REAWAKENING OF INDIA-PART-2

( CONTINUED)

In the same way the higher-caste Hindus, especially in the south, exploited the so-called “depressed” class, who were mostly workers on the land. The problem of the depressed classes has been very much before us recently, and especially since Bapu’s fast. Untouchability has been attacked all along the front, and hundreds of temples and other places have been thrown open to these classes. But right down at the bottom of the question is this economic exploitation, and unless this goes, the depressed classes will remain depressed. The untouchables have been agricultural serfs who were not allowed to own land. They had other disabilities also.

Although India as a whole and the masses grew poorer, the handful of people comprising the new bourgeoisie prospered to some extent because they shared in the country’s exploitation. The lawyers and other professional people and the merchants accumulated some money. They wanted to invest this, so that they could have an income from interest. Many of them bought up land from the impoverished landlords, and thus they became themselves landowners. Others, seeing the wonderful prosperity of English Industry, wanted to invest their money in factories in India. So Indian capital went into these big machine factories and an Indian Industrial capitalist class began to arise. This was about fifty years ago, after 1880.

As this bourgeoisie grew, their appetite also grew. They wanted to get on, to make more money, to have more posts in government services, more facilities for starting factories. They found the British obstructing them in every path. All the high posts were monopolized by the British, and industry was run for the profit of the British. So they began agitating, and this was the origin of the new nationalist movement. After the revolt of 1857 and its cruel suppression, people had been too much broken up for any agitation or aggressive movement, it took them many years to revive a little.

Nationalist ideas were soon spreading, and Bengal was taking the lead. New books came out it Bengali, and they had a great influence on the language as well as on the development of nationalism in Bengal. It was in one of these books, Ananda Matam, by Bankim ChandraChatterji, that our famous song Vande Matharam Occurs. A Bengali poem which created a stir was Nil Darpan - the mirror of Indigo. It gave a very painful account of the miseries of the Bengal peasantry under the plantation system, of which I have told you something.

Meanwhile the power of Indian capital was also increasing and it demanded more elbow - room to grow. At last in 1885 all these various elements of the new bourgeoisie determined to start an organization to plead their cause. Thus was the Indian National Congress founded in 1885. This organization, which you and ever boy and girl in India know well, has become in recent years great and powerful. It took up the cause of the masses and became, to some extent, their champion. It challenged the very basis of British rule in India, and led great mass movement against it. It raised the banner of Independence and fought for freedom manfully. And today it is still carrying on the fight. But all this is subsequent history. The National congress when it was first founded was a very moderate and cautious body, affirming its loyalty to the British and asking, very politely, for some petty reforms. It represented the richer bourgeoisie and even the poorer middle classes were not in it. As for the masses, the peasants and workers, they had nothing to do with it. It was the organ of the English-educated classes chiefly and it carried on its activities in our step-mother tongue-

the English language. Its demands were the demands of the landlords and Indian capitalists and the educated unemployed seeking for jobs. Little attention was paid to the grinding poverty of the masses or their needs. It demanded the Indianization of the services - that is to say the greater employment of Indians in government service in place of Englishmen. It did not see that what was wrong with India was the machine which exploited the people, and that it made no difference who had charge of the machine, Indian or foreigner. The congress further complained of the huge expenses of the English officials in the military and civil service, and of the “drain” of gold and silver from India to England.

Do not think that in pointing out how moderate the early congress was I am criticizing it or trying to belittle it. That is not my purpose, for I believe that the congress in those days and its leaders did great work. The hard facts of Indian politics drove it step by step, almost unwillingly, to a more extreme position. But in the early days it could not have been anything but what it was. And in those days it required great courage for its founders to go ahead. It is easy enough for us to talk bravely of freedom when the crowed is with us and praise us for it. But it is very difficult to be the pioneer in a great undertaking.

The first congress was held in Bomaby in 1885. W.C. Bonnerji of Bengal was the first president. Other prominent names of those early days are Surendra Nath Banerji, Badruddin Tyabjhi, Pherozeshah Mehta. But one name towers above all others-that od Dadabai Naoroji, who became the Grand Old Man of India and who first used the word Swaraj for India’s goal. One other name I shall tell you, for he is the sole survivor today of the old guard of the congress, and you know him well. He is Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya. For over fifty years he has labored in India’s cause, and worn down with years and anxiety, he labors still for the realization of the dream he dreamed in the days of his youth.

So the congress went on from year to year and gained in strength. It was not narrow in its appeal like the Hindu Nationalism of an earlier day. But still it was in the main Hindu. Some leading Muslims joined it, and even presided over it, but the Muslims as a whole kept away. A great Muslim leader of the day was Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. He saw that lack of education, and especially modern education, had injured the Muslims greatly and kept them backward. He felt therefore that he must persuade them to take to this education and to concentrate on it, before dabbling in politics. So he advised the Muslims to keep away from the congress, and he co-operated with the Government and founded a fine college in Aligarh, which has since grown into a university. Sir syed’s adivce was followed by the great majority of the Muslims, who did not join the congress. But a small minority was always with it. Remember that when I refer to Majorities I mean the majority or minority of the upper middle class, English-educated, Muslim and Hindus. The masses, both Hidu and Muslim, had nothing to do with the congress, and very few had even heard of it in those days. Even the lower middle classes were not affected by it then.

The congress grew, but even faster than the congress grew the ideas of nationality and the desire for freedom. The congress appeal was necessarily limited because it was confined to the English-knowing people. To some extent this helped in bringing different provinces nearer to each other and developing a common outlook. But because it did not go down deep to the people, it had little strength. I have told you in another letter of an occurrence which stirred Asia greatly. this was the victory of little Japan over giant Russia in 1904-05, India In common with other Asiatic countries, was vastly impressed that is the educated middle classes were impressed, and their self-confidence grew. If Japan could make good against one of the most powerful European countries could make why not India? for long the Indian people had suffered form a feeling of inferiority before the British. The long domination by the British, the savage suppression of the Revolt of 1857, had cowed them. By an Arms Act they were prevented from keeping arms. In everything that happened in India they were reminded that they were the subject race, the inferior race. Even the education that was given to them filled them with this idea of inferiority. Perverted and false history taught them that India was a land where anarchy had always prevailed, and Hindus and Muslims had cut each other’s throats till the British came to rescue the country form this miserable plight and give it peace and prosperity. Indeed, the whole of Asia, the Europeans believed and proclaimed, regardless of fact or history, was a backward continent which must remain under European domination.

The Japanese victory, therefore was a great pick-me-up for Asia. In India it lessened the feeling of inferiority from which most of us suffered. Nationalist ideas spread more widely, especially in Bengal and Maharashtra. Just then an event took place which shook Bengal to the depths and surfed the whole of India. The British Government divided up the great province of Bengal (Which at that time included Bihar) into two parts, One of these being Eastern Bengal. The growing nationalism of the bourgeoisie in Bengal resented it. It suspected that the British wanted to weaken them by thus dividing them. Eastern Bengal had a Majority of Muslims, so by this division a Hindu-Muslim Question was also raised. A great anti-British movements rose in Bengal. Most of the landholders joined it, and so did Indian capitalists. The cry of Swadeshi was first raised then, and with it the boycott of British goods, which of course helped Indian Industry and capital. The movement even spread to the masses to some extent, and partly it drew its inspiration from Hinduism. Side by side with it there arose in Bengal a school of revolutionary violence, and the bomb first made its appearance in Indian politics. Aurobindo Ghose was one of the Brilliant Leaders of the Bengal Movement. He still lives, but for many years he has lived a retired life in Pondicherry, which is in French India.

In Western India , in the Maharashtra country, there was also a great ferment at this time and a revival of an aggressive nationalism, tinged also with Hinduism. A great leader arose there Bal Gangadhar Tilak, known throughout India as the Lokamanya, the “Honoured of the People”. Tilak was a great scholar, learned alike in the old ways of the East and the new ways of the West he was a great politician but above all he was a great mass leader. The Leaders of the National Congress had so far appealed only to the English-educated Indians, they were little known by the masses. Tilak was first political leader of the new India who reached the masses and drew strength from them. His dynamic personality brought a new element of strength and indomitable courage, and added to the new spirit of nationalism and sacrifice in Bengal, it changed the face of Indian politics.

What was the congress doing during these stirring days of 1906 and 1907 and 1908. The congress leaders, far from leading the nation at the time of this awakening of the national spirit, hung back. They were used to a quieter brand of politics in which the masses did not intrude. They did not like the flaming enthusiasm of Bengal, nor did they feel at home with the new unbending spirit of Maharashtra, as embodied in Tilak. They praised Swadeshi but hesitated at the boycott of British goods. Two parties developed in the congress-the extremists under Tilak and some Bengal leaders and the moderates under the older congress leaders. The most prominent of the moderate leaders was, however, a young man Gopal Krishna Gokhale, a very able man who had devoted his life to service. Gokhale was also from Maharashtra. Tilak and he faced each other from their rival groups and inevitably the split came in 1907 and the congress was divided. The moderates continued to control the congress the extremists were driven out. The moderates won, but it was at the cost of their popularity in the country, for Tilak’s party was more popular with the people. The congress became weak and for some years had little influence.

And what of the government during these years? How did it react to the growth of Indian Nationalism? Governments have only one method of meeting argument or a demand which they do not like-the use of the bludgeon. So the government indulged in repression and sent people to prison and curbed the newspapers with press laws and let loose crowds of secret policeman and spies to shadow everybody they did not like. Since those days the members of the C.I.D in India have been the constant companions of prominent Indian politicians. Many of the Bengal leaders were sentenced to imprisonment.. The most noted trial was that of Lokamanya Tilak, who was sentenced to six years, and who during his imprisonment in Mandalay wrote a famous book. Lala Lajpat Rai was also deported to Burma.

But repression did not succeed in crushing Bengal. So a measure of reform in the administration was hurried up to appease some people at least. The policy was then as it was later and is now to split up the nationalist ranks. The moderates were to be “rallied” and the extremists crushed. In 1908 these new reforms, called the Morley - Minto reforms were announced. they succeeded in “rallying the moderates”, who were pleased with them. The extremists with their leaders in goal, were demoralized and the national movement weakened. In Bengal, However, the agitation against the partition continued and ended with success. In 1911 the British Government reversed the partition of Bengal. This triumph put new heart in the Bengalis. But the movement of 1907 had spent itself, and India relapsed into political apathy.

in 1911 also it was proclaimed that Delhi was to be the new capital Delhi the seat of many an empire, and the grave also of many an empire.

So stood India in 1914 when the World War broke out in Europe and ended the 100-years period. That war also affected India tremendously, but of that I shall have something to say later.

I have done, at long last, with India in the nineteenth century. I have brought you to within eighteen years of today. And now we must leave India and, in the next letter, go to China and Examine another type of imperialist exploitation.

December 7,1932

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