THE REVOLT OF 1857

The revolt of 1857 was the most severe outburst of anger and discontent
accumulated in the hearts of various sections of the Indian society ever
since the inception of British rule in Bengal, following the Battle of
Plassey in 1757 and the Battle of Buxar. British historians called it a
"Sepoy Mutiny" and the Indian historians termed it as the "First War of
Independence".
Though the revolt was started by the Indian soldiers in the service of the
East India Company, it soon proliferated all over the country. Millions of
peasants, aritsans and soldiers fought heroically for over a year and
sacrificed their life so that others might live. Hindus and Muslims kept
their religious differences aside and fought together in order to free
themselves from foreign subjugation.

The British tried to dismiss this Revolt by merely calling it a "Sepoy

Mutiny", but this Revolt clearly shows the pented hatred that the Indians
had for the foreigners. The Revolt did not take place overnight. There
were many economic causes that added fuel to the fire. The British were
exploiting the Indian economy and thus leaving many people jobless,
helpless and homeless.
There were many social and religious reasons for the Revolt. The British
started imposing their religion on the Indians by building churches and by
forcing people to convert to Christianity. Further more, the Doctrine of
Lapse, whereby adopted children were refused recognition and deprived
of pension, instigated the political causes of the Revolt.

The British left no stone unturned to create an eternal wall between

Hindus and Muslims. The introduction of the greased cartridges took the
situation to its highest point and thus in addition to economic, social and
political causes there were military causes added to the Revolt of 1857.
The Revolt of 1857 was clearly not a success but it is unfair to dismiss it
as a mere mutiny. This was the first time when Indians got together to
fight against an invincible military power. The Revolt failed due to lack
of planning, organization and leadership. The unfortunate part however
was that there were some Indians who helped the British suppress the
Revolt. Had they cooperated the Revolt might have been a success.

Even though the Revolt was a failure, the consequences of the Revolt
were very important in Indian history. The Revolt brought the end of
Company's rule, along with changes in the British policy towards Indian
States. With the escape of Nana Sahib and the death of Bahadur Shah
Zafar came the end of Peshwaship and the Mughal Rule. The end of the
Revolt also led to the reorganization of the army and India was
completely ruined from economic point of view. One of the most
important outcomes of the Revolt was that it gave rise to Nationalism.
Indian people became more aware of the heroes, who sacrificed their
lives so that others might live. The Revolt however, scarred the
relationship between Hindus and Muslims with the Divide and Rule
Policy.

Indian National Congress

Indian National Congress is a major political party in India. Created in

1885 by A. O. Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji and Sir Dinshaw Edulji Wacha,
the Indian National Congress became the nation's leader in the
Independence Movement, with over 15 million Indians involved in its
organizations and over 70 million participants in its struggle against the
British Empire..

Khilafat Movement

The Khilafat movement (1919-1924) was a political campaign launched

mainly by Muslims in India to influence the British government and to
protect the Ottoman Empire during the aftermath of World War I. The
position of Caliph after the Armistice of Mudros of October 1918 with
the military occupation of Istanbul and Treaty of Versailles (1919) fell
into a disambiguation along with the Ottoman Empire's existence. The
movement gained force after the Treaty of Sevres (August 1920) which
solidified the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. In some regions the
Khilafat movement cause was perceived as Islamic fundamentalism based
on a pan-Islamic agenda.

In India, although mainly a Muslim religious movement, the movement

became a part of the wider Indian independence movement. The
movement was a topic in Conference of London (February 1920).

World War 1

World War I, also known as the Great War and "The War To End All
Wars," was a global military conflict which took place in Europe between
1914 and 1918. More than nine million soldiers and civilians died. The
conflict had a great impact on the history of the 20th century.
The Allied Powers, led by France, Imperial Russia, Britain, and, from
1917 on, the United States, defeated the Central Powers, led by the
Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Bulgarian Empires. Italy
joined the Allies in 1915, and Imperial Russia withdrew in 1917.

The war caused the disintegration of four empires: the Austro-Hungarian,

German, Ottoman and Russian. Germany lost its overseas empire and
states such as Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania,
Poland and Yugoslavia gained independence. The cost of waging the war
set the stage for the breakup of the British Empire as well and left France
devastated for more than a generation.
World War I marked the end of the old world order, which had emerged
after the Napoleonic Wars. The result of the conflict was an important
factor in the outbreak of World War II.

Jallianwala Bagh massacre

The Amritsar Massacre

The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, also known as the Amritsar Massacre,
was named after the Jallianwala Bagh (Garden) in the northern Indian
city of Amritsar, where, on April 13, 1919, British Indian Army soldiers
under the command of Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer opened fire on
an unarmed gathering of men, women and children. The firing lasted
about 10 minutes and 1600 rounds were fired. Official sources place the
casualties at 379. According to private sources, the number was over
1000, with more than 2000 wounded,[1] and Civil Surgeon Dr Smith
indicated that they were over 1800.

Salt Satyagraha

The Salt Satyagraha, also known as the Salt March to Dandi, was an act
of non-violent protest against the British salt tax in colonial India.
Mahatma Gandhi along with his followers, walked from Sabarmati
Ashram to Dandi, Gujarat to make salt, large numbers of Indians
following him of their own accord. The British could do nothing because
Gandhi did not actually invite others to follow him. The march lasted
from March 12, 1930, to April 6, 1930.

Purna Swaraj

The flag adopted in 1931 and used by the Provisional Government of

Free India during the Second World War.
The Declaration of the Independence of India was promulgated by the
Indian National Congress on January 26, 1930 - resolving the Congress
and Indian nationalists to fight for Purna Swaraj, or complete self-rule
apart from the British Empire.
The flag of India had been officially hoisted by Congress President
Jawaharlal Nehru on December 31, 1929 in Lahore. The Congress asked
the people of India to observe January 26th as Independence Day. The

flag of India was hoisted publicly across India by Congress volunteers,

nationalists and the public.

Dandi March and the civil disobedience movement

Scenes on the eve of the Salt Satyagraha, Gandhi's famous 240 mile
march on foot to the sea at Dandi.
Following the rejection of the recommendations of the Simon
Commission by Indians, an all-party conference was held at Bombay in
May 1928. The conference appointed a drafting committee under Motilal
Nehru to draw up a constitution for India. The Calcutta session of the
Indian National Congress asked the British government to accord
dominion status to India by December 1929, or a countrywide civil
disobedience movement would be launched. The Indian National
Congress, at its historic Lahore session in December 1929, under the
presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, adopted a resolution to gain complete
independence from the British. It authorised the Working Committee to
launch a civil disobedience movement throughout the country. It was
decided that 26 January 1930 should be observed all over India as the
Purna Swaraj (complete independence) Day. Many Indian political
parties and Indian revolutionaries of a wide spectrum united to observe
the day with honour and pride.
Gandhi emerged from his long seclusion by undertaking his most famous
campaign, a march of about 400 kilometres from his commune in
Ahmedabad to Dandi, on the coast of Gujarat between 12 March and 6
April 1930. The march is usually known as the Dandi March or the Salt

Satyagraha. At Dandi, in protest against British taxes on salt, he and

thousands of followers broke the law by making their own salt from
seawater.

In April 1930 there were violent police-crowd clashes in Calcutta.

Approximately over 100,000 people were imprisoned in the course of the
Civil disobedience movement (1930-31), while in Peshawar unarmed
demonstrators were fired upon in the Qissa Khwani bazaar massacre. The
latter event catapulted the then newly formed Khudai Khidmatgar
movement (founder Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the Frontier Gandhi)
onto the National scene. While Gandhi was in jail, the first Round Table
Conference was held in London in November 1930, without
representation from the Indian National Congress. The ban upon the
Congress was removed because of economic hardships caused by the
satyagraha. Gandhi, along with other members of the Congress Working
Committee, was released from prison in January 1931.
In March of 1931, the Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed, and the government
agreed to set all political prisoners free (Although, some of the key
revolutionaries were not set free and the death sentence for Bhagat Singh
and his two comrades was not taken back which further intensified the
agitation against Congress not only outside it but with in the Congress it
self). In return, Gandhi agreed to discontinue the civil disobedience

movement and participate as the sole representative of the Congress in

the second Round Table Conference, which was held in London in
September 1931. However, the conference ended in failure in December
1931. Gandhi returned to India and decided to resume the civil
disobedience movement in January 1932.
For the next few years, the Congress and the government were locked in
conflict and negotiations until what became the Government of India Act
of 1935 could be hammered out. By then, the rift between the Congress
and the Muslim League had become unbridgeable as each pointed the
finger at the other acrimoniously. The Muslim League disputed the claim
of the Congress to represent all people of India, while the Congress
disputed the Muslim League's claim to voice the aspirations of all
Muslims.

Quit India Movement

The Quit India Movement (Bharat Chhodo Andolan or the August

Movement) was a civil disobedience movement in India launched in
August 1942 in response to Mahatma Gandhi's call for immediate
independence of India. The aim was to bring the British government to
the negotiating table. The call for determined, but passive resistance that
signified the certitude that Gandhi foresaw for the movement is best

described by his call to Do or Die , issued on 8 August at the Gowalia

Tank Maidan in
Bombay, since re-named August Kranti Maidan (August Revolution
Ground). However, almost the entire Congress leadership, and not merely
at the national level, was put into confinement less than twenty-four hours
after Gandhi's speech, and the greater number of the Congress leaders
were to spend the rest of the war in jail.

Subhas Chandra Bose

Born on January 23, 1897 in Cuttack, Orissa, to a successful lawyer
Jankinath Bose and his wife Prabhavati, Netaji was of a unique
temperament. His father was also chairman of the Municipal Committee
and encouraged education in his province. His mother was a follower of
Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa and so inculcated spiritual values in her
son. Netaji was also influenced by Swami Vivekananda.
To please his father, Netaji went to England to appear for the Indian Civil
Service (I.C.S.) Examination, and achieved fourth place on the Merit list.
But he had no intention of serving the British. Instead he wanted to
participate in the Nationalist Movement and liberate his Motherland.

The Partition of India

Sentiments of Indian nationalism were expressed as early as 1885 at the

Indian National Congress, which was predominantly Hindu. In 1906 the
All-India Muslim League formed with favorable relations towards British
rule, but by 1913 that changed when the League shifted its focus and
began to view Indian self-government as its goal. It continued to favor

Hindu-Muslim unity towards that end for several decades but in 1940 the
League began to call for a separate Muslim state from the projected
independent India. The league was concerned that a united independent
India would be dominated by Hindus. In the winter of 1945-46
Mohammed Ali Jinnah's Muslim League members won all thirty seats
reserved for Muslims in the Central Legislative Assembly and most of the
reserved provincial seats as well.

In an effort to resolve deadlock between Congress and the Muslim

League in order to transfer British power "to a single Indian
administration", a three-man Cabinet Mission formed in 1946 which
drafted plans for a "three-tier federation for India." According to those
plans, the region would be divided into three groups of provinces, with
Group A including the Hindu-populated provinces that would eventually
comprise the majority of the independent India. Groups B and C were
comprised of largely Muslim-populated provinces. Each group would be
governed separately with a great degree of autonomy except for the
handling of "foreign affairs, communications, defense, and only those
finances required for such nationwide matters." These issues would be
addressed by a minimal central government located in Dehli.

The plan, however, did not take into account the fate of a large Sikh
population living in Punjab, part of the B-group of provinces. Mughal
emperors' persecution of Sikh gurus in the 17th century had infused the
Sikh culture with a lasting anti-Muslim element that promised to erupt if
the Punjab Sikhs were to be partitioned off as part of a Muslimdominated province group. Although they did not make up more than two
per cent of the Indian population, the Sikhs had since 1942 been moving
for a separate Azad Punjab of their own, and by 1946 they were
demanding a free Sikh nation-state.

As leader of the Muslim League, Jinnah accepted the Cabinet Mission's

proposal. However, when Nehru announced at his first press conference
as the reelected president of Congress that "no constituent assembly could
be bound by any prearranged constitutional formula," Jinnah took this to

be a repudiation of the plan, which was necessarily a case of all or

nothing. The Muslim Leagues Working Committee withdrew its consent
and called upon the Muslim nation to launch direct action in mid-August
1946. A frenzy of rioting between Hindus and Muslims ensued.
In March of 1947 Lord Mountbatten was sent to take over the viceroy,
and encountered a situation in which he feared a forced evacuation of
British troops. He recommended a partition of Punjab and Bengal in the
face of raging civil war. Gandhi was very opposed to the idea of partition,
and urged Mountbatten to offer Jinnah leadership of a united India
instead of the creation of a separate Muslim state. However, Nehru would
not agree to that suggestion. In July Britain's Parliament passed the Indian
Independence Act, which set a deadline of midnight on August 14-15,
1947 for "demarcation of the dominions of India." As a result, at least 10
million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs fled their homes to seek sanctuary on
whichever side of the line was favorable to them. The ensuing communal
massacres left at least one million dead, with the brunt of the suffering
borne by the Sikhs who had been caught in the middle. Most of them
eventually settled in Punjab.

Jinnah presided as the governor-general of Pakistan, which was

geographically divided into East Pakistan and West Pakistan and
separated by Indian territory (including half of Punjab and half of
Bengal). However, ownership of Kashmir remained in dispute until it
came to a head and war broke out once again in 1965. The unrest did not
end there; in 1971 tensions between East and West Pakistan over Bengali

autonomy developed into another civil war, with the result that
Bangladesh became an independent country in 1972 and West Pakistan
remained Pakistan.

Independence and Partition

Along with the desire for independence, tensions between Hindus and
Muslims had also been developing over the years. The Muslims had
always been a minority, and the prospect of an exclusively Hindu
government made them wary of independence; they were as inclined to
mistrust Hindu rule as they were to resist the Raj. In 1915, Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi came onto the scene, calling for unity between the
two groups in an astonishing display of leadership that would eventually
lead the country to independence. The profound impact Gandhi had on
India and his ability to gain independence through a totally non-violent
mass movement made him one of the most remarkable leaders the world
has ever known. He led by example, wearing homespun clothes to
weaken the British textile industry and orchestrating a march to the sea,
where demonstrators proceeded to make their own salt in protest against
the British monopoly. Indians gave him the name Mahatma, or Great
Soul. The British promised that they would leave India by 1947.
India gained independence in 1947, after being partitioned into the
Republic of India and Pakistan. Following the division, rioting broke out
between Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims in several parts of India, including
Punjab, Bengal and Delhi, leaving some 500,000 dead.[26] Also, this
period saw one of the largest mass migrations ever recorded in modern
history, with a total of 12 million Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims moving
between the newly created nations of India and Pakistan.[26]
Pic revolt of 1857