Nationalism in India

Mahatma Gandhi and the idea of Satyagraha:

Mahatma Gandhi returned to India in 1915 from South Africa. Gandhiji’s novel method
of mass agitation is know as ‘Satyagraha’. Satyagraha emphasized truth. Gandhiji
believed that if the cause is true, if the struggle is against injustice, then physical force
was not necessary to fight the oppressor. A satyagrahi can win the battle through non-
violence. People, including oppressors, had to be persuaded to see the truth. Truth was
bound to ultimately triumph.

In India the first was at Champaran in 1916 to inspire plantation workers to struggle
against oppressive plantation system. In 1917 Satyagraha at Kheda to support
peasants.

In 1918 Satyagraha at Ahmadabad:

Among the cotton mill workers.

‘Hind Swaraj’:
The famous book written by Mahatma Gandhi, which emphasized non-cooperation to
British rule in India.

New economic situation created in India by the First World War:

1. Manchester imports into India declined as the British mills were busy with
war production to meet the needs of the army paving the way for the Indian
mills to supply for the huge home market
2. As the war prolonged, Indian factories were called upon to supply war
needs. As a result new factories were set up, new workers were employed
and everyone was made to work longer hrs.
3. Cotton production collapsed and exports of cotton cloth from Britain fell
dramatically after the war, as it was unable to modernize and compete with
US, Germany, Japan. Hence within colonies like India, local industrialists
gradually consolidated their position capturing the home market.

The Rowlatt Act of 1919:

It gave the British government enormous power to repress political activities and
allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years.

Jallianwala Bagh incident:

On 13th April 1919, a crowd of villagers who had come to attend a Baisakhi fair,
gathered in the enclosed ground of Jallianwala Bagh. Being from outside the city, many
were not aware of the martial law that had been imposed as a repressive measure.
General Dyer with his British troops entered the park and closed the only exit point
without giving any warning to the assembled people and ordered the troops to fire at
the crowds, killing hundreds. This brutal act of General Dyer provoked unparalleled
indignation. As the news of Jallianwala Bagh spread, crowds took to the streets in many
North Indian towns. There were hartals, clashes and attacks on government buildings.

Non-cooperation programme was adopted at Nagpur in Dec. 1920.

Effects of the Non-cooperation Movement on the economy of India:

Foreign goods were boycotted, liquor shops were picketed and foreign cloth was burnt.
The import of foreign cloth halved between 1921-1922. Its value dropped from Rs 102
crore to Rs 57 crore. Many merchants and traders refused to trade in foreign goods or
finance foreign trade. People began discarding imported clothes and wearing Indian
ones. The production of Indian textile mills and hand looms went up. Use of khadi was
popularized.

Non-cooperation Movement in the countryside:

• In Awadh, the peasants’ movement led by Baba Ramchandra was against

talukdars and landlords who demanded extremely high rents and a variety
of other ceases from the peasants. Peasants were forced to work in
landlords’ farms without any payment (beggar). Peasants had no security
of tenure, thus being regularly evicted so that they could acquire no right
over the leased land. The demands of the peasants were— reduction of
revenue, abolition of beggar and social boycott of oppressive landlords.
• In the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh a militant guerrilla movement spread
in the early 1920s against the closure of forest areas by the colonial
government, preventing people from entering the forests to graze their
cattle, or to collect fuel wood and fruits. They felt that their traditional rights
were being denied.
• For plantation workers in Assam, freedom meant the right to move freely in
and out of the confined space in which they were enclosed. 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 tea
gardens without permission. In fact the permission was hardly granted.
When they heard of the Non-Cooperation Movement, thousands of workers
defied the authorities and left for their homes.

Slowing down of Non-cooperation Movement in cities:

 • Khadi cloth was more expensive than mill cloth and poor people could not
afford to buy it. As a result they could not boycott mill cloth for too long.
• Alternative Indian institutions were not there which could be used in place
of the British ones.
These were slow to come up.
• So students and teachers began trickling back to government schools and
lawyers joined back work in government courts.

Khilafat movement:
Khilafat movement was started by Mahatma Gandhi and the Ali Brothers, Muhammad
Ali and Shaukat Ali in response to the harsh treatment given to the Caliph of Ottoman
empire and the dismemberment of the Ottoman empire by the British.

Chauri Chaura incident:

In February 1922, Gandhiji decided to launch a no tax movement. The police opened fire
at the people who were taking part in a demonstration, without any provocation. The
people turned violent in their anger and attacked the police station and set fire to it. The
incident took place at Chauri Chaura in Uttar Pradesh.

When the news reached Gandhiji, he decided to call off the Non-cooperation movement
as he felt that it was turning violent and that the satyagrahis were not properly trained
for mass struggle.

Swaraj Party was founded by C.R. Das and Moti Lai Nehru for return to council Politics.
Simon Commission 1928 and boycott. Lahore Congress session and demand for Puma
Swaraj in 1929. Dandi march and the beginning of civil Disobedience movement.
Features of Civil Disobedience Movement:

• People were now asked not only to refuse cooperation with the British but
also to break colonial laws.
• Foreign cloth was boycotted and people were asked to picket liquor shops.
• Peasants were asked not to pay revenue and chaukidari taxes.
• Students, lawyers and village officials were asked not to attend English
medium schools, colleges, courts and offices.

‘Salt March’:
On 31st January, 1930 Mahatma Gandhi sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin stating eleven
demands, one of which was the demand to abolish Salt Tax. Salt was one of the most
essential food items consumed by the rich and poor alike and a tax on it was
considered an oppression on the people by the British Government. Mahatma Gandhi’s
letter was an ultimatum and if his demands were not fulfilled by March 11, he had
threatened to launch a civil disobedience campaign. 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 peace-fully defy the British. On 6th April, he reached Dandi, and
ceremonially violated the law, manufacturing salt by boiling sea water. This marked the
beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Who participated in the movement?

Civil Disobedience Movement came into force in various parts of the country. Gandhiji
led the salt march from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi with his followers starting the Civil
Disobedience Movement. In the countryside, the rich Patidars of Gujarat and Jats of
Uttar Pradesh were active in the movement. As rich communities were very hard hit by
the trade depression and falling prices, they became enthusiastic supporters of the Civil
Disobedience Movement. Merchants and industrialists supported the movement by
giving financial assistance and also by refusing to buy and sell the imported goods. The
industrial working class of Nagpur region also participated in the Civil Disobedience
Movement. Railway workers, dock workers, mineral of Chhota Nagpur, etc. participated
in protest rallies and boycott campaigns.

Limits of the movement

less participation by untouchables—Ambedker for separate electorate and Poona pact
of 1932, Luke warm response by some Muslim Political Organization.

Provisions of Poona pact of 1932:

Signed between Dr. Ambedkar and Gandhiji. It gave depressed classes reserved seats
in central provincial councils but they were to be voted by the general electorate.

The sense of collective belonging:

Though nationalism spread through the experience of united struggle but a variety of
cultural processes captured the imagination of Indians and promoted a sense of
collective belonging:

1. Use of figures or images: The identity of India came to be visually

associated with the image of Bharat Mata. Devotion to the mother figure
came to be seen as an evidence of one’s nationalism
2. Indian folklore: Nationalists started recording and using folklore’s and tales,
which they believed, gave a true picture of traditional culture that had been
corrupted and damaged by outside forces. So preservation of these
became a way to discover one’s national identity and restore a sense of
price in one’s past.
3. Use of icons and symbols in the form of flags: Carrying the tricolor flag and
holding it aloft during marches became a symbol of defiance and promoted
a sense of collective belonging.
4. Reinterpretation of history: Indians began looking into the past to
rediscover the glorious developments in ancient times in the field of art,
science, mathematics, religion and culture, etc. This glorious time was
followed by a history of decline when India got colonized, as Indian history
was miserably written by the colonizers.