The Asiatic Society of bengal

? founded in 1784, by Sir William Jones, a British lawyer and Orientalist, to encourage Oriental studies.

? it was the vehicle for his ideas about the importance of Hindu culture and learning and about the vital role of Sanskrit in the Aryan languages.

? Headquarters are in Kolkata.

? The society owns an art collection that includes paintings by Peter Paul Rubens and Joshua Reynolds.

? The society’s library contains some 100,000 general volumes, and its Sanskrit section has more than 27,000 books, manuscripts, prints, coins, and engravings. The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal is published regularly.

 

Famous Personalities of Fredom Struggle of India

Keshab Chander Sen :-

? was an Indian Bengali Hindu philosopher and social reformer who attempted to incorporate Christian theology within the framework of Hindu thought.He was born on 19th November 1838 in Kolkata. He was a descendant of the medieval Sena kings of Bengal.

? He was so influenced by the ideas of Brahmo Samaj that he joined the Calcutta Brahmo Samaj in 1857.

? At the age of 19, Keshab Chandra Sen started social work by establishing an evening school for adults.

? He used the medium of Press to spread social consciousness and development.

? he started a fortnightly journal ‘Indian Mirror’

? Keshab Chandra Sen was associated with many revolutionary programs of social reform like liberation of women from the social bindings, education of women and the poor workers, eradication of social evils like untouchability and casteism, spread of vernacular and various charitable works for the oppressed people.

? He took the initiative to introduce legislation to curb polygamy and child marriage and promoted inter-caste marriage.

? he was given the title of ‘Acharya’ of the ‘Brahmo Samaj’ by Devendranath Tagore. But due to the differences in the beliefs and philosophies of Devendranath Tagore and Keshab Chandra Sen, Brahmo Samaj split into two.

? founded his own breakaway “Brahmo Samaj of India” in 1866

? he propagated the Navavidhan, the New Dispensation or the Religion of Harmony. He preached bhakti, which was inspired from both Chaitanya and Christ.

 


Theodore Beck:-
was a British educationalist working for the British Raj in India, who was invited by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan to serve as the first principal of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at the age 24. in Aligarh, which would later evolve into the Aligarh Muslim University. He was also opposed to join the Congress.


Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

? An Afghan Pashtun political and spiritual leader known for his non-violent opposition to British Rule in India.

? A lifelong pacifist, a devout Muslim,and a close friend of Mohandas Gandhi

? he was also known as Fakhri Afghan (“The Afghan pride”), Badshah Khan and Sarhaddi Gandhi (Urdu, Hindi lit.,
“Frontier Gandhi”)

? he decided social activism and reform would be more beneficial for Pashtuns. This ultimately led to the formation of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement (Servants of God). The movement’s success triggered a harsh crackdown

against him and his supporters and he was sent into exile.

? It was at this stage in the late 1920s that he formed an alliance with Gandhi and the Indian National Congress. This alliance was to last till the 1947 partition of India.

? Ghaffar Khan strongly opposed the Muslim League’s demand for the partition of India.
? In 1987 he became the first person without Indian citizenship to be awarded the Bharat Ratna


Sajjad Zaheer

? was a renowned Urdu writer, Marxist thinker

? Famously known as Bannay Mian, Zaheer was born in Lukhnow, the former state of Oudh

? He was one of the founding members of the Communist Party of India and later in 1948, the Communist Party of Pakistan, along with Faiz Ahmad Faiz.

? A collection of short stories, Angaray, which had stories by Sajjad Zaheer

? and was immediately banned in India by the British Government in 1933, “for hurting the religious susceptibilities of a section of the community.” This gave rise to the All-India Progressive Writers’ Movement & Association of which both Sajjad Zaheer and Ahmed Ali were co-founders.

? The first official conference of the Association was held in Lucknow in 1936 which was presided over by Munshi Premchand.

? LITERARY CONTRIBUTION:-London Ki Ek Raat- a novel.,Roshnai, a collection of essays on progressive writing and the progressive writers movement., Zikre Hafiz, his research based book on Persian poet Hafez.,Pighla Nilam, his last book,a collection of his poetry.


WW HUNTER

? Scottish historian, statistician, a compiler and a member of theIndian Civil Service, who later became Vice President of Royal Asiatic Society

? In 1869 Lord Mayo, the then governor-general, asked Hunter to submit a scheme for a comprehensive Statistical Survey of India. And the The Imperial Gazetteer of India was published in 1881.

? In 1882 presided over the commission on Indian Education

? in 1886 he was elected vice-chancellor of the University of Calcutta.


Achyut Patwardhan

? was an Indian independence activist and political leader and founder of the Socialist Party of India. He was also a philosopher who believed fundamental change in society begins with man himself,

? He studied Communist and Socialist literature, resigned his Professorship and plunged in 1932 into Gandhiji’s civil disobedience movement. He was imprisoned several times.
? In 1934 he and his associates in jail formed the Congress Socialistic Party with a view to working for socialistic objectives from within the Congress.

? He took a prominent part in the Quit India movement. he went underground, and ably directed the movement of a parallel government mainly in the Satara district.

? In 1947 they formed the Socialist Party of India, independently of the Congress. In 1950 Achyut retired from politics


LALA HAR DAYAL

? Indian revolutionary and scholar who was dedicated to the removal of British influence in India.

? On a Government of India scholarship to St. John’s College at Oxford, he became a supporter of the Indian revolutionary movement. In 1907 Har Dayal resigned his scholarship

? He returned to India in 1908 to further indigenous political institutions and to arouse his countrymen against British rule, butthe government thwarted his work, and he soon returned to Europe.

? In 1913 he formed the Ghadar rebellion (Gadar) Party to organize a against the British government of India.


Jiddu Krishnamurti

? was an Indian writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual subjects. His subject matter included: psychological revolution, the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships, and bringing about positive change in society

? He constantly stressed the need for a revolution in the psyche of every human being and emphasized that such revolution cannot be brought about by any external entity, be it religious, political, or social.

? He claimed allegiance to no nationality, caste, religion, or philosophy, and spent the most of his life traveling the world, speaking to large and small groups and individuals

? His supporters, working through non-profit foundations in India, Great Britain and the United States, oversee several independent schools based on his views on education.


Gopi Krishna

? was a yogi, mystic, teacher, social reformer, and writer

? His autobiography is known under the title Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man.,in it he has put this amazing aspect of our nature in a logical, consistent and scientific light, and presented us with a new understanding of the goal of evolution, both as individuals and as a species.

? he himself has started to search the life of geniuses and enlightented persons in history for clues of kundalini awakening. He proposed an organisation to be erected to conduct scientific research on the matter. The research should, according to him, consist of research on biological processes in the body, psychological and sociological
research of living persons. According to Mr. Krishna the lives of historical persons should also be investigated.


Sir Muhammad Iqbal or Allama Iqbal
? was a philosopher,poet and politician in British India who is widely regarded as having inspired the Pakistan Movement.

? He is considered one of the most important figures in Urdu literature, with literary work in both the Urdu and Persian languages

? his best known Urdu works are Bang-i-Dara, Bal-i-Jibril, Zarb-i Kalim and a part of Armughan-e-Hijaz.

? Iqbal became a member of the London branch of the All India Muslim League,in one of his most famous speeches, Iqbal pushed for the creation of a Muslim state in Northwest India.

? Pakistan Government had recognised him as its “national poet”


Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu

? was an Indian politician and Freedom Fighter , prominent Telugu barrister and the first Chief Minister of the Indian province Andhra state. He was also known as Andhra Kesari

?  He was elected the general secretary of the Congress Party in December 1921 at the Ahmedabad session


Maulana Mohammad  Ali and Maulana Shaukat Ali

? were Indian Muslim leaders, activists, scholars, journalists and poets, and was among the leading figures of the Khilafat Movement

? Maulana Mohammad Ali Jouhar had spent four years in prison for advocating resistance to the British and support for the caliphate.

? publish the Urdu weekly Hamdard and the English weekly Comrade.

? form the All India Khilafat Committee. The organization was based in Lucknow,

? In 1920 an alliance was made between Khilafat leaders and the Indian National Congress, to work and fight together for the causes of Khilafat and Swaraj.

? Many Hindu religious and political leaders identified the Khilafat cause as Islamic fundamentalism based on a pan-Islamic agenda. And many Muslim leaders viewed the Indian National Congress as becoming increasingly dominated by Hindu fundamentalists and thus the Ali brothers began distancing themselves from Gandhi
and the Congress.


Dr. Dhondo Keshav Karve

? popularly known as Maharishi Karve, was a social reformer in India in the field of women’s welfare.

? Mr Karve decided to continue the work of promoting women’s education in India. The Government of India awarded Dhondo Keshav Karve its highest civilian award, Bh?rat Ratna,

? founded Widhaw?-Wiw?hottejak Mandali, which, besides encouraging marriages of widows, also helped the needy children of widows.

? established a Hindu Widows’ Home Association


Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna

? was as Indian revolutionary, the founding president of the Ghadar Party, and a leading member of the party involved in the Ghadar Conspiracy of 1915.

? Tried at the Lahore Conspiracy trial, Sohan Singh served sixteen years of a life sentence for his part in the conspiracy before he was released in 1930.

? He later worked closely with the Indian labour movement, devoting considerable time to the Kisan Sabha and
the Communist Party of India.


Alluri Sita Rama Raju

? was an Indian revolutionary involved in the independence movement.

? Raju led the ill-fated “Rampa Rebellion” of 1922–24, during which a band of tribal leaders and other sympathizers fought against the British Raj. He was referred to as “Manyam Veerudu” (“Hero of the Jungles”) by the local people.


Baba Ram Chandra or Shridhar Balwant Jodhpurkar

? was an Indian trade unionist ,who organised the farmers of Oudh, India into forming a united front to fight against the abuses of landlords in the 1920s and 1930s ,and formed the Oudh Kisan Sabha

? He was also an influential figure in the history of Fiji, and owed his inspiration to take up the cause of the down-trodden to his 12 years as an indentured labourer in Fiji and to his efforts to end the indenture system. He was a Brahmin, of Maharashtrian origin. He left for Fiji as an indentured labourer in 1904


Sir Thomas Roe

? diplomat and author who advanced England’s mercantile interest in Asia and was prominent in negotiations during the Thirty Years’ War.

? Roe began his diplomatic career in India as ambassador to the court of the Mogul emperor J?h?ng?r.

? As ambassador to Constantinople (1621–28), Roe obtained increased privileges for the English merchants trading in the Ottoman Empire.

? He negotiated a treaty with Algiers, then subject to Ottoman rule, resulting in the release of several hundred Englishmen captured by the Barbary pirates


Romesh Chunder Dutt

? was an Indian civil servant, economic historian, writer, and translator of Ramayana and Mahabharata.

? As an ics officier Dutt was especially troubled by the lack of assured tenants’ rights or rights of transfer for those who tilled the land. He considered the land taxes to be ruinous, a block to savings, and the source of famines.

? .He was president of the Indian National Congress in 1899.

? Dutt served as the first president of Bangiya Sahitya Parishad

? Dutt traced a decline in standards of living to the nineteenth-century deindustrialization of the subcontinent and
the narrowing of sources of wealth

? Wrote economic history of india under british rule


Lakshmi Bai, the Rani of Jhansi

? was the queen of the Maratha-ruled princely state of Jhansi, situated in the north-central part of India.

? She was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and a symbol of resistance to the rule of the British East India Company in the subcontinent.after she was forcibly retired by the British due to a controversial law of “Doctrine of Lapse”

? Hugh Rose ,the army commander ,commented that the Jhansi Rani Lakshmibai is “personable, clever and beautiful” and she is “the most dangerous of all Indian leaders ”


Lala Har Dayal
? was a Indian nationalist revolutionary who founded the Ghadar Party in America.

? The movement began with a group of immigrants known as the Hindustani Workers of the Pacific Coast.

? In a letter toThe Indian Sociologist he started , published in 1907, to explore anarchist ideas, In April 1914, he was arrested by the United States government for spreading anarchist literature and fled to Berlin, Germany.


 

 

The Indian National Army or Azad Hind Fauj

 

? was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II. The aim of the army was to liberate India from the British occupation with Japanese assistance. Initially composed of Indian prisoners of war captured by Japan in the Malayan campaign and at Singapore, it later drew volunteers from Indian expatriate population in Malaya and Burma.

? The INA also was at the forefront of women’s equality and the formation of a women’s regiment, the Rani of
Jhansi regiment was formed as an all volunteer women’s unit to fight the British occupiers as well as provide medical services to the INA.

? Initially formed in 1942 immediately after the fall of Singapore under Mohan Singh, the first INA collapsed in December that year before it was revived under the leadership of Subhas Chandra Bose in 1943 and proclaimed the army of Bose’s Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind (The Provisional Government of Free India).

? This second INA fought along with the Imperial Japanese Army against the British andCommonwealth forces in the campaigns in Burma, Imphal and Kohima, and later, against the successful Burma Campaign of the Allies

? . The end of the war saw a large number of the troops repatriated to India where some faced trial for treason and became a galvanising point of the Indian Independence movement

? the Red Fort trials of captured INA officers in India provoked massive public outcries in support of their efforts to fight for Indian independence against the Raj, eventually triggering the Bombay mutiny in the British Indian

 

French Revolution:-

  • It gave birth to ideas of liberty, freedom and equality
  • It led to the end of monarchy in France
  • A society based on privileges gave way to a new system of governance
  • The Declarations of the Rights of Man during the revolution, announced the coming of a new time.
  • The idea that all individuals had rights and could claim equality became part of a new language of politics.
  • These notions of equality and freedom emerged as the central ideas of a new age; but in different countries they were reinterpreted and rethought in many different ways

Ideals of Revolution

  • The collapse of the old regime was the consequence of many factors – economic problems, social unrest, conflicting ambitions of groups and individuals.
  • In the unfolding of the Revolution, what was thought, what was said, and what was advocated, was expressed in terms categories that came from political theorists of the Enlightenment such as Montesquieu, Locke and Rousseau.
  • Montesquieu, the most important political philosopher of the French revolution claimed that a liberal constitutional monarchy was the best system of government for a people who prized freedom, on the grounds that by dividing the sovereignty of the nation between several centres of power, it provided a permanent check on any one of t hem becoming despotic.
  • Mirabeau, the leading orator among the revolutionists of this early phase, was very much the disciple of Montesquieu in his demand for a constitutional monarchy. Mirabeau was born in a noble family but was convinced of the need to do away with a society of feudal privilege. He brought out a journal and delivered powerful speeches to the crowds assembled at Versailles.
  • Then, there was Locke’s theory of the natural rights of man to life, liberty and property. The French revolutionists were influenced by Locke’s theory as  merican revolutionist had done so in 1776
  • Where Montesquieu had understood freedom as being unconstrained and unimpeded in doing what one chooses to do so as long as it is lawful, Rousseau defined freedom as ruling oneself, living only under a law which one has oneself enacted.
  • On Rousseau’s philosophy of freedom “The Social Contract” there was no question of the people dividing and diminishing  sovereignty, because the people were to keep sovereignty in their own hands. In Rousseau’s conception of a constitution, the nation became sovereign over itself.

Stages:-

  • 1774: Louis XVI becomes king of France, faces empty treasury and growing discontent within society of the Old Regime.
  • 1789: Convocation of Estates General, Third Estate forms National Assembly, the Bastille is stormed, and peasant revolts in the countryside.
  • 1791: A constitution is framed to limit the powers of the king and to guarantee basic rights to all human beings.
  • 1792: Overthrow of the Constitutional Monarch—oftencalledthe“SecondRevolution”—and the establishment of the First French Republic.
  • After the establishment of the Republic, the level of violence grew as the Republican regime sought to repress counter – revolutionary movements in France (Federalist revolts and the Vendee uprising) while struggling at the same time to prevent defeat in war by the combined forces of Austria, Prussia, and Britain.
  • The so-called reign of Terror was instituted to quash both internal and foreign forces of counter revolution. But once these internal and foreign threats were under control in the spring of 1794, Terror continued at the direction of the Committee of  Public Safety, the most famous member of which was Maximiliean Robespierre.
  • This last period of Terror was aimed at eliminating political rivals of Robespierre and the Committee, which included Danton. The excesses that resulted led to the overthrow of Robespierre and the Committee.
  • After the overthrow of Robespierre, the revolution continued still longer as the moderate leaders of the newly established government called the Directory (1795-1799) attempted to bring the revolution to a close in keeping with the principles of 1789 that would be under bourgeois control and freed from the intervention and pressures of the popular movement.
  • This effort entailed the forceful repression of the popular movement in Paris by Napoleon’s so-called “whiff of grapeshot” ,the overturning of elections in 1797 (to oust neo-Jacobins seen as too radical) and again in 1798 (to oust ultra conservatives).
  • The Directory relied on the army and military force to carry out these repressive acts at the same time it supported the army and Napoleon in an aggressive war of expansion in Europe and Egypt.
  • Having relied on the army so much, the Directory was in the end overthrown by Napoleon and military might.

Role of leaders, philosopher

  • In the unfolding of the Revolution, what was thought, what was said, and what was advocated, was expressed in terms and categories that came from political theorists of the Enlightenment such as Montesquieu, Locke and Rousseau.
  • Montesquieu, the most important political philosopher of the French revolution claimed that a liberal constitutional monarchy was the best system of government for a people who prized freedom, on the grounds that by dividing the sovereignty of the nation between several centres of power, it provided a permanent check on any one of them becoming despotic.
  • Montesquieu suggested that the English had achieved this by sharing sovereignty between the Crown, Parliament and the law courts.
  • The French, he suggested, would need, if they were to adopt the same idea, to make use of the estates with which they were themselves already familiar: the Crown, the aristocratic courts, the Church, the landed nobility and the chartered cities.
  • Mirabeau, the leading orator among the revolutionists of this early phase, was very much the disciple of Montesquieu in his demand for a constitutional monarchy. Mirabeau was born in a noble family but was convinced of the need to do away with a society of feudal privilege. He brought out a journal and delivered powerful speeches to the crowds assembled at Versailles.
  • Then, there was Locke’s theory of the natural rights of man to life, liberty and property. The French revolutionists were influenced by Locke’s theory as merican revolutionist had done so in 1776.
  • Where Montesquieu had understood freedom as being unconstrained and unimpeded in doing what one chooses to do so as long as it is lawful, Rousseau defined freedom as ruling oneself, living only under a law which one has oneself enacted.
  • On Rousseau’s philosophy of freedom “The Social Contract” there was no question of the people dividing and diminishing  sovereignty, because the people were to keep sovereignty in their own hands. In Rousseau’s conception of a constitution, the nation became sovereign over itself.  

Limitations

It would be unfair to Rousseau to say that Robespierre put the theory of The Social Contract into practice, but he used Rousseau’s language, and exploited – while distorting –  several of Rousseau’s ideas in the course of his reign of terror.


 

American War of Independence.

Philosophes such as Voltaire considered England’s government the most progressive in Europe. England’s ruler was no despot, not even an enlightened one. His power had been limited by law. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 had given England a constitutional monarchy. However, while the English monarch’s power was being limited at home, the power of the English nation was spreading overseas.

Britain and Its American Colonies

When George III became king of Great Britain in 1760, his Atlantic coastal colonies were growing by leaps and bounds. The colonies thrived on trade with the nations of Europe. Along with increasing population and prosperity, a new sense of identity was growing in the colonists’ minds. Colonists saw themselves less as British and more as Virginians or Pennsylvanians. However, they were still British subjects and were expected to obey British law.

In the 1660s, Parliament had passed trade laws called the Navigation Acts. These laws prevented colonists from selling their most valuable products to any country except Britain. In addition, colonists had to pay high taxes on imported French and Dutch goods. However, colonists found ways to get around these laws. Some merchants smuggled in goods to avoid paying British taxes. Smugglers could sneak in and out of the many small harbours all along the lengthy Atlantic coastline. British customs agents found it difficult to enforce the Navigation Acts. For many years, Britain felt no need to tighten its hold on the colonies. Despite the smuggling, Britain’s mercantilist policies had made colonial trade very profitable. Britain bought American raw materials for low prices and sold manufactured goods to the colonists. And despite British trade restrictions, colonial merchants also thrived. However, after the French and Indian War ended in 1763, Britain toughened its trade laws. These changes sparked growing anger in the colonies.

Americans Win Independence

In 1760, when George III took the throne, most Americans had no thoughts of either revolution or independence. Yet by 1776, many Americans were willing to risk their lives to break free of Britain. During the French and Indian War, Great Britain had run up a huge debt in the war against France. Because American colonists benefited from Britain’s victory, Britain expected the colonists to help pay the costs of the war. In 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act. Colonists had to pay a tax to have an official stamp put on wills, deeds, newspapers, and other printed material. American colonists were outraged. They had never paid taxes directly to the British government before. Colonial lawyers argued that the stamp tax violated colonists’ natural rights.

In Britain, citizens consented to taxes through their representatives in Parliament. Because the colonists had no such representatives, Parliament could not tax them. The colonists demonstrated their defiance of this tax with angry protests and a boycott of British manufactured goods. The boycott proved so effective that Parliament gave up and repealed the Stamp Act in 1766.

Growing Hostility Leads to War

Some colonial leaders, such as Boston’s Samuel Adams, favoured independence from Britain. They encouraged conflict with British authorities. At the same time, George III and his ministers made enemies of many moderate colonists by their harsh stands. In 1773, to protest an import tax on tea, Adams organized a raid against three British ships in Boston Harbour. The raiders dumped 342 chests of tea into the water. George III, infuriated by the “Boston Tea Party,” as it was called, ordered the British navy to close the port of Boston. British troops occupied the city. In September 1774, representatives from every colony except Georgia gathered in Philadelphia to form the First Continental Congress. This group protested the treatment of Boston. When the king paid little attention to their complaints, all 13 colonies decided to form the Second Continental Congress to debate their next move. On April 19, 1775, British soldiers and American militiamen exchanged gunfire on the village green in Lexington, Massachusetts. The fighting spread to nearby Concord. When news of the fighting reached the Second Continental Congress, its members voted to raise an army under the command of a Virginian named George Washington. The American Revolution had begun.

Enlightenment Ideas Influence American Colonists

Although a war had begun, the American colonists still debated their attachment to Great Britain. Many colonists wanted to remain part of Britain. A growing number, however, favoured independence. They heard the persuasive arguments of colonial leaders such as Patrick Henry, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. These leaders used Enlightenment ideas to justify independence. The colonists had asked for the same political rights as people in Britain, they said, but the king had stubbornly refused. Therefore, the colonists were justified in rebelling against a tyrant who had broken the social contract. In July 1776, the Second Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence. This document, written by Thomas Jefferson, was firmly based on the ideas of John Locke and the Enlightenment. The Declaration reflected these ideas in its eloquent argument for natural rights. Since Locke had asserted that people had the right to rebel against an unjust ruler, the Declaration of Independence included a long list of George III’s abuses. The document ended by breaking the ties between the colonies and Britain. The colonies, the Declaration said, “are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown.”

Success for the Colonists

When war was first declared, the odds seemed heavily weighted against the Americans. Washington’s ragtag, poorly trained army faced the well-trained forces of the most powerful country in the world. In the end, however, the Americans won their war for independence.  Several reasons explain their success. First, the Americans’ motivation for fighting was much stronger than that of the British, since their army was defending their homeland. Second, the overconfident British generals made several mistakes. Third, time itself was on the side of the Americans. The British could win battle after battle, as they did, and still lose the war. Fighting an overseas war, 3,000 miles from London, was terribly expensive. After a few years, tax-weary British citizens clamoured for peace. Finally, the Americans did not fight alone. Louis XVI of France had little sympathy for the ideals of the American Revolution, but he was eager to weaken France’s rival, Britain. French entry into the war in 1778 was decisive. In 1781, combined forces of about 9,500 Americans and 7,800 French trapped a British army commanded by Lord Cornwallis near Yorktown, Virginia. Unable to escape, Cornwallis surrendered. The Americans were victorious.

Americans Create a Republic

Shortly after declaring their independence, the 13 individual states recognized the need for a national government. As victory became certain, in 1781 all 13 states ratified a constitution. This plan of government was known as the Articles of Confederation. The Articles established the United States as a republic—a government in which citizens rule through elected representatives. To protect their authority, the 13 states created a loose confederation in which they held most of the power. Thus, the Articles of Confederation deliberately created a weak national government. There were no executive or judicial branches. Instead, the Articles established only one body of government, the Congress. Each state, regardless of size, had one vote in Congress. Congress could declare war, enter into treaties, and coin money. It had no power, however, to collect taxes or regulate trade. Passing new laws was difficult because laws needed the approval of 9 of the 13 states. These limits on the national government soon produced many problems. Although the new national government needed money in order to operate, it could only request contributions from the states. Angry Revolutionary War veterans bitterly complained that Congress still owed them back pay.

The nation’s growing financial problems sparked a violent protest in Massachusetts. Debt-ridden farmers, led by a war veteran named Daniel Shays, demanded that the state lower taxes and issue paper money so that they could repay their debts. When the state refused, the rebels attacked several courthouses. Massachusetts authorities quickly crushed Shays’s Rebellion.

A New Constitution

Concerned leaders such as George Washington and James Madison believed that Shays’s Rebellion underscored the need for a strong national government. In February 1787, Congress approved a Constitutional Convention to revise the Articles of Confederation. The Constitutional Convention held its first session on May 25, 1787. The 55 delegates were experienced statesmen who were familiar with the political theories of Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau. Although the delegates shared basic ideas on government, they sometimes disagreed on how to put them into practice.  Using the political ideas of the Enlightenment, the delegates created a new system of government.

The Federal System

Like Montesquieu, the delegates distrusted a powerful central government controlled by one person or group. They therefore established three separate branches—legislative, executive, and judicial. This provided a built-in system of checks and balances, with each branch checking the actions of the other two. For example, the president received the power to veto legislation passed by Congress. However, the Congress could override a presidential veto with the approval of two-thirds of its members. Although the Constitution created a strong central government, it did not eliminate local governments. Instead, the Constitution set up a federal system in which power was divided between national and state governments. The delegates agreed with Locke and Rousseau that governments draw their authority from the consent of the governed.

The Bill of Rights

The delegates signed the new Constitution on September 17, 1787. In order to become law, however, the Constitution required approval by conventions in at least 9 of the 13 states. These conventions were marked by sharp debate. Supporters of the Constitution, called the Federalists, argued that the new government would provide a better balance between national and state powers. Their opponents, the Antifederalists, feared that the Constitution gave the central government too much power. They also wanted a bill of rights to protect the rights of individual citizens. In order to gain support, the Federalists promised to add a bill of rights to the Constitution. This promise cleared the way for approval. Congress formally added to the Constitution the ten amendments known as the Bill of Rights. These amendments protected such basic rights as freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religion. Many of these rights had been advocated by Voltaire, Rousseau, and Locke. The Constitution and Bill of Rights marked a turning point in people’s ideas about government. Both documents put Enlightenment ideas into practice. They expressed an optimistic view that reason and reform could prevail and that progress was inevitable. Such optimism swept across the Atlantic. However, the monarchies and the privileged classes didn’t give up power and position easily. As Chapter 23 explains, the struggle to attain the principles of the Enlightenment continued in France.

 

Wavell Plan & Shimla Conference-

In May 1945, Lord Wavell, the Viceroy of India, went to London and discussed his ideas about the future of India with the British administration. The talks resulted in the formulation of a plan of action that was made public in June 1945. The plan is known as Wavell Plan.

The Plan suggested reconstitution of the Viceroy’s Executive Council in which the Viceroy was to select persons nominated by the political parties. Different communities were also to get their due share in the Council and parity was reserved for Cast-Hindus and Muslims. While declaring the plan, the Secretary of State for Indian Affairs made it clear that the British Government wanted to listen to the ideas of all major Indian communities. Yet he said that it was only possible if the leadership of the leading Indian political parties agreed with the suggestions of the British Government.

To discuss these proposals with the leadership of major Indian parties, Wavell called for a conference at Simla on June 25, 1945. Leaders of both the Congress and the Muslim League attended the conference, which is known as the Simla Conference. However, differences arose between the leadership of the two parties on the issue of representation of the Muslim community. The Muslim League claimed that it was the only representative party of the Muslims in India and thus all the Muslim representatives in the Viceroy’s Executive Council should be the nominees of the party. Congress, which had sent Maulana Azad as the leader of their delegation, tried to prove that their party represented all the communities living in India and thus should be allowed to nominate Muslim representative as well. Congress also opposed the idea of parity between the Cast-Hindus and the Muslims. All this resulted in a deadlock. Finally, Wavell announced the failure of his efforts on July 14. Thus the Simla Conference couldn’t provide any hope of proceeding further.

 

 

CR Formula

C. Rajagopalachari’s formula (or C. R. formula or Rajaji formula) was a proposal formulated by Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari to solve the political deadlock between the All India Muslim League and Indian National Congress on independence of India from the British. C. Rajagopalachari, a Congress leader from Madras, devised a proposal for the Congress to offer the League the Muslim Pakistan based onplebiscite of all the peoples in the regions where Muslims made a majority. Although the formula was opposed even within the Congress party,Gandhi used it as his proposal in his talks with Jinnah in 1944. However, Jinnah rejected the proposal and the talks failed.
The CR formula entailed
i. The League was to endorse the Indian demand for independence and to co-operate with the Congress in formation of Provisional Interim Government for a transitional period.
ii. At the end of the War, a commission would be appointed to demarcate the districts having a Muslim population in absolute majority and in those areas plebiscite to be conducted on all inhabitants (including the non-Muslims) on basis of adult suffrage.
iii. All parties would be allowed to express their stance on the partition and their views before the plebiscite.
iv. In the event of separation, a mutual agreement would be entered into for safeguarding essential matters such as defence, communication and commerce and for other essential services.
v. The transfer of population, if any would be absolutely on a voluntary basis.
vi. The terms of the binding will be applicable only in case of full transfer of power by Britain to Government of India.

 

August Offer (1940)

After the WWII began, British sought cooperation from India. August Offer offered three proposals. Firstly, it called for an immediate expansion of Viceroy’s Executive Council with the inclusion of India representatives; secondly, an advisory body with the members from British India and Indian princely states which were supposed to meet at consequent intervals was established and thirdly, two practical steps were decided to be taken in which it was to come at an agreement with the Indians on the form of the post representatives body should take and the methods by which it should come to a conclusion. It further  planned to draw out the principles and outlines of the Constitution itself.

Congress did not accept the offer.


 

Civil Disobedience Movement and Gandhi-Irwin Pact, 1931

  • Started by Gandhi on 12th March 1930 with the Dandi March. Reached Dandi on April 6.
  • Defiance of forest laws in Maharashtra, Central Province and Karnataka. Refusal to pay chaukidari tax in Eastern India.
  • Wide participation of women
  • Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan organized Khudai Khidmatgars (aka Red Shirts)
  • Nagaland: Rani Gaidilieu
  • First RTC, 1930
    • Congress boycotted
  • Gandhi-Irwin Pact, 1931
    • Government agreed to release the political prisoners who had remained non-violent
    • Right to make salt for consumption
    • Right to peaceful picketing of liquor and foreign cloth shops
    • Congress suspended the Civil Disobedience Movement
    • Agreed to take part in the second RTC

 

Simon Commission (1927)

  • Indian Statutory Commission chaired by Simon to go into the question of further constitutional reform
  • All its seven members were Englishmen. Clement Attlee was one of the members.
  • Lord Birkinhead was the secretary of state at that time
  • At its Madras session in 1927 INC decided to boycott the commission “at every stage and in every form”
    • ML and Hindu Mahasabha supported Congress
  • Nehru Report, 1928
    • Dominion status
    • Contained Bill of Rights
    • No state religion
    • Federal form
    • Linguistically determined provinces
    • No separate electorates
    • All Party Convention, held at Calcutta in 1928, failed to pass the report
    • Muslim league rejected the proposals of the report
    • Jinnah drafted his fourteen points
    • Hindu Mahasabha and Sikh League also objected
  • Poorna Swaraj
    • Resolution passed at the Lahore session in 1929
    • On 31 December 1929, the tri-color was hoisted
    • On 26 January 1930, Independence Day was celebrated