National Movements of India
Preface
Taking advantage of India's political difficulties and internal weakness, the British East India Company entered Bengal in 1757 AD and established its rule over India for 100 years until the war of 1857 AD. The British gradually developed a strong administrative structure in the country to maintain their rule. Through the administrative structure established by the British, uniform laws, uniform administration and a judiciary system according to the British system came into effect in the country.
Despite this, the British living in India established laws and administration that benefited England more. The British exploited India the most economically by enriching England at the expense of India.
The War of 1857
The 1857 Indian War of Independence was triggered by political discontent, economic exploitation, social and religious factors, military factors and immediate factors including the policy of introducing the Field Rifle into the army. The first martyr of the war was Mangal Pandey. Nanasaheb, Tatya Tope, Raja Kunwar Singh, Rani Laxmibai, Bahadur Shah Zafar etc. were involved in this war.
The war of 1857 had many consequences and effects, including the end of Company rule in India and the beginning of the rule of the British Crown (Queen Victoria's Proclamation), changes in administrative, military, social, religious policies etc. The reasons for the failure of the war of 1857 were the earlier start than the scheduled time, lack of central leadership, inadequate and backward weapons, preference of personal interests over national sentiment among the fighters, lack of proper and organized leadership. Which you have studied extensively in the previous standard.
Boycott and indigenous movement
It was an important event in the national movements of India, along with the Bangabhanga Movement (1905) and the Boycott and Swadeshi Movement. The "Divide and Rule" policy, a result of British diplomacy, gave impetus to the Boycott and Swadeshi Movement.
It included present-day Bengal, Bihar and Odisha. Bengal was the center of national consciousness more than other regions of India. The momentum and ideas of the national movement came from Bengal. Moreover, in the 1857 war, Hindus and Muslims fought together against the British. Therefore, the British policy of “divide and rule” was used to promote communalism by dividing the country.
Viceroy Curzon (1899-1905) divided the vast Bengal province into two, East Bengal and West Bengal, under the pretext of bringing administrative efficiency.
Fierce opposition to the partition of Bengal began. On October 16, 1905, the partition of Bengal was implemented, and that day was observed as a "National Day of Mourning" in the entire Bengal province. On that day, a movement to boycott all foreign goods and an announcement to encourage the use of indigenous goods was also given. Not only the Bengali people; but also other people of India began to believe that this partition was done to stop the wave of nationalism that had started in India with great vigor. On that day, Hindus and Muslims all over Bengal tied Rakhi on each other's hands, demonstrating the power of organization. There were three important features of this movement, which were (1) Adoption of indigenous (2) Boycott of foreign goods (3) Adoption of national education.
India benefited greatly from the Swadeshi movement, while the boycott of foreign goods caused a major blow to English trade. The import of cloth from Manchester was stopped. Imports of sugar, shoes, cigarettes, tobacco, etc.
Muslim League (1906)
The British wanted to create enmity between Hindus and Muslims by adopting the policy of “divide and rule”. The Viceroy of that time, Minto and the Hindi Minister-Morley, together planned to crush Indian nationalism. When the national struggle gained strength, the British started supporting the upper class Muslims. The British were successful in convincing a group of Muslims to form a Muslim organization to demand separate voting rights and separate electorates. As a result, the Muslim League was established (1906). The religious head of Muslims, Aga Khan, Nawab Salimullah Khan of Dhaka, Viceroy Minto and his private minister Dunlop Sismath played an important role in the establishment of this organization.
In order to prevent Muslims from attending the annual session of the Congress, the annual session of the Muslim League was organized on the same day as the session of the Congress. Thus, the demand for separate representation was not of the Muslims; but of the policy of the British. It was Minto who initiated the policy of making Muslims allies, hence some writers call Minto the “father of Muslim communalism”. One historian even writes, “The real creator of Pakistan was not Muhammad Ali Jinnah or Rahimullah; but Minto.” From then on, the Hindu-Muslim conflict increased and finally resulted in the partition of India!
The emergence and development of the fierce revolutionary movement
Vasudev Balwant Phadke started revolutionary activities in India. Many revolutionaries like Damodar Chaphekar and Balkrishna Chaphekar brothers, Veer Savarkar, Barindranath Ghosh, Khudiram Bose, Prafulla Chaki, Ramprasad “Bismillah”, Ashfaq Ullah Khan, Chandrashekhar “Azad”, Bhagat Singh, Shivram Rajguru, Sukhdev, Batukeshwar Dutt, Raushan Singh kept the flame of nationalism burning. The youth, trained from making weapons to using them, deprived the British government of sleep.
In its background, there are circumstances such as the movement to cancel the partition of Bengal, the division of the Congress session in Surat (1907) into two groups, the “Jahal” and the “Mawal” groups, and the strong opposition to the Congress’s method of merely making resolutions, requests and pleas. The trio of Lal-Bal-Pal adopted a Jahalist policy, instilling new vitality in the young Indian workers!
Revolutionary Movement Abroad
Revolutionary movements also began abroad to liberate India from British rule.
Revolutionaries active in revolutionary activities abroad
Revolutionaries like Shyamjikrishna Verma, Madanlal Dhingra, Veer Savarkar, Lala Hardayal, Udham Singh, Raja Mahendra Pratap, Madam Bhikhaiji Cama, Sardar Singh Rana, Maulana Abdullah, Maulana Bashir, Champak Raman Pillai, Dr. Mathur Singh “Khudaba” were involved.
Revolutionary activities abroad
"Gadar" weekly was started in four languages. Tarak Nath Das and Kartar Singh also joined this activity. Champak Raman Pillai formed the "Hindu Rashtriya Swayamsevak Dal" in Germany. Iraq was made the headquarters, and a plan was made to invade India from there (1907 AD). The national flag prepared by Madame Cama was hoisted for the first time in the "International Socialist Conference" held in the city of Stuart Guard, Germany. In Afghanistan, a temporary independent government was formed with King Mahendra Pratap as the "National President", which included Bartullah, Abidullah, Maulana Bashir, Shamsher Singh, Dr. Mathur Singh etc.
The Turkish leader Anwar Pasha and the governor were also present. The "Ghalib Nama" conspiracy written on a silk handkerchief, where all Muslims gathered and organized and started a war against the Christians, was caught! King Mahendra Pratap sent a gold bar with his signature to the Tsar of Russia, in which he told "the Tsar not to break relations with England". The revolutionary Trotsky of Russia promised to help the revolutionaries of India in every way. Additionally, the incident involving the Kamagata Maru and Toshamaru steamers provided a motivating force for revolutionaries to stir up anti-British sentiment abroad.
In the history of India's national and fierce revolutionary movement, there were only young people between the ages of 18 and 24 who were full of patriotism. Taking death in their hands, they would perform any kind of daring and exciting deeds and if caught, they would go up to the scaffold with a smile and shout slogans of "Inquilab Zindabad" and "Vande Mataram" and thus become heroes for the noble cause of freedom of the motherland. The high patriotism, sacrifice and devotion they have shown will inspire the younger generation for centuries.
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