Histry

www.GOALias.blogspot.
com
www.GOALias.blogspot.com
More Books At
Contents
xi
Section I: Events and Processes
I. The Rise of Nationalism in Europe 3
II. The Nationalist Movement in Indo-China 25
III. Nationalism in India 49
Section II: Livelihoods, Economies and Societies
IV. The Making of a Global World 77
V. The Age of Industrialisation 97
VI. Work, Life and Leisure 117
Section III: Everyday Life, Culture and Politics
VII. Print Culture and the Modern World 141
VIII. Novels, Society and History 159
Foreword iii
Introduction ix
3
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

E
u
r
o
p
e
In 1848, Frdric Sorrieu, a French artist, prepared a series of four
prints visualising his dream of a world made up of democratic
and social Republics, as he called them. The first print (Fig. 1) of the
series, shows the peoples of Europe and America men and women
of all ages and social classes marching in a long train, and offering
homage to the statue of Liberty as they pass by it. As you would
recall, artists of the time of the French Revolution personified Liberty
as a female figure here you can recognise the torch of Enlightenment
she bears in one hand and the Charter of the Rights of Man in the
other. On the earth in the foreground of the image lie the shattered
remains of the symbols of absolutist institutions. In Sorrieus
utopian vision, the peoples of the world are grouped as distinct
nations, identified through their flags and national costume. Leading
the procession, way past the statue of Liberty, are the United States
and Switzerland, which by this time were already nation-states. France,
T
h
e

R
i
s
e

o
f

N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

E
u
r
o
p
e
Fig. 1 The Dream of Worldwide Democratic and Social Republics The Pact Between Nations, a print prepared by
Frdric Sorrieu, 1848.
C
h
a
p
t
e
r

I
The Rise of Nationalism in Europe
New words
Absolutist Literally, a government or
system of rule that has no restraints on
the power exercised. In history, the term
refers to a form of monarchical
government that was centralised,
militarised and repressive
Utopian A vision of a society that is so
ideal that it is unlikely to actually exist
In what way do you think this print (Fig. 1)
depicts a utopian vision?
Activity
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
4
identifiable by the revolutionary tricolour, has just reached the statue.
She is followed by the peoples of Germany, bearing the black, red
and gold flag. Interestingly, at the time when Sorrieu created this
image, the German peoples did not yet exist as a united nation the
flag they carry is an expression of liberal hopes in 1848 to unify the
numerous German-speaking principalities into a nation-state under
a democratic constitution. Following the German peoples are the
peoples of Austria, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Lombardy,
Poland, England, Ireland, Hungary and Russia. From the heavens
above, Christ, saints and angels gaze upon the scene. They have
been used by the artist to symbolise fraternity among the nations of
the world.
This chapter will deal with many of the issues visualised by Sorrieu
in Fig. 1. During the nineteenth century, nationalism emerged as a
force which brought about sweeping changes in the political and
mental world of Europe. The end result of these changes was the
emergence of the nation-state in place of the multi-national dynastic
empires of Europe. The concept and practices of a modern state, in
which a centralised power exercised sovereign control over a clearly
defined territory, had been developing over a long period of time
in Europe. But a nation-state was one in which the majority of its
citizens, and not only its rulers, came to develop a sense of common
identity and shared history or descent. This commonness did not
exist from time immemorial; it was forged through struggles, through
the actions of leaders and the common people. This chapter will
look at the diverse processes through which nation-states and
nationalism came into being in nineteenth-century Europe.
Ernst Renan, What is a Nation?
I n a lecture delivered at the University of
Sorbonne in 1882, the French philosopher Ernst
Renan (1823-92) outlined his understanding of
what makes a nation. The lecture was
subsequently published as a famous essay entitled
Quest-ce quune nation? (What is a Nation?).
In this essay Renan criticises the notion suggested
by others that a nation is formed by a common
language, race, religion, or territory:
A nation is the culmination of a long past of
endeavours, sacrifice and devotion. A heroic past,
great men, glory, that is the social capital upon
which one bases a national idea. To have
common glories in the past, to have a common
will in the present, to have performed great deeds
together, to wish to perform still more, these
are the essential conditions of being a people. A
nation is therefore a large-scale solidarity Its
existence is a daily plebiscite A province is its
inhabitants; if anyone has the right to be
consulted, it is the inhabitant. A nation never
has any real interest in annexing or holding on to
a country against its will. The existence of nations
is a good thing, a necessity even. Their existence
is a guarantee of liberty, which would be lost if
the world had only one law and only one master.
Source
Source A
Summarise the attributes of a nation, as Renan
understands them. Why, in his view, are nations
important?
Discuss
New words
Plebiscite A direct vote by which all the
people of a region are asked to accept or reject
a proposal
5
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

E
u
r
o
p
e
1 The French Revolution and the Idea of the Nation
The first clear expression of nationalism came with
the French Revolution in 1789. France, as you
would remember, was a full-fledged territorial state
in 1789 under the rule of an absolute monarch.
The political and constitutional changes that came
in the wake of the French Revolution led to the
transfer of sovereignty from the monarchy to a
body of French citizens. The revolution proclaimed
that it was the people who would henceforth
constitute the nation and shape its destiny.
From the very beginning, the French revolutionaries
introduced various measures and practices that
could create a sense of collective identity amongst
the French people. The ideas of la patrie (the
fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen) emphasised
the notion of a united community enjoying equal rights under a
constitution. A new French flag, the tricolour, was chosen to replace
the former royal standard. The Estates General was elected by the
body of active citizens and renamed the National Assembly. New
hymns were composed, oaths taken and martyrs commemorated,
all in the name of the nation. A centralised administrative system
was put in place and it formulated uniform laws for all citizens
within its territory. Internal customs duties and dues were abolished
and a uniform system of weights and measures was adopted.
Regional dialects were discouraged and French, as it was spoken
and written in Paris, became the common language of the nation.
The revolutionaries further declared that it was the mission and the
destiny of the French nation to liberate the peoples of Europe
from despotism, in other words to help other peoples of Europe
to become nations.
When the news of the events in France reached the different cities
of Europe, students and other members of educated middle classes
began setting up Jacobin clubs. Their activities and campaigns
prepared the way for the French armies which moved into Holland,
Belgium, Switzerland and much of Italy in the 1790s. With the
outbreak of the revolutionary wars, the French armies began to
carry the idea of nationalism abroad.
Fig. 2 The cover of a German almanac
designed by the journalist Andreas Rebmann in
1798.
The image of the French Bastille being stormed
by the revolutionary crowd has been placed
next to a similar fortress meant to represent the
bastion of despotic rule in the German province
of Kassel. Accompanying the illustration is the
slogan: The people must seize their own
freedom! Rebmann lived in the city of Mainz
and was a member of a German Jacobin group.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
6
Within the wide swathe of territory that came under his control,
Napoleon set about introducing many of the reforms that he had
already introduced in France. Through a return to monarchy
Napoleon had, no doubt, destroyed democracy in France, but in
the administrative field he had incorporated revolutionary principles
in order to make the whole system more rational and efficient. The
Civil Code of 1804 usually known as the Napoleonic Code
did away with all privileges based on birth, established equality
before the law and secured the right to property. This Code was
exported to the regions under French control. In the Dutch Republic,
in Switzerland, in Italy and Germany, Napoleon simplified
administrative divisions, abolished the feudal system and freed
peasants from serfdom and manorial dues. In the towns too, guild
restrictions were removed. Transport and communication systems
were improved. Peasants, artisans, workers and new businessmen
Fig. 3 Europe after the
Congress of Vienna, 1815.
ICELAND
(DENMARK)
NORWAY
(SWEDEN)
SWEDEN
DENMARK
HABOVER
(G.B.)
NETHERLANDS
ENGLAND
WALES
IRELAND
GREAT
BRITAIN
SCOTLAND
FRANCE
SPAIN
P
O
R
T
U
G
A
L
MOROCCO
ALGERIA
TUNIS
EGYPT
PALESTINE
SYRIA
CYPRUS
MESOPOTAMIA
ARMENIA
OTTOMAN EMPIRE
CRETE
GREECE
BULGARIA
ROMANIA
SERBIA
HUNGARY
AUSTRIAN EMPIRE
AUSTRIA
GALICIA
BAVARIA
SWITZERLAND
PRUSSIA
POLAND
RUSSIAN EMPIRE
SARDINIA
CORSICA
SMALL
STATES
KINGDOM
OF THE
TWO
SICILIES
GEORGIA
P
E
R
S
I
A
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
ATLANTIC SEA
7
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

E
u
r
o
p
e
enjoyed a new-found freedom. Businessmen and small-scale
producers of goods, in particular, began to realise that uniform
laws, standardised weights and measures, and a common national
currency would facilitate the movement and exchange of goods
and capital from one region to another.
However, in the areas conquered, the reactions of the local
populations to French rule were mixed. Initially, in many places such
as Holland and Switzerland, as well as in certain cities like Brussels,
Mainz, Milan and Warsaw, the French armies were welcomed as
harbingers of liberty. But the initial enthusiasm soon turned to hostility,
as it became clear that the new administrative arrangements did not
go hand in hand with political freedom. Increased taxation,
censorship, forced conscription into the French armies required to
conquer the rest of Europe, all seemed to outweigh the advantages
of the administrative changes.
Fig. 4 The Planting of Tree of Liberty in Zweibrcken, Germany.
The subject of this colour print by the German painter Karl Kaspar Fritz is the occupation of the town of Zweibrcken
by the French armies. French soldiers, recognisable by their blue, white and red uniforms, have been portrayed as
oppressors as they seize a peasants cart (left), harass some young women (centre foreground) and force a peasant
down to his knees. The plaque being affixed to the Tree of Liberty carries a German inscription which in translation
reads: Take freedom and equality from us, the model of humanity. This is a sarcastic reference to the claim of the
French as being liberators who opposed monarchy in the territories they entered.
Fig. 5 The courier of Rhineland loses all that
he has on his way home from Leipzig.
Napoleon here is represented as a postman on
his way back to France after he lost the battle of
Leipzig in 1813. Each letter dropping out of his
bag bears the names of the territories he lost.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
8
If you look at the map of mid-eighteenth-century Europe you will
find that there were no nation-states as we know them today.
What we know today as Germany, Italy and Switzerland were
divided into kingdoms, duchies and cantons whose rulers had their
autonomous territories. Eastern and Central Europe were under
autocratic monarchies within the territories of which lived diverse
peoples. They did not see themselves as sharing a collective identity
or a common culture. Often, they even spoke different languages
and belonged to different ethnic groups. The Habsburg Empire
that ruled over Austria-Hungary, for example, was a patchwork of
many different regions and peoples. It included the Alpine regions
the Tyrol, Austria and the Sudetenland as well as Bohemia,
where the aristocracy was predominantly German-speaking. It also
included the Italian-speaking provinces of Lombardy and Venetia.
In Hungary, half of the population spoke Magyar while the other
half spoke a variety of dialects. In Galicia, the aristocracy spoke
Polish. Besides these three dominant groups, there also lived within
the boundaries of the empire, a mass of subject peasant peoples
Bohemians and Slovaks to the north, Slovenes in Carniola, Croats
to the south, and Roumans to the east in Transylvania. Such
differences did not easily promote a sense of political unity. The
only tie binding these diverse groups together was a common
allegiance to the emperor.
How did nationalism and the idea of the nation-state emerge?
2.1 The Aristocracy and the New Middle Class
Socially and politically, a landed aristocracy was the dominant class
on the continent. The members of this class were united by a
common way of life that cut across regional divisions. They owned
estates in the countryside and also town-houses. They spoke French
for purposes of diplomacy and in high society. Their families were
often connected by ties of marriage. This powerful aristocracy was,
however, numerically a small group. The majority of the population
was made up of the peasantry. To the west, the bulk of the land
was farmed by tenants and small owners, while in Eastern and
Central Europe the pattern of landholding was characterised by
vast estates which were cultivated by serfs.
2 The Making of Nationalism in Europe
Some important dates
1797
Napoleon invades Italy; Napoleonic wars
begin.
1814-1815
Fall of Napoleon; the Vienna Peace
Settlement.
1821
Greek struggle for independence begins.
1848
Revolutions in Europe; artisans, industrial
workers and peasants revolt against
economic hardships; middle classes
demand constitutions and representative
governments; Italians, Germans, Magyars,
Poles, Czechs, etc. demand nation-states.
1859-1870
Unification of Italy.
1866-1871
Unification of Germany.
1905
Slav nationalism gathers force in the
Habsburg and Ottoman Empires.
9
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

E
u
r
o
p
e
In Western and parts of Central Europe the growth of industrial
production and trade meant the growth of towns and the emergence
of commercial classes whose existence was based on production
for the market. Industrialisation began in England in the second
half of the eighteenth century, but in France and parts of the German
states it occurred only during the nineteenth century. In its wake,
new social groups came into being: a working-class population, and
middle classes made up of industrialists, businessmen, professionals.
In Central and Eastern Europe these groups were smaller in number
till late nineteenth century. It was among the educated, liberal middle
classes that ideas of national unity following the abolition of
aristocratic privileges gained popularity.
2.2 What did Liberal Nationalism Stand for?
Ideas of national unity in early-nineteenth-century Europe were closely
allied to the ideology of liberalism. The term liberalism derives
from the Latin root liber, meaning free. For the new middle classes
liberalism stood for freedom for the individual and equality of all
before the law. Politically, it emphasised the concept of government
by consent. Since the French Revolution, liberalism had stood for
the end of autocracy and clerical privileges, a constitution and
representative government through parliament. Nineteenth-century
liberals also stressed the inviolability of private property.
Yet, equality before the law did not necessarily stand for universal
suffrage. You will recall that in revolutionary France, which marked
the first political experiment in liberal democracy, the right to vote
and to get elected was granted exclusively to property-owning men.
Men without property and all women were excluded from political
rights. Only for a brief period under the Jacobins did all adult males
enjoy suffrage. However, the Napoleonic Code went back to limited
suffrage and reduced women to the status of a minor, subject to
the authority of fathers and husbands. Throughout the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries women and non-propertied men
organised opposition movements demanding equal political rights.
In the economic sphere, liberalism stood for the freedom of markets
and the abolition of state-imposed restrictions on the movement
of goods and capital. During the nineteenth century this was a strong
demand of the emerging middle classes. Let us take the example of
the German-speaking regions in the first half of the nineteenth
century. Napoleons administrative measures had created out of
New words
Suffrage The right to vote
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
10
countless small principalities a confederation of 39 states. Each of
these possessed its own currency, and weights and measures. A
merchant travelling in 1833 from Hamburg to Nuremberg to sell
his goods would have had to pass through 11 customs barriers and
pay a customs duty of about 5 per cent at each one of them. Duties
were often levied according to the weight or measurement of the
goods. As each region had its own system of weights and measures,
this involved time-consuming calculation. The measure of cloth,
for example, was the elle which in each region stood for a different
length. An elle of textile material bought in Frankfurt would get you
54.7 cm of cloth, in Mainz 55.1 cm, in Nuremberg 65.6 cm, in
Freiburg 53.5 cm.
Such conditions were viewed as obstacles to economic exchange
and growth by the new commercial classes, who argued for the
creation of a unified economic territory allowing the unhindered
movement of goods, people and capital. In 1834, a customs union
or zollverein was formed at the initiative of Prussia and joined by
most of the German states. The union abolished tariff barriers and
reduced the number of currencies from over thirty to two. The
creation of a network of railways further stimulated mobility,
harnessing economic interests to national unification. A wave of
economic nationalism strengthened the wider nationalist sentiments
growing at the time.
2.3 A New Conservatism after 1815
Following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, European governments
were driven by a spirit of conservatism. Conservatives believed
that established, traditional institutions of state and society like the
monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and the family
should be preserved. Most conservatives, however, did not propose
a return to the society of pre-revolutionary days. Rather, they realised,
from the changes initiated by Napoleon, that modernisation could
in fact strengthen traditional institutions like the monarchy. It could
make state power more effective and strong. A modern army, an
efficient bureaucracy, a dynamic economy, the abolition of feudalism
and serfdom could strengthen the autocratic monarchies of Europe.
In 1815, representatives of the European powers Britain, Russia,
Prussia and Austria who had collectively defeated Napoleon, met
at Vienna to draw up a settlement for Europe. The Congress was
hosted by the Austrian Chancellor Duke Metternich. The delegates
Economists began to think in terms of the national
economy. They talked of how the nation could
develop and what economic measures could help
forge this nation together.
Friedrich List, Professor of Economics at the
University of Tbingen in Germany, wrote in 1834:
The aim of the zollverein is to bind the Germans
economically into a nation. It will strengthen the
nation materially as much by protecting its
interests externally as by stimulating its internal
productivity. I t ought to awaken and raise
national sentiment through a fusion of individual
and provincial interests. The German people have
realised that a free economic system is the only
means to engender national feeling.
Source
Source B
Describe the political ends that List hopes to
achieve through economic measures.
Discuss
New words
Conservatism A political philosophy that
stressed the importance of tradition, established
institutions and customs, and preferred gradual
development to quick change
11
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

E
u
r
o
p
e
drew up the Treaty of Vienna of 1815 with the object of undoing
most of the changes that had come about in Europe during the
Napoleonic wars. The Bourbon dynasty, which had been deposed
during the French Revolution, was restored to power, and France
lost the territories it had annexed under Napoleon. A series of states
were set up on the boundaries of France to prevent French expansion
in future. Thus the kingdom of the Netherlands, which included
Belgium, was set up in the north and Genoa was added to Piedmont
in the south. Prussia was given important new territories on its western
frontiers, while Austria was given control of northern Italy. But the
German confederation of 39 states that had been set up by Napoleon
was left untouched. In the east, Russia was given part of Poland
while Prussia was given a portion of Saxony. The main intention
was to restore the monarchies that had been overthrown by
Napoleon, and create a new conservative order in Europe.
Conservative regimes set up in 1815 were autocratic. They did not
tolerate criticism and dissent, and sought to curb activities that
questioned the legitimacy of autocratic governments. Most of them
imposed censorship laws to control what was said in newspapers,
books, plays and songs and reflected the ideas of liberty and freedom
Plot on a map of Europe the changes drawn
up by the Vienna Congress.
Activity
Fig. 6 The Club of Thinkers, anonymous caricature dating to c. 1820.
The plaque on the left bears the inscription: The most important question of todays meeting: How
long will thinking be allowed to us?
The board on the right lists the rules of the Club which include the following:
1. Silence is the first commandment of this learned society.
2. To avoid the eventuality whereby a member of this club may succumb to the temptation of
speech, muzzles will be distributed to members upon entering.
What is the caricaturist trying to depict?
Discuss
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
12
associated with the French Revolution. The memory of the French
Revolution nonetheless continued to inspire liberals. One of the major
issues taken up by the liberal-nationalists, who criticised the new
conservative order, was freedom of the press.
2.4 The Revolutionaries
During the years following 1815, the fear of repression drove many
liberal-nationalists underground. Secret societies sprang up in many
European states to train revolutionaries and spread their ideas. To
be revolutionary at this time meant a commitment to oppose
monarchical forms that had been established after the Vienna
Congress, and to fight for liberty and freedom. Most of these
revolutionaries also saw the creation of nation-states as a necessary
part of this struggle for freedom.
One such individual was the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini.
Born in Genoa in 1807, he became a member of the secret society
of the Carbonari. As a young man of 24, he was sent into exile in
1831 for attempting a revolution in Liguria. He subsequently founded
two more underground societies, first, Young Italy in Marseilles,
and then, Young Europe in Berne, whose members were like-minded
young men from Poland, France, Italy and the German states.
Mazzini believed that God had intended nations to be the natural
units of mankind. So Italy could not continue to be a patchwork of
small states and kingdoms. It had to be forged into a single unified
republic within a wider alliance of nations. This unification alone
could be the basis of Italian liberty. Following his model, secret
societies were set up in Germany, France, Switzerland and Poland.
Mazzinis relentless opposition to monarchy and his vision of
democratic republics frightened the conservatives. Metternich
described him as the most dangerous enemy of our social order.
Fig. 7 Giuseppe Mazzini and the founding of
Young Europe in Berne 1833.
Print by Giacomo Mantegazza.
13
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

E
u
r
o
p
e
3 The Age of Revolutions: 1830-1848
As conservative regimes tried to consolidate their power, liberalism
and nationalism came to be increasingly associated with revolution
in many regions of Europe such as the Italian and German states,
the provinces of the Ottoman Empire, Ireland and Poland. These
revolutions were led by the liberal-nationalists belonging to the
educated middle-class elite, among whom were professors, school-
teachers, clerks and members of the commercial middle classes.
The first upheaval took place in France in July 1830. The Bourbon
kings who had been restored to power during the conservative
reaction after 1815, were now overthrown by liberal revolutionaries
who installed a constitutional monarchy with Louis Philippe at its
head. When France sneezes, Metternich once remarked, the rest of
Europe catches cold. The July Revolution sparked an uprising in
Brussels which led to Belgium breaking away from the United
Kingdom of the Netherlands.
An event that mobilised nationalist feelings among the educated elite
across Europe was the Greek war of independence. Greece had
been part of the Ottoman Empire since the fifteenth century. The
growth of revolutionary nationalism in Europe sparked off a struggle
for independence amongst the Greeks which began in 1821.
Nationalists in Greece got support from other Greeks living in exile
and also from many West Europeans who had sympathies for ancient
Greek culture. Poets and artists lauded Greece as the cradle of
European civilisation and mobilised public opinion to support its
struggle against a Muslim empire. The English poet Lord Byron
organised funds and later went to fight in the war, where he died of
fever in 1824. Finally, the Treaty of Constantinople of 1832
recognised Greece as an independent nation.
3.1 The Romantic Imagination and National Feeling
The development of nationalism did not come about only through
wars and territorial expansion. Culture played an important role in
creating the idea of the nation: art and poetry, stories and music
helped express and shape nationalist feelings.
Let us look at Romanticism, a cultural movement which sought to
develop a particular form of nationalist sentiment. Romantic artists
and poets generally criticised the glorification of reason and science
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
14
Fig. 8 The Massacre at Chios, Eugene Delacroix, 1824.
The French painter Delacroix was one of the most important French Romantic
painters. This huge painting (4.19m x 3.54m) depicts an incident in which
20,000 Greeks were said to have been killed by Turks on the island of Chios. By
dramatising the incident, focusing on the suffering of women and children, and
using vivid colours, Delacroix sought to appeal to the emotions of the spectators,
and create sympathy for the Greeks.
and focused instead on emotions, intuition and mystical feelings.
Their effort was to create a sense of a shared collective heritage, a
common cultural past, as the basis of a nation.
Other Romantics such as the German philosopher Johann Gottfried
Herder (1744-1803) claimed that true German culture was to be
discovered among the common people das volk. It was through
folk songs, folk poetry and folk dances that the true spirit of the
nation (volksgeist) was popularised. So collecting and recording these
forms of folk culture was essential to the project of nation-building.
15
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

E
u
r
o
p
e
The Grimm Brothers: Folktales and
Nation-building
Grimms Fairy Tales is a familiar name. The brothers
J acob and Wilhelm Grimm were born in the
German city of Hanau in 1785 and 1786
respectively. While both of them studied law,
they soon developed an interest in collecting old
folktales. They spent six years travelling from
village to village, talking to people and writing
down fairy tales, which were handed down
through the generations. These were popular
both among children and adults. In 1812, they
published their first collection of tales.
Subsequently, both the brothers became active
in liberal politics, especially the movement
for freedom of the press. In the meantime they
also published a 33-volume dictionary of the
German language.
The Grimm brothers also saw French domination
as a threat to German culture, and believed that
the folktales they had collected were expressions
of a pure and authentic German spirit. They
considered their projects of collecting folktales
and developing the German language as part of
the wider effort to oppose French domination
and create a German national identity.
The emphasis on vernacular language and the collection of local
folklore was not just to recover an ancient national spirit, but also to
carry the modern nationalist message to large audiences who were
mostly illiterate. This was especially so in the case of Poland, which
had been partitioned at the end of the eighteenth century by the
Great Powers Russia, Prussia and Austria. Even though Poland no
longer existed as an independent territory, national feelings were kept
alive through music and language. Karol Kurpinski, for example,
celebrated the national struggle through his operas and music, turning
folk dances like the polonaise and mazurka into nationalist symbols.
Language too played an important role in developing nationalist
sentiments. After Russian occupation, the Polish language was forced
out of schools and the Russian language was imposed everywhere.
In 1831, an armed rebellion against Russian rule took place which
was ultimately crushed. Following this, many members of the clergy
in Poland began to use language as a weapon of national resistance.
Polish was used for Church gatherings and all religious instruction.
As a result, a large number of priests and bishops were put in jail or
sent to Siberia by the Russian authorities as punishment for their
refusal to preach in Russian. The use of Polish came to be seen as a
symbol of the struggle against Russian dominance.
3.2 Hunger, Hardship and Popular Revolt
The 1830s were years of great economic hardship in Europe. The
first half of the nineteenth century saw an enormous increase in
population all over Europe. In most countries there were more
seekers of jobs than employment. Population from rural areas
migrated to the cities to live in overcrowded slums. Small producers
in towns were often faced with stiff competition from imports of
cheap machine-made goods from England, where industrialisation
was more advanced than on the continent. This was especially so in
textile production, which was carried out mainly in homes or small
workshops and was only partly mechanised. In those regions of
Europe where the aristocracy still enjoyed power, peasants struggled
under the burden of feudal dues and obligations. The rise of food
prices or a year of bad harvest led to widespread pauperism in
town and country.
The year 1848 was one such year. Food shortages and widespread
unemployment brought the population of Paris out on the roads.
Barricades were erected and Louis Philippe was forced to flee. A
Discuss the importance of language and
popular traditions in the creation of national
identity.
Discuss
Box 1
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
16
National Assembly proclaimed a Republic, granted suffrage to all
adult males above 21, and guaranteed the right to work. National
workshops to provide employment were set up.
Earlier, in 1845, weavers in Silesia had led a revolt against contractors
who supplied them raw material and gave them orders for finished
textiles but drastically reduced their payments. The journalist Wilhelm
Wolff described the events in a Silesian village as follows:
In these villages (with 18,000 inhabitants) cotton weaving is the
most widespread occupation The misery of the workers is
extreme. The desperate need for jobs has been taken advantage
of by the contractors to reduce the prices of the goods they
order
On 4 June at 2 p.m. a large crowd of weavers emerged from
their homes and marched in pairs up to the mansion of their
contractor demanding higher wages. They were treated with
scorn and threats alternately. Following this, a group of them
forced their way into the house, smashed its elegant window-
panes, furniture, porcelain another group broke into the
storehouse and plundered it of supplies of cloth which they
tore to shreds The contractor fled with his family to a
neighbouring village which, however, refused to shelter such a
person. He returned 24 hours later having requisitioned the army.
In the exchange that followed, eleven weavers were shot.
Fig. 9 Peasants uprising, 1848.
Describe the cause of the Silesian weavers
uprising. Comment on the viewpoint of the
journalist.
Discuss
Imagine you are a weaver who saw the events
as they unfolded. Write a report on what you saw.
Activity
17
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

E
u
r
o
p
e
3.3 1848: The Revolution of the Liberals
Parallel to the revolts of the poor, unemployed and starving peasants
and workers in many European countries in the year 1848, a revolution
led by the educated middle classes was under way. Events of February
1848 in France had brought about the abdication of the monarch
and a republic based on universal male suffrage had been proclaimed.
In other parts of Europe where independent nation-states did not
yet exist such as Germany, Italy, Poland, the Austro-Hungarian
Empire men and women of the liberal middle classes combined
their demands for constitutionalism with national unification. They
took advantage of the growing popular unrest to push their
demands for the creation of a nation-state on parliamentary
principles a constitution, freedom of the press and freedom
of association.
In the German regions a large number of political associations whose
members were middle-class professionals, businessmen and
prosperous artisans came together in the city of Frankfurt and decided
to vote for an all-German National Assembly. On 18

May 1848,
831 elected representatives marched in a festive procession to take
their places in the Frankfurt parliament convened in the Church of
St Paul. They drafted a constitution for a German nation to be
headed by a monarchy subject to a parliament. When the deputies
offered the crown on these terms to Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of
Prussia, he rejected it and joined other monarchs to oppose the
elected assembly. While the opposition of the aristocracy and military
became stronger, the social basis of parliament eroded. The
parliament was dominated by the middle classes who resisted the
demands of workers and artisans and consequently lost their support.
In the end troops were called in and the assembly was forced
to disband.
The issue of extending political rights to women was a controversial
one within the liberal movement, in which large numbers of women
had participated actively over the years. Women had formed their
own political associations, founded newspapers and taken part in
political meetings and demonstrations. Despite this they were denied
How were liberty and equality for women
to be defined?
The liberal politician Carl Welcker, an elected
member of the Frankfurt Parliament, expressed
the following views:
Nature has created men and women to carry
out different functions Man, the stronger, the
bolder and freer of the two, has been designated
as protector of the family, its provider, meant for
public tasks in the domain of law, production,
defence. Woman, the weaker, dependent and
timid, requires the protection of man. Her sphere
is the home, the care of the children, the
nurturing of the family Do we require any
further proof that given such differences, equality
between the sexes would only endanger
harmony and destroy the dignity of the family?
Louise Otto-Peters (1819-95) was a political
activist who founded a womens journal and
subsequently a feminist political association. The
first issue of her newspaper (21 April 1849) carried
the following editorial:
Let us ask how many men, possessed by
thoughts of living and dying for the sake of Liberty,
would be prepared to fight for the freedom of
the entire people, of all human beings? When
asked this question, they would all too easily
respond with a Yes!, though their untiring
efforts are intended for the benefit of only one
half of humanity men. But Liberty is indivisible!
Free men therefore must not tolerate to be
surrounded by the unfree
An anonymous reader of the same newspaper
sent the following letter to the editor on 25 J une
1850:
It is indeed ridiculous and unreasonable to deny
women political rights even though they enjoy
the right to property which they make use
of. They perform functions and assume
responsibilities without however getting the
benefits that accrue to men for the same Why
this injustice? Is it not a disgrace that even the
stupidest cattle-herder possesses the right
to vote, simply because he is a man, whereas
highly talented women owning considerable
property are excluded from this right, even
though they contribute so much to the
maintenance of the state?
Source
Source C
New words
Feminist Awareness of womens rights and interests based on
the belief of the social, economic and political equality of the genders
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
18
Fig. 10 The Frankfurt parliament in the Church of St Paul.
Contemporary colour print. Notice the women in the upper left gallery.
Compare the positions on the question of
womens rights voiced by the three writers cited
above. What do they reveal about liberal
ideology?
Discuss
New words
Ideology System of ideas reflecting a
particular social and political vision
suffrage rights during the election of the Assembly. When the
Frankfurt parliament convened in the Church of St Paul, women
were admitted only as observers to stand in the visitors gallery.
Though conservative forces were able to suppress liberal movements
in 1848, they could not restore the old order. Monarchs were
beginning to realise that the cycles of revolution and repression could
only be ended by granting concessions to the liberal-nationalist
revolutionaries. Hence, in the years after 1848, the autocratic
monarchies of Central and Eastern Europe began to introduce the
changes that had already taken place in Western Europe before 1815.
Thus serfdom and bonded labour were abolished both in the
Habsburg dominions and in Russia. The Habsburg rulers granted
more autonomy to the Hungarians in 1867.
19
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

E
u
r
o
p
e
4 The Making of Germany and Italy
4.1 Germany Can the Army be the Architect of a Nation?
After 1848, nationalism in Europe moved away from its association
with democracy and revolution. Nationalist sentiments were often
mobilised by conservatives for promoting state power and achieving
political domination over Europe.
This can be observed in the process by which Germany and Italy came
to be unified as nation-states. As you have seen, nationalist feelings were
widespread among middle-class Germans, who in 1848 tried to unite
the different regions of the German confederation into a nation-state
governed by an elected parliament. This liberal initiative to nation-building
was, however, repressed by the combined forces of the monarchy and
the military, supported by the large landowners (called Junkers) of Prussia.
From then on, Prussia took on the leadership of the movement for
national unification. Its chief minister, Otto von
Bismarck, was the architect of this process carried
out with the help of the Prussian army and
bureaucracy. Three wars over seven years with
Austria, Denmark and France ended in Prussian
victory and completed the process of unification.
In January 1871, the Prussian king, William I,
was proclaimed German Emperor in a ceremony
held at Versailles.
On the bitterly cold morning of 18 January 1871,
an assembly comprising the princes of the
German states, representatives of the army,
important Prussian ministers including the chief
minister Otto von Bismarck gathered in the
unheated Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles
to proclaim the new German Empire headed
by Kaiser William I of Prussia.
The nation-building process in Germany had
demonstrated the dominance of Prussian state
power. The new state placed a strong emphasis
on modernising the currency, banking, legal
and judicial systems in Germany. Prussian
measures and practices often became a model for
the rest of Germany.
Fig. 11 The proclamation of the German empire in the Hall of
Mirrors at Versailles, Anton von Werner. At the centre stands the
Kaiser and the chief commander of the Prussian army, General von
Roon. Near them is Bismarck. This monumental work (2.7m x
2.7m) was completed and presented by the artist to Bismarck on
the latters 70th birthday in 1885.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
20
4.2 Italy Unified
Like Germany, Italy too had a long history of political fragmentation.
Italians were scattered over several dynastic states as well as the
multi-national Habsburg Empire. During the middle of the
nineteenth century, Italy was divided into seven states, of which
only one, Sardinia-Piedmont, was ruled by an Italian princely house.
The north was under Austrian Habsburgs, the centre was ruled by
the Pope and the southern regions were under the domination
of the Bourbon kings of Spain. Even the Italian language had
not acquired one common form and still had many regional and
local variations.
During the 1830s, Giuseppe Mazzini had sought to put together a
coherent programme for a unitary Italian Republic. He had also
formed a secret society called Young Italy for the dissemination of
his goals. The failure of revolutionary uprisings both in 1831 and
1848 meant that the mantle now fell on Sardinia-Piedmont under
its ruler King Victor Emmanuel II to unify the Italian states through
war. In the eyes of the ruling elites of this region, a unified
Italy offered them the possibility of economic development and
political dominance.
Fig. 13 Caricature of Otto von Bismarck in
the German reichstag (parliament), from Figaro,
Vienna, 5 March 1870.
Describe the caricature. How does it represent
the relationship between Bismarck and the
elected deputies of Parliament? What
interpretation of democratic processes is the
artist trying to convey?
Activity
NORTH SEA
SCHLESWIG-
HOLSTEIN
MECKLENBURG-
SCHWERIN
THURINGIAN
STATES
HANOVER
WESTPHALIA
H
E
S
S
E
N
N
A
S
S
A
RHINELAND
BRUNSWICK
BAVARIA
B
A
D
E
N
W
U
R
T
T
E
M
B
E
R
G
AUSTRIAN
EMPIRE
SILESIA
POSEN
BRANDENBURG
POMERANIA
WEST PRUSSIA
EAST PRUSSIA
BALTIC SEA
P
R
U
S
S
I
A
RUSSIAN
EMPIRE
Prussia before 1866
Conquered by Prussia in Austro-Prussia
War, 1866
Austrian territories excluded from German
Confederation 1867
Joined with Prussia to form German
Confederation, 1867
South German states joining with Prussia to
form German Empire, 1871
Won by Prussia in Franco-Prussia War, 1871
Fig. 12 Unification of Germany (1866-71).
21
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

E
u
r
o
p
e
Chief Minister Cavour who led the movement to unify the regions
of Italy was neither a revolutionary nor a democrat. Like many
other wealthy and educated members of the Italian elite, he spoke
French much better than he did Italian. Through a tactful diplomatic
alliance with France engineered by Cavour, Sardinia-Piedmont
succeeded in defeating the Austrian forces in 1859. Apart from regular
troops, a large number of armed volunteers under the leadership of
Giuseppe Garibaldi joined the fray. In 1860, they marched into South
Italy and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and succeeded in winning
the support of the local peasants in order to drive out the Spanish
rulers. In 1861 Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed king of united
Italy. However, much of the Italian population, among whom rates
of illiteracy were very high, remained blissfully unaware of liberal-
nationalist ideology. The peasant masses who had supported Garibaldi
in southern Italy had never heard of Italia, and believed that La Talia
was Victor Emmanuels wife!
Fig. 14(a) Italian states before unification, 1858.
Fig. 14(b) Italy after unification.
The map shows the year in which different
regions (seen in Fig 14(a) become part of a
unified Italy.
SWITZERLAND
VENETIA
LOMBARDY
SAVOY
SARDINIA PARMA
MODENA
TUSCANY
SAN MARINO
PAPAL
STATE
KINGDOM
OF BOTH
SICILIES
TUNIS
MONACO
1858
1858-60
1860
1866
1870
SWITZERLAND
TUNIS
4.3 The Strange Case of Britain
The model of the nation or the nation-state, some scholars have
argued, is Great Britain. In Britain the formation of the nation-state
AUSTRIA
Look at Fig. 14(a). Do you think that the people
living in any of these regions thought of
themselves as Italians?
Examine Fig. 14(b). Which was the first region
to become a part of unified Italy? Which was the
last region to join? In which year did the largest
number of states join?
Activity
1858
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
22
was not the result of a sudden upheaval or revolution. It was the
result of a long-drawn-out process. There was no British nation
prior to the eighteenth century. The primary identities of the people
who inhabited the British Isles were ethnic ones such as English,
Welsh, Scot or Irish. All of these ethnic groups had their own cultural
and political traditions. But as the English nation steadily grew in
wealth, importance and power, it was able to extend its influence
over the other nations of the islands. The English parliament, which
had seized power from the monarchy in 1688 at the end of a
protracted conflict, was the instrument through which a nation-state,
with England at its centre, came to be forged. The Act of Union
(1707) between England and Scotland that resulted in the formation
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain meant, in effect, that
England was able to impose its influence on Scotland. The British
parliament was henceforth dominated by its English members. The
growth of a British identity meant that Scotlands distinctive culture
and political institutions were systematically suppressed. The Catholic
clans that inhabited the Scottish Highlands suffered terrible repression
whenever they attempted to assert their independence. The Scottish
Highlanders were forbidden to speak their Gaelic language or
wear their national dress, and large numbers were forcibly driven
out of their homeland.
Ireland suffered a similar fate. It was a country deeply divided
between Catholics and Protestants. The English helped the Protestants
of Ireland to establish their dominance over a largely Catholic country.
Catholic revolts against British dominance were suppressed. After a
failed revolt led by Wolfe Tone and his United Irishmen (1798),
Ireland was forcibly incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801.
A new British nation was forged through the propagation of a
dominant English culture. The symbols of the new Britain the
British flag (Union Jack), the national anthem (God Save Our Noble
King), the English language were actively promoted and the older
nations survived only as subordinate partners in this union.
New words
Ethnic Relates to a common racial, tribal, or
cultural origin or background that a community
identifies with or claims
The artist has portrayed Garibaldi as holding on to the base of
the boot, so that the King of Sardinia-Piedmont can enter it from
the top. Look at the map of Italy once more. What statement is
this caricature making?
Activity
Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-82) is perhaps the
most celebrated of Italian freedom fighters. He
came from a family engaged in coastal trade and
was a sailor in the merchant navy. In 1833 he
met Mazzini, joined the Young Italy movement
and participated in a republican uprising in
Piedmont in 1834. The uprising was suppressed
and Garibaldi had to flee to South America, where
he lived in exile till 1848. In 1854, he supported
Victor Emmanuel I I in his efforts to unify the
Italian states. In 1860, Garibaldi led the famous
Expedition of the Thousand to South Italy. Fresh
volunteers kept joining through the course of
the campaign, till their numbers grew to about
30,000. They were popularly known as Red
Shirts.
In 1867, Garibaldi led an army of volunteers to
Rome to fight the last obstacle to the unification
of Italy, the Papal States where a French garrison
was stationed. The Red Shirts proved to be no
match for the combined French and Papal troops.
It was only in 1870 when, during the war with
Prussia, France withdrew its troops from Rome
that the Papal States were finally joined
to Italy.
Box 2
Fig. 15 Garibaldi helping King Victor
Emmanuel II of Sardinia-Piedmont to pull on the
boot named Italy. English caricature of 1859.
23
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

E
u
r
o
p
e
5 Visualising the Nation
While it is easy enough to represent a ruler through a portrait or a
statue, how does one go about giving a face to a nation? Artists in
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries found a way out by
personifying a nation. In other words they represented a country as
if it were a person. Nations were then portrayed as female figures.
The female form that was chosen to personify the nation did not
stand for any particular woman in real life; rather it sought to give
the abstract idea of the nation a concrete form. That is, the female
figure became an allegory of the nation.
You will recall that during the French Revolution artists used the
female allegory to portray ideas such as Liberty, Justice and the
Republic. These ideals were represented through specific objects or
symbols. As you would remember, the attributes of Liberty are the
red cap, or the broken chain, while Justice is generally a blindfolded
woman carrying a pair of weighing scales.
Similar female allegories were invented by artists in the nineteenth
century to represent the nation. In France she was christened
Marianne, a popular Christian name, which underlined the idea of a
peoples nation. Her characteristics were drawn from those of Liberty
and the Republic the red cap, the tricolour, the cockade. Statues
of Marianne were erected in public squares to remind the public of
the national symbol of unity and to persuade them to identify with
it. Marianne images were marked on coins and stamps.
Similarly, Germania became the allegory of the German nation. In
visual representations, Germania wears a crown of oak leaves, as
the German oak stands for heroism.
New words
Allegory When an abstract idea (for instance, greed, envy,
freedom, liberty) is expressed through a person or a thing. An
allegorical story has two meanings, one literal and one symbolic
Fig. 16 Postage stamps of 1850 with the
figure of Marianne representing the Republic of
France.
Fig. 17 Germania, Philip Veit, 1848.
The artist prepared this painting of Germania on a
cotton banner, as it was meant to hang from the
ceiling of the Church of St Paul where the Frankfurt
parliament was convened in March 1848.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
24
Box 3
Meanings of the symbols
Attribute Significance
Broken chains Being freed
Breastplate with eagle Symbol of the German empire strength
Crown of oak leaves Heroism
Sword Readiness to fight
Olive branch around the sword Willingness to make peace
Black, red and gold tricolour Flag of the liberal-nationalists in 1848, banned by the Dukes of the
German states
Rays of the rising sun Beginning of a new era
With the help of the chart in Box 3, identify the attributes of Veits
Germania and interpret the symbolic meaning of the painting.
In an earlier allegorical rendering of 1836, Veit had portrayed the
Kaisers crown at the place where he has now located the
broken chain. Explain the significance of this change.
Activity
Fig. 18 The fallen Germania, Julius Hbner, 1850.
Describe what you see in Fig. 17. What historical events could Hbner be
referring to in this allegorical vision of the nation?
Activity
25
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

E
u
r
o
p
e
Fig. 19 Germania guarding the Rhine.
In 1860, the artist Lorenz Clasen was commissioned to paint this image. The inscription
on Germanias sword reads: The German sword protects the German Rhine.
Look once more at Fig. 10. Imagine you were a citizen of Frankfurt in March 1848 and were present during the
proceedings of the parliament. How would you (a) as a man seated in the hall of deputies, and (b) as a woman
observing from the galleries, relate to the banner of Germania hanging from the ceiling?
Activity
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
26
6 Nationalism and Imperialism
By the last quarter of the nineteenth century nationalism no longer
retained its idealistic liberal-democratic sentiment of the first half
of the century, but became a narrow creed with limited ends. During
this period nationalist groups became increasingly intolerant of each
other and ever ready to go to war. The major European powers, in
turn, manipulated the nationalist aspirations of the subject peoples
in Europe to further their own imperialist aims.
The most serious source of nationalist tension in Europe after 1871
was the area called the Balkans. The Balkans was a region of
geographical and ethnic variation comprising modern-day Romania,
Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro whose inhabitants were broadly
known as the Slavs. A large part of the Balkans was under the control
of the Ottoman Empire. The spread of the ideas of romantic
nationalism in the Balkans together with the disintegration of the
Ottoman Empire made this region very explosive. All through the
nineteenth century the Ottoman Empire had sought to strengthen
itself through modernisation and internal reforms but with very
little success. One by one, its European subject nationalities broke
away from its control and declared independence. The Balkan
peoples based their claims for independence or political rights on
nationality and used history to prove that they had once been
independent but had subsequently been subjugated by foreign
powers. Hence the rebellious nationalities in the Balkans thought of
their struggles as attempts to win back their long-lost independence.
As the different Slavic nationalities struggled to define their identity
and independence, the Balkan area became an area of intense conflict.
The Balkan states were fiercely jealous of each other and each hoped
to gain more territory at the expense of the others. Matters were
further complicated because the Balkans also became the scene of
big power rivalry. During this period, there was intense rivalry among
the European powers over trade and colonies as well as naval and
military might. These rivalries were very evident in the way the Balkan
problem unfolded. Each power Russia, Germany, England,
Austro-Hungary was keen on countering the hold of other powers
over the Balkans, and extending its own control over the area. This
led to a series of wars in the region and finally the First World War.
27
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

E
u
r
o
p
e
Nationalism, aligned with imperialism, led Europe to disaster in 1914.
But meanwhile, many countries in the world which had been
colonised by the European powers in the nineteenth century began
to oppose imperial domination. The anti-imperial movements that
developed everywhere were nationalist, in the sense that they all
struggled to form independent nation-states, and were inspired by
a sense of collective national unity, forged in confrontation with
imperialism. European ideas of nationalism were nowhere
replicated, for people everywhere developed their own specific variety
of nationalism. But the idea that societies should be organised into
nation-states came to be accepted as natural and universal.
Fig. 20 A map celebrating the British Empire.
At the top, angels are shown carrying the banner of freedom. In the foreground, Britannia the
symbol of the British nation is triumphantly sitting over the globe. The colonies are represented
through images of tigers, elephants, forests and primitive people. The domination of the world is
shown as the basis of Britains national pride.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
28
Discuss
Project
1. Explain what is meant by the 1848 revolution of the liberals. What were the political, social
and economic ideas supported by the liberals?
2. Choose three examples to show the contribution of culture to the growth of nationalism
in Europe.
3. Through a focus on any two countries, explain how nations developed over the nineteenth
century.
4. How was the history of nationalism in Britain unlike the rest of Europe?
5. Why did nationalist tensions emerge in the Balkans?
Find out more about nationalist symbols in countries outside Europe. For one or two countries,
collect examples of pictures, posters or music that are symbols of nationalism. How are these
different from European examples?
D
i
s
c
u
s
s
Write in brief
1. Write a note on:
a) Guiseppe Mazzini
b) Count Camillo de Cavour
c) The Greek war of independence
d) Frankfurt parliament
e) The role of women in nationalist struggles
2. What steps did the French revolutionaries take to create a sense of collective
identity among the French people?
3. Who were Marianne and Germania? What was the importance of the way in
which they were portrayed?
4. Briefly trace the process of German unification.
5. What changes did Napoleon introduce to make the administrative system more
efficient in the territories ruled by him?
W
r
i
t
e

i
n

b
r
i
e
f
Project
29
T
h
e

N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
t

M
o
v
e
m
e
n
t

i
n

I
n
d
o
-
C
h
i
n
a
Vietnam gained formal independence in 1945, before India, but
it took another three decades of fighting before the Republic
of Vietnam was formed. This chapter on Indo-China will
introduce you to one of the important states of the peninsula, namely,
Vietnam. Nationalism in Indo-China developed in a colonial context.
The knitting together of a modern Vietnamese nation that brought
the different communities together was in part the result of
colonisation but, as importantly, it was shaped by the struggle against
colonial domination.
If you see the historical experience of Indo-China in relation to that
of India, you will discover important differences in the way colonial
empires functioned and the anti-imperial movement developed. By
looking at such differences and similarities you can understand the
variety of ways in which nationalism has developed and shaped the
contemporary world.
T
h
e

N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
t

M
o
v
e
m
e
n
t

i
n

I
n
d
o
-
C
h
i
n
a
C
h
a
p
t
e
r

I
I
The Nationalist Movement in
Indo-China
Fig.1 Map of Indo-China.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
30
1 Emerging from the Shadow of China
Indo-China comprises the modern countries of Vietnam, Laos and
Cambodia (see Fig. 1). Its early history shows many different groups
of people living in this area under the shadow of the powerful
empire of China. Even when an independent country was established
in what is now northern and central Vietnam, its rulers continued
to maintain the Chinese system of government as well as
Chinese culture.
Vietnam was also linked to what has been called the maritime silk
route that brought in goods, people and ideas. Other networks of
trade connected it to the hinterlands where non-Vietnamese people
such as the Khmer Cambodians lived.
Fig. 2 The port of Faifo.
This port was founded by Portuguese merchants. It was one of
the ports used by European trading companies much before the
nineteenth century.
1.1 Colonial Domination and Resistance
The colonisation of Vietnam by the French brought the people of
the country into conflict with the colonisers in all areas of life. The
most visible form of French control was military and economic
domination but the French also built a system that tried to reshape
the culture of the Vietnamese. Nationalism in Vietnam emerged
through the efforts of different sections of society to fight against
the French and all they represented.
31
T
h
e

N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
t

M
o
v
e
m
e
n
t

i
n

I
n
d
o
-
C
h
i
n
a
Fig. 3 Francis Garnier, a French officer who led
an attack against the ruling Nguyen dynasty,
being killed by soldiers of the court.
Garnier was part of the French team that explored
the Mekong river. In 1873 he was commissioned
by the French to try and establish a French
colony in Tonkin in the north. Garnier carried out
an attack on Hanoi, the capital of Tonkin, but was
killed in the fight.
French troops landed in Vietnam in 1858
and by the mid-1880s they had established
a firm grip over the northern region.
After the Franco-Chinese war the
French assumed control of Tonkin and
Anaam and, in 1887, French Indo-China
was formed. In the following decades
the French sought to consolidate
their position, and people in Vietnam
began reflecting on the nature of the
loss that Vietnam was suffering. Nationalist
resistance developed out of this reflection.
Fig. 4 The Mekong river, engraving by the French Exploratory Force, in which Garnier participated.
Exploring and mapping rivers was part of the colonial enterprise everywhere in the world. Colonisers wanted to know
the route of the rivers, their origin, and the terrain they passed through. The rivers could then be properly used for
trade and transport. During these explorations innumerable pictures and maps were produced.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
32
The famous blind poet Ngyuyen Dinh Chieu (1822-88) bemoaned
what was happening to his country:
I would rather face eternal darkness
Than see the faces of traitors.
I would rather see no man
Than encounter one mans suffering.
I would rather see nothing
Than witness the dismembering of the country
in decline.
1.2 Why the French thought Colonies Necessary
Colonies were considered essential to supply natural resources and
other essential goods. Like other Western nations, France also thought
it was the mission of the advanced European countries to bring
the benefits of civilisation to backward peoples.
The French began by building canals and draining lands in the Mekong
delta to increase cultivation. The vast system of irrigation works
canals and earthworks built mainly with forced labour, increased
rice production and allowed the export of rice to the international
market. The area under rice cultivation went up from 274,000
hectares in 1873 to 1.1 million hectares in 1900 and 2.2 million in
1930. Vietnam exported two-thirds of its rice production and by
1931 had become the third largest exporter of rice in the world.
This was followed by infrastructure projects to help transport goods
for trade, move military garrisons and control the entire region.
Construction of a trans-Indo-China rail network that would link
the northern and southern parts of Vietnam and China was begun.
This final link with Yunan in China was completed by 1910. The
second line was also built, linking Vietnam to Siam (as Thailand was
then called), via the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.
By the 1920s, to ensure higher levels of profit for their businesses,
French business interests were pressurising the government in Vietnam
to develop the infrastructure further.
1.3 Should Colonies be Developed?
Everyone agreed that colonies had to serve the interests of the mother
country. But the question was how? Some like Paul Bernard, an
influential writer and policy-maker, strongly believed that the
Imagine a conversation between a French
coloniser and a Vietnamese labourer in the
canal project. The Frenchman believes he is
bringing civilization to backward people and
the Vietnamese labourer argues against it. In
pairs act out the conversation they may have
had, using evidence from the text.
Activity
33
T
h
e

N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
t

M
o
v
e
m
e
n
t

i
n

I
n
d
o
-
C
h
i
n
a
economy of the colonies needed to be developed. He argued that
the purpose of acquiring colonies was to make profits. If the
economy was developed and the standard of living of the people
improved, they would buy more goods. The market would
consequently expand, leading to better profits for French business.
Bernard suggested that there were several barriers to economic
growth in Vietnam: high population levels, low agricultural
productivity and extensive indebtedness amongst the peasants. To
reduce rural poverty and increase agricultural productivity it was
necessary to carry out land reforms as the Japanese had done in the
1890s. However, this could not ensure sufficient employment. As
the experience of Japan showed, industrialisation would be essential
to create more jobs.
The colonial economy in Vietnam was, however, primarily based
on rice cultivation and rubber plantations owned by the French and
a small Vietnamese elite. Rail and port facilities were set up to service
this sector. Indentured Vietnamese labour was widely used in the
rubber plantations. The French, contrary to what Bernard would
have liked, did little to industrialise the economy. In the rural areas
landlordism spread and the standard of living declined.
New words
Indentured labour A form of labour widely
used in the plantations from the mid-nineteenth
century. Labourers worked on the basis of
contracts that did not specify any rights of
labourers but gave immense power to
employers. Employers could bring criminal
charges against labourers and punish and jail
them for non-fulfilment of contracts.
Fig. 5 A French weapons merchant, Jean Dupuis, in Vietnam in the late
nineteenth century.
Many like him explored the regions in the hope of making profits from trade. He was
one of those who persuaded the French to try and establish a base in Vietnam.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
34
2 The Dilemma of Colonial Education
French colonisation was not based only on economic exploitation.
It was also driven by the idea of a civilising mission. Like the British
in India, the French claimed that they were bringing modern civilisation
to the Vietnamese. They took for granted that Europe had developed
the most advanced civilisation. So it became the duty of the
Europeans to introduce these modern ideas to the colony even if
this meant destroying local cultures, religions and traditions, because
these were seen as outdated and prevented modern development.
Education was seen as one way to civilise the native. But in order
to educate them, the French had to resolve a dilemma. How far
were the Vietnamese to be educated? The French needed an educated
local labour force but they feared that education might create
problems. Once educated, the Vietnamese may begin to question
colonial domination. Moreover, French citizens living in Vietnam
(called colons) began fearing that they might lose their jobs as
teachers, shopkeepers, policemen to the educated Vietnamese. So
they opposed policies that would give the Vietnamese full access to
French education.
2.1 Talking Modern
The French were faced with yet another problem in the sphere of
education: the elites in Vietnam were powerfully influenced by
Chinese culture. To consolidate their power, the French had to
counter this Chinese influence. So they systematically dismantled the
traditional educational system and established French schools for
the Vietnamese. But this was not easy. Chinese, the language used by
the elites so far, had to be replaced. But what was to take its place?
Was the language to be Vietnamese or French?
There were two broad opinions on this question. Some policy-
makers emphasised the need to use the French language as the
medium of instruction. By learning the language, they felt, the
Vietnamese would be introduced to the culture and civilisation of
France. This would help create an Asiatic France solidly tied to
European France. The educated people in Vietnam would respect
French sentiments and ideals, see the superiority of French culture,
and work for the French. Others were opposed to French being
the only medium of instruction. They suggested that Vietnamese be
taught in lower classes and French in the higher classes. The few
35
T
h
e

N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
t

M
o
v
e
m
e
n
t

i
n

I
n
d
o
-
C
h
i
n
a
who learnt French and acquired French culture were to be rewarded
with French citizenship.
However, only the Vietnamese elite comprising a small fraction
of the population could enroll in the schools, and only a few
among those admitted ultimately passed the school-leaving
examination. This was largely because of a deliberate policy of failing
students, particularly in the final year, so that they could not qualify
for the better-paid jobs. Usually, as many as two-thirds of the students
failed. In 1925, in a population of 17 million, there were less than
400 who passed the examination.
School textbooks glorified the French and justified colonial rule.
The Vietnamese were represented as primitive and backward, capable
of manual labour but not of intellectual reflection; they could work
in the fields but not rule themselves; they were skilled copyists but
not creative. School children were told that only French rule could
ensure peace in Vietnam: Since the establishment of French rule the
Vietnamese peasant no longer lives in constant terror of pirates
Calm is complete, and the peasant can work with a good heart.
2.2 Looking Modern
The Tonkin Free School was started in 1907 to provide a Western-
style education. This education included classes in science, hygiene
and French (these classes were held in the evening and had to be
paid for separately). The schools approach to what it means to
be modern is a good example of the thinking prevalent at that
time. It was not enough to learn science and Western ideas: to be
modern the Vietnamese had to also look modern. The school
encouraged the adoption of Western styles such as having a short
haircut. For the Vietnamese this meant a major break with their own
identity since they traditionally kept long hair. To underline the
importance of a total change there was even a haircutting chant:
Comb in the left hand
Scissors in the right,
Snip, snip, clip, clip!
Watch out, be careful,
Drop stupid practices,
Dump childish things
Speak openly and frankly
Study Western customs
Imagine you are a student in the Tonkin Free
School in 1910. How would you react to:
what the textbooks say about the
Vietnamese?
what the school tells you about hairstyles?
Activity
Fig. 6 A local caricature ridiculing the
Vietnamese who has been westernised.
Abandoning his own culture, he has begun
wearing Western clothes and playing tennis.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
36
2.3 Resistance in Schools
Teachers and students did not blindly follow the curriculum.
Sometimes there was open opposition, at other times there was
silent resistance. As the numbers of Vietnamese teachers increased
in the lower classes, it became difficult to control what was actually
taught. While teaching, Vietnamese teachers quietly modified the text
and criticised what was stated.
In 1926 a major protest erupted in the Saigon Native Girls School.
A Vietnamese girl sitting in one of the front seats was asked
to move to the back of the class and allow a local French student
to occupy the front bench. She refused. The principal, also a
colon (French people in the colonies), expelled her. When angry
students protested, they too were expelled, leading to a further
spread of open protests. Seeing the situation getting out of control,
the government forced the school to take the students back.
The principal reluctantly agreed but warned the students, I will crush
all Vietnamese under my feet. Ah! You wish my deportation. Know
well that I will leave only after I am assured Vietnamese no longer
inhabit Cochinchina.
Elsewhere, students fought against the colonial governments efforts
to prevent the Vietnamese from qualifying for white-collar jobs.
They were inspired by patriotic feelings and the conviction that it
was the duty of the educated to fight for the benefit of society.
This brought them into conflict with the French as well as the
traditional elite, since both saw their positions threatened. By the
1920s, students were forming various political parties, such as the
Party of Young Annan, and publishing nationalist journals such as
the Annanese Student.
Schools thus became an important place for political and cultural
battles. The French sought to strengthen their rule in Vietnam through
the control of education. They tried to change the values, norms
and perceptions of the people, to make them believe in the superiority
of French civilisation and the inferiority of the Vietnamese.
Vietnamese intellectuals, on the other hand, feared that Vietnam was
losing not just control over its territory but its very identity: its own
culture and customs were being devalued and the people were
developing a master-slave mentality. The battle against French
colonial education became part of the larger battle against colonialism
and for independence.
1802
Nguyen Anh becomes emperor symbolising
the unification of the country under the Nguyen
dynasty.
1867
Cochinchina (the South) becomes a French
colony.
1887
Creation of the Indo-china Union, including
Cochinchina, Annam, Tonkin, Cambodia and
later, Laos.
1930
Ho Chi Minh forms the Vietnamese
Communist Party.
1945
Vietminh start a general popular insurrection.
Bao Dai abdicates. Ho Chi Minh declares
independence in Hanoi (September 23).
1954
The French army is defeated at Dien Bien Phu.
1961
Kennedy decides to increase US military aid to
South Vietnam.
1974
Paris Peace Treaty.
1975 (April 30)
NLF troops enter Saigon.
1976
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is
proclaimed.
37
T
h
e

N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
t

M
o
v
e
m
e
n
t

i
n

I
n
d
o
-
C
h
i
n
a
3 Hygiene, Disease and Everyday Resistance
Education was not the only sphere of everyday life in which such
political battles against colonialism were fought. In many other
institutions we can see the variety of small ways in which the colonised
expressed their anger against the colonisers.
3.1 Plague Strikes Hanoi
Take the case of health and hygiene. When the French set about
creating a modern Vietnam, they decided to rebuild Hanoi.
The latest ideas about architecture and modern engineering skills
were employed to build a new and modern city. In 1903,
the modern part of Hanoi was struck by bubonic plague. In
many colonial countries, measures to control the spread of disease
created serious social conflicts. But in Hanoi events took a peculiarly
interesting turn.
The French part of Hanoi was built as a beautiful and clean city with
wide avenues and a well-laid-out sewer system, while the native
Fig. 7 Modern Hanoi.
Colonial buildings like this one came up in
the French part of Hanoi.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
38
What does the 1903 plague and the measures
to control it tell us about the French colonial
attitude towards questions of health and
hygiene?
Discuss
quarter was not provided with any modern facilities. The refuse
from the old city drained straight out into the river or, during heavy
rains or floods, overflowed into the streets. Thus what was installed
to create a hygienic environment in the French city became the cause
of the plague. The large sewers in the modern part of the city, a
symbol of modernity, were an ideal and protected breeding ground
for rats. The sewers also served as a great transport system, allowing
the rats to move around the city without any problem. And rats
began to enter the well-cared-for homes of the French through the
sewage pipes. What was to be done?
3.2 The Rat Hunt
To stem this invasion, a rat hunt was started in 1902. The French
hired Vietnamese workers and paid them for each rat they caught.
Rats began to be caught in thousands: on 30 May, for instance, 20,000
were caught but still there seemed to be no end. For the Vietnamese
the rat hunt seemed to provide an early lesson in the success of
collective bargaining. Those who did the dirty work of entering
sewers found that if they came together they could negotiate a higher
bounty. They also discovered innovative ways to profit from this
situation. The bounty was paid when a tail was given as proof that
a rat had been killed. So the rat-catchers took to just clipping the
tails and releasing the rats, so that the process could be repeated,
over and over again. Some people, in fact, began raising rats to
earn a bounty.
Defeated by the resistance of the weak, the French were forced to
scrap the bounty programme. None of this prevented the bubonic
plague, which swept through the area in 1903 and in subsequent
years. In a way, the rat menace marks the limits of French power
and the contradictions in their civilising mission. And the actions of
the rat-catchers tell us of the numerous small ways in which
colonialism was fought in everyday life.
39
T
h
e

N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
t

M
o
v
e
m
e
n
t

i
n

I
n
d
o
-
C
h
i
n
a
4 Religion and Anti-colonialism
Fig. 8 The execution of Father Borie, a Catholic
missionary.
Images like this by French artists were publicised
in France to stir up religious fury.
Box 1
Confucius (551-479 BCE), a Chinese thinker,
developed a philosophical system based on good
conduct, practical wisdom and proper social
relationships. People were taught to respect their
parents and submit to elders. They were told
that the relationship between the ruler and the
people was the same as that between children
and parents.
Colonial domination was exercised by control over all areas of private
and public life. The French occupied Vietnam militarily but they also
sought to reshape social and cultural life. While religion played an
important role in strengthening colonial control, it also provided
ways of resistance. Let us consider how this happened.
Vietnams religious beliefs were a mixture of Buddhism,
Confucianism and local practices. Christianity, introduced by French
missionaries, was intolerant of this easygoing attitude and viewed
the Vietnamese tendency to revere the supernatural as something to
be corrected.
From the eighteenth century, many religious movements were hostile
to the Western presence. An early movement against French control
and the spread of Christianity was the Scholars Revolt in 1868. This
revolt was led by officials at the imperial court angered by the spread
of Catholicism and French power. They led a general uprising in
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
40
New words
Syncretic Characterised by syncretism; aims
to bring together different beliefs and practices,
seeing their essential unity rather than their
difference
Concentration camp A prison where people
are detained without due process of law. The
word evokes an image of a place of torture
and brutal treatment
Ngu An and Ha Tien provinces where over a thousand Catholics
were killed. Catholic missionaries had been active in winning converts
since the early seventeenth century, and by the middle of the
eighteenth century had converted some 300,000. The French crushed
the movement but this uprising served to inspire other patriots to
rise up against them.
The elites in Vietnam were educated in Chinese and Confucianism.
But religious beliefs among the peasantry were shaped by a variety
of syncretic traditions that combined Buddhism and local beliefs.
There were many popular religions in Vietnam that were spread by
people who claimed to have seen a vision of God. Some of these
religious movements supported the French, but others inspired
movements against colonial rule.
One such movement was the Hoa Hao. It began in 1939
and gained great popularity in the fertile Mekong delta area. It
drew on religious ideas popular in anti-French uprisings of the
nineteenth century.
The founder of Hoa Hao was a man called Huynh Phu So. He
performed miracles and helped the poor. His criticism against useless
expenditure had a wide appeal. He also opposed the sale of child
brides, gambling and the use of alcohol and opium.
The French tried to suppress the movement inspired by Huynh
Phu So. They declared him mad, called him the Mad Bonze,
and put him in a mental asylum. Interestingly, the doctor who
had to prove him insane became his follower, and finally in 1941,
even the French doctors declared that he was sane. The French
authorities exiled him to Laos and sent many of his followers to
concentration camps.
Movements like this always had a contradictory relationship with
mainstream nationalism. Political parties often drew upon their
support, but were uneasy about their activities. They could neither
control or discipline these groups, nor support their rituals
and practices.
Yet the significance of these movements in arousing anti-imperialist
sentiments should not be underestimated.
41
T
h
e

N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
t

M
o
v
e
m
e
n
t

i
n

I
n
d
o
-
C
h
i
n
a
In J apan, Phan Boi Chau and Phan Chu Trinh
spent time together, discussing their visions of
Vietnamese independence, and debating their
differences. This is what Phan Boi Chau later
wrote about their discussions:
Thereafter over more than ten days, he and I
debated time and again, and our opinions were
diametrically opposed. That is to say, he wished
to overthrow the monarchy in order to create a
basis for the promotion of popular rights; I, on
the contrary, maintained that first the foreign
enemy should be driven out, and after our
nations independence was restored we could
talk about other things. My plan was to make
use of the monarchy, which he opposed
absolutely. His plan was to raise up the people
to abolish the monarchy, with which I absolutely
disagreed. In other words, he and I were pursuing
one and the same goal, but our means were
considerably different.
Source
Source A
New words
Republic A form of government based on
popular consent and popular representation.
It is based on the power of the people as
opposed to monarchy
French colonialism was resisted at many levels and in various forms.
But all nationalists had to grapple with one set of questions: What
was it to be Modern? What was it to be Nationalist? In order to be
modern, was it necessary to regard tradition as backward and reject
all earlier ideas and social practices? Was it necessary to consider the
West as the symbol of development and civilisation, and try and
copy the West?
Different answers were offered to such questions. Some intellectuals
felt that Vietnamese traditions had to be strengthened to resist
the domination of the West, while others felt that Vietnam had
to learn from the West even while opposing foreign domination.
These differing visions led to complex debates, which could not be
easily resolved.
In the late nineteenth century, resistance to French domination was
very often led by Confucian scholar-activists, who saw their world
crumbling. Educated in the Confucian tradition, Phan Boi Chau
(1867-1940) was one such nationalist. He became a major figure in
the anti-colonial resistance from the time he formed the Revolutionary
Society (Duy Tan Hoi) in 1903, with Prince Cuong De as the head.
Phan Boi Chau met the Chinese reformer Liang Qichao (1873-1929)
in Yokohama in 1905. Phans most influential book, The History of
the Loss of Vietnam was written under the strong influence and advice
of Qichao. It became a widely read bestseller in Vietnam and China
and was even made into a play. The book focuses on two connected
themes: the loss of sovereignty and the severing of ties with China
ties that bound the elites of the two countries within a shared culture.
It is this double loss that Phan laments, a lament that was typical of
reformers from within the traditional elite.
Other nationalists strongly differed with Phan Boi Chau. One such
was Phan Chu Trinh (1871-1926). He was intensely hostile to the
monarchy and opposed to the idea of resisting the French with the
help of the court. His desire was to establish a democratic republic.
Profoundly influenced by the democratic ideals of the West, he did
not want a wholesale rejection of Western civilisation. He accepted
the French revolutionary ideal of liberty but charged the French
for not abiding by the ideal. He demanded that the French set up
legal and educational institutions, and develop agriculture
and industries.
5 The Vision of Modernisation
What ideas did Phan Boi Chau and Phan
Chu Trinh share in common? What did they
differ on?
Discuss
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
42
5.1 Other Ways of Becoming Modern: Japan and China
Early Vietnamese nationalists had a close relationship with Japan
and China. They provided models for those looking to change, a
refuge for those who were escaping French police, and a location
where a wider Asian network of revolutionaries could be established.
In the first decade of the twentieth century a go east movement
became popular. In 1907-08 some 300 Vietnamese students went
to Japan to acquire modern education. For many of them the primary
objective was to drive out the French from Vietnam, overthrow
the puppet emperor and re-establish the Nguyen dynasty that had
been deposed by the French. These nationalists looked for foreign
arms and help. They appealed to the Japanese as fellow Asians.
Japan had modernised itself and had resisted colonisation by the
West. Besides, its victory over Russia in 1907 proved its military
capabilities. Vietnamese students established a branch of the
Restoration Society in Tokyo but after 1908, the Japanese Ministry
of Interior clamped down on them. Many, including Phan Boi Chau,
were deported and forced to seek exile in China and Thailand.
Developments in China also inspired
Vietnamese nationalists. In 1911, the long
established monarchy in China was
overthrown by a popular movement under
Sun Yat-sen, and a Republic was set up.
Inspired by these developments, Vietnamese
students organised the Association for the
Restoration of Vietnam (Viet-Nam
Quan Phuc Hoi). Now the nature of the
anti-French independence movement
changed. The objective was no longer to
set up a constitutional monarchy but a
democratic republic.
Soon, however, the anti-imperialist movement
in Vietnam came under a new type
of leadership.
Fig. 9 Cartoon of Vietnamese nationalists chasing away imperialists.
In all such nationalist representations of struggle the nationalists
appear heroic, marching ahead, while the imperial forces flee.
43
T
h
e

N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
t

M
o
v
e
m
e
n
t

i
n

I
n
d
o
-
C
h
i
n
a
6 The Communist Movement and Vietnamese Nationalism
The Great Depression of the 1930s had a profound impact on
Vietnam. The prices of rubber and rice fell, leading to rising rural
debts, unemployment and rural uprisings, such as in the provinces
of Nghe An and Ha Tinh. These provinces were among the poorest,
had an old radical tradition, and have been called the electrical fuses
of Vietnam when the system was under pressure they were the
first to blow. The French put these uprisings down with great severity,
even using planes to bomb demonstrators.
In February 1930, Ho Chi Minh brought together competing
nationalist groups to establish the Vietnamese Communist (Vietnam
Cong San Dang) Party, later renamed the Indo-Chinese Communist
Party. He was inspired by the militant demonstrations of the European
communist parties.
In 1940 Japan occupied Vietnam, as part of its imperial drive to
control Southeast Asia. So nationalists now had to fight against the
Japanese as well as the French. The League for the Independence of
Vietnam (Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh), which came to be known
as the Vietminh, fought the Japanese occupation and recaptured
Hanoi in September 1945. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam
was formed and Ho Chi Minh became Chairman.
6.1 The New Republic of Vietnam
The new republic faced a number of challenges. The French tried to
regain control by using the emperor, Bao Dai, as their puppet. Faced
with the French offensive, the Vietminh were forced to retreat to
the hills. After eight years of fighting, the French were defeated in
1954 at Dien Bien Phu.
The Supreme French Commander of the French armies, General
Henry Navarre had declared confidently in 1953 that they would
soon be victorious. But on 7 May 1954, the Vietminh annihilated
and captured more than 16,000 soldiers of the French Expeditionary
Corps. The entire commanding staff, including a general, 16 colonels
and 1,749 officers, were taken prisoner.
In the peace negotiations in Geneva that followed the French defeat,
the Vietnamese were persuaded to accept the division of the country.
North and south were split: Ho Chi Minh and the communists took
Declaration of independence
The declaration of the new republic began by
reaffirming the principles of the declaration of
independence of the United States in 1771 and
of the French Revolution in 1791 but added that
the French imperialists do not follow these
principles for they
have violated our fatherland and oppressed our
fellow citizens. They have acted contrary to the
ideals of humanity and justice.
I n the field of politics, they have deprived
us of all liberties. They have imposed upon us
inhuman laws They have built more prisons
than schools. They have mercilessly slain our
patriots; they have drowned our uprisings in
rivers of blood.
They have fettered public opinion; they have
practiced obscurantism against our people
For these reasons, we members of the
Provisional Government, representing the entire
population of Vietnam, declare that we shall
henceforth have no connection with imperialist
France; that we abolish all the privileges which
the French have arrogated to themselves on
our territory
We solemnly proclaim to the entire world:
Vietnam has the right to be free and
independent, and in fact has become free and
independent.
Source
Source B
New words
Obscurantist Person or ideas that mislead
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
44
power in the north while Bao Dais regime was put in power
in the south.
This division set in motion a series of events that turned
Vietnam into a battlefield bringing death and destruction to
its people as well as the environment. The Bao Dai regime
was soon overthrown by a coup led by Ngo Dinh Diem.
Diem built a repressive and authoritarian government. Anyone
who opposed him was called a communist and was jailed
and killed. Diem retained Ordinance 10, a French law that
permitted Christianity but outlawed Buddhism. His dictatorial
rule came to be opposed by a broad opposition united under
the banner of the National Liberation Front (NLF).
With the help of the Ho Chi Minh government in the north,
the NLF fought for the unification of the country. The US
Fig. 10 The French Commander in Indo-China,
General Henri Navarre (right).
Navarre wanted to attack the Vietminh even in their
remote bases. As a consequence the French opened
many fronts of attack and scattered their forces.
Navarres plans backfired in the North Eastern Valley
of Dien Bien Phu.
Box 2
At Dien Bien Phu the French were outwitted by the Vietminh forces led by General Vo Nguyen Giap. The French
Commander, Navarre, had not thought of all the problems he would face in the battle. The valley where French garrisons
were located was flooded in the monsoon and the area was covered with bushes, making it difficult to move troops and
tanks, or trace the Vietminh anti-aircraft guns hidden in the jungle.
From their base in the hills, the Vietminh surrounded the French garrisons in the valley below, digging trenches and tunnels
to move without being detected. Supplies and reinforcements could not reach the besieged French garrison, the wounded
French soldiers could not be moved, and the French airstrip became unusable because of continuous artillery fire.
Dien Bien Phu became a very important symbol of struggle. It strengthened Vietminh conviction in their capacity to fight
powerful imperial forces through determination and proper strategy. Stories of the battle were retold in villages and cities
to inspire people.
Fig. 11 Supplies being taken
to Dien Bien Phu.
Vietminh forces used bicycles
and porters to transport
supplies. They went through
jungles and hidden tracks to
escape enemy attacks.
45
T
h
e

N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
t

M
o
v
e
m
e
n
t

i
n

I
n
d
o
-
C
h
i
n
a
Box 3
Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969)
Little is known about his early life mostly because Minh chose to downplay his personal background and identify himself
with the cause of Vietnam. Probably born as Nguyen Van Thanh in Central Vietnam, he studied at French schools that
produced leaders such as Ngo Dinh Diem, Vo Nguyen Giap and Pham Van Dong. He briefly taught in 1910, and in 1911,
learnt baking and took a job on a French liner on the Saigon-Marseilles run. Minh became an active member of the
Commintern, meeting Lenin and other leaders. In May 1941, after 30 years abroad in Europe, Thailand and China, Minh
finally returned to Vietnam. In 1943 he took the name Ho Chi Minh (He Who Enlightens). He became president of the
Vietnam Democratic Republic. Ho Chi Minh died on 3 September 1969. He led the party successfully for over 40 years,
struggling to preserve Vietnamese autonomy.
watched this alliance with fear. Worried about communists gaining
power, it decided to intervene decisively, sending in troops
and arms.
6.2 The Entry of the US into the War
US entry into the war marked a new phase that proved costly to the
Vietnamese as well as to the Americans. From 1965 to 1972, over
3,403,100 US services personnel served in Vietnam (7,484 were
women). Even though the US had advanced technology and good
Fig. 12 American soldiers searching rice fields for Vietcongs.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
46
Box 4
Agent Orange: The Deadly Poison
Agent Orange is a defoliant, a plant killer, so called
because it was stored in drums marked with an
orange band. Between 1961 and 1971, some
11 million gallons of this chemical was sprayed
from cargo planes by US forces. Their plan was
to destroy forests and fields, so that it would be
easier to kill if there was no jungle cover for
people to hide in. Over 14 per cent of the
countrys farmland was affected by this poison.
I ts effect has been staggering, continuing to
affect people till today. Dioxin, an element of
Agent Orange, is known to cause cancer and
brain damage in children, and, according to a
study, is also the cause of the high incidence of
deformities found in the sprayed areas.
The tonnage of bombs, including chemical arms,
used during the US intervention (mostly against
civilian targets) in Vietnam exceeds that used
throughout the Second World War.
medical supplies, casualties were high. About 47,244 died in battle
and 303,704 were wounded. (Of those wounded, 23,014 were listed
by the Veterans Administration to be 100 per cent disabled.)
This phase of struggle with the US was brutal. Thousands of US
troops arrived equipped with heavy weapons and tanks and backed
by the most powerful bombers of the time B52s. The wide spread
attacks and use of chemical weapons Napalm, Agent Orange, and
phosphorous bombs destroyed many villages and decimated jungles.
Civilians died in large numbers.
The effect of the war was felt within the US as well. Many were
critical of the government for getting involved in a war that they saw
as indefensible. When the youth were drafted for the war, the anger
spread. Compulsory service in the armed forces, however, could be
waived for university graduates. This meant that many of those sent
to fight did not belong to the privileged elite but were minorities and
children of working-class families.
The US media and films played a major role in both supporting as
well as criticising the war. Hollywood made films in support of the
war, such as John Waynes Green Berets (1968). This has
been cited by many as an example of an unthinking
propaganda film that was responsible for motivating
many young men to die in the war. Other films were
more critical as they tried to understand the reasons
for this war. John Ford Coppolas Apocalypse Now (1979)
reflected the moral confusion that the war had caused
in the US.
The war grew out of a fear among US policy-planners
that the victory of the Ho Chi Minh government would
start a domino effect communist governments would
be established in other countries in the area. They
underestimated the power of nationalism to move
people to action, inspire them to sacrifice their home and family, live
under horrific conditions, and fight for independence. They
underestimated the power of a small country to fight the most
technologically advanced country in the world.
Fig. 13 In December 1972 Hanoi was bombed.
New words
Napalm An organic compound used to thicken gasoline for firebombs. The mixture burns slowly and when it
comes in contact with surfaces like the human body, it sticks and continues to burn. Developed in the US, it was
used in the Second World War. Despite an international outcry, it was used in Vietnam.
47
T
h
e

N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
t

M
o
v
e
m
e
n
t

i
n

I
n
d
o
-
C
h
i
n
a
6.3 The Ho Chi Minh Trail
The story of the Ho Chi Minh trail is one way of understanding the
nature of the war that the Vietnamese fought against the US. It
symbolises how the Vietnamese used their limited resources to great
advantage. The trail, an immense network of footpaths and roads,
was used to transport men and materials from the north to the south.
The trail was improved from the late 1950s, and from 1967 about
20,000 North Vietnamese troops came south each month on this trail.
The trail had support bases and hospitals along the way. In some parts
supplies were transported in trucks, but mostly they were carried by
porters, who were mainly women. These porters carried about 25
kilos on their backs, or about 70 kilos on their bicycles.
Most of the trail was outside Vietnam in neighbouring Laos
and Cambodia with branch lines extending into South Vietnam. The
US regularly bombed this trail trying to disrupt supplies, but efforts
to destroy this important supply line by intensive bombing failed
because they were rebuilt very quickly.
Fig. 15 Rebuilding damaged roads.
Roads damaged by bombs were quickly rebuilt.
Fig.14 The Ho Chi Minh trail.
Notice how the trail moved through Laos and
Cambodia.
NORTH
VIETNAM
Khesanh
Hue
Danang
Quangngai
Quinhon
Dakto
Pheiku
Banmethuot
Tayninh
Saigon
LAOS
THAILAND
CAMBODIA
SOUTH
VIETNAM
South China Sea
Tonle Sap
Mekong
Mekong
H
o
C
h
i
M
i
n
h
T
r
a
i
l
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
48
Fig.16 On the Ho Chi Minh trail.
Letters of Mr Do Sam
Do Sam was a colonel in the North Vietnamese artillery regiment. He was part of the Tet Offensive started in 1968, to
unify North and South Vietnam and win the battle against US. These are extracts from his letters written to his wife from
the scene of battle. They show how, in the nationalist imagination, personal love mingles with love for the country and the
desire for freedom. Sacrifice appears necessary for happiness.
Letter dated 6/1968
You ask me what you miss most when you think of me? I miss the environment of our wedding ... I miss the small cozy
room with lots of memories. I miss
Right after our wedding I had to again leave to fight in order to protect the coastal areas of our country. What a short
time we had before I had to station permanently in the South. The more I think, the more I feel for you; therefore I
would have to be more determined to protect the country in order to bring happiness for millions of couples like us
Last night the car kept heading south. This morning I am writing to you sitting on a stone, surrounded by the sound of
streams and the rustle of trees, as if they were celebrating our happiness. Looking forward to the day when we can return
victoriously. Then we could live in greater happiness, couldnt we? Wish you good health and miss me always
Letter dated 6/1968
Though you are always in my mind I have to focus on my work to contribute to the victory of the ongoing struggle of
our nation
I have promised myself that only when the South is liberated and peace and happiness return to the people, only then
could I be free to focus on building our own happiness, only then I could be satisfied with our family life
- Hung, Dang Vuong, (Letters Written during the War in Vietnam), publication of Hoi nha
van (Writers Association), 2005. Translation by Nguen Quoc Anh.
Source
Source C
"Nhng l th thi chin Vit Nam
49
T
h
e

N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
t

M
o
v
e
m
e
n
t

i
n

I
n
d
o
-
C
h
i
n
a
7 The Nation and Its Heroes
Another way of looking at social movements is to see how they
affect different groups in society. Let us see how the roles of women
were specified in the anti-imperialist movement in Vietnam, and
what that tells us about nationalist ideology.
7.1 Women as Rebels
Women in Vietnam traditionally enjoyed greater equality than in China,
particularly among the lower classes, but they had only limited
freedom to determine their future and played no role in public life.
As the nationalist movement grew, the status of women came to be
questioned and a new image of womanhood emerged. Writers and
political thinkers began idealising women who rebelled against social
norms. In the 1930s, a famous novel by Nhat Linh caused a scandal
because it showed a woman leaving a forced marriage and marrying
someone of her choice, someone who was involved in nationalist
politics. This rebellion against social conventions marked the arrival
of the new woman in Vietnamese society.
7.2 Heroes of Past Times
Rebel women of the past were similarly celebrated. In 1913, the
nationalist Phan Boi Chau wrote a play based on the lives of the
Trung sisters who had fought against Chinese domination in
39-43 CE. In this play he depicted these sisters as patriots fighting to
save the Vietnamese nation from the Chinese. The actual reasons for
the revolt are a matter of debate among scholars, but after Phans
play the Trung sisters came to be idealised and glorified. They were
depicted in paintings, plays and novels as representing the indomitable
will and the intense patriotism of the Vietnamese. We are told that
they gathered a force of over 30,000, resisted the Chinese for two
years, and when ultimately defeated, they committed suicide, instead
of surrendering to the enemy.
Other women rebels of the past were part of the popular nationalist
lore. One of the most venerated was Trieu Au who lived in the
third century CE. Orphaned in childhood, she lived with her brother.
On growing up she left home, went into the jungles, organised a
large army and resisted Chinese rule. Finally, when her army was
Fig. 17 Image of Trieu Au worshipped as a
sacred figure.
Rebels who resisted Chinese rule continue to be
celebrated.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
50
crushed, she drowned herself. She became a sacred figure, not just a
martyr who fought for the honour of the country. Nationalists
popularised her image to inspire people to action.
7.3 Women as Warriors
In the 1960s, photographs in magazines and journals showed women
as brave fighters. There were pictures of women militia shooting
down planes. They were portrayed as young, brave and dedicated.
Stories were written to show how happy they felt when they joined
the army and could carry a rifle. Some stories spoke of their incredible
bravery in single-handedly killing the enemy Nguyen Thi Xuan,
for instance, was reputed to have shot down a jet with just
twenty bullets.
Women were represented not only as warriors but also as workers:
they were shown with a rifle in one hand and a hammer in the other.
Whether young or old, women began to be depicted as selflessly
working and fighting to save the country. As casualties in the war
increased in the 1960s, women were urged to join the struggle in
larger numbers.
Many women responded and joined the resistance movement. They
helped in nursing the wounded, constructing underground rooms
and tunnels and fighting the enemy. Along the Ho Chi Minh trail
young volunteers kept open 2,195 km of strategic roads and guarded
2,500 key points. They built six airstrips, neutralised tens of thousands
of bombs, transported tens of thousands of kilograms of cargo,
weapons and food and shot down fifteen planes. Between 1965
and 1975, of the 17,000 youth who worked on the trail, 70 to 80
per cent were women. One military historian argues that there were
1.5 million women in the regular army, the militia, the local forces
and professional teams.
7.4 Women in Times of Peace
By the 1970s, as peace talks began to get under way and the end of
the war seemed near, women were no longer represented as warriors.
Now the image of women as workers begins to predominate. They
are shown working in agricultural cooperatives, factories and
production units, rather than as fighters.
Fig. 18 With a gun in one hand.
Stories about women showed them eager to
join the army. A common description was:
A rosy-cheeked woman, here I am fighting
side by side with you men. The prison is
my school, the sword is my child, the gun
is my husband.
Fig. 19 Vietnamese women doctors
nursing the wounded.
51
T
h
e

N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
t

M
o
v
e
m
e
n
t

i
n

I
n
d
o
-
C
h
i
n
a
The prolongation of the war created strong reactions even within
the US. It was clear that the US had failed to achieve its objectives:
the Vietnamese resistance had not been crushed; the support of the
Vietnamese people for US action had not been won. In the
meantime, thousands of young US soldiers had lost their lives, and
countless Vietnamese civilians had been killed. This was a war that
has been called the first television war. Battle scenes were shown
on the daily news programmes. Many became disillusioned with
what the US was doing and writers such as Mary McCarthy, and
actors like Jane Fonda even visited North Vietnam and praised their
heroic defence of the country. The scholar Noam Chomsky called
the war the greatest threat to peace, to national self-determination,
and to international cooperation.
The widespread questioning of government policy strengthened
moves to negotiate an end to the war. A peace settlement was signed
in Paris in January 1974. This ended conflict with the US but fighting
between the Saigon regime and the NLF continued. The NLF
occupied the presidential palace in Saigon on 30 April 1975 and
unified Vietnam.
Fig. 20 North Vietnamese prisoners in South
Vietnam being released after the accord .
8 The End of the War
Fig. 21 Vietcong soldiers pose triumphantly atop a tank after Saigon is liberated.
What does this image tell us about the nature of Vietnamese nationalism?
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
52
Discuss
Project
1. With reference to what you have read in this chapter, discuss the influence of
China on Vietnams culture and life.
2. What was the role of religious groups in the development of anti-colonial feeling in Vietnam?
3. Explain the causes of the US involvement in the war in Vietnam. What effect did this
involvement have on life within the US itself?
4. Write an evaluation of the Vietnamese war against the US from the point of
a) a porter on the Ho Chi Minh trail.
b) a woman soldier.
5. What was the role of women in the anti-imperial struggle in Vietnam? Compare this
with the role of women in the nationalist struggle in India.
Find out about the anti-imperialist movement in any one country in South America. Imagine
that a freedom fighter from this country meets a Vietminh soldier; they become friends and
talk about their experiences of the freedom struggles in their countries. Write about the
conversation they might have.
D
i
s
c
u
s
s
Write in brief
1. Write a note on:
a) What was meant by the civilising mission of the colonisers
b) Huynh Phu So
2. Explain the following:
a) Only one-third of the students in Vietnam would pass the school-leaving
examinations.
b) The French began building canals and draining lands in the Mekong delta.
c) The government made the Saigon Native Girls School take back the
students it had expelled.
d) Rats were most common in the modern, newly built areas of Hanoi.
3. Describe the ideas behind the Tonkin Free School. To what extent was it a
typical example of colonial ideas in Vietnam?
4. What was Phan Chu Trinhs objective for Vietnam? How were his ideas different
from those of Phan Boi Chau?
W
r
i
t
e

i
n

b
r
i
e
f
Project
53
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

I
n
d
i
a
As you have seen, modern nationalism in Europe came to be
associated with the formation of nation-states. It also meant a change
in peoples understanding of who they were, and what defined their
identity and sense of belonging. New symbols and icons, new songs
and ideas forged new links and redefined the boundaries of
communities. In most countries the making of this new national
identity was a long process. How did this consciousness emerge
in India?
In India, as in Vietnam and many other colonies, the growth of
modern nationalism is intimately connected to the anti-colonial
movement. People began discovering their unity in the process of
their struggle with colonialism. The sense of being oppressed under
colonialism provided a shared bond that tied many different groups
together. But each class and group felt the effects of colonialism
differently, their experiences were varied, and their notions of
freedom were not always the same. The Congress under Mahatma
Gandhi tried to forge these groups together within one movement.
But the unity did not emerge without conflict.
In an earlier textbook you have read about the growth of nationalism
in India up to the first decade of the twentieth century. In this chapter
we will pick up the story from the 1920s and study the Non-
Cooperation and Civil Disobedience Movements. We will explore
how the Congress sought to develop the national movement, how
different social groups participated in the movement, and how
nationalism captured the imagination of people.
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

I
n
d
i
a
C
h
a
p
t
e
r

I
I
I
Nationalism in India
Fig. 1 6 April 1919.
Mass processions on
the streets became a
common feature during
the national movement.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
54
1 The First World War, Khilafat and Non-Cooperation
In the years after 1919, we see the national movement spreading to
new areas, incorporating new social groups, and developing new
modes of struggle. How do we understand these developments?
What implications did they have?
First of all, the war created a new economic and political situation.
It led to a huge increase in defence expenditure which was financed
by war loans and increasing taxes: customs duties were raised and
income tax introduced. Through the war years prices increased
doubling between 1913 and 1918 leading to extreme hardship
for the common people. Villages were called upon to supply soldiers,
and the forced recruitment in rural areas caused widespread anger.
Then in 1918-19 and 1920-21, crops failed in many parts of India,
resulting in acute shortages of food. This was accompanied by an
influenza epidemic. According to the census of 1921, 12 to 13 million
people perished as a result of famines and the epidemic.
People hoped that their hardships would end after the war was
over. But that did not happen.
At this stage a new leader appeared and suggested a new mode
of struggle.
1.1 The Idea of Satyagraha
Mahatma Gandhi returned to India in January 1915. As you know,
he had come from South Africa where he had successfully fought
New words
Forced recruitment A process by which the
colonial state forced people to join the army
Fig. 2 Indian workers in South
Africa march through Volksrust, 6
November 1913.
Mahatma Gandhi was leading the
workers from Newcastle to
Transvaal. When the marchers were
stopped and Gandhiji arrested,
thousands of more workers joined
the satyagraha against racist laws
that denied rights to non-whites.
55
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

I
n
d
i
a
the racist regime with a novel method of mass agitation, which he
called satyagraha. The idea of satyagraha emphasised the power of
truth and the need to search for truth. It suggested that if the cause
was true, if the struggle was against injustice, then physical force was
not necessary to fight the oppressor. Without seeking vengeance or
being aggressive, a satyagrahi could win the battle through non-
violence. This could be done 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. Mahatma Gandhi believed that this dharma of non-violence
could unite all Indians.
After arriving in India, Mahatma Gandhi successfully organised
satyagraha movements in various places. In 1916 he travelled to
Champaran in Bihar to inspire the peasants to struggle against the
oppressive plantation system. Then in 1917, he organised a satyagraha
to support the peasants of the Kheda district of Gujarat. Affected
by crop failure and a plague epidemic, the peasants of Kheda could
not pay the revenue, and were demanding that revenue collection be
relaxed. In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi went to Ahmedabad to organise
a satyagraha movement amongst cotton mill workers.
1.2 The Rowlatt Act
Emboldened with this success, Gandhiji in 1919 decided to launch a
nationwide satyagraha against the proposed Rowlatt Act (1919). This
Act had been hurriedly passed through the Imperial Legislative
Council despite the united opposition of the Indian members. It
gave the government enormous powers to repress political activities,
and allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two
years. Mahatma Gandhi wanted non-violent civil disobedience against
such unjust laws, which would start with a hartal on 6 April.
Rallies were organised in various cities, workers went on strike in
railway workshops, and shops closed down. Alarmed by the popular
upsurge, and scared that lines of communication such as the railways
and telegraph would be disrupted, the British administration decided
to clamp down on nationalists. Local leaders were picked up from
Amritsar, and Mahatma Gandhi was barred from entering Delhi.
On 10 April, the police in Amritsar fired upon a peaceful procession,
provoking widespread attacks on banks, post offices and railway
stations. Martial law was imposed and General Dyer took command.
Mahatma Gandhi on Satyagraha
It is said of passive resistance that it is the
weapon of the weak, but the power which is
the subject of this article can be used only
by the strong. This power is not passive
resistance; indeed it calls for intense activity. The
movement in South Africa was not passive
but active
Satyagraha is not physical force. A satyagrahi
does not inflict pain on the adversary; he does
not seek his destruction I n the use of
satyagraha, there is no ill-will whatever.
Satyagraha is pure soul-force. Truth is the very
substance of the soul. That is why this force is
called satyagraha. The soul is informed with
knowledge. In it burns the flame of love. Non-
violence is the supreme dharma
I t is certain that I ndia cannot rival Britain or
Europe in force of arms. The British worship the
war-god and they can all of them become, as
they are becoming, bearers of arms. The
hundreds of millions in India can never carry arms.
They have made the religion of non-violence their
own ...
Source
Source A
Read the text carefully. What did Mahatma
Gandhi mean when he said satyagraha is
active resistance?
Activity
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
56
On 13 April the infamous Jallianwalla Bagh incident took place. On
that day a crowd of villagers who had come to Amritsar to attend
a fair gathered in the enclosed ground of Jallianwalla Bagh. Being
from outside the city, they were unaware of the martial law that had
been imposed. Dyer entered the area, blocked the exit points, and
opened fire on the crowd, killing hundreds. His object, as he declared
later, was to produce a moral effect, to create in the minds of
satyagrahis a feeling of terror and awe.
As the news of Jallianwalla Bagh spread, crowds took to the streets
in many north Indian towns. There were strikes, clashes with the
police and attacks on government buildings. The government
responded with brutal repression, seeking to humiliate and terrorise
people: satyagrahis were forced to rub their noses on the ground,
crawl on the streets, and do salaam (salute) to all sahibs; people were
flogged and villages (around Gujranwala in Punjab, now in Pakistan)
were bombed. Seeing violence spread, Mahatma Gandhi called off
the movement.
While the Rowlatt satyagraha had been a widespread movement, it
was still limited mostly to cities and towns. Mahatma Gandhi now
felt the need to launch a more broad-based movement in India.
But he was certain that no such movement could be organised without
bringing the Hindus and Muslims closer together. One way of doing
this, he felt, was to take up the Khilafat issue. The First World War
had ended with the defeat of Ottoman Turkey. And there were
rumours that a harsh peace treaty was going to be imposed on the
Ottoman emperor the spiritual head of the Islamic world (the
Khalifa). To defend the Khalifas temporal powers, a Khilafat
Committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919. A young
generation of Muslim leaders like the brothers Muhammad Ali
and Shaukat Ali, began discussing with Mahatma Gandhi about
the possibility of a united mass action on the issue. Gandhiji saw this
as an opportunity to bring Muslims under the umbrella of a unified
national movement. At the Calcutta session of the Congress in
September 1920, he convinced other leaders of the need to start
a non-cooperation movement in support of Khilafat as well as
for swaraj.
1.3 Why Non-cooperation?
In his famous book Hind Swaraj (1909) Mahatma Gandhi declared
that British rule was established in India with the cooperation of
Fig. 3 General Dyers crawling orders being
administered by British soldiers, Amritsar,
Punjab, 1919.
57
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

I
n
d
i
a
New words
Boycott The refusal to deal and associate with
people, or participate in activities, or buy and
use things; usually a form of protest
Indians, and had survived only because of this cooperation. If Indians
refused to cooperate, British rule in India would collapse within a
year, and swaraj would come.
How could non-cooperation become a movement? Gandhiji
proposed that the movement should unfold in stages. It should begin
with the surrender of titles that the government awarded, and a
boycott of civil services, army, police, courts and legislative councils,
schools, and foreign goods. Then, in case the government used
repression, a full civil disobedience campaign would be launched.
Through the summer of 1920 Mahatma Gandhi and Shaukat Ali
toured extensively, mobilising popular support for the movement.
Many within the Congress were, however, concerned about the
proposals. They were reluctant to boycott the council elections
scheduled for November 1920, and they feared that the movement
might lead to popular violence. In the months between September
and December there was an intense tussle within the Congress. For a
while there seemed no meeting point between the supporters and
the opponents of the movement. Finally, at the Congress session at
Nagpur in December 1920, a compromise was worked out and
the Non-Cooperation programme was adopted.
How did the movement unfold? Who participated in it? How did
different social groups conceive of the idea of Non-Cooperation?
Fig. 4 The boycott of foreign
cloth, July 1922.
Foreign cloth was seen as the
symbol of Western economic
and cultural domination.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
58
2 Differing Strands within the Movement
The Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement began in January 1921.
Various social groups participated in this movement, each with its
own specific aspiration. All of them responded to the call of Swaraj,
but the term meant different things to different people.
2.1 The Movement in the Towns
The movement started with middle-class participation in the cities.
Thousands of students left government-controlled schools and
colleges, headmasters and teachers resigned, and lawyers gave up
their legal practices. The council elections were boycotted in most
provinces except Madras, where the Justice Party, the party of the
non-Brahmans, felt that entering the council was one way of gaining
some power something that usually only Brahmans had access to.
The effects of non-cooperation on the economic front were more
dramatic. Foreign goods were boycotted, liquor shops picketed,
and foreign cloth burnt in huge bonfires. The import of foreign
cloth halved between 1921 and 1922, its value dropping from
Rs 102 crore to Rs 57 crore. In many places merchants and traders
refused to trade in foreign goods or finance foreign trade. As the
boycott movement spread, and people began discarding imported
clothes and wearing only Indian ones, production of Indian textile
mills and handlooms went up.
But this movement in the cities gradually slowed down for a variety
of reasons. Khadi cloth was often more expensive than mass-
produced mill cloth and poor people could not afford to buy it.
How then could they boycott mill cloth for too long? Similarly the
boycott of British institutions posed a problem. For the movement
to be successful, alternative Indian institutions had to be set up
so that they could be used in place of the British ones. These were
slow to come up. So students and teachers began trickling
back to government schools and lawyers joined back work in
government courts.
2.2 Rebellion in the Countryside
From the cities, the Non-Cooperation Movement spread to the
countryside. It drew into its fold the struggles of peasants and tribals
New words
Picket A form of demonstration or protest
by which people block the entrance to a shop,
factory or office
The year is 1921. You are a student in a
government-controlled school. Design a
poster urging school students to answer
Gandhijis call to join the Non-Cooperation
Movement.
Activity
59
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

I
n
d
i
a
which were developing in different parts of India in the years
after the war.
In Awadh, peasants were led by Baba Ramchandra a sanyasi who
had earlier been to Fiji as an indentured labourer. The movement
here was against talukdars and landlords who demanded from
peasants exorbitantly high rents and a variety of other cesses. Peasants
had to do begar and work at landlords farms without any payment.
As tenants they had no security of tenure, being regularly evicted so
that they could acquire no right over the leased land. The peasant
movement demanded reduction of revenue, abolition of begar, and
social boycott of oppressive landlords. In many places nai dhobi
bandhs were organised by panchayats to deprive landlords of the
services of even barbers and washermen. In June 1920, Jawaharlal
Nehru began going around the villages in Awadh, talking to the
villagers, and trying to understand their grievances. By October, the
Oudh Kisan Sabha was set up headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba
Ramchandra and a few others. Within a month, over 300 branches
had been set up in the villages around the region. So when the Non-
Cooperation Movement began the following year, the effort of the
Congress was to integrate the Awadh peasant struggle into the wider
struggle. The peasant movement, however, developed in forms that
the Congress leadership was unhappy with. As the movement spread
in 1921, the houses of talukdars and merchants were attacked,
bazaars were looted, and grain hoards were taken over. In many
places local leaders told peasants that Gandhiji had declared that
no taxes were to be paid and land was to be redistributed among
the poor. The name of the Mahatma was being invoked to sanction
all action and aspirations.
New words
Begar Labour that villagers were forced to
contribute without any payment
If you were a peasant in Uttar Pradesh in 1920,
how would you have responded to Gandhijis
call for Swaraj? Give reasons for your response.
Activity
On 6 J anuary 1921, the police in United Provinces fired at peasants near Rae Bareli. J awaharlal Nehru wanted to go to
the place of firing, but was stopped by the police. Agitated and angry, Nehru addressed the peasants who gathered
around him. This is how he later described the meeting:
They behaved as brave men, calm and unruffled in the face of danger. I do not know how they felt but I know what
my feelings were. For a moment my blood was up, non-violence was almost forgotten but for a moment only. The
thought of the great leader, who by Gods goodness has been sent to lead us to victory, came to me, and I saw the
kisans seated and standing near me, less excited, more peaceful than I was and the moment of weakness passed, I
spoke to them in all humility on non-violence I needed the lesson more than they and they heeded me and
peacefully dispersed.
Quoted in Sarvapalli Gopal, J awaharlal Nehru: A Biography, Vol. I.
Source
Source B
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
60
Tribal peasants interpreted the message of Mahatma Gandhi and
the idea of swaraj in yet another way. In the Gudem Hills of Andhra
Pradesh, for instance, a militant guerrilla movement spread in
the early 1920s not a form of struggle that the Congress could
approve. Here, as in other forest regions, the colonial government
had closed large forest areas, preventing people from entering
the forests to graze their cattle, or to collect fuelwood and fruits.
This enraged the hill people. Not only were their livelihoods
affected but they felt that their traditional rights were being denied.
When the government began forcing them to contribute begar
for road building, the hill people revolted. The person who came
to lead them was an interesting figure. Alluri Sitaram Raju claimed
that he had a variety of special powers: he could make correct
astrological predictions and heal people, and he could survive
even bullet shots. Captivated by Raju, the rebels proclaimed that
he was an incarnation of God. Raju talked of the greatness of
Mahatma Gandhi, said he was inspired by the Non-Cooperation
Movement, and persuaded people to wear khadi and give up drinking.
But at the same time he asserted that India could be liberated only
by the use of force, not non-violence. The Gudem rebels attacked
police stations, attempted to kill British officials and carried on
guerrilla warfare for achieving swaraj. Raju was captured and
executed in 1924, and over time became a folk hero.
2.3 Swaraj in the Plantations
Workers too had their own understanding of Mahatma Gandhi
and the notion of swaraj. For plantation workers in Assam, freedom
meant the right to move freely in and out of the confined space in
which they were enclosed, and it meant retaining a link with the
village from which they had come. Under the Inland Emigration
Act of 1859, plantation workers were not permitted to leave the
tea gardens without permission, and in fact they were rarely given
such permission. When they heard of the Non-Cooperation
Movement, thousands of workers defied the authorities, left the
plantations and headed home. They believed that Gandhi Raj was
coming and everyone would be given land in their own villages.
They, however, never reached their destination. Stranded on the way
by a railway and steamer strike, they were caught by the police and
brutally beaten up.
Find out about other participants in the
National Movement who were captured and
put to death by the British. Can you think of a
similar example from the national movement
in Indo-China (Chapter 2)?
Activity
61
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

I
n
d
i
a
The visions of these movements were not defined by the Congress
programme. They interpreted the term swaraj in their own ways,
imagining it to be a time when all suffering and all troubles would
be over. Yet, when the tribals chanted Gandhijis name and raised
slogans demanding Swatantra Bharat, they were also emotionally
relating to an all-India agitation. When they acted in the name of
Mahatma Gandhi, or linked their movement to that of the Congress,
they were identifying with a movement which went beyond the limits
of their immediate locality.
Fig. 5 Chauri Chaura, 1922.
At Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur, a peaceful demonstration in a bazaar turned into a
violent clash with the police. Hearing of the incident, Mahatma Gandhi called a halt
to the Non-Cooperation Movement.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
62
3 Towards Civil Disobedience
In February 1922, Mahatma Gandhi decided to withdraw the
Non-Cooperation Movement. He felt the movement was turning
violent in many places and satyagrahis needed to be properly trained
before they would be ready for mass struggles. Within the Congress,
some leaders were by now tired of mass struggles and wanted to
participate in elections to the provincial councils that had been set
up by the Government of India Act of 1919. They felt that it was
important to oppose British policies within the councils, argue for
reform and also demonstrate that these councils were not truly
democratic. C. R. Das and Motilal Nehru formed the Swaraj Party
within the Congress to argue for a return to council politics. But
younger leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose
pressed for more radical mass agitation and for full independence.
In such a situation of internal debate and dissension two factors
again shaped Indian politics towards the late 1920s. The first was
the effect of the worldwide economic depression. Agricultural prices
began to fall from 1926 and collapsed after 1930. As the demand
for agricultural goods fell and exports declined, peasants found it
difficult to sell their harvests and pay their revenue. By 1930, the
countryside was in turmoil.
Against this background the new Tory government in Britain
constituted a Statutory Commission under Sir John Simon. Set up
in response to the nationalist movement, the
commission was to look into the functioning of
the constitutional system in India and suggest
changes. The problem was that the commission
did not have a single Indian member. They were
all British.
When the Simon Commission arrived in India in
1928, it was greeted with the slogan Go back
Simon. All parties, including the Congress and the
Muslim League, participated in the demonstrations.
In an effort to win them over, the viceroy, Lord
Irwin, announced in October 1929, a vague offer
of dominion status for India in an unspecified
future, and a Round Table Conference to discuss a
future constitution. This did not satisfy the Congress
leaders. The radicals within the Congress, led by
Fig. 6 Meeting of Congress leaders at Allahabad, 1931.
Apart from Mahatma Gandhi, you can see Sardar Vallabhbhai
Patel (extreme left), Jawaharlal Nehru (extreme right) and Subhas
Chandra Bose (fifth from right).
63
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

I
n
d
i
a
Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose, became more assertive.
The liberals and moderates, who were proposing a constitutional
system within the framework of British dominion, gradually lost
their influence. In December 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal
Nehru, the Lahore Congress formalised the demand of Purna
Swaraj or full independence for India. It was declared that 26 January
1930, would be celebrated as the Independence Day when people
were to take a pledge to struggle for complete independence. But
the celebrations attracted very little attention. So Mahatma Gandhi
had to find a way to relate this abstract idea of freedom to more
concrete issues of everyday life.
3.1 The Salt March and the Civil Disobedience Movement
Mahatma Gandhi found in salt a powerful symbol that could unite
the nation. On 31 January 1930, he sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin
stating eleven demands. Some of these were of general interest;
others were specific demands of different classes, from industrialists
to peasants. The idea was to make the demands wide-ranging, so
that all classes within Indian society could identify with them and
everyone could be brought together in a united campaign. The most
stirring of all was the demand to abolish the salt tax. Salt was
something consumed by the rich and the poor alike, and it was one
of the most essential items of food. The tax on salt and the
government monopoly over its production, Mahatma Gandhi
declared, revealed the most oppressive face of British rule.
Mahatma Gandhis letter was, in a way, an ultimatum. If the
demands were not fulfilled by 11 March, the letter stated, the
Congress would launch a civil disobedience campaign. Irwin was
unwilling to negotiate. So Mahatma Gandhi started his famous
salt march accompanied by 78 of his trusted volunteers. The march
was over 240 miles, from Gandhijis ashram in Sabarmati to the
Gujarati coastal town of Dandi. The volunteers walked for 24 days,
about 10 miles a day. Thousands came to hear Mahatma Gandhi
wherever he stopped, and he told them what he meant by swaraj
and urged them to peacefully defy the British. On 6 April he reached
Dandi, and ceremonially violated the law, manufacturing salt by
boiling sea water.
This marked the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
How was this movement different from the Non-Cooperation
Movement? People were now asked not only to refuse cooperation
The Independence Day Pledge, 26 J anuary
1930
We believe that it is the inalienable right of the
Indian people, as of any other people, to have
freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil and
have the necessities of life, so that they may
have full opportunities of growth. We believe
also that if any government deprives a people of
these rights and oppresses them, the people
have a further right to alter it or to abolish it.
The British Government in I ndia has not only
deprived the Indian people of their freedom but
has based itself on the exploitation of the masses,
and has ruined India economically, politically,
culturally, and spiritually. We believe, therefore,
that India must sever the British connection and
attain Purna Swaraj or Complete Independence.
Source C
Source
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
64
with the British, as they had done in 1921-22, but also to break
colonial laws. Thousands in different parts of the country broke
the salt law, manufactured salt and demonstrated in front of
government salt factories. As the movement spread, foreign cloth
was boycotted, and liquor shops were picketed. Peasants refused to
pay revenue and chaukidari taxes, village officials resigned, and in
many places forest people violated forest laws going into Reserved
Forests to collect wood and graze cattle.
Worried by the developments, the colonial government began
arresting the Congress leaders one by one. This led to violent clashes
in many palaces. When Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a devout disciple of
Mahatma Gandhi, was arrested in April 1930, angry crowds
demonstrated in the streets of Peshawar, facing armoured cars and
police firing. Many were killed. A month later, when Mahatma
Gandhi himself was arrested, industrial workers in Sholapur attacked
police posts, municipal buildings, lawcourts and railway stations
all structures that symbolised British rule. A frightened government
responded with a policy of brutal repression. Peaceful satyagrahis
were attacked, women and children were beaten, and about 100,000
people were arrested.
In such a situation, Mahatma Gandhi once again decided to call off
the movement and entered into a pact with Irwin on 5 March 1931.
By this Gandhi-Irwin Pact, Gandhiji consented to participate in a
Round Table Conference (the Congress had boycotted the first
Fig. 7 The Dandi march.
During the salt march Mahatma
Gandhi was accompanied by
78 volunteers. On the way
they were joined by thousands.
Fig. 8 Police cracked down on satyagrahis,
1930.
65
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

I
n
d
i
a
Round Table Conference) in London and the government agreed to
release the political prisoners. In December 1931, Gandhiji went to
London for the conference, but the negotiations broke down and
he returned disappointed. Back in India, he discovered that the
government had begun a new cycle of repression. Ghaffar Khan
and Jawaharlal Nehru were both in jail, the Congress had been
declared illegal, and a series of measures had been imposed to prevent
meetings, demonstrations and boycotts. With great apprehension,
Mahatma Gandhi relaunched the Civil Disobedience Movement.
For over a year, the movement continued, but by 1934 it lost
its momentum.
3.2 How Participants saw the Movement
Let us now look at the different social groups that participated in the
Civil Disobedience Movement. Why did they join the movement?
What were their ideals? What did swaraj mean to them?
In the countryside, rich peasant communities like the Patidars of
Gujarat and the Jats of Uttar Pradesh were active in the movement.
Being producers of commercial crops, they were very hard hit by
the trade depression and falling prices. As their cash income
disappeared, they found it impossible to pay the governments revenue
demand. And the refusal of the government to reduce the revenue
demand led to widespread resentment. These rich peasants became
enthusiastic supporters of the Civil Disobedience Movement,
organising their communities, and at times forcing reluctant members,
to participate in the boycott programmes. For them the fight for
swaraj was a struggle against high revenues. But they were deeply
disappointed when the movement was called off in 1931 without
the revenue rates being revised. So when the movement was restarted
in 1932, many of them refused to participate.
The poorer peasantry were not just interested in the lowering of the
revenue demand. Many of them were small tenants cultivating land
they had rented from landlords. As the Depression continued and
cash incomes dwindled, the small tenants found it difficult to pay
their rent. They wanted the unpaid rent to the landlord to be remitted.
They joined a variety of radical movements, often led by Socialists
and Communists. Apprehensive of raising issues that might upset
the rich peasants and landlords, the Congress was unwilling to support
no rent campaigns in most places. So the relationship between the
poor peasants and the Congress remained uncertain.
To the altar of this revolution we have
brought our youth as incense
Many nationalists thought that the struggle
against the British could not be won through
non-violence. I n 1928, the Hindustan Socialist
Republican Army (HSRA) was founded at a
meeting in Ferozeshah Kotla ground in Delhi.
Amongst its leaders were Bhagat Singh, J atin
Das and Ajoy Ghosh. I n a series of dramatic
actions in different parts of I ndia, the HSRA
targeted some of the symbols of British power.
I n April 1929, Bhagat Singh and Batukeswar
Dutta threw a bomb in the Legislative Assembly.
In the same year there was an attempt to blow
up the train that Lord I rwin was travelling in.
Bhagat Singh was 23 when he was tried and
executed by the colonial government. During
his trial, Bhagat Singh stated that he did not
wish to glorify the cult of the bomb and pistol
but wanted a revolution in society:
Revolution is the inalienable right of mankind.
Freedom is the imprescriptible birthright of all.
The labourer is the real sustainer of society
To the altar of this revolution we have brought
our youth as incense, for no sacrifice is too
great for so magnificent a cause. We are
content. We await the advent of revolution.
Inquilab Zindabad!
Box 1
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
66
What about the business classes? How did they relate to the Civil
Disobedience Movement? During the First World War, Indian
merchants and industrialists had made huge profits and become
powerful (see Chapter 5). Keen on expanding their business, they
now reacted against colonial policies that restricted business activities.
They wanted protection against imports of foreign goods, and a
rupee-sterling foreign exchange ratio that would discourage imports.
To organise business interests, they formed the Indian Industrial
and Commercial Congress in 1920 and the Federation of the Indian
Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) in 1927. Led by
prominent industrialists like Purshottamdas Thakurdas and
G. D. Birla, the industrialists attacked colonial control over the Indian
economy, and supported the Civil Disobedience Movement when
it was first launched. They gave financial assistance and refused to
buy or sell imported goods. Most businessmen came to see swaraj
as a time when colonial restrictions on business would no longer
exist and trade and industry would flourish without constraints. But
after the failure of the Round Table Conference, business groups
were no longer uniformly enthusiastic. They were apprehensive of
the spread of militant activities, and worried about prolonged
disruption of business, as well as of the growing influence of
socialism amongst the younger members of the Congress.
The industrial working classes did not participate in the Civil
Disobedience Movement in large numbers, except in the Nagpur
region. As the industrialists came closer to the Congress, workers
stayed aloof. But in spite of that, some workers did participate in
the Civil Disobedience Movement, selectively adopting some of
the ideas of the Gandhian programme, like boycott of foreign
goods, as part of their own movements against low wages and
poor working conditions. There were strikes by railway workers in
1930 and dockworkers in 1932. In 1930 thousands of workers in
Chotanagpur tin mines wore Gandhi caps and participated in protest
rallies and boycott campaigns. But the Congress was reluctant to
include workers demands as part of its programme of struggle.
It felt that this would alienate industrialists and divide the anti-
imperial forces.
Another important feature of the Civil Disobedience Movement
was the large-scale participation of women. During Gandhijis salt
march, thousands of women came out of their homes to listen to
him. They participated in protest marches, manufactured salt, and
1918-19
Distressed UP peasants organised by Baba
Ramchandra.
April 1919
Gandhian hartal against Rowlatt Act; Jallianwala
Bagh massacre.
January 1921
Non-Cooperation and Khilafat movement
launched.
February 1922
Chauri Chaura; Gandhiji withdraws Non-
Cooperation movement.
May 1924
Alluri Sitarama Raju arrested ending a two-year
armed tribal struggle.
December 1929
Lahore Congress; Congress adopts the demand
for Purna Swaraj.
1930
Ambedkar establishes Depressed Classes
Association.
March 1930
Gandhiji begins Civil Disobedience Movement by
breaking salt law at Dandi.
March 1931
Gandhiji ends Civil Disobedience Movement.
December 1931
Second Round Table Conference.
1932
Civil Disobedience re-launched.
67
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

I
n
d
i
a
picketed foreign cloth and liquor shops. Many went to jail. In urban
areas these women were from high-caste families; in rural areas
they came from rich peasant households. Moved by Gandhijis call,
they began to see service to the nation as a sacred duty of women.
Yet, this increased public role did not necessarily mean any radical
change in the way the position of women was visualised. Gandhiji
was convinced that it was the duty of women to look after home
and hearth, be good mothers and good wives. And for a long time
the Congress was reluctant to allow women to hold any position
of authority within the organisation. It was keen only on their
symbolic presence.
3.3 The Limits of Civil Disobedience
Not all social groups were moved by the abstract concept of swaraj.
One such group was the nations untouchables, who from around
the 1930s had begun to call themselves dalit or oppressed. For
long the Congress had ignored the dalits, for fear of offending the
sanatanis, the conservative high-caste Hindus. But Mahatma Gandhi
declared that swaraj would not come for a hundred years if
untouchability was not eliminated. He called the untouchables harijan,
Why did various classes and groups of Indians
participate in the Civil Disobedience
Movement?
Discuss
Fig. 9 Women join
nationalist processions.
During the national
movement, many women,
for the first time in their
lives, moved out of their
homes on to a public arena.
Amongst the marchers you
can see many old women,
and mothers with children in
their arms.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
68
or the children of God, organised satyagraha to secure them entry
into temples, and access to public wells, tanks, roads and schools.
He himself cleaned toilets to dignify the work of the bhangi (the
sweepers), and persuaded upper castes to change their heart and
give up the sin of untouchability. But many dalit leaders were keen
on a different political solution to the problems of the community.
They began organising themselves, demanding reserved seats in
educational institutions, and a separate electorate that would choose
dalit members for legislative councils. Political empowerment, they
believed, would resolve the problems of their social disabilities.
Dalit participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement was
therefore limited, particularly in the Maharashtra and Nagpur region
where their organisation was quite strong.
Dr B.R. Ambedkar, who organised the dalits into the Depressed
Classes Association in 1930, clashed with Mahatma Gandhi at
the second Round Table Conference by demanding separate
electorates for dalits. When the British government conceded
Ambedkars demand, Gandhiji began a fast unto death. He believed
that separate electorates for dalits would slow down the process of
their integration into society. Ambedkar ultimately accepted Gandhijis
position and the result was the Poona Pact of September 1932.
It gave the Depressed Classes (later to be known as the Schedule
Castes) reserved seats in provincial and central legislative councils,
but they were to be voted in by the general electorate. The dalit
movement, however, continued to be apprehensive of the Congress-
led national movement.
Some of the Muslim political organisations in India were also
lukewarm in their response to the Civil Disobedience Movement.
After the decline of the Non-Cooperation-Khilafat movement, a
large section of Muslims felt alienated from the Congress. From the
mid-1920s the Congress came to be more visibly associated with
openly Hindu religious nationalist groups like the Hindu Mahasabha.
As relations between Hindus and Muslims worsened, each
community organised religious processions with militant fervour,
provoking Hindu-Muslim communal clashes and riots in various
cities. Every riot deepened the distance between the two communities.
The Congress and the Muslim League made efforts to renegotiate
an alliance, and in 1927 it appeared that such a unity could be forged.
The important differences were over the question of representation
in the future assemblies that were to be elected. Muhammad Ali
Fig. 10 Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru
and Maulana Azad at Sevagram Ashram,
Wardha, 1935.
69
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

I
n
d
i
a
Jinnah, one of the leaders of the Muslim League, was willing to give
up the demand for separate electorates, if Muslims were assured
reserved seats in the Central Assembly and representation in
proportion to population in the Muslim-dominated provinces (Bengal
and Punjab). Negotiations over the question of representation
continued but all hope of resolving the issue at the All Parties
Conference in 1928 disappeared when M.R. Jayakar of the Hindu
Mahasabha strongly opposed efforts at compromise.
When the Civil Disobedience Movement started there was thus
an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust between communities.
Alienated from the Congress, large sections of Muslims could not
respond to the call for a united struggle. Many Muslim leaders and
intellectuals expressed their concern about the status of Muslims
as a minority within India. They feared that the culture and identity
of minorities would be submerged under the domination of a
Hindu majority.
In 1930, Sir Muhammad Iqbal, as president of the Muslim League, reiterated the importance of separate electorates for
the Muslims as an important safeguard for their minority political interests. His statement is supposed to have provided the
intellectual justification for the Pakistan demand that came up in subsequent years. This is what he said:
I have no hesitation in declaring that if the principle that the Indian Muslim is entitled to full and free development on the
lines of his own culture and tradition in his own Indian home-lands is recognised as the basis of a permanent communal
settlement, he will be ready to stake his all for the freedom of India. The principle that each group is entitled to free
development on its own lines is not inspired by any feeling of narrow communalism A community which is inspired by
feelings of ill-will towards other communities is low and ignoble. I entertain the highest respect for the customs, laws,
religions and social institutions of other communities. Nay, it is my duty according to the teachings of the Quran, even to
defend their places of worship, if need be. Yet I love the communal group which is the source of life and behaviour and
which has formed me what I am by giving me its religion, its literature, its thought, its culture and thereby its whole past
as a living operative factor in my present consciousness
Communalism in its higher aspect, then, is indispensable to the formation of a harmonious whole in a country like India.
The units of Indian society are not territorial as in European countries The principle of European democracy cannot be
applied to India without recognising the fact of communal groups. The Muslim demand for the creation of a Muslim India
within India is, therefore, perfectly justified
The Hindu thinks that separate electorates are contrary to the spirit of true nationalism, because he understands the
word nation to mean a kind of universal amalgamation in which no communal entity ought to retain its private individuality.
Such a state of things, however, does not exist. India is a land of racial and religious variety. Add to this the general
economic inferiority of the Muslims, their enormous debt, especially in the Punjab, and their insufficient majorities in some
of the provinces, as at present constituted and you will begin to see clearly the meaning of our anxiety to retain separate
electorates.
Source D
Source
Read the Source D carefully. Do you agree with Iqbals idea of communalism? Can you define communalism in a
different way?
Discuss
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
70
4 The Sense of Collective Belonging
Nationalism spreads when people begin to believe that they are all
part of the same nation, when they discover some unity that binds
them together. But how did the nation become a reality in the minds
of people? How did people belonging to different communities,
regions or language groups develop a sense of collective belonging?
This sense of collective belonging came partly through the experience
of united struggles. But there were also a variety of cultural processes
through which nationalism captured peoples imagination. History
and fiction, folklore and songs, popular prints and symbols, all played
a part in the making of nationalism.
Fig. 11 Bal Gangadhar Tilak,
an early-twentieth-century print.
Notice how Tilak is surrounded by symbols of
unity. The sacred institutions of different faiths
(temple, church, masjid) frame the central figure.
71
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

I
n
d
i
a
The identity of the nation, as you know (see Chapter 1), is most
often symbolised in a figure or image. This helps create an image
with which people can identify the nation. It was in the twentieth
century, with the growth of nationalism, that the identity of India
came to be visually associated with the image of Bharat Mata. The
image was first created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. In the
1870s he wrote Vande Mataram as a hymn to the motherland.
Later it was included in his novel Anandamath and widely sung during
the Swadeshi movement in Bengal. Moved by the Swadeshi
movement, Abanindranath Tagore painted his famous image of
Bharat Mata (see Fig. 12). In this painting Bharat Mata is portrayed
as an ascetic figure; she is calm, composed, divine and spiritual.
In subsequent years, the image of Bharat Mata acquired many
different forms, as it circulated in popular prints, and was painted
by different artists (see Fig. 14). Devotion to this mother figure came
to be seen as evidence of ones nationalism.
Ideas of nationalism also developed through a movement to revive
Indian folklore. In late-nineteenth-century India, nationalists began
recording folk tales sung by bards and they toured villages to gather
folk songs and legends. These tales, they believed, gave a true picture
of traditional culture that had been corrupted and damaged by
outside forces. It was essential to preserve this folk tradition in
order to discover ones national identity and restore a sense of pride
in ones past. In Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore himself began collecting
ballads, nursery rhymes and myths, and led the movement for folk
Fig. 12 Bharat Mata, Abanindranath Tagore,
1905.
Notice that the mother figure here is shown as
dispensing learning, food and clothing. The mala
in one hand emphasises her ascetic quality.
Abanindranath Tagore, like Ravi Varma before
him, tried to develop a style of painting that
could be seen as truly Indian.
Fig. 13 Jawaharlal Nehru, a popular print.
Nehru is here shown holding the image of Bharat Mata and the map of India
close to his heart. In a lot of popular prints, nationalist leaders are shown
offering their heads to Bharat Mata. The idea of sacrifice for the mother was
powerful within popular imagination.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
72
In earlier times, foreign travellers in India marvelled at the courage, truthfulness and modesty of the people of the Arya
vamsa; now they remark mainly on the absence of those qualities. In those days Hindus would set out on conquest and
hoist their flags in Tartar, China and other countries; now a few soldiers from a tiny island far away are lording it over the
land of India.
Tarinicharan Chattopadhyay, Bharatbarsher Itihas (The History of Bharatbarsh), vol. 1, 1858.
Source E
Source
revival. In Madras, Natesa Sastri published a massive four-volume
collection of Tamil folk tales, The Folklore of Southern India. He believed
that folklore was national literature; it was the most trustworthy
manifestation of peoples real thoughts and characteristics.
As the national movement developed, nationalist leaders became
more and more aware of such icons and symbols in unifying people
and inspiring in them a feeling of nationalism. During the Swadeshi
movement in Bengal, a tricolour flag (red, green and yellow) was
designed. It had eight lotuses representing eight provinces of British
India, and a crescent moon, representing Hindus and Muslims. By
1921, Gandhiji had designed the Swaraj flag. It was again a tricolour
(red, green and white) and had a spinning wheel in the centre,
representing the Gandhian ideal of self-help. Carrying the flag,
holding it aloft, during marches became a symbol of defiance.
Another means of creating a feeling of nationalism was through
reinterpretation of history. By the end of the nineteenth century
many Indians began feeling that to instill a sense of pride in the
nation, Indian history had to be thought about differently. The British
saw Indians as backward and primitive, incapable of governing
themselves. In response, Indians began looking into the past to
discover Indias great achievements. They wrote about the glorious
developments in ancient times when art and architecture, science
and mathematics, religion and culture, law and philosophy, crafts
and trade had flourished. This glorious time, in their view, was
followed by a history of decline, when India was colonised. These
nationalist histories urged the readers to take pride in Indias great
achievements in the past and struggle to change the miserable
conditions of life under British rule.
These efforts to unify people were not without problems. When the
past being glorified was Hindu, when the images celebrated were
drawn from Hindu iconography, then people of other communities
felt left out.
Fig. 14 Bharat Mata.
This figure of Bharat Mata is a contrast to the
one painted by Abanindranath Tagore. Here she
is shown with a trishul, standing beside a lion
and an elephant both symbols of power and
authority.
Look at Figs. 12 and 14. Do you think these
images will appeal to all castes and communities?
Explain your views briefly.
Activity
73
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m

i
n

I
n
d
i
a
Conclusion
A growing anger against the colonial government was thus bringing
together various groups and classes of Indians into a common struggle
for freedom in the first half of the twentieth century. The Congress
under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi tried to channel peoples
grievances into organised movements for independence. Through
such movements the nationalists tried to forge a national unity. But
as we have seen, diverse groups and classes participated in these
movements with varied aspirations and expectations. As their
grievances were wide-ranging, freedom from colonial rule also meant
different things to different people. The Congress continuously
attempted to resolve differences, and ensure that the demands of
one group did not alienate another. This is precisely why the unity
within the movement often broke down. The high points of
Congress activity and nationalist unity were followed by phases of
disunity and inner conflict between groups.
In other words, what was emerging was a nation with many voices
wanting freedom from colonial rule.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
74
Discuss
Project
1. List all the different social groups which joined the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1921.
Then choose any three and write about their hopes and struggles to show why they
joined the movement.
2. Discuss the Salt March to make clear why it was an effective symbol of resistance
against colonialism.
3. Imagine you are a woman participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement. Explain
what the experience meant to your life.
4. Why did political leaders differ sharply over the question of separate electorates?
Find out about the anti-colonial movement in Kenya. Compare and contrast Indias national
movement with the ways in which Kenya became independent.
D
i
s
c
u
s
s
Write in brief
1. Explain:
a) Why growth of nationalism in the colonies is linked to an anti-colonial movement.
b) How the First World War helped in the growth of the National Movement in India.
c) Why Indians were outraged by the Rowlatt Act.
d) Why Gandhiji decided to withdraw the Non-Cooperation Movement.
2. What is meant by the idea of satyagraha?
3. Write a newspaper report on:
a) The Jallianwala Bagh massacre
b) The Simon Commission
4. Compare the images of Bharat Mata in this chapter with the image of Germania
in Chapter 1.
W
r
i
t
e

i
n

b
r
i
e
f
Project
77
T
h
e

M
a
k
i
n
g

o
f

a

G
l
o
b
a
l

W
o
r
l
d
1 The Pre-modern World
When we talk of globalisation we often refer to an economic
system that has emerged since the last 50 years or so. But as you will
see in this chapter, the making of the global world has a long
history of trade, of migration, of people in search of work, the
movement of capital, and much else. As we think about the dramatic
and visible signs of global interconnectedness in our lives today,
we need to understand the phases through which this world in
which we live has emerged.
All through history, human societies have become steadily more
interlinked. From ancient times, travellers, traders, priests and
pilgrims travelled vast distances for knowledge, opportunity and
spiritual fulfilment, or to escape persecution. They carried goods,
money, values, skills, ideas, inventions, and even germs and diseases.
As early as 3000 BCE an active coastal trade linked the Indus valley
civilisations with present-day West Asia. For more than a millennia,
cowries (the Hindi cowdi or seashells, used as a form of currency)
from the Maldives found their way to China and East Africa. The
long-distance spread of disease-carrying germs may be traced as
far back as the seventh century. By the thirteenth century it had
become an unmistakable link.
T
h
e

M
a
k
i
n
g

o
f

a

G
l
o
b
a
l

W
o
r
l
d
C
h
a
p
t
e
r

I
V
The Making of a Global World
Fig. 1 Image of a ship on a memorial stone,
Goa Museum, tenth century CE.
From the ninth century, images of ships
appear regularly in memorial stones found in
the western coast, indicating the significance
of oceanic trade.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
78
1.1 Silk Routes Link the World
The silk routes are a good example of vibrant pre-modern trade
and cultural links between distant parts of the world. The name silk
routes points to the importance of West-bound Chinese silk cargoes
along this route. Historians have identified several silk routes, over
land and by sea, knitting together vast regions of Asia, and linking
Asia with Europe and northern Africa. They are known to have
existed since before the Christian Era and thrived almost till the
fifteenth century. But Chinese pottery also travelled the same route,
as did textiles and spices from India and Southeast Asia. In return,
precious metals gold and silver flowed from Europe to Asia.
Trade and cultural exchange always went hand in hand. Early
Christian missionaries almost certainly travelled this route to Asia, as
did early Muslim preachers a few centuries later. Much before all
this, Buddhism emerged from eastern India and spread in several
directions through intersecting points on the silk routes.
1.2 Food Travels: Spaghetti and Potato
Food offers many examples of long-distance cultural exchange.
Traders and travellers introduced new crops to the lands they
travelled. Even ready foodstuff in distant parts of the world might
share common origins. Take spaghetti and noodles. It is believed
that noodles travelled west from China to
become spaghetti. Or, perhaps Arab traders
took pasta to fifth-century Sicily, an island now
in Italy. Similar foods were also known in India
and Japan, so the truth about their origins may
never be known. Yet such guesswork suggests
the possibilities of long-distance cultural contact
even in the pre-modern world.
Many of our common foods such as potatoes,
soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies,
sweet potatoes, and so on were not known to
our ancestors until about five centuries ago.
These foods were only introduced in Europe
and Asia after Christopher Columbus
accidentally discovered the vast continent that
would later become known as the Americas.
Fig. 3 Merchants from Venice and the Orient exchanging goods,
from Marco Polo, Book of Marvels, fifteenth century.
Fig. 2 Silk route trade as depicted in a
Chinese cave painting, eighth century, Cave
217, Mogao Grottoes, Gansu, China.
79
T
h
e

M
a
k
i
n
g

o
f

a

G
l
o
b
a
l

W
o
r
l
d
(Here we will use America to describe North America, South
America and the Caribbean.) In fact, many of our common foods
came from Americas original inhabitants the American Indians.
Sometimes the new crops could make the difference between life
and death. Europes poor began to eat better and live longer with
the introduction of the humble potato. Irelands poorest peasants
became so dependent on potatoes that when disease destroyed the
potato crop in the mid-1840s, hundreds of thousands died
of starvation.
1.3 Conquest, Disease and Trade
The pre-modern world shrank greatly in the sixteenth century after
European sailors found a sea route to Asia and also successfully
crossed the western ocean to America. For centuries before, the
Indian Ocean had known a bustling trade, with goods, people,
knowledge, customs, etc. criss-crossing its waters. The Indian
subcontinent was central to these flows and a crucial point in their
networks. The entry of the Europeans helped expand or redirect
some of these flows towards Europe.
Before its discovery, America had been cut off from regular contact
with the rest of the world for millions of years. But from the sixteenth
century, its vast lands and abundant crops and minerals began to
transform trade and lives everywhere.
Precious metals, particularly silver, from mines located in present-
day Peru and Mexico also enhanced Europes wealth and financed
its trade with Asia. Legends spread in seventeenth-century Europe
about South Americas fabled wealth. Many expeditions set off in
search of El Dorado, the fabled city of gold.
The Portuguese and Spanish conquest and colonisation of America
was decisively under way by the mid-sixteenth century. European
conquest was not just a result of superior firepower. In fact, the
most powerful weapon of the Spanish conquerors was not a
conventional military weapon at all. It was the germs such as those
of smallpox that they carried on their person. Because of their long
isolation, Americas original inhabitants had no immunity against
these diseases that came from Europe. Smallpox in particular proved
a deadly killer. Once introduced, it spread deep into the continent,
ahead even of any Europeans reaching there. It killed and decimated
whole communities, paving the way for conquest.
Fig. 4 The Irish Potato Famine, Illustrated
London News, 1849.
Hungry children digging for potatoes in a field that
has already been harvested, hoping to discover
some leftovers. During the Great Irish Potato
Famine (1845 to 1849), around 1,000,000
people died of starvation in Ireland, and double the
number emigrated in search of work.
Biological warfare?
J ohn Winthorp, the first governor of the
Massachusetts Bay colony in New England,
wrote in May 1634 that smallpox signalled Gods
blessing for the colonists: the natives were
neere (near) all dead of small Poxe (pox), so as
the Lord hathe (had) cleared our title to what
we possess.
Alfred Crosby, Ecological I mperialism.
Box 1
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
80
Explain what we mean when we say that the
world shrank in the 1500s.
Discuss
Guns could be bought or captured and turned against the invaders.
But not diseases such as smallpox to which the conquerors were
mostly immune.
Until the nineteenth century, poverty and hunger were common in
Europe. Cities were crowded and deadly diseases were widespread.
Religious conflicts were common, and religious dissenters were
persecuted. Thousands therefore fled Europe for America. Here,
by the eighteenth century, plantations worked by slaves captured
in Africa were growing cotton and sugar for European markets.
Until well into the eighteenth century, China and India were among
the worlds richest countries. They were also pre-eminent in Asian
trade. However, from the fifteenth century, China is said to have
restricted overseas contacts and retreated into isolation. Chinas
reduced role and the rising importance of the Americas gradually
moved the centre of world trade westwards. Europe now emerged
as the centre of world trade.
New words
Dissenter One who refuses to accept
established beliefs and practices
Fig. 5 Slaves for sale, New Orleans, Illustrated London News, 1851.
A prospective buyer carefully inspecting slaves lined up before the auction. You can see two
children along with four women and seven men in top hats and suit waiting to be sold. To attract
buyers, slaves were often dressed in their best clothes.
81
T
h
e

M
a
k
i
n
g

o
f

a

G
l
o
b
a
l

W
o
r
l
d
The world changed profoundly in the nineteenth century. Economic,
political, social, cultural and technological factors interacted in
complex ways to transform societies and reshape external relations.
Economists identify three types of movement or flows within
international economic exchanges. The first is the flow of trade which
in the nineteenth century referred largely to trade in goods (e.g.,
cloth or wheat). The second is the flow of labour the migration
of people in search of employment. The third is the movement of
capital for short-term or long-term investments over long distances.
All three flows were closely interwoven and affected peoples lives
more deeply now than ever before. The interconnections could
sometimes be broken for example, labour migration was often
more restricted than goods or capital flows. Yet it helps us understand
the nineteenth-century world economy better if we look at the
three flows together.
2.1 A World Economy Takes Shape
A good place to start is the changing pattern of food production
and consumption in industrial Europe. Traditionally, countries liked
to be self-sufficient in food. But in nineteenth-century Britain,
self-sufficiency in food meant lower living standards and social
conflict. Why was this so?
Population growth from the late eighteenth century had increased
the demand for food grains in Britain. As urban centres expanded
and industry grew, the demand for agricultural products went
up, pushing up food grain prices. Under pressure from landed
groups, the government also restricted the import of corn. The
laws allowing the government to do this were commonly known as
the Corn Laws. Unhappy with high food prices, industrialists and
urban dwellers forced the abolition of the Corn Laws.
After the Corn Laws were scrapped, food could be imported into
Britain more cheaply than it could be produced within the country.
British agriculture was unable to compete with imports. Vast areas
of land were now left uncultivated, and thousands of men and
women were thrown out of work. They flocked to the cities or
migrated overseas.
2 The Nineteenth Century (1815-1914)
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
82
As food prices fell, consumption in Britain rose. From the mid-
nineteenth century, faster industrial growth in Britain also led to higher
incomes, and therefore more food imports. Around the world in
Eastern Europe, Russia, America and Australia lands were cleared
and food production expanded to meet the British demand.
It was not enough merely to clear lands for agriculture. Railways
were needed to link the agricultural regions to the ports. New
harbours had to be built and old ones expanded to ship the new
cargoes. People had to settle on the lands to bring them under
cultivation. This meant building homes and settlements. All these
activities in turn required capital and labour. Capital flowed from
financial centres such as London. The demand for labour in places
where labour was in short supply as in America and Australia
led to more migration.
Nearly 50 million people emigrated from Europe to America and
Australia in the nineteenth century. All over the world some 150
million are estimated to have left their homes, crossed oceans and
vast distances over land in search of a better future.
Fig. 6 Emigrant ship leaving for the US, by
M.W. Ridley, 1869.
Fig. 7 Irish emigrants waiting to board the ship, by Michael Fitzgerald, 1874.
83
T
h
e

M
a
k
i
n
g

o
f

a

G
l
o
b
a
l

W
o
r
l
d
Prepare a flow chart to show how Britains
decision to import food led to increased
migration to America and Australia.
Activity
Thus by 1890, a global agricultural economy had taken shape,
accompanied by complex changes in labour movement patterns,
capital flows, ecologies and technology. Food no longer came from
a nearby village or town, but from thousands of miles away. It was
not grown by a peasant tilling his own land, but by an agricultural
worker, perhaps recently arrived, who was now working on a large
farm that only a generation ago had most likely been a forest. It was
transported by railway, built for that very purpose, and by ships
which were increasingly manned in these decades by low-paid
workers from southern Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.
Imagine that you are an agricultural worker who has arrived in
America from Ireland. Write a paragraph on why you chose to
come and how you are earning your living.
Activity
Some of this dramatic change, though on a smaller scale, occurred
closer home in west Punjab. Here the British Indian government
built a network of irrigation canals to transform semi-desert wastes
into fertile agricultural lands that could grow wheat and cotton for
export. The Canal Colonies, as the areas irrigated by the new canals
were called, were settled by peasants from other parts of Punjab.
Of course, food is merely an example. A similar story can be told
for cotton, the cultivation of which expanded worldwide to feed
British textile mills. Or rubber. Indeed, so rapidly did regional
specialisation in the production of commodities develop, that
between 1820 and 1914 world trade is estimated to have multiplied
25 to 40 times. Nearly 60 per cent of this trade comprised primary
products that is, agricultural products such as wheat and cotton,
and minerals such as coal.
2.2 Role of Technology
What was the role of technology in all this? The railways, steamships,
the telegraph, for example, were important inventions without
which we cannot imagine the transformed nineteenth-century world.
But technological advances were often the result of larger social,
political and economic factors. For example, colonisation stimulated
new investments and improvements in transport: faster railways,
lighter wagons and larger ships helped move food more cheaply
and quickly from faraway farms to final markets.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
84
The trade in meat offers a good example of this connected process.
Till the 1870s, animals were shipped live from America to Europe
and then slaughtered when they arrived there. But live animals took
up a lot of ship space. Many also died in voyage, fell ill, lost weight,
or became unfit to eat. Meat was hence an expensive luxury beyond
the reach of the European poor. High prices in turn kept demand
and production down until the development of a new technology,
namely, refrigerated ships, which enabled the transport of perishable
foods over long distances.
Now animals were slaughtered for food at the starting point in
America, Australia or New Zealand and then transported to
Europe as frozen meat. This reduced shipping costs and lowered
meat prices in Europe. The poor in Europe could now consume
a more varied diet. To the earlier monotony of bread and potatoes
many, though not all, could now add meat (and butter and eggs)
to their diet. Better living conditions promoted social peace within
the country and support for imperialism abroad.
2.3 Late nineteenth-century Colonialism
Trade flourished and markets expanded in the late nineteenth
century. But this was not only a period of expanding trade and
increased prosperity. It is important to realise that there was a
darker side to this process. In many parts of the world, the
expansion of trade and a closer relationship with the world
economy also meant a loss of freedoms and livelihoods. Late-
nineteenth-century European conquests produced many painful
economic, social and ecological changes through which the
colonised societies were brought into the world economy.
Fig. 8 The Smithfield Club
Cattle Show, Illustrated London
News, 1851.
Cattle were traded at fairs, brought
by farmers for sale. One of the
oldest livestock markets in London
was at Smithfield. In the mid-
nineteenth century a huge poultry
and meat market was established
near the railway line connecting
Smithfield to all the meat-supplying
centres of the country.
Fig. 9 Meat being loaded on to the ship,
Alexandra, Illustrated London News, 1878.
Export of meat was possible only after ships
were refrigerated.
85
T
h
e

M
a
k
i
n
g

o
f

a

G
l
o
b
a
l

W
o
r
l
d
Look at a map of Africa (Fig. 10). You
will see some countries borders run
straight, as if they were drawn using a
ruler. Well, in fact this was almost how
rival European powers in Africa drew up
the borders demarcating their respective
territories. In 1885 the big European
powers met in Berlin to complete the
carving up of Africa between them.
Britain and France made vast additions to
their overseas territories in the late nineteenth
century. Belgium and Germany became new
colonial powers. The US also became a
colonial power in the late 1890s by taking
over some colonies earlier held by Spain.
Let us look at one example of the destructive
impact of colonialism on the economy and
livelihoods of colonised people.
Sir Henry Morton Stanley in Central
Africa
Stanley was a journalist and explorer sent
by the New York Herald to find Livingston,
a missionary and explorer who had been in
Africa for several years. Like other European
and American explorers of the time, Stanley
went with arms, mobilised local hunters,
warriors and labourers to help him, fought
with local tribes, investigated African
terrains, and mapped different regions.
These explorations helped the conquest
of Africa. Geographical explorations were
not driven by an innocent search for
scientific information. They were directly
linked to imperial projects.
Box 2
Fig. 10 Map of colonial Africa at the end of the nineteenth century.
Fig. 11 Sir Henry Morton Stanley and his retinue in Central Africa,
Illustrated London News, 1871.
MOROCCO
ALGERIA
SPANISH
SAHARA
RIO
DE ORO
PORT
GUINEA
FRENCH SUDAN
FRENCH WEST AFRICA
NIGERIA
TOGO
CAMEROONS
MIDDLE
CONGO
CONGO
FREE STATE
(BELGIAN
CONGO)
ANGOLA
GERMAN
SOUTH WEST
AFRICA
UNION OF
SOUTH AFRICA
NORTHERN
RHODESIA
SOUTHERN
RHODESIA
PORTUGUESE
EAST AFRICA
MADAGASCAR
GERMAN
EAST AFRICA
BRITISH
EAST AFRICA
BRITISH
SOMALILAND
ETHIOPIA
ITALIAN
SOMALILAND
FRENCH
SOMALILAND
ERITREA
ANGLO-
EGYPTIAN
SUDAN
EGYPT
LIBYA
(TRIPOLI)
TUNISIA
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
FRENCH
EQUATORIAL
AFRICA
SPANISH
MOROCCO
R
E
D

S
E
A
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
BELGIAN
BRITISH
FRENCH
GERMAN
ITALIAN
PORTUGUESE
SPANISH
BRITISH DOMINION
INDEPENDENT STATE
GOLD
COAST
IVORY
COAST
SIERRA
LEONE
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
86
2.4 Rinderpest, or the Cattle Plague
In Africa, in the 1890s, a fast-spreading disease of cattle plague
or rinderpest had a terrifying impact on peoples livelihoods
and the local economy. This is a good example of the
widespread European imperial impact on colonised societies.
It shows how in this era of conquest even a disease affecting
cattle reshaped the lives and fortunes of thousands of people
and their relations with the rest of the world.
Historically, Africa had abundant land and a relatively small
population. For centuries, land and livestock sustained African
livelihoods and people rarely worked for a wage. In late-
nineteenth-century Africa there were few consumer goods that
wages could buy. If you had been an African possessing land
and livestock and there was plenty of both you too would
have seen little reason to work for a wage.
In the late nineteenth century, Europeans were attracted to
Africa due to its vast resources of land and minerals. Europeans
came to Africa hoping to establish plantations and mines to
produce crops and minerals for export to Europe. But there
was an unexpected problem a shortage of labour willing to
work for wages.
Employers used many methods to recruit and retain labour. Heavy
taxes were imposed which could be paid only by working for wages
on plantations and mines. Inheritance laws were changed so that
Fig. 12 Transport to the Transvaal gold mines,
The Graphic, 1887.
Crossing the Wilge river was the quickest method of
transport to the gold fields of Transvaal. After the
discovery of gold in Witwatersrand, Europeans
rushed to the region despite their fear of disease and
death, and the difficulties of the journey. By the
1890s, South Africa contributed over 20 per cent of
the world gold production.
Fig. 13 Diggers at work
in the Transvaal gold fields
in South Africa, The
Graphic, 1875.
87
T
h
e

M
a
k
i
n
g

o
f

a

G
l
o
b
a
l

W
o
r
l
d
peasants were displaced from land: only one member of a family
was allowed to inherit land, as a result of which the others were
pushed into the labour market. Mineworkers were also confined in
compounds and not allowed to move about freely.
Then came rinderpest, a devastating cattle disease.
Rinderpest arrived in Africa in the late 1880s. It was carried by
infected cattle imported from British Asia to feed the Italian soldiers
invading Eritrea in East Africa. Entering Africa in the east, rinderpest
moved west like forest fire, reaching Africas Atlantic coast in 1892.
It reached the Cape (Africas southernmost tip) five years later. Along
the way rinderpest killed 90 per cent of the cattle.
The loss of cattle destroyed African livelihoods. Planters, mine owners
and colonial governments now successfully monopolised what scarce
cattle resources remained, to strengthen their power and to force
Africans into the labour market. Control over the scarce resource
of cattle enabled European colonisers to conquer and subdue Africa.
Similar stories can be told about the impact of Western conquest on
other parts of the nineteenth-century world.
2.4 Indentured Labour Migration from India
The example of indentured labour migration from India also
illustrates the two-sided nature of the nineteenth-century world.
It was a world of faster economic growth as well as great misery,
higher incomes for some and poverty for others, technological
advances in some areas and new forms of coercion in others.
In the nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands of Indian and
Chinese labourers went to work on plantations, in mines, and in
road and railway construction projects around the world. In India,
indentured labourers were hired under contracts which promised
return travel to India after they had worked five years on their
employers plantation.
Most Indian indentured workers came from the present-day regions
of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, central India and the dry districts
of Tamil Nadu. In the mid-nineteenth century these regions
experienced many changes cottage industries declined, land rents
rose, lands were cleared for mines and plantations. All this affected
the lives of the poor: they failed to pay their rents, became deeply
indebted and were forced to migrate in search of work.
New words
Indentured labour A bonded labourer under
contract to work for an employer for a specific
amount of time, to pay off his passage to a
new country or home
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
88
Discuss the importance of language and
popular traditions in the creation of national
identity.
The main destinations of Indian indentured
migrants were the Caribbean islands (mainly
Trinidad, Guyana and Surinam), Mauritius and Fiji.
Closer home, Tamil migrants went to Ceylon and
Malaya. Indentured workers were also recruited
for tea plantations in Assam.
Recruitment was done by agents engaged by
employers and paid a small commission. Many
migrants agreed to take up work hoping to escape
poverty or oppression in their home villages.
Agents also tempted the prospective migrants
by providing false information about final
destinations, modes of travel, the nature of the
work, and living and working conditions. Often
migrants were not even told that they were to embark on a long
sea voyage. Sometimes agents even forcibly abducted less
willing migrants.
Nineteenth-century indenture has been described as a new system
of slavery. On arrival at the plantations, labourers found conditions
to be different from what they had imagined. Living and working
conditions were harsh, and there were few legal rights.
But workers discovered their own ways of surviving. Many of them
escaped into the wilds, though if caught they faced severe punishment.
Others developed new forms of individual and collective self-
expression, blending different cultural forms, old and new. In
Trinidad the annual Muharram procession was transformed into a
riotous carnival called Hosay (for Imam Hussain) in which workers
of all races and religions joined. Similarly, the protest religion of
Rastafarianism (made famous by the Jamaican reggae star Bob
Marley) is also said to reflect social and cultural links with Indian
migrants to the Caribbean. Chutney music, popular in Trinidad
and Guyana, is another creative contemporary expression of the
post-indenture experience. These forms of cultural fusion are part
of the making of the global world, where things from different
places get mixed, lose their original characteristics and become
something entirely new.
Most indentured workers stayed on after their contracts ended, or
returned to their new homes after a short spell in India. Consequently,
there are large communities of people of Indian descent in these
countries. Have you heard of the Nobel Prize-winning writer
Fig. 14 Indian indentured labourers in a cocoa plantation in
Trinidad, early nineteenth century.
Discuss
Fig. 15 Indentured laboureres photographed
for identification.
For the employers, the numbers and not the
names mattered.
89
T
h
e

M
a
k
i
n
g

o
f

a

G
l
o
b
a
l

W
o
r
l
d
V.S. Naipaul? Some of you may have followed the exploits of West
Indies cricketers Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan.
If you have wondered why their names sound vaguely Indian, the
answer is that they are descended from indentured labour migrants
from India.
From the 1900s Indias nationalist leaders began opposing the system
of indentured labour migration as abusive and cruel. It was abolished
in 1921. Yet for a number of decades afterwards, descendants of
Indian indentured workers, often thought of as coolies, remained
an uneasy minority in the Caribbean islands. Some of Naipauls
early novels capture their sense of loss and alienation.
2.5 Indian Entrepreneurs Abroad
Growing food and other crops for the world market required
capital. Large plantations could borrow it from banks and markets.
But what about the humble peasant?
Enter the Indian banker. Do you know of the Shikaripuri shroffs
and Nattukottai Chettiars? They were amongst the many groups
of bankers and traders who financed export agriculture in Central
and Southeast Asia, using either their own funds or those borrowed
from European banks. They had a sophisticated system to transfer
money over large distances, and even developed indigenous forms
of corporate organisation.
Indian traders and moneylenders also followed European colonisers
into Africa. Hyderabadi Sindhi traders, however, ventured beyond
European colonies. From the 1860s they established flourishing
emporia at busy ports worldwide, selling local and imported curios
to tourists whose numbers were beginning to swell, thanks to the
development of safe and comfortable passenger vessels.
2.6 Indian Trade, Colonialism and the Global System
Historically, fine cottons produced in India were exported to Europe.
With industrialisation, British cotton manufacture began to expand,
and industrialists pressurised the government to restrict cotton
imports and protect local industries. Tariffs were imposed on cloth
imports into Britain. Consequently, the inflow of fine Indian cotton
began to decline.
From the early nineteenth century, British manufacturers also began
to seek overseas markets for their cloth. Excluded from the British
Fig. 16 A contract form of an indentured
labourer.
The testimony of an indentured labourer
Extract from the testimony of Ram Narain
Tewary, an indentured labourer who spent ten
years on Demerara in the early twentieth century.
in spite of my best efforts, I could not properly
do the works that were allotted to me ... In a
few days I got my hands bruised all over and I
could not go to work for a week for which I was
prosecuted and sent to jail for 14 days. ... new
emigrants find the tasks allotted to them
extremely heavy and cannot complete them in
a day. ... Deductions are also made from wages
if the work is considered to have been done
unsatisfactorily. Many people cannot therefore
earn their full wages and are punished in various
ways. In fact, the labourers have to spend their
period of indenture in great trouble
Source: Department of Commerce and Industry,
Emigration Branch. 1916
Source
Source A
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
90
market by tariff barriers, Indian textiles now faced stiff competition
in other international markets. If we look at the figures of exports
from India, we see a steady decline of the share of cotton textiles:
from some 30 per cent around 1800 to 15 per cent by 1815. By the
1870s this proportion had dropped to below 3 per cent.
What, then, did India export? The figures again tell a dramatic
story. While exports of manufactures declined rapidly, export of
raw materials increased equally fast. Between 1812 and 1871, the
share of raw cotton exports rose from 5 per cent to 35 per cent.
Indigo used for dyeing cloth was another important export for
Fig. 17 East India Company House, London.
This was the nerve centre of the worldwide operations of the East India Company.
Fig. 18 A distant view of Surat
and its river.
All through the seventeenth and early
eighteenth centuries, Surat remained
the main centre of overseas trade in
the western Indian Ocean.
91
T
h
e

M
a
k
i
n
g

o
f

a

G
l
o
b
a
l

W
o
r
l
d
Fig. 19 The trade routes that linked India to the world at the end of the seventeenth century.
many decades. And, as you have read last year, opium shipments to
China grew rapidly from the 1820s to become for a while Indias
single largest export. Britain grew opium in India and exported it to
China and, with the money earned through this sale, it financed its
tea and other imports from China.
Over the nineteenth century, British manufactures flooded the Indian
market. Food grain and raw material exports from India to Britain
and the rest of the world increased. But the value of British exports
to India was much higher than the value of British imports from
India. Thus Britain had a trade surplus with India. Britain used this
surplus to balance its trade deficits with other countries that is,
with countries from which Britain was importing more than it was
selling to. This is how a multilateral settlement system works
it allows one countrys deficit with another country to be settled
by its surplus with a third country. By helping Britain balance its
deficits, India played a crucial role in the late-nineteenth-century
world economy.
Britains trade surplus in India also helped pay the so-called home
charges that included private remittances home by British officials
and traders, interest payments on Indias external debt, and pensions
of British officials in India.
Surat
Goa
Madras
Masulipatam
Hoogly
Bangkok
Hanoi
Canton
Malacca
Batavia
Bantam
Acheh
Muscat
Bandar Abbas
Basra
Aleppo
Alexandria
Jedda
Macha
Lahore
Bukhara
Yarkand
T
h
e
Great
W
a
l
l
Mombasa
Mozambique
Sea route
Land route
Volume of trade passing through the port
R
e
d

S
e
a
P
e
r
s
ia
n
G
u
lf
Indian Ocean
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
92
3 The Inter-war Economy
The First World War (1914-18) was mainly fought in Europe. But
its impact was felt around the world. Notably for our concerns
in this chapter, it plunged the first half of the twentieth century
into a crisis that took over three decades to overcome. During
this period the world experienced widespread economic and
political instability, and another catastrophic war.
3.1 Wartime Transformations
The First World War, as you know, was fought between two power
blocs. On the one side were the Allies Britain, France and Russia
(later joined by the US); and on the opposite side were the Central
Powers Germany, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Turkey. When
the war began in August 1914, many governments thought it would
be over by Christmas. It lasted more than four years.
The First World War was a war like no other before. The fighting
involved the worlds leading industrial nations which now
harnessed the vast powers of modern industry to inflict the greatest
possible destruction on their enemies.
This war was thus the first modern industrial war. It saw the use
of machine guns, tanks, aircraft, chemical weapons, etc. on a
massive scale. These were all increasingly products of modern large-
scale industry. To fight the war, millions of soldiers
had to be recruited from around the world and
moved to the frontlines on large ships and trains.
The scale of death and destruction 9 million dead
and 20 million injured was unthinkable before the
industrial age, without the use of industrial arms.
Most of the killed and maimed were men of
working age. These deaths and injuries reduced the
able-bodied workforce in Europe. With fewer
numbers within the family, household incomes
declined after the war.
During the war, industries were restructured to
produce war-related goods. Entire societies were
also reorganised for war as men went to battle,
women stepped in to undertake jobs that earlier only
men were expected to do.
Fig. 20 Workers in a munition factory during the First World
War.
Production of armaments increased rapidly to meet war demands.
93
T
h
e

M
a
k
i
n
g

o
f

a

G
l
o
b
a
l

W
o
r
l
d
The war led to the snapping of economic links between some of
the worlds largest economic powers which were now fighting
each other to pay for them. So Britain borrowed large sums
of money from US banks as well as the US public. Thus the war
transformed the US from being an international debtor to an
international creditor. In other words, at the wars end, the US and
its citizens owned more overseas assets than foreign governments
and citizens owned in the US.
3.2 Post-war Recovery
Post-war economic recovery proved difficult. Britain, which was
the worlds leading economy in the pre-war period, in particular
faced a prolonged crisis. While Britain was preoccupied with war,
industries had developed in India and Japan. After the war Britain
found it difficult to recapture its earlier position of dominance in
the Indian market, and to compete with Japan internationally.
Moreover, to finance war expenditures Britain had borrowed liberally
from the US. This meant that at the end of the war Britain was
burdened with huge external debts.
The war had led to an economic boom, that is, to a large increase in
demand, production and employment. When the war boom ended,
production contracted and unemployment increased. At the
same time the government reduced bloated war expenditures to
bring them into line with peacetime revenues. These developments
led to huge job losses in 1921 one in every five British workers
was out of work. Indeed, anxiety and uncertainty about work
became an enduring part of the post-war scenario.
Many agricultural economies were also in crisis. Consider the case
of wheat producers. Before the war, eastern Europe was a major
supplier of wheat in the world market. When this supply was
disrupted during the war, wheat production in Canada, America
and Australia expanded dramatically. But once the war was over,
production in eastern Europe revived and created a glut in wheat
output. Grain prices fell, rural incomes declined, and farmers fell
deeper into debt.
3.3 Rise of Mass Production and Consumption
In the US, recovery was quicker. We have already seen how the war
helped boost the US economy. After a short period of economic
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
94
trouble in the years after the war, the US economy resumed
its strong growth in the early 1920s.
One important feature of the US economy of the 1920s
was mass production. The move towards mass production
had begun in the late nineteenth century, but in the 1920s it
became a characteristic feature of industrial production in
the US. A well-known pioneer of mass production was the
car manufacturer Henry Ford. He adapted the assembly line
of a Chicago slaughterhouse (in which slaughtered animals
were picked apart by butchers as they came down a conveyor
belt) to his new car plant in Detroit. He realised that the
assembly line method would allow a faster and cheaper way
of producing vehicles. The assembly line forced workers to
repeat a single task mechanically and continuously such as
fitting a particular part to the car at a pace dictated by the
conveyor belt. This was a way of increasing the output per worker
by speeding up the pace of work. Standing in front of a conveyor
belt no worker could afford to delay the motions, take a break, or
even have a friendly word with a workmate. As a result, Henry
Fords cars came off the assembly line at three-minute intervals, a
speed much faster than that achieved by previous methods. The T-
Model Ford was the worlds first mass-produced car.
At first workers at the Ford factory were unable to cope with the
stress of working on assembly lines in which they could not control
the pace of work. So they quit in large numbers. In desperation
Ford doubled the daily wage to $5 in January 1914. At the same
time he banned trade unions from operating in his plants.
Henry Ford recovered the high wage by repeatedly speeding up
the production line and forcing workers to work ever harder. So
much so, he would soon describe his decision to double the daily
wage as the best cost-cutting decision he had ever made.
Fordist industrial practices soon spread in the US. They were also
widely copied in Europe in the 1920s. Mass production lowered
costs and prices of engineered goods. Thanks to higher wages,
more workers could now afford to purchase durable consumer
goods such as cars. Car production in the US rose from 2 million in
1919 to more than 5 million in 1929. Similarly, there was a spurt
in the purchase of refrigerators, washing machines, radios,
gramophone players, all through a system of hire purchase (i.e., on
Fig. 21 T-Model automobiles lined up outside the
factory.
95
T
h
e

M
a
k
i
n
g

o
f

a

G
l
o
b
a
l

W
o
r
l
d
credit repaid in weekly or monthly instalments). The demand
for refrigerators, washing machines, etc. was also fuelled by a boom
in house construction and home ownership, financed once again
by loans.
The housing and consumer boom of the 1920s created the basis of
prosperity in the US. Large investments in housing and household
goods seemed to create a cycle of higher employment
and incomes, rising consumption demand, more investment, and
yet more employment and incomes.
In 1923, the US resumed exporting capital to the rest of the world
and became the largest overseas lender. US imports and capital
exports also boosted European recovery and world trade and
income growth over the next six years.
All this, however, proved too good to last. By 1929 the world
would be plunged into a depression such as it had never
experienced before.
3.4 The Great Depression
The Great Depression began around 1929 and lasted till the mid-
1930s. During this period most parts of the world experienced
catastrophic declines in production, employment, incomes and
trade. The exact timing and impact of the depression varied
across countries. But in general, agricultural regions and communities
were the worst affected. This was because the fall
in agricultural prices was greater and more prolonged than that
in the prices of industrial goods.
The depression was caused by a combination of several factors. We
have already seen how fragile the post-war world economy was.
First: agricultural overproduction remained a problem. This was
made worse by falling agricultural prices. As prices slumped and
agricultural incomes declined, farmers tried to expand production
and bring a larger volume of produce to the market to maintain
their overall income. This worsened the glut in the market, pushing
down prices even further. Farm produce rotted for a lack of buyers.
Second: in the mid-1920s, many countries financed their investments
through loans from the US. While it was often extremely easy to
raise loans in the US when the going was good, US overseas lenders
panicked at the first sign of trouble. In the first half of 1928, US
Many years later, Dorothea Lange, the
photographer who shot this picture, recollected
the moment of her encounter with the
hungry mother:
I saw and approached the hungry and desperate
mother, as if drawn by a magnet I did not ask
her name or her history. She told me her age,
that she was thirty-two. She said that they
(i.e., she and her seven children) had been living
on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields,
and birds that the children killed There she
sat with her children huddled around her,
and seemed to know that my pictures might
help her, and so she helped me
From: Popular Photography, February 1960.
Box 3
Fig. 22 Migrant agricultural workers family,
homeless and hungry, during the Great
Depression, 1936. Courtesy: Library of Congress,
Prints and Photographs Division.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
96
overseas loans amounted to over $ 1 billion. A year later it was one
quarter of that amount. Countries that depended crucially on US
loans now faced an acute crisis.
The withdrawal of US loans affected much of the rest of the world,
though in different ways. In Europe it led to the failure of some
major banks and the collapse of currencies such as the British pound
sterling. In Latin America and elsewhere it intensified the slump
in agricultural and raw material prices. The US attempt to protect
its economy in the depression by doubling import duties also dealt
another severe blow to world trade.
The US was also the industrial country most severely affected by
the depression. With the fall in prices and the prospect of a
depression, US banks had also slashed domestic lending and
called back loans. Farms could not sell their harvests, households
were ruined, and businesses collapsed. Faced with falling
incomes, many households in the US could not repay what they had
borrowed, and were forced to give up their homes, cars and other
consumer durables. The consumerist prosperity of the 1920s now
disappeared in a puff of dust. As unemployment soared, people
trudged long distances looking for any work they could find.
Ultimately, the US banking system itself collapsed. Unable to
recover investments, collect loans and repay depositors, thousands
of banks went bankrupt and were forced to close. The numbers
are phenomenal: by 1933 over 4,000 banks had closed and
between 1929 and 1932 about 110, 000 companies had collapsed.
By 1935, a modest economic recovery was under way in most
industrial countries. But the Great Depressions wider effects on
society, politics and international relations, and on peoples minds,
proved more enduring.
3.5 India and the Great Depression
If we look at the impact of the depression on India we realise
how integrated the global economy had become by the early
twentieth century. The tremors of a crisis in one part of the world
were quickly relayed to other parts, affecting lives, economies and
societies worldwide.
In the nineteenth century, as you have seen, colonial India had become
an exporter of agricultural goods and importer of manufactures.
The depression immediately affected Indian trade. Indias exports
Fig. 23 People lining up for unemployment
benefits, US, photograph by Dorothea Lange,
1938. Courtesy: Library of Congress, Prints and
Photographs Division.
When an unemployment census showed
10 million people out of work, the local
government in many US states began making
small allowances to the unemployed. These long
queues came to symbolise the poverty and
unemployment of the depression years.
97
T
h
e

M
a
k
i
n
g

o
f

a

G
l
o
b
a
l

W
o
r
l
d
grow more jute, brothers, with the hope of greater cash.
Costs and debts of jute will make your hopes get dashed.
When you have spent all your money and got the crop off the ground,
traders, sitting at home, will pay only Rs 5 a maund.
and imports nearly halved between 1928 and 1934. As international
prices crashed, prices in India also plunged. Between 1928 and 1934,
wheat prices in India fell by 50 per cent.
Peasants and farmers suffered more than urban dwellers. Though
agricultural prices fell sharply, the colonial government refused to
reduce revenue demands. Peasants producing for the world market
were the worst hit.
Consider the jute producers of Bengal. They grew raw jute that was
processed in factories for export in the form of gunny bags. But
as gunny exports collapsed, the price of raw jute crashed more than
60 per cent. Peasants who borrowed in the hope of better times or
to increase output in the hope of higher incomes faced ever lower
prices, and fell deeper and deeper into debt. Thus the Bengal jute
growers lament:
Across India, peasants indebtedness increased. They used up their
savings, mortgaged lands, and sold whatever jewellery and precious
metals they had to meet their expenses. In these depression years,
India became an exporter of precious metals, notably gold.
The famous economist John Maynard Keynes thought that Indian
gold exports promoted global economic recovery. They certainly
helped speed up Britains recovery, but did little for the Indian peasant.
Rural India was thus seething with unrest when Mahatma Gandhi
launched the civil disobedience movement at the height of the
depression in 1931.
The depression proved less grim for urban India. Because of falling
prices, those with fixed incomes say town-dwelling landowners
who received rents and middle-class salaried employees now found
themselves better off. Everything cost less. Industrial investment also
grew as the government extended tariff protection to industries,
under the pressure of nationalist opinion.
Who profits from jute cultivation according to the
jute growers lament? Explain.
Discuss
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
98
4 Rebuilding a World Economy: The Post-war Era
The Second World War broke out a mere two decades after the
end of the First World War. It was fought between the Axis powers
(mainly Nazi Germany, Japan and Italy) and the Allies (Britain,
France, the Soviet Union and the US). It was a war waged for six
years on many fronts, in many places, over land, on sea, in the air.
Once again death and destruction was enormous. At least 60 million
people, or about 3 per cent of the worlds 1939 population, are
believed to have been killed, directly or indirectly, as a result of the
war. Millions more were injured.
Unlike in earlier wars, most of these deaths took place outside the
battlefields. Many more civilians than soldiers died from war-related
causes. Vast parts of Europe and Asia were devastated, and several
cities were destroyed by aerial bombardment or relentless
artillery attacks. The war caused an immense amount of economic
devastation and social disruption. Reconstruction promised to
be long and difficult.
Two crucial influences shaped post-war
reconstruction. The first was the USs
emergence as the dominant economic, political
and military power in the Western world. The
second was the dominance of the Soviet
Union. It had made huge sacrifices to defeat
Nazi Germany, and transformed itself from
a backward agricultural country into a world
power during the very years when the capitalist
world was trapped in the Great Depression.
4.1 Post-war Settlement and the
Bretton Woods Institutions
Economists and politicians drew two key lessons from inter-war
economic experiences. First, an industrial society based on mass
production cannot be sustained without mass consumption. But to
ensure mass consumption, there was a need for high and stable
incomes. Incomes could not be stable if employment was unstable.
Thus stable incomes also required steady, full employment.
But markets alone could not guarantee full employment.
Therefore governments would have to step in to minimise
Fig. 24 German forces attack Russia, July 1941.
Hitlers attempt to invade Russia was a turning
point in the war.
Fig. 25 Stalingrad in Soviet Russia devastated by the war.
99
T
h
e

M
a
k
i
n
g

o
f

a

G
l
o
b
a
l

W
o
r
l
d
Briefly summarise the two lessons learnt by
economists and politicians from the inter-war
economic experience?
Discuss
fluctuations of price, output and employment. Economic stability
could be ensured only through the intervention of the government.
The second lesson related to a countrys economic links with
the outside world. The goal of full employment could only be
achieved if governments had power to control flows of goods,
capital and labour.
Thus in brief, the main aim of the post-war international economic
system was to preserve economic stability and full employment in
the industrial world. Its framework was agreed upon at the United
Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held in July 1944 at
Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, USA.
The Bretton Woods conference established the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) to deal with external surpluses and deficits of its member
nations. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
(popularly known as the World Bank) was set up to finance post-
war reconstruction. The IMF and the World Bank are referred to
as the Bretton Woods institutions or sometimes the Bretton Woods
twins. The post-war international economic system is also often
described as the Bretton Woods system.
The IMF and the World Bank commenced financial operations
in 1947. Decision-making in these institutions is controlled by
the Western industrial powers. The US has an effective right of
veto over key IMF and World Bank decisions.
The international monetary system is the system linking national
currencies and monetary system. The Bretton Woods system was
based on fixed exchange rates. In this system, national currencies,
for example the Indian rupee, were pegged to the dollar at a fixed
exchange rate. The dollar itself was anchored to gold at a fixed
price of $35 per ounce of gold.
4.2 The Early Post-war Years
The Bretton Woods system inaugurated an era of unprecedented
growth of trade and incomes for the Western industrial nations and
Japan. World trade grew annually at over 8 per cent between 1950
and 1970 and incomes at nearly 5 per cent. The growth was also
mostly stable, without large fluctuations. For much of this period
the unemployment rate, for example, averaged less than 5 per cent
in most industrial countries.
Fig. 26 Mount Washington Hotel situated in
Bretton Woods, US.
This is the place where the famous conference
was held.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
100
These decades also saw the worldwide spread of technology and
enterprise. Developing countries were in a hurry to catch up with
the advanced industrial countries. Therefore, they invested vast
amounts of capital, importing industrial plant and equipment
featuring modern technology.
4.3 Decolonisation and Independence
When the Second World War ended, large parts of the world were
still under European colonial rule. Over the next two decades most
colonies in Asia and Africa emerged as free, independent nations.
They were, however, overburdened by poverty and a lack of
resources, and their economies and societies were handicapped by
long periods of colonial rule.
The IMF and the World Bank were designed to meet the financial
needs of the industrial countries. They were not equipped to cope
with the challenge of poverty and lack of development in the former
colonies. But as Europe and Japan rapidly rebuilt their economies,
they grew less dependent on the IMF and the World Bank. Thus
from the late 1950s the Bretton Woods institutions began to shift
their attention more towards developing countries.
As colonies, many of the less developed regions of the world had
been part of Western empires. Now, ironically, as newly independent
countries facing urgent pressures to lift their populations out of
poverty, they came under the guidance of international agencies
dominated by the former colonial powers. Even after many years
of decolonisation, the former colonial powers still controlled vital
resources such as minerals and land in many of their former colonies.
Large corporations of other powerful countries, for example the
US, also often managed to secure rights to exploit developing
countries natural resources very cheaply.
At the same time, most developing countries did not benefit from
the fast growth the Western economies experienced in the 1950s
and 1960s. Therefore they organised themselves as a group the
Group of 77 (or G-77) to demand a new international economic
order (NIEO). By the NIEO they meant a system that would give
them real control over their natural resources, more development
assistance, fairer prices for raw materials, and better access for their
manufactured goods in developed countries markets.
New words
Tariff Tax imposed on a countrys imports
from the rest of the world. Tariffs are
levied at the point of entry, i.e., at the border
or the airport.
What are MNCs?
Multinational corporations (MNCs) are large
companies that operate in several countries at
the same time. The first MNCs were established
in the 1920s. Many more came up in the 1950s
and 1960s as US businesses expanded worldwide
and Western Europe and J apan also recovered
to become powerful industrial economies. The
worldwide spread of MNCs was a notable feature
of the 1950s and 1960s. This was partly because
high import tariffs imposed by different
governments forced MNCs to locate their
manufacturing operations and become domestic
producers in as many countries as possible.
Box 4
101
T
h
e

M
a
k
i
n
g

o
f

a

G
l
o
b
a
l

W
o
r
l
d
4.4 End of Bretton Woods and the Beginning of
Globalisation
Despite years of stable and rapid growth, not all was well in
this post-war world. From the 1960s the rising costs of its
overseas involvements weakened the USs finances and competitive
strength. The US dollar now no longer commanded confidence
as the worlds principal currency. It could not maintain its value
in relation to gold. This eventually led to the collapse of the
system of fixed exchange rates and the introduction of a system
of floating exchange rates.
From the mid-1970s the international financial system also changed
in important ways. Earlier, developing countries could turn to
international institutions for loans and development assistance. But
now they were forced to borrow from Western commercial banks
and private lending institutions. This led to periodic debt crises in
the developing world, and lower incomes and increased poverty,
especially in Africa and Latin America.
The industrial world was also hit by unemployment that began
rising from the mid-1970s and remained high until the early 1990s.
From the late 1970s MNCs also began to shift production operations
to low-wage Asian countries.
China had been cut off from the post-war world economy since
its revolution in 1949. But new economic policies in China and
the collapse of the Soviet Union and Soviet-style communism in
Eastern Europe brought many countries back into the fold of the
world economy.
Wages were relatively low in countries like China. Thus they became
attractive destinations for investment by foreign MNCs competing
to capture world markets. Have you noticed that most of the TVs,
mobile phones, and toys we see in the shops seem to be made in
China? This is because of the low-cost structure of the Chinese
economy, most importantly its low wages.
The relocation of industry to low-wage countries stimulated world
trade and capital flows. In the last two decades the worlds economic
geography has been transformed as countries such as India, China
and Brazil have undergone rapid economic transformation.
New words
Exchange rates They link national currencies
for purposes of international trade. There are
broadly two kinds of exchange rates: fixed
exchange rate and floating exchange rate
Fixed exchange rates When exchange rates
are fixed and governments intervene to prevent
movements in them
Flexible or floating exchange rates These rates
fluctuate depending on demand and supply of
currencies in foreign exchange markets, in
principle without interference by governments
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
102
Write in brief
Project
1. Give two examples of different types of global exchanges which took place before the
seventeenth century, choosing one example from Asia and one from the Americas.
2. Explain how the global transfer of disease in the pre-modern world helped in the
colonisation of the Americas.
3. Write a note to explain the effects of the following:
a) The British governments decision to abolish the Corn Laws.
b) The coming of rinderpest to Africa.
c) The death of men of working-age in Europe because of the World War.
d) The Great Depression on the Indian economy.
e) The decision of MNCs to relocate production to Asian countries.
4. Give two examples from history to show the impact of technology on food availability.
5. What is meant by the Bretton Woods Agreement?
Find out more about gold and diamond mining in South Africa in the nineteenth century.
Who controlled the gold and diamond companies? Who were the miners and what were
their lives like?
W
r
i
t
e

i
n

b
r
i
e
f
Discuss
6. Imagine that you are an indentured Indian labourer in the Caribbean. Drawing from the
details in this chapter, write a letter to your family describing your life and feelings.
7. Explain the three types of movements or flows within international economic
exchange. Find one example of each type of flow which involved India and Indians,
and write a short account of it.
8. Explain the causes of the Great Depression.
9. Explain what is referred to as the G-77 countries. In what ways can G-77 be seen as
a reaction to the activities of the Bretton Woods twins?
Project
D
i
s
c
u
s
s
103
T
h
e

A
g
e

o
f

I
n
d
u
s
t
r
i
a
l
i
s
a
t
i
o
n
T
h
e

A
g
e

o
f

I
n
d
u
s
t
r
i
a
l
i
s
a
t
i
o
n
C
h
a
p
t
e
r

V
The Age of Industrialisation
The Age of Industrialisation
In 1900, a popular music publisher E.T. Paull produced a music
book that had a picture on the cover page announcing the Dawn
of the Century (Fig. 1). As you can see from the illustration, at the
centre of the picture is a goddess-like figure, the angel of progress,
bearing the flag of the new century. She is gently perched on a wheel
with wings, symbolising time. Her flight is taking her into the future.
Floating about, behind her, are the signs of progress: railway, camera,
machines, printing press and factory.
This glorification of machines and technology is even more marked
in a picture which appeared on the pages of a trade magazine over
a hundred years ago (Fig. 2). It shows two magicians. The one at the
top is Aladdin from the Orient who built a beautiful palace with his
New words
Orient The countries to the east of
the Mediterranean, usually referring to
Asia. The term arises out of a western
viewpoint that sees this region as pre-
modern, traditional and mysterious
Fig. 1 Dawn of the Century, published by E.T. Paull Music Co.,
New York, England, 1900.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
104
Give two examples where modern development that is
associated with progress has lead to problems. You may like to
think of areas related to environmental issues, nuclear weapons
or disease.
Activity
magic lamp. The one at the bottom is the modern mechanic, who
with his modern tools weaves a new magic: builds bridges, ships,
towers and high-rise buildings. Aladdin is shown as representing the
East and the past, the mechanic stands for the West and modernity.
These images offer us a triumphant account of the modern world.
Within this account the modern world is associated with rapid
technological change and innovations, machines and factories, railways
and steamships. The history of industrialisation thus becomes simply
a story of development, and the modern age appears as a wonderful
time of technological progress.
These images and associations have now become part of popular
imagination. Do you not see rapid industrialisation as a time of
progress and modernity? Do you not think that the spread of railways
and factories, and construction of high-rise buildings and bridges is
a sign of societys development?
How have these images developed? And how do we relate to these
ideas? Is industrialisation always based on rapid technological
development? Can we today continue to glorify continuous
mechanisation of all work? What has industrialisation meant to
peoples lives? To answer such questions we need to turn to the
history of industrialisation.
In this chapter we will look at this history by focusing first on Britain,
the first industrial nation, and then India, where the pattern of
industrial change was conditioned by colonial rule.
Fig. 2 Two Magicians, published in Inland
Printers, 26 January 1901.
105
T
h
e

A
g
e

o
f

I
n
d
u
s
t
r
i
a
l
i
s
a
t
i
o
n
Fig. 3 Spinning in the eighteenth century.
You can see each member of the family involved in the
production of yarn. Notice that one wheel is moving only one
spindle.
1 Before the Industrial Revolution
All too often we associate industrialisation with the growth of
factory industry. When we talk of industrial production we refer
to factory production. When we talk of industrial workers we
mean factory workers. Histories of industrialisation very often begin
with the setting up of the first factories.
There is a problem with such ideas. Even before factories began to
dot the landscape in England and Europe, there was large-scale
industrial production for an international market. This was not based
on factories. Many historians now refer to this phase of
industrialisation as proto-industrialisation.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, merchants from the towns
in Europe began moving to the countryside, supplying money to
peasants and artisans, persuading them to produce for an international
market. With the expansion of world trade and the acquisition of
colonies in different parts of the world, the demand for goods
began growing. But merchants could not expand production within
towns. This was because here urban crafts and trade guilds were
powerful. These were associations of producers that trained
craftspeople, maintained control over production, regulated
competition and prices, and restricted the entry of new people into
the trade. Rulers granted different guilds the monopoly
right to produce and trade in specific products. It was
therefore difficult for new merchants to set up
business in towns. So they turned to the countryside.
In the countryside poor peasants and artisans began
working for merchants. As you have seen in the
textbook last year, this was a time when open fields
were disappearing and commons were being
enclosed. Cottagers and poor peasants who had earlier
depended on common lands for their survival,
gathering their firewood, berries, vegetables, hay and
straw, had to now look for alternative sources of
income. Many had tiny plots of land which could not
provide work for all members of the household. So
when merchants came around and offered advances
to produce goods for them, peasant households
eagerly agreed. By working for the merchants, they
New words
Proto Indicating the first or early form
of something
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
106
could remain in the countryside and continue to cultivate their small
plots. Income from proto-industrial production supplemented their
shrinking income from cultivation. It also allowed them a fuller use
of their family labour resources.
Within this system a close relationship developed between the town
and the countryside. Merchants were based in towns but the work
was done mostly in the countryside. A merchant clothier in England
purchased wool from a wool stapler, and carried it to the spinners;
the yarn (thread) that was spun was taken in subsequent stages
of production to weavers, fullers, and then to dyers. The finishing
was done in London before the export merchant sold the cloth in
the international market. London in fact came to be known as a
finishing centre.
This proto-industrial system was thus part of a network of
commercial exchanges. It was controlled by merchants and the goods
were produced by a vast number of producers working within
their family farms, not in factories. At each stage of production 20
to 25 workers were employed by each merchant. This meant that
each clothier was controlling hundreds of workers.
1.1 The Coming Up of the Factory
The earliest factories in England came up by the 1730s. But it
was only in the late eighteenth century that the number of
factories multiplied.
The first symbol of the new era was cotton. Its production boomed
in the late nineteenth century. In 1760 Britain was importing 2.5
million pounds of raw cotton to feed its cotton industry. By 1787
this import soared to 22 million pounds. This increase was linked to
a number of changes within the process of production. Let us look
briefly at some of these.
A series of inventions in the eighteenth century increased the efficacy
of each step of the production process (carding, twisting and
spinning, and rolling). They enhanced the output per worker, enabling
each worker to produce more, and they made possible the
production of stronger threads and yarn. Then Richard Arkwright
created the cotton mill. Till this time, as you have seen, cloth
production was spread all over the countryside and carried out within
village households. But now, the costly new machines could be
purchased, set up and maintained in the mill. Within the mill all the
New words
Stapler A person who staples or sorts wool
according to its fibre
Fuller A person who fulls that is, gathers
cloth by pleating
Carding The process in which fibres, such as
cotton or wool, are prepared prior to spinning
Fig. 4 A Lancashire cotton mill, painted by
C.E. Turner, The Illustrated London News,
1925.
The artist said: Seen through the humid
atmosphere that makes Lancashire the best
cotton-spinning locality in the world, a huge
cotton-mill aglow with electricity in the
twilight, is a most impressive sight.
107
T
h
e

A
g
e

o
f

I
n
d
u
s
t
r
i
a
l
i
s
a
t
i
o
n
processes were brought together under one roof and management.
This allowed a more careful supervision over the production process,
a watch over quality, and the regulation of labour, all of which had
been difficult to do when production was in the countryside.
In the early nineteenth century, factories increasingly became an
intimate part of the English landscape. So visible were the imposing
new mills, so magical seemed to be the power of new technology,
that contemporaries were dazzled. They concentrated their attention
on the mills, almost forgetting the bylanes and the workshops where
production still continued.
The way in which historians focus on
industrialisation rather than on small
workshops is a good example of how what we
believe today about the past is influenced by
what historians choose to notice and what they
ignore. Note down one event or aspect of your
own life which adults such as your parents or
teachers may think is unimportant, but which
you believe to be important.
Activity
1.2 The Pace of Industrial Change
How rapid was the process of industrialisation? Does industrialisation
mean only the growth of factory industries?
First: The most dynamic industries in Britain were clearly cotton and
metals. Growing at a rapid pace, cotton was the leading sector in the
first phase of industrialisation up to the 1840s. After that the iron
and steel industry led the way. With the expansion of railways, in
England from the 1840s and in the colonies from the 1860s, the
demand for iron and steel increased rapidly. By 1873 Britain was
exporting iron and steel worth about 77 million, double the value
of its cotton export.
Look at Figs. 4 and 5. Can you see any
difference in the way the two images show
industrialisation? Explain your view briefly.
Activity
Fig. 5 Industrial Manchester by M. Jackson, The Illustrated London News, 1857.
Chimneys billowing smoke came to characterise the industrial landscape.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
108
Second: the new industries could not easily displace traditional
industries. Even at the end of the nineteenth century, less than 20 per
cent of the total workforce was employed in technologically
advanced industrial sectors. Textiles was a dynamic sector, but a
large portion of the output was produced not within factories, but
outside, within domestic units.
Third: the pace of change in the traditional industries was not set
by steam-powered cotton or metal industries, but they did not remain
entirely stagnant either. Seemingly ordinary and small innovations
were the basis of growth in many non-mechanised sectors such as
food processing, building, pottery, glass work, tanning, furniture
making, and production of implements.
Fourth: technological changes occurred slowly. They did not spread
dramatically across the industrial landscape. New technology was
expensive and merchants and industrialists were cautious about using
it. The machines often broke down and repair was costly. They
were not as effective as their inventors and manufacturers claimed.
Consider the case of the steam engine. James Watt improved the
steam engine produced by Newcomen and patented the new engine
in 1781. His industrialist friend Mathew Boulton manufactured the
new model. But for years he could find no buyers. At the beginning
of the nineteenth century, there were no more than 321 steam engines
all over England. Of these, 80 were
in cotton industries, nine in wool
industries, and the rest in mining,
canal works and iron works. Steam
engines were not used in any of the
other industries till much later in
the century. So even the most
powerful new technology that
enhanced the productivity of
labour manifold was slow to be
accepted by industrialists.
Historians now have come to
increasingly recognise that the typical
worker in the mid-nineteenth century
was not a machine operator but the
traditional craftsperson and labourer.
Fig. 6 A fitting shop at a railway works in
England, The Illustrated London News, 1849.
In the fitting shop new locomotive engines were
completed and old ones repaired.
Fig. 7 A spinning factory in 1830.
You can see how giant wheels moved by steam power could set in motion
hundreds of spindles to manufacture thread.
109
T
h
e

A
g
e

o
f

I
n
d
u
s
t
r
i
a
l
i
s
a
t
i
o
n
2 Hand Labour and Steam Power
In Victorian Britain there was no shortage of human labour. Poor
peasants and vagrants moved to the cities in large numbers in search
of jobs, waiting for work. As you will know, when there is plenty of
labour, wages are low. So industrialists had no problem of labour
shortage or high wage costs. They did not want to introduce machines
that got rid of human labour and required large capital investment.
In many industries the demand for labour was seasonal. Gas works
and breweries were especially busy through the cold months. So
they needed more workers to meet their peak demand. Book-
binders and printers, catering to Christmas demand, too needed
extra hands before December. At the waterfront, winter was the
time that ships were repaired and spruced up. In all such industries
where production fluctuated with the season, industrialists usually
preferred hand labour, employing workers for the season.
Will Thorne is one of those who went in search
of seasonal work, loading bricks and doing odd
jobs. He describes how job-seekers walked to
London in search of work:
I had always wanted to go to London, and my
desire was stimulated by letters from an old
workmate who was now working at the Old
Kent Road Gas Works I finally decided to go
in November, 1881. With two friends I started
out to walk the journey, filled with the hope
that we would be able to obtain employment,
when we get there, with the kind assistance of
my friend we had little money when we
started, not enough to pay for our food and
lodgings each night until we arrived in London.
Some days we walked as much as twenty miles,
and other days less. Our money was gone at
the end of the third day For two nights we
slept out once under a haystack, and once in
an old farm shed On arrival in London we tried
to find my friend but were unsuccessful.
Our money was gone, so there was nothing for
us to do but to walk around until late at night,
and then try to find some place to sleep. We
found an old building and slept in it that night.
The next day, Sunday, late in the afternoon, we
got to the Old Kent Gas Works, and applied for
work. To my great surprise, the man we had
been looking for was working at the time. He
spoke to the foreman and I was given a job.
Quoted in Raphael Samuel, Comers and Goers,
in H.J . Dyos and Michael Wolff, eds, The Victorian
City: Images and Realities, 1973.
Source
Source A
A range of products could be produced only with hand
labour. Machines were oriented to producing uniforms,
standardised goods for a mass market. But the demand in the market
was often for goods with intricate designs and specific shapes. In
mid-nineteenth-century Britain, for instance, 500 varieties of
Fig. 8 People on the move in search of work, The Illustrated
London News, 1879.
Some people were always on the move selling small goods and
looking for temporary work.
Imagine that you are a merchant writing back
to a salesman who has been trying to
persuade you to buy a new machine. Explain
in your letter what you have heard and why you
do not wish to invest in the new technology.
Activity
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
110
hammers were produced and 45 kinds of axes. These required
human skill, not mechanical technology.
In Victorian Britain, the upper classes the aristocrats and the
bourgeoisie preferred things produced by hand. Handmade
products came to symbolise refinement and class. They were better
finished, individually produced, and carefully designed. Machine-
made goods were for export to the colonies.
In countries with labour shortage, industrialists were keen on using
mechanical power so that the need for human labour can be
minimised. This was the case in nineteenth-century America. Britain,
however, had no problem hiring human hands.
2.1 Life of the Workers
The abundance of labour in the market affected the lives of workers.
As news of possible jobs travelled to the countryside, hundreds
tramped to the cities. The actual possibility of getting a job depended
on existing networks of friendship and kin relations. If you had
a relative or a friend in a factory, you were more likely to get a
job quickly. But not everyone had social connections. Many job-
seekers had to wait weeks, spending nights under bridges or in night
Fig. 9 Workers in an iron works, north-east
England, painting by William Bell Scott, 1861.
Many artists from the late nineteenth century
began idealising workers: they were shown
suffering hardship and pain for the cause of
the nation.
Fig. 10 Houseless and Hungry, painting by Samuel Luke Fildes, 1874.
This painting shows the homeless in London applying for tickets to stay overnight in a workhouse. These shelters
were maintained under the supervision of the Poor Law Commissioners for the destitute, wayfarers, wanderers and
foundling. Staying in these workhouses was a humiliating experience: everyone was subjected to a medical
examination to see whether they were carrying disease, their bodies were cleansed, and their clothes purified. They
had to also do hard labour.
111
T
h
e

A
g
e

o
f

I
n
d
u
s
t
r
i
a
l
i
s
a
t
i
o
n
shelters. Some stayed in Night Refuges that were set up by private
individuals; others went to the Casual Wards maintained by the Poor
Law authorities.
Seasonality of work in many industries meant prolonged periods
without work. After the busy season was over, the poor were on
the streets again. Some returned to the countryside after the winter,
when the demand for labour in the rural areas opened up in places.
But most looked for odd jobs, which till the mid-nineteenth century
were difficult to find.
Wages increased somewhat in the early nineteenth century. But they
tell us little about the welfare of the workers. The average figures
hide the variations between trades and the fluctuations from year to
year. For instance, when prices rose sharply during the prolonged
Napoleonic War, the real value of what the workers earned fell
significantly, since the same wages could now buy fewer things.
Moreover, the income of workers depended not on the wage rate
alone. What was also critical was the period of employment: the
number of days of work determined the average daily income of
the workers. At the best of times till the mid-nineteenth century,
about 10 per cent of the urban population were extremely poor. In
periods of economic slump, like the 1830s, the proportion of
unemployed went up to anything between 35 and 75 per cent in
different regions.
The fear of unemployment made workers hostile to the introduction
of new technology. When the Spinning Jenny was introduced in
A magistrate reported in 1790 about an incident when he was
called in to protect a manufacturers property from being attacked
by workers:
From the depredations of a lawless Banditti of colliers and their
wives, for the wives had lost their work to spinning engines they
advanced at first with much insolence, avowing their intention of
cutting to pieces the machine lately introduced in the woollen
manufacture; which they suppose, if generally adopted, will lessen
the demand for manual labour. The women became clamorous.
The men were more open to conviction and after some
expostulation were induced to desist from their purpose and return
peaceably home.
J .L. Hammond and B. Hammond, The Skilled Labourer 1760-1832,
quoted in Maxine Berg, The Age of Manufactures.
Source
Source B
New words
Spinning Jenny Devised by James Hargreaves
in 1764, this machine speeded up the spinning
process and reduced labour demand. By
turning one single wheel a worker could set in
motion a number of spindles and spin several
threads at the same time.
Look at Figs. 3, 7 and 11, then reread source B.
Explain why many workers were opposed to the
use of the Spinning Jenny.
Discuss
Fig. 11 A Spinning Jenny, a drawing by
T.E. Nicholson, 1835.
Notice the number of spindles that could be
operated with one wheel.
spindles
spindles
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
112
Fig. 12 A shallow underground railway being constructed in central London, Illustrated Times, 1868.
From the 1850s railway stations began coming up all over London. This meant a demand for large numbers of
workers to dig tunnels, erect timber scaffolding, do the brick and iron works. Job-seekers moved from one
construction site to another.
the woollen industry, women who survived on hand spinning began
attacking the new machines. This conflict over the introduction of
the jenny continued for a long time.
After the 1840s, building activity intensified in the cities, opening up
greater opportunities of employment. Roads were widened, new
railway stations came up, railway lines were extended, tunnels dug,
drainage and sewers laid, rivers embanked. The number of workers
employed in the transport industry doubled in the 1840s, and doubled
again in the subsequent 30 years.
113
T
h
e

A
g
e

o
f

I
n
d
u
s
t
r
i
a
l
i
s
a
t
i
o
n
3 Industrialisation in the Colonies
Let us now move to India to see how a colony industrialises. Once
again we will look not only at factory industries but also at the
non-mechanised sector. We will limit our discussion primarily to
textile industries.
3.1 The Age of Indian Textiles
Before the age of machine industries, silk and cotton goods from
India dominated the international market in textiles. Coarser cottons
were produced in many countries, but the finer varieties often came
from India. Armenian and Persian merchants took the goods from
Punjab to Afghanistan, eastern Persia and Central Asia. Bales of fine
textiles were carried on camel back via the north-west frontier, through
mountain passes and across deserts. A vibrant sea trade operated
through the main pre-colonial ports. Surat on the Gujarat coast
connected India to the Gulf and Red Sea Ports; Masulipatam on
the Coromandel coast and Hoogly in Bengal had trade links with
Southeast Asian ports.
A variety of Indian merchants and bankers were involved in this
network of export trade financing production, carrying goods
and supplying exporters. Supply merchants linked the port towns to
the inland regions. They gave advances to weavers, procured the
woven cloth from weaving villages, and carried the supply to the
ports. At the port, the big shippers and export merchants had brokers
who negotiated the price and bought goods from the supply
merchants operating inland.
By the 1750s this network, controlled by Indian merchants, was
breaking down.
The European companies gradually gained power first securing a
variety of concessions from local courts, then the monopoly rights
to trade. This resulted in a decline of the old ports of Surat and
Hoogly through which local merchants had operated. Exports from
these ports fell dramatically, the credit that had financed the earlier
trade began drying up, and the local bankers slowly went bankrupt.
In the last years of the seventeenth century, the gross value of trade
that passed through Surat had been Rs 16 million. By the 1740s it
had slumped to Rs 3 million.
On a map of Asia, find and draw the sea and
land links of the textile trade from India to
Central Asia, West Asia and Southeast Asia.
Activity
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
114
While Surat and Hoogly decayed, Bombay and Calcutta grew. This
shift from the old ports to the new ones was an indicator of the
growth of colonial power. Trade through the new ports came to
be controlled by European companies, and was carried in European
ships. While many of the old trading houses collapsed, those that
wanted to survive had to now operate within a network shaped by
European trading companies.
How did these changes affect the life of weavers and other artisans?
3.2 What Happened to Weavers?
The consolidation of East India Company power after the 1760s
did not initially lead to a decline in textile exports from India. British
cotton industries had not yet expanded and Indian fine textiles were
in great demand in Europe. So the company was keen on expanding
textile exports from India.
Before establishing political power in Bengal and Carnatic in the
1760s and 1770s, the East India Company had found it difficult to
ensure a regular supply of goods for export. The French, Dutch,
Fig. 13 The English factory at Surat, a seventeenth-century drawing.
Fig. 14 A weaver at work, Gujarat.
115
T
h
e

A
g
e

o
f

I
n
d
u
s
t
r
i
a
l
i
s
a
t
i
o
n
Portuguese as well as the local traders competed in the market
to secure woven cloth. So the weaver and supply merchants
could bargain and try selling the produce to the best buyer. In
their letters back to London, Company officials continuously
complained of difficulties of supply and the high prices.
However, once the East India Company established political
power, it could assert a monopoly right to trade. It proceeded
to develop a system of management and control that would
eliminate competition, control costs, and ensure regular supplies
of cotton and silk goods. This it did through a series of steps.
First: the Company tried to eliminate the existing traders and
brokers connected with the cloth trade, and establish a more
direct control over the weaver. It appointed a paid servant called
the gomastha to supervise weavers, collect supplies, and examine
the quality of cloth.
Second: it prevented Company weavers from dealing with other
buyers. One way of doing this was through the system of advances.
Once an order was placed, the weavers were given loans to purchase
the raw material for their production. Those who took loans had to
hand over the cloth they produced to the gomastha. They could not
take it to any other trader.
As loans flowed in and the demand for fine textiles expanded,
weavers eagerly took the advances, hoping to earn more. Many
weavers had small plots of land which they had earlier cultivated
along with weaving, and the produce from this took care of their
family needs. Now they had to lease out the land and devote all their
time to weaving. Weaving, in fact, required the labour of the entire
family, with children and women all engaged in different stages of
the process.
Soon, however, in many weaving villages there were reports of
clashes between weavers and gomasthas. Earlier supply merchants had
very often lived within the weaving villages, and had a close
relationship with the weavers, looking after their needs and helping
them in times of crisis. The new gomasthas were outsiders, with no
long-term social link with the village. They acted arrogantly, marched
into villages with sepoys and peons, and punished weavers for delays
in supply often beating and flogging them. The weavers lost the
space to bargain for prices and sell to different buyers: the price they
received from the Company was miserably low and the loans they
had accepted tied them to the Company.
New words
Sepoy This is how the British pronounced
the word sipahi, meaning an Indian soldier in
the service of the British
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
116
In many places in Carnatic and Bengal, weavers deserted villages
and migrated, setting up looms in other villages where they had
some family relation. Elsewhere, weavers along with the village
traders revolted, opposing the Company and its officials. Over time
many weavers began refusing loans, closing down their workshops
and taking to agricultural labour.
By the turn of the nineteenth century, cotton weavers faced a
new set of problems.
3.3 Manchester Comes to India
In 1772, Henry Patullo, a Company official, had ventured to
say that the demand for Indian textiles could never reduce, since
no other nation produced goods of the same quality. Yet by
the beginning of the nineteenth century we see the beginning of
a long decline of textile exports from India. In 1811-12
piece-goods accounted for 33 per cent of Indias exports; by
1850-51 it was no more than 3 per cent.
Why did this happen? What were its implications?
As cotton industries developed in England, industrial groups began
worrying about imports from other countries. They pressurised
the government to impose import duties on cotton textiles so that
Manchester goods could sell in Britain without facing any
competition from outside. At the same time industrialists persuaded
the East India Company to sell British manufactures in Indian
markets as well. Exports of British cotton goods increased
dramatically in the early nineteenth century. At the end of the
eighteenth century there had been virtually no import of cotton
piece-goods into India. But by 1850 cotton piece-goods constituted
over 31 per cent of the value of Indian imports; and by the 1870s
this figure was over 50 per cent.
Cotton weavers in India thus faced two problems at the same time:
their export market collapsed, and the local market shrank, being
glutted with Manchester imports. Produced by machines at lower
costs, the imported cotton goods were so cheap that weavers could
not easily compete with them. By the 1850s, reports from most
weaving regions of India narrated stories of decline and desolation.
By the 1860s, weavers faced a new problem. They could not get
sufficient supply of raw cotton of good quality. When the American
The Commissioner of Patna wrote:
It appears that twenty yeas ago, a brisk trade
was carried on in the manufacture of cloth at
J ahanabad, and Behar, which has in the former
place entirely ceased, while in the latter the
amount of manufacture is very limited, in
consequence of the cheap and durable goods
from Manchester with which the Native
manufactures are unable to compete.
Quoted in J . Krishnamurty, Deindustrialisation in
Gangetic Bihar during the nineteenth century,
The Indian Economic and Social History Review,
1985.
Source
Source C
Reporting on the Koshtis, a community of
weavers, the Census Report of Central Provinces
stated:
The Koshtis, like the weavers of the finer kinds
of cloth in other parts of India, have fallen upon
evil times. They are unable to compete with the
showy goods which Manchester sends in such
profusion, and they have of late years emigrated
in great numbers, chiefly to Berar, where as day
labourers they are able to obtain wages
Census Report of Central Provinces, 1872, quoted
in Sumit Guha, The handloom industry in Central
India, 1825-1950, The Indian Economic and Social
History Review.
Source
Source D
117
T
h
e

A
g
e

o
f

I
n
d
u
s
t
r
i
a
l
i
s
a
t
i
o
n
Civil War broke out and cotton supplies from the US were cut
off, Britain turned to India. As raw cotton exports from India
increased, the price of raw cotton shot up. Weavers in India
were starved of supplies and forced to buy raw cotton at
exorbitant prices. In this, situation weaving could not pay.
Then, by the end of the nineteenth century, weavers and other
craftspeople faced yet another problem. Factories in India began
production, flooding the market with machine- goods. How could
weaving industries possibly survive?
Fig. 15 Bombay harbour, a late-eighteenth-century drawing.
Bombay and Calcutta grew as trading ports from the 1780s. This marked the decline of the old trading order
and the growth of the colonial economy.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
118
4 Factories Come Up
The first cotton mill in Bombay came up in 1854 and it went into
production two years later. By 1862 four mills were at work with
94,000 spindles and 2,150 looms. Around the same time jute mills
came up in Bengal, the first being set up in 1855 and another one
seven years later, in 1862. In north India, the Elgin Mill was started
in Kanpur in the 1860s, and a year later the first cotton mill of
Ahmedabad was set up. By 1874, the first spinning and weaving
mill of Madras began production.
Who set up the industries? Where did the capital come from? Who
came to work in the mills?
4.1 The Early Entrepreneurs
Industries were set up in different regions by varying sorts of people.
Let us see who they were.
The history of many business groups goes back to trade with China.
From the late eighteenth century, as you have read in your book last
year, the British in India began exporting opium to China and took
tea from China to England. Many Indians became junior players in
this trade, providing finance, procuring supplies, and shipping
consignments. Having earned through trade, some of these
businessmen had visions of developing industrial enterprises in India.
In Bengal, Dwarkanath Tagore made his fortune in the China trade
before he turned to industrial investment, setting up six joint-stock
companies in the 1830s and 1840s. Tagores enterprises sank along
with those of others in the wider business crises of the 1840s, but
later in the nineteenth century many of the China traders became
successful industrialists. In Bombay, Parsis like Dinshaw Petit and
Jamsetjee Nusserwanjee Tata who built huge industrial empires in
India, accumulated their initial wealth partly from exports to China,
and partly from raw cotton shipments to England. Seth Hukumchand,
a Marwari businessman who set up the first Indian jute mill in
Calcutta in 1917, also traded with China. So did the father as well as
grandfather of the famous industrialist G.D. Birla.
Capital was accumulated through other trade networks. Some
merchants from Madras traded with Burma while others had links
with the Middle East and East Africa. There were yet other
Fig. 17 Dwarkanath Tagore.
Dwarkanath Tagore believed that India would
develop through westernisation and
industrialisation. He invested in shipping,
shipbuilding, mining, banking, plantations
and insurance.
Fig. 16 Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy.
Jeejeebhoy was the son of a Parsi weaver. Like
many others of his time, he was involved in
the China trade and shipping. He owned a
large fleet of ships, but competition from
English and American shippers forced him to
sell his ships by the 1850s.
119
T
h
e

A
g
e

o
f

I
n
d
u
s
t
r
i
a
l
i
s
a
t
i
o
n
commercial groups, but they were not directly involved in external
trade. They operated within India, carrying goods from one place
to another, banking money, transferring funds between cities, and
financing traders. When opportunities of investment in industries
opened up, many of them set up factories.
As colonial control over Indian trade tightened, the space within
which Indian merchants could function became increasingly limited.
They were barred from trading with Europe in manufactured goods,
and had to export mostly raw materials and food grains raw
cotton, opium, wheat and indigo required by the British. They
were also gradually edged out of the shipping business.
Till the First World War, European Managing Agencies in fact
controlled a large sector of Indian industries. Three of the biggest
ones were Bird Heiglers & Co., Andrew Yule, and Jardine Skinner
& Co. These Agencies mobilised capital, set up joint-stock companies
and managed them. In most instances Indian financiers provided
the capital while the European Agencies made all investment and
business decisions. The European merchant-industrialists had their
own chambers of commerce which Indian businessmen were not
allowed to join.
4.2 Where Did the Workers Come From?
Factories needed workers. With the expansion of factories, this
demand increased. In 1901, there were 584,000 workers in Indian
factories. By 1946 the number was over 2,436, 000. Where did the
workers come from?
In most industrial regions workers came from the districts around.
Peasants and artisans who found no work in the village went to the
industrial centres in search of work. Over 50 per cent workers in the
Bombay cotton industries in 1911 came from the neighbouring
district of Ratnagiri, while the mills of Kanpur got most of their
textile hands from the villages within the district of Kanpur. Most
often millworkers moved between the village and the city, returning
to their village homes during harvests and festivals.
Over time, as news of employment spread, workers travelled great
distances in the hope of work in the mills. From the United Provinces,
for instance, they went to work in the textile mills of Bombay and in
the jute mills of Calcutta.
Fig. 18 Partners in enterprise J.N. Tata,
R.D. Tata, Sir R.J. Tata, and Sir D.J. Tata.
In 1912, J.N. Tata set up the first iron and steel
works in India at Jamshedpur. Iron and steel
industries in India started much later than
textiles. In colonial India industrial machinery,
railways and locomotives were mostly imported.
So capital goods industries could not really
develop in any significant way till Independence.
Fig. 19 Young workers of a Bombay
mill, early twentieth century.
When workers went back to their village
homes, they liked dressing up.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
120
Getting jobs was always difficult, even when mills multiplied and
the demand for workers increased. The numbers seeking work were
always more than the jobs available. Entry into the mills was also
restricted. Industrialists usually employed a jobber to get new recruits.
Very often the jobber was an old and trusted worker. He got people
from his village, ensured them jobs, helped them settle in the city
and provided them money in times of crisis. The jobber therefore
became a person with some authority and power. He began
demanding money and gifts for his favour and controlling the lives
of workers.
The number of factory workers increased over time. However,
as you will see, they were a small proportion of the total
industrial workforce.
Vasant Parkar, who was once a millworker in Bombay, said:
The workers would pay the jobbers money to get their sons work
in the mill The mill worker was closely associated with his village,
physically and emotionally. He would go home to cut the harvest
and for sowing. The Konkani would go home to cut the paddy
and the Ghati, the sugarcane. I t was an accepted practice for
which the mills granted leave.
Meena Menon and Neera Adarkar, One Hundred Years: One Hundred
Voices, 2004.
Source
Source E
Bhai Bhosle, a trade unionist of Bombay,
recollected his childhood in the 1930s and 1940s:
In those days, the shift was 10 hours from
5 pm to 3 am terrible working hours. My father
worked for 35 years; he got the asthma like
disease and could not work any moreThen my
father went back to village.
Meena Menon and Neera Adarkar, One Hundred
Years: One Hundred Voices.
Source
Source F
Fig. 20 A head jobber.
Notice how the posture and clothes
emphasise the jobbers position of
authority.
Fig. 21 Spinners at work in an Ahmedabad mill.
Women worked mostly in the spinning departments.
121
T
h
e

A
g
e

o
f

I
n
d
u
s
t
r
i
a
l
i
s
a
t
i
o
n
Fig. 22 The first office of the Madras Chamber of Commerce.
By the late nineteenth century merchants in different regions began
meeting and forming Chambers of Commerce to regulate business and
decide on issues of collective concern.
5 The Peculiarities of Industrial Growth
European Managing Agencies, which dominated industrial
production in India, were interested in certain kinds of products.
They established tea and coffee plantations, acquiring land at cheap
rates from the colonial government; and they invested in mining,
indigo and jute. Most of these were products required primarily for
export trade and not for sale in India.
When Indian businessmen began setting up industries in the late
nineteenth century, they avoided competing with Manchester goods
in the Indian market. Since yarn was not an important part of British
imports into India, the early cotton mills in India produced coarse
cotton yarn (thread) rather than fabric. When yarn was imported it
was only of the superior variety. The yarn produced in Indian spinning
mills was used by handloom weavers in India or exported to China.
By the first decade of the twentieth century a series of changes
affected the pattern of industrialisation. As the swadeshi movement
gathered momentum, nationalists mobilised people to boycott foreign
cloth. Industrial groups organised themselves to protect their collective
interests, pressurising the government to increase tariff protection
and grant other concessions. From 1906, moreover, the export of
Indian yarn to China declined since produce from Chinese and
Japanese mills flooded the Chinese market.
So industrialists in India began shifting from
yarn to cloth production. Cotton piece-
goods production in India doubled between
1900 and 1912.
Yet, till the First World War, industrial growth
was slow. The war created a dramatically
new situation. With British mills busy with
war production to meet the needs of the
army, Manchester imports into India
declined. Suddenly, Indian mills had a vast
home market to supply. As the war
prolonged, Indian factories were called
upon to supply war needs: jute bags, cloth
for army uniforms, tents and leather boots,
horse and mule saddles and a host of other
items. New factories were set up and old
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
122
ones ran multiple shifts. Many new workers were employed and
everyone was made to work longer hours. Over the war years
industrial production boomed.
After the war, Manchester could never recapture its old position in
the Indian market. Unable to modernise and compete with the US,
Germany and Japan, the economy of Britain crumbled after the
war. Cotton production collapsed and exports of cotton cloth from
Britain fell dramatically. Within the colonies, local industrialists
gradually consolidated their position, substituting foreign
manufactures and capturing the home market.
5.1 Small-scale Industries Predominate
While factory industries grew steadily after the war, large industries
formed only a small segment of the economy. Most of them
about 67 per cent in 1911 were located in Bengal and Bombay.
Over the rest of the country, small-scale production continued to
predominate. Only a small proportion of the total industrial labour
force worked in registered factories: 5 per cent in 1911 and 10 per
cent in 1931. The rest worked in small workshops and household
units, often located in alleys and bylanes, invisible to the passer-by.
In fact, in some instances, handicrafts production actually expanded
in the twentieth century. This is true even in the case of the handloom
sector that we have discussed. While cheap machine-made thread
wiped out the spinning industry in the nineteenth century, the weavers
survived, despite problems. In the twentieth century, handloom
cloth production expanded steadily: almost trebling between 1900
and 1940.
How did this happen?
This was partly because of technological changes. Handicrafts people
adopt new technology if that helps them improve production
without excessively pushing up costs. So, by the second decade of
the twentieth century we find weavers using looms with a fly shuttle.
This increased productivity per worker, speeded up production and
reduced labour demand. By 1941, over 35 per cent of handlooms
in India were fitted with fly shuttles: in regions like Travancore,
Madras, Mysore, Cochin, Bengal the proportion was 70 to 80 per
cent. There were several other small innovations that helped weavers
improve their productivity and compete with the mill sector.
Fig. 23 A Hand-woven
Cloth.
The intricate designs of
hand-woven cloth could
not be easily copied by the
mills.
New words
Fly shuttle It is a mechanical device used for
weaving, moved by means of ropes and pullies.
It places the horizontal threads ( called the weft)
into the verticle threads (called the warp). The
invention of the fly shuttle made it possible
for weavers to operate large looms and weave
wide pieces of cloth.
123
T
h
e

A
g
e

o
f

I
n
d
u
s
t
r
i
a
l
i
s
a
t
i
o
n
Certain groups of weavers were in a better position than others to
survive the competition with mill industries. Amongst weavers some
produced coarse cloth while others wove finer varieties. The coarser
cloth was bought by the poor and its demand fluctuated violently.
In times of bad harvests and famines, when the rural poor had little
to eat, and their cash income disappeared, they could not possibly
buy cloth. The demand for the finer varieties bought by the
well-to-do was more stable. The rich could buy these even when the
poor starved. Famines did not affect the sale of Banarasi or
Baluchari saris. Moreover, as you have seen, mills could not imitate
specialised weaves. Saris with woven borders, or the famous lungis
and handkerchiefs of Madras, could not be easily displaced by
mill production.
Weavers and other craftspeople who continued to expand
production through the twentieth century, did not necessarily prosper.
They lived hard lives and worked long hours. Very often the entire
household including all the women and children had to work at
various stages of the production process. But they were not simply
remnants of past times in the age of factories. Their life and labour
was integral to the process of industrialisation.
Fig. 24 Location of large-scale industries in India, 1931.
The circles indicate the size of industries in the different
regions.
Madras
Bombay
Bengal
Bihar
United Provinces
Punjab
Central Provinces
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
124
6 Market for Goods
We have seen how British manufacturers attempted to take over
the Indian market, and how Indian weavers and craftsmen, traders
and industrialists resisted colonial controls, demanded tariff
protection, created their own spaces, and tried to extend the market
for their produce.
But when new products are produced people have to be
persuaded to buy them. They have to feel like using the product.
How was this done?
One way in which new consumers are created is through
advertisements. As you know, advertisements make products appear
desirable and necessary. They try to shape the minds of people and
create new needs. Today we live in a world where advertisements
surround us. They appear in newspapers, magazines, hoardings, street
walls, television screens. But if we look back into history we find
that from the very beginning of the industrial age, advertisements
have played a part in expanding the markets for products, and in
shaping a new consumer culture.
When Manchester industrialists began selling cloth in India, they put
labels on the cloth bundles. The label was needed to make the place
of manufacture and the name of the company familiar to the buyer.
The label was also to be a mark of quality. When buyers saw MADE
IN MANCHESTER written in bold on the label, they were
expected to feel confident about buying the cloth.
Fig. 26(a) Manchester labels, early
twentieth century.
Images of numerous Indian gods and
goddesses Kartika, Lakshmi,
Saraswati are shown in imported
cloth labels approving the quality of
the product being marketed.
Fig. 26(b) Maharaja Ranjit Singh on
a Manchester label.
Historic figures are used to create
respect for the product.
Fig. 25 Gripe Water calendar of 1928 by
M.V. Dhurandhar.
The image of baby Krishna was most
commonly used to popularise baby products.
Fig. 26(a) Fig. 26(b)
125
T
h
e

A
g
e

o
f

I
n
d
u
s
t
r
i
a
l
i
s
a
t
i
o
n
But labels did not only carry words and texts. They also carried
images and were very often beautifully illustrated. If we look
at these old labels, we can have some idea of the mind of the
manufacturers, their calculations, and the way they appealed to
the people.
Images of Indian gods and goddesses regularly appeared on these
labels. It was as if the association with gods gave divine approval to
the goods being sold. The imprinted image of Krishna or Saraswati
was also intended to make the manufacture from a foreign land
appear somewhat familiar to Indian people.
By the late nineteenth century, manufacturers were printing calendars
to popularise their products. Unlike newspapers and magazines,
calendars were used even by people who could not read. They were
hung in tea shops and in poor peoples homes just as much as in
offices and middle-class apartments. And those who hung the
calendars had to see the advertisements, day after day, through the
year. In these calendars, once again, we see the figures of gods being
used to sell new products.
Like the images of gods, figures of important personages, of
emperors and nawabs, adorned advertisement and calendars. The
message very often seemed to say: if you respect the royal figure,
then respect this product; when the product was being used by
kings, or produced under royal command, its quality could not
be questioned.
When Indian manufacturers advertised the nationalist message was
clear and loud. If you care for the nation then buy products that
Indians produce. Advertisements became a vehicle of the nationalist
message of swadeshi.
Conclusion
Clearly, the age of industries has meant major technological changes,
growth of factories, and the making of a new industrial labour
force. However, as you have seen, hand technology and small-scale
production remained an important part of the industrial landscape.
Look again at Figs. 1 and 2. What would you now say of the images
they project?
Fig. 27 Sunlight soap calendar of 1934.
Here God Vishnu is shown bringing sunlight
from across the skies.
Fig. 28 An Indian mill cloth label.
The goddess is shown offering cloth produced
in an Ahmedabad mill, and asking people to
use things made in India.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
126
Discuss
Project work
1. Why did some industrialists in nineteenth-century Europe prefer hand labour over machines?
2. How did the East India Company procure regular supplies of cotton and silk textiles from
Indian weavers?
3. Imagine that you have been asked to write an article for an encyclopaedia on Britain and the
history of cotton. Write your piece using information from the entire chapter.
4. Why did industrial production in India increase during the First World War?
Select any one industry in your region and find out its history. How has the technology changed?
Where do the workers come from? How are the products advertised and marketed? Try and talk
to the employers and some workers to get their views about the industrys history.
D
i
s
c
u
s
s
Write in brief
a) Women workers in Britain attacked the Spinning Jenny.
b) In the seventeenth century merchants from towns in Europe began employing
peasants and artisans within the villages.
c) The port of Surat declined by the end of the eighteenth century.
d) The East India Company appointed gomasthas to supervise weavers in India.
2. Write True or False against each statement:
a) At the end of the nineteenth century, 80 per cent of the total workforce in
Europe was employed in the technologically advanced industrial sector.
b) The international market for fine textiles was dominated by India till the
eighteenth century.
c) The American Civil War resulted in the reduction of cotton exports from India.
d) The introduction of the fly shuttle enabled handloom workers to improve their
productivity.
3. Explain what is meant by proto-industrialisation.
W
r
i
t
e

i
n

b
r
i
e
f
Project
127
W
o
r
k
,

L
i
f
e

a
n
d

L
e
i
s
u
r
e
In 1880, Durgacharan Ray wrote a novel, Debganer Martye Aagaman
(The Gods Visit Earth), in which Brahma, the Creator in Hindu
mythology, took a train to Calcutta with some other gods. As Varuna,
the Rain God, conducted them around the capital of British India,
the gods were wonderstruck by the big, modern city the train
itself, the large ships on the river Ganges, factories belching smoke,
bridges and monuments and a dazzling array of shops selling a
wide range of commodities. The gods were so impressed by the
marvels of the teeming metropolis that they decided to build a
Museum and a High Court in Heaven!
The city of Calcutta in the nineteenth century was brimming with
opportunities for trade and commerce, education and jobs. But
the gods were disturbed by another aspect of city life its cheats
and thieves, its grinding poverty, and the poor quality of housing
for many. Brahma himself got tricked into buying a pair of cheap
glasses and when he tried to buy a pair of shoes, he was greatly
confused by the shopkeepers who accused one another of being
swindlers. The gods were also perturbed at the confusion of caste,
religious and gender identities in the city. All social distinctions that
appeared to be natural and normal seemed to be breaking down.
Like Durgacharan Ray, many others in nineteenth-century India
were both amazed and confused by what they saw in the cities.
The city seemed to offer a series of contrasting images and
experiences wealth and poverty, splendour and dirt, opportunities
and disappointments.
Were cities always like the one described above? Though urbanisation
has a long history, the modern city worldwide has developed only
over the last 200 years. Three historical processes have shaped
modern cities in decisive ways: the rise of industrial capitalism, the
establishment of colonial rule over large parts of the world, and the
development of democratic ideals. This chapter will trace some of
the processes of this urbanisation. It will explore how the modern
city emerges, and what happens within the city.
W
o
r
k
,

L
i
f
e

a
n
d

L
e
i
s
u
r
e
C
h
a
p
t
e
r

V
I
Work, Life and Leisure
Cities in the Contemporary World
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
128
1 Characteristics of the City
To begin with, how do we distinguish between cities on the one
hand and towns and villages on the other? Towns and cities
that first appeared along river valleys, such as Ur, Nippur
and Mohenjodaro, were larger in scale than other human
settlements. Ancient cities could develop only when an increase
in food supplies made it possible to support a wide range of
non-food producers. Cites were often the centres of political power,
administrative network, trade and industry, religious institutions,
and intellectual activity, and supported various social groups such as
artisans, merchants and priests.
Cities themselves can vary greatly in size and complexity. They can
be densely settled modern-day metropolises, which combine
political and economic functions for an entire region, and support
very large populations. Or they can be smaller urban centres with
limited functions.
This chapter will discuss the history of urbanisation in the modern
world. We will look in some detail at two modern cities, as examples
of metropolitan development. The first is London, the largest city
in the world, and an imperial centre in the nineteenth century, and
the second is Bombay, one of the most important modern cities in
the Indian subcontinent.
1.1 Industrialisation and the Rise of the Modern City
in England
Industrialisation changed the form of urbanisation in the modern
period. However, even as late as the 1850s, many decades after the
beginning of the industrial revolution, most Western countries were
largely rural. The early industrial cities of Britain such as Leeds and
Manchester attracted large numbers of migrants to the textile mills
set up in the late eighteenth century. In 1851, more than three-quarters
of the adults living in Manchester were migrants from rural areas.
Now let us look at London. By 1750, one out of every nine people
of England and Wales lived in London. It was a colossal city with a
population of about 675,000. Over the nineteenth century, London
continued to expand. Its population multiplied fourfold in the
70 years between 1810 and 1880, increasing from 1 million to about
4 million.
Can you think of appropriate examples from
Indian history for each of these categories: a
religious centre, a market town, a regional
capital, a metropolis? Find out about the history
of any one of them.
Activity
New words
Metropolis A large, densely populated city
of a country or state, often the capital of the
region
Urbanisation Development of a city or town
129
W
o
r
k
,

L
i
f
e

a
n
d

L
e
i
s
u
r
e
Fig. 1 The growth of
London, a map showing its
population in four different
eras.
New words
Philanthropist Someone who works for
social upliftment and charity, donating time
and money for the purpose
The city of London was a powerful magnet for migrant populations,
even though it did not have large factories. Nineteenth century
London, says the historian Gareth Stedman Jones, was a city of
clerks and shopkeepers, of small masters and skilled artisans, of a
growing number of semi skilled and sweated outworkers, of
soldiers and servants, of casual labourers, street sellers, and beggars.
Apart from the London dockyards, five major types of industries
employed large numbers: clothing and footwear, wood and furniture,
metals and engineering, printing and stationery, and precision products
such as surgical instruments, watches, and objects of precious metal.
During the First World War (1914-18) London began manufacturing
motor cars and electrical goods, and the number of large factories
increased until they accounted for nearly one-third of all jobs in
the city.
1.2 Marginal Groups
As London grew, crime flourished. We are told that 20,000 criminals
were living in London in the 1870s. We know a great deal about
criminal activities in this period, for crime became an object of
widespread concern. The police were worried about law and order,
philanthropists were anxious about public morality, and industrialists
wanted a hard-working and orderly labour force. So the population
of criminals was counted, their activities were watched, and their
ways of life were investigated.
In the mid-nineteenth century, Henry Mayhew wrote several volumes
on the London labour, and compiled long lists of those who made
a living from crime. Many of whom he listed as criminals were in
fact poor people who lived by stealing lead from roofs, food from
shops, lumps of coal, and clothes drying on hedges. There were
others who were more skilled at their trade, expert at their jobs.
They were the cheats and tricksters, pickpockets and petty thieves
crowding the streets of London. In an attempt to discipline the
population, the authorities imposed high penalties for crime and
offered work to those who were considered the deserving poor.
Factories employed large numbers of women in the late

eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries. With technological developments,
women gradually lost their industrial jobs, and were forced to work
within households. The 1861 census recorded a quarter of a million
domestic servants in London, of whom the vast majority were
1784
1862
1914
1980
River Thames
Population
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
130
Fig. 2 A Strangers Home, The Illustrated London News,1870.
Night Refuges and Strangers Homes were opened in winter by charitable societies and local authorities
in many towns. The poor flocked to these places in the hope of food, warmth and shelter.
Imagine that you are a newspaper reporter
writing a piece on the changes you see in
London in 1811. What problems are you likely
to write about? Who would have gained from
the changes?
Activity
women, many of them recent migrants. A large number of women
used their homes to increase family income by taking in lodgers or
through such activities as tailoring, washing or matchbox making.
However, there was a change once again in the twentieth century. As
women got employment in wartime industries and offices, they
withdrew from domestic service.
Large number of children were pushed into low-paid work, often
by their parents. Andrew Mearns, a clergyman who wrote The Bitter
Cry of Outcast London in the 1880s, showed why crime was more
profitable than labouring in small underpaid factories: A child seven
years old is easily known to make 10 shillings 6 pence a week from
thieving Before he can gain as much as the young thief [a boy]
must make 56 gross of matchboxes a week, or 1,296 a day. It was
only after the passage of the Compulsory Elementary Education
Act in 1870, and the factory acts beginning from 1902, that children
were kept out of industrial work.
1.3 Housing
Older cities like London changed dramatically when people began
pouring in after the Industrial Revolution. Factory or workshop
131
W
o
r
k
,

L
i
f
e

a
n
d

L
e
i
s
u
r
e
New words
Tenement Run- down and often
overcrowded apartment house, especially in
a poor section of a large city
Fig. 3 Rat-trap seller, cartoon by Rowlandson,
1799.
Rowlandson recorded the types of trades in
London that were beginning to disappear with
the development of industrial capitalism.
In many cities of India today, there are moves
to clear away the slums where poor people
live. Discuss whether or not it is the
responsibility of the government to make
arrangements for houses for these people.
Activity
Fig. 4 A London slum in 1889.
What are the different uses of street space that
are visible in this picture? What would have
changed in the conditions of working class
housing in the twentieth century?
owners did not house the migrant workers. Instead, individual
landowners put up cheap, and usually unsafe, tenements for the
new arrivals.
Although poverty was not unknown in the countryside, it was more
concentrated and starkly visible in the city. In 1887, Charles Booth,
a Liverpool shipowner, conducted the first social survey of low-
skilled London workers in the East End of London. He found
that as many as 1 million Londoners (about one-fifth of the
population of London at the time) were very poor and were expected
to live only up to an average age of 29 (compared to the average
life expectancy of 55 among the gentry and the middle class).
These people were more than likely to die in a workhouse, hospital
or lunatic asylum. London, he concluded needed the rebuilding of
at least 400,000 rooms to house its poorest citizens.
For a while the better-off city dwellers continued to demand that
slums simply be cleared away. But gradually a larger and larger
number of people began to recognise the need for housing
for the poor. What were the reasons for this increasing concern?
First, the vast mass of one-room houses occupied by the poor were
seen as a serious threat to public health: they were overcrowded,
badly ventilated, and lacked sanitation. Second, there were worries
about fire hazards created by poor housing. Third, there was a
widespread fear of social disorder, especially after the Russian
Revolution in 1917. Workers mass housing schemes were planned
to prevent the London poor from turning rebellious.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
132
Imagine you are investigating the conditions in which the London
poor lived. Write a note discussing all the dangers to public
health which were created by these conditions.
Activity
Fig. 5 For the poor, the street often was the only place for rest, leisure and fun. The
Illustrated London News, 1856.
Over the nineteenth century, the elites became increasingly worried about drunkenness
and squalor on the streets. Gradually, a temperance movement developed to fight
against the evils of drinking.
The children too must not be forgotten in the
open spaces. The kinderbank, or low seat to
suit their short legs, should always be provided
and where possible spaces of turf be supplied
with swings or seesaws, with ponds for sailing
boats, and with sand pits where these can be
kept sufficiently clean.
Source
Source A
New words
Temperance movement A largely middle-
class-led social reform movement which
emerged in Britain and America from the
nineteenth century onwards. It identified
alcoholism as the cause of the ruin of families
and society, and aimed at reducing the
consumption of alcoholic drinks particularly
amongst the working classes.
1.4 Cleaning London
A variety of steps were taken to clean up London. Attempts were
made to decongest localities, green the open spaces, reduce pollution
and landscape the city. Large blocks of apartments were built, akin
to those in Berlin and New York cities which had similar housing
problems. Rent control was introduced in Britain during the First
World War to ease the impact of a severe housing shortage.
The congestion in the nineteenth-century industrial city also led to a
yearning for clean country air. Many wealthy residents of London
were able to afford a holiday home in the countryside. Demands
were made for new lungs for the city, and some attempts
133
W
o
r
k
,

L
i
f
e

a
n
d

L
e
i
s
u
r
e
Fig. 6 New Earswick, a garden
suburb.
Notice the enclosed green space to
produce a new community life.
were made to bridge the difference between city and countryside
through such ideas as the Green Belt around London.
Architect and planner Ebenezer Howard developed the principle
of the Garden City, a pleasant space full of plants and trees, where
people would both live and work. He believed this would also
produce better-quality citizens. Following Howards ideas Raymond
Unwin and Barry Parker designed the garden city of New Earswick.
There were common garden spaces, beautiful views, and
great attention to detail. In the end, only well-off workers could
afford these houses.
Between the two World Wars (1919-39) the responsibility for housing
the working classes was accepted by the British state, and a million
houses, most of them single-family cottages, were built by local
authorities. Meanwhile, the city had extended beyond the range where
people could walk to work, and the development of suburbs made
new forms of mass transport absolutely necessary.
1.5 Transport in the City
How could people be persuaded to leave the city and live in garden
suburbs unless there were some means of travelling to the city
for work? The London underground railway partially solved
the housing crisis by carrying large masses of people to and from
the city.
The very first section of the Underground in the world
opened on 10 January 1863 between Paddington and
Farrington Street in London. On that day 10,000
passengers were carried, with trains running every ten
minutes. By 1880 the expanded train service
was carrying 40 million passengers a year. At first
people were afraid to travel underground. This is what
one newspaper reader warned:
The compartment in which I sat was filled with
passengers who were smoking pipes. The
atmosphere was a mixture of sulphur, coal dust
and foul fumes from the gas lamps above, so
that by the time we reached Moorgate, I was
near dead of asphyxiation and heat. I should
think these underground railways must soon be
discontinued for they are a menace to health.
Fig. 7 Railway lines being laid in London, Illustrated Times,
1868.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
134
New words
Asphyxiation Suffocation due to lack of
oxygen supply
Fig. 8 London Underground advertisement for
Golders Green, around 1900.
You can see the Underground advertisement
persuading people to move to green, uncrowded
and picturesque suburbs.
Fig. 9 Cows on the streets of London, The Graphic, 1877.
Clearing streets was part of the project of building a modern city.
In the nineteenth century, cows regularly blocked traffic on
London roads.
Many felt that the iron monsters added to the mess and unhealthiness
of the city. Charles Dickens wrote in Dombey and Son (1848) about
the massive destruction in the process of construction:
Houses were knocked down; streets broken through and stopped;
deep pits and trenches dug in the ground; enormous heaps of
earth and clay thrown up; there were a hundred thousand
shapes and substances of incompleteness, wildly mingled out their
places, upside down, burrowing in the earth . . .
To make approximately two miles of railway, 900 houses had
to be destroyed. Thus the London tube railway led to a
massive displacement of the London poor, especially between the
two World Wars.
Yet the Underground eventually became a huge success. By the
twentieth century, most large metropolises such as New York, Tokyo
and Chicago could not do without their well-functioning transit
systems. As a result, the population in the city became more dispersed.
Better-planned suburbs and a good railway network enabled large
numbers to live outside central London and travel to work.
These new conveniences wore down social distinctions and also
created new ones. How did these changes affect domestic and public
life? Did they have the same significance for all social groups?
135
W
o
r
k
,

L
i
f
e

a
n
d

L
e
i
s
u
r
e
2 Social Change in the City
In the eighteenth century, the family had been a unit of production
and consumption as well as of political decision-making. The function
and the shape of the family were completely transformed by life in
the industrial city.
Ties between members of households loosened, and among the
working class the institution of marriage tended to break down.
Women of the upper and middle classes in Britain, on the other
hand, faced increasingly higher levels of isolation, although their lives
were made easier by domestic maids who cooked, cleaned and cared
for young children on low wages.
Women who worked for wages had some control over their lives,
particularly among the lower social classes. However, many social
reformers felt that the family as an institution had broken down,
and needed to be saved or reconstructed by pushing these women
back into the home.
2.1 Men, Women and Family in the City
The city no doubt encouraged a new spirit of individualism among
both men and women, and a freedom from the collective values
that were a feature of the smaller rural communities. But men and
women did not have equal access to this new urban space. As women
lost their industrial jobs and conservative people railed against their
presence in public spaces, women were forced to withdraw into
their homes. The public space became increasingly a male preserve,
and the domestic sphere was seen as the proper place for women.
Most political movements of the nineteenth century, such as Chartism
(a movement demanding the vote for all adult males) and the
10-hour movement (limiting hours of work in factories), mobilised
large numbers of men. Only gradually did women come to
participate in political movements for suffrage that demanded the
New words
Individualism A theory which promotes the liberty, rights or
independent action of the individual, rather than of the
community
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
136
right to vote for women, or for married womens rights to property
(from the 1870s).
By the twentieth century, the urban family had been transformed yet
again, partly by the experience of the valuable wartime work done
by women, who were employed in large numbers to meet war
demands. The family now consisted of much smaller units.
Above all, the family became the heart of a new market of goods
and services, and of ideas. If the new industrial city provided
opportunities for mass work, it also raised the problem of mass
leisure on Sundays and other common holidays. How did people
organise their new-found leisure time?
2.2 Leisure and Consumption
For wealthy Britishers, there had long been an annual
London Season. Several cultural events, such as the
opera, the theatre and classical music performances
were organised for an elite group of 300-400 families
in the late eighteenth century. Meanwhile, working
classes met in pubs to have a drink, exchange news
and sometimes also to organise for political action.
Many new types of large-scale entertainment for the
common people came into being, some made possible
with money from the state. Libraries, art galleries and
museums were established in the nineteenth century
to provide people with a sense of history and pride in
the achievements of the British. At first, visitors to the
British Museum in London numbered just about
15,000 every year, but when entry was made free
in 1810, visitors swamped the museum: their number
jumped to 127,643 in 1824-25, shooting up to 825,
901 by 1846. Music halls were popular among
the lower classes, and, by the early twentieth century,
cinema became the great mass entertainment for
mixed audiences.
British industrial workers were increasingly encouraged
to spend their holidays by the sea, so as to derive the
benefits of the sun and bracing winds. Over 1 million
British people went to the seaside at Blackpool in 1883;
by 1939 their numbers had gone up to 7 million.
Fig. 10 A famous London resort, painting by T.E. Turner,
1923.
Pleasure gardens came in the nineteenth century to provide
facilities for sports, entertainment and refreshments for the
well-to-do.
137
W
o
r
k
,

L
i
f
e

a
n
d

L
e
i
s
u
r
e
Fig. 11 Sailors Home in East London, The Illustrated London News, 1873.
The working poor created spaces of entertainment wherever they lived.
Fig. 12 A tavern with coaches
parked in front, early nineteenth
century.
The image makes clear the
connection taverns had with
horse-drawn coaches in the early
nineteenth century. Before the
railway age, taverns were places
where horse-drawn coaches
halted, and tired travellers had
food and drink and rested the
night. Taverns were located on
coach routes and had facilities for
overnight stays. After the coming
of the railway and bus transport,
taverns went into decline along
with horse-drawn coach
transport. Pubs came up near
railway stations and bus depots.
Here people could stop for a
quick drink and chat.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
138
3 Politics in the City
In the severe winter of 1886, when outdoor work came to a
standstill, the London poor exploded in a riot, demanding relief
from the terrible conditions of poverty. Alarmed shopkeepers closed
down their establishments, fearing the 10,000-strong crowd that
was marching from Deptford to London. The marchers had to be
dispersed by the police. A similar riot occurred in late 1887; this
time, it was brutally suppressed by the police in what came to be
known as the Bloody Sunday of November 1887.
Two years later, thousands of Londons dockworkers went on strike
and marched through the city. According to one writer, thousands
of the strikers had marched through the city without a pocket being
picked or a window being broken The 12-day strike was called
to gain recognition for the dockworkers union.
From these examples you can see that large masses of people could
be drawn into political causes in the city. A large city population was
thus both a threat and an opportunity. State authorities went to
great lengths to reduce the possibility of rebellion and enhance urban
aesthetics, as the example of Paris shows.
Fig. 13 A scene during the dockworkers strike, 1889.
139
W
o
r
k
,

L
i
f
e

a
n
d

L
e
i
s
u
r
e
Fig. 15 A cartoon representing Haussmann
as the Attila of the Straight Line, holding a
compass and a set square, and dominating the
plan of Paris.
Box 1
Haussmanisation of Paris
In 1852, Louis Napoleon III (a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte) crowned himself emperor. After taking over, he undertook
the rebuilding of Paris with vigour. The chief architect of the new Paris was Baron Haussmann, the Prefect of the Seine.
His name has come to stand for the forcible reconstruction of cities to enhance their beauty and impose order. The poor
were evicted from the centre of Paris to reduce the possibility of political rebellion and to beautify the city.
For 17 years after 1852, Haussmann rebuilt Paris. Straight, broad avenues or boulevards and open spaces were designed,
and full-grown trees transplanted. By 1870, one-fifth of the streets of Paris were Haussmanns creation. I n addition,
policemen were employed, night patrols were begun, and bus shelters and tap water introduced.
Public works on this scale employed a large number of people: one in five working persons in Paris was in the building trade
in the 1860s. Yet this reconstruction displaced up to 350,000 people from the centre of Paris.
Even some of the wealthier inhabitants of Paris thought that the city had been monstrously transformed. The Goncourt
brothers, writing in the 1860s, for instance, lamented the passing of an earlier way of life, and the development of an
upper-class culture. Others believed that Haussmann had killed the street and its life, to produce an empty, boring city,
full of similar-looking boulevards and facades. In a play called Maison Neuve written in 1866, an old shopkeeper said,
Nowadays for the slightest excursion there are miles to go! An eternal sidewalk going on and on forever! A tree, a bench,
a kiosk! A tree, a bench, a kiosk! A tree, a bench
The outcry against Haussmanns Paris soon got converted into civic pride as the new capital became the toast of all
Europe. Paris became the hub of many new architectural, social and intellectual developments that were very influential
right through the twentieth century, even in other parts of the globe.
New streets
Other major streets
Fig. 14 Plan of principal streets in Paris built by Baron
Haussmann between 1850 and 1870.
R
iv
e
r
S
e
in
e
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
140
In sharp contrast to Western Europe in the same period, Indian
cities did not mushroom in the nineteenth century. The pace of
urbanisation in India was slow under colonial rule. In the early
twentieth century, no more than 11 per cent of Indians were living
in cities. A large proportion of these urban dwellers were residents
of the three Presidency cities. These were multi-functional cities:
they had major ports, warehouses, homes and offices, army camps,
as well as educational institutions, museums and libraries. Bombay
was the premier city of India. It expanded rapidly from the late
nineteenth century, its population going up from 644,405 in 1872
to nearly 1,500,000 in 1941.
Let us look at how Bombay developed.
4 The City in Colonial India
Contradictory experiences of cities
Kali Prasanna Singh wrote a satire in Bengali
describing an evening scene in the Indian part
of Calcutta around 1862:
Gradually the darkness thickens. At this time,
thanks to English shoes, striped Santipur scarfs
[sic] and Simla dhuties, you cant tell high from
low. Groups of fast young men, with peals of
laughter and plenty of English talk are knocking
at this door and that. They left home when
they saw the lamps lighted in the evening and
will return when the flour mills begin to work ...
Some cover their faces with scarfs [sic] and think
that no one recognises them. It is the evening
of a Saturday and the city is unusually crowded.
Hutam Pyancher Naksha, a collection of short
sketches on urban life in Calcutta, 1862.
Translated by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
In 1899, G.G. Agarkar wrote about Bombay:
The enormous expanse of Bombay city; its great
and palatial private and governmental mansions;
broad streets which accommodate up to six
carriages abreast the struggle to enter the
merchants lanes; the frequent troublesome noise
of passenger and goods trains whistles and
wheels; the wearisome bargaining in every
market, by customers who wander from place
to place making enquiries with silver and notes
in their pockets to buy a variety of commodities;
the throngs of thousands of boats visible in the
harbour the more or less rushed pace of official
and private employees going to work, checking
their watches The clouds of black smoke
emitted by factory chimneys and the noise of
large machines in the innards of buildings Men
and women with and without families belonging
to every caste and rank travelling in carriages or
horseback or on foot, to take the air and enjoy
a drive along the sea shore in the slanting rays of
the sun as it descends on the horizon
G.G. Agarkar, The Obverse Side of British Rule
or our Dire Poverty.
Source
Source B
Read Source B carefully. What are the common features of city life
that the authors note? What are the contradictory experiences they
point to?
Discuss
Fig. 16 A bustling street in Null Bazaar, Bombay, photograph
by Raja Deen Dayal, late nineteenth century.
New words
Presidency cities The capitals of the Bombay, Bengal and
Madras Presidencies in British India
141
W
o
r
k
,

L
i
f
e

a
n
d

L
e
i
s
u
r
e
Fig. 17 A view of Bombay, 1852.
You can see the Colaba lighthouse on the right and St Thomass Church in the
distant background. It was still possible in the mid-nineteenth century for artists to
search for picturesque spots. The major development projects had not yet started.
4.1 Bombay: The Prime City of India?
In the seventeenth century, Bombay was a group of seven islands
under Portuguese control. In 1661, control of the islands passed
into British hands after the marriage of Britains King Charles II to
the Portuguese princess. The East India Company quickly shifted its
base from Surat, its principal western port, to Bombay.
At first, Bombay was the major outlet for cotton textiles from
Gujarat. Later, in the nineteenth century, the city functioned as a port
through which large quantities of raw materials such as cotton and
opium would pass. Gradually, it also became an important
administrative centre in western India, and then, by the end of the
nineteenth century, a major industrial centre.
4.2 Work in the City
Bombay became the capital of the Bombay Presidency in 1819,
after the Maratha defeat in the Anglo-Maratha war. The city quickly
expanded. With the growth of trade in cotton and opium, large
communities of traders and bankers as well as artisans and
shopkeepers came to settle in Bombay. The establishment of textile
mills led to a fresh surge in migration.
The first cotton textile mill in Bombay was established in 1854. By
1921, there were 85 cotton mills with about 146,000 workers. Only
Fig. 18 A map of Bombay in the 1930s
showing the seven islands and the reclamations.
Old islands
Land
reclamation
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
142
about one-fourth of Bombays inhabitants between 1881 and 1931
were born in Bombay: the rest came from outside. Large numbers
flowed in from the nearby district of Ratnagiri to work in the
Bombay mills.
Women formed as much as 23 per cent of the mill workforce in
the period between 1919 and 1926. After that, their numbers dropped
steadily to less than 10 per cent of the total workforce. By the late
1930s, womens jobs were increasingly taken over by machines or
by men.
Bombay dominated the maritime trade of India till well into the
twentieth century. It was also at the junction head of two major
railways. The railways encouraged an even higher scale of migration
into the city. For instance, famine in the dry regions of Kutch drove
large numbers of people into Bombay in 1888-89. The flood of
migrants in some years created panic and alarm in official circles.
Worried by the influx of population during the plague epidemic of
1898, district authorities sent about 30,000 people back to their places
of origin by 1901.
4.3 Housing and Neighbourhoods
Bombay was a crowded city. While every Londoner in the 1840s
enjoyed an average space of 155 square yards, Bombay had a mere
9.5 square yards. By 1872, when London had an average of 8 persons
per house, the density in Bombay was as high as 20. From its earliest
days, Bombay did not grow according to any plan, and houses,
especially in the Fort area, were interspersed with gardens.
The Bombay Fort area which formed the heart of the city in
the early 1800s was divided between a native town, where
most of the Indians lived, and a European or white section.
A European suburb and an industrial zone began to develop
to the north of the Fort settlement area, with a similar suburb
and cantonment in the south. This racial pattern was true of
all three Presidency cities.
With the rapid and unplanned expansion of the city, the
crisis of housing and water supply became acute by the
mid-1850s. The arrival of the textile mills only increased the
pressure on Bombays housing.
Like the European elite, the richer Parsi, Muslim and upper-
caste traders and industrialists of Bombay lived in sprawling,
Have a debate in class with speakers for and
against the motion, on the following topic:
City development cannot take place without
destroying communities and lifestyles. This is a
necessary part of development.
Activity
Fig. 19 Interior of Esplanade House built for J.N. Tata
in 1887.
143
W
o
r
k
,

L
i
f
e

a
n
d

L
e
i
s
u
r
e
spacious bungalows. In contrast, more than 70 per cent of the
working people lived in the thickly populated chawls of Bombay. Since
workers walked to their place of work, 90 per cent of millworkers
were housed in Girangaon, a mill village not more than 15 minutes
walk from the mills.
Chawls were multi-storeyed structures which had been built from at
least the 1860s in the native parts of the town. Like the tenements
in London, these houses were largely owned by private landlords,
such as merchants, bankers, and building contractors, looking for
quick ways of earning money from anxious migrants. Each
chawl was divided into smaller one-room tenements which had no
private toilets.
Many families could reside at a time in a tenement. The Census of
1901 reported that the mass of the islands population or 80 per
cent of the total, resides in tenements of one room; the average
number of occupants lies between 4 and 5 High rents forced
workers to share homes, either with relatives or caste fellows who
were streaming into the city. People had to keep the windows of
their rooms closed even in humid weather due to the close proximity
of filthy gutters, privies, buffalo stables etc. Yet, though water was
scarce, and people often quarrelled every morning for a turn at the
tap, observers found that houses were kept quite clean.
The homes being small, streets and neighbourhoods were used for
a variety of activities such as cooking, washing and sleeping. Liquor
Why spaces cannot be cleared
Bombays first Municipal Commissioner, Arthur
Crawford, was appointed in 1865. He tried to
keep several dangerous trades out of south
Bombay. He described how builders and
entrepreneurs bribed inspectors to continue with
their haphazard use of space, even when their
activities increased pollution:
Kessowjee Naik brought his dyers back to
their old quarters. I prosecuted them, but was
defeated. Kessowjee Naik spent money like
water, eminent physicians swore solemnly that
dye pits were beneficial to health! This
infamous success emboldened a powerful
German firm to open a large steam Dyeing
Factory close to Parbadevi Temple whose refuse
waters polluted the fair sands of Mahim Bay
Last but not least Bhoys and Dasses, Shenvis
Brahmins and all the J ees, set up cotton and
spinning mills anywhere their sweet will prompted
them: for example close to the Byculla Club itself,
around the Race Course and Kamathippora
Foras Road, in Khetwady, on Girgaum Raod and
at Chowpatty.
While reading such statements we must
remember that colonial officials liked to represent
Englishmen as honest and Indians as corrupt,
the Englishmen as concerned with pollution of
the environment and Indians as being uncaring
about such issues.
Source
Source C
Fig. 20 Scene by Robert Grindlay of Bombay, 1826.
A number of palanquins are being carried across the square.
Look at Fig. 20 What kinds of people do you
think used this mode of transport? Compare it
with the pictures of the horse-drawn tram
(Fig. 22) and the electric tram. Notice the
inversion of the numbers involved: the horse-
drawn tram or electric tram needed only one
operator while a single traveller required
several people.
Activity
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
144
shops and akharas came up in any empty spot. Streets were also
used for different types of leisure activities. Parvathibai Bhor recalled
her childhood years in the early twentieth century this way: There
was an open space in the middle of our four chawls. There the
magicians, monkey players or acrobats used to regularly perform
their acts. The Nandi bull used to come. I used to be especially
afraid of the Kadaklakshmi. To see that they had to beat themselves
on their naked bodies in order to fill their stomachs frightened me.
Finally, chawls were also the place for the exchange of news about
jobs, strikes, riots or demonstrations.
Caste and family groups in the mill neighbourhoods were headed
by someone who was similar to a village headman. Sometimes,
the jobber in the mills could be the local neighbourhood
leader. He settled disputes, organised food supplies, or arranged
informal credit. He also brought important information on
political developments.
People who belonged to the depressed classes found it even
more difficult to find housing. Lower castes were kept out of many
chawls and often had to live in shelters made of corrugated sheets,
leaves, or bamboo poles.
If town planning in London emerged from fears of social
revolution, planning in Bombay came about as a result of fears
about the plague epidemic. The City of Bombay Improvement
Trust was established in 1898; it focused on clearing poorer homes
out of the city centre. By 1918, Trust schemes had deprived 64,000
people of their homes, but only 14,000 were rehoused. In 1918, a
Rent Act was passed to keep rents reasonable, but it had the opposite
effect of producing a severe housing crisis, since landlords withdrew
houses from the market.
Expansion of the city has always posed a problem in Bombay
because of a scarcity of land. One of the ways the city of Bombay
has developed is through massive reclamation projects.
4.4 Land Reclamation in Bombay
Did you know that the seven islands of Bombay were joined into
one landmass only over a period of time? The earliest project began
in 1784. The Bombay governor William Hornby approved the
building of the great sea wall which prevented the flooding of the
low-lying areas of Bombay.
Fig. 21 Chawl on Kalbadevi Road built in the
early twentieth century.
What do you notice about the organisation of
space in this building?
Imagine that you are a young person living in a
chawl. Describe one day in your life.
Activity
New words
Akharas Traditional wrestling schools,
generally located in every neighbourhood,
where young people were trained to ensure
both physical and moral fitness
Depressed classes A term often used to
denote those who were seen within the caste
order as lower castes and untouchables
Reclamation The reclaiming of marshy or
submerged areas or other wasteland for
settlements, cultivation or other use
145
W
o
r
k
,

L
i
f
e

a
n
d

L
e
i
s
u
r
e
Since then, there have been several reclamation
projects. The need for additional commercial space
in the mid-nineteenth century led to the formulation
of several plans, both by government and private
companies, for the reclamation of more land from
the sea. Private companies became more interested
in taking financial risks. In 1864, the Back Bay
Reclamation Company won the right to reclaim
the western foreshore from the tip of Malabar
Hill to the end of Colaba. Reclamation often meant
the levelling of the hills around Bombay. By the
1870s, although most of the private companies
closed down due to the mounting cost, the city
had expanded to about 22 square miles. As the
population continued to increase rapidly in the early
twentieth century, every bit of the available area
was built over and new areas were reclaimed from the sea.
A successful reclamation project was undertaken by the Bombay
Port Trust, which built a dry dock between 1914 and 1918 and used
the excavated earth to create the 22-acre Ballard Estate. Subsequently,
the famous Marine Drive of Bombay was developed.
4.5 Bombay as the City of Dreams: The World of Cinema
and Culture
Who does not associate Bombay with its film industry? Despite its
massive overcrowding and difficult living conditions, Bombay
appears to many as a mayapuri a city of dreams.
Many Bombay films deal with the arrival in the city of new migrants,
and their encounters with the real pressures of daily life. Some popular
songs from the Bombay film industry speak of the contradictory
aspects of the city. In the film CID (1956) the heros buddy sings, Ai
dil hai mushkil jeena yahan; zara hatke zara bachke, ye hai Bambai meri jaan
(My heart, it is difficult to live here! move over a little, take care of
yourself! this is Bombay! my love). A slightly more disillusioned voice
sings in Guest House (1959): Jiska juta usika sar, dil hai chhote bada
shahar, are vah re vah teri Bambai (Bombay, you city what a place! Here
one gets beaten with ones own shoes! The city is big but peoples
hearts are small!).
When did the Bombay film industry make its first appearance?
Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatwadekar shot a scene of a wrestling
Fig. 22 Colaba Causeway, late nineteenth century.
Notice that the trams are being drawn by horses.You can see
stables for horses on the left and the Tram Companys offices in
the background.
Fig. 23 Marine Drive.
A familiar landmark of Bombay, it was built on
land reclaimed from the sea in the twentieth
century.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
146
Source
Source D
match in Bombays Hanging Gardens and it became Indias first
movie in 1896. Soon after, Dadasaheb Phalke made Raja Harishchandra
(1913). After that, there was no turning back. By 1925, Bombay
had become Indias film capital, producing films for a national
audience. The amount of money invested in about 50 Indian
films in 1947 was Rs 756 million. By 1987, the film industry employed
520,000 people.
Most of the people in the film industry were themselves migrants
who came from cities like Lahore, Calcutta, Madras and contributed
to the national character of the industry. Those who came from
Lahore, then in Punjab, were especially important for the
development of the Hindi film industry. Many famous writers, like
Ismat Chughtai and Saadat Hasan Manto, were associated with
Hindi cinema.
Bombay films have contributed in a big way to produce
an image of the city as a blend of dream and reality, of slums and
star bungalows.
The Many Sides of Bombay
My father came down the Sahyadris
A quilt over his shoulder
He stood at your doorstep
With nothing but his labour
I carried a tiffin box

To the mill since childhood
I was cast the way
A smith forges a hammer
I learned my ropes
Working on a loom
Learnt on occasion
To go on strike
My father withered away toiling
So will I, and will my little ones
Perhaps they too face such sad nights
Wrapped in coils of darkness
The verses of this poem are a stark
contrast to the glittering world of
films, pointing to the endless toil
which new migrants encounter in
the city.
Read Source D. What does the poem
communicate about the opportunities and
experience for each new generation?
Discuss
Excerpted from the poem Maze Vidyapeeth (1975) by Narayan Surve.
147
W
o
r
k
,

L
i
f
e

a
n
d

L
e
i
s
u
r
e
Box 2
Not all cities in Asian countries developed in an unplanned manner.
There were many cities that were carefully planned and organised.
Consider the case of modern Singapore.
Lee Kuan Yews Singapore
Today, most of us know Singapore as a successful, rich, and well-
planned city, a model for city planning worldwide. Yet the citys rise
to this status is quite recent. Until 1965, Singapore, though an
important port, shared all the problems of other Asian cities. Planning
was known in Singapore since 1822, but benefited only the small
community of white people who ruled Singapore. For the majority
of its inhabitants, there was overcrowding, lack of sanitation, poor
housing, and poverty.
All this changed after the city became an independent nation in
1965 under the leadership of Lee Kuan Yew, President of the
Peoples Action Party. A massive housing and development
programme was undertaken and it completely altered the face of
the island nation. Through a programme of total planning which
left nothing to chance, every inch of the islands territory was
controlled in its use. The government itself won popular support
by providing nearly 85 per cent of the population with ownership
housing of good quality. The tall housing blocks, which were well
ventilated and serviced, were examples of good physical planning.
But the buildings also redesigned social life: crime was reduced
through external corridors, the aged were housed alongside their
families, void decks or empty floors were provided in all buildings
for community activities.
Migration into the city was strictly controlled. Social relations between
the three major groups of people (the Chinese, the Malays and the
Indians) were also monitored to prevent racial conflict. Newspapers
and journals and all forms of communication and association were
also strictly controlled.
In 1986, in the National Day Rally speech, Lee Kuan Yews recalled
his early experiments with planning: we would not have made
economic progress, if we had not intervened on very personal
matters: who your neighbour is, how you live, the noise you make,
how you spit or what language you use. We decide what is right.
Never mind what the people think that is another problem.
Reported in The Straits Times.
Although the citizens of Singapore enjoy a very high degree of
material comfort and wealth, there are many who point out that
the city lacks a lively and challenging political culture.
Compare the examples of the work done by
Baron Haussmann in Paris and Lee Kuan Yew,
almost a hundred years later, in Singapore.
Discuss if physical comfort and beauty in the
city can be introduced only by controlling social
and private life. In your opinion, is this a good
enough reason for the government to make
rules about the way in which people should live
their personal lives?
Activity
Fig. 24 Singapore Marina, which is built on
land reclaimed from the sea.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
148
5 Cities and the Challenge of the Environment
City development everywhere occurred at the expense of ecology
and the environment. Natural features were flattened out or
transformed in response to the growing demand for space for
factories, housing and other institutions. Large quantities of refuse
and waste products polluted air and water, while excessive noise
became a feature of urban life.
The widespread use of coal in homes and industries in nineteenth-
century England raised serious problems. In industrial cities such as
Leeds, Bradford and Manchester, hundreds of factory chimneys
spewed black smoke into the skies. People joked that most inhabitants
of these cities grew up believing that the skies were grey and all
vegetation was black! Shopkeepers, homeowners and others
complained about the black fog that descended on their towns,
causing bad tempers, smoke-related illnesses, and dirty clothes.
When people first joined campaigns for cleaner air, the goal was to
control the nuisance through legislation. This was not at all easy,
since factory owners and steam engine owners did not want to spend
Fig. 25 The London smog, The Illustrated London News, 1847.
Smoke from burning of coal, in industries and in homes, covered
London, making it difficult to breathe the air or see the road.
149
W
o
r
k
,

L
i
f
e

a
n
d

L
e
i
s
u
r
e
on technologies that would improve their machines. By the 1840s, a
few towns such as Derby, Leeds and Manchester had laws to control
smoke in the city. But smoke was not easy to monitor or measure,
and owners got away with small adjustments to their machinery that
did nothing to stop the smoke. Moreover, the Smoke Abatement
Acts of 1847 and 1853, as they were called, did not always work to
clear the air.
Calcutta too had a long history of air pollution. Its inhabitants inhaled
grey smoke, particularly in the winter. Since the city was built on
marshy land, the resulting fog combined with smoke to generate
thick black smog. High levels of pollution were a consequence of
the huge population that depended on dung and wood as fuel in
their daily life. But the main polluters were the industries and
establishments that used steam engines run on coal.
Colonial authorities were at first intent on clearing the place of
miasmas, or harmful vapours, but the railway line introduced in
1855 brought a dangerous new pollutant into the picture coal
from Raniganj. The high content of ash in Indian coal was a problem.
Many pleas were made to banish the dirty mills from the city, with
no effect. However, in 1863, Calcutta became the first Indian city to
get smoke nuisance legislation.
In 1920, the rice mills of Tollygunge began to burn rice husk
instead of coal, leading residents to complain that the air is filled
up with black soot which falls like drizzling rain from morning till
night, and it has become impossible to live. The inspectors of the
Bengal Smoke Nuisance Commission finally managed to control
industrial smoke. Controlling domestic smoke, however, was far
more difficult.
Conclusion
Despite its problems, the city has always been attractive to those
seeking freedom and opportunity. Even the gods in Durgacharans
novel, referred to at the beginning of this chapter, found heaven
imperfect, compared with all that they had witnessed and experienced
on their visit to Calcutta. Yet all the aspects of city life that upset
them were signs of the new routes to social and economic mobility
that the city offered to the millions who had made it their home.
Write out a notice from the Bengal Smoke
Nuisance Commission to the owner of a factory
pointing out the dangers and harmful effects of
industrial smoke.
Activity
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
150
Discuss
Project
1. What forms of entertainment came up in nineteenth century England to provide leisure
activities for the people.
2. Explain the social changes in London which led to the need for the Underground railway.
Why was the development of the Underground criticised?
3. Explain what is meant by the Haussmanisation of Paris. To what extent would you support or
oppose this form of development? Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper, to either support
or oppose this, giving reasons for your view.
4. To what extent does government regulation and new laws solve problems of pollution?
Discuss one example each of the success and failure of legislation to change the quality of
a) public life
b) private life
Make sure you watch any one of the Mumbai films discussed in this chapter. Compare and
contrast the portrayal of the city in one film discussed in this chapter, with a film set in Mumbai,
which you have recently seen.
Discuss
Write in brief
1. Give two reasons why the population of London expanded from the middle of the
eighteenth century.
2. What were the changes in the kind of work available to women in London between the
nineteenth and the twentieth century? Explain the factors which led to this change.
3. How does the existence of a large urban population affect each of the following?
Illustrate with historical examples.
a) A private landlord
b) A Police Superintendent in charge of law and order
c) A leader of a political party
4. Give explanations for the following:
a) Why well-off Londoners supported the need to build housing for the poor in the
nineteenth century.
b) Why a number of Bombay films were about the lives of migrants.
c) What led to the major expansion of Bombays population in the
mid-nineteenth century.
W
r
i
t
e

i
n

b
r
i
e
f
Project
153
P
r
i
n
t

C
u
l
t
u
r
e
It is difficult for us to imagine a world without printed matter. We
find evidence of print everywhere around us in books, journals,
newspapers, prints of famous paintings, and also in everyday things
like theatre programmes, official circulars, calendars, diaries,
advertisements, cinema posters at street corners. We read printed
literature, see printed images, follow the news through newspapers,
and track public debates that appear in print. We take for granted
this world of print and often forget that there was a time before
print. We may not realise that print itself has a history which has, in
fact, shaped our contemporary world. What is this history? When
did printed literature begin to circulate? How has it helped create
the modern world?
In this chapter we will look at the development of print, from its
beginnings in East Asia to its expansion in Europe and in India. We
will understand the impact of the spread of technology and consider
how social lives and cultures changed with the coming of print.
P
r
i
n
t

C
u
l
t
u
r
e

a
n
d

t
h
e

M
o
d
e
r
n

W
o
r
l
d
C
h
a
p
t
e
r

V
I
I
Print Culture and the Modern World
Fig. 1 Book making before the age of print, from
Akhlaq-i-Nasiri, 1595.
This is a royal workshop in the sixteenth century,
much before printing began in India. You can see
the text being dictated, written and illustrated. The
art of writing and illustrating by hand was
important in the age before print. Think about
what happened to these forms of art with the
coming of printing machines.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
154
1 The First Printed Books
Fig. 2 A page from the Diamond Sutra.
The earliest kind of print technology was developed in China, Japan
and Korea. This was a system of hand printing. From AD 594
onwards, books in China were printed by rubbing paper also
invented there against the inked surface of woodblocks. As both
sides of the thin, porous sheet could not be printed, the traditional
Chinese accordion book was folded and stitched at the side.
Superbly skilled craftsmen could duplicate, with remarkable accuracy,
the beauty of calligraphy.
The imperial state in China was, for a very long time, the major
producer of printed material. China possessed a huge bureaucratic
system which recruited its personnel through civil service
examinations. Textbooks for this examination were printed in vast
numbers under the sponsorship of the imperial state. From the
sixteenth century, the number of examination candidates went up
and that increased the volume of print.
By the seventeenth century, as urban culture bloomed in China, the
uses of print diversified. Print was no longer used just by scholar-
officials. Merchants used print in their everyday life, as they collected
trade information. Reading increasingly became a leisure activity.
The new readership preferred fictional narratives, poetry,
autobiographies, anthologies of literary masterpieces, and romantic
plays. Rich women began to read, and many women began
publishing their poetry and plays. Wives of scholar-officials published
their works and courtesans wrote about their lives.
This new reading culture was accompanied by a new technology.
Western printing techniques and mechanical presses were imported
in the late nineteenth century as Western powers established their
outposts in China. Shanghai became the hub of the new print culture,
catering to the Western-style schools. From hand printing there was
now a gradual shift to mechanical printing.
1.1 Print in Japan
Buddhist missionaries from China introduced hand-printing
technology into Japan around AD 768-770. The oldest Japanese book,
printed in AD 868, is the Buddhist Diamond Sutra, containing six sheets
of text and woodcut illustrations. Pictures were printed on textiles,
New words
Calligraphy The art of beautiful and stylised
writing
155
P
r
i
n
t

C
u
l
t
u
r
e
playing cards and paper money. In medieval Japan, poets and
prose writers were regularly published, and books were cheap
and abundant.
Printing of visual material led to interesting publishing practices. In
the late eighteenth century, in the flourishing urban circles at Edo
(later to be known as Tokyo), illustrated collections of paintings
depicted an elegant urban culture, involving artists, courtesans, and
teahouse gatherings. Libraries and bookstores were packed with
hand-printed material of various types books on women, musical
instruments, calculations, tea ceremony, flower arrangements, proper
etiquette, cooking and famous places.
Box 1
Kitagawa Utamaro, born in Edo in 1753, was widely known for
his contributions to an art form called ukiyo (pictures of the floating
world) or depiction of ordinary human experiences, especially urban
ones. These prints travelled to contemporary US and Europe and
influenced artists like Manet, Monet and Van Gogh. Publishers like
Tsutaya J uzaburo identified subjects and commissioned artists who
drew the theme in outline. Then a skilled woodblock carver pasted
the drawing on a woodblock and carved a printing block to
reproduce the painters lines. In the process, the original drawing
would be destroyed and only prints would survive.
Fig. 3 An ukiyo
print by Kitagawa
Utamaro.
Fig. 4 A morning scene,
ukiyo print by Shunman
Kubo, late eighteenth
century.
A man looks out of the
window at the snowfall while
women prepare tea and
perform other domestic
duties.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
156
2 Print Comes to Europe
For centuries, silk and spices from China flowed into Europe through
the silk route. In the eleventh century, Chinese paper reached Europe
via the same route. Paper made possible the production of
manuscripts, carefully written by scribes. Then, in 1295, Marco Polo,
a great explorer, returned to Italy after many years of exploration in
China. As you read above, China already had the technology of
woodblock printing. Marco Polo brought this knowledge back with
him. Now Italians began producing books with woodblocks, and
soon the technology spread to other parts of Europe. Luxury
editions were still handwritten on very expensive vellum, meant for
aristocratic circles and rich monastic libraries which scoffed at printed
books as cheap vulgarities. Merchants and students in the university
towns bought the cheaper printed copies.
As the demand for books increased, booksellers all over Europe
began exporting books to many different countries. Book fairs were
held at different places. Production of handwritten manuscripts was
also organised in new ways to meet the expanded demand. Scribes
or skilled handwriters were no longer solely employed by wealthy
or influential patrons but increasingly by booksellers as well. More
than 50 scribes often worked for one bookseller.
But the production of handwritten manuscripts could not satisfy
the ever-increasing demand for books. Copying was an expensive,
laborious and time-consuming business. Manuscripts were fragile,
awkward to handle, and could not be carried around or read easily.
Their circulation therefore remained limited. With the growing
demand for books, woodblock printing gradually became more
and more popular. By the early fifteenth century, woodblocks were
being widely used in Europe to print textiles, playing cards, and
religious pictures with simple, brief texts.
There was clearly a great need for even quicker and cheaper
reproduction of texts. This could only be with the invention of a
new print technology. The breakthrough occurred at Strasbourg,
Germany, where Johann Gutenberg developed the first-known
printing press in the 1430s.
New words
Vellum A parchment made from the skin
of animals
Imagine that you are Marco Polo. Write a letter
from China to describe the world of print which
you have seen there.
Activity
157
P
r
i
n
t

C
u
l
t
u
r
e
New words
Platen In letterpress printing, platen is a board which is
pressed onto the back of the paper to get the impression from
the type. At one time it used to be a wooden board; later it
was made of steel
2.1 Gutenberg and the Printing Press
Gutenberg was the son of a merchant and grew up on a large
agricultural estate. From his childhood he had seen wine and olive
presses. Subsequently, he learnt the art of polishing stones, became a
master goldsmith, and also acquired the expertise to create lead
moulds used for making trinkets. Drawing on this knowledge,
Gutenberg adapted existing technology to design his innovation.
The olive press provided the model for the printing press, and moulds
were used for casting the metal types for the letters of the alphabet.
By 1448, Gutenberg perfected the system. The first book he printed
was the Bible. About 180 copies were printed and it took three
years to produce them. By the standards of the time this was fast
production.
The new technology did not entirely displace the existing art of
producing books by hand.
In fact, printed books at first closely resembled the written
manuscripts in appearance and layout. The metal letters imitated the
ornamental handwritten styles. Borders were illuminated by hand
with foliage and other patterns, and illustrations were painted. In the
books printed for the rich, space for decoration was kept blank on
the printed page. Each purchaser could choose the design and decide
on the painting school that would do the illustrations.
In the hundred years between 1450 and 1550, printing presses were
set up in most countries of Europe. Printers from Germany travelled
to other countries, seeking work and helping start new presses. As
the number of printing presses grew, book production boomed.
The second half of the fifteenth century saw 20 million copies of
printed books flooding the markets in Europe. The number went
up in the sixteenth century to about 200 million copies.
This shift from hand printing to mechanical printing led to the
print revolution.
Fig. 6 Gutenberg Printing Press.
Notice the long handle attached to the screw.
This handle was used to turn the screw and
press down the platen over the printing block
that was placed on top of a sheet of damp
paper. Gutenberg developed metal types for
each of the 26 characters of the Roman
alphabet and devised a way of moving them
around so as to compose different words of the
text. This came to be known as the moveable
type printing machine, and it remained the basic
print technology over the next 300 years.
Books could now be produced much faster than
was possible when each print block was
prepared by carving a piece of wood by hand.
The Gutenberg press could print 250 sheets
on one side per hour.
Fig. 5 A Portrait of
Johann Gutenberg,
1584.
Printing block
placed over
paper
Frame
Screw
Handle
Platen
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
158
Fig. 7 Pages of Gutenbergs Bible, the first printed book in Europe.
Gutenberg printed about 180 copies, of which no more than 50 have
survived.
Look at these pages of Gutenbergs Bible carefully. They were not just
products of new technology. The text was printed in the new Gutenberg
press with metal type, but the borders were carefully designed, painted and
illuminated by hand by artists. No two copies were the same. Every page of
each copy was different. Even when two copies look similar, a careful
comparison will reveal differences. Elites everywhere preferred this lack of
uniformity: what they possessed then could be claimed as unique, for no
one else owned a copy that was exactly the same.
In the text you will notice the use of colour within the letters in various
places. This had two functions: it added colour to the page, and highlighted
all the holy words to emphasise their significance. But the colour on every
page of the text was added by hand. Gutenberg printed the text in black,
leaving spaces where the colour could be filled in later.
New words
Compositor The person who composes the
text for printing
Galley Metal frame in which types are laid
and the text composed
Fig. 8 A printers workshop, sixteenth century.
This picture depicts what a printers shop looked like in the
sixteenth century. All the activities are going on under one roof.
In the foreground on the right, compositors are at work, while
on the left galleys are being prepared and ink is being applied on
the metal types; in the background, the printers are turning the
screws of the press, and near them proofreaders are at work.
Right in front is the final product the double-page printed
sheets, stacked in neat piles, waiting to be bound.
159
P
r
i
n
t

C
u
l
t
u
r
e
3 The Print Revolution and Its Impact
What was the print revolution? It was not just a development, a new
way of producing books; it transformed the lives of people,
changing their relationship to information and knowledge, and with
institutions and authorities. It influenced popular perceptions and
opened up new ways of looking at things.
Let us explore some of these changes.
3.1 A New Reading Public
With the printing press, a new reading public emerged. Printing
reduced the cost of books. The time and labour required to produce
each book came down, and multiple copies could be produced
with greater ease. Books flooded the market, reaching out to an
ever-growing readership.
Access to books created a new culture of reading. Earlier, reading
was restricted to the elites. Common people lived in a world of oral
culture. They heard sacred texts read out, ballads recited, and folk
tales narrated. Knowledge was transferred orally. People collectively
heard a story, or saw a performance. As you will see in Chapter 8,
they did not read a book individually and silently. Before the age of
print, books were not only expensive but they could not be produced
in sufficient numbers. Now books could reach out to wider sections
of people. If earlier there was a hearing public, now a reading public
came into being.
But the transition was not so simple. Books could be read only by
the literate, and the rates of literacy in most European countries
were very low till the twentieth century. How, then, could publishers
persuade the common people to welcome the printed book? To do
this, they had to keep in mind the wider reach of the printed work:
even those who did not read could certainly enjoy listening to books
being read out. So printers began publishing popular ballads and
folk tales, and such books would be profusely illustrated with pictures.
These were then sung and recited at gatherings in villages and in
taverns in towns.
Oral culture thus entered print and printed material was orally
transmitted. The line that separated the oral and reading cultures
became blurred. And the hearing public and reading public became
intermingled.
New words
Ballad A historical account or folk tale in
verse, usually sung or recited
Taverns Places where people gathered to
drink alcohol, to be served food, and to meet
friends and exchange news
You are a bookseller advertising the availability
of new cheap printed books. Design a poster
for your shop window.
Activity
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
160
New words
Protestant Reformation A sixteenth-century
movement to reform the Catholic Church
dominated by Rome. Martin Luther was one
of the main Protestant reformers. Several
traditions of anti-Catholic Christianity
developed out of the movement
3.2 Religious Debates and the Fear of Print
Print created the possibility of wide circulation of
ideas, and introduced a new world of debate and
discussion. Even those who disagreed with
established authorities could now print and circulate
their ideas. Through the printed message, they could
persuade people to think differently, and move them
to action. This had significance in different spheres
of life.
Not everyone welcomed the printed book, and those
who did also had fears about it. Many were
apprehensive of the effects that the easier access to
the printed word and the wider circulation of books,
could have on peoples minds. It was feared that if
there was no control over what was printed and
read then rebellious and irreligious thoughts might
spread. If that happened the authority of valuable
literature would be destroyed. Expressed by religious
authorities and monarchs, as well as many writers
and artists, this anxiety was the basis of widespread
criticism of the new printed literature that had began
to circulate.
Let us consider the implication of this in one sphere
of life in early modern Europe namely, religion.
In 1517, the religious reformer Martin Luther wrote
Ninety Five Theses criticising many of the practices
and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. A printed
copy of this was posted on a church door in Wittenberg. It challenged
the Church to debate his ideas. Luthers writings were immediately
reproduced in vast numbers and read widely. This lead to a division
within the Church and to the beginning of the Protestant
Reformation. Luthers translation of the New Testament sold 5,000
copies within a few weeks and a second edition appeared within
three months. Deeply grateful to print, Luther said, Printing is the
ultimate gift of God and the greatest one. Several scholars, in fact,
think that print brought about a new intellectual atmosphere and
helped spread the new ideas that led to the Reformation.
Fig. 9 J.V. Schley, LImprimerie, 1739.
This is one of the many images produced in early modern
Europe, celebrating the coming of print. You can see the
printing press descending from heaven, carried by a goddess.
On two sides of the goddess, blessing the machine, are
Minerva (the goddess of wisdom) and Mercury (the messenger
god, also symbolising reason). The women in the foreground
are holding plaques with the portraits of six pioneer printers of
different countries. In the middle ground on the left (figure
encircled) is the portrait of Gutenberg.
161
P
r
i
n
t

C
u
l
t
u
r
e
3.3 Print and Dissent
Print and popular religious literature stimulated many distinctive
individual interpretations of faith even among little-educated working
people. In the sixteenth century, Manocchio, a miller in Italy, began
to read books that were available in his locality. He reinterpreted
the message of the Bible and formulated a view of God and Creation
that enraged the Roman Catholic Church. When the Roman Church
began its inquisition to repress heretical ideas, Manocchio was
hauled up twice and ultimately executed. The Roman Church,
troubled by such effects of popular readings and questionings
of faith, imposed severe controls over publishers and booksellers
and began to maintain an Index of Prohibited Books from 1558.
New words
Inquisition A former Roman Catholic court
for identifying and punishing heretics
Heretical Beliefs which do not follow the
accepted teachings of the Church. In medieval
times, heresy was seen as a threat to the right
of the Church to decide on what should be
believed and what should not. Heretical beliefs
were severely punished
Satiety The state of being fulfilled much
beyond the point of satisfaction
Seditious Action, speech or writing that is
seen as opposing the government
Fear of the book
Erasmus, a Latin scholar and a Catholic reformer,
who criticised the excesses of Catholicism but kept
his distance from Luther, expressed a deep anxiety
about printing. He wrote in Adages (1508):
To what corner of the world do they not fly,
these swarms of new books? It may be that one
here and there contributes something worth
knowing, but the very multitude of them is hurtful
to scholarship, because it creates a glut, and even
in good things satiety is most harmful ... [printers]
fill the world with books, not just trifling things
(such as I write, perhaps), but stupid, ignorant,
slanderous, scandalous, raving, irreligious and
seditious books, and the number of them
is such that even the valuable publications lose
their value.
Source
Source A
Fig. 10 The macabre dance.
This sixteenth-century print shows how the fear of printing was
dramatised in visual representations of the time. In this highly
interesting woodcut the coming of print is associated with the end
of the world. The interior of the printers workshop here is the site
of a dance of death. Skeletal figures control the printer and his
workers, define and dictate what is to be done and what is to be
produced.
Write briefly why some people feared that the development of
print could lead to the growth of dissenting ideas.
Discuss
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
162
4 The Reading Mania
Through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries literacy rates went
up in most parts of Europe. Churches of different denominations
set up schools in villages, carrying literacy to peasants and artisans.
By the end of the eighteenth century, in some parts of Europe
literacy rates were as high as 60 to 80 per cent. As literacy and schools
spread in European countries, there was a virtual reading mania.
People wanted books to read and printers produced books in ever-
increasing numbers.
New forms of popular literature appeared in print, targeting new
audiences. Booksellers employed pedlars who roamed around
villages, carrying little books for sale. There were almanacs or ritual
calendars, along with ballads and folktales. But other forms of reading
matter, largely for entertainment, began to reach ordinary readers as
well. In England, penny chapbooks were carried by petty pedlars
known as chapmen, and sold for a penny, so that even the poor
could buy them. In France, were the Biliotheque Bleue, which were
low-priced small books printed on poor quality paper, and bound
in cheap blue covers. Then there were the romances, printed on
four to six pages, and the more substantial histories which were
stories about the past. Books were of various sizes, serving many
different purposes and interests.
The periodical press developed from the early eighteenth century,
combining information about current affairs with entertainment.
Newspapers and journals carried information about wars and trade,
as well as news of developments in other places.
Similarly, the ideas of scientists and philosophers now became more
accessible to the common people. Ancient and medieval scientific
texts were compiled and published, and maps and scientific diagrams
were widely printed. When scientists like Isaac Newton began to
publish their discoveries, they could influence a much wider circle
of scientifically minded readers. The writings of thinkers such as
Thomas Paine, Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau were also widely
printed and read. Thus their ideas about science, reason and rationality
found their way into popular literature.
New words
Denominations Sub groups within a religion
Almanac An annual publication giving
astronomical data, information about the
movements of the sun and moon, timing of
full tides and eclipses, and much else that was
of importance in the everyday life of people
Chapbook A term used to describe pocket-
size books that are sold by travelling pedlars
called chapmen. These became popular from
the time of the sixteenth-century print revolution
Box 2
In 1791, a London publisher, J ames Lackington,
wrote in his diary:
The sale of books in general has increased
prodigiously within the last twenty years. The
poorer sort of farmers and even the poor country
people in general who before that period spent
their winter evenings in relating stories of witches,
ghosts, hobgoblins now shorten the winter
night by hearing their sons and daughters read
them tales, romances, etc. If J ohn goes to town
with a load of hay, he is charged to be sure not
to forget to bring home Peregrine Pickles
Adventure and when Dolly is sent to sell her
eggs, she is commissioned to purchase The
History of J oseph Andrews.
163
P
r
i
n
t

C
u
l
t
u
r
e
4.1 Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world!
By the mid-eighteenth century, there was a common conviction that
books were a means of spreading progress and enlightenment. Many
believed that books could change the world, liberate society from
despotism and tyranny, and herald a time when reason and intellect
would rule. Louise-Sebastien Mercier, a novelist in eighteenth-century
France, declared: The printing press is the most powerful engine of
progress and public opinion is the force that will sweep despotism
away. In many of Merciers novels, the heroes are transformed by
acts of reading. They devour books, are lost in the world books
create, and become enlightened in the process. Convinced of the
power of print in bringing enlightenment and destroying the basis
of despotism, Mercier proclaimed: Tremble, therefore, tyrants of
the world! Tremble before the virtual writer!
4.2 Print Culture and the French Revolution
Many historians have argued that print culture created the conditions
within which French Revolution occurred. Can we make such
a connection?
Three types of arguments have been usually put forward.
First: print popularised the ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers.
Collectively, their writings provided a critical commentary on tradition,
superstition and despotism. They argued for the rule of reason rather
than custom, and demanded that everything be judged through the
application of reason and rationality. They attacked the sacred
authority of the Church and the despotic power of the state, thus
eroding the legitimacy of a social order based on tradition. The
writings of Voltaire and Rousseau were read widely; and those who
read these books saw the world through new eyes, eyes that were
questioning, critical and rational.
Second: print created a new culture of dialogue and debate. All
values, norms and institutions were re-evaluated and discussed by a
public that had become aware of the power of reason, and
recognised the need to question existing ideas and beliefs. Within
this public culture, new ideas of social revolution came into being.
Third: by the 1780s there was an outpouring of literature that mocked
the royalty and criticised their morality. In the process, it raised
This is how Mercier describes the impact of the
printed word, and the power of reading in one
of his books:
Anyone who had seen me reading would have
compared me to a man dying of thirst who was
gulping down some fresh, pure water Lighting
my lamp with extraordinary caution, I threw
myself hungrily into the reading. An easy
eloquence, effortless and animated, carried me
from one page to the next without my noticing
it. A clock struck off the hours in the silence of
the shadows, and I heard nothing. My lamp began
to run out of oil and produced only a pale light,
but still I read on. I could not even take out time
to raise the wick for fear of interrupting my
pleasure. How those new ideas rushed into my
brain! How my intelligence adopted them!
Quoted by Robert Darnton, The Forbidden Best-
Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France, 1995.
Source
Source B
New words
Despotism A system of governance in which
absolute power is exercised by an individual,
unregulated by legal and constitutional checks
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
164
Why do some historians think that print culture created the basis for the French Revolution?
Discuss
questions about the existing social order. Cartoons and caricatures
typically suggested that the monarchy remained absorbed only in
sensual pleasures while the common people suffered immense
hardships. This literature circulated underground and led to the
growth of hostile sentiments against the monarchy.
How do we look at these arguments? There can be no doubt that
print helps the spread of ideas. But we must remember that people
did not read just one kind of literature. If they read the ideas of
Voltaire and Rousseau, they were also exposed to monarchical and
Church propaganda. They were not influenced directly by everything
they read or saw. They accepted some ideas and rejected others.
They interpreted things their own way. Print did not directly shape
their minds, but it did open up the possibility of thinking differently.
Fig. 11 The nobility and the common people before the French Revolution, a
cartoon of the late eighteenth century.
The cartoon shows how the ordinary people peasants, artisans and workers had a
hard time while the nobility enjoyed life and oppressed them. Circulation of cartoons
like this one had an impact on the thinking of people before the revolution.
Imagine that you are a cartoonist in France
before the revolution. Design a cartoon as it
would have appeared in a pamphlet.
Activity
165
P
r
i
n
t

C
u
l
t
u
r
e
Box 3
5 The Nineteenth Century
The nineteenth century saw vast leaps in mass literacy in Europe,
bringing in large numbers of new readers among children,
women and workers.
5.1 Children, Women and Workers
As primary education became compulsory from the late
nineteenth century, children became an important category
of readers. Production of school textbooks became critical
for the publishing industry. A childrens press, devoted to
literature for children alone, was set up in France in 1857.
This press published new works as well as old fairy tales
and folk tales. The Grimm Brothers in Germany spent years
compiling traditional folk tales gathered from peasants. What
they collected was edited before the stories were published
in a collection in 1812. Anything that was considered
unsuitable for children or would appear vulgar to the elites,
was not included in the published version. Rural folk tales
thus acquired a new form. In this way, print recorded old
tales but also changed them.
Women became important as readers as well as writers. Penny
magazines (see Fig. 12) were especially meant for women, as
were manuals teaching proper behaviour and housekeeping.
When novels began to be written in the nineteenth century,
women were seen as important readers. Some of the best-
known novelists were women: Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters,
George Eliot. Their writings became important in defining a new
type of woman: a person with will, strength of personality,
determination and the power to think.
Lending libraries had been in existence from the seventeenth century
onwards. In the nineteenth century, lending libraries in England
became instruments for educating white-collar workers, artisans
and lower-middle-class people. Sometimes, self-educated working
class people wrote for themselves. After the working day was
gradually shortened from the mid-nineteenth century, workers had
some time for self-improvement and self-expression. They wrote
political tracts and autobiographies in large numbers.
Thomas Wood, a Yorkshire mechanic, narrated
how he would rent old newspapers and read
them by firelight in the evenings as he could not
afford candles. Autobiographies of poor people
narrated their struggles to read against grim
obstacles: the twentieth-century Russian
revolutionary author Maxim Gorkys My Childhood
and My University provide glimpses of such
struggles.
Fig. 12 Frontispiece of Penny Magazine.
Penny Magazine was published between 1832 and 1835
in England by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge. It was aimed primarily at the working class.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
166
5.2 Further Innovations
By the late eighteenth century, the press came to be made out of
metal. Through the nineteenth century, there were a series of further
innovations in printing technology. By the mid-nineteenth century,
Richard M. Hoe of New York had perfected the power-driven
cylindrical press. This was capable of printing 8,000 sheets per hour.
This press was particularly useful for printing newspapers. In the
late nineteenth century, the offset press was developed which could
print up to six colours at a time. From the turn of the twentieth
century, electrically operated presses accelerated printing operations.
A series of other developments followed. Methods of feeding paper
improved, the quality of plates became better, automatic paper reels
and photoelectric controls of the colour register were introduced.
The accumulation of several individual mechanical improvements
transformed the appearance of printed texts.
Printers and publishers continuously developed new strategies
to sell their product. Nineteenth-century periodicals serialised
important novels, which gave birth to a particular way of writing
novels. In the 1920s in England, popular works were sold in
cheap series, called the Shilling Series. The dust cover or the
book jacket is also a twentieth-century innovation. With the
onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s, publishers feared a
decline in book purchases. To sustain buying, they brought
out cheap paperback editions.
Look at Fig. 13. What impact do such
advertisements have on the public mind?
Do you think everyone reacts to printed material
in the same way?
Activity
Fig. 13 Advertisements at a railway station in England, a lithograph by Alfred Concanen, 1874.
Printed advertisements and notices were plastered on street walls, railway platforms and public buildings.
167
P
r
i
n
t

C
u
l
t
u
r
e
6 India and the World of Print
Let us see when printing began in India and how ideas and information
were written before the age of print.
6.1 Manuscripts Before the Age of Print
India had a very rich and old tradition of handwritten manuscripts
in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, as well as in various vernacular languages.
Manuscripts were copied on palm leaves or on handmade paper.
Pages were sometimes beautifully illustrated. They would be either
pressed between wooden covers or sewn together to ensure
preservation. Manuscripts continued to be produced till well after
the introduction of print, down to the late nineteenth century.
Manuscripts, however, were highly expensive and fragile. They had
to be handled carefully, and they could not be read easily as the
Fig. 15 Pages from the Diwan of Hafiz, 1824.
Hafiz was a fourteenth-century poet whose collected works are known as Diwan. Notice the
beautiful calligraphy and the elaborate illustration and design. Manuscripts like this continued
to be produced for the rich even after the coming of the letterpress.
Fig. 14 Pages
from the Gita
Govinda of
Jayadeva,
eighteenth century.
This is a palm-leaf
handwritten
manuscript in
accordion format.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
168
Fig. 16 Pages from the Rigveda.
Handwritten manuscripts continued to be produced in India till much after
the coming of print. This manuscript was produced in the eighteenth
century in the Malayalam script.
script was written in different styles. So
manuscripts were not widely used in
everyday life. Even though pre-colonial
Bengal had developed an extensive network
of village primary schools, students very
often did not read texts. They only learnt
to write. Teachers dictated portions of
texts from memory and students wrote
them down. Many thus became literate
without ever actually reading any kinds
of texts.
6.2 Print Comes to India
The printing press first came to Goa with Portuguese missionaries
in the mid-sixteenth century. Jesuit priests learnt Konkani and
printed several tracts. By 1674, about 50 books had been printed
in the Konkani and in Kanara languages. Catholic priests printed
the first Tamil book in 1579 at Cochin, and in 1713 the first
Malayalam book was printed by them. By 1710, Dutch Protestant
missionaries had printed 32 Tamil texts, many of them translations
of older works.
The English language press did not grow in India till quite late even
though the English East India Company began to import presses
from the late seventeenth century.
From 1780, James Augustus Hickey began to edit the Bengal Gazette,
a weekly magazine that described itself as a commercial paper open
to all, but influenced by none. So it was private English enterprise,
proud of its independence from colonial influence, that began English
printing in India. Hickey published a lot of advertisements, including
those that related to the import and sale of slaves. But he also
published a lot of gossip about the Companys senior officials in
India. Enraged by this, Governor-General Warren Hastings
persecuted Hickey, and encouraged the publication of officially
sanctioned newspapers that could counter the flow of information
that damaged the image of the colonial government. By the
close of the eighteenth century, a number of newspapers and
journals appeared in print. There were Indians, too, who began
to publish Indian newspapers. The first to appear was the weekly
Bengal Gazette, brought out by Gangadhar Bhattacharya, who
was close to Rammohun Roy.
As late as 1768, a William Bolts affixed a notice
on a public building in Calcutta:
To the Public: Mr. Bolts takes this method of
informing the public that the want of a printing
press in this city being of a great disadvantage in
business ... he is going to give the best
encouragement to any ... persons who are
versed in the business of printing.
Bolts, however, left for England soon after and
nothing came of the promise.
Source
Source C
169
P
r
i
n
t

C
u
l
t
u
r
e
7 Religious Reform and Public Debates
From the early nineteenth century, as you know, there were intense
debates around religious issues. Different groups confronted the
changes happening within colonial society in different ways, and
offered a variety of new interpretations of the beliefs of different
religions. Some criticised existing practices and campaigned for
reform, while others countered the arguments of reformers. These
debates were carried out in public and in print. Printed tracts and
newspapers not only spread the new ideas, but they shaped the
nature of the debate. A wider public could now participate in these
public discussions and express their views. New ideas emerged
through these clashes of opinions.
This was a time of intense controversies between social and religious
reformers and the Hindu orthodoxy over matters like widow
immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood and idolatry. In
Bengal, as the debate developed, tracts and newspapers proliferated,
circulating a variety of arguments. To reach a wider audience, the
ideas were printed in the everyday, spoken language of ordinary
people. Rammohun Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi from 1821
and the Hindu orthodoxy commissioned the Samachar Chandrika
to oppose his opinions. From 1822, two Persian newspapers were
published, Jam-i-Jahan Nama and Shamsul Akhbar. In the same year,
a Gujarati newspaper, the Bombay Samachar, made its appearance.
In north India, the ulama were deeply anxious about the collapse
of Muslim dynasties. They feared that colonial rulers would
encourage conversion, change the Muslim personal laws. To counter
this, they used cheap lithographic presses, published Persian and
Urdu translations of holy scriptures, and printed religious
newspapers and tracts. The Deoband Seminary, founded in 1867,
published thousands upon thousands of fatwas telling Muslim
readers how to conduct themselves in their everyday lives, and
explaining the meanings of Islamic doctrines. All through the
nineteenth century, a number of Muslim sects and seminaries
appeared, each with a different interpretation of faith, each keen
on enlarging its following and countering the influence of its
opponents. Urdu print helped them conduct these battles in public.
Among Hindus, too, print encouraged the reading of religious texts,
especially in the vernacular languages. The first printed edition of
New words
Ulama Legal scholars of Islam and the sharia
( a body of Islamic law)
Fatwa A legal pronouncement on Islamic
law usually given by a mufti (legal scholar) to
clarify issues on which the law is uncertain
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
170
the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, a sixteenth-century text, came out
from Calcutta in 1810. By the mid-nineteenth century, cheap
lithographic editions flooded north Indian markets. From the 1880s,
the Naval Kishore Press at Lucknow and the Shri Venkateshwar
Press in Bombay published numerous religious texts in vernaculars.
In their printed and portable form, these could be read easily by the
faithful at any place and time. They could also be read out to large
groups of illiterate men and women.
Religious texts, therefore, reached a very wide circle of people,
encouraging discussions, debates and controversies within and
among different religions.
Print did not only stimulate the publication of conflicting opinions
amongst communities, but it also connected communities and people
in different parts of India. Newspapers conveyed news from one
place to another, creating pan-Indian identities.
Why Newspapers?
Krishnaji Trimbuck Ranade inhabitant of Poona intends to publish a Newspaper in the Marathi Language with a view of
affording useful information on every topic of local interest. It will be open for free discussion on subjects of general utility,
scientific investigation and the speculations connected with the antiquities, statistics, curiosities, history and geography of
the country and of the Deccan especially the patronage and support of all interested in the diffusion of knowledge and
Welfare of the People is earnestly solicited.
Bombay Telegraph and Courier, 6J anuary 1849
The task of the native newspapers and political associations is identical to the role of the Opposition in the House of
Commons in Parliament in England. That is of critically examining government policy to suggest improvements, by removing
those parts that will not be to the benefit of the people, and also by ensuring speedy implementation.
These associations ought to carefully study the particular issues, gather diverse relevant information on the nation as well
as on what are the possible and desirable improvements, and this will surely earn it considerable influence.
Native Opinion, 3 April 1870.
Source
Source D
171
P
r
i
n
t

C
u
l
t
u
r
e
8 New Forms of Publication
Printing created an appetite for new kinds of writing. As more and
more people could now read, they wanted to see their own lives,
experiences, emotions and relationships reflected in what they read.
The novel, a literary firm which had developed in Europe, ideally
catered to this need. It soon acquired distinctively Indian forms and
styles. For readers, it opened up new worlds of experience, and
gave a vivid sense of the diversity of human lives.
Other new literary forms also entered the world of reading
lyrics, short stories, essays about social and political matters. In
different ways, they reinforced the new emphasis on human lives
and intimate feelings, about the political and social rules that shaped
such things.
By the end of the nineteenth century, a new visual
culture was taking shape. With the setting up of an
increasing number of printing presses, visual images
could be easily reproduced in multiple copies. Painters
like Raja Ravi Varma produced images for mass
circulation. Poor wood engravers who made
woodblocks set up shop near the letterpresses, and
were employed by print shops. Cheap prints and
calendars, easily available in the bazaar, could be
bought even by the poor to decorate the walls of
their homes or places of work. These prints began
shaping popular ideas about modernity and tradition,
religion and politics, and society and culture.
By the 1870s, caricatures and cartoons were being
published in journals and newspapers, commenting
on social and political issues. Some caricatures
ridiculed the educated Indians fascination with
Western tastes and clothes, while others expressed
the fear of social change. There were imperial
caricatures lampooning nationalists, as well as
nationalist cartoons criticising imperial rule.
Fig. 17 Raja Ritudhwaj rescuing Princess Madalsa
from the captivity of demons, print by Ravi Varma.
Raja Ravi Varma produced innumerable mythological
paintings that were printed at the Ravi Varma Press.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
172
8.1 Women and Print
Lives and feelings of women began to be written in particularly
vivid and intense ways. Womens reading, therefore, increased
enormously in middle-class homes. Liberal husbands and fathers
began educating their womenfolk at home, and sent them to schools
when womens schools were set up in the cities and towns after the
mid-nineteenth century. Many journals began carrying writings by
women, and explained why women should be educated. They also
carried a syllabus and attached suitable reading matter which could
be used for home-based schooling.
But not all families were liberal. Conservative Hindus believed
that a literate girl would be widowed and Muslims feared that
educated women would be corrupted by reading Urdu romances.
Sometimes, rebel women defied such prohibition. We know the
story of a girl in a conservative Muslim family of north India
who secretly learnt to read and write in Urdu. Her family wanted
her to read only the Arabic Quran which she did not understand.
So she insisted on learning to read a language that was her own. In
East Bengal, in the early nineteenth century, Rashsundari Debi, a
young married girl in a very orthodox household, learnt to read in
the secrecy of her kitchen. Later, she wrote her autobiography
Amar Jiban which was published in 1876. It was the first full-length
autobiography published in the Bengali language.
Since social reforms and novels had already created a great interest
in womens lives and emotions, there was also an interest in what
women would have to say about their own lives. From the 1860s,
a few Bengali women like Kailashbashini Debi wrote books
highlighting the experiences of women about how women were
imprisoned at home, kept in ignorance, forced to do hard domestic
labour and treated unjustly by the very people they served. In the
1880s, in present-day Maharashtra, Tarabai Shinde and Pandita
Ramabai wrote with passionate anger about the miserable lives
of upper-caste Hindu women, especially widows. A woman in a
Tamil novel expressed what reading meant to women who were
so greatly confined by social regulations: For various reasons, my
world is small More than half my lifes happiness has come
from books
While Urdu, Tamil, Bengali and Marathi print culture had developed
early, Hindi printing began seriously only from the 1870s. Soon, a
large segment of it was devoted to the education of women. In
Fig. 18 The cover page of Indian Charivari.
The Indian Charivari was one of the many
journals of caricature and satire published in
the late nineteenth century.
Notice that the imperial British figure is
positioned right at the centre. He is
authoritative and imperial; telling the natives
what is to be done. The natives sit on either
side of him, servile and submissive. The
Indians are being shown a copy of Punch, the
British journal of cartoons and satire. You can
almost hear the British master say This is
the model, produce Indian versions of it.
Source
Source E
In 1926, Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein, a
noted educationist and literary figure, strongly
condemned men for withholding education from
women in the name of religion as she addressed
the Bengal Womens Education Conference:
The opponents of female education say that
women will become unruly Fie! They call
themselves Muslims and yet go against the basic
tenet of Islam which gives Women an equal right
to education. I f men are not led astray once
educated, why should women?
173
P
r
i
n
t

C
u
l
t
u
r
e
the early twentieth century, journals, written for and sometimes
edited by women, became extremely popular. They discussed
issues like womens education, widowhood, widow remarriage
and the national movement. Some of them offered household
and fashion lessons to women and brought entertainment through
short stories and serialised novels.
In Punjab, too, a similar folk literature was widely printed from
the early twentieth century. Ram Chaddha published the fast-selling
Istri Dharm Vichar to teach women how to be obedient wives.
The Khalsa Tract Society published cheap booklets with a similar
message. Many of these were in the form of dialogues about the
qualities of a good woman.
In Bengal, an entire area in central Calcutta the Battala was
devoted to the printing of popular books. Here you could buy
cheap editions of religious tracts and scriptures, as well as literature
that was considered obscene and scandalous. By the late nineteenth
century, a lot of these books were being profusely illustrated with
woodcuts and coloured lithographs. Pedlars took the Battala
publications to homes, enabling women to read them in their
leisure time.
Fig. 20 An Indian
couple, black and white
woodcut.
The image shows the
artists fear that the
cultural impact of the
West has turned the
family upside down.
Notice that the man is
playing the veena while
the woman is smoking a
hookah. The move
towards womens
education in the late
nineteenth century
created anxiety about the
breakdown of traditional
family roles.
Fig. 19 Ghor Kali (The End of the
World), coloured woodcut, late
nineteenth century.
The artists vision of the destruction
of proper family relations. Here the
husband is totally dominated by his
wife who is perched on his shoulder.
He is cruel towards his mother,
dragging her like an animal, by the
noose.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
174
8.2 Print and the Poor People
Very cheap small books were brought to markets in nineteenth-century
Madras towns and sold at crossroads, allowing poor people travelling
to markets to buy them. Public libraries were set up from the early
twentieth century, expanding the access to books. These libraries were
located mostly in cities and towns, and at times in prosperous villages.
For rich local patrons, setting up a library was a way of acquiring prestige.
From the late nineteenth century, issues of caste discrimination began to
be written about in many printed tracts and essays. Jyotiba Phule, the
Maratha pioneer of low caste protest movements, wrote about the
injustices of the caste system in his Gulamgiri (1871). In the twentieth
century, B.R. Ambedkar in Maharashtra and E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker
in Madras, better known as Periyar, wrote powerfully on caste and
their writings were read by people all over India. Local protest
movements and sects also created a lot of popular journals and tracts
criticising ancient scriptures and envisioning a new and just future.
Workers in factories were too overworked and lacked the education to
write much about their experiences. But Kashibaba, a Kanpur
millworker, wrote and published Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal in 1938 to
show the links between caste and class exploitation. The poems of
another Kanpur millworker, who wrote under the name of Sudarshan
Chakr between 1935 and 1955, were brought together and published
in a collection called Sacchi Kavitayan. By the 1930s, Bangalore cotton
millworkers set up libraries to educate themselves, following the example
of Bombay workers. These were sponsored by social reformers who
tried to restrict excessive drinking among them, to bring literacy and,
sometimes, to propagate the message of nationalism.
Look at Figs. 19, 20 and 21 carefully.
What comment are the artists making on the
social changes taking place in society?
What changes in society were taking place to
provoke this reaction?
Do you agree with the artists view?
Activity
Fig. 21 A European couple sitting on chairs,
nineteenth-century woodcut.
The picture suggests traditional family roles. The
Sahib holds a liquor bottle in his hand while the
Memsahib plays the violin.
175
P
r
i
n
t

C
u
l
t
u
r
e
9 Print and Censorship
Before 1798, the colonial state under the East India Company was
not too concerned with censorship. Strangely, its early measures to
control printed matter were directed against Englishmen in India
who were critical of Company misrule and hated the actions of
particular Company officers. The Company was worried that such
criticisms might be used by its critics in England to attack its trade
monopoly in India.
By the 1820s, the Calcutta Supreme Court passed certain regulations
to control press freedom and the Company began encouraging
publication of newspapers that would celebrate Britsh rule. In 1835,
faced with urgent petitions by editors of English and vernacular
newspapers, Governor-General Bentinck agreed to revise press laws.
Thomas Macaulay, a liberal colonial official, formulated new rules
that restored the earlier freedoms.
After the revolt of 1857, the attitude to freedom of the press
changed. Enraged Englishmen demanded a clamp down on the
native press. As vernacular newspapers became assertively
nationalist, the colonial government began debating measures of
stringent control. In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed,
modelled on the Irish Press Laws. It provided the government
with extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular
press. From now on the government kept regular track of the
vernacular newspapers published in different provinces. When a
report was judged as seditious, the newspaper was warned, and if
the warning was ignored, the press was liable to be seized and the
printing machinery confiscated.
Despite repressive measures, nationalist newspapers grew in numbers
in all parts of India. They reported on colonial misrule and
encouraged nationalist activities. Attempts to throttle nationalist
criticism provoked militant protest. This in turn led to a renewed
cycle of persecution and protests. When Punjab revolutionaries were
deported in 1907, Balgangadhar Tilak wrote with great sympathy
about them in his Kesari. This led to his imprisonment in 1908,
provoking in turn widespread protests all over India.
Box 4
Sometimes, the government found it hard to
find candidates for editorship of loyalist papers.
When Sanders, editor of the Statesman that had
been founded in 1877, was approached, he
asked rudely how much he would be paid
for suffering the loss of freedom. The Friend
of India refused a government subsidy, fearing
that this would force it to be obedient to
government commands.
Box 5
The power of the printed word is most often
seen in the way governments seek to regulate
and suppress print. The colonial government kept
continuous track of all books and newspapers
published in India and passed numerous laws to
control the press.
During the First World War, under the Defence
of I ndia Rules, 22 newspapers had to furnish
securities. Of these, 18 shut down rather than
comply with government orders. The Sedition
Committee Report under Rowlatt in 1919 further
strengthened controls that led to imposition of
penalties on various newspapers. At the outbreak
of the Second World War, the Defence of India
Act was passed, allowing censoring of reports of
war-related topics. All reports about the Quit India
movement came under its purview. I n August
1942, about 90 newspapers were suppressed.
Source
Source F
Gandhi said in 1922:
Liberty of speech ... liberty of the press ...
freedom of association. The Government of India
is now seeking to crush the three powerful
vehicles of expressing and cultivating public
opinion. The fight for Swaraj, for Khilafat ...
means a fight for this threatened freedom
before all else ...
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
176
Discuss
Project
1. Why did some people in eighteenth century Europe think that print culture would bring
enlightenment and end despotism?
2. Why did some people fear the effect of easily available printed books? Choose one example
from Europe and one from India.
3. What were the effects of the spread of print culture for poor people in nineteenth century India?
4. Explain how print culture assisted the growth of nationalism in India.
Find out more about the changes in print technology in the last 100 years. Write about the
changes, explaining why they have taken place, what their consequences have been.
D
i
s
c
u
s
s
Write in brief
1. Give reasons for the following:
a) Woodblock print only came to Europe after 1295.
b) Martin Luther was in favour of print and spoke out in praise of it.
c) The Roman Catholic Church began keeping an Index of Prohibited books from
the mid-sixteenth century.
d) Gandhi said the fight for Swaraj is a fight for liberty of speech, liberty of the
press, and freedom of association.
2. Write short notes to show what you know about:
a) The Gutenberg Press
b) Erasmuss idea of the printed book
c) The Vernacular Press Act
3. What did the spread of print culture in nineteenth century India mean to:
a) Women
b) The poor
c) Reformers
W
r
i
t
e

i
n

b
r
i
e
f
Project
177
N
o
v
e
l
s
,

S
o
c
i
e
t
y

a
n
d

H
i
s
t
o
r
y
N
o
v
e
l
s
,

S
o
c
i
e
t
y

a
n
d

H
i
s
t
o
r
y
C
h
a
p
t
e
r

V
I
I
I
Novels, Society and History
In the previous chapter you read about the rise of print culture and
how new forms of communication reshaped the way people thought
about themselves or related to each other. You also saw how print
culture created the possibility of new forms of literature. In this
chapter we will study the history of one such form the novel a
history that is closely connected to the making of modern ways of
thinking. We will first look at the history of the novel in the West,
and then see how this form developed in some of the regions of
India. As you will see, despite their differences, there were many
commonalites of focus between novels written in different parts
of the world.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
178
The novel is a modern form of literature. It is born from print, a
mechanical invention.
We cannot think of the novel without the printed book. In ancient
times, as you have seen (Chapter 7), manuscripts were handwritten.
These circulated among very few people. In contrast, because of
being printed, novels were widely read and became popular very
quickly. At this time big cities like London were growing rapidly
and becoming connected to small towns and rural areas through
print and improved communications. Novels produced a number
of common interests among their scattered and varied readers. As
readers were drawn into the story and identified with the lives of
fictitious characters, they could think about issues such as the
relationship between love and marriage, the proper conduct for
men and women, and so on.
The novel first took firm root in England and France. Novels began
to be written from the seventeenth century, but they really flowered
from the eighteenth century. New groups of lower-middle-class
people such as shopkeepers and clerks, along with the traditional
aristocratic and gentlemanly classes in England and France now
formed the new readership for novels.
As readership grew and the market for books expanded, the earnings
of authors increased. This freed them from financial dependence
on the patronage of aristocrats, and gave them independence to
experiment with different literary styles. Henry Fielding, a novelist
of the early eighteenth century, claimed he was the founder of a
new province of writing where he could make his own laws. The
novel allowed flexibility in the form of writing. Walter Scott
remembered and collected popular Scottish ballads which he used
in his historical novels about the wars between Scottish clans. The
epistolary novel, on the other hand, used the private and personal
form of letters to tell its story. Samuel Richardsons Pamela, written
in the eighteenth century, told much of its story through an exchange
of letters between two lovers. These letters tell the reader of the
hidden conflicts in the heroines mind.
1.1 The Publishing Market
For a long time the publishing market excluded the poor. Initially,
novels did not come cheap. Henry Fieldings Tom Jones (1749) was
1 1 1 1 1 The Rise of the Novel The Rise of the Novel The Rise of the Novel The Rise of the Novel The Rise of the Novel
New words
Gentlemanly classes People who claimed
noble birth and high social position. They were
supposed to set the standard for proper
behaviour
Epistolary Written in the form of a series of
letters
179
N
o
v
e
l
s
,

S
o
c
i
e
t
y

a
n
d

H
i
s
t
o
r
y
issued in six volumes priced at three shillings each which was
more than what a labourer earned in a week.
But soon, people had easier access to books with the introduction
of circulating libraries in 1740. Technological improvements in
printing brought down the price of books and innovations in
marketing led to expanded sales. In France, publishers found that
they could make super profits by hiring out novels by the hour. The
novel was one of the first mass-produced items to be sold. There
were several reasons for its popularity. The worlds created by novels
were absorbing and believable, and seemingly real. While reading
novels, the reader was transported to another persons world, and
began looking at life as it was experienced by the characters of the
novel. Besides, novels allowed individuals the pleasure of reading in
private, as well as the joy of publicly reading or discussing stories
with friends or relatives. In rural areas people would collect to hear
one of them reading a novel aloud, often becoming deeply involved
in the lives of the characters. Apparently, a group at Slough in England
were very pleased to hear that Pamela, the heroine of Richardsons
popular novel, had got married in their village. They rushed out to
the parish church and began to ring the church bells!
In 1836 a notable event took place when Charles Dickenss Pickwick
Papers was serialised in a magazine. Magazines were attractive since
they were illustrated and cheap. Serialisation allowed readers to relish
the suspense, discuss the characters of a novel and live for weeks
with their stories like viewers of television soaps today!
New words
Serialised A format in which the story is
published in instalments, each part in a new
issue of a journal
Fig. 2 Library notice.
Libraries were well publicised.
Fig. 1 Cover page of Sketches by Boz.
Charles Dickenss first publication was a collection of
journalistic essays entitled Sketches by Boz (1836).
Fig. 3 Cover page of All The Year Round.
The most important feature of the magazine
All the Year Round, edited by Charles
Dickens, was his serialised novels. This
particular issue begins with one.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
180
Explain what is meant by the following types of
novels:
Epistolary novel
Serialised novel
For each type, name one writer who wrote in
that style.
Discuss
1.2 The World of the Novel
More than other forms of writing which came before, novels are
about ordinary people. They do not focus on the lives of great
people or actions that change the destinies of states and empires.
Instead, they are about the everyday life of common people.
In the nineteenth century, Europe entered the industrial age.
Factories came up, business profits increased and the economy grew.
But at the same time, workers faced problems. Cities expanded
in an unregulated way and were filled with overworked and
underpaid workers. The unemployed poor roamed the streets for
jobs, and the homeless were forced to seek shelter in workhouses.
The growth of industry was accompanied by an economic
philosophy which celebrated the pursuit of profit and undervalued
the lives of workers. Deeply critical of these developments, novelists
such as Charles Dickens wrote about the terrible effects of
industrialisation on peoples lives and characters. His novel Hard Times
(1854) describes Coketown, a fictitious industrial town, as a grim
place full of machinery, smoking chimneys, rivers polluted purple
and buildings that all looked the same. Here workers are known
as hands, as if they had no identity other than as operators
of machines. Dickens criticised not just the greed for profits but
also the ideas that reduced human beings into simple instruments
of production.
Fig. 4 Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910).
Tolstoy was a famous Russian novelist who wrote extensively on
rural life and community.
Fig. 5 Charles Dickens
(1812-1870).
181
N
o
v
e
l
s
,

S
o
c
i
e
t
y

a
n
d

H
i
s
t
o
r
y
In other novels too, Dickens focused on the terrible conditions of
urban life under industrial capitalism. His Oliver Twist (1838) is the
tale of a poor orphan who lived in a world of petty criminals and
beggars. Brought up in a cruel workhouse (see Fig. 6), Oliver was
finally adopted by a wealthy man and lived happily ever after.
But not all novels about the lives of the poor gave readers the comfort
of a happy ending. Emile Zolas Germinal (1885) on
the life of a young miner in France explores in harsh detail the
grim conditions of miners lives. It ends on a note of despair: the
strike the hero leads fails, his co-workers turn against him, and
hopes are shattered.
1.3 Community and Society
The vast majority of readers of the novel lived in the city. The novel
created in them a feeling of connection with the fate of rural
communities. The nineteenth-century British novelist Thomas Hardy,
for instance, wrote about traditional rural communities of England
Fig. 6 A hungry Oliver asks for more
food while other children at the workhouse
look on with fear, illustration in Oliver
Twist.
Fig. 7 Emile Zola, painting by Edward Manet,
1868.
Manets portrait of the French author Zola,
showing the novelist at his worktable in an
intimate and thoughtful relationship with books.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
182
that were fast vanishing. This was actually a time when large farmers
fenced off land, bought machines and employed labourers to
produce for the market. The old rural culture with its independent
farmers was dying out. We get a sense of this change in Hardys
Mayor of Casterbridge (1886). It is about Michael Henchard, a successful
grain merchant, who becomes the mayor of the farming town of
Casterbridge. He is an independent-minded man who follows his
own style in conducting business. He can also be both unpredictably
generous and cruel with his employees. Consequently, he is no
match for his manager and rival Donald Farfrae who runs his
business on efficient managerial lines and is well regarded for he
is smooth and even-tempered with everyone. We can see that
Hardy mourns the loss of the more personalised world that is
disappearing, even as he is aware of its problems and the advantages
of the new order.
The novel uses the vernacular, the language that is spoken by
common people. By coming closer to the different spoken languages
of the people, the novel produces the sense of a shared world
between diverse people in a nation. Novels also draw from different
styles of language. A novel may take a classical language and combine
it with the language of the streets and make them all a part of the
vernacular that it uses. Like the nation, the novel brings together
many cultures.
1.4 The New Woman
The most exciting element of the novel was the involvement of
women. The eighteenth century saw the middle classes become
more prosperous. Women got more leisure to read as well as write
novels. And novels began exploring the world of women their
emotions and identities, their experiences and problems.
Many novels were about domestic life a theme about which
women were allowed to speak with authority. They drew
upon their experience, wrote about family life and earned
public recognition.
New words
Vernacular The normal, spoken form of a language rather
than the formal, literary form
Fig. 8 Thomas Hardy (1840-1928).
183
N
o
v
e
l
s
,

S
o
c
i
e
t
y

a
n
d

H
i
s
t
o
r
y
Fig. 9 A girl reading, a painting by Jean Renoir (1841-1919).
By the nineteenth century, images of women reading silently, in
the privacy of the room, became common in European paintings.
Fig. 10 The home of a woman author, by George Cruikshank.
When women began writing novels many people feared that they would now
neglect their traditional role as wives and mothers and homes would be in disorder.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
184
The novels of Jane Austen give us a glimpse of the world of women
in genteel rural society in early-nineteenth-century Britain. They
make us think about a society which encouraged women to look
for good marriages and find wealthy or propertied husbands. The
first sentence of Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice states: It is a truth
universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good
fortune, must be in want of a wife. This observation allows us to
see the behaviour of the main characters, who are preoccupied with
marriage and money, as typifying Austens society.
But women novelists did not simply popularise the domestic role
of women. Often their novels dealt with women who broke
established norms of society before adjusting to them. Such stories
allowed women readers to sympathise with rebellious actions. In
Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre, published in 1874, young Jane is shown
as independent and assertive. While girls of her time were expected
to be quiet and well behaved, Jane at the age of ten protests against
the hypocrisy of her elders with startling bluntness. She tells her
Fig. 11 Jane Austen
(1775-1817).
Fig. 12 The marriage contract, William Hogarth (1697-1764).
As you can see, the two men in the foreground are busy with the signing of the marriage
contract while the woman stays in the background.
185
N
o
v
e
l
s
,

S
o
c
i
e
t
y

a
n
d

H
i
s
t
o
r
y
Women novelists
George Eliot (1819-1880) was the pen-name of Mary Ann Evans.
A very popular novelist, she believed that novels gave women a
special opportunity to express themselves freely. Every woman
could see herself as capable of writing fiction:
Fiction is a department of literature in which women can, after
their kind, fully equal men No educational restrictions can shut
women from the materials of fiction, and there is no species of art
that is so free from rigid requirements.
George Eliot, Silly novels by lady novelists, 1856.
Box 1
1.5 Novels for the Young
Novels for young boys idealised a new type of man: someone
who was powerful, assertive, independent and daring. Most of these
novels were full of adventure set in places remote from Europe.
The colonisers appear heroic and honourable confronting native
peoples and strange surroundings, adapting to native life as well as
changing it, colonising territories and then developing nations there.
Books like R.L. Stevensons Treasure Island (1883) or Rudyard Kiplings
Jungle Book (1894) became great hits.
G.A. Hentys historical adventure novels for boys were also wildly
popular during the height of the British empire. They aroused the
excitement and adventure of conquering strange lands. They were
set in Mexico, Alexandria, Siberia and many other countries. They
were always about young boys who witness grand historical events,
get involved in some military action and show what they called
English courage.
Love stories written for adolescent girls also first became popular
in this period, especially in the US, notably Ramona (1884) by Helen
Hunt Jackson and a series entitled What Katy Did (1872) by Sarah
Chauncey Woolsey, who wrote under the pen-name Susan Coolidge.
G.A. Henty (1832-1902):
I n Under Drakes Flag (1883) two young
Elizabethan adventurers face their apparently
approaching death, but still remember to assert
their Englishness:
Well, Ned, we have had more good fortune than
we could have expected. We might have been
killed on the day when we landed, and we have
spent six jolly months in wandering together as
hunters on the plain. I f we must die, let us
behave like Englishmen and Christians.
Box 2
Fig. 13 Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855).
Aunt who is always unkind to her: People think you a good woman,
but you are bad ... You are deceitful! I will never call you aunt as
long as I live.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
186
1.6 Colonialism and After
The novel originated in Europe at a time when it was colonising the
rest of the world. The early novel contributed to colonialism by
making the readers feel they were part of a superior community of
fellow colonialists. The hero of Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe (1719)
is an adventurer and slave trader. Shipwrecked on an island, Crusoe
treats coloured people not as human beings equal to him, but as
inferior creatures. He rescues a native and makes him his slave. He
does not ask for his name but arrogantly gives him the name Friday.
But at the time, Crusoes behaviour was not seen as unacceptable or
odd, for most writers of the time saw colonialism as natural.
Colonised people were seen as primitive and barbaric, less than
human; and colonial rule was considered necessary to civilise them,
to make them fully human. It was only later, in the twentieth century,
that writers like Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) wrote novels that
showed the darker side of colonial occupation.
The colonised, however, believed that the novel allowed them to
explore their own identities and problems, their own national
concerns. Let us see how the novel became popular in India and
what significance it had for society.
187
N
o
v
e
l
s
,

S
o
c
i
e
t
y

a
n
d

H
i
s
t
o
r
y
2 The Novel Comes to India
Stories in prose were not new to India. Banabhattas Kadambari,
written in Sanskrit in the seventh century, is an early example. The
Panchatantra is another. There was also a long tradition of prose
tales of adventure and heroism in Persian and Urdu, known as dastan.
However, these works were not novels as we know them today.
The modern novel form developed in India in the nineteenth century,
as Indians became familiar with the Western novel. The development
of the vernaculars, print and a reading public helped in this process.
Some of the earliest Indian novels were written in Bengali and
Marathi. The earliest novel in Marathi was Baba Padmanjis Yamuna
Paryatan (1857), which used a simple style of storytelling to speak
about the plight of widows. This was followed by Lakshman
Moreshwar Halbes Muktamala (1861). This was not a realistic novel;
it presented an imaginary romance narrative with a moral purpose.
Leading novelists of the nineteenth century wrote for a cause.
Colonial rulers regarded the contemporary culture of India as inferior.
On the other hand, Indian novelists wrote to develop a modern
literature of the country that could produce a sense of national
belonging and cultural equality with their colonial masters.
Translations of novels into different regional languages helped to
spread the popularity of the novel and stimulated the growth of
the novel in new areas.
2.1 The Novel in South India
Novels began appearing in south Indian languages during the period
of colonial rule. Quite a few early novels came out of attempts to
translate English novels into Indian languages. For example,
O. Chandu Menon, a subjudge from Malabar, tried to translate an
English novel called Henrietta Temple written by Benjamin Disraeli
into Malayalam. But he quickly realised that his readers in Kerala
were not familiar with the way in which the characters in English
novels lived: their clothes, ways of speaking, and manners were
unknown to them. They would find a direct translation of an English
novel dreadfully boring. So, he gave up this idea and wrote instead
a story in Malayalam in the manner of English novel books. This
delightful novel called Indulekha, published in 1889, was the first
modern novel in Malayalam.
Not all Marathi novels were realistic. Naro Sadashiv
Risbud used a highly ornamental style in his Marathi
novel Manjughosha (1868). This novel was filled
with amazing events. Risbud had a reason behind
his choice of style. He said:
Because of our attitude to marriage and for
several other reasons one finds in the lives of the
Hindus neither interesting views nor virtues If
we write about things that we experience
daily there would be nothing enthralling about
them, so that if we set out to write an
entertaining book we are forced to take up with
the marvellous.
Box 3
Fig. 14 Chandu Menon
(1847-1899).
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
188
The case of Andhra Pradesh was strikingly similar. Kandukuri
Viresalingam (1848-1919) began translating Oliver Goldsmiths Vicar
of Wakefield into Telugu. He abandoned this plan for similar reasons
and instead wrote an original Telugu novel called Rajasekhara Caritamu
in 1878.
2.2 The Novel in Hindi
In the north, Bharatendu Harishchandra, the pioneer of modern
Hindi literature, encouraged many members of his circle of poets
and writers to recreate and translate novels from other languages.
Many novels were actually translated and adapted from English and
Bengali under his influence, but the first proper modern novel was
written by Srinivas Das of Delhi.
Srinivas Dass novel, published in 1882, was titled Pariksha-Guru (The
Master Examiner). It cautioned young men of well-to-do families
against the dangerous influences of bad company and consequent
loose morals.
Pariksha-Guru reflects the inner and outer world of the newly emerging
middle classes. The characters in the novel are caught in the difficulty
of adapting to colonised society and at the same time preserving
Fig. 15 Image from Pickwick Abroad.
A drawing from the book Pickwick Abroad written by
G.W.M. Reynolds.
Minor nineteenth-century English novelists like Reynolds,
F. Marion Crawford and Marie Corelli were hugely popular in
colonial India. Their novels which were historical romances,
adventure stories and sensation novels were easily available
and were translated and adapted into several Indian languages.
Reynoldss Pickwick Abroad (1839) was more popular in India
than Dickenss original Pickwick Papers (1837).
189
N
o
v
e
l
s
,

S
o
c
i
e
t
y

a
n
d

H
i
s
t
o
r
y
their own cultural identity. The world of colonial modernity seems
to be both frightening and irresistible to the characters. The novel
tries to teach the reader the right way to live and expects all sensible
men to be worldly-wise and practical, to remain rooted in the
values of their own tradition and culture, and to live with dignity
and honour.
In the novel we see the characters attempting to bridge two different
worlds through their actions: they take to new agricultural technology,
modernise trading practices, change the use of Indian languages,
making them capable of transmitting both Western sciences and
Indian wisdom. The young are urged to cultivate the healthy habit
of reading the newspapers. But the novel emphasises that all
this must be achieved without sacrificing the traditional values of
the middle-class household. With all its good intentions, Pariksha-
Guru could not win many readers, as it was perhaps too moralising
in its style.
The writings of Devaki Nandan Khatri created a novel-reading
public in Hindi. His best-seller, Chandrakanta a romance with
dazzling elements of fantasy is believed to have contributed
immensely in popularising the Hindi language and the Nagari
script among the educated classes of those times. Although it was
apparently written purely for the pleasure of reading, this novel
also gives some interesting insights into the fears and desires of its
reading public.
It was with the writing of Premchand that the Hindi novel achieved
excellence. He began writing in Urdu and then shifted to Hindi,
remaining an immensely influential writer in both languages. He drew
on the traditional art of kissa-goi (storytelling). Many critics think
that his novel Sewasadan (The Abode of Service), published in 1916,
lifted the Hindi novel from the realm of fantasy, moralising and
simple entertainment to a serious reflection on the lives of ordinary
people and social issues. Sewasadan deals mainly with the poor
condition of women in society. Issues like child marriage and dowry
are woven into the story of the novel. It also tells us about the ways
in which the Indian upper classes used whatever little opportunities
they got from colonial authorities to govern themselves.
2.3 Novels in Bengal
In the nineteenth century, the early Bengali novels lived in two worlds.
Many of these novels were located in the past, their characters, events
Write about two important characteristics of the
early Hindi novel.
Discuss
The novel in Assam
The first novels in Assam were written by
missionaries. Two of them were translations of
Bengali including Phulmoni and Karuna. In 1888,
Assamese students in Kolkata formed the Asamya
Bhasar Unnatisadhan that brought out a journal
called J onaki. This journal opened up the
opportunities for new authors to develop the
novel. Rajanikanta Bardoloi wrote the first major
historical novel in Assam called Manomati (1900).
It is set in the Burmese invasion, stories of which
the author had probably heard from old soldiers
who had fought in the 1819 campaign. It is a
tale of two lovers belonging to two hostile families
who are separated by the war and finally
reunited.
Box 4
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
190
and love stories based on historical events. Another group of novels
depicted the inner world of domestic life in contemporary settings.
Domestic novels frequently dealt with the social problems and
romantic relationships between men and women.
The old merchant elite of Calcutta patronised public forms of
entertainment such as kabirlarai (poetry contests), musical soirees
and dance performances. In contrast, the new bhadralok found
himself at home in the more private world of reading novels.
Novels were read individually. They could also be read in select
groups. Sometimes the household of the great Bangla novelist
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay would host a jatra in the courtyard
where members of the family would be gathered. In Bankims room,
however, a group of literary friends would collect to read, discuss
and judge literary works. Bankim read out Durgeshnandini (1865),
his first novel, to such a gathering of people who were stunned to
realise that the Bengali novel had achieved excellence so quickly.
Besides the ingenious twists and turns of the plot and the suspense,
the novel was also relished for its language. The prose style became
a new object of enjoyment. Initially the Bengali novel used a colloquial
style associated with urban life. It also used meyeli, the language
associated with womens speech. This style was quickly replaced
by Bankims prose which was Sanskritised but also contained a
more vernacular style.
The novel rapidly acquired popularity in Bengal. By the twentieth
century, the power of telling stories in simple language made Sarat
Chandra Chattopadhyay (1876-1938) the most popular novelist in
Bengal and probably in the rest of India.
The Oriya novel
In 1877-78, Ramashankar Ray, a dramatist, began
serialising the first Oriya novel, Saudamani. But
he could not complete it. Within thirty years,
however, Orissa produced a major novelist in Fakir
Mohon Senapati (1843-1918). The title of his
novel Chaa Mana Atha Guntha (1902) translates
as six acres and thirty-two decimals of land. It
announces a new kind of novel that will deal with
the question of land and its possession. It is the
story of Ramchandra Mangaraj, a landlords
manager who cheats his idle and drunken master
and then eyes the plot of fertile land owned by
Bhagia and Shariya, a childless weaver couple.
Mangaraj fools this couple and puts them into his
debt so that he can take over their land. This
pathbreaking work showed that the novel could
make rural issues an important part of urban
preoccupations. In writing this novel, Fakir Mohon
anticipated a host of writers in Bengal and
elsewhere.
Box 5
Fig. 17 The temple and the drawing room.
On the right is the temple where the family and others would gather
and on the left is the drawing room where Bankim would entertain
select friends to discuss new literary works. Note that the two
spaces the traditional and the modern are next to each other,
indicating the split lifestyle of most intellectuals in colonial India.
Fig. 16 Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
(1838-1894).
Bankims hands on the book indicates how
writing was the basis of his social position
and authority.
191
N
o
v
e
l
s
,

S
o
c
i
e
t
y

a
n
d

H
i
s
t
o
r
y
3 Novels in the Colonial World
The message of reform
Many early novels carried a clear message of
social reform. For example, in I ndirabai, a
Kannada novel written by Gulavadi Venkata Rao
in 1899, the heroine is given away in marriage
at a very young age to an elderly man. Her
husband dies soon after, and she is forced to
lead the life of a widow. In spite of opposition
from her family and society, Indirabai succeeds
in continuing her education. Eventually she
marries again, this time a progressive, English-
educated man. Womens education, the plight
of widows, and problems created by the early
marriage of girls all these were important issues
for social reformers in Karnataka at that time.
Box 6
Fig. 18 Cover page of the novel
Indirabai.
Written at the end of the nineteenth
century, Indirabai continues to be
popular and is regularly reprinted. This
is the cover of a recent reprint.
If we follow the history of the novel in different parts of India we
can see many regional peculiarities. But there were also recurring
patterns and common concerns. What inspired the authors to write
novels? Who read the novels? How did the culture of reading
develop? How did the novels grapple with the problems of societal
change within a colonial society? What kind of a world did novels
open up for the readers? Let us explore some of these questions
by focusing primarily on the writings of three authors from different
regions: Chandu Menon, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
and Premchand.
3.1 Uses of the Novel
Colonial administrators found vernacular novels a valuable source
of information on native life and customs. Such information was
useful for them in governing Indian society, with its large variety of
communities and castes. As outsiders, the British knew little about
life inside Indian households. The new novels in Indian languages
often had descriptions of domestic life. They showed how people
dressed, their forms of religious worship, their beliefs and practices,
and so on. Some of these books were translated into English, often
by British administrators or Christian missionaries.
Indians used the novel as a powerful medium to criticise what they
considered defects in their society and to suggest remedies. Writers
like Viresalingam used the novel mainly to propagate their ideas
about society among a wider readership.
Novels also helped in establishing a relationship with the past. Many
of them told thrilling stories of adventures and intrigues set in the
past. Through glorified accounts of the past, these novels helped in
creating a sense of national pride among their readers.
At the same time, people from all walks of life could read novels so
long as they shared a common language. This helped in creating a
sense of collective belonging on the basis of ones language.
You would have noticed that people living in different regions speak
the same language in different ways sometimes they use different
words for the same thing; sometimes the same word is pronounced
differently. With the coming of novels, such variations entered the
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
192
The most popular historical novelist in Tamil was
R. Krishnamurthy who wrote under the pen-
name Kalki. He was an active participant in the
freedom movement and the editor of the widely
read Tamil magazines Anandavikatan and Kalki.
Written in simple language and full of heroism,
adventure and suspense, Kalkis novels captivated
the Tamil-reading public of an entire generation.
Box 7
Fig. 19 A page from the
novel Ponniyin Selvan, written
by Kalki and serialised in the
magazine Kalki, 1951.
world of print for the first time. The way characters spoke in a
novel began to indicate their region, class or caste. Thus novels made
their readers familiar with the ways in which people in other parts
of their land spoke their language.
3.2 The Problem of Being Modern
Although they were about imaginary stories, novels often spoke to
their readers about the real world. But novels did not always show
things exactly as they were in reality. Sometimes, they presented a
vision of how things ought to be. Social novelists often created
heroes and heroines with ideal qualities, who their readers could
admire and imitate. How were these ideal qualities defined? In many
novels written during the colonial period, the ideal person successfully
deals with one of the central dilemmas faced by colonial subjects:
how to be modern without rejecting tradition, how to accept ideas
coming from the West without losing ones identity.
Chandu Menon portrayed Indulekha as a woman of breathtaking
beauty, high intellectual abilities, artistic talent, and with an education
in English and Sanskrit. Madhavan, the hero of the novel, was
also presented in ideal colours. He was a member of the newly
English-educated class of Nayars from the University of Madras.
193
N
o
v
e
l
s
,

S
o
c
i
e
t
y

a
n
d

H
i
s
t
o
r
y
Fig. 20 Cover page of Kathanjali, a Kannada
magazine.
Kathanjali started publication in 1929 and
published short stories regularly. The picture
shows a mother reading out stories from a book
to her children.
He was also a first-rate Sanskrit scholar. He dressed in Western
clothes. But, at the same time, he kept a long tuft of hair, according
to the Nayar custom.
The heroes and heroines in most of the novels were people who
lived in the modern world. Thus they were different from the ideal
or mythological characters of the earlier poetic literature of India.
Under colonial rule, many of the English-educated class found new
Western ways of living and thinking attractive. But they also feared
that a wholesale adoption of Western values would destroy their
traditional ways of living. Characters like Indulekha and Madhavan
showed readers how Indian and foreign lifestyles could be brought
together in an ideal combination.
3.3 Pleasures of Reading
As elsewhere in the world, in India too, the novel became a popular
medium of entertainment among the middle class. The
circulation of printed books allowed people to amuse themselves
in new ways. Picture books, translations from other languages,
popular songs sometimes composed on contemporary events, stories
in newspapers and magazines all these offered new forms
of entertainment. Within this new culture of print, novels soon
became immensely popular.
In Tamil, for example, there was a flood of popular novels in the
early decades of the twentieth century. Detective and mystery novels
often had to be printed again and again to meet the demand of
readers: some of them were reprinted as many as twenty-two times!
The novel also assisted in the spread of silent reading. We are so
used to reading in silence that it is difficult for us to think that this
practice was not very common in the past. As late as the nineteenth
century and perhaps even in the early twentieth century, written texts
were often read aloud for several people to hear. Sometimes novels
were also read in this way, but in general novels encouraged reading
alone and in silence. Individuals sitting at home or travelling in trains
enjoyed them. Even in a crowded room, the novel offered a special
world of imagination into which the reader could slip, and be all
alone. In this, reading a novel was like daydreaming.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
194
4 Women and the Novel
Many people got worried about the effects of the novel on readers
who were taken away from their real surroundings into an imaginary
world where anything could happen. Some of them wrote in
newspapers and magazines, advising people to stay away from the
immoral influence of novels. Women and children were often singled
out for such advice: they were seen as easily corruptible.
Some parents kept novels in the lofts in their houses, out of their
childrens reach. Young people often read them in secret. This passion
was not limited only to the youth. Older women some of whom
could not read listened with fascinated attention to popular
Tamil novels read out to them by their grandchildren a nice
reversal of the familiar grandmas tales!
But women did not remain mere readers of stories written by men;
soon they also began to write novels. In some languages, the early
creations of women were poems, essays or autobiographical
pieces. In the early decades of the twentieth century, women in
south India also began writing novels and short stories. A reason
for the popularity of novels among women was that it allowed
for a new conception of womanhood. Stories of love which
was a staple theme of many novels showed women who could
choose or refuse their partners and relationships. It showed
women who could to some extent control their lives. Some women
authors also wrote about women who changed the world of both
men and women.
Rokeya Hossein (1880-1932) was a reformer who, after she was
widowed, started a girls school in Calcutta. She wrote a satiric
fantasy in English called Sultanas Dream (1905) which shows a topsy-
turvy world in which women take the place of men. Her novel
Padmarag also showed the need for women to reform their condition
by their own actions.
New words
Satire A form of representation through writing, drawing,
painting, etc. that provides a criticism of society in a manner that
is witty and clever
Fig. 21 A woman reading,
woodcut by Satyendranath Bishi.
The woodcut shows how women
were discovering the pleasure of
reading. By the end of the
nineteenth century, images of
women reading became common in
popular magazines in India.
Why women should not read novels
From a Tamil essay published in 1927:
Dear children, dont read these novels, dont
even touch them. Your life will be ruined. You
will suffer disease and ailments. Why did the good
Lord make you to wither away at a tender
age? To suffer in disease? To be despised by
your brothers, relatives and those around you?
No. No. You must become mothers; you must
lead happy lives; this is the divine purpose. You
who were born to fulfil this sublime goal, should
you ruin your life by going crazy after despicable
novels?
Essay by Thiru. Vi. Ka, Translated by A.R.
Venkatachalapathy
Source
Source A
195
N
o
v
e
l
s
,

S
o
c
i
e
t
y

a
n
d

H
i
s
t
o
r
y
It is not surprising that many men were suspicious of women writing
novels or reading them. This suspicion cut across communities.
Hannah Mullens, a Christian missionary and the author of Karuna o
Phulmonir Bibaran (1852), reputedly the first novel in Bengali, tells her
readers that she wrote in secret. In the twentieth century, Sailabala
Ghosh Jaya, a popular novelist, could only write because her husband
protected her. As we have seen in the case of the south, women and
girls were often discouraged from reading novels.
4.1 Caste Practices, Lower-Castes and Minorities
As you have seen, Indulekha was a love story. But it was also about
an issue that was hotly debated at the time when the novel was
written. This concerned the marriage practices of upper-caste Hindus
in Kerala, especially the Nambuthiri Brahmins and the Nayars.
Nambuthiris were also major landlords in Kerala at that time; and a
large section of the Nayars were their tenants. In late-nineteenth-
century Kerala, a younger generation of English-educated Nayar
men who had acquired property and wealth on their own, began
arguing strongly against Nambuthiri alliances with Nayar women.
They wanted new laws regarding marriage and property.
The story of Indulekha is interesting in the light of these debates. Suri
Nambuthiri, the foolish landlord who comes to marry Indulekha,
is the focus of much satire in the novel. The intelligent heroine
rejects him and chooses Madhavan, the educated and handsome
Nayar as her husband, and the young couple move to Madras,
where Madhavan joins the civil service. Suri Nambuthiri, desperate
to find a partner for himself, finally marries a poorer relation from
the same family and goes away pretending that he has married
Indulekha! Chandu Menon clearly wanted his readers to appreciate
the new values of his hero and heroine and criticise the ignorance
and immorality of Suri Nambuthiri.
Novels like Indirabai and Indulekha were written by members of the
upper castes, and were primarily about upper-caste characters. But
not all novels were of this kind.
Potheri Kunjambu, a lower-caste writer from north Kerala, wrote
a novel called Saraswativijayam in 1892, mounting a strong attack on
caste oppression. This novel shows a young man from an
untouchable caste, leaving his village to escape the cruelty of his
Brahmin landlord. He converts to Christianity, obtains modern
Women with books
These days we can see women in black bordered
sarees with massive books in their hands, walking
inside their houses. Often seeing them with these
books in hand, their brothers or husbands are
seized with fear in case they are asked for
meanings.
Sadharani, 1880.
Box 8
Fig. 22 Malabar Beauty, painting by
Ravi Varma.
Chandu Menon thought that the novel
was similar to new trends in Indian
painting.
One of the foremost oil painters of this
time was Raja Ravi Varma (1848-
1906). Chandu Menons description
of his heroines may have been guided
by some of his paintings.
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
196
education, and returns as the judge in the local court. Meanwhile, the
villagers, thinking that the landlords men had killed him, file a case.
At the conclusion of the trial, the judge reveals his true identity, and
the Nambuthiri repents and reforms his ways. Saraswativijayam stresses
the importance of education for the upliftment of the lower castes.
From the 1920s, in Bengal too a new kind of novel emerged that
depicted the lives of peasants and low castes. Advaita Malla
Burmans (1914-51) Titash Ekti Nadir Naam (1956) is an epic about
the Mallas, a community of fisherfolk who live off fishing in the
river Titash. The novel is about three generations of the Mallas,
about their recurring tragedies and the story of Ananta, a child born
of parents who were tragically separated after their wedding night.
Ananta leaves the community to get educated in the city. The novel
describes the community life of the Mallas in great detail, their Holi
and Kali Puja festivals, boat races, bhatiali songs, their relationships
of friendship and animosity with the peasants and the oppression
of the upper castes. Slowly the community breaks up and the Mallas
start fighting amongst themselves as new cultural influences from
the city start penetrating their lives. The life of the community and
that of the river is intimately tied. Their end comes together: as the
river dries up, the community dies too. While novelists before Burman
had featured low castes as their protagonists, Titash is special because
the author is himself from a low-caste, fisherfolk community.
Over time, the medium of the novel made room for the experiences
of communities that had not received much space in the literary
scene earlier. Vaikkom Muhammad Basheer (1908-96), for example,
was one of the early Muslim writers to gain wide renown as a
novelist in Malayalam.
Basheer had little formal education. Most of his works were based
on his own rich personal experience rather than on books from the
past. When he was in class five at school, Basheer left home to take
part in the Salt Satyagraha. Later he spent years wandering in different
parts of India and travelling even to Arabia, working in a ship, living
with Sufis and Hindu sanyasis, and training as a wrestler.
Basheers short novels and stories were written in the ordinary
language of conversation. With wonderful humour, Basheers novels
spoke about details from the everyday life of Muslim households.
He also brought into Malayalam writing themes which were
considered very unusual at that time poverty, insanity and life
in prisons.
Fig. 23 Basheer carrying books.
In his early years as a writer,
Basheer had great difficulty
earning a living from his books.
He often sold them himself,
carrying copies personally to
houses and shops. In some of his
stories, Basheer wrote about his
days as a vendor of his own
books.
197
N
o
v
e
l
s
,

S
o
c
i
e
t
y

a
n
d

H
i
s
t
o
r
y
5 The Nation and its History
The history written by colonial historians tended to depict Indians as
weak, divided, and dependent on the British. These histories could
not satisfy the tastes of the new Indian administrators and intellectuals.
Nor did the traditional Puranic stories of the past peopled by
gods and demons, filled with the fantastic and the supernatural
seem convincing to those educated and working under the English
system. Such minds wanted a new view of the past that would
show that Indians could be independent minded and had been so in
history. The novel provided a solution. In it, the nation could be
imagined in a past that also featured historical characters, places,
events and dates.
In Bengal, many historical novels were about Marathas and Rajputs.
These novels produced a sense of a pan-Indian belonging. They
imagined the nation to be full of adventure, heroism, romance and
sacrifice qualities that could not be found in the offices and streets
of the nineteenth-century world. The novel allowed the colonised
to give shape to their desires. Bhudeb Mukhopadhyays (1827-94)
Anguriya Binimoy (1857) was the first historical novel written in Bengal.
Its hero Shivaji engages in many battles against a clever and treacherous
Aurangzeb. Man Singh persuades Shivaji to make peace with
Aurangzeb. Realising that Aurangzeb intended to confine him as a
house prisoner, Shivaji escapes and returns to battle. What gives him
courage and tenacity is his belief that he is a nationalist fighting for
the freedom of Hindus.
The imagined nation of the novel was so powerful that it
could inspire actual political movements. Bankims Anandamath (1882)
is a novel about a secret Hindu militia that fights Muslims to establish
a Hindu kingdom. It was a novel that inspired many kinds of
freedom fighters.
Many of these novels also reveal the problems of thinking about
the nation. Was India to be a nation of only a single religious
community? Who had natural claims to belong to the nation?
5.1 The Novel and Nation Making
Imagining a heroic past was one way in which the novel helped in
popularising the sense of belonging to a common nation. Another
Fig. 24 Image from the film Chemmeen.
Many novels were made into films. The novel
Chemmeen (Shrimp, 1956), written by Thakazhi
Sivasankara Pillai (1912-99), is set in the
fishing community in Kerala, and characters
speak a variety of Malayalam used by fisherfolk
in the region. The film Chemmeen, directed by
Ramu Kariat, was made in 1965.
Fig. 25 A still from the
Kannada film Chomana Dudi
(Chomas Drum, directed by
B.V. Karanth in 1975).
The film is based on a novel of
the same title written in 1930 by
the celebrated Kannada novelist
Sivarama Karanth (1902-1997).
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
198
way was to include various classes in the novel so that they could be
seen to belong to a shared world. Premchands novels, for instance,
are filled with all kinds of powerful characters drawn from all levels
of society. In his novels you meet aristocrats and landlords, middle-
level peasants and landless labourers, middle-class professionals and
people from the margins of society. The women characters are
strong individuals, especially those who come from the lower classes
and are not modernised. Unlike many of his contemporaries,
Premchand rejected the nostalgic obsession with ancient history.
Instead, his novels look towards the future without forgetting the
importance of the past.
Drawn from various strata of society, Premchands characters create
a community based on democratic values. The central character of
his novel Rangbhoomi (The Arena), Surdas, is a visually impaired beggar
from a so-called untouchable caste. The very act of choosing such
a person as the hero of a novel is significant. It makes the lives of
the most oppressed section of society as worthy of literary reflection.
We see Surdas struggling against the forcible takeover of his land
for establishing a tobacco factory. As we read the story we wonder
about industrialisation and its impact on society and people. Who
does it serve? Must other ways of living be sacrificed for it? The
story of Surdas was inspired by Gandhis personality and ideas.
Godan (The Gift of Cow), published in 1936, remains Premchands
best-known work. It is an epic of the Indian peasantry. The novel
tells the moving story of Hori and his wife Dhania, a peasant couple.
Landlords, moneylenders, priests and colonial bureaucrats all those
who hold power in society form a network of oppression, rob
their land and make them into landless labourers. Yet Hori and Dhania
retain their dignity to the end.
Read Godan. Write briefly on:
How Premchand depicts the life of peasants in the novel.
What the novel tells us about the life of peasants during the
Great Depression.
Activity
Fig. 26 Portrait of
Premchand (1880-
1936).
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) developed the
Bengali novel after Bankims death. His early novels
were historical; he later shifted to writing stories
about domestic relationships. He was mainly
preoccupied with the condition of women and
nationalism. Both concerns are featured in his
Ghare Baire (1916) translated in 1919 as The
Home and the World. The story is about Bimala,
the wife of Nikhilesh, a liberal landlord who
believes that he can save his country by patiently
bettering the lives of its poor and marginal
sections. But Bimala is attracted to Sandip, her
husbands friend and a firebrand extremist. Sandip
is so completely dedicated to throwing out the
British that he does not mind if the poor low
castes suffer and Muslims are made to feel like
outsiders. By becoming a part of Sandips group,
Bimala gets a sense of self-worth and self-esteem.
Rabindranth also shows the contradictory effects
of nationalist involvement for women. Bimala may
be admired by the young males of the group
but she cannot influence their decisions. Indeed
she is used by Sandip to acquire funds for the
movement. Tagores novels are striking because
they make us rethink both man-woman
relationships and nationalism.
Box 9
199
N
o
v
e
l
s
,

S
o
c
i
e
t
y

a
n
d

H
i
s
t
o
r
y
Conclusion
We have seen how, over the course of its history in both the West
and in India, the novel became part of the lives of different sections
of people. Developments in print technologies allowed the novel
to break out of its small circle of readers and introduced fresh
ways of reading. But through their stories, novels have also shown a
capacity to include and focus on the lives of those who were not
often known to literate and middle-class circles. We have seen some
examples of these in Premchand, but they are equally present in the
works of other novelists.
Bringing together people from varied backgrounds produces a sense
of shared community. The most notable form of this community
is the nation. Equally significant is the fact that by bringing in both
the powerful and the marginal peoples and cultures, the novel throws
up many questions about the nature of these communities. We can
say then that novels produce a sense of sharing, and promote an
understanding of different people, different values and different
communities. At the same time they explore how different groups
begin to question or reflect upon their own identities.
Write in brief
Project
a) Social changes in Britain which led to an increase in women readers
b) What actions of Robinson Crusoe make us see him as a typical coloniser.
c) After 1740, the readership of novels began to include poorer people.
d) Novelists in colonial India wrote for a political cause.
2. Outline the changes in technology and society which led to an increase in
readers of the novel in eighteenth-century Europe.
3. Write a note on:
a) The Oriya novel
b) Jane Austens portrayal of women
c) The picture of the new middle class which the novel Pariksha-Guru portrays.
Imagine that you are a historian in 3035 AD. You have just located two novels which were written
in the twentieth century. What do they tell you about society and customs of the time?
W
r
i
t
e

i
n

b
r
i
e
f
Discuss
1. Discuss some of the social changes in nineteenth-century Britain which Thomas Hardy
and Charles Dickens wrote about.
2. Summarise the concern in both nineteenth-century Europe and India about women
reading novels. What does this suggest about how women were viewed?
3. In what ways was the novel in colonial India useful for both the colonisers as well as the
nationalists?
4. Describe how the issue of caste was included in novels in India. By referring to any two
novels, discuss the ways in which they tried to make readers think about existing social
issues.
5. Describe the ways in which the novel in India attempted to create a sense of pan-Indian
belonging.
D
i
s
c
u
s
s
Project
I
n
d
i
a

a
n
d

t
h
e

C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y

W
o
r
l
d
200

Histry

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Histry

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Histry

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

www.GOALias.blogspot.

I carried a tiffin box

You might also like