The indian national congress founded in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume (AO Hume) a retired
British memberof Indian Civil Service. Hume’s main purpose was to encourage
the foundation of Congress to provide a ‘safety valve’ or ‘safety outlet’ to
growing discontent among the educated Indians.
The first session of the Indian National Congress was held
on December 28, 1885.
Wyomesh Chandra Banerjee a leading lawyer of Calcutta was
elected its president. Its session was hold in Bombay under W C Banerjee in
1885 (72 delegates attended it).
In the first two decades congress was moderate in its
approach and confidence in British Justice and generosity. But the repressive
measure of British gave rise to extremists within Congress like Bipin Chandra
Pal, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Lala Lajpat Rai.
THE PARTITION OF BENGAL
On 20 July, 1950 Lord Curzon issued an order to divide the
province of Bengal into two parts.
To set up a communal gulf between Hindus and Muslims.
The Anti- Partition Movement started most Prominent leaders
like Surendranath Banerjee and Krishna Kumar Mitra etc.
Rabindranath Tagore composed the national song ‘Amar Sonar
Bangla’ for the occasion which was sung by huge crowd parading the streets.
This song was adopted as National Anthem by Bangladesh in 1971 after
liberation.
There were cries of ‘Bande Mataram’ which became a National
Song of Bengal.
The ceremony of Raksha Bandhan was observed on 16th
October, 1905. Hindu and Muslim tied ‘rakhi’ in one another’s wrists as a
symbol of the unbreakable unity.
SWADESHI MOVEMENT
The leader of Bengal felt that mere demonstrations, public
meetings and resolutions were not enough and something more concrete was needed
and the answer felt was Swadeshi and Boycott. People burnt foreign clothes and
foreign goods.
An important aspect of the Swadeshi Movement was emphasis
placed on self-reliance.
The leaders of Bengal took up the work of national education
in right earnest. National educational institutions were opened by them and
literary, technical and physical education was given there.
On 15 August, 1906 a National Council of education was set
up and Aurobindo Ghosh was appointed as the first Principal of the National
Colllege.
The Varanasi (Banaras) Session of the Congress, presided
over by GK Gokhale in 1905, recorded its protest against the partition of
Bengal.
At the Calcutta session the Congress adopted to boycott
British goods on August 7, 1905.
Lala Lajpat Rai, BG Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal (Lal, Bal
and Pal ) and Aurobindo Ghosh played important role in Swadeshi Movement.
The great extremist Tilak started the newspaper The Maratha
(in English _ and Kesari (in Marathi).
In 1893, Gangadhar Tilak started celebrating the traditional
religious Ganpati festival. IN 1895, he started the Shivaji festival.
The most outstanding extremist leaders were Bipin Chandra
Pal, Aurobindo Ghosh and Lala Lajpat Rai.
MUSLIM LEAGUE
In 1906, the All India Muslim League was founded under the
leadership of Agha Khan, Nawab Salimullah of Dacca and Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk.
The League supported separate electorate for the Muslim
community and opposed the Nationalist moves of the Congress.
In return the British declared that they would assiduously
protect the ‘special interest of the Muslims’.
THE SURAT SPLIT OR SURAT SESSION OF INC
The Indian National Congress split in two groups, the
moderate and extremist groups at the Surat Session in 1907.Extremists were led
by Lala Lajpat Rai, BG Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal and the moderates by Gopal
Krishna Gokhale.
MORLEY MINTO REFORMS (1909)
Morley Minto Reforms were introduced in 1909 during the
period when Lord MInto was the Viceroy if India.
The reforms envisaged a separate electrorate for Muslims,
later introduced the system of separate electrotates under which Muslims could
only vote for Muslims candidates.
THE GHADAR PARTY MOVEMENT
Taraknath Das, Sohan
Singh Bahakana and Lala Hardayal founded the Ghadar Party Movement.
In November1913, the Hind Association of America was founded
by Sohan Singh Bhakana. It decided to publish a weekly paper Ghadar or
Hindustan Ghadar in commemoration with the Revolt of 1857.
The organization headquater’s was at Sen Francisco.
Lala Hardayal, Bhai Parmanand and Ram Chandar were leading
figures of the Ghadar Party Movement.
HOME RULE LEAGUES (1916)
Home Rule Leagues having been inspired by the Irish
rebellion, Mrs. Annie Besant (September 1916) and BG Tilak (April 1916) set up
the Home Rule League.
BG Tilak’s League worked in Maharashtra and central
provinces and Annie Besant in rest of the country.
The League campaign aimed to convey to the common man the
message of Home Rule as self-government.
BG Tilak linked up question Swaraj with the demand for the
formation of linguistic states and education in Vernacular language. Tilak gave
the popular slogan, “Freedom is my birth right and I will have it”.
LUCKNOW PACT (1916)
The Lucknow session of the INC in 1916 was memorable event
on account of two important development. First was readmission of the
Extremists who had been expelled from the INC nine years earlier. The second
development was the bond the alliance between the Congress and Muslim League.
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ACT, (1919)
This is also known as Montague-Chelmsfrord Reforms, after
the secretary of state Edwin Montague and the Viceroy Chelmsford.
The executive council was enlarged and central legislature
was thoroughly remodeled and made bicameral, two chambers being the Council of
State and the Legislative Council.
The legislature had virtually no control over the Viceroy
and his executive council which the central government had unrestricted control
over the provincial government.
The Act introduced diarchy or dual government in the
provincial executives.
ROWLATT ACT
The government passed the Rowlatt Act in March 1919, which
empowered the British Government to detain any person without trial. The act
was a serious betral of the promises made by the government during the world
war period.
JALLIANWALA BAGH TRAGEDY (AMRITSAR)
(APRIL 13, 1919)
People were against
arresting of their popular leaders Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr. Satyapal.
ON April 13, 1919,
Baisakhi day, hundreds of people were massacred and several thousand wounded in
jallianwala Bagh where they had assembled to held a protest meeting against the
repressive policies of the government.
The troops led by General Dyer opened fire on the unarmed
men and women, young and old, Hindu and Muslim and it was regarded as the worst
massacre during the entire freedom struggle.
Hunter Commission was appointed to enquire into it.
Sardar Udham Singh killed General Dyer on March 13, 1940,
when the latter was addressing a meeting in Caxton hall in London.
THE KHILAFAT MOVEMENT (1920-22)
The Indian Muslims were extremely agitated over the,
Pan-Islamic Khilafat issue which originated as a result of Turkey’s entry into
the first world war as an ally of Germany against Britain.
The Ali Brothers-Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali launched
khilafat Movement in 1920 for the restoration of the khilafat.
Maulana Abdul Kalam also led the movement. It was supported
by Gandhiji which later powed the way for Hindu-Muslim unity.
The All India Khilafat Conference held at Delhi in November
1919.
Ghandhiji was the head of Khilafat Committee.
All India Khilafat Committee ceased to function after the
abolition of khilafat in Turkey by Mustarfa Kamala Pasa in 1924.
NON-COOERATION MOVEMENT (1920-22)
The Non-Cooperation movement which was the first mass
movement under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi was launched to press three
main demands
(I)
The Khilafat issue;
(ii) The redressal of the Punjab wrongs; and
(iii) The attainment of Swaraj.
The programme of the movement had
main aspects
(i)
Surrender of titles and honorary offices and resignation
from nominated seats in local bodies.
(ii)
Refusal
to attend official functions.
(iii)
Gradual withdrawal of children from officially
controlled schools and colleges.
(iv)
Boycott of British Courts by lawyers and
litigants.
(v)
Refusal on the part of the military, clerical
and labour classes to offer themselves as recruits for service in Mesopotamia.
(vi)
Boycott the elections to the Legistlative
Council.
(vii)
Boycott of the foreign goods.
The Prince of Wales visited India
during this period.
CHAURI CHAURA INCIDENT (1922)
In Chauri Chaura (Near Gorakhpur,
Uttar Pradesh) a Police station including 22 policemen was burnt on February
5,1922.
Most of the nationalist leaders
including CR Das, Motilal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal
Nehru,however, expressed their bewilderment at Gandhi’s decision to withdraw
the Non-Cooperation Movement February 12,1922.
In March 1922, Gandhiji was
arrested and sentenced for six years in jail.
THE SWARAJYA PARTY (1923)
CR Das, MOtilal Nehru and NC
Kelkar suggested that instead of boycotting the councils they should enter and
expose them.
In December 1922, CR Das and
MOtilal Nehru formed the Cnongress Khilafat Swarajya Party with CR Das as the
President and Motilal Nehru as one of the secretaries.
The Swarajists contested elections
to the legislative assembly and provincial councils.
In 1923, elections they got 42
seats out of 101 elected seats in Bengal and Central Province. The party broke
in 1926 after the death of CR Das.
SIMON COMMISSION (1927)
In November 1927, the British
Government appointed the Indian Statutory Commission known as the Simon
Commission (after the name of chairman).
John Simon, a British politician,
was appointed as chairman of the commission to review the situation in India
with a view to introduce further reforms and extension of Parliamentary
democracy, Indian leaders opposed the Commission.
On February, 1928 the Commission
reached Bombay, an All India strike was organize, wherever the Commission went,
was greeted with strikes and black flag demonstrations under the slogan “Simon,
go Back”.
The police came down heavily on
demonstrators. The lathi-charged at Lahore, Lala Lajpat Rai beaten and died
because of injuries (October 30, 1928).
BARDOLI MOVEMENT (1928)
Bardoli Movemetn against the
payment of Land tax led by Vallabhbhai Patel in a village called Bardoli in
Gujarat.
Vallabhbhai Patel got the title
Sardar from this movement.
THE NEHRU REPORT (1928)
Having boycotted the Simon Commission, the
Indian political parties tried to hammer out a common political programme.
All parties conference met in
February 1928 and appointed a sub-committee under the Chairmanship of Motilal
Nehru to draft a Constitution. This was the first major attempt by the Indians
to draft a constitutional framework for the country.
The committee also included Tej
Bahadur Sapru.
The report was finalized on August
1928. It was proposed the goal of India-Dominion status or complete
independence.
14 points of Jinnah (March 9,
1929)—Jinnah, the leader of Muslim League, did not accept the Nehru Report,
thereafter drew up a lift of demands, which was called 14 points of Jinnah.
OTHER POLITICAL PARTIES AND
MOVEMENTS(1922-27)
The moderates who had walked out
of the INC in 1918, formed National Liberal League, later known as the All
India Liberal Federation and cooperated with the government.
The HINDU MAHASABHA, a communal organization
of the Hindus, founded in December 1918, also gained strength and Madan Mohan
Malaviya was elected as its president at Belgaum
Session.
Session.
0 comments: