EMERGENCE OF GANDHI Flashcards
1
Q
Main features of the Montagu- Chelmsford Reforms and Goverment of India Act, 1919 in Provincial Government’s Executive?
A
- Executive
1. Introduction of Dyarchy, i.e., rule of two executive councillors and popular ministers- was introduced. The governor was to be the executive head in the province.
2. Subjects were divided into two lists: ‘reserved’ which included subjects such as law and order, finance, land revenue, irigation, etc.”, and ‘transferred’ subjects such as education, health, local goverment, industry, agriculture, excise, etc. The reserved subjects were to be administered by the governor through his executive council of bureaucrats and the transferred subjects were to be administered by ministers nominated from among the elected members of the legislative council.
3. The ministers were to be responsible to the legislature and had to resign if a no-confidence motion was passed against them by the legislature, while the executive councillors were not to be responsible to the legislature.
4. In case of failure of constitutional machinery in the province the govenor could take over the administration of transferred subjects also.
5. The secretary of state for India and the goveror-general could interfere in respect of reserved subjects while in respect of the transferred subjects, the scope for their interference was restricted.
2
Q
Main features of the Montagu- Chelmsford Reforms and Goverment of India Act, 1919 in Provincial Government’s legislature?
A
- Provincial legislative councils were further expanded and 70 per cent of the members were to be elected.
- The system of communal and class electorates was further consolidated.
- Women were also given the right to vote.
- The legislative councils could initiate legislation but the governor’s assent was required. The governor general could veto bills and issue ordinances.
- The legislative councils could reject the budget but the govenor could restore it, if necessary.
- The legislators enjoyed freedom of speech.
3
Q
Main features of the Montagu- Chelmsford Reforms and Goverment of India Act, 1919 in Central Goverment’s Executive?
A
- Central Government–Still Without Responsible Government.
No responsible government was envisaged in the Act for the government at the all-India level.
The main points were:
Executive
1. The governor-general was to be the chief executive authority.
2. There were to be two lists for administration central and provincial.
3. In the viceroy’s executive council of eight, three were to be Indians.
4. The governor-general retained full control over the reserved subjects in the provinces.
5. The governor-general could restore cuts in grants, certify bills rejected by the central legislature and issue ordinances.
4
Q
Main features of the Montagu- Chelmsford Reforms and Goverment of India Act, 1919 in Central Government’s legislature?
A
- A bicameral arrangement was introduced. The lower house or Central Legislative Assembly would consist of 145 members (41 nominated and 104 elected 52 General, 30 Muslims, 2 Sikhs, 20 Special) and the upper house or Council of State would have 60 members, of which 26 were to be nominated and 34 elected-20 General, 10 Muslims, 3 Europeans and 1 Sikh (as per the figures given by Subhash Kashyap).
- The Council of State had a tenure of 5 years and had only male members, while the Central Legislative Assembly had a tenure of 3 years.
- The legislators could ask questions and supplementaries, pass adjournment motions and vote a part of the budget, but 75 per cent of the budget was still not votable.
Some Indians found their way into important committees including finance.
On the home government (in Britain) front, the Government of India Act, 1919 made an important change the Secretary of State for India was henceforth to be paid out of the British exchequer.
5
Q
Congress reaction to the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms?
A
The Congress met in a special session in August 1918 at Bombay under Hasan Imam’s presidency and declared the reforms to be disappointing and unsatisfactory and demanded effective self government instead.
6
Q
The Montford reforms were termed “unworthy and disappointing— a sunless dawn” by ______ even as Annie Besant found them “unworthy of England to offer and India to accept”.
A
Tilak.
7
Q
Who was in favour of accepting the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms?
A
Surendranath Banerjee (Moderate).
8
Q
Natal Indian Congress was set up by?
A
Mahatama Gandhi.
9
Q
Newspaper Indian Opinion was started by?
A
Mahatama Gandhi.
10
Q
Phase of Passive Resistance or Satyagraha (named by Gandhi) (1906-1914)?
A
- Satyagraha against Registration Certificates (1906).
- Campaign against Restrictions on Indian Migration.
- Campaign against Poll Tax and Invalidation of Indian Marriages– A poll tax of three pounds was imposed on all ex-indentured Indians. Then a Supreme Court order which invalidated all marriages not conducted according to Christian rites and registered by the registrar of marriages drew the anger of the Indians and others who were not Christians. The Indians treated this judgement as an insult to the honour of women and many women were drawn into the movement because of this industry.
- Protest against Transnaval Immigration Act– In India, Gokhale toured the whole country mobilising public opinion in support of the Indians in South Africa. Even the Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, condemned the repression and called for an imperial enquiry.
- Compromise Solution– Eventually, through a series of negotiations involving Gandhi, Lord Hardinge, C.F. Andrews and General Smuts, an agreement was reached by which the Government of South Africa conceded the major Indian demands relating to the poll tax, the registration certificates and marriages solemnised according to Indian rites, and promised to treat the issue of Indian immigration in a sympathetic manner.
11
Q
Gandhi was convinced about the limitations of moderate politics and was also not in favour of Home Rule agitation.
True/false?
A
True.
12
Q
Champaran Satyagraha?
A
- 1917, First Civil Disobedience.
- Gandhi was requested by Rajkumar Shukla, to look into the problems of the farmsrs in context of indigo planters of Champaran in Bihar.
- The European planters had been forcing the peasants to grow indigo on 3/20 part of the total land (called tinkathia system).
- When towards the end of the nineteenth century German synthetic dyes replaced indigo, the European planters demanded high rents and illegal dues from the peasants in order to maximize their profits before the peasants could shift to other crops. Besides, the peasants were forced to sell the produce at prices fixed by the Europeans.
- When Gandhi, joined now by Rajendra Prasad, Mazhar-ul-haq, Mahadeo Desai, Narhari Parekh, and J.B. Kriplani, reached Champaran, the authorities ordered them to leave the area.
- As a compromise with the planters, he agreed that only 25 per cent of the money taken should be compensated.
13
Q
Leaders associated with Champaran Satyagraha apart from Gandhi?
A
- Rajendra Prasad
- Mazhar-ul-haq
- Mahadeo Desai
- Narhari Parekh
- J.B. Kriplani
- Brajkishore Prasad
- Anugrah Narayan Sinha
- Ramnavmi Prasad
- Shambhusharan Varma
14
Q
Ahmedabad Mill Strike?
A
- 1918, First Hunger Strike
- In March 2018, Gandhi intervened in a dispute between cotton mill owners of Ahmedabad and the workers over the issue of discontinuation of the Plague bonus.
- The mill owners wanted to withdraw the bonus. The workers were demanding a rise of 50 percent in their wages so that they could manage in the times of wartime inflation.
- The mill owners were ready to give about 20 percent wage hike.
- The workers of the mill turned to Anusuya Sarabhai for help in fighting the justice. Anusuya Sarabhai was a social worker who was also the sister of Ambalal Sarabhai, one of the mill owners and the president of the Ahmedabad Mill Owners Association (founded in 1891 to develop the textile industry in Ahmedabad), for help in fighting for justice. Anusuya Behn went to Gandhi, who was respected by the mill owners and workers, and asked him to intervene.
- Though Gandhi was a friend of Ambalal, he took up the workers’ cause.
- It was Anusuya Behn who went on later to form the Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association in 1920.
- Gandhi asked the workers to go on a strike and demanded a 35 percent increase in the wages instead of 50 percent.
- When negotiations with mill owners did not progress, he himself undertook a fast unto death (his first) to strengthen the workers’ resolve. In the end, the tribunal awarded the workers a 35 percent wage hike.
15
Q
Kheda Satyagraha?
A
- In 1918, First Non Cooperation
- Because of drought in 1918, the crops failed in Kheda district less than one fourth the normal produce, the farmers were entitled to remission.
- Gandhi asked the farmers not to pay taxes.
- Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and a group of other devoted Gandhians, namely, Narahari Parekh, Mohanlal Pandya and Ravi Shankar Vyas, who went around the villages, organised the villagers and told them what to do and gave the necessary political leadership.
- Patel along with his colleagues organised the tax revolt which the different ethnic and caste communities of Kheda supported.
- Even when, on non payment of taxes, the goverment seized the farmers personal property.
- Those Indians who sought to buy the confiscated lands were socially ostracised.
- Ultimately, the goverment sought to bring about an agreement with the farmers. It agreed to suspend the tax for the year in question, and for the next; reduce the increase in rate; and return all the confiscated property.
