Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (History, Art & Culture) – July 20, 2020

Gandhiji was requested by Rajkumar Shukla, a local man, to look into the problems of the farmers in context of indigo planters of Champaran in Bihar.

• The European planters had been forcing the peasants to grow indigo on 3/20 part of the total land (called tinkathia system).
• When towards the end of the nineteenth century German synthetic dyes replaced indigo, the European planters demanded high rents and illegal dues from the peasants in order to maximise their profits before the peasants could shift to other crops.
• Besides, the peasants were forced to sell the produce at prices fixed by the Europeans.
• When Gandhi, joined now by Rajendra Prasad, Mazharul- Haq, Mahadeo Desai, Narhari Parekh, and J.B. Kripalani, reached Champaran to probe into the matter, the authorities ordered him to leave the area at once.
• Gandhi defied the order and preferred to face the punishment. This passive resistance or civil disobedience of an unjust order was a novel method at that time.
• Finally, the authorities retreated and permitted Gandhi to make an enquiry.

The Government of Ripon desired the provincial governments to apply in case of local bodies the same principle of financial decentralization which Lord Mayo’s Government had begun towards them. For his contributions, Lord Ripon is called father of local self-government in India.

In simple terms, the doctrine stated that the adopted son could be the heir to his foster father’s private property, but not the state; it was for the paramount power (the British) to decide whether to bestow the state on the adopted son or to annex it.

• The doctrine was stated to be based on Hindu law and Indian customs, but Hindu law seemed to be somewhat inconclusive on this point, and the instances of an Indian sovereign annexing the state of his vassal on account of ‘lapse’ (i.e., leaving no issue as heir) were rather rare.
• Maharaja Ranjit Singh had annexed a few of his feudatory principalities on account of ‘lapse’. Likewise, the Company in 1820 acquired a few petty Cis-Sutlej states on the absence of heirs.
• Nonetheless, there was no clear-cut instance of an adopted son being deprived of an entire state or of such a state being regarded as a ‘lapse’.
• Though this policy is attributed to Lord Dalhousie (1848-56), he was not its originator. It was a coincidence that during his governor-generalship several important cases arose in which the ‘Doctrine’ could be applied.
• Dalhousie showed too much zeal in enforcing this policy which had been theoretically enunciated on some previous occasions.
• His predecessors had acted on the general principle of avoiding annexation if it could be avoided; Dalhousie in turn acted on the general principle of annexing if he could do so legitimately.
• It was a matter of chance that during Lord Dalhousie’s term many rulers of states died without a male issue and seven states were annexed under the Doctrine of Lapse.
• The most important of these were Satara (1848), Jhansi and Nagpur (1854). The other small states included Jaitpur (Bundelkhand), Sambhalpur (Orissa), and Baghat (Madhya Pradesh).

The main aims of the Indian National Congress in the initial stage were to

• found a democratic, nationalist movement
• politicize and politically educate people
• establish the headquarters for a movement
• promote friendly relations among nationalist political workers from different parts of the country
• develop and propagate an anti-colonial nationalist ideology
• formulate and present popular demands before the government with a view to unifying the people over a common economic and political programme
• Develop and consolidate a feeling of national unity among people irrespective of religion, caste or province.
• Carefully promote and nurture Indian nationhood.

Rash Behari Ghosh was born on 23 December 1845 in Burdwan, West Bengal. After a short spell in the local pathshala, Rashbihari was educated in the Burdwan Raj Collegiate School.

• Passing the entrance examination from Bankura, he entered Presidency College, Calcutta and obtained a first class in the M.A. examination in English. In 1871 he passed with honours the Law examination and in 1884 was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws.
• Ghosh was closely associated with Calcutta University. From 1887 to 1899 he was a member of the Syndicate. Gokhale’s scheme of compulsory primary education received his warm support and during the Swadeshi movement he supported the move for national education, becoming the first President of the National Council of Education (1906 – 21).
• He did not associate himself publicly with the Indian National Congress until 1906. His first important appearance in politics was in 1905 when he presided over a meeting held in the Calcutta Town Hall to protest against the offensive remarks of Lord Curzon at the Convocation ceremony of Calcutta University.
• In 1906 he was the Chairman of the Reception Committee when the Congress held its annual session in Calcutta. Next year (1907) he presided over the Surat session which ended in pandemonium. In 1908 he presided over the Madras session.

The Communal Award, based on the findings of the Indian Franchise Committee (also called the Lothian Committee), established separate electorates and reserved seats for minorities, including the depressed classes which were granted seventy-eight reserved seats.

On November 2, 1929, a conference of prominent national leaders issued a ‘Delhi Manifesto’ which put forward certain conditions for attending the Round Table Conference:

• that the purpose of the Round Table Conference should be not to determine whether or when dominion status was to be reached but to formulate a constitution for implementation of the dominion status (thus acting as a constituent assembly) and the basic principle of dominion status should be immediately accepted;
• That the Congress should have majority representation at the conference; and
• There should be a general amnesty for political prisoners and a policy of conciliation;
• Gandhi along with Motilal Nehru and other political leaders met Lord Irwin in December 1929 (after the viceroy had narrowly escaped after a bomb was detonated meaning to hit the train he was travelling in).
• They asked the viceroy for assurance that the purpose of the round table conference was to draft a constitutional scheme for dominion status.
• That was not the purpose of the conference, said Irwin. Viceroy Irwin rejected the demands put forward in the Delhi Manifesto.

In March 1942, a mission headed by Stafford Cripps was sent to India with constitutional proposals to seek Indian support for the war.

Stafford Cripps was a left-wing Laborite, the leader of the House of Commons and a member of the British War Cabinet who had actively supported the Indian national movement.

The main proposals of the mission were as follows.

• An Indian Union with a dominion status would be set up; it would be free to decide its relations with the Commonwealth and free to participate in the United Nations and other international bodies.
• After the end of the war, a constituent assembly would be convened to frame a new constitution.
• Members of this assembly would be partly elected by the provincial assemblies through proportional representation and partly nominated by the princes.
• The British government would accept the new constitution subject to two conditions: (i) any province not willing to join the Union could have a separate constitution and form a separate Union, and (ii) the new constitution making body and the British government would negotiate a treaty to effect the transfer of power and to safeguard racial and religious minorities.
• In the meantime, defense of India would remain in British hands and the governor-general’s powers would remain intact.

The viceroy, Lord Minto, and the Secretary of State for India, John Morley, agreed that some reforms were due so as to placate the Moderates as well as the Muslims.

• They worked out a set of measures that came to be known as the Morley- Minto (or Minto-Morley) Reforms that translated into the Indian Councils Act of 1909.
• The elective principle was recognised for the nonofficial membership of the councils in India.
• Indians were allowed to participate in the election of various legislative councils, though on the basis of class and community.
• For the first time, separate electorates for Muslims for election to the central council was established—a most detrimental step for India.
• The number of elected members in the Imperial Legislative Council and the Provincial Legislative Councils was increased. In the provincial councils, non-official majority was introduced, but since some of these non-officials were nominated and not elected, the overall non-elected majority remained.
• One Indian was to be appointed to the viceroy’s executive council.

Rampa Revolts led by Alluri Sitarama Raju of the Koyas (1916, 1922-1924; Rampa region in Andhra Pradesh); against British interference; capture and execution of Raju in 1924.