The Nationalists’ First World War And Lucknow Session
In June 1914, the First World War broke out between Great Britain, France, Italy, Russia, Japan and the U.S.A. on one side and Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey on the other. In India, the years of War marked the maturing of nationalism.
In the beginning, the Indian nationalist leaders, including Lokamanya Tilak, who had been released in June 1914, decided to support the war effort of the Government. This was not done out of a sense of loyalty or sympathy with the British cause but with the mistaken belief that Britain would repay India’s loyalty by taking steps to put India on the road to self-government. They did not realise fully that the different powers were fighting the First World War precisely to safeguard their existing colonies.
The Home Rule Leagues
At the same time, many Indian leaders saw clearly that the government was not likely to give any real concessions unless popular pressure was put on it. Hence, a mass political movement was necessary. Some other factors were leading the nationalist movement in the same direction. The World War, involving a mutual struggle between the imperialist powers of Europe, destroyed the myth of the racial superiority of the western nations over Asian peoples. Moreover, the War led to increased misery among the Indian poor as the war brought heavy taxation and soaring prices of the daily necessities of life. They were getting ready to join any militant movement of protest. Consequently, the war years were years of intense nationalist political agitation.
But this mass agitation could not be carried out under the leadership of the Congress, which had become, under Moderate leadership, á passive and inert political organisation with no political work among the people to its credit. Therefore, two Home Rule Leagues were started in 1915-16, one under the leadership of Lokamanya Tilak and the other under the leadership of Annie Besant. The two Home Rule Leagues carried out intense propaganda all over the country in favour of the demand for the grant of Home Rule or self-government to India after the War. It was during this agitation that Tilak gave the popular slogan: Swaraj is my birthright, and I will have it. The two Leagues made rapid progress and the movement acquired a mass character.
The war period also witnessed the growth of revolutionary terrorism. The terrorist groups spread from Bengal and Maharashtra to the whole of northern India. Many Indians stationed abroad began to plan a violent rebellion to overthrow British rule. Indian revolutionaries in the United States of America and Canada had established the Ghadar (Rebellion) Party in 1913. While most of the members of the party were Sikh peasants and soldiers, their leaders were mostly educated Hindus or Muslims. ·
The Ghadar Party was pledged to wage a revolutionary war against the British in India. As soon as the First World War broke out in 1914, the Ghadarites decided to send arms and men to India to start an uprising with the help of Indian soldiers, stationed in India and abroad, and local revolutionaries. Several thousand men volunteered to go back to India. Finally, 21 February 1915 was fixed as the date for an armed revolt. Unfortunately, the authorities came to know of these plans and took immediate action. The rebellious regiments were disbanded and their leaders were either imprisoned or hanged. Many of them, after their release, founded Communist movements in Punjab. Some of the prominent Ghadar leaders were Lala Hardayal, Kartar Singh Saraba, Sohan Singh Bhakna, Bhai Parmanand, and Mohammad Barkatullah. Rash Bihari Bose, Raja Mahendra Pratap, Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi, Champak Raman Pillai, Sardar Singh Rana, and Madam Cama were some of the prominent Indians who carried on revolutionary activities and propaganda outside India during this period.
Lucknow Session of the Congress (1916)
The nationalists soon saw that disunity in their ranks was injuring their cause and that they must put up a united front in the freedom struggle. The growing nationalist feeling in the country and the urge for national unity led to two historic. developments at the Lucknow session of the Congress in 1916. Firstly, the two wings of the Congress were reunited as both the groups realised that the split in the Congress had not benefited either group. The old Moderate leaders were compelled to welcome back into the Congress fold, Lokamanya Tilak and other Extremists. The Lucknow Congress was the first united Congress since 1907.
Secondly, at Lucknow, the Congress and the Muslim League sank their old differences and put up a common political programme. While the War and the two Home Rule Leagues were creating a new sentiment in the country and changing the character of the Congress, the Muslim League had also been undergoing gradual changes. It gradually began to outgrow the limited political outlook of the Aligarh school and moved nearer to the policies of the Congress as the League was now dominated by young radical Muslims who were more attracted by ideas of self-government.
The unity between the Congress and the League was brought about by the signing of the CongressLeague pact, known popularly as the Lucknow Pact. An important role in bringing the two together was played by Lokamanya Tilak. The two organisations put forward a joint scheme of political reforms based on separate electorates and demanded that the British Government should make a declaration that it would confer self-government on India at an early date. The Lucknow Pact marked an important step forward in Hindu-Muslim unity. Unfortunately, it was based on the notion of bringing together Hindus and Muslims as separate entities, without secularisation of their political outlook which would make them realise that in politics they had no separate interests as Hindus or Muslims. The Lucknow Pact, therefore, left the way open to the future resurgence of communalism in Indian politics.
But the immediate effect of the developments at Lucknow was tremendous. The unity between the Moderates and the Extremists and between the Congress and the Muslim League aroused great enthusiasm in the country. Even the British Government felt it necessary to stop repression and placate the nationalists. It now decided to appease nationalist opinion and announced on 20 August 1917 that its policy in Indian was “the gradual development of self-governing institutions with a view to the progressive realisation of Responsible Government of India as an integral part of the British Empire”. In July 1918, the Montague-Chelmsford Reforms were announced. Many revolutionary terrorists were released from jail to create a favourable atmosphere for the Reforms. But Indian nationalism was not appeased. In fact, the Indian national movement was soon to enter its third and last phase – the era of struggle or the Gandhian Era.