Aadishesh/ncerts · Datasets at Hugging Face

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launched.
February 1922Chauri Chaura; Gandhiji withdraws Non-
Cooperation movement.
May 1924Alluri Sitarama Raju arrested ending a two-year
armed tribal struggle.
December 1929Lahore Congress; Congress adopts the demand
for ‘Purna Swaraj’.
1930Ambedkar establishes Depressed Classes
Association.
March 1930Gandhiji begins Civil Disobedience Movement by
breaking salt law at Dandi.
March 1931Gandhiji ends Civil Disobedience Movement.
December 1931
Second Round Table Conference.1932
Civil Disobedience re-launched.67
Nationalism in Indiapicketed foreign cloth and liquor shops. Many went to jail. In urban
areas these women were from high-caste families; in rural areas
they came from rich peasant households. Moved by Gandhiji’s call,
they began to see service to the nation as a sacred duty of women.Yet, this increased public role did not necessarily mean any radical
change in the way the position of women was visualised. Gandhiji
was convinced that it was the duty of women to look after homeand hearth, be good mothers and good wives. And for a long time
the Congress was reluctant to allow women to hold any position
of authority within the organisation. It was keen only on theirsymbolic presence.
3.3 The Limits of Civil Disobedience
Not all social groups were moved by the abstract concept of swaraj.One such group was the nation’s ‘untouchables’, who from around
the 1930s had begun to call themselves dalit or oppressed. For
long the Congress had ignored the dalits, for fear of offending thesanatanis, the conservative high-caste Hindus. But Mahatma Gandhi
declared that swaraj would not come for a hundred years ifuntouchability was not eliminated. He called the ‘untouchables’ harijan,Why did various classes and groups of Indians
participate in the Civil Disobedience
Movement?Discuss
Fig. 9 – Women join
nationalist processions.
During the nationalmovement, many women,for the first time in theirlives, moved out of theirhomes on to a public arena.Amongst the marchers youcan see many old women,and mothers with children intheir arms.India and the Contemporary World
68or the children of God, organised satyagraha to secure them entry
into temples, and access to public wells, tanks, roads and schools.He himself cleaned toilets to dignify the work of the bhangi (the
sweepers), and persuaded upper castes to change their heart and
give up ‘the sin of untouchability’. But many dalit leaders were keenon a different political solution to the problems of the community.
They began organising themselves, demanding reserved seats in
educational institutions, and a separate electorate that would choosedalit members for legislative councils. Political empowerment, they
believed, would resolve the problems of their social disabilities.
Dalit participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement wastherefore limited, particularly in the Maharashtra and Nagpur region
where their organisation was quite strong.
Dr B.R. Ambedkar, who organised the dalits into the Depressed
Classes Association in 1930, clashed with Mahatma Gandhi at
the second Round Table Conference by demanding separate
electorates for dalits. When the British government concededAmbedkar’s demand, Gandhiji began a fast unto death. He believed
that separate electorates for dalits would slow down the process of
their integration into society. Ambedkar ultimately accepted Gandhiji’sposition and the result was the Poona Pact of September 1932.
It gave the Depressed Classes (later to be known as the Schedule
Castes) reserved seats in provincial and central legislative councils,but they were to be voted in by the general electorate. The dalit
movement, however, continued to be apprehensive of the Congress-
led national movement.
Some of the Muslim political organisations in India were also
lukewarm in their response to the Civil Disobedience Movement.
After the decline of the Non-Cooperation-Khilafat movement, alarge section of Muslims felt alienated from the Congress. From the
mid-1920s the Congress came to be more visibly associated with
openly Hindu religious nationalist groups like the Hindu Mahasabha.As relations between Hindus and Muslims worsened, each
community organised religious processions with militant fervour,
provoking Hindu-Muslim communal clashes and riots in variouscities. Every riot deepened the distance between the two communities.
The Congress and the Muslim League made efforts to renegotiate
an alliance, and in 1927 it appeared that such a unity could be forged.The important differences were over the question of representation
in the future assemblies that were to be elected. Muhammad Ali
Fig. 10 – Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru
and Maulana Azad at Sevagram Ashram,
Wardha, 1935.69
Nationalism in IndiaJinnah, one of the leaders of the Muslim League, was willing to give
up the demand for separate electorates, if Muslims were assuredreserved seats in the Central Assembly and representation in
proportion to population in the Muslim-dominated provinces (Bengal
and Punjab). Negotiations over the question of representationcontinued but all hope of resolving the issue at the All Parties
Conference in 1928 disappeared when M.R. Jayakar of the Hindu
Mahasabha strongly opposed efforts at compromise.
When the Civil Disobedience Movement started there was thus
an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust between communities.
Alienated from the Congress, large sections of Muslims could notrespond to the call for a united struggle. Many Muslim leaders and
intellectuals expressed their concern about the status of Muslims
as a minority within India. They feared that the culture and identityof minorities would be submerged under the domination of a
Hindu majority.
In 1930, Sir Muhammad Iqbal, as president of the Muslim League, reiterated the importance of separate electorates for
the Muslims as an important safeguard for their minority political interests. His statement is supposed to have provided theintellectual justification for the Pakistan demand that came up in subsequent years. This is what he said:
‘I have no hesitation in declaring that if the principle that the Indian Muslim is entitled to full and free development on the
lines of his own culture and tradition in his own Indian home-lands is recognised as the basis of a permanent communalsettlement, he will be ready to stake his all for the freedom of India. The principle that each group is entitled to freedevelopment on its own lines is not inspired by any feeling of narrow communalism … A community which is inspired byfeelings of ill-will towards other communities is low and ignoble. I entertain the highest respect for the customs, laws,religions and social institutions of other communities. Nay, it is my duty according to the teachings of the Quran, even todefend their places of worship, if need be. Yet I love the communal group which is the source of life and behaviour andwhich has formed me what I am by giving me its religion, its literature, its thought, its culture and thereby its whole pastas a living operative factor in my present consciousness …
‘Communalism in its higher aspect, then, is indispensable to the formation of a harmonious whole in a country like India.
The units of Indian society are not territorial as in European countries … The principle of European democracy cannot beapplied to India without recognising the fact of communal groups. The Muslim demand for the creation of a Muslim Indiawithin India is, therefore, perfectly justified…
‘The Hindu thinks that separate electorates are contrary to the spirit of true nationalism, because he understands the
word “nation” to mean a kind of universal amalgamation in which no communal entity ought to retain its private individuality.Such a state of things, however, does not exist. India is a land of racial and religious variety. Add to this the generaleconomic inferiority of the Muslims, their enormous debt, especially in the Punjab, and their insufficient majorities in someof the provinces, as at present constituted and you will begin to see clearly the meaning of our anxiety to retain separateelectorates.’Source D
Source
Read the Source D carefully. Do you agree with Iqbal’s idea of communalism? Can you define communalism in a
different way?DiscussIndia and the Contemporary World
704 The Sense of Collective Belonging
Nationalism spreads when people begin to believe that they are all
part of the same nation, when they discover some unity that binds
them together. But how did the nation become a reality in the mindsof people? How did people belonging to different communities,
regions or language groups develop a sense of collective belonging?
This sense of collective belonging came partly through the experience
of united struggles. But there were also a variety of cultural processes
through which nationalism captured people’s imagination. History
and fiction, folklore and songs, popular prints and symbols, all playeda part in the making of nationalism.
Fig. 11 – Bal Gangadhar Tilak,
an early-twentieth-century print.Notice how Tilak is surrounded by symbols ofunity. The sacred institutions of different faiths(temple, church, masjid) frame the central figure.71
Nationalism in IndiaThe identity of the nation, as you know (see Chapter 1), is most

launched.

February 1922Chauri Chaura; Gandhiji withdraws Non-

Cooperation movement.

May 1924Alluri Sitarama Raju arrested ending a two-year

armed tribal struggle.

December 1929Lahore Congress; Congress adopts the demand

for ‘Purna Swaraj’.

1930Ambedkar establishes Depressed Classes

Association.

March 1930Gandhiji begins Civil Disobedience Movement by

breaking salt law at Dandi.

March 1931Gandhiji ends Civil Disobedience Movement.

December 1931

Second Round Table Conference.1932

Civil Disobedience re-launched.67

Nationalism in Indiapicketed foreign cloth and liquor shops. Many went to jail. In urban

areas these women were from high-caste families; in rural areas

they came from rich peasant households. Moved by Gandhiji’s call,

they began to see service to the nation as a sacred duty of women.Yet, this increased public role did not necessarily mean any radical

change in the way the position of women was visualised. Gandhiji

was convinced that it was the duty of women to look after homeand hearth, be good mothers and good wives. And for a long time

the Congress was reluctant to allow women to hold any position

of authority within the organisation. It was keen only on theirsymbolic presence.

3.3 The Limits of Civil Disobedience

Not all social groups were moved by the abstract concept of swaraj.One such group was the nation’s ‘untouchables’, who from around

the 1930s had begun to call themselves dalit or oppressed. For

long the Congress had ignored the dalits, for fear of offending thesanatanis, the conservative high-caste Hindus. But Mahatma Gandhi

declared that swaraj would not come for a hundred years ifuntouchability was not eliminated. He called the ‘untouchables’ harijan,Why did various classes and groups of Indians

participate in the Civil Disobedience

Movement?Discuss

Fig. 9 – Women join

nationalist processions.

During the nationalmovement, many women,for the first time in theirlives, moved out of theirhomes on to a public arena.Amongst the marchers youcan see many old women,and mothers with children intheir arms.India and the Contemporary World

68or the children of God, organised satyagraha to secure them entry

into temples, and access to public wells, tanks, roads and schools.He himself cleaned toilets to dignify the work of the bhangi (the

sweepers), and persuaded upper castes to change their heart and

give up ‘the sin of untouchability’. But many dalit leaders were keenon a different political solution to the problems of the community.

They began organising themselves, demanding reserved seats in

educational institutions, and a separate electorate that would choosedalit members for legislative councils. Political empowerment, they

believed, would resolve the problems of their social disabilities.

Dalit participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement wastherefore limited, particularly in the Maharashtra and Nagpur region

where their organisation was quite strong.

Dr B.R. Ambedkar, who organised the dalits into the Depressed

Classes Association in 1930, clashed with Mahatma Gandhi at

the second Round Table Conference by demanding separate

electorates for dalits. When the British government concededAmbedkar’s demand, Gandhiji began a fast unto death. He believed

that separate electorates for dalits would slow down the process of

their integration into society. Ambedkar ultimately accepted Gandhiji’sposition and the result was the Poona Pact of September 1932.

It gave the Depressed Classes (later to be known as the Schedule

Castes) reserved seats in provincial and central legislative councils,but they were to be voted in by the general electorate. The dalit

movement, however, continued to be apprehensive of the Congress-

led national movement.

Some of the Muslim political organisations in India were also

lukewarm in their response to the Civil Disobedience Movement.

After the decline of the Non-Cooperation-Khilafat movement, alarge section of Muslims felt alienated from the Congress. From the

mid-1920s the Congress came to be more visibly associated with

openly Hindu religious nationalist groups like the Hindu Mahasabha.As relations between Hindus and Muslims worsened, each

community organised religious processions with militant fervour,

provoking Hindu-Muslim communal clashes and riots in variouscities. Every riot deepened the distance between the two communities.

The Congress and the Muslim League made efforts to renegotiate

an alliance, and in 1927 it appeared that such a unity could be forged.The important differences were over the question of representation

in the future assemblies that were to be elected. Muhammad Ali

Fig. 10 – Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru

and Maulana Azad at Sevagram Ashram,

Wardha, 1935.69

Nationalism in IndiaJinnah, one of the leaders of the Muslim League, was willing to give

up the demand for separate electorates, if Muslims were assuredreserved seats in the Central Assembly and representation in

proportion to population in the Muslim-dominated provinces (Bengal

and Punjab). Negotiations over the question of representationcontinued but all hope of resolving the issue at the All Parties

Conference in 1928 disappeared when M.R. Jayakar of the Hindu

Mahasabha strongly opposed efforts at compromise.

When the Civil Disobedience Movement started there was thus

an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust between communities.

Alienated from the Congress, large sections of Muslims could notrespond to the call for a united struggle. Many Muslim leaders and

intellectuals expressed their concern about the status of Muslims

as a minority within India. They feared that the culture and identityof minorities would be submerged under the domination of a

Hindu majority.

In 1930, Sir Muhammad Iqbal, as president of the Muslim League, reiterated the importance of separate electorates for

the Muslims as an important safeguard for their minority political interests. His statement is supposed to have provided theintellectual justification for the Pakistan demand that came up in subsequent years. This is what he said:

‘I have no hesitation in declaring that if the principle that the Indian Muslim is entitled to full and free development on the

lines of his own culture and tradition in his own Indian home-lands is recognised as the basis of a permanent communalsettlement, he will be ready to stake his all for the freedom of India. The principle that each group is entitled to freedevelopment on its own lines is not inspired by any feeling of narrow communalism … A community which is inspired byfeelings of ill-will towards other communities is low and ignoble. I entertain the highest respect for the customs, laws,religions and social institutions of other communities. Nay, it is my duty according to the teachings of the Quran, even todefend their places of worship, if need be. Yet I love the communal group which is the source of life and behaviour andwhich has formed me what I am by giving me its religion, its literature, its thought, its culture and thereby its whole pastas a living operative factor in my present consciousness …

‘Communalism in its higher aspect, then, is indispensable to the formation of a harmonious whole in a country like India.

The units of Indian society are not territorial as in European countries … The principle of European democracy cannot beapplied to India without recognising the fact of communal groups. The Muslim demand for the creation of a Muslim Indiawithin India is, therefore, perfectly justified…

‘The Hindu thinks that separate electorates are contrary to the spirit of true nationalism, because he understands the

word “nation” to mean a kind of universal amalgamation in which no communal entity ought to retain its private individuality.Such a state of things, however, does not exist. India is a land of racial and religious variety. Add to this the generaleconomic inferiority of the Muslims, their enormous debt, especially in the Punjab, and their insufficient majorities in someof the provinces, as at present constituted and you will begin to see clearly the meaning of our anxiety to retain separateelectorates.’Source D

Source

Read the Source D carefully. Do you agree with Iqbal’s idea of communalism? Can you define communalism in a

different way?DiscussIndia and the Contemporary World

704 The Sense of Collective Belonging

Nationalism spreads when people begin to believe that they are all

part of the same nation, when they discover some unity that binds

them together. But how did the nation become a reality in the mindsof people? How did people belonging to different communities,

regions or language groups develop a sense of collective belonging?

This sense of collective belonging came partly through the experience

of united struggles. But there were also a variety of cultural processes

through which nationalism captured people’s imagination. History

and fiction, folklore and songs, popular prints and symbols, all playeda part in the making of nationalism.

Fig. 11 – Bal Gangadhar Tilak,

an early-twentieth-century print.Notice how Tilak is surrounded by symbols ofunity. The sacred institutions of different faiths(temple, church, masjid) frame the central figure.71

Nationalism in IndiaThe identity of the nation, as you know (see Chapter 1), is most