Chronologies
Table of Contents
1 Important Tribal Revolts
| Name of the Revolt | Leader | Year | Region | Remark / Significance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paharias | 1778 | Rajmahal Hills | against British land expansion | |
| Bhil Revolt | 1817-19 | Western Ghats | against Company Rule | |
| Ho Uprising | Raja Parahat | 1827 | against occupation of Singhbhum (in Chhotanagpur plateau) by British | |
| Ahom Revolt | 1828-33 | Assam | against non-fulfilment of promises by Company after end of Burmese War | |
| suprressed by dividing the kingdom | ||||
| Khasi Revolt | Tirath Singh (Nunklow ruler) | 1830s | Khasi Hills | against occupation of hills |
| Singhphos Rebellion | 1830s | |||
| Kol uprising | Buddho Bhagat | 1831 | Chhotanagpur | against expansion of British and land transfer to outsiders |
| Santhal Rebellion | Sido and Kanhu | 1855-56 | Bihar & Jharkhand | against zamindari, moneylenders, company |
| Naikada | 1860s | MP, Gujarat | against caste hindus and british | |
| Kharwar | 1870s | Bihar | against revenue settlement activities | |
| Ulgulan (Munda Uprising) | Birsa Munda | 1899-1900 | Jharkhand, Bihar, | against zamindari, moneylenders, forest contractors |
| ulgulan means revolution | ||||
| Bastar | 1910 | |||
| Forest Satyagraha | Chenchu tribe | 1920s | Guntur, Andhra Pradesh | |
| Forest Satyagraha | Karwars of Palamau | 1930s | Palamau, Bihar | |
| Naga Movement, | Jadonang | 1920s | Manipur (present-day Nagaland) | making a Naga raj (an anti-British movement after the Kuki revolt) |
| Zeliasong Movement & | ||||
| Heraka Cult | Rani Gaidinliu | 1930s | ||
| Gond Uprising | 1940s | Gond-dharma | ||
2 Social Movements in Punjab
In Punjab, socio-religious movements started after the annexation of Punjab in 1849. Some came from outside such as the Brahmo Samaj, others developed inside.
| Name of the Movement | Leaders | Year | Region | Intent | Literature |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kuka (Namdhari movement) | Balak Singh, Ram Singh | Bhaini, Punjab | establish Sikh sovereignty | Nava Hindustan, Sacha Marg, Satyug | |
| simple life, civil disobedience, cow protection | |||||
| Anand ceremony for marriage, Khanda Pahul | |||||
| Nirankari Movement | Baba Dayal (a gold merchant) | restore purity of the faith | |||
| re-emphasized belief in the Nirankar – the Formless one | |||||
| condemned idol worship, pilgrimage, brahmanical rituals | |||||
| coined "Dhan Nirankar", "Deh Dhari Sab Khwar" | |||||
| founded Nirankari Darbar at Rawalpindi in 1851 | |||||
| Radhasoami | Shiv Dayal, a banker from Agra | Agra | God as a union between soul (radha) and master (soami) | ||
| Surat Shabd Yoga | |||||
| Jaimal Singh | estd. Beas dera | do not keep Guru Granth Sahib, do not have kirtan | |||
| Singh Sabha Movement | Thakur Singh Sandhawalia | 1873 | estd. Amritsar | to put a lid on rapid proselytisation of Sikhs | |
| Giani Gian Singh |
3 Commissions
3.1 Education
| Year | Committee/Commission | Head/Chariman | Viceroy at the time | Salient Features | Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1781 | Calcutta Madrassah | Warren Hastings | to provide educated Indians to work in Company courts | ||
| 1791 | Sanskrit College, Varanasi | Jonathan Duncan | ? | to provide educated Indians to work in Company courts | |
| 1813 | Charter Act 1813 | 1 lakh annually t be spent on education of Indians | Anglicist-orientalist controversity – what content and in which language? | ||
| Rammohan Roy was in support of English as medium of instruction | In 1835 – William bentick decided in favour of English education than native languages | ||||
| 1854 | Education Despatch (Wood's Despatch) | Sir Charles Wood (later 2nd Secretary of State) | Lord Dalhousie | creation of educational departments in provinces; vernacular in primary schools, anglo-vernacular in secondary school, english in college | creation of universities |
| govt supported education of girls | |||||
| 1882 | Commission on Indian Education (Hunter Commission) | W. W. Hunter | Lord Ripon | local bodies should manage primary schools; govt schools should be minimum with most falling under private hands while receiving performance based grants-in-aid | |
| 1902 | Universities Commission | Thomas Raleigh | Lord Curzon | universities should assume teaching role (earlier administrative only) | Universities Act 1904 |
| separate dept. of education at centre | estb in 1910 | ||||
| 1917 | Sadler Commission | Sadler | Lord Chelmsford | secondary education managed by separte boards and not by universities | 7 new universities |
| duration of degrees set at 3 years | Kashi Vidyapeet and Jamia Milia Islamia estd | ||||
| University course divided into pass course and honours | |||||
| 1924 | establishment of inter-University Board and beginning of inter-college and inter-uni activities | ||||
| 1929 | Hartog Committee | consolidation and improvement of primary education; selective system of admissions to universities; diversified courses | |||
| 1937 | Wardha Scheme of Basic Education | Dr. Zakir Hussain | |||
| 1944 | Sergeant Plan of Education | establishment of elementary and high schools; universal compulsory education for ages 6-11; 2 types of high schools – academic and vocational | |||
3.1.1 Indian
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1937 | All India Education Conference at Wardha |
| Dr. Zakir Hussain Committee appointed – gave 2 reports | |
| 1945 | Sevagram Conference – concept of Nai Talim emerged |
| 1946 | B. G. Kher conference |
3.1.2 Anglicist-Orientalist Controversies
| Anglicist | Orientalist |
|---|---|
| Aims | |
| Western literature | Oriental literature |
| Missionaries as the management | Indian management |
| Medium | |
| Western sciences in English | Western sciences in Indian languages |
| further controversy – classical or modern languages? | |
| i.e. Sanskrit/Arabic or Hindi/Urdu/Punjabi/Gujarati | |
| Methods | |
| Downards Filtration Theory | Company should take responsibility |
3.2 Civil Services Commissions
3.3 Famine Commissions
During company rule, there was not famine code. A famine for the company meant more profits by selling grains at higher prices in famine-struck areas after procuring them from non-famine areas. Post-1857 when the Crown took over, famine committees were appointed for the first time.
| Year | Region | Name | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1860-61 | Delhi-Agra | Baird Smith Committee | none |
| 1866 | Odisha, Bengal, Bihar | George Campbell | |
| 1876-78 | Great Famine | Strachey Commission | Recommended that 1) able-bodied persons be given employment instead of cash and kind relief |
| (Madras, UP, Punjab, Delhi, Bombay) | (came from London in 1878) | 2) cash and kind relief should be given only to old and crippled | |
| 3) Cattle must be migrated as drought sets in | |||
| 4) provinces responsible for relief, centre only in extreme cases | |||
| recommendations not accepted by Secretary of state | |||
| 1883 | Provisional Famine Code introduced by Lord Ripon | ||
| 1896-97 | Central Provinces | James Lyal Commission | |
| 1899-1900 | Anthony Macdonald Commission | relief by PPP | |
| 1942 | Bengal Famine | Wood Commission |
3.4 Education
3.5
4 Unions
4.1 Trade Unions
| 1875 | First Factory Commission | |
| 1881 | First Factory Act | children less than 7 not to work, hours fixed for children up to 12, dangerous machinery to be fenced |
| 1891 | Second Factory Act | 11 hours a day fixed for women with 1.5 hour interval, children up to 12 not to work |
| 1918 | Madras Trade Union | B. P. Wadia |
| 1920 | AITUC | President Lala Lajpat Rai, imp leader N. M. Joshi |
| 1926 | Trade Union Act | |
| 1929 | AITUF | Founded by N. M. Joshi |
| 1935-38 | AITUC and AITUF merged | |
| M. N. Roy founded Indian Labour Federation |
4.2 Farmers Unions
| Year | System | in Region | Formulated by | under Governor General | System |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1793 | Permanent Settlement | Bengal, Bihar, Odisha | Sir John Shore | Lord Cornwallis | Zamindar collected and paid 89% state share |
| 1820 | Ryotwari | Central and South India | Captain Alexander Read and Thomas Munroe | Elphinstone in Bombay | Individual paid to government |
| 1823 | Mahalwari System | North India (Punjab, Agra, Awadh) | Robert Merttins Bird and Holt Mackenzie | Lord Hastings (not Warren Hastings) | Village community responsible for payment through lambardar |
| 1936 | AIKS | founded by Shahjahan Ahmad in post-1929 depression |
4.3 States' Peoples Organisations
5 Relations with Princely States
| Period | Policy | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| 1740-65 | Company's Struggle for Equality | |
| 1765-1813 | Ring Fence Policy | |
| 1813-1857 | Policy of Subordinate Isolation | |
| 1858-1935 | Policy of Subordinate Union | |
| 1935-1947 | Policy of Equal Federation |
5.1 Subsidiary Alliances
Introduced by Lord Wellesley in 1798.
Subsidiary Alliances had unofficially been in fashion since 1740 when French Governor Dupleix first used these; they were unofficially used by the British and finally a clear name and doctrine was laid under Wellesley.
6 Communism in India
| 1920 | CPI founded by M N Roy in Tashkent |
| 1920-24 | Post-war conditions and rise of trade unions facilitated spread of communism |
| 1922-23 | Peshawar / Silk Letter Conspiracy Case |
| 1924 | Kanpur Conspiracy Case |
| 1924 | CPI founded by Satyabhagat in India |
| 1929-33 | Meerut Conspiracy Case against leftist trade union leaders: 31 charged, 27 convicted |
| including Dange, Joglekar, Usman, Muzaffar Ahmad | |
| and Englishmen Philip, Spratt and Ben Bradley | |
| 1936 | Anti-Imperealist People's Front (Dutt-Bradley Report) |
| Congress Socialist Party formed to include communists within Congress fold | |
| 1939 | Forward Bloc of S. C. Bose |
| 1939 | Bolshevik Party of India by M. D. Mazumdar |
| 1940 | M. N. Roy's Radical Democratic Party (not a Marxist party) |