GS Paper: GS1-02.Modern Indian History- Mid-18th century – Present (significant events, personalities, issues);

Teaching pioneer Fatima Shaikh was recently honoured with a Google Doodle on her birthday.

Fatima Sheikh

• Fatima Sheikh was an educator and social reformer, who was a colleague of the social reformers Jyotirao Phule and Savitribai Phule.
• She is widely considered to be India’s first Muslim woman teacher.
• Fatima Sheikh was the sister of Mian Usman Sheikh, in whose house Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule took up residence.
• One of the first Muslim women teachers of modern India, she started educating Bahujan children in Phules’ school.

Association with Phules

• Under pressure from upper castes, Jyotirao’s father evicted Savitribai and Jyotirao from the family home in the late 1840s.
• With nowhere else to go, the Phules would find shelter at the house of Mian Usman Sheikh, where they would live till 1856.
• As many from their own community abandoned them, Fatima Sheikh and her brother stood strongly with the Phules and the mission to educate girls and bahujans.
• Sheikh met Savitribai Phule while both were enrolled at a teacher training institution run by Cynthia Farrar, an American missionary.
• She taught at all five schools that the Phules went on to establish and she taught children of all religions and castes.
• Sheikh took part in the founding of two schools in Mumbai (then Bombay) in 1851.

Determined amidst opposition

• In Pune, a conservative bastion of culture and tradition, the very act of trying to educate the underprivileged caused uproar.
• It is said that the two women would often have stones and pieces of dung thrown at them while walking in the streets.
• Fatima specifically is said to have borne the wrath of both upper-castes and radical orthodox sections.

 

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Recently, 192nd birth anniversary of Savitribai Phule, w/o Jyotiba Phule (the pioneer of Satyashodhak Samaj) was celebrated.

Who was Savitribai Phule?

• A Dalit woman from the Mali community, Savitribai was born on January 3, 1831, in Maharashtra’s Naigaon village.
• Married off at the age of 10, her husband Jyotirao Phule is said to have educated her at home.
• Later, Jyotirao admitted Savitribai to a teachers’ training institution in Pune.
• Throughout their life, the couple supported each other and in doing so, broke many social barriers.

Pioneering first school for girls in India

• At a time when it was considered unacceptable for women to even attain education, the couple went on to open a school for girls in Bhidewada, Pune, in 1848.
• This became the country’s first girls’ school.

Opposition to Phules’ schools

• The Phules opened more such schools for girls, Shudras and Ati-Shudras (the backward castes and Dalits, respectively) in Pune.
• This led to discontent among Indian nationalists like Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
• They opposed the setting up of schools for girls and non-Brahmins, citing a “loss of nationality”, and believing not following the caste rules would mean a loss of nationality itself.
• Savitribai herself faced great animosity from the upper castes, including instances of physical violence.
• When serving as the headmistress of the first school in Bhide Wada, upper-caste men often pelted stones and threw mud and cow dung on her.

Phule’s role as a social reformer, beyond education

• Infanticide prevention: Along with Jyotirao, Savitribai started the Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha (‘Home for the Prevention of Infanticide’) for pregnant widows facing discrimination.
• Child adoption: The Phules also adopted Yashwantrao, the child of a widow, whom they educated to become a doctor.
• Reforms in marriages: Savitribai Phule also advocated inter-caste marriages, widow remarriage, and eradication of child marriage, sati and dowry systems, among other social issues.
• Denouncing Brahmanical ritualism: As an extension, they started ‘Satyashodhak Marriage’ – a rejection of Brahmanical rituals where the marrying couple takes a pledge to promote education and equality.
• Bubonic plague mitigation: Savitribai became involved in relief work during the 1896 famine in Maharashtra and the 1897 Bubonic plague. She herself contracted the disease while taking a sick child to the hospital, and breathed her last on March 10, 1897.

Savitribai’s literary works

• Savitribai Phule published her first collection of poems, called Kavya Phule (‘Poetry’s Blossoms’), at the age of 23 in 1854.
• She published Bavan Kashi Subodh Ratnakar (‘The Ocean of Pure Gems’), in 1892.
• Besides these works, Matushri Savitribai Phulenchi Bhashane va Gaani (Savitribai Phule’s speeches and songs’), and her letters to her husband have also been published.

 

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The 205th anniversary of the Bhima-Koregaon battle was recently celebrated in all harmony at the Ranstambh (victory pillar) in Perne village in Pune.

Battle of Bhima-Koregaon

• The 1818 battle of Bhima-Koregaon, one of the last battles of the Third Anglo-Maratha War culminated in the Peshwa’s defeat.
• It was fought on 1 January 1818 between the British East India Company (BEIC) and the Peshwa faction of the Maratha Confederacy, at Koregaon at the banks of River Bhima.
• A 28,000-strong force led by Peshwa Baji Rao II while on their way to attack the company-held Pune were unexpectedly met by an 800-strong Company force of which 500 belonged to the Dalit community.
• The battle was part of the Third Anglo Maratha war, a series of battles that culminated in the defeat of the Peshwa rule and subsequent rule of the BEIC in nearly all of Western, Central, and Southern India.

Role of Mahar Community

• Back in the seventeenth century, the community was particularly valued by the ruler Shivaji, under whom Maratha caste identities were far more fluid.
• The value of the Mahars for military recruitment under Shivaji was noted by the social reformer Jyotirao Phule.
• The Mahars were not only beneficiaries of the attempt at caste unity under Shivaji but were in fact valued for their martial skills, bravery, and loyalty.

Mahars during Maratha Empire

• The position occupied by the Mahars under Shivaji, however, was short-lived and under later Peshwa rulers, their status deteriorated.
• The Peshwas were infamous for their Brahmin orthodoxy and their persecution of the untouchables.
• The Mahars were forbidden to move about in public spaces and punished atrociously for disrespecting caste regulations.
• Stories of Peshwa atrocities against the Mahars suggest that they were made to tie brooms behind their backs to wipe out their footprints and pots on their necks to collect their spit.

Why is the battle significant?

• The battle resulted in losses to the Maratha Empire, then under Peshwa rule, and control over most of western, central, and southern India by the British East India Company.
• The battle has been seen as a symbol of Dalit pride because a large number of soldiers in the Company forces were the Mahar Dalits, the same oppressed community to which Babasaheb Ambedkar belonged.
• After centuries of inhumane treatment, this battle was the first time that Mahars had been included in a battle in which they won.

Dr. Ambedkar’s association

• It was Babasaheb Ambedkar’s visit to the site on January 1, 1927, that revitalized the memory of the battle for the Dalit community.
• He led to its commemoration in the form of a victory pillar, besides creating the discourse of Dalit valor against Peshwa ‘oppression’ of Dalits.

 

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An archive on the principal founder of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), ‘Mahamana’ Madan Mohan Malaviya was recently unveiled.

Who was Madan Mohan Malaviya?

• Malaviya was born on 25th December, 1861 in Allahabad.
• He was a great Indian educationist and freedom fighter, distinguished from others for his significant role in Indian independence and his support of Hindu nationalism.
• At the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), which he founded in 1916, he served as Vice-Chancellor from 1919 to 1938.
• The University has around 12,000 students all across the field such as the arts, sciences, engineering and technology.

Political affiliations

• Malaviya rose up the ranks, and became president four times — in 1909 (Lahore), in 1918 (Delhi), in 1930 (Delhi), and in 1932 (Calcutta).
• He was part of the Congress for almost 50 years.
• He was one of the early leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha, and helped found it in 1906.
• He was a social reformer and a successful legislator, serving as a member of the Imperial Legislative Council for 11 years (1909–20).
• In the freedom struggle, he was midway between the Liberals and the Nationalists, the Moderates and the Extremists, as the followers of Gokhale and Tilak were respectively called.
• In 1930, when Mahatma Gandhi launched the Salt Satyagraha and the Civil Disobedience Movement, he participated in it and courted arrest.

Literary associations

• He remained the Hindustan Times’ Chairman from 1924 to 1946.
• He was involved with magazines including the-

1. Hindi language weekly, the Abhyudaya (1907)
2. English-language daily the Leader of Allahabad (1909) and
3. Hindi dailies Aaj

 

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A political party recently marked the  138th foundation day of Indian National Congress (INC) on December 28.

How the INC was founded?

• The INC came into being on December 28, 1885.
• The English bureaucrat Allan Octavian Hume is credited as the founder of the organisation.
• On that day, 72 social reformers, journalists and lawyers congregated for the first session of the INC at Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College, Bombay.
• Stated objectives of INC included-

1. First, the fusion into one national whole of all the different elements that constitute the population of India.
2. Second, the gradual regeneration along all lines, spiritual, moral, social, and political, of the nation thus evolved; and
3. Third, the consolidation, of, the union between England and India.

Real motive behind: ‘Safety Valve’ Theory

• At that point, the aim of this group was not to demand independence from the ongoing colonial rule but to influence the policies of the British government in favour of Indians.
• Its objective is often described as providing a “safety valve” as the time, through which Indians could air out their grievances and frustration.
• As Mr. Hume explained, the: Congress organization was ‘only one outcome of the labours of a body of cultured men, mostly Indians, who hound themselves together to labour silently for the good of India.’

Transformation towards freedom movement

Ans. Famous for 3P’s: Prayers, Protest and Petitions

• The party’s work continued, to shift the colonial administrators’ attitudes and policies on the rights and powers allowed to Indians.
• The members frequently protested issues of British colonialism, such as the Bengal famine and the drain of wealth from India.
• However, these protests were at this point usually limited to prayers, petitions and protests, including writing letters to the authorities.
• As the British rule continued, there grew differences in what the party’s functioning should be like.

Strength of INC

• Diverse participation: One of the biggest strengths of the party, which helped it appeal to a broad section of Indian society, was having members who held different ideological positions.
• Pan-India organization: Its popularity grew across every corner of India.

Early criticism of INC

• Non-effective: Hume and the party were criticised, by the British for attempting to change the existing systems that favoured them and by some Indians for not achieving significant results.
• Elite-organization: The party largely consisted of educated, upper-class people who were likely to have studied abroad.

Splits and reconvening

• In Surat in 1906, the divisions between the ‘moderates’ led by Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Surendranath Banerjea, and the ‘extremists’ led by Bal Gangadhar Tilak came to the fore and there was a split.
• While Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai wanted the Congress to boycott the visit of the Prince of Wales in protest against the Bengal Partition a year prior, the moderates opposed any such move.
• But by 1915, the Bombay session saw these two groups coming together again as one.
• The pattern of splits and eventual cohesion continued well after Indian independence, even after the party came to completely dominate successive general elections under PM Jawaharlal Nehru.

Important sessions of INC

		Year			Session	President	Importance
		1885			Bombay	W C Banerjee	First session
		1888			Allahabad	George Yule	First English President of INC
		1896			Calcutta	Rahimtullah M. Sayani	National song ‘Vande Mataram’ sung for the first time
		1906			Calcutta	Dadabhai Naoroji	Dadabhai Naoroji coined the term Swaraj.
		1907			Surat	Rash Behari Ghosh	Party splits into extremists and moderates
		1911			Calcutta	Bishan Narayan Dar	National Anthem ‘Jana Gana Mana’ sung for the first time
		1916			Lucknow	Ambica Charan Mazumdar	Reunion of Congress and Lucknow Pact, Joint session with the Muslim league
		1917			Calcutta	Annie Besant	First Woman President of the INC
		1919			Amritsar	Motilal Nehru	Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre took place
		1924			Belgaum	M K Gandhi	Only session where MK Gandhi was the President
		1925			Kanpur	Sarojini Naidu	First Indian Woman President of INC
		1927			Madras	M A Ansari	Independence Resolution was put forward
		1928			Calcutta Session,	Motilal Nehru	All India Youth Congress formed
		1929			Lahore	Jawaharlal Nehru	Poorna Swaraj Resolution @ 26th January, Civil Disobedience Movement launched
		1931			Karachi	Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel	A resolution on Fundamental Rights and National Economic Progress was passed. Gandhi-Irwin pact was endorsed and  Gandhiji was nominated to represent INC in the second round table conference
		1936			Lucknow	Jawaharlal Nehru	Idea of Socialism was imbibed
		1938			Haripura	Subhas Chandra Bose	National Planning Committee set up under Nehru, Haripura Resolution passed, which demanded Poorna Swaraj, including the princely states as well.
		1940			Ramgarh	Abul Kalam Azad	He was the longest-serving President of INC during British rule. Quit India Movement started in 1942
		1946			Meerut	J.B. Kripalani	Last session before Indian independence

 

 

Try this PYQ:

Q.Consider the following statements

1. The first woman President of the Indian National Congress was Sarojini Naidu.
2. The first Muslim President of the Indian National Congress was Badruddin Tyabji.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

 

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The President of India tweeted her greetings to the nation on December 19, marking Goa Liberation Day, which is celebrated annually to mark the success of ‘Operation Vijay’ undertaken by the Indian armed forces to defeat Portuguese colonial forces and liberate Goa in 1961.

What is the news?

• Goa was liberated 15 years after India attained freedom.
• Last year PM Modi accused Nehru as guilty of leaving satyagrahis in the dismay, refusing to send the Indian Army to liberate Goa, even after 25 of them were shot dead by the Portuguese Army.

Goa’s Colonization: A backgrounder

• Goa became a Portuguese colony in 1510, when Admiral Afonso de Albuquerque defeated the forces of the sultan of Bjiapur, Yusuf Adil Shah.
• The next four and a half centuries saw one of Asia’s longest colonial encounters — Goa found itself at the intersection of competing regional and global powers.
• It received a religious and cultural ferment that lead eventually to the germination of a distinct Goan identity that continues to be a source of contestation even today.
• By the turn of the twentieth century, Goa had started to witness an upsurge of nationalist sentiment opposed to Portugal’s colonial rule, in sync with the anti-British nationalist movement.

Beginning of freedom movement

• Tristao de Braganza Cunha, celebrated as the father of Goan nationalism, founded the Goa National Congress at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress in 1928.
• In 1946, the socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia led a historic rally in Goa that gave a call for civil liberties and freedom, and eventual integration with India.
• This event became a watershed moment in Goa’s freedom struggle.
• At the same time, there was a thinking that civil liberties could not be won by peaceful methods, and a more aggressive armed struggle was needed.
• This was the view of the Azad Gomantak Dal (AGD), whose co-founder Prabhakar Sinari is one of the few freedom fighters still living today.
• Finally, Goa was liberated on December 19, 1961 by swift Indian military action that lasted less than two days.

Recognition of Goa

• The Supreme Court of India recognized the validity of the annexation and rejected the continued applicability of the law of occupation.
• In a treaty with retroactive effect, Portugal recognized Indian sovereignty in 1974.
• Under the jus cogens rule, forceful annexations including the annexation of Goa are held as illegal since they have taken place after the UN Charter came into force.

Why was Goa left un-colonized?

As India moved towards independence, however, it became clear that Goa would not be free any time soon, because of a variety of complex factors.

• No immediate war: Then PM Nehru felt that if he launched a military operation (like in Hyderabad) to oust the colonial rulers, his image as a global leader of peace would be impacted.
• Trauma of Partition: The trauma of Partition and the massive rupture that followed, coupled with the war with Pakistan, kept the Government of India from opening another front.
• Internationalization of the issue: This might have led the international community to get involved.
• No demand from within: It was Gandhi’s opinion that a lot of groundwork was still needed to raise the consciousness of the people, and the diverse political voices emerging within be brought under a common umbrella.

Nehruvian dilemma

• India’s global image: Nehru was headed in shaping India’s position in the comity of nations.
• Trying peaceful options: He was trying to exhaust all options available to him given the circumstances that India was emerging from.
• Portuguese obsession: Portugal had changed its constitution in 1951 to claim Goa not as a colonial possession, but as an overseas province.
• Portugal in NATO: The move was apparently aimed at making Goa a part of the newly formed North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) military alliance. Hence the collective security clause of the treaty would be triggered.
• Weak indigenous push: Nehru saw it prudent to pursue bilateral diplomatic measures with Portugal to negotiate a peaceful transfer while, at the same time, a more ‘overt’ indigenous push for liberation.

Why did Nehru wait until December 1961 to launch a full-scale military offensive?

India could no longer be seen to delay the liberation of Goa because:

• Portuguese offensive against Satyagrahis: The firing incident also provoked a sharp response from the Government of India, which snapped diplomatic and consular ties with Portugal in 1955.
• India as torchbearer of de-colonization: India got itself firmly established as a leader of the Non Aligned World and Afro-Asian Unity, with decolonization and anti-imperialism as the pillars of its policy.
• Criticisms from African nations: An Indian Council of Africa seminar on Portuguese colonies organized in 1961 heard strong views from African as this was hampering their own struggles against the ruthless regime.
• Weakening Colonialism: The delegates were certain that the Portuguese empire would collapse the day Goa was liberated.

 

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PM will participate in a program commemorating Sri Aurobindo’s 150th birth anniversary.

Sri Aurobindo (1872 –1950)

• Sri Aurobindo Ghose was a philosopher, yogi, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist.
• He was also a journalist, editing newspapers such as Vande Mataram.
• He joined the Indian movement for independence from British colonial rule, until 1910 was one of its influential leaders.

Major activities                

• Aurobindo studied for the Indian Civil Service at King’s College, Cambridge, England.
• After returning to India he took up various civil service works under the Maharaja of the Princely state of Baroda.
• He became increasingly involved in nationalist politics in the Indian National Congress and the nascent revolutionary movement in Bengal with the Anushilan Samiti.
• He was arrested in the aftermath of a number of bombings linked to his organization in a public trial where he faced charges of treason for Alipore Conspiracy.
• However, Sri Aurobindo could only be convicted and imprisoned for writing articles against British colonial rule in India.

 

Try this PYQ:

Q. What was the main reason for the split in the Indian National Congress at Surat in 1907?

(a) Introduction of communalism into Indian politics by Lord Minto

(b) Extremists’ lack of faith in the capacity of the moderates to negotiate with the British Government

(c) Foundation of Muslim League

(d) Aurobindo Ghosh’s inability to be elected as the President of the Indian national Congress

 

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