Evolution of Indian NationalismFrom Petitions to Mass Struggle, and the INA

Some of the important pre-Congress campaigns

• ▹For imposition of import duty on cotton (1875),
• ▹For Indianisation of government service (1878-79),
• ▹Against Lytton's Afghan adventure,
• ▹Against Arms Act (1878),
• ▹Against Vernacular Press Act (1878) etc.

Moderates phase (1885–1905)

• ▹Important leaders of this phase were Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozshah Mehta, D.E. Wacha, W.C. Bonnerjea, S.N. Banerjea.
• ▹The moderate political activity involved constitutional agitation within the confines of law and showed a slow but orderly political progress.
• ▹They thought that 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.

Limitations of this phase

• ▹Social base of nationalists of this phase was zamindars, upper middle classes in towns.
• ▹They believed in England's providential mission in India.
• ▹They believed that masses were not ready for participation in political work.
• ▹Their ideological inspiration were western liberal thought and European history.

Why the Extremists rose

After 1905, the Extremists acquired a dominant influence over the Swadeshi Movement in Bengal. There were three reasons for this:

• ▹The Moderate-led movement had failed to yield results.
• ▹The divisive tactics of the governments of both the Bengals had embittered the nationalists.
• ▹The government had resorted to suppressive measures e.g. atrocities on students, restriction on public meetings, suppression of freedom of the press etc.

Methods, base and beliefs

• ▹During Swadeshi movement, the Extremists gave a call for passive resistance in addition to swadeshi and boycott which would include a boycott of government schools and colleges, government service, courts, legislative councils, municipalities, government titles, etc.
• ▹The militant nationalists tried to transform the antipartition and Swadeshi Movement into a mass struggle and gave the slogan of India's independence from foreign rule.
• ▹Some new forms of struggle were introduced in this phase, e.g. boycott of foreign goods, Public meetings and processions for mass mobilisation, formation of samitis, emphasis given to self-reliance etc.
• ▹Social base of extremist nationalism: educated middle and lower middle classes in towns.
• ▹Their Ideological inspiration was Indian history, cultural heritage and Hindu traditional symbols.
• ▹They rejected ‘providential mission theory’ as an illusion.
• ▹Believed that political connections with Britain would perpetuate British exploitation of India.
• ▹Had immense faith in the capacity of masses to participate and to make sacrifices. Their emphasis on mass participation and on the need to broaden the social base of the movement was a progressive improvement upon the Moderate politics.
• ▹Demanded swaraj as the panacea for Indian ills.
• ▹Did not hesitate to use extra-constitutional methods like boycott and passive resistance to achieve their objectives.
• ▹They raised patriotism from a level of ‘academic pastime’ to one of ‘service and sacrifice for the country’.

Limitations

• ▹The Extremist ideology and its functioning also lacked consistency.
• ▹Its leaders (Aurobindo, Tilak, B.C. Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai) had different perceptions of their goal. For Tilak, swaraj meant some sort of self-government, while for Aurobindo it meant complete independence from foreign rule.
• ▹They were politically progressive but proved to be social reactionaries. They had revivalist and obscurantist undertones attached to their thoughts.
  • e.g. Tilak's opposition to the Age of Consent Bill, his organising of Ganapati and Shivaji festivals as national festivals, his support to anti-cow killing campaigns, etc., portrayed him as a Hindu nationalist.
  • Similarly B.C. Pal and Aurobindo spoke of a Hindu nation and Hindu interests. This alienated many Muslims from the movement.
  • All this resulted in very unhealthy relationship between politics and religion.
• ▹Differing views between Moderates and Extremists led to split of congress in Surat.
• ▹The rise of extremist nationalism is also closely associated with the growth of revolutionary activities like organising assassinations of unpopular officials, conducting swadeshi dacoities etc.
  • The Extremist leaders, although they called upon the youth to make sacrifices, failed to create an effective organisation or find new forms of political work to tap these revolutionary energies. So, after decline of Swadeshi movement, the youth, finding all avenues of peaceful political protest closed to them under government repression took to individual heroic action.
  • The Extremist leaders failed to ideologically counter the revolutionaries as they did not highlight the difference between a revolution based on activity of the masses and one based on individual violent activity, thus allowing the individualistic violent activities to take root.

Gandhian phase (1919–1947)

• ▹In this phase, Indian nationalism took a decisive turn towards a broad-based popular struggle with the emergence of M.K. Gandhi on the Indian political scene.
• ▹Post-world war economic hardships, disillusionment with Montagu-Chelmsford reform, success of Gandhi in South Africa, his technique of Satyagraha, his success at Champaran, Ahmedabad mill strike and Kheda Satyagraha, Khilafat issue, Rowlatt act created groundwork of his rise.
• ▹Almost all sections of the masses including peasants, worker, women etc came under influence of nationalism. Movements like NCM, CDM and QIM were all mass based.
• ▹Nationalism of this phase was mature enough to avoid split between differing sections, e.g. there was no split in congress during Swarajists and No-Changers debate.
• ▹There were emergence of various strands of national movement during this phase of nationalism, e.g. revolutionary activities after decline of NCM, rise of left wings e.g. congress socialist party, Communist party, individuals like Subhas Chandra Bose and J.L. Nehru.
• ▹During Lahore congress, congress accepted the idea of complete independence for the first time.
• ▹During Karachi session, first time congress spelt out what swaraj meant for the masses.
• ▹Apart from political issue, social and economic issues came to be included into the nationalist agenda, e.g. Left wingers aim was not only to attain freedom from the colonial rule but also the alleviation of miseries of the masses. Similarly, Gandhian campaign against untouchability.
  • Peasant and workers issue became national issue.
• ▹People of native states also increasingly came to be associated with the mainstream national movement. From Quit India movement onwards they formally became part of national movement.

Limitations

• ▹One of the negative developments during this phase was the growth of communalism side by side of mainstream nationalism, e.g. growth and popularity of Muslim league, rise of Hindu communalist organised under Hindu Mahasabha and RSS.
• ▹Though congress under leadership of Gandhi could create enough nationalist pressure on British government to obtain freedom, it failed to deal with the problem of communalism which resulted in partition.

The first phase

• ▹The idea of the INA was first conceived in Malaya by Mohan Singh, an Indian officer of the British Indian Army, when he decided not to join the retreating British army and instead went to the Japanese for help. Indian prisoners of war were handed over by the Japanese to Mohan Singh who then tried to recruit them into an Indian National Army. By the end of 1942, forty thousand men expressed their willingness to join the INA.
• ▹The leaders of the INA had made it clear that it was to go into action only on the invitation of the Indian National Congress and the people of India. The INA was also seen by many as a means of checking the misconduct of the Japanese against Indians in South-East Asia and a bulwark against a future Japanese occupation of India.
• ▹The outbreak of the Quit India Movement gave a fillip to the INA as well. Anti-British demonstrations were organized in Malaya. On 1 September 1942 the first division of the INA was formed with 16,300 men.
• ▹However, by December 1942, serious differences emerged between the Indian army officers led by Mohan Singh and the Japanese over the role that the INA was to play. By the beginning of 1943 the first INA experiment virtually collapsed.

The second phase under Bose

• ▹The second phase of the INA began when Subhas Chandra Bose was brought to Singapore on 2 July 1943. He went to Tokyo and Prime Minister Tojo declared that Japan had no territorial designs on India.
• ▹Bose returned to Singapore and set up the Provisional Government of Free India on 21 October 1943. The Provisional Government then declared war on Britain and the United States and was recognised by the Axis powers and their satellites. And Bose became the supreme commander of its army, the Indian National Army.
• ▹Subhas Bose set up two INA headquarters, in Rangoon and in Singapore, and began to reorganize the INA. He named the regiments of INA after Gandhi, Nehru, Maulana Azad, and himself. There was also an all-women regiment named after Rani of Jhansi, Lakshmibai.
• ▹Bose also sustained the support for INA by giving motivational speeches at various rallies and on Azad Hind Radio. In a speech broadcast by the Azad Hind Radio from Singapore, Bose addressed Mahatma Gandhi as the “Father of the Nation” and asked for his blessings and good wishes for the war he was fighting.

The INA in battle, and after

• ▹The INA fought in some key battles against the British Indian Army in Burmese territory. One INA battalion commanded by Shah Nawaz was allowed to accompany the Japanese Army to the Indo-Burma front and participate in the Imphal campaign. But the discriminatory treatment, which included being denied rations, arms and being made to do menial work for the Japanese units, completely demoralized the INA men.
• ▹The failure of the Imphal campaign, and the steady Japanese retreat thereafter, quashed any hopes of the INA liberating the nation. But, when the INA men were brought back home and threatened with serious punishment, a powerful movement emerged in their defence.
• ▹Bose still remained optimistic, thought of regrouping, and after Japanese surrender, contemplated seeking help from Soviet Russia. However, on 18 August 1945, he died in an air crash.