Tag: formation of indian national congress (inc)

Lord Curzon's seven year rule in India was full of repressive measures. He refused to recognise India as a nation. He was not in favour of giving freedom to India because he believed that the English were destined to rule over India. Therefore, he took several repressive measures to crush India Nationalism. These measures included;

• The Act of 1898 which made it an offence to provoke people against the English
• The Calcutta Corporation act (1899) which reduced the strength of elected members from India, thereby giving British a majority
• The Official Secrets Act
• The Indian Universities Act of 1904 which imposed strict official control over the Indian universities because Curzon considered them as the centres of nationalism.

Many new educational institutions were set up during the Swadeshi Movement. The National Council of Education was set up in 1906. It later developed into Jadavpur University. Similarly Natioanl Collage was set up at Kolkata with Sri Aurobindo Ghosh as it Principal.

Lokmanya Tilak was born on 23 July 1856 at Ratnagiri in Maharashtra. He was an Indian nationalist, teacher, social reformer, lawyer and an independence activist. Home Rule League was formed by Indian him and British social reformer and Indian independence leader Annie Besant on the lines of Irish Home Rule movement and other home rule movements. He also started the newspaper Kesari to spread political education among the common people which played an important role in the national movement.

Sikhs and Hindu Punjabis in USA started Ghadr movement to free India from British rule in early 1900's. It took the name from a weekly paper Ghadar published in commemoration of the Revolt of 1857. It was founded by Sohan Singh Bhakna and Lala Hardayal. Its aim was to get rid of the colonial super-power by means of an armed struggle and to set up a national democratic government on the sub-continent. 

Bal Gangadhar Tilak, born on 23 July 1856 at Chikhali, Maharashtra was an Indian nationalist, teacher, social reformer, lawyer and an independence activist. He was a brilliant politician as well as a profound scholar who believed that independence is the foremost necessity for the well being of a nation. The British Government termed him as the "Father of Indian Unrest".