Chapter 2: Nationalism in India | Summary

The Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement began in January 1921. In towns, thousands of students left government schools and colleges, lawyers gave up legal practice, and the council elections were boycotted in most provinces. Foreign goods were boycotted, liquor shops picketed, and foreign cloth burnt; the import of foreign cloth halved between 1921 and 1922. However, the movement slowed down because khadi was expensive, alternative Indian institutions were slow to develop, and students and lawyers gradually returned to government institutions.

In the countryside, the movement drew in peasant struggles. In Awadh, Baba Ramchandra led peasants against oppressive talukdars demanding exorbitant rents, begar, and lack of security of tenure. The Oudh Kisan Sabha, set up in October 1920, had over 300 branches within a month. In the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh, Alluri Sitaram Raju led a militant guerrilla movement, proclaiming armed struggle as the only path to swaraj; he was captured and executed in 1924. Plantation workers in Assam, under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859, defied authorities and left tea gardens hoping for freedom of movement, but were caught by police. Tribal peasants, poor farmers, and plantation workers all interpreted swaraj in their own distinct ways, often diverging from the Congress programme.

In February 1922, Gandhi withdrew the Non-Cooperation Movement after violent incidents at Chauri Chaura, where a peaceful demonstration turned into a violent clash with the police. Within the Congress, C. R. Das and Motilal Nehru formed the Swaraj Party to advocate council politics, while younger leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose pressed for radical mass agitation. Two key developments shaped Indian politics in the late 1920s: the worldwide economic depression, which caused agricultural prices to collapse after 1926 and deepened rural distress; and the arrival of the all-British Simon Commission in 1928, which was greeted with 'Go back Simon' demonstrations by all parties including the Congress and the Muslim League.

In December 1929, the Lahore Congress under Jawaharlal Nehru formalised the demand for Purna Swaraj (complete independence), and 26 January 1930 was declared Independence Day. Since the celebrations attracted little attention, Gandhi needed a more concrete symbol to mobilise the masses. He chose salt — consumed by rich and poor alike — as his symbol, and on 31 January 1930 sent Viceroy Irwin eleven demands, the most stirring of which was the abolition of the salt tax.

When Viceroy Irwin refused to negotiate, Gandhi started the famous Salt March on 12 March 1930, accompanied by 78 trusted volunteers. The march of over 240 miles from Sabarmati to Dandi took 24 days, covering about 10 miles a day. On 6 April 1930, Gandhi ceremonially violated the law by manufacturing salt from sea water at Dandi, marking the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Unlike Non-Cooperation, people were now asked not only to refuse cooperation but also to break colonial laws. Thousands broke the salt law, foreign cloth was boycotted, liquor shops were picketed, peasants refused to pay revenue and chaukidari taxes, village officials resigned, and forest people violated forest laws. About 100,000 people were arrested. After negotiations, the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of 5 March 1931 was signed: Gandhi agreed to attend the Round Table Conference in London and the government agreed to release political prisoners. Gandhi returned disappointed from London in December 1931, and the movement was relaunched but lost momentum by 1934.

Rich peasant communities like the Patidars of Gujarat and the Jats of Uttar Pradesh were hard hit by trade depression and falling prices, and enthusiastically supported the Civil Disobedience Movement, viewing swaraj as freedom from high revenues. They were disappointed when the movement was called off in 1931 without revision of revenue rates, and many refused to participate when it was restarted in 1932. Poorer peasants, burdened by rent arrears, joined radical movements led by Socialists and Communists but received limited Congress support. Business communities, led by industrialists like Purshottamdas Thakurdas and G.D. Birla, initially supported the movement and formed organisations like FICCI (1927), but grew apprehensive after the failure of the Round Table Conference.

Industrial workers participated in limited numbers except in Nagpur; some selectively adopted Gandhian ideas like boycotting foreign goods, and there were strikes by railway workers in 1930 and dockworkers in 1932. Women participated massively: thousands came out of homes, joined protest marches, manufactured salt, picketed foreign cloth and liquor shops, and went to jail. Yet the Congress was reluctant to give women positions of authority, desiring only their symbolic presence. The participation of dalits was limited, particularly in Maharashtra and Nagpur, as Ambedkar demanded separate electorates; the conflict between Ambedkar and Gandhi was resolved through the Poona Pact of September 1932, which gave reserved seats to Depressed Classes in legislatures but through a general electorate.

The Congress had long ignored dalits to avoid offending conservative high-caste Hindus. Gandhi called untouchables 'harijans', organised satyagraha for their entry into temples and access to public wells, and cleaned toilets to dignify the work of sweepers. Dr B.R. Ambedkar organised dalits into the Depressed Classes Association in 1930 and demanded separate electorates, which the British government conceded. Gandhi then began a fast unto death, and the Poona Pact of September 1932 resulted in reserved seats for Depressed Classes in legislatures to be voted in by the general electorate. The dalit movement remained apprehensive of the Congress.

Many Muslim political organisations were also lukewarm towards the Civil Disobedience Movement. After the decline of the Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement, many Muslims felt alienated from the Congress, which had become associated with Hindu nationalist groups like the Hindu Mahasabha. Hindu-Muslim communal riots worsened relations. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was willing to give up separate electorates if Muslims were assured reserved seats in the Central Assembly, but negotiations at the All Parties Conference in 1928 failed when the Hindu Mahasabha opposed compromise. In 1930, Muhammad Iqbal, as president of the Muslim League, articulated the need for separate electorates as a safeguard for Muslim minority interests, which is considered an intellectual basis for the later Pakistan demand.

Nationalism spread as people began to believe they were part of the same nation. A sense of collective belonging emerged partly through united struggles and partly through cultural processes — history, fiction, folklore, songs, popular prints, and symbols. The identity of India came to be visually associated with the image of Bharat Mata, first created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay through his hymn 'Vande Mataram' in the 1870s, which was later included in his novel Anandamath. Abanindranath Tagore painted his famous image of Bharat Mata during the Swadeshi movement, portraying her as calm, composed, divine and spiritual.

Nationalism also developed through the revival of Indian folklore. Rabindranath Tagore led the movement for folk revival in Bengal. Natesa Sastri published a four-volume collection of Tamil folk tales. Nationalist leaders became aware of the power of icons and symbols. During the Swadeshi movement a tricolour flag with eight lotuses and a crescent moon was designed. By 1921, Gandhi had designed a tricolour Swaraj flag with a spinning wheel at the centre. Nationalist historians glorified ancient India's achievements in art, architecture, science, mathematics, and philosophy to instil pride, though when the glorified past was predominantly Hindu, people of other communities sometimes felt excluded.

The growth of nationalism in India was not a uniform or linear process. It emerged through the shared experience of anti-colonial struggle, uniting diverse classes, communities, and regions despite their different aspirations and interpretations of swaraj. The Congress, under Gandhi's leadership, attempted to channel these varied grievances into organised mass movements — first the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1921 and then the Civil Disobedience Movement of 1930 — which mobilised unprecedented numbers of Indians including peasants, women, tribals, workers, and business groups.

For board examinations, students must understand the key movements (Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience), the roles of different social groups, the significance of the Salt March, the Poona Pact, communal tensions, and the cultural dimensions of nationalism (Bharat Mata, folklore revival, flag symbolism). The chapter also highlights the contradictions within the nationalist movement — between unity and conflict, between Congress goals and the aspirations of dalits, Muslims, workers, and tribal communities — which are recurring themes in history examinations.