Phases of Indian National Movement

Ø Phases of Indian National Movement

1.    Moderate phase (1885-1905)

2.    Extremist Phase (1906-1915)

3.    Gandhian Phase (1915-1947)

 

1. Moderate Phase (1885-1905)

·        The national leader like Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozshah Mehta, W.C. Banerjee, S.N. Banerjea, D.E. Wacha who dominated the congress policies during this period were believers in the “liberalism” & “moderate politics”.

·        They were people who believed in British justice & were loyal to them.

Dadabhai Naoroji:

·        Known as the ‘Grand old man of India’.

·        He became to the first Indian to become a member of the House of common in British.

·        Authored ‘Poverty & Un-British rule in India’ which focused on the economic drain of India because of British policies.

Womesh Chandra Banerjee:

·        First president of INC {Indian National Congress}

·        Lawyer by profession.

·        First Indian to act as standing counsel.

G Subramanya Aiyer:

·        Founded ‘The Hindu newspaper’ where he criticized British imperialism.

·        Also founded ‘Tamil newspaper’ ‘Swadesamitran’.

·        Co-founded the “the Madras Mahajana Sabha”.

Sir Surendranath Banerjee:

·        Also called “Rashtraguru” & “Indian Burke”

·        Founded the “Indian National Association” which later merged with the INC.

·        Cleared the Indian Civil Service but with discharged due to racial discrimination.

·        Founded the newspaper “The Bengalee”.

 

#   Aims & Demands of the Moderates:

   

o   Education of the masses & organizing public opinion, make people aware of the rights.

o   Indian representation in the executive council & in the India Council in London.

o   Reform of the Legislative council.

o   Separation of the executive from judiciary.

o   Decreased land revenue tax.

o   After 1892, raised the slogan “No taxation without representation”.

o   Reduce the expenditure on the army.

o   Abolition of the salt tax & duty of sugar.

o   Holding the ICS exam in India and England allow more Indians to opportunity take part in the administration.

o   Freedom of speech & expression.

o   Development of modern capitalist industry in India.

o   End of economic drain of Indian by the British.

o   Increasing spending on education of Indians.

o   Repelling the Arms Act of 1878.

#    Method of Moderate

o   They believed in peaceful & constitutional method to demand & fulfill those demands.

o   Used petitions, meetings, resolution, pamphlets, memoranda & delegates to voice their demand.

o   This method has been called 3P- Prayer, Petition & Protest.

o   Had complete faith in the British Justice System.

o   Confined to the educated classes only didn’t try to use masses.

o   They aimed only at getting political rights & self-agreement under British dominion.

#    Success of the Moderates:

o   Indian Council act 1892 was the first achievement of the INC.

o   This Act increased the size of the legislative council & also increased the proportion of non-officials in them.

o   There were able to sow the seeds of nationalism in the people.

o   They popularized ideals like democracy, liberty & equality.

o   They exposed many draining economic policies of the British.

o   Leaders like Gopal Krishna Gokhale & MG Ronade were social reforms too & opposed child marriage & imposed widowhood.

 

 

 

 

Indian Council Act 1892

The main provisions of this Act are as follows:

·        Number of additional members in Imperial Legislative Councils & the Provisional Legislative Council was raised. In Imperial Legislative Council, now the governor-general could have 10-16 member’s non-officials (instead of 6-10 previously).

·        Some of these additional members could be indirectly elected.

·        Thus an element of election was introduced for the first time.

·        Budget could be discussed.

·        Question could be asked.

But there were certain limitations of these reforms:

·        The official retained their majority in the council, thus leaving ineffective the non-official voice.

·        The reformed imperial Legislative Council met, during its tenure till 1909, on an average for only thirteen days in a year, & the number of unofficial Indian member’s present was only 5 out of 24.

·        The budget could not be voted upon, nor could any amendments be made to it.

·        Supplementaries could not be asked, nor could answers be discussed.

 

#    Limitations of the Moderates:

o   This phase of national movement excluded the masses & only the educated people participated in it.

o   They didn’t demand complete independence from foreign rule.

o   Drew most of their ideas from western political thinking which further separated them from the people.

o   They didn’t understand the power of mass movement of the people.

 

#    Attitude of the Government:

The government adopted a ‘dived & rule’ policy towards the Congress. The officials encouraged reactionary elements like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan & Raja Shiv Prasad Singh of Benaras to organize the United India Patriotic Association to counter congress propaganda.

The Government also tried to divide the nationalist on the basis of the religion, and through a policy of “carrot & stick”, pitted the Moderate against the Extremists. But the Government failed to check the rising tide of nationalism.

 

2. Extremist Phase (1906-1915)

#    Growth of the Militant Nationalism:

A radical trend of the militant nationalist approach to political activity started emerging in the 1890s & it took a concrete shape by 1905.

 

#    Why Militant Nationalism Grow-

·       Recognition of the true nature of British rule.

·       Growth of the confidence & self-respect.

·       Growth of the Education.

·       International Influences.

·       Reaction to increasing westernization.

·       Dissatisfaction with Achievements of Moderates.

·       Reaction policies of Curzon.

·       Emergence of trained leadership.

1.   Recognition of the true nature of British rule:

o   Having seen that the government was not accept their important demands.

Then more militant among those started looking or a more effective mode of political action.

o   The economic trouble in the 1890s further exposed the exploitative character of colonial rule.

o   Therefore, 90 lakh people killed by famines b/w 1896 & 1900. Bubonic Plague affected large area of the Deccan. There were large-scale riots in the Deecan.

o   The government was taking away even the existing ones-

­   1892   -             the Indian Council act was criticized by the nationalist as it failed to satisfy them.

­   1897 –             the native brothers were departed without trial; and Tilak & others, imprisoned on charge of sedition.

­   1898 –             repressive law under IPC section 124A were further     amplified with new provisions under IPC Section 156A.

­   1899 –             No. of Indian members in Calcutta corporation were reduced.

­   1904 –             official secret Act curbed freedom of press.

­   1904 -              Indian Universities Act ensured greater government control over universities, which it described as factories producing political revolutionaries.

o   It was suppressing the spread of education especially mass & technical education.

 

2.     Growth of Confidence & Self-respect:

·        Tilak, Aurbindo & Bipin Chandra Pal repeatedly request to nationalist to trust on the character & capacities of the Indian people.

·        A feeling started gaining currency that only the masses were capable of making that huge scarifies to win the freedom.

 

3.     Growth of Education:

·        One side the spread of education led to an increased awareness among the masses and the other side, the rise in unemployment & underemployment among the educated drew attention to poverty & underdeveloped state of country`s economic under colonial rule.

·        By this reason the more people towards the more radical nationalist.

 

4.     International Influences:

·        Remarkable progress made by Japan after 1868 & its emergence as an industrial power opened the eyes of Indian to the fact that economic progress was possible without any external help.

·        The defeat of the Italian army by Ethiopians (1896).

·        The Boer wars (1899-1902) against British.

·        Japan victory over Russia (1905).

 

5.     Reaction & Increasing Westernization:

·        The intellectual & moral inspiration of the new leadership was Indian.

·        Intellectual like Swami Vivekananda, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee & Swami Dayananda Saraswati inspired many young nationalists with their forceful & articulate arguments, painting Indian’s past in brighter colors & than the British ideologues had.

·        Dayananda political message was “India for the Indians”

 

6.     Dissatisfaction with achievements of Moderate:

·        The youngest people within the congress were dissatisfied with the achievements of the Moderate, during the first 15-20 years.

·        They were strongly critical of the method of peaceful & constitutional agitation, known as the three ‘P’s – prayer, petition, protest.

           and describe these methods as “political mendicancy”.

7.     Reactionary policies of Curzon

In the Curzon’s seven year’s rule

·        He refused to recognize India as a nation & insulted Indian nationalist & the intelligentsia by describing their activities as “letting off of gas”.

·        Administrative measures adopted during his rule-

­   the official secret Act;

­   the Indian Universities Act;

­   the Calcutta Corporation Act;

­   the partition of Bengal.

·        Left no doubt in Indian minds about the basically reactionary nature of British rule in India.

 

8.     Emergence of trained leadership:

·        This leadership could provide a proper channelization of the immense potential for political struggle which the masses possessed.

·        The Militant nationalist thought were ready to give expression to.

·        This energy of the masses got a release during the movement against the partition of Bengal which acquired the form of swadeshi agitation.

 

Views:

 

“If there is a sin in the world, it is a weakness; avoid all weakness;

weakness is a sin; weakness is a death.”

                                      - Swami Vivekananda.

 

“The Extremist of today will be in the Moderates of tomorrow

Just as the moderates of today were the Extremist of yesterday”.

-         Bal Gangadhar Tilak.