – all
its seven members were Englishmen, the Commission was also called the
‘White men Commission’.
*
There were no Indian member in it, the Commission faced a lot of
criticism – all the political parties including the Congress, the
Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League decided to oppose the Commission
tooth and nail – 3 February 1928 when the Commission reached Bombay.
*
At Lahore the student took out a large anti-Simon commission -
LalaLajpat Rai was seriously injured in the police lathi charge
ordered by Saunders, assistant superintendent of Police of Lahore. As a
result of which he passed away after one month – His last words,
“Every blow on my body will prove a nail in the coffin of the British
Empire.
*
With the sole exception of a few members of the Muslim League, the
rulers of the Princely States and zamindars, all political parties and
the sections of the Indian people opposed the Simon Commission –
report published in May 1930 – Dyarchy was unsuccessful – recommended
special powers to Governor General at the centre and Governors at the
Provinces.
*
Indians rejected the Simon commission report out of Hand as it did
not mention anything in regard to conferring the Dominion Status –
Simon Commission’s report became the basis for enacting the Government
of India Act 1935.]
* Secretary of State, Lord Birkenhead, while delivering a speech on the floor of the British Parliament challenged the Indians to produce a Constitution.
* The Report published by this Committee in July 1928 came to be known as the ‘Nehru Report’.
*
Muslim League – Central Sikh League, Sardar Kharak Singh also
rejected it – Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Dr. M.A. Ansari and Hakim Ajmal
Kahn supported it. * Jinnah, thereafter convened an All Indian
conference of the Muslims where he drew up a list of fourteen point
demand.
*
Nehru Report was approved by a majority vote in the annual session of
the Congress held in Calcutta on 2 December 1928, an ultimatum was
served on the British government to accept the Report by 31 December
1929.
*
Poorna Swaraj-The annual session of the congress was held at Lahore
in December 1929. The place where this session was held was named as
the Lajpat Rai Nagar.
* Dandi March
– Gandhi reached the coast of Dandi on 5 April 1930 after marching a
distance of 200 miles with 78 handpicked followers and on 6 April
formally launched the Civil Disobedience Movement by breaking the salt
laws.
*
On 9 April, Mahatma Gandhi laid out the programme of the movement
which included making of salt in every village in violation of the
existing salt laws; picketing by women before the shops selling
liquor, opium and foreign clothes; organizing the bonfires of foreign
clothes; spinning clothes by using charkha; fighting untouchability;
boycotting of schools and colleges by students and resigning from
government jobs by the people.
*
Many Muslims kept themselves aloof from this movement – northwest
Frontier Province an organization of Khudai Khidmatgar (Servants of
God) was formed under the leadership of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Most
of the volunteers donned red clothes, because of which they came to be
known as the Red Shirts.
* The khudai Khidmatgars accepted the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and participated in the movement in full measures.
* The government had to send a detachment of the 18th
Royal Garhwal Rigles to suppress this movement. But as the Garhwali
soldiers refused to open fire on the unarmed people, the government
pressed the air force into action.
* Round table conference
– first such conference held on 12 November 1930 at London, failed to
resolve he communcal question as it was boycotted it by the
Congress.First civil disobedience movement –Gandhi put 11 demands
including cut in military expenses, total prohibition,release of
political prisoners etc,.
*
On 8 March 1931 the Gandhi-Irwin Pact was singed. As per this pact
Gandhi agreed to suspend the Civil Disobedience Movement and
participate in the Second Round Table conference but most of the
leaders did not like this pact.
*
On 7 September 1931, the Second round Table conference was held at
London; Gandhi joined the Conference on 12 September but returned o
India disappointed as no agreement could be reached on the demand of
complete independence on the communal question.
* On 3 January 1932, the civil disobedience Movement
was resumed. The government responded to it by arresting Gandhi and
Sardar Patel and by reimposing the ban of the Congress Party.
(Dr
Ambedkar: * In July 1924 Ambedkar had organized a Bahishkrit hitkar
Sabha (the Depressed Classes Institute) with the objective of raising
the moral and material status of the untouchables.)
* Fist Round Table Conference he had demanded separate electorates for depressed.
* On 16 August 1932, British Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald made an announcement, which came to be as the ‘communcal Award’.
*
According to this award the depressed classes were considered as a
separate community and as such provisions were made for separate
electorates for them.
* Gandhi protested against the Award and went on a fast unto death in the Yeravada jail on 20 September 1932.
*
Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Ghanshyam and Das
Birla, C. Rajagopalachari and Dr. Ambedkar gathered at Pun and
hammered out an agreement with the consent of Gandhi and Dr. Ambedkar.
This agreement came to be called as the ‘Poona Pact’ British Government also approved of it.
*
148 seats in different Provincial legislatiures were reserved for the
Depressed Classes in place of 71 as provided in the Communal Award. A
Common electorate of all Hindu, including the Depressed Classes was
agreed upon.
* Special provision for representation of the depressed people in local bodies and civil service were also made.
* The Third Round table conference was held from 17 November to 24 December 1932. The Congress once more did not take part in it.
*
In March 1933, the British Government issued a White Paper, which
became the basis for the enactment of the Government of India Act,
1935.
* In July 1933, the Congress decided to launch an Individual Civil Disobedience in place of Mass Civil Disobedience.
*
Under the Morely-Minto Reforms of 1909 only one percent , and under
the Montague Chelmsford Reforms of 1919 two and half percent of Indian
got voting rights, under the Government of India Act of 1935 only 13
percent of India’s population became eligible voters.
*
In accordance with the provinces of the government of Indian Act of
1935 elections to the Provincial Legislatures were held in February
1937.
*
Congress – virtually swept the polls – Muslim League – faced
miserable defeat – out of the 482 Muslim seat it could register
victory only in 81 seats.
* On 7
July 1937, after the Viceroy Lord Linlithgow assured the Congress of
his cooperation the party formed its Ministery in 7 Provinces.
THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND THE INDIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT
*
Congress Ministeries were formed in seven states of India. These
states were the North West Frontier Province, the Central Provinces,
Bombay, Bihar, Orissa, the United Provinces and Madras.In two
provinces namely Sindh and Assam, ministries were formed with the
Congress support whereas in Punjab the Unionist Party and the Muslim
League formed the coalition ministry of Krishak Praja Party and the
Muslim League came to power.
*
Second World War broke out. The British Government without consulting
the people of India involved the country in the war. The Congress
vehemently opposed it – also resigned from Ministries in all
Provinces.
*
Muslim League raised the slogan ‘Islam is in danger’. At this
juncture, Jinnah also presented the ‘two-nation theory’ – inflamed
communal feelings by saying that now Hindi would become the national
language of India and Bande Mataram would be its national song.
* Pirpur Report and the Sharif Report also inflamed the communal passions.
*
Muslim League celebrated 12 December 1939, the day on which the
Congress Ministries from office as the ‘Deliverance Day’ – accepting
two-nation theory in its annual session at Lahore –
Jimait-ul-Ulema-e-Hind opposing the demand for Pakistan – Khudai
Khidmatgar and the Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-hind too opposed the idea.
*
On 8, August 1940 which came to be known as the ‘August Offer’- It
said Indians would set up to frame the new Constitution. Mahatma
Gandhi decided to launch individual Staygraha – limited symbolic and
non-violent in nature – On 17, October 1940, Vinoba Bhave was the
first to offer Satyagraha and he was sentenced to three months
imprisonment.
* Jawaharlal Nehru was the second Satyagrahaist ; the third Satyagrahi was Brahma Dutt - continued for nearly 15 months –
British sent Sir Stafford Cripps to India on 23 March 1942.
*
Cripps proposals included Dominion Status to India, protection of
minorities and setting up of Constituent Assembly. The major political
parities of the country rejected the Cripps proposals.
*
The Muslim League was also dissatisfied as its demand for Pakistan
had not been conceded – 26 April 1942, he asked the British to quit
India.
*
In July, the Congress Executive Committee passed the Quit India
Resolution at Wardha. The All India Congress Committee further
considered it at Bombay in its meeting on 7-8 August 1942. * Mahatma
Gandhi was kept in prison a Poona.
*
Working Committee of the Congress Socialist Party was in session,
where it was decided to carry forward the movement from under ground.
Among its prominent leaders who took this decision were Ram Manohar
Lohia, Achyuta Patwardhan, Ramananda Mishra and S.M. Joshi.
*
Quit India Movement had passed through four stages. The first stage
was from 9 to 11 August 1942 when strikes, demonstrations and public
meeting wee organized in various towns and cities.
*
In its second stage from 12 August to 22 September the movement
reached the rural areas. During this stage the Government adopted a
policy of repression. Government structures, municipality buildings,
railways stations, police stations, post offices and trains came under
public ire.
*
In the third stage from 23 September 1942 to February 1943 there were
armed attacks on government buildings in Madras and Bengal. Bombs
were thrown at many places in Bombay and the United Provinces
*
February 1943 to 9 May 1944 was the fourth stage of the movement when
Gandhi was released from jail. During this period, many
demonstrations were held, processions taken out, anniversaries of
national leaders celebrated and national weeks observed. Students’
peasants and workers took active part in it. The Muslims by and large,
remained indifferent.
*
Participation – lower middle class, political parities, Communists,
Muslim league, Liberals opposed the movement, Savakar criticized the
Government and directed his followers not to take part in the
movement, and Anglo-Indian Community under the leadership of Anthony
opposed the movement.
* Hindu Mahasabha established in 1915 on the occasion of the Kumbh Mela at Haridwar by Madan Mohan Malaviya.
* Lord Linlithgow described it most dangerous since the 1857 revolt.
*
The Communist Party of India had come into being by 1925. The British
government which declared the organization illegal in 1934. This ban
continued in 1942.British Removed the ban on the Communist Party of
India in July 1942 in return for the latter’s promise to extend full
cooperation to the British in its war efforts.
* Subash Chandra Bose
was born on 23 January 1897 at Cuttack in Orissa. He passed the Civil
Services Examination in 1920 but not joined to serve the nationalist
cause instead of serving the British Empire.
*
Chittaranjan Das was instrumental in inspiring him top join the
national freedom struggle – unanimously elected President of the
Congress at its Haripura session.
*
In May 1939, Subash Chandra Bose formed a new group which came to be
called the Forward Bloc. July 1940 subhas was arrested under the
Defence of India Rules. In the guise of a Pathan left the country on
16 February 1941 and reached Kabul along with his friend Bhagat Ram.
*
He went to Germany and met Hilter. He was first addressed as Netaji
in Germany. Indian National Army goes to Captain Mohan Singh, who set
up the first division of the INA on 1 September 1942.
* On 2 July 1943, Subhas Chandra Bose reached Singapore and gave the rousing war cry of ‘Dilli Chalo’.
*
Formation of the Azad Hind Government and proclaimed ‘Give me blood
and I will give you freedom’. He organized the Indian National Army
and gave the country the slogan of ‘Jai Hind’.
*
the name of the INA’s three Brigades were the Subhas Brigade, Gandhi
Brigade, and Nehru Brigade – women’s detacgnebt after the name of Rani
Laximibai – was recognized by Japan, Germany, Italy, China, Ireland,
Burma (Brahma Desh) and Philippines.
*
On 8 November 1943, Japan headed over Andaman and Nicobar Islands to
Subhas Chandra. In turn, Nataji named these islands as ‘Shaheed
Island’ and
‘Swaraj
Island’ respectively. Germany accepted defeat on 7 May 1945. On 6
August 1945, atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
*
After crossing the Formosa Island on his way to Tokyo died on 18
August 1945 as his plane suddenly caught fire. The trial of the
soldiers of INA was held at Red Fort in Delhi, Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru, Bhulabhai Desai and Tej Bahadur Sapru fought the case on behalf
of the soliders.
*
On 20 January 1946, some soliders of the Air force staged a hartal
against the British Government in Karachi. The hartal soon spread to
Bombay, Lahore and Delhi.
* About
this time, on 19 February 1946, some Indians serving in the Royal
Indian Navy also ined mutiny. They also demanded equal treatment. The
civilian population of Bombay also joined hands with them by striking
work – due to the efforts of Sardar Patel, this agitation came to
end.
