Nationalism in India Remaining Notes

Towards Civil Disobedience
1.In February 1922, the Non-Cooperation Movement was withdrawn because

Mahatma Gandhi felt that it was turning violent.
2. Some of the leaders wanted to participate in elections to the provincial councils.
Swaraj Party was formed by CR Das and Motilal Nehru.
3. In the late 1920s Indian politics again shaped because of two factors. The first effect
was the worldwide economic depression and the second effect was the falling
agricultural prices.
Simon Commission
The Statutory Commission was set up to look into the functioning of the constitutional
system in India and suggest changes. The problem was that the commission did not
have single Indian members. They were all British
In 1928, Simon Commission arrived in India and it was greeted by the slogan ‘Go back
Simon’. All parties including the congress and the Muslim league , participated in the
demonstration.
In December 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Lahore Congress
formalised the demand of ‘Purna Swaraj’ or full independence for India. It was declared
that 26 January 1930 would be celebrated as Independence Day.
The Salt March and the Civil Disobedience Movement
1.On 31 January 1930, Mahatma Gandhi sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin stating eleven
demands.
2. Among the demands, the most stirring of all was the demand to abolish the salt tax
which is consumed by the rich and the poor. The demands needed to be fulfilled by 11
March or else Congress would start a civil disobedience campaign.
4.The famous salt march was started by Mahatma Gandhi accompanied by 78 of his
trusted volunteers. The march was over 240 miles, from Gandhiji’s ashram in Sabarmati
to the Gujarati coastal town of Dandi.
5. On 6 April he reached Dandi, and ceremonially violated the law, manufacturing salt
by boiling seawater. This marked the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
6. The movement spread across the world and salt law was broken in different parts of
the country. Foreign cloth was boycotted, peasants refused to pay revenue and in many
places, forest law was violated.
7. In April 1930, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a devout disciple of Mahatma Gandhi was
arrested. Mahatma Gandhi was arrested a month later which led to attacks to all
structures that symbolised British rule.
8. By witnessing the horrific situation, Mahatma Gandhi decided to call off the
movement and entered into a pact with Irwin on 5 March 1931.
9. Gandhi-Irwin Pact, Gandhiji consented to participate in a Round Table Conference in
London. When the conference broke down, Mahatma Gandhi returned to India
disappointed and relaunched the Civil Disobedience Movement. It continued for almost
a year, but by 1934 it lost its momentum.
How Participants saw the Movement
1. The Patidars of Gujarat and the Jats of Uttar Pradesh were active in the movement.
They became enthusiastic supporters of the Civil Disobedience Movement. But they
were deeply disappointed when the movement was called off in 1931. So when the
movement was restarted in 1932, many of them refused to participate. The poorer
peasants joined a variety of radical movements, often led by Socialists and Communists.
2. To organise business interests, the Indian Industrial and Commercial Congress in
1920 and the Federation of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) in
1927 was formed. The industrialists attacked colonial control over the Indian economy
and supported the Civil Disobedience Movement when it was first launched. Some of
the industrial workers did participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement. In 1930 and
1932 railway workers and dock workers were on strike.
3. Another important feature of the Civil Disobedience Movement was the large-scale
participation of women. But, for a long time, Congress was reluctant to allow women to
hold any position of authority within the organisation.
The Limits of Civil Disobedience
1. Dalits, addressed as untouchables were not moved by the concept of Swaraj.
Mahatma Gandhi used to call them harijans or the children of God, without whom
swaraj could not be achieved. He organised satyagraha for the untouchables but they
were keen on a different political solution to the problems of the community. They
demanded reserved seats in educational institutions and a separate electorate.
2. Dr B.R. Ambedkar, who organised the Dalits into the Depressed Classes Association
in 1930, clashed with Mahatma Gandhi at the second Round Table Conference by
demanding separate electorates for Dalits. The Poona Pact of September 1932, gave
the Depressed Classes (later to be known as the Scheduled Castes) reserved seats in
provincial and central legislative councils.
3. After the decline of the Non-Cooperation-Khilafat movement, Muslims felt alienated
from the Congress due to which the relations between Hindus and Muslims worsened.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah was willing to give up the demand for separate electorates if
Muslims were assured reserved seats in the Central Assembly and representation in
proportion to population in the Muslim-dominated provinces. Nevertheless, the hope of
resolving the issue at the All Parties Conference in 1928 disappeared when M.R.
Jayakar of the Hindu Mahasabha strongly opposed efforts at compromise.
The Sense of Collective Belonging
1. Nationalism spreads when people begin to believe that they are all part of the same
nation. History and fiction, folklore and songs, popular prints and symbols, all played a
part in the making of nationalism.
2. Finally, in the twentieth century, the identity of India came to be visually associated
with the image of Bharat Mata. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay created the image and
in the 1870s he wrote ‘Vande Mataram’ as a hymn to the motherland.
3. Abanindranath Tagore painted his famous image of Bharat Mata portrayed as an
ascetic figure; she is calm, composed, divine and spiritual. In late-nineteenth-century
India, nationalists began recording folk tales sung by bards and they toured villages to
gather folk songs and legends.
4. During the Swadeshi movement in Bengal, a tricolour flag (red, green and yellow)
was designed which had eight lotuses representing eight provinces of British India, and
a crescent moon, representing Hindus and Muslims.
5. By 1921, Gandhiji designed the Swaraj flag, a tricolour (red, green and white) and
had a spinning wheel in the centre, representing the Gandhian ideal of self-help.
Conclusion
In the first half of the twentieth century, various groups and classes of Indians came
together for the struggle of independence. The Congress under the leadership of
Mahatma Gandhi attempted to resolve differences and ensure that the demands of one
group did not alienate another. In other words, what was emerging was a nation with
many voices wanting freedom from colonial rule.

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Towards Civil Disobedience

1.In February 1922, the Non-Cooperation Movement was withdrawn because

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