Why did the Congress declare 9th May to be ‘Ethiopia Day’?
- (a)Because the Ethiopians declared their support for the cause of Indian independence from British rule.
- (b)Because Ethiopia became independent from Britain on that day.
- (c)Because Ethiopia was attacked by Italy in early 1936 and their resistance was considered freedom struggle.
- (d)Because Ethiopian leaders denounced Mussolini.
Answer
Why
Correct — C, (c) Because Ethiopia was attacked by Italy in early 1936 and their resistance was considered freedom struggle. Fascist Italy went to war on Ethiopia and the Congress read that war exactly as it read its own situation — an imperial power crushing a people who wanted to remain free — so it called on Indians to demonstrate their solidarity, and the day fixed for it was 9 May. Meetings and demonstrations were held across the country expressing sympathy with the Ethiopians, and Congress statements of the period treat the Ethiopian resistance as part of the same struggle that exploited peoples everywhere were waging for freedom. The dating deserves one correction, which does not disturb the answer. Mussolini’s invasion had actually begun on 3 October 1935; what happened in 1936 was the end of the campaign — Italian troops entered Addis Ababa on 5 May and Mussolini proclaimed the annexation of Ethiopia on 9 May, the very day the Congress marked. So the option’s ’early 1936’ compresses a war that opened in the autumn of 1935 and closed in the May of 1936, but the substance it states is right: the attack was Italy’s, the sympathy was for a people resisting conquest, and the frame the Congress put around it was the frame of a freedom struggle. Ethiopia Day belongs with the other gestures of the same years — 12 June observed as China Day after the Japanese invasion, and the medical mission the Congress sent to China under Dr. M. Atal.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)Because the Ethiopians declared their support for the cause of Indian independence from British rule. — This reverses the direction in which the sympathy ran. In 1936 it was Indians who organised meetings for Ethiopia, not Ethiopians who organised for India, and no declaration of Ethiopian support for Indian independence lies behind the observance. The Congress position of these years was one of unilateral solidarity offered to whoever was resisting aggression — Ethiopia, then republican Spain, then China, then Czechoslovakia — and it was offered as a matter of principle rather than in return for anything.
- (b)Because Ethiopia became independent from Britain on that day. — Ethiopia had no independence from Britain to win, because it had never been a British colony. It was one of the two African states that kept their independence through the European scramble for the continent, and it had famously defeated an Italian invasion at Adwa in 1896 — a defeat Mussolini’s propaganda dwelt on when he attacked again in 1935. That is precisely why the Italian assault carried such force as a symbol: an old and unconquered African state was being extinguished by a European power in the full view of the League of Nations, which had Ethiopia as a member.
- (d)Because Ethiopian leaders denounced Mussolini. — What this option describes did happen — the Emperor Haile Selassie went in person to the League of Nations at Geneva on 30 June 1936 and denounced the Italian aggression and the League’s failure to stop it, in one of the most famous speeches of the decade. But it is not the reason for Ethiopia Day, and the chronology rules it out anyway: the Geneva speech came seven weeks after 9 May. The Congress was responding to the destruction of a country’s independence, not to a speech about it.
Concept
The question is really about the foreign policy the national movement developed for itself long before it had a state to conduct one. From the 1880s onwards Indian nationalists took positions on the wider world — sympathy for Ireland, Egypt, Turkey and Burma, opposition to the use of Indian troops in China during the Boxer uprising, condemnation of the League’s mandate system as a cover for imperial ambition. In the 1930s, under Jawaharlal Nehru as the Congress’s chief spokesman on world affairs, this hardened into an explicitly anti-fascist position: fascism was described as imperialism and racialism in their most extreme form, and India’s own struggle was located inside the coming world struggle between fascism and the forces of freedom. The practical expressions were symbolic days, resolutions and missions — Ethiopia Day in 1936, support for republican Spain, China Day on 12 June with a medical mission to the Chinese armed forces of which Dr. Kotnis was a member, and sympathy for Czechoslovakia after Munich. This is the ancestry of independent India’s foreign policy, and it explains why the words ’freedom struggle’ appear in an option about Africa.
EPFO papers ask about the Congress’s international positions because they are compact, dateable and rarely revised by candidates who stop at domestic chronology. The trap in an item like this is that all four options are about Ethiopia and Italy, so recognition of the topic gets you nowhere; the discrimination lies in knowing what was actually being commemorated. The efficient way to hold this material is as a list of solidarity gestures with their dates and their objects — Ethiopia in 1936, Spain from 1936, China from 1937, Czechoslovakia in 1938 — because an examiner can pick any one of them and construct the same kind of question. Note too that the stem gives you the date, 9 May, which is itself a hint for anyone who knows the closing week of the Italian campaign.
Key facts
- The Congress declared 9 May to be Ethiopia Day, and demonstrations and meetings were held all over India expressing sympathy and solidarity with the Ethiopians.
- Italy invaded Ethiopia on 3 October 1935; Italian forces entered Addis Ababa on 5 May 1936 and Mussolini proclaimed the annexation on 9 May 1936.
- Ethiopia was never a British colony. It had defeated an earlier Italian invasion at Adwa in 1896 and was a member of the League of Nations when Italy attacked.
- Emperor Haile Selassie denounced the aggression before the League of Nations at Geneva on 30 June 1936.
- The Congress treated the Ethiopian resistance as part of the struggle of all exploited peoples for freedom, the same framing it used for Spain, China and Czechoslovakia.
- After the Japanese invasion of China, 12 June was observed throughout India as China Day and the Congress sent a medical mission headed by Dr. M. Atal; Dr. Kotnis, one of its members, died serving with the Eighth Route Army.
- Jawaharlal Nehru was the Congress’s chief spokesman on world affairs and set out this analysis in his presidential address to the Lucknow session in 1936.
- 1896 — Ethiopia defeats an earlier Italian invasion at Adwa. It was never a British colony; it was one of the states that kept their independence through the European scramble for Africa, and it was a member of the League of Nations when Italy attacked again.
- 3 October 1935 — Mussolini’s invasion actually begins. The option’s ‘early 1936’ compresses a war that opened in the autumn of 1935 and closed in the May of 1936, but the substance it states is right.
- 5 May 1936 — Italian troops enter Addis Ababa.
- 9 May 1936 — Mussolini proclaims the annexation of Ethiopia, and this is the day the Congress marked. Meetings and demonstrations were held across India expressing sympathy, the Ethiopian resistance being read as part of the struggle of all exploited peoples for freedom.
- 30 June 1936 — Haile Selassie goes in person to the League of Nations at Geneva and denounces the aggression. Famous, but seven weeks after 9 May, so it cannot be the reason for the day.
- The same pattern afterwards — support for republican Spain, 12 June observed throughout India as China Day after the Japanese invasion with a medical mission under Dr. M. Atal, and sympathy for Czechoslovakia after Munich. The solidarity was offered unilaterally, as a matter of principle.
Study next
Common traps
- Assuming any African country under attack must have been a British colony. Ethiopia and Liberia were the exceptions to the colonial map.
- Choosing an option that is true in itself but is not the reason asked for. Haile Selassie did denounce Mussolini, seven weeks later.
- Reversing the direction of solidarity. In 1936 the sympathy was offered by India, not to it.
- Trusting ’early 1936’ as the date of the invasion. The war opened on 3 October 1935; 1936 is the year it ended.
When an EPFO paper leaves domestic politics for the world, it nearly always does so through the Congress — a resolution, an observance, a mission, a presidential address. The questions are built so that the topic is obvious and the detail is not, which means the option list will contain several statements about the same event. Preparation that works is a short table of the Congress’s international commitments in the 1930s with the year attached to each, plus the handful of proper nouns that recur: Abyssinia and Ethiopia for the same country, Haile Selassie, Adwa, the League of Nations, Dr. Kotnis and the China medical mission.
Related PYQs
EPFO_EOAO_2017_Q24Open & attempt →What were the peasant associations set up in Kerala in the 1930s called?
- (a) Kisan Sabha
- (b) Kirti Kisan
- (c) Karshaka Sangam
- (d) Kisan Morcha
Answer(c) Karshaka Sangam
The peasant-movement item of the same block; both questions come out of the Congress’s leftward turn in the middle 1930s, which produced the Karshaka Sangams at home and the anti-fascist solidarity days abroad.
Practice
- practice — not a real PYQ
In which year did Italian forces enter Addis Ababa and Mussolini proclaim the annexation of Ethiopia?
- (a)1935
- (b)1936
- (c)1937
- (d)1939
Answer(b) 1936
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Congress medical mission sent to China after the Japanese invasion was headed by Dr. M. Atal. Which of its members died while serving with the Chinese Eighth Route Army?
- (a)Dr. Dwarkanath Kotnis
- (b)Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy
- (c)Dr. M. A. Ansari
- (d)Dr. Rajendra Prasad
Answer(a) Dr. Dwarkanath Kotnis