Lal- Bal- Pal
Lal- Bal- Pal refer to three great leaders of Indian freedom struggle Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Bipin Chandra Pal were a triumvirate of assertive nationalists. They believed in a more direct and aggressive movement against the British rule for realizing the goal of Purna Swaraj (complete independence or self rule). They inspired and mobilized a large number of Indians, especially the youth during 1906- 1918 period for participation in the freedom struggle. They advocated the Swadeshi movement involving the boycott of all imported items and the use of Indian-made goods in 1907 during the anti-Partition agitation in Bengal which began in 1905. Radicalism emerged among Indian intellectuals in Indian freedom struggle in the final years of the nineteenth century. This position burst onto the national all-India scene in 1905 with the Swadeshi movement – the term is usually rendered as “self reliance” or “self sufficiency”.
The triumvirate of assertive nationalists mobilized Indians across the country against the Bengal partition, and the demonstrations, strikes, and boycotts of British goods that began in Bengal soon spread to other regions in a broader protest against the Raj. The militant nationalist movement lost its momentum with the arrest of its main leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak and retirement of Bipin Chandra Pal and Aurobindo Ghosh from active politics.
The British colonial authorities called B. G. Tilak “The father of the Indian unrest.” He was also conferred with the title of “Lokmanya”, which means “accepted by the people [as their leader]”. Mahatma Gandhi called him “The Maker of Modern India”. He is known for his quote in Marathi: “Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it!.” He formed a close alliance with many Indian National Congress leaders including Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai, Aurobindo Ghose, V. O. Chidambaram Pillai and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Tilak died in August 1920.
Lala Lajpat Rai played a pivotal role in the Indian Independence movement. He was popularly known as Punjab Kesari. He was also associated with activities of Punjab National Bank and Lakshmi Insurance Company in their early stages in 1894. He died a few weeks after sustaining severe injuries during a baton charge by police when he led a peaceful protest march against the all-British Simon Commission, a commission constituted by the United Kingdom for Indian constitutional reform.
Bipin Chandra Pal was one of the main architects of the Swadeshi movement along with Sri Aurobindo. He also opposed the partition of Bengal by the British colonial government.
Pal is known as the Father of Revolutionary Thoughts in India of India. Pal became a major leader of the Indian National Congress. At the Madras session of Indian National Congress held in 1887, Bipin Chandra Pal made a strong plea for repeal of the Arms Act which was discriminatory in nature. Along with Lala Lajpat Rai and Bal Gangadhar Tilak he belonged to the Lal-Bal-Pal trio that was associated with revolutionary activity. Sri Aurobindo Ghosh and Pal were recognised as the chief exponents of a new national movement revolving around the ideals of Purna Swaraj, Swadeshi, boycott and national education. His programme consisted of Swadeshi, boycott and national education.
The Cripps’ Mission
In March 1942, the British government sent a delegation to India under Stafford Cripps, the Leader of the House of Commons. This mission known as the Cripps mission arrived at a time when the Indian leaders and troops were reluctant to support British war efforts during the second world war. The purpose of the mission was to negotiate with the Indian National Congress a deal to obtain total co-operation during the war, in return for devolution and distribution of power from the crown and the Viceroy to an elected Indian legislature. The talks failed, as they did not address the key demand of a timetable of self-government and of the powers to be relinquished, essentially making an offer of limited dominion-status that was unacceptable to the Indian movement.
The Quit India Movement
The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Movement, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8 August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British rule in India. After the failure of the Cripps Mission to secure Indian support for the British war effort, Gandhi made a call to Do or Die in his Quit India speech delivered in Bombay on 8 August 1942 at the Gowalia Tank Maidan. The All India Congress Committee launched a mass protest demanding what Gandhi called “An Orderly British Withdrawal” from India. Even though it was at war, the British were prepared to act. Almost the entire leadership of the Indian National Congress was imprisoned without trial within hours of Gandhi’s speech. Most spent the rest of the war in prison and out of contact with the masses.
The British were alarmed by the advance of the Japanese army to the India-Burma border. Meanwhile, Gandhi who announced mass protest against the British for self rule, was imprisoned along with all the members of the Congress’ Party’s Working Committee.. Due to the arrest of major leaders, a young and until then relatively unknown Aruna Asaf Ali presided over the AICC session on 9 August and hoisted the flag; later the Congress party was banned. These actions only created sympathy for the cause among the population. Despite lack of direct leadership, large protests and demonstrations were held all over the country. Workers remained absent in large groups and strikes were called. Not all demonstrations were peaceful, at some places bombs exploded, government buildings were set on fire, electricity was cut and transport and communication lines were severed.
Shimla Conference
The Shimla Conference of 1945 was a meeting between the Viceroy of India Lord Wavell and the major political leaders of British India at the Viceregal Lodge in Shimla. Convened to agree on and approve the Wavell Plan for Indian self-government, and there it reached a potential agreement for the self-rule of India that provided separate representation for Muslims and reduced majority powers for both communities in their majority regions. Talks, however, stalled on the issue of the selection of Muslim representatives. Seeking to assert itself and its claim to be the sole representative of Indian Muslims, the All-India Muslim League refused to back any plan in which the Indian National Congress, the dominant party in the talks, appointed Muslim representatives. This scuttled the conference, and perhaps the last viable opportunity for a united, independent India. When the Indian National Congress and the All India Muslim League reconvened under the Cabinet Mission the next year, the Indian National Congress was far less sympathetic to the Muslim League’s requests despite Jinnah’s approval of the British plan.
Wavell Pan
On 14 June 1945 Lord Wavell announced a plan for a new Executive Council in which all members except the Viceroy and the Commander in Chief would be Indians. This executive council was to be a temporary measure until a new permanent constitution could be agreed upon and come into force. All portfolios except Defense would be held by Indian members. The Wavell Plan, in essence, proposed the complete Indianisation of the Executive Council, but instead of asking all the parties to nominate members to the Executive Council from all the communities, seats were reserved for members on the basis of religion and caste, with the caste Hindus and Muslims being represented on it on the basis of parity. Even Mahatma Gandhi resented the use of the words “caste Hindus”. While the plan proposed immediate changes to the composition of the Executive Council it did not contain any guarantee of Indian independence, nor did it contain any mention of a future constituent assembly or any proposals for the division of power between the various parties of India.
Cabinet Mission
A Cabinet Mission came to India in 1946 in order to discuss the transfer of power from the British government to the Indian political leadership, with the aim of preserving India’s unity and granting its independence. Formed at the initiative of Clement Attlee (the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom), the mission contained as its members, Lord Pethick-Lawrence (Secretary of State for India), Sir Stafford Cripps (President of the Board of Trade), and A.V. Alexander (First Lord of the Admiralty). The Viceroy of India Lord Wavell participated in some of the discussion. The Cabinet Mission Plan, formulated by the group, proposed a three-tier administrative structure for British India, with the Federal Union at the top tier, individual provinces at the bottom tier, and Groups of provinces as a middle tier. Three Groups were proposed, called Groups A, B and C, respectively, for northwest India, eastern India, and the remaining central portions of India. The Plan lost steam due to the distrust between Indian National Congress and the Muslim League, and the British Government replaced Lord Wavell by a new viceroy Lord Mountbatten, to find new solutions.
Indian Independence Act and Mountbatten Plan
The 1947 Indian Independence Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom partitioned India into the two new independent dominions of India and Pakistan. The Act received Royal Assent on 18 July 1947 and thus India and Pakistan, comprising West (modern day Pakistan) and East (modern day Bangladesh) regions, came into being on 15th August. The legislature representatives of the Indian National Congress, the Muslim League, and the Sikh community came to an agreement with Lord Mountbatten on what has come to be known as the 3 June Plan or Mountbatten Plan. This plan was the last plan for independence.
Partition of India
According to India Independent Act and Mountbatten Plan, British divided India in two parts in 1947giving birth to two independent Dominions: India and Pakistan. The Dominion of India is today the Republic of India, which decided to make a secular state with a modern constitution; and the Dominion of Pakistan known as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The partition involved the division of two provinces, Bengal and Punjab, based on district-wide non-Muslim or Muslim majorities. The partition also saw the division of the British Indian Army, the Royal Indian Navy, the Royal Indian Air Force, the Indian Civil Service, the railways, and the central treasury. The partition was outlined in the Indian Independence Act 1947 and resulted in the dissolution of the British Raj, i.e. Crown rule in India. The two self-governing independent Dominions of India and Pakistan legally came into existence at midnight on 15 August 1947. The partition led to large scale riots and violence and displaced between 10 and 20 million people along religious lines, creating overwhelming refugee crises in the newly constituted dominions. The partition created an atmosphere of hostility and suspicion between India and Pakistan that affects their relationship to this day.
“Tryst with Destiny” Speech of the First Prime Mister of India
“Tryst with Destiny” was the speech delivered by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, to the Indian Constituent Assembly in the Parliament, on the eve of India’s Independence, towards midnight on 14 August 1947. The speech spoke on the aspects that transcended Indian history. It is considered to be one of the greatest speeches of the 20th century and to be a landmark oration that captures the essence of the triumphant culmination of the Indian independence movement against British colonial rule in India. An excerpt of the speech is as follows:
“Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance…
…The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but so long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over. And so we have to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world.”