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All 24 themes of modern India Now open: Women, capitalists, foreigners and others

Part A The British conquest 1707 to 1857

  1. 01Mughal decline and the regional powers
  2. 02The European trading companies
  3. 03The Carnatic Wars
  4. 04The conquest of Bengal
  5. 05The wars of expansion
  6. 06Instruments of expansion and the frontiers
  7. 07Resistance before 1857
  8. 08The Revolt of 1857

Part B Awakening and early nationalism 1857 to 1915

  1. 09Socio religious reform movements
  2. 10Rise of organised nationalism
  3. 11Partition of Bengal and Swadeshi
  4. 12Revolutionary nationalism, first phase

Part C The Gandhian era 1893 to 1947

  1. 13Gandhi in South Africa
  2. 14The First World War years
  3. 15Khilafat and Non Cooperation
  4. 16Civil Disobedience
  5. 17The Left in the national movement
  6. 18Caste movements and the depressed classes
  7. 19Peasant, worker, tribal and princely state movements
  8. 20Quit India and the INA
  9. 21Communal politics and the Muslim League
  10. 22Partition and independence
  11. 23Women, capitalists, foreigners and others

Part D After 1947 1947 to 1975

  1. 24Integration and reorganisation

Theme 23Part C · The Gandhian era

Women, capitalists, foreigners and others

1857 to 1947 · the sections of society in the national movement

This theme cuts across the events of the earlier themes and asks who took part. It maps women leaders and foreign friends of India, and sets out the role of capitalists and the press. For Indians abroad, see Theme 12; for peasants, workers and tribes, Theme 19.

1860187018801890190019101920193019401950WomenLakshmibaiNaidu presidessaltQuit IndiaCapitalistsTISCOFICCIBombay PlanForeignersHumeNiveditaBesantMirabehnPressPress ActKesariYoung India

Event 11857 to 1947

Women in the national movement

Women moved from being the subject of reform debates in the nineteenth century to being leaders, marchers, prisoners and fighters in the twentieth.

JhansiLakshmibai LucknowHazrat Mahal AdyarBesant CalcuttaSwarnakumari, Kadambini AhmedabadAnasuya Sarabhai DharasanaSarojini Naidu BombayKamaladevi PoonaAIWC 1927 KanpurNaidu presides 1925 ChittagongPritilata, Kalpana CalcuttaBina Das Naga hillsGaidinliu BombayAruna Asaf Ali, Usha Mehta TamlukMatangini Hazra

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Rani Lakshmibai (Jhansi) and Begum Hazrat Mahal (Lucknow) lead in 1857. Swarnakumari Devi and Kadambini Ganguly attend the Congress (1889, 1890). Bhikaji Cama raises the flag at Stuttgart (1907); Annie Besant leads Home Rule from Adyar (1916).

Centre of revoltWomen

Event 21905 to 1947

Indian capitalists

Indian business grew under British rule and against it. Its leaders backed the Congress, funded it, and also bargained with it.

  1. Swadeshi enterprise1905 to 1919Tata Iron and Steel at Jamshedpur (1907); swadeshi banks, mills and the Tuticorin steamship company; Walchand Hirachand's Scindia Steam Navigation (1919).
  2. Organised business1927The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is founded on the initiative of G. D. Birla and Purshottamdas Thakurdas.
  3. Business and the Congress1930 to 1942Business funded Civil Disobedience and enforced the cloth boycott at first, then pressed for the Gandhi Irwin settlement; it stayed cautious in 1942. Jamnalal Bajaj, Gandhi's fifth son as he called himself, was Congress treasurer.
  4. The Bombay Plan1944Eight industrialists, including J. R. D. Tata, G. D. Birla and Thakurdas, publish a plan for state led industrialisation after independence.

Event 31885 to 1947

Foreigners who chose India

A number of Europeans and Americans gave their lives to the Indian cause.

SimlaHume AdyarBesant CalcuttaNivedita SantiniketanC. F. Andrews SevagramMirabehn KotgarhSamuel Stokes BombayHorniman

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A. O. Hume and William Wedderburn helped found the Congress; Annie Besant led Home Rule; Sister Nivedita (Margaret Noble) worked with Vivekananda in Calcutta; C. F. Andrews, Deenabandhu, taught at Santiniketan and championed indentured labourers; Mirabehn (Madeleine Slade) lived in Gandhi's ashrams; Samuel Stokes of Kotgarh, the only American in the Congress's AICC, brought apple growing to Himachal; B. G. Horniman of the Bombay Chronicle was deported for reporting Jallianwala Bagh.

Event or centreEnglish

Event 41858 to 1947

The press

Newspapers were the nervous system of the national movement, and the government's laws against them show how much it feared them.

FoundedFoundersLanguage
Amrita Bazar Patrika1868Sisir Kumar and Motilal GhoshBengali, then English
The Hindu1878G. Subramania Iyer and othersEnglish
Kesari and Maratha1881Tilak, AgarkarMarathi, English
Al Hilal1912Maulana AzadUrdu
Young India and Navajivan1919GandhiEnglish, Gujarati
Harijan1933GandhiEnglish
National Herald1938NehruEnglish
  1. 1878 Vernacular Press Act (repealed 1882).
  2. 1908 Newspapers (Incitement to Offences) Act.
  3. 1910 Indian Press Act.
  4. 1931 Indian Press (Emergency Powers) Act.

Who's who14 people

People

Sarojini Naidu

Congress president 1925

Nightingale of India.

Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay

socialist

Salt satyagraha; later crafts revival.

Aruna Asaf Ali

Quit India

Heroine of 1942.

Usha Mehta

Congress Radio

1942.

Sucheta Kripalani

underground

Later the first woman Chief Minister (UP).

Bina Das

revolutionary

Fired at Governor Jackson (1932).

G. D. Birla

industrialist

FICCI; close to Gandhi.

Jamnalal Bajaj

Wardha

Congress treasurer.

J. R. D. Tata

industrialist

Bombay Plan (1944).

Sister Nivedita

Calcutta

Margaret Noble.

C. F. Andrews

Santiniketan

Deenabandhu.

Mirabehn

Gandhi's ashrams

Madeleine Slade.

Samuel Stokes

Kotgarh

American in the AICC.

B. G. Horniman

Bombay Chronicle

Deported in 1919.

Key terms4

Terms

AIWC
All India Women's Conference (1927).
FICCI
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (1927).
Bombay Plan
1944 industrialists' plan for development.
Indian Press Act
1910 law requiring security deposits from newspapers.

Maps are drawn on the Survey of India outline used across VidBodh; maps that leave the subcontinent use a world base with India shown as the Survey of India depicts it. Coloured glows show where a power held sway, a movement spread or tribute was collected; they are not borders.