Nationalism in India: Detailed Notes

Nationalism in India

The Growth of Nationalism

Modern nationalism in Europe led to the formation of nation-states, changing people's understanding of identity and belonging.
New symbols, icons, songs, and ideas forged new connections and redefined community boundaries.
The making of national identity was a long process in most countries.
In India, modern nationalism was linked to the anti-colonial movement.
People discovered their unity through their struggle against colonialism, sharing a bond due to oppression.
Different classes and groups experienced colonialism differently with varying notions of freedom.
The Congress, under Mahatma Gandhi, attempted to unite these groups into one movement, but unity was not without conflict.
This chapter focuses on the 1920s, studying the Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience Movements.
Mass processions on the streets became a common feature during the national movement (as depicted in Fig. 1, 6 April 1919).

The First World War, Khilafat, and Non-Cooperation

The national movement spread to new areas, incorporated new social groups, and developed new modes of struggle after 1919.
The war created a new economic and political situation.
Defense expenditure increased, financed by war loans and increasing taxes (customs duties raised, income tax introduced).
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 1918-19 and 1920-21, crop failures led to acute food shortages, accompanied by an influenza epidemic.
The census of 1921 reported that 12 to 13 million people died from famines and the epidemic.
People hoped for an end to hardships after the war, but it did not happen.

The Idea of Satyagraha

Mahatma Gandhi returned to India in January 1915, after fighting the racist regime in South Africa.
He employed satyagraha, a novel method of mass agitation emphasizing the power of truth and the need to search for truth.
If the cause was true and the struggle against injustice, physical force was unnecessary.
Satyagrahis could win through non-violence by appealing to the oppressor's conscience.
People, including oppressors, had to be persuaded to see the truth instead of being forced through violence.
Truth was bound to ultimately triumph through this struggle.
Mahatma Gandhi believed non-violence could unite all Indians.
After arriving in India, he organised satyagraha movements in various places.
In 1917, he went to Champaran in Bihar to inspire peasants against the oppressive plantation system.
Also in 1917, he organised a satyagraha to support the peasants of the Kheda district of Gujarat, who were affected by crop failure and a plague epidemic and could not pay revenue, demanding relaxation in revenue collection.
In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi went to Ahmedabad to organise a satyagraha movement amongst cotton mill workers.

The Rowlatt Act

In 1919, emboldened by his success, Gandhiji launched a nationwide satyagraha against the proposed Rowlatt Act (1919).
The Act was hurriedly passed through the Imperial Legislative Council despite Indian members' opposition.
It gave the government powers to repress political activities and allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years.
Mahatma Gandhi wanted non-violent civil disobedience against such unjust laws, starting with a hartal on April 6.
Rallies were organised, workers went on strike, and shops closed down throughout the country.
Alarmed by the popular upsurge, the British administration clamped down on nationalists.
Local leaders were picked up from Amritsar, and Mahatma Gandhi was barred from entering Delhi.
On April 10, in Amritsar, police fired upon a peaceful procession, provoking attacks on banks, post offices, and railway stations.
Martial law was imposed, and General Dyer took command.
On April 13, the Jallianwalla Bagh incident occurred where a large crowd gathered in an enclosed ground. Dyer blocked the exit points and opened fire, killing hundreds to create a ‘moral effect’ of terror.
As news spread, crowds took to the streets in many north Indian towns, leading to strikes, clashes, and attacks on government buildings.
The government responded with brutal repression, forcing satyagrahis to humiliate themselves (rubbing noses on the ground, crawling on streets) and flogging people.
Seeing violence spread, Mahatma Gandhi called off the movement.
The Rowlatt satyagraha was widespread but mainly limited to cities and towns.
Mahatma Gandhi felt the need to launch a more broad-based movement, requiring Hindu-Muslim unity.
He saw the Khilafat issue as a way to unite Hindus and Muslims. The First World War had ended with the defeat of Ottoman Turkey, and there were rumors of a harsh peace treaty on the Ottoman emperor (the Khalifa).
To defend the Khalifa’s temporal powers, a Khilafat Committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919.
Muslim leaders like the brothers Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali discussed with Mahatma Gandhi about a united mass action.
Gandhiji saw this as an opportunity to bring Muslims under a unified national movement.
At the Calcutta session of the Congress in September 1920, he convinced leaders to start a non-cooperation movement in support of Khilafat as well as for swaraj.

Why Non-Cooperation?

In his book Hind Swaraj (1909), Mahatma Gandhi stated that British rule was established and sustained in India with the cooperation of Indians.
If Indians refused to cooperate, British rule would collapse within a year, and swaraj would come.
Gandhiji proposed that the movement should unfold in stages:
- Surrender of government-awarded titles.
- Boycott of civil services, army, police, courts, legislative councils, schools, and foreign goods.
- A full civil disobedience campaign if the government used repression.
Throughout the summer of 1920, Mahatma Gandhi and Shaukat Ali toured extensively, gathering support for the movement.
Many within the Congress were concerned about the proposals, reluctant to boycott council elections (November 1920) and fearing popular violence.
Between September and December, there was an intense tussle within the Congress.
Finally, at the Congress session at Nagpur in December 1920, a compromise was reached, and the Non-Cooperation programme was adopted.

Differing Strands within the Movement

The Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement began in January 1921.
Various social groups participated with their own specific aspirations, responding to the call of Swaraj, but interpreting the term differently.

The Movement in the Towns

The movement started with middle-class participation in the cities.
Thousands of students left government-controlled schools and colleges, headmasters and teachers resigned, and lawyers gave up legal practices.
Council elections were boycotted in most provinces except Madras, where the Justice Party (of non-Brahmans) sought power through council entry.
The effects of non-cooperation on the economic front were more dramatic.
Foreign goods were boycotted, liquor shops picketed, and foreign cloth burnt in huge bonfires.
The import of foreign cloth halved between 1921 and 1922, dropping from Rs $102$ crore to Rs $57$ crore.
Merchants and traders refused to trade in or finance foreign goods.
As people discarded imported clothes and wore Indian ones, production of Indian textile mills and handlooms increased.
However, the movement in the cities gradually slowed down due to:
- Khadi cloth being more expensive than mass-produced mill cloth, making it unaffordable for poor people.
- Slow establishment of alternative Indian institutions, causing students and teachers to return to government schools and lawyers to rejoin government courts.

Rebellion in the Countryside

The Non-Cooperation Movement spread from the cities to the countryside, drawing in peasant and tribal struggles.
In Awadh, peasants were led by Baba Ramchandra (a sanyasi who had been to Fiji as an indentured labourer).
The movement was against talukdars and landlords who demanded high rents and cesses.
Peasants had to do begar (unpaid labor) and had no security of tenure, being regularly evicted.
The peasant movement demanded reduction of revenue, abolition of begar, and social boycott of oppressive landlords.
Nai-dhobi bandhs (organized by panchayats) deprived landlords of services like barbers and washermen.
In June 1920, Jawaharlal Nehru engaged with villagers in Awadh to understand their grievances.
By October, the Oudh Kisan Sabha was set up, headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba Ramchandra, and others, with over 300 branches within a month.
The Congress aimed to integrate the Awadh peasant struggle into the wider Non-Cooperation Movement.
The peasant movement developed in ways the Congress leadership was unhappy with; houses of talukdars and merchants were attacked, bazaars were looted, and grain hoards were taken over.
Local leaders told peasants that Gandhiji had declared no taxes were to be paid and land would be redistributed among the poor.
The name of the Mahatma was being invoked to sanction all actions.

Tribal Peasants

Tribal peasants interpreted Mahatma Gandhi's message and swaraj differently.
In the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh, a militant guerrilla movement spread in the early 1920s, which the Congress did not approve.
The colonial government had closed large forest areas, preventing people from grazing, collecting fuel, and fruits, affecting their livelihoods and denying traditional rights.
When forced to contribute begar for road building, the hill people revolted, led by Alluri Sitaram Raju, who claimed special powers (astrological predictions, healing, surviving bullet shots).
Captivated by Raju, the rebels proclaimed him an incarnation of God.
Raju spoke of Mahatma Gandhi's greatness, said he was inspired by the Non-Cooperation Movement, and persuaded people to wear khadi and give up drinking.
He asserted that India could be liberated only by force, not non-violence.
The Gudem rebels attacked police stations, attempted to kill British officials, and carried on guerrilla warfare for achieving swaraj.
Raju was captured and executed in 1924.

Swaraj in the Plantations

Workers too had their own understanding of Mahatma Gandhi and the notion of swaraj.
For plantation workers in Assam, freedom meant the right to move freely in and out of the confined space and retaining a link with their villages.
Under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859, plantation workers were not permitted to leave the tea gardens without permission.
Hearing of the Non-Cooperation Movement, thousands of workers defied authorities, left plantations, and headed home, believing Gandhi Raj was coming and everyone would be given land.
Stranded on the way by a railway and steamer strike, they were caught by the police and brutally beaten up.

Conclusion

The visions of these movements were not defined by the Congress programme.
They interpreted swaraj in their own ways, imagining it to be a time when all suffering and troubles would be over.
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 their immediate locality.