UGC NET History Unit 9 Complete Overview Notes: Rise of Indian Nationalism

Unit 9 of 10 · Modern India. This unit runs from the social roots of nationalism, through the freedom struggle and Partition, to the first decades of independent India. Questions test chronology and leaders, acts, pacts and plans, the historians’ schools and the choices of the new state.

• How to use these notes: learn the struggle as a timeline of movements and pacts, then the schools of interpretation, then the post-1947 choices; try the practice questions before the explanations.
• Official topics covered: all 11, in the official order.

What this page is: complete overview notes for every official topic: the key facts, the historians’ debates and how UGC asks it, short enough to revise a whole unit in one sitting. For the fuller explanation behind each topic, use the full Modern India notes.

1. Social & economic basis of nationalism

The idea. Nationalism grew from the contradiction between Indian interests and colonial rule, carried by a new educated class.

• Foundations. English education and a professional middle class; the press and railways; the economic critique of the drain; the reform movements; and racial slights such as the Ilbert Bill controversy (1883).
• Early bodies. The Indian Association (1876), the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, and the Bombay and Madras associations, before the Congress.
• Historians. A.R. Desai gave a Marxist account; Bipan Chandra stressed the anti-colonial contradiction; the Cambridge School (Anil Seal) saw competition among elites for patronage.

How UGC asks it. Which factors produced nationalism, and the Marxist, Cambridge and anti-colonial readings. Trap: the Cambridge School treats nationalism as elite competition, which many other historians reject.

2. INC birth & ideology 1885–1920: early nationalists, assertive nationalists, revolutionaries

The idea. The Congress began as a moderate body, was pushed by assertive leaders, and ran alongside a revolutionary current.

• Foundation. Held at Bombay in December 1885 with A.O. Hume’s help and W.C. Bonnerjee as president. The “safety-valve” explanation is much criticised: Bipan Chandra shows it was Indian leaders’ purpose.
• Moderates (Naoroji, Gokhale, Ranade, Surendranath Banerjee): constitutional methods, petitions, economic critique. Assertive nationalists (Tilak, Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal, Aurobindo): self-reliance and boycott. The Surat split (1907) divided them.
• Revolutionaries. Bengal (Anushilan Samiti, Jugantar), Maharashtra (the Chapekar brothers, Savarkar), the Ghadar Party abroad (1913), later the HSRA (Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad).
• Reunion. The Lucknow Pact (1916) joined the Congress and the Muslim League, with the Congress accepting separate electorates; the Home Rule Leagues (Tilak and Besant) began in 1916.

How UGC asks it. Leader to group; the terms of the Lucknow Pact. Trap: the Lucknow Pact was short-lived cooperation, not lasting unity.

3. Swadeshi & Swaraj

The idea. The partition of Bengal produced the first mass movement of boycott and self-reliance.

• Partition and response. Curzon’s partition took effect in October 1905; the Swadeshi and boycott movement and national education followed. The Congress of 1906 (Naoroji) named swaraj as its goal.
• Outcomes. The Surat split (1907), repression, the Morley-Minto reforms (1909), the Muslim League (1906), and the annulment of the partition in 1911.
• Swaraj. Tilak’s “Swaraj is my birthright”; Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj (1909).

How UGC asks it. The partition of Bengal (1905) and its annulment (1911); the Surat split (1907). Trap: the Muslim League was founded in 1906, after the partition.

4. Gandhian mass movements; Subhas Bose & INA; middle-class & women’s role

The idea. Gandhi turned the movement into a mass struggle through satyagraha, while another strand, led by Bose, sought armed help from abroad.

• Subhas Bose and the INA. Bose formed the Forward Bloc (1939), escaped in 1941, and led the Indian National Army and the Azad Hind government (1943), with the Rani of Jhansi regiment; the INA trials of 1945–46 stirred opinion.
• Women and the middle class. Women joined the salt satyagraha and Quit India (Sarojini Naidu, Aruna Asaf Ali, Kasturba Gandhi); lawyers, teachers and students formed the movement’s middle-class core.
• Khilafat. Some historians see Gandhi’s support as a strategy to build Hindu-Muslim unity; others criticise the alliance for mixing religion and politics. Both perspectives coexist.

How UGC asks it. Movement to date and trigger. Trap: Non-Cooperation ended with Chauri Chaura (1922), not with the Rowlatt agitation.

5. Left-wing politics; depressed class movement; communal politics; Muslim League

The idea. Alongside the Congress, socialist, anti-caste and communal currents grew.

• Left. The Communist Party of India (1920s), the Meerut Conspiracy Case (1929), the Congress Socialist Party (1934) and the All India Kisan Sabha (1936).
• Depressed classes. Ambedkar’s Mahad satyagraha (1927), his demand for separate electorates, the Poona Pact (1932) with reserved seats; Periyar’s Self-Respect movement; the Vaikom satyagraha.
• Communal politics. The Muslim League (1906), the Hindu Mahasabha (1915), the RSS (1925); Jinnah’s Fourteen Points (1929); the Congress ministries of 1937. Ayesha Jalal argues that Jinnah used the Pakistan demand as a bargaining position; Bipan Chandra treats communalism as a modern ideology and not a medieval survival.

How UGC asks it. Match body to year (CPI, Kisan Sabha, the Poona Pact) and compare Jalal’s and Bipan Chandra’s readings of communalism. Trap: the Poona Pact (1932) replaced separate electorates for the depressed classes with reserved seats.

6. Towards independence & partition

The idea. From 1940 the British tried a series of plans, and talks failed to prevent partition.

• Chronology. The Lahore Resolution (1940) of the Muslim League, which formally articulated the demand for autonomous Muslim-majority states (later read as the demand for Pakistan); the Cripps Mission (1942); the Wavell Plan and Simla Conference (1945); the elections of 1945–46; the Cabinet Mission (1946); Direct Action Day (16 August 1946); the Interim Government; the Mountbatten Plan (3 June 1947); the Indian Independence Act (18 July 1947).
• Partition. The Radcliffe boundaries; migration of millions and heavy loss of life in August 1947 and after.
• Interpretations. British divide and rule, communal politics, Jinnah’s strategy, and the failure of Congress-League talks are all argued.

How UGC asks it. Arrange plans in order. Trap: the Wavell Plan (1945) came before Direct Action Day (1946) and the Mountbatten Plan (1947).

7. Post-independence: integration of princely states — Kashmir, Hyderabad, Junagarh

The idea. About 565 princely states were brought into India by negotiation, pressure and, in two cases, force.

• Method. Sardar Patel and V.P. Menon used the Instrument of Accession; most states acceded by 15 August 1947.
• Junagadh. Its Nawab acceded to Pakistan; a plebiscite (1948) favoured India.
• Hyderabad. The Nizam hesitated; after the Standstill Agreement and the Razakar violence, Operation Polo (September 1948) ended his rule.
• Kashmir. After the tribal raid, Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession (26 October 1947); the matter went to the UN (1948), and Article 370 gave special status.
• Others. Pondicherry (1954), Goa (1961).

How UGC asks it. Match state to the method that integrated it (Junagadh: plebiscite; Hyderabad: Operation Polo; Kashmir: accession). Trap: Article 370 applied to Kashmir only.

8. Ambedkar & the Constitution; bureaucracy; new education policy

The idea. The Constitution made India a parliamentary democracy with a federal structure and strong centre.

• Making. The Constituent Assembly met in December 1946 (President Rajendra Prasad); the Objectives Resolution; Ambedkar chaired the Drafting Committee; adopted on 26 November 1949, in force on 26 January 1950.
• Ambedkar’s role. Shaping the text and ensuring protections for the depressed classes, including the abolition of untouchability (Article 17).
• Bureaucracy. The IAS and IPS as all-India services, continuing the ICS “steel frame” idea, and the UPSC.
• Education. The Radhakrishnan (1948–49), Mudaliar (1952–53) and Kothari (1964–66) commissions; the National Policy on Education (1968, 1986); the UGC (1956).

How UGC asks it. Dates (1946, 1949, 1950), the Drafting Committee and Article 17. Trap: the Constitution was adopted in 1949 but came into force in 1950.

9. Economic policies & planning; development, displacement, tribal issues

The idea. India chose a mixed economy with state-led planning, which brought growth and new conflicts.

• Planning. The Planning Commission (1950); the First Plan on agriculture and irrigation, the Second (Mahalanobis) on heavy industry; the Industrial Policy Resolutions of 1948 and 1956.
• Agriculture. Land reforms and zamindari abolition; Bhoodan; the Green Revolution of the 1960s; Operation Flood.
• Displacement and tribal issues. Large dams and mines displaced tribal people; responses include the Fifth and Sixth Schedules, the Forest Rights Act (2006), and movements such as Chipko and the Narmada Bachao Andolan.

How UGC asks it. Match plan to emphasis (the Second Plan: heavy industry), the Green Revolution and displacement. Trap: the Second Plan (Mahalanobis) stressed heavy industry, not agriculture.

10. Linguistic reorganisation of states; Centre-State relations

The idea. Demands for states on linguistic lines tested the federal structure.

• Reorganisation. Potti Sriramulu’s fast and death (1952) led to Andhra (1953); the States Reorganisation Commission (Fazl Ali) reported in 1955 and the Act of 1956 redrew the map; Bombay was split (1960), Punjab (1966) and later states were formed.
• Centre-State. The three lists (Union, State, Concurrent), Article 356 (President’s rule), the Finance Commission, and reviews by the Rajamannar committee and the Sarkaria Commission.

How UGC asks it. Order the reorganisation events (Sriramulu 1952, the SRC 1955, the Act of 1956). Trap: Andhra (1953) was formed before the general reorganisation of 1956.

11. Foreign policy: Panchsheel; Emergency; liberalisation & globalisation

The idea. India pursued non-alignment abroad; at home the Emergency and the 1991 reforms mark turning points.

• Foreign policy. Non-alignment; Panchsheel (1954 agreement with China); Bandung (1955); the 1962 war; the 1971 war and the Shimla Agreement (1972).
• Emergency (1975–77). Declared on 25 June 1975 after the Allahabad High Court verdict and the JP movement; press censorship and the 42nd Amendment; the Janata victory of 1977.
• Liberalisation. The reforms of 1991 (Narasimha Rao, Manmohan Singh) ended the licence raj and opened the economy to foreign investment and trade.

How UGC asks it. Match item to year (Panchsheel 1954, Emergency 1975–77, reforms 1991). Trap: the Emergency was declared under Article 352 on 25 June 1975.

Revision checklist

• I can describe the Moderates, the assertive nationalists and the revolutionaries.
• I can list the major Gandhian movements with dates and triggers.
• I can order the plans and events from 1940 to 1947.
• I can explain how Junagadh, Hyderabad and Kashmir joined India.
• I can state the Constitution’s making, the planning model and the 1956 reorganisation.

Next: the official Unit 9 topics · free unit test · Unit 10 complete overview notes.