The Struggle For Pakistan After The War Of Independence 1857 - 1920

MUSLIM REFORM MOVEMENTS 1905-1920 Prepared by: Marium Mustafa

MAIN EVENTS          

India after the War of Independence The formation of the Indian Congress The partition of Bengal & the consequent riots held by the outraged Hindus and the British reaction. The Simla Deputation & its importance The formation of the Muslim League The Minto-Morley reforms The reversal of the Partition of Bengal World War I Lucknow Pact, Montague-Chelmsford reforms Rowlett's Act, Jallian-walla Bagh incident

The War of Independence

1857

India after the War of Independence and the birth of Nationalist ideas. After the war the British took strong measures to ensure that their control of India was unchallenged. The EIC was abolished and the Indian control was passed over to Queen Victoria at a ceremony in Delhi. Queen Victoria

The British attitude towards India after the War 

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Indians were rusticated from government institutions. Indians were given no opportunity to speak for their country. They were mostly running the country to benefit themselves.

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The employment opportunities for local Indians in the army was greatly reduced. The import taxes on goods from the Britain were demolished &so the local manufacturers found it difficult to sell their goods.

Vernacular Act & the Arms Act 1878 The lack of opportunities for Indians led to widespread criticism of the British in newspaper articles written in regional languages. The British response was to pass the Vernacular Act of 1878, which placed strict control over these newspapers. In the same year the Arms Act was passed which made it impossible for most Indians to own weapons, to ensure that if there were another uprising, it would be less effective.

Vernacular Act 1878

Arm Act 1878

The Beginning of Indian Political Awareness

Now both India and British had realized that the Indian people needed their own political party to represent their views to the British government. For this purpose Sir Allan Octavian Hume was appointed to form a national political organization.

Sir Allan Octavian Hume – the founder of the Indian National Congress

Indian National Congress comes into being. Dec 1883

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Congress had declared that its aims were: Educate people in India, so the resolutions could be printed in the newspapers. To persuade the Indian Civil Service to call for more Indian representation in the councils.

The Indian National flag was derived from the flag of Congress

The Partition of Bengal - 1905 Bengal the largest province of India had the population of 85 million; so the British govtt tried to increase the administrative efficiency by dividing it into two units east and west. Now the eastern province became a Muslim-majority and the Hindus were outraged they thought that the British had divided it intentionally as a part of their “divide and rule” policy, Hindus created widespread riots and protests.

The picture above shows the map of east and west Bengal.

Swadeshi Movement Apart from the widespread riots the Hindus introduced the Swadeshi Movement in which the Hinds vowed to buy and sell only locally produced goods and to boycott all British goods. Soon the sale of British goods dropped dramatically.

RIOTS

The British Reaction to the Hindu Protest

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Restrictions were placed on newspapers and public meetings. In 1908, the Press Act was introduced.

Winning the Support of the Muslims The then governor-general of India Lord Morley had decided to take advantage of their improved relations with Muslims to try to win their support for British rule. Further more the Muslims had seen the reaction of the Hindus on the partition of Bengal with dismay the Congress too was dominated by Hindus since the Hindus were in the majority, the Muslims feared that they would soon be dominated by Hindus in local government also.

SIMLA DEPUTATION REACHES LORD MINTO

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Simla Deputation provided the British an ideal opportunity to improve their relations with the Muslims so as to win their support for their rule. On 8th October 1906 a group of Muslims headed by Agha Khan, visited Lord Minto along with a set of demands which were: In all local and provincial elections Muslims should have their own representatives, who would be elected only by Muslim voters. In the councils, the Muslims should have a higher percentage of seats than their percentage of population.

Lord Sir Minto

Sir Agha Khan

SIMLA

THE IMPORTANCE OF SIMLA DEPUTATION.  The

acceptance of the demands had showed that Sir Syed’s attempts to restore relations between the Muslims & the British had been successful.  It showed that the Muslim community had decided to establish a secure place in the constitution by its own methods.  It also showed that many Muslims had eventually accepted the idea of two-nation.

FORMATION OF THE ALL-INDIA MUSLIM LEAGUE - 1906

AIMS & OBJECTIVES

Group photo taken at the Annual Mohammedan Educational Conference in Dhaka, 1906

Why the Muslims felt a need to create their own political party? 

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They needed a political platform where they could to counter the growing effects of Congress. Establish an organization where the Muslim views could be represented to the British Government.

OBJECTIVES: 

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To protect & advance the political rights of Muslims in India. To represent Muslim needs & aspirations to the government. To promote feelings of loyalty to the government.

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To remove any misunderstanding amongst the Muslims as to the intention of any government measure. To prevent the rise of hostility in Muslims towards other communities in India.

The All India Muslim-League

Why did the British Govtt give MuslimLeague such a warm welcome?

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could effectively help counter the Hindu protests that were growing.  It was willing to support the British government in India.  It was led by landowners and princes.

MINT0-MORLEY REFORMS Keeping in mind the situation of India at that time the British Govtt tried to enhance its political stature as it had promised to let it happen every ten years. In the year 1909 some reforms were introduced which are popularly commemorated as the Minto -Morley reforms

THE MINTO-MORLEY REFORMS. 1909 KEY POINTS 

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The Imperial Council was increased to 60 members by adding more ‘non-official’ members. The Central Executive Council would have more members & could advise the Govtt in important matters.

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Provincial Councils were also increased to 50 members in the larger provinces & 30 in the smaller ones. The demand of a separate electorate system for the Muslim community was accepted.

Lord Minto

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE REFORMS Contrary to the fact that the reforms gave a greater say to the Indians in how their country was run, the councils had no real power & were purely advisory; but the most important consequence of the reforms were the acceptance of separate electorates for the Muslims.

THE BENGAL PARTITION REVERSED The fierce opposition of Hindus had eventually forced the British govtt to reverse the partition. The decision was announced at Delhi by King George V on 12th December. The capital was also moved from Calcutta to Delhi. This partition had confirmed that Congress could not be trusted to protect Muslim rights or interests.

INDIA BEFORE WORLD WAR I  The

Muslims were aggressive towards the British over the reversal of the partition.  Minto-Morley reforms were not providing Indians any real power.  The League had called for ‘self government’ for the first time as it saw that the government was not interested in protecting Muslim rights.

WORLD WAR I

WHY DID INDIA SUPPORT THE BRITISH IN THE WAR?

The British said that they were fighting the war for the rights of nations so as to determine how they should be governed; so if they win this war, then surely they would return their loyalty by introducing reforms to give them a larger role in governing their country.

THE LUCKNOW PACT - INTRO The failure of British to grant more rights to the Indians & their policy of repression during the war, had moved Congress & League close together. In 1915, partly due to the persuasion of Mr.Jinnah, the two organizations both held their annual sessions in Bombay.

Jinnah (second from the right) was the principal architect of the Lucknow Pact, 1916

To avoid serious political unrest the British introduced the following series of proposals:

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Both the Congress & the League supported these proposals. At least half of the members of the Executive Council would be elected, The Legislative Council would have a majority of elected members.

1916 – LUCKNOW PACT

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Once again both the parties held their annual meetings together at Lucknow and agreed that: Separate electorates for the Muslims was acceptable. Muslims be given one third of the seats in the Councils. No bill shall be passed in any elected body if three-quarters of any community in that body opposed it.

Muslim League leaders pose for a group photo at Lucknow, 1916

IMPORTANCE OF THE PACT 

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It was the first time that both the communities had made a jointdemand. Muslims had a better chance of protecting their rights if they worked with the Hindus.

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It led to a growing belief in India that maybe selfgovernment is possible. The pact marked the high-water mark of Hindu-Muslim unity.

MONTAGUE-CHELMSFORD REFORMS - & THE REACTION OF THE INDIANS These reforms were not up to the expectation of the Indians, they had participated in the war with enthusiasm in the expectation of much greater concessions than these reforms were offering, even though they had increased the number of elected members in the council the British had ensured to keep the power in their hands.

Montague held meetings with different government and non-government people of India

Governor General Lord Chelmsford

The Indian Reaction to the 1919 Reforms & the British measures The reforms were not up to the expectations of the Indians and they were once again causing unrest and creating uprisings and protests, to control this the British government introduced some measures; one of them was the Rowlett's Act.

THE ROWLATT’S ACT- 1917

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A committee was formed under Justice Rowlatt to investigate revolutionary activities in India, it implemented some of the emergency measures, among them the most controversial were: Arrest without warrant. Detention without bail. The right of the provincial government to order people where to live.

The imposition of Rowlett's act

THE JALLIAN-WALLA BAGH INCIDENT

The harsh British laws led to serious political unrest which led to tragic events such as the Amritsar Massacre & the Jallianwalla bagh incident.