Wavell Plan and it's rejection

Lord Wavell

In 1943 Lord Wavell became the Viceroy. He believed that Britain cannot continue to rule India for long. So in order to retain India as a willing member of the British Commonwealth, he decided to hold a meeting in Shimla on 25 June 1945. Before that he put forward his plan:

1.   A new constitution would be formed only after major political parties had reached an agreement.

2.   Viceroy’s executive council will have equal number of caste Hindus and Muslims.

3.   Viceroy’s veto power was to continue.

4.   A British High Commissioner would live in India.

The plan was rejected as no agreement could be reached over the composition of the Viceroy’s Executive Council. Mr. jinnah wanted that only Muslim League could represent Muslim community. This was not accepted to the Congress. It asserted that it represented all communities and therefore out of five Muslim members two should be nominated by the Congress. Mr. Jinnah was not ready for this so the plan was rejected. 

Lucknow Pact - The Bond of League and Congress

Following are the main causes for the Lucknow Pact signed between the Indian National Congress and Muslim League in 1916 1)        Change in the objective of the Muslim League: Loyalty towards the government was one of the main objectives of the League, but in 1913, the League had amended its constitution to include a system of self government. Therefore it agreed with congress to have a political goal for India. 2)        International Events: In the first world war Turkey had to fight against Britain. The Turkish ruler was the Caliph or religious head of the Muslims. Therefore the Muslims all over the world felt that the Turkish ruler needed their help and sympathy. So Muslim League turned against the British. 3)        A compromise between the two factions of the Congress:Mrs. Annie Besant made efforts to reunite the two wings of the congress-the Moderates and the Radicals. Tilak rejoined the Congress in 1916. He also played a very important role in bringing congress and League on the same platform. 4)        National Events: To reunite the two wings of the congress-the Moderates and the Radicals. Tilak rejoined the Congress in 1916. He also played a very important role in bringing congress and League on the same platform. 5)        National Events: Due to anti partition movement partition of Bengal was cancelled in 1911. The Nationalist Muslims used this as an opportunity to spread nationalist ideas among the Muslims. Under Seditious Meeting Act some Muslim leaders were arrested. This gave a set back to the Muslim League.

Demand for Pakistan

Sir Muhammad Iqbal in 1930 conceived a plan of a Muslim State. Later on a group of youngmen led by Rahmat Ali propagated this plan. Their plan was different from that of Iqbal. Sir Iqbal wanted the merger of the provinces where muslims were in majority into a single State within Indian Federation. However Rahmat Ali proposed that these provinces should have a separate federation of their own. He called it as Pakistan.

P - Punjab

A - Afghan Province (NWFP- North West Frontier Province)

K - Kashmir

I     Sindh  

S   

T

A    Baluchistan

N

Indian National Congress and promotion of Nationalism

The formation of the Indian national congress in 1885 by A.O. Hume was the most remarkable event in the History of India. Lord Dufferin favoured the foundation of the party because he wanted it to act as a safety valve for  popular discontentment to safeguard the British rule in India but soon congress turned out to be a revolutionary organisation leading the people to independence.

Congress helped in uniting the people of different  religions, regions, classes, castes, languages and so on.

For the first time political unity was being sponsored by forward looking Indians.

Congress was the first organisation that helped to train and organise public opinion in India.

Queen Victoria Declaration of 1858

Queen Victoria was reigning in England in England during the revolt. The Queen’s proclamation incorporating the transfer of governance from East India Company to the British Crown was made public at Allahabad on November 1, 1858 by Lord canning, the first viceroy of India. The proclamation promised that the government of India would :

                    i.            Follow a policy of Non-intervention in social and religious matters of Indians

                  ii.            Treat all subjects – Indians and Europeans – as equals

                iii.            Grant a general pardon to all those who had taken part in the revolt except those who were found guilty of murder of British subjects

               iv.            Do it’s best to advance the industries in India.

Partition of Bengal - From Anti partition to Swadeshi-Boycott

Source: http://www.erodov.com
A pamphlet circulated during Swadeshi-Boycott movement urging people to buy Swadeshi 

         Partition of Bengal became effective from 16 October 1905. The nationalist declared it to be a ‘Day of Mourning’. The moderate leader Surendra Nath Banerjee launched ‘wang-bang’ Movement. People tied Rakhis to each other to demonstrate unity. Anand Mohan Bose a veteran political leader laid the foundation of a Federation Hall in Calcutta, which was symbol of the unity of Bengal. The people started swadeshi and boycott movement. Swadeshi literally means of one’s own country aimed at the promotion of indigenous industries for strengthening of the nation. It was accompanied by Boycott of foreign goods. It was a four fold programme:-

(i) Boycott of English cloth, sugar etc.

(ii) Renunciation of English government posts

(iii) Renunciation of English speech

(iv) Social boycott of those people who purchased foreign goods                                                

The congress gave full support to swadesh boycott movements. Dadabhai Naoroji during congress session at Calcutta declared that the goal of congress was attainment of ‘swaraj’.

Wavell Plan and Reaction towards it



Source: http://www.mkgandhi.org



In 1943 Lord Wavell became the Viceroy. He believed that Britain cannot continue to rule India for long. So in order to retain India as a willing member of the British Commonwealth, he decided to hold a meeting in Shimla on 25 June 1945. Before that he put forward his plan:

1. A new constitution would be formed only after major political parties had reached an agreement.
2. Viceroy’s executive council will have equal number of caste Hindus and Muslims.
3. Viceroy’s veto power was to continue.
4. A British High Commissioner would live in India.

 

The plan was rejected as no agreement could be reached over the composition of the Viceroy’s Executive Council. Mr. jinnah wanted that only Muslim League could represent Muslim community. This was not accepted to the Congress. It asserted that it represented all communities and therefore out of five Muslim members two should be nominated by the Congress. Mr. Jinnah was not ready for this so the plan was rejected. 

Lack of Modern Historical Writing in India

Jawahar Lal Nehru giving Speech

When I go to any library I come across so many books on Ancient and Medieval Indian History but I hardly find any on the post modern period or on the post independent India. However this is not the case in any other subject specially in Political Science and Sociology. Even in Maths and Science we find latest and upto date books.It is only in History that there is sheer dearth in the writen material. There are scores of Historians in India but nobody is bothered to write about it. All of them write about Ancient or the Medieval India. There is no material available on the state wise History. There are so many states in India but none has bothered to write about their history. However we cannot straight away throw away the blame onto the historians. To some extent we the people of India are to be blamed.
Firstly, If someone writes about the events of the recent past there are so many who simply do not digest it. They are not able to come to the terms of the writing no matter how much pains the author might have taken in collecting the information before he reached to some conclusion.
Secondly, people consider themselves more superior than the writer. They draw their own conclusions which are simply based on hearsay.
Thirdly, Even the government is to be blamed who do not provide the information to the researchers even after 30 years of the incident.
          So the historians consider it better to wirte about the distant past for which they will get a lot of material easily and the people will also digest the information easily as they are not bothered about that.

Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar

Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (April 14, 1891 — December 6, 1956) was an Indian jurist, scholar, Bahujan political leader and a Buddhist revivalist, who is the chief architect of the Indian Constitution, also known as Babasaheb. Born into a poor Untouchable community, Ambedkar spent his life fighting against the system of Chaturvarna and the Indian caste system. He is also credited for having sparked the Dalit Buddhist movement. Ambedkar has been honoured with the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, given for the highest degree of national service. Overcoming numerous social and financial obstacles, Ambedkar became one of the first "untouchables" to obtain a college education in India. He went on to pursue higher studies in Columbia University, New York, United States and England, where he earned law degrees and multiple doctorates for his study and research in law, economics and political science. Returning home a famous scholar, Ambedkar practiced law for a few years before he began publishing journals advocating political rights and social freedom for India's untouchables.

The British hand in Dividing India

“For decades after 1885 communalism served as a second line
of defence of both imperialism and the reactionary forces.
But with the passage of time it became their chief
political and ideological instrument.”

(Bipan Chandra – one of the foremost historians of modern India)

British can be held responsible to a large extent for the partition of Indian subcontinent in 1947.It were they, who if did not fan the fire of communalism, did not even try to control it. Imperialists never acknowledged the responsibility and even some of the Indian historians don’t believe in it. According to them this theme was only used by the nationalists to rouse the people against the British.
To a certain extent they are right. British could not have been successful in sowing the seed of communal hatred if there would not have been something within the Indian society to provide the fertile soil. But it is also a fact that if there would have been a nationalist government in power than they would certainly had checked its growth. It did not happen so because British were in power and they wanted that Indians should continue to fight among themselves.
It was in the 19th century that the country witnessed a rise in the nationalist movement and also a nation in the making. Britishers were afraid because it produced a serious threat to their rule. Back home in Britain the number of people who questioned the British rule over India were increasing. In the beginning Britishers used to justify by using the terms such as --- White man’s burden, civilizing mission etc. With the passage of time these things lost their shine and the Britishers began looking for some other reason so as to justify their rule. So they fanned communal hatred and declared that they must continue to rule for the protection of the minorities.(If this was the reason why they did nothing to provide a safe passage to nearly 14.5 million people who had to migrate to the other side of the border during partition, out of which nearly 1 million died )

 If Hindus and Muslims would have been united then it would have been difficult for the british to continue their rule over India
 If they supported Muslim communalists this doesn’t mean that they were anti-Hindu. They only wanted to divide the Indians.
 After creating a wedge between Hindus and Muslims then they tried to bring regional communalism. Punjabis vs Bengali vs Bihari etc.
 They did not support Hindu communalism not because they had sympathy with the Muslims because support to the hindu communalism meant uniting nearly 80% of the population. This would have certainly strengthened the Indian National Congress(I.N.C.)
 The Britishers created following divisions :

• Hindus , Muslims and Sikhs
• Agricultural and non-agricultural classes
• Martial and non martial races
• Punjabi, Bengalis, Biharis etc.
• To divide Hindus they invented the term The Depressed classes
• Created divisions between the rural and urban population

When the things went out of control they decided to divide and quit, leaving all the mess to be cleared by the Indians themselves.


I would like to end with a couplet from a poem written on the plight of women during the partition days.

Ik royee si dhee Punjab di, tu likh maaray wein
Aj lakhaan Dhiyan rondiyan, Waris Shah noon Kehn…….

[When one daughter of Punjab cried, you cried a river over her
(by writing Heer)-Today thousands of them are crying – in vain –for your attention]

Amrita Pritam (One of the best known Punjabi Poetess)

Freedom and Partition of India

The red Boundry shows the pre-partitioned India

The partition of India led to the creation of Dominion of Pakistan(later Islamic Republic of Pakistan) on 14 August, 1947 and Union of India (later Republic of India) on 15 August, 1947.   
The partition came along with Freedom from the British rule. Thousands of people who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of their country could no have even imagined that one day their beloved country would be divided with so much bloodshed. 

In the next post I will be discussing the role of the British in dividing India.

Female Education in India

“Education commences at the mother’s knee,
and every word spoken within the hearsay of little
children tends towards the formation of character.”

                                                                               (HoseaBallou)                                                                                                                

Female education in India is not a gift of modern civilization; we have brilliant tradition of it in our country. At least 20 women composed Rigvedic hymns. Gargi and Matreyi were the leading philosophers of the time. Women in the Vedic era so excelled in the sphere of education that even the deity of learning was conceived of as a female popularly known as ‘Saraswati’. Girls were allowed to enter in to Gurukuls along with boys. There are also instances of female ‘rishis’ such as Ghosa, Indrani, Urvashi etc. However, the status of women gradually declined during the post Vedic period. Child wives without education became the order of the day. The situation continued to decline till the coming of the British and the general national democratic awakening, which took place in India during the second half of the nineteenth century. The social reform movements which arose as a result of the interaction with the western civilization stressed on educating the women. The pioneering work of women’s education was done by such socio-religious reform bodies as Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj, Ramakrishna mission and also Danish, American, German and British missionary societies.

Jawahar Lal Nehru had once rightly said,

“Educate a man and you educate one person.
Educate a woman and you educate the whole family.”

Education, in reality, is the most valuable gift that parents can give to their daughter. If a girl is educated then she can also opt for a job if the need arises. So she would not be considered as a burden on the family. This would check the social evil of female foeticide. As an educated wife she would be interested in family planning as well. Studies have shown that illiterate women have high fertility and mortality rate. Many women prefer to have more children so that they could look after her in old age. But being educated she would certainly understand the advantages of a small family. Also being educated she would be able to participate in the day to day proceedings of the family. This would only add up one more voice and an opinion.
An educated mother would be more conscious about the health and hygiene of the family than her illiterate counterpart. Studies have proved that lack of education affects the general health of the family. Also infant mortality is inversely related to the educational level of the mother. For example, in Kerela female literacy ratio is highest (86%) and has lowest infant mortality rate with highest life expectancy. On the other hand in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where female literacy ratio is lowest, life expectancy is also lowest. Besides general health inculcating good moral values in her children would be one of the top priorities of any educated mother. In the long run, well brought up children are an asset which any society would love to possess. This is how the civilization moves.

List of Presidents of India

01  Dr. Rajendra Prasad                   January 30, 1950-May 13, 1962
02  Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan         May 13, 1962- May 13, 1967
03  Dr. Zakir Hussain                       May 13, 1967- May 3, 1969
*     Varahagiri Venkata Giri            May 3, 1969-July 20, 1969
*     Muhammad Hidayatullah         July 20, 1969- August 24, 1969

04  Varahagiri Venkata Giri            August 24, 1969-August 24, 1974

05  Dr. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed       August 24, 1974-February 11, 1977
*     Basappa Danappa Jatti             February 11, 1977-July 25, 1977
06  Neelam Sanjiva Reddy              July 25, 1977-July 25, 1982
07  Giani Zail Singh                      July 25, 1982-July 25, 1987
08  Ramaswamy Venkataraman     July 25, 1987-July 25, 1992
09  Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma       July 25, 1992-July 25, 1997
10  Kocheril Raman Narayanan      July 25, 1997-July 25, 2002
11  Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam            July 25, 2002-Present

* Acting Presidents

'President' KALAM

According to me the most deserving candidate at this time India has for the post of president is surely Mr.Kalam. He deserves a second term.

Pandita Ramabai

I am posting here the link of my Term paper on PANDITA RAMABAI, which I submitted to my sir, Prof.Sumir Sharma during M.A. II year in History at Arya College, Ludhiana.
http://sumir-history.blogspot.com/2007/01/term-paper-trial.html#links

victory for behenji

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has won the elections in Uttar Pradesh with clear majority.Patty's election symbol is Elephant.Mayawati will become Chief minister of highest populous state(Uttar Pradesh) for the 4th time.

This party was actually formed by Kanshi Ram in 1984.He was inspired by the philosophy of Ambedkar.Themainaim of the party was to mobilise the Dalits(who are regarded by some as lowest among the Indian castes).
The party represents Indianised form of Communism.In the beginning it was only for Dalits but in 2007 it fielded 94 Brahmin candidates.The party has won 207 seats in total.