Nationalism in India

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• Questions
• Summary

1. The First World War (1914-1918) was a turning point in the history of Indian National Movement.
2. It created a new political and economic situation.
3. National Movement spread to new areas, influenced new social groups, developed new modes of struggle. Nationalists could demand new concessions from Great Britain.
4. But the war did not end hardships caused by it to millions of the poor in India.
5. Hardships suffered during the war – Huge defence expenditure, rise in prices, famines or crop failure (1918-19-20-21). Nearly 12 to 13 million people died (Census 1921) due to the famine.
6. Anger caused by forced recruitment of army in the villages. At this stage Gandhiji emerged on the national scene.

1. New Ideas: Satyagraha, a novel way of fighting the colonial rule in India. A non-aggressive, peaceful mass agitation against oppression and injustice. Gandhiji knew India could never match the British in arms.
2. Satyagraha means insistence on truth. A moral force, not passive resistance.
3. Gandhiji organized Satyagraha Movements in Champaran, Bihar (1916), Kheda district of Gujarat (1917) and amongst cotton mill workers in Ahmedabad (1918).
4. These campaigns established him as the leader of the masses.

1. The Rowlatt Act was passed hurriedly by the Imperial Legislative Council in 1919. It was opposed by all its Indian members.
2. The government assumed enormous powers to repress political activities, and allowed imprisonment of leaders without trial for two years.
3. Gandhiji decided to launch a ‘Hartal’ on 6 April against the Rowlatt Act.
4. Rallies were organised in various cities, workers went on strike in railway workshops, and shops closed down.
5. Local leaders were picked up from Amritsar, and Mahatma Gandhi was barred from entering Delhi.
6. On 13 April 1919, the infamous Jallianwalla Bagh incident took place.
7. A large crowd gathered in the enclosed ground of Jalliawalla Bagh.
8. General Dyer entered the area where a peaceful meeting was going on in Jallianwalla Bagh. He blocked all the exit points and ordered his troops to fire upon the unarmed people.
9. Hundreds of innocent people were killed, some were drowned as they jumped into a well to escape bullets.
10. Rowlatt Satyagraha had been a widespread movement, it was still limited mostly to cities and towns.
11. Mahatma Gandhi now felt the need to launch a more broad-based movement in India.
12. But he was certain that no such movement could be organized without bringing the Hindus and Muslims closer together.
13. To defend the Khalifa’s temporal powers, a Khilafat Committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919.
14. Gandhiji saw this as an opportunity to bring Muslims under the umbrella of a unified national movement.
15. Khilafat Movement was led by two brothers Shaukat Ali and Muhammad Ali; was founded to fight for Khilafat rights, and was against the harsh treatment given to the Khalifa, Emperor of the Turkish Empire, after the First World War.

1. Gandhiji observed that British rule was established in India with the cooperation of Indians, and had survived only because of this cooperation. 
2. If Indians refused to cooperate, British rule in India would collapse within a year, and Swaraj would come.
3. Gandhiji convinced the Congress to join hands with the Khilafat Movement and start a Non-Cooperation Campaign for Swaraj.
4. Non-Cooperation with the British rule, programme adopted at the Nagpur Session of Congress in 1920.