Monday, November 4, 2019

Was it a safety valve thesis?




Ques. The 'Safety valve thesis' doesn`t adequately explain the birth of the INC in 1885?  
(UPSC 2014, Mains – History 2nd)

Answer:
             
o   Many historians said that the `safety valve thesis` was a conspiracy theory relating to the birth of the congress.
o   The thesis originated from the William Wedderburn`s biography of Hume published in 1913.
o   Wedderburn`s wrote that in 1878 that Hume had come across “the seven volumes of secret reports at Shimla which showed that there had been seething discontent among the lower classes and a conspiracy to overthrow the British rule by force”.
o   He met Lord Dufferin and together they decided to established an organization with educated Indians.
o   This would “serve as safety valve by opening up a line of communication between the rulers & the ruled, and would thus prevent a mass revolution”.
o This safety valve theory was believed by the earlier Nationalist historians; the Imperialist historians used it to discredit Congress, the Marxist historians developed a conspiracy theory from this.




o   The Safety-Valve thesis doesn`t explain the birth of INC due to the following reasons:

ü First of all those seven volumes of secret reports have not been traced in any of place in India either in London. Whether in the 1870`s many of the secret documents were existed by the British informative system.
ü Hume was the secretary of the Department of Revenue, Agriculture & Commerce. How he gets access to the Home Department files or secret document?
Also, he was in Shimla while Home Department files were kept in Delhi; they were not sent to Shimla.
ü If congress was founded out of the fear of an outbreak, then why did Hume & British officialdom wait for seven years?
(report in 1878 & congress established in 1885)
ü Wedderburn writes that a warning of the threatened danger came to Hume from a religious Guru of Tibet & the evidence of the seven volumes was shown to the Hume by the Gurus.
Though Hume was the student of Eastern religious & impressed by Gurus, why should Hume believe that these reports must be necessarily be true?
ü Dufferin was not sympathetic to the congress. It was not only in 1888 that Dufferin attacked the congress in vicious manner by writing that we cannot allow the congress to continue to exist.
Dufferin openly castigates congress for its dubious motives.

INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS



-: INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS: -



Ø Foundation of Indian National Congress:

·       In the later 1870`s and early 1880`s, a solid ground has been prepared for the establishment of an all- Indian organization.
·       The final shape to this idea was given by
·       Surendranath Banerjee & Ananda Mohan Bose were the main architect of the
·       The first session of the INC in 1885 was attended by the 72 delegates (representative) & presided (leader) over by

·       Some of the great president of the INC: -
                                                       i.            DADABHAI NAROJI (THRICE PRESIDENT)
                                                    ii.            BADRUDDIN TYABJI
                                                 iii.            PHEROZSHAH MEHTA
                                                 iv.            P. ANANDACHARLU
                                                    v.            SURENDRANATH BANERJEE’
                                                 vi.            ROMESH CHANDRA DUTT
                                              vii.            ANANDA MOHAN BOSE
                                           viii.            GOPAL KRISHNA GOKHALE


·       Other prominent leaders included: -

                                                       i.            Mahadeo Govind Ranade
                                                    ii.            Bal Gangadhar Tilak
                                                 iii.            Sisir Kumar Ghosh
                                                 iv.            Motilal Ghosh
                                                    v.            Madan Mohan Malaviya
                                                 vi.            G. Subramaniya Aiyar
                                              vii.            C. Vijayaraghavacharia
                                           viii.            Dinshaw E. Wacha.

·       In 1890,
·       A part from the Indian National Congress, nationalist activity was carried out through provincial conferences & association, newspaper & literature.


Ø Main objective of INC: -

·       A pan India Organization
                                       

·       Politicize & politically educate people
                                         
To this end congress focused on demanding increasing representative in councils, Indianization of civil service etc.

·       Anti- Colonialism: -
                                 

·       Promote Nationalism: -
                                

·       Forward looking political & economic program: 
                                Formulate & present popular demands before the government with a view to collect the people over a common economic & political program



Ø Was It a Safety Valve?
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