Raja Ram Mohan Roy was an Indian socio-educational reformer who was also known as ‘Maker of Modern India’ and ‘Father of Modern India’ and ‘Father of the Bengal Renaissance and the prophet of Indian nationalism.” for the remarkable reforms he brought in the 18th century India. He was born on May 22, 1774, in Burdwan in Bengali Hindu family.

Among his efforts, the abolition of the sati-pratha-a practice in which the widow was compelled to sacrifice herself on the funeral pyre of her husband-was the prominent. His efforts were also instrumental in eradicating the purdah system and child marriage. One of his greatest achievements is the uplift of the position of women in India. First of all, he tried to give women proper education in order to give them better social status in society. His effort in the abolition of Sati made him immortal as a social reformer.

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In 1828 at Kolkata, Ram Mohan Roy formed the Brahmo Samaj, a group of people, who had no faith in idol-worship and were against the caste restrictions. He advocated the study of English, Science, Western Medicine and Technology.

He was a scholar and was well-versed in Sanskrit, Persian, English, Hindi, and Bengali. He made an intensive study of Christianity and other religions. After that, he came to the conclusion that the Hindu society needed reform and India had to learn a lot from the West.

Raja Rammohan Roy served the East India Company for a number of years and became a revenue officer in 1809. He was a critic of the unjust actions and policies of the British Government in India. He protested against the curbs on the freedom of the press.

His progressive views helped to change Hindu society but these views were bitterly opposed by the orthodox Hindus. He was a social and religious reformer, an educationist and a political leader. His efforts actually led to the resumption of the ethics principles of the Vedanta school of philosophy. He co-founded the Calcutta Unitarian Society.

The title ‘Raja’ was awarded to him by Mughal emperor Akbar, the second in 1831 when Roy visited England as an ambassador of the King to ensure that Bentick’s regulation of banning the practice of Sati was not overturned.

In November 1830 Ram Mohan Roy traveled to the United Kingdom as an ambassador of the Mughal emperor to plead for his pension and allowances. Raja Ram Mohan Roy passed away on September 27, 1833, at Stapleton near Bristol due to meningitis.

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History of India in a nutshell

We all remember the year of 1947 as the year of independence from the British rule. But, Lives of many people were in chaos irrespective of the independence celebrations. The partition of India (say British India) into India and Pakistan resulted in communal riots, especially in the Punjab region. Many people were killed in the riots. The factors that led to the partition of India draw their origin from the Indian freedom struggle.

CAUSES OF PARTITION OF INDIA:

India is a land of many religions and various communities with diverse cultures. Majority of the people belong to the Hindu community and the rest of the communities are minorities. During the freedom struggle, great persons like Mahatma Gandhi strove hard to gather people of all communities and make them fight against British rule. At the same time, the British rulers adopted the Divide and rule policy. That means by taking advantage of the fear of the minorities, especially Muslims they obstructed the national movement from time to time. This was ultimately going to result in the partition of India in a way which was not only unexpected by Britishers but even people who were very vocal in demanding the partition of India.

All India Muslim League, a brainchild of British rulers which was formed in 1906 used to fight for the cause of Muslims since its formation. Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who is considered as the father of Pakistan became the president of the Muslim League in 1924 proposed the two-nation theory and in 1940 he demanded a separate state for Muslims.

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British rulers encouraged the Muslim League and also introduced separate electorates for Muslims in 1932. From time to time they introduced new acts in the favour of minorities and by the time of independence the demand for Pakistan is very strong. Though leaders like Mahatma Gandhi were against the partition of India, it became inevitable and British India was divided into India and Pakistan.

Here Pakistan consists of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan(the region west of present-day Punjab).

AFTERMATH OF PARTITION OF INDIA:

At the time of Partition of India exact boundaries were not decided and people started moving towards the regions which they hope relatively safer and of their religious majority. That means Muslims in India moved to Pakistan while Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan moved to India crossing borders. Meanwhile, communal violence broke out and people started killing those of the opposite community.

Sikhs in Pakistan are dragged out of their houses and butchered. Same is the situation of Muslims in India. Dead bodies were laid down across the borders. The ultimate low of the situation is the utmost humiliation of women. They were openly being raped and some women voluntarily took their lives by jumping into the wells.

The situation went out of control and both the governments were able to do nothing. It was estimated that nearly 2 to 3 lakh people were killed during the riots. This was the largest ever migration that took place in History. Millions of people ran for their lives leaving their homes and cattle behind which were their means of living.

Later refugee camps were set up for all the migrants in both countries and they were settled in the course of time.

CONCLUSION:

Thus the partition of India saw the loss of many lives, property and will remain as the major tragedy of the Indian History.

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Gopal Krishna Gokhale, born on 9 May 1866 in a village named Kothuluk of Guhagar Taluka in Ratnagiri district in the present day State of Maharashtra (at that time in the Bombay Presidency) in a Chitpavan Brahmin family, was an outstanding intellectual India witnessed during the early quarter of the 20^th century.

His education, Gopal Krishna Gokhale graduated from Elphinstone College in 1884, influenced his career in a tremendous way, for, in addition of learning and becoming familiar with English language, he was exposed to Western political thought; those thoughts impressed him to such an extent that Gopal Krishna Gokhale became a great admirer of authors like John Stuart Mill and Edmund.

Although Gopal Krishna Gokhale was a staunch critic of the English colonial rule, the respect for English political theory and institutions acquired by Gokhale in his college days remained with him for the rest of his life and often reflected in his way of dealing many situations he encountered.

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Entry into Indian National Congress

Gopal Krishna Gokhale, who acquired the membership of India National Congress in 1889, struggled for decades to get greater political representation and power over public affairs for common Indians.

As Gopal Krishna Gokhale was moderate in his views so he always approached British authorities with petitions to cultivate a process and system of dialogue and discussion that in Gokhale’s opinion, would fetch greater British respect for Indian rights. Gopal Krishna Gokhale became the joint secretary of the Indian National Congress in 1895.

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Gopal Krishna Gokhale: an outstanding intellectual

Gopal Krishna Gokhale got intensive training in India Economics by Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade and G.V. Joshi. Some historians have even called him ‘a protégé’ of social reformer Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade.

Gopal Krishna Gokhale was not a “good orator” as it was not in his nature to use strong and forceful language as was the case with his other well-known Colleges like Tilak, Dadabhai Naoroji and RC Dutt.

As a speaker, Gopal Krishna Gokhale was gentle, courteous, reasonable, non-flamboyant and lucid. He always favoured detailed knowledge and the careful, cool and logical presentation and analysis of data. All these reflected in his speeches that did not entertain or hurt; however, they slowly drew the listener’s or reader’s attention by their intense intellectual power.

Gopal Krishna Gokhale got famous, primarily, for his budget speeches that were reported widely by the newspapers whose readers used to wait eagerly for their morning copy. He virtually changed the Legislative Council into an open university for catering political education to the people of the country.

It was his first budget speech on 26 March 1902 that earned him the name and fame of ‘the greatest parliamentarian that India has produced’.

In that historic session of the Parliament, when Edward Law, the Finance Member, presented the budget of a seven-crore-rupees surplus, he received congratulations of the house with great pride.

When Gopal Krishna Gokhale started to speak he began by saying that he could not ‘conscientiously join in the congratulations because of the huge surplus’. For him surplus budget did not bring the good news; on the contrary, the surplus budget, for G.K. Gokhale, “illustrated the utter absence of a due correspondence between the condition of the country and the condition of the finances of the country”.

In fact, according to Gopal Krishna Gokhale, this surplus in times of serious depression and suffering, made a wrong to the community.

Every aspect he raised indicated that the centre of his speech was the poverty of the people.

After examining all aspects of the problem Gokhale came to the conclusion that the material condition of the majority of people was ‘Steadily deteriorating’ and that the phenomenon was ‘the saddest in the whole range of the economic history of the world’.

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Gopal Krishna Gokhale as a staunch economist

Analyzing the budget (1902) in detail he demonstrated how to land revenue and the salt tax had been soaring even in times of drought and famine. Demanding the reduction of these two taxes he vigorously sought for raising the minimum level of income liable to income tax to Rs. 1000 so that the lower middle classes would not face the heat.

Gopal Krishna Gokhale not only demanded greater expenditure on education and industry but also condemned the large expenditure on the army and territorial expansion beyond Indian boundaries. He plainly, without putting any irony in his tone or without raising the pitch of his voice, said that the management of Indian Finances revealed that Indian interests were invariably subordinate to foreign interests.

Gopal Krishna Gokhale became successful in linking the poor condition of Indian finances and the poverty of the Indian people in general with the colonial status of the Indian economy and polity. And he did all this by quoting at length from the Government’s own blue books.

On Gokhale’s getting sudden fame for his first budget speech, that had ‘an electrifying effect’ on the people, his biographer B.R. Nanda has perhaps rightly observed “Like Byron, he could have said that he woke up one fine morning and found himself famous.

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Colonial Exploitation of Indian economy, prior to the British Raj in India, was controlled and managed by village communities, which consisted of farmers and the functionaries. While the farmers were fully engaged in crop farming or Cattle farming, the functionaries provided essential services like that of blacksmiths, goldsmiths, Washer-men and shoe-makers.  Although agriculture was subsistence base (depended on rain), cultivators enjoyed the ownership rights.

There were no intermediaries (like Zamindars of the Colonial period) between the State and the farmers who had to pay a reasonable amount as land revenue directly to the king. Rural India’s life was a portrait of prosperity and stability. It was so Bernier, the famous French traveler, described Bengal in 17 century as “richer than Egypt” producing enough for self- consumption and exporting in abundance.

Industry was dominated by handicrafts. However, it had got a worldwide reputation of producing quality products like ‘Decca Muslin’. Export consisted of finished products, imports were largely of gold and silver.

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However colonial policies of British Raj, which were intended to exploit the Indian economy as fully as possible, fully reversed the composition or output, as well as the composition of exports and imports, leading to a severe damage to the pace of growth of Indian economy. How did the Britishers achieve their intended goal of subjecting Colonial Exploitation of Indian economy to such an exploitation can be comprehend by the ways and mans they chose:

Colonial Exploitation of Indian Economy – Agriculture Sector

Two factors, invented and implemented by the colonial masters of India, can be held responsible for the backwardness and stagnation of Indian agriculture during the British rule:

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Land Revenue System Devised by the British Raj:

A unique system of land revenue was invented by the British Raj with an intention to draw maximum benefit from the Indian agriculture and in the process destroying it. This system was popularly termed as the Zamindari system of Land Revenue. This system functioned at three levels:

(a) The Zamindars were made, by their colonial masters, permanent owners of the soil,

(b) it was the responsibility of Zamindars to pay a fix amount to their colonial masters as land revenue, and

(c) Zamindars were given a free hand in extracting as much amount from the tillers of the soil as they could. In this way they set up a triangular relationship among the government, the owner of the soil and the tiller of the soil. The direct result of this land revenue system was that the Zamindars became the cruellest exploiters of the tillers of the soil. They frequently raised the land revenue without caring for the miseries of the tillers of the soil.

Eventually tillers became landless labourers and lost the interest in agriculture. However, they could not desert agriculture because there was no alternative means of subsistence for them.

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Forced Commercialisation of Agriculture

The colonial masters forced the farmers to Shift cultivation from the conventional subsistence crops (like rice and wheat) to the commercial crops (Indigo in particular), because Indigo was in great demand in Britain in textile industry for dyeing and bleaching. It resulted in the farmers’ helplessness to be at a mercy of landlords because they became dependent on them for cash to buy food. Earlier farmers would grow grain for their family consumption but this forced shift in crop cultivation completely ruined them.

Under the British rule the Zamindars started to exploit agriculture as a source of un-earned income, the zamindar never invested, rather unfortunately, this income in agriculture. They wasted it on their luxurious lifestyle.

Colonial Exploitation of Indian Economy – Industrial Sector

Industrial sector in India, prior to the British rule, implied predominance of handicrafts which were systematically destroyed by permitting tariff-free import of machine made goods from Britain. However, they placed a heavy duty on export of Indian handicraft products. As a consequence while the British products started pouring in the Indian markets, the handicraft products of India began to lose their domestic as well as foreign markets.

One important factor of the decaying of handicraft in India was the end of princely courts due to the hold of the British rule. Nawabs, rajas, princes and emperors formed the princely classes which used to patronise the handicrafts that enabled this industry in acquiring in international reputation. This ended with the end of this princely class.

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Colonial Exploitation of Indian Economy – International Trade

Prior to the British rule India was a well known exporter of finished goods like fine cotton, silk, textiles, iron goods, wooden goods, ivory work and precious stones. India exported these items to different countries. However, since India was being ruled as a British Colony, exports and imports of the country came under monopoly control of the colonial masters. They directed more than 50 % of India’s international trade towards Great Britain. In the process India became net exporter of raw materials and primary products like raw silk, cotton, wool, jute, indigo, sugar, etc. And not only this, it became a net importer of finished goods produced by British industry. India’s imports consisted of cotton, silk and woolen clothes besides several kinds of capital goods produced in Britain. This is the most explicit example of the direct Colonial exploitation of Indian economy by the colonial masters.

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