To begin with, the Indian National Congress was not a very active political party. It met annually and gave some suggestions to the rulers of the British Raj. The suggestions generally related to civil rights and opportunities for Indians in the government jobs. Despite its claim to represent all Indians, it represented only the educated and higher class of the society. But, it failed to attract all Muslims. Many Muslims had become distrustful of Hindu reformers who raised their voice against matters like religious conversion and killing of cows for their meat. For Hindus, the cow is a sacred animal not to be killed. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan launched a separate movement for Muslims, and founded in 1875 a college in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh state, India. Later, this college became Aligarh University in 1921. The objective of the college was to give modern education to India's Muslims. By 1900, the Indian National Congress had become a national party, but did not represent all groups of Indian society, particularly the Muslims.
In 1905, Lord Curzon (George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston), the Viceroy and Governor-General (1899-1905) of India divided Bengal province into two provinces: Eastern Bengal & Assam, with its capital at Dhaka, and West Bengal, with its capital at Calcutta (Kolkata). At that time Calcutta was the capital city of the British Raj. The people became very angry at that partition (division), and created the phrase "divide and rule" for the policy followed by the British Empire. The leading intellectual figures of India at that time expressed their unhappiness at this partition. For example, Rabindranath Tagore, the most famous Indian poet (originally from Bengal) composed a poem against this partition.
During the First World War, Indians gave support to the United Kingdom. About 1.3 million Indian soldiers went to many parts of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East to fight. Many Indians, including the princes and rich people of India, contributed money and materials to the war funds of the United Kingdom. However, many Indian soldiers died in foreign lands. In India, flu called Spanish flu spread like an epidemic killing many people. The tax rates increased in India, and prices also increased. The Indians became restless.
In August 1917, Edwin Samuel Montagu, the Secretary of State for India, announced in the British Parliament about many steps to give more rights to Indians. A new law named the Government of India Act of 1919 gave many rights to the Indians in the provincial government. These rights related to farming, local government, health, education, and public works. The British administrators kept matters like taxation, finance, and law and order under their control.
In 1919 the British made a new law named the Rowlatt Act. Under this law, the government got many powers, including the ability to arrest people and keep them in prisons without a trial. They also obtained the power to stop newspapers from reporting and printing news. The people called this act the Black Act. Indians protested against this law in many places.
The positive impact of reform was seriously undermined in 1919 by the Rowlatt Act, named after the recommendations made the previous year to the Imperial Legislative Council by the Rowlatt Commission, which had been appointed to investigate "seditious conspiracy." The Rowlatt Act, also known as the Black Act, vested the Viceroy's government with extraordinary powers to quell sedition by silencing the press, detaining political activists without trial, and arresting any individuals suspected of sedition or treason without a warrant. In protest, a nationwide cessation of work ("hartal") was called, marking the beginning of widespread, although not nationwide, popular discontent.
The agitation reached a peak in Amritsar (Punjab, India). In Amritsar, on 13th April 1919, about 10,000 Indians had assembled at Jallianwala Bagh. They had no idea of the law that they couldn't gather. The British military commander, Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer ordered his troops to fire at the civilians without any warning. The troops fired 1,650 times. Some historians estimate that the troops killed 379 and injured about 1,137 people. This incident came to be known as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. With this killing of innocent people, the British lost the trust of the Indian people.
congress forced Britishers to investigate massacre of jallianwala later, a tehkikat committee was made by congress.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (also known as Mahatma Gandhi) had received his education at London. He was a barrister (lawyer). In 1893, he went to South Africa. After Gandhi was thrown off a train because he was a colored person sitting in a first-class seat, he took that emotion and used it to begin to fight the injustices that many people of color faced at the time. He became successful and the government of South Africa removed most of such rules and restrictions. Gandhi led the Salt March, an act of protest.
When Gandhi returned to India in 1915, few people knew him. Under the leadership of Gandhi, Indians began to use a different method to get freedom over the next few years.
In December 1929, the Indian National Congress Party agreed to start a movement for complete independence from British rule. The Party decided to start a movement named to disobey the British rule. It became the civil disobedience movement. They decided to observe 26th January 1930 as the complete Independence Day (this is the reason why India celebrate republic day on 26 January). Many other political parties and revolutionaries came together to support this movement.
Gandhi started this movement, leading 72 people on a 400 kilometer route from Ahmedabad to Dandi (both in the Indian state of Gujarat), on the coast of the Arabian Sea. There they made salt from the seawater and broke a law of British India prohibiting making salt without paying taxes, so this event is referred to as the Salt March. Thus the civil disobedience movement began, and it soon spread throughout India. Indians started to break unfair laws in a peaceful manner in protest against the British rule.The effect of civil disobedience movement in Kerala was at Payannur and Beypore.
Many Indians did not believe in such peaceful protests, claiming that the British would not give independence to Indians so easily. They believed in armed struggle was necessary to oust the British from India. In some way, this had continued for years after the partition of Bengal in 1905. Many revolutionaries and leaders emerged from time to time. Bhagat Singh was one of them.
The rulers of the British Raj made a new law to govern India, named the Government of India Act 1935. This law aimed at constitutional process to govern India. It had three major aims: to establish a federal system with many provinces, to give self-ruling position (autonomy) to the provinces, and to give the Muslim minority protection through giving them some separate electorates. In such separate electorates only Muslims could stand for elections. In February 1937, elections took place for the provincial assemblies. The members of the Indian National Congress won in five provinces, and held upper position in two more provinces. The Muslim League's performance in the election was not good.