द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

36 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE Mr. Gandhi, the Congress decided to adopt a policy of non- co-operation towards the new constitution. Three factors accounted for this decision—the atrocities in the Punjab, the attitude of Great Britain towards Turkey, and the inadequacy of the new constitutional reforms. Lord Irwin, the ex-Viceroy of India, holds the view that every great step in England and in the Dominions towards the development of responsible government has been accom- panied at a greater or lesser interval by a corresponding advance in India. As examples he has mentioned that the Charter Act of 1833, the Indian Councils Act of 1861, the Indian Councils Act of 1892 and the Indian Councils Act of 1909, have followed popular movements in England or in other parts of the British Empire. There is considerable force in what Lord Irwin says. But one should go further and say that the Indian movement is organically connected with the world movement for liberty. In India, as elsewhere, the beginning of the nineteenth century was an important landmark. The revolution of 1857 followed in the wake of world revolution of 1848. The birth of the Indian National Congress took place at a time, when there was a similar upheaval in other parts of the world. The movement of 1905 closely followed the Boer War in South Africa and was contemporaneous with the Russian revolution of 1905. The attempted revolution during the Great War was a phenomenon visible all over the world, at about the same time. Last but not least, the movement of 1920-21 was contemporaneous with the Sinn Fein Revolution in Ireland, with the fight of the Turks for their independence, and it closely followed revolutions which brought freedom to countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia. There is no doubt therefore, that the awakening in India is organically connected with the upheaval all over the world during the last and the present century.