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Education for National Efficiency: Constructive Nationalism in North India, 1909–1916
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
Extract
Nationalist activity in India between the years 1909 and 1916 has generally received an inadequate treatment from historians. It seems, quite simply, that this period is not sensational enough and historical accounts tend to skip from the excitement of the Swadeshi movement, the ‘Moderate’—‘Extremist’ split, the so-called ‘Extremist’ movement in general, and the Morley—Minto reforms of 1909 only to stop at the emergence of the Home Rule leagues or, even more likely, the serious political emergence of Gandhi after 1917. For example, despite writing of ‘continuities’ from 1885 to 1947, even Sumit Sarkar sees the nationalist movement expanding ‘in a succession of waves and troughs, the obvious high-points being 1905–1908, 1919–1922, 1928–1934, 1942 and 1945–46.’ Effectively, he is saying that the years from 1908 to 1919 were characterized by a ‘trough’ or lull.
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References
1 Sarkar, Sumit, Modern India: 1885–1947 (Madras, Bombay, Delhi, Patna: Macmillan India Limited, 1985; originally published in 1983), p. 3.Google Scholar
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37 Royal Commission on the Public Services in India [1913], ‘Changed Conditions of India’, pp. 11–16.
38 Ibid., pp. 13–14. See also ‘Minute by Abdur Rahim’ (who was a judge of the Madras High Court) dated 14 Aug. 1915, p. 397.
39 ‘Secret note’ on ‘Free Elementary Education’, 13 May 1911, Butler Papers, Vol. 68, Mss. F 116, India Office Library.
40 The Leader, 6 March 1913, p. 5.
41 ‘Summary of the Administration of Lord Hardinge of Penshurst, Viceroy and Governor-General of India, November 1910 to March 1916’, Hardinge Papers 131, CUL, p. 79.
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45 Ibid.
46 ‘Secret note’ on ‘Free Elementary Education’, 13 March 1911. See the longer quotation above.
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50 The Leader, 5 June 1910, pp. 6–7.
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60 The Servants of India Society, report 2, 1917–1923, pp. 59–61.
61 The Servants of India Society, report 1, 1905–1917, p. 12.
62 Ibid.
63 Ibid., pp. 15–16.
64 Ibid.
65 Ibid., p. 16. The year 1916 needs to be confirmed; I have assumed it was 1916 because the report was written in 1917 and referred to the conference in January ‘of the previous year’.
66 Arya Mitra, 16 July 1910, UPNNR 1910.
67 Abhyudaya, 21 July 1910, UPNNR 1910.
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69 Abhyudaya, 8 December. 1912, UPNNR 1912.
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71 Abhyudaya, 11 September. 1910, UPNNR 1910.
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75 The Leader, 27 December. 1911, special supplement, p. 8.
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88 Ibid. and The Leader, 19 Jan. 1913, p. 9.
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91 The Leader, 1 March 1913, p. 7.
92 The Servants of India Society, report 2, 1917–1923, pp. 59–61.
93 Rai, Lajpat, History of the Arya Samaj, p. 148. The visitor was Myron H. Phelps. Lajpat Rai does not give the date that Phelps was at the Gurukul but it was almost certainly in 1911 since The Leader published some of Phelps' comments in December of that year.Google Scholar
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99 The Leader, 30 December. 1911, p. 6., and for a more detailed account of the Government of Bombay order see The Leader, 9 Jan. 1912, p. 9.
100 The Servants of India Society, report 2, 1917–1923, pp. 59–61.
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102 Ibid.
103 Ibid, p. 17.
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111 The Leader, 18 December. 1909, p. 5.
112 The Leader, 3 March 1910, p. 6.
113 The Leader, 6 January. 1910, p. 2.
114 Lajpat Rai was listed as the founder of the Servants of the People Society in a footnote in Gandhi, Collected Works, vol. xi (04 1911–March 1913), p. 457, and this corresponds to other information about the organization from a Leader article of 17 Jan. 1910, p. 5 (wherein a 1907 Punjabee story was cited) which unfortunately did not list the organization's name.Google Scholar
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116 Ibid., p. 6.
117 The Leader, 23 February. 1913, pp. 4–5.
118 The Leader, 7 April 1910, p. 3.
119 Malaviya, , ‘The First Prospectus’ in Sundaram, (ed.), Benares Hindu University, p. vii. This and the other words and phrases (from various newspapers) in the sentence were also citeri earlier.Google Scholar
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126 Ibid.
127 Students took two other vows as well: poverty and obedience.
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129 The Servants of India Society, report 2, 1917–1923, pp. 59–61.
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141 ‘Pandit Malaviya's Convocation Address’ of 1919 in ibid., p. 357.
144 The Leader, 9 December. 1909, p. 6.
145 The Leader, 24 August. 1910, p. 2.
146 The Leader, 24 April 1910, p. 2.
147 Ibid.
148 See The Leader, 16 October. 1910, p. 2 regarding the Hindi conference, and 2 Oct. 1910, p. 3, for the textbook committee.
149 Rai, Lajpat, History of the Arya Samaj, p. 143.Google Scholar
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