Abstract
Lord Curzon’s administration has remained famous—and notorious—for its intense activity and veritable cult of efficiency. ‘Efficiency of administration is, in my view, a synonym for the contentment of the governed’, the Viceroy declared in a budget speech in 1904. The net result was the beginning of quite a new phase in the history of Indian nationalism with the struggle against the Partition of Bengal.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Further Readings
For Curzon’s policies, sec A. Lovat Fraser, India Under Curzon and After (London, 1911);
Ronaldshay, Life of Lord Curzon, Vol. II (London, 1928); J. McLane, Early Congress I, and S. Gopal, British Policy in India 1858–1905. The background to the Partition of Bengal is described in S. Sarkar, Swadeshi Movement, Ch. I.
2
The discussion on the Swadeshi movement in Bengal is essentially a summary of my Swadeshi Movement in Bengal, plus some material from pamphlets which I saw later in India Office Library, London. See also A. Tripathi, Extremist Challenge, J. H. Broomfield, Elite Conflict in a Plural Society: Twentieth-Century Bengal (Berkeley, 1968), Rajat Roy, Social Conflict and Political Unrest in Bengal 1875–1917 (unpublished thesis, Cambridge University);
H. and U. Mukerji, Origins of the National Education Movement (Calcutta, 1957),
R. P. Cronin, British Policy and Administration in Bengal: Partition and the New Province of Eastern Bengal and Assam 1905–12 (Calcutta, 1977), and Rafiuddin Ahmed, The Bengal Muslims 1871–1906—A Quest for Identity. For Swadeshi ideological trends, essential reading includes the reprints of contemporary articles in Bepinchandra Pal, Swadeshi and Swaraj (Calcutta, 1954),
Aurobindo Ghosh, Doctrine of Passive Resistance Pondicherry, 1948),
H. and U. Mukherji (ed.), Sri Aurobindo and the New Thought in Indian Politics (Calcutta, 1964), which consists of extracts from the Bande Mataram, and Rabindra Rachanabali, particularly Vols. III, IV, VI, VIII, X and XII (Calcutta, various dates). On revolutionary terrorism, (Calcutta, 1918)
and J. C. Ker, Political Trouble in India 1907–1917 (Calcutta, 1917).
The orthodox viewpoint of the revolutionaries was presented in N. Guha, Banglay Biplab-bad (Calcutta, 1923, 1954),
while Hemchandra Kanungo’s Banglay Biplab-Prachesta (Calcutta, 1928) is a fascinating and heretical critique.
See also Bhupan Dutt, Bharater Dwitiya Swadhinata-Sangram (Calcutta, 1926, 1949).
3
Bayly, Local Roots, and Robinson, Separatism, provide useful data on U.P. politics after 1905. For Gujarat, see A. Bhat, ‘Caste and political mobilization in a Gujarat district’ in Rajni Kothari (ed.), Caste in Indian Politics. On Punjab Extremism, the best accounts so far are by N. G. Barrier, ‘The Punjab Disturbances of 1907: the Response of the British Government in India to Agrarian Unrest’ (MAS, 1907), and The Arya Samaj and Congress Politics in Punjab;’ 1894–1908 (Journal of Asian Studies 1967); Lajpat Rai, Autobiographical Writings, is essential and fascinating reading. On Madras, there is little secondary work apart from Washbrook, Madras Presidency, Ch. V, which is quite inadequate so far as political movements are concerned;
I have used also K. V. Narayana Rao, The Emergence of Andhra Pradesh (Bombay, 1973),
and P. R. Rao, History of Modern Andhra (New Delhi, 1978). For Tilak and Maharashtra, see Wolpert; Cashman; Gordon Johnson;
D. V. Athalye, Life of Lakamanya Tilak (Poona, 1921);
G. P. Pradhan and A. K. Bhagwat, Lokamanya Tilak (Bombay, 1959);
and Reisnar and Goldberg (ed.), Tilak and the Struggle for Indian Freedom (New Delhi, 1966). Source-Materials for a History of the Freedom Movements, Vol. II contains important data on Tilak’s activities and the Bombay strike. For the Tuticorin and Bombay strikes, I have also used archival material, particularly Home Political A June 1908 n. 95 and Home Political A, December 1908 n. 149–169. On the politics of annual Congress sessions and the Surat split, see Wolpert; Tripathi;
and D. Argov. Moderates and Extremists in the Indian Nationalist Movement (Bombay, 1967).
4
The early availability of the Morley-Minto correspondence has produced a rather tedious literature, relevant for the study of British policy: Viscount Morley, Recollections (London, 1917);
Lady Mary Minto, India, Minto and Morley 1905–10 (London, 1934);
and more recently, M. N. Das, India under Morley and Minto: Politics behind Revolution, Repression and Reforms (London, 1964);
S. R. Wasti, Lord Minto and the Indian Nationalist Movement (Oxford. 1964);
and S. A. Wolpert, Morley and India 1906–10 (California, 1967). The shift in the policy towards the native states is analysed by D. A. Low, ‘Laissez-faire and Traditional Rulership in Princely India’ in R. Jeffrey (ed.), People, Princes and Paramount Power. For the early history of the Muslim League, see Das, Wasti, Tripathi and particularly Robinson, Chs. IV, V;
and M. Rahman, From Consultation to Confrontation: A Study of the Muslim League in British Indian Politics 1906–12 (London, 1978).
For revolutionary terrorism in this period, see Indulal Yajnik, Shyamaji Krishnavarama—Life and Times of an Indian Revolutionary (Bombay, 1950); J. C. Ker, Political Trouble;
A. C. Bose, Indian Revolutionaries Abroad 1905–22 in the background of international developments (Patna, 1971);
E. C. Brown, Har Dayal: Hindu Revolutionary and Rationalist (Delhi, 1975);
Randhir Singh, The Ghadr Heroes (Bombay, 1945)
and Sohan Singh Josh, Hindustan Ghadr Party: A Short History (New Delhi, 1977).
5
The Sedition Committee Report, J. C. Ker, A. C. Bose, Randhir Singh and Sohan Singh Josh may be consulted for the war-time activities of the revolutionaries; see also Uma Mukherji, Two Great Indian Revolutionaries (Calcutta, 1966)
and Bhupen Dutt, Aprakashito Rajnaitik Itihas (Calcutta, 1953). Robinson and Bayly are useful for League and Congress politics leading up to the Lucknow pact. On the Home Rule Leagues, the best account is H. F. Owen, ‘Towards Nation-wide Agitation and Organisation— The Home Rule Leagues, 1915–1918’, in D. A. Low (ed.), Soundings in Modern South Asian History. H. F. Owen’s massive thesis on the same period, Leadership of the Indian National Movement 1914–20, is available in microfilm at the N.M.M.L. For Tilak’s activities during the war, see Cashman, Myth of Lokamanya, and B. G. Tilak: His Writings and Speeches (Madras; n.d.).
6
For tribal movements, see E. Clement Smith, ‘The Bastar Rebellion, 1910’, Man in India, Rebellion Number, December 1945);
Stephen Fuchs, Rebellious Prophets (for the Tana Bhagat);
and Gautam Bhadra, ‘The Kuki (?) Uprising 1917–19): Its Causes and Nature’ (Man in India, (March, 1975). The account of the Khond and Bhil movements is based on my own archival research. On Bijolia see Ram Pande, Agrarian Movements in Rajasthan (Delhi, n.d.), by no means satisfactory but the only published account so far. There are numbers of recent accounts of Champaran and its background: J. Pouchepadass, ‘Local leaders and the intelligentsia in the Champaran Satyagraha (1917): a study in peasant mobilization’ (Contributions to Indian Sociology (No. 8, 1978);
S. Henningham, ‘Social Setting of the Champaran Satyagraha: The Challenge to an Alien Elite’ (IESHR, 1976);
G. Mishra, Agrarian Problems of Permanent Settlement—A Case-Study of Champaran (New Delhi, 1974);
and S. K. Mittal, Peasant Uprisings and Mahatma Gandhi in North Bihar (Meerut, 1978). For Kheda, see D. Hardiman, Peasant Nationalists of Gujarat, Ch. 5 and, for Bardoli, Anil Bhatt’s article in R. Kothari, Caste in Indian Politics.
The East Bengal Praja movement is the subject of an unpublished thesis by Jatindra Nath De, History of the Krishak Praja Party in Bengal, 1928–47 (Delhi University, 1978). The Shahabad riots have been studied in Peter Robb, Officials and Non-Officials as Leaders in Popular Agitations: Shahabad 1917 and other ‘Conspiracies’ in B. N. Pandey, (ed.), Leadership in South Asia (New Delhi, 1977),
and more recently by Gyan Pandey, ‘Sectarian Strife’ in R. Guha (ed.), Subaltern Studies I. For the Calcutta riots of 1918, see J. H. Broomfield, ‘The Forgotten Majority: The Bengal Muslims’, September 1918, in D. A. Low (ed.), Soundings in Modern South Asian History. On caste movements, apart from Rudolph and Rudolph, Hardgrave, Irshchik, and Omvedt cited in Further Readings to Ch. III,
see James Manor, Political Change in an Indian State: Mysore 1917–55 (Delhi, 1977);
Robin Jerffey, The Decline of Nayar Dominance: Society and Politics in Travancore, 1847–1908 (New Delhi, 1976); D. A. Washbrook, ‘Development of Caste Organization in South India’ 1880–1925 in C. J. Baker and D. A. Washbrook, South India Political Institutions and Political Change
and D. A. Arnold, R. Jeffrey, J. Manor, ‘Caste Associations in South India—A Comparative Analysis’ (IESHR 1976).
For the Andhra Movement, see P. R. Rao, K. V. Narayan Rao and C. R. Das’s Bhowanipur speech in Rajen and B. K. Sen, Deshabandhu Chittaranjan Das: Brief Survey of Life and Work (Calcutta, 1928).
For Premchand, I have used Madan Gopal, Munshi Premchand: A Literary Biography (Bombay, 1944).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1989 Sumit Sarkar
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sarkar, S. (1989). Political and Social Movements 1905–1917. In: Modern India 1885–1947. Cambridge Commonwealth Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19712-5_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19712-5_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-43806-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-19712-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)