Indian national movement seeking to end British rule (1857-1947)

1. INDIAN NATIONAL
MOVEMENT
BY:ABEN SAMUEL THOMAS

2. Introduction
The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events
with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India. It lasted
from 1857 to 1947.The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for
Indian independence emerged from Bengal. It later took root in the
newly formed Indian National Congress with prominent moderate
leaders seeking the right to appear for Indian Civil Service
examinations in British India, as well as more rights (economical in
nature) for the people of the soil. The early part of the 20th
century saw a more radical approach towards political self-rule
proposed by leaders such as the Lal Bal Pal triumvirate, Aurobindo
Ghosh and V. O. Chidambaram Pillai.

3. India's movement toward independence occurred in stages
prompted by the inflexibility of the British and, in many
instances, their violent responses to peaceful protests.
Many attribute the Indian Revolt of 1857 (known by the
British as the Sepoy Mutiny) as the first battle in the
struggle for Indian independence.The 1857 Indian Revolt
revealed the miscalculations of the British in
understanding the social and cultural issues important to
Indians. Indian soldiers called sepoys (from the Hindi
sipahi) grew increasingly uncomfortable with the British
encroachment on India's states and provinces as the
English East India Company expanded its influence in the
region. In addition, poor wages and harsh policies made
nationals increasingly tired of the British presence in
India.

4. Moreover, many of army's regulations were
perceived by Indians as attempts to Christianize
the Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim sepoys. Tensions came
to a head when the British began using animal fat
(from pigs and cows) to coat cartridge shells.
Although steps were taken to correct the
situation, distrust grew between the sepoys, who
were vegetarians by religion, and the British,
culminating in 1857 in the sepoy revolt.

5. In 1885, the Indian National Union was formed, which became the
Indian National Congress and had as its goal the moderate
position of seeing more locals in political representation. The
Indian National Congress (INC) was created to help ease the
tensions in the British relationship with Indians after the Sepoy
Mutiny. In the beginning, the INC did not contradict British
rule, but in the face of increasingly egregious acts by the
government, the INC came to identify with the independence
movement. The INC would dominate Indian politics and house many
of the early leaders of the independence movement including Gopal
Krishna Gokhale, leading those in favor of dominion status and
Bal Gangadhar Tilak, leading those who saw self rule as the only
option. Throughout the impendence movement leaders emerged from
among the Congress' membership including Mahatma Ghandi, the
leader of the non-violence movement, as well as Jawaharlal Nehru,
the first prime minister of the new nation.

6. The INC is the oldest political party in India. Originally the organization
was made up of upper middle-class, often Western-educated men, who
represented a political class of Indian civil servants invested in the
interests of India. Although the first female prime minister of India,
Indira Ghandi (1917–1984), came from the Congress party, women's
participation in the independence movement was not in formal party
membership but rather by support of campaigns led by the party such as the
move to make and wear homespun cloth rather than buying imported fabric. The
Indian National Congress began to clamor against British economic policies
and demand independence in exchange for support of the British during both
World Wars. Prior to entering World War II (1939–1945), the Congress
attempted to negotiate postwar independence as precursor to Indian
involvement. They were denied, the party outlawed, and its members jailed.
After World War II the demand for self rule became especially strong because
the prospect of dominion status no longer appealed to those who thought
India had earned the right to self rule by troop support in both
international wars.

7. Two factions developed within the INC that were defined by their stance on
British rule in India: a moderate one that hoped to attain rights through
negotiation and talks, and a revolutionary one in favor of agitating for
rights through physical, and if necessary, armed resistance. The split
deepened over time as the revolutionary faction led by Subhash Chandra Bose
(1897–1945), one of the leaders of the leftist wing of the Congress party
and president of the Congress from 1938–1939, argued that military action
was the only way to ensure freedom. The other faction, led by future Indian
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964), felt that socialism was a
necessary element in the forward movement of a national identity. Bose
wanted the INC to push for immediate British withdrawal from India, an idea
opposed by moderates within the organization. His insistence on extreme
measures resulted in his stepping down from office and a ban on his further
election. Bose later organized a countermovement in the Indian army when,
without consulting Indian leaders, the British declared India to be a
warring state during World War II.

8. The INC served as a clearinghouse for all who supported independence from
Britain before various splinter groups and factions formed. Although the INC
was founded to include all Indians, the organization came to be seen as
representative of Hindu rights, and Muslim Indians broke away to establish a
new political organization, the All India Muslim League, in 1906. In later
independence discussions, the fears of under-representation by Muslims led to
pleas to protect Muslim rights, and eventually to create the nation of
Pakistan.The split in the INC was eased under the influence of Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948) in 1920 when he became party leader. Gandhi, a
lawyer by training, had been educated in London and had worked in South
Africa, where he used nonviolence and noncooperation strategies to resist
British rule. The British refusal to acknowledge him as a full citizen in
South Africa contributed to the development of an anticolonial identity in
Gandhi before his return to India in 1914. In a climate steeped in tradition,
spirituality, and symbolism, Gandhi was an ideal figure around whom the
political drive toward independence could congeal.

9. In the Indian National Congress, Gandhi turned to his previous
experience in South Africa to establish the ground rules for the
movement toward Indian independence. Other important INC figures
included Jawaharlal Nehru, who became India's first prime minister in
1947 and served in that office for eighteen years. Nehru's father,
Motilal Nehru (1861–1931), also became a leader in the INC and the
independence movement after he was educated in England and returned to
India to practice law.The push for independence occurred in three
interconnected stages: the noncooperative movement, the civil
disobedience movement, and finally the "Quit India" movement. None of
these stages were rigidly defined; they naturally flowed into one
another as a result of contemporary events. The foundational principles
of the noncooperative movement included resisting the British by not
buying imported goods, refusing to pay taxes, and not working for the
British, rather than violence as a means of gaining independence.

10. A major turning point occurred in March 1930 with the Dandi March,
which sparked the civil disobedience movement. In what many consider a
stroke of political savvy, Gandhi chose the British taxes and
regulations on salt as the issue around which to stage a protest. Every
Indian, whether aristocrat or peasant, knew the value of salt, which
was used as a preservative. Gandhi's highlighting of the British
monopoly on salt production helped showcase the issue of native choice
in daily life. In a strategic move, Gandhi and seventy-eight supporters
undertook a twenty-three-day journey by foot to Dandi, a coastal region
where salt was abundant. Upon their arrival, Gandhi made natural salt,
thus violating the British law that only imported salt could be used or
purchased. Illegal salt was being made all over the country, and many
Indians, including Gandhi, were being imprisoned for doing so. Salt
thus became a symbol for the injustice and oppression of the British
Empire. After the Dandi March, the entire nation became more aware of
the fight for sovereignty from British rule.

11. In 1942 Gandhi announced the "Quit India"
campaign. Backed by the INC, all thoughts turned
toward eliminating the British presence in India
and establishing self-governance. The issuance of
the declaration resulted in the British government
outlawing the Indian National Congress and in the
subsequent arrests of INC leaders, including
Gandhi. The public fray between the INC and the
British brought the Quit India campaign into
prominence across the country, and resistance
grew.

12. When the British conceded independence to India, it came
with such swiftness that many of the unresolved tensions
were swept aside, only to come bursting forth later. Lord
Louis Mountbatten (1900–1979), the last viceroy of British
India, who was in good standing with Nehru, granted the
demands of the Muslim League to create a separate state,
Pakistan, for Muslims. Increasingly uncomfortable in
Hindu-dominated India, many in the Muslim League had
agitated for the formation of a separate Muslim state. At
the time of his assassination in 1948, Gandhi opposed the
partitioning of India, but the speed of independence
overshadowed such concerns. Violence ensued as Hindus
attempted to cross newly created borders into India, while
Muslims fled to Pakistan, resulting in many deaths and
clouding India's long-awaited freedom from the British Raj.

13. The first session of the Indian National Congress in 1885. The Congress was the first
modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Empire in Asia and Africa.

14. Lala Lajpat Rai of Punjab, Bal Gangadhar Tilak of Maharashtra, and Bipin Chandra Pal of
Bengal, the triumvirate were popularly known as Lal Bal Pal, changed the political
discourse of the Indian independence movement.

15. Rare photograph of Hindustan Times Newspaper when India got its
Independence from the British.