Chapter 2: Nationalism in India

History · CBSE Class 10 · India and the Contemporary World-II

📖 Chapter 2: Nationalism in India (CBSE Class 10 History — India and the Contemporary World-II). How Indian nationalism grew with the anti-colonial movement from the 1920s — the Non-Cooperation, Civil Disobedience and Khilafat movements, how different social groups understood swaraj, and how a sense of collective belonging was forged.

🎯 Core idea: In India, as in other colonies, modern nationalism grew intimately with the anti-colonial movement. The shared sense of oppression bound many groups together, but each class experienced colonialism differently — so unity came with conflict. Congress under Gandhiji tried to hold these groups in one movement.

1. The First World War, Khilafat and Non-Cooperation

Effects of WWI: huge rise in defence spending financed by war loans and taxes (customs duties up, income tax introduced); prices doubled between 1913-1918 → hardship; forced recruitment in villages caused anger; crops failed (1918-19, 1920-21) + an influenza epidemic → per the 1921 census, 12-13 million died.

The Idea of Satyagraha

Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa in January 1915. Satyagraha = the power of truth and non-violence; if the cause is true and the struggle is against injustice, physical force is unnecessary — win by appealing to the conscience of the oppressor. Early successes: Champaran (1917) — indigo peasants; Ahmedabad (1918) — cotton mill workers; Kheda (1918) — peasants hit by crop failure seeking revenue relief.

The Rowlatt Act (1919)

Passed despite united Indian opposition; gave the government power to repress political activities and detain prisoners without trial for two years. Gandhiji launched a nationwide satyagraha (hartal from 6 April). On 10 April police firing in Amritsar provoked attacks; martial law imposed under General Dyer.

🎯 Jallianwala Bagh (13 April 1919): Dyer blocked the exits of an enclosed ground (people gathered for the Baisakhi fair, many unaware of martial law) and opened fire, killing hundreds — to ‘produce a moral effect’ of terror. Brutal repression followed (crawling orders, floggings). Seeing violence spread, Gandhiji called off the movement.

Khilafat and the Decision for Non-Cooperation

To build a broad movement uniting Hindus and Muslims, Gandhiji took up the Khilafat issue (a harsh treaty threatened the Ottoman Khalifa). The Khilafat Committee (Bombay, March 1919) and leaders Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali joined him. At the Calcutta session (Sept 1920) he convinced Congress to start Non-Cooperation for Khilafat and swaraj; adopted at the Nagpur session (Dec 1920).

In Hind Swaraj (1909) Gandhiji argued British rule survived only through Indian cooperation — so non-cooperation would bring swaraj within a year. Stages: surrender of titles; boycott of civil services, army, police, courts, councils, schools and foreign goods; then full civil disobedience if repression came.

2. Differing Strands within the Movement (from Jan 1921)

All responded to the call of swaraj, but it meant different things to different groups.

(a) The Movement in the Towns

Middle-class start: students left schools/colleges, teachers and lawyers resigned; councils boycotted (except Madras, where the Justice Party entered). Economic impact dramatic — foreign goods boycotted, cloth burnt in bonfires; foreign cloth imports halved (Rs 102 cr → Rs 57 cr, 1921-22); Indian textile/handloom output rose. Slowdown: khadi was costlier than mill cloth; alternative Indian institutions were slow to come up, so students/lawyers drifted back.

(b) Rebellion in the Countryside

Awadh (Baba Ramchandra): peasants against talukdars' high rents and begar; demanded revenue reduction, abolition of begar, social boycott of oppressive landlords (nai-dhobi bandhs). Oudh Kisan Sabha set up with Jawaharlal Nehru. The movement turned violent (attacks on talukdars, looting) — which Congress disliked.
Gudem Hills, Andhra (Alluri Sitaram Raju): tribal/forest people revolted against forest-access restrictions and begar for road-building; a militant guerrilla movement — Raju invoked Gandhi but believed in force, not non-violence. Captured and executed 1924; became a folk hero.
Plantations (Assam): under the Inland Emigration Act 1859, workers couldn't leave tea gardens; hearing of Non-Cooperation, thousands left believing ‘Gandhi Raj’ was coming — caught and beaten after a railway/steamer strike stranded them.

3. Towards Civil Disobedience

Feb 1922 — Chauri Chaura: a peaceful demonstration turned violent; Gandhiji withdrew Non-Cooperation, feeling satyagrahis needed training. C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru formed the Swaraj Party (return to council politics); younger leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose pressed for full independence.

Two factors late 1920s: (1) the worldwide economic Depression — agricultural prices fell after 1930, peasants couldn't sell harvests or pay revenue; (2) the Simon Commission (1928) — had no Indian member, greeted with ‘Go back Simon’. Viceroy Irwin offered vague ‘dominion status’ (Oct 1929). At the Lahore Congress (Dec 1929), under Nehru's presidency, ‘Purna Swaraj’ (full independence) was adopted; 26 January 1930 celebrated as Independence Day.

The Salt March & Civil Disobedience

Gandhiji chose salt as a uniting symbol (consumed by all; the tax showed the ‘most oppressive face’ of British rule). He sent Viceroy Irwin eleven demands (31 Jan 1930) with the salt tax the most stirring. The Dandi march: 240 miles, Sabarmati to Dandi, 78 volunteers, 24 days; on 6 April 1930 he broke the salt law by making salt from seawater.

🎯 Non-Cooperation vs Civil Disobedience: now people were asked not only to refuse cooperation but to break colonial laws — make salt, boycott foreign cloth, refuse revenue and chaukidari taxes, break forest laws. ~100,000 arrested. Gandhi-Irwin Pact (5 March 1931): Gandhiji agreed to join the Second Round Table Conference; government to release prisoners. The London talks failed; the movement was relaunched but lost momentum by 1934.

How Participants Saw the Movement

Group	What swaraj meant
Rich peasants (Patidars of Gujarat, Jats of UP)	Fight against high revenue; disappointed when 1931 called off without revenue cut
Poor peasants (small tenants)	Wanted unpaid rent remitted ('no rent'); Congress reluctant → uncertain relationship
Business classes (FICCI 1927; Birla, Thakurdas)	Swaraj = end of colonial trade restrictions; funded movement but grew cautious after Round Table failure
Industrial workers	Largely stayed aloof (except Nagpur); some adopted boycott in their own wage struggles
Women	Large-scale participation — marches, salt, picketing, jail; yet mostly a symbolic role, Congress reluctant to give authority

The Limits of Civil Disobedience

Dalits ('untouchables'): Gandhiji called them harijan, ran satyagraha for temple/well access. But Dr B.R. Ambedkar (Depressed Classes Association, 1930) demanded separate electorates; clashed with Gandhiji at the 2nd Round Table Conference; Gandhiji's fast unto death led to the Poona Pact (Sept 1932) — reserved seats for Depressed Classes, voted by the general electorate.
Muslims: after Khilafat declined, many felt alienated; Congress seen as close to Hindu groups (Hindu Mahasabha). Talks over representation failed (1928 All Parties Conference). Muhammad Iqbal (1930) stressed separate electorates; an atmosphere of suspicion kept many Muslims away.

4. The Sense of Collective Belonging

Nationalism also grew through culture — history, fiction, folklore, songs, prints and symbols.

Bharat Mata: image evolved from Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's ‘Vande Mataram’ (1870s, in Anandamath) → painted by Abanindranath Tagore (1905) as a calm, divine, ascetic figure. Devotion to her became proof of nationalism.
Folklore revival: nationalists recorded folk tales/songs to recover an authentic national culture — Rabindranath Tagore (Bengal ballads), Natesa Sastri (Tamil folk tales).
Flags: Swadeshi tricolour (red, green, yellow — eight lotuses + crescent); by 1921 Gandhiji's Swaraj flag (red, green, white with a spinning wheel = self-help).
Reinterpreting history: against British claims of Indian backwardness, nationalists glorified India's ancient achievements and urged pride and struggle.

🎯 The problem: when the glorified past was Hindu and images were from Hindu iconography, people of other communities felt left out. So a nation of ‘many voices’ was emerging, wanting freedom — but with recurring phases of unity and inner conflict.

Quit India (1942): after the failure of the Cripps Mission and WWII, Gandhiji launched the Quit India Movement (‘Do or Die’); a mass movement with students, workers, peasants and leaders like Jayaprakash Narayan, Aruna Asaf Ali, Ram Manohar Lohia, and women such as Matangini Hazra, Kanaklata Barua and Rama Devi (Odisha).

📘 NCERT Textbook Exercise Answers

1Explain: (a) Why the growth of nationalism in the colonies is linked to an anti-colonial movement. (b) How the First World War helped the national movement in India. (c) Why Indians were outraged by the Rowlatt Act. (d) Why Gandhiji decided to withdraw the Non-Cooperation Movement.

(a) In colonies people discovered their unity through the common struggle against colonialism; the shared sense of oppression bound different groups together, so nationalism grew hand-in-hand with the anti-colonial movement. (b) WWI created economic hardship — huge defence spending financed by war loans and new taxes, prices doubled, forced recruitment angered villages, and famine plus the influenza epidemic killed 12-13 million — fuelling anti-British feeling. (c) The Rowlatt Act (1919) was passed despite united Indian opposition and gave the government power to detain political prisoners without trial for two years — denying basic rights. (d) After the Chauri Chaura (Feb 1922) incident turned violent, Gandhiji felt the movement was becoming violent and that satyagrahis needed proper training, so he withdrew it.

2What is meant by the idea of satyagraha?

Satyagraha is the method of mass agitation based on the power of truth and non-violence. It holds that if the cause is true and the struggle is against injustice, physical force is unnecessary to fight the oppressor. A satyagrahi wins not by vengeance or aggression but by appealing to the conscience of the oppressor, persuading him to see the truth. Gandhiji believed this dharma of non-violence could unite all Indians. It is active, not passive, resistance — a weapon of the strong, not the weak.

3Write a newspaper report on: (a) The Jallianwala Bagh massacre. (b) The Simon Commission.

(a) Jallianwala Bagh (13 April 1919): A large, peaceful crowd — some protesting repressive laws, many there for the Baisakhi fair and unaware of martial law — gathered in an enclosed ground in Amritsar. General Dyer blocked the only exits and opened fire without warning, killing hundreds, deliberately to ‘produce a moral effect’ of terror. The massacre shocked the nation and provoked protests across north India. (b) Simon Commission (1928): A statutory commission under Sir John Simon arrived to review India's constitution, but it had no Indian member. All parties — Congress and Muslim League — protested with the slogan ‘Go back Simon’. During one peaceful demonstration Lala Lajpat Rai was assaulted by police and later died of his injuries.

4Compare the images of Bharat Mata in this chapter with the image of Germania in Chapter 1.

Both are female allegories giving a concrete form to an abstract nation, and devotion to the figure signalled nationalism. Germania (German nation) wears a crown of oak leaves (heroism) and carries a sword and olive branch — emphasising strength, readiness to fight and willingness for peace. Bharat Mata (first imagined via Bankim's ‘Vande Mataram’, painted by Abanindranath Tagore, 1905) is shown as calm, composed, divine and ascetic, dispensing learning, food and clothing (later versions carry a trishul with a lion and elephant). Thus Germania stresses martial power while early Bharat Mata stresses spiritual, nurturing qualities.

5List the different social groups which joined the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1921. Choose any three and write about their hopes and struggles.

Groups: the urban middle class (students, teachers, lawyers, merchants), peasants, tribals/forest people, and plantation workers. Three: (i) Middle class in towns — left schools, colleges and legal practice and boycotted foreign goods, seeing swaraj as the end of British institutions. (ii) Peasants of Awadh (Baba Ramchandra) — fought talukdars' high rents and begar, demanding revenue reduction and abolition of begar; swaraj meant freedom from oppressive landlords. (iii) Tribals of the Gudem Hills (Alluri Sitaram Raju) — revolted against forest-access restrictions and forced begar; swaraj meant the restoration of their traditional rights over forests.

6Discuss the Salt March to make clear why it was an effective symbol of resistance against colonialism.

Salt was consumed by rich and poor alike and was an essential item, so the tax and government monopoly on salt touched every Indian and revealed the ‘most oppressive face’ of British rule. By choosing salt, Gandhiji made the protest universal — all classes could identify with it. The 240-mile march (Sabarmati to Dandi, 78 volunteers, 24 days) gathered thousands along the way and drew worldwide attention; breaking the salt law on 6 April 1930 began mass law-breaking across the country. Thus salt united the nation and turned a humble commodity into a powerful symbol of defiance.

7Imagine you are a woman participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement. Explain what the experience meant to your life.

For the first time I stepped out of the home into a public arena — I listened to Gandhiji during the salt march, joined protest marches, made salt, and picketed foreign-cloth and liquor shops, and many of us went to jail. I came to see service to the nation as a sacred duty, which gave me new confidence and dignity. Yet I also felt the limits: the Congress valued mainly our symbolic presence and was reluctant to give women positions of authority, and Gandhiji still believed our first duty was the home — so the new public role did not immediately change how women's position was seen.

8Why did political leaders differ sharply over the question of separate electorates?

Leaders differed because separate electorates touched the identity and security of minority communities. Dr Ambedkar demanded separate electorates for dalits to secure their political empowerment against upper-caste domination, while Gandhiji opposed them, fearing they would slow the integration of dalits into society — leading to his fast and the Poona Pact (1932) of reserved seats instead. Similarly, many Muslim leaders (e.g. Iqbal, Jinnah) wanted separate electorates or reserved seats to safeguard Muslims as a minority, fearing submergence under a Hindu majority — while others saw separate electorates as contrary to a united nationalism.

🔥 Extra Practice — Very Difficult / HOTS (competency-based, source & case-based, assertion-reason)

A. Source-/Case-Based Questions

1Source: Gandhiji wrote that satyagraha ‘is not passive resistance … it calls for intense activity … a satyagrahi does not inflict pain on the adversary … Satyagraha is pure soul-force.’ (i) Why does he call it ‘active’? (ii) How does a satyagrahi defeat the oppressor? (iii) Why did Gandhiji believe non-violence suited India?

(i) It is ‘active’ because it demands intense moral effort and courage — it is a weapon of the strong, not a passive giving-up. (ii) By appealing to the conscience of the oppressor — persuading him through truth and suffering (not force) to see and accept the truth. (iii) He argued India could never rival Britain in force of arms, so its strength lay in the mass ‘soul-force’ of non-violence, which could also unite all Indians.

2Case: When Non-Cooperation reached Awadh, peasants under Baba Ramchandra attacked talukdars' houses and looted bazaars; in the Gudem Hills, Alluri Sitaram Raju led armed guerrilla attacks on police stations. (i) What did swaraj mean to each group? (ii) Why was the Congress ‘unhappy’ with these forms? (iii) What does this reveal about the national movement?

(i) For Awadh peasants, swaraj meant the end of talukdars' high rents and begar; for the Gudem tribals, it meant restoration of their traditional forest rights — to be won, Raju believed, by force. (ii) Both turned violent (looting, guerrilla attacks), which went against Gandhiji's principle of non-violence and the Congress programme. (iii) It shows the movement was a nation of many voices — different classes read swaraj through their own grievances, so unity always came with conflict.

3Source (Iqbal, 1930): he defended separate electorates, arguing the Muslim is ‘entitled to full and free development on the lines of his own culture … The units of Indian society are not territorial as in European countries.’ (i) What political arrangement is he defending? (ii) What fear underlies his argument? (iii) How did Gandhiji's view on separate electorates (for dalits) differ in reasoning?

(i) Separate electorates for Muslims (later cited for the Pakistan demand). (ii) The fear that the culture and identity of a minority would be submerged under a Hindu majority. (iii) Gandhiji opposed separate electorates (for dalits) on the opposite reasoning — that they would slow down integration into society and divide the nation; he preferred reserved seats within a joint electorate (the Poona Pact).

B. Assertion–Reason (a = both true & R explains A; b = both true, R does not explain A; c = A true, R false; d = A false, R true)

4Assertion (A): The business classes first supported the Civil Disobedience Movement. Reason (R): They wanted swaraj to mean an end to colonial restrictions on trade and industry.

(a) Both true and R explains A. Industrialists (FICCI, Birla, Thakurdas) funded and backed the movement because they saw swaraj as freedom from colonial trade controls — though they grew cautious after the Round Table Conference failed.

5Assertion (A): The entry of women into the Civil Disobedience Movement radically changed how their position in society was viewed. Reason (R): Thousands of women marched, made salt, picketed and went to jail.

(d) A is false, R is true. Women did participate massively (R is true), but their role remained largely symbolic — Congress was reluctant to give them authority and Gandhiji still stressed home duties — so their position was not radically changed (A is false).

6Assertion (A): The Non-Cooperation Movement in the cities gradually slowed down. Reason (R): Khadi was often costlier than mill cloth and alternative Indian institutions were slow to come up.

(a) Both true and R explains A. The city movement slowed precisely because poor people could not afford costly khadi and there were too few Indian schools/courts to replace the boycotted British ones.

C. Analytical / 5-mark

7‘Swaraj meant different things to different social groups in the Civil Disobedience Movement.’ Examine with reference to at least four groups.

(1) Rich peasants (Patidars, Jats): swaraj = a struggle against high revenue; they left when 1931 brought no revenue cut. (2) Poor peasants: wanted unpaid rent remitted ('no rent'), but Congress's reluctance kept the tie uncertain. (3) Business classes: swaraj = freedom from colonial trade restrictions; they funded it but grew wary of militancy and socialism. (4) Women: saw service to the nation as a sacred duty, joining in large numbers, though their role stayed symbolic. (5) Dalits: wanted political empowerment (reserved seats/separate electorates), so participation was limited. Thus the movement united many groups whose ideas of freedom differed, which is why unity repeatedly broke down.

8Picture-the-scenario: Compare the Non-Cooperation Movement and the Civil Disobedience Movement — their methods, who joined, and why each was eventually called off.

Methods: Non-Cooperation (1921) asked Indians to refuse cooperation — boycott schools, courts, councils, titles and foreign goods; Civil Disobedience (1930) went further, asking people to actively break colonial laws (make salt, refuse taxes, break forest laws). Who joined: both drew the urban middle class, peasants and others, but Civil Disobedience saw large-scale women's participation and strong business support, while dalits and many Muslims largely stayed away. Called off: Non-Cooperation was withdrawn after the violent Chauri Chaura incident (1922); Civil Disobedience was paused by the Gandhi-Irwin Pact (1931), relaunched, and faded by 1934. Both show Gandhiji's insistence on non-violence and the recurring cycle of mass upsurge and retreat.