THE MAKING OF NATIONAL MOVEMENT: 1870s – 1947

• The Indian National Congress was founded by Allan Octavian Hume, who invited prominent Indians to attend the first meeting.
• Nationalism is the patriotic feeling of oneness, belongingness and unity among the people of a nation.
• Nationalism arose as a consequence of foreign domination.
• The partition of India into India and Pakistan occurred in 1947.
• The partition of India into India and Pakistan saw the worst communal riots in the history of the world.
• Indians felt themselves as one group and the British as foreigners.
• Peasants, zamindars, artisans, workers, the nawabs all united as they all suffered due to the British policies.
• Before the British arrived in India, the rulers ruled their area, the way they wanted to rule.
• The British unified the system of administration for their own convenience.
• The British introduced equality before law.
• The Brahmins and shudras were given same punishment for the same crime committed.
• The British introduced railways for their profit.
• Indians travelled in railways, they communicated with each other.
• A person suffering in Bengal exchanged ideas with a person suffering in Bombay or Madras.
• British introduced education in India in order to have clerks to run administration smoothly.
• Educated Indians started reading about the ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity (French revolution, unification of Germany), they thought when all this can happen there, then why not here in India.
• The British felt that it will be easy to administer India better if they study Indian history, so they studied the Indian history.
• Scripts of Ashoka, Chandragupta, and Akbar etc were read by both British and Indians.
• Indians felt that the rulers earlier were also Indians, if they could rule such a vast empire, then why cannot they?
• Indians were kept out of the exclusive European clubs and were often not permitted to travel in the same compartment of a train with the British.
• The Arms Act was passed in 1878, disallowing Indians from possessing arms.
• The Vernacular Press Act (1878) was passed to curtail the freedom of the Indian-language (i.e., non-English) press.
• The Ilbert Bill provided for the trial of British or European persons by an Indian judge, and sought equality between British and Indian judges in the country.
• The Indian National Congress was formed in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, a retired English civil servant.
• The Indian National Congress was established when 72 delegates (Dadabhai Naoroji, etc.) attended the first session.
• In the first twenty years of its existence, the Indian National Congress was "moderate" in its objectives and methods and the Congress leaders of this period were called the Moderates.
• The moderates criticized British rule in their speeches and sent representatives to different parts of the country to gather public opinion.
• Famous leaders of the Moderate Phase of the Indian National Congress include Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta, W.C. Bonnerji, Surendranath Banerji, and Romesh Chandra Dutt.
• Many lawyers such as Moti lal Nehru, C.R. Das, C. Rajagopalachari and Asaf Ali gave up their practices and boycotted the assembly elections during the Non Co-operation Movement.
• The Moderates of the Indian National Congress presented their demands to the British in a peaceful manner and had full faith in the British government.
• All the members of the Simon Commission were all English and not a single Indian was included in it, which made the Indians angry.
• Britain did not do anything to reduce the economic distress instead they increased taxes and restricted civil liberties after the war.
• The moderates were largely from the educated members of the upper middle class and believed in getting their demands fulfilled through prayers and petitions.
• The Extremists of the Indian National Congress had no faith in the British and criticized the moderates for their "politics of prayers".
• In 1927, the British Government in England appointed the Simon Commission headed by Lord Simon to decide India’s political future.
• The Extremist Phase of the Indian National Congress was dominated by leaders such as Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Bepin Chandra Pal.
• The government increased taxes on individual incomes and business profits during World War One.
• The Non-Cooperation movement was launched by Gandhi Ji on 1st August 1920 at Nagpur to protest against the Rowlatt act and the wrong done to the people of Punjab (Jallianwala Bagh Massacre and Turkey) and demand Swaraj.
• The history of the Indian National Congress can be divided into two phases: the Moderate Phase and the Extremist Phase.
• The Moderates of the Indian National Congress passed resolutions, petitions, and held meetings.