Modern India and the Indian National Movement

What the official syllabus says

HCS Preliminary Examination, Paper I: General Studies:

History of India and Indian National Movement.

Questions on the Indian National Movement will relate to the nature and character of the nineteenth century resurgence, growth of nationalism and attainment of Independence.

Topics in detail

The official note names three themes: the nineteenth century resurgence, the growth of nationalism, and the attainment of Independence. The British conquest and its effects are the background to all three.

British expansion and its effects

• Battles of Plassey (1757) and Buxar (1764); Diwani of Bengal (1765)
• Anglo-Mysore, Anglo-Maratha and Anglo-Sikh wars; Subsidiary Alliance and the Doctrine of Lapse
• Land revenue systems: Permanent Settlement, Ryotwari and Mahalwari
• Economic effects: deindustrialisation, commercialisation of agriculture, famines, the drain of wealth theory
• Regulating Act (1773), Pitt's India Act (1784), Charter Acts; growth of the civil service, police and judiciary
• Development of education, the press, railways and posts and telegraphs

The Revolt of 1857

• Causes: political, economic, social, religious and military
• Centres and leaders (Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Jhansi, Bareilly, Arrah) and their suppression
• Nature of the revolt and its results: the Government of India Act, 1858 and the Queen's Proclamation

The nineteenth century resurgence

• Raja Rammohan Roy and the Brahmo Samaj; Debendranath Tagore and Keshab Chandra Sen
• Prarthana Samaj; Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and widow remarriage
• Swami Dayanand Saraswati and the Arya Samaj (1875); Shuddhi and the DAV and Gurukul streams of education
• Swami Vivekananda and the Ramakrishna Mission; the Theosophical Society and Annie Besant
• Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and the Aligarh Movement; Jyotiba Phule and the Satyashodhak Samaj; Sri Narayana Guru
• Social legislation: abolition of sati (1829), Widow Remarriage Act (1856), Age of Consent Act (1891)

Growth of nationalism

• Causes of the rise of nationalism; early political associations
• Indian National Congress (1885): the Moderates, their methods and demands
• Partition of Bengal (1905) and the Swadeshi and Boycott Movement; the Extremists; Surat split (1907)
• Muslim League (1906); Morley-Minto Reforms (1909); revolutionary nationalism in India and abroad (Ghadar Party)
• Lucknow Pact (1916) and the Home Rule Leagues

The Gandhian era

• Champaran, Kheda and Ahmedabad (1917-18); Rowlatt Act and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre (1919)
• Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movement; Chauri Chaura (1922); the Swarajists
• Simon Commission (appointed 1927); Nehru Report (1928); Lahore Session and Purna Swaraj (1929)
• Civil Disobedience Movement and the Dandi March (1930); Gandhi-Irwin Pact (1931); Round Table Conferences; Communal Award and Poona Pact (1932)
• Government of India Act, 1935 and the provincial ministries of 1937
• Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association
• Peasant, workers', tribal and caste movements; the role of women in the struggle

Attainment of Independence

• August Offer (1940), Individual Satyagraha, Cripps Mission (1942)
• Quit India Movement (1942); Subhas Chandra Bose and the Indian National Army
• Wavell Plan and the Simla Conference (1945); RIN Mutiny (1946); Cabinet Mission (1946)
• Interim Government, Constituent Assembly, the Mountbatten Plan (3 June 1947) and the Indian Independence Act, 1947
• Partition and its consequences; integration of the princely states

Overlaps

• Modern history and the freedom struggle are asked in essay form in Mains General Studies I, along with post-independence consolidation.
• Haryana's part (1857 in Rewari, Hansi and Ambala, the Arya Samaj, Lala Lajpat Rai, Sir Chhotu Ram) is on Haryana: History.