HISTORY

Social and Religious Reform movements in the 19th and 20th century.

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Raja Rammohan Roy:

RRM Roy was a social reformer and intellectual in the early nineteenth century Bengal. He is most widely known for founding the Brahmo Samaj and his relentless campaign against the practice of Sati and child marriage.

Debendranath Tagore:

Brahmo Samaj:

BS was founded in 1828 by Raja Ram Mohan Roy with the purpose of purifying Hinduism and to preach monotheism or belief in one God.

  • The socio-religious reforms are also referred to as the Indian renaissance
  • The socio-cultural regeneration in nineteenth century India was occasioned by the colonial presence, but not created by it.
  • Formation of the Brahmo Samaj in 1828.
  • Paramhansa Mandali, Prathna Samaj, Arya Samaj, Kayasth Sabha: UP, Sarin Sabha: Punjab, Satya Sodhak Samaj: Maharashtra, Sri Narayana Dharma Paripalana Sabha: Kerala
  • Ahmadiya and Aligarh Movements: Muslims, Singh Sabha: Sikhs, Rehnumai Mazdeyasan Sabha: Parsees
  • Their attention was focused on worldly existence.
  • The idea of otherworldliness and salvation were not a part of their agenda.
  • At that time the influence of religion and superstition was overwhelming. Position of priests strong; that of women weak.
  • Caste was another debilitating factor
  • Neither a revival of the past nor a total break with tradition was contemplated.
  • Rationalism and religious universalism influenced the reform movement.
  • Development of universalistic perspective on religion
  • Lex Loci Act propsed in 1845 and passed in 1850 provided the right to inherit ancestral property to Hindu converts to Christianity.
  • The culture faced a threat from the colonial rule.

 

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Lucknow Pact (1916)

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Nationalists saw that their disunity was affecting their cause

  • Two important developments at the Lucknow Session of Congress
    • The two wings of the Congress were again united
    • The Congress and the Muslim League sank their old differences and put up common political demands before the government.
  • INC and ML passed the same resolutions at their sessions, put forward a joint scheme of political reforms based on separate electorates, and demanded that the British Government should make a declaration that it would confer self-government on India at an early date.
  • The pact accepted the principle of separate electorates
  • Main clauses of the pact
  • There shall be self-government in India.
  • Muslims should be given one-third representation in the central government.
  • There should be separate electorates for all the communities until a community demanded joint electorates.
  • A system of weightage should be adopted.
  • The number of the members of Central Legislative Council should be increased to 150.
  • At the provincial level, four-fifth of the members of the Legislative Councils should be elected and one-fifth should be nominated.
  • The size of provincial legislatures should not be less than 125 in the major provinces and from 50 to 75 in the minor provinces.
  • All members, except those nominated, should be elected directly on the basis of adult franchise.
  • No bill concerning a community should be passed if the bill is opposed by three-fourth of the members of that community in the Legislative Council.
  • The term of the Legislative Council should be five years.
  • Members of Legislative Council should themselves elect their president.
  • Half of the members of Imperial Legislative Council should be Indians.
  • The Indian Council must be abolished.
  • The salaries of the Secretary of State for Indian Affairs should be paid by the British government and not from Indian funds.
  • Of the two Under Secretaries, one should be Indian.
  • The Executive should be separated from the Judiciary.
  • Evaluation
    • As an immediate effect, the unity between the two factions of the congress and between INC and ML aroused great political enthusiasm in the country
    • However, it did not involve Hindu and Muslim masses  and was based on the notion of bringing together the educated Hindus and Muslims as separate political entities without secularization of their political outlook
    • The pact therefore left the way open to the future resurgence of communalism in Indian politics.

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Morley-Minto Reforms, 1909

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  • Increased the number of elected members in the Imperial Legislative Council and the provincial council
  • However, most of the elected members were elected indirectly
  • The reformed councils still enjoyed no real power, being merely advisory bodies.
  • Introduced separate electorates under which all Muslims were grouped in separate constituencies from which Muslims alone could be elected. This was aimed at dividing the Hindus and Muslims. It was based on the notion that the political and economic interests of Hindus and Muslims were separate.
    • This later became a potent factor in the growth of communalism
    • It isolated the Muslims from the Nationalist Movement and encouraged separatist tendencies
  • The real purpose of the reforms was to confuse the moderate nationalists, to divide nationalist ranks and to check the growth of unity among Indians
  • Response of Moderates
    • They realized that the reforms had not granted much
    • However, they decided to cooperate with the government in working the reforms
    • This led to their loss of respect among the nationalists and masses

TRIBAL UPRISINGS

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  • The colonial administrators ended their relative isolation and brought them fully within the ambit of colonialism.
  • Introduced new system of land revenue and taxation of tribal products
  • Influx of Christian missionaries into the tribal areas
  • They could no longer practice shifting agriculture
  • Oppression and extortion by police officials
  • The complete disruption of the old agrarian order of the tribal communities provided the common factor for all the tribal uprisings

UPRISINGS

  • Santhals
  • Kols of Chhotanagpur (1820-37)
  • Birsa Munda (1899-1900)

 

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The Indus Valley Civilization : Origin, antiquity, extent, authorship and main features

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Indus Valley Civilization

 

Indus Valley Civilization was the first major civilization in south Asia, which spread across a vast area of land in present day India and Pakistan (around 12 lakh sq.km). The time period of mature Indus Valley Civilization is estimated between BC. 2700- BC.1900 i.e. for 800 years. But early Indus Valley Civilization had existed even before BC.2700.

 

Features of Indus Valley Civilization

  • 2700- BC.1900 i.e. for 800 years.
  • On the valleys of river Indus.
  • Also known as Harappan Civilization.
  • Beginning of city life.
  • Harappan Sites discovered by – Dayaram Sahni (1921) – Montgomori district, Punjab, Pakistan.
  • Mohenjo-Daro discovered by – R. D. Banerji – Larkana district, Sind, Pakistan.
  • City was divided into Citadel (west) and Lower Town(east).
  • Red pottery painted with designs in black.
  • Stone weights, seals, special beads, copper tools, long stone blades etc.
  • Copper, bronze, silver, gold present.
  • Artificially produced – Faience.
  • Specialists for handicrafts.
  • Import of raw materials.
  • Plough was used.
  • Bodies were buried in wooden coffins, but during the later stages ‘H symmetry culture’ evolved where bodies were buried in painted burial urns.
  • Sugar cane not cultivated, horse, iron not used.

 

 

Indus Valley Sites and Specialties

Harappa

  • Seals out of stones
  • Citadel outside on banks of river Ravi

Mohenjodaro

  • Great Bath, Great Granary, Dancing Girl, Man with Beard, Cotton, Assembly hall
  • Term means ” Mount of the dead”
  • On the bank of river Indus
  • Believed to have been destructed by flood or invasion (Destruction was not gradual).

Chanhudaro

  • Bank of Indus River. – discovered by Gopal Majumdar and Mackey (1931)
  • Pre-harappan culture – Jhangar Culture and Jhukar Culture
  • Only cite without citadel.

Kalibangan

  • At Rajastan on the banks of river Ghaggar, discovered by A.Ghosh (1953)
  • Fire Altars
  • Bones of camel
  • Evidence of furrows
  • Horse remains ( even though Indus valley people didn’t use horses).
  • Known as third capital of Indus Empire.

Lothal

  • At Gujarat near Bhogava river, discovered by S.R. Rao (1957)
  • Fire Altars
  • Beside the tributary of Sabarmati
  • Store house
  • Dockyard and earliest port
  • double burial
  • Rice husk
  • House had front entrance (exception).

Ropar

  • Punjab, on the banks of river Sutlej. Discovered by Y.D Sharma (1955)
  • Dog buried with humans.

 

Banawali

  • Haryana
  • On banks of lost river Saraswathi
  • Barley Cultivation.

 

Dholavira

  • Biggest site in India, until the discovery of Rakhigarhi.
  • Located in Khadir Beyt, Rann of Kutch, Gujarat. Discovered by J.P Joshi/Rabindra Singh (1990)
  • 3 parts + large open area for ceremonies
  • Large letters of the Harappan script (sign boards).

Religion of Indus Valley People

  • Pashupathi Mahadev (Proto Siva)
  • Mother goddess
  • Nature/ Animal worship
  • Unicorn, Dove, Peepal Tree, Fire
  • Amulets
  • Idol worship was practiced ( not a feature of Aryans)
  • Did not construct temples.
  • Similarity to Hindu religious practices. (Hinduism in its present form originated later)
  • No Caste system.

Indus Valley Society and Culture

  • Systematic method of weights and measures ( 16 and its multiples).
  • Pictographic Script, Boustrophedon script – Deciphering efforts by I. Mahadevan
  • Equal status to men and women
  • Economic Inequality, not an egalitarian society
  • Textiles – Spinning and weaving
  • 3 types – burial, cremation and post cremation were there, though burial was common.
  • Majority of people Proto-australoids and Mediterraneans (Dravidians), though Mongoloids, Nordics etc were present in the city culture.

 

Artifacts for Posterity

The most numerous of the surviving artifacts are a series of steatite (soapstone) seals, of which the best known are those of the Humped Brahmani Bull and Pashupati. Apart from this, there are some carved figurines – the bronze Dancing Girl and the statues of a priest and a male torso, again in steatite.

Reasons for Decline of Indus Valley Civilization

Though there are various theories, the exact reason is still unknown. As per a recent study by IIT Kharagpur and Archaeological Survey of India, a weaker monsoon might have been the cause of decline of Indus Valley Civilization. Environmental changes, coupled with loss of power of rulers (central administration) of Indus valley to sustain the city life might be the cause (Fariservis Theory). There might be resource shortage to sustain the population, and then people moved towards south India. Another theory by Dr Gwen Robbins Schug states that inter-personal violence, infectious diseases and climate change had played a major role in the demise of the Indus Valley Civilization.

 

 

The Working Class Movements

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  • There were some working class movements in second half of 19th century. However, they were impulsive and not very well organized.
  • The early nationalists had a lukewarm attitude towards the question of workers. This war because initially Congress wanted to focus on issues which were of common concern to all the people of India.
  • There was a difference in attitude of the nationalists towards workers in indigenous and European enterprises.
  • The most important feature of the labour movement during the Swadeshi days was the shift from agitation and struggles on purely economic questions to the involvement of the worker with the wider political issues of the day.
  • The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was founded in 1920.
  • IN 1918 Gandhi founded the Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association.
  • The AITUC in November 1927 took a decision to boycott the Simon Commission and many workers participated in the massive Simon boycott demonstrations.
  • Alarmed by worker’s movement, the government enacted repressive laws like the Public Safety Act and Trade Disputes Acts and arrested the entire radical leadership of the labour movement and launched the Meerut Conspiracy Case against them.
  • The labour movement suffered a major setback partially due to this government offensive and partially due to a shift in stance of the communist led wing of the movement.
  • From the end of 1928, the communists stopped aligning them with the national movement.
  • Communists got isolated within the AITUC and were thrown out in the split of 1931.
  • BY 1934, the communists re-entered the mainstream nationalist politics.
  • The working class of Bombay held an anti-war strike on 2 October, 1939.
  • With the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, the communists changed their policy and asked the people to support the allied forces instead of holding anti-war strikes.
  • The communists dissociated themselves from the Quit India movement launched in 1942.
  • The last years of colonial rule also saw a remarkably sharp increase in strikes on economic issues all over the country – the all India strike of the post and telegraph department employees being the most well known among them.

 

Meghalaya Trade & Commerce

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Meghalaya Trade & Commerce

The basic objective of economic reforms was to improve productivity growth and competitiveness in the Indian manufacturing sector. These reforms were aimed at making Indian manufacturing sector more efficient and technologically up to date, with the expectation that these changes would enable Indian manufacturing sector to achieve higher and sustainable growth. The government started to deregulate the Indian economy with a liberalization programme, focused on the investment pattern, trade policies, the financial sector, taxation and public enterprises.

In recent times, Industrialization has become the catch word of the midtwentieth century and industrial development of the under developed countries or developing countries like India. One of the great world crusades of our times, the Less Developed Countries (LDCs) hope to find in it a solution their problems of poverty, insecurity, overpopulation, backwardness, illiteracy etc. They consider it a panacea for all the evils of their social and economic life. In fact, the essence of economic development of an LDC like India consists essentially in the growth of industrialization.

Realizing the importance of industrialization, once Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru rightly remarked, “Real progress must ultimately depend on industrialization”. His vision was to see India in the group of developed nations of the world and industrialization was the only key to restructure the economy and to achieve sustained growth. Indian economy is a basically an agriculture based economy. It has been evident from the experience of the most of advanced countries that growth based upon agriculture sector will not be sustainable growth.

After studying such behavior of terms of trade they made their belief that for the agriculture based economies terms of trade would always become unfavorable in long run because;

  1. a) The income elasticity of export-goods of agricultural countries is low, while the income elasticity of import-goods is very high. As in case of domestic demand, the demand for agricultural products in other countries, in particular advance countries, is very low. In fact, developed countries have surpluses in agriculture products for exports. As against this, the demand for the import of manufactured goods by LDCs is very intense; and
  2. b) With the advancement of technology, input-output coefficients are declining and most of primary products which were used as raw material are replaced by the industrial cheaper raw material.

On the other hand, if we develop only tertiary sector and ignore industrial sector then there may be tendency of inflation in the economy and this inflation may lead to deceleration economic growth. Therefore, industrialization is the only method to achieve sustained economic growth. Moreover, economic history demonstrates that to eliminate a country’s techno-economic backwardness it is necessary to develop the industrial sector and then to diversify it over a wide range of area and activities. Industrialization is a process of economic organization characterized by rapid setting up of industries and has invariably been the accompaniment of economic development. Nevertheless, economic development should not be treated synonymous with industrialization because industrialization is only a part of the whole process of economic development.

 

TRADE

Meghalaya is dominantly depend on agriculture and commercial forest industry. The major crops of Meghalaya are potatoes, rice, maize, pineapples, bananas, papayas, spices, etc.

In addition to the central government’s incentives for investments in the northeast region, the state offers a host of industrial incentives. The natural resources, policy incentives and infrastructure in the state favour investments in the tourism, hydroelectric power, manufacturing and mining sectors. Mineral, horticulture, electronics, IT, agro-processing and tourism have been identified as the thrust sectors for industrial development. The state has abundant natural resources, which offer significant avenues for investment. About 14 per cent (3,108 square kilometres) of Meghalaya is covered by bamboo forests and the state is one of the leading bamboo producers in the country.

The Commerce & Industries Department of Meghalaya & its constituent unit, Meghalaya Industrial Development Corporation, are jointly responsible for the development of industrial infrastructure in the state

Meghalaya has an established tradition of high-quality weaving. Around 15, 900 families are involved in handloom activities in the state. There are eight handloom production centres, 24 handloom demonstration – cum – production centres, 24 weaving training centres and a state –level handloom training institute (Mendipathar, East Garo Hills) in the state.

Meghalaya, with abundant deposits of coal, limestone, kaolin feldspar, quartz, granite, industrial clay and uranium and a small deposit base of sillimanite, bauxite, base metals and apatite has great industrial potential.

Meghalaya has a climate that supports agricultural and horticultural activities. The state offers potential for investment in these areas.

August Offer (1940)

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After the WWII began, British sought cooperation from India. August Offer offered three proposals. Firstly, it called for an immediate expansion of Viceroy’s Executive Council with the inclusion of India representatives; secondly, an advisory body with the members from British India and Indian princely states which were supposed to meet at consequent intervals was established and thirdly, two practical steps were decided to be taken in which it was to come at an agreement with the Indians on the form of the post representatives body should take and the methods by which it should come to a conclusion. It further  planned to draw out the principles and outlines of the Constitution itself.

Congress did not accept the offer.

 

The Asiatic Society of bengal

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? founded in 1784, by Sir William Jones, a British lawyer and Orientalist, to encourage Oriental studies.

? it was the vehicle for his ideas about the importance of Hindu culture and learning and about the vital role of Sanskrit in the Aryan languages.

? Headquarters are in Kolkata.

? The society owns an art collection that includes paintings by Peter Paul Rubens and Joshua Reynolds.

? The society’s library contains some 100,000 general volumes, and its Sanskrit section has more than 27,000 books, manuscripts, prints, coins, and engravings. The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal is published regularly.

 

Moderate phase:early nationalists,Freedom of Press and Bal Gangadhar Tilak

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Contribution of early nationalists

  • Early nationalists believed that a direct struggle for the political emancipation of the country was not yet on the agenda of history. On agenda was:
    • Creation of public interest in political questions and the organization of public opinion
    • Popular demands had to be formulated on a country-wide basis
    • National unity had to be created. Indian nationhood had to be carefully promoted.
  • Early national leaders did not organize mass movement against the British. But they did carry out an ideological struggle against them. (Important from a Gramscian perspective)
  • Economic critique of imperialism
    • Economic critique of imperialism was the most important contribution of the early nationalists
    • They recognized that the essence of British economic imperialism lay in the subordination of the Indian economy to the British economy
    • They complained of India’s growing poverty and economic backwardness and the failure of modern industry and agriculture to grow
    • They wanted the government to promote modern industries through tariff protection and direct government aid
    • Popularized the idea of swadeshi and the boycott of British goods
    • They propounded the ‘drain of wealth’ theory and demanded that this drain be stopped
    • Demanded reduction of taxes and land revenue
    • Condemned the high military expenditure
  • Constitutional reforms
    • They were extremely cautious. From 1885 to 1892 they demanded the expansion and reform of the Legislative Councils
    • Due to their demands, the British passed the Indian Councils Act of 1892
    • They failed to broaden the base of their democratic demands. Did not demand the right to vote for the masses or for women
  • Administrative and other reforms
    • They demanded Indianisation of the higher grades of the administrative services.
    • They had economic political reasons for this. Economically, appointment of British only to ICS made Indian administration costly because they were paid very high. Politically, appointment of Indians would make the administration more responsive to Indian needs
    • Demanded separation of the judicial from executive powers so that the people might get some protection from the arbitrary acts of the police and the bureaucracy.
    • Urged the government to undertake and develop welfare activities and education
  • Defense of Civil Rights

Methods of work of early nationalists

  • Dominated by moderates till 1905
  • Method of moderates: Constitutional agitation within the four walls of the law, and slow, orderly political progress. Their work had two pronged direction:
    • To build a strong public opinion in India to arouse the political consciousness and national spirit of the people, and to educate and unite them on political questions
    • They wanted to persuade the British government and British public opinion to introduce reforms along directions laid down by the nationalists.
  • In 1889, a British Committee of the INC was founded. In 1890 this committee started a journal called India.

What about the role of the masses?

  • The basic weakness of the early national movement lay in its narrow social base.
  • The leaders lacked political faith in the masses.
  • Hence, masses were assigned a passive role in the early phase of the national movement.

Evaluation

  • The basic objectives of the early nationalist leaders were to lay the foundations of a secular and democratic national movement, to politicize and politically educate the people, to form the headquarters of the movement, that is, to form an all-India leadership group, and to develop and propagate an anti-colonial nationalist ideology.
  • Very few of the reforms for which the nationalists agitated were introduced by the government
  • It succeeded in creating a wide national awakening and arousing the feeling of nationhood. It made the people conscious of the bonds of common political, economic and social interests and the existence of a common enemy in imperialism
  • They exposed the true character of the British rule through their economic critique.
  • All this was to become a base for the national movement in the later period.

 

WHY HUME?

  • The leaders assumed that the rulers would be less suspicious and less likely to attack a potentially subversive organization if its chief organizer was a retired British civil servant.
  • Gokhale himself stated explicitly in 1913 that if any Indian had started such a movement the officials wouldn’t have let it happen.

 

  • First, the Indian intellectuals co-operated with the British in the hope that British would help modernize India.
  • However, the reality of social development in India failed to conform to their hopes.
  • Three people who carried out the economic analysis of British India:
    • Dadabhai Naoroji: the grand old man of India. Born in 1825, he became a successful businessman but devoted his entire life and wealth to the creation of national movement in India
    • Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade: He taught an entire generation of Indians the value of modern industrial development.
    • Romesh Chandra Dutt: a retired ICS officer, published The Economic History of India at the beginning of the 20th century in which he examined in minute detail the entire economic record of colonial rule since 1757.
  • They concluded that colonialism was the main obstacle to India’s economic development.
  • Three aspects of domination of British: trade, industry, finance
  • The problem of poverty was seen as a problem of national development. This approach made poverty a broad national issue and helped to unite, instead of divide, different regions and sections of Indian society.
  • The early nationalists accepted that the complete economic transformation of the country on the basis of modern technology and capitalist enterprise was the primary goal of their economic policies.
  • Because their whole-ted devotion to the cause of industrialization, the early nationalists looked upon all other issues such as foreign trade, railways, tariffs, finance and labour legislations in relation to this paramount aspect. (and hence the obsession of Nehru with industrialization)
  • However great the need of India for industrialization, it had to be based on Indian capital and not foreign capital.
  • The early nationalists saw foreign capital as an unmitigated evil which did not develop a country but exploited and impoverished it.
  • Expenditure on railways could be seen as Indian subsidy to British industries.
  • A major obstacle in the process of industrial development was the policy of free trade
  • High expenditure on the army
  • Drain theory was the focal point of nationalist critique of colonialism.
    • A large part of India’a capital and wealth was being transferred or drained to Britain in the form of salaries and pensions of British civil and military officials working in India, interest on loans taken by the Indian government, profits of British capitalists in India, and the Home Charges or expenses of the Indian Government in Britain.
    • This drain amounted to one-half of government revenues, more than the entire land revenue collection, and over one-third of India’s total savings.
    • The Drain theory was put forward by Dadabhai Naoroji. He declared that the drain was the basic cause of India’s poverty.
    • Through the drain theory, the exploitative character of the British rule was made visible.
    • The drain theory possessed the merit of being easily grasped and understood by a nation of peasants. No idea could arouse people more than the thought that they were being taxed so that others in far off lands might live in comfort.
    • This agitation on economic issues contributed to the undermining of the ideological hegemony of the alien rulers over Indian minds.
    • The nationalist economic agitation undermined the moral foundations inculcated by the British that foreign rule is beneficial for India.

 Freedom of Press

  • On 29th January 1780, the Hickey’s Bengal Gazette or the Calcutta General Advertizer was published. It was the first English newspaper to be printed in the Indian sub-continent.
  • The press was the chief instrument of forming a nationalist ideology

 

  • The resolutions and proceedings of the Congress were propagated through press. Trivia: nearly one third of the founding fathers of congress in 1885 were journalists.

 

  • Main news papers and editors

 

  • The Hindu and Swadesamitran: G Subramaniya Iyer
  • Kesari and Mahratta: BG Tilak
  • Bengalee: S N Banerjea
  • Amrita Bazar Patrika: Sisir Kumar Ghosh and Motilal Ghosh
  • Sudharak: GK Gokhale
  • Indian Mirror: N N Sen
  • Voice of India: Dadabhai Naoroji
  • Hindustani and Advocate: GP Varma
  • Tribune and Akhbar-i-Am in Punjab
  • Indu Prakash, Dnyan Prakahs, Kal and Gujarati in Bombay
  • Som Prakash, Banganivasi and Sadharani in Bengal

 

  • Newspaper was not confined to the literates. It would reach the villages and would be read by a reader to tens of others.
  • Reading and discussing newspaper became a form of political participation.
  • Nearly all the major political controversies of the day were conducted through the Press.
  • ‘Oppose, oppose, oppose’ was the motto of the Indian press.
  • The section 124A of the IPC was such as to punish a person who evoked feelings of disaffection to the government.
  • The Indian journalists remained outside 124A by adopting methods such as quoting the socialist and anti-imperialist newspapers of England or letters from radical British citizens
  • The increasing influence of the newspapers led the government to pass the Vernacular Press Act of 1978, directed only against Indian language newspapers.
    • It was passed very secretively
    • The act provided for the confiscation of the printing press, paper and other materials of a newspaper if the government believed that it was publishing seditious materials and had flouted an official warning.
    • Due to the agitations, it was repealed in 1881 by Lord Ripon.
  • SN Banerjee was the first Indian to go to jail in performance of his duty as a journalist.

 

B G Tilak

 

  • The man who is most frequently associated with the struggle for the freedom of Press during the nationalist movement is Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
  • In 1881, along with G G Agarkar, he founded the newspapers Kesari and Mahratta.
  • In 1893, he started the practice of using the traditional religious Ganapati festival to propagate nationalist ideas through patriotic songs and speeches.
  • In 1896, he started the Shivaji festival to stimulate nationalism among young Maharashtrians.
  • He brought peasants and farmers into the national movement.
  • He organized a no-tax campaign in Maharashtra in 1896-97
  • Plague in Poona in 1897.
  • Popular resentment against the official plague measures resulted in the assassination of Rand, the Chairman of the Plague Committee in Poona, and Lt. Ayerst by the Chaphekar brothers on 27 June 1898.
  • Since 1894, anger had been rising against the government due to the tariff, currency and famine policy.
  • Tilak was arrested and sentenced to 18 month rigorous imprisonment in 1897. This led to country wide protests and Tilak was given the title of Lokmanya.
  • Tilak was again arrested and tried on 24 June 1908 on the charge of sedition under article 124A. He was sentenced to 6 years of transportation. This led to nationwide protests and closing down of markets for a week. Later, in 1922 Gandhi was tried on the same act and he said that he is proud to be associated with Tilak’s name.

 

 

 

  • The Indian Councils Act of 1861 enlarged the Governor-General’s Executive Council for the purpose of making laws.
  • The GG could add 6-12 members to the Executive Council. This came to be known as the Imperial Legislative Council. It didn’t have any powers.
  • ‘Despotism controlled from home’ was the fundamental feature of British rule in India.
  • The Indians nominated to the council were not representative of the nationalist movement.
  • Despite the early nationalists believing that India should eventually become self-governing, they moved very cautiously in putting forward political demands regarding the structure of the state, for they were afraid of the Government declaring their activities seditious and disloyal and suppressing them.
  • Till 1892, they only demanded reforms in the council.

 

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