THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS by Francis Robinson
The main supporting points of the article are the role of the Indian National Congress in the making of the Indian, as an empire and how the congress was able to create an organization setting with a framework of a nationalist movement which played a major role at all cost to raise the Indian political system to a higher point than the British would be willing to pay for. The parties win for the national cause has structured the national cause for making India one amongst the competitive system of the post-colonial era as a dominant party. Another main point was the major steps taken through the transformation of the Indian National Congress through phases of development. A first and second phase and the many changes that were made during those transformations and development in a bid to make the party stronger and ensure it achieves its major goals of Indian transformation and create more dominance and relevance of the party (Robinson, 1982). The other main point in the article was the leadership properties of the Indian National Congress. The article has detailed the leadership setting of the congress from its inception through all the development phases of the Indian national congress. Many leaders were involved in making of the congress mainly because it required a large diversity of representation to make it a strong party and more dominant in a bid to achieve its goals for the Indian nation. All the major leaders have been explained in the article citing their most relevant achievement to the party and the roles they played.
This article, the Indian National Congress by Francis Robinson has proved a relevant material in explaining and detailing the major points of the Indian National Congress through the progressive changes of phases, purpose and goals that the Congress had. The article can be used as a relevant academic material that can be used to Cleary indicate the content of exceptional relevancy regarding the Indian National Congress in an acceptable manner (Robinson, 1982). This is because the author is a well-known academic writer who is known to deliver high quality and trusted articles that are articulated in a way that defines simplicity, bold English that is basically understandable to a large percentage of its audience and a good continuous flow that identifies the key points without a lot of effort. However, the article lacks enough supporting documents, sources that can depict strong credibility of the information in the article and thus advocate it for many viewers, readers and academic audience of all niches and levels. But in general the document is a good source of information related to the Indian National Congress (Robinson, 1982)
ADMINISTERING INDIA: The Indian Civil Service by Ann Ewing
This article discusses the Indian civil service its composition and its role in the Indian invasion. It was an elite army branch where members had to apply and undergo a series of qualification tests. A large portion were of British nationality. The highest ranking officers of the service were British and were in charge of overseeing the districts that made up British India. In the article the author criticizes the notion that the life of the officers was glamorous where they rode around dispensing justice to willing subjects. She corrects this notion by stating that that the life of the officers was the complete opposite, unrewarding regarding salaries and personal satisfaction (Ewing, 1982). The officers were restricted by laws and supervisory instructions as well as their being very frustrating due to their lack of cultural experience and lack of respect from and authority over the people. The authority of the officers was restricted by the rules stated by the British government.
According to the author the ideal ruler as indifferent to climatic conditions had few earthly possessions and lived almost entirely on his horse. His authority was autonomous in that he was allowed to do as he wished, when he wished because he was the highest authority in that district without the constraints of being part of the national government due to lack of access to remote areas. He had no room for niceties and social graces, and he expected the same of his officers to the extent that he punished them for having artistic hobbies.
Eventually, officers in the service were forced to participate in matters of administration of the districts where they were stationed. The Service had a reputation for writing reports that no one read; which were not well summarized in that they were longer than the original reports. The reports were the result of the increases in access to the service to remote areas, thus allowing the officers to participate in the administrative matters of most districts (Ewing, 1982). The reports’ length discouraged leaders from reading them or acting upon them since they were incompetent and devoid of any significant details. Although the Service enjoyed the confidence of successfully governing the Indian Territory they were unable to get the respect of the people in their government.
The article focusses on the evolution of the duties of the Indian Civil Service in the governance of British India. It fully covers the advent of the ministers and their role after the roles of civil service officers was phased out to make way for the new roles of elected officials. It, however, does not comprehensively cover the duties carried out by the ministers (Ewing, 1982).
INDIA’S DIVIDED LOYALTIES? By Peters Heehs.
The article discusses the Indian soldiers who stood with the Japanese army against the Raj. It looks at the repercussions of the war to the soldiers of both sides. The defeated soldiers were required to serve in Japanese prison camps for three years. However, not all of them served the sentence others chose to join the enemy’s army. These soldiers formed the Indian National Army, which later invaded India. The soldiers who surrendered to the Japanese were classified in monochromatic colors: black, gray and white depending on their perceived guilt or innocence. The author explains that over one million Indians fought on the British side during the First World War in bid to protect the empire (Heehs, 1995). The higher ranks of the Indian army mostly composed of British soldiers, but efforts were made to increase the number of Indians after the war. The author aims at showing the roles and conflict of soldiers who defected from the Indo-British army to join the Japanese side to fight against the British and gain their territory.
In the early part of nineteenth, twentieth century, the Indian military budget reduced, which forced the reduction of the army size. At the time, the reduction did not seem to have any repercussions on Indian since no one saw the possibility of them going to war with Germany. The assumption led to the easy invasion of the Indian empire by the Japanese army. The invasion showed that having a good plan as opposed to being unprepared has a huge part in the success of any invasion. The support and faith placed on the invading army by the nationalist who wanted to end the British occupation of Indian.
Despite the fact that they were racially discriminated by the British the Indian troops were still loyal and most were conflicted about changing sides to fight for their freedom with the Japanese troops in the newly formed Indian army; which was formed by Indian nationalists. The author argues that while some of the soldiers joined the Japanese forces out of a sense of duty, others because they saw it as an opportunity to have a better while others joined because they were afraid of the torture that the Japanese would inflict on them if they did not join them (Heehs, 1995).
There were wrangles within the coalition of the Japanese and the Indian revolution leaders because their interests were not aligned. The Japanese intended to use the army to maintain order in their territory while the nationalists wanted to use the army to revolutionize the Indian empire and eliminate the British rule (Heehs, 1995). Theses wrangles led to the disbandment of the army by the then leader, Singh, who was later arrested. The Japanese chose a replacement for him, Subhas Bose, who had an influence on the masses that was approximately the same level as that of Mahatma Gandhi. Bose intended to form a government that was bounded by military discipline instead of democracy. Bose sought reassurance from the Japan premier about the nature of Japan’s intention to invade India
The Indian National Army was restructured after a year where they established new training and organization and later led the revolution of India from British rule into Japanese rule. The writer fails to elaborate the role of other leaders who helped in the achievement of self-governance of India. The author criticized Bose as arrogant, intolerant of people with different views and his beliefs in governance using militarism. However, he recognizes the good qualities of Bose his patriotism, his dynamism, his leadership style and charisma. He does not clearly show what role they played in winning freedom for Indian. The article also fails to show the how the conflicted the soldiers were and how the conflict affected the war for freedom and self-governance.
References
Ewing, A. (1982). ADMINISTERING INDIA: The Indian Civil Service. History Today, 43-48.
Heehs, P. (1995). INDIA'S DIVIDED LOYALTIES? The world at war, 16-23.
Robinson, F. (1982). THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS. History Today, 32-40.
