4 Important Demands of the Early Nationalists

Demands of the Early Nationalists

The demands of the early nationalists were

Abolition of India Council.
The moderates demanded control over the public purse and raised the slogan, ‘No taxation without representation’.
Adequate representation of Indians in the Executive Council of the Viceroy and the Governors.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, they demanded ‘Swarajya’ or self-government within the British Empire like the status given to Canada and Australia.

To decrease land revenues and protect peasants against the unjust demands and atrocities of the zamindars.
To reduce expenditures on the army and to spend the saved money on welfare of the people.
To enquire into the reason behind recurrent famines and growing poverty of the people.
To develop and provide banking, irrigational, health and medical facilities to the people.
To protect the interests of Indian industries by imposing heavy trade duties on imported goods.
To abolish the salt tax and duties on sugar.

To hold the Indian Civil Service Examinations in England and India simultaneously.
To completely separate executive and judicial wings of the government. This demand was made to protect Indians from the arbitrary acts of the police and the bureaucracy.
To increase the powers of the local municipal bodies and to do away with excessive official control over municipal bodies.
To repeal or annul the Arms and Licence Acts. To spread primary education among the Indian masses.

To do away with the restrictions imposed by the British government on the freedom of speech and press in India.
To abolish the Preventive Detention Act and restore civil liberties in India.
To allow Indians to assemble and to form associations.

The early nationalists had faith in the British sense of justice and fair play.
They believed that the British would grant ‘Home Rule’ to Indians.
They believed that the British rule had positively influenced Indian society by banning sati, female infanticide and by raising the minimum marriageable age of girls and boys.
They believed in agitating through constitutional and peaceful methods like writing petitions.
Also Read Programmes and Achievements of the Early Nationalists