Themes in Indian History: Modern India and the National Movement
Modern India and the National Movement. The exam asks you to explain colonial restructuring, the character of anti-colonial protest, and how the movement shifted from petitions to mass civil disobedience.
Core rules and concepts
- Revenue settlements: Permanent Settlement (1793, Cornwallis, Bengal) fixed zamindar revenue in perpetuity; Ryotwari (Munro, Madras) taxed cultivators directly; Mahalwari taxed village units in the north-west. Each reshaped rural power.
- 1857: triggered by greased cartridges, the annexation policy and agrarian distress; centred on Meerut and Delhi with Bahadur Shah II as symbol. It ended Company rule through the Government of India Act 1858 and the Queen's Proclamation.
- Congress phases: Moderates (1885–1905) used petitions and the drain theory (Naoroji); Extremists after 1905 used swadeshi and boycott; the Surat split came in 1907 and unity returned with the Lucknow Pact (1916).
- Gandhian mass movements: Non-cooperation (1920–22), Civil Disobedience launched from Dandi in 1930, Quit India (1942). Lahore (1929) set purna swaraj as the goal.
Worked example
Why did Gandhi call off Non-cooperation in February 1922? Because of the Chauri Chaura violence, where a crowd burned a police station. Reasoning: for Gandhi, non-violence was the method itself, not a tactic; mass anger turning violent would destroy the movement's moral claim, so he chose a limited retreat over uncontrolled escalation.
Marks-losing traps
- Mixing 1857 with the indigo revolt or with the 1920s movements.
- Dating the Muslim League's founding to 1905 (it was 1906, at Dhaka).
- Confusing the Swaraj Party (1923, C. R. Das and Motilal Nehru) with the Congress itself.
- Claiming Quit India accepted the Cripps offer - it rejected it and demanded immediate withdrawal.