National Movements

The Indian National Congress:

• Formed in 1885 by A.O.Hume, an Englishman and a retired civil servant.His main political view to start INC is to play a safe game against educated Indians.

• First session in Bombay under W.C.Banerjee in 1885 (72 delegates attended it).

• In the first two decades (1885 – 1905), INC is quite moderate in its approach and confided in British justice and generosity.

• But British authoritarian leadership gave rise to extremists within Congress like Bipin Chandra Pal, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai (Lal, Bal, Pal).

Partition of Bengal:

• By Lord Curzon on Oct 16, 1905, through a royal Proclamation, spilt the Bengal  into East Bengal, Assam and West Bengal.
•  Main objective was to set up a communal riots between Hindus and Muslims.
•  With this, National Uprising took throughout the country against the partition of Bengal.
•   The ceremony of Raksha Bandhan was observed on October 16, 1905. Hindus and Muslims tied rakhis on each other’s 
• The newspapers played a significant role in the movement. The main newspapers were K.K. Mitra’s Sanjeevani,   S.N. Banerjee’s Bengali, Motilal Ghosh’s Amrit Bazar Patrika, B.B. Upadhyaya’s Yugantar, Bipin ChandraPal’s   New India, Aurobindo Ghosh’s Bande Mataram, Aji Singh’s Bharat Mata,

Swadeshi Movement (1905):

• Lal, Bal, Pal, and Aurobindo Ghosh played the important role.
• INC took the Swadeshi call first at the Banaras Session, 1905 presided over by G.K.Gokhale.
• Burnt the foreign goods at various places. Main importance of this movement is-self reliance

Formation of Muslim League (1906):

• Setup in 1906 under the leadership of Aga Khan, Nawab Salimullah of Dhaka and Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk.
• Supported the partition of Bengal, opposed the Swadeshi movement, demanded special safeguards to its community and a separate electorate for Muslims.

Demand for Swaraj:

•  In Dec 1906 at Calcutta, the INC under Dadabhai Naoroji adopted ‘Swaraj’ (Self-govt) as the goal of Indian people.

Surat Session of Indian National Congress (1907):

• The INC split into two groups – The extremists and The moderates, at the Surat session in 1907.
• Extremists were led by Bal, Pal, Lal while the moderates by G.K.Gokhale.
•  Extremists didnt accept the Ras Bihari Gosh as the INC president,but they want Lal as the President.

Indian Councils Act or Minto Morley Reforms (1909):

• A separate electorate for Muslims started.
• The Legislative Councils were expanded.
• Members were allowed to present Resolutions, discuss Budget and put
  up questions
• The Viceroy’s Council’s membership was fixed at sixty members.
• The  membership of the provinces of  Bengal, U.P., Bihar, Bombay, Madras and Orissa  was  fixed  at  50  members  whereas  the  membership  of  the  provinces  of Punjab, Burma, and Assam was fixed at 30 members.
• The  Indian  were  included  in  the  Executive  Council  of  the  Viceroy  and  in  the provincial Executive Councils.
•  The  local  bodies,  trade  unions  and  universities  were  allowed  to  elect  their members.
•  Lt. Governors were appointed  in Bengal, Bombay and Madras. 

•  Govt making friendly relations with Moderates and the Muslims and suppressed the Extemists.

This  Reforms  gave  impetus  to  the  constitutional  development  in India and gave political awareness among Indians.It also gave strength to the Two -Nation Theory.

Ghadar Party (1913):

•  Formed by Lala Hardayal, Taraknath Das and Sohan Singh Bhakna.
•  HQ was at San Francisco.
• Ghadar was a name of Weekly news paper,started on Nov 1st  1913
• Due to outbreak of First World War Ghadarites thinking that it was an oppurtunity to free India from despotic Govt.

Komagata Maru Incident 1914 :

• Komagata Maru was the name of a ship which carrieda shipload of Sikh and Muslim immigrants from Punjab to Vancouver, Canada.
• But the Canadian immigration authorities turned them back after two months of uncertainty because of  Asian Exclusion Act of Canada Govt.They are not allowing Asians into their territory
• The ship finally anchored at Calcutta on September29, 1914.
• British Govt thinking that there are Ghadarites leaders in the ship,to spread the revolution activities in the India.22 people lost their lives clash with the British Police.