Nationalism in India

This chapter studies the growth of modern nationalism in India from the 1920s, when it became intimately tied to the anti-colonial movement led by the Congress under Mahatma Gandhi. It explains how the First World War, the idea of satyagraha, the Rowlatt Act and the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre set the stage; how the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movement (1921) drew in townspeople, peasants, tribals and plantation workers, each with their own idea of swaraj; and why Gandhi withdrew it after Chauri Chaura. It then follows the road to Civil Disobedience — the Simon Commission, Purna Swaraj, and the Salt March to Dandi (1930) — the spread and repression of the movement, the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and the Round Table Conferences, and how different social groups (rich and poor peasants, business classes, workers and women) participated. Finally it examines the limits of civil disobedience (the concerns of dalits and Muslims) and the cultural processes — Bharat Mata, folklore, songs, flags and the reinterpretation of history — through which a sense of collective belonging was forged. It is a central chapter of the Class 10 History (India and the Contemporary World II) Board syllabus.