The goal of national movements is ultimately the creation of independent states, and some of them have already achieved success. After gaining independence, most liberation movements turn into political parties - ruling or opposition. The last of them to complete the decolonization process on its territory was SWAPO, which founded Namibia in 1990.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC, the former Organization of the Islamic Conference) also recognized some social and national movements.
Consider the characteristics and features of these movements on the example of three completely different countries - India, Spain and the United States. These examples show both the differences and the similarities of national movements that exist around the world. But first you need to understand and explain to yourself what their essence is.
Reasons for National Movements
There are several reasons for the occurrence of such movements:
- arbitrariness by the authorities / weakness of the state;
- discrimination;
- assimilation and suppression;
- ineffective national policies.
The goals and causes of national liberation movements usually overlap. As a rule, they come down to two points:
- Giving the titular nation a special status in the state (if we are talking about a national majority).
- Separation from the state (in the case of a national minority).
India
Nationalist movements in India were organized as mass organizations that emphasize and raise issues related to the interests of the people of India. In most of these movements, people themselves were encouraged to take action. Due to several factors, these movements could not gain independence for India. Nevertheless, they fostered a sense of nationalism among the inhabitants of the country, which is especially characteristic of the 1916 national movement. The failure of these movements affected many people when they left government offices, schools, factories, and services. Although they managed to make several concessions, such as those that were won by the Salt March in 1930, they did not greatly help India in terms of their purpose.
Historical context
Indian nationalists were guided by the historical states that once existed on the territory of Hindustan, such as Nizamiyat, the local Navabs of Oudh and Bengal and other smaller powers. Each of them was a strong regional power under the influence of its religious and ethnic identity. However, the East Indian company eventually became the dominant force. One of the results of the social, economic and political changes that took place in the country during most of the 18th century was the growth of the Indian middle class. Although this middle class and its various political leaders were from different walks of life and from different parts of the country, this contributed to the growth of “Indian” identity. ” The implementation and improvement of this concept of national identity has generated a growing wave of nationalism in India over the last decades of the 19th century. All this resulted in the national liberation movement of 1916.
Swadeshi (Swadeshi, Swadeshi)
The Swadeshi movement encouraged Indian people to stop using British products and start using their own handmade products. The original Swadeshi movement arose as a result of the partition of Bengal in 1905 and continued until 1908. The Swadeshi movement, which was part of the Indian freedom struggle, was a successful economic strategy aimed at liquidating the British Empire and improving the economic conditions in India. The Swadeshi Movement will soon stimulate local entrepreneurship in many areas. Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai, V.O. Chidambaram Pillai, Sri Aurobindo, Surendannath Banerji, Rabindranath Tagore were among the prominent leaders of this movement. The trio is also known as LAL BAL PAL. The Swadeshi movement was the most successful. The name Lokmanya began to spread around, and people began to follow it in all parts of the country.
The role of industrialists
The Indian textile industry also played an important role in the struggle for Indian freedom. Textile products pioneered the industrial revolution in India, and soon England began to produce cotton in such large quantities that the domestic market was saturated, and foreign markets were required to sell these products. India, on the other hand, was rich in cotton and could supply British factories with the raw materials they needed. This was a time when India was under British rule, and the East India Company was already rooted in India. The raw materials went to England at very low prices, and exquisite quality cotton was returned to the country and sold here at very high prices. This depleted the economy of India, and the country's textile industry was hit hard. This caused great outrage among cotton producers and traders.
British reaction
To add fuel to the fire, Lord Curzon announced the partition of Bengal in 1905, and the people of Bengal came up with massive opposition. Initially, the partition plan was against the press campaign. Followers of such methods led to a boycott of British goods, and the people of India promised to use only swedish or Indian goods and wear only Indian clothing. Imported garments were treated with hatred. In many places, public arson of foreign clothing was organized. Foreign clothing stores were closed. The cotton textile industry is rightfully described as the Swiss industry. The period witnessed the growth of the Swadeshi textile mills. Swadeshi plants have sprung up everywhere.
Total
According to Surendranath Banerjee, the swadeshi movement has changed the entire structure of the country's social and family life. Songs written by Rabindranath Tagore, Rajanicant Sen and Sayed Abu Mohd have become a driving force for nationalists. The movement soon spread to the rest of the country, and on April 1, 1912, part of Bengal had to be inhaled firmly. The people were great.
Other movements
The mass movements failed to achieve their main goal - to achieve independence for India, as they were often canceled before they ended naturally. However, they aroused nationalist sentiment among the Indian population, figures such as Mahatama Gandhi, united the nation for their non-violent philosophy and, undoubtedly, put decisive pressure on the British occupation. While in subsequent years, the Raj economic factors, such as changes in the state of trade between the UK and India and the cost of deploying Indian forces abroad, burdened by tax for the British taxpayer by an act of the Indian government in 1935, were increasingly important for the British administration. The combined resistance further illuminated the growing inequality of British failure to achieve solidarity with India. In fact, the nationalist movements in India were just another mark on how the British ever tortured control of their rajas, faced with the huge number of problems that the mass movements attribute, but do not bear sole responsibility for the independence of India in 1947.
Spain
Movimiento Nacional (National Movement) - the name given to the nationalist mechanism during the reign of the Francoists in Spain, which supposedly was the only channel of participation in public life in Spain. He met the doctrine of corporatism, in which only the so-called “individuals” could express themselves: families, municipalities and unions.
The national movement was led by Francisco Franco under the name Jeff del Movimiento (head of the movement), assisted by the "Secretary General of the Movement." The hierarchy spread throughout the country, and each village had its own "local leader of the movement."
Blue shirts
People who strongly identified themselves with the National Movement were colloquially known as phalangists or azules (blue), the color of the shirts worn by the fascist organization Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, created during the Second Spanish Republic. Camisas viejas (Old Shirts) had the honor of being historical members of the Falange, compared to the Camisas nuevas (New Shirts), which could be blamed for opportunism.
Ideology
The ideology of the national movement was embodied in the slogan “Una, Grande y Libre!”, Which denoted the indivisibility of the Spanish state and the rejection of any regionalism or decentralization, its imperial character (the non-existent Spanish empire in the Americas and is provided for in Africa) and its independence from the alleged "Judeo-Masonic-Marxist international conspiracy" (Franco's personal obsession), materialized by the Soviet Union, European democracies, the United States (before the Madrid Pact). In 1953, they clearly defined the “external enemy” that could threaten the nation at any time, as well as a long list of “internal enemies” such as anti-Spaniards, communists, separatists, liberals, Jews and freemasons.
Francism
Since one-party rule was introduced in Franco-Spain, the only way to pluralism was for internal "families" (Familias del Régimen) to compete with each other in the National Movement. These include the Catholic "family" (which brought support to the Roman Catholic Church and the ideology of national Catholicism), the monarchist "family" (or conservative law, consisting of many former members of the Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Rights), the traditionalist "family" (published from Carlism ), a military trend (figures close to Franco himself, including the so-called africanistas) and the Azules themselves or national syndicalists who controlled the bureaucracy of the so-called movement: Falange, Sindicato Vertical and many other organizations, such as national grouping of veterans (Agrupación Nacional de Excombatientes), women's section (Sección Femenina), etc.
Franco held his power by balancing this internal rivalry, being careful not to show any favoritism to any of them and not to compromise himself too much before anyone. Thus, all were united by a common interest, a continuation of the defense of Franco traditional Spanish society.
American nationalists
The Nationalist Movement is a Mississippi-based white nationalist organization headquartered in Georgia that advocates what it calls the "majority" position. The Associated Press and Anti-Defamation League has called him a white proponent of excellence. Richard Barrett succeeded by unanimous vote as leader of Thomas Reiter after the assassination of Barrett. His secretary was originally Barry Hackney, and the position of secretary was removed by Thomas Reuters. Thomas Reuters retained most of the assets and intellectual property of the nationalist movement after the assassination of Barrett. The symbol of movement is Crosstar.
In 2012, with the approval of Thomas Reuters, Travis Goli was sworn in as the leader of the Nationalist Movement. Like Reuters, Goli was one of the first members of the Barrett-era Nationalist Movement. Goli moved the headquarters of the Nationalist Movement south, where the history of the US national movement entered a new phase. It still exists, but in a semi-underground form. Other leaders in the national movements of American whites are Stephen Bannon, Richard Spencer, David Lane and Robert Jay Matthews.