VisionIAS - Video Classroom Lecture

Modern Indian History Class 03

HOME RULE MOVEMENT (05:17 PM)

1916
Madame Annie Besant suggested the idea of the Home Rule Movement in the 1915 INC session presided over by Lord SP Sinha (the first India to enter the Viceroy's executive council as a law member).
Her proposal was rejected.
However, Tilak welcomed the idea & was the first to form in April 1916 with Pune as the headquarters.
Kapardhe was the founder member of the Home Rule League.
Tilak started his movement first in Belgaum (Karnataka).
Tilak's Home Rule League covered Bombay's presidency except for the city of Bombay.
In the city of Bombay Jamnalal Dwarknath Das led the movement with the support of Indulal Yagnik.
It was during this movement Tilak gave the slogan "Swaraj is my birthright & I shall have it."
In Madras' presidency, Annie Besant founded her Home Rule League with Adyar as the headquarters in September 1916.
Shankranayar was the president of the league & George Arundale was the secretary.
Annie Besant was also supported by Indulal Yagnik & B.P. Wadeyar, the founder of the first trade union- the Madras Mill Worker's Association.
To promote the ideas of Home Rule Annie Besant founded the journals "Commonweal" & "New India".
She toured India extensively promoting the concept of native education.
Varanasi Central School was made into Benaras Hindu University with the support of M.M. Malviya.
At the insistence of Annie Besant national schools and colleges were founded for promoting native education.
At the Theosophical College at Madanapalli (Andhra), Margret Cousins set the tune for our national anthem.
Rabindranath Tagore recited it for the first time in college.
Part of the movement, reading rooms were founded in district headquarters and the library movement started.
Annie Besant involved the YMCA to render social service during World War I.
When Annie Besant was house-arrested in Chennai, George Arundale started the Young Christian Movement in support of Annie Besant.
In August 1917 Chelmsford made the August Declaration promising self-governance for India after the war.
Believing the promise, Annie Besant suspended the movement.
Reasons for the Movement (05:38 PM)
For Annie Besant World War I was a good opportunity to bring pressure on England and to gain some concessions.
Here she was very much influenced by the Irish patriotic movement.
With the movement, she decided to provide leadership to the nationalist movement.
For Annie Besant, colonies like Canada, Australia & New Zealand got a type of self-governance & the same must be given to India.
Thus the ultimate aim of the movement was Self-Governance.
Critical appraisal- (05:42 PM)
The movement failed to get self-governance for India.
After the war, instead of giving self-governance as promised, the British provided a Dyarchy.
Annie Besant never tried to involve the masses in the mainstream of the struggle.
When the Home Rule Movement started, it was the same time the anti-Brahmin movement started in the Madras Presidency.
The lower caste, intermediate caste & Muslims were not favorably inclined to support the movement as Annie Besant was president of the Theosophical Society which supports Sanatana Dharma.
However, the movement was not altogether a failure-
Credit goes to the movement for the Montague Chelmsford reforms which provided Dyarchy.
For the first time, Indians got nearly six departments under their control under transfer subjects including education.
A new community called Sindhis entered the freedom struggle.
New leadership in the form of Jinnah, Motilal Nehru, and TB Sapru appeared for the first time in the freedom struggle.
Annie Besant inspired women's participation in the freedom struggle.
She was made the first woman president of the INC in the 1917 Calcutta session.
The movement highlighted the concept of native education.

LUCKNOW PACT (1916) (05:53 PM)

While the Home Rule Movement was going on, the Lucknow session of INC of 1916 presided over the AC Mazumdar.
It was in this session Congress & Muslim League tried to come together against the British.
Muslim leadership was not favorably disposed against the British for the following reasons-
(i). Partition was suspended
(ii). Muslim country Turkey joined with Germany against England in World War I.
(iii). Muslim leaders like Maulana Azad, the Ali brothers, and Hazrat Mohani were harassed.
Al Hilal of Azad was banned.
Hazrat Mohani was a radical Muslim leader.
He was the first to give the slogan "Inquilab Zindabad" and also the first to demand total independence.
Jinnah, a member of both INC and Muslim League took the lead and was called "Ambassador of Hindu Muslim Unity" by Sarojini Naidu.
As per the pact reached between the INC and the Muslim League, both agreed to support each other against the British.
Further, INC supported the claims of the Muslim League for separate communal electorates, 1/3rd seats for Muslims in the Central Legislative Assembly and not to propose any legislation against minority interests.
In the same session, the expelled extremists were welcomed to join the INC.
It happened as moderate leaders- Gokhale & Pheroz Shah Mehta died in 1916.

GANDHIAN ERA (06:06 PM)

The rise of Gandhi in Indian politics was the most fascinating chapter.
It was the result of his amazing leadership qualities & at the same time the practical conditions prevailing in India at that time.
Gandhian personality was an amazing one.
The outstanding aspect of his personality was his intellectual caliber.
Gandhi was exposed to Western political philosophy & mastered the intellectual currents of his times.
He was very much influenced by Leo Tolstoy's "Kingdom of god is within you", John Ruskin's "Unto This Last", Edwin Arnold's "Song Celestial", Daniel Thoreau's pamphlet "Civil Disobedience" & Karl Marx's "Das Capital".
He was a leader bestowed with great reasoning abilities.
No criticism proved valid against Gandhi.
Gandhian personality was highly flexible, it changed from time to time & place to place as per the circumstances.
Westernized Gandhi in South Africa discarded his Western outlook.
Once he came back to India & completely identified himself with the masses (the masses never deserted Gandhi for this particular reason).
Gandhi mastered the art of playing with the sentiments of the people.
His personality indicated a perfect balance/equilibrium between the extremes.
A moderate for moderates, & an extremist for extremists & above all an anarchist.
A leader moderate in words & extremist in action.
His personality was the most amicable personality.
Every section of Indian society had something or the other that appealed to his personality.
Gandhi talking about Ramrajya, holding the Bhagavad Gita became the leader of conservative Hindus.
Gandhi was made the chairman of the Khilafat Committee by the Ali brothers.
Similarly, by organizing the Champaran & Ahmedabad Mill Workers strike and Kheda Satyagraha, Gandhi emerged as the Messiah.
Gandhi was accepted as the leader by the Zamindars & the capitalist class as they required a leader who would go against violent movements.
Apart from the above personality traits, practical conditions also favored the rise of Gandhi in politics.
(i). By the time he returned back from South Africa, there was a leadership vacuum in Indian politics.
Moderate leadership for all practical purposes ended with the death of Gokhale and Pheroz Shah in 1916.
Tilak was no longer the same dynamic leader.
Annie's leadership was not welcomed by the INC.
Gandhi's advantage was that he was the only leader who had the experience of organizing all-class mass-based movements against the white racist government in South Africa.
(ii). World War economic & political conditions also favored the rise of Gandhi.
Cooperative Gandhi turned Non-Cooperative- (07:57 PM)
Gandhi supported the English during the World War I.
He gave a call for the youth to join the British Army.
He was given the nickname "Recruiting Sargent" by the British.
For his services during the Boer Wars in South Africa, he was conferred with the title "Kaiser-i-Hind".
Cooperative Gandhi did not support the Home Rule movement of Annie Besant against the British.
However, Cooperative Gandhi turned Non-Cooperative during the war situations and subsequent developments in India.
In 1917, Gandhi was invited to Champaran in Bihar by AN Sinha, Rajendra Prasad, Bhulabai Desai, Narhari Parekh & Mazhar-ul-Haq on the issue of the exploitation of the Indigo peasantry.
It was the first civil disobedience act of Gandhi in India when he defied the orders & entered Champaran.
He was made a member of the Indigo Enquiry Committee & due to his efforts, the peasantry got back 20% of the investments made.
In 1917, Gandhi took up the issue of the Ahmedabad Mill worker's strike.
Due to the economic depression & plaque conditions workers demanded a 50% hike.
Here Gandhi was supported by Anusuiya Sarabai.
Gandhi observed his first fast unto death in this strike.
Due to his efforts, finally, the hike was fixed at 35%.
In 1918, Gandhi conducted Kheda Satyagraha in Gujarat.
He was invited by Mohan Lal Pandya, supported by Sardar Patel & Narhari Parekh.
The satyagraha was for total exemption of the land tax as crops failed.
This was the first Satyagraha of Gandhi in India.
Finally, the peasantry got tax exemption.

TOPICS TO BE DISCUSSED IN THE NEXT CLASS- GANDHIAN ERA (CONTINUATION)