Subject: GS 1
Syllabus: The Freedom Struggle - its various stages and important contributors/contributions from different parts of the country.
Questions
- Discuss the pivotal factors that contributed to the inception of the Home Rule League Movement in colonial India. Analyse the underpinnings of its ascendance and subsequently, its decline, within the larger framework of India's freedom struggle. (150 Words, 10 Marks)
- The Indian freedom struggle was started by the middle-class intelligentsia, but later it took the form of a mass movement. Discuss the factors behind such a transition. (150 Words, 10 Marks)
Model Structure
1. Discuss the pivotal factors that contributed to the inception of the Home Rule League Movement in colonial India. Analyse the underpinnings of its ascendance and subsequently, its decline, within the larger framework of India's freedom struggle.
(150 Words, 10 Marks)
Model Structure
Introduction
- The Surat split and the First World War led to the emergence of the Ghadar party and Home Rule as two strands of short-lived nationalism.
- The main objective of the home rule movement was to achieve self-government in India or attain dominion status or home rule under the colonial empire, similar to Australia and Canada.
- Leaders like Annie Besant, Tilak, Subramania Iyer etc, got together with the idea of a national alliance which would work around the year, unlike Congress, which had only annual sessions.
- It was based on the Irish Home Rule League, with the main demand of self-government for pan-India.
Main Body
Factors behind this movement:
- The leaders were dissatisfied with the Morley-Minto reforms and wanted concrete reforms and seriousness from the British.
- Methods like prayers and petitions were deemed ineffective and the leaders felt that popular support and pressure were vital to get concessions from the government.
- The defeat of European powers in the early 20th century and their fight amongst themselves broke the myth of white superiority and emboldened colonies to rise further.
- Wartime expenditure, inflation and taxation put an enormous burden on the public, which compelled them to take these measures.
- Leaders in Annie Besant and Tilak were filled with a new zeal to work on the ground and compel the British to concede the demands.
The movement was pan-India. Propaganda was carried out to oust the British, and ideas of the Russian Revolution were added as a catalyst. But the movement faded out by 1919 due to reasons such as:
- The Lucknow session of 1917 saw unity in Congress, but moderates were pacified by talks of self-government as a greater goal and the Montford reforms, which were on the anvil.
- Poor organisation and lack of synchronisation between Tilak’s and Besant’s leagues led to weak efforts.
- Extremists had passive resistance as their mode of action, which maintained a divide between them and moderates in their modus operandi.
- Communal riots in many parts, like Malabar, Bihar etc, created a divide in society.
- Movement was left leaderless when Tilak went abroad for a court case, and the entry of Gandhiji also brought a fresh approach to resistance.
Conclusion
- The movement was important in more than one way for future actions as it shifted emphasis on the masses, created organisational links between rural and urban areas and gave a sense of urgency to the freedom struggle.
2. The Indian freedom struggle was started by the middle-class intelligentsia, but later it took the form of a mass movement. Discuss the factors behind such a transition. (150 Words, 10 Marks)
Model Structure
Introduction
- Indian freedom struggle went through phases of struggle and truce and varied in nature, starting from the revolt of 1857 to tribal and peasant revolts. It later saw a moderate and extremist phase, which was later absorbed by the mass movement on a pan-India scale.
Main Body
- With the formation of the Indian National Congress and the rise of middle-class intellectuals, there was a passive phase of the freedom struggle. But with the entry of Mahatma Gandhi and other important leaders, the nature of the struggle became a mass movement due to factors like-
- The failure of earlier leaders to connect with the masses. Though their end was freedom, the means were ineffective; thus, without the masses, they could not achieve anything substantial.
- Early intelligentsia who were also called as moderates did not accept the masses in the national movements as they thought their educational and political awareness was inadequate.
- Famines, economic exploitation, drain of wealth, etc, led to nationalist agitation with leaders like B.G. Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi, Lajpat Rai, and others.
- The towering figure of Gandhi ji and his ideas of Satyagraha and non-violence were followed by all Indians, bringing in more coordination in the freedom struggle.
- Events like the Bengal partition, communal electorates and swadeshi mobilised hitherto secluded sections like women and youth. Innovative groups like ‘samitis’ and parallel governments were formed to reach the interiors and involve all Indians in the struggle.
- Use of popular festivals like Ganapati and Shivaji gave an emotional tone to the movement, which brought in more masses.
- Big issues like World Wars, Khilafat agitation, Non-Cooperation Movement and Civil Disobedience gave a real mass base to the movement by ensuring participation of peasants, worker class, students, teachers, etc.
- Use of constructive work by leaders within the Indian National Congress to overcome challenges of illiteracy, diverse linguistic and religious traditions.
Conclusion
- For any issue that ecompasses the whole country and has a common cause, mass movements have shown the way forward. They have the tendency to bring together all the people cutting across various divides and unite the society into one single unit.
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