Modern History (Milestones and turning points in Freedom movement) by Rashid Sir

Model Answer

Question #1."The Non-Cooperation Movement could not bring Swaraj in one year but it did give a new direction and energy to the national movement." Comment.

Approach:

• Briefly introduce about the Non-Cooperation Movement (40 words)
• Elaborate the aim nature and novel features of the Non-Cooperation Movement (170 words)
• Conclusion (40 words)

Hints:

The Non-Cooperation Movement led by Mahatma Gandhi was the first nationwide mass protest in the history of Indian Independence.  The non-cooperation movement by Gandhiji was followed from September 1920 to February 1922. In February 1922, villagers of Chauri Chaura in the then-United Provinces attacked and torched a police station that led to killing several constables, who were inside the police station, and died in the fire. These violent steps taken by the peasants prompted Gandhi to call off the Non-Cooperation movement altogether. Gandhiji had promised Swaraj within a year if his programme was adopted, but the movement was abruptly withdrawn and swaraj remained an unfulfilled goal.

Though the goal of Swaraj was not achieved, the non-cooperation movement did achieve a lot of intangible benefits which furthered the freedom struggle such as:

• The Non-Cooperation Movement demonstrated that it commanded the strength and sympathy of vast sections of the society. Its reach among many sections of Indian peasants, workers, artisans, shopkeepers, traders, professionals and white collared employees had been demonstrated.
• The spatial spread of the movement was far wide.
• The capacity of the poor millions of India to take part in modern nationalist politics was also demonstrated. By their courage, sacrifice and fortitude in the face of adversity and repression they dispelled the notion that the desire for national freedom was the preserve of the educated and the rich and showed that it was an elemental urge common to all members of a subject nation.
• This was the first contact for many of them with the modern world of nationalist politics and the modern ideology of nationalism.
• The tremendous participation of Muslims in the movement and the maintenance of community unity despite some of the incidents like Malabar Mopilla rebellion in itself was a huge achievement. Muslim participation in the movement gave it a truly mass character.
• The spirit of unrest and defiance of authority engendered by the non-cooperation movement contributed to the rise of many local movements in different parts of the country. Ex, In Assam labourers on tea plantations went on strike. Defiance of forest laws becomes popular in Andhra.
• Women participated in huge numbers in picketing of shops selling more cloth and liquor.
• Thus even after the withdrawal of the non-cooperation movement different lines of political activities came up to keep up the spirit of resistance.
• After the non-cooperation movement the charge of representing a "microscopic minority", made by the viceroy Dufferin in 1888 could never again be hurled at the Indian congress.

Conclusion:

Non-cooperation movement did not bring Swaraj immediately, but it definitely infused a new energy in the masses and gave a definitive direction to the forthcoming movements and protests. Colonial rule was based on two myths—one, that such a rule was in the interest of Indians and two, that it was invincible. The first myth had been exploded by the economic critique by Moderate nationalists. The second myth had been challenged by Satyagraha through mass struggle. Now, the masses have lost the hitherto all-pervasive fear of colonial rule and its mighty repressive organs.

Question #2. Explain the various features of the Quit India Movement that distinguish it from the previous anti-imperial struggle in colonial India.

Approach

•   Give a brief prelude to the Quit India Movement (40 words)
•   Explain the features of the QIM (90 words)
•   Contrast QIM with other mass anti-imperial struggles led by the Indian National Congress (90 words)
•   Conclude by drawing the importance of QIM as the final death knell in the coffin of British imperialism in India (30 words)

Hints:

Mahatma Gandhi initiated a new phase of movement against British imperialism by adopting the Quit India resolution in the middle of the Second World War in August 1942. The failure of Cripps’ proposals, the Indian public unrest due to wartime hardships and Gandhi’s own skepticism about the ability of the British to defend India, all led towards the calling of the Quit India Movement in 1942. It is termed as the last big movement that awakened the Indian masses against colonial rule.

The features of the Quit India movement were:

• Absence of centralized leadership: The British government was militarily prepared to crush any new mass movement thus within hours of the launch of the ‘Quit India’ movement on 8 August 1942 at the All India Congress Committee session in Bombay by Mahatma Gandhi, the entire Congress Working Committee (CWC) leadership was arrested and taken to different prisons. Thus, it was completely decentralised and became a true Peoples Movement.
• Emergence of underground activities: In the absence of central leadership the movement went into the hands of young leaders like Jayaprakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia, Usha Mehta and Aruna Asaf Ali who organized underground activities like Underground Radio network by Usha Mehta and spreading of news through pamphlets, posters, etc. and such other underground activities kept up popular morale.
• Parallel governments: were set up in Satara, Ballia, Talcher, Midnapore, etc. Parallel governments were established at places such as Ballia under Chittu Pandey. He got many Congress leaders released; Tamluk: Jatiya Sarkar undertook cyclone relief work, sanctioned grants to schools, supplied paddy from the rich to the poor, organised Vidyut Vahinis, etc.; Satara: called as “Prati Sarkar”, it was organised under leaders like Y.B. Chavan, Nana Patil, etc. Village libraries and Nyayadan Mandals were organised, prohibition campaigns were carried on and ‘Gandhi marriages’ were organised.
• Attack on British symbols: All over the country, there were hartals/strikes in factories, schools, and colleges. People took to violent actions as they were angered by repeated firings and repression. They attacked the symbols of British authority-the police stations, post offices, railway stations, etc. They cut telegraph and telephone wires and railway lines, and burnt government buildings.
• Woman participation: Quit India movement was unique in the sense that it saw women participation where they not only participated as equals but also led the movement. Most of the movement was effectively organized and handled mainly by women leaders like Aruna Asaf Ali, Nellie Sengupta, Usha Sharma, etc. In the absence of leadership, Aruna Asaf Ali presided over the AICC session on August 9 and hoisted the flag.
• Fierce repression: The British government of India was determined to neutralize the movement right from its inception. It deployed police, military firings and also machine gun fire by low flying aircraft on crowds. The British government survived the Quit India movement because it had vast both legal and military resources which it used to suppress the movement.

The Quit India movement was different from the earlier movements associated with the Gandhian leadership of Congress in following way:

• The Quit India movement did not have a strong agrarian dimension; while the Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience movements had involved the peasantry, both because of Congress's initiative and that of the peasants themselves, this did not happen in 1942.
• The Quit India movement differed radically from the Non-Cooperation Movement and the Civil Disobedience Movement as they were conceived as campaigns of peaceful resistance to British rule in India. Their social base had expanded gradually to accommodate wider popular participation. However, the 1942 movement from the very beginning was a massive uprising to compel the British to withdraw entirely from India.
• The emphasis in the struggle was not on traditional Satyagraha to change the heart of the enemy but on ‘fight to the finish’. It, therefore, represented the most authoritative challenge to the state machinery.
• In 1942, Gandhi was now also prepared for non- constitutional means. He accepted the role of individual freedom and civil liberties in the face of state’s organized violence, as he affirmed that “every individual was to consider himself free and act for himself”.
• The 1942 movement was less ambiguous in its declared objectives. It was launched to ensure the complete withdrawal of British power from India.
• The nature of the movement has been generally described as spontaneous against the institutionalized and organized character of the earlier mass movements.

Conclusion:

The Quit India Movement stands apart from the earlier movements in terms of the spirit and enthusiasm that it infused in ordinary people, to support indigenous institutions and structures of power. Features like absence of centralised leadership, formation of parallel governments, emergence of underground networks, etc. indicate the basic difference between the 1942 movement and the earlier movements.

Symbolically, Quit India Movement brought an end to the  British rule in India as this was one movement that demonstrated the will and reserve of diverse communities of Indians to withstand both the highhandedness of imperial authorities and elitism of the Indian political class.