Interim Government ● 2nd September 1946: Jawaharlal Nehru was chosen as the head of interim government. ● It was boycotted by Muslim League. ● After the initial boycott, League joined interim government in the last week of October 1946. ● 5 League members were made ministers in Interim government including Liaquat Ali Khan who was made the Finance Minister. ● 20th Feb 1947: Attlee declared that India would be freed by June 1948 & also announced that Lord Mountbatten would be the last Governor General of India. ● Lord Mountbatten announced Mountbatten plan on 3rd June. Mountbatten Plan ● On 15th August India would be freed. ● If one group of Punjab & Bengal assembly demands for partition, it would be done. ● If partition happened, then there would be boundary commission headed by Radcliffe. ● Princely states had to join either state & were not allowed to remain free. ● Each dominion state will have its own Governor General India Independence Act July 18, 1947 ● The British Parliament ratified the Mountbatten Plan as the "Independence of India Act-1947". The Act was implemented on August 15, 1947. ● The Act provided for the creation of 2 independent dominions of India & Pakistan. ● M.A. Jinnah became the 1st Governor-General of Pakistan. ● India, however, decided to request Lord Mountbatten to continue. ● C Rajagopalachari Revolutionaries Revolutionary Movement q Emerged in 1st decade of 20th century in Bengal (Kolkata) & Maharashtra (Pune) q Anushilan Samiti, Sandhya, Yuganthar were the groups formed in Bengal & Mithra Mela, Abhinav Bharat were formed in Maharashtra Alipore Conspiracy Case ● Also called the Maniktala bomb conspiracy was the trial of a number of revolutionaries in Calcutta under charges of "Waging war against the Government" of the British Raj between May 1908 & May 1909. ● The trial followed in the wake of the attempt on the life of Presidency Magistrate Douglas Kingsford in Muzaffarpur by Khudiram Bose & Prafulla Chaki in 1908. ● Two ladies, instead, got killed. ● Prafulla Chaki shot himself dead while Khudiram Bose was tried and hanged. ● The whole gang was arrested including the Ghosh brothers, who were tried in this case. ● Chittaranjan Das defended Aurobindo. ● Aurobindo was acquitted but Barindra Ghosh & Ullaskar Dutt were given the death penalty which was later commuted to life in prison. ● During the trial, Narendra Gosain, who had turned approver, was shot dead in jail by Satyendranath Bose & Kanailal Dutta. Maharashtra ● 1879: The 1st revolutionary activities here was the organization of the Ramosi Peasant Force by Vasudev Balwant Phadke. ● During the 1890s, Tilak propagated a spirit of militant nationalism, including use of violence through Ganapati & Shivaji festivals & his journals Kesari & Maharatta. ● His disciples— the Chapekar brothers, Damodar & Balkrishna — murdered the Plague Commissioner of Poona, Rand, & one Lt. Ayerst in 1897. ● Savarkar & his brother organised Mitra Mela, a secret society, in 1899 which merged with Abhinav Bharat in 1904. ● Nasik Conspiracy Case: In 1909, Anant Kanhare & Ganesh Savarkar shot dead Collector Jackson of Nasik with the revolver sent by V.D. Savarkar. Q. ‘Abhinava Bharat’ a secret society of revolutionaries was organised by: A)Khudiram Bose B)V.D. Savarkar C)Prafulla Chaki D)Bhagat Singh Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy ● Involving Rashbehari Bose along with Sachin Sanyal, the conspiracy culminated on the attempted assassination on 23 December 1912 when a home-made bomb was thrown on the Viceroy Hardinge when the ceremonial procession moved through Chandni Chowk . Abroad ● 1905: Shyamji Krishna Varma had started in London an Indian Home Rule Society— ’India House’ — as a center for Indian students, a scholarship scheme to bring radical youth from India. ● Madanlal Dhingra of this circle assassinated, the India office bureaucrat Curzon-Wyllie in 1909. Kakori Train Robbery,1925 ● The most important “action” of the HRA was the Kakori train robbery. ● The men held up the 8-Down train at Kakori, an obscure village near Lucknow, & looted its official railway cash. ● Government crackdown after the Kakori robbery led to arrests of many. ● Of whom 17 were jailed, 4 transported for life & 4— Bismil, Ashfaqullah, Roshan Singh & Rajendra Lahiri — were hanged. ● Hence, Kakori proved to be a setback. Hindustan Socialist Republican Association ● Determined to overcome the Kakori setback, the younger revolutionaries, inspired by socialist ideas, set out to reorganize Hindustan Republic Association at a historic meeting in the ruins of Ferozshah Kotla in Delhi (September 1928). ● H.R.A. was changed into H.S.R.A (Hindustan Socialist Republican Association) Saunders’ Murder (Lahore, December 1928) ● Just when the HSRA revolutionaries had begun to move away from individual heroic action & terrorism, the, death of Sher-i-Punjab Lala Lajpat Rai led them once again to take to individual assassination. ● Bhagat Singh, Azad & Rajguru shot dead Saunders, the police official responsible for the lathi charge in Lahore. Bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly,1929) ● Bhagat Singh & Batukeshwar Dutt were asked to throw a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly on April 8, 1929 against the passage of the Public Safety Bill & Trade Disputes ● Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev & Rajguru were tried in the Lahore conspiracy case. ● In jail, these revolutionaries protested against the horrible conditions through a fast, & demanded honorable & decent treatment as political prisoners. ● Jatin Das became the 1st martyr on the 64th day of his fast. ● Azad was involved in a bid to blow up Viceroy Irwin’s train near Delhi in December 1929. ● Azad was killed in a police encounter in a park in Allahabad in February 1931. ● March 23, 1931: Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev & Rajguru were hanged. Chittagong Armoury Raid (April 1930) ● Surya Sen decided to organise an armed rebellion along with his associates to show that it was possible to challenge the armed might of the mighty British. ● They had planned to occupy 2 main armories in Chittagong to seize & supply arms to the revolutionaries. Women's Participation ● Prominent women revolutionaries in Bengal during this phase included Pritilata Waddedar, who died conducting a raid on Railway Institute at Paharatali ; ● Kalpana Dutt (now Joshi) who was arrested & tried along Surya Sen & given a life sentence; ● 1931: Santi Ghosh & Suniti Chandheri, school girls of Comilla, who shot dead the district magistrate; ● 1932: Bina Das who fired point blank at the Governor while receiving degree at convocation. Q. Who among the following organised the famous Chittagong armory raid ? (a) Laxmi Sehgal (b) Surya Sen (c) Batukeshwar Datta (d) J.M.Sengupta ● Novels & books such as Bandi Jiwan by Sachin Sanyal & Maher Dabi by Sharatchandra Chatterjee (a Government ban only enhanced its popularity). ● The famous statement of the revolutionary position is contained in the book The Philosophy of the Bomb written by Bhagwaticharan Vohra. Education Institutions : ○ 1781: Calcutta Madrasa set up by Warren Hastings for the study & teaching of Muslim law & subjects. ○ 1792: Sanskrit college at Varanasi by Jonathan Duncan for the study of Hindu Law & Philosophy. ● 1784: The Asiatic Society of Bengal was founded by William Jones in Calcutta. ● 1800: Fort William College was set up Calcutta by Lord Wellesley for the training of the civil servants of the company in languages & customs of Indians. ● Charles Grant is considered as the 'father of modern education in India'. ● He is known so because of his efforts that the Charter Act of 1813 came into existence. Macaulay Minutes ● Bentinck had appointed Thomas Babington Macaulay as the ‘Chairman of the General Committee of Public Instruction’. ● Macaulay minutes refer to his proposal of education for the Indians. Wood’s Dispatch ● Educational Dispatch of 1854 (after Sir Charles Wood, the then President of Board of Control, who became the 1st Secretary of State for India). ● He sent a dispatch to Lord Dalhousie, which specified the nature, scope, method of imparting education to the natives. ● It modified the earlier radical- anglicist approach adopted by Macaulay in his minute related to education. ● It was considered as the ‘Magna Carta of English Education’ in India (formed a landmark in the history of modern education in India). Hunter Commission (1882) ● Lord Ripon appointed Hunter Commission under the chairmanship of Sir WW Hunter (remarks confined to secondary & primary education). ● To review the working of Charles Wood’s Despatch. ● It recommended that local bodies should be entrusted with the management of primary schools. Raleigh Commission ● Lord Curzon appointed a Universities Commission under Thomas Raleigh (Law member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council) in 1902 & based on his recommendations, Indian Universities Act of 1904 was passed. Saddler Commission ● It was appointed by Lord Chelmsford to review the working of Calcutta University. ● It included 2 Indians: Sir Ashutosh Mukherji & Dr. Ziauddin Ahmed. Hartog Commission An increase in number of schools & colleges had led to deterioration of education standards. Recommendations: ● The policy of consolidation & improvement of primary education. Wardha Scheme ● Wardha scheme of basic education was worked out after Gandhiji published a series of articles in the Harijan. ● For the purpose of discussing different aspects of the proposed new scheme of education, an All India Education Conference was held in Wardha on 22nd & 23rd October, 1937. ● Gandhiji himself presided over it. ● The conference appointed