Third Phase of National Movement (1917-47) - Gandhian Era

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2nd October 1869 at Porbandar in Kathiawar in Gujarat.

Gandhi went to South Africa in 1893 as lawyer of Dada Abdullah & Co.. In 1893, he founded "Indian National Organization and started a magazine called "Indian Opinion". Gandhi planned to return after hearing of the case, in the evening before return he raised the issue of bill excluding Indians of the right to vote. The Indians settled in South Africa requested him to prolong his return by one month and provide leadership of the movement against the bill. Gandhi decided to stay and was there for 20 years.

In 1906, Gandhi started Disobedience movement  which was known as Satyagrah movement, thus he launched first Satyagrah movement in South Africa.

Gandhi established Tolstoy firm and Phoenix firm, Tolstoy latter became Gandhi Ashram. Ratan Tata, Muslim League, Congress and Nizam of Hyderabad provided economic support to Gandhi Ashram.

On 1st Jan 1915, he was awarded with Kesar-i- Hind gold medal for supporting England in First World war.

Gandhi returned to India in 1915. He made Gopal krishna Gokhale as his political mentor. He  met Rabindra Nath Tagore at the end of 1915 in Golpur, West Bengal,  here Tagore called Gandhi as Mahatma and Gandhi callled Tagore as Gurudev.

In 1916, Gandhi founded Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad.
Gandhi did not take part in Home Rule Movement.
Between 1917 and 1918, Gandhi took part in three main events : Champaran Satyagrah, Ahmedabad Movement and Khera Satyagrah. Gandhi had  three other main objectives along with the struggle for freedom : Hindu Muslim unity, untouchability abolition and improving social conditions of women.

Lucknow Pact (1916)

The split of Congress at Surat session continued till 1916. Tilak and Besant made efforts to reunite Moderates and Extremists into the congress. Ambika Charan Majumdar presided over the congress session of Lucknow in 1916. This session was important for two reasons :

(1). The Extremists rejoined Congress.

(2). Congress and Muslim League formed a pact.

At the Lucknow session Congress and Muslim League signed a pact to cooperate each other  on the basis of common programme in political field, which is known as Congress-League Pact.

Tilak and Besant played leading role in Congress-League pact. This pact was opposed by Madan Mohan Malviya because Congress accepted the demand of 'separate electoral college' by Muslim League. It was a great achievement for Muslim League.

With the discontinuation of Non Cooperation movement in 1922, the Lucknow pact ended.

After the Surat split, Congress once again divided due to disagreement over the Montague declaration. The liberals under S. N. Bannerjee welcomed Montague declaration whereas Nationalist opposed it. At Surat session, liberals had expelled extremist from Congress but this time liberals left Congress to support government.

In 1918, the Liberals founded National Liberal League under the leadership of S N Bannerjee and it latter came to be known as National Liberal federation. Its other members were : Srinivas Sashtri, Tej Bahadur Sapru and Bipin Chandra Pal. Liberals referred Montague Chelmsford reform as Magna Carta of India.

Home Rule Movement (1914)

On 16th June 1914, Tilak was released from Mandaley prison after 6 years.

Annie Besant joined Congress in 1914. She came to India in 1893 to work for Theosophical society (was established in 1875, in India it was opened in 1886 at Adiyar (Madras)), it worked for the reform of Hinduism, Buddhism and Parsi).

In 1914, Besant decided to launch Home Rule Movement on the basis of Home Rule League of Ireland. She thought that the permission of Congress & Extremist support was necessary for Home Rule Movement, so she started convincing Moderate leaders to re-include Bal Gangadhar Tilak and his Extremist supporters in the Congress.

Firuz Shah Mehta opposed entry of extremist into Congress in the Congress session of 1914. After the Congress session of  1914, Tilak and Besant decided to launch Home Rule Movement on their own. The Home Rule Movement was inaugurated  on 2nd January 1915 with the publication of a weekly magazine 'Commonwill'. The objective of this movement was to obtain self rule under the British rule in constitutional way.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak founded Indian Home Rule League on 28th April 1916 in Belgaon province session. Annie Besant founded Home Rule Movement in September 1916, Madras. The region of Home Rule League of Tilak was Karnataka, Maharashtra (not Bombay), Central Provinces and Berar. Besant's Home Rule League operated in remaining part of India.
Largest number of offices of Home Rule League was in Madras. Tilak used "Maratha" and "Kesari" newspaper to propogate Home Rule League and Annie Besant used "Commonwill" and "New India". By March 1917, membership of Tilak's League reached 14000 whereas Besant's League had 7000 members. On 23rd July 1916, a team of advocate led by Jinnah fought the case of so called notice to Tilak. The leading people joining Besant's Home Rule League were Jawahar Lal Nehru, B. Chackravorty and J. Bannerjee.
In 1917, government fearing the growing popularity of Home Rule League, arrested Annie Besant. Subramaniyam rejected Knighthood in protest of arrest of Annie Besant.
As a result of Montague declaration, on 20th August 1917, Annie Besant declared abolition of Home Rule Luague. In September 1917, Besant was released from prison. In December 1917, Besant was elected as the President of Congress on the proposal of Tilak.

Delhi Darbar (1911)

In the beginning of December in 1911, British king George -V and queen Mary visited India, he was the first British ruler to visit India. On 12th December 1911, a grand coronation ceremony was organised in Delhi. The main declaration of Lord Harding on behalf of the Emperor at Delhi Darbar were:

1). Transfer of capital from Calcutta to Delhi.

2). Partition of Bengal was cancelled.

3). Orissa and Bihar became states.

4). A Province was formed by joining all Bengali speaking.

Immediately after the Delhi darbar, George V led the foundation stone of new capital. Transfer of  capital from Calcutta to Delhi took place in 1912. The real reason for shifting the capital was political, to reduce  the importance of Calcutta; the focal point of movement against partition of Bengal.

Carlyle Circular (22 October 1905)

Thomas Carlyle

When the Indian youth started opposing the western education against partition of Bengal, then the chief secretary of Bengal, Carlyle issued a declaration known as Carlyle circulation, on 22 october 1905.

According to the circular - "If any college violates the government order and the student quits the educational institution then no assistance will be provided by the government to the institute." It was termed the declaration of slavery.

The National College of Bengal was established  on the lines of Tagore's Shantinekatan and its first principal was Aurobindo Ghosh. At this time Bengal Technical College was established and National Education Council was constituted on 15th August 1906.

Indian Society of Oriental Arts was founded in 1906.
According to S.N. Bannerjee "The Swadeshi Movement was not only an economic or political movement but was an omnipresent movement closely associated with our entire national life".
According to Mahatma Gandhi "The real revival of India started with the partition of Bengal".
Acharya P.C. Rai founded "Bengal Chemical Store / Swadeshi Factory"

Swadeshi Movement

To oppose the partition of Bengal, it was decided to promote Swadeshi and boycott British goods. On 7th August, it was decided to boycott British goods at Townhall, Calcutta (now Kolkata). On 28th September 1905, this resolution of boycott was repeated at Kalighat temple.

Some prominent leaders who led Swadeshi movement at different places in India were :

Bal Gangadhar Tilak -- Poona and Bombay,

Ajit Singh and Lal Lajpat -- Punjab and Uttar Pradesh

Syed Haider Raja -- Delhi

Chitambaram Pillai -- Madras.

An important aspect of Swadeshi movement was self dependance. "What we could not achieve in last 50 years, I have achieved in last 6 months. The partition of Bengal has took us here. The shameful event like division of Bengal gave birth to Swadeshi and great national movement."--S. Adul Rasheed (chairman of Barisal conference in 1906).

The Benares session of congress under the chairmanship of Gokhale in 1905 supported the Swadeshi and boycott of partition of Bengal.

The Extremists like Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal and Aurobindo Ghosh wanted to distribute this movement in the whole country, they were not satisfied with only Swadeshi and Boycott movement, they wanted to give it a political form. Now the aim was Swaraj but Moderates were not ready for it.

The most important organization in mobilizing the public opinion in favor of Swadeshi movement was 'Swades Bandhav Samiti' under the leadership of Aswani Kumar Dutta.