Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

FREEDOM MOVEMENT

India during First World War

forum for discussion. Second, the Congress and the Muslim League came closer. They held simultaneous sessions at Lucknow in 1916 and adopted a common programme for attaining self-government. In August 1917, Lord Montagu, the Sec- retary of State for India, to appease the nation- alists, announced that the British government's policy in India was ‘the progressive realisa- tion of Responsible Government as an inte- gral part of the British empire.’ At the same time, preparations were made to introduce new repressive measures. However, when the War ended, the Indian national movement entered a new era - the era of mass struggle against repression and for Swaraj. Congress-League Pact In December 1916, the I.N.C and the All India Muslim League made a pact and agreed on a reform scheme which is popularly known as the Congress-League Pact of 1916. Some of the provisions of the pact are: “ ....India shall he lifted towards Self-Government by granting the Reforms contained in the scheme prepared by the A.I..C.C and by the All-India Muslim League... That in the reconstruction of the Empire, India shall be lifted from the position of a dependency to that of an equal partner in the Empire with the Self-Governing Dominions. ”

Lucknow Congress (1916), declared its clear and candid vote for ‘‘Swaraj’ The second important step taken by the Congress was to dispel Hindu-Muslim disunity. The Muslim League and the Congress jointly prepared a scheme for the improvement of the country's administration. Indian Home Rule League Bal Gangadhar Tilak established the Indian Home Rule League at Belgaum on 28th April 1916, with the object ‘to attain Home Rule and self-government within the British Empire by all constitutional means and to educate and organize public opinion in the country toward the attainment of the same. ’ It was generally recognized that the time had positively come for an organization to be started for educating public opinion and agi- tating for Home Rule throughout the country. The Congress was the body which naturally possessed the greatest authority for undertak- ing such a work with responsibility. The scheme of self-government which the Con- gress was supposed to be intending to hatch, served as a plausible excuse for most of Moderates to negative a definite proposal to establish a Home Rule League. (Hindi Daily Pratap - 8 January, 1917)

When the First World War broke out in 1914, Indian leaders supported Britain in the War. They hoped that Britain would grant India self-government in recognition of In- dia's help. Political campaign for self-gov- ernment during the War was carried on mainly by the Home Rule Leagues, one led by Annie Besant, and the other by Tilak. “The first outstanding feature of the war is the co-operation and fellowship of the dif- ferent units of a consolidated Empire. It has dissipated the longstanding colour prejudices under which Europe claimed an inherent and permanent superiority over the inhabitants of Asia and Africa and refused comradeship with them even in the grave... Fighting side by side with and against white races, these brave soldiers of Africa and India have incontesta- bly proved that the colour of the skin is en- tirely due to climatic conditions and does not at all connote an essential distinction in the physical, intellectual and moral fabric of any race whether residing in the torrid or the tropi- cal zone..” {Indian National Evolution - A. Majumdar.) Two significant developments took place during the War. First, the Congress was re- united and the extremists were allowed to rejoin it. But the Congress remained mainly a The Ghadar Party was founded in the U.S.A. in 1913. It was the first party founded outside India to fight for the independence of India and at the same time to better the living conditions of Indian people living elsewhere. Towards the close of the 19th and at the start of the 20th C. there was a large exodus of Indians to the outside world mainly to Burma, Malaya, Sin- gapore, Hong Kong etc., and finally to Canada and U.S.A. The economic crisis of 1907 in U.S.A. fol- lowed large scale wage cuts and anti-Indian agita- tions. " Everywhere they were insulted and de- spised. In hotels and trains, parks and theatres they were descriminated against. Everywhere hung notice-boards: "Hindus and Dogs not allowed". This brought a political consciousness and yearn- ing for liberty among the Indians. This was further strengthened by the writings of the revolutionary papers like 'Indian Sociologist' and 'Bande Ma- taram ’, of Madame Cama. The outcome of all this was the formation of the Ghadar party in 1913. "By 1906 Indians carried on nationalistic activi- ties in U.S.A., and Indian students and labourers had established various headquarters in the coun- try. During the Swadeshi movement Indian groups in America were publishing materials against the British Government of India''. ''The Resolutions founding the party laid down its aim as the overthrow of imperialist Raj in India

THE GHADAR PARTY

and the building up in its place of a national republic based on freedom and equality. This aim could be achieved only by an armed national revolution. Every member of the party was declared to be in honour and duty bound to participate in the fight against slavery carried on anywhere in the world". Hardayal of Punjab - lecturer at Stanford Univer- sity - was the guiding spirit of the movement which, under his dynamic personality, took its final shape. The main activities of the Ghadar party, besides the campaign, were the publication of 'The Ghadar , various books and pamphlets. The First issue of the paper declared: "Today there begins in foreign

lands ..... a war against the British Raj..... What is our aim? mutiny. What is our work? mutiny. Where will mutiny breakout ? In India. The time will soon come when rifles and blood will take the place of pens and ink". This clearly depicted the policy pursued by the party. The Ghadar party under Har- dayal took up the campaign against the new immi- gration policy of the U.S.A., the object of which was to make it impossible for Indians to live in U.S.A. The strength and popularity of the Ghadar party seemed to have dwindled towards the close of the 1920s.