Vinayak Chaturvedi
M.K. Gandhi & Hind Swaraj

Week 4, Lecture 2

Today’s Music: MidiVal Punditz

Today, we will discuss…

•The background on…

a. British Imperialism

b. Indian Nationalism

c. Popular Protests

d. Public Debates

•Historical Context of the Indian Nationalist Movement

Please keep in mind the following question:

What is Gandhi writing about?

(Or, how does the historical background help us understand Gandhi’s contributions in HS to…)

1.Political Participation

2.Resistance

3.Public Expression

4.Ethical Interactions

When do the British arrive in India?

•1750s-1760s: British conquest of Bengal

•1776: American Revolution

•Post-1776: Second British Empire

•1789: French Revolution

•1791-1804: Haitian Revolution

What happens in the first half of the 19^th century? (1800-1850)

•Why do the British arrive in India?

•Initially come as traders

•Become Land Revenue Collectors

•Realize that more money can be made through Land Revenue than trade alone

Continued…

•Consolidation of land

•Alliances with Princely States

•Conquest of Princely States

•Deforestation

•Imposing new forms of legal control

•Famines: 1870s, 1890s: millions die

How does society respond in this period of transformation?

•At least 110 peasant rebellions in the 19^th century

•Public debates and protests about British violations of customary rights (ie, water and land)

•Public debates and protests on British interference with religion, culture, language

•Protests from Princely States about losing authority

•1857: Mutiny and Rebellions

More on responses…

•Indians incorporated into government

•Western educated professionals emerge (doctors, lawyers)

•Some Princely States welcome British presence

•Large numbers of peasants join the military

•Indian bankers and traders collaborate

Indian National Congress (1885)

•India’s first national political organization

•Most individuals are English educated men, mostly Hindus

•Adopt Western-style practices of politics

•Want more self-government

•Want a secular government (not religious)

•Want representative institutions & constitution

•(Gandhi will refer to INC as “Congress”)

Indian National Congress

•Gandhi states: “The Congress brought together Indians from different parts of India, and enthused us with the idea of Nationality.” (17)

•Congress insists that the Nation should control revenue and expenditure (another way of saying, no taxation without representation)

•Divided into 2 parties:

1. EXTREMISTS: constitutional and extra-constitutional methods necessary for swaraj

a. Expel the British but keep their political, military and economic institutions

2. MODERATES: constitutional method for attaining swaraj

More on Partition…

•The Partition of Bengal

a. “The real awakening”

b. Petitions to Government

c. Start of the Swadeshi Movement

1.(swa=self) + (deshi=home/country)

2. How to make the country self-reliant?

3. Responding to the Partition

4. Responding to the economic drain of India

•DISCONTENT:

a. “a very useful thing.” (24)

b. “every reform must be preceded by discontent.”

c. “All these may be considered good signs, but they may also lead bad results.” (25)

Forging Ahead…

“As time passes, the Nation is being forged. Nations are not formed in a day, the formation requires years.” (20)

Forge: To give form or shape to, especially by means of special effort.

(Don’t forget that the root for forgery comes from forge!)

What is Swaraj?

•“You and I and all Indians are impatient to obtain Swaraj, but we are certainly not decided as to what it is.” (26)

•Is it as simple as having the English leave? (see page 27, footnote 35)

•“You want the tiger’s nature, but not the tiger…English rule without the Englishman…You would want to make India English.” (28)

•“What you call Swaraj is not truly Swaraj.” (29)

Condition of England

•“Condition of England is pitiable.” (30)

•“That which you consider to be the Mother of Parliaments is like a sterile woman and a prostitute.” (30; also see 31-33)

(Also, “Parliaments are emblems of slavery”, 38)

•“If India copies England…she will be ruined.” (33)

•“It is not due to any peculiar fault of the English people, but due to modern civilization.” [!!] (33) [Key Point, 33 fn 47]

Civilization

•Gandhi calls modern civilization barbaric

•Modern civilization associated directly with the industrial revolution

•“Those who write about modern civilization are not likely to write against it.” (35)

•Modern civilization associated with disease, slavery, immoral, irreligious

•Modern civilization and women? (37)

•“Civilization is not an incurable disease [but] English people afflicted by it.” (38)

Why was India lost?

•“The English have not taken India; we have given it to them. They are not in India because of strength, but b/c we keep them.”

•English merchants (commerce)…”Money is their God.” (TRUTH?)…wish to convert the work into a market. (41)

•The English do not hold India by the sword… “We alone keep them.” (41)

Condition of India

•“India is being ground down not under the English heel but under that of modern civilization.” (42)

•“India is becoming irreligious.” (42, fn 65)

•“We are turning away from God.” (TRUTH)

•“Railways, lawyers and doctors have impoverished the country

What is true civilization?

•“Civilization is that mode of conduct which points out to man the path of duty. Performance of duty and observance of morality is to attain mastery over our mind and passions. So doing, we know ourselves…Good Conduct.” (67)

Recurring Metaphors

•Disease (40)

•Prostitute

Today’s Images:
1. “Be Indian, Buy Indian”

2. “A lady spinning Swadeshi yarn”

3. Later Gandhi

4. Flag: Indian National Congress

5. Gandhi with Mother India:

“…it behoves every lover of India to cling to the old Indian civilization even as a child clings to its mother’s breast.”
Gandhi, p. 70, HS