History
Why did various classes and groups of Indians participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement?
Nationalism in India
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Answer
Various classes and groups of Indians participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement for their own reasons.
- Rich peasant communities like the Patidars of Gujarat and the Jats of Uttar Pradesh were very hard hit by the trade depression and falling prices. The refusal of the government to reduce the revenue led to widespread resentment. This made rich peasants enthusiastic supporters of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
- Poorer peasants participated in the movement as they found it difficult to pay their rent to landlords. They wanted the unpaid rent to the landlord to be remitted.
- The business classes reacted against colonial policies that restricted business activities. They wanted protection against imports of foreign goods, and a rupee-sterling foreign exchange ratio that would discourage imports. The industrialists attacked colonial control over the Indian economy, and therefore, supported the Civil Disobedience Movement.
- Industrial workers supported the movement as a part of their own movements against low wages and poor working conditions.
- Women participated in the movement as they were moved by Gandhiji's call and they began to see service to the nation as a sacred duty of women.
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Related Questions
Find out about other participants in the National Movement who were captured and put to death by the British. Can you think of a similar example from the national movement in Indo-China (Chapter 2)?
Look at Figs. 12 and 14. Do you think these images will appeal to all castes and communities? Explain your views briefly.
Read the Source D carefully. Do you agree with Iqbal’s idea of communalism? Can you define communalism in a different way?
Source D
In 1930, Sir Muhammad Iqbal, as president of the Muslim League, reiterated the importance of separate electorates for the Muslims as an important safeguard for their minority political interests. His statement is supposed to have provided the intellectual justification for the Pakistan demand that came up in subsequent years. This is what he said:
I have no hesitation in declaring that if the principle that the Indian Muslim is entitled to full and free development on the lines of his own culture and tradition in his own Indian home lands is recognized as the basis of a permanent communal settlement, he will be ready to stake his all for the freedom of India. The principle that each group is entitled for free development on its own lines is not inspired by any feeling of narrow communalism. A community which is inspired by feelings of ill-will towards other communities is low and ignoble. I entertain the highest respect for the customs, laws, religions and social institutions of other communities. Nay, it is my duty according to the teachings of the Quran, even to defend their places of worship, if need be. Even though I love the communal group which is the source of life and behavior and which has formed me what I am by giving me its religion, its literature, it’s thought, its culture and thereby its whole past as a living operative factor in my present consciousness. Communalism in its higher aspect, is indispensable to the formation of a harmonious whole in a country like India. The units of Indian society are not territorial as in European countries. The principle of European democracy can-not be applied to India without recognising the fact of communal groups.
The Muslim demand for the separate electorates are contrary to the spirit of true nationalism, because he understands the word ‘nation’ a kind of universal amalgamation in which no communal entity ought to retain its private individuality. Such a state of things, however, does not exist. India is a land of racial and religious variety. Add to this the general economic inferiority of the Muslims, their enormous debt, especially in the Punjab, and their insufficient majorities in some of the provinces, as at present constituted and you will begin to see clearly the meaning of our anxiety to retain separate electorates.
Explain:
(a) Why growth of nationalism in the colonies is linked to an anti-colonial movement.
(b) How the First World War helped in the growth of the National Movement in India.
(c) Why Indians were outraged by the Rowlatt Act.
(d) Why Gandhiji decided to withdraw the Non-Cooperation Movement.