SUMMARY :

THE LONG TERM STRATEGY OF THE NATIONAL

MOVEMENT.
A struggle to lead success requires a strategy to follow. The Indian nationalist movement
followed a long term strategy to achieve independence. The nationalist movement is studied
and was carried out in three consequent phases. They are Moderate phase, Extremist phase
and Gandhian phase. The struggle and experiences of nationalists during the Moderate and
Extremist phases lead to a fruitful and structured form of struggle in Gandhian phase
adding to Gandhi ji’s political strategy.

Understanding the British rule and the colonial state laid the basic foundation of
nationalist strategy. As the nationalists realized that though colonial state was established
by force, it didn’t rule only based on force but also based on certain civil institutions. In
India, the British colonial state was observed as semi hegemonic and semi authoritarian in
character. It is semi authoritarian, because in its rule, people are given with certain civil
liberties, and it also observed rules of law and codes of administration while suppressing
any movement. On the other hand the colonial state was also semi hegemonic in character,
because it has implanted two notions in Indian minds during its rule over long period of
time. One is that the colonial rulers are benevolent, they are the ‘MAI-BAAP’ of the people
and they were developing India in economic, social, and cultural contexts. And second is
that they are invincible, as they assumed Indians are too weak and disunited to oppose
them. Therefore, this kind of nature of colonial state shaped the long term strategy of
Indian nationalist movement.

The basic strategic perspective of nationalist movement was to wage a war of

position, i.e. to politicize and activize the mass population to win their minds and hearts for
national movement and for self rule. The nationalists knew that changing people’s mindset
takes long period of time, so they came up with a long term strategy. Therefore, this
thought of long term struggle lead to the second objective of nationalist strategy (first
objective was to win people’s hearts) to build a counter hegemonic idea. The basic task of
this counter hegemonic nationalist movement is to show the real face of the colonial state
and to enlighten people with the contradiction between the interests of Indians and colonial
rulers, which was hidden by the state. As this exposure automatically leads to people’s
realization of the importance of self rule and provides mass participation in nationalist
movement. This was a process of undermining the twin notions of britishers, that they are
benevolent and invincible. The undermining of first notion was initiated and carried out by
the Moderates and Extremists. And proving second notion as a false notion, is clearly seen
in the Gandhian phase of movement. Then there was a third objective which is to make
state apparatuses of the colonial rule as the instrument of the nationalist movement. The
State apparatuses are nothing but the members of civil services, the police and the armed
forces. This task was successful and in fact this was one of the main reasons of britishers to
finally quit India. Therefore, this process of winning the hearts and minds of Indian
followers of british and public opinion aided the fourth objective to slowly expand the semi
democratic space.

After waging a war of position, the second major strategic perspective is

described as Struggle-Truce-Struggle (STS). The STS sustains a struggle for a long period
of time, as here it refers to the repetition of alternative phases of the nationalist movement,
i.e. a phase of extralegal mass movement (struggle) followed by a phase of constitutional
reforms (truce). This strategy was required for a long term struggle to sustain, because
nationalists observed that people involved in the movement got exhausted after an
extralegal mass movement and there was a need to boost their capacity, this was done
during a passive phase of constitutional reforms. Therefore, the STS structure of
nationalist movement played very important role in achieving independence.

Constructive work played an important role in sustaining the nationalist

movement during its passive phase. Constructive work here refers to the boycott of foreign
goods, spinning, promoting Khadi, national education and maintaining religious unity. It
helped in sustaining the moral of nationalist movement and calmness among people.

Constitutional reforms and legislative councils were the basic tools in the colonial
strategy to reform nationalist movement, as the britishers assumed that these reforms may
repress the Indian nationalist’s anger and by disuniting the nationalists, the agitation
among people may come down. But instead these reforms were worked by the nationalists
in a way that would go beyond the britishers calculations and advance the nationalist
cause. And the nationalists in the legislative councils showed the flaws of british rule and
exposed its rule based on its own interests, despite taking those reforms. And when it comes
to disuniting congress members even that was not successful, as congress overcame that
challenge as well, by realizing that legislatures are arenas for struggle against colonial state
but not the instruments for gradual reform of the state.

Nonviolence was an essential component of the whole nationalist strategy. It became

basic and essential due to the hegemonic and mass character of Indian nationalist
movement. And nonviolence was also an important element in sustaining the long term
struggle of the nationalist movement, as it was linked to three other factors.

Firstly, acquisition of nonviolence in the strategy, enabled mass population and

especially women to participate in the movements, as it would not be possible for them to
participate if the movements were violent. The second fact is that, the nonviolent form of
struggle would also affect the colonial state’s semi authoritarian and semi hegemonic
character. And this form of struggle acted as a kind of moral force, as the nonviolent
movements left britishers in a dilemma whether to use force to suppress the movements or
not, as they were peaceful protests, though they in the most of the Satyagraha’s repressions
used brutal force and this exposed its character to the people. Consequently the hegemony
of colonial rule or its moral basis was destroyed bit by bit. The third factor was that, this
form of struggle allowed people to protest even if they are disarmed, as the movements
were completely peaceful where they don’t require any kind of weapons. In nonviolent
struggle only the moral strength, massive and mobilized public opinion would matter. A
violent movement would always provide a justification for colonial state’s brutal way of
suppressing the movement. A remark of India’s nonviolent movement was, though being
nonviolent in nature, it was as revolutionary in character as an armed form of struggle.

The long term strategy of nationalist movement for fighting colonial state was a
significant one when compared to the British, French, Russian, Cuban, Chinese and
Vietnamese revolutions. India was the only semi democratic state which was transformed
by successful practice of war of position. The values of Indian hegemonic struggle which
were confined to rule of law, democratic and civil libertarian polity continued even after
independence. Therefore, Indian government had only option to choose democratic form of
government after independence.

ANALYSIS OF NATIONALIST MOVEMENT

BASED ON THE LONG TERM STRATEGIES
OF THE MOVEMENT.
The nationalist movement of India played a major role in achieving the independence of
the country. The initiation of the nationalist movement was not an overnight thing. It was a
process that took several years to bear fruits (1885-1947). The analysis of the nationalist
movement based on its long term strategies is as follows.

NATURE AND CHARACTER OF COLONIAL STATE:-

In 1857, suppression of revolt of Indian sepoys by britishers shows its rule based on force
but the colonial state not only ruled based on force but also based on establishment of
certain civil institutions. The British gave certain civil liberties to people. It introduced
English education to Indians but for the state’s benefit, however it didn’t go as planned, as
educated Indians were exposed to western democracy and nationalism. And English acted
as a medium of exchange of thoughts, which united the people for freedom struggle. And
the colonial rule also introduced uniform code of law which brought every Indian under an
equal law despite the caste and religion variations. The establishment of certain civil
institutions also laid an important role in the movement.

In 1885, Allan Octavian Hume, a retired British civil servant, founded the Indian
National Congress (INC). It was assumed as a safety valve for British, as they provided it
as a medium to Indians to ventilate their grievances and their wont arise any other revolt
like it had in 1857. But instead, Indian leaders of moderate phase used this platform to
scrutinize and to expose every aspect of British rule which was against Indian’s interest.
And this scrutiny was carried in following phases as well. However, the refusal of
Moderates (who believed in British rule) expected reforms by British laid to rise of another
set of nationalists called Extremists, who had no faith in British rule in favor of India. All
the above aspects show the semi authoritarian character of colonial state which shaped the
nationalist movement.

Then the role of semi hegemonic character of British rule in building

nationalist movement’s strategy. In the name of development the economic policies of
British had impoverished Indians. Due to its massive export of raw materials through
railways and negligence of handicraft industries, etc... It was more commercialization
rather than industrialization that had been aimed by Indians. All these kind of works of
British rule in the name of benevolence also antagonized Indians against the colonial rule.
The invincible nature of colonial state has its own place in shaping the nationalist
movement. The repressive policies of viceroy Lytton to suppress the opposition for British,
which include Arms act of 1878, Vernacular press act of 1878 etc… The politically
conscious Indians saw it as an attempt to suppress the growing nationalist criticism of
British rule. And Indians were shocked with the huge opposition by Britishers to the Ilbert
bill in 1883, which grants permission for Indian courts to try Europeans. The divide and
rule policy was introduced to separate Hindus and Muslims.

Lord Curzon the governor general of India tried his best to suppress the
movement of extremist nationalists. In 1905, he partitioned Bengal, which was the strong
hold of the congress. In contrary to the Britisher’s imagination that the partition may
weaken congress and disunite them, the partition gave a boost to freedom struggle. There
were mass revolts in Bengal on the day of partition.

In this way the nature and character of colonial state laid the foundation of the nationalist
movement.

A WAR OF POSITION:-

The politicizing and activizing people for the self rule was done through various channels
like newspapers and through different stages of the nationalist movement.
 To let British know how unhappy the Indians were at the partition of Bengal, the
leaders of anti partition movement initiated the Boycott movement, which was to boycott
the foreign goods and use only Indian made goods. . In 1905, INC took the Swadeshi call at
Banaras session. A resolution to boycott foreign goods was adopted on 7 August, 1905 at a
meeting in Calcutta. This movement didn’t lead to the success that was expected by the
leaders, as the Britishers put many people in the jail and suppressed the movement. What
started as a protest against the partition of Bengal became one of the main weapons and a
proud symbol of freedom struggle. In December 1906, at Calcutta session INC under
Dadabhai Naroji’s presidentship adopted ‘Swaraj’ as the goal of Indian people. And
agreed to the starting of schools by Indians. But in 1907, congress in surat session split into
two groups due to the opinion differences arised among Moderates and Extremists about
Swaraj as a main goal. Through these different stages there was rise in wage of war of
position among people.

The undermining of the two notions of colonial state, was a major task of a
counter hegemonic nationalist movement. The undermining of notion of benevolence was
initiated and carried out successfully by the Moderates (early nationalists) which was then
continued by extremists and leaders of Gandhian phase. Moderates did pioneering work by
exposing true nature of British rule in India. Nationalists like Dadabhai Naroji, Govind
Ranade and Romesh Chandra Dutt made people realize about the economic content and
character of British imperialism by scrutinizing every aspect of its economic policies and
gave three main aspects of domination by British- Trade, Industry, Finance. Dadabhai
Naroji published the Drain theory which says that excessive exports over imports without
any economic gain are main causes for drain in Indian economy. The achievements of
moderates like Indian councils act of 1892 and a resolution of house of commons in 1893,
etc… served as the base for the Extremist and Gandhian phases.

The second notion of invincibility was challenged by the works of Extremists and
movements of Gandhian era. In 1907, radical youth who believed in violent method of
obtaining freedom, turned to the methodology of assassinations of British officers.
Prominent revolutionary leaders include khudiram bose and Prafulla Chaki in Bengal.
Between the time period of 1908-1918, over 189 revolutionaries were killed. In 1908,
Lokmanya Tilak was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment and sent to Mandalay in Burma.
Earlier, in 1907 Lala Lajpat Roy and Ajit Singh of Punjab were also deported from India.
Two Home rule leagues were started between 1915-1916, one under the leadership of
Lokmanya Tilak in poona and other under Annie Besant in madras. These leagues carried
out an intense propaganda all over the country in favour of demand for self rule. And the
Poona pact in 1916, brought up the unity among the Congress and Muslim league. But it
was the law breaking mass movement of post 1918 period which basically performed the
task among the mass of the Indian people.

The Rowlatt Act 1919, this act gave power to the British government to
arrest and imprison suspects without trial for two years, which suspended the right of
habeas corpus. As a protest, Gandhiji formed a Satyagraha society to evoke mass support.
6 April, 1919 was observed as ‘Satyagraha day’ when people all over the country observed
fast and hartals. During March and April 1919, country witnessed a remarkable political
awakening in India. In the protest demonstrations, Dr Satyadal and Dr Kitchlew were
arrested.

The basic objective of these movements was to destroy the notion that British rule
could not be challenged.

The objective of making state apparatuses of british as the instruments of

nationalist movement was successful. It was in 1942, during the Quit India movement a
large number of officials of all types actively helped at great personal risk. The virtual
disappearance of loyalty among police, army and bureaucracy after 1945 and the
consequent disarray of the british administrative structure were major reasons for british
decision to finally quit India. It was after the second world war, Indian national army
constituted of 45,000 soldiers have been taken as prisoners by Japanese and in 1943 Subash
Chandra Bose setup the Azad hind government and the INA advanced with the Japanese
frontier of the India. Even though the INA failed to liberate India it boosted the moral
force of the freedom struggle in India. The British governmanet now realized that they
could no longer depend on the loyalty of Indian army.
STRUGGLE-TRUCE-STRUGGLE:-

Under this strategy, a phase of extra-legal mass movement was followed by a passive phase
during which confrontation was withdrawn and political concessions shown to be
inadequate.

The Rowlatt Satyagraha was withdrawn on 10 April, 1919 due to the Jallianwala
bagh massacre. In 1920, Khilafat movement was started by two two brothers, Mohammed
Ali and Shaukat Ali, as muslims were agitated by the treatment done with turkey by the
british in the treaty that followed the First World War. Gandhi ji saw the Khilafat
agitation as the golden opportunity for bringing the Hindus and Muslims together. On
August, 1920, the Khilafat committee launched a non-cooperation movement. Gandhi ji
now pressed the congress to adopt a similar plan of action.

Non-cooperation movement 1920: Congress passed the resolution in its Calcutta

session in September, 1920. People were asked to boycott british goods and refuse to work
or cooperate with Britissh. Large quantities of foreign goods were burnt at many places.
The charkha and Khadi became as the symbols of this movement. Students their studies,
people gave up their government jobs. This movement had a powerful impact on the
country. Except Gandhi all important leaders and 30,00 people were imprisoned by the end
of 1921. On 5 February 1922, at Chauri Chauri Uttar Pradesh, a procession of about
30,000 peasants led by congress workers was fired upon by the police. The angry peasants
retaliated the by attacking and burning down the police station. Immediately Gandhi ji
called off the campaign of non- cooperation.

And this was the passive phase during which Gandhi ji asked people to devote their
time and energies to popularize Khadi and the charkha, too set up nationalist schools and
to improve the conditions of poor. Congress after the withdrawal of noncooperation
movement broke into two groups and one formed the Swaraj party. However, in 1924
Gandhi ji reunitedin the two groups in the Lahore session based on a mutual agreement,
that group of constitutionalists will represent congress in legislative assembly and the
group of non constitutionalists follows boycott.
 Simon commission: The british government appointed a commission under Sir John
Simon in 1927. The main purpose of the commission was to take a decision on self
government for India. Not a single Indian was included in the commission. Congress
turned the boycott into the movement. Simon and his colleagues landed in Bombay on 3
February, 1928 and were greeted with hartals and black flag demonstration. The
government used brutal repression and police attacks to break the popular opposition. At
Lahore, Lala Lajpat Roy was severely beaten in a lathi charge. He later succumbed to his
injuries and died on 17 November, 1928. Bhaghat singh a revolutionary, killed saunders,
the British officer who had ordered the lathi harge. He was hanged on 23 March.

Due to the denial of Nehru report’s demands, the congress in the

Lahore’s annual session in 1929, declared ‘Poorna Swaraj’ as its ultimate goal. On 31
December 1929 the newly adopted tricolor flag unfurled and on 26 January, 1930 was fixed
as first Independence Day, which was to celebrated every year. The Simon commission
submitted its report in 1930.

Dandi march and Civil Disobedience movement: Dandi march was also called as
Salt Satyagraha. Gandhi ji along with his 78 followers marched from Sabarmati asharm on
12 march, 1930 to the small village Dandi to break the salt law. On 6 April, 1930 he picked
handful of salt and inaugurated the Civil Disobedience movement.

The programme of civil disobedience spread throughout the country, with hartals
demonstrations and boycotts. Peasants refused to pay revenues, chawkidari taxes and
village officials resigned. Forest laws wer violated and women came to the front in large
numbers. In 1931, an agreement was reached between Irwin and Gandhi known as Gandhi
Irwin pact. Under this the British government agreed to release all the political prisoners
against whom there were no charges of violence. In return Gandhi suspended the civil
disobedience movement and agreed to participate in Second Round Table Conference.
However Gandhi ji returned from conference with a disappointment. But as he reached
Bombay, britishers arrested him including several other congress members. And here
began another passive phase.
 In 1940, the august offer was rejected by INC because there was no suggestion of
national government. But it was accepted by the Muslim league. Then in 1942, British sent
a mission headed by sir Stafford Cripps to secure Indian cooperation in the Second World
War effort. However it was failed as British refused to accept the congress demand for
immediate transfer of power. Almost after 11 years, a mass movement was observed.

Quit India Movement: Disillusioned by the failure of Cripps Mission, the

congress decided to take active steps to compel the British to grant complete independence.
The all iundia congress committee met in Bombay on 8 august 1942 and passed the historic
Quit India resolution. However, before congress could start the movement, Gandhi and all
the members of Congress Working Committee were arrested. The news left the country
shocked. All over the country there were demonstrations and strikes.the government
restored to its violent measures of firing, lathi charges and large scale arrests. However, the
movement was somehow took a violent turn. Even though the Quit India movement could
not force British to leave India, in all corners of the country, people had expressed an
intense desire for complete from British rule.

CONSTRUCTIVE WORK:-

Constructive work helped to sustain a sense of activism in the non mass movement phases
of the struggle. It played an important role in Gandhian( and even pre Gandhian ) strategy.
It began with the boycott movement in moderate phase. In 1924 gandhi started a
constructive proggramme, which included spinning Khadi, removal of untouchability, and
Hindu-Muslim unity. It was a passive phase where people were asked spin cotton yarn ,
wear khadi dresses and use charkha which was a symbol of nationalist movement. The
hard core of Constructive workers also provided a large cadre for the Civil Disobedience
movement.

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS:-

The colonial authorities hoped that constitutional reforms would weaken the nationalists
urge for Independence. The formation of the Muslim league in 1906, was instigated by the
British as a part of their divide and rule policy.
Morley-Minto reforms (1909): It was also called as Indian Councils Act 1909. It enlarged
the legislative councils and made Indians more representative. And it also envisaged a
separate electorate for Muslims. It aimed at dividing nationalist ranks and rallying the
Moderates and Muslims to the government side

Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms were announced in 1918. This reforms lead to the

enactment of the Government of India Act 1918. This act enlarged provincial councils, but
this was nowhere near to the congress demand of swaraj. In 1923, after the division of
congress , the group of CR Das and Motilal Nehru formed the swaraj party and enteresd
legislative councils that had been formed by Montagu-Chelmsford reforms. And swarajists
inflicted a series of defeats on the British government.

The discussions held in the Third Round Table Conference in 1932, by the national leaders
led to the Government of India Act 1935. Under this act India was to become a federation.
Dyarchy was introduced at the centre and provincial autonomy replaced dyarchy at the
provinces. And the federal legislature was to have two chambers (bicameral); the Council
of state and the Federal Assembly. Though bitterly opposed to the act, congress decided to
contest the elections. They believed that victory to the congress would demonstrate the
unpopularity of the act. INC fought the elections in 1937, and formed minister in seveen
out of eleven provinces.

NON-VIOLENCE:-

Gandhi ji was popularized by his method of fighting called Satyagraha based on truth and
non-violence. His first Satyagraha was in Champaran, Bihar where indigo planters were
oppressed by European owners to cultivate at higher level and sell at the prices fixed by
them. And then the second was Kheda Satyagraha in 1917, this was for peasants who were
asked to pay full land revenues even during the crop failure, where Gandhi ji insisted to
withhold the payment. The third was Ahmedabad mill strike in 1918, gandhi ji fought for
the mill workers by demanding for increase in wages. In all the three Satyagrahas were
successful and reached to people demands.

In this way it not only made a struggle simple nut enabled a mass participation by
women. During the Civil Disobedience movement there was a large scale participation of
women. They participated in protests marches, manufactured salt and picketed foreign
goods.

The Noncooperation Movement, the Civil Disobedience Movement and the Quit India
Movement including other small protests during the Gandhian era of struggle were based
on the Non-Violence strategy. And these were though suppressed by colonial state, they
never stopped the nationalist movement instead lead as basis for the consequent
movements for independence. Gandhi ji proved the importance of acquiring Non-Violence
as a strategy by making India Independent from British.