Applying the template of Bengal

1
Applying the template of Bengal

• the value of direct action
• the promise of change
• Gandhi unites efforts but cannot dissolve
  difference
• the British still matter

2
Overview Partition of Bengalpatterns for
modern Independence

• Partition 1905 1911
• ? politics and personality of Governor General
  shape Indian policy
• ? British back Muslim community, then renege on
  that
• ? more and less radical groups in INC brought
  together
• ? develop successful political strategies that
  mobilize all from elite right down to
  family-based producers
• ? British back down Bengal reunited increased
  political voice
• splits Congress
• read as success template for more change

3
WWI and its Effecton reform in South Asia

• India declared to be in a state of war
• exodus of ICS, army (15 000) and Europeans
  civilians
• politically, professionally, their chance
• support for the effort expected reward of Home
  Rule
• also, increased radicalism
• 2 million men 100 million gift
• rise in Muslim nationalism allied with Congress
  1916
• caliphate
• In active service
• fought, wounded and died alongside fellow critics
  of British rule
• enjoyed the pleasures of Europe no divide
• nationalism

4
The fallacy of modern nationalismspilled blood
make citizens?

• As with other colonies
• men volunteered because of
• pay
• pride in community
• protect nation
• connection to the
• Crown
• Unlike settler colonies
• no dominion status
• Gandhi phase begins

5
that naked fakir ??????? ?????? ?????

• Mohandas Karamchad Gandhi (1869-1948)
• Gujerati (modh) brahmin
• father politician mother vaishnava Jain
• trained as a barrister at UCL
• Civil Disobedience in South Africa
• 1893-1908
• Independence Struggle in India
• 1915-45
• assassinated 30 January 1948

6
Gandhi jayanti

• Honorifics mahatma Great Soul
• Rabindranath Tagore
• bapu father (Gujerati)
• Father of the Nation
• October 2 National Holiday
• from 15 June 2007
• International Day of non-Violence

7
Known for

• ahimsa 1930 Salt March
• advocated
• Sanskrit term meaning to do no harm
• rule of conduct that bars the harming or killing
  of living beings
• satyagraha
• holding firmly to truth i.e. not passive
• vindication of truth, not by infliction of
  suffering on the opponent, but on oneself
• cooperating with your opponent to meet a just end
  that the opponent in unwittingly obstructing
• the means are no different than the end
• Quit India Movement

8
Namaskar

• Harper says I recognize the importance of you
  attending
• Tomorrow night
• 6pm
• 9 Hillcrest Street
• History Society invites you to
• Potluck and games
• night

9
Another Gandhi

• authoritarian leadership
• unpredictable
• unelected, managed to take control of INC
  symbols Gandhi topi
• he defined, began and ended campaigns as he saw
  fit (1921 visit PofW)
• held elected officials hostage ended fast to
  death 2 wks before he died
• satyagraha or power?
• refusal to disrupt Indian social and economic
  hierarchy
• his vision of village simplicity at expense of
  other possibilities
• insistence on unity across caste
• opposed industrialization
• absolute opposition to contraception
• Hindu tradition overlapped 19C concerns
  (purity and sex)

10
Gandhi (1982) dir. Richard Attenburough 9
academy awards

• Hagiographic
• timing
• personal interest
• Support of Nehru I. Gandhi and GOI
• Historically flat
• British
• other nationalists
• he was, in fact, not a saint
• But worthwhile
• Ben Kinglsey (best actor)

11
Defining success

• to convert, not to coerce, the
• wrong-doer
• cooperate with the opponent to meet a just end
  that the opponent is unwittingly obstructing. The
  opponent must be converted, at least as far as to
  stop obstructing the just end, for this
  cooperation to take place.
• So assess the movie the meeting and ? ?
• the protest in SA ?
• the protest in the saltworks ?

12
If satyagrahim won independence,

• why any violence at all?
• human not mahatmas
• effective is not right

13
Sabarmati Ashramprinciples for satyagrahis

• Nonviolence (ahimsa)
• Truth living fully in accord with and in
  devotion to that which is true
• Non-stealing
• Chastity (brahmacharya) subordination of other
  sensual desires to allow primary devotion to
  truth
• Non-possession
• Body-labor or bread-labor
• Control of the palate (including no alcohol)
• Fearlessness
• Equal respect for all religions
• Economic strategy such as boycotts (swadeshi)
• Freedom from untouchability

14
Now the British forced to respond

• Administrative
• India Act (1919)
• Simon Commission, 1926
• Round Table Conferences (London) 1931, 1932
• Government of India Act (1935)
• Cripps Mission (1942), then 1946 Independence
  declared summer 1947
• Violence
• Amritsar Massacre
• Pathans of the NW Frontier Province - aerial
  bombardment April 1930
• military vs. public welfare spending in 1930s 25
  to 451
• India in WWII without consultation
• famine again (maybe 3 million died during WWII)
• using army against street protestors
• public whippings and shooting entire villages
  destroyed strafing protestors from planes

15
some of the untouchables are worse than cows in
understanding Gandhiji

• Women
• sexuality unclean women especially need
• to be protected from through self-control
• humiliation
• Solution?
• all caste girls should marry harijan husbands
• uplift of harijans religious based
• no scriptural base for 5th caste
• not change their role re-evaluate their status
• brahmins rejected untouchables rejected

16
Conclusion

• Gandhis campaign
• built on previous efforts
• managed, could not solve issues of communal
  identity, regional or class difference
• Gandhi
• mahatma
• problematic beliefs/policies
• manipulator
• Independence
• won by Indians
• deserted by a war-worn Britain?
• internal difference could not be solved