EMERGENCE OF GANDHI

Question 1

Main features of the Montagu- Chelmsford Reforms and Goverment of India Act, 1919 in Provincial Government’s Executive?

Answer 1

• Executive
  1. Introduction of Dyarchy, i.e., rule of two executive councillors and popular ministers- was introduced. The governor was to be the executive head in the province.
  2. Subjects were divided into two lists: ‘reserved’ which included subjects such as law and order, finance, land revenue, irigation, etc.”, and ‘transferred’ subjects such as education, health, local goverment, industry, agriculture, excise, etc. The reserved subjects were to be administered by the governor through his executive council of bureaucrats and the transferred subjects were to be administered by ministers nominated from among the elected members of the legislative council.
  3. The ministers were to be responsible to the legislature and had to resign if a no-confidence motion was passed against them by the legislature, while the executive councillors were not to be responsible to the legislature.
  4. In case of failure of constitutional machinery in the province the govenor could take over the administration of transferred subjects also.
  5. The secretary of state for India and the goveror-general could interfere in respect of reserved subjects while in respect of the transferred subjects, the scope for their interference was restricted.

Question 2

Main features of the Montagu- Chelmsford Reforms and Goverment of India Act, 1919 in Provincial Government’s legislature?

Answer 2

1. Provincial legislative councils were further expanded and 70 per cent of the members were to be elected.
2. The system of communal and class electorates was further consolidated.
3. Women were also given the right to vote.
4. The legislative councils could initiate legislation but the governor’s assent was required. The governor general could veto bills and issue ordinances.
5. The legislative councils could reject the budget but the govenor could restore it, if necessary.
6. The legislators enjoyed freedom of speech.

Question 3

Main features of the Montagu- Chelmsford Reforms and Goverment of India Act, 1919 in Central Goverment’s Executive?

Answer 3

• Central Government–Still Without Responsible Government.
  No responsible government was envisaged in the Act for the government at the all-India level.
  The main points were:
  Executive
  1. The governor-general was to be the chief executive authority.
  2. There were to be two lists for administration central and provincial.
  3. In the viceroy’s executive council of eight, three were to be Indians.
  4. The governor-general retained full control over the reserved subjects in the provinces.
  5. The governor-general could restore cuts in grants, certify bills rejected by the central legislature and issue ordinances.

Question 4

Main features of the Montagu- Chelmsford Reforms and Goverment of India Act, 1919 in Central Government’s legislature?

Answer 4

1. A bicameral arrangement was introduced. The lower house or Central Legislative Assembly would consist of 145 members (41 nominated and 104 elected 52 General, 30 Muslims, 2 Sikhs, 20 Special) and the upper house or Council of State would have 60 members, of which 26 were to be nominated and 34 elected-20 General, 10 Muslims, 3 Europeans and 1 Sikh (as per the figures given by Subhash Kashyap).
2. The Council of State had a tenure of 5 years and had only male members, while the Central Legislative Assembly had a tenure of 3 years.
3. The legislators could ask questions and supplementaries, pass adjournment motions and vote a part of the budget, but 75 per cent of the budget was still not votable.
   Some Indians found their way into important committees including finance.
   On the home government (in Britain) front, the Government of India Act, 1919 made an important change the Secretary of State for India was henceforth to be paid out of the British exchequer.

Question 5

Congress reaction to the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms?

Answer 5

The Congress met in a special session in August 1918 at Bombay under Hasan Imam’s presidency and declared the reforms to be disappointing and unsatisfactory and demanded effective self government instead.

Question 6

The Montford reforms were termed “unworthy and disappointing— a sunless dawn” by ______ even as Annie Besant found them “unworthy of England to offer and India to accept”.

Answer 6

Tilak.

Question 7

Who was in favour of accepting the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms?

Answer 7

Surendranath Banerjee (Moderate).

Question 8

Natal Indian Congress was set up by?

Answer 8

Mahatama Gandhi.

Question 9

Newspaper Indian Opinion was started by?

Answer 9

Mahatama Gandhi.

Question 10

Phase of Passive Resistance or Satyagraha (named by Gandhi) (1906-1914)?

Answer 10

1. Satyagraha against Registration Certificates (1906).
2. Campaign against Restrictions on Indian Migration.
3. Campaign against Poll Tax and Invalidation of Indian Marriages– A poll tax of three pounds was imposed on all ex-indentured Indians. Then a Supreme Court order which invalidated all marriages not conducted according to Christian rites and registered by the registrar of marriages drew the anger of the Indians and others who were not Christians. The Indians treated this judgement as an insult to the honour of women and many women were drawn into the movement because of this industry.
4. Protest against Transnaval Immigration Act– In India, Gokhale toured the whole country mobilising public opinion in support of the Indians in South Africa. Even the Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, condemned the repression and called for an imperial enquiry.
5. Compromise Solution– Eventually, through a series of negotiations involving Gandhi, Lord Hardinge, C.F. Andrews and General Smuts, an agreement was reached by which the Government of South Africa conceded the major Indian demands relating to the poll tax, the registration certificates and marriages solemnised according to Indian rites, and promised to treat the issue of Indian immigration in a sympathetic manner.

Question 11

Gandhi was convinced about the limitations of moderate politics and was also not in favour of Home Rule agitation.
True/false?

Answer 11

True.

Question 12

Champaran Satyagraha?

Answer 12

• 1917, First Civil Disobedience.
• Gandhi was requested by Rajkumar Shukla, to look into the problems of the farmers in context of indigo planters of Champaran in Bihar.
• The European planters had been forcing the peasants to grow indigo on 3/20 part of the total land (called tinkathia system).
• When towards the end of the nineteenth century German synthetic dyes replaced indigo, the European planters demanded high rents and illegal dues from the peasants in order to maximize their profits before the peasants could shift to other crops. Besides, the peasants were forced to sell the produce at prices fixed by the Europeans.
• When Gandhi, joined now by Rajendra Prasad, Mazhar-ul-haq, Mahadeo Desai, Narhari Parekh, and J.B. Kriplani, reached Champaran, the authorities ordered them to leave the area.
• As a compromise with the planters, he agreed that only 25 per cent of the money taken should be compensated.

Question 13

Leaders associated with Champaran Satyagraha apart from Gandhi?

Answer 13

1. Rajendra Prasad
2. Mazhar-ul-haq
3. Mahadeo Desai
4. Narhari Parekh
5. J.B. Kriplani
6. Brajkishore Prasad
7. Anugrah Narayan Sinha
8. Ramnavmi Prasad
9. Shambhusharan Varma

Question 14

Ahmedabad Mill Strike?

Answer 14

• 1918, First Hunger Strike
• In March 2018, Gandhi intervened in a dispute between cotton mill owners of Ahmedabad and the workers over the issue of discontinuation of the Plague bonus.
• The mill owners wanted to withdraw the bonus. The workers were demanding a rise of 50 percent in their wages so that they could manage in the times of wartime inflation.
• The mill owners were ready to give about 20 percent wage hike.
• The workers of the mill turned to Anusuya Sarabhai for help in fighting the justice. Anusuya Sarabhai was a social worker who was also the sister of Ambalal Sarabhai, one of the mill owners and the president of the Ahmedabad Mill Owners Association (founded in 1891 to develop the textile industry in Ahmedabad), for help in fighting for justice. Anusuya Behn went to Gandhi, who was respected by the mill owners and workers, and asked him to intervene.
• Though Gandhi was a friend of Ambalal, he took up the workers’ cause.
• It was Anusuya Behn who went on later to form the Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association in 1920.
• Gandhi asked the workers to go on a strike and demanded a 35 percent increase in the wages instead of 50 percent.
• When negotiations with mill owners did not progress, he himself undertook a fast unto death (his first) to strengthen the workers’ resolve. In the end, the tribunal awarded the workers a 35 percent wage hike.

Question 15

Kheda Satyagraha?

Answer 15

• In 1918, First Non Cooperation
• Because of drought in 1918, the crops failed in Kheda district less than one fourth the normal produce, the farmers were entitled to remission.
• Gandhi asked the farmers not to pay taxes.
• Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and a group of other devoted Gandhians, namely, Narahari Parekh, Mohanlal Pandya and Ravi Shankar Vyas, who went around the villages, organised the villagers and told them what to do and gave the necessary political leadership.
• Patel along with his colleagues organised the tax revolt which the different ethnic and caste communities of Kheda supported.
• Even when, on non payment of taxes, the goverment seized the farmers personal property.
• Those Indians who sought to buy the confiscated lands were socially ostracised.
• Ultimately, the goverment sought to bring about an agreement with the farmers. It agreed to suspend the tax for the year in question, and for the next; reduce the increase in rate; and return all the confiscated property.

Question 16

Rowlatt Act was an extension to which Act?

Answer 16

Rowlatt Act was an extension to the Defense of India Regulations Act 1915—was passed in March 1919. It was what was officially called the Anarchial and Revolutionary Crimes Act, but popularly known as the Rowlatt Act.

Question 17

What was the Rowlatt Act?

Answer 17

• Activists should be deported or imprisoned without trial for two years, and that even possession of seditious newspapers would be adequate evidence of guilt.
• A special cell consisting of three high court judges was to try such suspects and there was no court of appeal above the panel.
• This panel could even accept evidence not acceptable under the Indian Evidences Act.
• The law of habeas corpus, the basis of civil liberty, was sought to be suspended.
• The object of the government was to replace the repressive provisions of the wartime Defence of India Act (1915) by a permanent law. So the wartime restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly were re-imposed in India.

Question 18

What was the response of the Imperial Legislative Council to the Rowlatt Act?

Answer 18

All the elected Indian members of the Imperial Legislative Council voted against the bill but they were in a minority and easily overruled by the official nominees.

Question 19

Who resigned after the Rowlatt Act?

Answer 19

Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Madan Mohan Malaviya and Mazhar Ul Haq– resigned in protest.

Question 20

Satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act?

Answer 20

• First Mass Strike
• Gandhi called the Rowlatt Act the “Black Act”.
• Gandhi called for a mass protest at all India level. But soon, having seen the constitutional protest meet with ruthless repression, Gandhi organised a Satyagraha Sabha and roped in younger members of Home Rule Leagues and the Pan Islamists.
• Satyagraha was to be launched on April 6, 1919.

Question 21

Which two leaders were arrested just before Jallianwala Bagh Massacre?

Answer 21

On April 9 two nationalist leaders, Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr Satyapal, were arrested by the British officials without any provocation except that they had addressed protest meetings, and taken to some unknown destination. This caused resentment among the Indian protestors who came out in thousands, on April 10 to show their solidarity with their leaders. Soon the protests turned violent because the police resorted to firing in which some of the protestors were killed.

Question 22

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre?

Answer 22

• Troops were sent immediately to quell the disturbances Brigadier General Reginald Dyer was the senior British officer with the responsibility to impose martial law and restore order. By then the city had returned to calm and the protests that were being held were peaceful. Dyer, however issued a proclamation on April 13 (which was also Baisakhi), forbidding people from leaving the city without a pass and from organising demonstrations or processions, or assembling in groups of more than three.
• On Baisakhi day, a large crowd of people mostly from neighbouring villages, unaware of the prohibitory orders in the city, gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh, a popular place for public events, to celebrate the Baisakhi festival.
• There were political protestors, but the majority were those who had collected for the festival. Meanwhile, the meeting had gone on peacefully, and two resolutions, one for calling for the repeal of the Rowlatt Act and the other condemning the firing on April 10, had been passed.
• It is precisely known that 1650 bullets were fired until the crowd.
• Martial law was proclaimed in the Punjab.

Question 23

Who renounced his knighthood in protest against Jallianwala Bagh?

Answer 23

Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood in protest.
Gandhi gave up the title of Kaiser-i-Hind, bestowed by the British for his work during the Boer War. Gandhi was overwhelmed by the atmosphere of total violence and withdrew the movement on April 18, 1919.

Question 24

Who killed Dwyer?

Answer 24

Udham Singh, who bore the name, Ram Mohammed Singh Azad, later assassinated Michael O’Dwyer, the Lieutenant-Governor who presided over the brutal British suppression of the 1919 protests in Punjab. Udham Singh was hanged in 1940 for his deed.

Question 25

Disorders Inquiry Committee was formed for the purpose of?

Answer 25

• The secretary of state for India, Edwin Monatgu, ordered that a committee of inquiry be formed to investigate the matter (Jallianwala Bagh). So, on October 14, 1919, the Government of India announced the formation of the Disorders Inquiry Committee, which came to be known as the Hunter Committee/Commission.
• The purpose of the commission was to “investigate the recent disturbances in Bombay, Delhi and Punjab, about their causes, and the measures taken to cope with them.

Question 26

Who were the Indian members in the Hunter Committee?

Answer 26

1. Sir Chimanlal Harilal Setalvad, Vice Chancellor of Bombay University and advocate of the Bombay High Court.
2. Pandit Jagat Narayan, lawyer and Member of the Legislative Council of the United Provinces.
3. Sardar Sahibzada Sultan Ahmad Khan, lawyer from Gwalior state.

Question 27

What was the decision of the Hunter Committee?

Answer 27

The Hunter Committee did not impose any penal or disciplinary action because Dyer’s actions were condoned by various superiors (later upheld by the Army Council).
He was recalled to England. No legal action was taken against him; he drew half part and recieved his army pension.

Question 28

What was the Indemnity Act?

Answer 28

Before the Hunter Committee began its proceedings, the government had passed an Indemnity Act for the protection of its officers. The “white washing bill” as the Indemnity Act was called, was severely criticized by Motilal Nehru and others.
To confer indemnity in respect to acts done or committed under martial law & to confirm the sentences of military courts.

Question 29

What led to the launch of Gurudwara Reform Movement?

Answer 29

The clergy of the Golden Temple, led by Arur Singh, honoured Dyer by declaring him a Sikh.
This resulted in the launch of what came to be known as the Gurudwara Reform Movement.

Question 30

What was the Congress view about the Jallianwala Bagh?

Answer 30

The Indian National Congress appointed its own non-official committee that included Motilal Nehru, C.R. Das, Abbad Tyabji, M.R. Jayankar and Gandhi. The Congress put forward its own view. This view criticized Dyer’s act as inhuman and also said that there was no justification in the introduction of the martial law in Punjab.