Nationalism in India
Emergence of Nationalism
Modern nationalism in Europe led to the formation of nation-states and altered people's understanding of identity and belonging.
New symbols, icons, songs, and ideas created new connections and redefined community boundaries.
The creation of national identity was a lengthy process in most countries.
In India, modern nationalism was closely tied to the anti-colonial movement.
People began to recognize their unity through the struggle against colonialism.
The shared experience of oppression under colonialism created a bond between diverse groups.
Colonialism affected different classes and groups differently, leading to varied experiences and notions of freedom.
The Indian National Congress, led by Mahatma Gandhi, aimed to unite these groups into a single movement, though conflicts arose.
The chapter focuses on the Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience Movements, exploring how the Congress developed the national movement, the participation of various social groups, and how nationalism captured the public's imagination.
The First World War, Khilafat, and Non-Cooperation
Post-1919, the national movement expanded to new areas, incorporated new social groups, and adopted new methods of struggle.
The war generated a new economic and political landscape.
Increased defense spending was funded through war loans and higher taxes, including raised customs duties and the introduction of income tax.
Prices doubled between 1913 and 1918, causing hardship for common people.
Villages were required to supply soldiers, leading to forced recruitment and widespread anger in rural areas.
Crop failures occurred in 1918-19 and 1920-21, leading to food shortages and an influenza epidemic.
The census of 1921 reported that 12 to 13 million people died from famines and the epidemic.
People anticipated relief after the war, but their hardships continued.
Mahatma Gandhi returned to India in January 1915 and introduced the idea of Satyagraha.
The Idea of Satyagraha
Satyagraha is a method of mass agitation that emphasizes the power of truth and the search for it.
If the cause is just and against injustice, physical force is unnecessary to combat the oppressor.
Satyagrahis can win through non-violence by appealing to the oppressor's conscience.
People should be persuaded to see the truth rather than forced through violence.
Through this struggle, truth will ultimately prevail.
Mahatma Gandhi believed non-violence could unite all Indians.
In 1917, he led peasants in Champaran, Bihar, against the oppressive plantation system.
In 1917, he organized a satyagraha in the Kheda district of Gujarat to support peasants affected by crop failure and plague, who demanded relaxation of revenue collection.
In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi organized a satyagraha movement among cotton mill workers in Ahmedabad.
The Rowlatt Act
In 1919, emboldened by his success, Gandhiji launched a nationwide satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act of 1919.
The Act granted the government powers to suppress political activities and detain political prisoners for two years without trial.
Mahatma Gandhi advocated non-violent civil disobedience against these unjust laws, starting with a hartal on April 6.
Rallies were organized, workers went on strike, and shops closed down.
The British administration clamped down on nationalists, arresting local leaders in Amritsar and barring Mahatma Gandhi from entering Delhi.
On April 10, police in Amritsar fired on a peaceful procession, leading to attacks on banks, post offices, and railway stations.
Martial law was imposed, and General Dyer took command.
The Jallianwalla Bagh incident occurred on April 13, where Dyer ordered his troops to fire on a large crowd, killing hundreds, to create terror and awe.
Following the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre, protests erupted in north Indian towns, with strikes, clashes with police, and attacks on government buildings.
The government responded with brutal repression, including humiliating satyagrahis and bombing villages.
Mahatma Gandhi called off the movement due to the widespread violence.
The Rowlatt Satyagraha was largely limited to cities and towns, leading Mahatma Gandhi to believe a broader movement was needed, requiring Hindu-Muslim unity.
A Khilafat Committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919 to defend the Khalifa’s temporal powers after the defeat of Ottoman Turkey in World War I.
Muslim leaders like the brothers Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, discussed a united mass action with Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhiji saw this as an opportunity to unify Muslims within a national movement.
At the Calcutta session of the Congress in September 1920, he advocated for a non-cooperation movement supporting Khilafat and swaraj.
Why Non-Cooperation?
In his book "Hind Swaraj" (1909), Mahatma Gandhi stated that British rule was established and sustained in India through Indian cooperation.
Gandhiji proposed that the movement should unfold in stages, starting with the surrender of government-awarded titles and a boycott of civil services, the army, police, courts, legislative councils, schools, and foreign goods.
If the government used repression, a full civil disobedience campaign would be launched.
Throughout the summer of 1920, Mahatma Gandhi and Shaukat Ali mobilized support for the movement.
Many within the Congress were concerned about the proposals, fearing violence and were reluctant to boycott the council elections scheduled for November 1920.
At the Congress session in Nagpur in December 1920, a compromise was reached, and the Non-Cooperation program was adopted.
Differing Strands within the Movement
The Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement started in January 1921, involving various social groups with their own aspirations.
All responded to the call of Swaraj, but the term meant different things to different people.
The movement began with middle-class participation in cities, with students leaving government schools and colleges, teachers resigning, and lawyers abandoning their practices.
Council elections were boycotted, except in Madras, where the Justice Party of non-Brahmans sought power.
The economic impact was significant, with boycotts of foreign goods, picketing of liquor shops, and burning of foreign cloth.
The import of foreign cloth decreased from Rs crore to Rs crore between 1921 and 1922.
Merchants and traders refused to trade in foreign goods or finance foreign trade.
Indian textile mills and handlooms increased production as people began wearing Indian clothes.
The movement in cities slowed down due to the high cost of Khadi cloth and the lack of alternative Indian institutions.
Students and teachers returned to government schools, and lawyers resumed work in government courts.
Rebellion in the Countryside
The Non-Cooperation Movement extended from cities to the countryside, incorporating peasant and tribal struggles.
In Awadh, peasants were led by Baba Ramchandra against talukdars and landlords who demanded high rents and cesses.
Peasants were forced to do begar (unpaid labor) and lacked security of tenure.
The peasant movement sought reduced revenue, abolition of begar, and social boycott of oppressive landlords.
Panchayats organized nai-dhobi bandhs to deprive landlords of services.
In June 1920, Jawaharlal Nehru engaged with villagers in Awadh to understand their grievances.
By October, the Oudh Kisan Sabha was established, led by Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba Ramchandra, and others, quickly gaining over 300 branches.
The Congress aimed to integrate the Awadh peasant struggle into the broader Non-Cooperation Movement.
The peasant movement took forms that concerned Congress leadership, including attacks on talukdars and merchants, looting of bazaars, and taking over grain hoards.
Local leaders invoked Mahatma Gandhi’s name, claiming he had declared no taxes were to be paid and land was to be redistributed among the poor.
Tribal Peasants and Swaraj
Tribal peasants interpreted Mahatma Gandhi’s message and the idea of swaraj in their own way.
In the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh, a militant guerrilla movement emerged in the early 1920s due to the colonial government closing forest areas and forcing begar for road building.
Alluri Sitaram Raju led the movement, claiming special powers and inspiring rebels who saw him as an incarnation of God.
Raju spoke of Mahatma Gandhi’s greatness, promoted khadi, and discouraged drinking, but believed India could only be liberated by force.
The Gudem rebels attacked police stations, tried to kill British officials, and engaged in guerrilla warfare for swaraj.
Raju was captured and executed in 1924, becoming a folk hero.
Swaraj in the Plantations
Plantation workers in Assam understood swaraj as the right to move freely and maintain links with their villages.
The Inland Emigration Act of 1859 restricted their movement.
Hearing of the Non-Cooperation Movement, workers defied authorities, left plantations, and headed home, believing Gandhi Raj was coming and they would be given land.
They were stranded due to a railway and steamer strike, caught by the police, and brutally beaten.
Visions of Movements
The visions of these movements were not defined by the Congress program.
They saw swaraj as a time when all suffering and troubles would end.
When tribals chanted Gandhiji’s name and demanded ‘Swatantra Bharat’, they were emotionally relating to an all-India agitation.
When they acted in the name of Mahatma Gandhi, or linked their movement to that of the Congress, they were identifying with a movement which went beyond the limits of their immediate locality.
Towards Civil Disobedience
In February 1922, Mahatma Gandhi withdrew the Non-Cooperation Movement due to violence and the need for trained satyagrahis.
Some Congress leaders sought participation in elections to provincial councils under the Government of India Act of 1919 to oppose British policies.
C. R. Das and Motilal Nehru formed the Swaraj Party to advocate for council politics.
Younger leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose wanted more radical mass agitation and full independence.
Two factors reshaped Indian politics in the late 1920s such as the worldwide economic depression.
Agricultural prices fell from 1926 and collapsed after 1930, causing hardship for peasants who struggled to sell harvests and pay revenue.
The countryside was in turmoil by 1930.
The new Tory government in Britain formed the Simon Commission to review the constitutional system in India but it lacked Indian members.
The Simon Commission was met with the slogan ‘Go back Simon’ in 1928, with participation from the Congress and the Muslim League.
Lord Irwin offered ‘dominion status’ and a Round Table Conference, but this did not satisfy Congress leaders.
Radicals like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose became more assertive, while liberals lost influence.
In December 1929, the Lahore Congress, under Jawaharlal Nehru, demanded ‘Purna Swaraj’ or full independence for India.
January 26, 1930, was declared Independence Day, but it received little attention.
Mahatma Gandhi sought to connect freedom with everyday issues.
The Salt March and the Civil Disobedience Movement
Mahatma Gandhi chose salt as a unifying symbol, sending a letter to Viceroy Irwin on January 31, 1930, with eleven demands, including the abolition of the salt tax.
The salt tax and government monopoly were seen as oppressive.
Mahatma Gandhi's letter was an ultimatum; if demands were unmet by March 11, the Congress would start civil disobedience.
Irwin refused to negotiate, leading to the Salt March with 78 volunteers over 240 miles from Sabarmati to Dandi which lasted 24 days (10 miles a day).
On April 6, he reached Dandi, manufactured salt, and violated the law, marking the start of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
People were asked to break colonial laws and refuse cooperation.
Thousands violated the salt law, boycotted foreign cloth, and picketed liquor shops.
Peasants refused to pay revenue, village officials resigned, and forest people violated forest laws.
The government arrested Congress leaders, leading to violent clashes.
When Abdul Ghaffar Khan was arrested, protests erupted in Peshawar.
When Mahatma Gandhi was arrested, industrial workers in Sholapur attacked symbols of British rule.
The government responded with brutal repression, arresting about 100,000 people.
Mahatma Gandhi called off the movement and signed the Gandhi-Irwin Pact on March 5, 1931 agreeing to participate in a Round Table Conference in London, and the government agreed to release political prisoners.
The negotiations broke down, and Mahatma Gandhi relaunched the Civil Disobedience Movement which continued for over a year, but lost momentum by 1934.
How Participants Saw the Movement
Rich peasant communities like the Patidars of Gujarat and the Jats of Uttar Pradesh were active due to the trade depression and falling prices, viewing swaraj as a struggle against high revenues.
They were disappointed when the movement was called off in 1931 without revenue revisions, leading many to refuse participation when it was restarted in 1932.
The poorer peasantry wanted unpaid rent to landlords remitted and joined radical movements, but the Congress was unwilling to support ‘no rent’ campaigns.
Business classes supported the Civil Disobedience Movement initially, seeking protection against imports and a favorable rupee-sterling exchange ratio, but grew apprehensive after the Round Table Conference due to militant activities and socialist influences.
The industrial working classes largely did not participate, except in the Nagpur region, but some adopted Gandhian ideas like boycotting foreign goods against low wages and poor conditions; the Congress was reluctant to include workers’ demands.
Women participated in large numbers, from high-caste urban families and rich rural households, seeing service to the nation as a sacred duty, but the Congress was reluctant to give them positions of authority.
The Limits of Civil Disobedience
Not all social groups were moved by the concept of swaraj, example being, the nation’s ‘untouchables’ (Dalits) who sought political empowerment through reserved seats and separate electorates.
Dalit participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement remained limited. B.R. Ambedkar clashed with Mahatma Gandhi over separate electorates at the second Round Table Conference.
Gandhiji began a fast unto death, believing it would slow their integration into society. Ambedkar accepted Gandhiji’s position, resulting in the Poona Pact of September 1932, which reserved seats for the Depressed Classes in legislative councils, voted in by the general electorate.
Some Muslim political organizations were also lukewarm in their response to the Civil Disobedience Movement, feeling alienated from the Congress after the decline of the Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement.
As relations worsened, each community organized religious processions with militant fervor, provoking Hindu-Muslim communal clashes and riots.
When the Civil Disobedience Movement started there was thus an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust between communities. Alienated from the Congress, large sections of Muslims could not respond to the call for a united struggle.
In 1930, Sir Muhammad Iqbal reiterated the importance of separate electorates for Muslims as a safeguard for their minority political interests.
The Sense of Collective Belonging
Nationalism spreads when people believe they are part of the same nation and discover a unifying unity.
This sense of collective belonging arose partly through united struggles and various cultural processes.
History and fiction, folklore and songs, popular prints and symbols played a role in the making of nationalism.
The identity of the nation is often symbolized in an image, with India visually associated with Bharat Mata in the twentieth century.
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay created the image in the 1870s, writing ‘Vande Mataram’ which was included in his novel Anandamath.
Abanindranath Tagore painted his famous image of Bharat Mata, portraying her as an ascetic figure.
The image of Bharat Mata acquired different forms and was circulated in popular prints while devotion to this figure became evidence of nationalism.
Nationalism also developed through reviving Indian folklore, with nationalists recording folk tales and gathering folk songs to preserve traditional culture.
In Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore collected ballads, nursery rhymes, and myths, leading the movement for folk revival.
In Madras, Natesa Sastri published Tamil folk tales, viewing folklore as national literature.
Nationalist leaders used icons and symbols to unify people and inspire nationalism.
During the Swadeshi movement, a tricolor flag (red, green, and yellow) was designed with eight lotuses and a crescent moon.
By 1921, Gandhiji designed the Swaraj flag, featuring a spinning wheel.
Carrying the flag became a symbol of defiance.
Nationalism was also fostered through reinterpreting history, with Indians highlighting ancient achievements in response to British views of Indians as backward.
Conclusion
Growing anger against the colonial government united various groups and classes in a common struggle for freedom with the Congress, under Mahatma Gandhi, that aimed to channel people’s grievances into organised movements.
Diverse groups participated with varied expectations and aspirations.
As their grievances were wide-ranging, freedom from colonial rule also meant different things to different people.
The Congress continuously attempted to resolve differences and ensure that the demands of one group did not alienate another.
This is precisely why the unity within the movement often broke down, with high points of Congress activity and nationalist unity followed by phases of disunity and inner conflict between groups.
In other words, what was emerging was a nation with many voices wanting freedom from colonial rule.
Timeline of Nationalism in India
1870s:
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay creates the image of Bharat Mata.
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay writes ‘Vande Mataram’.
1909: Mahatma Gandhi articulates his views on British rule and Indian cooperation in "Hind Swaraj."
January 1915: Mahatma Gandhi returns to India and introduces Satyagraha.
1917:
Mahatma Gandhi leads peasants in Champaran, Bihar, against the oppressive plantation system.
Mahatma Gandhi organizes a satyagraha in the Kheda district of Gujarat to support peasants affected by crop failure and plague.
1918: Mahatma Gandhi organizes a satyagraha movement among cotton mill workers in Ahmedabad.
March 1919: A Khilafat Committee is formed in Bombay to defend the Khalifa’s temporal powers.
April 6, 1919: Gandhiji launches a nationwide satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act.
April 10, 1919: Police in Amritsar fired on a peaceful procession, leading to attacks on banks, post offices, and railway stations.
April 13, 1919: The Jallianwalla Bagh incident occurs.
June 1920: Jawaharlal Nehru engages with villagers in Awadh to understand their grievances.
October 1920: The Oudh Kisan Sabha is established, led by Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba Ramchandra, and others.
September 1920: At the Calcutta session of the Congress, Mahatma Gandhi advocates for a non-cooperation movement supporting Khilafat and swaraj.
December 1920: At the Congress session in Nagpur, the Non-Cooperation program is adopted.
January 1921: The Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement starts.
1921: Gandhiji designs the Swaraj flag, featuring a spinning wheel.
February 1922: Mahatma Gandhi withdraws the Non-Cooperation Movement due to violence.
1924: Alluri Sitaram Raju, who led the militant guerrilla movement in the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh, is captured and executed.
1926: Agricultural prices begin to fall.
Late 1920s: Worldwide economic depression begins, reshaping Indian politics.
1928: The Simon Commission is met with the slogan ‘Go back Simon’.
December 1929: At the Lahore Congress, under Jawaharlal Nehru, ‘Purna Swaraj’ (full independence) is demanded.
January 26, 1930: Declared Independence Day, though it receives little attention.
January 31, 1930: Mahatma Gandhi sends a letter to Viceroy Irwin with eleven demands, including the abolition of the salt tax, leading to the Salt March.
March 11, 1930: Deadline for fulfilling the demands, after which the Congress would start civil disobedience.
April 6, 1930: Mahatma Gandhi reaches Dandi, manufactures salt, and violates the law, marking the start of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
December 1930: The countryside is in turmoil.
March 5, 1931: Mahatma Gandhi calls off the movement and signs the Gandhi-Irwin Pact agreeing to participate in a Round Table Conference in London, and the government agreed to release political prisoners.
September 1932: Poona Pact is reached, reserving seats for the Depressed Classes in legislative councils.
1934: The Civil Disobedience Movement loses momentum.