Early Nationalism in India

Indian nationalism encompasses various political, social ideological and economic forces which provided a motor for the Indian independence movement during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The British empire, well-established by 1856 through war and domination, expanded into India, although not all of Indian territory fell under British rule. Nonetheless, British rule, however, rendered Indians socially, politically and economically enslaved and subservient (Unknown 3). British economic and fiscal policy in India ruined indigenous industries. As a result, pockets of resistance cropped up on a local and national level and culminated in the Revolt of 1857, which marked the birth of an Indian national consciousness. The establishment of the Indian National Congress provided a foundation for the nationalist movement to be built on. Moderates dominated the first phase of the nationalist movement and sought to democratize India under the patronage of Britain rather than overthrow British power. In turn, nationalist extremists embraced a more radicalized for of politics instead of a constitutional approach, which they rendered ineffective in addressing pressing economic and politic needs for the indigenous population. The early Indian nationalistic movement have various political, social, economic and ideological foundations that ultimately resulted in Indian independence during the mid-twentieth century despite initial failures. The ideologies espoused by the competing moderate and extremist factions elucidate the complexity that undergirded the nationalistic movement in India but ultimately provided a foundation for subsequent success.

The Revolt of 1857 marks the first attempt by regional kings and Indian soldiers to drive out the foreign British from their land, which fostered nationalistic sentiments in the Indian masses. Scholars have not reached a consensus regarding whether the instigators of the revolt had planned it or if it transpired because of discontented sepoys, or Indian soldiers, who were angry at the socio-economic dislocation caused by British control. Moreover, the flashpoint that sparked the rebellion occurred when the British army disrespected the Muslim and Hindu religious beliefs when they told the sepoys to bite off paper cartridges greased with animal fat for their rifles. Thus, the revolt aroused the sympathy of all sectors of Indian society who felt discontented, although the it never garnered mass support and proved short-lived. Regardless of its brevity and the character of the revolt, it was a pivotal moment in the history of modern India because it altered British policy towards the Indians (Seal 3). The revolt, although futile, undermined British rule in India and propelled the British Crown to directly rule India rather than indirectly rule it through the East India Company. The British reorganized and reduced the number of soldiers in the Indian army, the instigators of the revolt, in order to ensure that the Indian army remained loyal to the British. In turn, the British increased their military presence. Clearly, the Indians could not drive out their foreign overlords through force and thus would need to collectively gather and formulate a united plan to secure their independence (4). Ultimately, the revolt sparked changes in British policy which fostered a desire in Indians to not only nationalize their religious beliefs but also liberate themselves from foreign control.

The failure of the Revolt of 1857 by Indian sepoys prompted the development of political nationalism in India as evident through the ascendance of political associations. These associations include the Indian Association, the British Indian Associations, and the Bombay Association and modernized Indian politics during the nineteenth century. Education reform and opportunity during that time period provided a motor for the development of a national political consciousness that would fully manifest itself later on. The Bengal British India Society formed in 1843 with the purpose of spreading information about the living conditions of the indigenous people to the masses as well as advocate for the political rights and social protects against oppression and prejudice of the foreign colonizer (Unknown 147). Formed in 1851, the British Indian Association formed in order to protect the interests of the indigenous against economic exploitation waged by the British government (148). As a result of the emergence of these associations, the All India National Congress emerged, which formed the foundation of the nationalism movement in India during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Many Indian intellectuals such as S.N. Banarjee and R.C. Dutt understood the vitality of collective organization in order to articulate and respond to the economic and political needs of the indigenous population. An "all-Indian forum" would provide a foundation for their subsequent struggle for freedom and emerged as a vehicle to educate and make the indigenous population more politically aware (Unknown 171). These early leaders launched this struggle for freedom and the early nationalist movement through the establishment of the Indian National Congress in 1885, which existed for more than two decades. It served as a platform for early nationalists from all over the country to congregate, draft their grievances, and articulate them to the British government (175). The British expressed overt disdain for the congress and the developing national movement. They openly condemned the Congress as a menace and criticized it being comprised of dangerous seditionists. To curb the its influence, the British sought to drive a wedge within the unity of the Indians, especially between the Muslims and the Hindus (174). Furthermore, the British blamed the spread of a modern, secular education for fostering nationalistic sentiment. Thus, they sought to exercise greater control over the education of Indians by encouraging the indigenous to attend private colleges funded by religious patrons. Despite British attempts to quell the influence of the congress, it survived and formed the centerpiece of an organized nationalist movement that would ultimately triumph after much struggle.

Moderates, many of whom received an English education, dominated the early phase of the nationalist movement in India and sought to reform India along Western traditions. Rather than demand independence, the moderates sought to garner rights for the indigenous population under British rule. They sought for political reforms and lauded the British parliamentary system, hoping that gradually India would adopt similar institutions into their political establishment through a constitutional approach (Unknown 175). Thus, they hoped to democratize India under British tutelage and predicated their political philosophy on British munificence; although they eventually wanted India to become a self-governing democracy, they did not make that an immediate goal, as they believed that gradual change would produce a responsible and efficient government. Prominent moderate leader Gopal Gokhale touted gradualist ideas characterized by peaceful evolution and moderation. Edward Burke's "Reflections on the French Revolution" profoundly impacted his political ideas. Burke viewed the French Revolution as excessive and as an act of anarchy that resulted in the Reign of Terror rather than life and liberty (Burke). Gokhale thus viewed a revolution in India as only producing similar negative results. Moderates believed that their primary undertaking was to incite a national consciousness by educating the public on political matters, which would lead to a consensus on political issues. Their method of doing so included making speeches, holding public meetings, filing petitions to government officials and British parliament, and critiquing the government through the press (Unknown 176). Furthermore, the Moderates sought to influence public opinion in British about the squalid living conditions in India, which would in turn force the British government to implement reforms in various arenas. Ultimately, the Moderates structured their political goals around western political institutions and secular concepts of nationalism familiar only in western societies. They propagated the idea that Indians should identify themselves as Indian first and their religion or gender afterwards, which was a foreign concept in Indian society. It is evident that the Moderates viewed the British as providential and the West as worthy of emulation despite the lack of success they experienced. Inextricably tied in with the Moderates' political reform was their view of social reform, which Gokhale articulated. He believed that in order to achieve political progress, the government must eliminate the oppressive caste system in which the indigenous oppress and discriminate against their own countrymen (180). Although the Moderates dominated the first part of the nationalist movement in India, they achieved very little. They did, however, educate the masses about political and social reform and the ideas of liberty and democracy that would serve as the bedrock for the subsequent independence movement in the political and social arenas.

Moreover, early nationalists sought to eradicate the economic exploitation and suffered by the indigenous population as a result of British imperial policies. Through industry, trade, and finance, the British exploited the economy and India to favor and boost the British economy (Seal 1). Early nationalists recognized that at the crux of British imperialism lay the subservience of the Indian economy, rooted in agriculture, to the British economy. They lamented the increasing poverty in India and the stagnation of industry and agriculture within India as a result of British exploitation. Dadabhai Naoroji's controversial drain theory undergirded the burgeoning economic nationalism in the early phases of the nationalism movement during the nineteenth century (Sarkar 90). He posited that Britain heavily drained the resources of India, which resulted in frequent famines, low standard of living for the indigenous, low numbers in exports and imports, high mortality rates. The political economy suffered, and when education became more widespread many members of the intelligentsia began analyzing why poverty persisted in India under British rule. Escaping the brutal economic exploitation by the British emerged as the solution to the problem of poverty. Moderates proffered the solution to poverty that India should modernize and develop its industries through the consumption of Indian goods rather than British ones (Koroth). The Drain Theory and economic theories propagated by early nationalists served as the economic motor for Indian nationalism. Unfortunately, the Moderates only achieved partial success in the political, social and economic realms, and deteriorating conditions propelled the creation of a extremist faction within the nationalistic movement.

Due to a plethora of factors, however, a second faction of nationalistic extremists emerged in the congress who embraced a more revolutionary approach to India's fight for independence and transformed the Indian National Congress into a mass organization. The emergence of the extremists during the first two decades of the twentieth century marks the second phase of the national movement in India and witnessed the growing influence of the Indian congress. This new phase emerged because of a conglomeration of factors which the moderate strategy failed to address. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, famines and economic woes hampered the majority of the Indian population. Starvation, disease, plague, poverty and death became rampant and made people realized how adversely the British exploitation of the Indian economy had hurt and lowered their standard of living. Furthermore, anti-British sentiment was at an all-time high because the British regarded the subaltern Indians as inferior and beings who were less than human. Indians in South African suffered under oppressive British rule, as they faced segregation in many public institutions such as hotels, schools and hospitals. Finally, nationalism movements in other countries such as Italy and Japan instilled pride and confidence in Indians, which fostered nationalistic sentiments in the indigenous population. Thus, a more radicalized form of nationalism materialized in which many Indian intellectuals and political leaders decried liberalism and constitutional agitation in favor of revolutionary actions by the masses (Unknown 185). The efficacy of the moderates to respond to pressing issues of the time radicalized Indian nationalism in its desire for independence.

The extremists, viewed as revivalists instead of gradualists or western reformists, adopted a vastly different political ideology from the moderates because they did not want to structure Indian institutions along Western traditions, values and ideals. Rather, they looked to India's past history in order to reconstruct India by reviving ancient institutions and ideas. They predicated their political ideology on the concept of Swaraj, or the idea of self-government, and rendered it their moral and political right that they would fight for at any cost (Sarkar 97). Thus, they embraced violent methods to achieve their goal of independence and called for the indigenous masses to increase pressure on the British government to declare India autonomous. The proposed technique of passive resistance included national boycotts, refusal to pay taxes, national education, Swadeshi, or the Indian economic strategy to force out the British from controlling and exploiting them , and revolutionary violence (97). Furthermore, rather than embrace secularism and liberalism, extremists such as renowned leader Bal Tilak linked politics and religions with regards to restructuring politics in India and developing national symbols. To infuse religion in Indian nationalism, Tilak turned to religious festivals as a vehicle for mass organization and fostering a national consciousness in a reeling nation (99). While the extremists sought self-government and independence first, the moderates pursued reforms along Western traditions. Within this context, the great leader Gandhi joined the nationalist movement and secured India's independence through championing nonviolent conflict resolution.

In 1919 Mohandas Gandhi, a central figure in the nationalistic movement, shifted the course of Indian history through his non-violent methods of resistance against India's imperial foe. He had engaged in political activities in South Africa prior to his involvement in the Indian nationalistic movement, advocating for oppressed Indians as a moderate through petitioning in order to advocate for them in the face of harsh discrimination (Brown 3). By 1906, however, he realized that moderate tactics prove futile in combating oppression. Thus, he turned to passive resistance, which Gandhi coined "Satyagraha" when the South African government forced Indians to carry with them papers with their fingerprints (6-7). This tactic of civil disobedience provided the blueprint for Gandhi's strategy to combat oppression waged by the British against the subaltern in India during the 1920s. Although various movements spawned by Gandhi failed, they illustrate the various social, political, and ideological underpinnings of the early Indian nationalistic movements.

The early nationalistic movement in India proved to be multi-faceted and complex, as it consisted of various political, economic, social and ideological factors that would alter the course of Indian history at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. The Revolt of 1857, although its real impact on the nationalistic movement remains a major point of debate amongst scholars, fostered nationalistic impulses in the political, economic and social realms. The emergence of competing political factions who championed drastically different political philosophies and ideologies further complicated the direction of the Indian nationalistic movement. Although it did not succeed until 1947, the infancy of Indian nationalism reveals the potency of nationalistic fervor and reveals that subaltern groups do have agency in the fate of their nation in the face of harsh political, economic and social oppression.

Works Cited

Brown, Judith M.. Gandhi's Rise to Power, Indian Politics 1915-1922. Cambridge P, 1972. Print.

Burke, Edmund. "Edmund Burke: Reflections on the Revolution in France." Edmund Burke: Reflections on the Revolution in France. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.

Koroth, Nandakumar. "Indian History for net examination." Indian National Congress Moderate Phase 1885-1905. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.

Sarkar, Sumit. Modern India, 1885-1947. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989. Print.

Seal, Anil. The Emergence of Indian Nationalism: Competition and Collaboration in The Later Nineteenth Century. London: Cambridge U P, 1968. Print.

Unknown, "1 M.A. Part - I History Paper - II (Option - E) Indian National Movement (1857 A.D to 1947 A.D.)." mu.ac.in. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.