Case study-Baroda

The British educational policies were not applicable to the states where the princes still ruled. This is how the Mayo College in Ajmer and Scindia School in Gwalior were set up the upbringing of princes. But there were several very enlightened princes who took the initiative in educatiion. In fact progress was much better in some of the princely states then in British India.
Maharaja Sayajirao III of Baroda (1863-1939) war one of them. His administrative and political reforms had earnded him the admiration of the whole of India. On the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of his accession to the throne, he set apart large funds out of his personal as well as state funds for setting up a university in Baroda for the benefit of students from the rural areas of his state.
Sayajirao recognized talent from among his people. He supported education and training and particulary patronized Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar,the architect of the Indian Constitution and Dadabhai Naoroji, who started his public life as the Diwan (Minister) to the Maharaja in 1874. Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad of Baroda used to visit England every year to select outstanding young people to join his service and in one of such visits he med 20-year-old Sri Aurobindo whom he immediately offered a job in the Baroda College. . Sri Aurobindo returned to India in 1893 to join the Baroda service.
He boldly introduced compulsory primary education and a library movement (the first of its kind in India) to augment his adult education scheme.
Before 1871, the Baroda state did not have a single government school. In 1882 the Baroda College took its first thirty-three students. In 1891 an order war passed that each village had to maintain a schoolmaster. In 1907 primary education was made free and complusory for boys aged 7 to 12 and girls aged 7 to 10. By 1945, over 3,00,000 children were attending the 2,614 schools run by the state.
The figures are quoted for you to understand how much royal patronage helped. At the beginning of Sayajirao's reign Baroda was behind British India in literacy rates. In Baroda city, in 1891 there was 21% literacy compared to 24 % in Bombay city. By 1931 there had been a complete reversal. In Bombay city it was 24% as compared to 41% in Baroda city.
What he began was ultimately completed by his grandson Sir Pratapsinghrao Gaekwad, who founded the Maharaja Sayajirao University and settled the trust as desired by his grandfather. This Trust, known as Sir Sayajirao Diamond Jublee and Memorial Trust, exists till today and caters to the educational and other needs of the people of the former state of Baroda.

Case study-Sir Ahmad khan(1817-98)and the Aligarh Movement

The greatest Muslim reformor was Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. In the beginning he devoted himself to religious questions. He tried to reinterpret Islam to bring it closer to modern science and to adapt itself to modern times. The supreme interest of Syed's life was education. Sir Syed wanted to create a scientific temperament among the Muslims of India and to make the Western Knowledge of science available to them. His scientific Society translated scientific works in to Urdu so that common people could understand them. He founded many schools. He also championed the cause of modern education at a time when all the Indians in general and Indian Muslims in particular considered it a sin to get modern education and that too through the English language.
Through the Aligarh Institue Gazette,Sir Syed succeeded in agitating the minds of the traditional Muslim society . Some of the orthndox Muslims opposed him to the extent that they called him, mulhid (atheist), kafir, etc. Anyone with a poor level of commitment would have backed off in the face of strong opposition but Sir Syed responded by briging out another journal Tehzibul Akhlaq, which greatly succeed in infusing a new desire amongst Muslims for acquiring modern Knowledge . It also gave a new direction to Muslim social and political thought.
Sir Syed finally reached the conclusion that the lack of education was the main cause of the backwardness of the community . Against all the odds, Sir Syed became successful in his mission and in 1857 he founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental (MAO) College at Aligarh . It had both Hindu and Muslim students and teachers. He also employed European teachers. The reform movemets started by him came to be called the Aligarh Movements. The college set by him grew into Aligarh Muslim University which set new trends in thinking among Muslims. Sir Syed got moral and financial support from a cross section of the society. Amongst the first 120 people who gave valuable donations for the construction of the school building were several Hindus and their names still decorate the old buildings of Aligarh Muslim University .
The Aligarh Muslim University produced intellectuals in large numbers who served the country in various capacities.
Sir Syed wanted MAO College to act as a bridge between the old and the new, the East and the West . He, therefore, decided to keep a fine balance between the two. The college he founded was the visible symbol of reason and progress. His aim was not merely restricted to establishing a college at Aligarh but at spreading a network of Muslim-managed educational institutions throught the length and breadth of the country. To this end,he instituted the All India Muslim Educational Conference. This Conference motivated the Muslims to help open a number of educational institions in India.

Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore was a poet, writer, musician and philospher. He was born in 1861 in Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi. Young Tagore was popularly called 'Rabi'.
Music was an liked poetry and music . He wrote his first poem Banphool when he was just 15. It was later published in a magzine.
Rabindranath had a keen interest in the folk music of Bengal. He used it in many of his songs. Our National Anthem , ' Jana-Gana-Mana', was composed by him.
Tagore wrote nearly 50 books and more than 3,000 poems He was awarded the Nobal Prize for Literature in 1913 for his book Gitanjali . He was also Knighted by the English goverment in 1915. However ,he returned this honour in protest against the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre.
Rabindranath believed that education was the only means through which India could progress. He Founded a school at Shantiniketan (in West Bengal ) in 1901 . It is now Known as the Vishva Bharti University . Tagore devoted a great deal of his time to this school . He lived there till he passed away in 1941.
Rabindra sangeet , the music of Tagore is very popular today. It is sung and enjoyed by people all over the world.

Partition of Bengal

The province of Bemgal included not only West Bengal and East Bengal (now Bangladesh) but also Bihar and Orissa. In the year 1905 , Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, partitioned the province of Bengal . Curzon claimed that this was done to improve administrative efficiency . But if administrative reason alone had been the reason for the partition , Bihar and Orissa could have been made in to a separate province and Bengal kept intact. The partition was actually a deliberate attempt by the British to crush the nationalist feelings in Bengal by dividing the province on the basis of religion -East Bengal with a huge population of Muslims and West Bengal inhabited mainly by Hindus. The people of Bengal strongly resented the partition.

Case study of urban centre-delhi

It is believed that the city of Delhi has been the site of seven cities,one after the other,the present New Delhi being the eighth .
In December 1911 , the coronation Durbar was held at Delhi . King George V announced the creation of a new capital ,Delhi. The real motive behind the transfer of the capital was to leave Calcutta which had become the center of the freedom struggle . However ,the reason given was that Delhi was divergent views about the shifting of the capital . Lord Crewe,Secretary of state ,declared that the creation of new capital would be taken as ' an unflattering determination to maintain British rule in India'. However ,Thomas Metcalfe argued that it ' would mark the beginning of the end'.
Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker were the two great architects who designed New Delhi. Lutyens and Baker had diffarent but complementary visions . Lutyens sought to borrow from the architectural designs of different countries and Baker wanted to integrate local elements in his design.
Lutyens realized that what needed was a synthesis of Eastern and Western styles.
Thus were built the Viceregal House (now Rashtrapati Bhavan), Council Chamber (now Parliment House), North Block and South Block ,India Gate,Connaught Place and planned so that large spaces on both sides of Kingsway (now Rajpath) were lined with trees and decorated with water bodies and fountains.
In constructing government building red and cream sandstone was most often used. Domes,loggias , chhajjas, chhatris and jaalis were prominent features of these new building along with motifs talen from the Hindu,Buddhist and Jain traditions as well as from the Mughal style of architecture.
The construction of city was interrupted by First World War (1914-18) The city was finally inaugurated in the year 1931.

Sati-Roop Kanwar

A pretty young bride married for barely 8 months,Roop Kanwar,became a sati-burning herself to death on her husband 's funeral pyre -on 4 September 1987 at Deorala village in Rajasthan . The reaction was a mixture of shock ,admiration ,outrage ,reverence and embarrassment over the young girl's action . Local police failed to stop the sati. The Indian press called the act a 'barbaric incident which blackened India's images in the world . Anti-sati feminists responded with protests and marches , condemnig the glorification of sati, yet they barely influnced the 3,00,000 pilgrims who came by busloads to worship at the site of the cremation. The government action against Roop's relatives was slow and belated. Yet private opinions,evem of prominemt politicians,were ambivalent.

The Munda rebellion (Birsa Munda)

The Munda rebellion too is one of the most important tribal uprisings against the British rule in india.
The Mundas were a prominent tribe in the Bihar region.During the British rule ,many non-tribals migrated to the traditional tribal areas and grabbed the land owned by tribal groups. In due course , the tribals were compelled to work as labourers under the non-tribals . This system was locally called bethbegari or forced labour .
The Munda rebellion was led by a great Munda leader called Birsa Munda. The main rebellion took place in the region south of Ranchi in 1899-1900.The rebellion aimed to drive away the British and establish Munda Raj or Munda rule in this region. The rebellion came to be called Ulugan or the Great Tumult.
Birsa Munda was a strong young man . He claimed to be God's representative , born to protect the Mundas .
Birsa Munda strongly protested against non-tribals occupying tribal lands . He also disliked the moneyenders and the zamindars who ill-treated the Mundas . He advised the Munda Farmers not to pay rent to the zamindars.
Birsa Munda started the revolt in the Chotha Nagpur region . The entire Munda community joined together under his leadership . They attacked British officials missionaries and police stations. However,the British captured Birsa Munda and suppressed the rebels.