Nationalism in India

1. Briefly explain the incident of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and its effects on Punjab.

Answer explanation

(i) On 13th April 1919, the infamous Jallianwala Bagh incident took place. (ii) On that day, a crowd of villagers who had come to Amritsar to attend a fair gathered in the enclosed ground of Jallianwala Bagh. (iii) Being from outside the city, they were unaware of the martial law that had been imposed. (iv) General Dyer entered the area, blocked the only exit point, and opened fire on the crowd, killing and wounding hundreds of people. (v) His objective was to ‘produce a moral effect’ to create a feeling of terror and awe in the minds of satyagrahis. As the news spread, crowds took to the streets. There were strikes, clashes with police and attacks on government buildings. The government responded with brutal repression. Seeing violence spread, Mahatma Gandhi called off the movement

“British rule in India would have been collapsed if Indians had not cooperated.” How did this statement help in starting a mass movement in India against the British rule?

Answer explanation

(i) Mahatma Gandhi declared that British rule was established in India with the cooperation of Indians and if they had refused to cooperate, British rule in India would have been collapsed within a year. (ii) He proposed that the movement should unfold in stages. (iii) It should begin with the surrendering of titles that the government had awarded to the Indians. (iv) A boycott of civil services, army, police, courts and legislative assemblies, schools and foreign goods would show their non-cooperation to the British Empire. Mahatma Gandhi felt that in case the government used suppression, a full civil disobedience campaign would be launched.

What action did the British government take after the famous Dandi March?

Answer explanation

(i) Worried by the developments, the colonial government began arresting the Congress leaders one by one. (ii) This led to violent clashes in many places. (iii) A month later when Mahatma Gandhi himself was arrested, industrial workers in Sholapur attacked police posts, municipal buildings, law courts and railway stations—all structures that symbolised British rule. (iv) A frightened government responded with a policy of brutal suppression. (v) Peaceful satyagrahis were attacked, women and children were beaten, and about 1,00,000 people were arrested. (vi) Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a devout disciple of Mahatma Gandhi was arrested (April 1930). (vii) Angry crowds demonstrated in the streets of Peshawar facing armored cars and police firing, many were killed.

Differentiate between the reasons for the participation of the rich peasants and the poor peasants in the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Answer explanation

(i) Rich peasants were hit hard by the trade depression and falling prices, whereas the poor peasants’ cash income dwindled and they could not pay their rents. (ii) Refusal of the government to reduce the revenue demand led to widespread resentment among the rich peasants, whereas the poor peasants wanted the unpaid rent to the landlords to be remitted. (iii) For the rich peasants, fight for swaraj was a struggle against high revenues and for the poor peasants, their ‘no rent’ campaign. (iv) Rich peasants were disappointed since revenue was not reduced and the poor peasants were disappointed with the Congress as it was unwilling to support them.

How did large-scale participation of women in the Civil Disobedience Movement become an important feature?

Answer explanation

There was a large scale participation of Women in Civil Disobedience Movement. (i) During Gandhi’s salt march, thousands of women came out from their homes to listen to him. (ii) They participated in protest marches, manufactured salt and picketed foreign cloth and liquor shops. (iii) Many went to jail in urban areas. (iv) They considered service to the nation as a sacred duty of women. Yet, increased public role did not necessarily mean any radical change in the way the position of women was visualised. And for a long time, the Congress was reluctant to allow women to hold any position of authority within the organisation. It was keen only on their symbolic presence.

Did the dalits participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement?

Answer explanation

Initially, Congress had ignored the dalits for the fear of offending the sanatanis, the conservative high-caste Hindus. (ii) But Mahatma Gandhi believed that swaraj would not come even after a hundred years if untouchability was not eliminated. (iii) He called them ‘Harijans’ and he himself cleaned toilets to dignify the work of sweepers. (iv) But many dalit leaders demanded reserved seats in educational institutions and a separate electorate. (v) So dalit participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement was limited

What do you mean by sense of collective belongingness and how was it practised in India by the Indians?

Answer explanation

Ans. It means that people began to believe that they were all a part of the same nation and discovered some unity, which bound them together.

(i) Main cultural processes:

i. Figures or images helped create an image with which people could identify the nation. Devotion to this mother figure came to be seen as evidence of one’s nationalism.

a. It was with the growth of nationalism that the identity of India was associated with the image of Bharat Mata.

b. This image was first created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, who wrote the song ‘Vande Mataram’ in his novel Anandamath.

c. Then Abanindranath Tagore painted the famous image of Bharat Mata. He was moved by the Swadeshi movement.

d. In this painting, Bharat Mata is portrayed as an ascetic figure; she is calm, composed divine and spiritual.

e. In subsequent years, the image of Bharat Mata acquired many different forms as it circulated in popular prints and was painted by different artists.

f. Devotion to this mother figure came to be seen as evidence of one’s nationalism.

(ii) Indian folklore:

a. Ideas of nationalism also developed through a movement to revive Indian folklore.

b. Folk tales were sung by bards in the villages to give a true picture of the traditional culture, which was corrupted and damaged by outside forces.

c. In Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore himself began collecting ballads, nursery rhymes and myths to revive the folk culture.

d. In Madras, Natesa Sastri published a four-volume collection of Tamil folk tales, The Folklore of Southern India.

(iii) Icons and symbols (flag):

a. During the Swadeshi Movement in Bengal, a tricolour flag (red, green and yellow) was designed.

b. It had eight lotuses, representing eight provinces of British India and a crescent moon, representing Hindus and Muslims.

c. By 1921, Mahatma Gandhi designed the swaraj flag.

d. It was also again a tricolour (red, green, white) flag and had a spinning wheel in the centre, representing the Gandhian ideal of self-help.

e. Carrying the flag, holding it aloft, during marches became a symbol of defiance.

(iv) Reinterpretation of history:

a. The British saw Indians as backward, primitive and incapable of governing themselves.

b. In response, Indians began looking into the past to discover India’s great achievement.

c. They (Indians) wrote about glorious developments in ancient India in arts and architecture, science and maths, religion and culture, law and philosophy, etc.

d. This glorious time was followed by a history of decline, when India was colonised.

What were the reasons for the gradual slowing down of the Non-cooperation Movement in the cities?

Answer explanation

Khadi cloth was often more expensive than the cloth produced in mills. Poor people could not afford to buy khadi cloth.

(ii) Boycott of British institutions also posed a problem as there were no alternative Indian institutions.

(iii) So students and teachers began trickling back to the government schools.

(iv) Even lawyers resumed work in the government courts.

What do you know about the peasant movement in Awadh?

Answer explanation

(i) In Awadh, the peasant movement was led by Baba Ramchandra—a sanyasi, who had earlier worked in Fiji as an indentured labourer.

(ii) The movement here was against talukdars and landlords who demanded high rents from the peasants.

(iii) Peasants had to do begar at landlords’ farms.

(iv) The peasant movement demanded reduction of revenue, abolition of begar and social boycott of oppressive landlords.

(v) In many places nai-dhobi bandhs were organised by Panchayats to deprive landlords of the services of even washermen and barbers.

(vi) Jawaharlal Nehru began talking to the villagers and formed Oudh Kisan Sabha.

(vii) Within a month, over 300 branches had been set up in the villages around the region.

(viii) As the movement spread in 1921, the houses of talukdars and merchants were attacked, bazaars were looted and grain hoards were taken over.

What were the causes for launching Khilafat Movement in India?

Answer explanation

(i) The First World War ended with the defeat of Ottoman Turkey.

(ii) There were rumours that a harsh peace treaty was going to be imposed on the Ottoman emperor—the spiritual head of the Islamic world—the Khalifa.

(iii) To defend the Khalifa’s temporal powers, a Khilafat Committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919.

(iv) A young generation of Muslim leaders like the Ali brothers, Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, began discussing with Mahatma Gandhi about the possibility of a united mass action on the issue.

(v) Gandhiji saw this as an opportunity to bring Muslims under the umbrella of a unified movement called ‘Khilafat and Non-cooperation Movement’.