Discuss the causes of the rise of Congress's extremism up to 1919

or

Account for the birth of extremism in the Indian National Movement in the first half of the
20th century

ог

What was the policy and program of the extremist group in Congress

Or

Discuss the Development of the Indian National Congress(INC) from 1905 to 1990.
(Extremists Era)

Introduction:-
The Indian National Congress was born in 1885. At that time, the liberal leaders of the
Congress wanted to get their demands accepted with the help of the British government.
Thus, till 1905, the control of the Indian National Congress remained in the hands of liberal
leaders who believed in the principles of liberalism.

But due to the repressive policy of the British government during the time of Lord Curzon,
differences arose among the members of the Congress, as a result of which a new group
emerged in the Congress which did not believe in any kind of cooperation and justice with
the British government in India. This group is known as the extremist or hardline party.

To quote R.C Majumdar,

"The real difference between the two parties lies primarily

in the political goal to be achieved and the method to be

adopted for achieving it."

The prominent leaders of this radical party of the Congress were Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal
Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandrapal. The main objective of these radical leaders was to
achieve Swaraj and independence.

Scholars like Tilak also used slogans as follows to describing for their independence.:-

“Swaraj is My birth right and I shall have it”.

In fact, the radical leaders of the Congress did not believe in British culture, British
civilization, British political institutions. They believed in Indian culture, culture and Indian
education.

Due to all these differences, the Congress was split in 1907. Apart from this, many other
reasons were also responsible for the birth of the radical party in the Congress, which are
described as follows.

Causes of the Rise of Extremism in the Congress

1. Dissatisfaction with the policy of Moderates:-

To meet the legislative demands of the Congress, the British government passed an act in
1892 AD which did not please the Congress leaders because Some radical leaders of the
Congress decided to adopt revolutionary methods to get their demands accepted. These
radical leaders of the Congress, among whom Tilak's name deserves special mention, had
the following to say.

"The Indians should start non violent and Swadeshi

movements for the fulfilment of their demands."

2. Revival of Hinduism:-
These leaders of the Congress's radical wing had great faith in the culture of Indian
civilization. The Bengal School of Militant Nationalism run by Bipin Chandrapal and
Aurobindo Ghosh was greatly influenced by Swami Vivekananda's Neo-Vedantic Movement.
Similarly, the Maharashtra School of New Nationalism run by Tilak made the greatness of
Indian culture known to the common people. Thus, radical leaders like Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai
and Aurobindo Ghosh told the Indians that Indian civilization and culture were much better
than British civilization and culture.

Banking Chandra Chatterjee's novel Anand Math proved to be the bible for the radical
leaders, with the help of which they created a sense of self-confidence among the Indians
and other Congress leaders. In this regard, Aurobindo Ghosh writes:

"Independence is the goal of life, and Hinduism

alone can fulfil this aspirations of ours."

3. Bad treatment with Indians in abroad:-
Indians were being treated very badly abroad. In South Africa, Indians were being exploited
in a disgusted way. They were called Black People and slaves and were deprived of public
facilities and did not get any kind of social rights. All this was because India was a slave
country. The Congress leaders understood very well that India could not be made free by
following the policies of the liberals.

4. Famine and Plague:-

"The opening years of the 20th century were stormy.

Political discontent had grown among the people due

to the inability of the government to organise effective

relief during the period of the Plague and famine."

In 1896-97, drought struck many parts of India, killing about 10 million Indians. In 1897,
plague broke out near Poona. In such a situation, the British government did not make any
statement, due to which a feeling of opposition to the British government arose among the
Indians. To suppress this feeling, the British government adopted a strict policy, which had
an impact on the Congress and the extremists Party was born in the Congress.

5. Policy of Economic Exploitation:-

The British government adopted some economic policies in India which aimed to exploit the
Indians economically. Due to these policies of the British, the industries of India were ruined
and the entire Indian economy deteriorated, for which the Indians held the British
government responsible. The members of the Congress also came to believe that they could
not protect their rights in the British Empire through rhetorical methods, which resulted in
the birth of the extremist sect in the Congress.

6. Dissatisfaction with the Act of 1892

In order to fulfil the legislative demands of the Congress, the British government passed an
act in 1892 AD which could not please the Congress leaders, hence some of the radical
leaders of the Congress decided to adopt revolutionary means to achieve their demands.
These radical leaders of the Congress, among whom the name of Tilak is particularly worth
mentioning, had this to say:

“The Indians should start non-violent and Swadeshi

movements for the full fulfilment of their demands.”

[Link] policy of Depression:-
The British government adopted a policy of suppressing the demands of the Congress.
During the time of Lord Lytton, the Vernacular Press Act was passed in 1878. In addition, by
passing the Arms Act and the University Act, the British government tried to strengthen its
position. Due to these actions of the government, the Indian public became angry and they
vowed to end the British administration in India. Such a situation gave encouragement to
hot-tempered individuals in the Congress.

8. Partition of Bengal
In 1905, Lord Curzon partitioned Bengal under the pretext of bringing efficiency to the state
administrative structure of Bengal, but the real reason was to provide a separate province
while protecting the interests of Muslims. Thus, the British government's move was severely
criticised not only by Indians but also by the Indian National Congress. This partition gave
rise to revolutionary sentiments among Indians, which was supported by many members of
the Indian National Congress.

In this regard, Surendra Nath Banerjee writes:

“At the partition of Bengal, we realised as it was a bullet

from the blue for us. We realised that We had been

disgraced, deceived or cheated.”

9. Influence of foreign events.

Several international events in the early 20th century also played a significant role in the rise
of the Extremist sect l in the Congress. In 1896, Abyssinia defeated Italy, and in 1905, Japan
defeated Russia. Apart from this, political events in Russia, France, Ireland, Egypt, Turkey and
China played a special role in instilling revolutionary ideas among Indians, which resulted in
the birth of the Extremist within the Congress.

[Link] se like Bal Pal and Lal of Congress and split in the Congress
The Indian National Congress included Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Vipin Chandrapal and

Leaders with a fierce temperament like Lala Lajpat Rai gave birth to the hardline party.
Among the above-mentioned events, the partition of Bengal created a feeling of hostility
towards each other in the Congress, due to which the Congress was divided into two parts.
Apart from this, at the same time, in the Congress presidential election, the hardline leaders
of the Congress wanted to appoint Tilak as the Chairman of the Congress, but due to the
majority of the liberals, they appointed Dadabhai Naoroji as the Chairman of the Congress.
At the same time, the Congress passed resolutions like Swaraj, Swadeshi Movement and
Boycott of Foreign Goods.
In 1907, when the Congress session was held in Surat and the division in the Congress was
visible and the reason for this division was the policies of both the sections of the Congress.
At this time, the liberal and extremist groups of the Congress started opposing each other's
policies, which resulted in the division of the Congress into sections and after this the
leaders of the extremist party had their own influence on the Indian national movement for
a long time.

Aims, Methods and Program of the Extremists:-

Aims of the Extremists:-

A..To achieve complete Independence:-

The first and most important objective of the radical leaders of the Congress was to achieve
complete or perfect independence or Swaraj. Bal Gangadhar Tilak used to openly say that:-

“Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it.”

[Link] of Relations between England and India:-

The important objective was to end the mutual relations between England and India. In this
regard, Vipin Chandrapal said

“We do not want to establish relations with the Britishers and

want our own government in India.”

In reality, the main objective of the Extremist leaders was to end foreign rule in India
Program of the Extremists

[Link] of Swaraj:-

5The main agenda of the radical leaders in the Congress was to achieve Swaraj. Even before
the formal split of the Congress, the radical leaders had achieved Swaraj in the Calcutta
Conference in 1906.

2. No faith in English institutions

The radical leaders of the Congress supported this idea and were distrustful of English
institutions in India. They believed that the purpose of the English institutions established in
India was not to benefit the Indians but rather to harm them and this harm would continue.

[Link] in Religious Nationalism:-

Most of the Congress leaders had deep faith in Hinduism. They believed that religion was a
part of nationalism and that nationalist sentiments could be propagated only with the
development of Hinduism in India. The leaders believed that the British had destroyed
Indian civilization and that the greatness of Indian civilization and culture could be restored
only with the establishment of Hinduism.

In the words of Aurobindo Ghosh

“ The independence is the destination of our life and

only the Hindu religion can fulfil our that desire.”

[Link] faith in Moderates Methods:-

The radical leaders of the Congress did not agree with the methods of the liberals. They
believed that constitutional methods alone were not satisfactory for achieving any objective.
Therefore, they said that the liberal leaders could never get their demands fulfilled by the
British government by following these methods.

In this regard, Lala Lajpat Rai writes:

“ After more than 20 years of more or less public agitations for

concessions and redress of grievances. we have received stones

instead of bread.”
4. Against Revolutionary Methods
It is clear that the Extremist leaders did not like the policies of the liberals. They knew that
they would not be able to get their demands through the methods of petitions and
proposals.

methods. In fact, the Extremist leaders were filled with the spirit of self-sacrifice.

In the worlds of Bal Gangadhar Tilak

“Our revolution should be bloodless but it does not mean

that we do not need to face problems and the difficulties

and to be imprisoned”

Methods:-
The Congress leaders have devised every possible way to achieve their objectives and
programs.

1. Methods of Passive Resistance:-

The Congress leaders knew that political power could not be obtained by demanding it, so
they adopted the policy of passive resistance of the Congress leader Aurobindo Ghosh
because they knew that every step taken by the British could never be in the interest of the
Indians.

Passive Resistance was undertaken in the following steps:-

[Link]:-
Government services, the foreign administration and the foreign goods should be boycotted
because the Extremist leaders were great supporters of Indian civilization and culture, that
is why they never liked foreign type of living standard in India even at many places the
foreign produced goods and clothes were also burnt.

Lala Lajpat Rai wrote about using the foreign made goods

“I regard it as the salvation of my country.”

2. Swadeshi:-
The second method of passive resistance of the extremists was Swadeshi, which means
creating a feeling among Indians to boycott foreign goods and use indigenous and domestic
goods. The extremist leaders believed that by doing so, the interests of the British Empire in
India would be harmed and Indians would benefit economically.
Similarly, radical leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak use boycott as a weapon and write about
its importance.

“We have no weapons and nor do we need the weapons.

The boycott is only our powerful political weapon.”

3. Self-dependence and Sacrifice:-

Apart from Passive Resistance, the Extremist leaders also adopted the policy of Self-
dependence and Sacrifice to get their demands accepted and to fulfils their objectives
because the extremist leaders believed that only through this policy can patriots do good
for their country. The leader s like Tilak believed that this policy would prove to be very
beneficial for the Indians in achieving Swaraj.

4. Stress on Indian education

The Extremist leaders resorted to the policy of home education to achieve their objectives.
The Extremist leaders conveyed their ideas to the people through magazines and
newspapers and awakened nationalist feelings in them because these leaders believed that
nationalist feelings could be awakened among Indians through the Indian education system
for the achievement of Swaraj.

5. Support for Indian culture:-

The Congress leader was a great supporter of Indian civilization, cultural history and Indian
traditions and customs. Through this, he informed Indians about the ancient Vedic
civilization, great emperors like Ashoka and Chandragupta, great warriors like Maharana
Pratap, Shivaji and the great leaders of the 1857 revolt and instilled a sense of self-
confidence in them.

[Link] pf argument and appeals:-

The radical leaders of the Congress awakened nationalist consciousness among the Indians
and declared that the method of argument and appeal was more useful for convincing our
demands and only through this we could implement our program in a practical way and
establish our influence on the British government.
7. Method of Constitutional Agitation:-
The Congress leaders argued in favour of the constitutional movement, saying that it was
not in the interest of any country to have its country ruled by foreigners in an absolute
manner. They argued that the Indian Constitution was the result of an Act of the British
Parliament which expressed the will of the British people. It was not the result of the will of
the Indian people. Therefore, the British Government of India was responsible for all its
actions not to the Indian people but to the British Parliament. Therefore, Indians had the
right to protect their interests through the constitutional movement.

Evaluation:-

The birth of extremism in the Indian national movement is considered an important event.
The birth of extremist leaders in the Congress, although it was a result of the wrong policies
of the British government, but extremism gave a new direction to the Indian national
movement through its contribution. These extremist leaders of the Congress, through their
programs and methods, awakened the spirit of unity and nationalism among the Indians and
it was completely successful in its objectives.