Early Nationalism and Gandhian Era

Why This Topic Matters for NDA

The national movement is one of the most reliable scoring zones in the NDA General Ability Test. Questions are almost always fact-based and single-line — the year a movement began, the leader who founded a party, the session where a famous resolution was passed, or the meaning of a slogan.

Because the story runs in a clear timeline from 1885 to 1947, a candidate who fixes the sequence of events in memory can answer most questions in seconds. Examiners love to test whether you can tell the Moderates apart from the Extremists, and whether you know exactly which Gandhian movement happened in which year and why it was launched or withdrawn.

This page covers the spine of that story up to the eve of the Quit India Movement. Treat it as your anchor for Modern Indian History, because later topics — mass movements, revolutionary activities and the road to independence — all build on these foundations.

Birth of the Indian National Congress

The Indian National Congress (INC) was founded in 1885 in Bombay. A retired British civil servant, A. O. Hume, played the organising role, and the first session was presided over by W. C. Bonnerjee, with 72 delegates attending.

The Congress was the first all-India political organisation that brought educated Indians from different regions onto one platform. In its early years it did not demand independence; it asked for reforms, a larger share of Indians in government, and a fairer economic policy.

One popular theory says the British encouraged the Congress as a ‘safety valve’ to let discontent out peacefully after the Revolt of 1857. Whatever its origin, the Congress quickly became the main vehicle of Indian nationalism.

The Moderates and Their Methods

The leaders of the first phase (1885–1905) are called the Moderates. They believed in working within the system and trusted British sense of justice. Their famous method was the ‘3 Ps’ — Petition, Prayer and Protest — sending memorials, holding meetings and passing resolutions.

Leading Moderates included Dadabhai Naoroji, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Surendranath Banerjee, Pherozeshah Mehta and M. G. Ranade.

• Dadabhai Naoroji is called the ‘Grand Old Man of India’. He gave the famous ‘Drain of Wealth’ theory in his book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India, arguing that Britain was draining India’s wealth.
• Gopal Krishna Gokhale was Gandhi’s political guru and founded the Servants of India Society in 1905.

The Moderates won small gains, like the Indian Councils Act of 1892, but younger leaders grew impatient with their slow, polite approach.

Extremists and the Swadeshi Movement

From 1905 a more aggressive group rose — the Extremists (or Garam Dal). They lost faith in petitions and demanded Swaraj (self-rule). The trigger was the Partition of Bengal (1905) by Viceroy Lord Curzon, seen as a deliberate attempt to divide Hindus and Muslims.

This led to the Swadeshi and Boycott Movement — Indians boycotted British goods and promoted indigenous (swadeshi) products and schools. The famous extremist trio was Lal-Bal-Pal:

• Lala Lajpat Rai (Punjab) — the ‘Lion of Punjab’.
• Bal Gangadhar Tilak (Maharashtra) — gave the slogan “Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it.”
• Bipin Chandra Pal (Bengal).

The differences between the two groups split the Congress at the Surat Session of 1907 (the ‘Surat Split’). The two wings reunited later at the Lucknow Session of 1916, where the Congress and the Muslim League also signed the Lucknow Pact.

Gandhi Arrives and His Early Experiments

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi returned to India from South Africa in 1915, where he had already developed his weapon of Satyagraha (truth-force / non-violent resistance). On Gokhale’s advice he first travelled across India to understand the people.

His first three Satyagrahas in India were local but historic:

• Champaran Satyagraha (1917, Bihar): his first in India, against the tinkathia system that forced indigo cultivation on peasants.
• Ahmedabad Mill Strike (1918): for the rights of textile mill workers; here Gandhi used the hunger strike.
• Kheda Satyagraha (1918, Gujarat): for peasants unable to pay land revenue after crop failure.

These successes made Gandhi a national figure and showed that non-violent mass action could work even against a powerful colonial government. Each Satyagraha was chosen around a real local grievance, which is why ordinary peasants and workers joined willingly. By 1919 Gandhi had proved his method on Indian soil and was ready to lead a struggle that covered the entire country.

Rowlatt Act and Jallianwala Bagh

In 1919 the British passed the Rowlatt Act, which allowed arrest and detention without trial. Gandhi called it a ‘black act’ and launched a nationwide Rowlatt Satyagraha, his first all-India agitation.

On 13 April 1919, a peaceful crowd gathered at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar to protest. General Reginald Dyer ordered troops to fire on the unarmed gathering, killing hundreds. The massacre shocked the whole nation.

In protest, Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood, and Gandhi returned the Kaiser-i-Hind medal he had earned for his work in South Africa. The brutality destroyed whatever faith Indians still had in British justice and convinced moderate Indians that polite cooperation was useless. It set the stage directly for Gandhi’s first great mass movement, the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1920.

The Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22)

The Non-Cooperation Movement was Gandhi’s first all-India mass movement, launched in 1920. It was combined with the Khilafat Movement (a Muslim protest over the treatment of the Turkish Sultan/Caliph), giving the struggle Hindu-Muslim unity.

The idea was simple: if Indians stopped cooperating, British rule would collapse. People were asked to:

• boycott British schools, courts, councils and foreign cloth;
• surrender titles and honours;
• promote khadi, charkha (spinning wheel) and national schools.

The movement spread widely, but Gandhi suddenly called it off in February 1922 after the Chauri Chaura incident, where an angry mob burned a police station, killing policemen. Gandhi insisted the struggle must remain strictly non-violent.

Civil Disobedience and the Dandi March

The Civil Disobedience Movement began in 1930. At the Lahore Session of 1929, the Congress, under Jawaharlal Nehru, had passed the Purna Swaraj (complete independence) resolution, and 26 January 1930 was celebrated as the first Independence Day.

Gandhi launched the movement with the famous Dandi March (Salt March). He walked about 240 miles from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi and on 6 April 1930 broke the salt law by making salt from sea water. Across India people defied unjust laws, refused taxes and boycotted foreign goods.

The British responded with the Round Table Conferences in London. The movement paused after the Gandhi-Irwin Pact (1931), under which Gandhi attended the Second Round Table Conference. When it failed, the movement resumed and finally faded by 1934.

Worked Example - Building a Timeline

NDA questions often give you a set of events and ask you to put them in the correct order. Let us practise with one.

The trick is to anchor each event to its year first, then sort. Once you have memorised the key dates from this page, even ‘match the following’ and ‘arrange in order’ questions become quick marks.

Key Sessions, Pacts and Slogans

NDA papers love famous sessions and slogans. Keep this quick reference ready.

• Surat Session (1907): Congress split into Moderates and Extremists.
• Lucknow Session (1916): Congress reunited; Lucknow Pact between Congress and Muslim League.
• Lahore Session (1929): Purna Swaraj resolution under Nehru.
• Gandhi-Irwin Pact (1931): suspended Civil Disobedience; led to the Second Round Table Conference.

Famous slogans to remember: “Swaraj is my birthright” (Tilak); “Do or Die” (Gandhi, 1942 Quit India); and the cry “Inquilab Zindabad” popularised by revolutionaries. Knowing who said what is a guaranteed mark.

Previous-Year Style Practice

Let us see how the exam frames these facts. Read the question, attempt it, then check the answer and the reasoning.

Notice how the question hides the date (1922) and the principle (non-violence) inside a simple ‘why’ format. Reading the question carefully usually points you to the answer.

Quick Revision Recap

Run through this checklist the night before your exam to lock in the essentials.

Master this spine and the rest of Modern Indian History will slot neatly around it. Revise the dates aloud, test yourself with order-the-events questions, and the NDA marks from this topic are yours.