Theme 14Part C · The Gandhian era
The First World War years
1914 to 1919 · Home Rule, Gandhi's first satyagrahas, Rowlatt and Jallianwala Bagh
The war years changed Indian politics completely. The Congress reunited and allied with the League, Home Rule took politics to new regions, and a newcomer from South Africa won three local battles. Then came the Rowlatt Act and the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh.
Event 11914 to 1916
War, Home Rule and the Lucknow Pact
Britain declared war for India in August 1914 without asking Indians. The Moderates backed the war hoping for reward; Tilak, released from Mandalay in June 1914, and Annie Besant decided to use the war to press for self government.
Swipe the map sideways to see all of it.
Tilak's Home Rule League (April 1916, founded at Belgaum, headquarters Poona) works in Maharashtra (except Bombay city), Karnataka, the Central Provinces and Berar. Annie Besant's All India Home Rule League (September 1916, Madras, working from Adyar) covers the rest of India. The two divide the country so as not to compete.
At Lucknow the Moderates and Extremists reunite, and the Congress and the Muslim League sign the Lucknow Pact: joint demands for self government, and Congress acceptance of separate electorates with weightage for minorities. Tilak and Jinnah are its architects.
Besant is interned (June 1917), the agitation grows, and the Secretary of State Edwin Montagu announces the goal of British policy: the progressive realisation of responsible government in India. Besant is released and is elected Congress president for 1917.
Event 21917 to 1918
Gandhi's three experiments
Gandhi spent his first year in India travelling, on Gokhale's advice. Then, in three local struggles, he tested satyagraha on Indian soil and gathered the team that would lead the national movement.
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Indigo planters in Champaran, Bihar, forced tenants to grow indigo on three twentieths of their land (the tinkathia system). Invited by Rajkumar Shukla, Gandhi defies an order to leave Motihari and, with Rajendra Prasad, Mazharul Haq, J. B. Kripalani, Mahadev Desai and others, records the evidence of thousands of peasants. The Champaran Agrarian Act ends the system.
Mill owners want to withdraw the plague bonus. Gandhi, with Anasuya Sarabhai, leads the workers and goes on his first hunger strike in India; her brother Ambalal Sarabhai, a mill owner, is on the other side. The workers win a 35 per cent increase.
Crops fail in Kheda, Gujarat, but revenue is demanded in full. Gandhi and a young lawyer, Vallabhbhai Patel, with Indulal Yagnik, lead a no revenue campaign; the government quietly suspends collection from the poorest.
| Issue | Method | Who joined him | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Champaran 1917 | tinkathia indigo cultivation | civil disobedience of an order; inquiry | Rajendra Prasad, Kripalani, Mahadev Desai | tinkathia abolished; 25% of money refunded |
| Ahmedabad 1918 | plague bonus cut | strike; hunger strike | Anasuya Sarabhai | 35% wage rise |
| Kheda 1918 | revenue in a year of crop failure | no revenue campaign | Vallabhbhai Patel, Indulal Yagnik | collection suspended for the poor |
Event 3March to April 1919
The Rowlatt satyagraha and Jallianwala Bagh
Instead of the reward Indians expected for their war effort, the government extended its war time powers. Gandhi called his first all India satyagraha, and in Punjab it ended in a massacre.
Swipe the map sideways to see all of it.
On the report of the Rowlatt Committee, the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act lets the government jail people without trial for up to two years: "no dalil, no vakil, no appeal". Every Indian member of the Imperial Legislative Council votes against it; Jinnah resigns.
Gandhi forms a Satyagraha Sabha and calls a nationwide hartal. Delhi strikes on 30 March, led by Swami Shraddhanand; Bombay, Lahore, Amritsar, Ahmedabad and many towns follow on 6 April. There is violence in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Punjab; Gandhi is stopped from entering Punjab.
In Amritsar, after the arrest of Saifuddin Kitchlew and Satyapal on 10 April and rioting, General Dyer takes command. On Baisakhi, he marches troops into the walled Jallianwala Bagh, where thousands have gathered, and fires without warning for about ten minutes. Official count: 379 dead; Indian estimates over 1,000. Martial law and humiliating punishments follow in Punjab.
Reactions
- 1919 Rabindranath Tagore gives up his knighthood.
- 1919 to 1920 The Hunter Committee censures Dyer mildly; the Congress's own inquiry is far harsher.
- 1920 The House of Lords praises Dyer; a fund in Britain raises money for him. Indian faith in British justice collapses.
- 1940 Udham Singh shoots Michael O'Dwyer, Punjab's Lieutenant Governor in 1919, in London.
The Montford reforms, 1919
- Government of India Act 1919, on the Montagu Chelmsford report (1918).
- Dyarchy in the provinces: transferred subjects (education, health, agriculture) under ministers responsible to the legislature; reserved subjects (police, finance, land revenue) with the governor.
- A bicameral central legislature; separate electorates extended to Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo Indians and Europeans.
- Came into force in 1921, in the middle of non cooperation.
Who's who13 people
People
Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Home Rule League
Founded at Belgaum, April 1916.
Annie Besant
Home Rule League
New India and Commonweal; Congress president 1917.
M. A. Jinnah
Lucknow Pact
Then the ambassador of Hindu Muslim unity, in Sarojini Naidu's phrase.
Edwin Montagu
Secretary of State
August 1917 declaration.
Rajkumar Shukla
Champaran
Brought Gandhi to Champaran.
Rajendra Prasad
Champaran
Later the first President of India.
Anasuya Sarabhai
Ahmedabad
Led the mill workers with Gandhi.
Vallabhbhai Patel
Kheda
Joined Gandhi in Kheda.
Swami Shraddhanand
Delhi
Led the Rowlatt hartal in Delhi.
Saifuddin Kitchlew and Satyapal
Amritsar
Their arrest on 10 April 1919 led to the gathering.
Reginald Dyer
brigadier general
Ordered the firing at Jallianwala Bagh.
Michael O'Dwyer
Lt Governor of Punjab
Approved Dyer's action; shot by Udham Singh in 1940.
Udham Singh
Punjab
Avenged Jallianwala Bagh in 1940.
Key terms8
Terms
- Home Rule
- Self government within the British empire, on the Irish model.
- Lucknow Pact
- 1916 Congress League agreement.
- Tinkathia
- Indigo on three twentieths of a tenant's land.
- Rowlatt Act
- 1919; detention without trial.
- Hartal
- A general stoppage of work as protest.
- Hunter Committee
- Government inquiry into the Punjab disturbances.
- Dyarchy
- Dual government in the provinces under the 1919 Act.
- Transferred and reserved subjects
- The two halves of dyarchy.