Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav Series

Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav Series

Khilafat Movement

• It was a campaign in defence of the Caliph of Turkey. After the armistice in 1918 it was feared that the Caliph would be deprived of his powers.
• The peace terms (Treaty of Sevres, August 1920) crippled the power of Turkey and the deepest religious feelings of the Muslims were outraged. As a result there was a considerable unrest and dissatisfaction in India also.
• A campaign in defence of the Caliph was launched under the leadership of Shaukat Ali, Muhammad Ali and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
• In 1920 the Indian National Congress supported the Muslims’ contention and under the guidance of Mahatma Gandhi, a non-violent non-cooperation campaign was launched.
• Gandhi’s suspension of the non-cooperation movement on account of the Chauri Chaura incident, and his arrest in March 1922 weakened the Khilafat movement.
• It was further undermined when Mustafa Kamal Ataturk drove the Greeks from western Asia Minor in 1922 and deposed the Turkish Caliph in the same year; it finally collapsed when he abolished the Caliphate altogether in 1924.

Harsha Chhina Mogha Morcha (1946-47)

• Harse Chhina Mogha Morcha was an agrarian revolt in Punjab that took place in 1946– 1947.
• The campaign was launched in June 1946 by remodelling the moghas (canal outlets) under the leadership of the Communist Party, which was later joined by all major political parties of the time, to stand against the decision of the British Government to decrease the supply of irrigation water to farmers.
• As a result of this movement, the British Government agreed to provide more farming water to agriculturists as per the previous agreed terms.

Arya Samaj Movement in the erstwhile Hyderabad State (1938-39)

• The centre of Arya Samaj came into existence in the city of Hyderabad in the year 1892.
• Sultan Bazar became active centre of the Arya Samaj.
• With the election of Pandit Keshav Rao Koratkar (a great patriot and Chief justice of Hyderabad High Court) as the president of Hyderabad state Arya Samaj in 1905, it received a new magnitude in creating political consciousness in the minds of people against the autocratic rule of the Nizam.
• By 1938 Arya Samaj had 250 branches in the State, twenty of which were located in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
• In due course of time, the great political leaders of Hyderabad State namely Swami Ramanand Tirth, Kamble Wale of Udgir, M. Channa Reddy, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Ramachandra Veerappa of Bidar, K.V. Narasing Rao, Vidyadhar Guruji of Gulbarga, Pandit Taranath of Raichur and so many nationalists in Osmanabad, Warangal, Zahirabad, Adilabad, Basavakalyan, Aurangabad and Beed were influenced by the activities of Arya Samaj and joined its movement to assert civil and religious rights of the non-Muslims.
• The Nizam Government in a bid to establish the Islamic State denied opportunities for the people of non-ruling class to enjoy basic civil and human rights.
• Arya Samaj, under these circumstances could not be a silent spectator.
• The Nizam mixed religion and politics and encouraged the ‘Ittehad’ to start Tableegh, and issued farman (order) and passed the acts called Mafusa and GayarMafusa.
  • The first one protected the property of the Muslims and those of converted, the second Act empowered muslims have enslaved the Hindus, by purchasing the lands of the Hindus who mortgaged them on their debts.
• Hindus propagated the message of Arya-Samaj;
  • (a) Equality of all human beings,
  • (b) Condemnation of caste system,
  • (c) Equal opportunities of education and refinement,
  • (d) The message of ‘Satyarth Prakash’ i.e., “Back to Vedas”.
• When Nizam turned a deaf ear to the demands of the Arya Samaj on 24th October 1938, the Arya Samaj decided to offer Satyagraha against the Nizam Government. Arya Samajists from Hyderabad Karnataka, participated in Satyagraha under the leadership of Mahatma Naryana Swami and Kunwar Chandrakaranji at Gulbarga on 4 February and 2 March, 1939 respectively.
• The spirit of martyrdom of Arya Samajists continued to be exhibited in 1942 “Do or Die” movement, “Join Union” movement of 1946-47 and “Border” movement of 1947-48.
• This saga of sacrifice provoked the sentiments of the people and inspired them to develop the political consciousness. About seventy per cent of the nationalists of Hyderabad Karnataka belonged to the Arya Samaj.

Madurai Conspiracy Case (1945-47)

• A & F Harvey mills was the biggest mill in Tamil Nadu. Madurai Labour Union (MLU) was the only union in the mill which was led by S.R.V. Naidu, a confidant of Harvey mills management.
  • An anti-Communist by nature, he refused to enrol Communist workers in his union.
• Ramamurti at the beginning did not want to start a rival union. He insisted in the democratic functioning of the MLU by enrolling all workers irrespective of their political affiliations.
  • When left with no other alternative, Ramamurti decide to start the All India Trade Union and it started functioning from the month of October with Ramamurti as its president.
• When elections through secret ballot to find out the representative character of the union were held, Communist union won with a thumping majority and got recognition. This victory became a morale booster for the Communist Party in Madurai district and its influence began to spread to other areas.
• The British Government wanted to curb the Communist movement in Madurai. They arrested Ramamurti, N. Sankaraiah, K. T. K. Thangamani and many others and started Madurai Conspiracy case.
  • The main charge was that Ramamurti and other leaders were hatching a conspiracy at the party office to physically eliminate other trade union leaders.
• During the enquiry, Ramamurti proved that the main witness was a cheat and a case for himself, and other were represented by leading lawyers of Madurai.
  • The special judge, who enquired the case, came to the jail premise on the 14August 1947, on the eve of Independence and released all those involved in the case and severely criticised the Government for launching this case against respected leaders of the workers.
  • Ramamurti and others were released from jail and thousands of workers with red flag who waited outside the jail gate took them in procession.

The Gurudwara Reform Movement (1920-25)

It includes the following –

1. Taran Taran Morcha
   • A mandate was issued from the Akal Takhat summoning an assembly of the Sikhs to meet on 15 November, 1920 to elect a representative body of the Panth, to govern and control the Golden Temple and to reform other shrines.
   • But meanwhile the Government of the Punjab, with the assistance of the Maharaja of Patiala, had constituted a Committee with the motive of foiling the attempt of the Sikhs.
   • Despite the alliance of the Mahants, the Government and hired detachments, to prevent the Akalis from convening their meeting, the Akalis were successful in organizing the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee to take up the administration of their gurdwaras.
   • The conflict between the Akalis and the Government ensued in January, 1921 in Tarn Taran. It was provoked by the Mahants. The Morcha of Tarn-Taran marked the beginning of Gurdwara Reform Movement.
   • Hazara Singh of village Aldinpur descendent of Sardar Bhagat Singh was the first martyr to the cause of Gurdwara reforms.

2. Nankana Tragedy of February (1920)
   • Nankana Sahib, being the birth place of Guru Nanak has the most important position among the Sikh places of religious worship.
   • It was controlled by Mahant Sadhu Ram and others. These Mahants gradually grown into wealthy feudal landlords. They deprived the poor peasantry of their rights.
     • The Mahants misappropriated the Community’s income from the Gurdwaras and their land and flouted the traditions and customs of the Sikhs.
   • The local Sikhs tried to curb the evil practices adopted by the Mahants, but of no avail, as the Mahants had the backing of the local British officials.
   • Sikh leaders made attempts to bring mahant to the negotiation table but their efforts failed.
   • On February 21, 1921, the unarmed Sikh leaders (jatha) entered Nankana Sahib to take possession of gurudwara, they were attacked by the armed mahants. This led to the massacre. 

3. The Golden Temple Ke Affairs (Morcha Chabian Saheb)
   • The Morcha Chabian campaign for the recovery of the keys of the Golden Temple treasury, marked a dramatic episode in the Sikh agitations in the early 1920s, to reform the management of their places of worship.

4. Guru ka Bagh Morcha
   • In 1922 a fresh clash occurred between the Akalis and the Mahants at Guru Ka Bagh, a temple situated about ten miles north of Amritsar.
   • On the complaint of Mahant Sunder Das that under the agreement with the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (S.G.P.C.) only the Gurdwara was surrendered and not the adjoining land from where the Sikhs were cutting wood for their community kitchen, when the police arrested a few Sikhs for this offence, the Akalis launched a morcha which continued for twenty days.
   • Calm and cool courage and marvellous self-restraint displayed by the Akalis fetched them hearty felicitations of Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress.

5. Babar Akali Movement
   • The Babbar Akali Movement took place during the years 1921 to 1925. The majority of the Babbar Akalis were returned immigrants from Canada.
     • Some of them had actively participated in the Gadhar Movement and were also known as Gadharites (Gadhari Babbeys).
   • The Babbar Akalis were Guru Sikhs, who were against the imperialist policies of the British Government. The Babbar Akalis were against the Gandhi formula of non-violence and non-cooperation.
     • They were upset because of the tragedy of Nankana Sahib in which hundreds of innocent Sikhs were massacred.
     • They rejected the peaceful struggle for reformation in the Sikh shrines and decided to lead their movement separately without the company and cooperation of the dominant Akali leadership.
   • Their main objective was to “eliminate” certain officials and nonofficial condemned as enemies of the Khalsa Panth.
   • Babbar Akalis declared it necessary to teach a lesson by eliminating the toadies (stooges) and those who were responsible for the massacre of the Akalis at Nankana Sahib.
   • The continuous “eliminations” created panic among the toadies and the Government authorities. Numbers of village officials and other loyalists to the Government started expressing fear for their lives and the desire to resign from their posts.
   • The British Parliament raised questions about the deteriorating condition of law and order in the Punjab.
   • Upon pressure of the British Parliament, London, the government of the Punjab introduced more stringent measures against the Babbars. Hideout places of the Babars were raided.
   • By the middle of 1924 all the important Babbar’s were either killed or arrested.
   • However, the Akali leaders and the Congress leaders like Mahatma Gandhi did not approve of the Babbar’s programme of violence.

6. Jaito Morcha
   • During the Akali movement in Punjab, Maharaja Ripudaman Singh of Nabha who was a sympathiser of the Akalis, observed the Martyrs Day to honour all those who laid down their lives at Nankana Sahib. This act of the Maharaja was resented by the British Government.
   • On the pretext that he was not having good relations with the Patiala State, he was forced to abdicate. This compelled the Sikhs to launch an agitation which is known as Jaito Da Morcha.

7. Bhai Pheru Morcha
   • Bhai Pheru Morcha was one among the series of campaigns in the Sikhs’ agitation in the 1920’s for the reformation of their holy places.
   • Gurdwara Sangat Sahib, located in Mien ke Maur in Lahore district, dedicated to the memory of Bhai Pheru (1640-1706).

The Ghadr Movement

• There were several factors both external and internal, responsible for the origin of the Ghadr Party.
• The first was the discrimination against Indians in Canada and the United States. These emigrants did not find Conditions in the Countries of their migration as attractive in actual practice as they has been led to expect.
• The second was the clash of interest between American and Indian labour.
• The vast majority of the immigrants were Sikhs, who foregathered every Sunday for Congregational prayers. Since the only places where the Indians could meet were the Gurdwaras and as politics began to dominate the scene in both the countries, the Silk temples became storm centres of political activity.
• Lala Hardayal, Bhai Parmanand, Baba Sohan Singh Bhaka, Bhai Kesar Singh and Pandit Kanshi Ram played an important role in organising and uniting the Indians living in America.
• It was decided that the objects of the association would be to end British rule in India through armed revolution, establish and maintain a system of self-government in India based on the principals of liberty, equality and fraternity, and to work for a social order securing the greatest good of the greatest number.
• The headquarters of the party Yugantar Ashram, were to be located at San Francisco and it was to have its own Press and a weekly paper, the Ghadr, which was to be published in Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and other Indian languages.
• The party established its branches in Hong Kong, Manila, Bangkok, Shanghai and Panama. It designed a tricolour national flag which was unfurled 1914, at Stockton (California) on 15 February 1914, when the Ghadrites pledged themselves to fight and die in the revolution under the National Standard.
• Pledged to freedom of the Country, the Ghadrites appealed to all patriotic Indians to take full advantage of British preoccupations in World War I to rise against them and literally throw them out.
  • They were promised support in money and arms through Indian revolutionaries in Germany who had organised an Indian Berlin Committee.
• The Ghadr Party was determined to wage war against the British in India and with that object in view decided to send arms and men to India to start a revolt with the help of soldiers and local revolutionaries.
  • Rash Behari Bose, Sachindra Sanyal, Ganesh Pingale and Kartar Singh Srabha prepared a master plan for that purpose.
  • Some revolutionaries were killed, and several others were arrested.
  • The all-India revolt failed because on Kirpal Singh passed on all the secret plans to the Government.
  • The Ghadrites were tried in a batches in the Lahore Conspiracy Case and the supplementary cases.

Quit India Movement

• In 1939, with the outbreak of war between Germany and Britain, India was announced to be a party to the war for being a constituent component of the British Empire.
• Following this declaration, the Congress Working Committee at its meeting held on 10 October 1939, passed a resolution condemning the aggressive activities of the Germans.
• At the same time the resolution also stated that India could not associate herself with war unless it was consulted first.
• Congress ministers from eight provinces resigned following the instructions.
• In the meanwhile, crucial political events took place in England.
  • Chamberlain was succeeded by Churchill as the Prime Minister and the Conservatives, who assumed power in England, did not have a sympathetic stance towards the claims made by the Congress.
  • In order to pacify the Indians in the circumstance of worsening war situation, the Conservatives were forced to concede some of the demands made by the Indians.
  • On 8 August, the Viceroy issued a statement that has come to be referred as the “August Offer”.
  • However, the Congress rejected the offer followed by the Muslim League.
• In the context of widespread dissatisfaction that prevailed over the rejection of the demands made by the Congress, Gandhi at the meeting of the Congress Working Committee in Wardha revealed his plan to launch Individual Civil Disobedience.
  • Vinoba Bhave, a follower of Gandhi, was selected by him to initiate the movement.
• The Cripps’ Mission and its failure also played an important role in Gandhi’s call for The Quit India Movement.
• The Quit India Movement (August Kranti), August 1942, launched in response to Mahatma Gandhi’s national call for satyagraha.
  • The All-India Congress Committee proclaimed a mass protest demanding what Gandhiji called “an orderly British withdrawal” from India.
  • It was for the determined, which appears in his call to “Do or Die”, issued on 8 August at the Gwalior Tank Maidan in Mumbai in 1942.
• Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Aruna Asaf Ali, Achyut Patwardhan and Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha openly and enthusiastically supported such a disobedience movement, as did many veteran Gandhians and socialists like Asoka Mehta and Jayaprakash Narayan.
• Although at the national level the ability to galvanize rebellion was limited, the movement is notable for regional success especially at Satara in Maharashtra, Talcher in Orissa, and Midnapore.
  • In Tamluk and Contai subdivisions of Midnapore, the local populace were successful in establishing parallel governments, which continued to function, until Gandhi personally requested the leaders to disband in 1944.

Bhikaiji Cama (Maharashtra)

• Born to an extremely wealthy Parsi business family, Bhikaiji Cama (née Patel) received her early education in Bombay (now Mumbai).
• It was in London that Bhikaji Cama met Dadabhai Naoroji and inspired by his ideals plunged into the freedom movement.
• She also began to meet with other Indian nationalists like Shyamji Varma, Lala Hardayal, and soon became one of the active members of the movement.
• She began to publish booklets for the Indian community in England, propagating the cause of Swaraj. “March forward! We are for India. India is for Indians!” she defiantly declared.
• Madam Bhikaiji Cama became the first person to hoist the Indian flag in foreign land on 22 August 1907.
  • While unfurling the flag at the International Socialist Conference in Stuttgart, Germany, she appealed for equality and autonomy from the British which had taken over the Indian sub-continent.

Vasudeo Balvant (Maharashtra)

• Modern India’s first revolutionary, Phadke, is regarded as the ‘Father of the Armed Struggle for India’s Freedom’.
• Young Phadke, who considered Shivaji as his role model, is said to have been the inspiration for Bankimchandra’s Anandamath.
• Phadke took a vow to use Khadi and Swadeshi.
• He founded the Aikyavardhini Sabha in order to ventilate popular grievances.
• In 1874, he also established the first school of national education in Pune.

Kittur Rani Chennamma (Karnataka)

• Kittur Rani Chennamma was Queen of Kittur, Princely State in Karnataka.
• She led an armed rebellion against the British policy of ‘Doctrine of Lapse’, i.e. annexation on the lapse of direct heirs leading to the confiscation of Princely property.

Saifuddin Kitchlew (Jammu and Kashmir)

• A member of Indian National Congress, he first became Punjab Provincial Congress Committee (Punjab PCC) head and later the General Secretary of the AICC in 1924.
• Kitchlew was first exposed to Indian nationalism after public outcry over the Rowlatt Acts. Kitchlew was arrested with Gandhi and Dr. Satyapal for leading protests in Punjab against the legislation.
• To protest the arrest of the trio, a public meeting had gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh, when General Reginald Dyer and his troops fired upon the unarmed, civilian crowd.
  • Hundreds were killed, and hundreds more injured.
  • This act was the worst case of civilian massacre since the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and riots broke out throughout the Punjab.

Chapekar Brothers (Maharashtra)

• Freedom fighters Damodar Hari Chapekar and his brothers Balkrishna and Vasudev Hari Chapekar were born in Chinehawad, district Pune, Maharashtra.
• On 22 June, 1897, the three brothers set out to kill British officer Walter Charles Rand who had handled the plague in Pune in a high-handed manner.
• Eventually, Damodar, his brothers and their friend Mahadev Ranade were caught and hanged.