Nationalism in India Class 10: Notes and Important Questions

Nationalism in India is chapter 2 of Class 10 History. This guide takes you through the chapter in order: how the First World War changed India, Gandhiji's idea of Satyagraha, the Rowlatt Act and Jallianwala Bagh, the Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience Movements, how different groups joined, and how a sense of collective belonging grew. A dates table and important questions with model answers are at the end.

The First World War and its effects

The First World War (1914-1918) created a new economic and political situation in India.

• Taxes and prices: defence spending rose and was paid for with war loans and higher taxes. Customs duties went up and income tax was introduced. Between 1913 and 1918 prices roughly doubled.
• Forced recruitment: villagers were forced to join the army, which caused anger.
• Crop failures and disease: crops failed in 1918-19 and 1920-21, causing food shortages, and an influenza epidemic broke out. According to the 1921 census, 12 to 13 million people died because of famines and the epidemic.

People hoped things would improve after the war, but the government gave no relief.

Satyagraha

Gandhiji returned from South Africa in January 1915, where he had used Satyagraha against racist laws. Satyagraha stressed the power of truth. If the cause is true and the fight is against injustice, physical force is not needed. A satyagrahi wins through non-violence by appealing to the conscience of the oppressor.

He first used it in India in three local movements:

• Champaran (1917): for plantation workers.
• Kheda (1918): for peasants.
• Ahmedabad (1918): for cotton mill workers.

The Rowlatt Act and Jallianwala Bagh

The Rowlatt Act (1919) was rushed through the Imperial Legislative Council despite united Indian opposition. It let the government detain political prisoners without trial for two years. Gandhiji called a hartal on 6 April 1919.

On 13 April 1919, a crowd gathered in the enclosed Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. Some came to protest; others came for the Baisakhi fair, and many villagers did not know martial law had been imposed. General Dyer blocked the exits and opened fire, killing hundreds. He said he wanted to produce a moral effect and terrify satyagrahis.

Strikes and clashes followed, and the government used brutal repression. Seeing the violence spread, Gandhiji called off the Rowlatt Satyagraha.

The Non-Cooperation Movement

In Hind Swaraj (1909), Gandhiji wrote that British rule survived only because Indians cooperated, and that it would collapse within a year if they stopped.

The plan went in stages: give up government titles, then boycott civil services, army, police, courts, schools and foreign goods.

To bring Hindus and Muslims together, Gandhiji took up the Khilafat issue. The Khilafat movement defended the temporal powers of the Ottoman Emperor (the Khalifa). The Non-Cooperation programme was adopted at the Nagpur Congress session in December 1920, and the Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement began in January 1921.

Different groups, different meanings of Swaraj

• Towns: the middle class led. Thousands of students left schools, lawyers gave up practice, and foreign cloth was burnt. Imports of foreign cloth halved between 1921 and 1922, from Rs 102 crore to Rs 57 crore. The movement slowed because khadi cost more than mill cloth and there were few Indian schools and courts to replace British ones.
• Awadh: Baba Ramchandra led peasants against high rents and begar (forced unpaid labour).
• Gudem Hills, Andhra Pradesh: Alluri Sitaram Raju led a guerrilla movement against forest restrictions. He was inspired by Gandhiji but believed force was needed for liberation.
• Assam plantation workers: Swaraj meant the right to move freely. Under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859 they were rarely allowed to leave the tea gardens. Thousands left for home.

The movement was withdrawn after the violence at Chauri Chaura in February 1922, because Gandhiji wanted the struggle to stay non-violent.

Towards Civil Disobedience

After 1922 the Congress debated its next step. C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru formed the Swaraj Party to enter the provincial councils. Younger leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose wanted stronger mass agitation. The Great Depression made agricultural prices collapse after 1930.

• Simon Commission (1928): came to suggest constitutional changes but had no Indian member. It was met with the slogan "Go back Simon".
• Lahore Congress (December 1929): presided over by Nehru, it formalised the demand for Purna Swaraj (full independence) and declared 26 January 1930 as Independence Day.

The Salt March

Salt was used by everyone, and the government's control over making it was seen as oppressive. On 31 January 1930, Gandhiji sent Viceroy Irwin a letter with eleven demands, including abolition of the salt tax. Irwin refused to negotiate.

Gandhiji then walked 240 miles from Sabarmati to Dandi with 78 volunteers. On 6 April 1930, at Dandi, he broke the law by making salt from seawater. This began the Civil Disobedience Movement: people were now asked not only to refuse cooperation but to break colonial laws.

About 100,000 people were arrested, including Gandhiji and Abdul Ghaffar Khan. In March 1931, under the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, Gandhiji agreed to attend the Second Round Table Conference in London, and political prisoners were to be released.

Who joined, and who held back

• Rich peasants (Patidars and Jats) joined to fight high revenue demands; poor peasants wanted unpaid rents forgiven.
• Industrialists, through organisations such as FICCI (1927), supported the movement to end colonial limits on business.
• Women took part in large numbers, seeing service to the nation as a sacred duty.
• Dalits: many stayed away and asked for separate electorates. Dr B.R. Ambedkar clashed with Gandhiji, which led to the Poona Pact of 1932: reserved seats for the Depressed Classes in provincial and central legislative councils, but voted on by the general electorate.
• Muslims: participation was lukewarm after the Khilafat movement declined. Leaders like Muhammad Ali Jinnah were willing to give up separate electorates if Muslims were guaranteed reserved seats in the Central Assembly, but talks at the 1928 All Parties Conference failed because the Hindu Mahasabha opposed this. Different leaders had different concerns, so no community acted as one block.

A sense of collective belonging

• Bharat Mata: first created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, who wrote "Vande Mataram" (later included in his novel Anandamath). Abanindranath Tagore later painted her as an ascetic, divine figure.
• Folklore: Rabindranath Tagore collected ballads and myths in Bengal; Natesa Sastri published a four-volume collection of Tamil folk tales in Madras.
• Flags: the 1921 Swaraj flag was a tricolour with a spinning wheel.
• History: Indians looked back to the achievements of ancient Indian art, science and philosophy to answer British claims that Indians were backward. But when symbols came mainly from Hindu traditions, other communities sometimes felt left out.

Remember this: key dates

Important questions with answers

1. How did the First World War cause hardship in India? War loans and higher taxes (higher customs duties, new income tax), prices doubling between 1913 and 1918, and forced recruitment in villages. Crop failures and an influenza epidemic added to the misery.

2. What was the idea of Satyagraha? It stressed truth and non-violence. If the cause was true and against injustice, the satyagrahi could win by appealing to the oppressor's conscience, without physical force.

3. Why was the Rowlatt Act opposed? It let the government detain political prisoners without trial for two years and was passed despite united Indian opposition.

4. Why did Gandhiji take up the Khilafat issue? To bring Hindus and Muslims together in a broad-based movement.

5. Why did Non-Cooperation slow down in cities? Khadi was more expensive than mill cloth, and there were not enough Indian institutions to replace British schools and courts.

6. What did Swaraj mean to plantation workers in Assam? The right to move freely in and out of the tea gardens, which the Inland Emigration Act of 1859 rarely allowed.

7. Why was the Simon Commission opposed? It was to decide India's constitutional future but did not have a single Indian member.

8. How was Civil Disobedience different from Non-Cooperation? In Non-Cooperation people refused to cooperate. In Civil Disobedience they actively broke colonial laws, such as the salt law.

9. What was the Poona Pact? A 1932 agreement between Dr Ambedkar and Gandhiji giving the Depressed Classes reserved seats in provincial and central councils, voted on by the general electorate.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Mixing up Non-Cooperation (1921-22) and Civil Disobedience (from 1930).
• Saying Non-Cooperation ended because of Jallianwala Bagh. It was withdrawn after Chauri Chaura.
• Forgetting that the Simon Commission was opposed because it had no Indian member.
• Writing that every group joined for the same reason. The chapter stresses different meanings of Swaraj.

To revise this chapter with questions and instant feedback, study this chapter with Joy on Learnijoy.