Chief National Activities of India (1905 – 1930)

Chief National Activities like Partition of Bengal, Rowlatt Act, Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, Non-cooperation Movement have come into the list of Chief National Activities. Following list is giving an insight into the Chief National Activities. In this article we will go through chief national activities of period 1905-30 and in another article we will go through chief national activities of period 1930-47.

Chief National Activities of India

The Indian National Congress

• It was formed in 1885 by AO Hume.
• The first session was held in Bombay under WC Banerjee in 1885, attended by 72 delegates from all over India.
• Moderate leaders Dadabhai Naoroji, Badruddin Tayabji, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Surendranath Banerjee, Anand Muhan Bose.

Partition of Bengal (1905)

• By Lord Curzon on 16 October, 1905 through a royal proclamation, reducing the old province of Bengal in size by creating East Bengal and Assam out of the rest of Bengal.

Swadeshi Movement (1905)

• Had its origin in the anti-partition movement of Bengal.
• Lal, Bal, Pal and Aurobindo Ghosh played an important role.
• INC took the swadeshi call first at the Banaras Session, 1905 presided over by GK Gokhale.

Muslim league (1906)

• Setup in 1906 by Aga Khan, Nawab Salimullah of Dhaka and Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk. The League supported the partition of Bengal and opposed the Swadeshi Movement, demanded special safeguards to its community and a separate electorate for Muslims. This led to communal differences between Hindus and Muslims.

Surat Session (1907)

• The INC split into two groups – The extremists and the moderates, due to the debate on nature ofSwadeshi Movement.
• Extremists were led by Bal, Lal, Pal while the moderates by GK Gokhale.

Minto Morley Reforms (1909)

• The reforms envisaged a separate electorate for Muslims besides other Constitutional measures.

Ghadar Party (1913)

• Formed by Lala Hardayal, Taraknath Das and Sohan Singh Bhakna. Head Quarter – San Francisco. The name was taken from a weekly paper, Ghadar, which had been started on November 1, 1913 to commemorate the 1857 Revolt.

Home Rule Movement (1916)

• Started by BG Tilak (April, 1916) at Poona and Annie Besant and S Subramania Iyer at Adyar, near Madras (September, 1916).
• Objective Self-Government for India in the British Empire.
• Tilak supported the movement and joined Annie Besant. He raised the slogan: Swaraj is my Birth right and I will have it.

Lucknow Pact (1916)

• Pact between INC and Muslim league following a war between Britain and Turkey leading to anti-British feelings among Muslims. Both organizations jointly demand dominion status for the country.

Rowlatt Act (March 18, 1919)

• This gave unbridled powers to the government to arrest and imprison suspects without trail. This law enabled the Government to suspend the right of Habeas Corpus, which had been the foundation of civil liberties in Britain.
• Rowlatt Satyagrah was started against the act. This was the first country wide agitation by Gandhiji.

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (April 13, 1919)

• People were agitated over the arrest of Dr Kitchlu and Dr Satyapal on April 10, 1919.
• General O’ Dyer fired at people who assembled in the Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar. Hunter Commission was appointed to enquire into it. Sardar Udham Singh killed General Dyer in Caxton Hall, London.

Khilafat Movement (1920)

• Muslims were agitated by the treatment done with Turkey by the British in the treaty that followed theFirst World War.
• Ali brothers, Mohd Ali and Shaukat Ali started this movement. It was jointly led by the Khilafat leaders and the Congress.

Non-Cooperation Movement (1920)

• Congress passed the resolution in its Calcutta Session in September, 1920.
• It was the first mass-based political movement under Gandhiji.
• Refusal to attend government durbars and boycott of British courts by the lawyers.

Chauri-Chaura Incident (1922)

• The Congress Session at Allahabad in December 1921, decided to launch a Civil Disobedience Movement. Gandhiji was appointed its leader. But before it could be launched, a mob of people at Chauri-Chaura (near Gorkhpur) clashed with the police and burnt 22 police men on February 5, 1922.
• This compelled Gandhiji to withdraw the Non-Cooperation Movement on February 12, 1922.

Swaraj Party (1923)

• Motilal Nehru, CR Das and NC Kelkar (called Pro-changers) demanded that the nationalist should end the boycott of the Legislative Councils, enter them and expose them.

Simon Commission (1927)

• Constituted by John Simon, to review the political situation in India and to introduce further reforms and extension of parliamentary democracy.
• Indian leaders opposed the Commission, as there were no Indians in it they cried Simon Go Back.
• The Government used brutal repression and at Lahore. Lala Lajpat Rai was severely beaten in lathi-charge.

The Nehru Report (1928)

• After boycotting the Simon Commission, all political parties constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Motilal Nehru and Tej Bahadur Sapru to evolve and determine the principles for theConstitution of India. The report failed.

Lahore Session (1929)

• On December 19, 1929, under the presidentship of JL Nehru, the INC, at its Lahore Session, declaredPoorna Swaraj (Complete Independence) as its ultimate goal.
• The tri-colour flag adopted on December 31, 1929, was unfurled, and January 26, 1930 was fixed as the First Independence Day, to be celebrated every year. Later this day was chosen as the Republic Day of India.

Dandi March (1930)

• Also called the Salt Satyagraha.
• Gandhiji started his march from Sabarmati Ashram on March 12, 1930 for the small village Dandi to break the salt law.
• He picked a handful of salt and inaugurated the Civil Disobedience Movement.

To be continue………..