INDIA 1890-1914

How did the Indian nationalist movement develop 1890-1914? The most important development was the growth of Indian nationalism as a political force challenging British rule of the Raj. The post-1857 Mutiny policy of educating an Indian elite to play the role of junior partner in imperial rule was starting to backfire by the 1890s. The creation of the Indian National Congress (usually abbreviated to ‘Congress’) in 1885 was a key event signifying this development. Congress demanded ‘Home Rule’ for India, meaning some degree of democracy with elected Indian representatives having some input to the decisions of the Viceroy. By the 1890s there was a popular and influential nationalist press eg. the newspaper ‘Kesari’, edited by Bilal Tilak. This press made the British nervous and they hoped to curb its influence by jailing the editors and banning the newspapers outright. However, this policy of repression only served to encourage more extreme forms of nationalism, including terrorism. In 1903 the ‘Young India’ organisation began assassinating British officials in India and in in 1909 shot dead Curzon-Wyllie on the streets of London. All of this made the British extremely anxious given their long-held paranoia about the possibility of another 1857-style mutiny. How successful was Viceroy Lord Curzon’s plan to partition Bengal in 1905? A key individual at the turn of the century was Viceroy Curzon (1899-1905). Curzon saw himself as reforming The Raj in ways that would guarantee British rule and profitability. Curzon’s policies included: * dealing with the international pressure of Russia threatening Northern India by a) creating the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) in 1901 = essentially a buffer zone, and b) invading Tibet (1903-4) to make the Russians wary of any expansion plans they had * using ‘divide and rule’ tactics by partitioning the province of Bengal in 1905. By 1900 Bengal had become the epicentre of the growing Indian nationalist movement, organised as the Indian National Congress. Curzon was determined to weaken this challenge to his authority as Viceroy. The key motive for partition was to play on religious divisions between Hindus and Muslims. The policy was presented as simply an act of administrative efficiency but in reality it was a ‘divide and rule’ measure designed to split the nationalists along religious lines, known as ‘communalism’. The details of the partition favoured the Muslims at the expense of the Hindus. As a result, the Muslims welcomed partition and the Hindus bitterly opposed it. The policy was successful in creating communalist divisions – from 1906 India’s Muslim leadership began to organise separately from the Indian National Congress as the All-India Muslim League (AIML) (usually abbreviated to the ‘Muslim League’). This division weakened the forces of Indian nationalism in the long term but it in the short term it provoked a serious backlash which led to Curzon’s forced resignation. The Indian Congress leadership, led by the key figure of Surendranath Banarjee, led mass campaigns against Curzon’s policy, involving strikes, demonstrations i.e. ordinary Indians became politicised. This was very worrying to the British who always claimed that THEY spoke for the interests of the ordinary mass of Indians and that the nationalists only spoke for their elitist, middle class selves. Bal Tilak led a public boycott called the ‘swadeshi’ movement in which Indians refused to buy British goods. This had mass support and really unnerved the British who felt they were losing control. The mass protests and ‘swadeshi’ boycott were the most serious challenges to the Raj since the 1857 Mutiny. Curzon was sacked as Viceroy and a policy u-turn eventually took place when Bengal was reunited in 1911. What were the Morley-Minto reforms 1905-10? Curzon’s replacement as Indian Viceroy was the Earl of Minto (in post 1905-10) who worked closely with John Morley (Secretary of State for India) to repair the damage. What they achieved is known as the ‘Morley-Minto reforms’: the Indian Councils Act 1909 gave native Indians their first representation at national level. 27 Indians were to be elected from the Provinces and play an advisory role on the Viceroy’s Council (but only advisory, and in many cases the men were chosen by the British i.e. this was more symbolic than real political power). What changes did Viceroy Hardinge make 1910-1914? Minto was then replaced by Viceroy Hardinge (in post 1910-16). Hardinge scrapped the partition of Bengal (it was reunited in 1911). He organised a grand celebratory ‘Durbar’ of much pomp and ceremony with King George V (the ‘King Emperor’) in attendance (Queen Victoria had never travelled to India so this was something of a sensation!) The purpose of the Durbar was to cement the loyalty of the Indian princes to The Raj. It was an attempt to project a sense of power using the ‘spectacle’ of ceremony. Hardinge also moved the capital of The Raj from Calcutta to Delhi - this was seen as favouring the Muslims and was another case of ‘divide and rule’. In 1914 Viceroy Hardinge declared Indian support for Britain in WW1 without any consultation with the native Indian political forces. Congress largely accepted it was their duty to fight in defence of the Empire/’Mother Country’ but there was an expectation that this loyalty would be rewarded after the war with a shift to real progress towards Indian Home Rule. Indian nationalism was prepared to be patient and put its trust in Britain but both these sentiments were to be cruelly crushed by the end of the war in 1918.