The National Movement, 1905–1947

Partition of Bengal and Swadeshi (1905–11)

• Lord Curzon announced the partition of Bengal in July 1905. It took effect on 16 October 1905, which was observed as a day of mourning; Rabindranath Tagore led raksha bandhan processions.
• Swadeshi and boycott spread under leaders such as Tilak, Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal and Aurobindo.
• National education began with the Bengal National College.
• The Muslim League was founded at Dacca in 1906.
• 1906 Calcutta session: swaraj was declared the goal.
• Surat split (1907) between the Moderates and the Extremists.
• Morley–Minto Reforms, 1909: expanded the councils and introduced separate electorates for Muslims.
• The partition was annulled in 1911 at the Delhi Durbar, and the capital moved to Delhi (1911–12).

Bihar

• Bihar and Orissa became a separate province on 22 March 1912, now celebrated as Bihar Diwas.
• The campaign was led by Sachchidananda Sinha, through the Bihar Times.

Revolutionaries

• Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki attacked the carriage they thought held Kingsford at Muzaffarpur in 1908. Khudiram was hanged.
• The Alipore Bomb case (Aurobindo).
• Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar.
• The Ghadar Party (1913, San Francisco): Lala Har Dayal.
• The Komagata Maru ship (1914).

World War I and Gandhi's arrival

• Home Rule Leagues (1916): Tilak (April, Belgaum) and Annie Besant (September, Madras).
• Lucknow Pact (1916): the Congress reunited, and the Congress and the League agreed on the size of separate electorates.
• Gandhi returned from South Africa on 9 January 1915.

Year	Struggle	Issue
1917	Champaran (Bihar)	The tinkathia system: planters forced peasants to grow indigo on ³⁄₂₀ of their land. Raj Kumar Shukla invited Gandhi. Gandhi disobeyed an order to leave; an inquiry committee followed, with Gandhi as a member, and the Champaran Agrarian Act, 1918 ended tinkathia. Companions included Rajendra Prasad, Brajkishore Prasad, Anugrah Narayan Sinha, Mazharul Haque and J. B. Kripalani
1918	Ahmedabad mill strike	Gandhi's first hunger strike
1918	Kheda (Gujarat)	Remission of revenue after crop failure; Sardar Patel joined

The Gandhian phase

• Rowlatt Act (March 1919) allowed detention without trial. Gandhi called a satyagraha.
• Jallianwala Bagh massacre, 13 April 1919 (General Dyer, Amritsar).
  • The Hunter Committee inquired.
  • Tagore gave up his knighthood.
  • Udham Singh later shot Michael O'Dwyer (1940).
• Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms (GoI Act, 1919):
  • dyarchy in the provinces (transferred and reserved subjects);
  • a bicameral central legislature;
  • separate electorates extended to Sikhs and others.
• Khilafat and Non-Cooperation (1920–22):
  • Approved at the special Calcutta session and at Nagpur (1920).
  • Boycott of councils, courts, schools and foreign cloth.
  • National institutions were set up: Jamia Millia, Kashi Vidyapith and Bihar Vidyapith (1921).
  • Withdrawn after Chauri Chaura (5 February 1922).
• Swaraj Party (1923): C. R. Das and Motilal Nehru, who entered the councils.
• Simon Commission (1927): all-white. "Simon go back" protests followed, and Lala Lajpat Rai died after a lathi charge (1928).
• Nehru Report (1928): dominion status. Jinnah answered with his Fourteen Points (1929).
• Revolutionaries:
  • HSRA (1928, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad);
  • the Kakori case (1925);
  • the Central Assembly bomb (1929);
  • Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev hanged (1931);
  • the Chittagong armoury raid (Surya Sen, 1930).
• Lahore Congress (1929), president Jawaharlal Nehru: the Purna Swaraj resolution. 26 January 1930 was celebrated as Independence Day.
• Civil Disobedience Movement (1930–34):
  • Dandi March, 12 March to 6 April 1930.
  • Salt satyagraha at Dharasana (Sarojini Naidu).
  • In the north-west frontier, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and the Khudai Khidmatgar.
  • In Bihar, salt was made at Nakhas Pond, Patna, and a chaukidari-tax campaign was run.
• Round Table Conferences (1930–32): Gandhi attended only the second, after the Gandhi–Irwin Pact (March 1931).
• Communal Award (1932) and the Poona Pact (24 September 1932): reserved seats for the depressed classes within joint electorates.

Government of India Act, 1935

• An All-India Federation of provinces and princely states. It never came into being.
• Provincial autonomy: dyarchy ended in the provinces and was introduced at the Centre.
• Three lists: federal, provincial and concurrent.
• A Federal Court (1937).
• The RBI was set up (1935, under a separate Act).
• The franchise was widened.
• It was the main source of the Constitution.

1937 elections: the Congress formed governments in most provinces, including Bihar, where Shri Krishna Sinha was premier. The ministries resigned in 1939 over India's entry into the war.

World War II to independence

• August Offer (1940) and Individual Satyagraha (Vinoba Bhave first, then Nehru).
• Cripps Mission (March 1942): dominion status after the war. Gandhi called it a "post-dated cheque".
• Quit India Movement:
  • The resolution was passed on 8 August 1942 at Gowalia Tank, Bombay. Gandhi's slogan was "Do or Die".
  • Leaders were arrested on 9 August.
  • Underground leaders included Jayaprakash Narayan (escaped from Hazaribagh jail, November 1942), Ram Manohar Lohia and Aruna Asaf Ali, with Usha Mehta's secret radio.
  • Parallel governments were set up at Ballia, Tamluk and Satara.
  • Bihar: seven students were shot on 11 August 1942 while hoisting the flag on the Patna Secretariat (remembered at the Shaheed Smarak). The movement was very strong in north and central Bihar.
• Subhas Chandra Bose:
  • Congress president at Haripura (1938) and Tripuri (1939).
  • Founded the Forward Bloc (1939).
  • Escaped in 1941.
  • Took over the INA (first formed by Mohan Singh and Rash Behari Bose) in 1943.
  • Set up the Provisional Government of Free India at Singapore (21 October 1943).
  • Gave the slogan "Delhi Chalo".
• INA trials (1945) at the Red Fort; Royal Indian Navy mutiny (February 1946).
• Wavell Plan and the Simla Conference (1945) failed.
• Cabinet Mission (1946): Pethick-Lawrence, Cripps and Alexander. It proposed a union with groups of provinces and a Constituent Assembly. An interim government was formed (September 1946, Nehru).
• The League's Direct Action Day (16 August 1946) led to communal riots, including in Bihar.
• Attlee's statement (20 February 1947).
• Mountbatten Plan (3 June 1947), which partitioned the country.
• Indian Independence Act, July 1947. Independence came on 15 August 1947, with the Radcliffe line as the boundary.

Peasant, worker and tribal movements in the 20th century

• Kisan Sabhas:
  • the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (1929), led by Swami Sahajanand Saraswati;
  • the All India Kisan Sabha (Lucknow, 1936);
  • the bakasht land struggles in Bihar (1937–39).
• Tebhaga (Bengal, 1946) and Telangana (1946–51).
• Trade unions: AITUC (1920, Lala Lajpat Rai as first president).
• Tribal: the Tana Bhagat movement (Jharkhand, 1914 onwards, Gandhian links) and the Rampa rebellion (Alluri Sitarama Raju, 1922–24).

Exam tip: Bihar papers ask about Champaran, Bihar Vidyapith, Nakhas Pond, 11 August 1942, JP's Hazaribagh escape and Sahajanand Saraswati. Jharkhand papers ask about the Tana Bhagats, the Ramgarh Congress session (1940, Maulana Azad presiding), and Bose's Anti-Compromise Conference at Ramgarh. Revise the constitutional Acts (1909, 1919, 1935, 1947) as a comparison table.