Nationalism in India

1. Chapter Overview & Key Ideas

Modern nationalism in India developed closely with the struggle against colonial rule. Different groups experienced colonialism differently, so the meaning of freedom and Swaraj was not identical for everyone.

Learning Objectives

• Explain how the First World War changed India's economic and political situation.
• Understand Gandhiji's idea of Satyagraha.
• Trace the Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience Movements.
• Explain why different social groups joined the national movement and why their participation differed.
• Understand the importance of the Salt March.
• Explain the role of women and the limitations of their political participation.
• Describe how symbols, folklore, history and images created collective belonging.

2. The First World War and Its Effects on India

The First World War created a new economic and political situation in India and intensified popular hardship.

• Defence expenditure increased and the government financed it through war loans and higher taxes.
• Customs duties were raised and income tax was introduced.
• Prices rose sharply: the chapter notes that prices roughly doubled between 1913 and 1918.
• Forced recruitment: villages were asked to supply soldiers, creating anger in rural areas.
• Crop failures: crops failed in many parts of India in 1918–19 and 1920–21.
• Food shortages became severe.
• An influenza epidemic added to the suffering.
• The combined hardships created conditions in which anti-colonial politics could reach wider sections of society.

3. The Idea of Satyagraha

Satyagraha was Gandhiji's method of non-violent mass struggle, developed through his experience in South Africa and later applied in India.

Main Principles

• Truth: the struggle should be based on a just cause.
• Non-violence: physical force should not be used against the opponent.
• Appeal to conscience: the satyagrahi tried to persuade the opponent to recognise the truth rather than defeat the opponent through violence.
• No vengeance: the objective was not revenge or hatred.
• Self-suffering: the willingness to endure suffering was considered a source of moral strength.
• Gandhiji believed that non-violence could help unite Indians across social divisions.

Early Satyagraha Movements in India

4. Rowlatt Act, 1919 and Jallianwala Bagh

Rowlatt Act

• Passed in 1919 despite united opposition from Indian members of the Imperial Legislative Council.
• Gave the government extensive powers to repress political activities.
• Allowed political prisoners to be detained without trial for up to two years.
• Gandhiji called for non-violent civil disobedience against this legislation.
• A nationwide hartal was planned for 6 April 1919.

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

• On 13 April 1919, a large crowd gathered at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar.
• General Dyer ordered troops to fire on the crowd.
• The massacre shocked the country and intensified anger against colonial rule.
• Gandhiji withdrew the Rowlatt Satyagraha after violence spread in some places because he did not want the movement to continue through violence.

5. Khilafat and the Beginning of Non-Cooperation

What Was the Khilafat Issue?

• The First World War ended with the defeat of Ottoman Turkey.
• Many Muslims were concerned about the future of the Khalifa, regarded by many as the spiritual head of the Islamic world.
• A Khilafat Committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919.
• Muslim leaders including Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali discussed united action with Gandhiji.
• Gandhiji saw cooperation on the Khilafat issue as an opportunity to bring Hindus and Muslims together in a broader national movement.

Congress and Non-Cooperation

• At the Calcutta Congress session in September 1920, Gandhiji persuaded Congress leaders to support a Non-Cooperation programme.
• At the Nagpur Congress session in December 1920, the programme was formally adopted after debate and compromise.
• The Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement began in January 1921.

6. Why Non-Cooperation?

Gandhiji argued in Hind Swaraj (1909) that British rule depended on Indian cooperation. If Indians refused to cooperate, colonial rule would become difficult to sustain.

Proposed Programme

1. Surrender government-awarded titles.
2. Boycott civil services, army and police.
3. Boycott courts and legislative councils.
4. Boycott government-controlled schools and colleges.
5. Boycott foreign goods.
6. If repression continued, move towards wider civil disobedience.

7. The Movement in the Towns

• Students left government-controlled schools and colleges.
• Some headmasters and teachers resigned.
• Lawyers gave up legal practices.
• Council elections were boycotted in most provinces, with an important exception in Madras.
• Foreign cloth was boycotted and burnt in bonfires.
• Liquor shops were picketed.
• Merchants and traders in many places refused to trade in foreign goods or finance foreign trade.
• Imports of foreign cloth fell substantially between 1921 and 1922.
• Indian textile mills and handlooms gained from the boycott.

Why Did Urban Participation Slow Down?

• Khadi was often more expensive than mass-produced mill cloth.
• Poor people found sustained boycott difficult.
• Alternative Indian institutions did not develop quickly enough to replace government schools, colleges and courts.

8. Peasant Participation

Awadh Peasants

• Peasant movement in Awadh was led by Baba Ramchandra.
• Peasants were against high rents and a variety of cesses.
• They demanded reduction of revenue, abolition of begar and social boycott of oppressive landlords.
• In some areas, the movement developed into a wider struggle against talukdars and landlords.
• Peasants interpreted Swaraj through their own immediate concerns about rent, land and social oppression.

Tribal and Peasant Movements in Other Regions

The national movement did not have a single meaning for all rural communities. Local grievances shaped participation and sometimes produced forms of action that did not exactly match Congress programmes.

9. Tribal Participation

• In the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh, tribal peasants rebelled against restrictions imposed by colonial forest laws.
• Forest laws affected traditional access to forests and disrupted customary practices.
• People were also angered by forced labour and other forms of colonial interference.
• Alluri Sitaram Raju emerged as a leader of the Gudem rebellion.
• Raju spoke of Gandhiji and persuaded people to wear khadi and give up drinking, but he also supported armed resistance in the local struggle.

10. Plantation Workers

• Plantation workers in Assam were restricted by the Inland Emigration Act of 1859 from leaving tea gardens without permission.
• When they heard about the Non-Cooperation Movement, many workers believed Swaraj would mean freedom to move and return to their villages.
• They left the plantations in large numbers, but railway and steamer disruptions prevented many from reaching their destinations.
• Police eventually caught and beat them.

11. Chauri Chaura and Withdrawal of Non-Cooperation

• In February 1922, a group of protesters in Chauri Chaura attacked and set fire to a police station.
• Police personnel were killed.
• Gandhiji believed that the movement had not yet developed enough discipline in non-violence.
• He therefore decided to withdraw the Non-Cooperation Movement.

12. Towards Civil Disobedience

• After the withdrawal of Non-Cooperation, political activity continued in new forms.
• The Simon Commission arrived in India in 1928 and was opposed because it had no Indian member.
• People protested with the slogan “Simon Go Back”.
• The Lahore Congress, December 1929, under Jawaharlal Nehru's presidency, formalised the demand for Purna Swaraj.
• 26 January 1930 was observed as Independence Day.
• Gandhiji then chose salt as the central issue for launching a new mass movement.

13. Salt March and Civil Disobedience Movement

Why Salt?

• Salt was consumed by rich and poor alike.
• The colonial government imposed a tax on salt and controlled its production.
• Salt therefore provided a simple issue that could unite people across economic divisions.

The Dandi March

• Gandhiji began the march from Sabarmati Ashram on 12 March 1930.
• He walked with 78 volunteers towards Dandi.
• On 6 April 1930, he violated the salt law by manufacturing salt.
• The event marked the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Forms of Civil Disobedience

• People broke salt laws.
• Manufactured salt and demonstrated at salt works.
• Boycotted foreign cloth.
• Picketed liquor shops.
• Peasants refused to pay revenue and chaukidari taxes in some areas.
• Village officials resigned in some places.
• Forest people violated forest laws in certain regions.

14. Differing Strands within Civil Disobedience

Rich Peasant Communities

• Rich peasant communities such as the Patidars of Gujarat and Jats of Uttar Pradesh were active supporters.
• They were producers of commercial crops and were affected by falling prices and revenue burdens.
• They supported the movement because they wanted revenue reductions.
• When the movement was suspended, some felt disappointed.

Business Classes

• Indian industrialists and merchants often supported the movement initially.
• They wanted protection from imports and policies favourable to Indian business.
• They formed organisations such as the Indian Industrial and Commercial Congress and FICCI.
• Later, concerns about prolonged disruption and radical mobilisation made their support more cautious.

Workers

• Workers participated selectively in some areas.
• Industrial workers joined strikes and movements in particular places.
• Congress was cautious about incorporating radical working-class demands into the main nationalist programme.

15. Role of Women in the National Movement

• Women participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement in large numbers.
• They participated in marches, manufactured salt, picketed shops selling foreign cloth and liquor, and sometimes courted arrest.
• Many women came from high-caste families in urban areas, but participation also spread more widely.
• Kamala Nehru and many other women became visible participants.
• Women began to see national service and public action as an important part of their lives.

Limitations

• Congress did not always support women's political demands as a separate programme.
• Women's participation was often interpreted through traditional ideas of sacrifice and motherhood.
• Therefore, mass participation did not automatically produce equal political rights in every sphere.

16. Business Classes and Nationalism

• Indian merchants and industrialists wanted protection from foreign imports and policies supporting Indian enterprise.
• Many supported the Civil Disobedience Movement at first.
• They gave financial assistance and sometimes refused to trade in imported goods.
• They were concerned that prolonged disruption could harm business.
• Their support therefore had limits and changed with circumstances.

17. Muslim Participation and the Question of Separate Electorates

• The early 1920s saw cooperation between Congress and Khilafat leaders.
• After the decline of the Khilafat movement, relations between communities became more difficult.
• Some Muslim political leaders feared that a Hindu-majority political system might weaken Muslim political representation and cultural identity.
• There were disagreements over separate electorates and representation.
• Negotiations continued, but attempts at compromise did not resolve all differences.
• By the time of the Civil Disobedience Movement, sections of Muslims were less willing to participate in a united Congress-led struggle.

18. The Sense of Collective Belonging

Nationalism did not spread only through political organisations. It also developed through cultural processes that made people imagine themselves as part of a shared nation.

Major Cultural Processes

• Images of Bharat Mata created a personification of the motherland.
• Vande Mataram became an important nationalist song.
• Folk tales, songs and legends were collected and revived.
• Nationalist interpretations of Indian history encouraged pride in India's past.
• Flags, symbols and popular prints helped people identify with the national movement.

19. Bharat Mata, Folklore, Flags and Reinterpretation of History

Bharat Mata

• Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote Vande Mataram as a hymn to the motherland in the 1870s.
• It was later included in his novel Anandamath.
• Abanindranath Tagore painted a famous image of Bharat Mata.
• In his painting, Bharat Mata appeared as an ascetic figure — calm, composed, divine and spiritual.
• Later popular prints gave the figure different forms.

Folklore

• Nationalists collected folk tales, songs and legends from villages.
• They believed these preserved the cultural traditions of ordinary people.
• Folklore could strengthen the feeling of a shared cultural past.

Flags and Symbols

• A tricolour flag was designed during the Swadeshi movement in Bengal.
• By 1921, Gandhiji designed the Swaraj flag with a spinning wheel at the centre.
• The spinning wheel symbolised self-help and became a sign of resistance.

Reinterpretation of History

• Nationalists challenged colonial claims that Indians were backward and incapable of governing themselves.
• They highlighted achievements in ancient art, architecture, science, mathematics, religion, culture, law and trade.
• This reinterpretation was intended to generate pride and inspire resistance to colonial rule.
• However, when the glorified past was presented mainly through Hindu imagery, some communities could feel excluded.

20. Important Definitions

21. Complete Timeline

22. Quick Revision & Exam Focus

Movement at a Glance

Must-Remember Points

• World War I → taxes, price rise, recruitment, crop failures and epidemic → hardship.
• Satyagraha = truth + non-violence + moral force.
• Rowlatt Act allowed detention without trial.
• Jallianwala Bagh massacre occurred on 13 April 1919.
• Khilafat issue helped create Hindu-Muslim cooperation in the early phase of Non-Cooperation.
• Non-Cooperation was withdrawn after Chauri Chaura in February 1922.
• Lahore Congress 1929 → Purna Swaraj.
• Salt March began 12 March 1930; salt law broken at Dandi on 6 April.
• Different social groups joined for different reasons.
• Women participated actively but their participation did not automatically translate into equal political rights.
• Bharat Mata, Vande Mataram, flags, folklore and reinterpretation of history helped create collective belonging.

Common Mistakes

• ❌ Saying all groups understood Swaraj in the same way. ✓ Different groups had different aspirations.
• ❌ Saying Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience were identical. ✓ Non-Cooperation focused on withdrawal of cooperation; Civil Disobedience involved openly breaking colonial laws.
• ❌ Saying the Salt March began in April. ✓ It began on 12 March 1930; the salt law was broken on 6 April.
• ❌ Ignoring cultural nationalism. ✓ Symbols, songs, folklore and history were important in creating collective belonging.

23. Interactive NCERT-Based Quiz

30 questions covering concepts, dates, movements, social groups and collective belonging.