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

Seventy-four years ago on February 18, 1946, some 1,100 Indian sailors or “ratings” of the HMIS Talwar and the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) Signal School in Bombay declared a hunger strike, triggered by the conditions and treatment of Indians in the Navy.

RIN Mutiny

• A “slow down” the strike was also called, which meant that the ratings would carry out their duties slowly.
• The morning after February 18, somewhere between 10,000-20,000 sailors joined the strike, as did shore establishments in Karachi, Madras, Calcutta, Mandapam, Visakhapatnam, and the Andaman Islands.
• One of the triggers for the RIN strike was the arrest of a rating, BC Dutt, who had scrawled “Quit India” on the HMIS Talwar.
• The day after the strike began, the ratings went around Bombay in lorries, waving the Congress flag, and getting into scraps with Europeans and policemen who tried to confront them.

Their demands

While the immediate trigger was the demand for better food and working conditions, the agitation soon turned into a wider demand for independence from British rule. The protesting sailors demanded:

• release of all political prisoners including those from Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army (INA),
• action against the commander for ill-treatment and using insulting language,
• revision of pay and allowances to put RIN employees on a par with their counterparts in the Royal Navy,
• demobilisation of RIN personnel with provisions for peacetime employment,
• release of Indian forces stationed in Indonesia, and better treatment of subordinates by their officers

Upsurge of nationalism

• The RIN strike came at a time when the Indian nationalist sentiment had reached fever pitch across the country.
• The winter of 1945-46 saw three violent upsurges: in Calcutta in November 1945 over the INA trials; in February 1946, also in Calcutta, over the sentencing of INA officer Rashid Ali; and, in that same month, the ratings’ uprise in Bombay.
• This chain of events led to the “mounting fever of excitement affecting the whole political climate”.
• Soon, ordinary people joined the ratings, and life came to a virtual standstill in both Bombay and Calcutta. There were meetings, processions, strikes, and hartals.
• In Bombay, labourers participated in a general strike called by the Communist Party of India and the Bombay Students’ Union. In many cities across India, students boycotted classes in solidarity.
• The response of the state was brutal. It is estimated that over 220 people died in police firing, while roughly 1,000 were injured.

Significance of the events

• The RIN revolt remains a legend today. It was an event that strengthened further the determination among all sections of the Indian people to see the end of British rule.
• Deep solidarity and amity among religious groups was in evidence, which appeared to run counter to the rapidly spreading atmosphere of commuanal hatred and animosity.
• However, communal unity was more in the nature of organisational unity than a unity among the two major communities.
• Within months, India was to be devoured by a terrible communal conflagration.

Final nail in the coffin

• This revolt was different from the other revolts in the sense that, after 1857 it was the first time that the British realized that the Royal Indian forces were no more obedient to the British commands and were in concurrence with the overall defiant nationalist sentiments prevailing in the entire country.
• Mutinies are usually confined to a particular station, establishment or ship. However, this was the first instance when the entire service joined the revolt.
• Most striking feature was that it was directed against the British government and not against superior officers – not a single officer, British or Indian, was harmed.
• Fearless action by the masses was an expression of militancy in the popular mind. Revolt in the armed forces had a great liberating effect on the minds of people.
• It displayed that the armed forces no longer obeyed the British authority rather it was the nationalist leaders who held sway over them. The RIN revolt was seen as an event marking the end of British rule.

Aftermath

• The leaders realized that any mass uprising would inevitably carry the risk of not being amenable to centralized direction and control. Besides, now that independence and power were in sight, they were eager not to encourage indiscipline in the armed forces.
• It was immediately after this revolt that PM Atlee dispatched the Cabinet Mission to India, so it is also inferred that the mutiny hastened the process of transfer of power to India.
• It is also important to mention that the revolt came to an end after the nationalist leaders, Sardar Patel and Mohammad Ali Jinnah on receiving a request to intervene by the British, issued a statement calling upon the mutineers to surrender.

An associate of Mahatma Gandhi, Manilal Doctor is known for his efforts towards helping abolish the indentured labour system that Indian immigrants in many parts of the British Empire were subjected to. He fought for the rights of Indian-origin people in Mauritius and Fiji.

The indentured labour system

• In 1833, the British Parliament banned slavery, and the practice became illegal throughout the Empire. However, to maintain the supply of labour in their territories, colonial authorities effectively replaced slavery with the indentured labour system.
• The ‘indenture’ (meaning contract) system required Indians to sign a legal agreement stating their consent to move abroad for a minimum of five years to work mainly on sugar estates.
• Many were lured to distant lands, such as the Caribbean, South Africa, Réunion, Mauritius, Malaysia, and Fiji, where they ended up living in miserable conditions.
• In the mid 19th century, over 35 lakh Indians were transported to British, French, and Dutch colonies around the world. The system was officially banned in 1917.

Manilal Doctor

• Born in 1881 in Vadodara, Doctor studied law in Bombay before travelling to Britain in 1905 for further studies.
• He became a member of the Indian Home Rule Society in London, and wrote in the monthly ‘Indian Sociologist’.
• In 1906, Doctor met Gandhi, who at the time was in London to meet imperial authorities on behalf of South Africa’s Indian origin people.
• During the meeting, Gandhi asked Doctor to move to Mauritius to assist the Indian community there in their struggle for equal rights. Doctor arrived in Mauritius the following year.

In Mauritius (1907-1911)

• Doctor organised the Indian community in the island colony, which consisted of indentured and non-indentured workers, and advocated for the abolition of discriminatory laws.
• He practised law at the Supreme Court in St Louis, and provided free legal service to bonded workers in need.
• Doctor visited plantations across the island and met indentured labourers, making them aware of their rights and encouraged them to agitate.
• He founded ‘The Hindustani’ newspaper in Mauritius, which had the motto “Liberty of Individuals! Fraternity of Men!!! Equality of Race!!!”
• Doctor also helped establish the Arya Samaj in Mauritius. He returned to India in 1911.

Next, Fiji (1912-1920)

• In 1912, Gandhi deputed Doctor to the Fiji Colony with the same objective. Like in Mauritius, Doctor emerged as the leader of the Indian community in Fiji in the coming years.
• In Fiji, Doctor started ‘The Indian Settler’ newspaper, and helped set up the Indian Imperial Association. Here too, he helped establish the Arya Samaj.
• In 1920, Doctor organised a major strike, which rattled colonial authorities.
• The imperial administration had Doctor deported to New Zealand, where he remained under surveillance and was barred from practising.
• In 1922, Doctor was able to move to Gaya in Bihar, where he could practise law. He later practised for many years in Aden, also then a British colony, and died in Bombay in 1956.

Yesterday, January 3^rd was birth anniversary of one of India’s first modern feminists and a social reformer Savitribai Phule. She is especially remembered for being India’s first female teacher who worked for the upliftment of women and untouchables in the field of education and literacy.

Who was Savitribai Phule?

• Phule was born in Naigaon, Maharashtra in 1831 and married activist and social-reformer Jyotirao Phule when she was nine years old.
• After marriage, with her husband’s support, Phule learned to read and write and both of them eventually went on to found India’s first school for girls called Bhide Wada in Pune in 1948.
• Before this, she started a school with Jyotirao’s cousin Saganbai in Maharwada in 1847.
• Since at that time the idea of teaching girls was considered to be a radical one, people would often throw dung and stones at her as she made her way to the school.
• Significantly, it was not easy for the Phule’s to advocate for the education of women and the untouchables since in Maharashtra a nationalist discourse was playing out between 1881-1920 led by Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
• These nationalists including Tilak opposed the setting up of schools for girls and non-Brahmins citing loss of nationality.

Her work

• Essentially, both Jyotirao and Savitribai recognised that education was one of the central planks through which women and the depressed classes could become empowered and hope to stand on an equal footing with the rest of the society.
• The Phules started the Literacy Mission in India between 1854-55.
• They started the Satyashodhak Samaj (Society for Truth-Seeking), through which they wanted to initiate the practice of Satyashodhak marriage, in which no dowry was taken.
• Because of the role played in the field of women’s education, she is also considered to be one of the “crusaders of gender justice”.
• Her books of poems “Kavya Phule” and “Bavan Kashi Subodh Ratnakar” were published in 1934 and 1982.

West Bengal Governor drew widespread condemnation over his tweet referring to a table, apparently used by Lord Curzon to sign papers pertaining to the Partition of Bengal in 1905, as “iconic”.

Who was Lord Curzon?

• Curzon, India’s Viceroy between 1899 and 1905, was one of the most controversial and consequential holders of that post.
• The partition of the undivided Bengal Presidency in 1905 was one of his most criticised moves, which triggered widespread opposition not only in Bengal but across India, and gave impetus to the freedom movement.
• Curzon was deeply racist, and convinced of Britain’s “civilizing mission” in India.
• In 1901, he described Indians as having “extraordinary inferiority in character, honesty and capacity”.
• He was deeply intolerant of Indian political aspirations.

The Partition of Bengal

• In July 1905, Curzon announced the partition of the undivided Bengal Presidency.
• The Presidency was the most populous province in India, with around 8 crore people, and comprised the present-day states of West Bengal, Bihar, parts of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Assam, as well as today’s Bangladesh.
• A new province of East Bengal and Assam was announced, with a population of 3.1 crore, and a Muslim-Hindu ratio of 3:2. Bengal, the western province, was overwhelmingly Hindu.
• While the move was ostensibly aimed at making the administration of the large region easier, Curzon’s real intentions were far less benign.

Aftermath of the partition

• The partition provoked great resentment and hostility in Bengal.
• It was clear to the Bengal Congress and patriotic Indians in both Bengal and elsewhere that Curzon’s motive was to crush the increasingly loud political voices of the literate class in the province, and to provoke religious strife and opposition against them.
• But the protests against the partition did not remain confined to this class alone.
• A campaign to boycott British goods, especially textiles, and promote swadeshi began.
• There were marches and demonstrations with the protesters singing Bande Mataram to underline their patriotism and challenge the colonialists.
• Samitis emerged throughout Bengal, with several thousand volunteers.
• Rabindranath Tagore led the marches at many places, and composed many patriotic songs, most famously ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ (My Golden Bengal), which is now the national anthem of Bangladesh.
• The message of patriotism and Bengali nationalism was showcased in Jatras, or popular theatre.

Scrapping of the partition

• Curzon left for Britain in 1905, but the agitation continued for many years.
• Partition was finally reversed in 1911 by Lord Hardinge in the face of unrelenting opposition.

The Govt. in J&K has cancelled two existing public holidays and introduced a new one. This is seen by some as a move against their own assertion of their religious identity.

The three holidays

• The government order has cancelled public holidays on December 5 and July 13.
• December 5 is commemorated as the birth anniversary of Sheikh Mohd Abdullah, National Conference founder, former J&K Prime Minister, and former Chief Minister.
• July 13 is observed as Martyrs’ Day in Jammu and Kashmir. On that date in 1931, 22 Kashmiris were killed outside the Srinagar Central Jail, where they had assembled to protest against autocratic Dogra rulers.
• The new holiday is on October 26, the date in 1947 when the former state of Jammu and Kashmir acceded to the Dominion of India.
• A day later, Indian troops reached Srinagar to drive out tribal raiders. October 27 is observed as a Black Day in Kashmir, marked with a shutdown.

History & significance

• In 1846, under the Treaty of Amritsar, the British sold J&K state to the Dogra king Maharaja Gulab Singh.
• The Dogras hailed from Jammu and their rule lasted for over a century.
• In 1931, Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir rose against the autocracy of Dogra rule.
• The uprising, which led to the killing of 22 Muslims, is seen as the first assertion of Muslim identity in Jammu and Kashmir.

Implications of the move

• The move is seen as a departure from the politics of Jammu and Kashmir since 1939.
• Many people see this as an effort to erase the role of Sheikh Abdullah, and J&K’s Muslim assertion.
• They see it also as a refusal to recognise Kashmir’s popular Muslim leaders who sided with India in 1947, and leaders who continue to identify with India.
• It also raises a question mark over the revival of a political process in Jammu and Kashmir.
• The move comes when normalcy is yet to return even five months after the abrogation.