Nationalism in India pt1

• Modern nationalism in Europe came to be associated with the formation of nation-states and a change in people's understanding of who they were, and what defined their identity and sense of belonging
• In India, the growth of modern nationalism is intimately connected to the anti-colonial movement
• People began discovering their unity in the process of their struggle with colonialism
• The sense of being oppressed under colonialism provided a shared bond that tied many different groups together
• Each class and group felt the effects of colonialism differently, their experiences were varied, and their notions of freedom were not always the same
• The Congress under Mahatma Gandhi tried to forge these groups together within one movement, but the unity did not emerge without conflict
• The war created a new economic and political situation, leading to a huge increase in defence expenditure, rising prices, forced recruitment in rural areas, famines, and epidemics
• Satyagraha


  The idea of satyagraha emphasised the power of truth and the need to search for truth, suggesting that if the cause was true, if the struggle was against injustice, then physical force was not necessary to fight the oppressor
• Mahatma Gandhi successfully organised satyagraha movements in various places, including Champaran, Kheda, and Ahmedabad
• The Rowlatt Act gave the government enormous powers to repress political activities, and allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years
• Mahatma Gandhi wanted non-violent civil disobedience against the Rowlatt Act, which started with a hartal on 6 April 1919
• The Jallianwalla Bagh incident, where General Dyer opened fire on a crowd, killing hundreds, led to widespread strikes, clashes with the police, and attacks on government buildings
• Mahatma Gandhi called off the Rowlatt satyagraha movement, as he felt the need to launch a more broad-based movement in India, and wanted to bring the Hindus and Muslims closer together
• Mahatma Gandhi proposed that the Non-Cooperation Movement should unfold in stages, starting with the surrender of titles, boycott of civil services, army, police, courts, legislative councils, schools, and foreign goods
• The Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement began in January 1921, with participation from various social groups, each with its own specific aspiration
• The movement started with middle-class participation in the cities, with thousands of students leaving government-controlled schools and colleges, headmasters and teachers resigning, and lawyers giving up their legal practices
• The effects of non-cooperation on the economic front were more dramatic, with foreign goods boycotted, liquor shops picketed, and foreign cloth burnt in huge bonfires
• The movement in the cities gradually slowed down, as Khadi cloth was often more expensive than mass-produced mill cloth, and alternative Indian institutions were slow to come up
• From the cities, the Non-Cooperation Movement spread to the countryside, drawing into its fold the struggles of peasants and tribals against oppressive landlords and moneylenders
• The production of Indian textile mills and handlooms went up, but this movement in the cities gradually slowed down for a variety of reasons
• Khadi cloth was often more expensive than mass-produced mill cloth and poor people could not afford to buy it
• The boycott of British institutions posed a problem as alternative Indian institutions had to be set up for the movement to be successful, but these were slow to come up
• Students and teachers began trickling back to government schools and lawyers joined back work in government courts
• Picket


  A form of demonstration or protest by which people block the entrance to a shop, factory or office
• The Non-Cooperation Movement spread to the countryside and drew into its fold the struggles of peasants and tribals
• Begar


  Labour that villagers were forced to contribute without any payment
• In Awadh, peasants were led by Baba Ramchandra and the movement was against talukdars and landlords who demanded exorbitantly high rents and other cesses
• Peasants had to do begar and work at landlords' farms without any payment, and as tenants they had no security of tenure, being regularly evicted
• The peasant movement demanded reduction of revenue, abolition of begar, and social boycott of oppressive landlords
• In many places nai-dhobi bandhs were organised by panchayats to deprive landlords of the services of even barbers and washermen
• Jawaharlal Nehru began going around the villages in Awadh, talking to the villagers and trying to understand their grievances, and the Oudh Kisan Sabha was set up
• As the peasant movement spread in 1921, the houses of talukdars and merchants were attacked, bazaars were looted, and grain hoards were taken over
• Local leaders told peasants that Gandhiji had declared that no taxes were to be paid and land was to be redistributed among the poor
• In the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh, a militant guerrilla movement spread in the early 1920s, led by Alluri Sitaram Raju
• Raju talked of the greatness of Mahatma Gandhi, said he was inspired by the Non-Cooperation Movement, and persuaded people to wear khadi and give up drinking, but asserted that India could be liberated only by the use of force, not non-violence
• For plantation workers in Assam, freedom meant the right to move freely in and out of the confined space in which they were enclosed, and retaining a link with the village from which they had come
• Under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859, plantation workers were not permitted to leave the tea gardens without permission, and when they heard of the Non-Cooperation Movement, thousands defied the authorities and headed home
• The visions of these movements were not defined by the Congress programme, and they interpreted the term swaraj in their own ways
• When the tribals chanted Gandhiji's name and raised slogans demanding 'Swatantra Bharat', they were also emotionally relating to an all-India agitation
• In February 1922, Mahatma Gandhi decided to withdraw the Non-Cooperation Movement as it was turning violent in many places and satyagrahis needed to be properly trained