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Indian Freedom Struggle (1707–1947 A.D.)

Notes Perhaps, the greatest service of the Moderate leaders was rendered when they assessed the economic
impact of British rule on India. They focussed public attention on the fact of Indian poverty and
explained that this poverty was largely due to the colonial exploitation of India’s economic resources
by Britain. The Drain Theory popularized by Dadabhai Naoroji, Dutt, Wacha and others was an
open indictment of Britian’s economic role in India. This Drain Theory was used as a convenient
stick by the Extremist leaders to malign and spit British rule in India.

Extremist
The closing decade of the 19th century and early years of the 20th century witnessed the emergence
of a new and younger group within the Indian National Congress which was sharply critical of
the ideology and method of the old leadership. These ‘angry young men’ advocated the adoption
of Swaraj as the goal of the Congress to be achieved by more self-reliant and independent methods.
The new group came to be called the Extremist Party in contrast to the older one which began to
be referred to as the Moderate Party.
The process of split in the Congress Party began when Lokamanya Tilak clashed with the Moderates
(also called Sudharaks) over the question of Social Reforme. In July 1895 Tilak and his group ousted
Ranade and Gokhale from the control of Poona Sarvajanik Sabha. Gokhale organised a separate
political association called ‘The Deccan Sabha’. There was no love lost between Tilak and Gokhale.
Tilak outmanoeuvred Gokhale from national politics over the ‘apology affair’ and Gokhale was
labelled a Kacha reed i.e. spineless fellow who could be brow-beaten by the Government.
Tilak was made of a different stuff than most of the Congress leaders. He was forthright in his
criticism of the Government and its policies and was prepared to make sacrifices to get wrongs
redressed. He was the first Congress leader to suffer several terms of imprisonment for the sake of
the country. As early as 1882, for criticising in strong language the treatment meted out to the
Maharaja of Kolhapur, the Government tried and sentenced Tilak to four months’ imprisonment.
Again, in 1897 Tilak was charged with ‘exciting feelings of disaffection to the British Government’
and sent to jail for 18 months’ R.I. At the Congress session at Amraoti (Dec. 1897) the supporters
of Tilak made an attempt to push a resolution demanding the release of Tilak. The Moderate
leaders who controlled the Congress did not permit it. Similarly, the Moderates foiled the attempt
of martyrdom at the Congress session at Madras (Dec. 1898). At the Lucknow session of the
Congress (Dec. 1899). Tilak’s attempt to move a resolution condemning Governor Sandhurst’s
administration of Bombay was also blocked by the Moderate leaders on the plea that the matter
was of provincial interest and could not be discussed at the National Congress. It was because of
ideological differences with Tilak and his Group that the Moderate leaders were determined to
keep Tilak and Congressmen of his line of thinking out of all positions of power and responsibility
in the Congress and never gave him a chance to become the Congress President.
Causes for the Rise of Extremism
The dissatisfaction with the working of the Congress had been expressed by Bankim Chandra
Chatterjee when he described the Congressmen as “place-hunting politicians”. Aurobindo Ghose
wrote a series of articles during 1893-94 entitled ‘New Lamps for Old’ wherein he described the
Congress as being out of contact with the ‘proletariat’, its character as ‘unnational’ and its work as
‘failure’ and added: “Yet more appalling was the general timidity of the congress, its glossing of
hard names, its disinclinations to tell the direct truth, its fear of too deeply displeasing our masters”.
He thought that the Congress was ‘dying of consumption.’
Among the cause and circumstances that helped in the growth of Extremism the following deserve
special mention:
1. Recognition of the True Nature of British Rule: The efforts of the early nationalist leaders
paved the way for the development of the next stage of the nationalist movement. By their
painstaking studies and writings the early nationalist leaders had exposed the true nature of
British Rule in India, They conclusively proved by elaborate statistical data that British rule and
its policies were responsible for the economic ruin of India and her deepening poverty. Dadabhai
Naoroji, for example, exposed the exploitative nature of British rule in India and proved that

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