No More Learning

The fourth amendment of the Constitution took place on 27
April, 1955. An amendment was made in Article 31(2) of the
Constitution. The amended Article provided that no property
shall be compulsorily acquired or requisitioned save for a public
purpose and save by authority of a law which provides for com-
pensation for the property so acquired or requisitioned and either
fixes the amount of the compensation or specifies the principles
on which and the manner in which the compensation is to be de-
termined and given. No such law was to be called in question
in any court on the ground that the compensation provided by
that law was not adequate. Where a law did not provide for the
transfer of the ownership or right to possession of any property
to the state or to a corporation owned or controlled by the state,
it shall not be deemed to provide for the compulsory acquisition
or requisitioning of property, notwithstanding that it deprived
any person of his property.
A change was also made in Article 31-A. The amended Article
31-A(1) provided that no law providing for the acquisition
by the state of any estate or of any rights therein or the extinguish-
ment or modification of any such rights, or the taking over the ma-
nagement of any property by the state for a limited period either
in the public interest or in order to secure the proper manage-
ment of the property or the amalgamation of two or more corpora-
tions either in the public interest or in order to secure the proper
management of any of the corporations, or the extinguishment or
modification of any rights of managing agents, secretaries and
treasurers, managing directors, directors or managers of corpora-
tions or of any voting rights of shareholders thereof, or the ex-
tinguishment or modification of any rights accruing by virtue of
any agreement, lease or license for the purpose of searching for or
winning any mineral or mineral oil or the pre-mature termination
or cancellation of any such agreement, lease or license shall be
deemed to be void on the ground that it was inconsistent with or
took away or abridged any of the rights conferred by Articles
14, 19 or 31. Where such a law was a law made by the legisla-
ture of a state, the provisions of Article 31-A(1) shall not apply
thereto unless that law, having been reserved for the considera-
tion of the President, received his assent.
This amendment also substituted another Article in place of
Article 305 and thereby saved the existing laws providing for
state monopolies. This amendment also added 7 new Acts to
the Ninth Schedule of the Corstitution which could not be chal-
lenged in any court on any ground.


## p. 708 (#748) ############################################

708 CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES FROM 1919 TO 1969
The fifth amendment of the Constitution took place on 24 Dec-
ember, 1955. A change was made in Article 3 of the Constitu-
tion. It was provided that no bill shall be introduced in either
House of Parliament except on the recommendation of the Presi-
dent and unless, where the proposal contained in the bill affected
the area, boundaries or name of any of the states specified in Part
A and Part B of the First Schedule, the bill had been referred by
the President to the legislature of that state for expressing its
views thereon within such period as may be specified in the refe-
rence or within such further period as the President may allow and
the period so specified or allowed had expired.
The sixth amendment of the Constitution took place on 11 Sep-
tember, 1956. Entry No. 92-A dealing with taxes was added to
-
the Union List. Another entry was substituted for the existing
entry No. 54 in the State List. Articles 269 and 286 were also
amended. It was provided that any law of a state shall, in so far
as it imposed or authorised the imposition of a tax on the sale or
purchase of goods declared by Parliament to be of special import-
ance in inter-state trade or commerce, be subject to such restric-
tions and conditions in regard to the system of levy, rates and
other incidents of the tax as Parliament may by law specify.
The Seventh amendment took place on 19 October, 1956. A
new Schedule was substituted for the First Schedule to the Consti-
tution. In the new Schedule were mentioned 14 states and 6
Union territories. Changes were made in the number of represen-
tatives to be sent by the various states to the Council of States or
Rajya Sabha. Articles 81 and 82 were amended and the amend-
ments related to the total number of the members of Lok Sabha and
the manner in which they were to be elected. Provision was also
made for the readjustment of territorial constituencies from time
to time. Articles 131, 153, 158 and 168 were also amended.
Article 170 as amended provided that the Legislative Assembly of
each state shall consist of not more than 500 and not less than 60
members. Adjustments were to be made in the territorial consti-
tuencies after each census. Articles 216, 217, 220, 224, 230 and 231
relating to High Courts were also amended. Article 224 provided
for the appointment of additional and acting judges. Article 230
provided for the extension of the jurisdiction of High Courts to
Union territories. Article 231 provided for the establishment of
a common High Court for two or more states. Articles 239 and
240 relating to Union territories were amended. Articles 350-A
and 350-B relating to the education of minorities were added. A
new Article was substituted for Article 371 and the substituted
Article provided for the establishment of Regional Committees in


## p. 709 (#749) ############################################

AMENDMENTS OF THE CONSTITUTION
709
the Punjab and Andhra Pradesh. Special provision was also made
for Bombay. Article 372-A dealing with the power of the Presi-
dent to adapt laws was added. Some changes were also made in
the Second Schedule of the Constitution. The salary of the Chief
Justice of a High Court was fixed at Rs. 4,000/- and of other judges
Rs. 3,500/- each. Some changes were also made in the Seventh
Schedule of the Constitution. Some minor changes were also
made in various Articles of the Constitution.
The eighth amendment of the Constitution took place on 5
January, 1960. Originally, the reservation of seats and special
representation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and
the Anglo-Indians was made for 10 years but the amendment ex-
tended the period to 20 years.
The Ninth amendment of the Constitution took place on 28
December, 1960. The object of the amendment was to give effect
to the transfer of certain territories to Pakistan in pursuance of the
agreements entered into between the Governments of India and
Pakistan. The amendment was made in view of the advisory
opinion given by the Supreme Court of India. This amendment
made changes in the First Schedule and Second Schedule of the
Constitution.
The tenth amendment was made on 16 August, 1961. It added
the territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli to the First Schedule of
the Constitution as a Union territory.
The Constitution was amended for the eleventh time on 19
December, 1961. Articles 66 and 71 were amended. The Vice-
President of India was to be elected by an electoral college consti-
tuted by members of both Houses of Parliament and their sitting
together was not necessary. The election of a person as President
or Vice-President was not to be called in question on the ground
of the existence of any vacancy for whatever reason among the
members of the electoral college electing him.
The twelfth amendment of the Constitution took place on 27
March, 1962. The amendment was to be deemed to have come
into force on 20 December, 1961. A new Union territory of Goa,
Daman and Diu was set up.
The thirteenth amendment of the Constitution took place on 28
December, 1962. Part XXI of the Constitution was amended and
special provision was made for the State of Nagaland.
The fourteenth amendment of the Constitution took place on
28 December, 1962. The Union territory of Pondicherry was add-
ed to the First Schedule of the Constitution. Changes were also
made in Articles 239-A and Article 240(A). Article 239-A pro-
vided that Parliament may by jaw create for any of the Union ter-


## p. 710 (#750) ############################################

710 CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES FROM 1919 TO 1969
ritories of Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Goa, Daman and
Diu and Pondicherry a body to function as a legislature for the
Union territory or a Council of Ministers or both. When a legis-
lature was created for the above mentioned Union territories, the
President of India was not to make any regulation for the peace,
progress and good government of the Union territories.
The fifteenth amendment of the Constitution was made on 5
October, 1963. This amendment raised the retirement age of
High Court judges from 60 to 62 years. It gave compensatory
allowance to High Court judges on transfer from one High Court
to another. It provided for the appointment of retired judges of
a High Court to work as judges of the same High Court. Article
226 of the Constitution was also amended. It provided that the
power of issuing writs, directions or orders to any government,
authority or person may be exercised by any High Court exercis-
ing jurisdiction in relation to the territories within which the cause
of action, whole or any part, arises for the exercise of such power,
notwithstanding that the seat of such government or authority or
the residence of such person is not within those territories. A
change was also made in Article 311. It provided that no civil
servant shall be dismissed or removed or reduced in rank except
after an inquiry in which he has been informed of the charges
against him and given a reasonable opportunity of being heard in
respect of those charges and where it is proposed, after such inquiry
to impose on him any such penalty, until he has been given a rea-
sonable opportunity of making representation on the penalty pro-
posed, but only on the basis of the evidence adduced during such
inquiry. This provision will not apply where a person is dismiss-
ed or removed or reduced in rank on the ground of conduct which
has led to his conviction on a criminal charge, or where the autho-
rity empowered to dismiss or remove a person or to reduce him in
rank is satisfied that for some reason, to be recorded by that autho-
rity in writing, it is not reasonably practicable to hold such inquiry,
or where the President or the Governor is satisfied that in the inter-
est of the security of the state, it is not expedient to hold such
inquiry. If a question arises whether it is reasonably practicable
to hold an inquiry or not, the decision thereon of the authority
empowered to dismiss or remove such person or to reduce him in
rank shall be final. A very minor change was also made in Article
316 of the Constitution.
The sixteenth amendment was also made on 5 October, 1963.
It amended clauses (2), (3) and (4) of Article 19 of the Constitu-
tion for enabling the states to make any law imposing reasonable
restrictions on the exercise of the rights conferred by sub-clauses


## p. 711 (#751) ############################################

AMENDMENTS OF THE CONSTITUTION
711
(a), (b) and (c) of clause 1 of Article 19 in the interests of the
sovereignty and integrity of India. This amendment also amend-
ed Articles 84 and 173 and forms of oath in the Third Schedule to
the Constitution so as to provide that every candidate for the mem-
bership of Parliament and state legislature, judges of Supreme
Court of India and High Courts of States and Comptroller and
Auditor General of India should take an oath to uphold the sover-
eignty and integrity of India.
The seventeenth amendment took place on 20 June, 1964. Article
31-A was amended and it was provided that where any law makes
any provision for the acquisition by the state of any estate and
where any land comprised therein is held by a person under his
personal cultivation, it shall not be lawful for the state to acquire
any portion of such land as is within the ceiling limit applicable
to him under any law for the time being in force or any building
or structure standing thereon or appurtenant thereto, unless law
relating to the acquisition of such land, building or structure, pro-
vides for payment of compensation at a rate not less than its market
value. An addition was made in the Ninth Schedule to the Con-
stitution by adding 64 new Acts to the Ninth Schedule and taking
them out of the jurisdiction of the courts of the country.
The eighteenth amendment was made on 27 August, 1966. Two
Explanations were added to Article 3. It was provided that Par-
liament of India was competent to form a new State or Union
territory by uniting a part of any state or Union territory to any
other state or Union territory.
The nineteenth amendment was made on 11 December, 1966.
It amended Article 324. It deleted the words relating to the ap-
pointment of election tribunals as the same were abolished and
their work was given to High Courts.
The twentieth amendment was made on 22 December, 1966.
This amendment added Article 233-A to the Constitution and
regularised the appointment of the judges made in Uttar Pradesh
and also the decisions given by them.
The twenty-first amendment was made on 10 April, 1967. It
merely added Sindhi in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution
dealing with the languages of India.
It is noteworthy that during the first few years after the adop-
tion of the Constitution, there were too many amendments. That
was partly due to the absolute majority enjoyed by the Congress
both in Parliament and state legislatures and partly due to the domi-
nating personality of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who could
get anything passed through Parliament. Nehru died in 1964 and
the Congress lost its hold during the general elections held in 1967.
The result is that there has been no amendment of the Constitution
since 1967.


## p. 712 (#752) ############################################

CHAPTER XXXV
THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT IN INDIA
THE nationalist movement which culminated in the achieve-
ment of independence in 1947, was not the result of a few agitators.
It was the outcome of a large number of factors and the most im-
portant among them was British imperialism.
was British imperialism. It was British
imperialism which brought about the unification of the country
and enabled the people to think as one nation. Before the coming
of the English to India, the people of the South were usually
separated from the rest of India except for short intervals. British
imperialism made the people of India think themselves as one
nation. Prof. Moon rightly observes: “British imperialism in India
gave her a political unity under a third party in spite of the many
discordant elements in Indian society. ”
The improvements in the means of transport and communication
also quickened the pace of the nationalist movement in the coun-
try. The Indian leaders found themselves in a position to carry
on their propaganda in every nook and corner of the country.
Without those means of communication and transport, such a thing
would have been unthinkable. The frequent meetings of the
leaders among themselves and their personal contact with the people
in different parts of the country gave a momentum to the national-
ist movement.
Many scholars, poets and religious reformers contributed towards
the progress of the nationalist movement. The study and publica-
tion of the ancient Indian literature by the Asiatic Society of Bengal
and scholars like Max Muller, Monier Williams, Colebrooke,
Ranade, Har Prasad Sastri, R. G. Bhandarkar, Rajendra Lal Mitra
etc. revealed to the people of India the majesty of the Sanskrit
language and also inculcated among them a feeling of pride in
their past and their faith in the future.
The religious and social reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy,
Keshab Chandra Sen, Debendra Nath Tagore, Ishwar Chandra
Vidyasagar, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Ramakrishna Param-
hans, Vivekanand and others exercised a tremendous influence on
the people of India and they were responsible in different ways in
putting the people of India on the road to progress. It is contend-
ed that political agitation in India began with Raja Ram Mohan
Roy. His study of English literature, history and parliamentary
institutions acquainted him with the western political ideas and he


## p. 713 (#753) ############################################

FACTORS HELPING NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS 713
introduced the methods of political agitation by petitions, pamph-
lets, memorials, public meetings and the press. He was a great
,
lover of liberty. To him, liberty was indivisible. The enslave-
ment of one section of humanity was incompatible with the liberty
of another section. He followed with intense interest the course
of the French Revolution. He is said to have given a public dinner
in the Town Hall of Calcutta as a mark of his joy at the establish-
ment of constitutional government in Spain. On his way to Eng-
land, at the Cape of Good Hope, he insisted upon being carried to
a French vessel where he saw the flag of liberty flying so that he
may be able to pay his homage. In 1832, he publicly declared
that in case the objects of the Reforms Bill were defeated, he would
give up his residence in the dominions of England and settle down
in America. Keshab Chandra Sen also made his contribution to-
wards the cause of nationalism by helping the movement for social
and religious reform. The missionaries of the Brahmo Samaj car-
ried their message of new religicus and social freedom far and wide
all over the Indian continent. In that very connection, Keshab
went to Bombay in 1864 and to the present Uttar Pradesh in 1868.
Swami Dayanand Saraswati founded the Arya Samaj. He
preached to the people of India the lesson of self-confidence and
faith in their future. He reminded them of the glory and greatness
of India's past and exhorted his audiences to leave no stone un-
turned to make India great. He raised the slogan of: “Back to the
Vedas. ” He declared that good government was no substitute for
self-government and the rule of India by the Indians was to be
preferred in every way. It is well known that many leaders of
the Arya Samaj like Lala Lajpat Rai played a glorious part in the
nationalist movement of the country. Col. Olcott has rightly point-
ed out that Swami Dayanand exercised “great nationalising influ-
ence upon his followers. ” The view of Annie Besant was “It was
Dayanand Saraswati who proclaimed India for the Indians. ”
Ramkrishna Paramhans exercised great influence on his follow-
He has rightly been given the credit of assisting the growth
of national consciousness among the people. The Ramakrishna
Math and Mission have in many ways helped the cause of self-
consciousness among the people of India. Swami Vivekanand was
the pupil of Ramakrishna Paramhans and he in his own way helped
the people of India in reviving their faith in themselves and also in
the future of the country. About Swami Vivekanand, Niveditta
says: “The queen of his adoration was the motherland. ” Like
Swami Dayanand, Swami Vivekanand taught young India self-
confidence and self-reliance. The founders of the Theosophical
Society of India and Mrs. Annie Besant made their own contribu-
ers.


## p. 714 (#754) ############################################

714
THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT IN INDIA
tion towards the cause of the national awakening. They asked the
people of India to realise that they were not so bad as the Christian
missionaries painted them to be. They were as good as many ad-
vanced people of the world were. They asked the people of India
to look to their glorious past and try to bring back the same. They
taught people to have faith in themselves.
The Indian press and literature, both English and Vernacular,
also aroused national consciousness. Great was the influence of
newspapers like the Indian Mirror, the Bombay Samachar, the
Hindu Patriot, The Amrita Bazar Patrika, The Hindu, The Ke-
sari, The Bengalee, The Hurkura, The Bengal Public Opinion,
The Reis and Rayet, The Somprokash, The Sulabh Samachar,
The Sanjibam, The Sadharm, The Hitavadi, The Rast Goftar,
The Indu Prakash, The Standard, The Swadeshmitran, The He-
rald of Bihar, The Advocate of Lucknow etc. , on the political
life of the country. The growth of the Indian press was pheno-
menal and by 1875, there were no less than 478 newspapers in the
country.
Without them, it would have been impossible to create an
atmosphere in which the people of India could be made to think
of their common problems and common grievances. Undoub-
tedly, the Indian Press played a meritorious role in not only
creating a national awakening in the country but also guiding the
people of India throughout their struggle for independence. It
goes without saying that the Indian press also paid a part of the
price for the freedom of the country. The Indian press was the
target of the British Government from the very beginning but it
boldly and fearlessly faced the challenge.
The writings of Dinbandmu Hemchandra Banerjee, Navin
Chandra Sen, R. C. Dutt, Rabindra Nath Tagore ard Bankim
Chandra Chatterjee affected the minds of the people of India.
Through his writings, Rabindra Nath Tagore appealed to the
higher sentiments of the people of India to work for the glory of
their country. He tried to raise the moral tone of his country-
The Anand Math of Bankim Chandra Chatterji which
embodied the patriotic song “Bande Mataram” (Hail to the Mo-
ther), has rightly been called “The Bible of Modern Bengalee
patriotism. ” Aurobindo Ghose wrote in 1907: “As a poet and a
stylist, Bankim did a work of supreme national importance, not
for the whole of India,. . . . but for Bengal which was destined to
lead India and be in the vanguard of national development. "
Bankim's Bengalee nationalism gave to the rest of India the proto-
type of the state of mind which inspired many subsequent na-
tionalist endeavours. . In the words of Aurobindo Ghose, “It is


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FACTORS HELPING NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS 715
not till the Motherland reveals herself to the eye of the mind as
something more than a stretch of earth or a mass of individuals,
it is not till she takes shape as a great Divine and Maternal
power in a form of beauty that can dominate the mind and seize
the heart that these petty fears and hopes vanish in the All-absorb-
ing passion for the Mother and her service, and the patriotism
that works miracles and saves a doomed nation is born. ” A cri-
tical study of the writings of Bankim shows how he wanted his
countrymen to make supreme sacrifices for the cause of the coun-
try. He wanted his countrymen to put at the feet of Goddess Kali
thousands of their heads so that the cause of the nation could be
served. There is one particular thing about Bankim Chandra
Chatterji which must be noticed here. He did not believe that
the message of nationalism could reach the masses through the
English languages. He wanted the vernacular languages to be
used to reach the people and this is exactly what was done later
on under Mahatma Gandhi with great success. To quote Ban-
kim Chandra Chatterji, “We. . . . are strangely apt to forget that
it is only through Bengali that the people can be moved. We
preach in English and harangue in English and write in English,
perfectly forgetful that the great masses whom it is absolutely
necessary to move in order to carry out any great project of social
reform, remain stone-deaf to all our eloquence. " Rabindra Nath
Tagore and D. L. Roy gave us a lot of national poetry, songs
and music. The writings of the Indian patriots brought about a
revolution in the minds of the Indians and those revolutionary
minds were responsible for the growth of nationalism in the coun-
try.
Rightly or wrongly, the Hindus had a very high opinion of
themselves. They regarded the foreigners as Mlechhas whose
presence was merely to be tolerated. The Arab philosopher, Al-
biruni, who came to India in the time of Mahmud Ghazni, tells
us that the Hindus believed "that there was no country like theirs,
no kings like theirs, no religion like theirs, no sciences like
theirs. " The foreigner was in. pure in a stronger sense than the
barbarian to the Greek or the gentile to the Jews. Foreign rule
was impure whether it was Muslim or Christian. Such a view
was bound to express itself ultimately in the form of a movement
to liberate the country from the foreign yoke.
It goes without saying that the concepts of nationality and
patriotism were known to the Indians throughout their history.
Ancient literature and religious texts testify to a well-defined
image of Mother India and to a closer consciousness of national
solidarity. The ancient Indians gave it the name of Bharatvarsha


## p. 716 (#756) ############################################

716
THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT IN INDIA
or simply Bharat. The Puranas expressly define the term Bharat
as the country that lies north of the Indian Ocean and South of
the snowy Himalayas. The Hindu consciousness of national fron-
tiers is illustrated in their institution of pilgrimage which expects
a Hindu to visit the various holy places, distributed throughout
the length and breadth of the country. The foremost important
of the places of pilgrimage are located in the extremities of the
four directions. The sentiments of love and service for India are
to be found in the Vedas and the Epics. The Manusmriti contains
passages of extreme patriotic fervour such as “mother and mother-
country are greater than heaven. ” The daily prayers of a Hindu
require him to worship the image of the mother-country as the
land of seven sacred rivers and seven sacred cities which between
them cover the entire area of modern India. It was the resusci-
tation of this image which gave a definite meaning of nationalism
to the Hindus who recognised it and responded to the call of nation-
alism. However, this very fact proved to be a weakness of Indian
nationalism as such a picture was alien to the Muslims who did not
believe in But Parasati or worship of the idols.
The Hindus also derived inspiration from what had been done
in the recent past by the Marathas. The latter had developed a
community spirit which transcended the barriers of caste. It is
well known that the Brahmanas, soldiers, cultivators and the out-
caste Prabhus felt a common allegiance to Maharashtra. They
regarded the war against the Mughals as a struggle for indepen-
dence as well as a defence of religion. The Maratha example had
a tremendous influence on the nationalist movement in the coun-
try. This was particularly so in the hands of men like Tilak who
quoted from the Maratha history and appealed to the audiences
to drive out the Englishmen in the same way as the Marathas had
driven out the Muslims from Maharashtra in their own time. This
again was a weakness of Indian nationalism as such an attitude was
bound to alienate the Muslims of India.
There was a lot of discontentment in the country on account
of many causes and that discontentment gave a stimulus to the
gowth of the nationalist movement in the country. The masses
suffered from economic troubles. The middle classes suffered
from the bugbear of unemployment. All the intelligent Indians
felt and bewailed the economic exploitation of their country. The
British officials working in India were a very heavy drain on the
Indian resources. The economic system of India was adjusted to
the needs of the people of England. The interests of the Indians
were completely ignored. Blunt rightly points out that the vice
of Indian finance was that the Finance Minister of India looked


## p. 717 (#757) ############################################

FACTORS HELPING NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS 717
more to the interests of Great Britain than to those of India. All
tariff duties were abolished in 1879 with a view to benefit Lanca-
shire. In 1895, an excise duty of 5 per cent was imposed on
Indian cotton goods with a view to countervail similar tariff on
Lancashire goods imposed in the interests of revenue. The value
of the Indian rupee in terms of the English pound was fixed in
such a way as to help imports from England and discourage ex-
ports from India. Sir Henry Cotton condemned the economic
exploitation of India and the consequent miseries of the people of
the country. The Indians resented the attitude of the English-
men towards them. The Europeans in India were arrogant. They
had a very low opinion of the Indian character. They took plea-
sure in calling the Indians the creatures of an inferior breed, “half
Gorilla, half Negro. ” They ridiculed the Indian black heathens
"worshipping stocks and stones and swinging themselves on
bamboo trees like bees. ” The European masters regarded the
Indians as “the helots of the land, the hewer of wood and the
drawers of water. " The life of an Indian was estimated by most
Europeans as no higher than that of a dog. In 1819, Sir Thomas
Munro confessed that although the foreign conquerors have treated
the natives with violence and cruelty, but they had not treated
them with so much scorn as the Englishmen had done. Seton
Kerr, a Secretary to the Government of India, spoke of the “che-
rished conviction which was shared by every Englishman in India,
from the highest to the lowest. . . . the conviction in every man
that he belongs to a race which God has destined to govern and
subdue. ” Field Marshall Lord Roberts who at one time was the
Commander-in-Chief of India, did not regard even the bravest of
the Indian soldiers as equal to a British officer.
Travelling in the upper class railway compartments was not for
the Indians. Even the ruling Chiefs while travelling in the upper
classes were bullied into unlacing the boots and shampooing the
weary legs of the Sahibs just back from hunting excursions.
Assaults on Indians by Europeans were frequent. As the Euro-
peans were tried by juries consisting of Europeans, they very often
escaped scot free. The administration of criminal justice in such
cases was “a judicial scandal. ” Garrat says: “There was the long
succession of murders and brutalities perpetrated by Englishmen
upon the Indians which either went unpunished or in which, at
the demand of the whole European community, only a small
penalty was
exacted. This scandal of which there were many
flagrant instances in the sixties, has continued till recent times. ”
(An Indian Commentary, pp. 116-17). Sir Theodore Morrison,
a member of the Indian Civil Service, wrote thus in 1990 : “It is


## p. 718 (#758) ############################################

718
THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT IN INDIA
was
an ugly fact which it is no use to disguise that the murder of the
natives by Englishmen is no infrequent occurrence. ” The Euro-
peans had certain maxims about the Indians. “The first was that
the life of one European was worth those of many Indians. The
second was that the only thing that an oriental understood
fear. The third was that England had been forced to lose many
lives and spend many millions to hold India and did she not merit
some more substantial recompense than the privilege of govern-
ing India in a spirit of wisdom and unselfishness? " Such an atti-
tude was bound to create a lot of bitterness between the rulers
and the ruled. Edward Thompson observes : "Right at the back
of the mind of many an Indian, the Mutiny flits as he talks with
an Englishman—an unavenged, an unappeased ghost. ” (The
Other Side of the Medal, p. 30).
The free trade policy of the Government of India stood in the
way of the development of the country. Lala Murlidhar of the
Punjab observed thus in 1891: "Free trade, fair-play between
nations, how I hate the sham? What fair-play in trade can there
be between impoverished India
India and the bloated capitalist
England ? " Again, “What are all these chandeliers and lamps and
European-made chairs and tables and smart clothes and hats, Eng-
lish coats and bonnets and frocks and silver-mounted canes and
all the luxurious fittings of your houses but trophies of India's mi-
sery, mementoes of India's starvation? " D. E. Wacha points out
that the economic condition of the people of India deteriorated
under the British rule. 40 millions of Indians had to be conten-
ted with one meal a day. That was due to the tribute exacted
by England from the starving peasantry and "exported to fructify
there and swell still further the unparalleled wealth of these dis-
tant isles. ”
There was a lopsided development of the Indian economy.
While Indian handicrafts and industries were allowed to starve,
Indian agriculture was encouraged with a purpose. Most of the
raw materials were produced in the country so that those could
be used to feed the industries in England. That policy made
India dependent on England. The free trade policy helped the
British manufacturers and sacrificed the interests of India. The
public debt increased tremendously. After 1858, ihe Crown
took over the entire debt of 70 millions from the English East
India Company. Between 1858 and 1876, the public debt was
practically doubled. Out of the additional debt, only about 24
millions were spent on the construction of railways and irriga-
tion works. . No proper use of the money was made while con-
structing the railways. Those who constructed them were given
1
.


## p. 719 (#759) ############################################

FACTORS HELPING NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS 719
sums
more than what was due to them. It is rightly pointed out that
the first 6,000 miles of railways cost more than £100 millions or
£16,000 a mile. To quote W. N. Massey, “Enormous
were lavished and the contractors had no motive for economy.
All the money came from the English capitalist and so long as
he was guaranteed 5 per cent on the revenues of India, it was
immaterial for him whether the funds he lent were thrown into
the Hooghly or converted into bricks or mortar. " L. H. Jenks
points out that the expenses which increased the public debt of
India were “the cost of the Mutiny, the price of the transfer of
Company's rights to the Crown, the expenses of simultaneous
wars in China and Abyssinia, every governmental item in London
that remotely related to India down to the fees of the char-wo-
man in the India Office and the expenses of ships that sailed but
did not participate in hostilities and the cost of the Indian regi-
ments for 6 months' training at home before they sailed. . . . The
Sultan of Turkey visited London in 1868 in state and his offi-
cial ball was arranged at the India Office and the Bill was charged
to India. A lunatic asylum in Ealing, gifts to members of a Zan-
zibar Mission, the Consular and diplomatic establishments of
Great Britain in China or in Persia, part of the permanent ex-
penses of the Mediterranean feet and the entire cost of a line
of telegraph from England to India had been charged to the
Indian treasury. ” (The Migration of British Capital, pp. 223-
24). The net result of all these factors was that there was great
misery in India. There was a lot of resentment and unrest.
There were frequent famines in the country. There were
many as 24 famines during the second half of the 19th century
and it is estimated that more than 28 millions died. The ex-
port of foodgrains from India to Great Britain during the years
of famine added to the bitterness among the people. No wonder,
Mr. Blunt, a British journalist touring India in 1882, observed
that when Lord Lytton left India, India was on the verge of a
revolution.
Before the outbreak of the Mutiny in 1857, there were many
Englishmen who honestly believed and worked for the good of
India. However, during the Mutiny days a lot of blood was shed
on both sides. The Europeans wreaked their vegeance on the
helpless and innocent Indians after the Mutiny. It was this po-
licy of oppression and repression which added to the discontent
of the country. The Indians were completely excluded from the
legislatures in the country and also from the key-posts in the ad-
ministration. Zacharias says: “The blight of distrust had be-
gun to fall upon England's relations with India; these people had
as


## p. 720 (#760) ############################################

720
THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT IN INDIA
common
mutinied once and committed dreadful atrocities-how could one
trust them not to plan further sedition? ” Another writer points
out that "the old sympathy with India changed to a feeling of
repugnance—the old spirit of content with life and work in
India, the old inclination to regard things in an Indian rather than
an English light, gave place to a reluctance to stay in India longer
than needs must, and a disposition to judge things by an empha-
tically English standard. " Garrat observes : "The English killed
their prisoners without trial and in a manner held by all Indians
to be the height of barbarity. They massacred thousands of the
civil population. General Neil gave orders to his lieutenants that
certain villages were marked out for destruction and all the men
inhabiting them were slaughtered and the indiscriminate burning
of their inhabitants occurred wherever our English armies mov-
ed. "
The English language played a very important part in the
growth of nationalism in the country. It acted as the lingua
franca of the intelligentsia of India. Without the
medium of the English language, it would have been out of the
question for the Madrasis, Bengalees and the Punjabis to sit at
one table and discuss the common problems facing the country.
The English language also made the Indians inheritors of a great
literature which was full of great ideas and ideals. Tagore says:
“We had come to know England through her glorious literature,
which had brought new inspiration into our young lives. The
English authors, whose books and poems we studied, were full of
love for humanity, justice, and freedom. This great literary tra-
dition had come down to us from the revolutionary period. We
felt its power in Wordsworth's sonnets about human liberty. We
glorified in it even in the immature production of Shelley writ-
ten in the enthusiasm of his youth when he declared against the
tyranny of priestcraft and preached the overthrow of all despot-
isms through the power of suffering bravely endured. All this
fired our youthful imaginations. We believed with all our simple
faith that even if we rebelled against foreign rule, we should
have the sympathy of the West. We felt that England was on
our side in wishing to gain our freedom” Sardar K. M. Panikkar
has pointed out in Asia and Western Dominance that the intro-
duction of the English language helped the cause of unity in
the country and without it India would have been split into as
many different units as there are languages in India and would
have repeated the pattern of Europe with its conglomeration of
mutually hostile units within the same Christian community (p.
332).


## p. 721 (#761) ############################################

ILBERT BILL CONTROVERSY
721
The ground was ready and the acts of omission and commis-
sion in the time of Lord Lytton accelerated the nationalist move-
ment. The period from 1876 to 1884 has been called the seed-
time of Indian nationalism. Lord Lytton held his famous Delhi
Durbar in 1877 at a time when the people of South India were
suffering terribly from the descruction brought about by famine.
They wondered at the callousness of Lytton. An appropriate
comment was made in these words : “Nero was fiddling while
Rome was burning. ” The second Afghan War cost the Indian
treasury a lot. No wonder, the Indians criticised Lytton merci-
lessly. In order to gag the Indian public opinion, Lytton passed
the notorious Vernacular Press Act in 1878. The discriminatory
provisions of this Act were universally condemned by the people
belonging to all walks of life. Sir Erskine Perry points out that
the Act was "a retrogarde and ill-conceived measure injurious to
the future progress of India. ” It was called the Gagging Act.
Lytton passed the Arms Act in 1878 which made an invidious
distinction between the Indians and the Europeans. While the
Europeans were allowed to keep arms freely, the Indians could not
do so without a licence. In the words of Surendra Nath Baner-
jee, the Arms Act “imposed upon was a badge of racial infer-
iority. ” Such a measure was derogatory to the self-respect of the
people of India. Lord Lytton removed the import duty on cot-
ton manufactures with a view to help the British manufacturers
and this was resented by the Indians. It is true that Lord Ripon
tried to remove some of the grievances of India, but before he
could do so, the Ilbert Bill controversy came to the fore.
The Ilbert Bill was a simple measure whose object was to put
the Indian judges on the same footing as the European judges in
dealing with all cases in Bengal Presidency. The necessity of this
bill arose as the Indians who had joined the judicial service were
rising in the ranks and that involved the possible trial of Euro-
peans by an Indian judge without a jury. This was considered
to be too much by the Europeans. A strong agitation was
brought into existence by the Europeans who were not prepared
to be tried by an Indian judge. Lord Ripon became the target
of the agitation. He was boycotted by the European community.
He was threatened to be kidnapped to England. Ultimately a
compromise was arrived at which suited the Europeans. How-
ever, this set a wrong precedent. The flag of racialism was hoist-
ed by the Europeans. The Indians realised that they could not
expect any justice or fairplay from the Englishmen when their
own interests were involved. Surendranath Banerjee observes:
“No self-respecting Indian could sit idle under the fierce light of


## p. 722 (#762) ############################################

722
THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT IN INDIA
that revelation. It was a call to high patriotic duty to those who
understood its significance. ” Before the effect of the Ilbert bill
controvery was over, the Indians had already organised themselves
into the Indian National Conference which was the forerunner of
the Indian National Congress founded in 1885.
Before dealing with the foundation and work of the Indian
National Congress, it seems desirable to refer to political organi-
zations before 1885. In 1837, the Bengal Zamindary Associa-
tion (later on known as the Bengal Landholders' Society) was set
up. Its main object was to resist encroachments on the rights of
the landlords on account of the policy of the Bengal Government
to give a certain measure of protection to the cultivators. About
the same time, a few English radicals started in London the Bri-
tish India Society. Its object was to create an interest in the
conditions of India and “to fix the eyes of the entire nation on
the extent. . . . and the claims of British India. ” George Thomp-
son, one of the prominent members of the British India Society,
came to Calcutta in 1842 and set up in 1843 the Bengal British
India Society. The object of the new Society was the gradual
advancement of the public welfare by peaceful means.
How-
ever, the members of the Society professed complete loyalty to the
British Crown. Out of the two, the Bengal Landlords' Society
and the Bengal British India Society, the former was more im-
portant than the latter. In 1851, these two societies were amal-
gamated into the British Indian Association. In spite of the fact
that Kristo Das Pal, the Secretary of the British India Association,
was a liberal, this Association was dominated by the landlords
and the progressive Bengalees had no place in it. Its subscrip-
tion was kept high and hence all could not join it.
On 26 August, 1852, the principal Hindus, Parsees, Moham-
medans, Portuguese and Jews of Bombay met to consider "the
desirableness of forming an association with a view to ascertaining
the wants of the people of this country and the measures calcu-
lated to advance their welfare and of representing the same to
the authorities in India or in England. ” On that occasion,
Dadabhai Naoroji observed: "Many ask what this Association
means to do when it is well known that under our present gov-
ernment we enjoy an amount of liberty and prosperity rarely
known to the inhabitants of india under any native sovereign.
In reply to this it is said we ought to demand redress for our grie-
vances. But what are those grievances ? They may be many
or none, yet nobody here is at this moment prepared to give a
decided reply; when we see that our Government is often ready to
assist us in everything calculated to benefit us, we had better, than


## p. 723 (#763) ############################################

THE BOMBAY ASSOCIATION
723
merely complain and grumble, point out in a becoming manner
what our real wants are. We are subject to the English govern-
ment, whose principal officers being drawn from England do not,
except after a long residence and experience, become fully ac-
quainted with our wants and customs. Though they may always
be anxious to do good to us, they are often led, by their imper-
fect acquaintance with the country, to adopt measures calculated
to do more harm than good, while we, on the other hand, have
no means of preventing such occurrences. The most we can do
is complain through the medium of the paper. In time all is hush-
ed up and the people carry with them the impression that Gov-
ernment has been unkind to them in not attending to their com-
plaint. We have, therefore, to consider what we ought to do to
secure our own good, and at the same time keep up a good un-
derstanding between us and Government. "
On the same occasion, the Chairman of the Bombay Associa-
tion, Mr. Juggonathjee Sunkersett stated : “Now as the British
Government acknowledge their
their duty to be to effect whatever
good they can for the benefit of this country, it is clear that their
object and our object are one and the same. We are not in op-
position to Government nor can Government be opposed to our
objects, if it be shown that the good of the country is what we
seek. The Government has the power to do much good and
we have many a proof that they have the will also. I need not
go far for these proofs. Witness this noble Institution which
they so generously support and in which so many, who are now
present, have received a most excellent education.