STRANDS IN NATIONAL MOVEMENT
Princely States Socialist and Indian National Movement
1. (1764-97) Development of residency system
2. (1798-1840) – Aggressive expansionism –
Subsidiary Alliance
3. (1841-57) – Direct Annexation – Doctrine
of Lapse
4. After 1857 – Queen’s Proclamation -
‘respect the rights, dignity and honor of
native princes as our own’
Indian National Movement & Princely states
Fact – 562 states, 2/5th territory, ~25% populace
1) Nagpur Session (1920) – called upon
princes for responsible govt. + people can
join Congress; cannot start political work in
its name
2) Chamber of Princes – Act of 1919
3) NCM – Praja Mandals in Baroda, Jamnagar,
Indore
4) 1927 – AISPC founded in Bombay by
Balwant Rai Mehta and others
5) AISPC was first to demand Indian
federation; Nehru Report (28) pleaded the
same; Butler Committee (29) suggested
constitutional change if people demanded
6) Act of 1935 – All India Federation; 1/3rd of
Federal Legislature – Nominee of Princes
7) Haripura Congress (38) – extended support
to Praja Mandal Movement but not
organizational Support
8) JLN became President of AISPC (39)
9) Tripuri Congress (39) – support to Praja
Mandal – Joint Action
Near Independence
1) Cabinet Mission – Paramountcy would
lapse; Option to remain independent
2) Plan Balkan – liberty to join confederation
or remain independent
3) Mountbatten’s persuasion to accede to India
– sign IOA – Surrender – Communication,
Diplomacy and Defense
Integration of Indian states in Indian Union
lessened the suffering of people inflicted by
Partition and halted the process of Balkanization
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Early Congress
Dadabhai Naoroji: close links with British
Socialists; attended Intl Socialist Conference 1904
After NCM
Nehru’s sojourn to Europe
- Participated in International Congress
against Colonial Oppression and
Imperialism 1927
- Visit to Soviet Union 1927 – impressed by
novel experiments and social reconstruction
SC Bose (through CR Das) realized – India should
secure ‘swaraj of masses & not of classes’
1928 – Independence for India League as pressure
group with in Congress
- Counter Dominion Status
- Plead for complete independence
- Indian republic on socialist lines
After CDM
- Nehru worked with peasantry, Bose with
working class – both influenced youth,
students and underprivileged
1934 – Congress Socialist Party by JP Narayan etc.
- Inside the fold of Congress
- Prime objective to replace congress
leadership by socialist one (Meerut thesis)
- Nehru & Bose as source of inspiration
- 15 point programme for a socialist society
o Right to form own constitution
o Abolition of private property
Gandhi resigned from Congress citing growing
socialism
QIM
- Came close to Gandhi
- Sustained the movement & organized ‘Azad
Dasta’ – network of underground resistance
- Widened the concept of non-violence: attack
on govt symbols and property not part of
violent struggle
Failed to carve out a distinct ideological niche but
their efforts speaks a lot for their innovative and
independent thinking
 STRANDS IN NATIONAL MOVEMENT
Women
British wanted to educated Indian women:
- Civil Servant’s wife
- Loyal sons
1) Pioneer women
a. Pandita Ramabai (Arya Mahila Sj)
b. Sister Subalakshmi (Sharda Union)
c. Begum Rokeya Hussian
d. Tarabai Shide (Satyasodhak Sj)
2) Mother figure as national idea
a. Bande Matram in Anandmath
b. Bharat Mata (AN Tagore)
3) Swadeshi – Sarla Devi Chaudhrani –
Bharat Stree Mahamandal 1904
4) NCM – low participation
a. Basanti Devi & other courted arrest
5) CDM – participation most organised in
Bombay, most militant in Bengal and
limited in Madras; Sarojini Naidu led
Dharsana salt depot raid; Rani Guidilu
6) QIM – significant participation
a. Sucheta Kriplani coordinated non-
violent resistance
b. Aruna Asaf Ali – underground
activites
7) INA – Lakshmi Sehgal
8) Revolutionaries – Bina Das attemped
assassination on Gov of Bengal (32);
Kalpana Dutta in Chittagong Raid
Why response to Gandhi’s appeal?
- Appealed to women – service to nation a
part of their religion duty
- Non-violence & truth
- respectable image of women
- support from male guardians
Organizations
Women’s Indian Asso (by AB + MC) ’17 Madras
AIWC – by MC for Education ‘27
Act of 1935 gave reserved seats in legislature
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Workers’ Movement
- Sorabjee Shapoorji Bengalee – first activist
- Narayan Meghjee - Dinbankli; Bombay
Mill & Millhands Association (1890)
Early Nationalists
- wanted to maintain the unity of movement
& didn’t favor class organization
- Favored quick & rapid industrialization
Swadeshi –
BC Pal, GS Aiyar – unionize & fight for rights
Strikes were called when leaders arrested (Tilak)
Gandhi
- Ahmedabad Mill ‘18
- Strikes by workers for Rowlatt, NCM
1920 – AITUC by NM Joshi; Lalaji (President)
- Got boost with communist movement
- 6 month strike in Bombay Textile Mill (‘28)
- Workers’ & Peasants’ Party with many
branches
Govt’s counter
Coercion – Public Safety Act, Trade Disputes Act,
Meerut Conspiracy Case
Concessions – Royal Labour Commission
Split in 1929 – Later
AITUC – Communist
ITUC – Congress
Hind Majdoor Sabha – Socialist
Workers maintained cultural dual self (peasant +
worker) & was divided on lines of religion & caste
Hence, Workers’ action was motivated by
community consciousness rather than class
consciousness
 PERSONALITIES
C Rajgopalachari
Ideology
1) Mixed partly conservative (societal issues)
and partly liberal (economic issues)
2) Gandhi loyalist
3) Against socialist principles – formed
Swatantra Party (1959)
4) Wanted to reinstate Varna system
5) Favored Hindi as the national language
6) Religious Education in school
7) Believed Society cannot not be completely
freed from religion
8) Opposed QIM
9) Opposed all kinds of nuclear weapons
10) Acc. to him, political freedom & social
justice cannot exist w/o economic freedom
Contributions
11) Salt Satyagraha in TN during CDM
12) CR Plan
13) Involved in Vaikom Satygrah
14) As Premier of the Madras - Temple Entry
Authorization and Indemnity Act 1939
15) Founded Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan -
promotion of education and Indian culture.
16) Translated Mahabahrata & Ramayna in
English; composer of Carnatic Music
17) Coined the term “permit-quota-license raj
Positions & Awards
18) Last Governor-General of India
19) Recipient of 1st Bharat Ratna
20) Home Minister
21) CM of Madras 1952-54
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Swami Vivekananda
Ideology & Contribution
1) Supported Varna System for its advantages –
division of labor and excellence in profession
but opposed Untouchability
2) His nationalism is associated with
spiritualism - linked India’s regeneration to
her age-old tradition of spiritual goal.
3) His nationalism is based on Humanism and
Universalism
4) He taught people to get rid first of self-
inflicted bondages and resultant miseries
5) Unlike western nationalism which is secular
in nature, Swami Vivekananda’s nationalism
is based on religion which is life blood of the
Indian people.
6) He established motherland as the only deity
to be worshiped in the mind and heart of
countrymen.
7) Social Service - Jiva is Shiva (each individual
is divinity itself)
8) Education - "If the poor cannot come to
education, education must reach them at the
plough, in the factory, everywhere…so they
would have ideas and morality, and hope for
better."
9) Sports - You will be nearer to heaven through
Football than through the study of the
Bhagvad Gita
 Sarojini Naidu
1) Nightingale of India
2) Inter-Caste Marriage with Govindrajulu
Naidu
3) President Congress INC 1925, first Indian
women president
4) Awarded Kaisar-i-hind medal by British
government for her work during plague
epidemic in India
5) Travelled across the country and
encouraged people to join - especially
inspiring for the women: can be credited
with bringing them out of the kitchen and
into the national consciousness
6) participated in the round-table conference
with Gandhi and Madan Mohan Malaviya
7) Participated in CDM, Quit India, Non-
cooperation and Dharasana Salt Satyagraha
8) Her literary work purely indians and
portrayed festivals, occupations and life of
the Indians praised by Tagore and Gokhale
9) Governor of UP
10) Hindu Muslim Unity; Praised Jinnah
11) Famous Work: Golden Threshold, The Bird
of Time
Bhagat Singh
1) a charismatic Indian Social revolutionary
died at the young age of 23
2) Singh did not believe in the Gandhian
ideology—which advocated Satyagraha and
other forms of non-violent resistance, and felt
that such politics would replace one set of
exploiters with another.
3) In favour of communism & anarchism i.e.
absence of ruler or a state, however he never
joined communist party of India
4) Saunders murder, Legislative Assembly
bomb, Political prisoners hunger strike,
HSRA, Prosecution,
5) Atheist
6) "It is easy to kill individuals but you cannot
kill the ideas. Great empires crumbled, while
the ideas survived."

With the passage of time, she and other greats like

her are mostly forgotten. The vagaries of time and
inevitability of death are best described in her own
words:
“Dream yields to dream, strife follows strife,
And Death unweaves the webs of Life.”

Shreyans Kumat (AIR 4) - t.me/shreyansupsc

 Annie Beasant
1) British socialist
2) Theosophist
3) Women’s rights activist
4) Writer and orator
5) Freedom Movement - Supporter of Irish
and Indian self-rule
a. 1916 - Launched HRL - modeled
demands for India on Irish
nationalist practices.
b. League worked all year round.
c. It built a structure of local branches,
enabling it to mobilize
demonstrations, public meetings and
agitations.
d. 1917 - Arrested and interned at a
hill station, where she defiantly flew
a red and green flag
6) Education - sought to create a new
approach that honored India's spiritual and
cultural traditions
MM Malviya
1) Conservative, both socially and politically
a. Politically, Malaviya believed in
constitutionalism and opposed
Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation
Movement
b. Party founded, the Hindu Mahasabha
did not participate in the Quit India
movement of 1942
2) an educationist with a vision (established
Banaras Hindu University)
3) Considered Boycotting educational institutes
was antithetical to the nation’s interests
a. During the Quit India Movement of
1942, when Bapu asked students to
boycott schools, Malaviya publicly
expressed his displeasure
4) A social reformer
a. important role in introducing the
concept of “reconversion” to
Hinduism
b. Malaviya submitted his famous
Memorandum (“Court Character and
Primary Education in North-Western
Provinces and Oudh) 1900 which
permitted the use of Nagari characters
alongside Persian in the courts of the
North-Western Provinces.
5) An ardent journalist (The Leader),
6) Reluctant but effective lawyer (Chauri
Chaura)
7) A successful parliamentarian and an
outstanding statesman
a. one of the signatories of Poona pact
b. President of INC
8) Bharat Ratna (2014)

Mahatma Gandhi considered him to be his

conscience-keeper and called him his elder brother
on public platforms

Rabindranath Tagore honoured him with the

encomium ‘Mahamana’ (a luminous mind and
magnanimous heart).

Shreyans Kumat (AIR 4) - t.me/shreyansupsc