Chapter 3
Communal Factors in Indian Politics (1885-1919)
Communalism means a sense of belongingness to one community based on their religion and not on the basis of culture and geographical background.
Once there existed in India a powerful unifying element which brought various castes, sects and communities together. But the gradual rise of nationalists indirectly helped the growth of communalism in Indian Society in the 19th century.
Factors contributing to the rise of Communalism:
1. Socio-Economic Factors:
2. Indifferent to English Education:
3. Impact of Wahabi and Faraizi Movement:
4. 19th Century Revivalism:
5. Role of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan:
6. Role of Communal Organizations:
7. The British Policy of Divide and Rule:
1.Socio-Economic Factors:
ü The coming of British in India has changed the fate and the economic condition of the Indian Muslim’s
ü The Muslims actually controlled the administrative of Bengal.
ü The army was manned by the Muslims and Persian was the official language for a long time.
ü But after the grant of Dewani in 1765, the Muslims lost their position in Bengal and English became the official language and their power and wealth came under the influence of British.
ü Muslims became Anti-British in character.
ü They took part in the revolt of 1857 in the hope of restoring their power and wealth.
ü The collapse of revolt worsened their conditions.
ü Hindus were dominating the government post in Bengal, therefore, the Muslims were cut off from the main stream of Indian Life.
2.Indifference to English Education:
ü When British introduce western education in India, the Hindus were the first to take advantage of the education and on other hand due to orthodoxy; the Muslim did not take advantage of the English education as they considered English Education as Un-Islamic.
ü Because of English, Hindus were given employment in government where as Muslims were not.
ü Hindu outstripped the Muslims in every walk of life.
ü The educational backwardness of Muslim resulted in inferior economic position.
3.Impact of Wahabi and Faraizi Movement:
ü The Muslims started the anti- British movement known as Wahabi Movement and they wanted to convert India into dar-ul-Islam(the land of Muslim rile)
ü The movement was also against the hindu zamindars because most of the landlords were hindus.
ü The Faraizi movement wanted to protect the Muslim peasants against the Hindu Zamindars and European Indigo planters and thus, creating a conflict between the two societies in India.
4.19th Century Revivalism:
ü In the 19th century, Tilak has revived the Hindu history by saying that Hindus were great and started celebrating Ganapati festival.
ü Muslims were angry and started glorifying the India’s past history by saying that Muslims used to rule India in the past
ü Muslims always took pride of the history of the Arabs by saying that they were the descendants of Arabs
5.Role of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan:
Ø He was progressive nationalist in the beginning. He started his activities without any communal bias. His reforms were based on the needs of modern education and secure official patronage for the Muslims. He founded the Aligarh College to impart modern education. He also preached the idea of communal harmony between Hindus and Muslims. But however, his idea was changed totally after the formation congress in 1885.
For the interest of Muslims, he didn’t cooperate with congress as it was a Hindu body. He also started a counter organization called United Indian Patriotic Association in 1888 with the help of Raja Shiv Prasad of Benaras. Syed Ahmed Khan, instigated by Theodore Beck, the Principal of Aligarh College laid the foundation of certain basic themes of communalism. He was also convinced that, success of Congress meant Muslim suppression and any system of election meant power into the hands of the Hindus. The three main communal themes of Syed Ahmed Khan were;
Opposition to nationalist forces Opposition to the democratic process and institutions and Loyalty to the British government Inspired by the ideas of Theodore Beck, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan established Anglo Oriental Defense Association in 1893 to promote loyalty towards the British government and to prevent the Muslims from participating in any political movement.
This way, a progressive nationalist became the main guiding factor in preaching the idea of communalism in social, economic and political life of India.
6.Role of communal organization
ü The following organization have further destroyed the relation between Hindus and Muslims
a. All India Muslim league in 1906
b. All India Muslim Mahasabha in 1915
ü Both the organizations opposed eachother and their political activities created a gap between the Hindus and Muslims, thereby promoting the sense of communalism.
7.The British Policy of Divide and Rule:
ü British followed a policy of divide and rule because the unity between the Hindus and muslins was a great danger to the British government in India
ü Partition of Bengal was the best example where Hindus and Muslims were separated not only physically but also mentally
ü Moreover, British followed different policies to encourage and nurture communalism through the following policies:
a. British government treated Hindus, Muslims and Sikh as separate communities
b. Official favor and patronage were given to communalists
c. The communal press, persons and agitations were tolerated
d. Communal demands were accepted
e. Accepted the communal organizations
f. Communal leaders were rewarded with titles, high salaries and other benefit
The Role of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and the Aligarh School in Muslim politics:
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan came from an aristocratic well-to-do Muslim family of Delhi. He believed that unless Muslims remained loyal to the British rule and accept western education, they would remain a backward community. He thus urged the Muslims to react positively to western education and modern scientific knowledge.
He wrote a book against the criticism made by the British regarding the Muslims mutiny involved in the Indian revolt of 1857. He was responsible for instigating the Muslim community to remain loyal and to accept the western education and science. He founded the Muhammedan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh in1875 for imparting English education to the Muslims. He also founded the Muhammedan Educational Conference in 1886, to preach the Aligarh ideas all over the country. His ideas and views changed after the foundation of the Congress and came up with various communal ideals;
The Muslims should keep away from the Congress. His opinion was that the Congress body was a Hindu and therefore, opposed the Muslims. Started a counter organization in 1888 known as United Indian Patriotic Association which mainly consisted of three main ideas. Theodore Beck was the real architect of Muslim separatism through following ideas
· He made use of Gazette for preaching his ideas
· Discouraged parliamentary system of government
· Disfavoured competitive examinations and disallowed proportionate representation of different communities for the interests of the Muslims.
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan established Anglo-Oriental Defence Association in 1893 to prevent Muslim from joining into the Congress.Impacts of the World War I on the Indian Politics (1914-1918)
ü During First World War, Indians remained loyal and supported the British to fight their enemy.
ü Tilak and Gandhiji raised money for British through village tours.
ü Tilak tried to settle the Moderate and Extremist problems.
ü Moderate expressed their willingness to accommodate the Aggressive in the Congress.
ü During the Lucknow Session, the Annie Besant united moderate and aggressive.
ü Muslim League also changed its attitude because Turkey fought against England and British in India refused to help Turkey. Mohamed Ali and Shaukat Ali (Ali Brothers) started the Khilafat Movement against the British.
ü Ali Brothers were arrested and Khilafat Movement failed so Muslim leaders felt the necessity of cooperation with the Congress. Therefore, in 1916, both the body at Lucknow Session came together.
ü At Lucknow Session they signed Lucknow Pact of 1916.
ü The important features of Lucknow Pact was:
a) Accepted the separate electorate by the Congress.
b) League accepted the Congress idea of Swaraj.
c) They accepted United National Demand.
d) League accepted Swadeshi Movement’s methods.
ü It thus became a headache to the Government.
ü Indian remain loyal and cooperative with British during World War I because they expected British to accept their demand of self government (Swaraj).
ü British was reluctant and this increased the frustration and they felt the necessity of mass movement.
ü So Home Rule Movement started under the leadership of Annie Besant and Tilak.
ü Annie Besant was arrested and many political leaders protested against it. Gandhi described her arrest as a “Big Blunder”.
ü She was released later.
“Ghadar Party:
ü While Home Rule League was busy in India, Ghadar Party challenged the British in North America.
ü It was founded in May 1913.
ü Members were from the Punjab immigrants who had settled at North America.
ü The Party had its own paper called Ghadar (Revolt).
ü On its headline, the caption was: “ An enemy of British Rule” and “ An Expose of British Rule”.
ü The Ghadar paper was circulated in North America, Philippines, Hongkong, China, Maly, Singapore, etc.
ü The Ghadar Party decided to overthrow British rule in India by armed revolt, therefore, the Ghadar Party under Lala Har Dayal sent Indian immigrants to help Indian army.
ü They also sent huge amount of money which was collected among themselves.
ü Their first attempt of revolt in November 1914 failed because they didn’t have proper organization and centralized leadership.
ü The leaders and the members of the Ghadar Party were arrested. 42 were sentenced for death and 200 to long term imprisonment.
Achievements of Ghadar Party:
1) Popularized Nationalist Idealoty.
2) Popularized Bande Mataram.
3) They were free from communal bias because they accepted non-Punjabis as their leaders.
4) The Ghadar Idealotgy was very much democratic.
Bengal Revolutionary:
ü HRL (Home Rule Movement) in Bengal attempted armed revolution against the British Government under Jatin Mukherjee.
ü Bengal groups disrupted railways, Fort William in Calcutta and they landed German Arms.
ü Their Three Aspects were:
1) Collection of arms from the Foreign Countries.
2) Formation of Brigade.
3) To invite Indian Army to join the revolt.
ü When Jatin reached Balasore to receive the arms, British police surrounded him and his friends.
ü He did not surrender and dies as a hero fighting British police.
ü The revolt failed due to lack of coordination and communications among the Indian leaders.
v LUCKNOW PACT (1916)
The Congress and the Muslim League were able to bridge their rift in 1916 and held their respective session at Lucknow. The main features of this pact were;
Both the parties adopted resolution for a joint scheme of reforms and came to an agreement regarding the method of election to the council and the distribution of seats. The Congress accepted separate electorate for the Muslims and fixed the number of seats both in Provincial and Imperial Legislative Councils. Muslim League accepted the Ideas of Swaraj and agreed to the press the joint scheme of the government as a united national demand.
SIGNIFICANCE OF LUCKNOW PACT
It established the unity between Hindus and Muslims. It became a MILE STONE in the history of Hindu-Muslim Unity The British Bureaucracy view the unity with anxiety the rising tide of Nationalism Both the communities demanded for constitutional reforms and self government for India.
CRITICISM ON LUCKNOW PACT
By accepting separate electorate for Muslims, the Congress paved the future communal tension. Compromisation between the two demanded more sacrifice on the part of the Hindu, because the Muslims gained all the points which were persistently demanded by them The settlement made between two communities may not be necessarily regarded as the Unity as it was the settlement between the leaders and not the common people. The masses of both the communities were not involved. The Lucknow pact became redundant because government of India Act 1919 granted much more to the Muslims than the Lucknow Pact.
v HOME RULE LEAGUE. (1916)
When the First World War broke out in 1914, the Indians in general remained loyal and cooperative expecting that the British government would accept their demand of Swaraj-self-government. The Congress had become inactive under the leadership of the Moderates. In this situation, Home Rule Movement was started under the leadership of Annie Besant and Tilak. The two leagues demarcated their area of operation. Tilak’s League started work in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Central Province and Berar while Annie Besant’s in the rest of India.
SIGNIFICANCE OF HOME RULE LEAGUE
This movement made rapid progress and created great public enthusiasm during the war. As a result, the World War had caused much economic hardship and the country was thus conducive to the growth of political discontent. The government took a strong measure against this movement. Annie Besant was arrested in June 1917 but had to release her in September 1917 because of protests by various leaders.
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