Rise of Indian Nationalism – NDA History Notes

Introduction

Nationalism is not born fully formed. It grows, slowly then quickly, as a people come to understand that they share a common fate and begin to act together to change it. In India, that understanding took shape over the second half of the 19th century, and the institution that gave it political form was the Indian National Congress, founded in 1885 CE in Bombay. For the next sixty-two years (until independence in 1947 CE) the Congress was the primary vehicle of Indian nationalist politics, evolving from a polite association of educated Indians seeking reform within the British constitutional framework into a mass movement that challenged the most powerful empire in the world.

The conditions that made this possible were created, paradoxically, by the British themselves. Western education gave Indians the intellectual tools to analyse their own condition. The railways and telegraph connected a subcontinent of extraordinary diversity into something that could think of itself as a single political entity. The printing press and vernacular newspapers created a national conversation about India’s future. And the economic exploitation documented by Dadabhai Naoroji, Romesh Chunder Dutt, and Gopal Krishna Gokhale gave that conversation its most powerful argument: that India was poor not because of any failure of its own people but because of systematic British extraction.

The story of the rise of Indian nationalism is a story of evolution. The early Congress was moderate. Its leaders believed in British justice and sought change through petitions, memoranda, and loyal addresses to the Crown. The extremist challenge of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, and Bipin Chandra Pal pushed the movement toward mass mobilisation and a more assertive demand for self-rule. The Partition of Bengal in 1905 CE and the Swadeshi movement that followed transformed elite nationalism into popular politics. And by 1931 CE, the Karachi Resolution was declaring not just the right to independence but the vision of what independent India should be.

NDA has tested this chapter on ten separate facts: the Bande Mataram song and its source in Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay’s Ananda Math, the Safety Valve theory of the Congress’s founding, the Home Rule Leagues of Besant and Tilak in 1916, the Swadeshi Campaign of 1896, the Karachi Resolution’s fundamental rights and economic demands, the Khudai Khidmatgar and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the All India Kisan Sabha’s first session and its Kisan manifesto demands, and the Nation First book.

Master Timeline

1851 CE  →  British Indian Association — Calcutta — landlord interests
1852 CE  →  Bombay Association and Madras Native Association
1876 CE  →  Indian Association — Surendranath Banerjea — Calcutta
1882 CE  →  Ananda Math published — Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay — Bande Mataram within it [NDA 2009-I]
1885 CE  →  Indian National Congress founded — Bombay — December 1885 — W.C. Bonnerjee (first president)
1896 CE  →  Swadeshi Campaign — promotion of Indian goods + boycott of British goods [NDA 2017-II]
1905 CE  →  Partition of Bengal — Lord Curzon — Swadeshi movement expanded into mass politics
1906 CE  →  All India Muslim League founded — Dacca
1907 CE  →  Surat Split — Congress divided into moderate and extremist factions
1909 CE  →  Morley-Minto Reforms — separate electorates for Muslims
1911 CE  →  Partition of Bengal annulled — first major nationalist political victory
1916 CE  →  Lucknow Pact — Congress + Muslim League
1916 CE  →  Tilak’s Home Rule League — April 1916 — Maharashtra [NDA 2011-II]
1916 CE  →  Besant’s Home Rule League — September 1916 — Madras [NDA 2011-II]
1931 CE  →  Karachi Resolution — fundamental rights + economic demands [NDA 2019-I]
1936 CE  →  All India Kisan Sabha — first session — Lucknow — April 1936 — Swami Sahajanand Saraswati [NDA 2025-II]
1936 CE  →  Kisan Manifesto — August 1936 — abolish landlordism, reduce rent, cancel debts [NDA 2013-II]

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1. Why Nationalism Emerged When It Did

The rise of organised Indian nationalism in the second half of the 19th century was not accidental. Four specific conditions combined to make it possible.

Western Education gave a generation of Indians the intellectual tools to articulate political demands in the language that the British themselves understood. English-educated Indians read John Stuart Mill on liberty, Edmund Burke on rights, and the history of the French and American revolutions. They then applied those ideas to their own condition. They asked why the principles that Britain celebrated at home were denied to the people it governed in India.

The Printing Press and Vernacular Newspapers created a national conversation about India’s condition. Newspapers in Bengali, Marathi, Urdu, Tamil, and English reached educated readers across the country. They carried news of government policy, reports of political meetings, editorials on economic exploitation, and arguments about India’s future. For the first time, educated Indians from Bombay to Calcutta to Lahore could read each other’s arguments and feel that they were part of a single community.

The Economic Critique gave nationalism its most powerful argument. Dadabhai Naoroji’s Drain of Wealth theory demonstrated with statistical rigour that British rule was systematically extracting India’s wealth. This argument gave the nationalist demand for self-governance its clearest moral justification: that India was poor because of British policy, not because of any failure of the Indian people.

Political Unification Under British Rule paradoxically created the conditions for pan-Indian nationalist consciousness. British India had common laws, a common administrative language (English), common railways and telegraph lines, and a common experience of colonial subjugation. The British had unified India more thoroughly than any previous ruler. In doing so, they had created a political entity large enough and coherent enough to imagine itself as a nation.

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2. Early Political Associations — Before the Congress

Before the Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 CE, several smaller organisations had begun the work of organising Indian political opinion.

Association	Year	Location	Key Figure
British Indian Association	1851 CE	Calcutta	— (landlord interests)
Bombay Association	1852 CE	Bombay	—
Madras Native Association	1852 CE	Madras	—
Indian Association	1876 CE	Calcutta	Surendranath Banerjea

The most important of these was the Indian Association founded by Surendranath Banerjea in 1876 CE in Calcutta. It was the first organisation to attempt to build a genuinely cross-regional Indian political consciousness. Banerjea travelled across India, held public meetings, and built connections between educated Indians in different provinces. His work was the most direct institutional precursor to the Indian National Congress.

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3. The Founding of the Indian National Congress — 1885 CE

India’s national political movement needed an institution: a single organisation that could speak for educated Indians across the country, represent their demands to the British government, and create a space for political debate and organisation. That institution was created in December 1885 CE in Bombay.

The Indian National Congress was founded at its first session in Bombay in December 1885 CE. The session was attended by 72 delegates from across India. The first president was W.C. Bonnerjee (Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee), a lawyer from Bengal. The man who had done most to organise the founding session was A.O. Hume (Allan Octavian Hume), a retired British civil servant and ornithologist.

The INC was founded in Bombay in December 1885 CE — not in Calcutta. [NDA context]

The Safety Valve Theory

The safety valve thesis holds that the colonial rulers were trying to use the Congress to channel Indian discontent away from revolutionary activity. [NDA 2010-I] According to this argument, the British (represented by Hume) helped create the Congress not out of any genuine commitment to Indian self-governance but because they wanted to ensure that educated Indian political energy was directed into peaceful constitutional channels rather than into revolutionary or violent opposition.

The safety valve thesis holds that the British tried to use the Congress to channel Indian discontent away from revolutionary activity, not simply “violent” or “radical” activity. [NDA 2010-I] The tested word is specifically revolutionary.

Bande Mataram — The Nationalist Song

The nationalist movement needed symbols as well as institutions. One of the most powerful was the song ‘Bande Mataram’ (which means ‘I bow to thee, Mother’), addressed to India as the motherland. The song was written by Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay and first appeared as part of his novel Ananda Math. [NDA 2009-I] The novel, published in 1882 CE, told the story of a group of ascetic warriors fighting for India’s liberation. The song embedded within it became one of the most beloved nationalist anthems. It was sung at Congress meetings, at protests, and eventually at the moment of independence itself.

The nationalist song ‘Bande Mataram’ was a part of the novel Ananda Math by Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay. [NDA 2009-I] It was not written as an independent poem or anthem. Both the novel name and the author must be remembered together.

The Book ‘Nation First: The Golden Saga of 82 Years’

The history of the Indian National Congress from its founding to the time of writing is recorded in the book titled ‘Nation First: The Golden Saga of 82 Years’. [NDA 2021-II] This book documents the Congress’s evolution from a body of urban educated professionals seeking reform to a mass national movement that achieved independence. Both the complete title and its identification as the history of the INC must be known.

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4. The Moderate Phase (1885–1905 CE)

In its first two decades, the Congress was dominated by the Moderate leaders: men of great learning, deep commitment to India’s welfare, and genuine faith in British constitutional methods.

The moderates believed that British rule, however imperfect, could be reformed from within. They believed that the British commitment to the rule of law and representative government could be invoked to secure better treatment for India. Their methods were constitutional: petitions, memoranda, resolutions, and well-documented reports presented to British parliamentary committees.

Leader	Region	Key Contribution
Dadabhai Naoroji	Mumbai (Parsi)	Grand Old Man of India. Drain of Wealth theory. First Indian MP in British Parliament (1892 CE).
Gopal Krishna Gokhale	Maharashtra	Constitutional reformer. Mentor of Gandhi. Economic critique in Imperial Legislative Council.
Surendranath Banerjea	Bengal	Founded Indian Association 1876. Called “Surrender-not Banerjea” by admirers.
Pherozeshah Mehta	Bombay	Dominant figure in Bombay Congress. Constitutional lawyer.
W.C. Bonnerjee	Bengal	First president of the INC.

The moderates’ demands (expansion of legislative councils, Indianisation of the civil service, reduction of military expenditure, trial by jury) were reasonable. But the response from the British government was minimal. By the early 1900s, a younger generation was losing patience with polite petitioning.

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5. The Extremist Phase and Lal-Bal-Pal

The challenge to moderate leadership came from three figures who believed that polite petitioning could never achieve what India needed.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak from Maharashtra declared: “Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it.” He published two powerful newspapers: Kesari (in Marathi) and Mahratta (in English). These brought a new aggressive tone to nationalist journalism. He organised mass mobilisation through the Ganesh Chaturthi and Shivaji festivals, turning traditional religious celebrations into vehicles for nationalist consciousness.

Lala Lajpat Rai, called the Lion of Punjab, was the extremist leader from the Punjab who brought the movement’s energy into northern India.

Bipin Chandra Pal was the radical voice from Bengal who combined the extremist demand for assertive nationalism with ideas about social and economic transformation.

Together, Lal–Bal–Pal, they challenged the moderate leadership of the Congress and pushed for a more aggressive nationalism.

Name	Region	Key Contribution
Lala Lajpat Rai (Lal)	Punjab	Lion of Punjab. Anti-partition agitation.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak (Bal)	Maharashtra	“Swaraj is my birthright.” Kesari and Mahratta. Mass mobilisation.
Bipin Chandra Pal (Pal)	Bengal	Radical nationalism.

The Lal-Bal-Pal trio and the moderates came into direct confrontation at the Congress session at Surat in 1907 CE. This was the Surat Split, which divided the Congress into moderate and extremist factions. This division weakened the movement temporarily but the underlying energy of the extremist current continued to shape Indian nationalism.

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6. The Partition of Bengal and the Swadeshi Movement

The event that transformed the Congress from an elite organisation into a mass political movement was Lord Curzon’s Partition of Bengal in 1905 CE. Curzon divided the vast province of Bengal along religious lines, creating a Muslim-majority East Bengal and a Hindu-majority West Bengal. The official justification was administrative efficiency. The nationalist reading was that it was a deliberate attempt to divide the Bengali community along communal lines and weaken the nationalist movement.

The Swadeshi Campaign

The idea of swadeshi (using only goods made in India and boycotting British goods) was not new to 1905. The Swadeshi Campaign in 1896 CE had already involved the promotion of Indian-made goods and the boycott of British goods. [NDA 2017-II]

The Swadeshi Campaign began in 1896 CE, not only after the 1905 Partition of Bengal. [NDA 2017-II] The 1905 Partition of Bengal intensified and extended the Swadeshi movement into a much larger political campaign, with mass bonfires of British cloth, public pledges to buy only Indian goods, and popular participation that went far beyond the educated elite. The Partition of Bengal was eventually annulled in 1911 CE. It was the nationalist movement’s first significant political victory.

[Image Suggestion: A photograph or illustration from the Swadeshi movement — showing the burning of British cloth or the promotion of khadi and Indian-made goods — representing the economic dimension of the nationalist campaign]

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7. The Muslim League and Communal Politics

The same year that the Congress was responding to the Partition of Bengal, another important development changed the shape of Indian politics permanently. The All India Muslim League was founded in 1906 CE at Dacca, by Muslim leaders who were concerned about their community’s position under a democratically elected Indian government that they feared would be Hindu-dominated.

The Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909 CE (studied in Chapter N5) introduced separate electorates for Muslims, institutionalising communal identity as the basis for political representation. This was the moment when the divergence between Congress politics and Muslim League politics became constitutionally embedded.

The Lucknow Pact of 1916 CE represented a moment of cooperation. The Congress and the Muslim League reached an agreement on constitutional reform, with the Congress accepting the principle of separate electorates in exchange for the League’s support for the demand for greater Indian self-governance. This moment of Hindu-Muslim political cooperation was achieved in part through the mediating energy of the Home Rule movement of the same year. But it proved difficult to sustain in the face of the communal pressures that followed.

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8. The Home Rule Movement — 1916 CE

By the middle of World War I, India’s political atmosphere was charged. India had contributed over one million soldiers to the British war effort, and Indian political leaders expected significant constitutional progress in return. The two political organisations that expressed this expectation most forcefully were the two Home Rule Leagues.

The Home Rule movement was started by Annie Besant and Bal Gangadhar Tilak, both of whom formed separate Home Rule Leagues in 1916 CE — to campaign for Indian self-governance within the British Empire. [NDA 2011-II]

Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s Home Rule League, founded in April 1916 CE, was centred in Maharashtra and focused particularly on Marathi-speaking areas.

Annie Besant’s Home Rule League, founded in September 1916 CE, was centred in Madras and operated across a wide geographical area. Besant was a Theosophist leader who had made India her home.

Besant and Tilak did not form one joint Home Rule League. They formed separate leagues. Tilak’s was in April 1916 and Besant’s was in September 1916. [NDA 2011-II]

The Home Rule movement did not demand complete independence from Britain. It campaigned for Indian self-governance within the British Empire, not separation from it. [NDA 2011-II]

Leader	League Founded	Base
Bal Gangadhar Tilak	April 1916 CE	Maharashtra
Annie Besant	September 1916 CE	Madras / broader India

The Home Rule movement mobilised public opinion, built mass membership, and kept the demand for self-governance alive during a period when the Congress’s internal divisions had weakened it. It was the bridge between the pre-Gandhi phase of nationalism and Gandhi’s transformative arrival on the Indian political scene.

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9. The Karachi Resolution — 1931 CE

By 1931, the Indian National Congress had moved far beyond the moderate phase’s cautious demands for expanded legislative councils. The Civil Disobedience Movement of 1930 (Gandhi’s Salt March and the nationwide campaign that followed) had demonstrated the Congress’s capacity for mass political mobilisation. At the Karachi session of the Congress in 1931 CE, the movement articulated its clearest vision of what independent India should look like.

The Karachi Resolution of Congress in 1931 CE advocated two things. [NDA 2019-I]

First, it declared fundamental rights for citizens: the right to free expression, free association, equal treatment before the law, and the protection of personal liberty.

Second, it stated key economic demands, including the nationalisation of key industries and other measures to reduce economic inequality and promote Indian industrial development. [NDA 2019-I]

The Karachi Resolution was not only about fundamental rights. It was not only about economic demands. It advocated both: fundamental rights for citizens AND economic demands including nationalisation of key industries. [NDA 2019-I]

The Karachi Resolution is historically important because it represents the Congress’s evolution from a political organisation focused on constitutional reform to a movement with a comprehensive social and economic vision for independent India. Its principles were reflected in the Directive Principles of State Policy in the Indian Constitution.

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10. The All India Kisan Sabha

The Indian nationalist movement was not only a movement of educated urban professionals. It also mobilised the vast majority of India’s population, the peasants. The institutional vehicle for this peasant mobilisation was the All India Kisan Sabha (All India Peasant Association).

The first session of the All India Kisan Sabha was held in Lucknow in April 1936 CE. [NDA 2025-II] It was presided over by Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, an ascetic scholar who had devoted himself to the cause of India’s peasants. [NDA 2025-II] The Kisan Sabha brought together peasant activists from across India under a single national organisation for the first time.

The first session was held in Lucknow in April 1936 CE, presided over by Swami Sahajanand Saraswati. [NDA 2025-II] Not in Delhi. Not in Calcutta. Not presided over by any other figure.

The Kisan Manifesto — August 1936 CE

In August 1936 CE, the All India Kisan Sabha adopted the Kisan manifesto, a statement of radical demands on behalf of India’s peasant majority. [NDA 2013-II] The manifesto contained three central demands.

First, the abolition of landlordism: the demand that the Zamindar system, which extracted rent from peasants while providing no productive service, should be ended.

Second, the reduction of rent and revenue: the demand that the heavy revenue and rent burdens that pushed peasants into the poverty cycle should be substantially reduced.

Third, the cancellation of peasant debts: the demand that the mountain of debt that millions of peasants had accumulated should be cancelled. [NDA 2013-II]

All three demands must be remembered together. [NDA 2013-II] The Kisan manifesto contained abolition of landlordism, reduction of rent and revenue, and cancellation of peasant debts. Three demands, not two.

★ IMPORTANT All India Kisan Sabha facts tested in two parts. First session — Lucknow — April 1936 CE — presided by Swami Sahajanand Saraswati. [NDA 2025-II] Kisan Manifesto — August 1936 CE — three demands — abolish landlordism + reduce rent and revenue + cancel peasant debts. [NDA 2013-II] Both parts are tested separately. Lucknow + Sahajanand + the three ARC demands.

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11. The Khudai Khidmatgar — Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

One of the most remarkable chapters in the story of Indian nationalism was written not in Bengal or Maharashtra or Gujarat (the heartlands of the Congress) but in the rugged Pashtun territory of the North-West Frontier Province (present-day northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan).

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, known as the Frontier Gandhi and also as Bacha Khan, was a Pashtun leader who built one of the most remarkable non-violent mass movements in history among a people whose martial tradition was ancient and fierce. He organised the Khudai Khidmatgar, meaning the Servants of God, also known as the Red Shirts (for the red uniforms they wore), among the Pashtuns of the North-West Frontier Province. [NDA 2022-I]

The Khudai Khidmatgar were committed to non-violent resistance against British rule, an extraordinary commitment for a community with a strong tradition of armed conflict. They followed Gandhi’s methods of civil disobedience, faced brutal repression from British forces, and maintained their non-violent discipline with remarkable consistency.

The Khudai Khidmatgar (Servants of God / Red Shirts) was organised by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan among the Pashtuns of the North-West Frontier Province. [NDA 2022-I] It was not organised by Gandhi himself. It did not operate in any other region.

[Image Suggestion: A photograph of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (the Frontier Gandhi) with Khudai Khidmatgar volunteers in their distinctive red shirts — representing this unique chapter of non-violent resistance in the North-West Frontier Province]

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12. Revolutionary Nationalism

Alongside the mainstream Congress and its Gandhian non-violence, there existed a current of revolutionary nationalism: young Indians who believed that the British would not leave India through non-violent pressure alone and that armed resistance was justified and necessary.

The most important organisation in this tradition was the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA), associated with figures like Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, and Sukhdev. Bhagat Singh and his comrades believed in both armed resistance and socialist economic transformation. Theirs was not simply a nationalist movement but a revolutionary one.

The revolutionary nationalists disagreed fundamentally with Gandhi’s methods. But they shared the same goal of Indian independence. Their courage and their willingness to sacrifice their lives gave the freedom movement an emotional power that touched millions of Indians who were themselves committed to non-violence.

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13. The Bridge to Gandhi

By the mid-1910s, all the elements were in place for a transformation of the nationalist movement. The moderate approach had reached its limits. The extremist challenge had energised mass politics but not yet built the mass organisation needed to challenge British rule directly. The Home Rule movement had kept the demand for self-governance alive during the war years.

What was needed was a leader who could combine the moral authority of the extremists’ uncompromising demand for freedom with an organisational method that could involve millions of ordinary Indians (not just the educated middle class) in the political struggle. That leader was Mahatma Gandhi, who arrived at the centre of Indian politics with the Champaran Satyagraha of 1917 CE and whose story continues in the next chapter.

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