Key Landmarks in the Indian Freedom Struggle
Key Landmarks in the Indian Freedom Struggle
"Nadir Shah looted the country only once. But the British loot us every day. Every year wealth to the tune of 4.5 million dollar is being drained out, sucking our very blood. Britain should immediately quit India.'' That's what the Sindh Times wrote on May 20, 1884, a year before the Indian National Congress was born and 58 years before the ''Quit India'' movement of 1942 was launched.
Contrary to the view that nationalist sentiments were awoken by the Indian National Congress only when M.K. Gandhi took over it's leadership, nationalist feelings in India had been present as early as 1857, and expressions of Indian nationalism manifested themselves in various forms all through the course of British rule.
The Boycott of Foreign Goods
An early form of economic nationalism was seen in Shikarpur (Sindh), when the Pritam Dharma Sabha, set up in 1888, initiated various social reforms, but also inspired the setting up of swadeshi sugar, soap, and cloth mills. The literature produced by the Sabha was considered so revolutionary that, in 1909, three of it's members, Seth Chetumal, Virumal Begraj and Govind Sharma were all sentenced to five years' rigorous imprisonment by the British administration.
The partition of Bengal along communal lines in 1905 by the British (''Vanga Bhanga'') triggered a nation-wide Swadeshi movement, giving a great fillip to the freedom movement throughout the country. A boycott of foreign goods was proclaimed on August 7, 1905. At this time, the Indian National Congress gave only conditional support to the plan, but a year later, under the influence of more radical leaders like Tilak from Maharashtra, Bipin Chandra Pal and Aurobindo Ghosh from Bengal and Lajpat Rai from Punjab, the Calcutta session of the Congress in 1906 proclaimed for the first time, the concept of 'swaraj', i.e self-rule and called for support to the boycott movement. Although the demand for 'swaraj' was only a partial step
"Nadir Shah looted the country only once. But the British loot us every day. Every year wealth to the tune of 4.5 million dollar is being drained out, sucking our very blood. Britain should immediately quit India.'' That's what the Sindh Times wrote on May 20, 1884, a year before the Indian National Congress was born and 58 years before the ''Quit India'' movement of 1942 was launched.
Contrary to the view that nationalist sentiments were awoken by the Indian National Congress only when M.K. Gandhi took over it's leadership, nationalist feelings in India had been present as early as 1857, and expressions of Indian nationalism manifested themselves in various forms all through the course of British rule.
The Boycott of Foreign Goods
An early form of economic nationalism was seen in Shikarpur (Sindh), when the Pritam Dharma Sabha, set up in 1888, initiated various social reforms, but also inspired the setting up of swadeshi sugar, soap, and cloth mills. The literature produced by the Sabha was considered so revolutionary that, in 1909, three of it's members, Seth Chetumal, Virumal Begraj and Govind Sharma were all sentenced to five years' rigorous imprisonment by the British administration.
The partition of Bengal along communal lines in 1905 by the British (''Vanga Bhanga'') triggered a nation-wide Swadeshi movement, giving a great fillip to the freedom movement throughout the country. A boycott of foreign goods was proclaimed on August 7, 1905. At this time, the Indian National Congress gave only conditional support to the plan, but a year later, under the influence of more radical leaders like Tilak from Maharashtra, Bipin Chandra Pal and Aurobindo Ghosh from Bengal and Lajpat Rai from Punjab, the Calcutta session of the Congress in 1906 proclaimed for the first time, the concept of 'swaraj', i.e self-rule and called for support to the boycott movement. Although the demand for 'swaraj' was only a partial step