Bipin Chandra Timeline Flashcards
ETN —Evolution of Two nation theory ? How did it happen ? 1887
1887- viceroy differin, and governor Colin against congress.
Syed Ahmed khan and raja shir Prasad of Binga rose against congress.
But few joined These included Badruddin Tyabji, Mir Musharraf Hussain, A. Bhimji and Hamid Ali Khan.
ETN-what happened in 1906?
- Agha khan led a Muslim declaration to them viceroy minto for separate electorates and minto assured them..
The All India Muslim League was founded by the Agha Khan, Nawab Salimullah of Dacca, Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk and Nawab Waqar-ul-Mulk to preach loyalty to British government and to keep Muslims away from Congress.
ETN- 1909?
Separate elections granted through minto Morley act 1909.
And as a reaction Punjab Hund Sabha was founded by U.N Mukherji and Lalchand
ETN-? From the period of 1912-1924 ?
First session of All India Hindu Mahasabha was held under the aegis of the Maharaja of Kasim Bazar.
1912-24: During this period, the Muslim League was dominated by younger Muslim nationalists, but their nationalism was inspired by a communal view of political questions.
1916: The Congress accepted the Muslim League demand of separate electorates and the Congress and the League presented joint demands to the government. But the Congress and the League came together as separate political entities and the Congress gave political legitimacy to the existence of the Muslim League.
1920-22: Muslims participated in the Rowlatt and Khilafat Non-Cooperation agitations but there was a communal element in the political outlook of the Muslims.
1920s: The shadow of communal riots loomed large over the country. The Arya Samajists started Shuddhi (purification) and Sangathan (organisation) movements. The Shuddhi movement was aimed at reconverting to Hinduism those who had converted to Islam. The Muslims started the Tabligh and Tanzeem movements in retaliation.
Some nationalists also turned communal. The Swarajists were divided along communal lines and many of the Responsivists among them joined the Hindu Mahasabha. The Ali brothers, after having put up a spectacular united front with the Congress, accused the Congress of protecting only Hindu interests.
The Congress failed to evolve a suitable strategy to counter the rise of communalism.
ENT- 1928?
As a reaction to Simon commission-
Motilal Nehru presented {Nehru report }and against it Jinnah proposed {14point} demanding separate electorates and reservation for Muslims in government service and self-governing bodies.
Mistakes made by negotiating with Muslim league by the congress-
It gave legitimacy to the politics of the League, thus giving recognition to the division of society into separate communities with separate interests.
- It undermined the role of secular, nationalist Muslims.
- Concessions to one community prompted other communities to demand similar concessions.
- Launching an all-out attack on communalism became difficult
ETN- 1930-1934?
Some Muslim groups, such as the Jamaat- i-ulema-i-Hind, State of Kashmir and Khudai Khidmatgars participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement but overall the participation of Muslims was nowhere near the level of the Khilafat agitation. While the Congress stayed away from two of the three round table conferences held in London to discuss further constitutional reforms, the communalists attended all three of them.
1932: The Communal Award accepted all Muslim communal demands contained in the 14 points.
ETN- what change we saw after 1937 elections ?
After the Muslim League performed badly in the 1937 provincial elections, it decided to resort to extreme communalism. There began a tendency to project the Muslims, not as a minority but as a separate nation (in the early 1930s this idea of a separate Muslim nation was proposed by a young Muslim intellectual Rahmat Ali and later developed further by the poet Iqbal). From now onwards, communalism was organised as a mass movement with its base among middle and upper classes. Vicious propaganda was launched against the Congress by Z.A. Suleri, F.M. Durrani, Fazl-ul-Haq, etc. Extreme communalism was based on fear, hatred and violence of word and deed.
Till 1937 there had been liberal communalism, centred around safeguards and reservations. It was communal while upholding certain liberal, democratic, humanistic and nationalistic values and the notion that these diverse communities could be welded together into one nation in one national interest.
The extreme communalism of Muslims found its echo in the militant communal nationalism of Hindus represented by organisations such as the Hindu Mahasabha and RSS and in the thoughts of leaders like Golwalkar. There were several reasons for the advent of extreme communalism.
1. With increasing radicalisation, the reactionary elements searched for a social base through channels of communalism.
2. The colonial administration had exhausted all other means to divide nationalists.
3. Earlier failures to challenge communal tendencies had emboldened the communal forces.
1937-39: Jinnah blocked all avenues for conciliation by forwarding the impossible demand that the Congress should declare itself a Hindu organisation and recognise the Muslim League as the sole representative of the Indian Muslims.
ETN💁🏻 ? 1940 Pakistan resolution ? And what happened during Second World War?
The ‘Pakistan Resolution’ was passed at the Lahore session of the Muslim League calling for “grouping of all geographically contiguous Muslim majority areas (mainly north-western and eastern India) into independent states in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign, and adequate safeguards to Muslims in other areas where they are in a minority”.
During Second World War The British India Government gave a virtual veto to the League on political settlement. The League made full use of this privilege and stuck to its demand of a separate Pakistan throughout the negotiations under the August Offer, Cripps’ proposals, Shimla Conference and Cabinet Mission Plan. Finally, it got what it had aspired for—an independent Pakistan comprising Muslim majority areas of Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan, North- West Frontier Province and Bengal in 1947.
Communal reactions by communal outlook of organisations from 1909?
Then came organisations to promote a communal outlook. The Punjab Hindu Sabha, founded in 1909 by U.N. Mukherjee and Lal Chand, opposed the Congress for trying to unite Indians of all colours into a single nation. They argued that Hindus should side with the colonial government in their fight against Muslims. The All-India Hindu Mahasabha held its first session in April 1915 with the Maharaja of Kasim Bazar as president. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was established in 1925. However, Hindu communalism was not a strong force for a long time as the modern secular intelligentsia and middle class among Hindus wielded a greater influence. This was not the case with the Muslims; the Muslim communal elements – landlords, traditional religious leaders and bureaucrats – exercised a lot of influence on the Muslims. The one-upmanship of different versions of communal tendencies was a factor which deterred any effective counter- offensive against communalism.
Syed Ahmed khan against the congress ?
The government used persons like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan to counter the growing influence of the Congress. Syed Ahmed Khan had a broadminded and reformist outlook initially but later he started supporting the colonial government, exhorting the Muslim masses to stay away from the Congress and not to get politicised. He also started talking of separate interests of Hindus and Muslims.
The educated Muslims found few opportunities in business or the professions; they inevitably looked for government employment. The British officials and the loyalist Muslim leaders incited the educated Muslims against the educated Hindus. Syed Ahmad Khan and others demanded special treatment for the Muslims in the matter of government service, on the one hand, and on the other told the Muslims that if the educated Muslims remained loyal to the British, the latter would reward them with government jobs and other special favours. The same arguments were used by some loyalist Hindus and Parsis with regard to their people, but they were in a small minority.
As a result of the underdevelopment due to colonial policies, there was a lack of industrial development; hence, unemployment was an acute problem in India, especially for the educated,
Characteristics of Indian Communalism ?
Communalism (more accurately ‘sectarianism’) is basically an ideology, which gives more importance to one’s own ethnic/religious group rather than to the wider society as a whole, evolved through three broad stages in India. (i) Communal Nationalism: the notion that since a group or a section of people belong to a particular religious community, their secular interests are the same, i.e., even those matters which have got nothing to do with religion affect all of them equally. (ii) Liberal Communalism: the notion that since two religious communities have different religious interests, they have different interests in the secular sphere also (i.e., in economic, political and cultural spheres). (iii) Extreme Communalism: the notion that not only do different religious communities have different interests, but also that these interests are incompatible, i.e., two communities cannot co-exist because the interests of one community come into conflict with those of the other. There is nothing unique about Indian communalism. It was the result of the conditions which have, in other societies, produced similar phenomena and ideologies such as Fascism, anti-Semitism, racism, the Catholic-Protestant conflict in Northern Ireland and the Christian-Muslim conflict in Lebanon. Bypassing basic economic interests, the communalists claim to protect interests which do not necessarily exist. Communalism is a modern phenomenon—rooted in the modern social, economic and political colonial structure— that emerged out of modern politics based on mass mobilisation and popular participation. Modern politics made it necessary for people to have wider links and loyalties and to form establish identities. This process involved the spread of modern ideas of nation, class and cultural-linguistic identity. In India, religious consciousness was transformed into communal consciousness in some parts of the country and among some sections of the people. Its social roots lay in the rising middle classes who propagated imaginary communal interests to further their own economic interests—communalism was a bourgeois question par excellence, according to the Left.
14minjsters of Interim Givernment ? Sep2 ,1946-Aug15,1947 ?
- Jawaharlal Nehru: Vice President of Executive Council, External Affairs and Common Wealth Relations 2. Vallabhbhai Patel: Home, Information and
Broadcasting - Baldev Singh: Defence
- Dr. John Mathai: Industries and Supplies
- C. Rajagopalachari: Education
- C.H. Bhabha: Works, Mines and Power
- Rajendra Prasad: Agriculture and Food
- Jagjivan Ram: Labour
- Asaf Ali: Railway
- Liaquat Ali Khan (Muslim League): Finance
- Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar (Muslim League):
Commerce - Abdur Rab Nishtar (Muslim League): Communi-
cations - Ghazanfar Ali Khan (Muslim League): Health 14. Jogendra Nath Mandal (Muslim League): Law
What’s the thinking of cabinet mission plan ?
The Congress demanded that power be transferred to one centre and that minorities’ demands be worked out in a framework ranging from autonomy to Muslim-majority provinces to self-determination or secession from the Indian Union—but, only after the British left.
The British bid for a united and friendly India and an active partner in defence of the Commonwealth, because a divided India would lack in defence and would be a blot on Britain’s diplomacy.
The British policy in 1946 clearly reflected a preference for a united India, in sharp contrast to earlier declarations. On March 15, 1946, the Prime Minister of Britain, Clement Attlee said: “…though mindful of the rights of minorities… cannot allow a minority to place their veto on advance of the majority.” This was a far cry from the Shimla Conference where Wavell had allowed Jinnah to wreck the conference.
Why cabinet missioncame up with its own plan in may1946?
The Cabinet Mission reached Delhi on March 24, 1946. It had prolonged discussions with Indian leaders of all parties and groups on the issues of
(i) interim government; and
(ii)principles and procedures for framing a new
constitution giving freedom to India.
As the Congress and the League could not come to any agreement on the fundamental issue of the unity or partition of India, the mission put forward its own plan for the solution
of the constitutional problem in May 1946
What are the main points of cabinet mission plan ?
Rejection of the demand for a full-fledged Pakistan, because
the Pakistan so formed would include a large non- Muslim population—38 per cent in the North-West and 48 per cent in the North-East;
(ii) the very principle of communal self-determination would claim separation of Hindu-majority western Bengal and Sikh- and Hindu-dominated Ambala and Jullundur divisions of Punjab (already some Sikh leaders were demanding a separate state if the country was partitioned);
(iii) deep-seated regional ties would be disturbed if Bengal and Punjab were partitioned;
(iv) partition would entail economic and administrative problems, for instance, the problem of communication between the western and eastern parts of Pakistan; and
(v) the division of the armed forces would be dangerous. ● Grouping of existing provincial assemblies into three
sections:
Section-A: Madras, Bombay, Central Provinces, United
Provinces, Bihar and Orissa (Hindu-majority provinces) Section-B: Punjab, North-West Frontier Province and
Sindh (Muslim-majority provinces)
Section-C: Bengal and Assam (Muslim-majority
provinces).
● Three-tier executive and legislature at provincial,
section and union levels.
● A constituent assembly was to be elected by provincial
assemblies by proportional representation (voting in three groups—General, Muslims, Sikhs). This constituent assembly would be a 389-member body with provincial assemblies sending 292, chief commissioner’s provinces sending 4, and princely states sending 93 members.
(This was a good, democratic method not based on weightage.)
● In the constituent assembly, members from groups A, B and C were to sit separately to decide the constitution.
for provinces and if possible, for the groups also. Then, the whole constituent assembly (all three sections A, B and C combined) would sit together to formulate the union constitution.
● A common centre would control defence, communication and external affairs. A federal structure was envisaged for India.
● Communal questions in the central legislature were to be decided by a simple majority of both communities present and voting.
● Provinces were to have full autonomy and residual powers.
● Princely states were no longer to be under paramountcy of the British government. They would be free to enter into an arrangement with successor governments or the British government.
● After the first general elections, a province was to be free to come out of a group and after 10 years, a province was to be free to call for a reconsideration of the group or the union constitution.
● Meanwhile, an interim government was to be formed from the constituent assembly.
Different Interpretations of the Grouping
Clause
Each party or group looked at the plan from its own point of view.
Congress: To the Congress, the Cabinet Mission Plan was against the creation of Pakistan since grouping was optional; one constituent assembly was envisaged; and the League no longer had a veto.
Muslim League: The Muslim League believed Pakistan to be implied in compulsory grouping. (The Mission later clarified that the grouping was compulsory.)
