Block 2 PDF

GHT S4 01(M/P)
INDIA UNDER THE CROWN
SEMESTER - 4
HISTORY
BLOCK - 2
KRISHNA KANTA HANDIQUI STATE OPEN UNIVERSITY

Subject Experts
1. Dr. Sunil Pravan Baruah, Retd. Principal, B.Barooah College, Guwahati
2. Dr. Gajendra Adhikari, Principal, D.K.Girls’ College, Mirza
3. Dr. Maushumi Dutta Pathak, HOD, History, Arya Vidyapeeth College, Guwahati
Course Coordinator : Dr. Sukmaya Lama, Asst. Prof. (KKHSOU)
SLM Preparation Team
UNITS CONTRIBUTORS
Unit 8 & 10 Navaneeta Phukan (Pandu College), Priti Salila Rajkhowa (KKHSOU) &
Sukmaya Lama, KKHSOU
Unit 9 Dr Indranil Chattopadhyay, BKC College
Unit 11 & 12 Indrani Deka, Pragjyotish College
Units 413 & 14 Amarjit Gogoi, Pragjyotish College
Units 15 Dhanmoni Kalita, OKDISCD
Editorial Team
Content Editor (English version : Imdad Ali Ahmed, Pub-Kamrup College
Lanquage Editor (English version : Dr Bhuban Chandra Talukdar, Handique Girl’s College, Guwahati
Structure, Format & Graphics : Dr. Sukmaya Lama, KKHSOU
November, 2018
Copyright © Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University
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preparation of this study material.
BACHELOR OF ARTS
INDIA UNDER THE CROWN
DETAILED SYLLABUS
BLOCK 2
Page No.
UNIT 8 : GANDHIAN PHASE OF INDIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT 117-133

Rise of Gandhi- Champaran, Kheda, Non- Cooperation
Movement, Civil Disobedience Movement, Government of
India Act 1935, August Offer and Quit India Movement
UNIT 9 : Subhash Chandra Bose and INA 134-147

Subhash Chandra Bose and his ideologies, INA, The INA
Trial Significance
UNIT 10 : INDIAN DURING WORLD WAR II 148-158

Cripps Mission, Wavell Plan and Shimla Conference,
Cabinet Mission Plan, Mountbatten Plan
UNIT 11 : COMMUNALISM IN INDIA 159-170

Ideologies and Practices: RSS, Hindu Maha Sabha, Muslim League
UNIT 12 : WOMEN IN FREEDOM STRUGGLE 171-184

Pre-Gandian Struggle and Women, Gandhian Movement Women,
Revolutionary Movement and Women
UNIT 13 : LEFT POLITICS AND SOCIALISM 185-200

Emergence and Growth, Communist Party of India, Trade Union Movement,
Socialist Party, Impact
UNIT 14 : PARTITION AND RESPONSE 201-213

Background, Response- Riots, Popular Movements
UNIT 15 : NATIONALISM AND CULTURE 214-227

Literature, Art, Cinema
COURSE INTRODUCTION
This Course is meant for the Fourth semester students of History of BA programme under the
revised semester system of Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University. The course is titled India
Under the Crown. This paper will throw light on the history of Colonial India under the British Crown
and then under the British Government. The course consists of fifteen units.
BLOCK INTRODUCTION
This is the second block of the course which will discuss the Indian struggle for independence
and its impact, the major political developments and Partition. The block consists of eight units.
The eighth unit Gandhian Phase of Indian National Movement traces the development of
mass movement in India with the entry of Gandhi to Indian politics.
The ninth unit Subhash Chandra Bose and INA discusses the ideologies of Bose and his contribution
to the National Movement.
The tenth unit India Under the WW II gives you the details of the political and administrative
readjustments made in India during World War II.
The eleventh unit Communalism in India highlights the rise of Communal ideology and the growth
of organisations in the wake of rising communalism in Colonial India .
The twelfth unit Women in Freedom Struggle throws light on the contribution of Indian women in
the struggle for Indian independence.
The thirteenth unit titled Left Politics and Socialism deliberates on the rise of socialist ideas
and it impact on the trade union movement.
The fourteenth unit Partition and Response describes the background leading to the Partition and
its horrors.
The fifteenth unit Nationalism and Culture throws light on the impact of Nationalism on Culture,
Art and Literature.
While going through this paper, you will notice that some boxes are put in the left hand or right
hand side of the text. These boxes are meant to serve the purpose of in-text glossary for you. Again,
you may find some boxes marked with: “LET US KNOW”. These boxes will provide you with some
additional interesting and relevant information. The boxes marked with “ACTIVITY” will help you in
making your learning more active and efficient. And, at the end of each section, you will get “CHECK
YOUR PROGRESS” questions. These have been designed to self-check your progress of study. It will
be better if you solve the problems put in these boxes immediately after you go through the sections
of the units and then match your answers with “ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS” given at
the end of each unit.
UNIT - 8: GANDHIAN PHASE OF INDIAN
NATIONAL MOVEMENT
UNIT STRUCTURE
8.1 Learning Objectives

8.2 Introduction
8.3 Rise of Gandhi- Champaran and Kheda
8.4 Non-Cooperation Movement
8.5 Civil Disobedience Movement
8.6 Government of India Act, 1935
8.7 August Offer and Quit India Movement
8.8 Let Us Sum Up
8.9 Further Reading
8.10 Answers to Check Your Progress
8.11 Model Questions
8.1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you will be able to:

z explain how Gandhi’s entry into Indian politics ushered in a new era
z discuss various methods used by Gandhiji like satyagraha, non -
violence etc to bring about India’s independence
z describe the role of Gandhi in the Non-Cooperation Movement, Civil
Disobedience and the Quit India Movement.
8.2 INTRODUCTION
In the previous Unit, we discussed about Revolutionary Nationalism

and its effect on the Indian politics. This form of expression had serious
repercussion all over the country.
In this Unit, we will deliberate on the Gandhian phase of national
struggle movement owing to his ability of leading a mass movement against
the colonial rulers. In this Unit, we will be discussing on the mass movements
led by Gandhi, during the freedom movement.
Indian nationalism that had emerged in the later half of the nineteenth
India Under the Crown 117

Unit - 8 Gandhian Phase of Indian National Movement
century was strengthened in the first decade of the twentieth century and
grew into a strong national movement under the leadership of Mahatma
Gandhi.
8.3 RISE OF GANDHI CHAMPARAN AND KHEKA
The rise of Gandhi as a leader all began with his satyagraha

movement in Champaran and Kheda. Champaran was the largest area
under indigo plantation. The peasants of Champaran were not happy with
the “tinkathia” system.
LET US KNOW
Tinkathia System:
Under this system, the peasants of the Champaran
district were forced to plant indigo in their lands. Out of twenty kathas
of land (1 acre), the peasants had to cultivate indigo in three kathas
of land.
The peasants faced oppression as the landlords yielded all the profits
from the cultivation and they were coerced into various atrocities. While
the Government knew of the trouble among the peasants, yet they took no
actions and ignored the matter. There were protests and demonstrations
against the systematic exploitation of the peasants by the planters. Gandhiji
personally visited Champaran and to look unto the condition of the peasants.
His presence in Champaran raised serious concern among the planters
and the government. However, a Commission of Enquiry was instituted
with Gandhiji as the member. According to the recommendation of this
Committee, the tinkathia system was abolished, rent was reduced among
others. This was a moment of success for Gandhiji. He took a firm stand
on the issue of the peasants of Champaran and his use of non-violent and
peaceful method brought him into light across the country.
The other incident was the tiff between the textile mill owners and
workers in Ahmedabad. The workers at the textile mills demanded an
118 India Under the Crown

Gandhian Phase of Indian National Movement Unit - 8
increase in their wages by 50% but the mill owners were willing to pay an
increment of 20%. Gandhiji proposed for an increment of 25% which was
refused by the mill owners. Gandhiji appealed through requests and
entreaties but the owners were not willing to compromise. Gandhiji next
advised the mill workers to go on a strike in which he applied non-violence,
and non-cooperation method to secure justice. There were peaceful
processions and meetings as the strike progressed. However, there was
no sign of compromise or negotiation on the part of the mill owners. It was
only when Gandhiji took to fast that a compromise was reached between
the workers and the owners.
In yet another case, the patidars of Kheda district of Gujarat were
facing a famine like condition owing to the failure of crops. Under the land
revenue rules, if crops were four annas or less than that, then the cultivators
could get suspension from revenue assessment. The patidars were
considering a suspension from revenue assessment for a year, however,
the official records mentioned the crops to be over four annas, which only
meant that the patidars would not be entitled for full suspension. Gandhiji
requested for the appointment of an impartial committee, which was
declined. Gandhiji next urged for a half suspension for the Kheda district
except for those villages where crops were above six annas. But the
Government was not willing to grant the demand and hence, Gandhiji and
the patidars protested against it, by refusing to pay any revenue for the
year. Despite the repressions faced by the people, they stood to their
grounds and the Government was forced to declare that, if the rich patidars
paid for the crop, the poorer ones would be granted suspension. Thus,
during these movements in Champaran, Ahmedabad and Gujarat, Gandhiji
applied his ideology into practise and realised its strength.
8.4 NON-COOPERATION MOVEMENT
The developments in the last year of the second decade of the

twentieth century made the Indian people highly discontented. The British
Government had made various promises to the Indians during the First

World War to seek their co-operation. But the Rowlatt Act, the Jallianwala
Bagh massacre and the imposition of martial law in Punjab shattered their
hopes. The Montague-Chelmsford reform of 1919 could not satisfy the
Indians. The Indian Muslims were highly dissatisfied as the British
Government did not keep their promise to give generous treatment to Turkey
after the First World War.
LET US KNOW
Romlatt Act (1919) - By this Act, new coercive steps

were taken to suspend the basic civil rights of the
Indians.
Jallianwalla Bagh (1919) - The Jallianwalla Bagh massacre took
place in Amritsar where a large mass had gathered to oppose the
Romlatt Act. General Dyer ordered fire on the unarmed protestors
by blocking the exit killing many and injuring others.
With the dismemberment of the Turkish Empire post World War I,

the discontented Indian Muslims began the Khilafat movement. The Khilafat
committee had already been established in 1918. Gandhiji had been very
sympathetic to their cause. He advised the Khilafat Committee to adopt a
programme of non-violent non - cooperation to protest the government’s
behaviour. On June 9, 1920 the Khilafat Committee accepted Gandhiji’s
proposal unanimously. An unparalleled unity was seen among the Hindus
and the Muslims on the issue of Khilafat in the Indian National Movement.
The Muslims invited the Arya Samaj leader Swami Shradhananda to preach
from the pulpit of Jama Masjid at Delhi, and the Sikhs invited the Muslim
leader Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew to preach from the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
The Movement was launched formally on August 1, 1920. The
Congress met in September at Calcutta and accepted non-cooperation.
The adoption of the Non-Cooperation movement by the Congress which
was earlier initiated by the Khilafat Conference gave it a new energy.
Gandhiji and the Ali brothers (Mohammad and Shaukat Ali), who were the
foremost Khilafat leaders, undertook a nation-wide tour and addressed

hundreds of meetings. The programme of non-cooperation included non

payment of taxes and dues to the government, surrender of titles and
honours, boycott of Government affiliated schools and colleges, law courts,
foreign clothes, etc. In the first month itself thousands of students left schools
and colleges and joined more than eight hundred national schools and
colleges that had sprung up all over the country. The boycott of educational
institutions was particularly successful in Bengal. C.R. Das played a major
role in promoting the movement. Subhas Bose became the principal of the
National College in Calcutta. Punjab too responded to educational boycott
and Lala Lajpat Rai played a leading role here. In Bombay, U.P., Bihar,
Orissa and Assam also the movement spread. Many leading lawyers of
the country like C.R. Das, Motilal Nehru, M.R. Jayakar, Saifuddin Kitchlew,
Vallabhbhai Patel, C. Rajgopalachari gave up their practice. But perhaps
the most successful item of the programme was the boycott of foreign
clothes. Volunteers would go from house to house collecting foreign clothes
and the entire community would gather to light a bonfire of the goods.
Another feature of the movement was picketing in front of the liquor shops.
Though it was not included in the original plan, it attained great popularity.
Soon the Non-Cooperation movement reached the masses. Youths
and old men and women, Hindus and Muslims, liberals and conservatives
all were equally influenced by it. Thousands of farmers of United Provinces
and Bengal joined this movement. In parts of the United Provinces, tenants
refused to concede to the unjust demands of zamindars. In Assam, the
labourers on tea plantations went on strike and farmers of Midnapur refused
to pay taxes to the union board. All village officers in Pedanandipadu
submitted their resignation. A mass movement was launched in Guntur.
The wide-spread success of the Non-Cooperation movement became
a cause of terrible worry for the British Government. Hence, it resorted to
severe measures to crush the movement. By December 1921, thousands
of satyagrahis including important leaders like C.R. Das were arrested.
Gandhiji was now prepared for a mass civil disobedience movement. But
before he could launch it on February 5, 1922 a violent incident occurred at
Chauri Chaura in the Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh. Twenty two police
men died in the incident. Pained by the happenings, Gandhiji decided to

suspend the movement immediately. Thus on 12 February 1922, the Non-
Cooperation movement came to an end.
Gandhiji’s decision to withdraw the movement was not supported
by many Congress leaders. The non-cooperation was a truly mass
movement. A new political awakening arose among the common masses
and for the first time they came into contact with the modern ideology of
nationalism. The tremendous participation of Muslims in the movement,
and the maintenance of communal harmony was also an important
achievement of the movement.
8.5 CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT
The decision of Gandhi to suspend the Movement was met with mixed
reaction. One was the formation of the Swarajist Party (1922) by Desbandhu
Chittaranjan Das and Motilal Nehru. The main motive of the Swarajists
was the achievement of Swarajya, but they wanted to strike directly at the
policies and actions of the Government through entry into the legislatures.
In the elections held in November 1923, the Swaraj Party received a clear
majority in the Central Legislature of Bengal and Central Province. No
sooner did they enter the central and provincial legislatures, they started to
obstruct the functioning of the Government.
In the meantime, the British Government constituted a Statutory
Commission under Sir John Simon, to look into the issue of further
constitutional reforms in India. But the Commission did not have a single
Indian member. The Indians protested the arrival of the Simon Commission.
The commission submitted its report which failed to satisfy the Indians.
When Indians rejected the Simon Commission report, Lord
Birkenhead, the Secretary of State for India, challenged the Indian leadership
to draft a constitution acceptable to all Indians. In response to this challenge,
the Congress convened an All Party Conference to finalise a scheme which
popularly came to be known as the Nehru Report after Motilal Nehru, its
principal author. This report demanded dominion status as the form of
Government for India. It also rejected the principle of separate communal
electorates on which previous constitutional reforms had been based. Seats

would be reserved for Muslims at the centre and in provinces in which they
were in a minority but not where they had a numerical majority. The report
also recommended universal adult suffrage, equal rights for women,
freedom to form unions and dissociation of the state from religion in any
form. But a section of the Muslim League led by Jinnah did not want to give
up the demand for reservation of seats for Muslims especially in Muslim
majority provinces. He put forward his fourteen points as the minimum
Muslim demands for any political settlement, but it was not acceptable to
the Congress. Some of the Sikhs also rejected the report because they
were not recognized as a minority by it. Some young and radical Congress
members led by Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose were also
dissatisfied with its declaration of Dominion Status. But Gandhiji convinced
them to accept the report. The Government was asked to accept the Nehru
report by December 31, 1929; otherwise the Congress would launch a
non-cooperation and civil disobedience movement for the achievement of
complete independence.
On December 25, 1929, the 44th session of Indian National Congress
was held at Lahore under the presidentship of Jawaharlal Nehru. By this
time all the Congress leaders were convinced that the British government
would not grant Swaraj to India till it was forced to do so. It was during this
session that a resolution for complete independence was passed on
December 31, 1929 and the newly adopted tricolour flag of independence
was hoisted.
The Lahore Congress of 1929 had authorised the working committee
to launch a programme of civil disobedience including non-payment of taxes.
It had also called upon all members of legislatures to resign their seats. In
mid February, 1930, the working committee entrusted Gandhiji with the
responsibility to launch the Civil Disobedience movement at a time and
place of his choice. Gandhiji informed the Governor General that if their
demands were not fulfilled by the Government he would launch the Civil
Disobedience movement by violating the salt laws on March 12, 1930.
The response was highly disappointing. Therefore, Gandhiji decided

to launch the Civil Disobedience movement. The movement started with

the famous Dandi March. On March 12, 1930, Gandhiji, along with 78 of
his followers began his foot march from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi. On 6
April 1930, by picking up a handful of salt, Gandhiji inaugurated the Civil
Disobedience movement.
The movement now spread rapidly, with the violation of salt laws all
over the country. This was soon followed by defiance of forest laws in
Maharashtra, Karnataka and the Central Provinces. Everywhere in the
country people joined hartals, demonstrations and the campaign to boycott
foreign goods and to refuse to pay taxes. In many parts of the country the
peasants refused to pay land revenue and rent and their lands were
confiscated. A notable feature of the movement was the wide participation
of the women. Thousands of them took active part in picketing before shops
selling foreign clothes and liquor. The Pathans of north- west frontier under
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, popularly known as the Frontier Gandhi, made
a remarkable contribution to the movement with the organization known as
Khudai Khidmadgarh. In Peshawar, Garhwali soldiers refused to fire at
non-violent agitators. Similarly, the movement spread to the North East.
The Manipuris took an active part in it and Nagaland produced a brave
heroine in Rani Gaidilieu. The young Rani was captured in 1932 and
sentenced to life imprisonment. She was released only in 1947 by the
Government of free India.
LET US KNOW
Khudai Khidmadgarh: It literally means servants of

God. The members of Khudai Khid-madgarh are
popularly known as ‘Red shirt’.
The Government adopted ruthless measures to crush the movement

through lathi charges and firing on unarmed crowds. Thousands of
Satyagrahis, including Gandhiji and other Congress leaders, were
imprisoned. The Congress was declared illegal. The nationalist press was
prevented from speaking freely through strict censorship of news.

The failure of the First Round Table Conference due to the problem
of communal electorates pressurised the British Government to negotiate
an agreement with the Congress. Finally, Lord Irwin and Gandhiji negotiated
a settlement in March 1931 (Gandhi-Irwin Pact). By this Pact, the
Government agreed to release all political prisoners except those who were
involved in violent activities. The Government acceded to the right to
manufacture salt for domestic consumption and picketing of liquor and
foreign cloth shops. In return the Congress agreed to suspend the Civil
Disobedience movement and also agreed to participate in the Second Round
Table Conference.
The Second Round Table Conference was attended by Gandhiji. He
demanded complete independence for India, full responsible governments
at the Centre. But because of the demands of separate electorates put
forward by the Muslim League and the untouchables, the conference failed
to arrive at any point of agreement regarding India.
On his arrival in India, Gandhiji felt it essential to revive the Civil
Disobedience movement against the highly repressive policy of the
Government. Gandhiji revived the movement on January 4th, 1932. He
was arrested along with Sardar Patel the same day. Meanwhile the
Communal Award was declared by which a separate Class. Gandhiji was
provoked to undertake a fast resulting in the Poona Pact ?????? Gandhi’s
?????? by which the number of seat was increased for the Depressed
Classes.
LET US KNOW
Communal Award was declared by British Prime

Minister Ramsay Macdonald.
The Civil Disobedience movement lost its identity and the Congress
officially suspended the movement in May 1933 and withdrew it in May,
1934.
The Third Round Table Conference was convened in 1932. Some
important decisions on the future constitution of India were taken in the

conference which was published in a White Paper. On the basis of this

White Paper the Government of India Act of 1935 was passed.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Answer the following answers:
1. When and where was the Third Round Table
Conference convened?
.................................................................................................
2. Why did Gandhi suspend the Civil Disobedience Movement?
.................................................................................................
3. Who was known as Frontier Gandhi?
.................................................................................................
4. Who started the Khilafat Movement?
.................................................................................................
8.6 GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ACT 1935
The Government of India Act of 1935 was quite a lengthy and detailed
document comprising 321 sections and 10 schedules. The Act provided for
the formation of an All Indian Federation consisting of British India’s provinces
and the princely states. It was compulsory for the British provinces to join
the Federation, but the princely states were free to take their decision on
participation. All constituents’ parts of the Federation enjoyed full autonomy
in their natural affairs. The Act proposed for the setting up of a Federal
Court to settle disputes between the Federal Government and the
constituents. It also provided for the establishment of a Federal Executive
and a Federal Legislature. The most significant feature of the Act of 1935
was the establishment of Provincial autonomy. Under the provisions of this
Act diarchy came to an end in the provinces. Subjects were divided between
the Centre and the Provinces. The Central control over the provinces was
also much lessened. The Governor was to be the head of the Provincial
Executive, but he was to run the administration on the advice of the ministers.
The Governors were invested with sufficient powers, yet they did not interfere
much in the functioning of the ministers.

By this Act two new provinces were created, namely Sindh and
Orissa. The North-West Frontier Province was brought under the control of
the Governor. The Governors were given some special powers to safeguard
the British Empire in India, to establish peace and dignity of the British
Crown and the native princes and to secure the country from external
invasions, etc. The number of the members in the Central Legislature was
increased. The Council of the Secretary of State for India was abolished.
Henceforth, the Secretary of State was to be aided by a body of advisors.
The communal electorate system was not only retained but also extended.
Burma (Modern Myanmar) was separated from India.
No doubt, the Government of India Act, 1935 was better and wider
in some respects as compared to the Government of India Act 1919. But it
was also full of many defects. Neither the British provinces nor the Indian
states welcomed the proposed Federal Scheme. Under this scheme it was
mandatory for the British provinces to join the Federation, but it was optional
for the Indian states whether to join it or not. There was much dissimilarity
between the British Provinces and the Indian states from the point of view
of population, area, and significance. Thus, it was quite impractical to
combine two dissimilar units into a Federation. The system of diarchy,
introduced by the Act in the Centre was defective. It made the Governor-
General an autocrat by investing him with wide power and rights. It narrowed
the jurisdiction of the Legislative Councils and made the communal electoral
system wider. Provincial autonomy was established in name only. Madan
Mohan Malviya had rightly criticised it saying “It has a somewhat democratic
appearance outwardly, but it is absolutely hollow from inside.’
The federal part of the Act of 1935 was never introduced but the
provincial part was soon put into operation. Though the Congress was bitterly
opposed to the Act, it decided to contest the elections under this new Act.
The Congress ministries, however, could not change the basic imperialist
character of the British administration in India. But they did try to improve
the condition of the people within the narrow limits of the powers given to
them under the Act of 1935.

8.7 AUGUST OFFER AND QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT
With the World powers all merged into the War, 1940, the position of
Britain in the war began to deteriorate. It appealed to the people of India to
help them in fighting the war. On 1st June, Gandhi offered to help the
Government on two conditions.
z Independence as the goal of India was declared.
z A provincial Government comprising various parties set up in
the country
In August 1940, Lord Linlithgow, the Viceroy of India, after
consultations with all the political parties of India, on behalf of the British
Government, issued a statement known as August Offer. The features of
the Offer is given below:
1. The statement promised the establishment of full-fledged
responsible government in India on the Dominion model after
the war.
2. A representative Assembly will be convened to frame a new
Constitution for India.
3. Gave assurance to the Muslim League that British Government
would not accept any Constitution to which important political
parties like Muslim League were opposed
4. As an interim measure for the duration of the war, the Viceroy
would establish a War Advisory Council in which a certain
number of Indian representatives will be invited to join.
The Congress rejected the August Offer, because it made no promise
of some complete independence in the future. In order to make the British
realize that Indians were not willing to cooperate with it in its war effort,
Gandhi started individual Satyagraha.
z Quit India Movement
The August Offer resulted in increasing the tension between the

Congress and the government. When Gandhiji’s appeal to the Viceroy fell
on deaf ears, the Congress decided to launch Individual Satyagraha. On

October 17, 1940, Gandhiji declared the launching of this movement by

appointing Vinoba Bhabe to be the first Satyagrahi. Gandhiji chose
Jawaharlal Nehru as the second Satyagrahi, who was also arrested. The
government placed the press under strict control and banned the publication
of Gandhiji’s papers ‘Harijan Bandhu’ and ‘Harijan Sewak’. Soon almost all
the prominent Congress leaders were put behind bars. The Individual
Satyagraha continued from October 1940 to January 1942. Its main
objective was to express faith in truth and non-violence and to demand the
right of freedom of speech for Indians to express their opposition to the
war. Though the movement could not become a success, it made it amply
clear to the world that India’s most important political organization, the
Indian National Congress and the Indian masses were against the Second
World War. As the British Government was eager to seek Indian cooperation
in the war, the Satyagrahis were released from the prison. Considering the
crisis the Congress Working Committee withdrew the Individual Satyagraha.
In the meantime Japanese forces occupied Rangoon in March 1942
and thus the war reached the threshold of India. Hence Britain’s allies
America and China started putting pressure on Britain to accede to India’s
demand for freedom. Thus, in order to initiate a dialogue with the Indian
leaders and also to seek their cooperation in the war efforts, the British
Government sent in March 1942, a mission to India headed by Sir Stafford
Cripps, the leader of the House of Commons.
The mission proposed that India would be given Dominion Status
under the British Commonwealth after the war. It also proposed that a
constitution making body would be created to draft a constitution for the
Indian states. The provinces were given the right of remaining out of the
Indian Union in case they did not approve of the new constitution. None of
the political parties accepted the Cripps proposals. The British Prime Minister
Churchill was not in a mood to concede independence to India. The
apprehension of Japanese attack on India was rising steadily. Gandhiji
was of the opinion that the British presence in India was encouraging
Japanese aggression on the country. In an article dated April 26, 1942
Gandhiji appealed to the British to leave India in an orderly manner. But

the British turned a deaf ear to it. Hence he made up his mind to launch a
mass movement to oust the British from India.
On August 8, 1942, the All India Congress Committee met in Bombay.
It passed the historic ‘Quit India’ resolution and decided to launch a non-
violent mass struggle under Gandhiji to achieve this goal. The resolution
declared that the end of British rule was the need of the hour. Addressing
the Congress delegates on the night of 8 August, Gandhiji said that he
wanted freedom immediately. He gave the people a mantra - “Do or Die”.
No definite plan was formulated regarding the programmes of this
movement. A small booklet containing a 12 point programme instructing
the masses to resort to peaceful hartals, public rallies, salt making and
non-payment of land revenue was published, but it was confiscated by the
government on August 11, 1942. Gandhiji and other prominent Congress
leaders were arrested early in the morning of August 9. The Congress was
declared illegal and a policy of harsh repression was adopted towards the
agitators. But the excitement and resentment of the masses increased
with the intensification of the government’s repressive measure. Gandhiji’s
mantra ‘Do or Die’ became very popular among the common masses.
In the first phase of the movement from 9th August to 11th August
hartals, demonstrations and public meetings were held in the cities and the
towns. The workers struck their work in mills and factories. However, workers
under the influence of communism remained loyal to the government.
Railway lines and telephone cables were cut off at many places and
government buildings were put to fire. In some areas the agitators set up
parallel governments after overthrowing the British authority.
Gradually, the movement reached the villages. Armed crowd attacked
the government buildings and hurled bombs at various places in Bengal,
Madras, Bombay and United Provinces. The people resorted to violence
as a result of the harsh repressive policy followed by the government. On
May 6, 1944, Gandhiji was released from jail. By this time the Second
World War was coming to an end. In July 1944, the British Government
slowly started releasing the political prisoners. As a result of it, the Quit
India Movement also came to an end.

The lower middle class made a significant contribution in this

movement. More than seven thousand people lost their lives during the
movement and more than sixty thousand were made prisoners. Factors
like defective organization and programme, loyalty of the government
servants and officials, harsh repressive policy of the government and lack
of support of all the communities and the political parties mainly contributed
to the failure of this movement. The Communists did not support the
Congress proposals of August 1942. The Muslim League also did not
cooperate. Anglo-Indians opposed the movement .The Parsis supported
the movement but the Sikh and the Hindu Mahasabha remained indifferent
to it.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

5. When was the historic ‘Quit India’ resolution?
..........................................................................
6. Who did Gandhiji choose as the second Satyagrahi?
.................................................................................................
7. By the Government of India Act 1935, which two provinces were
created?
.................................................................................................
8.8 LET US SUM UP
After going through this Unit, you have learnt that -

z Gandhi gave a vision to the people and his dedication to achieve
India’s freedoms inspired millions to sacrifice their life for a better
future.
z The support of the common masses and the participation of people
from all walks of life was the strength of the freedom struggle
movement.
z There was sharp rise of communal tensions and political reactions
during the Movement.

8.9 FURTHER READINGS
1. Chandra, Bipan. (1989). India’s Struggle for Independence. New Delhi,

India: Penguin.
2. Sarkar, Sumit. (1983). Modern India (1885-1947). New Delhi, India:
Macmillan
3. Bandyopadhya, Sekhar. (2004). From Plassey to Partition. Hyderabad,
India: Orient Longman.
8.10 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Ans. to Q. No. 1: 1932, London

Ans. to Q. No. 2: The Gandhi Irwin Pact was the cause.
Ans. to Q. No. 3: Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan
Ans. to Q. No. 4: Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali
Ans. to Q. No. 5: 1942
Ans. to Q. No. 6: Jawaharlal Nehru
Ans. to Q. No. 7: Sind and Orissa
8.11 MODEL QUESTIONS
A) Very Short Questions (answer each within 50 words)

1. Why and When did Gandhi call-off the Non-Cooperation Movement?
2. When was the Swaraj Party formed?
3. Which two parties did not support the Quit India proposal?
4. When and under whose presidentship the “All India Kishan Sabha”
was formed?
B) Short Questions (answer each within 150 words)
1. Write a brief note on the Nehru Report.
2. Write briefly about the three Round Table Conferences.

3. Make an assessment of the Government of India Act of 1935.

4. Why was the Simon Commission set up?
C) Long questions (answer each within 300-500 words)
1. Assess the contributions of Mahatma Gandhi in the freedom struggle
of India.
2. Discuss the circumstances under which the Quit India Movement
was launched. What was its main feature?
*** ***** ***

UNIT - 9 : SUBHASH CHANDRA BOSE AND INA
UNIT STRUCTURE

9.2 Introduction
9.3 Subhash Chandra Bose and his ideologies.
9.4 The Indian National Army (lNA)
z Women in Indian National Army
z March to India
9.5 The INA trials
9.6 Significance
9.7 Let Us Sum Up
9.8 Further Reading
9.9 Check Your Progress
After going through this unit you will be able to:

z explainthe role of Subhash Chandra Bose in the Indian freedom
struggle movement
z describe the background of the formation of INA and its operations
z discuss the role of women in the INA
z discuss the significance of the INA in the national movement
9.2 INTRODUCTION
In the earlier Unit, we discussed about the later phase of Gandhian

struggle in India during the National Movement. We discussed in detail
regarding the Government of India Act 1835, August Offer and the Quit
India Movement.
In this Unit, we will discuss revolutionary nationalism that was

Subhash Chandra Bose and INA Unit - 9
personified by none other than Subhash Chandra Bose. The Unit aims to
throw light on the charismatic leadership of Bose and his role in the freedom
movement. The formation of INA (Indian National Army) and its various
operations will also be discussed. At the same time, the participation of
women in the Army is also discussed alongside the history of the INA trials.
The INA is an interesting chapter in the Indian History and this Unit makes
an attempt in highlighting their impact and significance in the freedom
struggle.
9.3 SUBHASH CHANDRA BOSE AND HIS IDEOLOGIES
Born on 23rd Januray, 1897, Subhash Chadra Bose was the ninth
child of the fourteen children of Janakinath and Prabhavati Bose. In his
early years, Bose studied in English public schools and Ravenshaw
Collegiate School. He later went to the Presidency College for his higher
education. He sat for his Civil Service exam and cleared in 1921.
Subhas Chandra Bose entered the platform of nationalist politics when
he came in contact with C.R. Das in his early 1920s. Bose was influenced
in this direction by his own parents, Beni Madhab Das (Headmaster,
Revenshaw Collegiate School), teachings of Ramakrishna, Vivekananda
and Aurobindo Ghosh, C.R. Das, Lenin, Mustapha Kemal Pasha, De Valera,
Joseph Mazzini, Count Cavour, Garibaldi, and the impact of freedom
movements in other countries such as Italian struggle for liberation and
unification, liberation struggle in Czechoslovakia etc.
He joined the nationalist struggle very early when he started writing in
the “Swaraj”. He also participated in the protest march against the visit of
the Prince of Wales in 1921. He was arrested and sent to the jail. It was
here that he came in contact with CR Das who was to become his political
mentor and guide. He resigned from the Civil Service on account of his
nationalistic zeal. He writes, "It is not possible to serve one's country in the
best and fullest manner if one is chained to the civil service. In short, national
and spiritual aspirations are not compatible with obedience to Civil Service
conditions." In his letter from Cambridge, addressed to Deshabandhu C.R.

Unit - 9 Subhash Chandra Bose and INA
Das, he had firmly expressed his decision to resign from the Civil Service
and join the freedom movement.
He was elected as president of All India Trade Union Congress. He
was elected as president of the congress for two successive years in 1938
and 1939. During his election for the second time, he was opposed by
Mahatma Gandhi. Since the early days of his political career Bose was
bitterly hostile to British Imperialism. As president of the congress, he
proposed in March 1939 that an ultimatum be given to the government of
India to make India free within six months. However, the proposal was turned
down by the congress and he resigned from the congress president and
started a new party known as the Forward Block which is now an important
leftist political organization. However, on the basis of the demand for Purna
Swaraj his conflict with Gandhi had broke out since 1928. Differences
cropped up between Bose and Gandhi because Bose was not ready to
accept the federal structure of the constitution. Conflict also broke out on
the issue of the formation of the Congress Working Committee.
The congress did not look upon his political-cum-military adventure
with approval and his close association with Japan raised many doubts. It
was, of course, far from his intention to change masters-to replace the
British by the Japanese. His sole purpose was to liberate India with the
assistance of Britain's enemies. The determination of Gandhi and Nehru
not to exploit the difficulties of Britain for India's advantage drove him out of
the Congress. When the British Government tried to cripple his political
activities by imprisonment and detention, he left the country and jumped
into an uncertain future. He left for the Indian people a tradition of reckless
courage, exciting romance and noble patriotism.
At the time of the Great Bengal Famine of 1943, during which millions
died of starvation, as a consequence of British inefficiency and indifference,
Bose had offered (through radio) to provide Burmese rice to the victims of
the famine. The British authorities in India (and in the UK) refused the offer,
arguing that it was made for propaganda purposes. The I.N.A. organized
and actively led by Bose, failed in its immediate objective. It was never a
really effective fighting force. It took the field too late, the Axis powers were

in retreat by 1944. Yet it occupies an important place in the history of India's

struggle for freedom. Its organization was a threatening indication that the
British could no longer count upon the unflinching loyalty of the Indian
‘Sepoy’s in maintaining their hold on India.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Answers to check you progress:

1. Why did Subhas Chandra Bose resign
from the Civil Service?
...............................................................................................
2. What was Bose’s ultimatum to the government of India in March
1939?
...............................................................................................
3. Bose and Gandhi differed on which two issues? Mention the
issues.
...............................................................................................
9.4 THE INDIAN NATIONAL ARMY
When the World War II broke out, Bose undertook a tour of the country
in which he openly criticized the British government and advised the Indians
not to help the British in its war effort. On April 6, 1940, he started Civil
Disobedience campaign. On July 27, 1940, he was imprisoned without
trial. While in jail, he arrived at three conclusions. The first conclusion was
that Britain would break up. The second conclusion was that in spite of
being in a very weak position; the British would not hand over power to the
people of India, who would have to fight for their freedom. His third
conclusion was that India would win her independence if she played her
part in the war against Britain and collaborated with those powers that
were fighting against Britain. He decided to go on hunger strike and on
November 26, 1940 addressed a long letter to the government of Bengal
and its ministers in which he wrote, the individual must die so that the

nation may live. He started his indefinite fast on November 29, 1940. As he
developed alarming symptoms, the government released him on
December 5, 1940.
After his release, Subhas Chandra Bose remained confined in his
house on Elgin road, Calcutta, which was under the strict supervision of
the police. He was last seen there on January 19, 1941. On January 17,
1941 he left his house and reached Gomoh by car. From there he went to
Peshawar by train. He passed through Jamrud and reached Garhi. He
crossed the Indian border on foot and reached Kabul and from there he
proceeded to Russia with an ltalian passport. On March 28, 1941, he flew
from Moscow to Berlin.
He was received well by Ribbentrop, the right- hand man of Hitler.
He was given all facilities to broadcast his denunciation of the British
Government. When Germany attacked Russia in June 1941, Subhas
proposed to organize an Indian Army to operate against the British forces
on the North-Western Frontier. Bose established Free Indian Centre in
Germany and tried his best to keep it free from any Nazi intervention. He
was able to sign an agreement with Nazi Germany according to which
Indian forces could only be used against the English troops and with Indian
interest. Subhas wanted a declaration regarding the independence of India
and although he had a long meeting with Hitler on May 29, 1941 in that
connection, he was not successful in his efforts. A frustrated Bose left
Germany for Japan on 8th February 1943. He still firmly believed that he
would be able to secure help for freeing India from the shackles of British
imperialism.
When the war broke out in the East in 1941, there was great
enthusiasm among the Indians. A large number of associations were set
up to help in the liberation of India from the British. Out of these associations
was born the idea of an Indian Independence League. On 4 December
1941, the Indian Independence League was renamed as the Indian National
Army (lNA). Through the efforts of Rash Bihari Bose who had left India
and settled in Japan, a conference was held at Tokyo on March 28-30,
1942. A resolution was passed at that conference that the Indian National
Army should be formed under the direct command of Indian officers who
were to conduct the campaign for the liberation of India. An Indian
Independence League of Overseas Indians was provisionally set up and it
was decided to have a fully representative conference of Indians at Bangkok
in June 1942. The Bangkok Conference was held from June 15 to 23 and
was attended by about 100 delegates from Burma, Japan, China, Indo-
China, the Philippines, Malaya, etc. The Congress was presided over Rash
Bihari Bose who unfurled the tricolor flag of India. The Indian National
Army (lNA) with a definite constitution was inaugurated. Its objective was
declared to be the attainment of complete and immediate independence of
India. At the Bangkok conference it was decided to invite Subhas Chandra
Bose to come to East Asia. He arrived from Germany in Tokyo on 13 June
1943. To him Rash Bihari Bose surrendered his power and position. A former
I.N.A soldier, V. Samy said-
“The arrival of Netaji Bose in Southeast Asia kindled a new spirit
among all Indians who began to believe that India would be free soon.
Netaji’s call reached into the hearts and minds of all Indians. His call for
total mobilization to free India generated a tremendous response.
(Netaji Center, Kualalumpur, 1992, Netaji Subhash

Chandra Bose: A Malayasian perspective)
The conference was also attended by the representatives of the Indian

soldiers who had been captured by the Japanese but had given up their
allegiance to the British Government. After the fall of Singapore, 400,000
Indian prisoners of war had fallen into the hands of the Japanese who
handed them over to Captain Mohan Singh who was earlier an officer in
the British Army but later had surrendered to the Japanese. He joined the
Indian independence movement by organizing an army of volunteers known
as the Indian National Army or Azad Hind Fauj. He attended the Tokyo and
Bangkok conference and was chosen as the Commander-in-Chief of the
Indian National Army and also a member of the Council of Action which
had been set up by the Bangkok conference. By August 1942 a division of
the Indian National Army consisting of more than 16000 men were raised

and approved by the Japanese. Mohan Singh and the Japanese military
officers disagreed on many other points. There were dissensions within
the Council of Action and its members resigned. Rash Bihari Bose and
Mohan Singh also had conflict of opinions . The result was that Mohan
Singh was dismissed from his post. A deadlock was created.
Subhas Chandra Bose came to Singapore (which was then under
Japanese occupation) and assumed leadership of the Indian Independence
League and the l.N.A. (July 1943). He was acclaimed as Netaji. He
established a provisional Government of Azad Hind (Free India) in Singapore
(October 1943) which was formally recognized by Germany, Italy and Japan.
The provisional government declared war on Great Britain and United States
of America. General Tojo announced that Andaman and Nicobar islands
were to be ceded to the Provisional Government as Indian land. Subhash
renamed Andaman and Nicobar as Shahid and Swaraj dwip (island).
z Women in Indian National Army
Indian National Army was planned in a way that paved the way for
active participation from women. A women regiment was formed in 1943.
INA had John Thivy, Dr. Lakhsmi Sehgal, Narayan Karruppiah as well as
Janaki Thevar as its members. Among the masses attending Bose‘s rally
on 9 July, Dr. Lakshmi, responded immediately to his appeal to form a
Women’s Regiment. She visited many families to persuade the women to
join the I.N.A. Many were reluctant; however, she managed to gather twenty
enthusiastic girls who were willing to break the traditional barriers. The
girls presented the guard-of-honour to Bose. He was impressed and invited
Dr.Lakshmi to lead the Women‘s Regiment. On 12 July 1943, Bose
announced the formation of the Women’s Regiment, naming it “Rani of
Jhansi Regiment” which in later years was considered to be a special
characteristic of the INA. Janaki Athi Nagappan, who was in the “Rani of
Jhansi” regiment, says:
“The Rani of Jhansi regiment underwent rigorous training. Recruits
were fully aware of the hardships that awaited them in the battlefield along
the Indo-Burmese border. Our girls and women knew that in the battle,

hunger, thirst, fatigue, bombing, injury and death would be constant

companions. But they were inspired by the vision of a free India.”
(Netaji Center, Kualalumpur, 1992, Netaji Subhash Chandra
Bose: A Malayasian perspective)
z March to India
The slogan prescribed by Bose for the I.N.A. was Delhi Chalo (March
to Delhi). This was the call he used to give the INA armies to motivate
them. "Jai Hind", "Glory to India" and such other slogans were used by him
and later adopted by the Government of India and the Indian Armed Forces.
Acting in full cooperation with Japanese troops who had occupied Singapore,
Malaya and Burma, the I.N.A. began its offensive in March 1944 and
advanced through Burma as much as 150 miles into Indian territory.
The INA's first commitment was in the Japanese thrust towards
Eastern Indian frontiers of Manipur. INA's special forces, the Bahadur Group,
were extensively involved in operations behind enemy lines both during
the diversionary attacks in Arakan, as well as the Japanese thrust towards
Imphal and Kohima, along with the Burmese National Army led by Ba Maw
and Aung San. The national tricolour flag was planted on the Indian soil on
19 March 1944. The towns of Kohima and Imphal were placed under siege
by divisions of the Japanese, Burmese and the Gandhi and Nehru Brigades
of INA, during the attempted invasion of India, also known as Operation U-
GO. But by this time, the Axis powers started facing defeat on several
fronts.
On 8th July 1944, the Japanese military leader took the unilateral
decision of withdrawing army from Imphal and Arakan fronts. Subhas
opposed the decision, but in face of absolute non-cooperation of the
Japanese, the I.N.A was forced to retreat. It is said that Subhas Bose
probably died in an air crash on 18th August 1945, although the incident of
his death is still shrouded in a mystery. Japan's surrender at the end of the
war also led to the eventual surrender of the Indian National Army. The
troops of the British Indian Army were repatriated to India and some tried
for treason.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Answer the following questions:

4. What was the condition in the agreement
between Subhas Chandra Bose and Nazi
Germany?
...............................................................................................
5. Write the names of two women soldiers of I.N.A.
...............................................................................................
6. In which year was the national tricolour flag first hoisted on the
Indian soil by the I.N.A?
...............................................................................................
9.5 INA TRIALS
After the world war ll was over, the Government of India decided to try
those Indian soldiers who had joined the Indian National Army. About 25,000
Indian soldiers who had joined the Indian National Army were rounded up
after the collapse of the Japanese army in Burma. On the basis of evidence
in their possession, the military authorities brought charges against some
of the officers not only of waging war against the King but also of committing
gross brutalities. The INA trials or the Red Fort Trials refer to the courts
martial of a number of officers of the Indian National Army between
November 1945 and May 1946 variously for treason, torture, murder and
abetment to murder.
The first, and most famous, of the approximately ten trials was held in
the Red Fort in Delhi. In total, approximately ten courts-martial were held.
The first of these, was the joint court-martial of Colonel Prem Sahgal, Colonel
Gurubaksh Singh Dhillon and Major General Shah Nawaz Khan. The three
had been officers in the British Indian Army and taken POW in Malaya or
Singapore. They had, like a large number of other troops and officers of the
British Indian Army, joined the Indian National Army and later fought in

Imphal and Burma alongside the Japanese forces. These three came to be
the only defendants in the INA trials who were charged of "Waging War
against the King Emperor" (The Indian Army Act of 1911 did not have a
separate charge for treason) as well as Murder and abetment of Murder.
Those charged later only faced trial for torture and murder or abetment of
murder.
There was a lot of enthusiasm in the country. An INA Defense Fund
was set up. A lot of money was collected. The Indian National Congress set
up panel of defense lawyers which included men like Bhulabhai Desai, Sir
Tej Bahadur Sapru and others. Even Jawaharlal Nehru put on the gown of
a lawyer on the newspapers; the people of India came to realize the
tremendous sacrifices made by the INA men for the liberation of their country.
There was great resentment at the prosecution of the patriots and there
were popular demonstrations all over the country. The result was that
although the accused were convicted but ultimately the sentence of
transportation for life was remitted and they were simply fined. Taking into
consideration the mood of the people at large, the Government of India
decided to drop all further proceedings against the INA prisoners of war.
9.6 SIGNIFICANCE
It is rightly said that the INA occupies an important place in the history
of India’s struggle for freedom. The formation of the Indian National Army
and the brave fight put up by the INA men opened the eyes of the British
Government to the danger of holding India under its rule and that was
ultimately one of the reasons why the British Government hastily decided
to leave India. The activities of I.N.A provided an unprecedented sense of
communal solidarity. Never before that had the Indian community been so
united in a single movement. Indians of all classes and backgrounds joined
the movement.
The provisional Government set up by Netaji Subhas Bose and the
Indian National Army organized by him brought the Indian question out of
narrow domestic sphere of the British Empire into the field of international

politics. The recognition of the provisional Government of free India by Japan,

Germany and Italy and other countries gave a new status to India. The
world opinion was affected by the exploits of Netaji Subas Chandra Bose
and Indian National Army. The INA also proved that Indian soldiers were
not mere mercenaries. They were willing to sacrifice their life for the sake
of the country. The officers of INA set up a brilliant record of communal
harmony and commandership. The INA comprised of Hindus, the Muslims,
Sikhs and others not only as soldiers but also as Commanders.
The agitation surrounding the trials turned the issue of Independence
for India into a burning question instantly. The trials provoked massive public
outcries in support of the INA officials and their effort to fight for Indian
independence against the Raj, eventually triggering the Bombay mutiny in
the British Indian forces.
INA fighters were not invited to join the Indian Army after India`s
independence. However, a few ex-INA members later have seen prominent
public life or held important positions in independent India.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

7. Write the names of the three I.N.A soldiers
whose trial was famous?
...............................................................................................
8. Write the two names of lawyers who defended I.N.A soldiers
during trials.
...............................................................................................
9. What according to you was the main significance of I.N.A?
...............................................................................................

9.7 LET US SUM UP
After going through this Unit, you have learnt that-

z Subhash Chandra Bose held extremist ideologies towards the question
of India’s freedom struggle.
z He took the lead to fight the British with the aid of Japan, through INA.
z The INA consisted of soldiers from all classes and ranks.
z The trial of the INA officials brought into light the anti-British sentiments
across the world leading to the hasty exit by the British from India.
9.8 FURTHER READING
1. Bhargava, Moti Lal. (1984). Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in South

East Asia and India’s Liberation War (1943-45). New Delhi, India:
Vishwavidya Publishers.
2. Bose, Sisir Kr. (1973). A Beacon Across Asia: A Biography of
Subhash Chandra Bose. New Delhi, India: Orient Longman.
3. Chatterjee, S. and Ray, S. Guha (2nd edition). (2015). History of
Modern India, 1707-1964. Kolkata, India: Progressive Publisher.
9.9 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOU PROGRESS
Ans to Q. No. 1: Subhas Chandra Bose resigned from the Civil Service on
account of his nationalistic zeal.
Ans to Q. No. 2: in March 1939 Subhas Chandra Bose gave an ultimatum
to the government of India to make India free within six months.
Ans to Q. No. 3: Differences cropped up between Bose and Gandhi
because Bose was not ready to accept the federal structure of

the constitution. Their conflict was also on the issue of formation

of Congress Working Committee broke out.
Ans to Q. No. 4: The condition in the agreement between Subhas Chandra
Bose and Nazi Germany was that Indian forces could only be
used against the English troops and with Indian interest.
Ans to Q. No. 5: Dr. Lakhsmi Sehgal & Janaki Athi Nagappan
Ans to Q. No. 6: The national tricolour flag was planted on the Indian soil
on 19 March 1944.
Ans to Q. No. 7: The three soldiers of I.N.A were Colonel Prem Sahgal,
Colonel Gurubaksh Singh Dhillon and Major General Shah
Nawaz Khan.
Ans to Q. No. 8: Bhulabhai Desai and sir Tej Bahidur Sapru defended
I.N.A soldiers during trials
Ans to Q. No. 9: I.N.A opened the eyes of the British Government to the
danger of holding on India under its rule and that was ultimately
one of the reasons why the British Government hastily decided
to leave India.
A) Very Short Questions (answer each question within 50 words)

1. State the political ideologies of Subhash Chandra Bose?
2. Why did Subhash Chandra Bose leave India?
3. Why did I.N.A fail to achieve its goal?
4. Why did Subhash Chandra Bose choose to ally with the Axis powers?
B) Short Questions (answer each question within 150-300 words)
1. Write a short note on :
a. I.N.A trials and its impact.
b. Rani Jhansi Regiment.

C) Long Questions (answer each question within 300-500 words)

1. Discuss the formation of I.N.A and its achievements?
2. Analyse the contribution of Subhash Chandra Bose’s in India’s
struggle for freedom?
*** ***** ***

UNIT - 10 : INDIA DURING WORLD WAR II
UNIT STRUCTURE

10.2 Introduction
10.3 Cripps Mission
10.4 Wavell Plan and Shimla Conference
10.5 Cabinet Mission Plan
10.6 Mountbatten Plan
10.7 Further Reading
10.8 Let Us Sum Up
10.9 Check Your Progress

z discuss the developments that took place in the form of negotiations
in India after the end of the Second World War
z discuss and analyse the various negotiations that took place, eg.,
Cripps Mission, Wavell Plan, etc.
z discuss the impact of these negotiations in paving way for India’s
independence.
10.2 INTRODUCTION
In the earlier Unit, we discussed the nationalists hero Subhas Chandra

Bose and his contribution to the freedom struggle of India. His ideology
often clashed with the moderate Congress leaders and hence he chose a
separate path to free his motherland.
In this Unit, we will discuss the immediate impact of the World War II
on India. The political atmosphere was charged with the fervour of
nationalism and the leaders of the nationalist movement were desperately
looking for a final solution to the question of the independence of India

India during World War II Unit - 10
(matrubhumi). The attempts to reach a solution through Shimla Conference,

Wavell Plan, Cripps Mission will be discussed in detail in this Unit. We will
also look into the details of the various negotiations that took place between
the British and the Indian leaders to reach a consensus on the question of
independence and partition of India. The negotiations to be discussed are:
Mountbatten Plan and Cabinet Mission Plan.
10.3 CRIPPS MISSION
The August Offer failed to satisfy the Indian leaders and at the same
time the pressure of World War compelled British to negotiate. With the
Japanese threat coming to reality, a mission was sent to negotiate for a
political settlement in India. Their aim was to get the Indian consent for
cooperation during the War. As a mark of conciliation, a Committee headed
by Sir Stafford Cripps was sent to India. The announcement of sending a
Mission to India was a favourable sign- firstly, it assured the Indians that
the British Government would not take undue advantage of the differences
between the different groups and communities in the country. Secondly,
Cripps would sit for private meetings with the nationalists’ leaders and hence
there was no scope for the disruption by the minority on the issue of transfer
of power.
Sir Cripps was a member of the British War Cabinet. He reached
India on 23rd March, 1942. During the World War II, Cripps was among the
few who felt that dragging India into the war was not a good decision. He
was accompanied by Mr F.F. Turnbull, Mr A.D.K. Owen and Mr Graham
Spry. During his stay in India, he met with the Indian leaders and talked with
them over the issues of concern. He interviewed many prominent leaders
of that time which included- Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, C Rajagopalachari,
Liaquat Ali Khan, Jinnah, BR Ambedkar etc., to discuss the Draft Declaration.
Even though many leaders were impressed by Cripps, yet leaders like
Subhas Bose, VK Krishna Menon were sceptical of the entire Mission and
had no faith in Cripps.
The main provisions provided by the Cripps Mission were-
a) Dominion Status would be provided to India within the British

Unit - 10 India during World War II
Empire, once the war was over. The Mission proposed for an
“Indian Union” with 11 provinces each of which would help in
the making of the Constitution.
b) A post war Constitution was to be drawn by members who would
be elected by the provincial assemblies and nominated by the
rulers in case of the princely states.
c) Any princely state would be free to choose the new constitution
and in case the state choose to opt out of it, it would have the
right to sign a separate agreement with the British
The Mission gave no definite solution to the question of immediate
change in the Constitutional development of India. There was no sign of
immediate transfer of power by the British to India. Moreover, the provision
would also allow the minority dominated places to opt out the Union, hinting
at the Muslims. It failed to appease the Congress leaders and the Muslim
League leaders. The Dalits also rejected the offer as there was no mention
of Dalit representation or a separate electorate. Jinnah rejected the proposal
as it revealed no sign of a separate homeland for the Muslims which he had
been demanding since 1940. Hence, both the parties refused to accept the
offer as proposed by the Cripps Mission. As a result the Mission turned out
to be a failure.
Gandhi met the members of the Cripps Mission but rejected the offer.
Gandhi termed the offer as a “post dated cheque”. The cause for the failure
of Mission lies in the strong opposition from the British Government to settle
the Indian question. The Government was determined to continue their
power and involve an unwilling India in the European War. In the same way,
Indian nationalists demanded for the formation of a “national government”
immediately.
LET US KNOW
Sir Cripps organised many Press conferences during

his stay in India and it soon turned into a viable medium
to voice opinions and also caught the attention of the people.

10.4 WAVELL PLAN
On 14th June, 1945, Amery, the Secretary of the State of India, made
a statement which is popularly known as the “Wavell Plan”. Wavell was the
then Viceroy and Governor General of India. He explained the Plan through
broadcast to the Indians on the same day. The main aim of this Plan was to
ease the political tension that had cropped up owing to the irreconcilable
difference between the Congress and the Muslim League. The main points
of this Plan were:
z The Viceroy’s Executive Council would be reconstituted with Indian
members nominated by the Viceroy to the Crown, and selected from
the leaders of the political parties at the Centre and provinces with an
equal distribution among the minorities like Muslims and Caste Hindus.
z External affairs would remain under the charge of an Indian of the
Viceroy’s Executive Council.
z Fully accredited Indian members of the Executive Council would
represent India abroad
However, Lord Wavell proceeded with the first step of calling for a
meeting with the Indian leaders to select the lists of members to be
nominated for the Viceroy’s Executive Council. He called for a Conference
in Shimla and invited premiers and ex-premiers, political leaders,
spokesmen, representatives etc.
Shimla Conference (1945)
On June 25, the Shimla Conference was held as an attempt at reaching
a point of compromise between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim
League and to end the political deadlock. The Shimla Conference was a
failure because in the opinion of Lord Wavell, the Conference could not
reach a consensus on the issue of the strength and composition of the
Viceroy’s Executive Council. Lord Wavell himself did not pursue the matter
after the plan was rejected by the Muslim League. His
Jinnah’s uncompromising attitude was equally responsible for the
failure of the Shimla Conference. His assertion that Muslim League was

entitled to solely represent the entire Muslim population in the country stood
in the way of negotiations. He called for prior acceptance of the Muslim
League’s sole right to choose Muslim representative for the Viceroy’s Council.
This was highly unfair given the fact that the reach of the Muslim League
was not wide unlike the Congress. And not all Muslims accepted the
leadership of the League.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1. Name the members of the Cripps Mission.
...............................................................................................
2. Who termed the Cripps Mission as a “post dated cheque”?
...............................................................................................
3. Who was Amery?
...............................................................................................
10.5 CABINET MISSION PLAN
We have already come to know that the attitude of the British

Government towards India was sympathetic and it wanted to solve the Indian
problems. On February 19, 1946, the British Prime Minister, Clement Attlee
announced a Cabinet Mission to India to resolve the Indian deadlock. The
Mission consisted of three cabinet ministers- Lord Pethick Lawrence, Sir
Stafford Cripps and A.V. Alexander. They arrived in Delhi on March 24,
1946. The Mission discussed with 742 Indian leaders in 182 meetings. The
Mission announced its plan, which is known as ‘Cabinet Mission Plan’.
The Cabinet Mission Plan declared that India would have a federal
government including the princely states and the provinces of British India.
Representatives of both the provinces and the princely states would be
included in the Executive and Legislature of the federal government. The
federal government would deal with defence, foreign affairs and
communication and the other subjects would be vested in the provinces.

The Mission also made a provision for a Constituent Assembly for India. It
was provided that in the proposed Constituent Assembly each province
would be given representation on the basis of its population. Till the framing
of the Constitution a 14 member interim government having the support of
all the major political parties of India would be set up at the centre. In this
government all the portfolios should be held by the Indian Ministers. The
Mission also proposed that every communal issue would be decided by a
majority vote of the representatives of both the major communities present
and voting. It was decided that the provinces of British India would be divided
into three groups. The first group would consisted of Hindu majority
provinces, the second Muslim majority provinces and the third would be
consisting of Bengal and Assam having almost the equal number of the
Hindus and Muslims. Each group was to settle its own constitution. The
representatives of all of them were to meet in a Constituent Assembly to
draft a Constitution for the Union.
The Cabinet Mission’s proposal to ‘group’ Assam with Bengal was
strongly resented by the people in Assam as it was intended towards creating
a predominantly Muslim zone in Eastern India like the one proposed to be
set up in Western India. Assam would lose her identity and individuality in
the political whirlpool of Muslim India, although she was not, and had never
been a Muslim majority province. The Prime Minister of Assam Lokopriya
Gopinath Bardoloi expressed strong disapproval of the plan and directed
the ten representatives of Assam to the Constituent Assembly not to sit in
section with any other Province for devising the Constitution of Assam or
any group Constitution with such other province for settlement of any
question relating to Assam. Gandhiji too sympathized with Assam’s stand
and said that Assam would be finished if she failed to maintain her stand.
Finally, Gopinath Bardoloi succeeded in convincing the other Indian leaders
about the justness of Assam’s case and in getting this part of the Cabinet
Mission’s Plan scrapped.
The Cabinet Mission Plan was acceptable to almost all the political
parties. The Muslim League accepted it and so did the Indian National

Congress. Elections to the Constituent Assembly resulted in the

overwhelming victory of the Congress. Out of the 296 seats, the Congress
captured 212 whereas the League could manage only 73.
10.6 MOUNTBATTEN PLAN
The political situation of India started worsening. The activities incited

communal riots and the country was on the verge of a civil war. The British
Government decided to transfer the power to responsible Indian hands at
the earliest. On February 20, 1947 Lord Attlee, the Prime Minister made
the momentous announcement that it was the definite intention of His
Majesty’s Government to effect the transfer of power to responsible India
hands by a date not later than June 1948.
On March 24, 1947, Lord Mountbatten replaced Lord Wavell as the
Viceroy. After having discussions with the leaders of different political parties
Lord Mountbatten arrived at the conclusion that it was impossible to have a
compromise between the Congress and the League and the only solution
to the problem was the partition of the country. Therefore, he started making
efforts to persuade the important leaders of the Congress like Mahatma
Gandhi, Sardar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru to agree to the partition of the
country. Although the Congress had always opposed the partition and Gandhi
had declared in very clear words that the country would be partitioned only
over his dead body, now it had started appearing that in order to save the
country from a terrible destruction and blood bath, there was no alternative
but to accept the partition. At last, the main leaders of the Indian National
Congress arrived at the conclusion that accepting the partition of the country
and making India more powerful and organized was the best alternative.
The Viceroy announced the partition of India on June 3, 1947 which was
accepted by all the political parties under the “Mountbatten Plan”
Under the terms of the Mountbatten Plan on August 15, 1947, the
British Government would transfer the power to a government formed in
accordance with the wishes of the people. The Government would not create
any hurdles in the way of the present Constituent Assembly. The Constitution

framed by the Constituent Assembly would be implemented only in those

parts which accepts it willingly. According to the Plan, India would be
partitioned into two parts – India and Pakistan. The members of the Punjab
and Bengal provincial legislature, representing Hindu majority and Muslim
majority districts were to meet separately. If a simple majority of either part
decided in favor of partition, it would take place. A plebiscite would be held
in the North West Frontier Province to see which dominion they would like
to stay with. Such a plebiscite also would be conducted in Sylhet district of
Assam. It was left to the princely states to join either India or Pakistan. The
Plan also stated that India and Pakistan should have the right to give up the
membership of the Commonwealth.
LET US KNOW
Plebiscite: A vote made by all the members of an

electorate on an important public issue.
In order to give effect to the Mountbatten Plan, the British Parliament

passed the Indian Independence Act on July 14, 1947. Accordingly, the
British Empire in India came to an end and two sovereign states namely
India and Pakistan were born. According to the Act, on 15 August 1947, the
British Government would completely transfer all its authority to two
independent dominions- India and Pakistan. Britain would hand over the
authority to the sovereign legislature of each dominion. They would enjoy
the full rights to severe their countries from the British Commonwealth of
Nations. The territories of both the dominions would be demarcated. The
Indian dominion would include Bombay, Madras, Central Province, Bihar,
Orissa, United Provinces, Bengal, Eastern Punjab, Assam excluding the
Muslim majority areas of the district of Sylhet, Delhi, Ajmer and Coorg. The
territories of Pakistan included the remaining parts of India namely Sindh,
North West Frontier Province, Baluchistan, Western Punjab, Eastern Bengal
and the Muslim majority areas of the district of Sylhet in Assam. Each
dominion should have a Governor-General, but if both the dominions agree

and if it is so desired the same person could be appointed as the Governor-

General of both the dominions. The princely states were free to join either
the Indian Union or Pakistan or even to be absolutely independent. Thus,
with the Independence Act of 1947 the final and most important step of the
Indian constitutional development was completed. India became free on 15
August, 1947 and thus the long cherished dream of Indians came true.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

4. Why was the Cabinet Mission’s proposal to
‘group’ Assam with Bengal was resented in
Assam?
................................................................................................
5. Who became the Viceroy after Lord Wavell?
................................................................................................
10.7 LET US SUM UP
After going through this unit, you have learnt that-

z The Government did not show any concern towards the Indian
demand for self-government nor did it take any measures for the
transfer of power.
z The growing unrest among the people compelled the British to reach
out to the people and sit for negotiations.
z All attempts to reach a conclusion ended up in failure due to the
uncompromising attitude of the Congress and the Muslim League.
10.8 FURTHER READING
1. Agarwala, R. C. (2005). Constitutional History of India and National

Movement, New Delhi, India: S. Chand and Company.

2. Mukherjee, Bipan Ch. M, Mukherjee, A, Panikkar, KN and Mahajan,

Sucheta (1989). India’s Struggle for Independence, New Delhi, India:
Penguin India
10.9 ANSWER TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Ans. to Q. No.1: Sir Stafford Cripps, Mr F.F. Turnbull, Mr A.D.K.

Owen and Mr Graham Spry.
Ans. to Q. No.2: Gandhi
Ans. to Q. No.3: Secretary of State of India
Ans. to Q. No.4: The Offer was intended towards creating a
predominantly Muslim zone in Eastern India like the one
proposed to be set up in Western India. Assam would lose
her identity and individuality
Ans. to Q. No.5: Lord Mountbatten
A) Very Short questions (answer each within 50 words)

1. Why did the Shimla Conference fail?
2. Who were the members of the Cabinet Mission Plan?
3. When was the Mountbatten Plan announced?
4. Which political party succeeded the Conservative Party in England
in 1945?
B) Short questions (answer each question within 150 words)
1. Write about the reaction of the people of Assam regarding the
grouping system of the Cabinet Mission Plan.
2. Write a note on the visibility of Communal tension all over India after
the World War-II.
3. Discuss the reaction of the political parties towards the Mountbatten
Plan.

4. What were the Provisions of the Mountbatten Plan?

C) Long questions (answer each within 300-500 words)
1. Throw light on the British attitudes towards the freedom struggle of
India after the Second World War.
2. Why was the Cabinet Mission sent to India? What were the main
features of its scheme?
3. Discuss the circumstances leading to the partition of India. Discuss
the main provisions of the Indian Independence Act of 1947.
*** ***** ***

UNIT - 11 : COMMUNALISM IN INDIA
UNIT STRUCTURE
11.1 Learning objectives

11.2 Introduction
11.3 Ideologies and Practices
11.4 Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
11.5 Hindu Mahasabha
11.6 Muslim League
11.7 Let Us Sum Up
11.9 Answer to Check Your Progress

z explain the idea of ‘Communalism’ and the factors responsible for
its growth
z discuss how Communalism led to the growth of separatist
tendencies within the Indian National Movement
z discuss the various organisations like the Muslim League, Hindu
Mahasabha and RSS.
11.2 INTRODUCTION
In the earlier Units while discussing the situation just prior to Indian
gaining independence, we had discussed the various options forwarded by
the British Government, Missions and Plans, Various political talks and
negotiations aimed at solving differences between major political parties
on transition of power took place. Some of the major British initiatives were
Shimla Conference, Cripps Mission, Wavell Plan, Mountbatten Plan and
Cabinet Mission Plan. At that time major political parties were divided on
communal lines.

Unit - 11 Communalism in India
In this Unit, we will elaborate on the issue of “Communalism” and its

emergence in India. We will also discuss the influence of the idea of
communalism and its impact in the Indian political life.
Modern historians believe that ‘Communalism’ is a particular kind of
religious identity and ideology that seek to gain by promoting conflict between
religious communities. Communalism refers to the conflicting interest
amongst the followers of different religions or of religious communities that
makes them mutually incompatible and hostile. It is a system that integrates
communal ownership and federations of highly localised independent
communities. To look upon the communal problem in India, simply as a
Hindu-Muslim conflict based on religious antagonism between them is
misleading. Communalism in India is more of politically motivated than
religiously oriented. Apart from the Hindus and the Muslims, the British
acted as a third party interposing themselves between the Hindus and the
Muslims and thus created a communal triangle.
By the end of the 19th century, Communal riots had already become
a not too uncommon phenomenon in the Indian political and social set up.
The Swadeshi Movement was played up by occasional communal riots.
Under such circumstances, the British masters, who preferred to use the
policy of divide and rule as per their need and convenience, sowed the
seed of communalism in India. Many communal parties like Muslim League
had patronage of the British government for a considerable period of time.
As a whole, from the year of 1937 communalism took a new turn which in
course of time partitioned India into two sovereign dominions- India and
Pakistan.
The policy of divide and rule was at its zenith aimed the growing
separatist tendencies within the Indian National Movement. The most
unequivocal declaration of the Hindus and the Muslims as separate identities
demanding separate nation was made by Mohammad Ali Zinnah at the
Lahore session of the League in March 1940. Demanding the partition of
India, the Muslim League passed a resolution. The moderate nationalist
leaders despite agreeing to partition did not accept the two nation theory.

Communalism in India Unit - 11
The Government had announced in early 1947 that they would leave
India no later than June 1948. However, much sooner than that, Mountbatten
had worked out a plan for dividing the country and for the British withdrawal
and accordingly on August 1947, India achieved Independence with the
division of country in the name of India and Pakistan.
LET US KNOW
Many factors were responsible for the growth of
Communalism in India. The major factors are; Socio-
Economic Condition of India during the Colonial
Period, Policy of Divide and Rule of the British Government, the
Hindu Socio-Religious Reform Movement, the Muslim Communal
Movement, Morley-Minto Reforms, etc.
11.3 IDEOLOGIES AND PRACTICES
People of India had lived with the ideology of communalism so long

that it appears to be a simple, easily understood notion for them. However,
it is not such a simple concept. Communalism or communal ideology consists
of three basic stages of development, each following the other. First, it is
the belief that people who follow the same religion have common non-
religious interest, which is economic, political, social and cultural. The
believers were the persons who saw themselves as Nationalist Hindus,
Nationalist Muslims, Nationalist Sikhs, etc., and not as simple nationalists.
The second stage rests on the notion that in a multi - religious society
like India, the non-religious interests, that is, the social, cultural, economic
and political interests, of the followers of one religion are dissimilar and
divergent from the same of the followers of another religion. The second
stage of Communalism may be described as liberal communalism or
moderate communalism. Most of the organizations and leaders with
communal ideologies before 1937- the Hindu Mahasabha, the Muslim
League functioned within a liberal communal framework.
The third stage of Communalism is reached when the interests of the
followers of different religions or of different communities are seen to be

mutually incompatible, antagonistic and hostile. Extreme communalism or

communalism functioning broadly within a fascist syndrome formed the
third or last stage of communalism. The Muslim League and the Hindu
Mahasabha after 1937 and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS)
increasingly veered towards extreme or fascistic communalism.
11.4 RASHTRIYA SWAYAMSEVAK SANGH (RSS)
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was an overtly aggressive

Hindu Nationalist organisation which focussed mainly on the social and
psychological construction of a Hindu nation. It was an organisation which
is in the nature of a private army. Founded on 27th September, 1925, the
RSS began to branch out beyond Maharashtra. By 1940 it became the
chief ideologue and propagator of extreme Communalism and launched
vicious attack on the Congress leaders during 1946-1947. The RSS calls
itself a non- governmental organisation and claims a commitment of selfless
service to India. The initial impetus was to provide character training through
Hindu discipline and to unite the Hindu community to form a Hindu Rashtra
(Hindu nation). The RSS carries the ideal of upholding Indian culture and
civilizational values.
The founder of the RSS was Keshav Baliram Hedgewar who was a
doctor in the city of Nagpur, British India. He had been charged with sedition
in 1921 by the British Administration and was imprisoned for one year.
Hedgewar was primarily associated with the Hindustan Republican
Association. He adopted the full constitution of erstwhile HRA and
implemented it forcibly in his newly established organisation RSS later on.
It recruited young men who would prepare themselves for a lifetime of service
to the ‘Hindu Rashtra’ a nation state run for and by Hindus.
Mahadev Sadashiv Golwarkar took the charge of running the RSS
after his mentor’s death in 1940. Golwarkar saw three principle threats to
the formation of a Hindu nation- Muslim, Christians and Communists. For
them all the three were foreign in origin and the last one was totally against
religion. The RSS itself was projected by Golwalkar as the chosen vehicle

for this national and civilizational renewal of the Hindus. After Gandhi’s
murder in January 1948, Golwalkar was arrested and the RSS was banned.
He was released from prison and the bar on the organisation was lifted in
July 1949 after they agreed to abjure violence and accept the democratic
principles of the Indian Constitution then being framed.
The philosophy of the RSS promised the Hindus that if they were
devoted and determined enough, they would enjoy a glory in the future that
had apparently been theirs in the past. From the very beginning, the RSS
had set itself in opposition to the Congress. It saw that party as too
sympathetic to the Muslims and its leaders as too appreciative of the West.
It stayed away from the campaigns against colonial rule led by the Congress.
Golwalkar and RSS saw Indian Muslims as second class citizens at best
and as traitors at worst. The Muslims were continually being asked by the
RSS to prove their loyalty to India and to the allegedly Hindu essence of the
nation.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1. What do you mean by the term
“Communalism”?
.................................................................................................
2. What were the factors responsible for the growth of
Communalism?
.................................................................................................
3. Who was the founder of RSS?
.................................................................................................
4. What were its aims and objectives?
.................................................................................................
11.5 HINDU MAHASABHA
Many Hindu writers and political workers talked of Hindu nationalism

and declared that Muslims were foreigners in India. In 1910, the leading
Hindus of Allahabad decided to organise an All-India Hindu Mahasabha.

The Punjab Hindu Mahasabha was founded in 1909. Its leaders were
U.N.Mukherje and Lal Chand. In 1911, the Punjab Hindu Mahasabha
organised a Hindu Conference at Amritsar. The first session of the All-India
Hindu Mahasabha was held in April 1915 under the Presidentship of the
Maharaja of Kasim Bazar. The Hindu Mahasabha set up its headquarter at
Haridwar and used to organise the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Conference at
Haridwar on the occasion of important Hindu fairs. Hindu communalism
came to acquire an organised form in 1915 with the formation of the Hindu
Mahasabha by Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya. He emphasised the socio-
cultural mission of the Hindu Mahasabha.
The provincial election of February 1937 organised on the basis of
restricted franchise and separate electorates further produced separatist
sentiments. The electoral results of the Muslim League and the Hindu
Mahasabha were objectively poor. The landlord and the money lender
parties also fared badly. They began to shift their support to their communal
parties. Thus part of the blame of the culmination of Muslim separation in a
demand for Pakistan must also go to certain Hindu organisation like the
Hindu Mahasabha. In its early stages, nationalist like Malaviya and Lajpat
Rai led the Mahasabha and its main object was to supplement and
strengthen the Congress. But conservative and reactionary elements
gradually assumed a dominant position in the Mahasabha and by 1937
under the leadership of V.D.Savarkar, it propagated the Doctrine of Hindu
Rastra.
The Hindu Mahasabha was organised to remove the social abuses
in the Hindu society like child marriage, casteism, untouchability, etc. Under
the leadership of V.D.Savarkar who became the President of the Hindu
Mahasabha in 1938 and was re-elected again and again, the Mahasabha
developed a political programme. After the death of V.D.Savarkar, Dr.S.P.
Mookherji became the leader of the Hindu Mahasabha and imparted it a
more nationalist outlook. The Hindu Mahasabha never gained that popularity
with the Hindu masses as the Muslim League did with the Muslims in India.
All the same, against the Muslim League’s demand for Pakistan, it raised

the slogan of ‘Akhand Hindustan’. The Hindu Mahasabha’s propaganda of

a Hindu race, Hindu culture, Hindu civilisation and Hindu Rashtra in India
did harden the Muslim League’s attitude and made it more suspicious and
more determined to demand Pakistan.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

5. Name the founder of the Hindu Mahasabha?
..........................................................................
6. What was the aim of Hindu Mahasabha?
.................................................................................................
7. What slogan did the Hindu Mahasabha raise?
.................................................................................................
11.6 MUSLIM LEAGUE
All India Muslim League was founded in 1906. The League supported
the Partition of Bengal and demanded special safeguards for the Muslims.
Later, it secured the acceptance of the demand for separate electorates.
The League soon became one of the main instruments with which the
British hoped to fight the rising national movement. The Muslim League
was a communal body established to look after the political rights and
interests of the Muslim Community alone. The Muslim demand for Pakistan
was based on the two nation theory and it developed between the years
1937 to 1940. This created serious communal problem within the Indian
politics. The Cripps Mission of 1942 proposed the exercise of discretion by
the provinces to negotiate independently and this was highly objectionable
to the congress. The League however rejected the offer as it was demanding
a definite declaration in favour of the creation of a separate Muslim state
and seats on a 50-50 basis with the Congress.
For about a decade, after 1913, the Muslim League came under the
influence of progressive Muslim leaders like Maulana Mohammad Ali,
Maulana Mazhar-ul-Huq, Syed Wazir Hussain, Hasain Imam and
M.A.Jinnah. From 1920 to 1923, the activities of the Muslim League

remained suspended. However the appointment of the Simon Commission

(1927-30) and the Round Table Conferences at London (1930-32) that
followed again brought the Muslim League into activity. By 1934, M.A.
Jinnah, became its undisputed leader. The Communal Award (1932) of the
British Government further widened the gulf between the Hindus and the
Muslims.
The first elections for the provincial legislative councils under the
Government of India Act 1935 were held in 1937. The Muslim League
contested the elections to various legislative bodies but achieved moderate
success. Out of the 485 reserved Muslim seats, the league could capture
only 110seats. Even in the Muslim majority provinces of the Punjab, North
West frontiers province, Bengal the league was trounced by rival Muslim
parties. The Muslim league hoped to form coalition ministries with the
congress in provinces like Bengal, Assam and Punjab and desired the
congress to take Muslim league ministers in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. In
1938, the Muslim League appointed a committee under the chairmanship
of the Raja of Pirpur to report on the oppression of the Muslims in what is
called “Hindu Congress Provinces”. The Pirpur Report fabricated cases of
alleged horrible atrocities perpetuated on the Muslims by the Hindus. The
general attitude towards the Congress was ‘The Muslims think that no
tyranny can be as great as the tyranny of a majority’.
LET US KNOW
The All India Muslim League was formerly inaugurated

on 30th December 1906 with the following aims and
objectives-
z To promote among Indian Muslims feelings of loyalty towards
the British Government and to remove any misconception that
may arise as to the intentions of the government with regard to
any of its measures.
z To protect the political and other rights of the Indian Muslims

and to place their needs and aspirations before the Government

in temperate language.
z So far as possible, without prejudice to the amis mentioned
under (1) and (2) to promote friendly relations between Muslims
and other communities of India.
The Muslim League observed a “Day of Deliverance and Thanks

Giving” when the Congress ministers resigned in October 1939 over the
war issue. Thus from its very inception, the Muslim League was a communal
body established to look after the political rights and interests of the Muslim
community alone. This character was more or less retained till 1947.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
8. In which year was the All India Muslim League

inaugurated?
.................................................................................................
9. Who were the leaders of the Muslim League?
.................................................................................................
10. Why was the Pirpur Committee appointed?
.................................................................................................
11.7 LET US SUM UP
After going through this unit, you have learnt –

z The meaning of the term “Communalism” the various factors
responsible for the growth of Communalism in India and the different
stages of Communal Ideology.
z About the Various Organisations such as Hindu Mahasabha, Muslim
League and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and their aims
and objectives.

z The reasons how Communalism led to the rise of the ‘Two Nation
Theory’.
1. Bandyopadhyay, Sekhara. (2004). From Plassey to Partition: A History

of Modern India. New Delhi, India: Orient Blackswan
2. Chandra Bipan. (1989). India’s Struggle For Independence. New Delhi,
India: Penguin Books
3. Desai, A.R. (2013). Social Background of Indian Nationalism. New Delhi,
India: Popular Prakashan
Ans to Q. No. 1: Communalism refers to the conflicting interest amongst

the followers of different religions or of religious communities that
the scene to be in mutually incompatible and hostile. Communalism
usually refers to a system that integrates communal ownership and
federations of highly localised independent communities.
Ans to Q. No. 2: These are some of the factors responsible for the growth
of Communalism in India: Socio-Economic Condition of India during
the Colonial Period, Policy of Divide and Rule of the British
Government, etc.
Ans to Q. No. 3: Keshav Baliram Hedgewar
Ans to Q. No. 4: The aim of RSS was to provide character training through
Hindu discipline and to unite the Hindu community to form a Hindu
Rashtra
Ans to Q. No. 5: Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya
Ans to Q. No. 6: The Hindu Mahasabha aimed at removing the social
abuses in the like child marriage, casteism, untouchability, etc.

Ans to Q. No. 7: Akhand Bharat

Ans to Q. No. 8: 1906
Ans to Q. No. 9: Maulana Mohammad Ali, Maulana Mazhar-ul-Huq, Syed
Wazir Hussain
Ans to Q. No. 10: The Pirpur Committee was appointed to report on the
oppression of the Muslims in what is called “Hindu Congress
Provinces”.

1. What were the different stages of Communal ideology?
2. When was the Muslim League formed and why?
3. Who were the persons under whom the Muslim League got influence?
4. What is RSS? Why it was formed?
1. Discuss about the aims and objectives of the Muslim League?

2. Write briefly about the role of RSS in Indian politics.
3. What is Communalism? What were its consequences?
4. How did Communalism in India manifest itself after 1937?
C) Long Questions (answer each within 300-500 words)

1. Discuss about the effects of Communalism in Indian politics?
2. What were the factors responsible for the growth of Communalism?
3. Explain the role played by the Muslim League and the Hindu
Mahasabha in Indian Politics?
4. Explain how V.D.Savarkar was related to the Hindu Mahasabha?
*** ***** ***

UNIT - 12 : WOMEN IN FREEDOM STRUGGLE
UNIT STRUCTURE

12.2 Introduction
12.3 Pre-Gandhian Struggle and Women
12.4 Gandhian Movement and Women
12.5 Revolutionary Movement and Women
12.6 Let Us Sum Up
12.8 Answer to Check Your Progress

z explain the role of women in the freedom struggle of India
z describe the active role played by women during the Gandhian era
z discuss the rebellious women who fought against the British for the
independence of India.
12.2 INTRODUCTION
In the previous Unit, we discussed on the issue of Communalism in

India. We discussed the causes leading to the rise of Communalism and
the impact in Indian politics.
In this Unit, we will be discussing the history of Indian struggle
particularly the role of Indian women. Politics completely altered the goals
and activities of organized women. Education, social reform and women’s
rights appealed to some progressive women. Nationalist leaders deliberately
cultivated linkage between peasants, workers and women’s organizations
to demonstrate mass support for their position. Women were amazed to
find political participation approved of by men who wanted their wives to
behave in the home like the perfect wives in religious texts. Manmohini

Women in Freedom Struggle Unit - 12
Zutshi Sahgal, a freedom fighter jailed in Lahore in 1930, wrote about a

woman who joined a demonstration and was arrested while her husband
was at work. He sends word to the jail that she could not return home after
her release. The husband said that it was a great honour to have his wife
arrested but she did not have his permission to leave the house.
But the sacrifice made by the women of India will occupy the foremost
place. They fought with true spirit and unafraid courage and faced various
tortures, exploitations and hardships to earn us freedom. When most of
the men fighters were arrested it was the women folk who came forward
and took charge of the struggle.
The list of great women whose names have gone down in history for
their dedication and undying devotion to the service of India is a long one.
Few among them were- Bhima Bai Holkar, Rani Lakshmi Bai, Begum Hazrat
Mahal, Aruna Asaf Ali, Sarojini Naidu, Annie Besant, Vijay Lakshmi Pandit,
Indira Gandhi, etc.
12.3 PRE-GANDHIAN STRUGGLE AND WOMEN
The colonial discourses on India from very early on were gendered.

The degraded condition of Indian women was taken as an indicator of
India’s inferior status in the hierarchy of civilizations. It is no wonder,
therefore, that the status of women became the main focus of the reforming
agenda of in the 19th century. In their response to the damning critique of
the west, they imagined a golden past where women were treated with
dignity and honour; they urged reforms of those customs, which they
considered to be distortions or aberrations. Thus female infanticide was
banned, sati was abolished and widow remarriage was legalised. In all
cases, reforms in all aspects were linked in the reform movements.
In the 19th century as the women’s question became a part of the
discourses of progress and modernity, a movement for female education
started as a part of the colonised males’ search for the “new woman”. So
far as the Indian educated women were concerned, we may mention the
endeavours of Pandita Ramabai in western India, Sister Subbalaksmi in

Unit - 12 Women in Freedom Struggle
Madras and Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain among the Muslim women
in Bengal. Voices of protest from within the Indian womanhood against
such public stereotyping were rare, but not altogether absent. Tarabai
Shinde, a Marathi woman from Berar was no less a rebel; what she claimed
for Indian women was more respect and dignity in a happy home and the
enlightenment that the colonial state supposedly promised. But there were
other rebels- like Pandita Ramabai- who challenged more directly the new
model of educated but complaining wives. She was a Brahmin woman who
remained unmarried for a long time; she was well versed in the ancient
shastras, married a man from a sudra caste defying the restrictions on
hypergamy, then became a widow with an infant daughter, refused to
withdraw herself from public life, went to England to study medicine and
there converted to Christianity, went to America and raised money for a
widow’s home in Bombay which was later shifted to Poona.
During the Swadeshi movement the women played important role.
They boycotted British goods and used Swadeshi, crushed their glass
bangles and observed non-cooking days as a ritual of protest. Interestingly,
the most powerful imagery that was used to mobilise women’s support in
Bengal around this time was Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity who had
allegedly left her abode because of partition and who had to be brought
back, protected and looked after. There were of course some remarkable
exceptions like Sarala Devi Chaudhurani, who got involved in a physical
culture movement for the Bengali youth, was among a few women who
participated in the revolutionary movement. But in the latter case their
involvement was mostly of a supportive or indirect nature which was that of
giving shelter to fugitive revolutionaries or acting as couriers of messages
and weapons. This nature of participation thus did not abruptly breach the
accepted norms of feminine behaviour or signify their empowerment.
In the period after the first World War, one witnessed the rise of two
eminent women in Indian politics. Annie Besant, the president of the
Theosophical Society and a founder of the Home Rule League, was elected
president of the Congress in 1917. The same year Sarojini Naidu, the

England-educated poet who had been delivering patriotic speeches at

congress sessions since 1906, led a delegation to London to meet Secretary
of State Montagu to demand female franchise. The following year she moved
a resolution at the Congress session demanding equal eligibility for voting
rights for both men and women. In 1925, she too was elected President of
the Congress.
LET US KNOW
In 1889 four years after the INC was founded, ten

women attended its annual meeting. In 1890,
Swarnakumari Ghoshal, a woman novelist and Kadambini Ganguly,
the first woman in the British Empire to receive a BA and one of the
first female medical doctors of India, attended as delegates. From
this time on, women attended every meeting of the INC, sometimes
as delegates but more often as observers.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
1. Who fought for female franchise in colonial

India?
.................................................................................................
2. In your opinion, what was cause behind the growing participation
of women in public sphere?
.................................................................................................
3. In what ways were the women fighting the gender stereotypes?
.................................................................................................
12.4 GANDHIAN MOVEMENT AND WOMEN
It was only with the advent of Gandhi that we see a major rupture in
the story of women’s involvement in the nationalist movement. Gandhi, in
conceptualising the ideal Indian womanhood, shifted the focus from

motherhood to sisterhood, by negating women’s sexuality. It was in South

Africa that he had realised the power of self-less sacrifice that women could
offer and decided to harness it in the service of the nation. Sita-Damayanti-
Draupadi were his role models for Indian women. These women were
represented as no slaves of their husbands, but extremely virtuous and
capable of making supreme sacrifice for the welfare of their family, society
and the state. He accepted what he called the “natural division of labour”
between the sexes and believed that women had a duty to look after the
hearth and home. But from within their ordained spheres, they could serve
the nation by spinning, by picketing at foreign cloth and liquor shops and by
shaming men into action. For him, men and women were equal but had
different roles to play. He accepted women’s biological weakness but turned
that weakness into power by glorifying their strength of soul. He did not
seek to invert the doctrine of two separate spheres of private and public
space but redefined political participation by creating space for politics in
home. In other words, what Gandhi did was “an extraction and reformulation
of received social ideas in moral terms”.
It was first in South Africa in 1913 that Gandhi had for the first time
involved women in public demonstrations and realised the huge political
potential of the Indian womanhood. Back in India during the Rowlatt
Satyagraha of 1919 he again invited women to participate in the nationalist
campaign; but it was withdrawn before any significant advancement in this
direction could take place. When the non-cooperation movement started in
1921, Gandhi initially prescribed a limited role i.e. that of boycott and
Swadeshi. But women claimed for themselves a greater active role. Basanti
Devi, the wife of the Bengal Congress leader C.R.Das, his sister Urmila
Devi and niece Suniti Devi, stunned the nation by participating in open
demonstration on the streets of Calcutta and by courting arrest. Similar
movements took place in other parts of the country, and played an important
role women from respectable middle-class families.

LET US KNOW
At one of the several meetings which Sarojini Naidu

addressed, women decided to form their own political
organization. “Rashtriya Stree Sangha” (RSS) was an independent
women’s political organization, under the presidency of Sarojini
Naidu with Goshiben Naoroji Captain and Avantikabai Gokhale as
Vice Presidents. It stated its goals as swaraj and woman’s emanci-
pation.
It was during the civil disobedience movement that the floodgates

were really opened. Gandhi once again did not want to include women in
his original core group of volunteers on the Dandi March. But on his way he
addressed meetings attended by thousands of women and when the
movement actually took off; thousands of others participated in the illegal
manufacture of salt, picketing foreign cloth and liquor shops and took part
in processions.
The movement, so far as women’s participation was concerned, was
most organised in Bombay, most militant in Bengal and limited in madras.
In North Indian cities like Allahabad, Lucknow, Delhi and Lahore, hundreds
of women from respectable families shocked their conservative men folk
by openly participating in nationalist demonstrations.
LET US KNOW
During the Swadeshi Movement of 1905, women

contributed their gold bangles and jewellery for the
promotion of the movement. Sarala Devi, a niece of
Rabindranath Tagore, opened an emporium called ‘Lakshmir
Bhandar’ in Calcutta for popularising Swadeshi goods. Women
activists in the Swadeshi Movement outside Bengal included Mrs.
Ketkar (daughter of Bal Gangadhar Tilak) and Mrs. A.V.Joshi in
Bombay and Sushila Devi, Har Devi in Punjab.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
4. Name the ideal role model for Indian

womanhood as propounded by Gandhi?
.................................................................................................
5. What was the aim and objective of RSS (Rashtriya Stree
Sangha)?
.................................................................................................
6. According to Gandhi, what was the role for women in the anti-
colonial struggle?
.................................................................................................
12.5 REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT AND WOMEN
From liberal homes and conservative families, urban centres and

rural districts, women- single and married, young and old- came forward
and joined the struggle against colonial rule. Though their total numbers
were small, their involvement was extremely important. Women’s
participation called into question the British right to rule, legitimised the
Indian nationalist movement and won for activist women, at least for a
time, the approval of Indian men. The story of women’s role in the nationalist
struggle is not simply one of those who were told when to march and where
to picket. First, the numbers of women who played some role in this
movement however small far exceeded expectations. The nature of their
work influenced how women saw themselves and how others saw their
potential contribution to national development. At the same time, their
involvement helped to shape women’s view of themselves and of their
mission.
The trend that was set in the 1930s continued into the 1940s, as
women’s active role in the public space became accepted in society. Some
women in Bengal got involved in violent revolutionary movement and this
time unlike the Swadeshi period, they were not in supportive roles; they

were now actually shooting pistols at magistrates and governors. On the

other hand, if a handful of women actually crossed the socially constituted
boundary of feminine modesty by involving in violent revolutionary action,
they were heavily censored by a disapproving society. The Congress and
its leaders were simply not interested in women’s issues and never included
women in any decision making process. A frustrated Sarala Devi
Chaudhurani therefore had to lament that Congress wanted them to be
‘law-breakers only and not law-makers’. Bi Amma or Abadi Banu Begum,
the elderly mother of Shaukat and Muhammad Ali, participated in the
Khilafat-Non-Cooperation after a whole life behind purdah. At a mass
meeting in Punjab, she lifted her veil and addressed the crowd as her
children. A mother did not require a veil in front of her children. From the
beginning, women’s participation in politics took place from a variety of
women-only organisation. These organisations ranged from various local
social organisations, girls’ educational institutions to a number of political
bodies, such as the Rashtriya Stree Sangha or the Des Sevika Sangha,
which acted as auxiliary bodies of the Congress. Then in the early century,
there came into existence a number of women’s organisations, which
operated more actively in the public arena and focused more directly on
women’s political and legal rights. At the all-India level, the first to appear
in Madras in 1917 was the Women’s Indian Association, started by
enlightened European and Indian ladies, the most important of them being
Margaret Cousins, an Irish feminist, and Annie Besant. Then in 1927 the
most important of these organisations, the All India Women’s Conference
came into existence, initially as a non-political body to promote women’s
education, with Margaret Cousins as the main inspirational figure.
Aruna Asaf Ali gave leadership to the underground revolutionary
activities- and this she did by politely turning down Gandhi’s advice to
surrender. However, the most important aspect of this movement was the
participation of a large number of rural women taking their own initiative to
liberate their country.

LET US KNOW
Sarala Devi Choudhurani’s Bharat Stree Mahamandal,

which had its first meeting in Allahabad in 1910,
opened branches all over India to promote women’s
education. In Bengal in the 1920s, as Barbara Southard has shown,
the Bangiya Nari Samaj started campaigning for women’s voting
rights, the Bengal Women’s Education League demanded
compulsory elementary and secondary education for women and
the All-Bengal Women’s Union campaigned for legislation against
illicit trafficking of women. However, instead of mobilising mass
agitations in support of these issues, these women’s organisations
petitioned the government and appealed to the nationalists for
support.
This engagement of rural women was further enlarged with the lifting
of the ban on the Communist Party in 1942. Back in the 1920s and 1930s
many middle class educated women had joined the communist movement
and had participated in mobilising the working classes, in organising
industrial actions and in campaigning for the release of political prisoners.
By 1941 the girls’ wing of the All-India Student Federation had about 50,000
members. In 1942 some of the leftist women leaders in Bengal organised
a Mahila Atmaraksha Samiti or Women’s Self Defence League, mobilised
rural women through it and organised relief work during the Bengal Famine
of 1943.
This involvement of women in the communist movement was
expanded to a new level when the Tebhaga movement began in Bengal in
1946 under communist-led Kishan Sabhas with the sharecroppers’ demand
for two-thirds share of the produce. It saw widespread autonomous action
of the “proletariat and semi proletariat women”, belonging to Dalit and tribal
communities. Through their own initiative they formed Nari Bahinis or
women’s brigades and resisted the colonial police with whatever weapon
they could lay their hands on. Similarly in Andhra, where the Telengana

movement continued from 1946-1951 against the Nizam of Hyderabad

and feudal oppression, women fought side by side with men for better
wages, fair rent and greater dignity. By highlighting certain gender specific
issues, the Communist Party made special efforts to mobilise women as
without their support the movement could not sustain itself for such a long
period. But although this movement created for peasant women a new
space for militant action, they were not treated as equals even by the
communist leaders.
Outside the country, around the same time, an experiment to involve
Indian women in actual military action had been initiated by Subhas Chandra
Bose. In 1943 when he raised the Indian National Army (INA), he decided
to add a women’s regiment, which he called the Rani Jhansi Regiment,
named after Rani Lakshmi Bai, the legendary heroine of the 1857 revolt. In
October 1943, the training camp was opened for the new regiment which
was joined by about 1500 women from elite as well as working class Indian
families of all religions and castes living in South East Asia. They were
given full military training and were prepared for combat duties. The
emergence of the Pakistan movement in the 1940s opened up for the Muslim
women a new space for political action. In the 1930s they had been
participating in a united front with their Hindu sisters to claim women’s
rights, such as female suffrage. But the division appeared in 1935 on the
issue of reservation of women’s seats on a communal basis. Some of the
Muslim leaders of the All India Women’s Conference refused to accept
joint electorates.
The moment of emancipation was so short lived that it could hardly
bring in any actual change in their daily existence. But it signified
nevertheless, an acceptance of a public role for women in Muslim society.
Thus increasingly in the 1940s Indian women across class, caste and
religious barriers claimed agency in their participation in the anti-imperialist
and democratic movements. In Tebhaga movement, a women’s leadership
could emerge only when the leadership of the Communist Party absent.
The trade unions in general, although they mobilised working class women,
ignored women’s issues, which were subsumed within male or general

working class interests. The women of the Telengana came out of their
homes because the movement promised them equality. But they soon found
out that the metaphor of family was being continually emphasised by the
communist leadership whose preference was always to place women within
their traditional boundary. Indeed, partition violence brought the worst
moment for sub continental womanhood, both Hindu and Muslim, as they
became the objects of male construction of community honour. Thus as it
seems, the women’s question in colonial India hardly received the priority
it deserved. Although some women became conscious and actively
participated in the political struggles and also identified themselves in many
ways with the emerging nations, feminism had not yet been incorporated
into the prevailing ideologies of liberation. The honour and interests of the
community and nation still prevailed over the rights of women.
The participation of women in the freedom movement shaped the
movement for women’s right. Most importantly, it legitimized their claim to
a place in the government of India. Women won great respect for their
political work and social benefits followed. In the years following the Civil
Disobedience Movement, more and more women entered the professions
and some men learned to work side by side with them as colleagues. At
the same time, the participation of women had some clear drawbacks.
Those demonstrating claimed to represent all Indian women but the number
of groups involved, other than upper-and middle class Hindu women, was
never large. A few Muslim women were steadfast followers of Gandhi; many
more either found it difficult to accept the overtly Hindu ideological basis of
his ideas or were neglected by the congress organizers.
In Assam, during the freedom struggle movement, while the men
were being arrested and put in jails, women had to take upon the
responsibility on themselves of taking forward the struggle. Women freedom
fighters like Amalprova Das, Chandraprava Saikia, Pushpalata Das worked
hand in hand with Jyoti Prasad Agarwalla and Omeo Kumar Das, Biswadev
Sarma, Bapudev Gogoi et.al. During the police firings, women were
manhandled and thrown to prison. Kanaklata, Kumali Devi, Tileswari were
among the many martyrs of the freedom movement. Initially women were
content with the tasks of providing shelter, mobilizing, propaganda, collection
of funds, processions etc. However, with the progress in the intensity of

the Movement, women began directly participating in the struggle. They
were involved in such activities as derailment of trains, demolition of bridges,
burning of Government buildings, etc.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
7. Name any one auxiliary body of the Congress

for women.
.................................................................................................
8. Why was the participation of women during the nationalist
struggle not an overwhelming success?
.................................................................................................
9. Name the female regiment established by Subhas Chandra
Bose.
.................................................................................................
12.6 LET US SUM UP

z The role played by women in Indian politics before the coming of M.K.
Gandhi was limited. Some of them gave up their feminine role to take
up arms and fight as a revolutionary along with the men folk.
z Both rural and urban, education and illiterate women came out in large
numbers during the freedom struggle.
z While the women were active in participating during the nationalist
struggle, they were not successful in the decision making process
only with a few exception like Saorijini Naidu. Political parties and
associations largely ignored the woman’s issues at hand.

1. Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar. (2013). From Plassey To Partition, Orient

Blackswan; New Delhi, India: Orient Blacksura.
2. Desai, A.R. (2013). Social Background Of Indian Nationalism. Mumbai,
India: Popular Prakashan.
3. Forbes, Geraldine. (2012). Women In Modern India, United Kingdom:
Cambridge University Press.
Ans to Q. No. 1: Sarojini Naidu

Ans to Q. No. 2: Modern Education, Social Reform Movement
Ans to Q. No. 3: By demanding better lives within the household and
active participation in public space.
Ans to Q. No. 4: Sita, Damayati and Draupadi
Ans to Q. No. 5: Swaraj and Woman’s Emancipation
Ans to Q. No. 6: He was not in favour of women taking part in active
politics or in the mass movement.
Ans to Q. No. 7: Dev Sevika Sangha
Ans to Q. No. 8: Not all women from all groups participated in the
movement.
Ans to Q. No. 9: Jhansi Regment.
A) Very Short Questions (each within 50 words)

1. Who was the first woman in the British Empire to receive a B.A?
2. Who was Bi-Amma?
3. Name a women revolutionary.

B) Short Questions (each within 150 words)

1. Who was Sarala Devi? What role did she play in the Swadeshi
Movement?
2. Write a note on Pandita Ramabai.
3. How did the women respond during the Swadeshi Movement?
C) Long Questions (each within 300 to 500 words)
1. Write briefly about some of the political organizations formed by
women.
2. Describe the role of women in the Gandhian Movement.
*** ***** ***

UNIT - 13 : LEFT POLITICS AND SOCIALISM
UNIT STRUCTURE

13.2 Introduction
13.3 Emergence and Growth
13.4 The Communist Party of India
13.5 Trade Union Movement
13.6 Formation of the Socialist Party
13.7 Impact
13.8 Let us Sum Up

z explain the concept or the terminology of “left” and “right” in politics
z discuss historical background behind the emergence of left politics
z analyse the influence of the Left ideology on the Indian national
movement.
13.2 INTRODUCTION
In the previous Unit, we discussed on the role of women in the struggle

for India’s independence. The bravery shown by women during the freedom
struggle has been highlighted in the Unit. In this Unit, we will discuss the
Left politics and Socialism in India.
Before we get to know about the history of the Leftist movement of
India, let first discuss about the historical and ideological significant of the
word ‘Left’. To know about it we have to go back to the period of the French
revolution. During that period, in the National Assembly of France, there
were three groups of politicians, a conservative group which wanted no

Left Politics and Socialism Unit - 13
major changes and were supporter of the monarchy, a liberal group which
wanted limited reforms in the government and a radical group which wanted
drastic changes in the government. Within the National Assembly the
conservative group sat in the right side of the speaker, the liberal in the
centre while the radical group sat in the left. The conservative group which
was form by the anti-Revolutionaries were termed as the ‘Right’. So the
term Right means in political sense as those groups which are oppose to
changes in the existing system of government and socio-economic order.
The radical group who sat in the left side were the pro-Revolutionaries and
were termed as the Left. Thus in political sense does who stand for radical
reforms in the existing socio-political and economy of the society came to
be known as the Left. In the same way the liberals who stand for limited
reforms are known as ‘Centrist’. Left is generally considered as a term
used to mean socialism, which stand for a drastic change in the socio-
economical setup of a capitalist society.
13.3 EMERGENCE AND GROWTH
The emergence of Left politics in India had numbers of circumstances

and reasons. The Leftist movement originated in India as a result of the
development of modern industries and the impact of social movements in
other countries like in Russia, Great Britain. The First World War brought in
a numbers of problems like crippling financial burdens, rising price, famine
conditions which exposed the evils of imperialist-capitalist domination. Then
the revolutionary ideas of Marx along with the successful Socialist Revolution
in Russia and its glory influenced the mind of the Indian intellectuals, political
leaders, and even the workers and made them conscious of a new ideology
with socio-economical changes. Moreover under the guidance of the
Communist government of Soviet Union (Russia) an international
organisation of the Communist parties of the world was formed with the
aim of spreading Leftist politics throughout the world. This also resulted in
the spread of socialism in India. Furthermore the national movement of
India lead by Gandhiji was also spreading political sense in every nook and

Unit - 13 Left Politics and Socialism
corner of the country which created a fertile ground for the inauguration of
a socialist movement. A section of the radicals felt unhappy with the
movement lead by Gandhi, labelled him as the leader of the ‘forces of
reaction’ and saw his non-violence thoughts as an obstructive element in
the growth of a real revolutionary mass struggle against the British
imperialism. It was against these backgrounds that the left politics came
forth in India.
13.4 THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA
Attracted by the Soviet Union and its revolutionary commitment, a

large number of Indian revolutionaries and exiles abroad made their way
there. Among them was Manabendra Nath Roy, a pioneer among the Indian
communist, who along with Lenin, helped evolve the Communist
International’s policy towards the colonies. It was M. N. Roy and seven
other such Indians who met at Tashkent in October 1920 and set up a
Communist Party of India. The flow of communist ideology into India also
led to the formation of various socialist parties. The main form of political
works by the early Communists was to organise peasants’ and workers’
parties and work through them. In Bengal a Communist party named as
Labour Swaraj Party later named as Peasants’ and Workers’ Party was
formed by Muzaffar Ahmad, Qazi Nazrul Islam, Hemanta Kumar Sarkar in
1925. In Bombay a Communist group was formed by Shripad Amrit Dange
under the name of Indian Socialist Labour Party in 1926. Communist groups
were also formed in cities like Lahore and Kanpur. M. N. Roy who was in
contact with the Indian communist suggested the formation of an all-India
Communist organisation, but it could not be possible due to the hostilities
of the British government. In 1924 the government arrested and tried in
court some of the most important communist leaders of the time, which
came to be known as ‘The Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case’.

LET US KNOW
The Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case: In 1924

the British government started a conspiracy case
against the four leading Communist- Muzaffar Ahmad, S. A. Dange,
Shaukat Usmani and Nalini Gupta. The government alleged that
these Communists had established a branch of revolutionary
organisation with the objective of depriving the British king-emperor
of the sovereignty of British India. During the trial Dange claimed
the right to preach socialism in India, as it had allowed in other
parts of British Empire and Great Britain. As a result of this trial
Dange, Ahmad, Usmani and Gupta were sentenced to four years
rigorous imprisonment in May 1924.
It was in December 1925 that Communist leader Satyabhakta

organised an all-India Conference of the Communist in Kanpur, which was
attended by a number of communist, including Nalini Gupta and Muzaffar
Ahmad who were released from jail. It was during this conference that the
formal Communist Party of India was formed. Towards the end of 1926 the
Constitution of the Communist Party of India was published. Thus in spite
of the government repression, the Indian Communist tried to influence the
freedom movement through their ideologies, they led peasant protest and
also organised a series of industrial strikes in Bombay.
By 1929 the government was deeply worried about the rapidly growing
communist influence in the national and trade union movements. The most
severe anti-Communist measure taken by the Government took place in
March 1929, when in a sudden move, it arrested 32 Communist leaders,
including three British Communists—Philip Spratt, Ben Bradley and Lester
Hutchinson. The thirty-two accused were put up for trial at Meerut and it
came to be known as the Meerut Conspiracy Trial. But however instead of
creating problem to their movement, the trial actually increased the popularity
of the communist. The anti-British stance of the communist leaders gained

for them sympathy of the nationalists. The trial was universally criticised in
India. The Congress Working Committee set up a Central Defence
Committee and sanctioned a sum of Rs. 1500. The defence of the prisoners
was taken up by many nationalists including Jawaharlal Nehru, M.A Ansari
and M.C. Chagla. Even Gandhiji visited them in jail and expressed his
sympathy for the communist leaders. The speeches of the Communist in
their defence in the court received wide coverage in the nationalist press
which helped in spreading Communist ideas.
Although the British government could not stop the spreading of the
communist ideas in India, but however the arrest of such a large numbers
of leaders crippled the growing working class movement. Along with this
the Communist Party of India also suffered from both organisational and
ideological articulation. Guided by the resolution of the sixth meeting of the
Communist International, the Indian Communist broke their connection with
the National Congress and started criticising both the right wing and left
wing of congress. But it was the period when the nation was moving towards
the start of a mass struggle against the British government but the new
policies of the communist isolated them from the movement that could have
further increased their influence. Moreover the communists also split into
several smaller groups thus decreasing their organisational power. Although
the Communist movement in India acquired some respectability and its
ideologies got established but due to their isolation the Government found
it difficult to tackle the Communists, and hence, banned the Communist
Party of India on 23 July 1934.
The communist movement in India however did not die out. Many of
the Communists didn’t remain aloof from the national movement and they
took active part in the Civil Disobedience Movement lead by the Congress.
Moreover under the new directives from the Seventh Congress of the
Communist International and with a radical organisational change of the
Communist Party of India under the leadership of J.P. Joshi, the party
changed its earlier position and advocated the formation of a united front
with other anti-fascist organisation. The Indian Communist once again
participated in the activities of the mainstream of the National Movement
led by the National Congress. Along with their participation in the national
movement they also build up strong peasant movements in Kerala, Andhra,
Bengal and Punjab during the period of 1936-1942.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
1. From which country did the concept of left

right come from?
.................................................................................................
2. Who formed the Communist Party of India in Tashkent?
.................................................................................................
3. Who formed the Indian Socialist Labour Party in Bombay?
.................................................................................................
4. When and where was the Communist Party of India formed?
.................................................................................................
5. Who were Philip Spratt, Ben Bradley and Lester Hutchinson?
.................................................................................................
13.5 THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT
With the establishment of the railways, the foundation of the modern

industries in India could be said to be started. The thousands of workers
who were employed in construction of the railways could be considered as
the first batch of the Indian working class. Later many other industries came
up like the coal industries, the many cotton mills and jute mills, the tea
industry where many got employed. But the Indian working class suffered
from all forms of exploitation, they got low wages, had to work for a longer
period in an unhygienic condition of factories. Above all, the colonial situation
created more problems to the working class because they not only faced
economical exploitation under the hand of the foreigners but also from the
native capitalist.
You will now see how the workers organised themselves to fight against
their exploitation. The rise of the trade union is very important to the working

class movement. But what do you mean by ‘Trade Union’?

Trade Union is an association of the workers formed with the purpose
of improving the conditions under which they worked in mills and factories.
With the formation of factories and mills in the 19th century, hundreds of
workers began to work there and they got the opportunity to meet in a daily
basis. But the workers were mostly illiterate and they did not have any idea
in the beginning to form their own organisation. It was the outsiders:- the
politicians, social workers, intellectuals, who tried to educate them and
organised them into unions.
Before the formation of an all-India trade union, there were few
individuals who were moved by the miserable condition of the workers and
tried to improve their working conditions. In Bengal, Sasipada Banerjee
tried to educate the workers by organising night schools. In Bombay, N. M.
Lokhande formed Bombay Mill-Hands Association 1890. Although it was
not a trade union but still it demanded many facilities to the workers, like
reduction in working hours, weekly holidays to the workers. It was in 1919-
1920 that there was a series of strikes in many industrial areas like Kanpur,
Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Jamshedpur and Ahmadabad and a numbers
of workers participated in the strikes. It was in this background that the All
India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was formed in Bombay in 1920. Lala
Lajpat Rai who was then the President of the Indian National Congress was
elected as the first President of the AITUC. The national leaders kept a
close relation with this Trade Union and nationalist like C. R. Das, V. V. Giri,
Sarojini Naidu, Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose presided
over it annual sessions.
Although strikes became frequent in the 1920s, yet the growth of the
trade unionism in India was slow. Factors like different language of the
workers created problem in forming unity among the workers and above all
the employers were opposed to the growth of the trade unions. The fear of
dismissal from jobs also kept the workers away from the trade unions. In
spite of these difficulties the trade union movement was gaining popularity
among the workers because it was through these unions that the workers
got the courage to demand their basic needs from the factory owners. By
1927 there were about 57 trade union affiliated to the AITUC with a
membership of 1,50,555. In the beginning, despite some socialist leaning
the AITUC remained by and large, under the influence of the moderates. It
was with the rise of the Communist movement in India which tried to lend a
militant and revolutionary content to the Trade Union movement.
Unfortunately due to the difference on the basis of program and
ideology the AITUC was split in the later period. It was in 1929 when
Jawaharlal Nehru was the president that the first split occurred on the
question whether the AITUC should boycott the Royal Commission on
Labour appointed by the British Government or not. The moderates wanted
to support the commission while the extremists wanted to boycott it. Finally
the moderates left the AITUC and formed the All India Trade Union
Federation with V. V. Giri as its president. In 1931 there was another split in
the AITUC, when the Communist left it and formed the Red Trade Union
Congress. These split weakened the trade union movement.
From 1935 onward the trade union movement again started to
influence the workers. The number of trade union increased in the years
from 1935 to 1939 and the number of members too increased considerably.
With the increase of trade union the number of strike too increased. Some
the notable strikes of the period were the strike against the Kesoram Cotton
Mills in Calcutta and Ahmadabad textiles in 1935, the Bengal Nagpur Railway
strike from December 1936 to February 1937. The period shows the
expansion of the trade unionism and establishment of their unity by the
leftists and the socialists. But there remain always a tendency of conflict on
the basis of ideology within the AITUC leaders. Thus the Trade Unionism of
India saw a growing polarisation.
13.6 THE SOCIALIST PARTY
The Communists were not only the group of people who believed in
socialism and the ideology forwarded by Marx but there were a section of
Congressmen who too accepted socialism as an ideology. The Congress
Left wing emerged as a result of their disenchantment with Gandhian

strategy and disagreement with the political line of the Communist Party of
India. As a result, many of these Congressmen were grouping towards an
alternative. Thus when Gandhiji suddenly announced the withdrawal of the
Non-Cooperation Movement in 1922 when it was on the verge of a popular
revolt and Civil Disobedience Movement in 1934, the Left-wing came to
conclusion that Gandhian policy will not result in a desired freedom of the
country.
In July 1931, J. P. Narayan, Phulan Prasad Varma and others formed
the Bihar Socialist Party. In 1933 the Punjab Socialist Party was formed.
But ultimately all the leftist of the Congress later came together and formed
the Congress Socialist Party (CSP) at Bombay in October 1934 under the
leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan, Acharya Narendra Dev and Minoo
Masani. The Congress Socialist Party was however not a rival political
party to the Congress as from the beginning the Congress Socialists agreed
upon some of the basic principles:-
z That the socialists must work inside the national congress because
they considered it as the primary body leading the national movement.
z That they must give the congress and the national movement a
socialist direction.
z That to achieve this objective they must organize the workers and
the peasants in their class organization, wage struggle for their
economic demands as well as for carrying on the movement for the
achievement of independence and socialism.
Although both the Communists and the Congress Socialists believed
in Marxism and Socialism, yet there was much difference between the two
groups. First, while the Congress Socialists owed their allegiance to the
Indian National Congress, the Communists owed their allegiance to the
Communist International. Secondly the Congress Socialists were nationalist,
the Communist at the same time also believed in the goal of the international
Communist society. The congress socialists were a group of westernised
middleclass. They were influence by the ideas of Marx, Gandhi and the
Social Democracy of the West. They simultaneously practiced Marxian
Socialism, Congress nationalism and liberal democracy of the West.
The first annual session of the All-India Congress Socialist party was
held in Bombay in October 1934 under the presidentship of Sampurnanda.
The session adopted many programme for the workers and the peasants.
For the workers the Congress Socialist Party would fight for their right of
freedom to form trade union and right to go to strikes, living wage and
insurance against unemployment, sickness, accident and old age. For the
peasants the party put forward demands like abolition of landlordism,
encouragement of cooperative farming, reduction of land revenue and
abolition of feudal levies. Among the first program of the party was their
condemnation of the India Act of 1935 pointing it as anti-people and even
criticised the Congress Party’s acceptance of office in the provinces in
1937. It was also due to their influence that the Congress Election Manifesto
of 1936 contained a programme for the removal of the socio-economic
grievances of the people.
The main objective of the Congress Socialist Party was the
achievement of India’s independence and socialism. In order to fight for
the independence the Congress Socialists joined hands with the anti-
imperialism and non-socialist forces within the Congress. But as their
ultimate aim was to form a Socialist country, the Socialists also worked to
secure acceptance of socialist programme by the Indian National Congress.
The Congress Socialists tried to mobilise the workers and the peasants
for the liberation of the country and their financial difficulties.
There was however a mixed reaction among the Congress due to
the formation of the Congress Socialist Party. The ‘class war’ of the
Congress Socialists was not accepted by the conservative, Right-wing
Congressmen. Even Gandhi also rejected the idea of class war in India.
But the Leftist Congress like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose
welcome the formation of the Congress Socialist Party, although they did
not took its membership. In 1936 Nehru even inducted some Congress
Socialists like Narandra Dev, Jaya Prakash Narayan and Achyut Patwardhan
into the Congress Working Committee. The Congress Socialists played an
important role in the Kisan Movement. The Congress Socialists also took
active part in the democratic movement of the people of the princely states

against their autocratic rulers. They agitated for civic right and responsible
government.
LET US KNOW
Left Politics in Assam: The Left politics in Assam is

said to have been started in Surma Valley which is
presently known as the Barak Valley. In 1935 the Congress Social-
ist Party was formed in the Sylhet district which was then a part of
Assam. However after the formation of the Communist party, the
member of the Congress Socialist Party joined the Communist Party.
It is between the period of 1938-1939, Communists groups began
to be formed in Assam Valley. In Assam too, as in other parts of
India, the Communists organized trade union among the workers
of railroad, oil, tea and coal industry. A massive strike was orga-
nized in the oil industry of Digboi in 1939, which saw the participa-
tion of almost six hundred workers. The strike continued for 15 days.
A regional organisational Committee from Assam was constituted
for participating in the All India Congress of Communist parties held
in 1943. The Communist Party was formed in the same year. The
Communists in Assam also supported the anti-imperial struggle
headed by Congress party against the British.
13.7 IMPACT
It was the Industrial Revolution that led to the development and growth
of the Marxist/Socialist or the Leftist movement in Europe. In India the
Leftist movement owes its origin to the development of the modern
industries. The rise of the Leftist movement in India had provided an
influential effect to the national polity and to the society. The organisations
of the workers and peasants were one of the greatest achievements of the
Indian Leftist. The Left had also made an equally important impact on the
Congress. Nehru and Bose who were much influence by the Leftist ideology
were elected Congress presidents from 1936 to 1939. In 1939 Bose as a
candidate of the Left, was able to defeat Pattabhi Sitaramayya in the
presidential election of the Congress by a majority of votes. The Congress

which was leading the National movement, including its Right-wing,
accepted many of the Leftist ideas, that the poverty and misery of the
Indian people was the result not only of colonial domination but also of the
internal socio-economical structure of Indian society. The impact of the
Left on the National movement can also be witness in the resolution on
Fundamental Rights and Economic policy of Karachi session of Congress
in 1931, the resolution on Economy policy passed at Faizpur session of
1936, the setting up of a National Planning Committee in 1938. Above all,
two major parties of the Left, the Communist Party of India and the Congress
Socialist Party, had been formed, which also paved the way in the formation
of other Left oriented parties, like, The Forward Bloc, Revolutionary Socialist
Party. Thus it can be said that the Left had put a profound impact on the
National polity.
LET US KNOW
The Forward Bloc: After resigning from his position

in 1939, Subhash Chandra Bose formed the Forward
Bloc in March 1939. The Bloc accepted the creed, policy and
programme of the Congress but was not bound to have confidence
in the Congress high command; it sought to rally all anti-imperialist,
radical and progressive groups under one banner. It played a role in
organising the Left Consolidation Committee.
Revolutionary Socialist Party: The extremists of the 20th century
provided the core of this organization, formed in 1940. It stood for
violent overthrow of the British imperialism and establishment of
Socialism in India. Ideologically the RSP was closer to the Congress
Socialist Party than the Communist Party. In the Gandhi-Bose tussle,
the RSP supported Subhash Chandra Bose. The party described
the transfer of power and partition as a “back-door deal between
the treacherous bourgeois leadership of the Congress and
Imperialism”.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
6. Who formed the Bombay Mill-Hands

Association?
.................................................................................................
7. Who was the first President of All India Trade Union Congress?
.................................................................................................
8. Who formed the Bihar Socialist Party?
.................................................................................................
9. When was the Congress Socialist Party formed?
.................................................................................................
13.8 LET US SUM UP
After going through this Unit, you have learnt that -

z The word ‘Left’ in political terms means those groups of political parties
which stand for radical reforms in the existing socio-economic and
political condition of the society.
z The origin of the Leftist movement in India lies in the changes brought
by the introduction of modern industries during the British rule. The
revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx and the glory of Soviet Russia had
influenced a numbers of Indians into the Leftist ideology.
z M. N. Roy along with some other Indians formed a Communist Party
for the Indians in Tashkent, Russia. The British government became
worried with the works of the Communists as a result the Communist
Party of India was even banned by the British in 1934.
z ‘Trade Union’ means an association of the workers formed with the
purpose of improving the conditions under which they works in the
factories and mills.
z The Congress Socialist Party worked within the Congress in order to

transfer it into a more Socialist oriented party. The CSP was not a
rival to the National Congress Party.
z The Leftist movement had in fact influence profoundly into the Indian
national politics. It was due to the influence of Leftist ideology which
resulted in the acceptance of planned economy and fundamental rights
of the Indian constitution.
1. Bandyopadhyay, Sekhara. (2010). From Plassey to Partition, A History

of Modern India. New Delhi, India: Orient Black Swan
2· Chandra, Bipan. (1989). India’s Struggle for Independence. New
Delhi, India: Penguin Books.
3. Majumdar, R. C. (1988). An Advance History of India (ed.). Madras,
India: Macmillan
Ans to Q. No. 1: France.

Ans to Q No. 2: M. N. Roy.
Ans to Q No. 3: Shripad Amrit Dange.
Ans to Q No. 4: In 1925 in Kanpur.
Ans to Q No. 5: British Communist.
Ans to Q No. 6: N. M. Lokhande.
Ans to Q No. 7: Lala Lajpat Rai.
Ans to Q No. 8: J. P. Narayan, Phulan Prasad Varma and others.
Ans to Q No. 9: In October, 1934.

A) Very Short Questions (Answer each question in about 50 words)

1. What do you means by ‘Left’ in politics?
2. Name the Communist leaders arrested in Kanpur conspiracy case?
3. Who defended the Communist leaders of the Meerut conspiracy
case?
4. What is a Trade Union?
5. Name some of the Nationalist leaders who presided the annual
sessions of the AITUC?
B) Short Questions (Answer each question in about 50 words)
1. What was the Kanpur Conspiracy case?
2. What were the basic difference between the Communist party of
India and the Congress Socialist Party?
3. What were the problems of the Indian workers?
4. What were the difficulties that slow down the growth of the trade
unions?
5. Why did the British try to suppress the Leftist movement in India?
C) Long Questions (Answer each question in about 150 words)
1. How did the Meerut Conspiracy case helped in the spread of
Communist ideology?
2. What were the difficulties faced by the Indian Communist?
3. What were the circumstances leading to the formation of the
Communist Party of India?
4. Trace the circumstances leading to the formation of the Congress
Socialist Party in 1934.
*** ***** ***
India Under the Crown

UNIT - 14 : PARTITION AND RESPONSE
UNIT STRUCTURE

14.2 Introduction
14.3 Background
14.4 Response : Riots, Popular Movements
14.5 Let us Sum Up

z explain nature of the communalism in the period leading to India’s
freedom
z describe the background to the demand for Pakistan
z discuss the political condition of India before the partition
z discuss the position of Muslim League, the British and the Congress
towards the partition of India
14.2 INTRODUCTION
In the earlier Unit, we have discussed the emergence of Left politics

and socialism. The Leftist movement influenced the Indian national politics
in many ways. It was due to this influence that resulted in the acceptance of
planned economy and fundamental rights of the Indian constitution.
In this Unit, we will discuss the issue of Partition and the demand for
Pakistan as a separate country for Muslims. The partition is a culmination
of a communal politics that was basically due to fall out of the ‘divide and
rule’ politics of the British. The demand of a separate land for the Muslims
led to riots, protests and communal tensions across the country.

Unit - 14 Partition and Response
14.3 BACKGROUND
The year 1937 was a turning point in the history of communalism in

India. In the election held for first time in 1937 to the provincial legislative
councils under the Government of India Act 1935, the Muslim League fared
very poorly. Out of the 485 reserved Muslim seats where the Muslim League
had contested, it could win just in 109 seats. The League could not win
even in those provinces which were Muslim majority. The Congress did
well in the elections, winning an absolute majority in five out of seven
provinces and forming government in seven of them. In the United
Provinces, the Muslim League wanted to form a joint government with the
Congress but the Congress who got a majority and was not in a mood to
join with a communal party, rejected the offer. The poor election result
along with the rejection from the Congress to share power convinced the
League that Muslims could not gain political power unless mobilised in
religious lines. The League assumed that only Muslim party could represent
and realise Muslim interests and considered the Congress as essentially a
Hindu party.
The League raised the cry of ‘Islam in danger’ and highlighted threat
from the impending ‘Hindu Raj’. The appeal to save one religion from the
threats of other soon turned into a campaign of hatred against the followers
of other religions. Once the prospect of a Hindu Raj became a deep-seated
fear in the Muslim psyche it was easy to drive home the need for a separate
homeland for Muslim where they could live and practice their faith in
freedom.
The origins of the demand for Pakistan can also be traced back to
the Urdu poet Mohammad Iqbal.
LET US KNOW
Iqbal was the author of “Sare Jahan Se Achha

Hindustan Hamara”. He was inspired by the spirit of
Pan-Islamism and it was under this influence that he had raised the
issue of a separate land for the Muslims.

Partition and Response Unit - 14
Iqbal had raised the issue at the Allahabad session of the All- India
Muslim League, held in 1930 that the Muslim could have self-government
in the North-West India forming a separate single state after amalgamating
Punjab, North-West Frontier Province (N.W.F.P.), Sind and Baluchistan as
‘North-West Indian Muslim State’. A decade later during the Lahore session
of the Muslim League in March 1940, M.A. Jinnah concretised the concept
of two nation- India for Hindus and Pakistan for Muslims. Here the famous
“Lahore Resolution” demanding a sovereign state for the Muslims on the
ground that Hindus and Muslims were two different nations was passed.
If the 1937 election was bad for the Muslim League it was worse for
the Hindu communal politics. They too faced the same situation, either
mobilise the support of the Hindus or get wiped out. The situation became
even worse when the Congress disallowed communalisms from working
within the Congress party.
LET US KNOW
The name Pakistan or Pak-stan (which includes

Punjab, Afghan, Kashmir,Sind and Baluchistan) was
coined by a Punjabi Muslim student at Cambridge. Choudhury
Rehmat Ali. In his pamphlets, written in 1933 and 1935, he mentions
his desire of separate national status. No one took Rehmat Ali
seriously in the 1930s.
This resulted in the Hindu communalist to think for new programme. They
resorted to mobilization of the people on the basis of religion and started to
whip up fear and hatred. The leadership of the Hindu organisation slipped
from the moderate peoples like Madan Mohan Malaviya to leaders who
were willing to take the organisations in a fascist direction like V. D. Savarkar
of the Hindu Mahasabha and M. S. Golwalker of the Rastriya Swayam
Sevak Sangh. Their strategy was two pronged- to vilify the Muslims and
condemn Congressmen for supporting the Muslims. Savarkar maintained
that India was a land for only Hindus and Muslim were told that they could

stay on if they become Hindus. Otherwise, they would not get citizenship’s
right, let alone any privileges or special treatment as minorities. The voice
of the Hindu communalist became extremely vicious by 1946-47. As
communal riots spread and the demand for Pakistan could not be stopped,
the Hindu communalist expanded their influence by posing as the protectors
of Hindu. They accused the Congress for weakening the Hindus with their
policy of non-violence and strongly encouraged the Hindus to retaliate and
teach a lesson to the Muslim. The Hindu communalism became even more
aggressive after the Partition and demanded India to be formed as a Hindu
Raj, since Pakistan was an Islamic state.
The growth of these extreme communal elements however, was
considerably aided by the policy of the British government. By 1937 the
policy of divide and rule actually amounted to keeping the Hindu-Muslim
divide unbridgeable. Earlier the colonial authorities had provided helping
hand towards the landowner class, the backward class and the schedule
caste class against the national movement led by the Congress and tried
to split the party into Right and Left wings without success. But the election
of 1937 showed that the only weapon that is left with the British to weaken
the national movement was communalism. After the outbreak of the Second
World War, the British had promised that India would be free after the war.
At the same time they pointed out that Hindu and Muslim must come to an
agreement on how power was to be transferred. As part of the British
strategy the League was officially recognised as the representative of the
Muslims even though their performance in the election was poor. The British
even promised that no political settlement would be made unless it was
acceptable to the League. This was how the British had fuelled the demand
of Pakistan in an official manner. The Cripps Mission of 1942 had a clause
of ‘local option’ providing the provinces of India to sign individual agreement
with British about their future status. Although the Cripps mission failed yet
the proposal gave a strong backup to the activities of the Muslim League
and provided legitimacy to the demand for Pakistan by accommodating it
in British’s scheme for provincial autonomy. Thus at a time when the demand

was not taking seriously by the general Indian, the British official recognition
to it was a great boost to the cause of Pakistan.
z Post-War Development
With the end of the Second World War the political scenario of India
became quite interesting. Nonetheless it was the Quit India movement
which despite intense repression, brought the British Raj to its knees and
compelled its officials to open a dialogue with Indian parties regarding a
possible transfer of power. When negotiation started in 1945, the British
agreed to create an entirely Indian Central Executive Council, except the
Viceroy and the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, as a beginning
towards the Indian independence. The Executive Council was to have a
balanced representation of the main communities, including equal
proportions of Muslim and caste Hindu. Lord Wavell called a conference at
Simla to sort out an agreement between the Congress and the Muslim
League. However, the discussions about the transfer of power broke down
due to Jinnah’s unrelenting demand that the Muslim League alone should
have the absolute right to choose all the Muslim members and that there
should be a provision for a kind of communal veto in the council. But when
the conference could not come into a consensus, Lord Wavell announced
the breakdown of the conference.
The provincial elections of 1946 were another milestone in the birth
of Pakistan. In this election the Muslim league captured an over-whelming
majority of Muslim seats in all the Muslim reserved provinces except the
N.W.F.P. The Congress swept the election with majority seats, forming
government in all provinces, while the Muslim league formed government
in Bengal and Sind. The election demonstrated that the Muslim league
was a strong political party in the country, which led the League to claim
itself as the ‘sole spokesman’ of the India’s Muslim.
In 1946, the British cabinet sent a three members mission, came to
be known as the Cabinet Mission to India. Its members were Lord Pethick
Lawrence, Sir Stafford Cripps and Mr. A. V Alexander. The Cabinet mission
rejected the demand for Pakistan and suggested instead for a weak central

government in charge of only foreign affairs, defence and communications

with the existing provinces being grouped into three sections. Section A
would be formed with all the Hindu majority provinces, section B and C
would be formed with Muslim majority areas of North West and North East
(including Assam) respectively. Initially all the major party accepted the
plan, but soon some conflict developed between the Congress and the
League. The League wanted the grouping to be compulsory, while the
Congress wanted that provinces be given the right to join a group. But due
to the non-clarity of the Mission, both Congress and League could not
agree to the Cabinet Mission’s proposal.
The Cabinet Mission provided the most crucial position for the demand
of Pakistan. Moreover, it was after this mission that it became a clear picture
that all the political parties considered the demand of Pakistan as more or
less inevitable. Only Mahatma Gandhi and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
continued to firmly oppose the idea of partition. After withdrawing from the
Cabinet mission, the Muslim League decided on “Direct Action” for winning
its Pakistan demand on 16 August 1946 with a new slogan Larke Lenge
Pakistan (we will fight and get Pakistan). Direct action was not directed
against the British government but was directed against the Hindus provoked
by the communalist. The league engineered riots in Bengal, UP, the Punjab,
Sind and the NWFP. On the morning of 16th many communal Muslim groups
gathered in Calcutta to hear Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, the League’s
Chief Minister of Bengal. That very evening, in Calcutta, Hindus were
attacked by the returning Muslims, who carried pamphlets distributed earlier
showing connection between the violence and the demand of Pakistan.
The Hindu communal elements retaliated and as a result of these communal
riots about 5000 people lost their lives. The communal violence spread to
Bihar where Hindus attacked the Muslims, to Noakhali in Bengal where
Hindus were attacked by the Muslims, Rawalpindi, the Hindus were
attacked.
z The Partition
Due to the withdrawal of the Muslim League from the various

discussions that the British government started, to transfer power, the British
government had to face with lots of dilemma. It was then decided that the
Congress should be invited to form an Interim government, which came
into being on 2nd September 1946. In the beginning the Muslim League
refused to join it but on 16 October the League agreed to join. However,
the League’s entry to the government did not end the conflict but it only
opened up another arena of struggle. The League made it clear that it had
no any intention to share with the Congress, the responsibility for running
the government. Along with the League’s refusal to attend the discussion
of the council it also refused to participate in the Constituent Assembly. On
5th February 1947 the Congress members demanded Wavell to ask the
League member to resign. A crisis was eminent. The situation was however
controlled when Attlee announced that the British would withdraw from
India by 29th June 1947 and Lord Mountbatten would replace Wavell as
Viceroy.
Lord Mountbatten who succeeded Lord Wavell as Viceroy of India
in March 1947 offered a plan for the partition of India in his June 3 1947
announcement. He also announced the date for the transfer of power to
India and Pakistan to be by 15 August 1947 on the basis of Dominion
Status. Mountbatten’s formula was to divide India but retain maximum unity.
The country would be partitioned but so would Punjab and Bengal, so that
limited Pakistan would emerge. The plan also provided for referendum in
the N.W.F.P.and Sylhet to decide whether to join India or Pakistan. The
short time from 3 June to 15 August to give independence to India with a
partition resulted in a lot of problems to India and Pakistan. The speed with
which the country was partitioned resulted in a disastrous event. The Indian
Independence Act passed by the British parliament in July 1947 provided
for the setting up of two independent dominions of India and Pakistan with
effect from 15 August 1947.
14.4 RESPONSE : RIOTS, POPULAR MOVEMENTS
The speed with which partition was carried out and the delay in
announcing the boundary between the two nations increased the tragedy

of the partition. Mountbatten delayed the announcement of the Boundary

Commission Award to disown responsibility for further complications. This
created confusion for the ordinary citizens as well as the officials. People
living in the areas near the border stayed home believing to be on the right
side of the border. The officials were busy arranging their own transfer
rather than using their authority to maintain law and order.
The bloodshed continued for about a year starting from March 1947
onward. One of the main reasons for this was the collapse of the institution
of governance. Independence Day in Punjab and Bengal saw strange
scenes. Flags of both India and Pakistan were flown in villages between
Lahore and Amritsar as people of both communities believed that they were
on the right side of the border. But within days they find themselves aliens
in their own homes. Amritsar district saw the worse riots due to the breakdown
of authority in the city. British officials do not know how to handle the situation.
Due to the delay of border marking the authority could not exercise their
power and were unwilling to act upon. Problems were escalated because
Indian soldiers and policemen came to act as Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.
In many places not only the policemen help their co-religionists but they
also attacked members of other communities.
Afraid of being attacked, millions of people headed for the frontiers,
Muslims to get into Pakistan and Hindus into India. The partition thus was
followed by the movement of some 15 million people from one area to the
territories designated for another. Although Pakistan was born due to
communal politics, yet the partition did not put an end to the civil strife
between the Hindus and the Muslims but partition led to much greater
bloodshed. Hysterical mobs of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and others savagely
attacked one another in acts of reprisal, bitterness, and desperation. In
many cities violence went out of control for many days arson, looting, beating,
murder, and rape became common occurrences. Numerous villages became
battlegrounds of warring groups, and massacres were frequent along the
highways clogged with poor and usually unprotected migrants. Mob violence
of Punjab resulted in death of about 250000 numbers of people, while in
Bengal the violence was not quite so widespread where Gandhi was still

preaching non-violence and toleration. Mob violence was also there in the
Sindh where Sindhi Hindus were attacked and in Ajmer, Muslims lost their
lives to the hand of the communal violence. Delhi too saw violence in its
street due to the gathering of refuges from all the communities.
Attempts were made to take up developmental measures for those
who become victims of partition. Due to the influx and exodus of people,
there was antipathy among the refugee settlers. Migration on both the side
of the nation (India & Pakistan) took a heavy toll on the resources Women
organisation were set up to rescue abducted women in Punjab. In Assam
the ‘grauping’ plan was resented and there were protest movements in the
wake of partition.
Amidst all this communal violence, it was Mahatma Gandhi who was
trying his best to restore communal harmony. Mahatma Gandhi stood as a
supreme moral force and mentor. Gandhi and other nationalist fought vainly
against communal prejudices and passion. He moved from the villages of
Noakhali in East Bengal (Present-day Bangladesh) to the villages of Bihar
and then to the riots-torn slums of Calcutta and Delhi, in an effort to stop
Hindus and Muslims kill each other and reassure the safely of the minority
communities. Gandhiji toured the violence torn villages of Bengal on foot
and persuaded all the communities to guarantee the safety of the minority
communities. Similarly, in Delhi too he tried to build a spirit of mutual trust
and confidence between the two communities. Gandhiji continued to stay
in Delhi fighting the mentality of those who wanted to drive out every Muslim
from the city. When he began a fast to bring about a change of heart,
amazingly, many Hindu and Sikh migrants fasted with him. The effect of
the fast was indeed showing its result. People began realising the fault of
the step they took. The assassination of Gandhi on 30th Janurary, 1948
brought an end to the long Communal Conflicts. Thus, the independent of
India and forming of Pakistan had it root cause in the growing strength of
the communalism of that period, which still had its effect on both of the
countries.

ACTIVITY
To have a better understanding of the Partition

Movement and the consequences, you can read the
following books-
1. The Other Side of Silence- Urvashi Butalia
2. Midnight’s Children-Salman Rushdie
3. Remembering Partition- Gyanendra Pandey
4. Toba Tek Singh: Stories- Saadat Hasan Manto translator Khalid
Hasan
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1. Who coined the term “Pakistan”?

...........................................................................
2. By the Wavell plan which two states were offered the choice of
referendum?
.................................................................................................
3. When was the ‘Indian Independence Act’ passed?
.................................................................................................
4. Following the Partition Plan which district witnessed the worse
riots?
.................................................................................................
14.6 LET US SUM UP
After going through this Unit, you have learnt -

z The demand for Pakistan was not a sudden move by the Muslim but
there were many reasons for its inception. Basically it was the divide
and rule policy of the British which resulted in the growth of the
communal politics.

z The period also saw the extreme of the Hindu communalism. As the
Muslim demanded Pakistan, the Hindu communalist demanded India
to be a Hindu state.
z Partition was not a peaceful event, but it was followed by a series of
riots, where a numbers of people belonging to the Muslim, Hindu and
Sikh communities lost their lives.
z It was Mahatma Gandhi and some of the nationalist like Khan Abdul
Ghaffar Khan who tried to pacify the people and asked them to stop
the violence. It was the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi on 30
January 1948, which ultimately stopped the violence
1. Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar. (2010). From Plassey to Partition, A History

of Modern India, New Delhi, India: Orient Black Swan
2. Chandra, Bipan (ed.). (1989). India’s Struggle for Independence. New
Delhi, India: Penguin Books.
3. Dutt, Rajani Palme. (2008). India Today. New Delhi, India: People’s
Publishing House,
Ans to Q.No. 1: Choudhury Rehmat Ali

Ans to Q.No. 2: NWFP and Sylhet
Ans to Q.No. 3: 1947
Ans to Q.No. 4: Amritsar


1. When the first provincial council election was were held in BritishIndia?
2. Who raise the cry ‘Islam in danger’?
3. When did the Muslim League observe the Direct Action Day?
4. When was Gandhiji assassinated?
1. What was the consequences of the Indian Independence and its
partition?
2. How did Mahatma Gandhi try to pacify the violence that resulted due
to the partition and communalism?
3. What did the Muslim League demand through its resolution of 1940?
4. What were the reasons for the demand of separate nation for the
Muslims?
1. Analyse the role of communalism in the Partition of India.
2. Discuss the responses to the Plan of Partition in India.
*** ***** ***

UNIT - 15: NATIONALISM AND CULTURE
UNIT STRUCTURE

15.2 Introduction
z What is Nationalism?
15.3 Nationalism and Indian Literature
15.4 Nationalism and Indian Cinema
15.5 Nationalism and Indian Art
15.6 Let us sum up
15.8 Check your progress
15.9 Model Question

z explain the definition of Culture and Nationalism
z describe how nationalism is reflected in Indian literature
z analyse the relation between nationalism and cinema and how it
influences each other
z discuss the relation between nationalism and art, and the
representation of nationalism in art in India.
15.2 INTRODUCTION
In the previous Unit, we discussed the Partition of India and the

response that resulted from it. There was large scale massacre and
destruction during this period.
In this Unit, we will be discussing the issue of Culture and Nationalism.
Culture includes a variety of aspects such as literature, cinema, art, music
dance etc. There has been a lot of debate among historians and
anthropologists on defining the term ‘culture’. E.B. Tylor defined it as that
complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs,
and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of

Unit - 15 Nationalism and Culture
society. The dimensions and the forms various elements take determine
the nature and quality of a culture. It is not only that one culture varies from
the other: every culture is also divided into numerous subcultures with
different patterns of thought and behaviour. These sub-cultures differentiate
the life of a hunter from that of a shopkeeper, the customs of the city dweller
from those of a rural folk and the behaviour of a child from that of an adult.
The emergence of Indian nationalism is very often seen as the result
of political articulation of anti-colonial consciousness. But there is another
important constituent in the growth of nationalism, i.e. the culture, which is
often overlooked. The relationship between nationalism and culture is much
more complex, involved in the entire process of nation building. Nevertheless,
various elements of culture like cinema, literature and art etc. reflect
nationalistic sentiment of a nation. In this chapter we will briefly examine
the role of such elements in shaping the nationalism of India.
z What is Nationalism?
Scholars are divided over the definition of nationalism. The most

important step in defining nationalism is to identify State and its people.
Most of the scholars, while trying to define nationalism, first try to define
nation and then proceeded to define nationalism. One of the most regarded
philosopher Ernest Gillner in his book ‘Nations and Nationalism’ (1983)
has defined nationalism as ‘Nationalism is political principle that holds that
national and political units should be congruent’. He first defined nationalism
and then proceeded to define nation. In his definition of nationalism, national
sentiment, thinking, consciousness, ideology and movement etc. are one.
In short or in simpler term, ‘nationalism is an ideology that gives a nation a
sense of unity by imposing on them the same set of identities (for instance
linguistic, historical, cultural)’. By this definition one can have nationalism
even without residing in his own country.
On the other hand, we must also look at the definition of a nation.
Benedict Anderson in his book titled “Imagined Communities: Reflections
on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism” (1983) came up perhaps with the
famous definition of a nation. He sees it as an imagined community because

Nationalism and Culture Unit - 15
the overwhelming majority of its members never personally meet each other.
This community may be limited by its borders and sovereignty (it has the
ability to self-govern). According to him border control is one mechanism
of maintaining national identity by “protecting” the nation. From this point
of view, the nation is defined by boundaries and nationalism grows within
the boundary of one’s own country.
15.3 LITERATURE
To understand the role of literature, art and cinema in formation and

sustenance of nationalism, we need to understand the concept of Cultural
Nationalism. This is fundamentally different from the nationalism fomented
by powerful rulers in history by geographical integration of land (state
formation). From the beginning of 19th century, writers and scholars started
to reform their respective mother tongue to elevate it to a literary language
and started to emphasize their glorious past.
Literature is often depicted as the mirror of the society. It reflects the
societal values and ideas. The sense of Nationalism is also reflected in
many of the literary composition, be it novel, poetry or any other essays.
Since literature is one of the major components of culture, it also plays a
major role in formation of nationalism.
z Nationalism and Literature in India
In India, literature has played an important role in spreading a

nationalist ideology among the people. In case of the novels, in Indian
languages, many of the novels had actually fostered the awareness about
the nation among the readers. For example, the novel Anandamath by
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee is based on the rise of people against the
British who were ruling India. The famous song Bande Mataram is actually
a part of the text of that novel.
On the other hand, the poetry is also an important tool for spreading
the sense of Nationalism among the people. During the Indian freedom
movement poems worked as a message to the masses in a form of protest.
The poets of different Indian languages wrote poems to make the people
aware of the exploitation and hardships of the people. Besides, there are
lot of poems which directly talks about Nationalism. For example, the
National Anthem of India is a poem which was intended to praise the country.
The newspapers played the active role in this regard. Many Indian
leaders started news papers and journals which criticised the British colonial
exploitation of India. Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Dayananda Saraswati, Mahatma
Gandhi and many others started their own news papers and journals.
India as a nation was a more psychological change and geographical
entity before the advent of the British. It was loose because of the pluralistic
structure of Indian society. Probably because of this reason many of the
social scientist argued that India was a nation in the making during the rule
of the British. During the British rule, the idea of a modern nation-state
entered in Indian society which was however opposed by many nationalist
Indians at that time including Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. But the Indian
nationalism emerged in the process of its anti colonial movement by the
people of India. The literature of that time upholds the principle of nationalism
and patriotism in their ????.
That the British were exploiting Indians caught popular imaginations
and many of the patriotic songs describe it. The poverty of the Indians was
seen as the outcome of the exploitations of the Indian resources by the
British. The Indian past was seen as a golden period and the British rulers
as the villain were the recurrent features of the patriotic literatures. The
patriotic writing of that time also asserted Indian identity in terms of religion,
language, myth and history. In many regional languages patriotic writings
grew as the resistance of a community against the foreign rule. Soon the
English educated elite became engaged in the construction of the Indian
nationality and gave it a new political signification.
It was during the Swadeshi Movement in 1905, literature and political
or national movement came close and exerted influence on one another. It
was the time when poets encouraged the people to take part in anti colonial
movement actively and praised the mother country. In the wake of freedom
movement literate and illiterate folk poets came closer in enthralling the
people with their powerful songs which were patriotic in nature. In 1857
onwards, many folk songs were composed by the illiterate people who
sang patriotic songs.
Writer like S. V. Ketkar raised the issue of Indian national identity by
deploring the existing behaviour of the Indians, of his caste and regional
identity, in his novel Paraagandaa (1926). After the Jallianwalabagh
massacre in 1919, Tagore renounced knighthood as a protest against the
barbarity of the British. One of the most distinguished modern Urdu poet,
Iqbal wrote a Qat’ah, quatrain about the incident:
“To every visitor the dust –particles
Of the garden declare,
Beware of the teaching of the times.
The seed (of freedom) here was sown with martyr’s blood
Which you must now nurture with your tears.”
Many Urdu songs were composed during the Indian freedom
movement. One such famous Urdu song of the freedom movement which
was on the lips of the four revolutionaries, including Bhagat Singh.
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil me hai/
Dekhna hai zor kitna baju-e-katil me hai//
The resolution of the complete independence by Jawaharlal Nehru
in 1929 created a new wave of nationalistic fervour and gradually when the
Indian National movement was gaining the strength many literary
compositions came up with the idea of Indian nationalism and Indianness.
It cannot be denied that literatures functions as a signifier of national
identity or heritage. However, in Indian context, writers, statesmen and
political leaders were, by and large, in tune with an identity based on cultural
nationalism and Pluralism is an important feature of Indian society. One
cannot deny its pluralistic nature while talking or discussing Indian
nationalism. It is also essential to accept that any political system in India
must take into account the diversity of the country. Nehru articulated a
vision of India as pluralistic national identity. He said in his ‘Discovery of
India’:
“Some kind of a dream of unity has occupied the mind of India since
the dawn of civilization. That unity was not conceived as something imposed
from outside... It was something deeper and within its fold, the widest
tolerance of belief and custom was practiced and every variety
acknowledged and even encouraged.’
After independence, integration various states and principalities was
intended to make the central government strong. During this time
nationalism constituted into a state ideology and appropriated the life of
the nation. All these sentiments were in represented in various regional
linguistic literature.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
1. Bande Mataram is a part of which novel?

..........................................................................
2. Why did Tagore renounce his knighthood?
.................................................................................................
3. How did the patriotic songs or poems emerge?
.................................................................................................
15.4 ART
Since the late eighteenth century Europe, nation and nationalism as

a theme have become objects of artistic representation and a source of
artistic creativity. However, two concepts of the nation have been dominant
since the late eighteenth century: the civic and the cultural. The former
sprang from the Enlightenment belief of reason; the latter sprang from
Counter-Enlightenment’s affirmation of the diversity of cultures.
The artists helped to define the nation through the specificity of art;
that is, its ability to show the visual dimensions of national identity – the
appearance, costumes, geographical settings, or forms of art of the nation
– and make them worthy of artistic representation.
During 19th century nationalism emerged as a force which brought
about sweeping changes in the political and the intellectual world of Europe.
The intellectual awakening and French Revolution of 1789 made the people

of the continent suspicious and critical of the multi-national dynastic empires.

In fact this mental world of the Europeans was reflected for the first time in
1848 by a French artist Frederic Sorrieu, a French artist, who prepared a
series of four prints visualizing his dream of a world of ‘Democratic and
social Republics’, as he called them. In his utopian vision, the peoples of
the world are grouped as distinct nations, identified through their flags and
national costumes. Nationalist imaginations came to be associated with
the artistic activities. Thus from the 19th century onwards artistic venture
entered in the discourse of nationalism.
z Art and Nationalism in India
The Art of India which is a vital cultural expression is intertwined

with assertion of nationalism, the equation of modernisation and
westernisation and a desire to preserve the cultural heritage of India.
The western impact in art, though, was less in India, yet gradually it
gained some importance among the Indian artists. In the early years of
16th century Mughal artists had learned a great deal about western art
from Jesuit missionaries and European travellers and had applied this
knowledge to their own art. But the first deliberate and conscious introduction
of western art conventions in India came when in the nineteenth century
the British rulers provided a new class of artists from their ranks, who were
taught systematically in art schools, modelled on English establishments.
The development of various phases of Indian national movement
also had direct impact on the art of India which also portrayed Indian
nationalism in its own form. With the growth of idea of Swaraj following the
split between the moderate politicians in favour of power sharing with the
rulers, and the extremists who increasingly articulated the call for total
independence through their slogan, Swaraj (self-rule), art also got a form
of Swaraj. Mahatma stressed that Swaraj not only implied self government
by Indians, it also meant evolving a truly indigenous culture. The great art
critic, Ananda Coomaraswamy, chided the nationalists in 1910 for their use
of the concept of swaraj solely as a political weapon, failing to recognise
the importance of culture in national regeneration. Aurobindo Ghosh also

deemed art important enough to be brought into his political programme.

Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906) of Kerala was the first professional
artist from the Indian upper strata, whose legendary career did much to
elevate this lowly profession. His paintings represented India at the great
exhibitions in Vienna in 1873 and Chicago in 1893. At the time of his death,
Varma was hailed by the leading nationalist periodical, The Modern Review,
as the greatest modern Indian painter and nation builder. Besides, in the
post independence period, many artists have contributed in the process of
nation building and the growth of nationalism through their artistic
representations.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
4. Who was Ananda Coomaraswamy?

.................................................................................................
5. From where did the concept of nation as a culture spring?
.................................................................................................
15.5 CINEMA
Cinema or film is a very popular as well as strong medium of portraying

the society. It can reflect various issues and ideologies among the people.
Cinemas can have an influential impact on the viewers. Cinemas are also
regarded as a strong medium of exchanging ideas and educating people
about certain ideas. Indian cinemas have portrayed Indian society and
culture since its beginning in 1930s. It was after independence that Indian
cinemas started depicting the exploitative regimes of the British, though
sometimes with cinematic exaggeration. The depiction of colonial atrocities
aroused nationalistic fervour among the people.
Both Cinema and Nation is a recent phenomena in the scheme of
history and other discipline. In the initial year of the development of cinema,
it was considered to be the first truly global, transitional medium. Later with
the introduction of subtitles, cinema acquired language but no speech.

According to Benedict Anderson, print language was very crucial in the

early development of nationalism. Due to the emergence and spread of
print language, nationalist documents such as dictionaries, grammars of
native languages etc. were disseminated in a large scale. However, besides
print languages, modern mass media play an important role in the ever
ongoing process of nationalism. Many governments sponsor cinemas for
its supposed power to mould mass opinion. Lenin, for example, considered
the Soviet Cinema ‘the most important art’ because of its influences on the
masses to form a nationalistic opinion. Joseph Goebbels of Germany who
is notoriously known as Nazi propaganda master and other leaders
sponsored short culture film and fiction film for advertisement of fascism.
z Nationalism and Indian Films
Indian Cinema started its journey with mythological stories and then
quickly adopted period and family dramas to popularise the medium. Sohrab
Modi’s Sikandar made in 1941 based on stories of Porus against Alexander
was a patriotic film that indirectly supported cultural nationalism. Hindi films
like Naya Daur (1957). Hum Hindustani (1960), Anandmath (1952), Jagriti
(1954) etc. highlighted freedom struggles and helped in Indian nation
formation. Manoj Kuma’s Shaheed (1965) on the life of Bhagat Singh and
its immortal song “Mohe rang de basanti chola” inspired millions of Indians
with patriotism and nationalism.
A key component in cultural nationalism is the construct of an enemy-
real or imaginary. Post-independence Hindi cinema had found its enemy in
Partition and then in Indo-China Wars. The cinemas depicting villainy of
Pakistan and brutality of China helped strengthen Indian nationality. Films
like Haqeeqat (1967), which was based on Chinese aggression, would be
remembered by generations for songs like “Kar chale hum fida jaan-o-tan
sathiyon”.
Political, social and everyday events co-exist in Indian Cinema, as a
labyrinth of experiences shaping the cinematic world. Indian cinema,
throughout its history has responded to local traditions of India. The film
production started in India almost simultaneously with other filmmaking

countries, beginning in 1896. Bombay is the home of Indian cinema. Bombay

cinema or bollywood produces a large number of cinema in each year in
Hindi language and in many regional languages too cinema are produced
throughout India.
Since independence, patriotism and displays of nationalism has been
a staple of Hindi films in India. Contemporary Indian films have changed
their mode of depicting intense nationalist feeling. Earlier the villains in
Indian cinema, mainly the Hindi films, were either Europeans or westernized
Indians, but since the mid-1990s the villainous figures were the terrorists.
The film making based on terrorism began in the late 1980s increased
in the 1990s, as separatist insurgencies intensified, and bomb blasts,
religious riots, high level kidnappings, and hijackings became increasingly
common in contemporary India. Nowadays, in the contemporary films the
nation is depected as under siege from acts of war or terrorism and its
saviours are the military, paramilitary, or policemen. For example, Roja
(1992) was based on terrorist activity. The story of the film was inspired by
an actual terrorist kidnapping of an Indian Oil official in conflict-ridden
Kashmir. After the release Roja was heavily criticized by many Indian
intellectuals for its intense nationalism and depiction of Kashmiri militants
and became the subject of a great deal of scholarly debate
With the release of Border in 1997 a significant difference from earlier
films depicting external threats to the nation was seen as in that film it was
explicitly named Pakistan as the enemy and instigator of India’s troubles.
But prior to this in any of the film, even in war film Pakistan was not named
as enemy country. Border was based on a specific battle during the 1971
war between India and Pakistan, was the first war movie that was able to
make explicit reference to Pakistan rather than the oblique references used
in the past – “over there” or “the enemy”.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
6. Name the Nazi propaganda master of Hitler.

.................................................................................................
7. How do contemporary movies depict the nationalist sentiment?
.................................................................................................
15.6 LET US SUM UP

z Culture embodies a variety of aspects such as literature, cinema, art,
music dance etc. In this chapter the most concern here is regarding
the sense of Nationalism reflected in the literature art, and Cinema.
z Literature is often depicted as the mirror of the society. The sense of
Nationalism is also reflected in many of the literary composition, be it
may novel, poetry or any other essays. In India, literature has played
an important role in spreading a nationalist ideology among the people.
z Cinema or film is a very popular as well as strong medium of portraying
ideas and society for the people.
z Since the late eighteenth century Europe, the modern ideas of nations
and nationalism have become objects of artistic representation and
sources of artistic creativity. The Art of India which is a vital cultural
expression is intertwined with assertion of nationalism, the equation
of modernisation and westernisation and a desire to preserve the
cultural heritage of India.
1. Dalmia, Vasudha & Sadana, Rashmi. (2012). Modern Indian Culture:

New Delhi, India: Cambridge University Press

2. Ganti, Tejaswini. (2004). Bollywood: A Guidebook to Popular Hindi

Cinema, London, UK: Routledge
3. Mazumdar, Ranjani. (2007). Bombay Cinema An Archive of the City,
New Delhi, India: University of Minnesota Press
Ans to Q No.1: Anandamath

Ans to Q No.2: Due to the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy of 1919
Ans to Q No.3: It grew as the resistance of a community against the
foreign rule.
Ans to Q No.4: Art Critic
Ans to Q No.5: Modeled on the village community, the concept of nation
as culture sprang from Counter-Enlightenment’s affirmation of
the diversity of cultures.
Ans to Q No.6: Joseph Goebbels
Ans to Q No.7: Earlier the villains in Indian cinema, mainly the Hindi films,
were either Europeans or westernized Indians, but since the
mid-1990s the villainous figures were replaced by that of the
terrorists.

1. What is culture?
2. Give Gelneer’s definition of Nationalism?
3. When did Swadeshi Movement start?
4. In which year Jalianwalabagh massacre happened?
5. Who wrote the book discovery of India?
6. When was the film Border released?

7. Who was the director of Roja?

8. Who was Raja Ravi Varma?
B) Short Questions (answer each within 150-300 words)
1. What do you understand by culture?
2. What do you understand by nationalism?
3. Mention two films based on Indian Nationalism?
4. Who was Frederic Sorrieu? What are his contributions towards art?
5. What is the main theme of the film Fanaa?
1. Discuss the relation between literature and nationalism?
2. Can cinema represent nationalism? Discuss
3. Make a critical assessment of how is art representative of nationalism?
4. Discuss the role of Bollywood films in spreading the idea of nationalism
in India?
*** ***** ***

REFERENCES
English Books-
1) Hayes, C.J.H. (1963). Modern Europe to 1870. New York, NY:
MacMillan
2) Ketelby, C.D.M. (1994). A History of Modern Times from 1789. New
Delhi, India Oxford University Press.
3) Lipson, E.(1968). Europe in the Nineteenth Century (1815-1914).
London, UK: A. and C .Black
4) Mahajan, V.D. (2009). History of Modern Europe since 1789. New
Delhi, India S.Chand & Co.
5) Rao, B.V. (1985). History of Modern Europe (1789-1975). New Delhi,
India: Sterling Publishers Prvt Ltd.
6) Simpsons, William and Jones, Martin (2nd edition). (2009). Europe
(1789-1914). London, UK: Routledge
7) Thompson, David. (1990). Europe since Napoleon. New Delhi, India:
Surjeet Publications
Websites and Electronic Sources-
1) Blind, Karl. (1869). The Spanish Revolution in The North Ameri-

can Review, Vol. (108), pp. 542-578.
2) Parker, A.A. (1937). History of Carlism in Spain in Studies: An Irish
Quarterly Review, Vol. (26), pp. 16-25.
3) Smith, Willard A. (1953). Napoleon III and the Spanish Revolution
of 1868 in The Journal of Modern History, Vol . (25), pp. 211-233
4) Smith, Willard A. (1950). The Background of the Spanish Revolu-
tion of 1868 in The American Historical Review, Vol. (55), pp. 787-
810

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GHT S4 01(M/P)

INDIA UNDER THE CROWN

KRISHNA KANTA HANDIQUI STATE OPEN UNIVERSITY

Course Coordinator : Dr. Sukmaya Lama, Asst. Prof. (KKHSOU)

SLM Preparation Team

Copyright © Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University

Headquarters: Patgaon, Rani Gate, Guwahati-781017

The University acknowledges with thanks the financial support

UNIT 8 : GANDHIAN PHASE OF INDIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT 117-133

UNIT 9 : Subhash Chandra Bose and INA 134-147

UNIT 10 : INDIAN DURING WORLD WAR II 148-158

UNIT 11 : COMMUNALISM IN INDIA 159-170

UNIT 12 : WOMEN IN FREEDOM STRUGGLE 171-184

UNIT 13 : LEFT POLITICS AND SOCIALISM 185-200

UNIT 14 : PARTITION AND RESPONSE 201-213

UNIT 15 : NATIONALISM AND CULTURE 214-227

8.1 Learning Objectives

8.1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit, you will be able to:

In the previous Unit, we discussed about Revolutionary Nationalism

India Under the Crown 117

8.3 RISE OF GANDHI CHAMPARAN AND KHEKA

The rise of Gandhi as a leader all began with his satyagraha

118 India Under the Crown

8.4 NON-COOPERATION MOVEMENT

The developments in the last year of the second decade of the

India Under the Crown 119

Romlatt Act (1919) - By this Act, new coercive steps

With the dismemberment of the Turkish Empire post World War I,

120 India Under the Crown

hundreds of meetings. The programme of non-cooperation included non

men died in the incident. Pained by the happenings, Gandhiji decided to

8.5 CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT

electorates on which previous constitutional reforms had been based. Seats

India Under the Crown 123

to launch the Civil Disobedience movement. The movement started with

Khudai Khidmadgarh: It literally means servants of

The Government adopted ruthless measures to crush the movement

124 India Under the Crown

Communal Award was declared by British Prime

India Under the Crown 125

conference which was published in a White Paper. On the basis of this

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

8.6 GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ACT 1935

126 India Under the Crown

India Under the Crown 127

8.7 AUGUST OFFER AND QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT

z Quit India Movement

The August Offer resulted in increasing the tension between the

128 India Under the Crown

October 17, 1940, Gandhiji declared the launching of this movement by

India Under the Crown 129

130 India Under the Crown

The lower middle class made a significant contribution in this

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

8.8 LET US SUM UP

After going through this Unit, you have learnt that -

India Under the Crown 131

8.9 FURTHER READINGS

1. Chandra, Bipan. (1989). India’s Struggle for Independence. New Delhi,

8.10 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Ans. to Q. No. 1: 1932, London

8.11 MODEL QUESTIONS

* * *

* * *