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✓ Introduction
o Point out how India was colonised, how the question of national
consciousness emerged and anti-imperialist struggle started in India.
o In brief, discuss how Gandhian movements changed the patterns of
freedom struggle in India.
✓ Early Nationalism
o Its limitation
o D.A. Low’s arguments
Rudolf C. Heredia says Gandhi's Hind Swaraj presents us with an
idealized version of Indian culture that is completely opposite to the
'modern west'. Gandhi radically re-interprets 'Swaraj' and gives it a
dual meaning.
✓ Gandhi’s Ideas & Philosophy (Some historiography)
According to Bhikhu Parekh, Gandhi’s usage of the terms ancient
civilization and Modern civilization gave Gandhi an advantage as
now he could argue Europeans were upstarts and had forgotten their
glorious Greco Roman past leading to an impoverishment of the
o Hind Swaraj (Satya & Ahimsha) west while Indian civilization had attempted to preserve its ancient
past and was therefore fighting for the entire mankind. By this
Parekh says Gandhi undermined universalistic claims of European
‘modernity’ and Europeans found it hard to critique Gandhi’s anti-
o Ashish Nandi colonial critique.
o Judith Brown Sekhar Bandyopadhyay critiqued Brown as feels that such an image of Gandhi reduced
his popular appeal. Gandhi’s simple ways, use of colloquial language, and his popular
allegory Ramrajya made him comprehensible to common people-people interpreted
Gandhi in their own ways and it was difficult to ignore this millenarian aspect of his
o Shekhar Bandyopadhyay popular appeal. Brown’s subcontractors had very little to do with this groundswell.
✓ Early Intervention
o Coming of Gandhi
o Champaran
o Kheda
o Ahmedabad
✓ Rowlett Satyagraha
Ravinder Kumar argued that the Rowlett Satyagraha was the first countrywide movement
against the Britishers. It not only transformed nationalism in India from a movement
representing classes to a movement representing masses, but it also paved the way for
Gandhi’s emergence as the dominant figure in Indian politics.
Why did Gandhi call off the movement?
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Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar. (Ed.) (2009). Nationalist Movement in India: A Reader. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 55-
155.
_____ (2017). From Plassey to Partition and After: A History of Modern India, New Delhi: Orient Blackswan.
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Introduction, pp. xiv – xxxviii).
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mobilization”, Contributions to Indian Sociology, Vol. 8 (1), Jan 1, pp. 67-87.
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_____ (1985) ‘The Logic of Gandhian Nationalism: Civil Disobedience and the Gandhi-Irwin Pact (1930-31)’, in Sumit Sarkar,
A Critique of Colonial India. Calcutta: Papyrus, pp. 86 – 115.
Sarkar, Tanika. (2011). “Gandhi and Social Relations”, in Judith Brown and Anthony Parel (eds). The Cambridge Companion to
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