Struggle for Freedom (II)
ICSE Class 8 · History & Civics · Chapter 11
What this chapter covers
- The Home Rule Movement
- The Lucknow Pact, 1916
- The Gandhian Era and the early campaigns
- The Rowlatt Act and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre
- The Khilafat Movement and the Non-Cooperation Movement
- The Simon Commission and the Lahore Session
- The Civil Disobedience Movement
- The Quit India Movement, the Forward Bloc and the INA
- Independence and Partition
Key definitions
Home Rule is self-government for a country within an empire, so that its own people run its affairs while it stays linked to the ruling power.
Satyagraha is a method of protest that uses truth and non-violence: the satyagrahi refuses to obey an unjust law, accepts punishment calmly, and tries to change the heart of the opponent rather than defeat them by force.
Ahimsa is the principle of non-violence, which means causing no harm to any living being in thought, word or action.
Purna Swaraj is complete independence, meaning India free of all British control; the Lahore Session of 1929 declared it the goal of the Congress.
Civil disobedience is the deliberate and peaceful breaking of unjust laws as a form of protest, with protesters willing to accept the punishment.
Key points
- The Home Rule Leagues of Tilak and Besant (1916) demanded self-government within the Empire and spread political awareness.
- The Lucknow Pact of 1916 reunited the Congress and brought the Congress and the Muslim League together on common demands.
- Gandhi's early campaigns at Champaran (1917), Kheda (1918) and Ahmedabad (1918) tested satyagraha and made him a leader of the masses.
- The Rowlatt Act and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 13 April 1919 destroyed Indian faith in British justice.
- The Non-Cooperation Movement (1920–22), joined with the Khilafat cause, was withdrawn after Chauri Chaura but made the Congress a mass movement.
- The all-British Simon Commission was boycotted, and the Lahore Session of 1929 declared Purna Swaraj the goal.
- The Civil Disobedience Movement grew out of the Lahore resolution, the depression and the rejection of Gandhi's demands, and began with the Dandi March.
- The Quit India Movement of 1942 demanded immediate British withdrawal; Bose's Forward Bloc and INA aimed at freedom through uncompromising and armed struggle.
- The Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946 failed to keep India united; the Mountbatten Plan and the Indian Independence Act created India and Pakistan on 15 August 1947.