Chapter summary
While the previous chapter established that nationalism was invented in Europe through the French Revolution and the unifications of Italy and Germany, this chapter shows how India developed its own variant of nationalism — anti-colonial nationalism, in which the struggle was against a foreign ruler rather than for the merging of small states. The Indian case is one of the most studied anti-colonial nationalisms in the world.
The chapter traces the rise of nationalism through four interconnected phases: the impact of World War I (1914-18) which produced economic distress, conscription resentment, and Gandhi's return from South Africa; the Khilafat-Non Cooperation Movement (1920-22) which mobilised Hindus and Muslims together; the Civil Disobedience Movement (1930-34) launched by the Salt March; and the involvement of diverse social groups — peasants, workers, tribals, women, business class — each with their own interpretation of swaraj.
Equally important, the chapter examines the symbols and ideas that built nationalism — the image of Bharat Mata first painted by Abanindranath Tagore, the song Vande Mataram, the tricolour flag, folklore collection, history-writing that emphasised India's ancient achievements. These symbols allowed Indians spread across vast distances and diverse cultures to imagine themselves as one nation.
Key concepts in this chapter
- SatyagrahaGandhi's method — "truth-force" or "soul-force" — non-violent resistance to injustice through self-suffering
- Rowlatt Act 1919British law allowing detention without trial; sparked nationwide protests and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre
- Non-CooperationGandhi's first mass movement (1920-22) — boycott of British titles, courts, schools, foreign goods
- KhilafatMovement to preserve the Caliphate post-WWI; brought Indian Muslims into the freedom struggle alongside Hindus
- Civil DisobedienceActive law-breaking through non-violent means; launched by Salt March on 12 March 1930
- Purna SwarajComplete Independence — adopted as Congress goal at Lahore Session December 1929
- Communal Award 1932British grant of separate electorates to Depressed Classes; led to Gandhi's fast and the Poona Pact
The First World War and the rise of Gandhi
The First World War (1914-1918) transformed India profoundly. The British government raised huge loans, increased taxes, raised customs duties, and introduced income tax. War-time hardships included rising food prices, conscription drives in rural areas, and a devastating influenza epidemic of 1918-19 that killed an estimated 12-13 million Indians. Disillusionment with British rule was widespread.
This is the context in which Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi returned from South Africa in January 1915. He had spent 21 years (1893-1914) in South Africa, where he developed his philosophy of satyagraha — non-violent resistance based on the power of truth and the willingness to suffer for it. In India, he applied this method first to local struggles:
- Champaran (Bihar, 1917) — Gandhi's first satyagraha in India, on behalf of indigo planters forced into tinkathia (3/20 of land for indigo cultivation) by European planters.
- Kheda (Gujarat, 1918) — Peasants demanded tax relief after crop failure; Gandhi led a no-tax campaign.
- Ahmedabad mill workers (1918) — Gandhi mediated a textile workers' strike, leading to a 35% wage increase.
The pivotal year was 1919. The Rowlatt Act gave the government emergency powers to suppress political activity and detain political prisoners without trial for two years. Gandhi called for nationwide satyagraha against the Act. On 13 April 1919, General Dyer ordered firing on a peaceful gathering at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, killing several hundred Indians. The massacre transformed Gandhi from a regional figure into the unrivalled leader of the Indian national movement.
The Non-Cooperation Movement, 1920-22
At the Nagpur Session of the Congress in December 1920, Gandhi proposed and got accepted the Non-Cooperation Programme. He had earlier launched the Khilafat agitation (1919-1924) in alliance with the Ali Brothers (Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali) — Muslims in India and worldwide were protesting against the British dismantling of the Ottoman Caliphate after WWI. Combining these two struggles enabled an unprecedented Hindu-Muslim joint mobilisation.
The Non-Cooperation Programme called on Indians to:
- Surrender titles awarded by the British (Gandhi himself returned his Kaiser-i-Hind medal);
- Boycott civil services, army, police, courts, legislative councils, schools;
- Boycott foreign goods; promote use of swadeshi goods, especially khadi;
- Picket toddy shops and stop drinking alcohol;
- If the government did not respond, escalate to civil disobedience including non-payment of taxes.
The movement's reach was extraordinary. Lakhs of students left government schools; lawyers including C.R. Das, Motilal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel gave up practice; foreign cloth burnt in massive bonfires; women, even from purdah, came out to picket. In rural areas, the movement often took on local meanings — Adivasis in Andhra interpreted "swaraj" as the right to enter forest reserves; Awadh peasants under Baba Ramchandra demanded reduction in beghar (forced labour); plantation workers in Assam left their estates to "go home."
On 4 February 1922, at Chauri Chaura (Gorakhpur district, UP), an agitated peasant procession was fired upon by police; the crowd retaliated by setting fire to the police station, killing 22 policemen. Gandhi was deeply shaken. He announced the withdrawal of the movement on 12 February 1922, undertook a 5-day fast as penance, and was subsequently arrested and sentenced to six years in prison.
Civil Disobedience and the Salt March, 1930
By the late 1920s, the freedom struggle was again gathering momentum. The Simon Commission (1928), sent to recommend further constitutional reform, was boycotted nationally with the slogan "Simon Go Back" because it contained no Indian member. At the Lahore Session in December 1929, Jawaharlal Nehru presided and the Congress adopted Purna Swaraj (Complete Independence) as its goal. 26 January 1930 was celebrated as the first Independence Day.
Gandhi then chose salt as his symbol. The British tax on salt affected every Indian household, including the poorest. On 12 March 1930, Gandhi with 78 followers began a 240-mile march from Sabarmati Ashram (Ahmedabad) to Dandi on the coast of Gujarat. On 6 April 1930, he picked up a handful of salt at Dandi, breaking the salt law and launching the Civil Disobedience Movement.
The movement spread rapidly:
- Salt laws broken at thousands of places along the coast.
- Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan ("Frontier Gandhi") mobilised the Khudai Khidmatgars (Red Shirts) in the North-West Frontier.
- Women, in unprecedented numbers, came out — Sarojini Naidu led the Dharasana Salt Works satyagraha after Gandhi's arrest.
- Peasants refused to pay chowkidari tax in Bihar; forest laws were defied in Maharashtra and Carnatic.
- By the end of 1930, around 100,000 people had been arrested.
The Gandhi-Irwin Pact (March 1931) led to the suspension of the movement and Gandhi's participation in the Second Round Table Conference in London (Nov 1931). When the conference failed and government repression continued, Gandhi resumed Civil Disobedience in 1932, but it was less effective and was finally called off in April 1934.
Different social groups in the movement
Rich peasant communities
Patidars in Gujarat and Jats in UP — agriculturally prosperous, badly hit by falling agricultural prices in 1930. They saw Civil Disobedience as a fight for reduction in revenue. When the movement was called off in 1931 without rate reductions, they were deeply disappointed.
Poorer peasants
Smallholders and tenants. Joined the movement hoping for remission of rent payable to landlords. The Congress did not endorse "no rent" campaigns for fear of upsetting rich peasants and landlords. As a result, the movement's impact on poorer peasants was weaker.
Business class
Indian merchants and industrialists, supported by figures like Purshottamdas Thakurdas and G.D. Birla, saw colonial economic policies (protection of British imports, hostile attitude to Indian industry) as harming their interests. They formed FICCI in 1927 and gave the Congress financial support. They wanted protection from foreign goods and a stable rupee-sterling exchange rate.
Industrial workers
Workers in Nagpur, Bombay and Calcutta participated, but the Congress was wary of formally aligning with worker demands for fear of alienating industrialists. Workers used Gandhian symbols (boycott of foreign goods, low rates of work) but the movement was uneven.
Women
Women's participation was the most distinctive feature of the Civil Disobedience Movement. Women from middle-class urban households, encouraged by Gandhi's emphasis on the moral force of suffering, joined the salt satyagraha, picketed liquor shops, and broke laws. Many faced lathi-charges and imprisonment for the first time.
Building the nation through symbols
How does a population of 30+ crore, speaking dozens of languages, with diverse religions and customs, come to imagine itself as one nation? Through symbols, songs, history-writing, and images that gave Indians a shared identity.
- Bharat Mata — the image of Mother India was first painted by Abanindranath Tagore in 1905 — calm, dignified, divine, holding the symbols of food (anna), cloth (vastra), learning (vidya). Later versions portrayed her in different moods — sometimes militant, sometimes weeping, always sacred.
- Vande Mataram — written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in his 1882 novel Anandamath. Became the rallying song of the freedom movement; later, India's National Song.
- Folklore collection — Rabindranath Tagore, Natesa Sastri and others compiled folk tales and songs to revive a sense of "authentic" national culture.
- Reinterpretation of history — nationalist historians emphasised India's ancient achievements in mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, medicine, art — arguing that colonialism had been an interruption, not a defining feature of Indian history.
- The tricolour flag — first designed in 1921 with red and green (for Hindus and Muslims) and white (for other communities); later modified to saffron, white, green with a spinning wheel — symbolic of self-reliance.
"Identifying with an image leads to a sense of who one is. So the image of Bharat Mata is identified with the country." — NCERT Class 10, Ch 2.
NCERT exercise Q&A (with explanations)
(a) Colonialism subjugated diverse groups under a single oppressive regime, creating a shared experience of humiliation, racial discrimination, and economic exploitation. The struggle against this common enemy forged a sense of common Indian identity that transcended caste, religion, and language. Anti-colonial nationalism was therefore the form nationalism took in colonised societies — different from European nationalism (which unified small states into one) but driven by the same underlying force of imagined community.
(b) WWI created economic distress through huge war loans, increased taxation, rising prices, conscription resentment, and the 1918-19 flu epidemic. It returned Gandhi to India in 1915 with his satyagraha philosophy tested in South Africa. It also disillusioned moderates who had supported the British war effort believing it would bring constitutional reform — when Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms (1919) proved inadequate.
(c) The Rowlatt Act 1919 allowed the British government to detain political activists without trial for up to two years, with no recourse to courts. It was rushed through the Imperial Legislative Council despite unanimous Indian opposition. The Act was seen as a betrayal — Indians had supported the British war effort expecting more freedom, not less. Gandhi called it the "Black Act" and launched nationwide satyagraha against it.
(d) Gandhi withdrew the Non-Cooperation Movement after the Chauri Chaura incident (4 February 1922), where a violent mob killed 22 policemen. Gandhi believed the movement had not yet absorbed the discipline of non-violence; continuing it would lead to more violence and undermine satyagraha's moral authority. He undertook a 5-day fast as penance for the incident.
Satyagraha was a novel method of mass agitation developed by Mahatma Gandhi. The word combines satya (truth) and agraha (insistence or firm holding). Satyagraha emphasised the power of truth and the need to search for truth. It suggested that if the cause was true and the struggle against injustice, physical force was not necessary to fight the oppressor. Without seeking vengeance or being aggressive, a satyagrahi could win the battle through non-violence — by appealing to the conscience of the oppressor.
People — including the oppressors — had to be persuaded to see the truth, instead of being forced to accept truth through the use of violence. By this struggle, truth was bound to ultimately triumph. Gandhi believed that this dharma of non-violence could unite all Indians.
(a) Jallianwala Bagh, 13 April 1919 — A Day of Infamy: A peaceful gathering of unarmed civilians at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, attending a meeting against the Rowlatt Act and the arrest of two leaders Saifuddin Kitchlew and Satyapal, was fired upon today by British troops under the command of General Dyer. The Bagh, an enclosed park with only one narrow exit, was packed with over 10,000 men, women and children. Dyer ordered his 90 soldiers to fire without warning, continuing for nearly 10 minutes. Official British estimates speak of 379 dead; Indian figures put the toll at over 1,000. The brutality has shocked the conscience of India and the world.
(b) Simon Commission Boycotted Nationwide, 3 February 1928: The Statutory Commission sent by the British government under Sir John Simon to recommend further constitutional reforms arrived in Bombay today to face nationwide black-flag protests. The Commission has no Indian member — a fact that has galvanised the entire political spectrum, from Congress to the Liberals to the Muslim League. Slogans of "Simon Go Back" greeted the Commission at every station. In Lahore, the elderly leader Lala Lajpat Rai was injured in a lathi charge while leading the protest; he succumbed to his injuries on 17 November 1928.
Both Bharat Mata and Germania are allegorical female figures representing the nation, but they carry distinct cultural codes and political moods.
Germania appears in 19th century paintings (especially Philipp Veit's 1848 painting) as a tall, strong, fair-haired figure wearing a crown of oak leaves (oak signifies heroism). She holds a sword and the German tricolour flag. Her image is martial — she stands ready to fight for German unification.
Bharat Mata in Abanindranath Tagore's 1905 painting appears calm, ascetic, divine — depicted as a Hindu sadhvi (ascetic) in saffron robes, with four arms holding food, cloth, learning and the symbol of Devi. Later, more militant versions emerged but the original conception emphasised moral and spiritual force rather than martial power. Bharat Mata fights through suffering and truth (satyagraha), not weapons.
Both images mobilise the same psychology — turning an abstract idea (nation) into a sacred mother figure who must be defended — but the cultural specifics differ.
The Salt March of March-April 1930 was symbolically perfect because salt united every Indian. The salt tax was about 2,400% of the actual cost of production — a luxurious profit margin extracted from a daily necessity. By choosing salt, Gandhi united the rich and the poor, the rural and urban, women and men, in a single act of defiance.
The march itself was a 240-mile journey from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, lasting 24 days. Gandhi walked an average of 10 miles a day. Along the route he held meetings, met villagers, gave interviews to international press. By the time he reached Dandi on 6 April 1930 with 78 satyagrahis, the world was watching.
When Gandhi picked up a fistful of salt from the beach, he was breaking the law. This single, photogenic act of defiance was then replicated across India: at Wadala in Bombay, Vedaranyam in Tamil Nadu, Balasore in Orissa, Champaran in Bihar — thousands broke salt laws. The Dharasana Salt Works satyagraha, led by Sarojini Naidu after Gandhi's arrest, was beamed worldwide by American journalist Webb Miller and shocked international opinion.
The Salt March changed the dynamic of Indian nationalism — it showed that symbolic civil disobedience could mobilise millions, that British rule had no moral basis, and that India had a moral force in Gandhi that could not be defeated by mere repression.
UPSC / MPSC previous year questions on this chapter
UPSC Mains GS-1 2020
"Highlight the importance of the new objectives that got added to the vision of Indian Independence since the third decade of the 20th century." — Direct test of the Lahore 1929 Purna Swaraj resolution and post-1930 expansion of nationalist objectives.
UPSC Prelims 2017
"With reference to the National Movement, consider the following pairs: 1. Mohammed Ali Jinnah — Lucknow Pact. 2. Mahatma Gandhi — Champaran Movement." — Lucknow Pact (1916) is correct (Jinnah played a key role); Champaran (1917) was Gandhi's first satyagraha in India.
UPSC Mains GS-1 2022
"Discuss the main contributions of Gupta period and Chola period to Indian heritage and culture." — Not directly this chapter but tests how nationalists used ancient history (Gupta era as "Golden Age") to build the imagined community.
MPSC Rajyaseva 2019
"On which day in 1930 did Mahatma Gandhi break the Salt Law at Dandi?" — Answer: 6 April 1930.
Related current affairs
- 75 years of Republic Day (26 January 2025) — recalled the link to Purna Swaraj day 1930.
- Centenary of Non-Cooperation (2020-22) — major commemorative observances of Khilafat-Non Cooperation movement.
- Bharat Mata imagery in contemporary politics — periodic debates over greeting protocols and the meaning of "Bharat Mata ki Jai."
- Memorialisation of Jallianwala Bagh — 2019 marked the centenary; ongoing UK debate on formal apology.