Indian Nationalism

Answer : The closing decade of the 19th century and early years of 20th century witnessed the emergence of a new and younger group within the Indian National Congress which was sharply critical of the ideology and methods of the old leadership. These angry young men advocated the adoption of Swaraj as the goal of the congress to be achieved by more self-reliant and independent methods. The new group came to be called the extremist party in ....

Answer : Tagore’s concepts about ‘nation’ and ‘state’ were not of Indian origin. He held the view that it was of European origin. To him state is an “organization for power”. The concept of Nation state may have suffered due to it. The “Nation is the greatest evil for the nation”. They “trade on the feebleness of the rest of world”. It aims at success and not goodness. It is collective selfishness at the cost of morality. ....

Answer : The rise of national consciousness in the 19th century was essentially the result of the British rule. The economic, political and social changes brought about by the British rule resulted in the oppression of all classes of Indian people giving rise to a wide spread dissatisfaction among the masses. The uniform system of administration, development of postal and telegraph, railways, printing press and educational institutions created by the British primarily as measures for running an ....

Answer : The second half of the 19th century witnessed the full flowering of national political conciousness and the growth of an organised national movement in India. Its foundation lay in the fact that increasingly British rule became the major cause of India’s economic backwardness.

Every class, every section of Indian society gradually discovered that its interests were suffering at the hands of the foreign rulers. The peasant saw that the Government took away a large part of ....

Answer : By the 1870s it was evident that Indian nationalism had gathered enough strength and momentum to appear asa major force on the Indian political scene. The Indian National Congress, founded in December 1885, was the first organised expression of the Indian National Movement on an all-India scale. It had, however, many predecessors. As we have seen in an earlier chapter, Raja Rammohan Roy was the first Indian leader to start an agitation for political reforms ....

Answer : The foundation of the Indian nationalist movement lay in the fact that increasingly British rule became the major cause of India's economic backwardness. It became the major barrier to India's further economic, social, cultural, intellectual and political development. Eveyry class, every section of Indian society, gradually discovered that its interest were suffering at the hands of the foreign rulers. The rising intelligentsia- the educated Indians – used their newly acquired modern knowledge to understand the ....

Answer : On 20 July 1905, Lord Curzon issued an order dividing the province of Bengal into two parts : Eastern Bengal and Assam with a population of 31 million, and the rest of Bengal with a population of 54 million, of whome 18 million were Bengalis and 36 million Biharis and Oriyas. It was said that the existing province of Bengal was too big to be efficiently administered by a single provincial government. However, the officials ....

Answer : While the moderates had infinite faith in the efficiency of constitutional agitation, and British sense of justice and fairplay, the extremists had no faith in the 'benevolence' of the British public or Parliament nor were they convinced of the efficiency of merely holding conferences. The new leadership sought to create a passionate love for liberty, accompained by a spirit of sacrifices and a readiness to suffer for the cause of the country. They strove to ....