Nationalism in India - Answer Key (Worksheet 1)
Nationalism in India - Answer Key (Worksheet 1)
1. The Rowlatt Act was imposed as it gave the government enormous powers arrest any
person and put him in jail for 2 years without trial.
2. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
3. Inland Emigration Act of 1859
4. 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.
5. In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi went to Ahmedabad to organise a Satyagraha movement
amongst cotton mill workers.
6. The Khalifa.
7. At the Calcutta session of the Congress in September 1920, Gandhiji convinced other
leaders of the need to start a non-cooperation movement in support of Khilafat as well
as for Swaraj.
8. The refusal to deal and associate with people, or participate in activities, or buy and
use things; usually a form of protest.
9. Begar – Labour that villagers were forced to contribute without any payment.
10. Simon Commission was set up under Sir John Simon.
1. Khilafat movement was started by Mahatma Gandhi and the Ali Brothers,
Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali in response to the rumours that a harsh treaty is
going to be imposed on the Ottoman emperor – the spiritual head of the Islamic world
(the Khalifa).
2. Mahatma Gandhi declared that British rule was established in India with the
cooperation of 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.
3. 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.
4. Khadi cloth was often more expensive than massproduced mill cloth and poor people
could not afford to buy it. Secondly alternative Indian institutions had to be set up so
that they could be used in place of the British ones.
5. Mahatma Gandhi called off the Non-cooperation Movement, as the movement had
turned violent in many places. The Chauri Chaura incident in 1922 turned into a
violent dash and 22 policemen were killed. Gandhiji felt Satyagrahis needed to be
properly trained before the mass struggles.
6. In Abanindranath Tagore painting Bharat Mata is portrayed as an ascetic figure; she is
calm, composed, divine and spiritual. Devotion to this mother figure came to be seen
as evidence of one’s nationalism.
7. The Nationalists believed that the folk tradition of India gave a true pictureof
traditional culture that had been corrupted and damaged byoutside forces. It was
essential to preserve this folk tradition inorder to discover one’s national identity and
restore a sense of pridein one’s past.
8. 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 people’s real thoughts and characteristics’.
9. 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.
10. The British saw Indians as backward and primitive, incapable of governing
themselves. In response, Indians began looking into the past to discover India’s 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 India’s great achievements in the past and struggle to change
the miserable conditions of life under British rule.
IV. Answer the following questions in four to five sentences each:- (3x 5=15)
1. The Poona Pact was an agreement signed on 24th September 1932 between Gandhiji
and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar on behalf of the depressed classes and upper-caste Hindu
leaders on the reservation of electoral seats for the depressed classes in the legislature
of the British India government.
The main features of the Poona Pact were:
a. It gave the Depressed Classes (later to be known as the Schedule Castes)
reserved seats in provincial and central legislative councils.
c. The act came into force due to Gandhiji's fast unto death, and Ambedkar
ultimately accepting Gandhiji's stand.
2. Non-cooperation movement gradually slowed down in the cities 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.
• 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.
• The institutions were slow to come up. So teachers and students began
trickling back to the government schools and even lawyers joined back work
in government courts.
3. In February 1922, Gandhiji decided to launch a no tax movement. The police opened
fire at the people who were taking part in a demonstration, without any provocation.
The people turned violent in their anger and attacked the police station and set fire to
it. The incident took place at Chauri Chaura in Uttar Pradesh. When the news reached
Gandhiji, he decided to call off the Non-cooperation movement as he felt that it was
turning violent and that the Satyagrahis were not properly trained for mass struggle.
4. a) Women participated in protest marches, manufactured salt and picketed foreign
cloth and liquor shops.
b) Many women went to jail.
c) Women who participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement, came from high-
caste families in urban areas and rich peasant households in rural areas.
5. The economic sphere was affected by the Non-cooperation Movement in the
following ways:-
a. Foreign goods were boycotted, liquor shops were picketed and foreign cloth was
burnt. The import of foreign cloth halved between 1921 and 1922. Its value
dropped from ₹ 102 crore to ₹ 57 crore.
b. Many merchants and traders refused to trade in foreign goods or finance foreign
trade.
c. People began discarding imported clothes and wearing Indian ones.
d. The production of Indian textile mills and handlooms went up. Use of Khadi was
popularized.
IV. Answer the following questions in four to five sentences each: (5x 5=25)
b. According to Gandhiji, Satyagraha is not physical force. But it is a pure soul force.
The truth is the very substance of soul and the soul is informed with knowledge.
c. According to Gandhiji, Satyagraha is not the weapon of the weak, instead it can only
be used by the strongest of the strong as it totally depends upon mental strength but not
on physical strength.
e. Non-violence is the supreme dharma which could unite all Indians. Without seeking
vengeance or being aggressive, a Satyagrahi can win the battle.