HISTORY

Non Co-operation Movement

• Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms 1919: Dyarchy
• In a system called “dyarchy,” the nation-building departments of government — agriculture, education, public works, and the like — were placed under ministers who were individually responsible to the legislature. The departments that made up the “steel frame” of British rule — finance, revenue, and home affairs — were retained by executive councillors who were nominated by the Governor.
• The Hunter Committee report praised the actions of general Dyer.
• Khilafat Movement
  • For support of Turkey
  • Khilafat Committee formed under the leadership of Ali Brothers, Maulana Azad, Hakim Ajmal Khan and Hasrat Mohani
  • The promises made to the Khilafat Committee were not kept after the World War.
  • The All-India Khilafat Conference held at Delhi in November 1919 decided to withdraw all cooperation from the government if their demands were not met.
  • On June 9 1920, the Khilafat Committee at Allahabad unanimously accepted the suggestion of non-cooperation and asked Gandhiji to lead the movement.
• Khilafat movement cemented Hindu-Muslim unity
  • Gandhiji looked upon the Khilafat agitation as “an opportunity of uniting Hindus and Mohammedans as would not arise in a hundred years”
• The non-cooperation movement was launched on August 1, 1920. Lokmanya Tilak passed away on the same day.
• People countrywide observed hartal and took out processions.
• The congress met in September at Calcutta and accepted non-co-operation as its own.
• The programme of non-cooperation included:
  • Surrender of titles and honors
  • Boycott of government affiliated schools and colleges, law courts, foreign cloth and could be extended to resignation from government services.
  • Mass civil disobedience including the non-payment of taxes.
  • National schools and colleges were to be set up
  • Panchayats were to be established to settle disputes
  • Hand-spinning and weaving was encouraged
  • People were asked to maintain Hindu-Muslim unity, give up untouchability and observe strict non-violence.
• Changes in Congress to attain the new objective:
  • At the Nagpur session in 1920 changes in the Constitution of Congress were made.
  • The goal of congress was changed from the attainment of self-government by constitutional and legal means to the attainment of Swaraj by peaceful and legitimate means.
  • The Congress now had a Working Committee of fifteen members to look after its day to day affairs.
  • Provincial congress committees were now organized on a linguistic basis.
  • Mahalla and ward committees were formed.
  • The membership fee was reduced to 4 annas a years to enable poor to become members.
  • This was not without opposition however. Some members still believed in the traditional methods. Leaders like Jinnah, GS Khaparde, Bipin Chandra Pal and Annie Besant left congress during this time.
• Gandhiji, along with the Ali brother, undertook a nationwide tour to address people.
• Thousands of students left government schools and joined national schools.
• The most successful item of the programme was the boycott of foreign cloth.
• Picketing of toddy shops was also very popular.
• Students let government schools and colleges. IT was during this time that Jamia Milia Islamia of Aligarh, the Bihar Vidyapith, the Kashi Vidyapith and the Gujarat Vidyapith came into existence.
• Lawyers such as Deshbandhu CR Das, Motilal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Saifudiin Kitchlew, C Rajagopalachari, Sardar Patel, T Prakasam and Asaf Ali gave up their legal practice.
• Tilak Swarajya Fund was started to finance the NCM.
• In 1921, Khilafat Committee issued a resolution that no muslim should serve in the British Indian army.
• The visit of the Prince of Wales on 17^th November 1921 was observed as a day of hartal all over the country.
• The Congress Volunteer Corps emerged as a powerful parallel police.
• By December 1921, the government felt that things were going too far and announced a change of policy by declaring the volunteer corps illegal and arresting all those who claimed to be its members.
• Thousands of peasants and tenants participated in the movement.
• In Punjab, the Akali movement to remove corrupt mahants from the Gurudwaras was started.
• Assam: Tea plantation workers went on strike. Midnapore: peasants refused to pay Union Board taxes.             Guntur (Chirala): Agitation led by Duggirala Gopalakrishayya                        Malabar: Mohlahs (muslim peasants) created a powerful anti-zamindari movement.
• As the government refused to yield, Gandhiji announced that mass civil disobedience would begin in Bardoli taluqa of Surat.
• However, in Chauri Chaura, Gorakhpur on 5 February 1922 crowd set fire on a police station and killed some policemen. On hearing this, Gandhiji decided to withdraw the movement.
• The congress working committee ratified his decision. Thus, on February 12, 1922, the non-cooperation movement came to an end.
• Assessing the Withdrawal:
  • Some scholars say that Gandhiji withdrew the movement because he wanted to protect the interests of the propertied class.
  • Some argue that there was no logic why a small incident should lead to withdrawal of the movement itself.
  • However, government could use Chauri Chaura to justify its repression of the movement.
  • If movement was started at that time, it would have been defeated due to the repression of the government.
  • Gandhiji was protecting the movement from likely repression, and the people from demoralization.
  • Mass movements tend to ebb in some time. Hence, withdrawal is a part of the strategy of mass movements.
• Gandhiji was tried in 1922 and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment.
  • He invited the court to award him “the highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me for what in law is a deliberate crime, and what appears to be the highest duty of a citizen”.
• Positives out of the non-cooperation movement:
  • Congress started commanding the support and sympathy of vast sections of the Indian people.
  • Millions of Indians became politically involved. Women were drawn into the movement.
  • Muslims participated heavily and communal unity was maintained.
  • Strengthened the national movement. Nationalist sentiments and the national movement had reached the remotest corners of the land.
  • People gained tremendous self-confidence and self-esteem.

• Gandhi was the first Indian barrister to have come to South Africa.
• He was faced with various racial discriminations within days of his arrival in SA.
• He led the Indian struggle in SA.
• The first phase of Gandhi’s political activities from 1894-1906 may be classified as the ‘moderate’ phase.
• He set up the Natal Indian Congress and started a paper called Indian Opinion.
• By 1906, Gandhiji, having fully tried the ‘Moderate’ methods of struggle, was becoming convinced that these would not lead anywhere.
• The second phase, begun in 1906, was characterized by the use of passive resistance, Satyagraha. There was no fear of jails.
• South Africa prepared Gandhiji for leadership of the Indian national struggle:
  • He had the invaluable experience of leading poor Indian labourers.
  • SA built up his faith in the capacity of the Indian masses to participate in and sacrifice for a cause that moved them.
  • Gandhiji also had the opportunity of leading Indians belonging to different religions.
• South Africa provided Gandhiji with an opportunity for evolving his own style of politics and leadership.
• Gandhi returned to India on January 9, 1915
• He founded the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad in 1916
• Initially he was politically idle. He spent his time studying the situation of the country.
• He was deeply convinced that the only viable method of political struggle was satyagraha.
• During the course of 1917 and early 1918, he was involved in three significant struggles – in Champaran in Bihar, in Ahmedabad and in Kheda in Gujarat. The common feature of these struggles was that they related to specific local issues and that they were fought for the economic demands of the masses.
• Champaran Satyagraha (1917)
  • Peasantry on the indigo plantations in Champaran, Bihar was excessively oppressed by the Eurpoean planters.
  • On the invitation of the peasants he went to Champaran and began to conduct a detailed inquiry into the condition of the peasantry
  • The government was forced to set up a committee with Gandhi as one of the members. The sufferings of the peasants was reduced.
  • Others in this movement: Rajendra Prasad, Mazhar-ul-Haq, J B Kriplani, Narhari Parekh and Mahadev Desai.
• Ahmedabad Mill Strike (1918)
  • Dispute between workers and mill owners
  • Gandhi advised workers to go on a non-violent strike. He himself took to fast
  • Owners yielded and gave a 35 percent increase in wages to the workers
• Kheda Satyagraha (1918)
  • Despite crop failure in Kheda the government insisted on full land revenue
  • Gandhi advised the peasants to withhold payment.
  • Govt issued instructions that revenue should be collected from only those farmers who could afford to pay
  • Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel played a major role in this satyagraha.
• Impact of these early experiences
  • Brought Gandhiji in close contact with the masses
  • He identified his life and manner of living with the life of the common people
• He had three main aims
  • Hindu-Muslim Unity
  • Fight against untouchability
  • Raising the social status of the women
• Gandhiji’s first major nation-wide protest was against the Rowlatt Bills in 1919. He formed the Satyagraha Sabha whose members took a pledge to disobey the Act and thus to court arrest and imprisonment.
• Satyagraha was launched. The form of protest finally decided was the observance of a nation-wide hartal accompanied by fasting and prayer.
• However, protests were generally accompanied by violence and disorder.
• In Punjab, the situation was particularly violent. Genral Dyer was called to control the situation. On 13 April, Baisakhi Day, General Dyer ordered to open fire on unarmed crowd in Jallianwala Bagh. The government estimate was 379 dead, other estimates were considerably higher.
• Gandhiji, overwhelmed by the total atmosphere of violence, withdrew the movement on 18 April.
• Difference between earlier methods of struggle and satyagraha
  • Earlier, the movement had confined its struggle to agitation. They used to hold meetings, demonstrate, boycott etc
  • Through Satyagraha they could act now.
  • The new movement relied increasingly on the political support of the peasants, artisans and urban poor.
  • Gandhiji increasingly turned the face of nationalism towards the common man
• Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
  • On April 13, 1919 a large crowd had gathered in Amritsar to protest against the arrest of their leaders, Dr. Saifudding Kitchlew and Dr. Satyapal
  • General Dyer opened fire
  • Widespread criticism. Tagore returned his knighthood.

Lucknow Pact (1916)

• Nationalists saw that their disunity was affecting their cause
• Two important developments at the Lucknow Session of Congress
  • The two wings of the Congress were again united
  • The Congress and the Muslim League sank their old differences and put up common political demands before the government.
• INC and ML passed the same resolutions at their sessions, put forward a joint scheme of political reforms based on separate electorates, and demanded that the British Government should make a declaration that it would confer self-government on India at an early date.
• The pact accepted the principle of separate electorates
• Main clauses of the pact
  • There shall be self-government in India.
  • Muslims should be given one-third representation in the central government.
  • There should be separate electorates for all the communities until a community demanded joint electorates.
  • A system of weightage should be adopted.
  • The number of the members of Central Legislative Council should be increased to 150.
  • At the provincial level, four-fifth of the members of the Legislative Councils should be elected and one-fifth should be nominated.
  • The size of provincial legislatures should not be less than 125 in the major provinces and from 50 to 75 in the minor provinces.
  • All members, except those nominated, should be elected directly on the basis of adult franchise.
  • No bill concerning a community should be passed if the bill is opposed by three-fourth of the members of that community in the Legislative Council.
  • The term of the Legislative Council should be five years.
  • Members of Legislative Council should themselves elect their president.
  • Half of the members of Imperial Legislative Council should be Indians.
  • The Indian Council must be abolished.
  • The salaries of the Secretary of State for Indian Affairs should be paid by the British government and not from Indian funds.
  • Of the two Under Secretaries, one should be Indian.
  • The Executive should be separated from the Judiciary.
• Evaluation
  • As an immediate effect, the unity between the two factions of the congress and between INC and ML aroused great political enthusiasm in the country
  • However, it did not involve Hindu and Muslim masses and was based on the notion of bringing together the educated Hindus and Muslims as separate political entities without secularization of their political outlook
  • The pact therefore left the way open to the future resurgence of communalism in Indian politics.
• Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms
  • Provincial LC enlarged. More elected members
  • Dyarchy
    • Some subjects were reserved and remained under the direct control of the Governor; others such as education, public health and local self-government were called transferred subjects and were to be controlled by the ministers responsible to the legislature.
  • At the centre, there were two houses of legislature.
  • Response of nationalists
    • INC condemned the reforms as disappointing and unsatisfactory
    • Some others , led by Surendranath Banerjea, were in favour of accepting the government proposals. They left the Congress at this time and founded the Indian Liberal Federation
  • Evaluation
    • The governor could overrule the ministers on any grounds that he considered special
    • The legislature had virtually no control over the Governor-General and his Executive Council.
    • The central government had unrestricted control over the provincial governments

Rowlatt Act

• March 1919
• It authorized the Government to imprison any person without trial and conviction in a court of law.

Partition of Bengal

• With the partition of Bengal, Indian National Movement entered its second stage
• On 20 July, 1905, Lord Curzon issued an order dividing the province of Bengal into two parts: Eastern Bengal and Assam with a population of 31 mn and the rest of Bengal with a population of 54 mn.
• Reason given: the existing province of Bengal was too big to be efficiently administered by a single provincial government
• The partition expected to weaken the nerve centre of Indian Nationalism, Bengal.
• The partition of the state intended to curb Bengali influence by not only placing Bengalis under two administrations but by reducing them to a minority in Bengal itself as in the new proposed Bengal proper was to have seventeen million Bengali and thirty seven million Oriya and Hindi speaking people.
• The partition was also meant to foster division on the basis of religion.
• Risley, Home Secretary to the GoI, said on December 6, 1904 – ‘one of our main objects is to split up and thereby weaken a solid body of opponents to our rule.’
• the nationalists saw it as a deliberate attempt to divide the Bengalis territorially and on religious grounds

The Swadeshi Movement

• The Swadeshi movement had its genesis in the anti-partition movement which was started to oppose the British decision to partition Bengal.
• Mass protests were organized in opposition to the proposed partition.
• Despite the protests, the decision to partition Bengal was announced on July 19, 1905
• It became obvious to the nationalists that their moderate methods were not working and that a different kind of strategy was needed.
• Several meetings were held in towns such as Dinajpur Pabna, Faridpur etc. It was in these meetings that the pledge to boycott foreign goods was first taken.
• The formal proclamation of the Swadeshi movement was made on 7 August 1905 in a meeting held in the Calcutta town hall. The famous boycott resolution was passed.
• The leaders like SN Banerjee toured the country urging the boycott of Manchester cloth and Liverpool salt.
• The value of British cloth sold in some of the districts fell by five to fifteen times between September 1904 and September 1905.
• The day the partition took effect – 16 October 1905 – was declared a day of mourning throughout Bengal.
• The movement soon spread to the entire country.
• Militant nationalists
  • The extremists were in favor of extending the movement to the rest of India and carrying it beyond the programme of just Swadeshi and boycott to a full fledged political mass struggle. The moderates were not as willing to go that far.
  • The differences between the extremists and moderates came to had in 1907 Surat session where the party split with serious consequences for the Swadeshi Movement.
  • In Bengal, the extremists acquired a dominant influence over the Swadeshi movement.
  • They proposed the technique of extended boycott which included, apart from boycott of foreign goods, boycott of government schools and colleges, courts, titles and government services and even the organization of strikes.
  • Aurobindo Ghose: Political freedom is the lifebreath of a nation.
  • Boycott and public burning foreign cloth, picketing of shops selling foreign goods, became common in remote corners of Bengal as well as in many towns across the country.
  • The militant nationslists, however, failed to give a positive leadership to the people. They also failed to reach the real masses of the country, the peasants.
• The movement also innovated with considerable success different forms of mass mobilization such as public meetings, processions and corps of volunteers.
• The Swadesh Bandhab Samiti set up by Ashwini Kumar Dutt, a school teacher, in Barisal was the most well known volunteer organization.
• During the Swadeshi period, traditional festivals were used to reach out to the masses. The Ganapati and Shivaji festivals were popularized by Tilak. Traditional folk theatres such as jatras were also used.
• Another important aspect was the great emphasis given to self-reliance or Atmasakti as a necessary part of the struggle against the government.
• Self-reliance was the keyword. Campaigns for social reforms were carried out.
• In 1906, the National Council for Education was setup to organize the education system.
• Self-reliance also meant an effort to set up Swadeshi or indigenous enterprises.
• Marked impact in the cultural sphere
  • The songs composed by Rabindranath Tago, Mukunda Das and others became the moving spirit for nationalists.
  • Rabindranath’s ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’, written at that time, was to later inspire the liberation struggle of Bangladesh and was adopted as the national anthem of the country in 1971.
  • Nandalal Bose, who left a major imprint on Indian art, was the first recipient of a scholarship offered by the Indian Society of Oriental Art founded in 1907.
• The social base of the national movement was now extened to include certain zamindari section, lower middle class and school and college students. Women also participated in large numbers.
• Drawback: Was not able to garner the support of the mass of Muslims, especially the muslim peasantry. The British policy of communalism responsible for this.
• By mid-1908, the movement was almost over. The main reasons were:
  • The government, seeing the revolutionary potential of the movement, came down with a heavy hand.
  • The split of the congress in 1907 had weakened the movement.
  • The movement lacked an effective organization and party structure.
  • The movement decline dpartially because of the logic of the mass movements itself – they cannot be endlessly sustained at the same pitch of militancy and self-sacrifice.
• The anti-partition movement, however, marked a great revolutionary leap forward for Indian nationalism.
• The decline of Swadeshi engendered the rise of revolutionary terrorism.
• Assessing the movement
  • Cultural impact
  • Social Impact
  • Economic impact
  • Role of students and Women
  • All India aspect of the movement
  • From passive protest to active boycott

The Split in the Congress: Surat 1907

• Moderates were successful to some extent.
• Moderates failed in many aspects. Why?
  • They could not acquire any roots among common people.
  • They believed that they could persuade the rulers to change their policies. However, their achievement in this regard was meager.
  • They could not keep pace with the events. They failed to meet the demands of the new stage of the national movement.
• The British were keen on finishing the Congress because:
  • However moderate the leaders were, they were still nationalists and propagators of anti-colonialist ideas.
  • The British felt that moderates led congress could be finished off easily because it did not have a popular base
• In the swadeshi movement, all sections of INC united in opposing the Partition
  • However, there was much difference between the moderates and the extremists about the methods and scope of the movement
  • The extremists wanted to extend the Swadeshi and Boycott movement from Bengal to the rest of the country and to boycott every form of association with the colonial government
  • The moderates wanted to confine the boycott movement to Bengal and even there to limit it to the boycott of foreign goods
• After the Swadeshi movement the British adopted a three pronged approach to deal with congress. Repression-conciliation-suppression.
  • The extremists were reppressed
  • The moderates were conciliated thus giving them an impression that their further demands would be met if they disassociated from the extremists. The idea was to isolate the extremists.
  • Once the moderates and extremists were separate the extremists could be suppressed through the use of state force while the moderates could later be ignored.
• The congress session was held on December 26, 1907 at Surat, on the banks of the river Tapti.
  • The extremists wanted a guarantee that the four Calcutta resolutions will be passed.
  • They objected to the duly elected president of the year, Rash Behari Ghose.
  • There was a confrontation with hurling of chairs and shoes.
• The government launched a massive attack on the extremists. Newspapers were suppressed. Tilak was sent to Mandalay jail for six years.
• The extremists were not able to organize an effective alternative party or to sustain the movement.
• After 1908 the national movement as a whole declined.
• The moderates and the country as a whole were disappointed by the 1909 Minto-Morley reforms
  • The number of indirectly elected members of the Imperial and provincial legislative councils was increased.
  • Separate electorates for Muslims were introduced.
• With the split of Congress revolutionary terrorism rose.
• In 1904 V D Savarkar organized Abhinav Bharat as a secret society of revolutionaries
• In April 1908, Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose threw a bomb at a carriage which they believed was occupied by Kingsford the unpopular judge at Muzzafarpur.
• Anushilan Samity and Jugantar were two most important revolutionary groups.
• An assessment of the split
  • The split did not prove useful to either party
  • The British played the game of divide and rule
  • To placate the moderates they announced the Morley-Minto reforms which did not satisfy the demands of the nationalists. They also annulled the partition of Bengal in 1911.

Morley-Minto Reforms, 1909

• Increased the number of elected members in the Imperial Legislative Council and the provincial council
• However, most of the elected members were elected indirectly
• The reformed councils still enjoyed no real power, being merely advisory bodies.
• Introduced separate electorates under which all Muslims were grouped in separate constituencies from which Muslims alone could be elected. This was aimed at dividing the Hindus and Muslims. It was based on the notion that the political and economic interests of Hindus and Muslims were separate.
  • This later became a potent factor in the growth of communalism
  • It isolated the Muslims from the Nationalist Movement and encouraged separatist tendencies
• The real purpose of the reforms was to confuse the moderate nationalists, to divide nationalist ranks and to check the growth of unity among Indians
• Response of Moderates
  • They realized that the reforms had not granted much
  • However, they decided to cooperate with the government in working the reforms
  • This led to their loss of respect among the nationalists and masses

Growth of Communalism

• Definition
  • Communalism is the belief that because a group of people follow a particular religion they have, as a result, common secular, that is, social, political and economic interests.
  • Second stage: Secular interests of followers of one religion are dissimilar and divergent from the interests of the followers of another religion
  • Third stage: The interests of the followers of different religions or of different religious communities are seen to be mutually incompatible, antagonistic and hostile.
• Communalism is not a remnant of the medieval period. It has its roots in the modern colonial socio-economic political structure.
• Divide and Rule
  • After 1857, British initially suppressed Indian muslims. However, after the publishing of Hunter’s book ‘The Indian Mussalman’ they actively followed the policy of divide and rule and hence started supporting the Muslims.
  • They promoted provincialism by talking of Bengal domination
  • Tired to use the caste structure to turn the non-brahmins against Brahmins and the lower caste against the higher castes.
  • It readily accepted communal leaders as authentic representatives of all their co-religionists.
• Reasons for growth of communal tendencies in Muslims
  • Relative backwardness: educationally and economically

Muslim League

• 1906 by Aga Khan, the Nawab of Dhaka, and Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk
• It made no critique of colonialism, supported the partition of Bengal and demanded special safeguards for the Muslims in government services.
• ML’s political activities were directed not against the foreign rulers but against the Hindus and the INC.
• Their activities were not supported by all Muslims
  • Arhar movement was founded at this time under the leadership of Maulana Mohamed Ali, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Hasan Imam, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, and Mazhar-ul-Haq. They advocated participation in the militant nationalist movement.

Muslim Nationalists

• The war between Ottoman Empire and Italy created a wave of sympathy for Turkey
• During the war between Ottoman empire and Italy, India sent a medical mission headed by MA Ansari to help Turkey.
• As the British were not sympathetic to Turkey, the pro-Caliph sentiments in India became anti-British
• However, the militant nationalists among muslims did not accept an entirely secular approach to politics
• The most important issue they took up was not political independence but protection of the Turkish empire.
• This approach did not immediately clash with Indian nationalism. However, in the long run it proved harmful as it encouraged the habit of looking at political questions from a religious view point.

Hindu Communalism

• Some Hindus accepted the colonial view of Indian history and talked about the tyrannical Muslim rule in the medieval period
• Over language they said that Hindi was the language of Hindus and Urdu that of Muslims.
• Punjab Hindu Sabha was founded in 1909. Its leaders attached the INC for trying to unite Indians into a single nation.
• The first session of the All India Hindu Mahasabha was held in April 1915 under the presidentship of the Maharaja of Kasim Bazar.
• It however remained a weak organization because the colonial government gave it few concessions and little support.

World War I and Indian Nationalism

• Increasing number of Indians from Punjab were emigrating to North America.
• The British government thought that these emigrants would be affected by the idea of liberty. Hence, they tried to restrict emigration.
• Tarak Nath Das, an Indian student in Canada, started a paper called Free Hindustan.
• The Hindi Association was setup in Portland in May 1913.
• Under the leadership of Lala Har Dayal, a weekly paper, The Ghadar was started and a headquarters called Yugantar Ashram was set up in San Fransisco.
• On November 1, 1913, the first issue of Ghadar was published in Urdu and on December 9, the Gurumukhi edition.
• In 1914, three events influenced the course of the Ghadar movement:
  • The arrest and escape of Har Dayal
  • The Komagata Maru incident
  • Outbreak of the first world war
• Gharadites came to India and made several attempts to instill the Indian population to revolt. However, this was of no avail.
• The Ghadar movement was very secular in nature.
• Ghadar militants were distinguished by their secular, egalitarian, democratic and non-chauvinistic internationalist outlook.
• The major weakness of the Ghadar leaders was that they completely under-estimated the extent and amount of preparation at every level – organizational, ideological, strategic, tactical, financial – that was necessary before an attempt at an armed revolt could be organized.
• It also failed to generate an effective and sustained leadership that was capable of integrating the various aspects of the movement.
• Another weakness was its almost non-existent organizational structure.
• Some important leaders: Baba Gurmukh Singh, Kartar Singh Saraba, Sohan Singh Bhakna, Rahmat Ali Shah, Bhai Parmanand and Mohammad Barkatullah.
• Inspired by the Ghadar Party, 700 soldiers at Singapore revolted under the leadership of Jamadar Chisti Khan and Subedar Dundey Khan. The rebellion was crushed.
• Other revolutionaries: Jatin Mukharjee, Rash Bihari Bose, Raja Mahendra Pratab, Lala Hardayal, Abdul Rahim, Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi, Champakaraman Pillai, Sardar Singh Rana and Madame Cama

• After being released in 1914, Tilak sought re-entry into Congress. Annie Besant and Gokhale supported. But finally Pherozshah Mehta won and Tilak was not admitted.
• Tilak and Besant decided to start the home rule movement on their own.
• In early 1915, Annie Besant (and S Subramaniya Iyer) launched a campaign through her two newspapers, New India and Commonweal, and organized public meetings and conferences to demand that India be granted self-government on the lines of the White colonies after the War. From April 1915, her tone became more peremptory and her stance more aggressive.
• At the annual session of the Congress in December 1915 it was decided that the extremists be allowed to rejoin the Congress. The opposition from the Bombay group has been greatly weakened by the death of Pherozshah Mehta.
• Tilak and Annie Besant set up two different home rule leagues.
• Tilak’s league was to work in Maharashtra (excluding Bombay city), Karnataka, the central provinces and Berar and Annie Besant’s league was given the charged of the rest of India.
• Tilak was totally secular in nature. There was no trace of religious appeal. The demand for Home Rule was made on a wholly secular basis.
  • “Home rule is my birthright, and I will have it”
• The British were aliens not because they belonged to another religion but because they did not act in the Indian interest
• Tilak’s league was organized into six branches, one each in Central Maharashtrra, Bombay city, Karnataka, and Central Provinces, and two in Berar.
• On 23^rd July 1916, on Tilak’s sixtieth birthday the government sent a notice asking him to show cause why he should not be bound over for good behavior for a period of one year and demanding securities of Rs 60000
• Tilak was defended by a team of lawyers led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He won. Tilak used the opportunity to further the Home Rule movement.
• In Besant’s league, the main thrust of activity was directed towards building up an agitation around the demand for Home Rule. This was to be achieved by promoting political education and discussion.
• Lucknow Pact: 1916 in the Congress Session at Lucknow. Also known as Congress League Pact. Extremists were accepted back in congress. An agreement was reached between Muslim League and Congress.
• The turning point in the movement came with the arrest of Annie Besant in June 1917
• There was wide agitation and many leaders joined the league.
• The government agreed to grant self rule but the timing for such a change was to be decided by the government alone.
• After the great advance in 1917, the movement gradually dissolved.
  • The moderates were pacified by the government’s assurance of reforms after Besant’s release.
  • The publication of scheme of government reforms in July 1918 further created divisions. Many rejected it while others were for giving it a trial.
  • Later, Tilak went to England to fight a case. With Besant unable to give a firm lead, and Tilak away in England, the movement was left leaderless.
• Achievements of the movement
  • The achievement of the Home Rule movement was that it created a generation of ardent nationalists who formed the backbone of the national movement in the coming years.
  • The Home rule leagues also created organizational links between town and country which were to prove invaluable in later years.
  • By popularizing the idea of self-government, it generated a widespread pro-nationalist atmosphere in the country.
  • The movement set the right mood for the entry of Mahatma Gandhi and take the leadership.

Disillusionment of the nationalists with moderate policies

• The moderates thought that the British could be reformed from within
• Politically conscious Indians were convinced that the purpose of the British rule was to exploit India economically
• The nationalists realized that Indian industries could not flourish except under an Indian government
• Disastrous famines from 1896 to 1900 took a toll of over 90 lakh lives
• The Indian Councils Act of 1892 was a disappointment
• The Natu brothers were deported in 1897 without trial
• In 1897 B G Tilak was sentenced to long term imprisonment for arousing the people against the government
• In 1904, the Indian Official Secrets Act was passed restricting the freedom of the Press
• Primary and technical education was not making any progress
• Thus, increasing number of Indians were getting convinced that self-government was essential for the sake of economic, political and cultural progress of the country

Growth of Self-respect and  self-confidence

• Tilak, Aurobindo and Pal preached the message of self-respect
• They said to the people that remedy to their condition lay in their own hand and they should therefore become strong
• Swami Vivekananda’s messages

Growth of education and unemployment

International Influences

• Rise of modern Japan after 1868
• Defeat of the Italian army by the Ethiopians in 1896 and of Russia by Japan in 1905 exploded the myth of European superiority

Existence of a Militant Nationalist School of Thought