Table of Contents

Moderate Nationalism (1885-1905)................................................................................................. 3

Moderate Nationalism ............................................................................................................................. 3
The Programme and Activities of the Early Nationalists ............................................................................................ 3
Demands of Moderates ............................................................................................................................................. 3
Methods of Political Work ......................................................................................................................................... 6
Attitude of the Government ....................................................................................................................................... 7
Evaluation of the Early National Movement .............................................................................................................. 8

Indian Councils Act of 1892 ....................................................................................................................... 8

Composition of Legislative Councils ........................................................................................................................... 8
Enlargement of Functions of Councils ........................................................................................................................ 9
Limitations ................................................................................................................................................................ 9
Appraisal ................................................................................................................................................................... 9

Economic Critique of British Imperialism ................................................................................................. 10

Drain of Wealth ....................................................................................................................................................... 11
De-industrialization ................................................................................................................................................. 11
Agriculture .............................................................................................................................................................. 12
The poverty of Indian People ................................................................................................................................... 12
Public Finance.......................................................................................................................................................... 13

Moderate Leaders .................................................................................................................................. 13

Dadabhai Naoroji .................................................................................................................................................... 13
Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1866-1915) ........................................................................................................................ 15
Surendranath Banerjee (1848-1925) ........................................................................................................................ 20
Sir William Wedderburn (1838–1918) ...................................................................................................................... 21
 Author: Vishwajeet Kawar
Protégé of PMF IAS

Suggestions / Feedback: vishwjeethistory@gmail.com | t.me/vishwjeetkawar | t.me/pmfiashistory

 Moderate Nationalism (1885-1905)

Moderate Nationalism

• The history of the Indian National Movement can be studied in three phases:
1. The phase of moderate nationalism (1885-1905)
2. The phase of militant nationalism (1906-1916)
3. The Gandhian era (1917-1947)
• During The first twenty years (1885-1905), moderate leaders dominated the Congress. This phase of
the Congress is known as the Moderate phase. During this period, the leaders were cautious in their
demands. They did not want to annoy the government and incur the risk of suppression of their
activities.
• Not all the nationalists of this period belonged to the moderate trend. Some were extremists or radical
nationalists. Tilak and numerous other leaders represented this trend. They had no faith in the British's
good intentions. They believed in depending on the political action of the Indian people and the
strength of the Indian people themselves.

The Programme and Activities of the Early Nationalists

• Early nationalist leaders believed that the immediate goal was not direct political emancipation but
rather arousing national sentiment, bringing Indians into national politics, and training them in politics
and political agitation. The early nationalists made an effort:
❖ To organise public opinion in the country.
❖ To formulate popular demands country-wide so that the emerging public opinion might have an
all-India focus.
• The early leaders of India were fully aware that India had just begun the process of becoming a nation.
Therefore, Indians had to be carefully united into a single nation, disregarding their regional, caste or
religious differences.
• The economic and political demands of the early nationalists were formulated with a view to unifying
the Indian people.

Demands of Moderates
• The Congress programme during the first phase (1885-1905) was modest. Moderates demanded
moderate constitutional reforms, economic relief, administrative reorganisation and defence of
civil rights.

Constitutional Reforms
• From the beginning, the moderates (early nationalists) believed that India should eventually move
towards democratic self-government. However, they were extremely cautious and did not ask for the
immediate fulfilment of their goal.
• The moderates hoped to win freedom through gradual steps. Their immediate demands were
extremely moderate. They wanted a larger share in the government of their own country and
demanded the expansion and reform of the Legislative Councils.
• The British Government was forced by their agitation and passed the Indian Councils Act of 1892. By
this Act:
❖ The number of non-official members of the Imperial Legislative Council and the provincial
councils was increased, but the official majority was retained.
❖ The councils were allowed to discuss the annual budgets, though they could not vote on them.
• The nationalists were dissatisfied with the Act of 1892 and declared it a hoax. They demanded:
✓ Majority of Indians in the councils
✓ Wider powers to the councils
✓ Indian control over the public purse (budget) and raised the slogan ‘No taxation without
representation’.
• By the beginning of the 20th century, the nationalist leaders advanced further. They put forward the
claim for swarajya or self-government within the British Empire on the model of self-governing
colonies like Australia and Canada.
• Gokhale demanded self-government from the Congress platform in 1905 (at Banaras), which was later
explicitly stated by Dadabhai Naoroji in 1906 (at Calcutta).

Economic Reforms
• The early nationalists explained how the British were exploiting Indians. Dadabhai Naoroji, in his
book “Poverty and un-British Rule in India,” put forward the “drain theory” to explain the British
exploitation of India.
• Dadabhai showed how India’s wealth was going away to England through salaries, savings,
pensions, payments to British troops in India and profits of the British companies. This forced the
British Government to appoint the Welby Commission, with Dadabhai as the first Indian to be its
member, to enquire about the matter.
• The early nationalists blamed the policies of the British rulers for:
❖ Growing poverty and economic backwardness
❖ Failure of development of modem industry and agriculture.
❖ Destruction of India’s indigenous industries.
• Their proposed solution for ending poverty in India was to develop modern industries rapidly. They
wanted the government to promote modern industries through tariff protection and direct
 government aid. They popularised the idea of swadeshi (use of Indian goods) and the boycott of
British goods to promote Indian industries.
• The early nationalists demanded:
❖ Abolition of the salt tax.
❖ Reduction of land revenue.
❖ Reduction of high military expenditure.

Administrative Reforms
• The following were the demands of the early nationalists in the administrative sphere.
1. Indianisation of the higher grades of administrative services: The early nationalists made this
demand on economic, political, and moral grounds.
❖ Economically, the European monopoly of higher services was harmful on two grounds:
I. Europeans were paid at very high rates, making the Indian administration very costly.
Indians of similar qualifications could be employed at lower salaries.
II. Europeans sent a large part of their salaries and pensions to England, which contributed
to the drain of wealth from India.
❖ Politically, the Indianisation of these services would make the administration more responsive
to Indian needs.
❖ Morally, the Indianisation of services would limit the discriminatory policy of the British, who
kept Indians out of higher posts.
2. Separation of the judiciary from executive powers.
3. Greater opportunities for Indians in higher posts by holding the Indian Civil Service
examination simultaneously in England and India.
4. The spread of primary education among the masses and Greater technical and higher education
facilities.
5. The extension of medical and health facilities.
6. Development of agricultural banks to save the peasants from the clutches of the moneylender.
7. A large-scale irrigation extension programme for the development of agriculture and to save the
country from famines.
8. The better treatment for Indian labour abroad in other British colonies, where they faced
oppression and racial discrimination.
9. Improve the police system to make it honest, efficient, and popular.
• The early nationalists opposed the official policy of disarming the people and asked the government
to trust them and grant them the right to bear arms. They also opposed the aggressive foreign policy
against India’s neighbours.
  Under the Arms Act of 1878, Indians were made to pay a license fee to possess a weapon, but
Europeans and Eurasians were exempted from doing so. Special concessions were also given to
landholders.

Defence of Civil Rights

• From the beginning, the politically conscious Indians had been powerfully attracted not only to
democracy but also to modern c
• ivil rights, namely, the freedoms of speech, the Press, thought and association. They put up a strong
defence of these civil rights whenever the Government tried to curtail them.

Methods of Political Work

• Moderates dominated the Indian national movement up to 1905. The political methods of the
Moderates can be summed up briefly as constitutional agitation within the four walls of the law.
• They believed that if public opinion was created and popular demands were presented to the
authorities through petitions, meetings, resolutions, and speeches, they would concede these
demands gradually and step by step. Therefore, their political work had a two-pronged direction:
1. To build strong public opinion in India
2. To persuade the British Government to introduce reforms along the directions laid down by the
nationalists.
• The moderate nationalists believed that the British people and Parliament wanted to be just to India
but they did not know the true state of affairs there. Therefore, next to educating public opinion, the
moderate nationalists worked to educate British public opinion. For this purpose, they carried on
active propaganda in Britain.
❖ A British Committee of the Indian National Congress was founded in 1889. In 1890, this
Committee started a journal called India.
❖ Dadabhai Naoroji spent most of his life and income in England, popularising India's case among
its people. He got elected to the British House of Commons and formed a strong Indian lobby
in that House.
• To sum up, the political work of the Moderates was based on the hard reality of the life of the people
rather than on narrow appeals to religion, mere emotion or shallow sentiments.

Press and the Annual Sessions of Congress

• The early nationalists believed in the power of peaceful and constitutional agitation. They relied on the
press and the platform at the annual sessions to spread their message.
• However, since the Congress sessions lasted only three days each year, the press was the only means of
disseminating Congress propaganda throughout the year.
Loyalty to the British Rule
• It is believed that moderates were loyal to the British. However, the professions of loyalty to British
rule by prominent moderate leaders do not mean that they were not patriots.
• Moderates genuinely believed that the continuation of India’s political connection with Britain was
in India's interests at that stage of history, and the time was not yet ripe to challenge the foreign
rulers directly. Later, when British rule did not accept most of their demands, many stopped talking
about loyalty to British rule and started demanding self-government for India.

Role of Masses
• The moderate phase of the national movement had a narrow social base. It did not penetrate the
masses, and the masses played a passive role. This was because the early nationalists lacked political
faith in them.
• The early nationalists felt that society was divided into many groups, and these different groups had
to be welded into a nation before entering the political sphere. However, they overlooked the fact that
these distinct groups could only come together during a freedom struggle.
• Because the moderates failed to actively involve the masses, they could not gain their support and,
therefore, could not adopt a more militant political stance.
• However, the narrow social base of the early national movement did not mean that it fought for the
narrow interests of the social groups which joined it. Its programme and policies championed the
cause of all sections of the Indian people and represented the interests of the emerging Indian nation
against colonial rule.

Attitude of the Government

• From the beginning, the British authorities were hostile to the rising nationalist movement and had
become suspicious of the National Congress. In the beginning, this hostility was not openly
expressed. It was perhaps hoped that Hume’s leadership would make the national movement and its
organ, the National Congress, harmless to British rule.
• But soon, the National Congress emerged as a prominent force for Indian nationalism, and British
officials began to criticise and condemn the Congress and other nationalist spokesmen openly. They
labelled the leaders as disloyal babus, seditious brahmins, and violent villains. In 1887, Dufferin
publicly attacked the National Congress and mocked it as representing only a microscopic minority
of the people.
• When the growing unity of the Indian people posed a major threat to their rule, the British authorities
used the policy of 'divide and rule'.
❖ They encouraged Sayyid Ahmed Khan, Raja Shiva Prasad of Benaras, and other pro-British
individuals to start an anti-Congress movement.
 ❖ They tried to drive a wedge between Hindus and Muslims.
• However, opposition by the authorities failed to check the growth of the national movement.

Evaluation of the Early National Movement

• The Congress was a national body in the true sense. There was nothing in its programme to which any
class might take exception. Its doors were open to all classes and communities. Its programme was
broad enough to accommodate all interests. It may be said that Congress was not a party but a
movement.
• According to some critics, the nationalist movement and the National Congress did not achieve much
success in their early phase. Very few of the reforms for which the nationalists agitated were introduced
by the government. There is a great deal of truth in this criticism. However, the critics are incorrect in
declaring the early national movement a failure. The early national movement:
❖ Created a wide national awakening.
❖ Aroused among the people the feeling that they belonged to one common nation—the Indian
nation.
❖ Popularised among the Indians the ideas of democracy and nationalism.
❖ Made the issue of nationalism a dominant one in Indian life.
❖ Established the political truth that India must be ruled in the interests of the Indians.
❖ Made people recognise the economic content and character of British imperialism that Britain
was making India a supplier of raw materials and a market for British manufacture.
❖ Undermined the moral foundations of the British rule by exposing its cruel, exploitative character.
• However, the early national movement failed to widen their democratic base and the scope of their
demands. While its weaknesses were to be removed by the succeeding generations, its achievements
served as a base for a more vigorous national movement in later years.

Indian Councils Act of 1892

• The Indian Councils Act of 1892 was an amending Act. Consequently, the basic constitutional
provisions remained the same as those under the Act of 1861. However, mainly two types of changes
were introduced by the Act of 1892:
1. Changes in the composition of legislative councils
2. Enlargement of functions

Composition of Legislative Councils

Central Legislative Council
• The Indian Councils Act of 1892 increased the number of additional members of the Central
Executive Council to 10 to 16, of whom not less than half were to be non-officials, as under the Act of
1861.
• Under the regulations finally adopted, the Central Legislative Council was to consist of:
❖ Nine ex-officio members (the Governor-General, six members of the Executive Council, the
Commander-in-Chief and the head of the province in which the Council met, i.e. Lieutenant Governor
of Bengal or Punjab)
❖ Six official Additional Members
❖ Ten non-official members of the Legislative Councils of Bengal, Bombay, Madras and the
Northwestern province.
• The official members, together with the ex-officio members, constituted an official majority.
• The Act provided for the nomination of some non-official members by the viceroy on the
recommendation of the provincial legislative councils and the Bengal Chamber of Commerce.

Provincial Legislative Councils

• Similar changes were introduced in the composition of provincial legislative councils. The official
majority was maintained in all provinces.
• The Act provided for the nomination of some non-official members by the Governors on the
recommendation of the universities, district board, municipalities, zamindars and chambers of
commerce to the provincial legislative councils.

Enlargement of Functions of Councils

• The councils were allowed:
❖ To ask questions to the executive (supplementary questions were not allowed).
❖ To indulge in a free and fair criticism of the government's policy.
❖ To discuss the annual financial statement (budget), though they could not vote on them.

Limitations
➢ The official majority was maintained in the legislative councils.
➢ Direct election was not introduced to represent non-official members.
➢ Supplementary questions could not be asked.
➢ The budget could not be voted on.

Appraisal
• There was some hope that elections might be introduced. However, the Governor-General was
empowered to invite different bodies in India to elect, select, or delegate their representatives and to
make regulations for their nomination.
• The Indian Councils Act of 1892 was criticised at the 1892 and 1893 sessions of the Indian National
Congress mainly because the principle of direct election had not been introduced.
• Despite the limitations, the Act proved liberal enough to enable many nationalist leaders like G.K.
Gokhale, Surendranath Banerjee, and Pherozeshah Mehta to enter the legislation. The non-official
members took advantage of each opportunity to put forward the Indian point of view.

Economic Critique of British Imperialism

• Indian intellectuals of the first half of the 19th century had adopted a positive attitude towards
British rule, hoping that Britain would help modernise India. However, their hopes were shattered after
1860 when they witnessed social development not aligning with their expectations.
• Gradually, Indian intellectuals understood the true nature of British rule and concluded that
colonialism was the primary obstacle to India's economic development.
• In the 1870s and 1880s, the early nationalists developed an extensive economic critique of colonialism.
This critique was their most important contribution to the development of the national movement.
• From 1870 to 1905, many Indians conducted an economic analysis of British rule. Some of the most
prominent figures among them were Dadabhai Naoroji, M.G. Ranade, R.C. Dutt, Dinshaw Wacha,
G.V. Joshi, G. Subramaniya Iyer, G.K. Gokhale, Prithwis Chandra Ray, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and
Surendranath Banerjee.
• They clearly understood that the essence of British imperialism was in subordinating the Indian
economy to the British economy. They opposed the transformation of India into:
❖ A supplier of raw materials
❖ A market for the British manufacturers
❖ A field for the investment of British capital.
• Some important issues related to this critique include:
1. Drain of Wealth
2. De-industrialization
3. Growing poverty
4. Public Finance
5. Agriculture

[UPSC 2015] Who of the following was/were economic critic/critics of colonialism in India?
1. Dadabhai Naoroji
2. G. Subramania Iyer
3. R. C. Dutt
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
a) 1 only
 b) 1 and 2 only
c) 2 and 3 only
d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer: D

Drain of Wealth
• The critique of the drain of wealth from India was the most popular sentiment in the anti-colonial
nationalist narrative, as most peasants in the country could quickly understand it. The idea of money
being taken from one place to another was the most straightforward of all the theories of economic
exploitation.
• Dadabhai Naoroji, in his book “Poverty and un-British Rule in India,” put forward the “drain theory”
to explain the British exploitation of India. He showed how India’s wealth was going away to England
through salaries, savings, pensions, payments to British troops in India and profits of the British
companies.
• Books critical of the imperialist drain of India’s resources were:
❖ William Digby’s Prosperous British India
❖ G.S. Iyer’s Some Economic Aspects of British Rule in India
❖ R.C. Dutt’s Economic History of India

De-industrialization
• The early nationalists criticised the official economic policies for:
❖ The ruin of India's traditional handicraft industries.
❖ Obstructing the development of modern industries.
• According to the nationalists, de-industrialization and ruralisation played a big role in the poverty of
the Indian people as the jobs in one sector were lost but not compensated by the rapid growth of the
modern sector.

A Policy of Free Trade

• According to the early nationalists, a major obstacle to rapid industrial development was the policy of
free trade, which:
❖ Ruined India’s handicraft industries
❖ Forced the infant modern industries into unequal competition with developed industries of the
West.
• The early nationalists wanted the Government to promote modern industries through tariff
protection and direct government aid. They popularised the idea of swadeshi and the boycott of
British goods to promote Indian industries.
Opposition to Foreign Capital
• The early nationalists wanted industrialisation in India based on Indian capital and not foreign
capital.
• They opposed the large-scale investment of foreign capital in the Indian railways, plantations, and
industries because it would suppress Indian capitalists and further strengthen the British hold on
India's economy and polity.
• They believed that the employment of foreign capital posed a serious economic and political danger
to the present generation and the generations to come.

Agriculture
• Almost 80 per cent of colonial India's population depended on agriculture, and revenue from land
formed the largest part of government collection in the 19th century. The nationalists criticised the
government for:
❖ High land revenue
❖ Constant revisions in the assessment of revenue: It created uncertainty and dissuaded the
cultivators from investing in land, leading to stagnation and decay in agriculture
❖ Strict collection of rents and revenues from the peasants, accompanied by evictions and
punishment.
❖ Periodic rise in revenue demands
❖ Hindering investment in agriculture
• The combined effect of these policies was to drain capital out of agriculture, prevent investment in
land, decline in land quality, and recurrence of famines, resulting in large-scale deaths.
• To improve the matters, the nationalists suggested:
❖ Reduction in land revenue
❖ A permanent tenure: The demand for a ‘permanent settlement’ did not mean a Bengal-type
Zamindari Settlement. They demanded a long-term fixation of tenure under which the peasants
would be assured that they had to pay a certain revenue for a long time and that their lands would
not be confiscated.

The poverty of Indian People

• Since the 1870s, there had been constant concern about the extreme poverty of Indians among the
nationalists. Dadabhai Naoroji wrote his famous paper on this issue in 1870 and published his book,
“The Poverty of India,” in 1876.
• Dadabhai pointed out that the real cause of poverty was the alien and exploitative character of British
rule.
Public Finance
• The early nationalists strongly criticised the colonial financial system. They argued that taxes were
raised in a way that overburdened the poor and allowed the rich, especially foreign capitalists and
bureaucrats, to evade taxes. They demanded:
❖ Abolition of the salt tax.
❖ Reduction of land revenue.
❖ Reduction of high military expenditure.
• On the expenditure side, they pointed out that a large part of the tax collection was taken out of the
country and not spent inside. The high tax revenue was used to serve Britain’s imperial needs and not
for the benefit of the people.

Early Thoughts on British Economic Policies

• Nationalist economic ideas took shape between the 1870s and 1905. However, even earlier, Raja
Rammohan Roy and intellectuals from Maharashtra discussed and wrote about some of the issues
related to the economic exploitation of India by the British.
• Raja Rammohan Roy complained against the ‘tribute’ paid to Britain. In the 1840s, Maharashtrian
intellectuals such as Bhaskar Pandurang Tarkhadkar, Govind Vitthal Kunte (Bhau Mahajan) and
Ramkrishna Vishwanath criticised the British rule for:
❖ Destroying the indigenous handicrafts industry
❖ No-tariff policy
❖ Limiting the growth of modern industry in India
❖ Waging wars and charging them on the Indian treasury

Moderate Leaders

Dadabhai Naoroji
• Dadabhai Naoroji, the Grand Old Man of India, was a Parsi intellectual, educator, cotton trader, and
an early Indian political and social leader.
• After completing his studies at Elphinstone College, he was appointed as assistant master in 1845.
• In 1854, Dadabhai became the first Indian to become a full professor when he was appointed
professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Elphinstone College, Bombay.
• In 1855, Dadabhai resigned from his professorial job and relocated to Britain to help establish Cama &
Co., the first Indian commercial firm in the United Kingdom.

Diwan of Baroda
• In 1874, Dadabhai was appointed as the Diwan of Baroda, a princely state ruled by Malharrao
Gaikwad, but he later resigned from office.
Member of Parliament
• In 1892, he was the first Indian elected to the House of Commons (liberal party candidate). He was a
Liberal Party member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom House of Commons between 1892 and
1895 and the first Indian to be a British MP.
• In 1893, Dadabhai introduced a bill in the House of Commons proposing simultaneous civil service
examinations. However, the bill failed due to insufficient support.
 In June 1893, a resolution for simultaneous civil service examinations passed in the House of
Commons.

Organisations
1. Students Literary and Scientific Society: In 1848, Dadabhai Naoroji, along with other members of the
Native Literary Society, founded the Students Literary and Scientific Society. As a member of the
Society, he pioneered women’s education.
2. Rehnumai Mazadayasan Sabha (1851): In 1851, along with Naoroji Furdonji and S.S. Bengalee,
Dadabhai Naoroji started Rehnumai Mazadayasan Sabha (Religious Reform Association) for reforms
in the Parsi community.
3. Bombay Association (1852): Dadabhai was an active member of the Bombay Association (1852), the
first political association in Western India.
4. East India Association (1866): In 1866, Dadabhai Naoroji organised the East India Association in
London to discuss the Indian question and to influence British public men to promote Indian welfare.
Later, he organised branches of the Association in prominent Indian cities.
❖ At the first meeting of the East India Association in London, Dadabhai read the paper ‘England’s
Duties to India’, accusing Britain of draining India's wealth.
5. Indian National Congress: In 1885, Dadabhai attended the first Indian National Congress session held
in Bombay.
❖ Dadabhai was the president of the 1886, 1893 and 1906 Congress sessions.
6. British Committee of the Indian National Congress: In 1899, Dadabhai founded the British
Committee of the Indian National Congress in London to raise awareness of Indian issues to the
public in Britain.

Books
1. Poverty and un-British rule in India
2. Poverty of India
3. The Wants and Means of India
4. The European and Asiatic Races

Papers
• Two papers presented by Dr Dadabhai Naoroji:
1. The Manners and Customs of the Parsees
2. The Parsi Religion

Journals
• In 1851, Dadabhai founded Rast Goftar (Truth Teller), a Gujarati fortnightly with a Persian name.
• In 1883, Dadabhai started a newspaper called 'Voice of India' in Bombay.

Drain of Wealth
• Dadabhai was India's first economic thinker. In his writings on economics, he showed that the basic
cause of India's poverty lay in the British exploitation of India and the drain of its wealth.
• Dadabhai formulated the famous drain-of-wealth theory, asserting that British rule was responsible
for India's economic ruin and increased poverty.
 At its Calcutta Session of 1896, the Indian National Congress officially adopted the drain
theory, which thereafter became a main plank in the organised nationalist agitation.

[UPSC 2012] Consider the following statements: The most effective contribution made by
Dadabhai Naoroji to the cause of the Indian National Movement was that
1. Exposed the economic exploitation of India by the British.
2. Interpreted the ancient Indian texts and restored the self-confidence of Indians.
3. Stressed the need for eradication of all the social evils before anything else.
Which of the statement(s) given above is/ are correct?
a) 1 only
b) 2 and 3 only
c) 1 and 3 only
d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer: A

[UPSC 2008] Who among the following used the phrase 'Un-British' to criticise the English
colonial control of India?
a) Anand Mohan Bose
b) Badruddin Tyabji
c) Dadabhai Naoroji
d) Pherozeshah Mehta
Answer: C

Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1866-1915)

• Gopal Krishna Gokhale was an Indian liberal political leader and a social reformer from Maharashtra
during the Indian Independence Movement.

Early Life and Education

• Gopal Krishna Gokhale was born in 1866 in a village near Ratnagiri, Maharashtra.
• Gokhale graduated from the Elphinstone College of Bombay in 1884. He studied Western political
thought and became a great admirer of theorists such as John Stuart Mill and Edmund Burke.
• Gokhale taught at the New English School and was promoted to lecturer at Fergusson College.

Ranade's Influence and Sarvajanik Sabha

• Justice M. G. Ranade's social works greatly influenced Gokhale's life. Under the guidance of M.G.
Ranade, Gokhale volunteered his services to the cause of public life. He became the Secretary of the
Sarvajanik Sabha.

Journalism
• For some years, he wrote in the English section of the journal Sudharak, which was started by Gopal
Ganesh Agarkar.
• Gokhale was also the editor of the Quarterly Journal of the Sarvajanik Sabha from its inception.

Deccan Sabha
• In 1896, when Tilak and his associates captured the Sarvajanik Sabha, Ranade and his followers,
including Gokhale, dissociated themselves from the Sabha.
• Gokhale founded the Deccan Sabha in 1896 under the guidance of his mentor, M. G. Ranade. V M
Bhide took over as President, and Gokhale was appointed as the First Secretary.

Welby Commission
• On behalf of the Deccan Sabha, Gokhale was sent to England to give evidence before the Welby
Commission (Royal Commission on Indian Expenditure), which the Government appointed to
suggest ways of more equitable distribution of administration expenses between the British and
the Indian Governments.

Work in Legislative Councils

• In 1899, Gokhale was elected to the Bombay Legislative Council. In 1901, he was sent to the Imperial
Legislative Council as a representative of the Bombay Presidency and has never been displaced since
then.
• Gokhale’s budget speeches were famous for their constructive but fearless criticism of the
Government's fiscal policies.

Servants of India Society

• G. K. Gokhale formed the Servants of India Society on June 12, 1905, after leaving the Deccan
Education Society in Pune.
• The Society was founded on the belief that if the masses were to be liberated, there should be a band
of selfless and intelligent workers who would dedicate their lives to serving the nation.
• Its volunteers were trained to be nationalist missionaries who took vows of renunciation, gave up all
ideas of selfishness, pride, and fame, and dedicated themselves to their work and duty.
• The Society organised many campaigns to promote education, sanitation, and health care and fight
the social evils of untouchability and discrimination, alcoholism, poverty, and oppression of women
and for the protection of women from domestic abuse.
• In 1911, Hitavada, the organ of the Society, was started in English from Nagpur.
• The Society's base shrank after Gokhale died in 1915. However, it continues to operate with a small
membership and has its headquarters in Pune, Maharashtra.
• Despite his deep respect for Gokhale, Gandhi rejected Gokhale's idea that Western institutions could
be used to achieve political reform. As a result, Gandhi did not join Gokhale's Servants of India
Society.

Indentured Labour
• At the instance of Mahatma Gandhi, Gokhale also took a keen interest in the affairs of the Indians in
South Africa. In 1910 and 1912, he moved resolutions in the Imperial Legislative Council to relieve
Indian indentured labour in Natal.
• Gokhale went to South Africa at Gandhi's invitation in 1912 and played a significant role in tackling
the problems of Indians settled there.

Free and Compulsory Primary Education

• During 1910-13, G.K. Gokhale made efforts in the Imperial Legislative Council to urge the
government to accept the responsibility for compulsory primary education. However, the bill for
introducing compulsory elementary education moved by Gokhale was defeated by the majority in 1911.

Association with Mahatma Gandhi

• Gokhale was a mentor to Mahatma Gandhi in the latter’s formative years. Gandhi wrote a book in
Gujarati dedicated to the Gokhale, titled ‘Dharmatma Gokhale’.
• When Gandhi returned from his struggles against the Empire in South Africa, he received personal
guidance from Gokhale, including a knowledge and understanding of India and the issues confronting
common Indians.
• In his memoirs, Gandhiji recalled his first encounter with Gopal Krishna Gokhale in Pune on October
12, 1896. He wrote that in contrast to Sir Pherozeshah, who seemed as unapproachable as the
 Himalayas, and Lokamanya, who was as vast as the ocean, Gokhale was like the Ganges - inviting,
refreshing, and easy to connect with.

Indian National Congress

• In 1889, Gokhale attended the Indian National Congress session for the first time, and since then,
he has been a regular speaker at its meetings.
• Gokhale was one of the leading moderate leaders along with Justice Ranade, D.E. Wacha and
Pherozeshah Mehta.
• In 1905, Gokhale was appointed as the President of the Benaras Congress session.
• Soon after the Benares Congress, Gokhale went to England to meet the Secretary of State. He played
a leading role in bringing about the Morley-Minto Reforms in India.

Political thought
• Political thought and ideas do not evolve in a vacuum. They emerge in a particular social atmosphere. A
thinker is a product of his times. Gokhale was no exception. His ideas and thinking were influenced
mainly by the leading personalities of his time and the events he encountered.
• Gokhale's political thought revolves more around the socio-political issues of his time than any basic
political concept like the state, nation, or sovereignty.
• Gokhale, like many liberal Indian thinkers, welcomed and appreciated British rule in India. He believed
that British rule should continue because it brought two completely new things to India:
1. Modernisation of Indian society
2. Introduction of equality before the law, representative government (although limited), and
freedom of speech and press.
• Gokhale argued that Indians should tolerate British rule for a while and focus on developing industry,
commerce, education and politics. He believed that if British rule persisted, India would undergo
modernisation and eventually join the community of nations like any other independent European
state.
• Gokhale believed that the British would grant India self-government once Indians qualified for it.
• However, Gokhale's justification for the continuance of the British rule in India did not mean that he
was totally satisfied with the British administration in India. For instance, he was a bitter critic of the high
handedness of the Curzonian administration. Gokhale often argued that the British Raj was more raj
and less British because it was reluctant to introduce English parliamentary institutions to India.

Self-government
• The earlier Congress leaders were satisfied with the idea of 'good government,' which meant an
efficient and enlightened government. But Gokhale, like Dadabhai Naoroji, gradually realised that no
good government was ever possible without self-government.
• Gokhale felt that the British had given good government in the sense that they had established law and
order in the society, but then the time had come to associate the Indians with the work of
government, and this was possible only if the British granted self-government to India.

Gokhale's idea of Self-government

• Gokhale's idea of self-government was different from that of extremist thinkers like Aurobindo, Bipin
Chandra Pal, and Tilak.
• By self-government, Gokhale never meant complete independence for India. He wanted self-
government only within the limits of the British Empire. He believed that India's connection with
the British would benefit India in the long run.
• The extremists like Aurobindo and Tilak (swaraj) wanted complete independence for India, having
no connection with Britain.
• For Tilak, Swaraj was the birthright of the people for which no specific conditions were required.
Gokhale, on the other hand, thought that people should qualify themselves to be worthy of
maintaining representative institutions.

Social Reforms
• In politics, Gokhale laid the foundations of constitutionalism. He favoured legislation to bring about
certain social changes. His attitude towards social reform was essentially humanitarian and liberal. He
believed in persuasion rather than confrontation.
• Gokhale thought that the enlightened, educated people, few in number should guide the society and
properly lead the masses. Hence, he focused more on enlightening the educated classes on major
socio-economic issues rather than organising masses for political action.

Refusal of Knighthood
• Lord Hardinge, the Viceroy, believed Gokhale deserved recognition for his service and recommended
him for Knighthood. The Secretary of State forwarded the recommendation to the King, who agreed to
grant the Knighthood. However, when Gokhale was informed, he declined the honour.
• Gokhale also refused to accept a position in the Council of the Secretary of State for India.

[UPSC 2008] Who among the following rejected the title of knighthood and refused to
accept a position in the council of the Secretary of State for India?
a) Motilal Nehru
b) M. G. Ranade
c) G. K. Gokhale
d) B. G. Tilak
Answer: C
Surendranath Banerjee (1848-1925)
• Surendranath Banerjee passed the Indian Civil Service exam in 1869 but was disqualified on the
flimsy grounds of his age.
 Four Indians - Surendranath Banerjee, Romesh Chunder Dutt, Behari Lal Gupta and Sripad Babaji
Thakur - passed the Indian Civil Service exam in 1869.
• Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose founded the Indian Association on 26 July 1876. It aimed to create
strong public opinion on political questions and unite the Indian people on a common political
programme. In 1886, the Indian Association merged with the Indian National Congress (INC).
• In 1877, Banerjee arranged a massive public gathering to protest British Prime Minister Salisbury's
decision to decrease the maximum age for appearing in the Indian Civil Services exam from 21 to
19.
• In 1921, he accepted a knighthood from the British.

Journalism
• In 1879, Banerjee bought the newspaper “The Bengalee” (founded in 1862 by Girish Chandra Ghosh)
and edited it for 40 years.
• In 1883, Banerjee wrote an article in the Bengalee newspaper criticising Justice Norris for bringing an
idol to the court for identification. As a result, Banerjee was served a writ and eventually convicted for
two months. This made him the first Indian journalist to be imprisoned.

Surendranath Banerjee and INC

• Banerjee was the moderate leader of Congress and presided over Congress sessions in 1895 and
1902. He opposed the extreme methods advocated by Tilak and the non-cooperation movement of
Mahatma Gandhi.
• Surendranath supported Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms, unlike Congress, and with many liberal
leaders, he left Congress and founded a new organisation named the Indian National Liberation
Federation in 1919.
Moderate Leaders Contribution
G Subramania Iyer ✓ Started two newspapers - The Hindu (English) in 1878 and
Swadesamitran (Tamil) in 1882.
✓ Founded Madras Mahajan Sabha along with M.
Veeraraghavachariar and P. Anandacharlu.
Badruddin Tyabji ✓ Founded Bombay Presidency Association along with Phirozshah
Mehta and K.T Telang.
✓ He became the first Muslim president of the INC when he
presided over its Third Session, which was held in Chennai in 1887.
 Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee ✓ He was the first president of the Indian National Congress. He
also presided over the Allahabad session in 1892.
✓ In 1883, he defended Surendranath Banerjee in the Contempt of
Court Case against him in the Calcutta High Court.
Sir Rash Behari Ghosh ✓ President of INC in the Surat session (1907) and Madras session
(1908).
✓ He was knighted in 1915.

Sir William Wedderburn (1838–1918)

• Sir William Wedderburn was a British civil servant and politician who was a Liberal Party member
of Parliament (MP).
• Wedderburn supported Lord Ripon’s administrative reforms to develop local self-government and
equality for Indian judges. Due to his pro-India role, Wedderburn was denied a judge’s position in the
Bombay HC, leading to his early retirement.
• Wedderburn was one of the founding members of the Indian National Congress. He was also the
president of Congress for the Allahabad session in 1889 and 1910.
• Wedderburn was the Chairman of the British Committee of the Indian National Congress from July
1889 until his death.
• Wedderburn entered the British Parliament in 1893 as a Liberal member and sought to voice India's
grievances in the House. He formed the Indian Parliamentary Committee, which he was associated
with as Chairman from 1893 to 1900. The Committee agitated for Indian political reform in the House
of Commons.
• Wedderburn also represented India in the 1895 Welby Commission or the Royal Commission on Indian
Expenditure.
• As a liberal, William Wedderburn believed in the principle of self-government. He welcomed the formal
proclamation by the British Government on 20 August 1917 that the goal of British policy in India
was the progressive establishment of self-government.

[UPSC 2011] What was the purpose with which Sir William Wedderburn and W.S.Caine had
set up the Indian Parliamentary Committee in 1893?
a) To agitate for Indian political reforms in the House of Commons
b) To campaign for the entry of Indians into the Imperial Judiciary
c) To facilitate a discussion on India’s Independence in the British Parliament
d) To agitate for the entry of eminent Indians into the British Parliament
Answer: A