Factors
for the Rise of Nationalism
a) Memories of 1857
(b) Racial
Discrimination
(c) Repressive as well
as Exploitative Measures against Indians
(d) Role of Press
(e) Invoking India’s
glorious Past
Other
Decisive Factors for the Rise of Nationalism
a)
Memories of 1857
Indian national movement
dates its birth from the 1857 uprising. The outrages committed by the British
army after putting down the revolt remained “un-avenged”. Even the
court-martial law and formalities were not observed. Officers who sat on the
court martial swore that they would hang their prisoners, guilty or innocent
and, if any dared to raise his voice against such indiscriminate vengeance, he
was silenced by his angry colleagues. Persons condemned to death after the
mockery of a trial were often tortured by soldiers before their execution,
while the officers looked on approvingly. It is worth recalling what
Elphinstone, Governor of Bombay Presidency, wrote to Sir John Lawrence, future
Viceroy of India (1864) about the British siege of Delhi during June-September,
1857: ‘...A wholesale vengeance is being taken without distinction of friend or
foe. As regards the looting, we have indeed surpassed Nadirshah.’
(b)
Racial Discrimination
The English followed a
policy of racial discrimination. The systematic exclusion of the Indians from
higher official positions came to be looked upon as an anti-Indian policy
measure and the resultant discontent of the Indian upper classes led the Indians
to revolt against the British rule. When civil service examinations were
introduced the age limit was fixed at twenty one. When Indians were making it,
with a view to debarring the Indians from entering the civil services, the age
limit was reduced to nineteen. Similarly, despite requests from Indian educated
middle class to hold the civil service examinations simultaneously in India,
the Imperial government refused to concede the request.
(c)
Repressive as well as Exploitative Measures against Indians
Repressive regulations
like Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (1870), punishing attempts to excite
disaffection towards the Government, and the Vernacular Press Act (1878),
censoring the press, evoked protest. Abolition of custom duty on cotton manufactures
imported from England and levy of excise duty on cotton fabrics manufactured in
India created nationwide discontent. During the viceroyalty of Ripon the Indian
judges were empowered through the Ilbert Bill to try Europeans. But in the face
of resistance from the Europeans the bill was amended to suit the European
interests.
(d)
Role of Press
The introduction of
printing press in India was an event of great significance. It helped people to
spread, modern ideas of self-government, democracy, civil rights and
industrialisation. The press became the critic of politics. It addressed the
people on several issues affecting the country. Raja Rammohan Roy’s Sambad
Kaumudi (1821) in Bengali and Mirat-Ul-Akbar (1822) in Persian played a
progressive role in educating the people on issues of public importance. Later
on a number of nationalist and vernacular news papers came to be launched to
build public opinion and they did yeomen service in fostering nationalist
consciousness. Among them Amrit Bazaar Patrika, The Bombay Chronicle, The
Tribune, The Indian Mirror, The Hindu and Swadesamitran were prominent.
(e)
Invoking India’s glorious Past
Orientalists like
William Jones, Charles Wilkins and Max Muller explored and translated
religious, historical and literary texts from Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic into
English and made them available to all. Influenced by the richness of Indian
traditions and scholarship, many of the early nationalists made a fervent plea
to revive the pristine glory of India. Aurobindo Ghose would write, ‘The
mission of Nationalism, in our view, is to recover Indian thought, Indian
character, Indian perceptions, Indian energy, Indian greatness and to solve the
problems that perplex the world in an Indian spirit and from the Indian
standpoint.’
Birth
of Indian Associations
(a) Madras Native
Association
(b) Madras Mahajana
Sabha (MMS)
(c) Indian National
Congress (INC)
(d) Contributions of
Early Nationalists (1885–1915)
Birth
of Indian Associations
(a)
Madras Native Association
One of the first
attempts to organise and vent the grievances against the British came through
the formation of the Madras Native Association (MNA) on 26 February 1852.
An association of landed
and business classes of the Madras Presidency, they expressed their grievances
against the Company’s administration in the revenue, education and judicial
spheres. Gajula Lakshminarasu, who inspired the foundation of MNA, was a prominent
businessman in Madras city.
The Association
presented its grievances before British Parliament when it was discussing the
East India Company’s rule in India before the passing of the Charter in 1853.
In a petition submitted in December 1852, the MNA pointed out that the ryotwari
and zamindari systems had thrown agricultural classes into deep distress. It
urged the revival of the ancient village system to free the peasantry from the
oppressive interference of the zamindars and the Company officials. The
petition also made a complaint about the judicial system which was slow,
complicated and imperfect. It pointed out that the appointment of judges
without assessing their judicial knowledge and competence in the local
languages affected the efficiency of the judiciary. The diversion of state
funds to missionary schools, under the grants-in-aid system, was also objected
to in the petition.
The MNA petition was
discussed in the Parliament in March 1853. H. D. Seymour, Chairman of the
Indian Reform Society, came to Madras in October 1853. He visited places like
Guntur, Cuddalore, Tiruchirappalli, Salem and Tirunelveli. However, as the
Charter Act of 1853 allowed British East India Company to continue its rule in
India, the MNA organised an agitation for the transfer of British territories
in India to the direct control of the Crown. MNA sent its second petition to
British Parliament, signed by fourteen thousand individuals, pleading the
termination of Company rule in India.
The life of MNA was
short. Lakshminarasu died in 1866 and by 1881, the association ceased to exist.
Though the MNA did not achieve much in terms of reforms, it was the beginning
of organised effort to articulate Indian opinion. In its lifetime, the MNA
operated within the boundaries of Madras Presidency. The grievances that the
MNA raised through its petitions and the agitations it launched were from the
point of view of the elite, particularly the landed gentry of Madras
Presidency. What was lacking was a national political organisation representing
every section of the society, an organisation that would raise the grievances
and agitate against the colonial power for their redress. The Indian National
Congress filled this void.
(b)
Madras Mahajana Sabha (MMS)
After the Madras Native
Association became defunct there was no such public organisation in the Madras
Presidency. As many educated Indians viewed this situation with dismay, the
necessity for a political organisation was felt and in May 1884 the Madras
Mahajana Sabha was organised. In the inaugural meeting held on 16 May 1884 the
prominent participants were: G. Subramaniam, Viraraghavachari, Ananda Charlu,
Rangiah, Balaji Rao and Salem Ramaswamy. With the launch of the Indian National
Congress, after the completion of the second provincial conference of Madras
Mahajana Sabha, the leaders after attending the first session of the Indian
National Congress (INC) in Bombay amalgamated the MMS with the INC.
(c)
Indian National Congress (INC)
The idea of forming a
political organisation that would raise issues and grievances against the
colonial rule did not emerge in a vacuum. Between 1875 and 1885 there were many
agitations against British policies in India. The Indian textile industry was
campaigning for imposition of cotton import duties in 1875. In 1877, demands
for the Indianisation of Government services were made vociferously. There were
protests against the Vernacular Press Act of 1878. In 1883, there was an
agitation in favour of the Ilbert Bill.
But these agitations and
protests were sporadic and not coordinated. There was a strong realisation that
these protests would not impact on the policy makers unless a national
political organisation was formed. From this realisation was born the Indian
National Congress. The concept of India as a nation was reflected in the name
of the organisation. It also introduced the concept of nationalism.
In December 1884, Allan
Octavian Hume, a retired English ICS officer, presided over a meeting of the
Theosophical Society in Madras. The formation of a political organisation that
would work on an all India basis was discussed and the idea of forming the
Indian National Congress emerged in this meeting. The Indian National Congress
was formed on 28 December 1885 in Bombay. Apart from A.O Hume, another
important founding member was W C. Bonnerjee, who was elected the first
president.
Though the activities of
the INC then revolved around petitions and memoranda, from the very beginning
the founders of the INC worked to bring every section of the society into its
ambit. One of the main missions of the INC was to weld the Indians into a
nation. They were convinced that the struggle against the colonial rule will be
successful only if Indians saw themselves as the members of a nation. To
achieve this, the INC acted as a common political platform for all the
movements that were being organised in different parts of the country. The INC
provided the space where the political workers from different parts of the
country could gather and conduct their political activities under its banner.
Even though the organization was small with less than a hundred members, it had
an all-India character with representation from all regions of India. It was
the beginning of the mobilisation of people on an all-India basis.
Constitutional
Opportunity for
participation in the government was one of the major demands of the Indian
National Congress. It demanded Indian representation in the government.
Economic
High land revenue was
one of the major factors that contributed to the oppression of the peasants. It
demanded reduction in the land revenue and protection of peasants against
exploitation of the zamindars. The Congress also advocated the imposition of
heavy tax on the imported goods for the benefit of swadeshi goods.
Administrative
Higher officials who had
responsibility of administration in India were selected through civil services
examinations conducted in Britain. This meant that educated Indians who could
not afford to go to London had no opportunity to get high administrative jobs.
Therefore, Indianisation of services through simultaneous Indian Civil Services
Examinations in England and India was a major demand of the Congress.
Because of the partial
treatment against the Indian political activists by English judges it demanded
the complete separation of the Executive and the Judiciary.
(d)
Contributions of Early Nationalists (1885–1915)
The early nationalists
in the INC came from the elite sections of the society. Lawyers, college and
university teachers, doctors, journalists and such others represented the
Congress. However, they came from different regions of the country and this
made INC a truly a national political organisation. These leaders of the INC
adopted the constitutional methods of presenting petitions, prayers and
memorandums and thereby earned the moniker of “Moderates”. It was also the time
some sort of an understanding about colonialism was evolving in India. There
was no ready-made anti-colonial understanding available for reference in the
late nineteenth century when the INC was formed. It was the early nationalists
who helped the formulation of the idea of we as a nation. They were developing
the indigenous anti-colonial ideology and a strategy on their own which helped
future mass leaders like M. K Gandhi.
From the late 1890s
there were growing differences within the INC. Leaders like Bipin Chandra Pal,
Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai were advocating radical approaches
instead of merely writing petitions, prayers and memorandums. These advocates
of radical methods came to be called the “extremists” as against those who were
identified as moderates. Their objective became clear in 1897 when Tilak raised
the clarion call “Swaraj is my birth right and I shall have it”. Tilak and his
militant followers were now requesting Swaraj instead of economic or
administrative reforms that the moderates were requesting through their
petitions and prayers.
Though they criticised
each other, it would be wrong to place them in the opposing poles. Both
moderates and militants, with their own methods, were significant elements of
the larger Indian nationalist movement. In fact, they contributed towards the
making of the swadeshi movement. The partition of Bengal in 1905, by the
colonial government, which you will be studying in the next lesson, was
vehemently opposed by the Indians. The swadeshi movement of 1905, directly
opposed the British rule and encouraged the ideas of swadeshi enterprise,
national education, self-help and use of Indian languages. The method of mass
mobilisation and boycott of British goods and institutions suggested by the
radicals was also accepted by the Moderates.
Both the Moderates and
the Radicalswere of the same view when it came to accepting the fact that they
needed to fulfil the role of educators. They tried to instil nationalist
consciousness through various means including the press. When the INC was
founded in 1885, one-third of the members were journalists. Most stalwarts of
the early freedom movement were involved in journalism. Dadabhai Naoroji
founded and edited two journals called Voice of India and RastGoftar.
Surendranath Banerjea edited the newspaper called Bengalee. Bal Gangadhar Tilak
edited Kesari and Mahratta. This is the means that they used to educate the
common people about the colonial oppression and spread nationalist ideas. News
regarding the initiatives taken by the INC were taken to the masses through
these newspapers. For the first time, in the history of India, the press was
used to generate public opinion against the oppressive policies and acts of the
colonial government.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak was
a firm believer that the lower middle classes, peasants, artisans and workers
could play a very important role in the national movement, He used his
newspapers to articulate the discontent among this section of the people
against the oppressive colonial rule. He called for national resistance against
imperial British rule in India. On 27 July 1897, Tilak was arrested and charged
under Section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code. Civil liberty, particularly in
the form of freedom of expression and press became the significant part of
Indian freedom struggle.