Subject : Modern Indian History
Chapter : The Rise of Neo-Nationalists or Extremists
Topic: Background to the rise of
Neo-Nationalism.
Question : Briefly discuss the background to the rise of
Neo-Nationalism?
Answer:
The rise and the popularity of the Neo-nationalists have
also, to be located against the rise of religious revivalism. One of the most
peculiar trajectory taken by any movement was perhaps that taken by the social
reform movements of the early nineteenth Century. These reform movements e.g.
Arya Samaj of Swami Dayanad and those that perpetuated to the Village level,
though started with the aim of countering colonial influences also fostered
religious orthodoxy and increasingly demarcated the communties. One such
movement was that of “Cow Protection” with the first Gaorakshini Sabha founded
by Swami Dayanand in 1882. Initially, protection of cow was primarily aimed at
the beef eating English and also to a degree at the muslims Part of their aim
was to petition government to stop cow slaughter. Cow protection societies soon
spranged up across UP, Bihar, etc. These efforts were furthered by the decree of
High Court of NWP in 1888 according to which, cow was not a religious object and
thus its slaughter could not be held as violation of the law.
The neo-nationalists had strong ties with India and they did
not consider everything western as the best. They were more critical of the
English. Their ideas and notions were more in connection with the problems of
the masses. They were more reactionary than the moderates. They also encouraged
the use of Swadeshi products for developing Indian industries. The Swadeshi
enterprise can be traced back to Gopalrao Deshmukh of Poona who advocated use of
indigenous products as early as 1849 and in Bengal it was encouraged through
Hindu Mela or National Mela founded by Nabagopal Mitra in 1867. Rabindranath
Tagare called for self-reliance / atmasakti through Swadeshi and national
education. Lala Lajpat Rai, an Arya Samajist advocated Swadeshi cult in the
Punjab.
But since the neo-nationalists glorified the ancient past,
they bypassed the medieval period which had Muslim power structure at the main
seat of power. So India came to be identified as being Hindu. For this reason
the neo-nationalists found very little support from the Muslims.
The main contribution of the neo-nationalists was in
mobilizing the masses, educating them to participate in the political struggle.
The categories of Moderate and Extremists emerged on the
basis of methods used. The purpose of both groups was same- not overthrow of the
British Rule but obtaining a larger share of power for the people in the
administration of the country. The extremists made the demand for Swaraj OR
Home-Rule OR Self-Government their main demand and not just administrative
reforms. The extremists wanted Indians to get a larger share in the
administration of the country and end of British exploitation.
