Themes in Indian History III

Chapter 9 of Themes in Indian History Part III examines how colonial rule transformed the Bengal countryside through the Permanent Settlement of 1793, disrupted the Paharias and Santhals in the Rajmahal hills, and drove Deccan ryots into debt that culminated in the 1875 revolt.

• 1The Permanent Settlement (1793) fixed revenue permanently with zamindars in Bengal; over 75% of zamindaris changed hands due to defaults in the early years after the settlement
• 2The Sunset Law required revenue to be paid by sunset on a specified date; failure meant the zamindari was liable to be auctioned — in Burdwan alone over 30,000 rent-arrear suits were pending in 1798
• 3Jotedars — rich peasants in North Bengal who held sometimes several thousand acres and controlled local trade and moneylending — resisted zamindari authority through deliberate revenue delays and benami auction purchases
• 4The Fifth Report (1813), running to 1002 pages, documented EIC administration in India; recent research shows it exaggerated the collapse of zamindari power and the scale of zamindar displacement
• 5Paharias of the Rajmahal hills practised shifting cultivation with hoes, growing pulses and millets; the British pursued extermination campaigns in the 1770s and shifted to pacification under Collector Augustus Cleveland of Bhagalpur from the 1780s

The Revolt of 1857 began on 10 May at Meerut cantonment when sepoys mutinied over Enfield rifle cartridges rumoured to be greased with cow and pig fat, quickly spreading across North India as peasants, taluqdars, and townspeople joined to resist British annexations and social changes.

• 1The revolt began in the afternoon of 10 May 1857 at Meerut; sepoys reached Delhi on 11 May and persuaded Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah to become their nominal leader, lending the uprising legitimacy because it could now be carried on in his name.
• 2The immediate trigger was a rumour that new Enfield rifle cartridges were greased with the fat of cows and pigs; the origin was traced by Captain Wright to the third week of January 1857 at Dum Dum, where a khalasi warned a Brahmin sepoy his caste would be defiled.
• 3Mutinies followed a similar pattern across cantonments: a signal (evening gun or bugle), seizure of the bell of arms, attack on government buildings, and proclamations in Hindi, Urdu, and Persian calling both Hindus and Muslims to unite against the British.
• 4Leaders emerged from former rulers and ordinary people: Nana Sahib (Kanpur, successor to Peshwa Baji Rao II), Rani of Jhansi, Kunwar Singh (Arrah in Bihar), Birjis Qadr (young son of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah in Awadh), Shah Mal (pargana Barout, killed July 1857), and Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah, who defeated British forces at the Battle of Chinhat on 30 June 1857.
• 5Awadh was the most intense centre of revolt: the Subsidiary Alliance (imposed by Wellesley in 1798, applied to Awadh in 1801) had dismantled the Nawab's army; Wajid Ali Shah was deposed and exiled in 1856; the Summary Settlement of 1856 cut taluqdars' village share from 67 per cent to 38 per cent, and revenue demand rose 30 to 70 per cent in some areas.

Mahatma Gandhi returned to India in January 1915 after about two decades mostly spent in South Africa, where he had first forged the techniques of non-violent protest known as satyagraha. Over the next three decades he led the nationalist movement through three major campaigns — Non-Cooperation (1920–22), the Salt March (1930), and Quit India (1942) — transforming Indian nationalism from an elite phenomenon of lawyers and doctors into a mass struggle involving peasants, workers, and women across the country.

• 1Gandhi returned from South Africa in January 1915; his political mentor Gopal Krishna Gokhale advised him to travel India for a year before entering politics.
• 2Local campaigns in Champaran (1917), Ahmedabad, and Kheda (1918) established his reputation as a nationalist with deep sympathy for the poor.
• 3The Rowlatt Act (1919) and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar — in which more than four hundred people were killed — made Gandhi a truly national leader and led to the Non-Cooperation Movement.
• 4The Non-Cooperation Movement was coupled with the Khilafat Movement led by Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali; there were 396 strikes in 1921 involving 600,000 workers and a loss of seven million workdays.
• 5Gandhi called off the Non-Cooperation Movement after peasants attacked and torched a police station in Chauri Chaura in February 1922, killing several constables.

The Indian Constitution was framed between December 1946 and November 1949 by the Constituent Assembly, which held eleven sessions over 165 days, and came into effect on 26 January 1950 as the longest constitution in the world.

• 1The Constitution was framed between December 1946 and November 1949 and came into effect on 26 January 1950; the Constituent Assembly held eleven sessions over 165 days and is considered the longest constitution in the world.
• 2Members of the Constituent Assembly were not elected by universal franchise; provincial elections were held in the winter of 1945–46, after which Provincial Legislatures chose the representatives; 82% of members were also members of the Congress.
• 3The Muslim League boycotted the Constituent Assembly pressing its demand for Pakistan with a separate constitution; the Socialists were also initially unwilling to join.
• 4Six members dominated the proceedings: Nehru (moved the Objectives Resolution), Vallabh Bhai Patel (worked behind the scenes on drafts), and Rajendra Prasad (President of the Assembly) from Congress; B.R. Ambedkar as Chairman of the Drafting Committee; and lawyers K.M. Munshi and Alladi Krishnaswamy Aiyar.
• 5Nehru introduced the Objectives Resolution on 13 December 1946, proclaiming India an 'Independent Sovereign Republic' and guaranteeing justice, equality, and freedom, with adequate safeguards for minorities, backward and tribal areas, and Depressed and Other Backward Classes.