11-28-2005, 06:40 AM
page 120 onwards..
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->It is not, however, as if the British and earlier the French, the Dutch and the Portuguese, had an easy time in India. From the beginning, there was constant armed as well as unarmed resistance to their conquering mission, dominance, and rule. The first 110 years, from 1748âwhen the extended British conquest began in the region around Madrasâto 1858, were like a long drawn hundred years war between the people of India and Britain (the latter supported by the military men from several Germanic countries). The climate of India was not hospitable to European men. In order to overcome that, the British began to establish military stations, garrisons and towns in the Himalayas and other high mountains of India.
Unarmed resistance was resorted to not only by the Indian peasan-try, but also by city and town people in most parts of India6 till they were wholly exhausted (especially in southern and eastern India), by about 1840. Then came the great battle of 1857â1858 between India and Britain, by the end of which India had conclusively lost.
But even their conclusive victory had to be paid for by the British. From 1780 to 1857, the British had believed that if they had one Euro-pean soldier to 4 or at the most 6 Indian soldiers, all officered by Europeans, they would be militarily safe in India. 1857â1858 changed this view altogether. From 1858 till about 1910, Britain decided to have one British soldier to every two Indian soldiers in the British Indian armies. While the actual number of Indians in the army was drastically reduced in 1858, it still meant that a British force of around 100,000 soldiers had to be constantly kept in India for the next 50 years and more. It may be of interest to mention here that in 1946, the British again felt that they could only maintain their control of India with an overwhelming display of military power as neither any major sector of the Indian people nor the Indian military personnel could be depended upon. But at this time they found that after their losses in the 1939â45 war, they no longer commanded the number of personnel which was required. A different solution was, however, soon found as the Indian National Congressâa somewhat exhausted and ageing leadershipâagreed to a compromise on the question of Indian independence, and the manner of the transfer of power to Indian hands.7
After the British terror of 1857â58, for the next 10â15 years the Indians seem to have been wholly quiet, trying to heal their extensive and deep wounds. By slow degrees, however, unrest began to emerge again. One of its major manifestations was in the 1880s and early 1890s, in the shape of the anti-cow killing movement which stirred up high emotion and created an uncontrollable ferment, especially in northern, central and western India. The then British Viceroy thought that its intensity, extent and explosive power was as high as that of the events of 1857â1858.8 Queen Victoria advised the Viceroy that he must realise that this movement was aimed at them, and not at the Muslims.9
Most Indian Muslims felt so too and Indian Muslims in various places met and came to the conclusion that as the Hindus did not like the killing of cows, the Muslims by themselves should decide to abandon such killing.l0 Ultimately, from 1894 onwards, the movement got diverted to clashes between Muslims and Hindus. Thereafter, it ceased to be a major threat to British power.
But the Britishâat least in Indiaâhad always played with several cards, apparently each of them opposed to the others. In 1942, at the time the British were engaged in the armed suppression of the Quit India movement, a leader of the scheduled castes submitted a memorandum to the British and offered his support to them. The British Secretary of State for India had then written to the British Viceroy, that till then the British had one card, i.e. the Muslim card against Indian nationalism; but now, after this memorandum, they had a second card in the scheduled castes.11
The old game of acquiring such cards began to be played around the 1870s in a new way. Scholarship came to the aid of authority and began to create new images for the Indian Muslims, for the Sikhs, and also for some of the Hindu jatis. Great Christian sympathy began to be displayed, especially for the pariars of the Tamil areas, and other untouchable groups of Hindu society in various parts of India. In fact groups which had been historical-ly opposed to one another like the pariars and the chakkiliars of the Tamil areas began to be clubbed together initially under the title pariars, and later under the more extended term the scheduled castes. (The pariars in south India had belonged to what were known as the Valangaiâright handâcastes and were their guards-men; while the chakkiliars had belonged to the opposite Idangaiâleft handâcastes group, and had been the guardsmen for them). The process in due time led to the inclusion of many jatis in the âuntouchableâ category. Till at least the mid-nineteenth century, these had not been treated or labelled as such by Indian society.
Another British card was to placate the increasing number of westernised Indians: to divert their discontent and their sense of discrimination into safer channels. The purpose was to detach all possible such groups from the larger indigenous Indian polity and thus to reduce the possibility of another 1857â1858. It was then felt that one such safe channel could be a conservative-cum-moderate political platform where the grievances of the vocal westernised could be aired more publicly and thus reduce the chances of their aligning themselves with their own people. This led to the formation of the Indian National Congress under the patronage of liberal Englishmen and loyal and prosperous Indian subjects. This new card seems to have worked effectively for quite sometime and did help separate most of the westernised Indians from their own people. Most of the former only wished to be treated as English gentry.
However, the innocuous Indian National Congress of the 1880s became a great movement of the Indian people for the achievement of their freedom from 1920 onwards. Its new constitution drafted, explained and introduced by Mahatma Gandhi provided for the enrolment of every Indian, who believed in its new objective, as its member; the individual members in a locality constituting the Congress committee at the village, town, or city level; and these latter in their turn constituting Congress committees at the provincial and national levels.12 Within two years of this historical transformation, the Indian Congress had 5,000,000 members, and its annual budget had multiplied a hundredfold from around Rs.30,000 till 1920 to over Rs.3,000,000 from 1922 onwards. The 1920 constitution of the Congress had also provided for the constitution of provinces based on commonality of language. It had demarcated India into 21 provinces based on this principle.
The 1920 constitution also gave the National Congress and India a new objective: the attainment of âSwarajya (complete independence) by the people of India by all legitimate and peace-ful means.â13 For the attainment of this objective, various nationwide non-cooperation and civil disobedience movements were launched under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi from 1920 to 1942. Finally in 1946, an agreement was arrived at between Britain and India to facilitate the early achievement of freedom by India. The process was not easy, however. It implied that the Indian freedom movement abandon or dilute many of its earlier aims. The result was that freedom got converted largely into a transfer of power, and India also got partitioned into two sovereign nation states.
As the free India needed a new constitutional structure, a Con-stituent Assembly was created in the later part of 1946 by means of indirect elections by the provinces and what were known as Indian states to frame a Constitution for the free India. This Constitution was completed in November 1949, and came into operation on January 26, 1950.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->It is not, however, as if the British and earlier the French, the Dutch and the Portuguese, had an easy time in India. From the beginning, there was constant armed as well as unarmed resistance to their conquering mission, dominance, and rule. The first 110 years, from 1748âwhen the extended British conquest began in the region around Madrasâto 1858, were like a long drawn hundred years war between the people of India and Britain (the latter supported by the military men from several Germanic countries). The climate of India was not hospitable to European men. In order to overcome that, the British began to establish military stations, garrisons and towns in the Himalayas and other high mountains of India.
Unarmed resistance was resorted to not only by the Indian peasan-try, but also by city and town people in most parts of India6 till they were wholly exhausted (especially in southern and eastern India), by about 1840. Then came the great battle of 1857â1858 between India and Britain, by the end of which India had conclusively lost.
But even their conclusive victory had to be paid for by the British. From 1780 to 1857, the British had believed that if they had one Euro-pean soldier to 4 or at the most 6 Indian soldiers, all officered by Europeans, they would be militarily safe in India. 1857â1858 changed this view altogether. From 1858 till about 1910, Britain decided to have one British soldier to every two Indian soldiers in the British Indian armies. While the actual number of Indians in the army was drastically reduced in 1858, it still meant that a British force of around 100,000 soldiers had to be constantly kept in India for the next 50 years and more. It may be of interest to mention here that in 1946, the British again felt that they could only maintain their control of India with an overwhelming display of military power as neither any major sector of the Indian people nor the Indian military personnel could be depended upon. But at this time they found that after their losses in the 1939â45 war, they no longer commanded the number of personnel which was required. A different solution was, however, soon found as the Indian National Congressâa somewhat exhausted and ageing leadershipâagreed to a compromise on the question of Indian independence, and the manner of the transfer of power to Indian hands.7
After the British terror of 1857â58, for the next 10â15 years the Indians seem to have been wholly quiet, trying to heal their extensive and deep wounds. By slow degrees, however, unrest began to emerge again. One of its major manifestations was in the 1880s and early 1890s, in the shape of the anti-cow killing movement which stirred up high emotion and created an uncontrollable ferment, especially in northern, central and western India. The then British Viceroy thought that its intensity, extent and explosive power was as high as that of the events of 1857â1858.8 Queen Victoria advised the Viceroy that he must realise that this movement was aimed at them, and not at the Muslims.9
Most Indian Muslims felt so too and Indian Muslims in various places met and came to the conclusion that as the Hindus did not like the killing of cows, the Muslims by themselves should decide to abandon such killing.l0 Ultimately, from 1894 onwards, the movement got diverted to clashes between Muslims and Hindus. Thereafter, it ceased to be a major threat to British power.
But the Britishâat least in Indiaâhad always played with several cards, apparently each of them opposed to the others. In 1942, at the time the British were engaged in the armed suppression of the Quit India movement, a leader of the scheduled castes submitted a memorandum to the British and offered his support to them. The British Secretary of State for India had then written to the British Viceroy, that till then the British had one card, i.e. the Muslim card against Indian nationalism; but now, after this memorandum, they had a second card in the scheduled castes.11
The old game of acquiring such cards began to be played around the 1870s in a new way. Scholarship came to the aid of authority and began to create new images for the Indian Muslims, for the Sikhs, and also for some of the Hindu jatis. Great Christian sympathy began to be displayed, especially for the pariars of the Tamil areas, and other untouchable groups of Hindu society in various parts of India. In fact groups which had been historical-ly opposed to one another like the pariars and the chakkiliars of the Tamil areas began to be clubbed together initially under the title pariars, and later under the more extended term the scheduled castes. (The pariars in south India had belonged to what were known as the Valangaiâright handâcastes and were their guards-men; while the chakkiliars had belonged to the opposite Idangaiâleft handâcastes group, and had been the guardsmen for them). The process in due time led to the inclusion of many jatis in the âuntouchableâ category. Till at least the mid-nineteenth century, these had not been treated or labelled as such by Indian society.
Another British card was to placate the increasing number of westernised Indians: to divert their discontent and their sense of discrimination into safer channels. The purpose was to detach all possible such groups from the larger indigenous Indian polity and thus to reduce the possibility of another 1857â1858. It was then felt that one such safe channel could be a conservative-cum-moderate political platform where the grievances of the vocal westernised could be aired more publicly and thus reduce the chances of their aligning themselves with their own people. This led to the formation of the Indian National Congress under the patronage of liberal Englishmen and loyal and prosperous Indian subjects. This new card seems to have worked effectively for quite sometime and did help separate most of the westernised Indians from their own people. Most of the former only wished to be treated as English gentry.
However, the innocuous Indian National Congress of the 1880s became a great movement of the Indian people for the achievement of their freedom from 1920 onwards. Its new constitution drafted, explained and introduced by Mahatma Gandhi provided for the enrolment of every Indian, who believed in its new objective, as its member; the individual members in a locality constituting the Congress committee at the village, town, or city level; and these latter in their turn constituting Congress committees at the provincial and national levels.12 Within two years of this historical transformation, the Indian Congress had 5,000,000 members, and its annual budget had multiplied a hundredfold from around Rs.30,000 till 1920 to over Rs.3,000,000 from 1922 onwards. The 1920 constitution of the Congress had also provided for the constitution of provinces based on commonality of language. It had demarcated India into 21 provinces based on this principle.
The 1920 constitution also gave the National Congress and India a new objective: the attainment of âSwarajya (complete independence) by the people of India by all legitimate and peace-ful means.â13 For the attainment of this objective, various nationwide non-cooperation and civil disobedience movements were launched under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi from 1920 to 1942. Finally in 1946, an agreement was arrived at between Britain and India to facilitate the early achievement of freedom by India. The process was not easy, however. It implied that the Indian freedom movement abandon or dilute many of its earlier aims. The result was that freedom got converted largely into a transfer of power, and India also got partitioned into two sovereign nation states.
As the free India needed a new constitutional structure, a Con-stituent Assembly was created in the later part of 1946 by means of indirect elections by the provinces and what were known as Indian states to frame a Constitution for the free India. This Constitution was completed in November 1949, and came into operation on January 26, 1950.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->