The second half of the 19th century witnessed the full flowering of national political consciousness and the growth of an organised national movement in India.

Its foundation lay in the fact that increasingly British rule became the major cause of India’s economic backwardness.

Every class, every section of Indian society gradually discovered that its interests were suffering at the hands of the foreign rulers. The peasant saw that the Government took away a large part of his produce as land revenue. The Government and its machinery-the police, the courts, the officials- favoured and protected the zamindars and landlords, who rack-rented him, and the merchants and money­lenders, who cheated and exploited him in diverse ways and who took away his land from him. The artisan or the handicraftsman saw that the foreign regime had helped foreign competition to ruin him and had done nothing to rehabilitate him.

As a result of the British rule, India was transformed into a colony. It was a major market for British manufactures, the big source of raw materials and food-stuff and an important field for the investment of British capital. Its agriculture was highly taxed for the benefit of imperial interests.

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The bulk of the transport system, modern mines and industries, II foreign trade, coastal and international shipping and banks and insurance companies were all under foreign control. India provided employment to thousands of middle class Englishmen and nearly l/3rd of its revenue was spent in paying salaries to Englishmen.

The Indian army acted as the chief instrument for maintaining the far-flung empire and protecting and promoting British imperial interests in various parts of the world. Above all, Indian economy and social ‘ development was completely subordinated to British economy and social development.

The National economist pointed to rising civil and military expenditure which led to heavy taxation and demanded its reduction. They demanded protection for Indian Industries and permanent fixation of the land revenue. Above all, they demanded the stoppage of the drain of wealth.

None of these demands were conceded by the British. Since the British were not ready to relax their economic stronghold over the country, the Indians were driven to demand self government.

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Indian nationalists developed the “theory of increasing poverty in India” and attributed it to Britain’s anti-India economic policies. They tagged poverty and foreign rule. This psychology developed hatred for foreign rule and love for Swadeshi goods and Swadeshi rule. The spirit of nationalism received a powerful stimulus in the process.

The peasants, the artisans, and the workers constituted the overwhelming majority of Indian population. They discovered that they had no political rights or powers and virtually nothing was being done for their intellectual or cultural improvement. Education did not percolate down to them.

There were hardly any schools in villages and the few that were there were poorly run. The doors of higher education were barred to them in practice. Moreover, many of them belonged to the lower castes and had still to bear social and economic oppression.

The Indian national movement arose from social conditions, from the conditions of Imperialism and from the social and economic forces generated within Indian society, the rise of Indian bourgeoisie and its growing competition against the domination of the British bourgeoisie were inevitable, whatever the system of education.

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The Indians resented the arrogance of the Europeans in general and Englishmen in particular.

The Englishman took pleasure in calling Indians the creatures of an inferior breed. “Half Gorilla, half Negro”. They ridiculed the Indians black heathens “worshipping stacks and stones and swinging themselves on bamboo trees like bees”. The short­sighted acts and policies of Lord Lytton acted like catalytic agents and accelerated the movement against foreign rule.

The maximum age limit for the ICS examination was reduced from 21 years to 19 years, thus making it impossible for Indians to compete for it. The grand Delhi Darbar of 1877, the Vernacular Press Act and Indian Arms Act (1878) provoked a great storm of opposition in the country and lead to the organisation of various political associations for carrying on anti-Government propaganda in the country.

Ripon’s Government sought to abolish ‘judicial disqualification on race distinctions’ and the Albert Bill (1883) sought to give the Indian members of the Civil Service the same powers and rights as their European colleagues enjoyed. The Bill was opposed by the European community which proved an eye- opener to the Indian intelligentsia.

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It became clear to them that justice and foreplay could not be expected where the interests of the European community were involved. Further, it demonstrated to them the value of organised agitation.

To sum up, it was as a result of the intrinsic nature of foreign imperialism and of its harmful impact on the lives of the Indian people that a powerful anti- imperialist movement gradually arose and developed in India. This movement was a national movement because it united people from different classes and sections of the society who sank their mutual differences to unite against the common enemy.