NAVAL MUTINY OF 1946 | INDIA

 The Naval Mutiny of 1946 – Causes and circumstances and its contribution towards National Independence

The Indian Naval Mutiny of 1946 was one of the results of the mass movements that engulfed India after the close of the Second World War. Primarily, the trial of the officers of the Indian National Army at the Red Fort in Delhi had created serious resentment among the Indians and there was mass emotional upsurge to get them released. One of the off shoots of that mass upsurge was the Naval Mutiny at Bombay.

Just before the Second World War, the Royal Indian Navy was organized by separating it from the British Navy. Mostly its junior officers were Indians while the top officers were British. There was wide difference between the pay and facilities provided to Indian Naval officers and the British Naval officers. Rather, the British officers looked down on the Indian officers and regarded them with contempt. Therefore, there was general resentment among the Indian Naval officers. They had asked their superior officers many a times to redress their grievances but no attention was paid to their request.

In February 1946, some Indian Naval Personnel were imparted training at the seashore barracks at Bombay. Their training ship was Talwar. They protested their British officers against the bad food provided to them. The officer replied, “Beggars could not be choosers”. That irritated the Indian personnel and the next day posters were displayed on the walls of the barracks. The posters read ‘Englishmen leave India, Hindustani Zindabad’ etc.

The British commander felt that Radio Operator Mr. Dutta was responsible for all the mischief. Mr. Dutta was therefore imprisoned. That sparked off the trouble. The Navy men in the barracks when on strike in the afternoon of February 18, 1946 and by the evening the entire crew of the ship joined in and Talwar went on strike. Next day, the strike spread to some other barracks on the shore involving twenty-two ships in Bombay harbor. The Hindus and the Muslims forgot their differences and distinct political afflictions. They exhibited remarkable unity among themselves when the tricolor, the crescent and the hammer and sickle flags were jointly raised on the mast heads of the rebel fleet.

The strikers elected a National Central Strike Committee which was headed by Mr. M. S. Khan. They formulated their demands which included issues of better food, equal pay for the English and Indian sailors, release of Indian National Army officers and soldiers as well as other political prisoners and withdrawal of Indian troops from Indonesia. Thus, they involved national issues in their strike, thereby exhibiting their support and solidarity with the national mass upsurge enveloping the country at that time. They were ordered to go back to their ships and barracks. They obeyed the orders, but then found themselves surrounded by army guards.

On 21^st February, they tried to break out of their encirclement and fighting took place. The civilian population of Bombay gave immediate favorable response and offered them good and everything they needed. By 22^nd February, the strike spread to naval bases all over the country as well as to some ships on the sea. In all, 78 ships, 20 shore establishments and 20,000 ratings became involved in the strike.

The Bombay C.P.I. called for a general strike in Bombay on 22 February. The call was supported by Congress Socialist Leaders like Aruna Asif Ali and Achyut Patwardhan. Surprisingly enough, the Congress and the Muslim League both opposed the strike call. Sardar Vallabhai Patel advised the people to go about their normal business as usual, while the local leaders like S. K. Patil and Chundrigar, heads of the provincial Congress and League units respectively even promised help to the Government to restore order. Jawaharlal Nehru also expressed that violence should stop immediately Mahatma Gandhi also opposed it in no uncertain terms and declared that ‘a combination between Hindus, Muslims and others for the purpose of violent action is unholy’. Thus, the national leaders, at that time, mostly decried the mutiny. Yet, the people of Bombay, particularly the laborers in the mills exhibited support to the mutineers. On 22^nd February, almost all mills closed down in Bombay and violent street fighting took place between the people and the police. Two army battalions were needed to restore order in Bombay. The government threatened to suppress the movement with all the force at its command. The British Navy and the Army was deputed for this purpose and the mutineers were asked to surrender immediately. The mutineers then looked towards the Congress and the Muslim League for guidance. Both Patel and Jinnah appealed to the mutineers to surrender themselves assuring them that they would not be victimized. The mutineers then surrendered on 23^rd February.

The naval mutiny thus failed. The determination not only of the Indian government but that of the British government as well as to crush the mutiny immediately was the primary cause of its failure. It would be wrong to say that Sardar Patel and Jinnah did not come to the rescue of the mutineers because of lack of moral courage. It would be nearer the truth to say that both the leaders had realized the futility of the action of the mutineers against the power of the British navy and army. Therefore, they advised the mutineers that they take a wise course.

The mutiny of the Royal Indian Navy has not been given the importance which it deserves, in the history of the Indian National Movement. The national leaders soon forgot the cause of the mutineers though Nehru praised the role of the mutineers afterwards. But, all the same, the mutiny had its importance and contributed significantly to the attainment of national independence. The mutiny certainly accentuated the fear in the British. The Indian National Army trials were already going on and the Indian Army could not be relied upon. The naval mutiny created the apprehension that the British could not depend on the Indian Navy as well. It therefore seemed that another pillar of British Imperialism in India had been eroded. Thus, the naval mutiny too played a significant role in the national movement though it failed to get due recognition because the national leaders were probably more engaged in the affairs in and around Delhi.

 

SOURCES OF MEDIA RESEARCH

 

1.    Neilson Clear decision (NCD for Print):

NCD enables advertising agencies, media companies and marketers to access data quickly and easily and thus pinpoint markets, channels, and target groups.

Clear Decisions goal is to help clients identify and profile key audiences more accurately to make better media decisions and generate better return-on-investment (ROI) results.

 

It offers a simple, flexible interface design that provides the quickest path to the most frequently used analyses, requiring far fewer steps to extract insights. Clear Decisions also provides flexible report formats, custom templates, and hundreds of presentation ready charts, along with the data analysis tool used by advertising agencies, publishers, broadcasters, marketers, and other media companies.

 

2.    Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC): BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) India is an industry body, to design, commission, supervise and own an accurate, reliable, and timely television audience measurement system for India.

Guided by the recommendations of the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) and MIB (Ministry of Information and Broadcasting) (notifications of January 2014), BARC India brings together the three key stakeholders in television audience measurement - broadcasters, advertisers, and advertising and media agencies, via their apex bodies.

BARC India seeks to establish a robust, transparent and accountable governance framework for providing the data points required to plan media spends more effectively.

BARC measures viewership habits of India’s 153.5 million TV households. Of these, 77.5 mn are in urban India, and 76 mn are in rural India.

BARC India’s system reports the following also:

a.    Time shifted viewing: Metrics of programs that are recorded and viewed later. It observes VOSDAL+7, i.e. Viewed on Same Day as Live + 7 days after.

b.    Simulcast viewing: Details of programs broadcast simultaneously on more than one channels – viewership of every individual channel can be reliably tracked.

c.    Viewing as per the New SEC (NCCS): Details as per the new classification based on the education of Chief Wage Earner of the family and the number of durables owned by the home from a predefined list of 11 durables.

BAR-O-meters: The BAR-O-meters BARC place in their metered homes are compact and use the latest technology. They have a 3rd-generation OLED display (being more easily visible, this facilitates interaction between the viewer and the bar-o-meter).

For a detailed explanation of how BARC collects data click on the link : https://www.barcindia.co.in/collect-data.aspx

 

3.    Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC):

Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) is an independent nonprofit auditing organization formed in 1914 whose membership is composed of advertisers, advertising agencies, and publishers of newspapers, magazines, and web sites that sell advertising space. 

Its purpose is to audit and validate print media circulation claims and Internet traffic figures for the benefit of its members.

Relied upon as a principal information source by media planners, the bureau publishes annual Audit Reports that detail the findings of its auditors as well as semiannual Publisher’s Statements.

The Bureau issues ABC certificates every six months to those publisher members whose circulation figures confirm to the rules and regulations as set out by it. Circulation figures that are checked and certified by an independent body are an important tool and critical to the advertising business community.

Read more about ABC by clicking the link: http://www.auditbureau.org/about-what-is-abc.html

 

4.    The Indian Readership Survey (IRS) is the largest continuous readership research study in the world with an annual sample size exceeding 2.56 lakh (256,000) respondents.

IRS is conducted by MRUC (Media Research Users Council) and RSCI (Readership Studies Council of India).

IRS is not restricted to survey of readership alone. It collects a comprehensive range of demographic information and provides extensive coverage of consumer and product categories, including cars, household appliances, household durables, household care and personal care products, food and beverages, finance and holidays. Thus it also gives details of consumption across various FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods) products throughout India. IRS covers information on over 100 product categories. It is the single source survey for media and product ownership/usage. The prime objective of the study is to collect readership information from a cross-section of individuals, in great detail, so as to present a true and unbiased picture of their readership habits.

On the media front, it also captures information on television and cinema viewing habits, radio listening habits and Internet usage.

IRS equips you with information that is truly reflective of the Indian population for making informed decisions

 

5.    Research and analysis of Media (RAM):  RAM is an international media research company working with online surveys and analysis of advertising and editorial content for media companies, media consultants and advertisers worldwide.

With hundreds of media clients and about 1000 publications in 18 countries, RAM provides the industry with cutting edge metrics of how ads, articles and other media communication are consumed and understood – and what kind of impact it has.

RAM’s vision is to provide easy to use advanced IT solutions and be the world’s leading supplier of knowledge-based and cost efficient analysis services for media companies. With probably the largest reference database in the world for media, RAM compare measured results against standard values in order to evaluate the results achieved. In a period of over 10 years, RAM has carried out over 50 million interviews of ads and editorial content in order to measure the effectiveness of the communication and the database is continuously growing. RAM was founded in 2001 with its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden after which it expanded across the globe.

Read more about RAM Metrics by clicking the link: https://www2.rampanel.com/products/rametrics/

 

6.     ComScore Digital: ComScore is a global media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to many of the world's largest enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers.

With the introduction of Unified Digital Measurement (UDM) in May 2009, comScore implemented a solution to digital audience measurement that organically blended both panel and census-based measurement approaches into a single unified methodology. ComScore has developed this proprietary methodology to calculate audience reach in a manner not affected by variables such as cookie deletion and cookie blocking/rejection to help reconcile longstanding differences between the two measurement approaches.

ComScore Digital is a competitive intelligence tool that allows agencies, advertisers & publishers to quantify and evaluate the overall display advertising landscape.

What advertising insights does Ad Metrix offer?

• Sophisticated advertising metrics for over 10,000 sites and 60,000 advertisers/products

• 2 years of advertising data in monthly, quarterly, annual or custom time ranges

• Millions of advertising creative with advanced analysis and downloading capabilities

How does Ad Metrix present its advertising insights?

• 11 Quick Reports, including sales prospects, new advertisers, ad clutter, etc.

• Advanced reports, such as advertising by ad type/format, publisher demographics, etc.

• Comprehensive advertiser/product dictionary and comScore Media Metrix integration 

Read more interesting information about ComScore here: https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press-Releases/2020/3/Comscore-Finds-Continuing-Digital-Audience-Growth-for-Key-Categories

 

Ref:

-       Media Planning and Buying Notes by Dr. Hanif Lakdawala

-       https://www.barcindia.co.in/collect-data.aspx

-       http://www.auditbureau.org/about-what-is-abc.html

-       https://www2.rampanel.com/products/rametrics/

-       https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press-Releases/2020/3/Comscore-Finds-Continuing-Digital-Audience-Growth-for-Key-Categories

DR SUKARNO’S ACHIEVEMENTS

Dr. Sukarno became the first President of the Republic of Indonesia in 1950. Mohammed Hatta became its first Prime Minister.

From the beginning the Republic of Indonesia was not provided with a permanent constitution. The Unitary Republic under Sukarno possessed a simple constitutional structure. At the center there was a single chambered parliament. Its members were to be nominated by the political parties on the basis of proportional representation. Sukarno was elected by the parliament as the President a titular head of the State. Mohammed Hatta was appointed Vice President by the President.

Guided Democracy – The President was vested with wide powers. Availing these power he introduced a new political system which he described as ‘Guided Democracy’. He found the political parties unstable and were therefore, causing internal trouble. In order to avoid political strife, Sukarno proclaimed martial law in February 1957. Thereby he assumed supreme powers and the army was to exercise control under the guidance of the President. He dissolved the Constituent Assembly in July 1959 and revived the 1945 Constitution. He then suspended the Parliament. He filled the different branches of administration with men of his choice who could support his regime. The different political parties like the Nationalists, the Moslem Conservatives, the Communists and the army cooperated with him in carrying through the experiment of Guided Democracy under his personal control.

Sukarno also succeeded in reshaping the economy of the nation. He followed the policy of economic nationalism and put an end to foreign capitalism. This helped the State a lot in carrying out economic planning successfully and achieving the welfare of the people.

Moreover, the personal rule of Sukarno began to lose its charm gradually. It was also affected by the communist insurrections.

Though Sukarno was influenced by western democracy in his early days, when he assumed supreme powers he transformed the democratic concepts as a national ideology. The national interest became more dominant. His philosophy laid emphasis on national traditions. According to him, the party system resulted in political antagonism which affected national interests. The concept of Guided Democracy was based on the principle of deliberation, unanimity and strong leadership.

The President represented the aspirations of the people in this system. The systems established by Sukarno kept the communists away from the Governmental machinery. The people were commended not to slander, not to render disrespect to the government and not to act against the established ethical standards.

Sukarno’s moral code was explained in the famous ‘Panchsheela’ or the five ethical principles.

The above concepts were to be practiced by all implicitly. It aimed at the development of national character among the people. The army was entrusted with the work of enforcing these ideals.

The critics of President Sukarno felt that his regime was tending towards the personal dictatorship of the President. He was overthrown by a military coup. After the successful military coup Suharto succeeded him in 1967.

However, Socialism was newly interpreted by Sukarno. He presented it to his people in the form of Guided Democracy. According to the new interpretation, Socialism for him was anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist and it was spiritual rather than a materialistic philosophy. He emphasized the need for ‘Indonesian identity’, ‘human values’, ‘economic democracy’ and ‘eradication of exploitation’.

Foreign policy – At the very outset President Sukarno and his people denounced imperialism in any form. He shaped the Indonesian foreign policy on the basis of mutual cooperation and respect for independence. He maintained neutrality and remained away from the power blocs. He had no hesitation to conclude treaties of friendship with China and Japan which did not involve military alliances. He strived to promote international peace and end colonialism. Under him, Indonesia played an important role to bring the Afro Asian States together at the conference table to understand their common problems, as the host at the Bandung Conference in 1955. Indonesia joined the Asian African states in the United Nations whenever their common interests were involved. After the Bandung Conference, Indonesia was able to settle the issue of Chinese nationals in Indonesia. Thus, the policy of peaceful co-existence was cultivated, and he tried to prepare the nation to face the more serious problems with great vigor.

  

Ref: History of South East Asia – N. Jayapalan (p.59)

THE DRAIN THEORY – DADABHAI NAOROJI

For several generations now, the name of Dadabhai Naoroji has been associated in the minds of Indian students with the controversial ‘Drain Theory’. He propounded this theory with a fervent missionary zeal. Dadabhai spoke and wrote on this subject in the manner of a crusader who used simple, eloquent and sober language to explain the basic principles of this theory. He used phrases such as the ‘material and moral drain’, ‘the deprivation of resources’, ‘the bleeding drain’, etc.

The British rule drastically affected the politico-socio-economic structure of India. The various economic policies adopted by them resulted in poverty and misery of the masses. The British in India followed a policy which led to the extinction of the self-sufficient village economy. They evolved a system of education with the main object of creating a class of clerks so that the British rulers may be able to carry on the administration. Educated Indians were not given higher posts in the Government service and administration.

The commercial policy followed by the British rulers was not determined by the need of the country but was aimed at serving the interests of England. Of the revenue collected in India, the British remitted (took) about one-fourth to England as ‘home charges’. Several millions of rupees were sent to England as private remittances. The British Government in India followed a policy of free trade which led to free import of foreign commodities in the country and the ruin of indigenous industries. Railways were extended to all parts of the country which helped the distribution of foreign goods from one corner to another and facilitated the export of raw materials to England. The effects of these developments was that India was the only colony of the British Empire which presented a scene of poverty and distress and recurring famines.

With the spread of education people began to analyze the causes of poverty in India. They realized that there was something fundamentally wrong with the politico-economic set up of the country. The Indian leaders observed that the British rule was the chief cause of poverty and misery of the Indians. They considered ‘freedom from the colonial rule’ as the solution to the problem. The views of the early nationalist leaders were politico-economic rather than purely economic. Thus, the economic thought of the Indian leaders during the early phase of national movement and the Drain Theory propounded by Dadabhai Naoroji became the economic basis of Indian nationalism.

While in England, Dadabhai Naoroji studied the working of various British institutions. Along with W. C. Bannerjee, he started the London Indian Society to bring about a rapprochement between the British and Indians and to facilitate the exchange of views on subjects related to India. In 1866, Dadabhai Naoroji founded the East India association in collaboration with English officers.

Dadabhai Naoroji tried to mobilize public opinion in England in favor of India. He began to talk about the duties of the Englishmen towards India. He worked hard to appraise the British people about the defects of the British rule in India through his speeches in the British Parliament and through his writings. Dadabhai Noaroji fought for financial justice for India in the house of Commons. His efforts met with partial success when a Royal Commission was appointed to ‘enquire into the administration and management of the military and civil expenditure incurred. However, the Royal Commission failed to provide any financial justice to India.

After his return to India, Dadabhai Naoroji become the Dewan of the Baroda State. He was one of the founding members of the Indian National Congress and was elected as the President of the Congress thrice – 1886, 1893 and 1906.

The most important contribution of Dadabhai Naoroji in the field of economic thought is his famous ‘Drain Theory’ and its application to the Indian context. Having read Adam Smith’s ‘An Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations’, Dadabhai Naoroji turned his attention to ‘An Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of Indian Poverty’.

He formulated the Drain Theory into a doctrine, a powerful instrument of polemics which he used with great effect. To strengthen his arguments Dadabhai Naoroji quoted his predecessors at every step. He knew that he could succeed in convincing the British rulers if he quoted British rulers if he quoted British authorities. Some of them were distinguished British administrators.

External Drain – According to Dadabhai Naoroji, the poverty of the Indian people was the main problem. That India was getting poorer and poorer everyday was manifested by a number of facts; the low national income of the country, the low import and export figures, the low standard of living of people, the low revenue returns of the government, the recurring famines and the high rate of morality. He was of the opinion that the existing poverty was the direct result of the British rule in India. Dadabhai attributed the poverty of India to the heavy drain of the resources of the country.

Dadabhai considered the economic drain as an external-cum-internal drain. It was a kind of built in mechanism which exhorted resources out of a low level colonial economy; and the surplus thus generated through a complicated process was drained out of the economy through the process of external trade, the dynamics of which was supplied by the unilateral transfer of funds in an equally complicated way. According to Dadabhai the functioning of this transfer of resources was uniquely determined by a member of objective political factors such as:

-          India being a colonial economy governed by remote control

-          India was quite unlike whitemen’s colonies as the temperate zone which was attractive as well as provided capital for economic development.

-          India was saddled with an expensive civil administration and equally expensive army of occupation.

-          India was a strategic base of operations that had to bear the burden of empire building not only in India but also beyond her borders

-          Overheads of development being oriented towards strategic requirements, towards the requirements of administrative control in a vast country ruled by a handful of foreigners, towards the objective of creating highly paid jobs for foreign personnel

-          India was a colony with a difference, public expenditure out of the proceeds of taxation and loans failed to generate as much of domestic employment and income as would have been possible, if the principle income earners had not been ‘birds of passage’, or if they had spent their incomes largely within the country or on goods and services produced within the country.

Dadabhai’s concept of external economic drain had an interesting dimension. The Drain Theory had its crude exponents in his time. keeping money or purchasing power within the country and preventing it from being drained away is a notion which is as old as mercantilism and as old as the nationalist movement in India. Dadabhai grasped the underlying economic reality. He applied the criterion of the effect of public expenditure on the generation of income and employment with the country. Export and import, if they are a foreign monopoly, yield profits which do not generate domestic incomes and employment abroad. Here is a ‘foreign leakage’ to use a modern expression, or a ‘drain’ as Dadabhai understood it. The Englishman who imported British goods for his personal consumption or brought British goods in India, or the Government which bought in India or in England, stores of British manufactures. In these cases, individual as well as public consumption failed to generate domestic income and employment.

Internal Drain – According to Dadabhai Naoroji, the external economic drain was the counter part of the internal economic drain, as he saw the internal economic drain as the dependent effect of the external economic drain. Resources abstracted from internal production through taxation took the form of commodities which, in real terms, were the equivalent of the transfer of income abroad. Public finance i.t. government spending in relation to loan and taxes becomes in this context a means of establishing an equilibrium between the quantum of transfer of purchasing power abroad and the quantum of purchasing power required to be diverted from consumption of taxation and loans. Since the quantum of external transfer was large in relation to the per capita income, there was a kind of precarious equilibrium between the internal transfer of income and the external transfer.

The chief argument of Dadabhai was that the internal transfer was as much of an economic drain as the external transfer. The external economic drain was a ‘drain’ because of unrequited exports, ‘noncommercial’ exports, which did not bring any return in the form of imports. The internal economic transfer through taxation, which meant, by and large, transfer of purchasing power from the poverty stricken, rural areas of the country, was also largely of the nature of unrequited exports to England. There were other kinds of leakages which occurred under more favorable political and economic conditions. They produced compensations in different ways. The familiar examples were the compensatory effects of redistributive taxation, or welfare expenditure including state expenditure, on the creation of economic and social overheads which benefit the bulk of the population, or at least the expenditure of proceeds of taxation largely within the country which create primary employment and income and through them secondary employment and income and, so on down to the tertiary level. Dadabhai pointed out that Indian public finance lacked these compensatory features except in so far as the state undertook public investments in railways and irrigation works and road development due to various reasons their fullest possible compensatory effects were not realized. Thus, Dadabhai had a very grim view of Indian public finance. The view of Dadabhai Naoroji was shared by liberal minded Englishmen in the middle of the 19^th century who had a sympathetic understanding of the reality of the Indian economic situation.

The views of Dadabhai Naoroji on public expenditure had crystallised as early as 1871 in his paper called ‘Commerce of India’ and ‘Financial administration’. In his ‘Commerce of India’ he referred to the political debt of 100 million pounds and the burden of ‘Home Charges’, pointing out that while British Exchequer contributed nearly three million pounds to meet public expenditure in the colonies, in case of India, it was an unmitigated drain. He criticized the economically crude and unintelligent policy of making present generation pay the whole cost of public works for he benefit of the future. This he considered as the lack of ‘intelligent adaptation of financial machinery’ and much ‘reckless expenditure’.

Dadabhai made a thorough analysis of the inequitable burden of military expenditure borne by India. He pleaded that the cost of British Forward Policy should not substantially be borne by India. Dadabhai agreed that India might pay a share of the cost in India for what England regards as absolutely necessary for her own purpose of maintaining her empire in India.

The increase in the public debt was considered another source of the swelling of the economic drain by Dadabhai Naoroji. Apart from the political debt inherited for the East India Company, the public debt, excluding loans for public works incurred during the period of 1883-92 was 16 million pounds, the interest charges were an addition to both the internal and external drain. During the last three decades of the nineteenth century, there was a substantial addition to loans for railways, for irrigation works. On guaranteed railways, Dadabhai’s comment was highly credible: “I am morally certain that there has been great waste in the construction of the guaranteed railways”. Since the remunerative character of many projects was set aside out of administrative or political considerations, the ultimate burden of ‘extra ordinary’ works fell on the taxpayer. Dadabhai condemned the principle of meeting the net charges out of ordinary, general revenues as an inequitable financial principle. He mentioned three evil consequences of such a system:

-          Uncertainty, delay and the consequent waste in the works themselves.

-          The intolerable pressure of taxation upon the people and their dissatisfaction

-          The withdrawal of so much capital which was so dear for the ordinary wants of the production and the commerce of the country.

Consequences of the Drain

It is impossible to accurately measure the amount of drain which in the form of resources, raw materials and gold bullion flowed from India into England during the long British ruler over India. It was calculated that one-fourth of all revenue derived in India came to be annually remitted to England as Home Charges. According to Dadabhai Naoroji between 1814 and 1865 about 350 million pounds went to England by way of drain. He calculated this figure from Indian export surplus over her imports those years.

The vast amount of resources and capital which flowed from India into England naturally enabled the people of England to live a better standard of life. The drain also made possible rising investments in English agriculture and industry after 1750. These investments were partly responsible for agricultural revolution in England in the eighteenth century and as also industrial revolution which commenced after 1750. Rich officials and merchants who retired in England with huge amounts and pensions after serving in India had the leisure and money to devote their attention to new inventions, construction of roads, canals and railways and bring rapid changes in all sectors of economy. The drain provided the foundation of English economic prosperity.

On the other hand the effects of the drain on Indian economy and on its people were disastrous. The loot and plunder and the enormous profits which were take out of India year after year meant a continual drain of Indian resources and a dead loss. These resources and gold which could have been available for investment in India were siphoned off to England.

The public debt policy of the government and payment of annual interest on them meant increasing tax burden on Indian people. Highly regressive taxation was imposed on people for servicing the government of India’s debt raised in England.

Another result of far reaching significance was that when the government of the country spends the tax proceeds withing the country, money circulates among the people creating demand for various types of goods and services and thus leads to a profitable progress in trade, agriculture and industry. The benefits of such a policy reaches down to the mass of people, but when tax proceeds are sent abroad as it happened in the case of the drain, it meant sending off the resources out of India, thus impoverishing her trade, agriculture and industries. The drain was thus responsible for the stagnant economy of India during the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

Dadabhai Naoroji was of the opinion that the drain was the principle and sole cause of India’s poverty. He pointed out that the drain represented not only the sending aboard of certain portion of national income but also the further loss of employment and income that could have been generated in the country, if the drain would have been spent internally.

The nationalist leaders also saw drain as a loss of capital rather than loss of wealth. They were aware that the drain was harmful chiefly because it resulted in the depletion of productive capital. The drain resulted in industrial retardation as it produced shortage of capital. The nationalist leaders, thus, tried to analyze and show the effects of the drain on income and wealth, on capital, on industrial development, on land revenue, on the terms of trade and on the poverty of the Indian people. Through the drain theory, the nationalist writers, specially Dadabhai Naoroji effectively brought out the highly exploitative nature of British rule in India.

The nationalist leaders pointed out several measures of reducing the burden of the drain. The most important measure suggested by them was the Indianization of civil and military services, and reducing the personnel from England to a reasonable proportion. Another measure suggested was the reduction of the Home charges. It was suggested that England should shoulder a large part of the Home Charges. The Home Charges could be reduced by reducing the burden of interest and capital payments in India’s public debt held in England. The burden of the drain could also be reduced by purchasing government stores in India itself, as also by checking the increasing import of private foreign capital.

Dadabhai Naoroji, the Grand Old Man of India, the great sentinel of India’s freedom who battled untiringly in the cause of the submerged masses of India, had seen the face of poverty. In his the ‘other India’ the India of voiceless, poverty stricken, millions had found an untiring friend and crusader who fought their battels with an obsession that was the despair of his opponents. He was an intellectual who believed in the power of the written and the spoken work, in the triumph of truth and justice in the ethical conscience of the British ruler and his sense of fair play.

Gopal Krishna Gokhale described his personality in one sentence: “ If ever there was the divine in man, it was in Dadabhai”.

 

QUESTIONS:

Make a critical assessment of the Drain Theory. In what way did it contribute to the growth of Indian nationalism?

Evaluate Dadabhai Nawroji’s Drain Theory and assess the economic and political effects of the drain.

Short note on Drain Theory

Describe in brief the work of Dadabhai Naoroji in the promotion of economic nationalism

Trace the genesis of the Drain Theory formulated by Dadabhai Naoroji. What were its politico-economic implications?

DADABHAI NAOROJI

 Dadabai was born in Bombay in a poor Parsi priest family on 4 September, 1825. He was educated in a free school conducted by the ‘Native Education Society’. The school had two branches – English and Vernacular. He received his college education at the Elphinstone Institution. He received the Clare Scholarship and was admitted to the newly opened class of Normal Scholars.

Dadabai was very active in his college days. He was appointed as the Treasurer of the ‘Students Literary and Scientific Society’. From that time onwards he devoted himself to the work of education and reform.

The Rules of the Students Literary and Scientific Society – The aim of the society was to develop the interest in literary and scientific knowledge. In keeping with this aim on e of the rules of the society provided that two members should be nominated by the Secretary of the society to read papers on literary, scientific or social subjects. The meeting of the Society was held twice a month. The society was keen on encouraging members to think independently on matters of public interest. The students and teachers should shoulder the responsibility of educating the people and therefore an in depth study of the current issues was also intended. The Society did not encourage entanglement in the political matters and religious questions.

The society maintained a strict discipline and therefore wished to weed out useless members or those who only accepted the membership as an ornament. Those who failed to read a paper in the first and second instance were fined and if the member failed to read the paper on the subject offered by him the third time, he was expelled.

The questions that were prepared and the subjects of the papers were discussed in the meetings of the Society. It was not to be merely an academic discussion to be confined within the four walls of the classroom but the conclusions were to be exposed to the full view of the public through the columns of journals conducted by two vernacular branches of the Society. One was the Gujarati ‘Dnyan Prasarak Mandali’ and the other was Marathi – ‘Dnyan Prasarak Mandali’. The Gujarati journal was edited by Dadabai Naoroji. It published the debates.

The work undertaken by the ‘Dnyan Prasarak Mandali’ under the guidance and direction of Dadabai Naoroji was of far reaching importance.

In 1849, a paper on female education was read by Behramji Kharshetji Gandhi. The discussion on this much debated issue led to a practical operation. The students began to visit several Parsi and Hindu families who allowed them to sit in their verandahs and teach the girls. After this girls got the consent of their parents and they could register 44 Parsi girls and 24 Hindu girls in the seven schools. The move to educate women attracted the attention of some leaders of Bombay Jagannath Shankar Sheth who gave a cottage to be used a school house. This inspired others to give concrete assistance to female education. Khershedji Nasarwanji Cama gave a substantial donation to the Society and this enabled the Society to maintain schools for girls.

Dadabhai lived to witness the diamond jubilee of the Society and the Dnyan Prakash Mandali. The Society had also undertaken the work of translating books into Marathi and Gujarati. The work of the Society began to get wider publicity. Among the Marathi speaking alumni Journalism had become a favorite tool to propose social and religious reforms. Dadabhai also felt an urgent need of an independent journal for the cause of reform. Dadabhai and K. Cama decided to start a fortnightly journal ‘Rast Goftar’ (Truth Teller). Cama agreed to provide the necessary funds and Dadabhai agreed to run it without remuneration. The new journal was issued on 15 November 1851. This was incidentally the sixth journal in Gujarati but the only one with an independent ideology. The journal was started in the wake of Muslim-Parsi riot which broke out on 7 October 1851. Within two months the journal with progressive views found favor with the readers and in January 1852 the fortnightly was converted into a weekly. Dadabhai was fully supported by the Society boys and his connection with the journal continued even after he left India in 1855 and made England his home. The student’s society had a wider acceptance and its activities were assuming larger dimensions under the able leadership of Dadabhai.

Important Events in his life

He was appointed Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in 1852. He was the first Indian to hold such a high position in any prominent colleges in the country. He left India in 1855 to settle in England. He joined the Cama Company and after a few years he started his own trading company. During the first decade he tried to educate the British public opinion on the Civil Service Examination. He stressed the importance of Sanskrit and Arabic, the two classical languages and the London Indian Society was able to force the British government to give up the proposal of reducing the marks gained by Indian candidates in one of these languages as optional subjects.

Dadabhai’s achievements in the political field are many. He became the first Indian member of the British Parliament. He worked as a Diwan of Baroda. He worked for the establishment of the Indian National Congress of which he was elected President thrice in his career. His greatest contribution to the intellectual field was his book ‘Poverty and the British Rule in India’, published in 1901. In 1876, when he was a Municipal Councilor of Bombay, he read a paper on the Poverty of India before the Bombay branch of East India Association.

Dadabhai enjoys a unique place in the hearts of Indian people. His greatness does not lie in the number of institutions he started or the number of lectures he delivered on different subjects or his work in this capacity or that. His greatness rests on his theory of drain that he propounded not merely by guess work but by indefatigable industry to collect the statistics and prove his thesis.

Here was a man brave enough to prove to the British masters that they were responsible for the poverty and the miserable conditions of the Indian people. He thrust on the attention of the people of India that the outward appearance of the British rule may be attractive but it acts as a disease to destroy the national interest of India.

The Drain Theory that he developed created a consciousness among the educated Indians throughout the country that self-rule has no substitute. Although he spent most of his life in England he never missed any opportunity to uphold the national honor. He had the good fortune of a long life. His political hopes of a better deal from the British rulers at the outbreak of World War I were very high. Dadabhai did not live long enough to see the constitutional changes after World War I.

Read more about The Drain Theory by clicking the link: https://sstuffsimplified.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-drain-theory-dadabhai-naoroji.html

CANCUN CONFERENCE | UNFCCC

 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

-          To reduce carbon emissions and build a system which made all countries accountable to each other for those reductions

Highlights

-          To commit to a maximum temperature, rise of 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to consider lowering that to 1.5 degrees in the near future

-          To make fully operational by 2012 a technology mechanism to boost the innovation, development and spread of new climate friendly technologies

-          To establish a ‘Green Climate Fund’ to provide financing to projects, programs, policies, and other activities in developing countries via thematic funding windows.

-          The  Cancun Adaptation Framework included setting up an Adaptation Committee to promote the implementation of stronger cohesive action on adaptation.

Read more details about this conference by clicking the link: https://unfccc.int/process/conferences/the-big-picture/milestones/the-cancun-agreements

LAWS RELATING TO MUSEOLOGY, ARCHAEOLOGY AND PROTECTION OF ANTIQUITIES AND MONUMENTS – INDIA

 The need for legislation and vigilance: The safest way to protect the cultural property of a country is to teach its people to be vigilant. A sense of pride in the country’s antiquarian wealth, cultural and artistic heritage, oral tradition, performing arts, etc., and a sense of involvement in their preservation and protection  have to be inculcated among the masses.

Museums have a definite role to play here as their educational activities should be directed toward enlightening people, so that they themselves come forward to take the role of protectors or custodians of the cultural wealth around them. Such an educated public is the best safeguard against petty theft and vandalism at archaeological sites and monuments. But to protect against organised theft and robbery, the use of legislation is necessary. Criminal and civil laws cover theft, damage to cultural property, illegal occupation of monuments and sites etc. Similarly the customs laws are used to punish offenders breaking import / export laws.

The earlier laws regarding protection of cultural property was in France in 1809, to protect against the transfer of material from the state archives. Soon after in 1814, the Indian Museum Act was passed for the protection of monuments from destruction.

In 1878, the Indian Treasure Trove Act was passed. The main emphasis of this early legislation was on the preservation of archaeological wealth. With the exception of very few countries, most states have some law or the other for the protection of monuments, remains, antiquities, etc.

Theft and Illicit Traffic in Antiquities: Any illicit traffic is preceded by blatant robbery or theft which may be crude or very sophisticated. Stolen objects are smuggled into the international market as the trade in cultural property, though often illegal, is very lucrative. The illicit trade includes the thief, the receiver, middlemen and the final purchaser. A museum may be either the victim or perhaps the beneficiary. E.g. The Nataraja statue from the Shivapurana temple. Thus far, laws tend to target those actively involved in the theft and smuggling of objects. But many may feel that if buyers of stolen antiquities were more strictly dealt with, the illicit trade would decrease.

Indian laws

The Bengal Regulations XIX of 1810 – empowered the government to intervene whenever a public building was faced with the risk of misuse by private individuals.

Act XX of 1863 – The government was given the authority ‘to prevent injury to and preserve buildings remarkable for their antiquity, historical and architectural value’.

Indian Treasure Trove Act 1878 – was directed to combat treasure hunting and to regulate accidental finds due to digging for other purposes.

Antiquities (Export Control) Act 1947 – This act was passed by Mortimer Wheeler, who was the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India. Under this Act, no antiquity could be exported without a license issued by the Director General. Antiquities included any object not more than 100 years old. This act also served to certify an object as an antiquity.

Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1951 – All historical and ancient monuments and all archaeological sites and remains declared under the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act 1904, re-declared as monuments and archaeological sites of national importance.

Antiquities (Export Control) Amendment Bill 1965 – sought to transfer or abridge the power of the Director General and vest it to a Board called the Antiquities Appellate Board. The decisions of this board would be final.

The Antiquities and Art Treasures Act 1972 – was passed as an improvement over the above act. It sought to cope with the illicit traffic in antiquities and their theft

At present, there are two central laws, Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1958 and the Antiquities and Art Treasures act 1972, for the preservation of monuments, archaeological sites and antiquities.

LEE KUAN YEW

 Lee Kuan Yew was a Singaporean politician. 

He founded the People’s Action Party in 1954 and was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1955 after campaigning for ‘an independent, democratic and non Communist Malaya’ that would include Singapore. 

He became the first Prime Minister of Singapore in 1959 after separation from Malaya and then led it into the Federation of Malaysia in 1963 and out again in 1965

. He encouraged foreign industrial development, and in foreign affairs pursued a policy of non alignment and regional cooperation. He resigned as Prime Minister in 1990.

THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF MAHAPADMANANDA

 Mahapadmananda was the first Nanda ruler. He ruled for 28 years.

The Greek, Jain and Puranic writings give different accounts regarding the origin of the Nandas. The Puranas mention that Mahapadmananda was the son of a barber. The Jain works show that he was the son of a courtesan by a barber. The Greek writer, Curtius, mentions that Mahapadmananda was a barber by his good looks won the queens heart and murdered Kalasoka by thrusting a dagger into his throat (as mentioned in Bana’s Harshacharita) near his capital. Mahapadmananda himself became ruler and must have killed the son of Kalasoka.

Achievements: Mahapadmananda further extended the Magadhan Kingdom. He made himself the master of the whole of northern India excluding the Punjab, Kashmir and North-West Frontier. He defeated most of the contemporary rulers in the north such as Ikshavakus, Kurus, Panchalas, Kasis, Surasenas, Maithilas, Kalingas, Asmakas and Haihayas. The Hathigumpha Inscription refers to the Nanda ruler and says that he built an aqueduct in Kalinga and carried away the statue of a Jain Tirthankara. Hence his power was felt in the Deccan also. This proves that Nanda rulers had an inclination towards Jainism and they had Jain ministers to advise them. The power of Magadha was felt far and wide in Northern India and it became the center of the future History of India

Mahapadmananda was endowed with a remarkable military genius. He proved to be a great conqueror and vigorous ruler and the empire of Magadha under his and his successor became a mighty Empire extending from the Bay of Bengal in the East to the Sutlej in the West.

According to Indian as well as Greek accounts, the Nandas possessed immense wealth and vast military resources.

TERRESTRIAL DEITIES OF THE VEDIC AGE

 Rigvedic people venerated natural forces around them (like wind, water, rain, thunder, fire, etc) which they could not control, and invested nature with divinity conceived in human forms, which were mostly masculine. Very few female deities were venerated. The religion which reflected a patriarchal society was one of primitive animism.

From the names of the Vedic deities, their original status or position is known. Some epithets of natural beings, in course of time became names of Gods, for instance, Savitri – ‘the life giver’ – the God of Light. In this manner besides Surya (Sun God) many other sun Gods appear in the Rigveda. Some of the Vedic deities were of abstract nature such as Visvakarman, Prajapati, Sraddha, Manyu, etc. Of the major Vedic deities, Indra, Varuna and Agni occupy the highest position.

There is no fixed order of seniority among the Vedic Gods in the strict sense of the term. For too many functions, powers and offices are held in common by two or more deities. There is a sort of democracy among them, though it is not thorough going or consistent.

In the Rigveda a triple classification of Vedic Gods has been hinted according to which the corresponding three orders are:

Terrestrial (Prithvisthan) – Prithvi, Agni, Soma, Brihaspati and the rivers belong to this order.

Aerial or Intermediate (Antarikshasthan or Madhyasthan) – Indra, Apamnapat, Vishnu, Aditya, Rudra, Ahi Budhnaya, Vayuvata, Parajanya, Apah, Matarisvan, etc belong here

Celestial (Dyusthana) – Dyaus, Varuna, Mitra, Surya, Savitri, Pushan, Vishnu, the Adityas, Ushas, and the Ashvins belong here.

This classification is founded on the natural basis which the deities represent. But at certain places this classification is overlapping and not clear cut, such as Tvastri and Prithvi are assigned to all three spheres, Agni and Ushas to the terrestrial as well as aerial spheres and Varuna, Yama and Savitri to the Aerial as well as the celestial ones.

The Gods are usually stated to be 33 in number, divided into three groups corresponding to the three divisions of the universe. The Gods are described as born though not all simultaneously, and yet they are immortal. In appearance they are humans, the parts of their bodies being identified poetically with the phenomena of nature, such as rays or flames. On the whole, the Gods are benevolent, the only one with malevolent traits being Rudra. The Gods subdue the forces of evil and regulate the order of nature, which they themselves follow and enforce on mortals. They reward the righteous and punish the sinful.

Terrestrial Deities

Prithvi – has been invoked only once and is the synonym for earth. Certain rivers like Sindhu, Vipasa, Shutudri are also lauded, the most important among them being Saraswati.

Agni – the second position is held by Agni. About 200 hymns in the Rigveda are addressed to the fire god (Agni). He was an intermediary between Gods and men, for he consumed the sacrificial offerings and carried them to the Gods. He dwelt in the waters of heaven in the form of lightening and on the earth in many forms.

Soma – was the most popular elixir of the Vedic Aryans, extracted from a creeper found int eh Muhawant mountains. The Soma juice has been called Amrita (divine drink) and Shuddha (pure). It was mixed with milk, curd or barley and taken three times a day. The Soma sacrifice was also held which was the centre of the Vedic ritual.

IMPACT OF MEDIA ON SOCIETY

The interaction between media and human beings is an extremely complex phenomenon which becomes even more complex when the variety of mass media is realized.

The only ‘safe’ conclusion on the effects of media is that arrived by Bernard Berdson ‘Some kinds of communication on some kind of issue brought to the attention of some kinds of people under some conditions have some kind of effects’.

Factors of impact

Several factors have been taking into consideration in the analysis of the impact of media – factors have been termed a ‘stimulus factors’ and ‘receiver factors’. Receiver factors are closely related.

Perception – is the general term employed to speak of the interpretation of the data by the brain, a process by which sensory impact is so interpreted as to make data meaningful. Thus, mass media is the sensory input and perception is the consequence of interpretation of sensory data. Perception is one’s window to the world, the frame of reference to look at everything.

Attitude – The term attitude refers to certain regulations of an individual’s feelings thoughts and predisposition to act towards the effective component. Attitudes may be directed at the concrete and the abstract, the personal and the remote. Attitudes towards radio and television programs can be measured through letters received and audience surveys. Attitudes are emotionally satisfying to people and serve a number of social motives.

Opinions and benefits – Opinions are views held by people at points of dispute, based on the evidence available at that point in time. opinions are temporary and provisional whereas attitudes and beliefs are stable and permanent. It is easy to give up opinions with the variations of circumstances, but beliefs and attitudes do not succumb easily.

A person with a set of attitudes / opinions knows how to respond, think and feel about incoming information (object – appraisal functions). Opinions link those who share similar views and keep distance from those who don’t (social adjustment functions). Opinions are a projection of one’s insecurity and fears (externalization and ego defensive function).

Interest – most significant interests are of security, pleasure and self-esteem, then come the interests of various groups one gets associated with primary and secondary as well as reference groups, society and peer groups are also vital to interests.

Learning – is a relatively permanent change that occurs as a result of practice of experience – meaning requiring new knowledge, technique, skills, etc. Psychologists classify various types of human learning – Classical conditioning, Skill Learning, Discriminative Learning, Verbal Learning, Problem Solving, concept Learning and Thinking.

Factors influencing learning include:

Motivation – an internal state that implies a human being to some activity which has a specific goal and which usually originates in some physiological or psychological need. It is the most important factor influencing learning.

The other factors are:

Reinforcement

Repetition and exercise

Observation and knowledge

Stimulus pattern

Attention – means focusing or concentration consciousness upon an object – its major characteristic is that it is constantly shifting from one object to another, hence distraction is an unavoidable characteristic of attention. ‘Attention is an active process for it involves physical and mental effort – and leads to clearer perception better memory and conservation of mental energy.

Memory – it relates to the recall of experiments and learning in the form of mental images. Memory can either be long term of short term.

 

Mass media can have several effects on society. The theories of media effects:

The medium, not the message – the medium, Mc Luhan argues that no matter what the programs are people will watch television. According to him, electronic media will transfer every aspect of man’s life, will restructure civilization, not so much by the content buy nature of the media. Today, the Television is the most predominant medium of communication and concepts, the internet following closely.

Reinforcement – Some theorists in contrast to Mc Luhan’s theory (Klapper and others) believe that media reinforces existing values and attitudes. For e.g. ‘Surabhi’ on Doordarshan network is known for the promotion of Indian culture.

Neurosis (state of instability) – Media is perceived as a ‘narcotizing dysfunction’   which distracts audiences from real problems and prevents them from doing anything about them. Mass media is usually associated with entertainment and it can be argued that its effects neither hurt nor help most people except perhaps temporarily. However, media like news bulletin, awareness programs on television, etc., create awareness and desired response from the general audience.

Catharsis – Clearly related to the theory of ‘neurosis’ is Seymour Eshbach’s ‘Catharsis’ theory of media effects. He argues that the media may have a ‘cathartic’ effect on the people that somehow purges them of many anti-social and unfulfilled desires, frustrations, and feelings of hostility.

Manipulation – Ernest Van den Haaq holds the view that mass communication taken together are demeaning, debasing and depersonalizing instruments of manipulation at worst, middle class hedonism at best. However, it has already been noted that, they are not easily manipulated by persuasion or propaganda.

Windows of the world – It mainly constitutes mass media such as news, access to exponents of music, entertainment, exposure to foreign culture, information, general knowledge, etc.

Corruptive – Another extreme theory is that of Fredric Wertham which says that the content of the media is corruptive and teaches materialism, brutality and anti social behavior. For e.g. 1993 the James Bulgar Case v/s USA where 21-year-old brutally murdered 3 year old James Bulgar after watching the violence on ‘Child’s Play III’.

Incidental effects – according to Kyle and Parker ‘television could be an especially effective agent of incidental learning while the child is still young. This is because at that time, it seems so real’.

 

Individual can never become a part of modern society without media and mass communication. Socialization is learnt from parents and social groups from the day of the individual birth. Social control is achieved through tradition orientation. The child of today comes in contact with groups other than that of his own. He has access to different modes of behavior and norms of living. He relies heavily on mass media and role models. Thus, media is an integral part of the social system. From socialization to national integration, mass media is also a means of public awareness for social evils like dowry system, child marriages, caste conflicts, etc.

Children too learn to understand and express relationships, attitudes, and feelings through the influence of mass media.

Mass media also represents women and their rights, politics and entertainment, thus showing the vast impact of media on society.

 

JUSTICE

 Justice reconciles conflicting values such as liberty and equality. It also reconciles individual freedom with social requirements. Justice is related to equity. Equity is the principle that there be fair shares based on need, merit and capacity.

Equity is not to be confused with equality. Equality would require that there be no distinctions on the basis of caste, merit, etc. but positive discrimination in favor of the disadvantaged classes is an important feature of social justice. Social justice is based on the principle of equity.

Justice is also related to equality. Equality stands for equality of consideration i.e. all are to be treated alike except when there are relevant differences between them. this is why special provisions are made for weaker sections of society, handicapped persons, women, children and the aged. Thus when there are relevant basis for discrimination the principle of equality is not violated. However, to ensure that justice has been done even when there are relevant differences the degree of discrimination has to be reasonable. e.g. The Mandal Commission was right in holding that there be reservations for disadvantaged people but it became a faulty policy when caste was made the 'sole' factor for deciding reservations. 

The prinicple of equity demands that those sections of society which have already advanced economically should not benefit from the reservation policy. 

Social justice is the usually accepted from in favor of the underpriviledged and is preferred over legal justice. Policies and programs of the state are means of implementing social justice. 

STRUGGLE FOR SWARAJ

In World War I Indians whole heartedly cooperated with the British government. Indians joined the war with a view that after the war they would be given self rule. But the British did not fulfil their promise. In 1907 Montague the secretary of the states for India drew up a report known as Montague Chelmsford Reforms. These were popularly known as Monford Reforms.

 

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ACT 1919 **

What changes did the government of India act of 1919 bring about?

This act brought about the following changes:

-          Division of subjects – it was divided into 2 separate groups – central and provincial government. Items like defense, foreign affairs, railways, post and telegraph, customs and currency were given to the central government. Internal law and order, education, local self government, land revenue, agriculture were given to provincial government.

-          Separate representation – the communal representation was extended and a separate representative was given to the Sikhs, Christians and Anglo Indians.

-          Change in the home government – in the Indian Council the number of Indian members were increased from 2 to 3. It was decided that the secretary of state and his staff should be paid their salaries out of British treasury. The Indian council was to consist of 8-10 members.

-          Change in the central government – the governor generals executive council was enlarged and it was responsible to the legislative. The important change was the central legislation was made bicameral and the duration of the council of states was fixed at 5 years and that of the legislative assembly at 3 years. They also introduced dyarchy by which the provincial government the part of the executive was responsible for the legislature.

 

ROWLATT ACT (OR BILL)

After the first world war the British government passed the Monford reforms, but the Indians were not satisfied with that and they started the revolutionary movements against the British rule. In order to check their activities the British government passed the defence of India Act. This act was also known as the Rowlatt Act. According to this act police were given unlimited powers of arresting people, even if they suspected any person they imprisoned him without any previous warning.

 

EMERGENCE OF GANGHIJI

The most important event in Indian politics in 1919 was the emergence of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi popularly known as Gandhiji. He started the new movement of freedom i.e. satyagraha and non cooperation. He was one of the greatest leaders and freedom fighters.

 

GANDHIJI

Was born on 2^nd October 1869 in Porbandar. He was from a well to do Vaishnava family and was brought up in a deep religious atmosphere. He had studied law in London and returned to India as a Barrister. He was surprised at the humiliating treatment given to the Indians living in South Africa. He decided to fight against this injustice. His main aim was to bring pressure of the British government by means of self suffering and non violence.

 

JALLIANWALA BAUG TRAGEDY

The people of Amritsar had gathered for a peaceful meeting at Jallianwala Baug at Punjab. Dyre was placed as officer in charge of Amritsar. He marched to Jallianwala baug and without giving any warning he opened fire on the peaceful people. He continued firing till all the ammunition was nearly exhausted. The people tried to escape but in vain. This incident was the most dreadful in Indian history as a number of people were killed and wounded. This tragedy showed the way to independence. It was a turning point in the history of the Indian national congress.

 

KALIPHAT / KHILAFAT MOVEMENT AND NON COOPERATION MOVEMENT (20 MARKS) ***

After World War I the status fo the Kaliphat in Turkey was lowered. The Indian muslim wanted to reestablish the powers of the Kalif. They also felt that the position of the Sultan of Turkey who was regarded as the religious head of the Muslims shouldn’t be undermined. Therefore they started the Khilafat movement. Its main objective was to force the British government to change its attitude to turkey and restore the Turkish sultan.

In india the movement was started by Ali brothers – Shaukat Ali and Mohamad Ali. Gandhiji saw that the Kalifat movement had created an awakening among the Indian muslims. They announced to them the famous doctrine of nonviolence and non cooperation.

 

NON COOPERATION MOVEMENT

It was a political movement started by Gandhiji. In the beginning it was started in the remote areas and later it gathered momentum. In order to make this weapon effective Gandhiji inspired people through his speech and personality. To make this non cooperation successful he introduced a number of rules

-          Surrender of titles and honorary office and resignation from the nominated seats.

-          Refused to attend any government function

-          Withdrawl from schools and colleges run by the British government

-          British courts to be boycotted by the lawyers

-          Boycott of elections in the country

-          Non payment of taxes

The Non Cooperation movement was a grand success because of the great support from all over the country.

In the beginning the British government did not take this movement of Gandhiji seriously. But when the people demonstrated against the visit of the Delegate of Connaught who came to India,, the British government was annoyed and ordered for the prosecution of the person found guilty.

On the 17^th of November, when the Prince of Wales came to Bombay and the Indians observed Hartal and the crowd joined the boycott meeting which was held by Gandhiji. It was a peaceful meeting but suddenly violence broke out. The angry mob burnt cars with the result that the police opened fire and innocent people were killed. The incident at Chauri Chaura caused a lot of death and it shocked Gandhiji who then decided to stop the non cooperation movement.

 

THE SWARAJ PARTY

The suspension of the non cooperation movement was followed by Gandhijis’ arrest. This created a gap between the people and the movemtn and this was faced by the Swaraj party leaders – S R. Dar, Motilal Nehru and N. C. Kelkar. The aim of this party was to establish swaraj within the British empire. In the elections that were held the swaraj party won 42 seats out of 101. They were the largest party in Bengal legislative assembly.

The failure of the first non cooperation movement led to the revival of the terrorist movements. Under the leadership of Chandra Shekar Azad an association was formed which came to be known as Hindustan Socialist Republic. Bhagat Singh, Chandra Shekar Azad, Raj Guru organized themselves to fight against the British. They wanted to protest against the public safety bills which would have reduced civil liberties. Bhagat Sings was arrested and sentenced to death.

 

SIMON COMMISSION ***

In 1927 Simon Commission was sent to India which consisted of 7 members and were Englishmen with Simon as the chairman. Not a single Indian was included in this committee. This commission was to prepare the future constitution of india. At the Madras session, it was decided to boycott this commission. A meeting was held in order to find a committee which would draft an outline of the future Indian Constitution. Motilal Nehru was elected as the chairman of the drafting committee and this came to be known as the Motilal Nehru Report

 

MOTILAL NEHRU REPORT

The Nehru Report was the first constitutional document produced by an Indian. Lord Birkanted the secretary for the state of india challenged that Indians were not capable for drawing up a constitution and this challenge was accepted as a congress and other parties in India. The constitution that was drafted was known as the Nehru Report.

 

FEATURES OF THE NEHRU REPORT

-          Dominion status – British should grant dominion status to india immediately.

-          Federation – the suitable form of government for India was a federal form of government

-          Fundamental rights – the Indians should be granted their fundamental rights

-          Joint electorates – communal electorate system should be immediately abolished and joint electorates should be introduced in which the minorities would be given reserved seats.

-          Linguistic states – the states should be recognized on the basis of language

-          Native status – the report recommended that the British should clearly outline the policy with regard to the native states.

-          Supreme court – the highest court in the country should be established. There was a different opinion between the congress and the Muslim League. The muslims did not like certain recommendations

-          - abolition of communal electorates

-          - they criticized the reports for the reserved seats for the muslims

-          - Mohammed Ali Jinna drafted his 14 points as the muslims demanded for political statements.

 

LAHORE SESSION – 1929

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was made the President of Congress at the historical Lahore session on 1929. It was decided that it was fruitless to participate in the proposed round table conference. The working committee announced that they are going to lodge a civil disobedience movement and the 26^th of Jan 1920 was observed as Purna Swaraj or Indeppendence Day all over the country.

 

DANDI MARCH (1930)

Gandhiji had fixed the time and place from where his Civil disobedience movement would start. He started the famous Dandi March from Sabarmati Ashram. He reached Dandi on 5^th April and this march was one of the famous historical marches. The success of breaking the salt law spread very fast in every corner of India and the result was that a large number of people decided to join the Civil Disobedience Movement.

 

THE FIRST ROUND TABLE CONFERENCE 1930 ***

When Gandhiji started the Civil Disobedience Movement, the British government called for a round table conference at London to draw up the Constitution for India. But at that time most of the Congress leaders were in jail. The congress had boycotted it and since the congress leaders could not be present because of their imprisonment they decided at this conference that they should be released on 26^th Jan 1931.

 

GANDHI IRWIN PACT ***

Following are the main terms of the pact which the British government had agreed:

-          Political prisoners would be released

-          People living in the coastal areas would be able to make salt and sell it

-          British government couldn’t interfere in peaceful picketing

-          The civil disobedience movement should be discontinued and the government agreed to withdraw all the ordinances.

-          The representative of the Congress would join the second round table conference.

 

THE SECOND ROUND TABLE CONFERENCE ***

Gandhiji had decided to attend the second round table conference at England but because Lord Willington had expressed his idea of changing the pact, Gandhiji didn’t want to attend it. But at the last moment the original plan remained unchanged and Gandhiji decided to attend the second round table conference. The most important feature was the communal problem. But since no decision was taken Gandhiji returned and decided to begin his movement and fight against the British.

 

THE THIRD ROUND TABLE CONFERENCE

The conference could not be a success since the congress boycotted it and even the labour party of England refused to attend this conference. Gandhiji and other leaders of the Congress were arrested and the movement gained momentum.

 

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ACT 1935

This act was a little more advanced than the act of 1919. It was proposed to establish the federal government at the centre in which the executive was to be responsible to the legislative consisting of elected representatives of the people of British India. The election was held in six provinces out of eleven. The majority of seats were secured by the Indian National Congress.

 

AUGUST OFFERE OF 1940

On 8^th August 1940,  the British declared a new policy called the ‘Augustus Offer’ a statement by the Viceroy on behalf of the British government

-          The expansion of governor general council should no longer be postponed.

-          The framing of new constitution should be the primary responsibility of the Indians themselves and should originate from Indian conception on the social economical and political structure of the Indian life.

-          It was hoped that all parties and communities in India would cooperate in Indian attainment for free and equal partnership in the British Commonwealth of Nations.

Gandhiji declared that this offer didn’t solve the problem but only widened the Gulf between Indian National Congress and British

 

CRIPPS PROPOSAL 1940

Japan launched a surprise attack of Pearl Harbor and joined the war at the side of the British. The British government wanted the active cooperation of Indians in the war and sent Sir Stafford Cripps the leader of House of Commoners with certain proposals and this was called the Cripps Plan

The plan consisted of:

-          The Constitution making body should be set immediately after the war

-          There would be no provisions for participation of the Indian states in the Constitution of the country

-          The province would keep its present position if it didn’t like to join the union

-          Constitutional making body was to be elected by the members of the legislative assembly.

-          Defense was to be in the hands of the British during the war

-          Provinces were to be made for the protection of the rights for social and religious minorities.

The Congress refused to accept the Cripps proposal. This resulted in the discontentment among the Indians. Under these circumstances the Congress decided to start its famous and last weapon to fight the British – the Quit India Movement

 

THE QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT***

On 14^th July 1940, Gandhiji along with the congressmen passed a long resolution which is known as Quit India Movement. This demanded that the British rule in India must end immediately on 4^th August 1942, the All India Congress Committee passed the resolution of Quit India and the very next day Gandhiji along with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad and the congress working committee members were arrested at Bombay. The news of this arrest was followed by non violence demonstrations all over India.

 

SUBASH CHANDRA BOSE

Was born at Calcutta in 1897. He qualified in the ICS exam with a brilliant record. He was the President of the Congress for two years. He was a dangerous revolutionary to the British government. In 1941, he disappeared from his home and reached Russia. His activities stopped in Germany. When he heard of the success of Japan he decided to go to Japan and carry out his revolutionary activities.

 

INDIAN NATIONAL ARMY (AZAD HIND FAUJ)

Ras Bihari Bose was another freedom fighter and he organized the INA. It was established on the first of September 1942 and it adopted 3 principles – unity, faith and sacrifice. He surrendered his power and position to S. C. Bose. The INA occupies an important place in the history of the Indian struggle for freedom. They proved their bravery against the British

 

INDIAN INDEPENDENCE

After the war, Mr. Atlee the leader of the labor party became Prime Minister of England and raised the hopes of the Indians. In 1946, a parliamentary delegate came to India to discuss with the Indian leaders of different political parties about the British desire for framing the Indian constitution. It was in favor of independence of India at the earliest.

 

CABINET MISSION

The British government appointed the Cabinet Mission to study the problem. Its members were Lord Pathetic Lawrence, Sir Stafford Cripps and A. V. F. Alexander. It made the following proposals:

-          There should be union of India encompassing both British India and the states which should deal with foreign affairs, defense and communication with finances.

-          Provinces were to form groups and the provinces in each group were to decide what subject were to take up in common.

-          A constituent assembly should be set up to draw up the future constitution of the country.

-          A provincial government consisting of representatives of the main political parties were to be set up in the country

-          When the election for the constitutional assembly were held the congress won more seats as a result of this the Muslim league rejected the recommendations and they wanted a separate state of Pakistan.

Lord Mountbatten was sent as a viceroy and governor general at that time. the situation in India was very critical. He held a meeting with the congress and Muslim leaders and announced his plan on 3^rd June. This plan is popularly known as June 3^rd plan.

 

DECLARATION OF JUNE 3^RD PLAN

-          India was to be partitioned

-          They had to decide whether the inhabitants of the North-West Frontier would join India or Pakistan

-          The people of Assam where a majority were Muslims had to decide whether to join India or Pakistan

-          The legislative assembly of Bengal and Punjab were to decide whether their provinces should or should not be patronized.

-          The people of the modern states would be given a chance to express their view about which country they wanted to join i.e. India or Pakistan

-          Power was to be transferred by 15^th August 1946.

 

INDEPENDENCE OF INDIA ACT 1947

The following are the main aims of the act:

-          On 15^th August 1947, India would be a free country and the power of the British government has to come to an end.

-          Two dominions established – India and Pakistan

-          The legislative of India and Pakistan would be empowered to pass any law.

-          The Constituent Assembly of both India and Pakistan would be free to decide their dominion and would remain within the British Common Wealth of Nations or out of it.

 

SALIENT FEATURES OF THE CONSTITUTION ***

The Indian Constitution is unique and it has provided freedom of equality and fraternity to the country. Its main features are as follows:

-          Our country adopted democracy. It is a government of people, by people and for the people.

-          The constitution gave the parliament a Supreme power to make amendments in the constitution

-          It provided a federal form of government and the power as divided between the state and the central government.

-          There is only one constitution of the entire country and all the people of India are the citizens of the country.

-          At the time of emergency, the president is given the power to interfere in the working of the nation.

-          According to the new constitution, elections are not held on communal basis. This has made India strong because of unity.

-          All the amendments in the constitution are made through the parliament. If the amendment is accepted it is passed by a majority vote of the members present. As soon as the president approves it, it is brought into force.

-          Social inequality is done away with by giving equal rights to men and women.

-          The constitution has made provision for adult franchises.

-          The government has given a number of rights such as right to freedom of speech and property.

-          India is a secular state and people of every religion can follow their religion

-          It has independent judiciary system and the judges are free to impart the right justice. The Indian constitution is not rigid.

-          It is flexible and can be rechanged

-          Our constitution has made a provision of being the member of the British Common Wealth. India is an independent country free to formulate the external and internal policies.

 

FILL IN THE BLANKS

Simon Commission consisted of 7 members

For drafting the future Indian constitution Motilal Nehru was the chairman

Dandi March was started from Sabarmati Ashram

There was economic Depression in 1929 in USA

Ras Bihari Bose was the chairman of the Azad Hind Fauj

Gandhiji’s resolution of non cooperation was accepted by the Congress in 1920

The Ali Brothers started the Khilafat Movement

The home rule movement was started by Annie Besant

The oath to achieve Purna Swaraj was taken on 26^th Jan 1930

Dyarchy was introduced by the act of 1919

In the year 1926 the Swaraj Party saw its downfall

General O’ Dyer opened fire at Jallianwala Bagh

The first Round Table Conference was held in the year 1930

Japan attacked the American Fleet at Pearl Harbor

Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad started the Quit India Movement

Lord Mountbatten came as the last viceroy of India in 1947

Rowlatt act was a Black Act for the Indians

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the president of the Indian National Congress during the Lahore Session of 1929

Gandhiji believed that Swadeshi was the solution to the poverty of the Indian people

Gandhiji’s spinning wheel and charka symbolize his commitment to Swadeshi

Gandhiji’s first successful experiment in satyagraha was in Champaran district of Bihar.

In 1928 Chandra Shekar Azad along with some revolutionaries formed the Hindustan Socialist Republic

The Pathans under the leadership of Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan organized the Khuda Khitmadgar Society.

During the Quit India Movement the slogan was Karenge ya Marenge

The Azad Hind Fauj place the slogan Delhi Chalo or Jai Hind

Sardar Vallabhai Patel persuaded most of the Indians to join the Indian union

Mahatma Gandhi was born on 2^nd October 1869

Gandhiji started the non cooperation movement in the year 1920

Sardar Vallabhai Patel was the leader of the Bardoli Satyagraha

Gandhi Irwin Pact was signed in the year 1931

Jawaharlal Nehru was the first prime minister of india

Dr Rajendra Prasad was the president of the Indian constituent Assembly.

 

MATCH

Montague – secretary of the state of India

Rowlatt act – Law

Jallianwala Baugh – Amritsar

Swaraj Party – Motilal Nehru

Lahore Conspiracy Case – Rajguru

Dandi March – Gandhiji

Khudai Khidmadgar – Red Shirts

NAME

The Montague Chemlsford Reforms were popularly known as – Monford Reforms

Original name of Gandhiji – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

First Constitutional Report – Motilal Nehru’s Report

Muslim leader who demanded separate state of Pakistan – Mohd. Ali Jinnah

Labor party Prime Minister who sent the Cabinet Mission to India in 1946 – Mr. Atlee

Frontier Gandhi – Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan

Year of Quit India Movement - 1942