The Moderates and Extremists: Part II

Ideology:

• The Moderate leaders explained their political outlook as a combination of liberalism and moderation.
  • Believers in the spirit of liberalism, they worked to procure for Indians freedom from race and creed prejudices, equality between man and man, equality before law, extension of civil liberties, extension of representative institutions etc. selfstudyhistory.com
  • The Moderate leaders were convinced believers in the policy of gradualism and constitutionalism.
• The moderates were primarily influenced by Utilitarian theories, as Edmund Burke, John Stuart Mill and john Morley had left a mark on their thoughts and actions.
• The government should be guided by expediency, they believed, and not by any moral or ethical laws.
  • And the constitution was to be considered inviolable and hence repeatedly they appealed to the British parliament complaining about the Government of India subverting the constitution.
  • They did not demand equality, which seemed to be a rather abstract idea; they equated liberty with class privilege and wanted gradual or piecemeal reforms.
• The congress leaders were full of admiration for British history and culture and spoke of the British connection as ‘providential’.
  • It was their cardinal faith that British rule in India was in the interest of the Indians. As such they looked upon the British Government not as an antagonist but as an ally; in the course of time, they believed, Britain would help them to acquire the capacity to govern themselves in accordance with the highest standards of the West.
  • ‘British rule’, to most of them seemed to be an act of providence destined to bring in modernization.
  • Indians needed some time to prepare themselves for self-government. In the meanwhile, absolute faith could be placed in British in Parliament and the people. Their complaint was only against “un-British” in India perpetrated by the viceroy, his executive council and the Anglo-Indian bureaucracy-an imperfection that could be reformed or rectified through gentle persuasion.
  • In 1886, Dadabhai Naoroji presiding over the Calcutta session of the Congress dwelt at length on the ‘Blessings of British Rule’.
  • Mr. Hume moved a resolution for three times three cheers for Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen Empress and a further resolution for long life of the Queen.
  • Ananda Mohan Bose as Congress President (1898) declared, “The educated classes are the friends and not the foes of England-her natural and necessary allies in the great work that lies before her.”
  • Thus, it was generally believed that the chief obstacle in the path of India’s progress was not British colonial rule but the social and economic backwardness of the Indian people and the reactionary role of the Anglo Indian bureaucracy.
• The Moderate leaders stood for the maintenance, rather strengthening of the British Empire.
  • This approach was the outcome of their apprehension that anarchy and disorder would reappear in India if British Government was superseded.
  • In their eyes British rule was the embodiment of Peace and Order in the country and as such British rule was indispensable in India for a long time to come.
  • Gokhale said, “Whatever the shortcomings of bureaucracy, and however intolerable at times the insolence of the individual Englishman, they alone stand to day in the country for order; and without continued order, no real progress is possible for our people. It is not difficult at any time to create disorder in our country- it was our position for centuries- but it is not so easy to substitute another form of order for that which has been evolved in the course of a century“.
  • Badruddin Tyabji, the third Congress President, declared that nowhere among the millions of Her Majesty’s subject in India were to be found “more truly loyal. nay, more devoted friends of the British Empire than among these educated natives”.
  • Thus, the Moderates would do nothing to weaken the Empire. Loyalty to the Crown was their faith, one important article of their political religion.
• Their politics was very limited in terms of goals and methods.
• They were secular in their attitudes, though not always forthright enough to rise above their sectarian interests. They were conscious of the exploitative nature of British rule, but wanted its reforms and not expulsion.
• They were conscious of the exploitative nature of British rule, but wanted its reform, not expulsion.
  • As Dadabhai Naoroji, one of the early stalwarts of this politics, put it in 1871: “In my belief a greater calamity would not befall India than for England to go away and leave her to herself.”

Methods:

• Early Congressman had an implicit faith in the efficacy of peaceful and constitutional agitation as opposed to popular mean of agitation. It was well explained by Gokhle in his journal Sudhar as 3P method: Petition, Prayer and Protest. The press and platform of the annual sessions were their agency of agitation.
• The holding of annual sessions was another method of Congress propaganda.
  • At this session, the government policy was discussed and resolutions were passed in forceful manner, this annual sessions attracted the attention of both educated section of educated middle class and government.
  • But the biggest drawback was that the Congress lasted only for 3 days in a year and it had no missionary to carry on the work in the internal between the two sessions.
• The congressmen believed in the essential sense of justice and the goodness of British nation. 
  • The Moderates believed that the British basically wanted to be just to the Indians but were not aware of the real conditions.
  • If Indians had certain grievances, these were only due to the reactionary policy of the British bureaucracy in India or ignorance of the British people about these grievances.
  • Therefore, if public opinion could be created in the country and public demands be presented to the Government through resolutions, petitions, meetings, etc., the authorities would concede these demands gradually.
    • The nationalist leaders believed that all they had to do was to prepare their case and present and plead it before the British Parliament and nation and their grievances would be redressed and justice done.
  • To achieve these ends, they worked on a two-pronged methodology
    • create a strong public opinion to arouse consciousness and national spirit and then educate and unite people on common political questions;
    • persuade the British Government and British public opinion to introduce reforms in India on the lines laid out by the nationalists.
• As a natural corollary the Congress leaders put great emphasis on Congress propaganda in England.
  • A British Committee of the Indian National Congress was set up in London which published a weekly journal India to present India’s case before the British public.
  • Dadabhai Naoroji was to present it. He spent his major part in England where he got elected in the British House Commons and formed a powerful Indian lobby in the House of Commons.
  • Dadabhai Naoroji said: “Nothing is more dear to the heart of England-and I speak from actual knowledge-than India’s welfare; and, if we only speak out loud enough and persistently enough, to reach that busy heart, we shall not speak in vain.”
  • With a view to educating the English people about the real needs of India, in 1890 a decision was taken to hold a session of the Indian National Congress in London in 1892, but owing to the British elections of 1891 the proposal was postponed and afterwards never revived.

Programs/ Demands and Limited Successes:

• During the period, the Congress demanded a few concessions and not freedom for the nation.
  • Presiding over the Poona Congress in 1895, Surendranath Banerjee declared that the Congress had never asked for “representative institutions for the masses but “representative institutions of a modified character for the educated community, who by reason of their culture and enlightenment, their assimilation of English ideas and their familiarity with English methods of Government might be presumed to be qualified for such a boon.”
• Their demands were always worded in prayerful and apologetic language and the Congress was wedded to the use of constitutional methods.

(a) Constitutional field

• Their constitutional demands included:
  • Expansion of councils—i.e., greater participation of Indians in councils,
  • Reform of councils—i.e., more powers to councils, especially greater control over finances.
  • expansion of Legislative Councils with enlarged powers and more representation of Indians in them;
    • They wanted to broaden Indian participation in legislatures through an expansion of the central and provincial legislatures by introducing 50 per cent elected representation from local bodies, chambers of commerce, universities etc.
  • representation of Indians in the Secretary of State’s Council, Viceroy’s Executive Council and Governors’ Executive Councils;
    • They wanted two Indian members in the Viceroy’s Executive Council and one such member in each of the executive councils of Bombay and Madras.
  • new councils for North-Western Provinces and Punjab
  • to abolish the Indian Council which prevented the secretary of state from initiating liberal policies in India.
  • The budget should be referred to the legislature, which should have the right to discuss and vote on it and also the right of interpellation.
  • right to appeal to the Standing Committee of the House of Commons against the Government of India.
• Thus their immediate demand was not for full self-government or democracy; they demanded democratic rights only for the educated members of the Indian society, who would substitute for the masses.
• The expectation of the moderate politicians was that full political freedom would come gradually and India would be ultimately given the limited self-governing right like those enjoyed by the other colonies as Canada or Australia within the imperial framework.
• With an intrinsic faith in the providential nature of British rule in India, they hoped that one day they would be recognized as partners and not sub-ordinates in the affairs in the affairs of the empire and be given the rights of full British citizenship.
• What they receive in return, however, was Lord Cross’s Act or the Indian Council’s Amendment Act of 1892, which only provided for marginal expansion of the legislative councils both at the center and the provinces.
  • These councils were actually to be constituted through selection rather than election: the local bodies would send their nominees from among whom the viceroy at the centre and the governors at the provinces would select the members of the legislative councils.
  • The budget was to be discussed in the legislatures, but not to be voted on. The opposition could not bring in any resolution, nor demand a vote on any resolution proposed by the government.
  • The Government of India was given the power to legislate without even referring to the legislatures, whose functions would be at best recommendatory and not mandatory.
  • Very few of the constitutional demands of the moderates, it seems, were fulfilled by this act.
• Some Moderates like Ranade and Gokhale favoured social reforms. They protested against child marriage and widowhood.
• Constitutional Reforms and Propaganda in Legislature:
  • Legislative councils in India had no real official power till 1920. Yet, work done in them by the nationalists helped the growth of the national movement.
    • The Imperial Legislative Council constituted by the Indian Councils Act (1861) was an impotent body designed to disguise official measures as having been passed by a representative body.
  • Indian members were few in number—thirty years from 1862 to 1892 only forty-five Indians were nominated to it, most of them “being wealthy, landed and with loyalist interests.
    • Only a handful of political figures and independent intellectuals such as Syed Ahmed Khan, Kristodas Pal, V.N. Mandlik, K.L. Nulkar and Rashbehari Ghosh were nominated.
  • The early nationalists worked with the long-term objective of a democratic self-government. Their demands for constitutional reforms were conceded in 1892 in the form of the Indian Councils Act.
  • These reforms were severely criticised at Congress sessions. Now, they demanded
    • a majority of elected Indians, and
    • control over the budget i.e., the power to vote upon and amend the budget.
  • They gave the slogan— “No taxation without representation”.
  • Gradually, the scope of constitutional demands was widened and Dadabhai Naoroji (1904), Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1905) and Lokmanya Tilak (1906) demanded self-government like the self-governing colonies of Canada and Australia. Also, leaders like Pherozshah Mehta and Gokhale put government policies and proposals to severe criticism.
  • The British had intended to use the councils to incorporate the more vocal among Indian leaders, so as to allow them to let off their “political steam”, while the impotent councils could afford to remain deaf to their criticism.
    • But the nationalists were able to transform these councils into forums for ventilating popular grievances, for exposing the defects of an indifferent bureaucracy, for criticising government policies/proposals, raising basic economic issues, especially regarding public finance.

(b) Administrative system

• The first demand of the moderates was for the Indianisation of the services.
  • Moderates argued that an Indianised civil service would be more responsive to the Indian needs.
  • It would stop the drainage of money, which was annually expatriated through the payment of salary and pension of the European officers.
  • More significantly, this reform was being advocated as a measure against racism.
• They demanded actually were simultaneous civil service examination both in India and London and raising of the age limit for appearing in such examinations from nineteen to twenty-three.
  • But Charles Wood, the president of the Board of Control, opposed it on the ground that there was no institution in India, which could train the boys for the examination.
  • The Public Service Commission, appointed under Charles Aitchison, recommended the raising of the maximum age, but not simultaneous examination.
  • In 1892-93, under the initiative of William Gladstone, the House of Commons passed a resolution for simultaneous examination, though the secretary of state was still opposed to it.
  • But at the same time, the maximum age for examination was further lowered to the disadvantage of the Indians.
• Criticism of an oppressive and tyrannical bureaucracy and an expensive and time-consuming judicial system.
• They demanded Separation of judiciary from executive functions in District administration;
• The other administrative demands of the moderates:
  • • the extension of trial by jury,
    • repeal of the arms act,
    • complaint against over-assessment of land revenue and demand for the extension of the Permanent Settlement,
    • demand for the abolition of salt tax,
    • a campaign against the exploitation of the indentured labour at the Assam tea gardens,
    • Increase in expenditure on welfare (i.e., health, sanitation), education—especially elementary and technical— irrigation works and improvement of agriculture, agricultural banks for cultivators, etc.
    • better treatment for Indian labour abroad in other British colonies, who faced oppression and racial discrimination there.
  • All these demands represented a plea for racial equality and a concern for civil rights and also perhaps reflected a concern for the lower orders, though of a very limited nature.
  • But it is needless to mention that none of the demands were even considered by the colonial administration.

(c) Military

• The British Indian army was being used in imperial wars in all parts of the world, particularly in Africa and Asia. These and the Indian frontier wars of the 1890s put a very heavy burden on the Indian finances.
• Moderates demanded reduction of military expenditure and more expenditure on development of education.
• The moderates demanded that this military expenditure should evenly shared by the British government; Indians should be taken into the army as volunteers and more and more of them should be appointed in higher ranks.
• All of these demands were however rejected.
  • Commander-in-chief Roberts abhorred the idea of volunteer service, as he feared that the Maratha and Bengali volunteers, disaffected and untrustworthy as they were because of their association with nationalism, would surely find their way into the army and subvert its integrity.
  • Similarly, the demand for appointing Indians in commissioned ranks was rejected, as no European officer would cherish the thought of being ordered by an Indian commander.
  • The British government agreed to share only a small fraction of the military expenditure, less than £1 million in all. The higher exchange rates reduced the amount even further, and so the burden on the Indian finances remained the same.
• Criticism of an aggressive foreign policy which resulted in annexation of Burma, attack on Afghanistan and suppression of tribals in the North-West.

(d) Economic Critique of Imperialism

• The most significant historical contribution of the moderates was that they offered an economic critique of colonialism.
  • This economic nationalism, as it is often referred to, became a major theme that developed further during the subsequent period of nationalist movement and to a large extent influenced the economic policies of the Congress government in independent India.
• The early nationalists took note of all the three forms of contemporary colonial economic exploitation, namely, through trade, industry and finance.
  • They clearly grasped that the essence of British economic imperialism lay in the subordination of the Indian economy to the British economy.
• Names important to remember in this respect: Dinshaw Wacha, Dadabhai Naoroji, a successful businessman, Justice M.G. Ranade (wrote ‘Essays  in Indian Economics’ (1898) and R.C Dutt, a retired ICS officer, who published The Economic History of India in two volumes (1901-1903).
• The early nationalists complained of India’s growing poverty and economic backwardness and the failure of modern industry and agriculture to grow and they put the blame on British economic exploitation. Dadabhai Naoroji declared that the British rule was “an everlasting, increasing, and every day increasing foreign invasion”.
• The main thrust of this economic nationalism was on Indian poverty created by the application of the classical economic theory of free trade their main argument was that British colonialism had transformed itself in the 19^th century by jettisoning the older and direct modes of extraction through plunder, tribute and mercantilism in favour of more sophisticated and less visible methods of exploitation through free trade and foreign capital investment.
  • This turned India into a supplier of agricultural raw materials and foodstuffs and a consumer of manufactured goods.
  • India was thus reduced to the status of a dependent agrarian economy and a field of British capital investments.
• Dadabhai Naoroji in his famous book Poverty and Indian Poverty and UnBritish Rule in India wrote his Drain Theory.
  • He showed how India’s wealth was going away to England in the form of salaries, savings, pensions, payments to British troops in India and, profits of the British companies.
  • In fact, the British Government was forced to appoint the Welby Commission, with Dadabhai as the first Indian as its member, to enquire into the matter.
• In Naoroji’s calculation this drain of wealth from India to Britain amounted to about £ 12 million per year, while William Digby calculated it to be £ 30 million.
  • To quote Dadabhai Naoroji “materially British rule caused only impoverishment; it was like ‘the knife of sugar’. That is to say there is no oppression; it is all too smooth and sweet, but it is the knife notwithstanding.
• What the moderates wanted was a change in economic policies. Their recommendations included
  • reduction of expenditure and taxes,
  • reallocation of military charges,
  • a protectionist policy to protect Indian industries,
  • abolition of salt tax,
  • reduction of land revenue of land revenue assessment,
  • extension of Permanent Settlement to Ryotwari and Mahalwari areas, (this was pro Zamindar demand),
  • reduction in military expenditure,
  • encouragement of cottage industries and handicrafts, and
  • encouragement to modern industry through tariff protection and direct government aid.
• But none of these demands were fulfilled.
  • Income tax, abolished in the 1870s, was reimposed in 1886;
  • the salt tax was raised from Rs. 2 to Rs. 2.5;
  • a customs duty was imposed, but it was matched by a countervailing excise duty on Indian cotton yarn in 1894, which was reduced to 3.5 per cent in 1896.
  • The Fowler Commission artificially fixed the exchange rate of rupee at a high rate of 1 shilling and 4 pence.
  • There was no fundamental change in the agricultural sector either, as colonial experts like Alfred Lyall believed that Indian agriculture had already passed through its stationary stage and had entered the modem stage of growth and hence there were more signs of progress than recession.
  • The moderate economic agenda, like its constitutional or administrative agenda, thus remained largely unrealised.
• This economic theory of linking Indian poverty to colonialism rule, and also perhaps by implication challenging the whole concept of paternalistic imperialism or British benevolence.
  • In this way, the moderate politicians generated anger against British rule, though because of their own weaknesses, they themselves could not convert it into an effective agitation for its overthrow.

(e) Defence of Civil Right:

• The early Indian nationalists were attracted to modern civil rights, namely, the freedoms of speech, the Press, thought and association. They put up a strong defence of these civil rights whenever the Government tried to curtail them.
• The struggle for democratic freedoms became an integral part of the nationalist struggle for freedom. The Government arrested B.G. Tilak and several other leaders in 1897 for spreading disaffection against the Government. The Natu brothers were deported without trial. The entire country protested against this attack on the liberties of the people.
• They demanded improvement of the lot of Indians in South Africa and the Empire generally etc.