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Summary
Modern Indian History Class 27

Positives of Moderates(05:04 pm)

  • Began project of nation-building.
  • In1885 Bombay session declared goal was building national unity.
  • Each session was in different parts of the country and the president was not from the region of the session.
  • Therefore it built national leadership, interregional awareness and unity.
  • Tried for unity between different religions means they were secular.
  • 1888:NO decision if the majority of Hindu or Muslim members do not agree.
  • 1889:Minority clause-In future council reforms there should be reservations to minorities in proportion to the percentage in the population.
  • 1886: Under Dada Bhai Nairojii's rule-INC will take up only political questions and questions common to all Indians.
  • Built Culture of Parliamentary politics as INC sessions are held democratically like a parliament.
  • Supported Indian capitalism as capitalism in India was in a nascent stage and under high competition from British imports and British businesses in India.
  • They wanted the Indian economy to modernise along the lines of the western capitalist model.
  • Drain theory:-By RC Dutt (Ex ICS wrote "economic history of India in 1901), MG Ranade father of Indian economics and Dada Bhai Nairoji etc.
  • Biggest contribution was intellectually proving that the British rule exploited India economically.
  • Therefore, the idea of the morality of imperialism and the white man's burden was demolished.
  • Proved that British industrialisation led to the conversion of India into a source of raw material for British factories and an export market for British manufactured goods leading to a modern colonial relationship between India and Britain.
  • Here 'modern' implies the 'modern economy' of colonial power.
  • Therefore, the colony provides two things raw materials and an export market.
  • They proved that there was a drain of wealth from India to Britain which prevented India's economic growth and industrialisation.
  • Agriculture sector was overburdened as the Indian handicraft sector was destroyed and no modern industrialisation happened.
  • Therefore people employed in the handicraft sector had to fall back on the agriculture sector.
  • India lost domestic and export markets to British manufactured goods and became a net exporter of raw materials from an earlier net exporter of finished goods.
  • Revolution in the transport sector during the industrial revolution(IR1750-1850 in Britain) escalated drain from India.
  • For example steam engine power ships and railroad and port networks escalated the speed of drain.
  • No import duty on British imports to India while very high duty on Indian finished goods imports into Britain. (misuse of political power over the colony by colonial power).

Components of drain(5:57 pm)

  • Pre 19th century
  • Misuse of Dastaks plus Plassey plunder (1757-1765) plus Land Revenue post-1765.
  • Therefore structure of British trade changed from the inflow of gold into India to the outflow of gold from India.
  • Post 19th century
  • Absence of protective tariffs(import duty on British products).
  • Therefore drain is due to high imports.
  • Manipulation of the exchange rate that benefitted British businesses.
  • Home charges
  • (Note: 'Home' means  Britain and 'Charges' means charges for goods and services provided to Indians).
  • Salaries pensions and training costs of British officials and soldiers.
  • Expenses related to SOS for India and India council both in London. Earlier BOC also.
  • Dividends to shareholders of EIC.
  • Import of government stationaries from Britain.
  • Purchase of stores (stationary steel) on behalf of India by Britain.
  • Interest on loans taken by EIC.
  • EIC earned forex by exporting Indian goods i.e opium to china(this forex never came to India).
  • Tax-financed trade-Importer goes to the Secretary of State(SOS) who gives council bills(CB) to importers and keeps forex.
  • Importer comes to India with CB.
  • India did not get forex for many of its exports and this forex went to the British govt.
  • This was because of the sale of council Bills by SOS for India in London to importers of Indian goods.
  • They used these bills to purchase Indian goods.
  • FDI led to a drain in form of profits, plus guaranteed interests on FDI.
  • The Indian military was used for the British empire.

Whether the Britishers modernised India? (6:54 pm)

  • 45  trillion dollars worth of drain at 2022 prices as per some commentators.
  • Any modernisation was a byproduct and was despite British rule.
  • Railways connected India internally and to the world economy via rail to port infrastructure.
  • Indian Arguments:
  • (Explained through diagram)
  • Dalhousie started railways in 1853 for faster movement of an army.
  • Railway lines focussed on connecting Indian markets and sources of raw materials to ports and not on connecting Indian manufacturers to city markets and raw material centres.
  • Therefore focus was on extracting raw materials from India and capturing Indian markets for British manufacturers.
  • A very limited transfer of technology also in low-tech areas like bridge building and tunnelling.
  • Focus was on creating investment opportunities for British businesses and not the development of India.
  • 5 per cent guaranteed interest/return on investment to companies who are also given free land with 99 years of the lease.
  • And at any time they could give constructed railway line to govt. and the govt will give them back their capital with a 5 per cent interest.
  • Therefore FDI became Fixed Deposits (FD) and Profits were private while risks and losses were public.
  • Guaranteed interest led to wasteful construction and the same money could have been invested in irrigation.
  • However byproduct was by 1947, 78 per cent of India was connected by railways and the building of connected roads to the railway line i.e feeder roads enabled the utilisation of railways by Indian businesses.
  • Plus railways increased people-to-people contact increasing national unity.

Canals(6:18 pm)

  • British Argument:-
  • BRITISH developed irrigation infra and canals and became a role model for Asia.
  • Therefore they modernise agriculture and achieve food security for India.
  • Indian argument:-
  • Canals were built only in non-permanent settlement areas(Punjab western UP)where Land Revenue could be increased.
  • Water from canals was not free therefore only the rich benefitted.
  • By 1947 only 25 per cent of cultivated areas were under the public irrigation system.
  • Famines during (1860-the 70s) in different parts of India and Bengal famine in 1943.
  • Therefore no food security.
  • British argument:-
  • Consider drain as west like the development of India.
  • Guaranteed returns on FDI attracted FDI in India that led to railways roadways canals etc.
  • Indian argument:-
  • Economic growth was not substantial.
  • Uneven regional growth.
  • Not enough investment in irrigation health education.
  • British argument:-
  • Drain was only 2 per cent of Indian export value in the early 20th century.
  • Indian argument:-
  • Dada Bhai  Nairobi argued that this 2 per cent was a surplus that if invested in India would have led to GDP growth.

Indian Council Act 1892 (Also known as Lord Cross's Act)(6:33 pm)

  • Result of struggles by moderates but was also proof of their failure as it did not bring limited self-government.
  • Grain of indirect election in ILC and PLCs.
  • First-time indirectly elected members as some non-official could be selected from local bodies.
  • But it was a selection, not an election as local bodies i.e, municipalities district boards universities and chambers of commerce would send lists of nominees from among themselves and from this list viceroys and governors would select members for ILC AND PLCs.
  • Therefore indirect elections but fake.
  • Few more members were added to ILC i.e size expanded.
  • More non-official members as now 10 to 16 could be non-officials. (1861-half of 6 to 12 could be non-official.)
  • Opposition can not bring any resolution, nor demand a vote on any government resolution.
  • (NOTE: Resolution means declared intent. Opposition implies non-officials.)
  • Government was given the power to legislate even without bringing a bill to the legislature.
  • Therefore legislature's functions were at best recommendatory and not mandatory.
  • Budget could be discussed for the first time.
  • But can neither vote on it nor amend it. (therefore taxation without representation continued).
  • Questions could be asked to the executive for the first time but no discussion of answers and no supplementary questions.
  • Covenanted civil services changed to Indian civil service and uncovenanted CS changed to provincial CS and statutory CS 1878  was abolished.
  • Therefore very few constitutional demands of moderates were made like:-
  • Expansion of council yes but not satisfactory.
  • Non-official majority -no.
  • Elected majority-no.
  • Proper indirect elections-no.
  • Indianisation of CS-no.
  • Powers to the councils-no.
  • Therefore post 1892 moderates changed their demand to self-government on the lines of Australia and Canada within the British empire.
  • And officially INC changed its goal to swaraj within the British empire in the 1906 Calcutta session with Dada Bhai Nairoji as president.

Extremist (8:08 pm)

  • Reasons for the rise:-
  • Failure of moderates.
  • Extremists had greater support of religious masses.
  • Increased authoritarianism especially during Curzon(1899-1905)
  • Q: Failures in INM led to stronger INM.
  • ANS:  Pre-1857 revolts led to 1857 revolts whose failure led to modern INM.
  • Failures of conservatives led to the rise of moderates as part of pre-INC regional organisations.
  • And Whose failure led to INC in 1885 under moderates and whose failure led to extremists.
  • And again their failure led to revolutionaries and everyone's failure led to Mahatama Gandhi.
  • Famous extremists:-(Lala lajpat roy,Bal Gangadhar tilak,Bipin Chandra pal ,Aurbindo Ghosh).
  • Goal:-Swaraj 
  • For most swaraj equals self-rule within the British Empire.
  • For some like Aurobindo BC pal swaraj is equal to purna swaraj.

Methods(8:18PM)

  • Passive resistance (Non-cooperation and Civil disobedience.)
  • Non-cooperation means adopting methods without breaking rules.
  • Example boycott of British institutions(courts bureaucracy military education councils). And a boycott of British goods to hurt them economically.
  • Civil disobedience means breaking unjust laws.
  • If the British do violent then respond with violence.
  • Use violence as a defensive tactic.
  • They believed in politics 'by the masses'. (mass struggle).

(TOPIC FOR THE NEXT CLASS: SWADESHI MOVEMENT).