industries in order to favour the importation of cheap
foreign goods, and even in machine industry, such as
cotton, taxes the home-produce in order to balance
the customs duty on imported goods. It encourages
the export of raw materials, which come back as manu-
factured articles, thus paralysing Indian industrial
efforts for the benefit of foreigners. The export in-
dustry being in full swing, when England goes to
War, India's materials are suddenly thrown on her
hands, and as she has neither plant, nor knowledge
how to use it, they rot on the ground and their
producers starve. India Avould train her own
sons to utilise her vast stores of raw material, for
her own profit, and would only send abroad her
surplusage.

4. Britishn-ule has neglected irrigation — only lately
taken up because of the awful famines, and even now
starved for want of funds — and while recklessly cutting
forests down has, also until lately, neglected replanting.
Huge tracts of land, especially in the north-west, have
consequently become deserts, which were formerly rich



Iviii HOW INDIA WROUGHT FOR FREEDOM

and fertile. India would place irrigation and foi'ostry
among the fii'st duties of Government.

5. British rule has neglected sanitation, while the
tendency to centralise in towns and neglect villages has
necessitated changes from the old methods. Alarmed
by the plague — a disease of dirt, which decimated
Europe dirty and vanished before Europe semi-clean —
it took some hasty and injudicious methods, which
alienated Indian sympathy, and is now more busy
with injecting serums into Indian bodies, thus really
perpetuating disease, than with sanitation. The
trouble is increased by the arrogant contempt for
indigenous systems, and the ousting of them bj''
Government, while it is impossible to replace them
adeciuately everywhere with the costly modern
appliances. India would insist on sanitation as among
the first duties of Government, would encourage all
that is good in the old systems, and utilise Avhatis good
in western methods.

6. Britiish rule is extremely costly ; it employs
Europeans in the highest posts at the highest
salaries, and introduces them everywhere as "experts"
— experts ignorant of the conditions in which
they are working; it keeps special preserves
wholly for Europeans; others into which Indians
may enter at the heavy cost of goisig to Eng-
land to obtain "English degrees"; it pensions its
servants, so that the Knglish ones live on Indian money
when they retire to England, making a huge annual
di-aiii ; it encourages exjiloitation of the country by
hiUgllsh companies and Iviglisli ca])!!;!!, making aiK)tlier



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION llX

•<lrain; it makes Jiidia pa^' t'oi- an Indian army, main-
tainod to keep India in subjecti(jn; it makes India pay
for a costly English establishment, the central auto-
•cracy, irresponsible to Parliament. India wonid do
away with all this ; would open everything to Indians
— as indeed the Proclamation of 1858 promised— and
require no foreign degrees as credentials ; would abo-
lish the India Office ; would acknowledge, outside
India, the authoi'ity only the Crown and the Imperial
Parliament, in which she enjoyed adequate representa-
tion. She would have her own Army and Navy, for
protection and Imperial needs, not to hold her people
down.

7. British rule has substituted coercion for improve-
ments in Grovernment, like any other autocracy.
India would sweep all this coercive legislation away ;
she would not be afraid of her people possessing arms ;
she would not be afraid of the criticism of free speech
and a free Press ; she would reform abuses instead
of strangling the expression of the discontent which
abuses produce; she would ennilate British rule
in Britain, not British rule in India.

In a phrase :

India is enthralled, and she is determined to be free.



HOW INDIA WROUGHT FOR FREEDOM



CHAPTER I

In late December in 1884, seventeen men met in Madras,
in tlie house of that stalwart advocate of religion and
reform, Dewan Bahadur Raghunath Rao. Nearly all
of them had been delegates to the just-ended Annual
Convention of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, and
the others had been there as friends and sympathisers.
But surely this new pride in India's mighty faiths
throbbing in their hearts, this dawning hope of India's
greatness in the future to correspond with the great-
ness of her past, this feeling that the discrowned East
is not always to remain a thrall to the younger
western Nations, and that Asia, once the cradle of
mighty Empires, shall again stretch out her hands
to grasp the sceptre and the imperial ball — these
dreams sent out the dreamers to take counsel together,
and they resdlved, greatly daring, to form themselves
into a group of provisional Committees, men from
different towns to win others, each in his place, and to
meet later for further consultation. Let us place on re-
cord their names, for they were the seed of a mighty
tree. Norendranath Sen of Calcutta, that sturdiest of



2 HOW INDIA WROUGHT FOR FREEDOM

fighters, was one of the little group, and he gave
their names later in his paper, The Indian Mirror; he
remarks that " the delegates who attended the Con-
vention were most of them men avIio, socially and
intellectually, are the leaders of the Society in which
they move in different parts of the countiy ". They
were :

Madras : The Hon. Mr. S. Subramania Iyer
(subsequently Judge of the High Court, Act-
ing Chief Justice, K.C.I.E., and LL.D.), and
Messrs. P. Rangiah Naidu and P. Ananda
Charlu.
Calcutta : Messrs. Norendranath Sen, Suren-
dranath Bannerji (the " uncrowned King of
Bengal," the great orator, and National leader),
and M. Ghosh.
Bumhay : The Hon. Messrs. Y. N. Mandlik and
K. T. Telang (later, Judge of the High Court)
and Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji (the G.O.M. of
India).
Poona : Messrs. C. Vijiarauga Mudaliar, and

Pandurang Gopal.
Benares: Sardar Dyal Singh.
AllaJiahad : Mr. Harishcliandra.
N.W.r.: Mr. Kashi Prasad and Pandit

Jjaksliminarayaii.
Beiujal : ^fr. Chai'uchaiidra Mitter.
Oudh : Mr. Sliri Ham.
Seventeen good men and true, who out of their
love and their hope conceived the idea of a political
National Movement for the saving of the Motherland.



THE FIRST CONGRESS O

There seems to be no record of tlie work done in
their own towns and provinces on their return home,
but the Proceedings of the First Indian National Con-
gress tells us that " in March, 1885, it was decided
to hold a meeting of Representatives from all parts
of India at the then coming Christmas. Poona was
considered the most central and therefore suitable
place," From this onwards we have the official
Reports to guide our steps.

From this meeting the following circular was issued,
profoundly interesting now, in 1915, as showing the
minds of the Fathers of the Congress in these days
of origin, in 1885, just thirty years ago. It shows
the first ideas of those who were to be the leaders of
the Indian Nation in her struggles to regain her lost
liberty, and to become a Self-governing Nation, free
amid the Free Communities which form the mighty
Empire " on which the Sun never sets ".

Here is the circular :

A Conference of the Indian National Union will be
held at Poona from the 25th to the 31st December 1885.

The Conference will be composed of Delegates —

leading politicians well acquainted with the English

language — from all parts of the Bengal, Bombay and
Madras Presidencies.

The direct objects of the Conference will be : (1) to
enable all the most earnest labourers in the cause of
national progress to become personally known to each
other ; (2) to discuss and decide upon the political
operations to be undertaken during the ensuing year.

Indirectly this Conference will form the germ of a
Native Parliament and, if properly conducted, will



4 HOW INDIA WROUGHT FOE FREEDOM

constitute in a few years an unanswerable reply to the
assertion that India is still wholly unfit for any form of
representative institutions. The first Conference will
decide whether the next shall be again held at Poona, or
whether, following the precedent of the British Association,
the Conferences shall be held year by year at difPerent
important centres.

This year the Conference being in Poona, Mr.
Chiplonkar and others of the Sarvajanik Sabha, have
consented to form a Reception Committee in whose hands
will rest the whole of the local arrangements. The
Peshwah's Garden near the Parbati Hill will be utilised
both as a place of meeting (it contains a fine Hall, like the
garden, tlie property of the Sabha) and as a residence for
the delegates, each of whom will be there provided with
suitable quarters. Much importance is attached to this,
since, when all thus reside together for a week, far greater
opportunities for friendly intercourse will be afforded than
if the delegates were (as at the time of the late Bombay
demonstrations) scattered about in dozens of private
lodging houses all over the town.

Delegates are expected to find their own way to and
from Poona — but finjm the time they reach the Poona
Railway Station until they leave it again, everything
that they can need, carriage, accommodation, food, etc.,
will be provided for them gratuitously.

The cost thus involved will be defrayed from the
Reception Fund, which the Poona Association most
liberally offers to provide in the first instance, but to
which all delegates, whose means warrant their incurring
this further expense, will be at liberty to contribute any
sum the}' please. Any unutilised balance of such dona-
tions will be carried forward as a nucleus for next year's
Reception Fund.

It is believed that exclusive of our Poona friends,
the Bombay Presidency, inclndiug Siiidli and the Berars,
will furnish about 20 delegates, Madras and Lower Bengal
each about the same numl)er, and the N. W. Provinces,
Oudh, and the Pan jab together about half this number.



THE FIRST CONGRESS D

Very modest were they, and very accurate witlial in
their estimate of seventy delegates, for seventy-two
actually recorded their names as Representatives,
while another thirty attended as friends, being, as
Government servants, precluded from acting as Re-
presentatives in a political gathering. The first meet-
ing did not, however, take place at Poona, for, only a
few days before Christmas, some sporadic cases of cholera
occurred, possibly presaging an outbreak, and it was
thought wiser to move the Conference, now called the
Congress, to Bombay. The Managers of the Gokuldas
Tejpal Samskrit College and Boarding House placed
the whole of their fine buildings at the disposal of the
Congress, and all was ready by the morning of the 27th
December for the reception of the Representatives of
the Indian Nation. As we glance over the lists of
those who were present, how many we see who became
famous in the annals of India's struggle for Freedom.
Among those who could not act as Representatives —
for the reason given above — we note the Reformer,
Dewan Bahadur R. Raghunath Rao, Deputy Collector
of Madras, the Hon. Mr. Mahadev Gr. Ranade, then
member of the Legislative Council and Small Cause
Court Judge of Poona, later to be a Judge of the
High Court of Bombay, and leader honoured and
trusted ; Lala''Baijnath of Agra was there, to be known
as scholar and writer later on ; and Professors
K. Sundararaman and R. G. Bhandarkar. Among the
Representatives may be noted editors of well-known
Indian papers, of The Dnyan Prakash, The Quarterly
Journal of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, The Maratha,



6 HOW INDIA WROUGHT FOR FREEDOM

The Kesari, The Nahahihhakar, The Indian Mirrur,
The Nassin, The WmdiLstJiani, TJie Tribune, The Indian
Union, The Indian Spectatur, TJie Indit Prakash, The
Hindu, The Crescent. How many names shine out,
familiar and honoured : Mr, A. 0. Hume is there from
Simla; W.C. Bannerji and Norendranath vSen from Cal-
cutta ; W. S. Apte and G. G. Agarkar from Poona ;
Gangaprasad Varma from Lucknow; DadabhaiNaoroji,
K. T. Telang, Pherozeshah M. Mehta — then, as now,
leader of the Bombay Corporation — D. E. Wacha,
B. M. Malabari, N. G. Chandavarkar from Bombay ;
P. Rangiah Naidu, President of the Mahajana Sabha,
S. Subramania Iyer, P. Ananda Charlu, G. Subramania
Aiyar, M. Viraraghavachariar from Madras; P. Kesava
Pillai from Anantapur. These were among the
earliest who wrought for India's Freedom, and those
yet on earth are working for her still.

At 12 noon, on December 28th, 1885, in the Hall
of the Gokuldas Tejpal Samskrit College, the First
National Congress met. The first voices heard were
those of Mr. A. O. Hume, the Hon. Mr. S. Subra-
mania Iyer and the Hon. Mr. K. T. Telang, who
proposed, seconded and supported the election of the
first President, Mr. W. C. Bannerji. A solemn and
historic moment was that in which the first of the
long line of men thus honoured by the Motherland
took his seat, to preside over her first National
Assem])ly.

After alluding to the rejn-esentative and weighty
character of the Congress, ho laid down under four
heads the objects of the Congress :



THE FIRST CONGRESS 7

(a) The promotion of personal intimacy and friend-
ship amongst all the more earnest workers in our country's
cause in the various parts of the Empire.

(b) The eradication by direct friendly personal
intercourse of all possible race, creed, or provincial
prejudices amongst all lovers of our country, and the
fuller development and consolidation of those sentiments
of national unity that had their origin in their beloved
Lord Ripon's ever memorable reign.

(c) The authoritative record, after this has been
carefull}" elicited by the fullest discussion, of the matured
opinions of the educated classes in India on some of the
more important and pressing of the social questions of
the day.

(d) The determination of the lines upon and methods
by which during the next twelve months it is desirable for
native politicians to lal:»our in the public interests.

Of these the first three have been well worked out,
but the fourth has been less regarded, and needs
urging to-day. Such guidance is supremely neces-
sary, and the Nation has the right to demand it from
its best men. In all organised movements some
direction from the centre is necessary. The Congress
has admirably focussed educated opinion, passing
valuable judgments on events and policy, and
demanding necessary reforms from Government,
but it has not adequately outlined the work to be
done during each coming year ; hence political
work has lacked point and vigour ; it is impossible to
agitate for all the matters touched on by resolutions,
and hence political work in the whole country has been
spasmodic and sporadic, and therefore largely in-
effective ; there is no concerted work. Yet what



8 HOW INDIA WROUGHT FOB FREEDOM

India can do in the way of agitation when she has an
objective is clearly shown by the agitation on South
African grievances.

The nine resolutions of the first National Congress
mark the beginning of the formulation of India's
demands.

The first asked for a Royal Commission to enquire
into the working of Indian administration.

The second for the abolition of the India Council.

The third dealt with the defects of the Legislative
Councils in which then all the members were nomin-
ated, and asked for the admission of elected members,
for the right of interpellation, for the submission
of budgets to the Councils, for the creation of
Councils in the N. W. P. and Oudh, and in the
Panjab, and for a Standing Committee in the House of
Commons to consider formal protests from majorities
in the Councils.

The fourth prayed for simultaneous examinations
for the I. C. S. and the raising of the age of
candidates.

The fifth and sixth dealt with military expenditure.

The seventh protested against the annexation of
Upper Burma and tlie ])r()p()sed incorporation of it
v/ith India.

The eightli ordered tlie sending of the resolutions
to Political Associations, and they were discussed and
passed all over the country by political bodies and
public meetings, an admirable plan which has fallen
into desuetude ; they were carried with much enthu-
siasm, and liero and there amended on minor points.



THE FIRST CONGRESS 9

while Bapatla objected to the abolition of the India
Council, which it regarded as a check on the Secre-
tary of State, and wanted its power over him made
effective.

The final resolution fixed the next Congress at
Calcutta, on December 28th, 1886.

Of these resolutions, the first has been partially
granted by the Decentralisation and Public Services
Commissions ; the second is still being demanded ;
much of the third was given in the Minto-Morley
reforms ; the prayer of the fourth is still ungranted as
regards simultaneous examinations, but the age of
candidates has been raised ; the fifth, sixth and
seventh had no effect. 'J'he eighth and ninth were,
of course, carried out.

Mr. Gr. Subramania Iyer of Madras, the Editor of
The Hindu and one of the boldest and farthest-sighted
of the Madras leaders, moved the first resolution in
an admii'able speech, much of which is valid for
to-day. It ran : ''That this Congress earnestly approves
of the promised Committee to enquire into the working
of the Indian administration." He pointed out that
in the days of the East India Company, the renewal
of its Charter at twenty years' intervals brought about
a most valuable enquirj^ into the condition of the
country, but' that since the Crown had taken it over
in 1858, these had ceased, and the distressing de-
terioration of the condition of the people was going
on unnoticed. Parliament took control in theory, but
abandoned it in fact — except where English party-
interests were concerned — and the India Council took



10 HOW INDIA WROUGHT FOR FREEDOM

up the place of the defunct Company, but ruled with-
out enquiry; he appealed to " the justice and fairness
of the English people," and asked for an enquiry into
facts. Mr. Pherozeshah Mehta seconded, and re-
marked that there must not be an enquiry by
" Anglo-Indians, sitting in judgment on themselves ".
Mr. Norendi^anath Sen supported, pointing out that
the enquiry would be a sort of stock-taking as to the
results, after twenty-seven years, of direct Govern-
ment by the Crown. A lively debate ensued, an
amendment being proposed, and the resolution
was finally carried in the amended form. (The
resolutions are printed at the end of the Chapter.)

The second resolution was moved on December
29th by Mr. Chiplonkar, and asked for the abolition
of India's Old Man of the Sea, the India Council.
He pointed out that India was not governed by the
Crown, but by retired Anglo-Indian officials, looked
on doubtfully by Lord Beaconsfield in 1858. (Those
who care to read the debate over the Government of
India Bill will find what now sound astonishingly
democratic statements, and regrets that the Re-
bellion barely ended made ])ro})er representation of
India im])ossible just then.)

Mr. Ananda Charlu was very caustic in seconding
tJH! ri'solufioji, and commented on the (jddity of the
" oligarciiy of fossilised Indian administrators,"
who were " superannuated for service in India,"
being competent to deal with increased complexity
of problems in England, where the improved climate
could only diminish the rate of decline. The abolition



THE FIRST CONGRESS 11

of the Council was a primary condition of all
other reforms. Mr. Pherozeshah Mehta also thought
that eifete Anglo-Indians, who would be partial to
their brethren in India, were a very unsatisfactory
appellate tribunal.

The resolution was carried unanimously and has
been carried at inter v^als ever since, but in vain.

The third resolution was moved in a very full and
careful speech by the Hon. Mr. K. T. Telang, who
usefully indicated possible electorates for members
of the Legislative Councils, and the Hon. Mr.
S. Subramania Iyer seconded, both by personal
experience as members knowing how " little influence
they possessed in the Councils either for good or for
evil ". They could not be " of any great use to the
country ". Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji cogently said that
they had learnt from " the English people how
necessary representation is for good Government " ;
without it "what good is it to India to be under the
British sway ? It will be simply another Asiatic
despotism. . . . We are only British drudges or slaves."
There was a long debate, and the resolution was
carried unanimously on the following day. It was
partly granted in the Minto-Morley reforms 24 years
later.

The fourth resolution Avas moved by Mr. Dadabhai
Naoroji, and the discussion was remarkable for the
speech of Mr. D. S. White, who wished to stop the
importation of boys from England at great expense,
and to abolish the Civil Service, utilising, both from
England and India, men of experience and reputation.



12 HOW INDIA WROUGHT FOR FREEDOM

The resolution was carried, and the age limit has
been raised, but the main prayer is not yet granted.
It is pathetic to read the reiterated confidence of
the speakers " in the justice of the English people/'
and to see that that confidence is still unjustified.

Mr. P. Rangiah Naidu, in the next resolution, after
pointing out that military expenditure had increased
from £11,463,000 in 1857 to £16,975,750 in 1884,
pleaded with the Government to " change their pres-
ent policy of suspicion and distrust for a generous
and confiding one," to improve the " Native Army,"
to accept the offers of the people to enrol as Volun-
teers ; then no more European soldiers Avould be need-
ed. Mr. D. E. Wacha, in seconding, made the first of
many great Congress speeches, an able and exhaustive
review of the military position, cruelly unfair to
India and placing on her most unjust burdens. The
resolution was carried, as was the next, urging that
if military expenditure was not diminished, it should
be met by re-imposition of the import duties, the
abolition of which had robbed poverty-stricken India
to enrich wealthy Lancashire. The debate showed
the thorough knowledge and rare ability of the men
taking part in it, and we hear also their repudiation
of opinions now Ic^ng familiar through thirty years
of repetition, that educated huliniis were disloyal, and
that English education had awakened dangerous
aspirations.

The resolution dii l)ui'ina, and the remaining two
were quickly passed, and the first National Congress
dissolved, leaving a happy and inspiring memory of



THE FIRST CONGRESS 13

fine work done, and unity demonstrated. India had
found her Voice. India was realising herself as a
Nation, Strange and menacing was the portent in the
eyes of some. Splendid and full of hope in the eyes
of others. The rosy fingers of the Dawn-Maidens
had touched the Indian skies. When would her Sun
of Freedom rise to irradiate the Motherland ?

RESOLUTIONS

1. That this Congress earnestly recommends that the promised
enquiry into the working of Indian Administration, here and in
England, should be entrusted to a Royal Commission, the people of
India being adequately represented thereon, and evidence taken
both in India and in England.

2. That this Congress considers the abolition of the Council of
the Secretary of State for India, as at present constituted, the
necessary preliminary to all other reforms.

3. That this Congress considers the reform and expansion of the
Supreme and existing Local Legislative Councils by the admission
of a considerable proportion of elected members (and the creation
of similar Councils for the N.W. Provinces and Oudh, and also for
Panjab) essential ; and holds that all Budgets should be referred to
these Councils for consideration, their members being moreover
empowered to interpellate the Executive in regard to all branches
of the administration ; and that a Standing Committee of the House
of Commons should be constituted to receive and consider any formal
protests that maj- be recorded by majorities of such Councils against
tlie exercise by the Executive of the power, which would be vested
in it, of overruling the decision of such majorities.

4. That in the opinion of this Congress the competitive examin-
ations now held in England, for first appointments in various civil
departments of the pulslic service, should, henceforth, in accordance
with the views • of the India Office Committee of I860, be held
simultaneously one in England and one in India, both being as far
as practicable identical in their nature, and those who (-ompete in