Rise of Indian Nationalism and the Indian National Congress
2. Ideologies and Programmes of the Congress, 1885-1920
| Phase | Method and figures |
|---|---|
| Early Nationalists (Moderates, 1885-1905) | Dadabhai Naoroji, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Pherozeshah Mehta; petitions, resolutions, constitutional agitation and 'prayer, please and protest' methods, working within and trusting British institutions to grant gradual reform; the Drain Theory (Unit VIII) was their central economic argument. |
| Assertive Nationalists (Extremists, 1905-1917) | Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lal Lajpat Rai (the 'Lal-Bal-Pal' triumvirate), Aurobindo Ghosh; rejected pure petitioning as ineffective, demanded Swaraj as a right rather than a concession, and advocated boycott, Swadeshi and passive resistance as active mass methods, emerging directly from anger at the 1905 Partition of Bengal. |
| Revolutionaries | Groups such as Anushilan Samiti and Yugantar in Bengal, and later Bhagat Singh's Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, pursued armed resistance and individual acts of political violence, operating as a distinct third strand alongside — not simply a more extreme version of — the constitutional Moderate and mass-agitational Extremist methods. |
3. Swadeshi and Swaraj
The Swadeshi movement erupted directly from Lord Curzon's 1905 Partition of Bengal (justified officially as administrative convenience but widely read as a deliberate divide-and-rule strategy weakening Bengali political unity along communal lines), and its own programme combined the boycott of foreign (chiefly British) goods with the positive promotion of indigenous industry and self-reliance, alongside 'national education' initiatives (Bengal National College) intended to build institutions independent of colonial patronage — Rabindranath Tagore's own participation and later ambivalence about the movement's more exclusionary strands is itself a frequently examined nuance; the 1907 Surat Split, in which the Congress's Moderate and Extremist factions publicly and dramatically fractured over strategy and leadership, marks the phase's institutional low point, though the Lucknow Pact (1916) — reuniting Moderates and Extremists and securing a temporary Congress-Muslim League alliance under the joint influence of Tilak and Muhammad Ali Jinnah — restored a fragile unity just before Gandhi's own emergence as the movement's dominant figure.
4. Separate Electorates and the Roots of Communal Politics
This chapter's own founding-and-phases narrative is incomplete without naming the specific institutional decision that later hardened into the communal politics Unit IX's next chapter covers directly: the Muslim League's own founding (Dacca, 1906, under the Aga Khan's leadership) and the Morley-Minto Reforms' 1909 grant of separate electorates for Muslims (already met in Unit VII) together created a distinct, officially recognised political constituency organised explicitly around religious identity from this early period onward — not a sudden 1940s development, but a structural feature of Indian representative politics from very near the Congress's own founding decades.
Key takeaways
- Nationalism grew from concrete economic grievance (the Drain Theory), an all-India print public sphere, and colonial infrastructure's inadvertent connectivity effect.
- Early Nationalists (Naoroji, Gokhale — constitutional method), Assertive Nationalists (Tilak, Pal, Lajpat Rai — boycott/Swadeshi) and Revolutionaries (Anushilan Samiti, later Bhagat Singh's HSRA) are three distinct strands, not one radicalising line; 'Extremist' ≠ armed revolutionary.
- Swadeshi erupted from the 1905 Partition of Bengal, combining boycott, indigenous industry and national education; the 1907 Surat Split fractured Congress, and the 1916 Lucknow Pact reunited it with a temporary Congress-League alliance.
- Gandhi's Hind Swaraj (1909) critiques Western industrial civilization and frames Swaraj as moral/civilizational self-mastery, anticipating his later mass-movement politics.
- The Muslim League's 1906 founding and the 1909 grant of separate electorates created religiously-organised political representation from very near Congress's own founding decades, not as a sudden 1940s development.
Practice questions (9)
Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.
The Early Nationalist (Moderate) phase of Congress politics is chiefly associated with:
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Answer: A — Petitions, resolutions and constitutional agitation
Moderates like Naoroji and Gokhale worked through petitions and constitutional means, trusting British institutions to grant gradual reform, distinct from later Extremist, revolutionary or Gandhian mass methods.The 'Lal-Bal-Pal' triumvirate refers to:
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Answer: A — Lal Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal
Lajpat Rai, Tilak and Pal formed the Assertive Nationalist (Extremist) triumvirate, distinct from the Moderates and from armed revolutionary groups.The Swadeshi movement erupted directly in response to:
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Answer: A — Lord Curzon's 1905 Partition of Bengal
The 1905 Partition of Bengal, read as a divide-and-rule strategy, directly triggered the Swadeshi movement's boycott and self-reliance programme.The 1907 Surat Split marked:
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Answer: A — A public fracture between Congress Moderates and Extremists
The Surat Split (1907) was the dramatic public fracture between Moderates and Extremists over strategy and leadership; the Lucknow Pact (1916) later reunited them.The Lucknow Pact (1916) is notable for securing a temporary alliance between the Congress and:
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Answer: A — The Muslim League
The Lucknow Pact, under Tilak and Jinnah's joint influence, reunited Congress Moderates and Extremists and secured a temporary Congress-Muslim League alliance.Gandhi's Hind Swaraj (1909) primarily critiques:
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Answer: A — Western industrial civilization itself, alongside British rule
Hind Swaraj critiques Western industrial civilization as much as British rule specifically, framing Swaraj as moral/civilizational self-mastery rather than a mere transfer of political power.The Muslim League was founded in which year and city?
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Answer: A — 1906, Dacca
The Muslim League was founded in Dacca in 1906, under the Aga Khan's leadership, roughly contemporary with the Swadeshi movement.Which of the following are correctly identified as Revolutionaries rather than Assertive Nationalists (Extremists)?
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Answer: A — Anushilan Samiti; B — Yugantar; C — Bhagat Singh's HSRA
Anushilan Samiti, Yugantar and the HSRA pursued armed resistance as Revolutionaries; Tilak belongs to the distinct Assertive Nationalist (Extremist) strand of mass agitation.Name the 1909 reforms that granted separate electorates for Muslims, a structural feature of Indian representative politics from near Congress's own founding decades.
Numerical answer — type the value.
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Answer: Morley-Minto Reforms
The Morley-Minto Reforms (Indian Councils Act, 1909) granted separate electorates for Muslims, a structural decision that hardened communal political organisation from this early period onward.