Unit 3 Flashcards
(37 cards)
1
Q
Overall, how did the idea of
independence develop over the 1930s in India?
A
- shifted from a remote dream to something seen as “) an achievable reality by all parties by the end of the decade.
- many proposals were made and rejected, all against a background of repression and rioting
- decade of constitutionalism
2
Q
Who attended the first Round Table conference?
A
- Nov 1930 to Jan 1931
- all 3 British political parties in attendance, chaired by Labour PM Ramsay MacDonald (Tories led by Sir Samuel Hoare + Liberals by former Viceroy (1921-26)
Lord Reading) - 58 Indian delegates representing everyone but Congress (but nominated by the Viceroy, no formal mandate from the groups they were meant to represent)
- princes sent 16 representatives (supported dominion status, strengthened British case).
3
Q
What was agreed at the first Round
Table Conference but why did it ultimately not matter?
A
- India would be run as a dominion (same as Canada,aus, NZ), in the form of a federation that would include 11 British provinces and the Princely States.
- Indian participation in all levels of govt.
- considerable progress was made (possibly due to Congress’s absence) but Gandhi was immediately opposed to all resolutions involving dominion status.
4
Q
What was the significance of the inauguration of New Delhi
A
- February 1931
- formally moved the capital of the Raj from Calcutta to New Delhi
- the administrative buildings were designed to convey the solemnity and permanence of the Raj, with an acropolis consisting of 4 columns representing the 4 dominions
- timing was poor, the Raj seemed to be making concessions at the RTCS whilst this made a set-in-stone statement about the permanence of India’s dominion status, pointing towards a federation (acceptable for progressive Brits and moderate Indians, but not for die-hard imperialists like Churchill or Gandhi and Nerhu).
5
Q
Who attended the Second Round Table conference?
A
- Sept to Dec 1931
- As a result of the Gandhi-Irwin pact, Gandhi attended as Congress’s sole representative to convey the unity of the nationalist movement → almost suggesting that he was the sole representative of Indian opinion
- based on the Lahore Congress, Gandhi was now aiming for purna swaraj and so was directly opposed to the outcome of RTC1
- there were other attendants with different agendas: Iqbal, Aga Khan and
Jinnah = Muslim League, Dr Tara Singh = Sikhs, Dr Ambedkar = untouchables
6
Q
Why did Gandhi believe he spoke for all Indians?
A
- bound Hindus and Muslims together in support of satyagraha at 1920
Nagpur Congress. - combined opposition to 1927/28 Simon Commission w/ ML + Jinnah
- Jinnah’s attempts to bring about a rapprochement with Congress (e.g. 1929
14 point plan) - 1930 salt satyagraha included untouchables
- 1931 Gandhi-Irwin pact
7
Q
Why was nothing agreed at the second Round Table Conference?
A
- all of the minority representatives demanded separate electorates
- Gandhi objected to this for untouchables as he felt it would weaken the Hindu majority
- Gandhi and Muslims could not agree, as usual.
- Gandhi was also concerned about an alliance between the Muslims and the Princes that might outweigh Congress’ recommendations.
- thus, no workable solution was agreed.
8
Q
Who became viceroy in 1932 and how did he manage nationalist protest?
A
- Viceroy Willingdon
- saw Gandhi as a dangerous Bolshevik and used repressive measures against protestors (thus alienating nationalist opinion)
- govt told him to only work with cooperative elements of Indian opinion
- so on 4th January 1932, Gandhi was arrested and imprisoned, Congress was outlawed, all of the CWC and provincial committees were imprisoned and youth organisations were banned so that 80,000
Indians ended up in jail - led to disorganised protests (boycotts and nonpayment of taxes), but terrorist activity also increased (United Provinces + NW Frontier became armed camps essentially) HWVR the police never lost control of the streets
9
Q
What was the Communal Award?
A
- August 1932
- Labour PM Ramsay MacDonald promised all minorities separate electorates under any future Indian constitution
- outrages Gandhi - giving untouchables separate electorates would weaken the Hindu majority in an election, thus weakening Congress
10
Q
What was Gandhi’s response to the Communal Award?
A
- fast-unto-death whilst in prison to protest the Communal Award
- highly effective because his death would make him a martyr, symbolic of the independence movement against the Raj, thus it served as a form of blackmail as the British could not let him die in prison
- but the British did not want to be seen to give into this form of protest.
11
Q
How did the Yeravda/ Poona Pact resolve the impasse?
A
- the fast exerted huge pressure on Hindus (including the untouchables) to I i unify in Bombay and craft a set of proposals which were taken to Gandhi
- increased the Communal Award’s designation of 71 seats for Untouchables in provincial legislatures to 148, elected through primary (only Us voting) and secondary elections.
- 18% of Central Assembly seats would be given to Us but voted by general electorate
- essentially removed separate electorates
- some money was also agreed upon by Hindus for the education of Us
- British accepted the pact and amended the CA, Gandhi ended his fast and it was celebrated as U abolition week.
12
Q
Why did the third Round Table conference fail?
A
- Nov 1932
- doomed
- only had 46 delegates, no representatives from Labour or Congress
- discussed finance, franchise and the role of princely states but collapsed in confusion
13
Q
How did the situation in Britain contribute to the failure of the Round Table Conferences?
A
- 1931: Labour government split and resigned as MacDonald lost the confidence of the party.
- replaced with the National Government (Tory dominated coalition w/ Labour PM Ramsay MacDonald) faced the Great Depression which superseded the India question
- Sir Samuel Hoare (new Tory sec of state for India) = not as pro self
government as William Wedgwood Benn (old sec of state) - Churchill est. India Defence League in 1933 with 50 MPs, believed Indians were unsuited to democracy.
- Labour party didn’t send any representatives to the third RTC
14
Q
How did Congress contribute to the failure of the Round Table Conferences?
A
- not represented at RTCl as Nehru and Gandhi in jail
- at RTC2, Gandhi claimed to speak for all India including Muslims - wanted to be an umbrella organisation but alienated minorities
- arrested before RTC3 (could argue this is the fault of Raj’s repression)
15
Q
How did the issue of separate electorates contribute to the failure of the Round Table Conferences?
A
- Jinnah = determined to have the Muslim voice heard, firm supporter of seperate electorates
- untouchables = outraged that Congress claimed to speak for them.
- Jinnah’s covert actions, played one group off against the other to gain more concessions for Muslims.
- British supported separate electorates + had always been made possible by them (divide and rule)
16
Q
Why did the British government pass the 1935 Government of India Act?
A
they believed the round table conferences showed that Indians would be a unable to reach agreement on their own constitution, so Britain decided to create one for them: it was the final British-written constitution.
17
Q
What was proposed by the 1935 Government of India Act and how much of it was implemented?
A
- a Federation of India was proposed (but never put into effect.)
- India would be split into ll provinces where their provincial governments would control everything except defence and foreign affairs.
- each province would have a governor with emergency powers.
- dyarchy was abolished
- separate electorates continued
- Burma was partitioned and made separate from India
- 2 new states, Sindh and Orissa, were created.
- the Viceroy had to follow the advice of a majority-Indian executive committee
18
Q
How did British Conservatives respond to the 1935 Government of India Act?
A
- India Defence League: Rudyard Kipling = vice-president and Churchill + 50
Mps were members, fought the bill every inch of the way - couldn’t accept that Indians were capable of running their own affairs
- received media support from the Daily Mail and its proprietor Lord Rothermere: wrote articles w/ anti-Congress propaganda and fake news
under the title ‘If we lose India’ -> believed that India = crucial to the British
economy + to lose it during the Great Depression would be folly - but Tory PM Stanley Baldwin steered it through, arguing that the British Empire had to grow and develop and less than 50 MPs voted no in the end
19
Q
How did Congress respond to the government of India Act?
A
- wanted purna swaraj, did not go far enough
- wanted a strong central govt, this was Hindu-dominated, feared some provincial governments would become Muslim dominated
- Congress’ fears = theoretical, currently the provincial govts were Hindu
dominated, but elections were upcoming in 1937. - Congress was also officially opposed to the autocratic princes joining any federal legislature, but the central INC leadership was scared that splinter groups of Congress would use the agitation in princely states to build up a power base of their own + challenge central INC leaders.
20
Q
How did the princes respond to the 1935 Government of India Act?
A
- federation might diminish their power
- government did not want to push them too hard in case the act fell
- also government feared they would join tory die-hards to prevent full implementation
- this hampered negotiations so by 1939, only 2/5 of princely states had agreed to form the federation.
- the princes also faced pressure for reform and greater representation in their own states before any federal agreement was reached that would confirm their autocracy - unrest and limited rioting broke out in Hyderabad and Khasi
21
Q
What was the outcome of the 1937 Indian elections?
A
- Both Congress and ML decided to take part because not doing so would i cut them off from levers of power
- Congress = very successful, gained overall control of all states but
Bengal, Punjab and Singh, ended up with 716 out of 1585 provincial legislative seats even though less than half were open to the general electorate (won 59 sep electorate seats too) - Muslim league = failed badly, had no strong leadership until 1935 when
Jinnah returned, not enough time to rally a strong power base + didn’t have enough candidates to cover all Muslims in reserved seats. - but polling figures show Muslims gave little support to Congress candidates (even if they were Muslims standing for restricted seats) -> only
overwhelmingly Muslim province that voted strongly for Congress = NW
Frontier.
22
Q
How did Congress members abuse their positions after the 1937 elections?
A
- appointed relatives/ fellow caste members
- drew up fiscal policies to hurt Muslim landowners
- Bihar = cow slaughter was banned
- Congress flags were hoisted where there was a substantial
Muslim minority - felt like a Hindu Raj to Muslims
23
Q
How did the Muslim league revitalise itself after losing the 1937 elections?
A
- Congress gave ML/ Jinnah an opportunity to revitalise by abusing the power of their positions after 1937
- Jinnah carefully orchestrated a media circuit, talking about the glory days of the Mughal Empire to increase muslim pride
- Tipu Sultan Day inaugurated in honour of Muslim sultan of Mysore
- targeted university students, promised them a good future under Muslim League and separate electorates.
- turned to the league in their thousands
- Jinnah became symbolic of Muslim identity
24
Q
How did Congress approach governance with the Raj?
A
- Congress was a partner in govt with the Raj, but Congress’ central
leadership = uncertain about how far they could control prov leaders, even
though they nominally supported Congress - Gandhi favoured using parliamentary tactics + temporarily cooperate w/ Raj and princes, whereas Nehru hated working w/ a constitution they disliked where the British still had ultimate power
- Gandhi negotiated w/ the British so that provincial governors would not interfere with normal administration, but in some provinces there was a refusal to accept both the Raj + the rights of Muslims.
25
Outline the last attempt to achieve Congress and Muslim League unity under Bose in 1938
- In 1938, Jinnah met briefly with Gandhi, Nehru and Bose
- but talks broke down because of Jinnah's insistence that the Muslim League be recognised by Congress as the sole party of India's Muslims (and claimed this at the Patna session of the Muslim League in December 1938.
- Congress saw themselves as an umbrella organisation representing all of India (including Muslims e.g. Azad was president from 1940-46)
26
How was Congress divided internally in 1938?
- factionalism: in-fighting over the presidency
- Gandhi + old guard didnt trust Bose, but Nehru refused to stand and Bose didn't want to step aside for Gandhi faction's nominee, Pattabhi Sitaramayya.
- there was an election which Bose won by 1580 votes to 1375.
- 12 members of the Gandhi faction resigned from the CWC so Bose was left president of a party w significant rifts in its upper echelons, and was forced to resign + was replaced by Prasad.
- Bose and his brother founded the Forward Bloc party, dedicated to the revolutionary overthrow of the Raj
27
How did attitudes towards the Raj change after the 1937 elections (until 1939)?
- brief period of popularity
- Raj seemed less + less like the natural govt of India, but no obvious alternative was accepted by all Indians
- more people, esp Congress chief ministers, looked to admin structures of the Raj for practical guidance and professional help, demonstrating the sobering reality that freedom alone would not solve the subcontinent's complex problems.
- British recruitment to the ICS boomed in the 1930s but the system itself struggled under the administrative workload of managing the new provincial assemblies.
28
Contrast the effect of WWI and WW2 on tensions in India.
- both increased desire for independence > innate contradiction of fighting a war for liberty and democracy alongside a power that was denying these principles to India
- WWl drove Hindus and Muslims together and unified India's nationalist movt whilst WW2 confirmed the separation of Muslims and Hindus.
- WWl strengthened Congress, WW2 + their reaction to it weakened them
- post-WWl the Raj became more repressive (albeit GOl act) whereas after
WW2 they were increasingly willing to find a settlement for independence?
- style of rule: 1919 established dyarchy whereas WW2 led back to direct
British rule
- WW2 made independence from the Raj seem achievable
29
How did Britain bring India into WW2?
- 3 Sept 1939: Chamberlain declared war on Nazi Germany
- On the same day, Linlithgow also declares war and commits Indians to the war without consultation
30
What was Congress' reaction to the outbreak of war in 1939?
- Congress's initial reaction was sympathy for the fight against fascism (especially from Nehru and other Indian socialists - Gandhi advocated peaceful negotiations with Hitler)
- BUT crucially = horrified by the lack of consultation, felt it undermined the
1935 Government of India Act and last 20 years of constitutionalism
- not prepared to fight unless they got immediate swaraj.
- the British ignored them so they resigned from their posts in all provincial ministries across India, counterproductive - removing hundreds of Indians from official positions where they could've made a difference and reverted India to direct British govt not seen since 1919.
31
What was the Muslim League's reaction to the outbreak of war in 1939?
- Congress had essentially retired from the political scene, so Jinnah took advantage
- declared the day the last Congress prov ministry abandoned its posts (22 Dec) -> Muslim Day of Deliverance and called on all Muslims to celebrate release from Hindu bondage
- ML branches held public meetings and offered prayers of thanksgiving
- but Jinnah requested that Muslims not cause offence to ordinary Hindus.
32
How did Jinnah seem to be privately trying to reach a rapprochement with Nehru?
- Nehru wrote to Jinnah in early Dec expressing a desire for common ground
- Jinnah's reply emphasised the need for Congress to treat ML as an authoritative representative organisation in India, and expressed a willingness for discussion
- but could have just been gesture politics
33
What was the Lahore Resolution?
- 1940 Lahore Congress: attended by 100,000 Muslims
- separate states for Muslim majority areas was decided on by Muslim League (as well as minority protection in Hindu- or Muslim-dominated states) -> Jinnah could no longer envision rapprochement with Congress
- unclear whether East and West Pakistan were specifically in mind (or whether it was a risky bargaining tactic), but Fazul Huq (big proponent of a separate Pakistan) was in attendance suggesting they wanted autonomous sovereign states
- this demonstrated the power of the Muslim league
34
What was Congress' reaction to the Lahore Resolution?
- Gandhi declared it tantamount to the vivisection of India.
- mini-satyagrahas broke out that were quickly suppressed by the Raj
- Nehru denounced the idea and toured the country to strengthen the will of Congress supporters
- Young groups were doing military drills (preparing for conflict w Muslims), preparing to fight and Nehru was arrested for inspecting one
- but Congress were too weak politically to do anything
35
What was the August Offer?
- it was a meeting between Linlithgow and Jinnah in August 1940
they agreed on:
- representative Indians would join Viceroy's Executive council
- a war advisory council would be established including princes and other interested parties.
- govt would not adopt any new constitution without prior approval o
Muslim India
- message = wishes of Muslims would be at the centre of any postwar settlement
- at this time, govt viewed Congress to be obstructive and recognised that they did not speak for all of India -> so who would power transfer to??
36
How did Bose follow a more extreme path with the axis powers after 1938?
- Forward Bloc = initially aimed to rally the left wing of Congress to develop an alternative leadership but became a terrorist organisation aimed at getting the British to quit India.
- 2 July 1939: British authorities arrested Bose.
- Jan 1941: he escaped and went into exile, travelled to the Soviet Union but failed to convince Stalin to support Indian independence, then travelled to Germany where Hitler sent him to work with the Japanese on a land invasion into India.
- Bose formed the Indian National Army from Indian prisoners of war, used by Japan as saboteurs/spies but many were caught, became double agents or just went home.
- Japanese attempted to take Imphal, capital of Indian state of Manipur (on border w/ Burma which had fallen to the Japanese in 1942), spring 1944: 6000
INA soldiers invaded but failure (600 deserted, 400 killed, 1500 died from disease, 1400 injured, the rest surrendered) + Bose later died following a plane crash in 1945
- In India, British authorities banned the FB + its publications, offices were ransacked to obtain membership lists and seditious material but continued to run resistance groups in Bihar (for e.g.)
37
What change was seen by the end of the 1930s?
- no dramatic change in the pattern of proposal and counterproposal
- little change in India's economy and social structure
- but independence now seemed achievable
- Congress showed it had control over millions of Indians
- Muslim League had greatly strengthened its position and gained tacit agreement that separateness for Muslims was possible
- but Raj had show it could hold India by force if necessary
