The early nationalist response to British rule

MPSE-004: SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THOUGHT IN MODERN INDIA

Course Code: MPSE-004

Assignment Code: ASST/MPSE-004//2016-17

Total Marks: 100

Q. 3. What was the early nationalist response to British rule? Elaborate.

Ans. Indian nationalism has two phases. The first phase continued until 1885 when the Indian National Congress was formed and the second phase thereafter was expressed through popular mobilisation around various anti-imperial ideologies. The first phase was largely dominated by the zeal of social reforms that brought together individuals with more or less same ideological agenda. Individuals played crucial roles in sustaining the zeal of those who clustered around them. They were inspired by the idea of European Enlightenment. Colonialism was hailed for its assumed role in changing the archaic socio-political networks sustaining the feudal order. The colonialism in this phase was not as ruthless as it was later. The British administration under the aegis of the East India Company also appreciated social reforms either as a matter of faith in the philosophy of Enlightenment or as a strategy to infuse the Indian social reality with the values on which it drew its sustenance. In this chapter, we will study about the early nationalist response to the British rule that was largely appreciated in comparison with the socio-political nature of the past rulers.

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