By QB365 on 31 Dec, 2022
QB365 provides a detailed and simple solution for every Possible Questions in Class 12 History Subject - Important 5 Mark English Medium. It will help Students to get more practice questions, Students can Practice these question papers in addition to score best marks.
12th Standard
History
Answer all the following Questions.
Discuss the impact of Western education on Indian Middle Class, highlighting the latter’s role in reforming and regenerating Indian Society.
Explain the objectives of the Indian National Congress and contributions of the early nationalists to the cause of India’s liberation from the colonial rule.
Attempt an account of Swadshi movement in Tamilnadu.
Narrate the work done by two Home Rule Movements one under Tilak and another under Annie Besant.
Discuss the context of launching of the Non-Cooperation movement and its outcome.
Estimate the role of Mahathma Gandhi in the Indian Freedom Struggle.
Examine the importance of Karachi session of India National Congress in articulating the socio-economic political aspirations, under the pressure of Great Depression.
Trace the origin and growth of communalism in British India.
Write a paragraph about the Rajaji Formula.
Why is the Royal Indian Navy Revolt considered a glorious chapter in the history of Indian National Movement?
Trace the different stages in the reorganization of Indian States from 1920 to 1956.
Highlight the measures adopted by the Government of India towards rural reconstruction.
Examine the development of institutions of scientific research and technology after India’s independence.
Attempt a comprehensive account of the evolution of England, France and Spain as nation-states.
What are the causes of Protestant Reformation? How did Martin Luther organise the movement in Germany?
Sketch the course of French Revolution from the storming of Bastille to the execution of Robespierre.
Why did Industrial revolution start in England first? What impact did it make on modern society?
Discuss the political fallout of French Revolutions of 1848 in other parts of Europe.
Why is Bismarck considered the true architect of a unified Germany?
The Treaty of Versailles was harsh and humiliating for Germany. Substantiate the statement.
Examine to what extent Germany and Hitler were responsible for the outbreak of Second World War.
Make a comparative analysis of common and varying features in the liberation struggles of Indonesia and Philippines.
Discuss the origin of Arab-Israeli conflict and show how subsequent developments caused a major war between the two in 1967.
Sketch the political career of Boris Yeltsin, focusing on his role in the collapse of Soviet Union.
Explain the Famines and Emigration of Indians to Overseas British Colonies.
Estimate the role of Subramania Bharati: Poet and Nationalist.
Discuss Kalpana Dutt's radical strand of nationalism, and his revolutionary activitsm.
Explain about Emergence of the All India Hindu.
Explain Cripps Mission in detail.
Explain in detail about Bandung Declaration.
Answers
1) The colonial government aided the spread of modem education in India for a different reason than educating and empowering the Indians.
2) To administer a large colony like India, the British needed a large number of personnel to work for them. It was impossible for the British to import the educated lot, needed in such large numbers, from Britain.
3) With this aim, the English Education Act was passed by the Council of India in 1835. T.B. Macaulay drafted this system of education introduced in India
4) Consequently, the colonial administration started schools, colleges and universities, imparting English and modem education, in India
5) Universities were established in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta in 1857.
6) The colonial government expected this section of educated Indians to be loyal to the British and act as the pillars of the British Raj.
7) The British created an educated Indian middle class for their own ends but sneered at it as the Babu class.
8) That every class, however, became the progressive intelligentsia of India and played a leading role in mobilising the people for the liberation of the country.
9) The economic and administrative transformation on the one side and the growth of Western education on the other gave the space for the growth of new social classes.
10) From within these social classes, a modem Indian intelligentsia emerged
11) The "neo-social classes" created by the British Raj, which included the Indian trading and business communities, landlords, money lenders, English-educated Indians employed in imperial subordinate services, lawyers and doctors, initially adopted a positive approach towards the colonial administration.
12) However, soon they realised that their interests would be better served only in independent India
13) People of the said social classes began to play a prominent role in promoting patriotism amongst the people.
14) The consciousness of these classes found articulation in a number of associations prior to the founding of the Indian National Congress at the national level.
The major objectives and demands of INC were
Constitutional
Opportunity for participation in the government was one of the major demands of the Indian National Congress. It demanded Indian representation in the government.
Economic
High land revenue was one of the major factors that contributed to the oppression of the peasants. It demanded reduction in the land revenue and protection of peasants against exploitation of the zamindars. The Congress also advocated the imposition of heavy tax on the imported goods for the benefit of swadeshi goods.
Administrative
Higher officials who had responsibility of administration in India were selected through civil services examinations conducted in Britain. This meant that educated Indians who could not afford to go to London had no opportunity to get high administrative jobs. Therefore, Indianisation of services through simultaneous Indian Civil Services Examinations in England and India was a major demand of the Congress.
Judicial
Because of the partial treatment against the Indian political activists by English judges it demanded the complete separation of the Executive and the Judiciary.
Contributions of Early Nationalists (1885-1915)
1) The early nationalists in the INC came from the elite sections of the society. Lawyers, college and university teachers, doctors, journalists and such others represented the Congress. However, they came from different regions of the country and this made INC a truly a national political organisation.
2) These leaders of the INC adopted the constitutional methods of presenting petitions, prayers and memorandums and thereby earned the moniker of "Moderates".
3) It was also the time some sort of an understanding about colonialism was evolving in India There was no ready-made anti-colonial understanding available for reference in the late nineteenth century when the INC was formed.
4) It was the early nationalists who helped the formulation of the idea of we as a nation. The were developing the indigenous anti-colonial ideology and a strategy on their own which helped future mass leaders like M. K Gandhi.
5) From the late 1890s there were growing differences within the INC Leaders like Bipin Chandra Pal, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai were advocating radical appro ache instead of merely writing petitions, prayers and memorandums.
6) These advocates of radical methods came to be called the "extremists" as against those who were identified as moderates. Their objective became clear in 1897 when Tilak raised the clarion call "Swaraj is my birth right and I shall have it".
7) Tilak and his militant followers were now requesting Swaraj -instead of economic or administrative reforms that the moderates were requesting through their petitions and prayers.
8) Though they criticised each other, it would be wrong to place them in the opposing poles. Both moderates and militants, with their own methods, were significant elements of the larger Indian nationalist movement.
9) In fact, they contributed towards the making of the swadeshi movement. The partition of Bengal in 1905, by the colonial government, which you will be studying in the next lesson, was vehemently opposed by the Indians.
10) The swadeshi movement of 1905, directly opposed the British rule and encouraged the ideas of swadeshi enterprise, national education, self-help and use of Indian languages.
11) The method of mass mobilisation and boycott of British goods and institutions suggested by the radicals was also accepted by the Moderates.
1) Swadeshi movement in Tamil Nadu, notably in Tirunelveli district, generated a lot of attention and support.
2) While the Swadeshi movement in Tamil Nadu had an all India flavour, with collective anger against the British rule remaining the common thread, it was also underpinned by Tamil - pride and consciousness.
3) There was a deep divide in the Tamilnadu congress between the moderates and the extremists.
Development of Vernacular Oratory.
1) Initially, the movement was more of a reaction to the partition of Bengal and regular meetings were held to protest the partition.
2) The speakers, in such meetings, spoke mostly in the vernacular language to an audience that included students, lawyers, and labourers at that time.
3) The shift from English oratory to vernacular oratory was a significant development of this time; which had a huge impact on the mass politics in Tamil Nadu
4) Swadeshi meetings at the Marina beach in Madras were a regular sight. The Moore Market complex in Madras was another venue utilised for such gatherings. During the period (1905-1907) there are police reports calling students dangerous and their activities as seditious.
V.O.C and Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company (SSNC)
1) The Swadeshi movement in Tamil Nadu came to national attention in 1906 when V.O.Chidambaram mooted the idea of launching a swadeshi shipping venture in opposition to the monopoly of the British in navigation through the coast.
2) In 1906, V.O.C registered a joint stock company called The Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company (SSNC) with a capital of Rs 10 Lakh, divided into 40,000 shares of Rs.25 each. Shares were open only to Indians, Ceylonese and other Asian nationals. V.O.C purchased two steamships, S.S. Gallia and S.S. Lawoe.
The Coral Mill Strike
1) After attending the session of the Indian National Congress at Surat, V.O.C on his return decided to work on building a political organisation.
2) While looking for an able orator, he came across Subramania Siva, a swadeshi preacher. From February to March 1907, both the leaders addressed meetings almost on a daily basis at the beach in Tuticorin, educating the people about swadeshi and the boycott campaign.
3) The meetings were attended by thousands of people. These public gatherings were closely monitored by the administration.
4) In 1908, the abject working and living conditions of the Coral Mill workers attracted the attention of V.O.C and Siva
5) In the next few days, both the leaders addressed the mill workers. In March 1908, the workers of the Coral Cotton Mills, inspired by the address went on strike. It was one of the earliest organised labour agitations in India
Subramania Bharati: Poet and Nationalist
1) The growth of newspapers, both in English and Tamil language, aided the swadeshi movement in Tamil Nadu. G. Subramaniam was one of the first among the leaders to use newspapers to spread the nationalist message across a larger audience.
2) Subramaniam, along with five others, founded The Hindu (in English) and Swadesamitran (which was the first ever Tamil daily).
3) Subramania Bharati became the sub-editor of Swadesamitran around the time (1904) when Indian nationalism was looking for a fresh direction. Bharati was also editing Chakravartini, a Tamil monthly devoted to the cause of Indian women.
1) Tilak Home RuleLeague was set up at the Bombay Provincial conference held at Belgaum in April 1916. It League was to work in Maharashtra (including Bombay city), Karnataka, the Central Provinces and Berar.
2) Tilak's League was organised into six branches and Annie Besant's League was given the rest of India.
3) Tilak popularised the demand for Home Rule through his lectures.
4) The popularity of his League was confined to Maharashtra and Karnataka but claimed a membership of 14,000 in April 1917 and 32,000 by early 1918.
5) On 23 July 1916 on his 60th birthday Tilak was arrested for propagating the idea of Home Rule.
Besant's Home Rule League
1) Finding no signs from the Congress, Besant herself inaugurated the Home Rule League at Madras in September 1916.
2) Its branches were established at Kanpur, Allahabad, Benaras, Mathura, Calicut and Ahmednagar.
3) She made an extensive tour and spread the idea of Home Rule. She declared that "the price of India's loyalty is India's Freedom".
4) Moderate congressmen who were dissatisfied with the inactivity of the Congress joined the Home Rule League.
5) The popularity of the Le-ague can be gauged from the fact that Jawaharlal Nehru, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, B. Chakravarti and Jitendralal Banerji, Satyamurti and Khaliquzzaman were taking up the membership of the League.
6) As Besant's Home Rule Movement became very popular in Madras, the Government of Madras decided to suppress it. Students were barred from attending its meetings.
1) The Khilafat Conference, at the instance of Gandhi, decided to launch the non-cooperation movement from 31 August 1920.
2) Earlier an all party meet at Allahabad had decided on a programme of boycott of government educational institutions and their law courts.
3) The Congress met in a special session at Calcutta in September 1920 and resolved to accept Gandhi's proposal on non-cooperation with the colonial state till such time as Khilafat and Punjab grievances were redressed and self-government established.
4) Non-cooperation movement included boycott of schools, colleges, courts, government offices, legislatures, foreign goods, return of government conferred titles and awards.
5) Alternatively, national schools, panchayats were to be set up' and swadeshi goods manufactured and used. The struggle at a later stage was to include no tax campaign and, mass civil disobedience, etc.
6) A regular Congress session held at Nagpur in 1920 endorsed the earlier resolutions. Another important resolution at Nagpur was to recognize and set up linguistic Provincial Congress Committees which drew a large number of workers into the movement.
7) In order to broad base the Congress, the workers were to reach out to the villages and enroll the villagers in the Congress on a nominal fee of four annas (25 paise). The overall character of the Congress underwent change and an atmosphere where a large majority of the masses could develop a sense of belonging to the nation and the national struggle developed.
8) But it also led to some conservatives who were opposed to mass participation in the struggle to leave the Congress.
9) Thus the Congress under Gandhi was shedding its elitist character, becoming a mass organization and in a real sense 'National'.
1) Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in the coastal town of Porbandar in 1869. When he returned to India in 1915 he had a record of fighting against inequalities imposed by the racist government of South Africa.
2) Gandhi certainly wanted to be of help to forces of nationalism in India. He was in touch with leaders India as he had come into contact, with Congress leaders while mobilizing support for the South African Indian cause earlier. Impressed by activities and ideas of Gopala Krishna Gokhale, he acknowledged him as his political Guru.
3) On his return to India, following Gokhale's advice, Gandhi, who was away from India for over two decades, spent a year travelling all over the country acquainting himself with the situation.
4) He established his Sabarmati Ashram at Ahmedabad but did not take active part in political movements including the Home Rule movement.
5) Champaran Movement (1917): It was not difficult for Gandhi to convince the committee of the difficulties of the poor peasants. The report was accepted and implemented resulting in the release of the indigo cultivators of the bondage of European planters who gradually had to withdraw from Champaran itself.
6) Gandhi's call for protest on the issues of Khilafat, and Rowlatt Act and as a response the British government's repressive measures leading to the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre prompted the Congress to launch non-cooperation movement.
7) The Congress boycotted the Sirmon Commission and the first Round Table Conference and intensified the struggle by launching civil disobedience movement, in the wake of fruitless outcome of Second Round Table Conference.
8) Gandhi's Dandi March and Rajaji's Salt March to Vedaranyam in Tamilnadu succeeded in mobilizing the masses 'for the nationalist cause.
1) The Indian National Congress, in contrast to the violent actions of revolutionaries, mobilised the masses for non-violent struggles. The Congress under the leadership of Gandhi gave priority to the problems of peasants.
2) In the context of great agrarian distress, deepened by world-wide economic depression, the Congress mobilised the peasantry. The Congress adopted a no-rent and no-tax campaign as a part of its civil disobedience programme. Under the pressure of Great Depression, socio-economic demands were sharply articulated in its Karachi Session of the Indian National Congress.
3) The freedom struggle was taking a new shape. Peasants organised themselves into Kisan Sabhas and industrial workers were organized by the trade unions, made their presence felt in a big way in the freedom struggle. The Indian National Congress had become a mass party during the 1930s. The Congress leadership, which was now taking a left turn under Nehru's leadership, began to talk about an egalitarian society based on social and economic justice.
4) The Karachi session held in March 1931, presided over by Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, adopted a resolution on Fundamental Rights and Duties and provided an insight into what the economic policy of an independent India. In some ways, it was the manifesto of the Indian National Congress for independent India. These rights and the social and economic programmes were derived from a firm conviction that political freedom and economic freedom were inseparable.
5) Even a cursory look at the fundamental rights solution will tell you that all the basic rights that the British denied to the Indians found a prominent place in the Resolution. The colonial government curtailed civil liberties and freedom by passing draconian acts and ordinances. Gandhian ideals and Nehru's socialist vision also found a place in the list of rights that the Indian National Congress promised to ensure in free India.
(a) Hindu Revivalism
1) Some of the early nationalists believed that nationalism could be built only on a Hindu foundation.
2) As pointed out by Sarvepalli Gopal, Hindu, revivalism found its voice in politics through the Arya Samaj, founded ill 1875, with its assertion of superior qualities of Hinduism.
3) The organization of cow protection leagues in large parts of North India in the late nineteenth century gave a fillip to Hindu communalism.
4) The effort of organizations such as Arya Samaj was strengthened by the Theosophical movement led by. Annie Besant from 1891. Besant identified herself with Hindu nationalists and expressed her ideas as follows: The Indian work is first of all the revival, strengthening and uplifting of ancient religions. This has brought with it a new self-respect, a pride in the past, a belief in the future and as an inevitable result, a great wave of patriotic life, the beginning of the rebuilding of a nation.
(b) Rise of Muslims Consciousness
1) Islam on the other hand, to quote Sarvepalli Gopal again, was securing its articulation through the Aligarh movement.
2) The British, by building the Aligarh college and backing Syed Ahmed Khan, had assisted the birth of a Muslim national party and Muslim political ideology.
3) The Wahabi movement had also created cleavage in Hindu-Muslim relations. The Wahabis wanted to take Islam to its pristine purity and to end the superstition which according to them had sapped its vitality. From the Wahabis to the Khilafatists, grassroots activism played a significant role in the politicization of Muslims.
(c) Divide and Rule Policy of British
1) The object of the British was to check the development of a composite Indian identity, and to forestall attempts at consolidation and unification of Indians.
2) The last decades of the nineteenth century was marked by a number of Hindu-Muslim riots. Even in south India, there was a major riot in Salem in July-August 1882.
(d) Cow Slaughter and Communal Riots
1) Gaurakshini Sabhas (cow protection leagues) were becoming more militant and there were reports of forcible interference with the sale or slaughter of cows.
2) The riots over cow-slaughter became frequent after 1893 and 15 major riots of this type broke out in the Punjab alone between 1883 and 1891.
3) Cow protectionists in the Punjab, the activities of Gaurakshini Sabhas in the Central Provinces, the campaigners for the recognition of Devanagiri as official language in courts and government offices in the United Provinces were also involved in the Congress organization.
(e) Failure of Congress and Government to combat Communalism
1) The Indian National Congress, despite its secular and nationalist claims was unable to prevent the involvement of its members in the activities of Hindu communal organisations.
2) This was a major factor in the Muslim distrust of the Congress. Congressmen's participation in shuddhi and sangathan campaigns of the Arya Samaj further estranged Hindus and Muslims.
In April 1944, when the Congress leaders were in jail, C.Rajagopalachari put out a proposal to resolve the issue. It contained the following:
1) A post-war commission to be formed to demarcate the contiguous districts where the Muslims were in absolute majority and a plebiscite of the adult population there to ascertain whether they would prefer Pakistan;
2) In case of a partition there would be a mutual agreement to run certain essential services, like defence or communication;
3) The border districts could choose to join either of the two sovereign states;
4) The implementation of the scheme would wait till after full transfer of power. After his release from prison, Gandhi, in July 1944, proposed talks with Jinnah based on what came to be the 'Rajaji formula'. The talks did not go anywhere.
Wavell Plan:
1) In June 1945 Lord Wavell moved to negotiate and called for the Simla conference.
2) The rest of the Congress leaders, including Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and the Congress president, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad were released from jail for this.
3) Wavell convinced Churchill for a Congress-Muslim League coalition government as a way to deal with the post-war political crisis.
4) The Viceroy's proposal before the leaders of all political formations and most prominently the Congress and the Muslim League was setting up of an Executive Council, exclusively with Indians along with himself and the commander-in-chief; equal number of representatives in the council for the caste Hindus and the Muslims and separate representation for the Scheduled Castes; and start of discussions for a new constitution.
5) The proposal displeased everyone. The Simla Conference held between June 25 and July 14-1945 ended without resolution.
6) The talks broke down on the right of the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League to nominate members to the Viceroy's Council.
7) The Muslim League insisted on its exclusive right to nominate Muslim members to the Council.
8) Its demand was that the Congress nominees shall only be caste Hindus and that the Indian National Congress should not nominate a Muslim or a member from the Scheduled Caste.
9) This was seen as a means to further the divide on communal lines and deny the Congress the status of representing the Indian people.
10) Lord Wavell found a council without Muslim League representation as unworkable and thus abandoned the Simla talks.
11) The years between the Lahore resolution of 1940 and the Simla Conference in 1945 marked the consolidation of a Muslim national identity and the emergence of Jinnah as its sole spokesperson.
12) It was at a convention of Muslim League Legislators in Delhi in April 1946, that Pakistan was defined as a 'sovereign independent state.
13) For the first time the League also declared its composition in geographical terms as 'the region consisting of the Muslim majority provinces of Bengal and Assam in the Northeast and the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan in the Northwest.
14) The Congress president Maulana Abul Kalam Azad rejected this idea and held that the Congress stood for a united India with complete independence.
15) All these were developments after the Simla conference of June-July 1945 and after Churchill was voted out and replaced by a Labour Party government headed by Clement Attlee.
16) Times had changed in a substantial sense. British Prime Minister, Attlee had declared the certainty of independence to India with only the terms left to be decided.
1) The economic impact of the war was manifest in rising prices, shortage of food- grains and closure of war time industries causing retrenchment and employment.
2) This merged with the anti-British sentiments evident in the mass scale of the protests revolving around the INA trials.
3) B.C. Dutt, a rating in the HMIS Talwar was arrested for scribbling 'Quit India' on the panel of the ship.
4) This provoked a strike by the 1,100 ratings on the ship. The ratings resented the racist behaviour of the English commanders, the poor quality of the food and abuses that were the norm.
5) Dutt's arrest served as the trigger for the revolt on February 18, 1946.
6) The day after, the revolt was joined by the ratings in the Fort Barracks and the Castle and a large number of them went into the Bombay cities in commandeered trucks waving Congress flags and shouting anti-British slogans.
7) Soon, the workers in the textile mills, The trade unions in Bombay and Calcutta called for strike and the two cities turned into war zones. Shopkeepers downed shutters, Trains were stopped.
8) As the news of the Bombay Revolt reaches Karachi, ratings in the HMIS Hindustan and other naval establishments in Karachi went on a lightning strike on February 19.
9) The strike wave spread to almost all the naval establishments across India and at least 20,000 ratings from 78 ships and 20 shore .establishments ended up revolting in the days after February 18, 1946.
10) There were strikes, expressing support to the ratings in the Royal Indian Air Force in Bombay and Calcutta units & the sepoys in the army cantonment station at Jabalpur too went on strike.
11) The ratings, in many places, hoisted the Congress, the Communist, and the Muslim League flags together on the ship masts during the revolt.
12) The colonial government's response was brutal repression.
13) The strikes in Bombay and Calcutta and Madras were strong expressions against British rule in India, these did not last for long and the ratings were forced to surrender soon.
14) Sardar Vallabhai Patel, then in Bombay, took the initiative to bring the revolt to an end.
15) The RIN mutiny, however, was indeed a glorious chapter in the Indian National Movement and perhaps the last act of rebellion in the long story of such acts of valour in the cause of independence.
1) An important aspect of the making of independent India was the reorganisation of states on linguistic basis. The colonial rulers had rendered the sub-continent into administrative units, dividing the land by way of Presidencies or Provinces without taking into account the language and its impact on culture on a region.
2) Independence and the idea of a constitutional democracy meant that the people were sovereign and that India was a multi-cultural nation where federal principles were to be adopted in a holistic sense and not just as an administrative strategy,
3) The linguistic reorganization of states was raised and argued out in Constituent Assembly • between 1947 and 1949. The assembly however decided to hold it in abeyance for a while on the grounds that the task was huge and could create problems in the aftermath of the partition and the accompanying violence.
4) After the Constitution came into force it began to be implemented in stages, beginning with the formation of a composite Andhra Pradesh in 1956. It culminated in the trifurcation of Punjab to constitute a Punjabi-speaking state of Punjab and carving out Haryana and Himachal Pradesh from the existing state of Punjab in 1966.
5) The idea of linguistic reorganisation of states was integral to the national movement, at least since 1920. The Indian National Congress, at its Nagpur session (1920), recorded that the national identity will have to be necessarily achieved through linguistic identity; and resolved to set up the Provincial Congress Committees on a linguistic basis.
6) It took concrete expression in the Nehru Committee Report of 1928. Section 86 of the Nehru Report read: "The redistribution of provinces should take place on a linguistic basis on the demand of the majority of the population of the area concerned, subject to financial and administrative considerations."
7) This idea was expressed, in categorical terms, in the manifesto of the Indian National Congress for the elections to the Central and Provincial Legislative Assemblies in 1945, The manifesto made a clear reference to the reorganisation of the provinces: " ... it (the Congress) has also stood for the freedom of each group and territorial area within the nation to develop its own life and culture within the larger framework, and it has stated that for this purpose such territorial areas or provinces should be constituted as far as possible, on a linguistic and cultural basis ... "
8) On August 31, 1946, only a month after the elections to the Constituent Assembly, Pattabhi Sitaramayya raised the demand for an Andhra Province: "The whole problem" he wrote, "must be taken up as the first and foremost problem to be solved by the Constituent Assembly".
9) He also presided over a conference, on December 8, 1946, that passed a resolution demanding that the Constituent Assembly accept the principle for linguistic reorganisation of States. The Government of India in a communique stated that Andhra could be mentioned as a separate unit in the new Constitution as was done in case of the Sind and Orissa under the Government of India act, 1935.
10) The Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly, however, found such a mention of ~dhra was not possible until the geographical schedule of the province was outlined. Hence, on June 17, 1948, Chairman Rajendra Prasad set up a 3-member commission, called The Linguistic Provinces Commission with a specific brief to examine and report on the formation of new provinces of Andhra, Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Its report, submitted on December 10, 1948, listed out reasons against the idea of linguistic reorganisation in the given context. It dealt with each of the four proposed States - Andhra, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra - and concluded against such an idea.
11) However, the demand for linguistic reorganisation of states did not stop. The issue gained centre-stage with Pattabhi Sitaramayya's election as the Congress President at the Jaipur session. A resolution there led to the constitution of a committee with Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Pattabhi Sitaramayya and Jawaharlal Nehru (also called the JVP committee).
12) The JVP committee submitted its report on April 1, 1949. It too held that the demand for linguistic states, in the given context, as "narrow provincialism" and that it could become a "menace" to the development of the country. The JVP committee also held out that "while language is a binding force, it is also a separating one". However, it stressed that it was possible that "when conditions are more static and the state of peoples' minds calmer, the adjustment of these boundaries or the creation of new provinces can be undertaken with relative ease and with advantage to all concerned. "
13) The committee said in conclusion that it was not the right time to embark upon the idea of linguistic reorganisation of States. In other words, the consensus was that the linguistic reorganisation of states be postponed. There was provision for re-working the boundaries between states and also for the formation of new states from parts of existing states.
14) The makers of the Constitution did not qualify the reorganisation of the States as only on linguistic basis but left it open as long as there was agreement on such reorganisation.
15) The idea of linguistic states revived soon after the first general elections were over. Potti Sriramulu's fast demanding a separate. state of Andhra, beginning October 19, 1952 and his death thereafter on December 15, 1952.
16) This led to the constitution of the States Reorganisation Commission, with Fazli Ali as Chairperson, and K.M. Panikkar and H.N. Husrau as members. The Commission submitted its report in October 1955. The Commission recommended the following States to constitute the Indian Union: Madras, Kerala, Karnataka, Hyderabad, Andhra, Bombay, Vidharbha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Orissa and Jammu & Kashmir. In other words, the Commission's recommendations were a compromise between administrative convenience and linguistic concerns.
Under the Constitution of India, agriculture was a 'state subject', that is, each state had to pass laws relating to land reforms individually.
(a) Zamindari Abolition:
Zamindar - the class of landowners designated during British rule as the intermediaries who collected rent from peasants cultivating their land and paid that land revenue to the government under a Permanent Settlement.
1) Abolition of Zamindari was part of the manifesto of the Indian National Congress Party even before Independence.
2) Most provinces in India had enacted laws abolishing the zamindari system.
3) Land was taken away from the zamindars were distributed among the tenants.
4) The provincial legislatures also recommended the amount of compensation to be paid to the zamindars.
5) zamindars in various parts of the country challenged the zamindari abolition laws in court.
6) The government then passed two amendments to the Constitution, which removed the 'right to property' from the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution and preempted the right of zamindars, to question the expropriation of their land or the value of the compensation.
7) Finally, zamindari abolition was completed by 1956, and was possibly the most successful of the land reforms.
8) In sum, however, the reform only achieved a very small part of the original objective. Thus, while the institution of zamindari was dismantled, many landowners continued in possession of vast tracts of land,
(b) Tenancy Reform:
Tenancy refers to an arrangement under which land was taken on lease from landowners by cultivators under specific terms.
1) Nearly half of the total cultivated land in India was under tenancy.
2) Not all tenants were landless peasants. Many small landowners, Some richer landowners also took additional land for cultivation on lease.
3) The rents received by the landowners generally amounted to about 50% or more of the produce from the land, which was very high.
4) Tenants could also be evicted at short notice, and tenants therefore always lived under some uncertainty,
Tenancy reform legislation was aimed at achieving three ends:
(i) to regulate the rent;
(ii) to secure the rights of the tenant;
(iii) to confer ownership rights on the tenants by expropriating the land of the land owners.
1) Legislation was passed in the states regulating the rent at one-fourth to one third of the produce. But this could never be implemented successfully.
2) The two Communist states, Kerala and West Bengal, were able to push through land reforms with greater success.
3) In West Bengal, the programme to confer tenancy rights was called Operation Barga. This was quite successful, but the Communist government was criticized severely for giving official sanction to tenancy.
(c) Land Ceiling.
1) Land ceiling refers to the maximum amount of land that could be legally owned by individuals. Laws were passed after the 1950s to enforce it. In Tamilnadu it was implemented first in 1961.
2) Until 1972, there was a ceiling on the extent of land that a 'landholder' could own. After 1972, the unit was changed to a 'family'.
3) This meant that the landowners could claim that each member of the family owned a part of the land which would be much less than the prescribed limit under the ceiling.
4) Ultimately, only about 65 lakh hectares of land was taken over as surplus land. This was distributed to about 55 lakh tenants-an average of a little over 1 hectare per tenant.
5) Clearly, with their political power the dominant castes who were the big landowners managed to dilute and vitiate the entire legislation.
6) Efforts like Bhoodan started by Vinoba Bhave to persuade large landowners to surrender their surplus land voluntarily attracted much public attention.
7) But the end results were disappointing, since the land thus surrendered was usually unproductive land.
(d) Overall Appraisal:
1) Land reform legislation has overall not been a great success.
2) In economic terms, the dream of an agricultural sector prospering under peasant cultivators with secure, ownership rights has remained just that - a dream.
3) When agriculture has grown due to technological progress, a more efficient land market is 1 seen to be operating which is more conducive for long term growth.
4) In terms of social justice, the abolition of the semi-feudal system of zamindari has been effective.
5) The land reform measures have also made the peasants more politically aware of their rights and empowered them.
1) India has made great strides in developing institutions of scientific research and technology.
2) The only science research institute in India before Independence was the Indian Institute of Science (HSc) established in 1909 in Bangalore with funding from J.R.D. Tata and the Maharaja of Mysore.
3) The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TlFR) was set up in 1945 on the initiative of Homi J. Bhabha, with some funding from the Tatas. It was intended to promote research in mathematics and pure sciences.
4) The National Chemical Laboratory, Pune and the National Physics Laboratory, New Delhi were the first institutes set up in India around the time of Independence.
5) Since then there has been a steady increase in the number of institutes doing research in pure sciences, ranging from astrophysics, geology/geo-physics, cellular and molecular biology, mathematical sciences and so on.
6) The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is the umbrella organization under which most of the scientific research institutions function. The CSIR also advances research in applied fields like machinery, drugs, planes etc.
7) The Atomic Energy Commission is the nodal agency for the development of nuclear science which is strategically important, focusing both on nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons. The Atomic Energy Commission also funds several institutes of pure science research.
8) Agriculture is another area where there has been a significant expansion of research and development. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is the coordinating agency for the research done not only in basic agriculture, but also associated activities like fishery, forests, dairy, plant genetics, bio-technology, varieties of crops like rice, potato, tubers, fruits and pest control, to name only a few of the activities covered by the Institute.
9) Agricultural universities are also actively engaged in teaching and research on agricultural practices. There are 67 Agricultural Universities in India, and 3 in Tamil Nadu.
10) Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were set up as centres of excellence in different fields of engineering.
11) The first lIT was located in Kharagpur, followed by Delhi, Bomb' y, Kanpur and Madras (Chennai).
12) There are now 21 IITs in the country, in addition to 30 NITs (National Institutes of Technology) and about 10 IIITs (Indian Institutes of Information Technology).
13) There are about 3500 engineering colleges in the country, but government engineering colleges only number around 100.
14) There has been an explosion of private engineering colleges, particularly in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
15) Unfortunately, the colleges vary significantly in the quality of education that they provide, and there are many graduates with engineering degrees who are not able to get jobs because they do not meet the standards and skill sets required by corporate employers.
16) In spite of advances, the general perception is that science research in India still has a long way to go to catch up with the more developed countries and China.
17) The research output in theoretical fields is rather disappointing and scanty in spite of the number of research institutions in the country.
(i) Major parts of Spain like Aragon and Castile were under the control of the Moors.
(ii) Together King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella worked hard to drive away the Moors and unite Spain.
(iii) The king and queen took power in their hands and controlled the nobles by eliminating them from the royal councils.
(iv) This made Spain to emerge as a nation-state. England emerged as nation-states.
(v) There was conflict between two royal houses in England namely the House of york and House of Lancaster for the throne.
(vi) In this civil war, Henry Tudor emerged victorious and he started a new line of monarchy in England.
(vii) He entered into matrimonial alliance with Elizabeth of York family. This made England to emerge as a nation-state. France emerged as nation-states.
(viii) Burgundy and western parts of France was for long in English possession.
(ix) At the end of the hundred years war, Louis XI Burgundy returned, after he had driven the English out of the country.
(x) Finally brought under control and Burgundy became part of France in about 1483. This made France to emerge as a nation-state.
Causes of Protestant Reformation
(i) The practice of sale of indulgence, nepotism, and simony came under attack
(ii) Inexperienced youths were appointed to lucrative bishoprics.
(iii) Clergymen received incomes from several churches but never appeared in any of them
(iv) The peasantry saw the Church as an oppressive landowner. Martin Luther organise the Protestant Reformation
(v) After a visit to Rome Martin Luther became disgusted with the corruption and luxury of the Church.
(vi) He wrote ninety-five complaints against the Roman Church known as, 95 Theses.
(vii) He argued that Bible alone is supreme and not the Pope and Bishops.
(viii) He believed that only two main rituals, namely, baptism and Holy Communion are accepted by the Bible. In this way the Protestant revolt began.
1. The National Assembly abolished feudalism in the country.
2. In 1789 the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen was adopted.
3. In 1791, the National Assembly drafted the constitution by which the powers of the king were limited.
4. People started forming political clubs to discuss the problems they faced.
5. One such club which attained popularity was the Jacobin Club in Paris.
6. On 2 September 1792, the mob descended on the prisons and summarily executed those they believed to be royalists.
7. In 1792 the new Convention abolished monarchy and declared France a republic.
8. King Louis XVI was brought before the People s tribunal and executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793.
9. As the government and the base of society were radicalised, so the Jacobian group leader Robasesphere also hanged.
1. Provided the capital necessary for investment in industries.
2. Political stability also provided objective conditions for industrial development.
3. The availability of coal and iron deposits in large quantities.
4. The British had well established ports all across the coast which enabled easy internal and external trade. The mechanisation of industry resulted in much greater production and therefore it produced greater wealth.
5. The handicrafts and rendered tens of thousands of artisans and weavers jobless.
6. Men's were thrown out of employment by the cheap labour of women and children.
7. An important outcome of the Industrial Revolution was the creation of two new classes: an industrial bourgeoisie and a proletariat.
1. Metternich, the arbiter of Europe and enemy of nationality, was forced to leave Vienna in disguise.
2. Hungary and Bohemia both claimed national independence.
3. Milan expelled the Austrians.
4. Venice became an independent republic.
5. Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, declared war against Austria.
6. Absolutism seemed dead for a while. But it was not to be.
7. By the summer, the monarchs had begun their attacks on the revolutionaries.
8. They succeeded in crushing the democratic movements in important centres like Berlin, Vienna arid Milan.
1. Bismarck, transformed into a powerful state with the objective of uniting the Germanic states under its leadership.
2. He adopted a "blood and iron policy to achieve the unification".
3. He realised that the unification of Germany was not possible without an armed conflict with Austria and France.
4. He sparked conflict with Austria and France through diplomatic moves.
5. He also got the support of Piedmont-Sardinia which wanted to drive Austria out of Venetia.
6. With the victory of the Austrian-Prussian War, he formed the Northern German Federation under the leadership of Prussia.
7. Bismarck his attention to create a rift between Prussia and France to unite the southern German states.
8. At the end of the Franck-Prussian War, Germany combined the unification of Northern and southern Germany.
1. Germany handed over Alsace and Lorraine to France.
2. The coal mines in the Saar Valley were to be ceded to France.
3. All German colonies became mandated territories under the League of Nations.
4. Germany was disarmed and was forced to give up practically all of its submarines. and battleships.
5. Germany was forbidden to have any airplanes, either military or naval.
6. Its army was to be limited to 100,000.
7. The union of Austria and Germany was forbidden.
8. Germany was to acknowledge and respect the Independence of Austria.
9. Germany and its allies were held responsible for the loss and damage suffered during the war.
1. According to the Treaty of Versailles, in 1935, Hitler held a general referendum in the SAR area and annexed it with Germany.
2. In 1936 Hitler flouted the Treaty of Versailles by sending troops to occupy Rhineland.
3. The Nazi state was established in Austria by the pressure of Hitler.
4. Then the German forces entered Vienna and began to establish control over the country.
5. Before the referendum was held in the Sudetenland, Hitler occupied it with his army.
6. In the Munich conference, the Prime ministers of Britain, France, Germany and Italy issued the approval.
7. Using the conflict in Czechoslovakia, Hitler sent German forces to occupy the conflict zone.
8. Hitler, who was aiming to occupy the whole of Europe, On September 1, 1939, the attack on Poland was held.
9. The reason for the Second World War was the rejection of Britains ultimatum to leave Germany in Poland.
1. Both countries were a colony of European countries.
2. In both countries, the communists gave voice against to the domination of colonialism.
3. During Worid War II, both countries were under Japanese occupation.
4. Both countries got Independence, after the second War.
Varying features:
1. The Philippines went to the u.s. control after being a colony of the Spanish state.
2. Indonesia is the colonial country of the Dutch state.
3. Nationalism developed among the Filipinos earlier than elsewhere.
4. The nationalist movement became the most belated in Indonesia.
5. The barbaric handling of the Cavite rebellion in the Philippines helped to develop nationalism.
6. The first event, which expressed nationalism in Indonesia, begins with the formation of the Boedi Oetomo.
7. The Philippines got independence' in 1946 with the support of the United States.
8. Indonesia got independence in 1949 due to pressure from the D.N Security Council.
1. As the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into a Jewish state And an Arab state in November 1947.
2. So conflict broke out almost immediately between Jews and Arabs in Palestine.
3. On the eve of the British forces withdrawal, Israel declared independence.
4. From the start, when Israel was created, there was little involvement of the UN in making political decisions.
5. By 1966 the U.S. providing began to Israel with advanced planes and missiles.
6. In April 1967 there were artillery exchanges between Israel and Syria.
7. The U.S. Sixth Fleet remained off the Syrian coast.
8. Egypt closed the Straits of Taran to Israeli shipping. In early June Israel attacked Egypt.
1. Boris Yeltsin Joining the Communist Party in 1961, Later he became a fulltime worker in the party.
2. He emerged as a popular figure and began to occupy in key positions in the Party.
3. He chose to eliminate corruption in the Moscow party organisation.
4. In 1986 Yeltsin was elevated to the Politburo.
5. Soon he was made the mayor of Moscow.
6. Yeltsin antagonised Gorbachev when he began criticising the slow pace of reform at party meetings.
7. He advocated democratic governance and economic reforms.
8. He succeeded in winning a seat in the USSR Congress of People s Deputies.
9. The Soviet parliament elected him president of the Russian republic against Gorbachev's wishes.
10. He became the first popularly elected leader in 1991, after the collapse of Soviet Union.
Famines
1) As India became increasingly de-industrialised and weavers and artisans engaged in handicrafts were thrown out of employment, there were recurrent famines due to the neglect of irrigation and oppressive taxation on land.
2) Before the arrival of the British, Indian rulers had ameliorated the difficulties of the populace in times of famines by providing tax relief, regulating the grain prices and banning food exports from famine-hit areas.
3) But the British extended their policy of non-intervention (laissez faire) even.to famines. As a result, millions of people died of starvation during the Raj. It has been estimated that between 1770 and 1900, twenty five million Indians died in famines.
4) During the 1866 Orissa Famine, for instance, while a million and a half p 'do' p. iestarved to death, the British exported 200 million pounds of rice to Britain.
5) The Orissa Famine prompted nationalist Dadabhai Naoroji to begin his lifelong investigations into Indian poverty,
6) The failure of two successive monsoons caused a severe famine in the Madras Presidency during 1876-78.
7) The viceroy Lytton adopted a hands-off approach similar to that followed in Orissa Emigration.
8) Penal contract system (indenture), labourers were hired for a period of five years and they could return to their homeland with passage paid at the end.
9) Many impoverished peasants and weavers went hoping to earn some money.
10) lt turned out to be as worse than slave labour. The colonial state allowed agents (kanganis) to trick or kidnap indigent landless labourers. The labourers suffered terribly on the long sea voyages and many died on the way.
1) The growth of newspapers, both in English and Tamil language, aided the swadeshi movement in Tamil Nadu.
2) G. Subramaniam was one of the first among the leaders to use newspapers to spread the nationalist message across a larger audience. Subramaniam, along with five others, founded The Hindu (in English) and Swadesamitran (which was the first ever Tamil daily).
3) In 1906 a book was published by Subramaniam to condemn the British actions during the Congress Conference in Barsal. Swadesamitran extensively reported nationalist activities, particularly the news regarding V.O.C and his speeches in Tuticorin.
4) Subramania Bharati became the sub-editor of Swadesamitran around the time (1904) when Indian nationalism was looking for a fresh direction. Bharati was also editing Chakravartini, a Tamil monthly devoted to the cause of Indian women.
5) Two events had a significant impact on Subramania Bharati. A meeting in 1905 with Sister Nivedita, an Irish woman and a disciple of Vivekananda, whom he referred to as Gurumani (teacher), greatly inspired his nationalist ideals.
6) The churning within the Congress on the nature of engagement with the British rule was also a contributory factor.
7) Bharati had little doubt, in his mind, that the British rule had to be challenged with a fresh approach and methods applied by the militant nationalists appealed to him more.
8) For instance, his fascination with Tilak grew after the Surat session of the Congress in 1907.
9) He translated into Tamil Tilak's Tenets of the New Party and a booklet on the Madras militants' trip to the Surat Congress in 1907.
10) Bharati edited a Tamil weekly India, which became the voice of the radicals.
1) In the late 1920s a young woman, Kalpana Dutt. (known as Kalpana Joshi after her marriage to the communist leader P.C. Joshi), fired the patriotic imagination of young people by her daring raid of the Chittagong armoury.
2) To understand the heroism of Kalpana Dutt, you should understand the revolutionary strand of nationalism that attracted women like her to these ideals. You have already learnt that there existed many revolutionary groups in British India.
3) The character of these organisations gradually changed from being ones that practiced individual annihilation to organising collective actions aimed at larger changes in the system.
Women in Action
1) While Bhagat Singh represented young men who dedicated their lives to the freedom of the country, Kalpana Dutt represented the young women who defied the existing patriarchal set up and took to arms for the liberation of their motherland. Not only did they act as 'messengers (as elsewhere) but they also participated in direct actions, fought along with men, carrying guns.
2) Kalpana Dutt's active participation in the revolutionary Chittagong movement led to her arrest. Tried along with Surya Sen, Kalpana was sentenced to transportation for life.
3) The charge was: "Waging war against the King Emperor". As all their activities started with the raid on the Armoury, the trial came to be known as the Chittagong Armoury Raid Trial.
Mahasabha.
1) In the wake of the formation of the Muslim League and introduction of the Government of India Act of 1909, a move to start a Hindu organisation was in the air.
2) In pursuance of the resolution passed at the fifth Punjab Hindu Conference at Arnbala and the sixth conference at Ferozepur, the first all Indian Conference of Hindus was convened at Haridwar in 1915.
3) The All India Hindu Mahasabha was started there with headquarters at Dehra Dun. Provincial Hindu Sabhas were started subsequently in UP, with headquarters at Allahabad and in Bombay and Bihar. While the sabhas in Bombay and Bihar were not active, there was little response in Madras and Bengal.
4) Predominantly urban in character, the Mahasabha was concentrated in the larger trading cities of north India, particularly in Allahabad, Kanpur, Benares, Lucknow and Lahore. In UP, the Mahasabha, to a large extent was the creation of the educated middle class leaders who were also activists in the Congress.
5) The Khilafat movement gave some respite to the separatist politics of the communalists. As a result, between 1920 and 1922, the Mahasabha ceased to function.
6) The entry of ulema into politics led Hindus to fear a revived and aggressive Islam. Even important Muslim leaders like Ali brothers had always been Khilafatists first and Congressmen second.
7) The power of mobilisation on religious grounds demonstrated by the Muslims during the Khilafat movement motivated the Hindu communalists to imitate them in mobilising the Hindu masses.
8) Suddhi movement was not a new phenomenon but in the post-Khilafat period it assumed new importance.
9) In an effort to draw Hindus into the boycott of the visit of Prince of Wales in 1921, Swami Shradhananda tried to revive the Mahasabha by organizing cow-protection propaganda.
(a) Japan Storm South-East Asia:
1) The allied forces lost France, Poland, Belgium, Norway, Holland and some parts of Britain's to Germany.
2) Japan's march into South-east Asia and the attack on Pearl Harbour, gives more significance to India.
3) US & China were concerned with halting Japan on its march thus India came on their (allied forces) radar.
4) By the end of 1941, the Japanese forces captured
5) Philippines, Indo- China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Burma and were waiting to knock at India's doors in the North-East.
6) The way the South East Asian region fell raised concerns to Britain and the Indian National Congress. The British forces ran without offering any resistance.
7) The Indian soldiers of the British Indian Army were left to the mercy of the Japanese forces.
8) It was from among them that what would later on to become the Indian National Army (INA).
9) Churchill and leaders of the Congress too was worried that Calcutta and Madras might fall in Japanese hands.
10) It was in this situation that the Congress Working Committee, in December 1941, passed a resolution offering cooperation with the war effort on condition that Britain promised independence to India after the war and transfer power to Indians in a substantial sense immediately.
(b) Arrival of Cripps
1) A delegation headed by Sir Stafford Cripps reached India in March 1942
2) Churchill choose Cripps, to head the delegation lent credibility to the mission.
3) Before setting out to India, he announced that British policy in India aimed at 'the earliest possible realisation of self-government in India'.
4) But the draft declaration he presented before he began negotiations fell far short of independence.
(c) Cripps Proposals
1) Cripps promised Dominion Status and a constitution-making body after the war.
2) The constitution-making body was to be partly elected by the provincial assemblies and nominated members from the Princely states.
3) The draft also spelt out the prospect of Pakistan.
4) It said that any province that was not prepared to accept the new constitution would have the right to enter into a separate agreement with Britain regarding its future status.
5) The draft did not contain anything new.
Rejection of Cripps' Proposals
1) The offer of Dominion Status was too little.
2) The Congress also rejected the idea of nominated members to the constitution-making body and sought elections in the Princely States as in the Provinces.
3) Above all these was the possibility of partition.
4) The negotiations were bound to breakdown and it did.
A la-point "declaration on promotion of world peace and cooperation", incorporating the principles of the United Nations Charter was adopted unanimously:
1. Respect for fundamental human rights and for the purposes and principles of the charter of the United Nations.
2. Respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations.
3. Recognition of the equality of all races and of the equality of all nations large and small.
4. Abstention from intervention or interference in the internal affairs of another country.
5. Respect for the right of each nation to defend itself, singly or collectively, in conformity with the charter of the United Nations.
6. (a) Abstention from the use of arrangements of collective defence to serve any particular interests of the big powers.
(b) Abstention by any country from exerting pressures on other countries.
7. Refraining from acts or threats of aggression or the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any country.
8. Settlement of all international disputes by peaceful means, such as negotiation, conciliation, arbitration or judicial settlement as well as other peaceful means of the parties own choice, in conformity with the charter of the United Nations.
9. Promotion of mutual interests and cooperation.
10. Respect for justice and international obligations.