Phases of Congress

Congres has three phases• Moderate Nationalism 1885-1905• Militant Nationalism 1905-1917• Gandhian Nationalism1920-47

Moderate Nationalism (1885-1905)

• The early nationalist leaders, also called as moderates were believers in constitutionalism and liberalism. They had faith in British sense of fair play and justice. The Moderates believed that the British basically wanted to be just to the Indians but were not aware of the real conditions. Therefore, if public opinion could be created, in the country and public demands be presented to the Government through resolutions, petitions, meetings, etc., the authorities would concede these demands gradually.

Important Moderate Leaders

• Dadabhai Naoroji, (Grand Old Man of India)• Gopal Krishan Gokhle (Tilak called him Diamond of India)• Badruddin Tayabji• Anand Mohan Bose• Rash Bihari Ghosh• Pherozshah Mehta, • D.E. Wacha, • W.C. Bannerjee • S.N. Bannerjee• R.C Dutt• Kadambini Ganguly• Lala Lajpat Roy (only moderate to turn into extremist)

• The moderate political activity involved constitutional agitation within the confines of law and showed a slow but orderly political progress.

• They attempted to raise public opinion in Britain in support of Indian demands and rights. For this purpose British committee of the Indian National Congress was established in London in 1899 under William Wedderburn. It stated a journal called as India in 1890. In 1890, it was decided to hold a session of the Indian National Congress in London in 1892, but owing to the British elections of 1891 the proposal was postponed and never revived later.

• Dadabhai Naoroji spent a portion of his life and income campaigning for India's case abroad. He contested in election to British parliament as candidate of liberal party. He was also first (in 1904) to put forward demand for self government. In congress’s session of 1906, he also demanded Sawaraj.

• • The Moderate leaders believed that political connections

with Britain were in India's interest at that stage of history and that the time was not ripe for a direct challenge to the British rule. Therefore, it was considered to be appropriate to try and transform the colonial rule to approximate to a national rule.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF MODERATE NATIONALISTS

Economic Critique of British Imperialism• The early nationalists criticized British exploitation of India. They

opposed the transformation of a basically self-sufficient Indian economy into a colonial economy (i.e., a supplier of raw materials and importer of finished goods and a field of investment for British capital). Dadabhai Naoroji propounded of “Drain Theory of Wealth” in his book “poverty and un-British rule in India (1867) and was pioneer in formulating economic critique of colonialism. R.C. Dutt also criticized economic exploitation by Britishers in his book “ Economic history of India.

• The early nationalists demanded reduction in land revenuer abolition of salt tax, improvement in working conditions of plantation labour, reduction in military expenditure, and encouragement to modern industry through tariff protection and direct government aid.

2. Constitutional Reforms and Propaganda in Legislature• Legislative councils in India had no real official power till 1920. From 1885

to 1892, the nationalist demands for constitutional reforms were centered around1. Expansion of councils—i.e., greater participation of Indians in councils,2. Reform of councils—i.e., more powers to councils, especially greater control over finances.

• Their demands for constitutional reforms were conceded in 1892 in the form of the Indian Councils Act. These reforms were severely criticized at Congress sessions, and gave the slogan—"No taxation without representation” , and Dadabhai Naoroji (1904), Gopal Krishna Gokhle (1905) and Lokmanya Tilak (1906) demanded self government like the self-governing colonies of Canada and Australia.

3. Campaign for General Administrative ReformsThese included the following:

• Indianisation of government service: On the economic grounds that British civil servants expected very high emoluments while inclusion of Indians would be more economical; on political grounds that, since salaries of British bureaucrats were remitted back home and pensions paid in England, this amounted to economic drain; and On moral grounds that Indians were being discriminated against by being kept away from positions of trust and responsibility.

• Increase in expenditure on welfare (i.e., health, sanitation ,education, irrigation and agriculture

• Better treatment for Indian labour abroad in other British colonies, who faced oppression and racial discrimination there.

4. Defence of Civil Rights These rights included the right to speech, thought, association and expression an incessant campaign, the nationalists were able to spread modern democratic ideas, and soon the defence of civil rights became an integral part of the freedom struggle.

ATTITUDE OF THE GOVERNMENTThe British Indian Government was hostile to the Congress from the beginning despite the latter's moderate methods and emphasis on loyalty to the British Crown.

• The major weakness of Moderates was their narrow social base and their lack of faith in the masses and they failed to realize the true nature of British rule. They confined their movement to the educated middle classes.

Militant Nationalism (1905-1920)

• By the dawn of the 20th century, a new school of militant nationalism has taken birth in India led by Bal, Pal and Lal. The young members in congress were highly unsatisfied with the mendicant policies of Moderates and started criticizing them.

• Aurobindo Ghosh criticized congress for “Playing with Bubbles”. A.K. Dutta described moderate congress session as a “Three Day Tamasha”. Tilak compared the leaders and sessions with ‘Croak once a year like a frog”.

• Their method was Swadeshi, Sawaraj, Bycott and National Education. Because of their differences in their methods, they come to be known as extremists or militant or new nationalism.

Factors responsible for their growth:

• Realization that the true nature of British Rule was exploitative.• International influences and events such as Ethiopia’s victory

over Italy and Japan’s Victory over Russia demolished the myth of white supremacy.

• Growth of education which led to increased awareness as well as unemployment. By the end of 1900s there were not less than 1000000 people who had western education but only 16000 Indian have hobs with more than Rs. 75.

• Growth of confidence, pride and self respect in Indian’s glorious part. People like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Vivekananda, Swami Dayanand, Bankim Chander Chatterjee and many more were inspired by India’s glorious culture of ancient history and took pride in everything India.

• Swami Vivekanda once also described,” if there is a sin in the world, it is weakness.”

• Dissatisfaction with the existing method of struggle as most of demands by congress was not being met.

• The anti-British feelings were further roused as a result of the treatment given to Indians in the British Colonies in Africa particularly in South Africa where they were treated as social sub-castes.

• Finally, the reactionary policies of Curzon (1889 -1905) and partition of Bengal (1905)“fuelled the spark to turn into a fire.’”

Partition of Bengal and Swadeshi Movement

Bengal was the nerve centre of Indian nationalism. The idea of partition of Bengal was quite Old one. Though partition plan was dawn in 1889, but was dropped because of strong opposition in Bengal. On Dec. 3, 1903, Lord Curzon laid out his notorious plan regarding partition of Bengal based on so called administrative grounds as Bengal with a population of 78 millions had become too big to administer.

But the real purpose was to divide the Bengali Nationalism on Communal and linguistics bases. As the Home Secretary Lord Herbert Risely stated,

“The Bengal united is a power. Bengal divided will pull in several different ways.”

The partition plan includes:- • East Bengal with Assam as a Muslim majority province.• West Bengal with Bihar and Orissa with non-Bengali

speaking majority.• To woo Muslims, Curzon argued that Decca will become

the capital of the Muslim majority province.• The plan was officially expounded on 4 July 1905 and

Bengal was partitioned on Oct 16 1905, which was observed as a “day of mourning” by the people. No cooking was done and the shops and market places were kept closed. The people of Bengal were shocked and reacted in a very united, organized and aggressive manner. People tied rakhis to each other and sang Vande Matram.

Swadeshi Movement

The Swadeshi cum Boycott Movement was launched on August 7, 1905 at a meeting in Calcutta Town Hall. It was started as a reaction to Partition of Bengal.Initially movement was in the hands of moderates and the initial objective of the movement was the annulment of Partition of Bengal. Soon the movement came in the hands of extremists and attainment of Sawaraj became the ultimate objective.The two aspects of the movement are :

Bycott of British goods andPromotion of Swadeshi.

The Boycott suggestion during the movement first came from Krishan Kumar Mitra’s Journal Sanjivani on 3 July 1905 which was adopted on 7 August 1905.

Swadeshi Movement

The Swadeshi cum Boycott Movement was launched on August 7, 1905 at a meeting in Calcutta Town Hall. It was started as a reaction to Partition of Bengal.Initially movement was in the hands of moderates and the initial objective of the movement was the annulment of Partition of Bengal. Soon the movement came in the hands of extremists and attainment of Sawaraj became the ultimate objective.The two aspects of the movement are :

Bycott of British goods andPromotion of Swadeshi.

• The Boycott suggestion during the movement first came from Krishan Kumar Mitra’s Journal Sanjivani on 3 July 1905 which was adopted on 7 August 1905.

• The slogan of Vande Matram was also adopted on this day. This was composed by Bankim Chandra in Sanskrit and was first sung in 1896 session of INC.

• Rabindra Nath Tagore composed “Amar Sonar Bangla “for the occasion. This song was adopted as National Anthem by Bangladesh in 1971 after liberation.

• Bipan Chander Pal emphasized idea of Passive Resistance.

• Savarkar founded the Mitra Mela.• Aurobindo Ghosh came out with the theory of organized

and relentless boycott of British goods, British system of education, judiciary and executive, social bycott of the loyalists and civil disobedience of unjust laws.

• Swadeshi was advocated and Swadeshi Melas were held. Charkha become the symbol of country’s economic self-sufficiency.

• Emphasis was placed on Self-Reliance or Atmasakti (Advocated by Tagore). Several Indian industrial ventures such as the Calcutta Potteries, Bengal Chemical Swadeshi Stores, Lakshmi Cotton Mills and Mohini Mills were started. Encouragement was given to indigenous textile mills, match and soap factories and revival of handloom and silk was initialed.

• Concept of national education was propounded and Swadeshi Movement decided to run a parallel system of education. The University of Calcutta was denounced as a Gulam Khana and Bengal Council of national Education was established.

• Students, women took active part in the movement.

Downfall• Lack of effective organisation.• Inability of moderates and extremists to work in a united and

co-operative manner. Congress supported Bycott movement only for Bengal at Banaras session in 1905 but the extremists wanted to extend the movement to the other parts of the country. This was refused by the moderates. Further moderates also did not like the four resolutions of Swadeshi, Sawraj, bycott and national education passed in 1906’s session. This resulted in split of Congress at Surat and Swadeshi movement lost its major strength and force Split in session of congress.

• Movement become leaderless due to severe repression by the government like imprisonment and deportation of many of its leaders in 1908.

Annulment of Partition of Bengal• In December 1911, King George V and Queen

Empress visited India. He was the only British King to visit India. On December 12, 1911 a magnificent Darbar was held in Delhi and annulment of the Partition of Bengal was announced in this function. Transfer of British Capital from Calcutta to Delhi was made in this function.