Rise of Nationalism in Europe

Multi-Dimensional Empires Nation States

1. Frederic Sorrieu’s Painting

• In 1848, Frederic Sorrieu made a Painting.
• Theme - democratic and social Republics’,
• Vision - Utopian vision
• Statue – Statue of Liberty
• Leading the procession, the United States and Switzerland and at the last Hungary and
Russia.
• From the heavens above, Christ, saints and angels gaze upon the scene. They have been
used by the artist to symbolise fraternity among the nations of the world.
The French Revolution and the Idea of the Nation
• The first clear expression of nationalism came with the French Revolution in 1789.
• From the very beginning, the French revolutionaries introduced various measures and
practices that could create a sense of collective identity amongst the French people.
• The ideas of La Patrie (the Fatherland) and Le Citoyen (the citizen) emphasised the notion of
a united community enjoying equal rights under a constitution. A new French flag, the
tricolour, was chosen to replace the former royal standard.
• The Estates General was elected by the body of active citizens and renamed the National
Assembly. New hymns were composed, oaths taken and martyrs commemorated, all in the
name of the nation.
• Regional dialects were discouraged and French, as it was spoken and written in Paris,
became the common language of the nation.
• With the outbreak of the revolutionary wars, the French armies began to carry the idea of
nationalism abroad.

Napoleon Civil Code – 1804

• The Civil Code of 1804 – usually known as the Napoleonic Code.
• Did away with all privileges based on birth, established equality before the law and
secured the right to property.
• This Code was exported to the regions under French control. In the Dutch Republic,
in Switzerland, in Italy and Germany.
• Napoleon simplified administrative divisions, abolished the feudal system and freed
peasants from serfdom and manorial dues.
• In the towns too, guild restrictions were removed. Transport and communication
systems were improved.
• Serfdom –
• Manorial Dues -

Drawbacks of Napoleon Civil Code –

• Initially, in many places such as Holland and Switzerland, as well as in certain cities like
Brussels, Mainz, Milan and Warsaw, the French armies were welcomed as harbingers of
liberty.
• The new administrative arrangements did not go hand in hand with political freedom.
• Increased taxation, censorship, forced conscription into the French armies required to
conquer the rest of Europe, all seemed to outweigh the advantages of the administrative
changes.

The Making of Nationalism in Europe

 • Eastern and Central Europe were under autocratic monarchies within the territories of
which lived diverse peoples.
• They did not see themselves as sharing a collective identity or a common culture.

The Habsburg Empire that ruled over Austria-Hungary, for example, was a patchwork of many
different regions and peoples.

• It included the Alpine regions – the Tyrol, Austria and the Sudetenland – as well as
Bohemia, where the aristocracy was predominantly German-speaking.
• It also included the Italian-speaking provinces of Lombardy and Venetia.
• In Hungary, half of the population spoke Magyar while the other half spoke a variety of
dialects.
• In Galicia, the aristocracy spoke Polish.
• Bohemians and Slovaks to the north, Slovenes in Carniola, Croats to the south, and
Romans to the east in Transylvania. Such differences did not easily promote a sense of
political unity.

The Aristocracy and the New Middle Class

• Socially and politically, a landed aristocracy was the dominant class on the continent.
• They owned estates in the countryside and also town-houses.
• They spoke French for purposes of diplomacy and in high society. Their families were often
connected by ties of marriage.
• This powerful aristocracy was, however, numerically a small group.
• The majority of the population was made up of the peasantry.
• To the west, the bulk of the land was farmed by tenants and small owners, while in Eastern
and Central Europe the pattern of landholding was characterised by vast estates which were
cultivated by serfs.
• In Western and parts of Central Europe the growth of industrial production and trade meant
the growth of towns and the emergence of commercial classes whose existence was based
on production for the market.
• Industrialisation began in England in the second half of the eighteenth century, but in France
and parts of the German states it occurred only during the nineteenth century.
• In its wake, new social groups came into being: a working-class population, and middle
classes made up of industrialists, businessmen, professionals.
• In Central and Eastern Europe these groups were smaller in number till late nineteenth
century. It was among the educated, liberal middle classes that ideas of national unity
following the abolition of aristocratic privileges gained popularity.

Liberal Nationalism –
• The term ‘liberalism’ derives from the Latin root liber, meaning free.
 • For the new middle classes liberalism stood for freedom for the individual and equality of all
before the law.
• Politically, it emphasised the concept of government by consent.
• Since the French Revolution, liberalism had stood for the end of autocracy and clerical
privileges, a constitution and representative government through parliament.
• Nineteenth-century liberals also stressed the inviolability of private property.

Drawbacks of Liberals –
• Equality before the law did not necessarily stand for universal suffrage.
• The right to vote and to get elected was granted exclusively to property-owning men. Men
without property and all women were excluded from political rights.

Liberalism in Economic Sphere –

• In the economic sphere, liberalism stood for the freedom of markets and the abolition of
state-imposed restrictions on the movement of goods and capital.

For example - the German-speaking regions in the first half of the nineteenth century.

• Napoleon’s administrative measures had created out of countless small principalities a

confederation of 39 states.
• Each of these possessed its own currency, and weights and measures.
• A merchant travelling in 1833 from Hamburg to Nuremberg to sell his goods would have had
to pass through 11 customs barriers and pay a customs duty of about 5 per cent at each one
of them.
• Duties were often levied according to the weight or measurement of the goods. As each
region had its own system of weights and measures, this involved time-consuming
calculation.
• The measure of cloth, for example, was the Elle which in each region stood for a different
length. An Elle of textile material bought in Frankfurt would get you 54.7 cm of cloth, in
Mainz 55.1 cm, in Nuremberg 65.6 cm, in Freiburg 53.5 cm.

Custom Unions / Zollverein –

• In 1834, a customs union or Zollverein was formed at the initiative of Prussia and joined by
most of the German states.
• The union abolished tariff barriers and reduced the number of currencies from over thirty to
two.
• The creation of a network of railways further stimulated mobility, harnessing economic
interests to national unification.
New Conservatism after 1815 –
• After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, European governments were driven by a spirit of
conservatism.
• In 1815, representatives of the European powers – Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria – who
had collectively defeated Napoleon, met at Vienna to draw up a settlement for Europe.
• The Congress was hosted by the Austrian Chancellor Duke Metternich with Treaty of Vienna
of 1815.

Treaty of Vienna 1815 –

• The Bourbon dynasty, which had been deposed during the French Revolution, was restored
to power, and France lost the territories it had annexed under Napoleon.
• A series of states were set up on the boundaries of France to prevent French expansion in
future.
• The kingdom of the Netherlands, which included Belgium, was set up in the north and Genoa
was added to Piedmont in the south.
• Prussia was given important new territories on its western frontiers, while Austria was given
control of northern Italy.
• German confederation of 39 states that had been set up by Napoleon was left untouched.
• Russia was given part of Poland while Prussia was given a portion of Saxony.
• The main intention was to restore the monarchies that had been overthrown by Napoleon,
and create a new conservative order in Europe.

Criticism of new conservative regimes –

• Conservative regimes set up in 1815 were autocratic.

• They did not tolerate criticism and dissent, and sought to curb activities that questioned the
legitimacy of autocratic governments.
• Most of them imposed censorship laws to control what was said in newspapers, books,
plays and songs and reflected the ideas of liberty and freedom associated with the French
Revolution.
• The memory of the French Revolution nonetheless continued to inspire liberals.
• One of the major issues taken up by the liberal-nationalists, who criticised the new
conservative order, was freedom of the press.

Revolutionaries –
During the years following 1815, the fear of repression drove many liberal-nationalists underground.
Secret societies sprang up in many European states to train revolutionaries and spread their ideas.

Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini –

• Born in Genoa in 1807, he became a member of the secret society of the Carbonari.
• As a young man of 24, he was sent into exile in 1831 for attempting a revolution in Liguria.
 • He founded two secret societies - Young Italy in Marseilles, and then, Young Europe in
Berne, whose members were like-minded young men from Poland, France, Italy and the
German states.
• Mazzini believed that God had intended nations to be the natural units of mankind. So, Italy
could not continue to be a patchwork of small states and kingdoms. It had to be forged into
a single unified republic within a wider alliance of nations.
• Following his model, secret societies were set up in Germany, France, Switzerland and
Poland.
• Metternich described him as ‘The most dangerous enemy of our social order’.

Age of Revolutions: 1830-1848 –

As conservative regimes tried to consolidate their power, liberalism and nationalism came to be
increasingly associated with revolution in many regions of Europe such as the Italian and German
states, the provinces of the Ottoman Empire, Ireland and Poland.

France –
• upheaval took place in France in July 1830.
• The Bourbon kings who had been restored to power during the conservative reaction after
1815, were now overthrown by liberal revolutionaries.
• A constitutional monarchy was set up with Louis Philippe at its head.
• ‘When France sneezes,’ Metternich once remarked, ‘the rest of Europe catches cold.’
Belgium - The July Revolution sparked an uprising in Brussels which led to Belgium breaking away
from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Greece - Greek war of independence (1824 -1832)

• Greece had been part of the Ottoman Empire since the fifteenth century.
• The growth of revolutionary nationalism in Europe sparked off a struggle for independence
amongst the Greeks which began in 1821.
• Poets and artists lauded Greece as the cradle of European civilisation and mobilised public
opinion to support its struggle against a Muslim empire.
• The English poet Lord Byron organised funds and later went to fight in the war, where he
died of fever in 1824.
• Finally, the Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 recognised Greece as an independent nation.

The Romantic Imagination and National Feeling –

• The development of nationalism did not come about only through wars and territorial
expansion. Culture played an important role in creating the idea of the nation: art and
poetry, stories and music helped express and shape nationalist feelings.
• Romantic artists and poets generally criticised the glorification of reason and science and
focused instead on emotions, intuition and mystical feelings.
• Their effort was to create a sense of a shared collective heritage, a common cultural past, as
the basis of a nation.
• Other Romantics such as the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803)
claimed that true German culture was to be discovered among the common people – das
volk.
• It was through folk songs, folk poetry and folk dances that the true spirit of the nation (Volk
Geist) was popularised. So, collecting and recording these forms of folk culture was essential
to the project of nation-building.
• Karol Kurpinski, for example, celebrated the national struggle through his operas and music,
turning folk dances like the polonaise and mazurka into nationalist symbols.

Language too played an important role in developing nationalist sentiments –

• After Russian occupation, the Polish language was forced out of schools and the Russian
language was imposed everywhere.
• In 1831, an armed rebellion against Russian rule took place which was ultimately crushed.
Following this, many members of the clergy in Poland began to use language as a weapon of
national resistance.
 • Polish was used for Church gatherings and all religious instruction.
• As a result, a large number of priests and bishops were put in jail or sent to Siberia by the
Russian authorities as punishment for their refusal to preach in Russian.
• The use of Polish came to be seen as a symbol of the struggle against Russian dominance.

Hunger, Hardship and Popular Revolt

• The 1830s were years of great economic hardship in Europe. The first half of the nineteenth
century saw an enormous increase in population all over Europe.
• In most countries there were more seekers of jobs than employment. Population from rural
areas migrated to the cities to live in overcrowded slums.
• Small producers in towns were often faced with stiff competition from imports of cheap
machine-made goods from England, where industrialisation was more advanced than on the
continent.
• This was especially so in textile production, which was carried out mainly in homes or small
workshops and was only partly mechanised.
• In those regions of Europe where the aristocracy still enjoyed power, peasants struggled
under the burden of feudal dues and obligations.
• The rise of food prices or a year of bad harvest led to widespread pauperism in town and
country.

France - The year 1848 was one such year. Food shortages and widespread unemployment
brought the population of Paris out on the roads. Barricades were erected and Louis Philippe
was forced to flee. A National Assembly proclaimed a Republic, granted suffrage to all adult
males above 21, and guaranteed the right to work. National workshops to provide employment
were set up.

Silesia - Earlier, in 1845, weavers in Silesia had led a revolt against contractors who supplied them
raw material and gave them orders for finished textiles but drastically reduced their payments.

• The journalist Wilhelm Wolff described the events in a Silesian village as follows: In these
villages (with 18,000 inhabitants) cotton weaving is the most widespread occupation … The
misery of the workers is extreme.
• The desperate need for jobs has been taken advantage of by the contractors to reduce the
prices of the goods they order … On 4 June at 2 p.m. a large crowd of weavers emerged from
their homes and marched in pairs up to the mansion of their contractor demanding higher
wages.
• They were treated with scorn and threats alternately. Following this, a group of them forced
their way into the house, smashed its elegant windowpanes, furniture, porcelain … another
group broke into the storehouse and plundered it of supplies of cloth which they tore to
shreds …
• The contractor fled with his family to a neighbouring village which, however, refused to
shelter such a person. He returned 24 hours later having requisitioned the army. In the
exchange that followed, eleven weavers were shot.
1848: The Revolution of the Liberals
• Parallel to the revolts of the poor, unemployed and starving peasants and workers in
many European countries in the year 1848, a revolution led by the educated middle
classes was under way.
• Germany, Italy, Poland, the Austro-Hungarian Empire – men and women of the liberal
middle classes combined their demands for constitutionalism with national unification.

Frankfurt parliament –

• In the German regions a large number of political associations whose members were middle-
class professionals, businessmen and prosperous artisans came together in the city of
Frankfurt and decided to vote for an all-German National Assembly.
• On 18 May 1848, 831 elected representatives marched in a festive procession to take their
places in the Frankfurt parliament convened in the Church of St Paul.
• They drafted a constitution for a German nation to be headed by a monarchy subject to a
parliament. When the deputies offered the crown on these terms to Friedrich Wilhelm IV,
King of Prussia, he rejected it and joined other monarchs to oppose the elected assembly.

Failure of Frankfurt Parliament –

• While the opposition of the aristocracy and military became stronger, the social basis of
parliament eroded. The parliament was dominated by the middle classes who resisted the
demands of workers and artisans and consequently lost their support. In the end troops
were called in and the assembly was forced to disband.
• The issue of extending political rights to women was a controversial one within the liberal
movement, in which large numbers of women had participated actively over the years.
• Despite this they were denied suffrage rights during the election of the Assembly. When the
Frankfurt parliament convened in the Church of St Paul, women were admitted only as
observers to stand in the visitors’ gallery.

Outcomes of Frankfurt Parliament –

• Though conservative forces were able to suppress liberal movements in 1848, they could not
restore the old order.
• Monarchs were beginning to realise that the cycles of revolution and repression could only
be ended by granting concessions to the liberal-nationalist revolutionaries.
• Hence, in the years after 1848, the autocratic monarchies of Central and Eastern Europe
began to introduce the changes that had already taken place in Western Europe before
1815.
• Serfdom and bonded labour were abolished both in the Habsburg dominions and in Russia.
The Habsburg rulers granted more autonomy to the Hungarians in 1867.

Unification of Germany –
• nationalist feelings were widespread among middle-class Germans, who in 1848 tried to
unite the different regions of the German confederation into a nation-state governed by an
elected parliament. This liberal initiative to nation-building was, however, repressed by the
 combined forces of the monarchy and the military, supported by the large landowners
(called Junkers) of Prussia. From then on, Prussia took on the leadership of the movement
for national unification.
• Its chief minister, Otto von Bismarck, was the architect of this process carried out with the
help of the Prussian army and bureaucracy. Three wars over seven years – with Austria,
Denmark and France – ended in Prussian victory and completed the process of unification.
In January 1871, the Prussian king, William I, was proclaimed German Emperor in a
ceremony held at Versailles.
• On the bitterly cold morning of 18 January 1871, an assembly comprising the princes of the
German states, representatives of the army, important Prussian ministers including the
chief minister Otto von Bismarck gathered in the unheated Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of
Versailles to proclaim the new German Empire headed by Kaiser William I of Prussia.
• The nation-building process in Germany had demonstrated the dominance of Prussian state
power. The new state placed a strong emphasis on modernising the currency, banking, legal
and judicial systems in Germany. Prussian measures and practices often became a model
for the rest of Germany.

Unification of Italy –
• Italians were scattered over several dynastic states as well as the multi-national Habsburg
Empire.
• During the middle of the nineteenth century, Italy was divided into seven states, of which
only one, Sardinia-Piedmont, was ruled by an Italian princely house.
• The north was under Austrian Habsburgs, the centre was ruled by the Pope and the
southern regions were under the domination of the Bourbon kings of Spain.
• Even the Italian language had not acquired one common form and still had many regional
and local variations
• During the 1830s, Giuseppe Mazzini had sought to put together a coherent programme for a
unitary Italian Republic. He had also formed a secret society called Young Italy for the
dissemination of his goals.
• The failure of revolutionary uprisings both in 1831 and 1848 meant that the mantle now fell
on Sardinia-Piedmont under its ruler King Victor Emmanuel II to unify the Italian states
through war.
• In the eyes of the ruling elites of this region, a unified Italy offered them the possibility of
economic development and political dominance.
• Chief Minister Cavour who led the movement to unify the regions of Italy was neither a
revolutionary nor a democrat. Like many other wealthy and educated members of the Italian
elite, he spoke French much better than he did Italian.
• Through a tactful diplomatic alliance with France engineered by Cavour, Sardinia-Piedmont
succeeded in defeating the Austrian forces in 1859.
• Apart from regular troops, a large number of armed volunteers under the leadership of
Giuseppe Garibaldi joined the fray. In 1860, they marched into South Italy and the Kingdom
 of the Two Sicilies and succeeded in winning the support of the local peasants in order to
drive out the Spanish rulers.
• In 1861 Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed king of united Italy. However, much of the
Italian population, among whom rates of illiteracy were very high, remained blissfully
unaware of liberalnationalist ideology.
• The peasant masses who had supported Garibaldi in southern Italy had never heard of Italia,
and believed that ‘La Talia’ was Victor Emmanuel’s wife.

Strange Case of Britain –

• In Britain the formation of the nation-state was not the result of a sudden upheaval or
revolution. It was the result of a long-drawn-out process. There was no British nation prior
to the eighteenth century. The primary identities of the people who inhabited the British
Isles were ethnic ones – such as English, Welsh, Scot or Irish.
• All of these ethnic groups had their own cultural and political traditions. But as the English
nation steadily grew in wealth, importance and power, it was able to extend its influence
over the other nations of the islands.
• The English parliament, which had seized power from the monarchy in 1688 at the end of a
protracted conflict, was the instrument through which a nation-state, with England at its
centre, came to be forged.
• The Act of Union (1707) between England and Scotland that resulted in the formation of the
‘United Kingdom of Great Britain’ meant, in effect, that England was able to impose its
influence on Scotland.
• The British parliament was henceforth dominated by its English members. The growth of a
British identity meant that Scotland’s distinctive culture and political institutions were
systematically suppressed.
• The Catholic clans that inhabited the Scottish Highlands suffered terrible repression
whenever they attempted to assert their independence.
• The Scottish Highlanders were forbidden to speak their Gaelic language or wear their
national dress, and large numbers were forcibly driven out of their homeland.

Ireland –
• Ireland suffered a similar fate. It was a country deeply divided between Catholics and
Protestants.
• The English helped the Protestants of Ireland to establish their dominance over a largely
Catholic country. Catholic revolts against British dominance were suppressed.
• After a failed revolt led by Wolfe Tone and his United Irishmen (1798), Ireland was forcibly
incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801.
• A new ‘British nation’ was forged through the propagation of a dominant English culture.
The symbols of the new Britain – the British flag (Union Jack), the national anthem (God Save
 Our Noble King), the English language – were actively promoted and the older nations
survived only as subordinate partners in this union.

Visualising the Nation –

• Artists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries found a way out by personifying a
nation. In other words, they represented a country as if it were a person. Nations
were then portrayed as female figures.
• The female form that was chosen to personify the nation did not stand for any
particular woman in real life; rather it sought to give the abstract idea of the nation
a concrete form.
• That is, the female figure became an allegory of the nation.
• female allegories were invented by artists in the nineteenth century to represent the
nation.
• In France she was christened Marianne, a popular Christian name, which underlined
the idea of a people’s nation.
• Her characteristics were drawn from those of Liberty and the Republic – the red cap,
the tricolour, the cockade. Statues of Marianne were erected in public squares to
remind the public of the national symbol of unity and to persuade them to identify
with it. Marianne images were marked on coins and stamps.
• Similarly, Germania became the allegory of the German nation. In visual
representations, Germania wears a crown of oak leaves, as the German oak stands
for heroism.

Nationalism and Imperialism

• By the last quarter of the nineteenth century nationalism no longer retained its idealistic
liberal-democratic sentiment of the first half of the century, but became a narrow creed with
limited ends.
• During this period nationalist groups became increasingly intolerant of each other and ever
ready to go to war.
• The major European powers, in turn, manipulated the nationalist aspirations of the subject
peoples in Europe to further their own imperialist aims.
• The most serious source of nationalist tension in Europe after 1871 was the area called the
Balkans.
• The Balkans was a region of geographical and ethnic variation comprising modern-day
Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia,
Serbia and Montenegro whose inhabitants were broadly known as the Slavs.
• A large part of the Balkans was under the control of the Ottoman Empire. The spread of the
ideas of romantic nationalism in the Balkans together with the disintegration of the Ottoman
Empire made this region very explosive. All through the nineteenth century the Ottoman
 Empire had sought to strengthen itself through modernisation and internal reforms but with
very little success.
• One by one, its European subject nationalities broke away from its control and declared
independence. The Balkan peoples based their claims for independence or political rights on
nationality and used history to prove that they had once been independent but had
subsequently been subjugated by foreign powers.
• Hence the rebellious nationalities in the Balkans thought of their struggles as attempts to
win back their long-lost independence.
• As the different Slavic nationalities struggled to define their identity and independence, the
Balkan area became an area of intense conflict.
• The Balkan states were fiercely jealous of each other and each hoped to gain more territory
at the expense of the others. Matters were further complicated because the Balkans also
became the scene of big power rivalry.
• During this period, there was intense rivalry among the European powers over trade and
colonies as well as naval and military might. These rivalries were very evident in the way the
Balkan problem unfolded.
• Each power – Russia, Germany, England, Austro-Hungary – was keen on countering the hold
of other powers over the Balkans, and extending its own control over the area. This led to a
series of wars in the region and finally the First World War.
• Nationalism, aligned with imperialism, led Europe to disaster in 1914.
• European ideas of nationalism were nowhere replicated, for people everywhere developed
their own specific variety of nationalism. But the idea that societies should be organised into
‘nation-states’ came to be accepted as natural and universal.

******************

Questions to Write :
Q.1 Explain Napoleon civil code.
Q.2 What is Visualising the Nation. Explain with examples
Q.3 Write Short note on
- Aristocracy & New middle class
- Liberalism in Economic Sphere
- Strange case of Britain
- Frankfurt Parliament
- Age of revolution
- New Conservatism in 1815
Q.4 Explain Unification of Germany & Italy in Detail
Q.5 What is French Revolution and Idea of Nation .
 Nationalism in India
Reasons/ causes for Nationalism or National Movements
1. World War 1(1914-1918) - huge increase in defence expenditure which was financed by war loans
and increasing taxes: customs duties were raised and income tax introduced.

2. Price Rise - Through the war years prices increased – doubling between 1913 and 1918 – leading
to extreme hardship for the common people.

3. Forced recruitment - Villages were called upon to supply soldiers, and the forced recruitment in
rural areas caused widespread anger.

4. Influenza epidemic & Crop Failure - 1918-19 and 1920-21, crops failed in many parts of India,
resulting in acute shortages of food. This was accompanied by an influenza epidemic. According to
the census of 1921, 12 to 13 million people perished as a result of famines and the epidemic.

Arrival of Mahatma Gandhi –

1. Mahatma Gandhi Born in India(2nd Oct 1869) and went to London for further studies.
2. In 1893 he went to South Africa to practice law and returned to India on 9th Jan 1915.
3. Every year on January 9, we celebrate NRI Day.

1917 – Champaran Revolt (Indigo Revolt)

• Mahatma Gandhi travelled to Champaran in Bihar to inspire the peasants to struggle
against the oppressive plantation system (Tinkathia system).
• Tinkathia System (Compulsory growing of Indigo on 3/20th of their land).

1917 – Kheda Satyagraha (Peasant Protest)

• Mahatma Gandhi organised a satyagraha to support the peasants of the Kheda district of
Gujarat.
• 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.

1918 – Ahmedabad Cotton millworkers strike

• In Ahmedabad , cotton mill workers were protesting against the Cotton mill owners
demanding 50% hike in wages
• Mahatma Gandhi went to Ahmedabad to organise a satyagraha movement amongst cotton
mill workers.
 Rowlatt Act Satyagraha

1919- Rowlatt Act

• This Act had been hurriedly passed through the Imperial Legislative Council despite the united
opposition of the Indian members.
• It gave the government enormous powers to repress political activities, and allowed detention of
political prisoners without trial for two years.
• It was opposed by Indian leader including Mahatma Gandhi and Rowlatt Act Satyagraha was
launched to oppose it.

Rowlatt Act Satyagraha –

• Mahatma Gandhi wanted non-violent civil disobedience against such unjust laws.

6th April 1919- Nationwide hartal

• Rallies were organised in various cities, workers went on strike in railway workshops, and shops
closed down.
• Alarmed by the popular upsurge, and scared that lines of communication such as the railways and
telegraph would be disrupted, the British administration decided to clamp down on nationalists &
leaders were arrested

10th April 1919- Fire on peaceful procession & Marshal Law

• Police in Amritsar fired upon a peaceful procession, provoking widespread attacks on banks, post
offices and railway stations. Martial law was imposed and General Dyer took command.

13th April 1919 – Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

• Crowd of villagers who had come to Amritsar to attend a fair gathered in the enclosed ground of
Jallianwala Bagh.
• Being from outside the city, they were unaware of the martial law that had been imposed. Dyer
entered the area, blocked the exit points, and opened fire on the crowd, killing hundreds.
• This infamous event is known as Jallianwala Bagh Massacre.

Withdrawal of Rowlatt Act Satyagraha

• As the news of Jallianwala Bagh spread, crowds took to the streets in many north Indian towns.
• There were strikes, clashes with the police and attacks on government buildings. The government
responded with brutal repression, seeking to humiliate and terrorize people: satyagrahis were
forced to rub their noses on the ground, crawl on the streets, and do salaam (salute) to all sahibs;
people were flogged and villages (around Gujranwala in Punjab, now in Pakistan) were bombed.
Seeing violence spread, Mahatma Gandhi called off the movement.

Non-Cooperation ( NCM ) & Khilafat movement

Idea of NCM –
• Due to limited reach of Rowlatt Act Satyagraha, Mahatma Gandhi now felt the need to launch a
more broad-based movement in India.
• In his famous book Hind Swaraj (1909) 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.

Khilafat Issue –
• The First World War had ended with the defeat of Ottoman Turkey.
• There were rumours that a harsh peace treaty was going to be imposed on the Ottoman emperor –
the spiritual head of the Islamic world (the Caliph / Khalifa).
• To defend the Khalifa’s temporal powers, a Khilafat Committee was formed in Bombay in March
1919 by muslim leaders like the brothers Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali

How could non-cooperation become a movement?

❖ Gandhiji proposed that the movement should unfold in stages.
❖ It should begin with the surrender of titles that the government awarded, and a boycott of civil
services, army, police, courts and legislative councils, schools, and foreign goods.
❖ Then, in case the government used repression, a full civil disobedience campaign would be
launched.
❖ Through the summer of 1920 Mahatma Gandhi and Shaukat Ali toured extensively, mobilizing
popular support for the movement.
❖ Many within the Congress were, however, concerned about the proposals. They were reluctant to
boycott the council elections scheduled for November 1920, and they feared that the movement
might lead to popular violence.
❖ In the months between September and December there was an intense tussle within the Congress.
For a while there seemed no meeting point between the supporters and the opponents of the
movement.
❖ Calcutta session of the Congress in September 1920, Mahatma Gandhi convinced other leaders
of the need to start a non-cooperation movement in support of Khilafat as well as for swaraj.
❖ Finally, at the Congress session at Nagpur in December 1920, a compromise was worked out and
the Non-Cooperation programmed was adopted.
❖ The Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement began in January 1921.

Differing strands(Participation) within the movement

1. Towns 2. Countryside 3. Hills 4. Plantation

(Awadh) (Gudem Hill)
 1. NCM in Towns –

❖ 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.

NCM on Economic Front

- Import of foreign cloth halved between 1921 and 1922 , from Rs 102 crore to Rs 57 crore.

How then could they boycott mill cloth for too long?
• Similarly, the 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.
• These were slow to come up. So, students and teachers began trickling back to government schools
and lawyers joined back work in government courts.

2. Rebellion (NCM) in the Countryside

• In Awadh, peasants were led by Baba Ramchandra – a sanyasi who had earlier been to Fiji as an
indentured labourer.
• The movement here was against talukdars and landlords who demanded from peasants
exorbitantly high rents and a variety of other cesses. Peasants had to do begar and work at
landlords’ farms without any payment.
• As tenants they had no security of tenure, being regularly evicted so that they could acquire no
right over the leased land.
 • The peasant movement demanded reduction of revenue, abolition of begar, and social boycott
of oppressive landlords.
• In many places Nai – dhobi bandhs were organized by panchayats to deprive landlords of the
services of even barbers and washermen.
• By October, the Oudh Kisan Sabha was set up headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba
Ramchandra, and a few others. Within a month, over 300 branches had been set up in the
villages around the region.
• So, when the Non-Cooperation Movement began the following year, the effort of the Congress was
to integrate the Awadh peasant struggle into the wider struggle.
• The peasant movement, however, developed in forms that the Congress leadership was unhappy
with. As the movement spread in 1921, the houses of talukdars and merchants were attacked,
bazaars were looted, and grain hoards were taken over.
• In many places local leaders told peasants that Gandhiji had declared that no taxes were to be paid
and land was to be redistributed among the poor.

3. Tribal movement in Gudem Hill

• In the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh, for instance, a militant guerrilla movement spread in the
early 1920s against forest policies.
• This enraged the hill people. Not only were their livelihoods affected but they felt that their
traditional rights were being denied.
• When the government began forcing them to contribute begar for road building, the hill people
revolted.
• Alluri Sitaram Raju (leader) claimed that he had a variety of special powers: he could make
correct astrological predictions and heal people, and he could survive even bullet shots.
• Captivated by Raju, the rebels proclaimed that he was an incarnation of God.
• Raju talked of the greatness of Mahatma Gandhi, said he was inspired by the Non-Cooperation
Movement, and persuaded people to wear khadi and give up drinking But at the same time, he
asserted that India could be liberated only using force, not non-violence.
• The Gudem rebels attacked police stations, attempted to kill British officials, and carried on
guerrilla warfare for achieving swaraj.
• Raju was captured and executed in 1924, and over time became a folk hero.

4. Swaraj in the Plantations

• Workers too had their own understanding of Mahatma Gandhi and the notion of swaraj.
• For plantation workers in Assam, freedom meant the right to move freely in and out of the
confined space in which they were enclosed, and it meant retaining a link with the village from
which they had come.
• Under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859, plantation workers were not permitted to leave the tea
gardens without permission, and in fact, they were rarely given such permission.
• When they heard of the Non-Cooperation Movement, thousands of workers defied the authorities,
left the plantations, and headed home.
• They believed that Gandhi Raj was coming and everyone would be given land in their own
villages.
• They, however, never reached their destination. Stranded on the way by a railway and steamer
strike, they were caught by the police and brutally beaten up.
 Withdrawal of NCM
1922 - At Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur, a peaceful demonstration in a bazaar turned into a violent
clash with the police. Hearing of the incident, Mahatma Gandhi called a halt to the Non-
Cooperation Movement.
 Civil Disobedience Movement
Following the Chauri Chaura incident, a division arose within the Indian National Congress (INC), with
many individuals presenting different ideas.

Mahatma Gandhi C.R Das -Motilal Nehru JLN & S.C Bose

Simon Commission
a. Worldwide economic depression - Agricultural prices began to fall from 1926 and
collapsed after 1930. As the demand for agricultural goods fell and exports declined,
peasants found it difficult to sell their harvests and pay their revenue. By 1930, the
countryside was in turmoil.

b. New Tory government – New government in Britain constituted a Statutory

Commission under Sir John Simon.

c. Simon Commission –
• Set up in response to the nationalist movement, the commission was to investigate the
functioning of the constitutional system in India and suggest changes. The problem
was that the commission did not have a single Indian member. They were all British.
• Simon Commission arrived in India in 1928, it was greeted with the slogan ‘Go back
Simon’.

What actions did the British take in response to the opposition of the Simon Commission?
• In an effort to win them over, the viceroy, Lord Irwin, announced in October 1929, a vague
offer of ‘dominion status’ for India in an unspecified future, and a Round Table
Conference to discuss a future constitution
• This did not satisfy the Congress leaders. The radicals within the Congress, led by
Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose, became more assertive.
 • The liberals and moderates, who were proposing a constitutional system within the
framework of British dominion, gradually lost their influence.

Dominion means semi-independent colonies under the British crown.

This means the British crown would control the department of defence, department of foreign
affairs, and department of communications. The crown would not control internal politics and
elections.

Lahore Session –
• In December 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Lahore Congress
formalized the demand of ‘Purna Swaraj’ or full independence for India.
• It was declared that 26 January 1930, would be celebrated as the Independence
Day when people were to take a pledge to struggle for complete independence But
the celebrations attracted very little attention.
• So, Mahatma Gandhi had to find a way to relate this abstract idea of freedom to
more concrete issues of everyday life.
 Making of a Global World

The Pre-modern World

• When we talk of ‘globalisation’ we often refer to an economic system that has

emerged since the last 50 years or so. the making of the global world has a
long history – of trade, of migration, of people in search of work, the
movement of capital, and much else.
• All through history, human societies have become steadily more interlinked.
From ancient times, travellers, traders, priests and pilgrims travelled vast
distances for knowledge, opportunity and spiritual fulfilment, or to escape
persecution.
• They carried goods, money, values, skills, ideas, inventions, and even germs
and diseases.
• As early as 3000 BCE an active coastal trade linked the Indus valley civilisations
with present-day West Asia.
• The long-distance spread of disease-carrying germs may be traced as far back
as the seventh century. By the thirteenth century it had become an
unmistakable link.
Silk Routes Link the World

• The silk routes are a good example of vibrant pre-modern trade and cultural
links between distant parts of the world.
• The name ‘silk routes’ points to the importance of West-bound Chinese silk
cargoes along this route.
• Historians have identified several silk routes, over land and by sea, knitting
together vast regions of Asia, and linking Asia with Europe and northern
Africa.
• They are known to have existed since before the Christian Era and thrived
almost till the fifteenth century.
• Chinese pottery also travelled the same route, as did textiles and spices from
India and Southeast Asia. In return, precious metals – gold and silver – flowed
from Europe to Asia.

Food Travels: Spaghetti and Potato

• Food offers many examples of long-distance cultural exchange. Traders and

travellers introduced new crops to the lands they travelled.
• Spaghetti and noodles, It is believed that noodles travelled west from China to
become spaghetti. Or, perhaps Arab traders took pasta to fifth-century Sicily,
an island now in Italy
• Many of our common foods such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize,
tomatoes, chillies, sweet potatoes, and so on were not known to our
ancestors until about five centuries ago.
• These foods were only introduced in Europe and Asia after Christopher
Columbus accidentally discovered the vast continent that would later become
known as the Americas.
• Ireland’s poorest peasants became so dependent on potatoes that when
disease destroyed the potato crop in the mid-1840s, hundreds of thousands
died of starvation.
• The Great Irish Potato Famine (1845 to 1849)
 Conquest, Disease and Trade

• The pre-modern world shrank greatly in the sixteenth century after European
sailors found a sea route to Asia and also successfully crossed the western
ocean to America.
• Indian Ocean had known a bustling trade, with goods, people, knowledge,
customs, etc. criss-crossing its waters. The Indian subcontinent was central to
these flows and a crucial point in their networks.
• Before its ‘discovery’, America had been cut off from regular contact with the
rest of the world for millions of years. But from the sixteenth century, its vast
lands and abundant crops and minerals began to transform trade and lives
everywhere.
• Precious metals, particularly silver, from mines located in present day Peru
and Mexico also enhanced Europe’s wealth and financed its trade with Asia.
• Many expeditions set off in search of El Dorado, the fabled city of gold
• The most powerful weapon of the Spanish conquerors was not a conventional
military weapon at all.
• It was the germs such as those of smallpox that they carried on their person.
Because of their long isolation, America’s original inhabitants had no
immunity against these diseases that came from Europe.
• Smallpox in particular proved a deadly killer. Once introduced, it spread deep
into the continent, ahead even of any Europeans reaching there. It killed and
decimated whole communities, paving the way for conquest.
• China’s reduced role and the rising importance of the Americas gradually
moved the centre of world trade westwards. Europe now emerged as the
centre of world trade.
 The Nineteenth Century (1815-1914)

Economists identify three types of movement or ‘flows’ within international

economic exchanges. The interconnections could sometimes be broken – for
example, labour migration was often more restricted than goods or capital flows.

• First is the flow of trade which in the nineteenth century referred largely to
trade in goods (e.g., cloth or wheat).
• Second is the flow of labour – the migration of people in search of
employment.
• Third is the movement of capital for short-term or long-term investments over
long distances.

A World Economy Takes Shape

• Countries were self-sufficient in food but Population growth has increased the
demand for food grains in Britain.
• Due to industrial growth, the demand for agricultural products went up,
pushing up food grain prices.
• Under pressure from landed groups, the government also restricted the
import of corn.
• Corn Laws - Ban on import of grains .
 • Unhappy with high food prices, industrialists and urban dwellers forced the
abolition of the Corn Laws.
• After the Corn Laws were scrapped, food could be imported into Britain more
cheaply than it could be produced within the country. British agriculture was
unable to compete with imports.
• As food prices fell, consumption in Britain rose Britain also led to higher
incomes, and therefore more food imports.
• Around the world – in Eastern Europe, Russia, America and Australia – lands
were cleared and food production expanded to meet the British demand.
• Railways were needed to link the agricultural regions to the ports.
• New harbours had to be built and old ones expanded to ship the new cargoes.
People had to settle on the lands to bring them under cultivation.
• Capital flowed from financial centres such as London. The demand for labour
in places where labour was in short supply – as in America and Australia – led
to more migration.
• Nearly 50 million people emigrated from Europe to America and Australia in
the nineteenth century.
• All over the world some 150 million are estimated to have left their homes,
crossed oceans and vast distances over land in search of a better future.
• Some of this dramatic change, though on a smaller scale, occurred closer
home in west Punjab. Here the British Indian government built a network of
irrigation canals to transform semi-desert wastes into fertile agricultural lands
that could grow wheat and cotton for export.
• Production of commodities develop, that between 1820 and 1914 world trade
is estimated to have multiplied 25 to 40 times. Nearly 60 per cent of this trade
comprised ‘primary products’ – that is, agricultural products such as wheat
and cotton, and minerals such as coal.

Role of Technology
Technology definitely played an important role in globalizing the world economy
during this period. Some of the major technological innovations were the railways,
steamship and telegraph. Railways helped in connecting the hinterland to the ports.
Steamships helped in transporting goods in bulk across the Atlantic. Telegraph
helped in speeding up the communication and thus facilitated better economic
transaction.

Trade in Meat: Trade in meat shows a very good example of benefit of technology
on the life of common people. Till 1870s, live animals were shipped from America to
Europe. Shipping live animals had its own problems. Live animals took more space
and many animals either died or became sick during the transit. Due to this, meat
remained a luxury item for most of the Europeans.

Arrival of refrigeration technology changed the picture. Now, animals could be

slaughtered in America and meat could be shipped to Europe. This helped in better
utilization of space in the ships. This also helped in better availability of meat for the
Europeans. Prices of meat products fell as a result. Now, even the common people
could afford to eat meat on a regular basis.

Better availability of food promoted social peace within the countries. People of
Britain were now more receptive to imperial ambitions of the country.

Late Nineteenth Century

• While the expansion of trade improved the quality of life of many Europeans;
it had negative implications for people of the colonized countries.
• The modern map of Africa illustrates this issue in a powerful way.
• When you will carefully observe the modern map of Africa, it would appear
that most of the boundaries are straight lines.
• It appears as if a novice cartographer had made these maps. In 1885, the big
European powers met in Berlin and demarcated the African continent for
respective powers.
• That is how boundaries of most of the African countries appear as straight
lines.
• Britain, France, Belgium ,Germany and US also became a colonial power in the
late 1890s.

Rinderpest, or the Cattle Plague

Rinderpest – also known as the bovine pest – was a disease caused by the rinderpest
virus, which mostly affected cattle and buffalo.
• Arrival of rinderpest : Rinderpest arrived in Africa in the late 1880s. Within
two years, it spread in the whole continent reaching Cape Town (Africa’s
southernmost tip) within five years.
 • Loss of Cattle : The germs of the disease were carried by infected cattle
imported from British Asia to feed the Italian soldiers invading Eritrea in
Eastern Africa. The rinderpest killed about 90 per cent of the cattle.

• Loss of livelihood : As cattle was the main wealth of the people so the loss of
cattle destroyed the African livelihoods.

• Shortage of labour : Africa had abundant land and a relatively small

population. For centuries, land and livestock sustained African livelihoods and
people rarely worked for a wage.

• Inheritance laws : Laws were changed so that peasants were displaced from
land: only one member of a family was allowed to inherit land, as a result of
which the others were pushed into the labour market.

• African into labour market : Planters, mine owners and colonial governments
now successfully monopolised what scarce cattle resources remained, to
strengthen their power, and to force the Africans into the labour market.

• Subdue of Africa : Control over scarce resource of cattle enabled the

European colonisers to conquer and subdue Africa.

Indentured Labour Migration from India

The term indentured labour referred to a bonded labourer who was bound by a
contract to work for an employer for a specific period of time.

• The 19th century witnessed a rapid expansion of world trade. One of the
important developments was the migration of labour from China and India.
• In India, the indentured workers came from present day regions of eastern
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Central India, and parts of Tamil Nadu.
• The domestic industry had declined and people migrated as indentured labour
to places like Caribbean islands, Mauritius, Fiji, Sri Lanka, Malaya and tea
plantations of Assam.
• The Indentured labourers were hired by way of a contract which promised
that the workers could return to India after they had served their employer
for five years.
 • The indentured labourers were subjected to extremely cruel living conditions.

• Indentured labour migration was extremely criticised and finally abolished in

1921.

Condition of Indentured Labour –

• These workers had no choice but to leave and go abroad.
• They were presented before the magistrate before they left to give proof that
they are doing this voluntarily.
• The workers signed the contract of 5 years to work abroad. They received
salaries of around 8 rupees per month.
• Many Indians were illiterate. They could not understand what was written in
the contract and signed them which resulted in betrayal and bad faith.
• Many were misled by the Britishers. They were deported without their
consent and knowledge.
• The conditions of the ships in which they travel were extremely poor. There
was a 17% death rate due to diseases.
• There were long working hours. Children when turned 5 were expected to
work with their parents.
 Survival of Indentured Labour
• Workers discovered their own ways of surviving. Many of them escaped into
the wilds, though if caught they faced severe punishment.
• They developed their own forms of self-expression which was actually a blend
of Indian and foreign cultural forms.
• In Trinidad the annual Muharram procession was transformed into a riotous
carnival called ‘Hosay’ (for Imam Hussain) in which workers of all races and
religions joined.
• Similarly, the protest religion of Rastafarianism (made famous by the Jamaican
reggae star Bob Marley) is also said to reflect social and cultural links with
Indian migrants to the Caribbean.
• ‘Chutney music’, popular in Trinidad (Caribbean nation near Venezuela)and
Guyana (Country in South America), is another creative contemporary expression
of the post-indenture experience.
• These forms of cultural fusion are part of the making of the Global world.

Indian Entrepreneurs Abroad

Growing food and other crops for the world market required capital. Large
plantations could borrow it from banks and markets.
• In India, the peasants borrowed from local bankers such as Shikaripuri Shroffs
and Nattukottai Chettiars.

• Among the groups of Indian bankers and traders were Nattukottai Chettiars
and Shikaripuri Shroffs. They supported export farming in Central and
Southern Asia.
• They had their own highly developed system for sending money to various
countries, including India.
• Along with the European colonisers, Indian traders and moneylenders also
made their way to Africa. The traders from Hyderabad, Sindh, even travelled
to colonies of Europe.
• By the 1860s, they had built prosperous emporia in busy ports all over the
world.
• Entrepreneurs in India are now willing to sell abroad. Many small Indian
businesses get a sizable portion of their sales from foreign markets.
 Indian Trade, Colonialism and the Global System

The Inter-war Economy

The First World War (1914-18) was fought in Europe, but its impact was felt around
the world. During this period the world experienced widespread economic and
political instability and another catastrophic war.

War , Death and Destruction :

• The first modern industrial war. It saw the use of machine guns, tanks, aircraft,
chemical weapons, etc. on a massive scale.
• To fight the war, millions of soldiers had to be recruited from around the
world and moved to the frontlines on large ships and trains.
• 9 million dead and 20 million injured – was unthinkable before the industrial
age, without the use of industrial arms.

Wartime Transformations
• The First World War was fought between the Allies – Britain, France and
Russia (later joined by the US); and the Central Powers – Germany, Austria-
Hungary and Ottoman Turkey.
• The war lasted for more than four years which involved the world’s leading
industrial nations. It was considered as the first modern industrial war which
saw the use of machine guns, tanks, aircraft, chemical weapons, etc; on a
massive scale.
• During the war, industries were restructured to produce war-related goods.
Britain borrowed large sums of money from US banks as well as the US public,
transforming the US from being an international debtor to an international
creditor.

Post-war Recovery
• It was not an easy task to recover the economy after World War. Britain,
which had been a prosperous economy prior to the war, was now in a state of
crisis.

• This was due to the fact that Britain was involved in a war at the time.

• Japan's and India's industries grew. As a result, after the war, Britain struggled
to reclaim control of the Indian market and was unable to compete with Japan
in the international market.

• Furthermore, Britain had taken out massive loans from the United States at
high interest rates, resulting in massive external debts on the economy.

• During the war, the economy boomed due to an increase in demand,

production, and employment.

• However, as the war ended, so did the boom period. As a result, there was a
large unemployed population. To cover up its losses, the government reduced
its public spending after the war.

• The situation was even worse after the war, as evidenced by the fact that one
out of every five British workers was unemployed in 1921.
• Many agricultural economies were also in crisis. Consider the case of wheat
producers. Before the war, eastern Europe was a major supplier of wheat in
the world market.
• When this supply was disrupted during the war, wheat production in Canada,
America and Australia expanded dramatically. But once the war was over,
production in eastern Europe revived and created a glut in wheat output.
• Grain prices fell, rural incomes declined, and farmers fell deeper into debt.

Rise of Mass Production and Consumption

• In the US, recovery was quicker & the US economy resumed its strong growth
in the early 1920s due to mass production.
• A well-known pioneer of mass production was the car manufacturer Henry
Ford. He adapted the assembly line of a Chicago slaughterhouse (in which
slaughtered animals were picked apart by butchers as they came down a
conveyor belt) to his new car plant in Detroit.
• Mass production was popularized in the late 1910s and 1920s by Henry Ford's
Ford Motor Company, which introduced electric motors to the then-well-
known technique of chain or sequential production.
• Production of the Ford Model T used 32,000 machine tools. He realised that
the 'assembly line' method would allow a faster and cheap.
• As a result, he put into practice techniques of mass production that would
revolutionize American industry, including the use of large production plants;
standardized, interchangeable parts; and the moving assembly line.
• At first workers at the Ford factory were unable to cope with the stress of
working on assembly lines in which they could not control the pace of work.
• So, they quit in large numbers. In desperation Ford doubled the daily wage to
$5 in January 1914. At the same time, he banned trade unions from operating
in his plants.
• Mass production lowered costs and prices of engineered goods.
• Thanks to higher wages, more workers could now afford to purchase durable
consumer goods such as cars. Car production in the US rose from 2 million in
1919 to more than 5 million in 1929.
 The Great Depression
The Great Depression began in 1929 with a steep fall in New York Stock Exchange
and continued well into the mid-1930s.

• During depression agricultural prices fell, industrial production came to a halt,

and millions of people became jobless and homeless.
• The depression was caused due to an overflow of food grains in the market
which led to a fall in the agricultural prices.
• Canada, Australia and America had emerged as new alternate centres of
wheat production during war.

The depression was caused by a combination of several factors.

First:
• Agricultural overproduction remained a problem. This was made worse by
falling agricultural prices.
• As prices slumped and agricultural incomes declined, farmers tried to expand
production and bring a larger volume of produce to the market to maintain
their overall income.
• This worsened the glut in the market, pushing down prices even further. Farm
produce rotted for a lack of buyers.
Second:
• In the mid-1920s, many countries financed their investments through loans
from the US.
• While it was often extremely easy to raise loans in the US when the going was
good, US overseas lenders panicked at the first sign of trouble. In the first half
of 1928, US overseas loans amounted to over $ 1 billion.

During and after the war the US had emerged as an international money lender.
• The US withdrew loans from other countries because of which major banks
and currencies collapsed in Europe.
• To overcome the depression, the US imposed import duties which again
hindered the world trade.
• During the depression, India’s exports and imports shrunk to almost half. The
agricultural prices fell and affected the peasants and farmers badly.

• The poor peasants mortgaged their land, jewellery and other precious things
to pay off debts and meet their daily needs.

The depression did not affect the middle-class urban Indians so much. Due to
the fall in prices all commodities began to cost less.
• Since the British Government provided tariff protection to industries there
was also an increase in industry investment.

Impact on US –
• US banking system itself collapsed. Unable to recover investments, collect
loans and repay depositors, thousands of banks went bankrupt and were
forced to close.
• The numbers are phenomenal: by 1933 over 4,000 banks had closed and
between 1929 and 1932 about 110, 000 companies had collapsed.
 India and the Great Depression
The Great Depression had a severe impact on Indian Economy as well, it affected the
economies, societies and lives of people.
• The Great depression had an immediate impact on Indian trade.
• In the 19th century, colonial India was an importer of manufactured goods
and exported agricultural goods.
• Prices in India also crashed, as the international prices plunged.
• Between 1928 and 1934, wheat prices in India fell by 50%.
• Between 1928 and 1934, the exports and imports of India, reduced by half.
• More than the urban dwellers it was the farmers and peasants who suffered
the most.
• The colonial British Government refused to reduce their revenue demands,
despite massive reduction in agricultural prices.
• The worst hit in India due to the Great Depression was the peasants who were
producing goods for the world market.

Bengal – Jute Producers

• Peasants who had borrowed more money with the hope of fetching higher
income and producing more were the worst hit.
• They kept falling deeper into debts as the prices kept falling.
• The price of raw jute had collapsed by 60% due to the collapse of gunny bags
exports.
• The raw jute that was grown in Bengal, was later processed in factories to
manufacture gunny bags.
Effects of Great Depression – Urban India
• Under pressure from Indian Nationalists, industries received tariff protection
from the British Government. Hence Industrial investments grew.
• People in urban India did not face the same kind of crisis faced by people in
rural India.
 • middle-class salaried employees, town-dwelling landowners were people who
received fixed incomes, they were in a better position as the prices kept falling
and everything cost less.
Global Economic Recovery Due to India – John Maynard Keynes
• India became an exporter of precious metals, especially Gold, during the years
of the Great Depression.
• As per John Maynard Keynes, a world famous economist, global economic
recovery after the Great Depression was promoted by Indian Gold exports.
• These Gold exports helped the British, but it hardly had any positive effect on
the Peasants suffering in India.
• In 1931, Mahatma Gandhi launched the civil disobedience movement, it was
the time when rural India was seething with unrest.

Rebuilding a World Economy: The Post-war Era

World War 2 :
The Second World War broke out a mere two decades after the end of the First
World War. It was fought between the Axis powers (mainly Nazi Germany, Japan and
Italy) and the Allies (Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the US). It was a war waged
for six years on many fronts, in many places, over land, on sea, in the air.
Destruction :
At least 60 million people, or about 3 per cent of the world’s 1939 population, are
believed to have been killed, directly or indirectly, as a result of the war. Millions
more were injured. Vast parts of Europe and Asia were devastated, and several cities were
destroyed by aerial bombardment or relentless artillery attacks.

Two crucial influences shaped post-war reconstruction –

First was the US’s emergence as the dominant economic, political and military power
in the Western world.
Second was the dominance of the Soviet Union. It had made huge sacrifices to defeat
Nazi Germany, and transformed itself from a backward agricultural country into a
world power during the very years when the capitalist world was trapped in the
Great Depression.
 Post-war Settlement and the Bretton Woods Institutions
The main aim of the post-war international economic system was to preserve
economic stability and full employment in the industrial world.

Its framework was agreed upon at the United Nations Monetary and Financial
Conference held in July 1944 at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, USA.

• United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference was held in July 1944 at
Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, USA.
• The Bretton Woods Conference established the International Monetary Fund
(IMF). This organization was established to deal with external surpluses and
deficits of its members.
• The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) was set
up to finance post-war reconstruction. This is popularly known as the World
Bank.
• The IMF and World Bank are often referred to as Bretton Woods Institutions.
The post-war economic system is also referred to as the Bretton Woods
System.
• The IMF and World Bank began their operations in 1947. Western industrial
powers controlled the decision-making in these institutions.
• The US had an effective veto right over key decisions made by these
institutions.
• The Bretton Woods System was based on fixed exchange rate for currencies.
• The dollar was anchored to gold at a fixed price of $ 35 per ounce of gold.
Other currencies were linked to dollar at fixed rates.
 The Early Post-war Years
• The Bretton Woods System started an era of unprecedented economic
growth in the Western industrial nations and in Japan.
• Between 1950 and 1970, the world trade grew annually at 8% and
incomes grew at nearly 5%.
• The unemployment rate averaged less than 5% in most of the
industrialized countries during this period; which speaks about the
stable nature of economic growth during this period.

Decolonisation and Independence

• When the Second World War ended, large parts of the world were still under
European colonial rule.
• Over the next two decades most colonies in Asia and Africa emerged as free,
independent nations.
• The IMF and the World Bank were designed to meet the financial needs of the
industrial countries. Europe and Japan rapidly rebuilt their economies, they
grew less dependent on the IMF and the World Bank.
• From the late 1950s the Bretton Woods institutions began to shift their
attention more towards developing countries.
• Newly independent countries facing urgent pressures to lift their populations
out of poverty, they came under the guidance of international agencies
dominated by the former colonial powers , most developing countries did not
benefit from the fast growth the Western economies experienced in the
1950s and 1960s.
• They organised themselves as a group – the Group of 77 (or G-77) – to
demand a new international economic order (NIEO).
• By the NIEO they meant a system that would give them real control over their
natural resources, more development assistance, fairer prices for raw
materials, and better access for their manufactured goods in developed
countries’ markets.
End of Bretton Woods and the Beginning of ‘Globalisation’
• From the 1960s onwards, the US finances and competitive strength was
weakening because of its rising cost of overseas involvement.
• The dollar could not maintain its value in relation to gold.
• The system of fixed exchange rate collapsed and the new system of floating
exchange rate began.

From the mid-1970s, the international financial system changed in many ways.

• Earlier, developing countries could turn to international institutions for

financial assistance. Now they were forced to borrow from Western
commercial banks and private lending institutions.
• This led to periodic debt crises, lower incomes and unemployment in the
developing world. Many African and Latin American countries suffered from
such crises.
• China had been cut off from the world economy since its revolution in 1949.
• China began to follow new economic policies and came back into the fold of
world economy.
• Collapse of the Soviet Union and that of Soviet style communism in many
Eastern European countries brought many countries into the fold of world
economy.
• Wages were quite low in countries; like China, India, Brazil, Philippines,
Malaysia, etc.
• These countries became preferred sourcing destinations for many MNCs.
• India has also emerged as the most preferred hub for Business Process
Outsourcing.
• In the last two decades, many third world countries have grown at a rapid
pace and India, China and Brazil are their leading examples.

******************************
 Age of Industrialisation

Industrialisation - The transformation of a society from agrarian to

a manufacturing or industrial economy or Economy is transformed from a
primarily agricultural one to one based on the manufacturing of goods.

Age of Industrialisation - Period of history that encompasses the

changes in economic and social organization that began around 1760
in Great Britain and later in other countries, characterized chiefly by the
replacement of hand tools with power-driven machines such as
the power loom and the steam engine, and by the concentration
of industry in large establishments.

Proto industrialisation – Period before Industrialisation where

production was done through conventional methods.
ET Paul’s Music Book

• In 1900, a popular music publisher E.T. Paull produced a music book

that had a picture on the cover page announcing the ‘Dawn of the
Century’.
• At the centre of the picture is a goddess-like figure - the angel of
progress, bearing the flag of the new century.
• She is gently perched on a wheel with wings, symbolising time. Her
flight is taking her into the future.
• Floating about, behind her, are the signs of progress: railway,
camera, machines, printing press and factory.
• This glorification of machines and technology is even more marked
in a picture which appeared on the pages of a trade magazine over
a hundred years ago.
• It shows two magicians. The one at the top is Aladdin from the
Orient who built a beautiful palace with his magic lamp.
• The one at the bottom is the modern mechanic, who with his
modern tools weaves a new magic: builds bridges, ships, towers
and high-rise buildings. Aladdin is shown as representing the East
and the past, the mechanic stands for the West and modernity.
• The history of industrialisation thus becomes simply a story of
development, and the modern age appears as a wonderful time of
technological progress.

In this chapter we will look at this history by focusing first on Britain,

the first industrial nation, and then India, where the pattern of
industrial change was conditioned by colonial rule.
 Before the Industrial Revolution

• All too often we associate industrialisation with the growth of

factory industry. When we talk of industrial production, we refer to
factory production.
• When we talk of industrial workers, we mean factory workers.
• Histories of industrialisation very often begin with the setting up of
the first factories.
• There is a problem with such ideas. Even before factories began to
dot the landscape in England and Europe, there was large-scale
industrial production for an international market.
• This was not based on factories. Many historians now refer to this
phase of industrialisation as proto-industrialisation.

Production & Proto Industrialisation –

• Due to increase in world trade, there was a demand for goods to

be produced. But merchants in towns could not produce such a
large number of products.
• This was because there were guilds/ associations of skilled
craftsmen. These associations limited the training of skill to new
people to regulate and control prices and competitions.
• The associations were further supported by rulers who granted
them a monopoly to produce and sell specific products.
• In the countryside, poor peasants and artists were facing a hard
time. Common lands were disappearing, and so these people had
to look for other sources of income.
• When merchants approached these poor peasants and artists, they
agreed. They could work in their small fields and work for
merchants, which added to their income.
• Moreover, work from merchants enabled them to involve every
member of the family, thus increasing production.
 • This led to the formation of a close connection between towns and
countryside, which led to an exchange of goods and money on a
large scale.
• The proto-industrialization phase involved 20 to 25 workers
employed by a merchant, thus covering hundreds of workers by a
single clothier.

THE COMING UP OF THE FACTORY

The cotton industry was among the first industry to gain pace. In the
eighteenth century, the demand for cotton products increased drastically, and
so did its production.
• There are many cotton production steps, and with the invention of
techniques for each step, production per worker increased.
• Also, the technologies helped in the production of better-quality
cotton.
• Richard Arkwright set up the cotton mill. This brought the production
of cotton products from the countryside to towns and under a single
roof.
• Setting up of mills led to close monitoring of each cotton production
step, thus controlling quality and production.
• A drawback of this was that due to the faster production of better-
quality products, the countryside workers were begun to be ignored.

THE PACE OF INDUSTRIAL CHANGE

Four important points describe the pace of industrial change:

• In the initial phase of industrialization, the cotton sector gained

momentum, but iron and steel became the leading sector in
trade. This was due to the development of colonies and setting up
railways to improve the exchange of goods.
• Though the factory setup was rapid, a large proportion of
products were still produced in the countryside. In fact, less than
20 percent of the workforce was employed in factories.
 • Though said to be ‘traditional,’ inventions in new techniques were
incorporated in the old ways. This helped in the growth of many
sectors such as pottery, glasswork, furniture making, etc.
• Also, the transition from old to the new technology was not rapid.
This was due to the high costs of the machine, and also, they
were difficult to maintain. This caused the limitation of the use of
technologies in the initial phase of industrialization.

Steam engine:
• In 1781, James Watt modified the steam engine produced by
Newcomen.
• Mathew Boulton manufactured a new model for the same and
patented it.
• Though the steam engine’s invention was a major contribution to
society, it was in the late nineteenth century that people
acknowledged its full capability and began using it on a large scale.
Hand Labour and Steam Power
Why weren’t technological advances rapid?

• Expensive machinery and high maintenance costs were some of the

main reasons why human labour was preferred.
• In Britain, as the population increased, there was no shortage of
people searching for work. People in large numbers travelled to cities
and towns in search of work.
• This surplus amount of labour enabled industrialists to hire workers at
cheap wages.
• Also, there were industries whose product’s demand peaked in a
particular season. So, industrialists favoured hiring workers for a
particular season than investing in machines that required
maintenance round the clock.
• Another reason for hiring hand labour was that there were products in
the market that required human skill, products with specific features.
Machines could not meet a person’s needs as they produced products
with uniform features.
• With the invention of machines producing similar products for large
crowds, handmade products that satisfied individual needs were
considered rare. So aristocratic people considered it classy to have
products being made with specific details suitable for them.

LIFE OF THE WORKERS

• The life of workers can be imagined from the availability of work and
the wages being given.
• For any number of vacancies, there were hundreds of people who
ready to take up the job. But as not everyone could get the job, the
best probability was with those who had friends or family working in
an organization, which was not the case with most people.
• The workers went about days to weeks without employment, living in
Night Refugees or Casual Wards, as per their convenience, for shelter.
• As many industries were seasonal, when the demand for their
products decreased, the workers found themselves jobless again.
While many moved back to the countryside, some stayed back to find
another alternative source of income.
 • Even when the laborers were employed, they were not paid
sufficiently. The average income depended on the number of days he
was employed, which is less (in case of seasonal employment), further
deteriorated the condition.
• Unemployment in Britain till the mid-nineteenth century ranged from
35 to 75 percent in different regions.
• Unemployment and starvation among workers were so drastic that
any invention or technological advance that could speed up work was
seen as a threat to their survival.
• A similar case was observed when Spinning Jenny was invented. Its
introduction led to chaos among the women workers who started
destroying the machines.
• Employment in Britain increased after the 1840s by building up
factories, roads, constructing railways, digging tunnels, laying drainage
and sewers, and many more.

Industrialization in the Colonies

THE AGE OF INDIAN TEXTILES

• Before industrialization and colonial rule in India, the international market

was dominated by silk and cotton produced in India.
• This demand led to the establishment of ports in India which had trade
connections with different regions. Important among them were Surat on
Gujarat Coast (connected to the Gulf and Red Sea Ports), Masulipatam on
the Coromandel Coast, and Hoogly in Bengal (connected to Southeast
Asian).
• Merchants and bankers in India controlled the production and supply of
cotton. They paid advances to weavers and collected cotton from them. This
cotton was then transferred to ports where they sold cotton to brokers.
• This network started breaking down with the introduction of European
companies in India. These companies first gained ground and then started
establishing their roots in the Indian system of trade.
 • Slowly, the trade controlled by Indian merchants began dying, and ports
controlled by them also began losing their value (from Rs 16 million, the
value of trade passing through Surat declined to Rs 3 million).
• While the old ports were losing value, new ones were gaining importance.
These were the ones controlled by European companies. The new ones
included ports of Bombay and Calcutta.

WHAT HAPPENED TO WEAVERS?

• Before establishing a monopoly over trade, East India Company faced

competition in the market with other European powers, i.e., Dutch, French,
and Portuguese, along with local traders.
• This competition enabled the weavers and merchants to sell their goods at
optimum prices.
• So, after acquiring monopoly over trade, East India Company established a
system that enabled them a regular supply of cotton and silk, abolished
competition, and so consequently control over prices.
• Soon, weavers began facing problems. There were times when the weavers
were not able to complete the order on time. This led to clashes between
the Gomastha and the weavers.
• Gomastha were outsiders for the village people, and peons and sepoys often
accompanied them. So, whenever any order got delayed, the weavers were treated
with beatings and mistreatment.
• Weavers began to leave their villages, searching for another place to live, free from
East India Company’s clutches. Those who stayed back refused to work for the
company and resorted back to agriculture.

MANCHESTER COMES TO INDIA

The 1800s saw a decline in cotton export from India. It accounted for 33 percent of the
export price in 1811-12; it went down to less than 3 percent in 1850-51.

Why did it happen?

• During the 1800s, cotton industries began booming in Britain. With this
development, the industrialists of Britain wanted less competition in the market
with their goods. So, they wanted the imports of cotton made goods to be
reduced.
• The industrialists also pressurized the Company to sell goods in its colonies,
thus increasing export of their machine-made products. This led to an increase
in cotton exports from Britain drastically.
• Also, when American Civil War broke out, raw cotton supply from America
declined. This caused a maximum supply of raw cotton from India.
What were its implications?
 • The weavers prominently felt the implications. On the one hand,
where their export market was ruined due to the banishment of
imports in other countries, the local market faced a similar fate.
• The weavers now faced competition in the local markets with
machine-made goods from Britain. As the prices of the goods were
low, weavers started facing problems with the sale of their goods at
minimum prices.
• Also, as raw cotton export increased from India, its prices rose very
high. The weavers could not buy raw cotton, or even if they did, they
had to do so at very high prices. This was not affordable as their
products were not being brought in the market.

Factories come Up
• The first cotton mill was established in Bombay in 1854.

• The first jute mill was set up in 1855 in Bengal.

THE EARLY ENTREPRENEURS

• The early businessmen in India were mostly traders. In the late eighteenth
century, the East India Company exported opium to China and bought tea
imported in England. Many traders played minor roles in these transactions.
But over the years, they acquired knowledge, skill, and finance to set their own
factories when opportunities provided.

Examples of such business people are:

Dwarka Nath Tagore from Bengal
Dinshaw Petit and Jamshedji Nusserwanjee Tata from Bombay
Set Hukumchand from Calcutta, set up a first jute mill in Calcutta in 1917

• Apart from traders who dealt with China market, many had trade relations
with other countries – Burma, Middle East, and East Africa. Also, many were
such who traded within the boundaries of the country.
• With the company’s control over trade, these traders were banned from
having connections with other European countries. They were restricted
from the items they could trade under, including raw cotton, wheat, indigo,
and opium.
• European Managing Agencies had a large control over Indian trade. Three
important agencies were – Bird Heigler’s & Co., Andrew Yule, and Jardine
Skinner & Co.
 • These companies-controlled investments and made decisions regarding
trade, where Indian traders only worked as finance providers.

WHERE DID THE WORKERS COME FROM?

• With the increase in the number of factories and industries being set up, there
was also a great demand for workers.
• Most of the workers came from nearby villages and districts. In search of
work, people also travelled large distances.
• Though there was a demand for workers to be employed, getting a job was
always difficult as people available for the job were always more than the jobs
available.
• The work of hiring workers was allotted to a person, jobber.
• He was usually a trusted person. Jobbers usually employed people from his
village, promising them a settlement in the city. In return, he expected gifts
and money, thus controlling their lives.

The Peculiarities of Industrial Growth

▪ The European Managing Agencies had a monopoly over the trade of certain
products – cotton, jute, indigo, tea, and coffee. When Indian industries set
up, they chose products that would not face any competition with the
Agencies.
▪ One such product was yarn- a coarse cotton thread. This yarn was either
used by the local market or exported to China.
▪ When Swadeshi Movement became popular, industrialists started making
demands to grant concessions and give protections. Along with this, the
export of yarn to China also diminished. This led the industrialists to shift
their production from yarn to cloth.
▪ First World War opened windows of opportunities for the Indian
businessmen. As Britain got involved in the war, the Company’s goods
declined, giving Indian industrialists the local market to them.
▪ As the war continued, there was a demand for war necessities to be
supplied, such as – jute bags, cloth for army uniforms, tents and leather
boots, etc. This led to the working of overtime by the workers. New
factories were set up to meet the demands.
▪ After the end of the First World War, The European agencies could not take
over the Indian market. Britain’s economy failed drastically.
SMALL SCALE INDUSTRIES PREDOMINATE

▪ After the First World War, India saw the growth of factories and industries.
But despite enormous demand from the international market, the
workforce in the industries was very less, almost five to ten percent.
▪ The remaining was involved in small-scale production units, which
flourished during this time.
▪ Weavers were not entirely against innovations or technological advances.
They accepted the inventions that helped them increase their production.
▪ One such invention was the fly shuttle- which helped them weave large
pieces of cloth. Such technologies helped them survive the market of
machine-made goods.
▪ Machine-made goods are uniform without any specialization, whereas
weavers had the advantage of producing materials with unique features.
Banaras or Baluchari sarees are good examples of such a kind.
▪ There were two types of cloth production – coarse and fine material.
Coarse cloth products were usually bought by the poor, but their demand
fluctuated during poor harvest.
▪ At the same time, finer fabrics always maintained demand in the market as
the rich could not afford them.

Market for Goods

• Indian markets were flooded with Britain made goods. But this was not sufficient.
To sell these products, first, there was a need to create its demand. It was
necessary to create a sense of need in the minds of the consumers for these
products. This was done through advertisements.
• One way of advertising was labels. Labels on products were put to give a unique
identity to the products, giving them a superior feel. Labels helped customers to
have confidence in the product manufactured by a particular company/ brand.
• Many a time, labels were beautiful illustrations or paintings which attracted
consumers.
• Manchester made goods had images of gods and goddesses as labels. With
foreign products having images of gods gave them a familial feeling.
• Images of kings and nawabs were also used.
• They depicted a sign of royalty and class.
• Calendar printing also bloomed during this time. Irrespective of the financial
status, calendars were brought by both rich and poor.
• These contained advertisements, which, when seen regularly over the year, left a
mark on the people’s minds.
• So, when one needed to buy a particular product, the aforementioned brand/
shop was the one to be preferred.
• Advertisements also helped in the spread of nationalism message. Indian made
goods were popularised during the Swadeshi movement, enabling them to
boycott foreign products.

*********************
 Print Culture & Modern World
Print itself has a history which has, in fact, shaped our contemporary world.
What is this history? When did printed literature begin to circulate? How has it
helped create the modern world?

• In this chapter we will read and understand the development of print,

from its beginnings in East Asia to its expansion in Europe and in
India.
• The earliest kind of print technology was developed in China, Japan and
Korea. This was a system of hand printing.

First Printed Books / Print in China -

• From AD 594 onwards, books in China were printed by rubbing paper – also
invented there – against the inked surface of woodblocks.
• As both sides of the thin, porous sheet could not be printed, the traditional
Chinese ‘accordion book’ was folded and stitched at the side.
• Superbly skilled craftsmen could duplicate, with remarkable accuracy, the
beauty of calligraphy.
 • Inked wooden blocks, having alphabets carved out by artisans, were rubbed
against the paper. The papers then made were porous, so two articles were
not published. The not printed sides were sown, and such ‘accordion books’ in
China were made.
• In the sixteenth century, China was one a country producing printed matter
on a large scale. Initially, it included only textbooks for examinations of civil
services.
• Gradually, other printed matter became available to the people. People were
more interested in reading fictional stories, poetries, plays, autobiographies
and the like. Likewise, trade information became available in printed form,
which was vastly used by traders.
• With the rise in population and an increase in demand for new types of
printed matter- there was a need to publish it faster. Western techniques and
presses were introduced in China to fulfil the new reading class’s demands of
the nineteenth century.
• One of the most famous hums for the new Print is Shanghai.

Print In Japan
• The Print was introduced in Japan around AD 768-770 by China’s Buddhist
missionaries.
• Printed in AD 868, the Buddhist Diamond Sutra is the oldest Japanese book.
• The handprinted matter became a common sight in Japan’s libraries and
markets, ranging from textbooks to books on prose, poetry, paintings, etc.
• There were also books on women, manners and etiquettes, cooking, flower
arrangements and many more.
• Paintings of representations also became famous in Japan. Edo’s pictures
illustrated an elegant urban culture that involved artists, teahouse gatherings,
and courtesans.

Print comes to Europe

• Introduction of Chinese paper to Europe opened the ways to make
manuscripts, written by skilled hand writers or scribes.
• Initially, handwritten editions were available to aristocratic people and
monastic libraries on vellum, expensive.
• With the coming of the paper, many manuscripts were being made and
exported. Scribes found employment not only under wealthy employers but
also by booksellers.
 • Manuscripts had its disadvantages: copying was expensive, time-consuming
and a very laborious task.
• Also, the documents were difficult to handle and could not be carried around
easily and fragile.
• With the growing demand for books, manuscripts were insufficient to fulfil the
request.
• In 1295, Marco Polo, a great explorer, introduced woodblock printing in Italy.
From Italy, it spread to various parts of the world.
• Soon, woodblock painting became widely used to print books, textiles, play
cards, pictures, and much more.

Gutenberg And The Printing Press

• Gutenberg grew up on large farms, where he had seen wine and olive presses.
He became a master goldsmith, who had the expertise of creating lead
moulds for making trinkets.
• Gutenberg applied this knowledge to create the printing press, where olive
press formed the base model of the printing press, and the lead moulds were
used to cast alphabets.
• In 1448, Gutenberg printed the first book on the press. It was the Bible.
• The publishes published180 copies of the Bible in 3 years, a high-speed
production by the then standards.
Gradually, the more developed printing press came into everyday use, and many
books were published. This transition of hand printing to automatic printing led
to print revolution.
Though the printing press was introduced, it did not entirely stop hand printing.
The metal casts were designed such that they resembled handwritten styles.
Books were printed in the media with the borders designed according to the
reader’s choice.
The Print Revolution and Its Impact
• The print revolution was the transformation that printed matter brought
to the people’s lives.
• Many people and the content were not restricted to the religious and
academic point; new ideologies and thoughts came to be acknowledged,
and a new culture came into being.

A New Reading Public

• Before the process of the printing press, reading was restricted to a limited
population. As books were expensive and not produced in large number,
ordinary people did not have access to them.
• Before print culture there resided an oral culture, where information was
passed on orally; sacred texts were read out, plays were performed and
folk stories recited.
• Even after the printing press process, when books became cheap and
available in large numbers, not many could read it.
• An as large section of the European society was illiterate, books on folk
tales and ballads were printed with beautiful pictures for illustrations. Such
was then read out to people gatherings at villages or towns.
• Gradually, with the availability of cheap books, people learned to read.
Oral culture slowly was paving a path to reading culture.
RELIGIOUS DEBATES AND THE FEAR OF PRINT
• In the oral culture, religious faiths and norms were passed on from
generations. They believed what was said by the religious authorities.
• As not many were literate, people could not read the spiritual or sacred text
and understand their own.
• This was also the case with other spheres. But with the spread of print
culture, many could read and interpret things in their ways.
• They published their views and spread it among the crowd, persuading them
to throw away the old age norms.
• This led to fear of the printed matter. Many thought that with the circulations
of new and varied ideas, old texts would lose their value, leading to a spread
of irreligious and rebellious ideas. Because of this, many wanted restrictions
on what could be printed.

Martin Luther
• Martin Luther was a religious reformer. In 1517, he wrote Ninety-Five Thesis
where he criticized the Roman Catholic Church’s practices and rituals.
• A copy of the work was posted on a church’s door in Wittenberg.
• Soon, Martin Luther’s work spread like a forest fire, leading to the sale of 5000
copies in the first few weeks. The Thesis had a significant impact on the
readers.
• There was a division in the Church itself, which led to Protestant Reformation.
Martin Luther stated Print as “the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one”.
Print And Dissent
Easy availability of printed matter significantly impacted the people’s ideas and
thoughts. Those who had little knowledge about reading and writing also read
religious texts and deciphered the message according to their understanding.
• Menocchio, a miller in Italy, began reading books in his locality.
• His interpretations about God and Creation were not acceptable to the Roman
Catholic Church.
• Menocchio was dragged up publicly twice and then executed. This was done
so set an example to those who questioned and criticized the Roman Catholic
Church’s ways.

From 1558, the Church began to maintain Prohibited Books’ Index to gain control
over publishers and booksellers. The Church did this to stop the criticisms and
restore people’s faith in them.

The Reading Mania

• Eighteenth and nineteenth-century Europe saw an increase in literacy rates,
which caused a rise in books publications.
• As more people became literate, and many cultivated the habit of reading,
there came a demand for varied categories of printed matter.
• To sell books to every nook and corner of the country, publishers in England,
began hiring chapmen.
• These were petty pedlars who carried penny chapbooks and sold them to the
poor.
• In France, “Bibliotheque Bleue” were cheap books printed on low-quality
paper, bounded in blue colour covers. Along with stories, scientists’ theories
and philosophies also came to be published.
• Such publications helped scientists in various parts of the world know about
the ongoing research on a particular topic.
• Ideas of philosophers such as Thomas Paine, Voltaire and Jean Jacques had a
great impact on the readers’ minds.
• Newspapers, periodicals and magazines also gained popularity from the early
eighteenth century.
 • These compiled information on various topic significant published matter on
the national and cultural importance and current affairs. This helped people to
know about the events happening in their country.

Tremble, Therefore, Tyrants Of The World

• This is a statement proclaimed by a French novelist of the eighteenth century
– Louise-Sebastien Mercier.
• Mercier and many believed Print to be the engine that would enlighten people
to fight against them’ autocratic rule and injustice.
• Mercier books protagonists were mainly readers who were inspired by the
ideas and philosophies delivered by books.
• Thus, the statement “Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble
before the virtual writer!”

Print Culture And The French Revolution

• There are three arguments or points that link print culture to the French
revolution:
• Many revolutionary ideas were spread through Print.
• Concept of reasons and knowledge should be applied to govern a country
rather than traditions were popularized by writers such as Voltaire and
Rousseau.
• Many criticized and questioned the age-old beliefs and superstitions;
introducing people to theories and thoughts made them rethink all the
customs that were followed till then.
• As many people read new ideas, some agreed to them while others did not.
This opened the opportunities to discussions and arguments, enabling the
public to evaluate the writings and opinion of their own.
• This debate and discussion culture, called the public culture, paved the way to
a social revolution in Europe.
• Literature that made fun of the monarchy also gained ground.
• Cartoons and caricatures of the aristocrats were published that showed the
people how the royalty was only interested in the power and had a minimal
sense of duty towards the common men that suffered painfully under their
rule. This created a sense of hatred for the aristocrats and the monarchs.
 • Though the arguments say a lot about Print’s contribution to the spread of
new French society ideas, one should not ignore the literature available that
supported the traditions and beliefs followed till then.
• They encouraged them as the message of good. According to their
understanding, people read both the type of ideas and accepted and rejected
them.
• So, we can say that print culture did not directly influence the people, but it
opened them to new ideas and helped them form opinions of their own.

The Nineteenth Century - Children, Women And Workers

Children:
• Books for children became prominent in society. As primary education
became compulsory, books for children flooded the market.
• Textbooks for children became a heavy task for the publishers, and many
houses were established that were solely responsible for publishing children’s’
books.
• Stories and folk tales were re-written with some changes that suited the
children’s innocent minds. The Grimm Brothers spent years compiling various
accounts collected from peasants and village older men and finally published
them in 1812.

Women:
• Women also became essential readers. Books on etiquettes and housekeeping
were published for women.
• Women were also seen as well-known novelists in the nineteenth century,
with Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters and George Eliot being prominent.
• The novels they wrote portrayed a different type of woman – a person who
had an opinion of her own, a strong will and an influencing personality.

Workers:
• Workers also became interested in reading and learning new knowledge.
• Many lower middle-class people and artists started renting from libraries and
educated themselves.
 • From the mid-nineteenth century, when the working hours were getting
shorter, the workers found themselves expressing their views and thoughts
through writing.

Further Innovations
• Richard M. Hoe introduced a power-driven cylindrical press that could publish
8000 sheets per hour.
• Offset press was developed by the nineteenth century that could print six
colours.
• In the 1920s, cheap series, called Shilling Series, was published, which
consisted of famous works.
• Dust covers or jacket covers were also introduced in the twentieth century.

India and the World of Print

Manuscripts Before The Age Of Print
• Preserving information through manuscripts had been an ancient practice in
India.
 • They were written in various languages – Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian, and
local languages.
• Manuscripts were written on palm leaves or handmade papers and then
either pressed between wooden covers or sewn together to keep the
information safe.
• But manuscripts were fragile and could be carried everywhere easily. They
were also challenging to handle.

Print Comes To India

• The first printing press in Goa by Portuguese missionaries
• In 1579, the first Tamil book was published, and in 1710, the first Malayalam
book was published by the catholic priests.
• James Augustus Hickey began editing a weekly magazine called Bengal
Gazette, in 1780.
• The magazine was proclaimed to be influenced by none. And so, the magazine
contained information about trade and sales. It also covered information and
advertisements about the slavery business in India.
• The magazine also published gossip about the Company’s officials and the
news. This angered the Company, and the then Governor General Warren
Hastings harassed Hickey tremendously.
• After this incident, the Company encouraged publishing newspapers under
the Company rule, where what information is to be shared can be controlled.
• Indians also published their newspapers. First among them was Bengal
Gazette, published by Gangadhar Bhattacharya, a close ally of Rammohun
Roy.

Religious Reform and Public Debates

• As literacy rates increased, more and more people became aware of people’s
atrocities in the name of religion.
• They began forming opinions of their own. These ideas and thoughts were
published in newspapers and magazines, which reached a large crowd.
 • As some wanted to end the age-old atrocities and bring new changes to the
society, many supported the traditional system of beliefs and wanted things
to go the way they always had.
• Print became an essential source of tool to carry ideas and thoughts to a large
number of people. It helped people shape their views, where they accepted
and rejected arguments according to their understanding.
• To reach more comprehensive society sections, religious reformer Raja
Rammohun Roy began publishing Sambad Kaumudi from 1821.
• To counteract his ideas, Hindu orthodoxy published Samachar Chandrika. Two
Persian newspapers- Jam-i-Jahan Nama and Samshul Akhbar– were published.
• A Gujrati newspaper was also published named Bombay Samachar.
• Fearing conversion under colonial rule, ulama decided to publish Holy
Scripture translations in local languages to promote the people’s faith.
• The Deoband Seminary also issued fatwas to promote Islamic doctrines’
meanings and educate people on conducting themselves in their everyday
lives.
• Hindu literature was also encouraged via Print. Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas
was published in Calcutta in 1810.
• Publishing houses such as Naval Kishore Press at Lucknow and Shri
Venkateshwar Press in Bombay printed various religious texts, tales in local
languages.
• These could be read by people everywhere and could be read out to illiterate
people.

New Forms of Publication

• Varied forms of literature came into publishing with the increase in several
readers. Different people had different demands, leading to various writing
styles.
• Popular among these became novels, which reflected the ordinary people’s
lives. People reading them could relate to the stories. Visual paintings also
became popular.
• Calendars and pictures of god and goddess adorned the people’s walls, be it
rich or poor. This led to the employment of wood engravers. Photos depicting
new social and cultural life also began to be printed.
• Such prints began shaping the people’s views on how a society can be
changed for a better future. Caricatures and cartoons also became famous.
• With these, editors sometimes tried to give strong messages to the public:
contained arguments or thoughts on social, political or religious issues.
Women And Print
• Women can be said to be significantly influenced by print culture. With the
opening of women schools, many girls began to be educated. Fathers also
taught their daughters at home.
• Journals and magazines were published which had attached syllabus to guide
womenfolk at homes.
• People who did not want women to be educated. Hindus thought that
education would lead women to be widowed.
• Muslims feared that ladies would be corrupted by reading Urdu romances. But
still, many women managed to learn to read and write by themselves in the
confines of their home.
• Rashsundari Debi was a young married girl of Bengal who learnt to read in her
house. Later she wrote her autobiography named Amar Jiban, the first full-
length autobiography, published in 1876.
• Gradually, women began speaking up for their rights and strongly opposed the
injustices they faced by the very people they served.
• Kailashbashini Debi, a Bengali woman, wrote about women’s experiences in
her house: about the hard labour they were forced to do, treat as inferiority,
kept in the confines in the house, and many more.
• Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Rambai wrote about the miserable lives of upper-
caste Hindu women, especially the widows. Hindi literature gained popularity
from the 1870s.
• Many magazines, journals and newspapers began publishing issues of
profound importance such as widow remarriage, the widow’s lives, women
education, and national movement.
• In Punjab, books were published for women as well. Ram Chaddha published a
book named Istri Dharm Vichar to teach women to be obedient.
• In Bengal, the Battala- central area of Calcutta- became famous for printing
books for women.
• Cheap books were published on various topics, and such were distributed by
peddlers which enabled women to read and educate themselves on different
issues.
Print And The Poor People
Print changed the lives of all the sectors of society. Poor were also affected by the
print culture. Cheap books were published and sold at crossroads to enable workers
and labourers to buy and read them.

The caste system is rigid in India. In the seventeenth and eighteenth century, lower
caste people were treated with disrespect and denied respect and position in
society.

• Jyotibha Phule, also known as Maratha pioneer of low-caste, published a book

named Gulamgiri in 1871, highlighting the injustices done through the caste
system.
• R. Ambedkar and E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker also wrote against the caste
system, and such were read by a lot of people, bringing to light the plights of
people which were ignored by people through the ages.
Mill-workers and labourers also engaged themselves in reading and learning to
express their feelings and experiences.
• Kashi Baba, a Kanpur worker, published Chhote Aur Bade ka Sawaal where
he defined the difference between upper- and lower-class people and
about exploiting the people working in the industries and factories.
• A mill worker under the name Sudarshan wrote many poems. These
poems were compiled as a collection and published as Sacchi Kavitayan.
• Many reformers and nationalists also helped workers set up libraries to
educate them. This was hoping to help them get rid of their drinking
habits.

Print and Censorship

• During the early years of East India Company rule, it wasn’t much concerned
about circulation and print matter control.
• Instead, it was the Company’s officials they were concerned about. Many
Englishmen officials were not happy with the Company’s rule and thought
they were misusing their powers and oppressing people.
• The Company, fearing of losing its monopoly right in India if such criticism
reached the England government, took measures to control what was
published by the Englishmen.
• Calcutta Supreme Court passed some regulations to control freedom of the
press.
• After pressurizations from vernacular newspapers and English editors, in
1835, press laws were revised.
• The Governor-General was Bentinck, and Thomas Macaulay was the colonial
official who formulated new rules that gave the press the freedom to print.
• Draw 3 Tarot Cards for Free Victoria Tarot Reader report this ad After 1857,
strict restrictions were imposed on the press.
• Some publications carried nationalist messages, and people were getting
influenced on a large scale.
• 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed. It gave the government control
over what could be published.
• The Company kept track of the printed matter, and if found against the
Company rule, the publisher was given a warning. If still, such act continued,
the Company was liable to confiscate the property and shut it down.
• Though the Company officials took stringent actions, the nationalist
movement did not slow down. The restrictions even further provided fuel in
their fight against the Company rule.
• An example of such is: Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote in his Kesari against the act
of cruelty done to Punjab Revolutionaries, for which he was imprisoned in
1908.

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