Unit 8 (22-25) Flashcards
PYQ Themes
1.committee related
ex.Radcliffe -> purpose?
ex. Chairman of the Union Constitution
Committee
2.recommendations of mission/commission/ pact / plan / formula
ex.cabinet mission
ex.cripps mission ->proposals ; congress negotiator
ex.cripps mission -> British PM that sent it
ex.which was last opportunity to avoid the
partition
ex.gandhi’s alternative to partition
ex.Leaders in favour of cabinet mission
ex.province giving plan for
united and independent existence
ex.important aspect of the Cripps Mission
ex.which suggested reconstitution of the Viceroy Executive Council -> all portfolios to indians
ex.a pamphlet entitled “The Way Out” by c.rajagopalachari
ex.True or false -> congress rejected cripps proposal
- about particular movement
ex. Quit india -> why launched? participants ? imp descriptions
ex. quit india -> non-violent? who led? gandhi asked government servant to?
ex. whose slogan ‘‘Do or die’’
ex. Indian National Army - estd? - positions held by gandhi
ex. @ independence,gandhi was - reason of major moves
ex. congress agreed to partition becoz - chronology
ex. Tilak homerule ; kamagatamaru ; gandhi arrival
ex. august offer ; INA trial ; quit india ; indian naval revolt - Personalities
ex. usha mehta involved in
ex. Aruna asaf ali - Interim government / interim cabinet
ex. who got which portfolio ->Liyakat khan
ex. head of interim cabinet - Approach of english ruler
ex. Mountbatten : when he came to India
1.Congress Crisis on Method of Struggle
a)Haripura and Tripuri Sessions: Subhash
Bose’s Views
1.Intro
-Gandhi “Congress should first put its
house in order before the movement” -> problems were corruption,indescipline, internal rivalaries
- On motilal nehru report,1929
- youth,subhash bose -> did not agree -> wanted complete independence
-bose against suspension of CDM ; Gandhi-irwin pact -> due to bhagat singh death sentence
3.Haripura
Bose talked of -> economic development, planning commission
- 2nd election 1939,bose wins -> internal strife
- gandhi not happy with candidature -> favoured pattabhi sitaramaiyya -> ‘his defeat is my defeat’ - 1939 session- Tripuri
- president appoints working body -> bose criticized members ->members resigned
- he was in favour of giving a six-month ultimatum to Britain to grant the national demand of independence -> if not granted -> mass civil disobedience ; Gandhi ‘‘as neither the Congress nor the masses were yet ready for struggle’’
- bose misjudged support he got in election -> socialists,communists not ready for division in congress ; wanted gandhi -> bose resigned
- bose launched party ‘‘forward bloc’’ in congress -> called for protest against Congress committee resolution -> removed from congress posts
- Tripuri session ‘‘medical mission sent to china’’
- Gandhi and Bose: Ideological Differences
a) Non-Violence versus Militant Approach
1.Intro
-both considered socialism to be the
way forward in India
2.Non-violence & militant
Gandhi : non-violence -> masses can be involved ; violence is a weapon which created more problems than it solved, and left behind hatred
Bose : Gandhi’s non-violence would be inadequate for securing India’s independence
b)Means and Ends
1.Bose
-had his eyes on ends -> partenered with nazi’s ; japan -> association dictated by
revolutionary strategy and not by ideological kinship
- Gandhi
- means & ends should be equally good
c)Form of Government
1.Bose
-had faith in democracy initially
-in later years -> formative years of india should be authoritarian -> then democracy
-Declared himself supreme commander of INA -> Wanted to continue it in free india
-Wanted samyavada i.e.the justice, the
equality, the love, from Socialism, efficiency and the discipline of Fascism.
-supported empowerment of women, secularism and other liberal ideas
-Marxist ideas -> should be modified b4 applying
-Leftist : because an anti-imperialist & believed in complete independence
- Gandhi
- wanted ramrajya -> did not need a representative government, a constitution, an army or a police force
- be modelled on the India of the past.
- pre-modern, morally-enlightened and apolitical
- stress of self-governance
- increased state power -> ends individuality
- representative democracy could not provide people with justice
- believed in decentralisation of political as well as economic power
- wanted self-sufficient village governed by panchyat(5 people -> elected annually)
- In Gandhi’s view, democracy would not be possible without high morality
d)Militarism
- Bose
- attracted to military descipline - Gandhi
- wanted ramrajya based on truth and nonviolence and self-regulation would be a perfect place and would not require either police or grandiose armies.
-agreed that military was required for self-defence.
e)Ideas on Economy
- Bose
- industrial development is imp -> will solve unemployement
-talks of planning commission ; abolition
of landlordism and liquidation of agricultural indebtedness
- amazed by russian progress -> wanted socialist industrialization -> will improve standard of living
- classified industry into three categories: heavy, medium, and cottage
2.Gandhi
-rejected capitalism and Western
socialism -> both increase craving for luxury and self-indulgence.
-wanted people to get rid of greed & live with bare necessities
- developed the idea of village Sarvodaya
- hated cycle of money economy
- wanted agriculture to prospure & decentralised industries through small scale co-operative
-wanted the railways, telegraphs,
hospitals, lawyers, doctors, and other modern trappings to be discarded.
- was against largescale industrialisation -> says it will be taking jobs of manpower
- capitalist amassing wealth are thiefs; anyone inheriting or earning money should redistribute it in society
- theory of trusteeship under which he wanted the capitalists to be trustees.
f)Religion
- Gandhi
- God is conscience. He is even the atheism of the atheist
- there is no higher way of worshipping God than serving the poor and identifying God in them.
- considered different religions to be merely the different paths towards the same destination
- all religions are based on the same principles, namely, truth and love.
- his religion were at the base of his idea of state too
- Bose
- Believed in Upanishadic teachings , bhagvad gita ,inspired by vivekanand
- Hindu spirituality formed the essential part of his political and social thought -> was free of bigotry or orthodoxy.
- was not a sectarian -> INA had all religions-> commen kitchen
- Secularist with impartial attitude to all religions.
- Religion is a private matter, the State has nothing to do with it.
g)Caste and Untouchability
- Gandhi
- wanted to eradicate untouchability
-supported the varna system - > laws of caste
were eternal, and were the base for social harmony -> imagined village with four-fold divisions with every member of society doing his or her own duty -> i.e. system of reciprocity
2.Bose
-wanted to bring an end to the traditional social
hierarchy
- imagined an egalitarian, casteless and classless society
- in favour of inter-caste marriages
h)Women
1.Gandhi
-instrumental in bringing women out of their
homes to take part in the struggle.
-wanted all social evils to vanish
-in the matter of the roles of men and women, Gandhi would be regarded as patriarchal and traditional by present standards.
-the vocations of the two
must also be different. Her duty of motherhood.
-He is the bread winner, she is the keeper and the distributor of the bread
-their dharma to take care of the home
-Takes Sita as ideal woman
2.Bose
-the equals of men, and thus they should be
prepared to fight and sacrifice
-women should be trained to take a larger and more intelligent interest in public affairs
-insisted on need of
separate planning commission for women
-invited women to serve in INA
I)Education
1.Gandhi
-against english system -> wanted vernacular medium
-compulsory (7-14 yrs)
-should include physical training and high moral principles along with
intellectual and cognitive
-should ultimately place the seeker on the spiritual path
-should be a means to enlightenment
-wanted the Hindu scriptures to be a part of education
-conceived his Nai Talim ->would lead
to freedom from ignorance, illiteracy, superstition, psyche of servitude,purposeful manual labour, Handicrafts, art and drawing
-emphsised on vocational training
- Bose
- was for higher education, especially in the technical and scientific fields
- Students should be sent abroad,will come back & benefit country
- Second World War and Nationalistic Response
a) Congress Offer to Viceroy
- Intro
- British declared India’s support without consulting indians - Congress offer-> will support if
- constituent assembly after war
- responsible government immediately @ centre
-viceroy Linlithgow rejected it
b)CWC Meeting at Wardha
- Gandhi
- advocated an unconditional support to the Allied powers (britain, france) against Axis powers (germany,italy) -> stating allied are democratic ; axis are totalitarian - Subhas Bose and other socialists
- no sympathy for both -> Launch CDM now - Jawahar
- justice is on britain’s side
- but no participation in war till india itself is free
- no advantage was to be taken of Britain’s difficulty -> don’t launch CDM
-Gandhi isolated -> went with jawahar’s plan
- CWC Resolution
- India not party to war
- britain says it’s fighting for democracy -> free india first
- declare your war aims
- Government Attitude and Congress Ministries’ Resignation
a) Government’s Hidden Agenda
1.Government response to CWC
-Refused to define war aims
-for future arrangement, consult “representatives of several communities’’ -> tried to use leaggue & princes against congress
-will set up a “consultative
committee
2.Government’s Hidden Agenda
-to take advantage of the war to regain the lost ground from the Congress” by provoking the
Congress into a confrontation with the government and then
using the extraordinary situation to acquire draconian powers
- passed ordinances thus restricting civil liberties.
- knew It could also win an unusual amount of liberal and leftist sympathy all over the world by painting an aggressive Congress as being pro-Japan and pro-Germany.
- reactionary policies supported by churchill -> PM
- Congress ministries decision
- resigned in provinces
- decided not to support war - Gandhi on immediate mass satyagraha -> shouldn’t do now bcoz
- allied powers have right cause
- hindu-muslim unity lacking
- congress organisations in shambles
- masses not ready - CWC Meeting allahabad,1939
- Congress cannot associate itself with british & war - Ramgarh session ,1940
- India wants full independence
- Civil disobedience will be launched @ right time - Pakistan Resolution—Lahore (March 1940)
- by muslim league
- August Offer
a) Responses
- Why government offered?
- hitler’s sucess -> british needed india’s cooperation
- congress asked to allow interim government -> not agreed - August offer (by linlithgow)
- dominion status objective
- viceroy council indian majority
- constituent assembly after war
- no constitution without minority consent - Responses
- Nehru : can’t accept dominion status
- League : welcomed veto provision
b)Evaluation
1.demand for constituent assembly accepted first time
2.viceroy’s council expanded 8/12 indians -> british controlled defence,
finance and home
6.Individual Satyagraha
- why?
- British ‘‘no constitutional advance before congress & muslim leaders has agreement’’
2.ordinances -> against free speech ; gagged press
- Aims of launching
- (i) show that nationalist patience was not due to weakness;
(ii) to express people’s feeling that they were not interested in the war
(iii) give time to government to accept demand peacefully - if not arrested -> move into villages and start a march towards Delhi -> the ‘Delhi Chalo Movement’
- Vinoba - 1st satygrahi ; nehru - 2nd
- by may 1941, 25,000 people convicted
7.Gandhi Designates Nehru as his Successor
1.December 1941 offer of Congress Working Committee
-why?
Leaders except nehru & gandhi scared of japanese invasion
-offered cooperation in defence of india if (a)full independence after war
(b)enough power transferred immediately
- Why nehru
- most reliably reflected the pluralist, inclusive idea of India that the Mahatma himself stood for
-Patel,rajaji,Azad etc had somewhat sectional interests & affiliations
- Cripps Mission
a) Why Cripps Mission was Sent
b) Main Proposals
c) Departures from the Past and Implications
d) Why Cripps Mission Failed
1.when?
March 1942
- Who was cripps?
- left wing labourite
- supportive of indian struggle - Why?
- british losses in south-east asia
- possible japanese invasion
- pressure from allies for indian co-operation
- Indian nationalists offer of december 1941 - Main proposals
(a) An Indian Union with a dominion status -> decide relation with commenwealth ; UN
(b) end of war -> constituent assembly ->members elected by the provincial assemblies & prince nominated
(c) british will accept new constitution only if -(1)provinces not willing to join can have separate constitution and form a separate Union
(2)new constitutionmaking
body and the British government would negotiate a treaty to effect the transfer of power and to safeguard racial and religious minorities
(d)meantime,british will control indian defence ; governor-general’s powers remain same.
5.Departure from past & implications
● constitution making solely in Indian hands now (and not ‘mainly’ in Indian hands—as contained in the August Offer).
● concrete plan for constituent assembly.
● Option to any province to have a separate constitution—a blueprint for India’s partition.
● Free India could withdraw from the Commonwealth.
● Indians were allowed a large share in the administration in the interim period.
- Why failed
- turned out to be merely a propaganda device for the consumption of the US and the Chinese
- Congress objections
(a) offered dominion instead of full independence
(b) princely states represented by nominees and not by elected representatives
(c) right to provinces to secede
(d) no plan for immediate transfer of power
(e) no share in defence
(f) continued governor-general’s supremacy ; demand that the governor-general be only the constitutional head had not been accepted
-Nehru and Maulana Azad were the official negotiators
for congress
- Muslim league objections
(a) criticised the idea of a single Indian Union;
(b) did not like the machinery for the creation of a constituent assembly and the procedure to decide on the accession of provinces to the Union;
(c) thought that the proposals denied the Muslims the right to self-determination and the creation of Pakistan.
-Hindu mahasabha : criticized right to secede
-sikhs : objected that
partition would take away Punjab from them
- Cripps : rigid-> take it or leave it attitude
- decision on secession was to be taken by a resolution in the legislature by 60% majority. If less than 60 per cent of members supported it, the decision was to be taken by a plebiscite of adult males of that province by a simple majority -> against the Hindus in Punjab and Bengal
- Churchill(PM) ; Linlithgow (viceroy) -> torpedoed cripps efforts
- Quit India Movement
a) Why Start a Struggle Now
- failure of cripps to solve constituional deadlock exposed Britain’s unchanged attitude on constitutional advance
- discontent over prices ,shortages ; if japanese invasion -> british might used scorched earth (destroying own assets so that enemy can’t use i.e. water,food)
- british reverses in in South- East Asia ; possible japanese invasion made belief in british stability very less.
4.British evacuated from
South-East Asia leaving the subjects to their fate ; racist approach to those subjects
5.to condition the masses for a possible Japanese invasion.
b)The ‘Quit India’ Resolution
- Proposed by Nehru & seconded by Patel
- was ratified at Gowalia Tank, Bombay, on August 8, 1942
- other decisions
(a) immediate end to British rule
(b) provisional Government after british withdrawal
(c) CDM against british
c)Gandhi’s General Instructions to
Different Sections
● Government servants: not resign ;allegiance to Congress.
● Soldiers: Dont leave ; don’t fire on compatriots
● Students: confident-> leave studies.
● Peasants: zamindars (anti-government)->then only pay rent
● Princes: Support the masses and accept people’s sovereignty
● Princely states’ people: Support anti-government ruler ; declare being part of
the Indian nation.
-Gave slogan : do or die
d)Spread of the Movement
- tempo built through individual civil disobedience
- resolution accepted 8 august 1942 -> top leaders arrested 9 august ; congress committee declared unlawful ; public meeting unlawful
- Public on Rampage
(a) attacked bridges,railways,telegraph
(b) students ->processions ; distributing pamphlet ; courier service
-Underground Activity
(a) by Rammanohar
Lohia, Jayaprakash Narayan, Aruna Asaf Ali, Usha Mehta, Biju Patnaik
(b) Usha Mehta -> underground radio-> Bombay.
- Parallel government
(a) Ballia ->chittu pandey
(b) Tamluk (Midnapore) -> jatiya sarkar
(c) Satara -> prati sarkar ->Y.B. Chavan, Nana Patil - help by businessman
- police(government officials) helped,gave secret info
e)Extent of Mass Participation
- Youth ; school ,college women ; workers striked
- Peasants -> mainstay -> attacked symbols of authority
- Government officials : especially lower level officers
- Muslims : gave shelter ; no communal clashes
- Communists boycotted -> nazi attacked russia -> hence supported allied power
- League,hindu mahasabha,princely state -> boycott
- upper class ; bureaucracy -> british loyal
- general Loyalty to government suffered
f)Government Repression
- lathi charge,tear gas,fired -> killed 10,000
- gagged press
g)Estimate
-no leaders -> violence
-centres -> eastern
United Provinces, Bihar, Midnapore, Maharashtra, Karnataka
h)Gandhi Fasts
- when?
- feb 1943 - why?
- condemned violence by government - Effects?
- public morale increased
- exposed police brutality
-March 23, 1943 Pakistan Day was observed
10.Famine of 1943
- where?
- south-west Bengal
