FIRST WORLD WAR AND NATIONALIST RESPONSE

Question 1

First World War was fought between?

Answer 1

The First World War (1914-1919)– was fought between
Britain, France, Japan, USA, Russia, Italy, against Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey.

Question 2

What was the nationalists response to the British participation in the First World War?

Answer 2

1. The Moderates supported the empire in the war as a matter of duty.
2. The Extremists, including Tilak (who was released in June 1914), supported the war efforts in the mistaken belief that Britain would repay India’s loyalty with gratitude in the form of self-government.
3. The revolutionaries decided to utilise the opportunity to wage a war on British rule and liberate the country.

Question 3

Origin of The Home Rule League?

Answer 3

• The Home Rule Movement was the Indian response to the First World War.
• Prominent leaders- Balgangadhar Tilak, Annie Besant, G.S. Khaparde, Sir S. Subramania lyer, Joseph Baptista and Mohammad Ali Jinnah among others got together and decided that it was necessary to have a national alliance that would work throughout the year (unlike the Congress which had annual sessions) with the main objective of demanding self-govemment or home rule for all of India within the British commonwealth. This alliance was to be the All India Home Rule League along the lines of the Irish Home Rule League.

Question 4

Newspaper New India and Commonweal were launched by?

Answer 4

Annie Besant.

Question 5

When were the Extremists admitted to the Congress?

Answer 5

At the annual session of the Congress in 1915, the efforts of Tilak and Besant met with some success. It was decided that the Extremists be admitted to the Congress.

Question 6

Why Annie Besant decided to set up her own league?

Answer 6

In 1915 session of Congress, Besant failed to get the Congress to approve her scheme of Home Rule Leagues, the Congress did commit itself to a programme of educative propaganda and to a revival of local level Congress committees. Not willing to wait for too long, Besant laid the condition that if the Congress did not implement its commitments, she would be free to set up her own league—which she finally had to as there was no response from the Congress.

Question 7

In which year did Tilak set up his Home Rule League?

Answer 7

Tilak set up his Indian Home Rule League in April 1916.

Question 8

1. Tilak held his first Home Rule meeting at ______.
2. ______ was the headquarters of his league.

Answer 8

1. Belgaum
2. Poona.

Question 9

Areas covered by Tilak’s League?

Answer 9

1. Maharashtra (excluding Bombay)
2. Karnataka
3. Central Provinces
4. Berar.

Question 10

Branches of Tialk’s League?

Answer 10

It had 6 branches and the demands included Swarajya, formation of linguistic states and education in the vernacular.

Question 11

Besant’s League was set up in which year?

Answer 11

Annie Besant set up her All India Home Rule League in September 1916 in Madras (now Chennai).

Question 12

Areas covered by Annie Besant’s League?

Answer 12

Covered the rest of India (including Bombay city).

Question 13

Branches of Annie Besant’ League?

Answer 13

It had 200 branches, was loosely organized as compared to Tilak’s league.

Question 14

Organising secretary of Besant’s League?

Answer 14

George Arundale.

Question 15

Besides Arundale the main work of the Besant’s League was done by?

Answer 15

B.W. Wadia and C.P. Ramaswamy Aiyar.

Question 16

The Russian revolution of 1917 proved to be an added advantage for the Home campaign.
The Home Rule was later joined by?

Answer 16

1. Motilal Nehru
2. Jawaharlal Nehru
3. Bhulabhai Desai
4. Chittaranjan Das
5. K.M. Munshi
6. B. Chakravarti
7. Saifuddin kitchlew
8. Madan Mohan Malaviya
9. Mohammad Ali Jinnah
10. Tej Bahadur Sapru
11. Lala Lajpat Rai.

Question 17

Mohammad Ali Jinnah headed which division of the Annie Besant’s League?

Answer 17

Bombay division.

Question 18

1. Many of the Moderate Congressmen who were disillusioned with the Congress inactivity, and some members of Gokhale’s Servants of India Society also joined the agitation.
2. Anglo- Indians, most of the Muslims and non brahmins from the south did not join as they felt Home Rule would mean rule of the Hindu majority, and that too by the High caste.
   True/false?

Answer 18

1. True
2. True.

Question 19

Government Attitude towards the Home Rule League?

Answer 19

• Tilak was barred from entering the Punjab and Delhi.
• In June 1917, Annie Besant and her associates, B.P. Wadia and George Arundale, were arrested.

Question 20

Who surrendered the Knighthood awarded to him by the Colonial Government as a protest against the internment of Dr. Annie Besant?

Answer 20

Sir S. Subramaniya Aiyar.

Question 21

Why the Home Rule Agitation faded out by 1919?

Answer 21

1. There was a lack of effective organisation.
2. Communal riots were witnessed during 1917-18.
3. The Moderates who had joined the Congress after Annie Besant’s arrest were pacified by talk of reforms (contained in Montagu’s statement of August 1917 which held self goverment as the long-term goal of the British rule in India) and Besant’s release.
4. Talk of passive resistance by the Extremists kept the Moderates away from activity from September 1918 onwards.
5. The Montagu-Chelmsford reforms which became known in July 1918 further divided the nationalist ranks Annie Besant herself was in two minds about the use of the league after the announcement of the reforms.
6. Tilak had to go abroad (September 1918) in connection with a libel case agaisnt Valentine Chirol whose book, Indian Unrest, had featured Tilak as responsible for the agitational politics that had developed in India.
7. Gandhi’s fresh approach was catching the imagination of the people.

Question 22

Book Indian Unrest was written by?

Answer 22

Valentine Chirol.

Question 23

Formation of Swarajya Sabha?

Answer 23

In 1920, Gandhi accepted the presidentship of the All India Home Rule League, and changed the organisation’s name to Swarajya Sabha. Within a year, however, the league joined the Indian National Congress.

Question 24

Positive gains of the Home Rule League Movement?

Answer 24

1. The movement shifted the emphasis from the educated elite to the masses and permanently deflected the movement from the course mapped by the Moderates.
2. It created an organisational link between the town and the country, which was to prove crucial in later years when the national movement entered its mass phase in a true sense.
3. It created a generation of ardent nationalists.
4. It prepared the masses for politics of the Gandhian style.
5. The August 1917 declaration of Montagu and the Montford reforms were influenced by the Home Rule agitation.
6. The efforts of Tilak and Annie Besant towards the Moderate-Extremist reunion at Lucknow (1916) revived the Congress as an effective instrument of Indian nationalism.
7. The home rule movement lent a new dimension and a sense of urgency to the national movement.

Question 25

The Lucknow session of the Indian National Congress which readmitted the Extremists led by the Tilak to the Congress was presided over by?

Answer 25

Ambika Charan Majumdar (Moderate).

Question 26

Factors that facilitated the reunion of moderates and extremists in 1916 Lucknow session?

Answer 26

1. Old controversies had become meaningless now.
2. Both the Moderates and the Extremists realised that the split had led to political inactivity.
3. Annie Besant and Tilak had made vigorous efforts for the reunion. To allay Moderate suspicions, Tilak had declared that he supported a reform of administration and not an overthrow of the government. He also denounced acts of violence.
4. The death of two Moderates, Gokhale and Pherozshah Mehta,
   who had led the Moderate opposition to the Extremists, facilitated the reunton.

Question 27

Lucknow session of 1916 also led to the coming together of the Muslim League and the Congress and the presentation of common demands by them to the government.
Why the change in the League’s attitude?

Answer 27

1. Britain’s refusal to help Turkey (ruled by the Khalifa who claimed religio-political leadership of all Muslims) in its wars in the Balkans (1912-13) and with Italy (during 1911) had angered the Muslims.
2. Annulment of partition of Bengal in 1911 had annoyed those sections of the Muslims who had supported the partition.
3. The refusal of the British government in India to set up a university at Aligarh with powers to affiliate colleges all over India aIso alienated some Muslims.
4. The younger League members were turning to bolder nationalist politics and were trying to” outgrow the limited political outlook of the Aligarh school. The Calcutta session of the Muslim League (1912) had committed the League to “working with other groups for a system of self-government suited to India, provided it did not come in contlict with its basic objective of protection of interests of the Indian Muslims”. Thus, the goal of self-govemment similar to that of the Congress brought both sides closer.
5. Younger Muslims were infuriated by the government repression during the First World War. Maulana Azad’s Al Hilal and Mohammad Ali’s Comrade faced suppression while the leaders such as Ali brothers, Maulana Azad and Hasrat Mohani faced internment. This generated anti-imperialist sentiments among the Young Party’.

Question 28

Newspaper Al Hilal was founded by?

Answer 28

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in 1912.

Question 29

Newspaper Comrade was founded by?

Answer 29

Maulana Mohammad Ali in 1911.

Question 30

Nature of the Lucknow Pact?

Answer 30

• While the League agreed to present joint constitutional demands with the Congress to the goverment, the Congress accepted the Muslim League’s position on separate electorates which would continue till any one community demanded joint electorates. The Muslims were also granted a fixed proportion of seats in the legislatures at all-India and provincial levels.
  The joint demands were:–
  1. Government should declare that it would confer self-government on Indians at an early date.
  2. The representative assemblies at the central as-well as provincial level should be further expanded with an elected majority and more powers given to them.
  3. The term of the legislative council should be five years.
  4. The salaries of the Secretary of State for India should be paid by the British treasury and not drawn from Indian funds.
  5. Half the members of the viceroy’s and provincial governors executive councils should be Indians.

Question 31

Critical Comments on Lucknow Pact?

Answer 31

• Though half the executive was to be elected by the legislature, the executive as a whole was not to be responsible to the legislature.
• The legislature could not remove the elected half of the executive, but since important matters like the budget were dependent upon the approval of the legislature, a constitutional deadlock was most likely.
• The Lucknow Pact demands were thus just a significantly expanded version of the Morley-Minto reforms - Acceptance of the principle of separate electorates by the Congress implied that the Congress and the League came together as separate political entities. This was a major landmark in the evolution of the two-nation theory by the Muslim League. Secondly, while the leaders of the two groups came together, efforts to bring together the masses from the two communities were not considered.

Question 32

What was the August Declaration of 1917?

Answer 32

Edwin Samuel Montagu, made a settlement on August 20, 1917 known as the August Declaration of 1917. The statement said: The government policy is of an increasing participation of Indians in every branch of administration and gradual development of self governing institutions with a view to the progressive realisation of responsible goverment in India as an integral part of the British Empire.

Question 33

The objections of the Indian leaders to Montagu’s statement were?

Answer 33

• The objections of the Indian leaders to Montagu’s statement were two-fold—
  1. No specific time frame was given.
  2. The government alone was to decide the nature and the timing of advance towards a responsible govemment,and the Indians were resentful that the British would decide what was good and what was bad for Indians.