Chapter Info (Click Here)
Book No. – 19 (Sociology)
Book Name – Social Background of Indian Nationalism (A.R. Desai)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. Political Nationalism, Outcome of Foreign Domination
2. First Sproutings
3. Revolt of 1857, its Causes
4. Character and Significance of the Revolt
5. New Strategy of the British Rule
6. Its Consequences
7. Principal Events between 1857 and 1885
8. Disastrous Famines and Peasant Uprisings
9. Ilbert Bill
10. Growing Discontent and New Leadership
11. Hume’s Views about a “Safety Valve”
12. Other Historians Share the View
13. Founding of Indian National Congress
14. Liberal Leadership, its Principles and Methods
15. The Progressive Role of the Liberal Leadership
16. Unfulfilled Demands
17. Growing Disillusionment
18. Emergence of Militant Nationalist Leadership
19. “Swadeshi and Boycott”
20. Jawaharlal Nehru on Militant Nationalism
21. Militant Nationalists, their Chief Activities
22. Congress Split in 1907
23. Morley-Minto Reforms and After
24. Rise of Terrorist and Revolutionary Movements
25. Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms
26. Jallianwalla Bagh Tragedy
27. Epoch of Gandhi and Gandhism
28. N.C.O. Movement
29. Withdrawal of N.C.O. Movement, its Results
30. Formation of Swaraj Party
31. Growth of Communal Tensions
32. Growth of Socialist and Communist Ideas
33. From Boycott of Simon Commission to Lahore Congress
34. Complete Independence, Declared Objective
35. Civil Disobedience Movement
36. Gandhi-Irwin Pact
37. Revival of C. D. Movement
38. Lessons of C. D. Movement
39. Limitations of Gandhi and Gandhism
40. Rise of Radical Organizations
41. Congress Ministries in Provinces
42. Rift between Gandhi and Subhas Bose
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Rise of Political Movements as the Expression of Indian Nationalism
Chapter – 18
Political Nationalism, Outcome of Foreign Domination
- The British conquest of India was driven by the desire to safeguard and develop British interests.
- This led to conflict between British rule and the Indian people as their interests clashed.
- Political nationalism emerged as a result of this conflict, giving rise to various political movements in India.
- These movements aimed at increasing Indian participation in political power, with goals such as Dominion Status, Home Rule, and eventually Independence.
- The political movements reflected the Indian people’s efforts to secure political power to serve their social, economic, and other interests.
- The industrial bourgeoisie saw British control as an obstacle to their industrial development.
- The educated classes were hindered by the British monopoly on key government positions, preventing them from securing jobs.
- The peasantry suffered from the new land and revenue systems introduced by the British, which caused their progressive impoverishment.
- The proletariat viewed British rule as a foreign undemocratic agency that hindered the development of class struggles and improvement of labour conditions.
- The Indian people, as a whole, recognized British rule as an alien rule that blocked their social, economic, and cultural development.
- They also sought political power to end race discrimination and address the negative impact of British policies in dominions and colonies such as South Africa, Kenya, Malaya, and Ceylon.
- National sentiment naturally arose among people ruled by a foreign nation as their development was stunted by such rule.
First Sproutings
- Indian nationalism began to emerge in the early 19th century, though it became an organized movement only in the last decade of the century.
- The Brahmo Samaj (1828) was a religious manifestation of rising national awakening among the Hindu intelligentsia, who were influenced by modern education and western democratic ideologies introduced by the British.
- Secular political organizations like the British India Society (1843) and the British Indian Association (1851) formed during this early period.
- These early political groups represented the first feeble beginnings of Indian political nationalism but were composed of a few individuals and lacked a popular basis.
- These groups could not operate on an all-India scale as British control of India was only fully established later.
- Indian nationalism as an organized, all-India movement emerged only in the last decades of the 19th century when historical conditions matured.
- The Revolt of 1857 was a significant attempt by the old social classes, which were being expropriated politically and economically due to the British conquest, to drive out the British and return to pre-British social and political systems.
Revolt of 1857, its Causes
- The Revolt of 1857 was a result of accumulated discontent among various sections of old Indian society due to British political conquest, economic changes, and social innovations introduced by the British.
- The revolt should not be seen as a mere mutiny of sepoys but as a broader social rebellion against British rule.
- Dr. Duff emphasized that the revolt was not just a military mutiny but a rebellion involving vast populations beyond the army.
- Lord Dalhousie’s annexationist policy led to the liquidation of Indian feudal states and the heavy pressure of the new land revenue system caused economic misery for the Indian peasantry.
- The influx of machine-made British goods led to the ruination of millions of Indian artisans and handicraftsmen.
- Expropriated feudal chiefs led the revolt to recover lost territories, while unexpropriated princes joined in due to the fear of expropriation.
- Workers on indigo and other plantations also revolted due to their miserable living and working conditions under British employers.
- Excessive Christian missionary activity raised suspicion that the British aimed to convert all Indians to Christianity.
- Pundits and maulvis, whose authority was weakened by British reforms like the secular legal system, abolition of suttee, and modern education, often fueled these suspicions.
- Progressive measures like railways and the telegraph system were viewed suspiciously as methods to bind India in “iron chains” by the British.
- The revolt was essentially led by the old Indian society, threatened by British political and economic domination.
- The British suppressed the revolt using ruthless methods.
- The failure of the revolt was due to several factors:
- Lack of unity among the insurgents.
- No uniform military strategy or coordination.
- The revolt was not universal, and lacked effective leadership.
- Class conflicts emerged, such as those between zemindars, feudal princes, and cultivating farmers.
- British efforts to divide the insurgent groups, such as granting privileges to larger farmers and introducing laws to buy and sell peasant lands.
- The British discontinued annexation and subordinated peasants to landlords, supporting the latter’s demands for compulsory labor.