The Popular Urges

This article deals with ‘The Popular Urges – UPSC.’ This is part of our series on ‘Modern History’ which is important pillar of GS-1 syllabus . For more articles , you can click here

Introduction

• Symptomatic expressions of the popular urges between 1945 & 1947 were of two types
  1. Those which led to direct confrontation with colonial administration
  2. Those which indirectly undermined colonialism through their opposition to its indigenous upholders/collaborators – certain Capitalists, Princes, Landlords & Mahajans

1. Direct Confrontation

1. 1 Indian National Army (INA) Trials

• Although Military campaign of INA was over but political impact on India was yet to unfold itself.
• After their surrender, the twenty thousand INA soldiers were interrogated and transported back to India.
  •  Those who appeared to have been persuaded or misled by Japanese or INA propaganda-classified as “Whites” and “Greys”-were either released or rehabilitated in the army.
  • But a few of them at least-the most committed and categorised as “Blacks”-were to be court marshalled.

Not to try them would be to give indication of weakness; and to tolerate ‘treason, would be to put the loyalty of the Indian army at risk. So altogether ten trials took place, and in the first and most celebrated one at Red Fort in Delhi, three officers-P.K. Sahgal, G.S. Dhillon and Shah Nawaz Khan-were charged of treason, murder and abetment of murder.

• The trial took place in public, as this was expected to reveal the horrors that these INA men had perpetrated and that, the government hoped, would swerve public opinion against them. But as the events subsequently unfolded, the government, it seemed, had completely miscalculated the political fallout of the INA trials.
• As the press censorship was lifted after the war, the details of the INA campaign were revealed every day before the Indian public and these officers appeared as patriots of the highest order-not by any means traitors-and the demand for discontinuing the trials grew stronger by the day. The election was round the corner & INA trials could be an excellent issue. Subhas Bose might have been a renegade leader who had challenged the authority of the Congress leadership and their principles. But in death he was a martyred patriot whose memory could be an ideal tool for political mobilisation.
• There were meetings and processions, angry outbursts and agitated speeches almost everywhere, calling for the immediate release of the INA prisoners. There were many factors that led to this mass up- surge
  1. The trial took place at Red Fort, which appeared to be the most authentic symbol of British imperial domination, as here took place in 1858 the trial of Bahadur Shah II, the last Mughal emperor and the acclaimed leader of the 1857 revolt.
  2. Furthermore, as trial progressed, its reports appeared in the press, leading to more awareness and to some extent more emotionalisation of the sacrifices made by the INA soldiers.
  3. All political parties, like the Congress Socialists, Akali Dal, Unionist Party, Justice Party, Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh, Hindu Mahasabha and even the Muslim League wanted the trials to be discontinued.
  4. And by a strange coincidence, the three accused belonged to three different religions: one Hindu, one Sikh and one Muslim. The demonstrations, therefore, showed signs of remarkable communal harmony.
• Protests were most widespread in Calcutta (21 Nov 45) in which students marched at the call of Forward Bloc & were joined by Students Federation (Communist Student wing) & league’s  Student Organisation . They tied their flags together to show unity . Police fired at them killing one Hindu & Muslim student . In response, people of Calcutta raged city on fire , disrupted traffic, burned cars & lorries & set up barricades on roads. On 22 & 23 Nov , whole of city was out of their control
• In the trial, the defense tried to argue that people fighting for freedom of their country could not be tried for treason. But despite that, they were found guilty as charged; but the commander-in-chief remitted their sentence and set them free on 3 January 1946. The three officers came out of the Red Fort to a hero’s welcome at public meetings in Delhi and Lahore, that celebrated a moral victory against the British.

Significance on Granting Independence

• Since the middle of 1945 the British were expecting a mass upheaval in India any way. But what really perturbed them was the impact of the INA trials on the loyalty of the army, which in post- Quit India days was their only reliable apparatus of rule. Further alarming to them was INA trial and the growing sympathy for the INA soldiers who were almost universally regarded as patriots, rather than “traitors”. The members of the RIAF, as well as some other army personnel in various centres openly donated money to the INA relief fund and on some occasions attended protest rallies in full uniform.
• Curiously enough, Indian publicmen, whether of nationalist or of communalist type, refused to see in the agitation what British had already seen, and they decided to brand mass actions as “frittering away” of energies in “trifling quarrels” with the police. As an antidote to the unified enthusiasm of the people, the Congress Working Committee chose  to remind everyone of the need for observing strict non-violence. Congress and the League’s leader  restraint over popular outbursts could only be explained by their pre-determination in favour of a negotiated settlement with the British, or by their opting for political bargaining rather than for fighting to the finish.
• They were willing to take up the INA question, or any such issue, only so far as to derive advantages from it in the coming elections, and no further. For example the Congressmen made a promise during Punjab elections that all INA personnel will be absorbed in the army of free India
• These agitations again struck in Feb 1946 & epicentre again was Calcutta . Reason was 7 year imprisonment passed on Rashid Ali of INA . This was called by League’s student organisation & joined by Communist Wing too amid communal solidarity . Massive rally & general strike was organised & resulted in clashes with police. Two days of encounters ended with 84 dead
• Tensions continued even after that not only in Calcutta but all over India

1.2 Royal Indian Navy (RIN) Revolt

• In Feb 1946 ( second Calcutta confrontation at same time too)
• Ratings of RIN having served abroad became familiar with the world outside & were resentful  of the racist behavior of their English superiors. Besides being segregation they were well aware of the unrest building in country especially over INA Trials
• Immediate reason for revolt was poor food quality given to them
• 18 Feb 1946 : Ratings of HMS Talwar in Bombay Harbour went to hunger strike to protest against bad food & racial arrogance . 22 ships on same harbour followed the suit on same day
• They elected Naval Central Committee headed by MS Khan & their demands were as  much national as their own ones
  1. Release of INA prisoners
  2. Freedom of all political prisoners
  3. Withdrawal of Indian troops in Indo-China & Java
  4. Better Food
  5. More Civilized Treatment
  6. Equal Pay for European & Indian sailors alike
• 20 Feb : Ratings barracks were surrounded by Armed guards & fighting started as they preferred gun battle to surrender
• These confrontations reached Karachi too  spearheaded there by rebels in HMS Hindusthan & by 22 Feb revolt reached all naval bases with 78 ships involved & 20,000 ratings
• Mutineers invoked unprecedented popular response

Karachi

– Hindu & Muslim students & workers demonstrated in their support – Engaged with army & police with violent clashes

Bombay

– Witnessed emotional expressions of the public sympathy – people hailing the ratings , rushing in food for them & shopkeepers insisting on their taking whatever articles they like – Communists with support of Congress Socialists gave call for general strike on 22 Feb . – Congress & Muslim League gave counter directives but even after that 3 Lakh demonstrators came out on road that day . Same scenes as Calcutta . In Clashes , several hundreds died in two days

• Importance : The RIN mutiny was short lived, but it had dramatic psychological repercussions. Although it did not immediately lead to an open revolt in the Indian army, such a possibility could never be ruled out. The sympathetic strikes in the air force and army indicated very clearly that the Indian Army was no longer the same “sharp sword of repression” which the British could use as before, if a popular outburst of the 1942 proportions took place again. An official inquiry commission later revealed that “majority of ratings [were] politically conscious”

But movement ended because

• Overwhelming military might of Raj put in place
• Vallabhbai Patel & Jinnah jointly persuaded rating to surrender on 23 Feb & an undertaking was given by Congress & ML that they would prevent any victimisation of ratings  (but soon assurance was forgotten)

Note – R.I.N. ratings of February 1946, in sharp contrast to the men of the Azad Hind Fauj, have never been given the status of national heroes—although their action involved much greater risk in some ways than joining the I.N.A. as alternative to an arduous life in Japanese POW camps. The last message of the Naval Central Strike Committee deserves to be remembered far better than it is: ‘Our strike has been a historic event in the life of our nation. For the first time the blood of men in the Services and in the streets flowed together in a common cause. We in the Services will never forget this. We know also that you, our brothers and sisters, will not forget. Long live our great people! Jai Hind!’

2. Indirect Confrontation

2.1 Worlis

• Worlis are Tribal or Adivasi peasants in Thana district
• They were poverty stricken & took loans from moneylenders at exorbitant rates upto rate of interest of 200% .
• Generally failed  to pay back & eventually reduced to status of tenant at will on their own lands or became landless agriculture labourers or wage earners cutting grass on their fallow lands or workers for contractors of forest lands
• In times of difficulty they also took grain loans from moneylenders & landlords & on failure to pay back they were forced to give veth Bigar or labour without payment turning them into serfs for life
• In 1945 , Worlis were organised by Maharashtra Kisan Sabha & led by Outside leader Godavari Purulekar . They refused to give Veth Begar & demanded higher wage for cutting grass & higher wage for work in forest
• There were numerous confrontations between them & Zamindars with support of police & lathihars killing many .  By autumn of 1946 both demands met after series of repression
• This success enraged the Government & it hit revengefully by arresting large number of activists & constituting criminal charges against them . Movement disappeared gradually but many agitators who fled to jungles tried many a times to regroup themselves

2.2 Bakshat Peasants Agitation

• In Bihar
• More extensive & more desparate & was building from decades
• Zamindars in Bihar had three types of lands

Zirati	Which they kept for themselves & cultivated by Agricultural labourers
Rayati	Settled with occupancy tenants
Bakshat	Rented to Tenants at will at varying rates

• Bakshat Tenants had no occupancy rights and they were subjected to continuous ejections because
  • It was profitable for Zamindar
  • Under Tenancy Act,1885 if Bakshat land was  with same tenant for 12 years then he got some rights
• Peasants resisted this and fought furiously against this under banner of Kisan Sabha from 1937-1939 against Zamindari agents, government officials & police
• Hostility was temporary halted with onset of WW2 with some unreliable arbitrations & unstable agreements
• This issue again came into forefront when Congress run for elections in Bihar by promising to abolish Zamindari . Zamindar in order to safeguard their lands starting evicting Tenants at will & started to convert Bakshat land to Zirati land . Agitations started against it & spread to Gaya , Shahabad, Dharbhanga , Muzaffarpur etc
• Zamindars were repressing them with help of armed  lathials & Police but leadership of Kisan Sabha refused to give up . Women & children joined movement too
• Half hearted Bihar Bakshat Disputes Settlement Act 1947 was passed but  farmers werent satisfied & ended with passage of Bihar Zamindari Abolition Act,1948

2.3 Travancore Agitation

• Scene of happening was Alleppy – Shertalai Region
• Mainly by Communists supported by poor peasants, coir factory workers, tody tappers , fishermen &  depressed agri ranks
• Communists-launched a massive campaign against the “American model” constitution which C.P. Ramaswamy Iyer, the Dewan, wanted to impose upon the state people. Through this device the Dewan and the Maharaja were in fact preparing clandestinely for the establishment of an independent Travancore state at the time of the foreseeable British departure from India. It was to provide for an irresponsible government in Travancore, with a Legislature elected on universal suffrage, but without having any effective control over the Executive, under a Dewan to be appointed by the Maharaja.
• Communist furore against the plan so enraged the State Authorities that they unleashed the forces of terror on their opponents in the Alleppy region. Police camps were set up, and indiscriminate arrests, detentions and tortures began. Persecutions eventually forced the workers to take shelter in places protected by their own volunteer force . Martial Law was declared & they killed 800 people
• This massacre swayed the public opinion against state’s independence move & thereby in favour of its integration with the nationalist India 

2.4 Tebhaga Agitation 

• Most extensive of all & drew 6 million peasants into it . It was against exploitative pattern of sharecropping system that prevailed in parts of Bengal
• In Bengal countryside, especially in those areas where large hilly, marshy and forest tracts were brought under cultivation, a relatively new class of rural exploiters emerged between the landlords (Zamindars) and the tenants (Ryots), known as the Jotedars.
• Jotedars (owners of jotes or considerable chunks of land) accumulated big estates for which they paid rent in cash, and which they-in their turn-rented out to landless peasants on the basis of sharing the crops in equal halves, or 50 per cent produce rent. In actual practice, the tillers’ share of crops used to be much less than one-half as he had initially to take advance from the Jotedar for procuring implements, seeds and cattle, and then pay it back at the time of sharing the crops. Apart from that have to give Nazarana , Salami & perform begar on lands of jotedar
• Sharecropping arrangement being renewable orally every year, the Jotedar could, and invariably did throw out one sharecropper for another on consideration for higher Nazarana and Salami.
• Bengal was facing Great famine in 1943 &  inflatory trends of WW 2 . Hence, Sharecroppers started viewing the customary division of crop to be wholly disadvantageous to their well-being. They, therefore, had no hesitation in responding to the call of the Bengal Provincial Kisan Sabha in September 1946, demanding 2/3 of the produce for the tillers instead 1/2
• Sharecroppers started taking harvested crops to their own yards (while custom was to take it to yards of Jotedar) & offered 1/3 to Jotedar & 2/3 for themselves . Where ever Jotedar was able to take crop to his godown they broke godown & demanded their 2/3 share
• Women joined the movement too
• Zamindars backed by Government officers, police & their musclemen repressed them . But after numerous casualties this ended because of govt ruthless repression, hostility of entire Bengali middle-class & above all worsened communal situation

2.5 Telangana Movement

• Area : Telangana
• Hyderabad was a  princely state and here the agriculture relations were feudal with -small population of jagirdars, pattadars (landowners), deshmukhs , deshpandes (revenue collectors) and moneylenders were exploiting the peasants and agricultural labourers . In 1940s, the falling prices continuing from the depression years also impacted the peasants . 
• Along with that, the communists were  mobilising the peasantry since mid-1930s through certain front organisations, such as the Andhra Conference in Telengana and the Andhra Mahasabha in the delta region.

Movement can be seen in two phases

Phase 1

• Movement started in Nalgonda district in July 1946 with an attack on a notorious landlord and within a month it spread to a wide region in Nalgonda, Warangal and Khammam districts
• Demands were many
  • Wage increase
  • Abolition of vethi, illegal exactions, eviction and the recently imposed grain levy
• However, movement was less organised and more ‘spasmodic’ in nature .

Phase 2

• In June 1947,  Nizam announced that after the withdrawal of the British, Hyderabad would maintain its independence and would not join the Indian union.
• In reaction, local Congress decided to launch a satyagraha, and the communists, despite their reservations, joined in and hoisted national flags in various parts of the state.
• But the alliance soon broke down, as the movement was not going anywhere, while the Majlis lttehad-ul-Musalmin, an outfit of the minority Muslim aristocracy, now recruited its own armed bands, called the Razakars, and with the endorsement of the Nizam unleashed a reign of terror in the Telengana countryside.
• To resist repression, the peasants under communist leadership now began to form volunteer guerrilla squads called dalams, began to seize wastelands and surplus land from big landlords and redistribute them, and formed village republics or ‘soviets’ in areas considered to be liberated zones.

Phase 3

• On 13 September 1948 the Indian army entered Hyderabad and Nizam’s army, police and the Razakar bands surrendered immediately. But this did not mark the end of the Telengana insurrection
• Communist Party, despite some opposition from within, decided to continue the struggle
• Indian army also launched its “Police Action” against the communist guerrillas and the uneven battle continued until October 1951, when the movement was formally withdrawn

Indian National Army and Subash Chandra Bose

This article deals with ‘Indian National Army and Subash Chandra Bose– UPSC.’ This is part of our series on ‘Modern History’ which is important pillar of GS-1 syllabus . For more articles , you can click here

Subash Chandra Bose  in World War 2

• After outbreak of Second WW in 1939 Subas Chandra Bose argued that Indians were losing the rare opportunity , for they must take advantage of empire’s weakest moment. He was convinced in 1939 , when disciplinary action was taken against him, that it was the result of ‘Right Wing Consolidation‘ and now this hesitation to initiate mass movement against the Raj was because of same Right Wing Leaders who were out of touch with new forces and new elements that had come into existence in last few years.

• Back in Bengal, he forged a link with the Muslim League, and decided to launch a civil disobedience movement to destroy the Holwell monument that stood in Calcutta as a reminder of a Black hole tragedy which most people believed did never happen and was invented only to tar the memory of Siraj-ud-daula, the last independent ruler of Bengal. It was a campaign that had an obvious appeal to the Muslims and thus could further strengthen the Hindu-Muslim pact in Bengal. But before it could start, he was arrested by the British on 3 July 1940 under the Defence of India Act.  Bose remained incarcerated until he threatened to start a hunger strike in December. He was then released unconditionally, but kept under constant surveillance.

• In the meanwhile, war progressed in Europe, and Bose believed that Germany was going to win. Although he did not like their  totalitarianism or racism, he began to nurture the idea that the cause of Indian independence could be furthered with the help of the Axis powers and started exploring various possibilities. He escaped from the eyes of government and disappeared on 26 Jan 1941 & reached Germany via Kabul & Russia . After  meeting  Hitler he reached Japan . He had embarked on the last and most dramatic phase of his patriotic career, but the decision to rely primarily on help from Britain’s enemies was also in a sense a confession of the weakness of internal forces, and marked a kind of return to the methods of the revolutionary terrorists during the First World War.

Indian National Army (INA)

• There were many Indian revolutionaries working abroad for the country’s cause & most prominent among them was  Rasbehari Bose, living as a fugitive from the British since 1915 in Japan. He seized the opportunity offered by war to mobilise Indians for armed struggle
• There were large number of Indians fighting on behalf of British . When they were taken as prisoners in SE Asia , Major Fujiwara persuaded Captain Mohan Singh to work in collaboration with Japanese for India’s freedom
• 1942 : Indian Independence League was formed in a conference held in Tokyo & Rash Bihari Bose was elected as President & decision was taken to raise INA with Captain Mohan Singh as Commander.  SC Bose was invited to lead the movement
• June, 1943:  He came to Tokyo and then joined  INA at Singapore in July. Rashbehari Bose handed over leadership to Subhas Bose, and an Azad Hind Sarkar was formed.
• In November, 1943, the Japanese announced their decision to hand over the administration of Andamans and Nicobar islands to the INA . INA in a few months time had three fighting brigades named after Gandhi, Azad and Nehru. Soon other brigades were raised, namely the Subhas brigade and Rani Jhansi brigade. The overseas Indians contributed heavily in terms of money and material for the army.
• Fighting side by side Japanese forces,  INA reached India & hoisted  tricolour on Indian soil . INA failed to capture Imphal mainly because Japanese failed to supply necessary material & air cover to INA & monsoon prevented their advance
• Meantime Britishers regrouped their forces. Although INA fought heroically but after suffering loss of manpower & collapse of Germany  & Japanese army INA too couldn’t stand on its own

Bose and Indian National Army (INA)

• He became very popular by the name of Netaji . Now he organised AZAD HIND FAUJ which consisted of most of those soldiers which were forcibly recruited by British & were sent on fronts
• He trained soldiers of INA on modern military weapons & trained himself in modern warfare . Then he came Singapore via Japan
• INA was given recognition by many nations . In 1943 , he declared war on England & USA & made  HQ in Burma
• 1944 – cross Indo-Burmese border and freed Assam .
• He planned to march Delhi by declaring Delhi Chalo March . It was due to onset of monsoon & shortage of food supply that his dream was not fulfilled
• His efforts had great influence on the minds of Indians who were ready to make sacrifice for independence . Slogans of Jai Hind & Give me Blood , I will give you freedom made lasting influence on Indians
• Towards end of 1944 , Japan became weak & allied armies reoccupied Rangoon & INA has to retreat from Burma . On 6 & 9 Aug 1945 ,  Atom bombs were dropped on two cities of Japan & soon Japan surrendered before Allied nations
• Due to lack of provisions & ammunition INA had to accept defeat before Allied Nations . Most of soldiers were taken prisoners by British . After defeat, Netaji went to Singapore & on 16th Aug when he was going to Japan, his plane crashed near Formosa & he most probably died in Accident

• British Government tried three high officials of INA – Shah Nawaz Khan, Gurbaksh Singh & Prem Kumar Sehgal in Delhi in a special court . Congress tried its best to save them . Team headed by Bhulabhai Desai & consisting of Asaf Ali, Tej Bahadur Sapru , Kailash Nath Katju & JL Nehru tried their best as lawyer to save them but government gave them death punishment . Indians opposed severely & government had to bow down & free the accused . It was great victory for INA.

CAUSES OF FAILURE OF INA 

• The reasons were many, as Joyce Lebra enumerates them:
  1. Lack of air power,
  2. Breakdown in the chain of command,
  3. Disruption of the supply line,
  4. Strength of Allied  defensive,
  5. Lack of cooperation  from the Japanese.

But Bose still remained optimistic, thought of regrouping, and after Japanese surrender, contemplated seeking help  of Soviet Russia. The Japa­nese agreed to provide him transport upto Manchuria  from where he could travel to Russia. But on his way, on 18 August 1945 at Taihoku airport in Taiwan, he died in an air crash, which many in Indi­a  still believe never happened.

Impact of Indian National Army’s formation

• Became clear to Britishers that they could no longer depend on loyalty of Indian Soldiers & treat them as mercenaries. Trials of INA resulted in Royal Indian Navy (RIN) Mutiny. These two incidents showing the vulnerability of Army to rebellion are treated as main cause of Britishers for their early withdrawl from India 
• Psychological Impact : Although in military terms, its achievement was almost negligible because when INA started its operations in 1944, Axis powers were on retreat in almost all places. But important to distinguish between immediate achievement and ultimate (and mainly psychological) impact.  We must not underestimate the impact on the patriotic imagination of an actual army fighting, however ineffectively, for the country’s liberation, led by a Bengali—the least ‘martial’ of India’s’races’ in traditional British stereotype.
• Struggle of INA demonstrated that those who waged an armed struggle against British were not at all affected by communal division . There were Hindus, Muslims & Sikhs who fought as Indians
• Actions of Rani Jhansi Brigade demonstrated the capabilities of Indian Women
• INA demonstrated the enthusiasm & concern of overseas Indians for freedom of motherland.
• It is quite probable, as P.S. Gupta has surmised, that the situation, particularly the more mass based INA agitation, “led to the sending of a Cabinet Mission“

Quit India Movement

This article deals with ‘Quit India Movement – UPSC.’ This is part of our series on ‘Modern History’ which is important pillar of GS-1 syllabus . For more articles , you can click here

Introduction

• Legendary struggle which also became famous by the name of the ‘August Revolution‘
• Common people of the country demonstrated an unparalleled heroism and militancy. Moreover, the repression that they faced was the most brutal that had ever been used against the national movement.
• Using the justification of the war effort, Government had armed itself with draconian measures & suppressed even basic civil liberties.

Reasons for start of Quit India Movement

1. Failure of the Cripps Mission in April 1942 made it clear that Britain was unwilling to offer an honorable settlement and a real constitutional advance during War, and that she was determined to continue India’s unwilling partnership in the War efforts
2. Popular discontent, a product of rising prices and war-time shortages, was gradually mounting. British, who were running a most efficient war economy at home based on sternly egalitarian rationing, made little serious effort in their colony to check a rampant black-market, and profiteering in food  along with stoppage in the supply of Burmese rice that directly led to the terrible famine of 1943 in Bengal. The synchronization of rising prices and shortages with the coming of a large number of Allied troops led to not unfounded fears that the food reserves of the country were being depleted to feed the army.
3. High-handed government actions such as the commandeering of boats in Bengal and Orissa to prevent their being used by the Japanese had led to considerable anger among the people.
4. Impact of the manner of the British evacuation from Malaya and Burma. It was common knowledge that the British had evacuated the white residents and generally left the subject people to their fate. It is probably not accidental that east U.P. and west and north Bihar—the region where the ‘August Rebellion’ attained its maximum popular intensity—was also traditionally one of the principal catchments areas for Indian migrant labour going to South East Asia and other parts of the world. Azamgarh district, for instance, used to receive Rs 30 lakhs annually from foreign money orders.
5. There were sections of the Indian people who had benefited from the war in its first phase, particularly industrialists, traders, and businessmen in general profiting from war contracts. Such gains continued throughout the war—the bulk of the contractors and black marketeers were after all Indians—but for a brief period in 1942 other considerations seem also to have weighed considerably in the calculations of a significant section of the Indian business community. Eg losses incurred in Malaya and Burma had stricken the Banias and Marwaris to the soul . A war which yields no profits, in the circumstances of the Excess Profits Tax, and which is accompanied by the sacrifices experienced at Singapore and Rangoon, is not at all to their tastes. Hence, capitalist elements in the Congress Working Committee wanted to safeguard themselves and their property from the ill effects of a possible Japanese invasion.
6. One major reason for the leadership of national movement thinking it necessary to launch a struggle was their feeling that the people were becoming demoralized and, that in the event of a Japanese occupation, might not resist at all. In order to build up their capacity to resist Japanese aggression, it was necessary to draw them to of this demoralized state of mind and convince them of their own power.

Features of Quit India Movement

• Its essence was that British rule in India must end immediately .
• Movement was started & conducted in haphazard manner in different areas by different persons without any guidance from any central authority . Chaotic character made resort to violence inevitable
• It covered all provinces except Punjab, NWFP & Sind where it remained symbolic
• Duration of movement was brief . It was broken by Oct 1942 as far as open activities are concerned but underground activities organised mainly by Jaiprakash Narayan continued till early months of 1943
• Movement was leaderless & hence directionless since all leaders were arrested even before movement was launched. There was no definite line of action and each Indian who was to contribute to this movement became his own guide
• Characterised by terrorist activities by educated youth which made communication, police & army establishment their targets
• Saw installation of parallel governments at various places most notable were Satara in Maharashtra , Tumluk in Midnapur & Talchar in Orissa . However,  they didn’t pose serious threat to British rule
• Congress Socialists faught strenuously & Jaiprakash Narayan played crucial role
• Communists played opposite role . They did their best to help  British governments by acting as spies. Through its control over AITUC , Communist Party exerted its utmost influence to keep workers out of  national unrest
• Hindu Mahasabha , RSS, Muslim League and section of Dalits represented by Ambedkar didn’t participate in Quit India Movement.

All India Pattern

On 7 August, Gandhi had placed the instructions he had drafted before the Working Committee, and in these he had proposed that peasants ‘who have the courage, and are prepared to risk their all’ should refuse to pay the land revenue. In the early hours of 9 August, in a single sweep, all the top leaders of the congress were arrested and taken to unknown destinations. The Government had been preparing for the strike since the outbreak of the War itself, and since 1940 had been ready with an elaborate Revolutionary Movement Ordinance.

Note – Different stance of Gandhi was seen in it. Gandhi declared in his passionate ‘Do or die‘ speech, “if a general  strike becomes a dire necessity, I shall not flinch” . Gandhi,  was prepared for once to counterance political strikes, precisely at a moment when the Communists were bound to keep aloof from them—in very sharp contrast to his attitudes in previous periods of Left-led labour militancy in 1928-29 or the late-1930s and early’ 40s. The Wardha Working Committee resolution had also introduced an unusual note of social radicalism : ‘the princes, “jagirdars”, “zamindars” and propertied and monied classes derive their wealth and property from the workers in the fields and factories and elsewhere, to whom eventually power and authority must belong.’

Whole movement can be seen in three phases

Sumit Sarkar has identified three phases of the Quit India movement.

Phase 1

• It initially started as an urban revolt, marked by strikes, boycott, hartals , picketing & clashes with police which were quickly suppressed.
• In Bombay, as soon as the news of arrests spread lakhs of people flocked to Gowalia Tank where a mass meeting had been scheduled and there were clashes with the authorities.  
• On 10th August ,Delhi and many towns in U.P. and Bihar, including Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi and Patna followed suit with hartals, public demonstrations and processions in defiance of the law.
• In Patna , administration lost control virtually for two days 
• Government responded by gagging the press. The National Herald and Harijan ceased publication for the entire duration of the struggle, others for shorter periods.
• Tata steel plant was totally closed down for 12 days from 20 August in which sole labour slogan was they will not resume work until national government was formed
• In Ahmedabad , textile mill strike lasted for three & half month . Nationalist chronicler later described city as Stalingrad of India
• Spearheaded by students & urban middle class 

Phase 2

• Started from end of August which witnessed a major peasant rebellion
• Focus shifted to countryside
• Militant students fanned out from centers like  Benaras , Patna & Cuttack
• Destroyed communication on massive scale such as railway tracks and stations, telegraph wires and poles, attacks on government buildings or any other visible symbol of colonial authority and  finally, the  formation of “national governments” in isolated pockets like Talcher (Orissa) , Satara (MH) , Midnapur , Balia etc  leading a veritable peasant struggle against white authority strongly reminiscent in some ways of 1857 revolt. This brought in severe government repression  forcing the agitation to move underground.
• Major centers – Northern & Western Bihar, Eastern UP , Midnapur in Bengal & pockets of Maharashtra , Karnataka & Orissa

Phase 3

• Weakened by brutal repression
• Movement entered its longest but formidable phase
• Characterised by
  • Terroristic activities by educated youth directed against communication , police & army installations occasionally rising to level of guerrilla war eg in North Bihar by Jai Prakash (JP)
  • Propaganda activities by using various means, including a clandestine radio station run by hitherto unknown Usha Mehta  from “some where in India”.
• Part time peasant squads engaged in farming by day &  sabotage activities by night aka Karnatak Method & in some parts parallel governments continued eg Talcher in Orissa

Some regional variations

1 . Punjab & NWFP

• Unusually quiet with only two cases of police firing & 2500 arrests each
• Politics in the Punjab was already set hard in the communal mould – Hindu, Muslim or Sikh, while wartime army employment and rising grain-prices kept quiet a peasantry which had developed a prosperous kulak-type upper stratum

2. Madras Presidency

• Movement was relatively weak except scattered pockets like Guntur & west Godavari in AP & Coimbatore & Ramnad in TN
• Main reason – Rajagopalachari opposed the movement,  strength of constitutionalism, absence of the socialists, opposition of the Kerala communists, indifference of the non-Brahmans and strong southern challenge to a political campaign dominated by north

3. Provinces

• Well below the intensity
• Among big states only Mysore was seriously affected
• Agitations followed three phase pattern here as well

4. Bihar

• Greatest intensity in whole country
• Main reason was during 1930s this region became principle base of Kisan sabha & had bulk of Kisan Sabha cadres and considerable tribal participation too

5. Bombay Presidency

• Took two forms
  1. PEASANT GUERRILLA WAR + TERRORIST ACTIVITY
  2. SABOTAGE BY STUDENTS

Main leaders

• Brutal and all-out repression succeeded within a period of six or seven weeks in bringing about a cessation of the mass phase of the struggle.
• But in the meantime, underground networks were being consolidated in with prominent members such as Achyut Patwardhan, Aruna Asaf Ali, Ram Manohar Lohia, Sucheta Kripalani, Chotubhai Puranik, Biju Patnaik, R.P. Goenka and later, after his escape from jail, Jayaprakash Narayan (with his Azad Dastas) had begun to emerge.

Gandhi’s Fast

• February 1943, striking new development provided a new burst of political activity. Gandhi commenced a fast on’ 10 February in jail. He declared the fast would last for twenty-one days. This was his answer to Government which had been constantly exhorting him to condemn the violence of the people in the Quit India Movement. Gandhi not only refused to condemn the people’s resort to violence but unequivocally held the Government responsible for it. It was the ‘leonine violence’ of the state which had provoked the people, he said.
• The popular response to the news of the fast was immediate and overwhelming.’ All over the country, there were hartals, demonstrations and strikes. Calcutta and Ahmedabad were particularly active. Prisoners in jails and those outside went on sympathetic fasts. Groups of people secretly reached Poona to offer Satyagraha outside the Aga Khan Palace where Gandhi was being held in detention. Public meetings demanded his release and the Government was bombarded with thousands of letters and telegrams from people from all walks of life — students and youth, men trade and commerce, lawyers, ordinary citizens, and labour organizations. From across the seas, the demand for his release was made by newspapers such as the Manchester Guardian, New Statesmen, Nation, News Chronicle, Chicago Sun, as well as by the British Communist Party, the citizens of London and Manchester, the Women’s International League, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and the Ceylon State Council.
• Severest blow to the prestige of the Government was the resignation of the three Indian members of the Viceroy’s Executive Council, M.S. Aney, N.R. Sarkar and H.P. Mody, who had supported the Government in its suppression of the 1942 movement, but were in no interest to be a party to Gandhi’s death.
• Viceroy and his officials remained unmoved guided by Winston Churchill’s statement to his Cabinet that ‘this is our hour of triumph everywhere in the world & was not the time to crawl before a miserable old man who had always been our enemy
• Fast had done exactly what it had been intended to do. The public morale was raised, the anti-British feeling heightened, and an opportunity for political activity provided.

Participants

• Marked a new high in terms of popular participation in the national movement and sympathy with the national cause
• Students from colleges and even schools were the most visible element, especially in the early days of August
• Women especially college and school girls, played a very important role. Aruna Asaf Ali and Sucheta Kripalani were two major women organizers of the underground movement
• Peasants of all strata, well-to-do as well as poor, were the heart of the movement especially in East U.P. and Bihar .
• Government officials, especially those at the lower levels of the police and the administration, were generous in their assistance to the movement. They gave shelter, provided information and helped monetarily.

Note – In general, regions marked by some amount of agricultural progress and the emergence of a prosperous and broad rich peasant upper stratum tended to keep away from Quit India Movement : Punjab, western U.P., Gujarat, the Thanjavur delta in Tamilnadu. The main centres of peasant rebellion in contrast were in eastern India, where per capita agricultural production  have stagnated or even declined.

Was movement spontaneous outburst or an organised rebellion ?

• The element of spontaneity of 1942 was certainly larger than in the earlier movements, although even in 1919-22, as well as in 1930-31 and 1932, the Congress leadership allowed considerable space  for an initiative and spontaneity.
• In fact, the whole pattern of the Gandhian mass movements was that the leadership chalked out a broad programme of action and left its implementation at local level to the initiative of the local and grass roots level political activists and the masses.
• In 1942, even the broad programme had not yet been spelt out clearly since the leadership was yet to formally launch the movement. But, in a way, the degree of spontaneity and popular initiative that was actually exercised had sanctioned by the leadership itself. The resolution passed by the AICC on 8 August 1942 clearly stated: ‘A time may come when it may not be possible to issue instruction or for instructions to reach our people, and when no Congress committees can function. When this happens, every man and woman who is participating in this movement must function for himself or herself within the four corners of the general instructions issued. Every Indian who desires freedom and strives for it must be his own guide.’
• Apart from this, the Congress had been ideologically, politically and organizationally preparing for the struggle for a long time. Congress Socialists in Poona had been holding training camps for volunteers since June 1942. Gandhi himself, through the Individual Civil Disobedience campaign in 1940-41, and more directly since early 1942, had prepared the people for the coming battle, which he said would be ‘short and swift.’

How did use of violence by people in this struggle square with congress policy of non violence

• There were many who refused to use or sanction violent means and confined themselves to the traditional weaponry of the Congress. But many of those, including many staunch Gandhians, who used ‘violent means’ in 1942 felt that the peculiar circumstances warranted their use.
• Many maintained that cutting of telegraph wires and the blowing up of bridges was all right as long as human life was not taken.
• Gandhi refused to condemn the violence of the people because he saw it as a reaction to the much bigger violence of the state.

Significance of Movement

1. Great significance of this historic movement was that it placed the demand for independence on the immediate agenda of the national movement. After Quit India there could be no retreat. Any future negotiations with the British Government could only be on the manner of the transfer of power.
2. Due to this movement & violence , Britishers learned that after the war keeping India by force would be expensive proposition. Hence, there was greater readiness to accept a negotiated settlement . In these negotiations, Congress was to figure prominently because they had the potential to mobilise masses on large scale.
3. D.D. Kosambi pointed out in a brilliant piece of contemporaneous  history-writing in 1946, ‘the glamour of jail and concentration camp served to wipe out the so-so record of the Congress ministries in office, thereby restoring the full popularity of the organisation among the masses.’ Rightist Congress leaders who throughout the late 1930s had urged more and more cooperation with the British and pursued increasingly conservative policies as ministers could now bask in the halo of patriotic self-sacrifice, as much as the Socialists who had done most of the actual fighting in 1942.
4. Left  was very much weakened . They performed heroic actions, but it was untimely and doomed to failure, given the British control of massive military resources in 1942. Brutal repression also exhausted many peasant bases, built up through years of Gandhian constructive work or radical Kisan Sabha activity. It is significant that Bihar, eastern U.P., and the Maharashtra, Karnatak and Orissa countryside where Quit India Movement was strong played little or no part in the anti-imperialist upsurge of 1945-46

After the war, Congress was dominated by the Right-wingers and they strongly disapproved popular militancy, they wanted to return to a regime of discipline & order rather than confrontation. Hence, Congress drifted swiftly away from the path of agitation & leaned towards Constitutionalism . Thus by way of fighting the Raj, DA Low argued , Congress itself was in the process of becoming Raj.

Events during World War 2

This article deals with ‘Events during World War 2 – UPSC.’ This is part of our series on ‘Modern History’ which is important pillar of GS-1 syllabus . For more articles , you can click here

World War  2 (WW2)  broke out

• 1939 : WW2 broke out &  Government of India immediately joined war without consulting Congress or elected members of Central Legislature
• Congress was in full sympathy with victims of fascist aggression . It was willing to help forces of democracy in their struggle against fascism but Congress Leaders asked , how was it possible for an enslaved nation to aid others in their fight for freedom.  They demanded that India must be declared free or atleast effective power put in Indian hands – before it could actively participate in the war & after war, Constituent Assembly should be constituted consisting of elected Indians to frame constitution for India

Official Congress stand was adopted at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee held at Wardha from 10 to 14 September to which, in keeping with the nationalist tradition of accommodating diversity of opinion, Subhas Bose, Acharya Narendra Dev, and Jayaprakash Narayan were also invited. Sharp differences emerged in this meeting.

• Gandhi was for taking a sympathetic view of the Allies. He believed that there was a clear difference between the democratic states of Western Europe and the totalitarian Nazi state headed by Hitler.

• Socialists and Subhas Bose argued that the war was an imperialist one since both sides were fighting for gaining or defending colonial territories. Therefore, question of supporting either of two sides didn’t arise. Instead Congress should take advantage of the situation to wrest freedom by immediately starting a civil disobedience movement.

• Jawaharlal Nehru had a stand of his own. He had been for several years warning the world against the dangers of Nazi aggression, and he made a sharp distinction between democracy and Fascism. He believed that justice was on the side of Britain, France and Poland. But he was also convinced that Britain and France were imperialist countries and that the War was the result of the inner contradictions of capitalism’ maturing since the end of World War I. He, therefore, argued that India should neither join the war till she herself gained freedom nor take advantage of Britain’s difficulties by starting an immediate struggle.

Note – For Indian businessmen and traders in general, war meant an opportunity for fantastically quick profits, particularly so long as it remained distant and did not involve the threat of destruction of property through aerial bombardment or evacuation. Khaliquzzaman (Muslim League Leader of UP) makes the interesting point that the Muslim League was pressed towards greater co-operation with the British by business magnates as well as by ‘our Muslim taluqdars and zamindars  interested in smaller contracts for the supply of wood, charcoal and other small commodities. They could hardly be expected to forego the chance of a lifetime’. It is surely not illegitimate to suspect the existence of similar pressures on the Congress, too.

August Offer

In Europe, War was going against the Allies and France, Belgium , Holland etc had fallen to Axis Powers . Hence, they wanted to win support of Indians to use Indian resources (both man and money) for their cause without any backlash . Hence, they came up with August Offer in August 1940.

First offer to win over Congress & to secure its cooperation was made through August offer (August 1940)

• Certain number of representative Indians would be invited to join Governor General’s Executive Council
• War Advisory Council composed of representatives of Indian States & other interests in national life of India as whole would be established.
• British government would not transfer power to any system of Government whose authority is indirectly denied by large & powerful elements in national life . This was assurance to Muslims.
• Primary responsibility of framing new constitution should rest on Indians was accepted subject to fulfilment of obligations which Britain’s long connection with India has imposed on her & actual constitution making would begin after war  .

Congress & Muslim league both rejected August offer . It came as shock to Congress as it fell very much short of their demands . It offered nothing what constituted core of their demands ie immediate transfer of effective power to Indians . Rejection of August offer prepared grounds for Cripps Mission

National Defense Council was constituted consisting of 30 members including persons from Princely States & British Indian provinces as well as spokesmen of other elements in national life of British India . Congress didn’t join it . Some members of Muslim League joined but later resigned on Jinnah’s advice .

Cripps Mission (1942)

• Two major changes in British politics occurred during 1941.
  • Nazi attacked the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941.
  • In the East, Japan launched a surprise attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor on 7 December. It quickly overran the Philippines, Indo- China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Burma & occupied Rangoon in March 1942.

Hence, War was brought to India’s doorstep.

• Congress Working Committee passed a resolution at the end of December offering to fully cooperate in the Defence of India and the Allies if Britain agreed to give full independence after the War and the substance of power immediately.
• What was involved in this unprecedented military crisis was not only defence of India  but also of China which was essential part of war against Japan. India must not be held for herself but for China too . It was through India that essential supplies could be sent to Chiang Kai Shek’s forces . Ousted by Japanese from Philippines, Americans converted India into base for operations in South East Asia
• Military necessity was determining factor in US & Chinese interest in solution of constitutional deadlock in India for this alone can ensure full Indian support in war efforts

Proposals

• Creation of new  Indian Union which shall constitute a Dominion (C-D) associated with UK by common allegiance to Crown but equal to all dominions in every respect & in no way subordinate to them in its external or internal affairs
• During war & post war till new Constitution is framed , British government in London would retain control
• Body to frame  Constitution to consist of
  • Persons elected by  Legislative Assemblies of Provinces according to system of Proportional Representation
  • Representatives of Princely States
• Constitution framed would be accepted by British government subject to two conditions
  • Any province which wasn’t prepared to accept this consitution can do so
  • Treaty would be signed between British Government & Constitution making body , making provision for all matters arising out of transfer of power as also for protection of racial & religious minorities
• Constitution making body to be elected by Proportional Representation (departure from separate electorates)
• Actual control of Defence and Military Operations would be retained by the British Government

Indian Reaction

Congress rejected it because

• It contained only future promises & no immediate  transfer of power 
• Wanted full freedom & not Dominion Status
• Provision relating to non accession of Provinces was severe blow to Indian unity . They will become enclaves for preservation of foreign authority & permit stationing of foreign troops
• Members to frame constitution from Princely States were to be nominated by rulers & not elected by people
• There was problem regarding proposed Treaty between  British Government & Constituent Assembly . Principle of protection of racial & religious minorities may be loophole for British interference

Failure prepared the ground for congress action against what many Indians now believed to be Imperial war

Muslim  League also rejected it  & objections was

• Scheme of one Indian Union for two principal nations
• They wanted definite concept of Pakistan

Note – Cripps was member of Labour Party and was sympathetic with Indian cause. On his part , he tried his best to give maximum to Indians but he didn’t has free hand in whole episode. Actually, Churchill only wanted to present a picture to the world that Britishers were doing something and gave Indians deal which Indians would reject to give impression that Indians were not ready to negotiate. Cripps went to extend of reaching compromise formula  by which an Indian would be in charge of the Defense Department while the British Commander-in-Chief would retain control over field operations and head a War Department whose functions were specified. But  Linlithgow and C-in-C Wavell were seriously worried that Cripps was conceding far too much real power to the Congress and, together with Churchill, they were able to block the settlement at the last moment. For Churchill, certainly, ‘it mattered not so much that something should be done as that some attempt should be seen to be made’

Individual Satyagraha (Oct 1940-1941)

• Congress Socialists & All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) were in favour of immediate struggle. N.G. Ranga even suggested that the AIKS should sever links with Congress & launch an independent movement. He was, however, checked by P. Sundarayya from doing so. It was in such an atmosphere that the Congress met at Ramgarh in March 1940 under the presidentship of Maulana Azad
• After August Offer,  Gandhi met Viceroy in Shimla . Long  dialogue ended without result
• Convinced that the British would not modify their policy in India, Gandhi decided to start the Individual Satyagraha. The very reason for confining the movement to individual participation was that neither Gandhi nor the Congress wished to hamper the War effort and this could not’ have been the case in a mass movement. Even the aim of the Satyagraha was a limited one i.e. to disprove the British claim of India supporting the War effort whole heartedly.
• Satyagrahi would publicly declare: ‘It is wrong to help the British war-effort with men or money. The only worthy effort is to resist all war with non-violent resistance.’ The Satyagrahi would inform the District Magistrate of the time and place where he or she was going to make the anti-war speech.
• Carefully chosen Satyagrahis — Vinoba Bhave was to be the first Satyagrahi on 17 October 1940 and Jawaharlal Nehru the second
• Individual Satyagraha had a dual purpose — while giving expression to the Indian people’s strong political feeling, it gave the British Government further opportunity to peacefully accept the Indian demands.
• By 15 May 1941, more than 25,000 Satyagrahis had been convicted for offering individual civil disobedience

Crisis of Tripuri and Subash Chandra Bose

• Subash Chandra Bose has joined Non Cooperation Movement after resigning from Indian Civil Services & since then has been promising dynamic young leader of Congress
• He nurtured revolutionary ideas & was never fully happy with Gandhi’s philosophy & technique of political agitation
• 1924 : He was appointed as  CEO of  Calcutta Corporation & government was suspicious of his connections with revolutionaries
• 1928 : He was GOC of Congress volunteers in Calcutta session of congress. During this period he, like  JL Nehru & other young Congressmen came to be influenced by communist ideas & became more critical of Gandhi’s policy & programmes
• Bose differed fundamentally from Gandhi on vital issues such as industrialisation & India’s attitude towards British Government during coming World War . He was critical of  rightist Gandhites who he felt, exploited Mahatma’s influence to promote personal interests .
• Bose complained that Rightists were engaged in power politics & were trying to beat down all opposition within Congress so that they might continue to enjoy power for years . However, Gandhi was still anxious to keep left wing within congress to preserve organisational unity & support Bose’s candidature for Presidentship in 1938.
• Haripura Congress (1938 Session) adopted a resolution which firmly expressed the Congress’s disapproval for war preparations. It asserted that India could not be party to imperialist war & she would not permit her man power& resources to be exploited in interest of British  Imperialism.
• Gandhi didn’t view with favour the Congress attitude of uncompromising opposition to British Government . He also didn’t agree with Draft Plan of Industrialisation & National Development prepared by  National Planning Committee of Congress which was  set on the initiative of SC Bose who strongly believed in industrialisation, land reform & modernisation of agriculture
• Next session was to be held in Tripuri in March 1939 . Gandhi opposed election of Bose & lent his support to candidature of Pattabhi Sitaramayya as President. Bose said that he represented the ‘new ideas, ideologies, problems and programmes’ that had emerged with ‘the progressive sharpening of the anti-imperialist struggle in India.’ The Presidential elections, he said, should be fought among different candidates ‘on the basis of definite problems & programmes.” Old guard rejected saying that Congress President was like that of a constitutional head who represented & symbolized the unity & solidarity of the nation. Bose won by narrow margin . Gandhi issued statement describing Sitaramayya’s defeat as his own defeat which caused much consternation in the country & rallied large section of leading Congressmen against Congress President
• Tripuri Congress adopted following resolutions
  • Reiterated the goal of independence & rejecting of Federal Part of the Act of 1935 .
  • It demanded a constitution for free India through a Constituent Assembly elected by people on basis of adult franchise & without any interference by foreign authority
  • Condemned imperialist  British Foreign Policy as well as fascism in clear terms
• Gandhi’s advice was still considered essential for Congress & National Movement . Breakaway from Gandhian policy and program was impossible for Congress . Gandhi wing as Bose calls pro-Gandhi group in this Indian struggle made it impossible for Congress President to function effectively resulting in deadlock in organisation
• Situation made Bose realise that in absence of an organised & disciplined left wing , it was impossible to balance the Gandhi wing . He felt that primary political need was an organised & disciplined Left Wing Party in Congress . He resigned from  Presidentship & founded Forward Bloc . It was intended to be a radical & progressive party within Congress with view of rallying entire left wing under one banner . But the differences were so deep rooted & fundamental that very soon Forward Bloc became separate independent body
• BOSE REVOLT has not been regarded as struggle between left and right but as conflict arising out of personal differences between Bose and Gandhi. Their style of leadership were different.
• Immediate cause of final rift between two was  Bose’s view in favour of forming a coalition ministry in Bengal which was opposed by Congress old guard , conflict between Bose & Patel over Vithalbhai Patel’s leaving a legacy of ₹ 1Lakh to Bose for carrying on propaganda abroad in favour of Indian struggle for Independence and Bose’s insistence on an immediate showdown with British Government
• But by far the more crucial issues were the attitude of Congress to imminent war in Europe , question of priority in national planning & formulation of economic policy , Bose’s total loss in a purely non violent policy & his fiery patriotism which made him impatient for attainment of India’s freedom .
• In January 1940, Gandhi wrote to C.F. Andrews describing Subhash as “my son”-but a “spoilt child of the family” who needed to be taught a lesson for his own good.

Gandhi had three reasons for not starting immediate movement

• Since cause of Britain & France was just, they shouldn’t be embarrassed in the prosecution of war
• Lack of Hindu -Muslim unity . Hence,  starting mass movement will start rioting .
• Congress wasn’t organizationally fit to sustain movement because of rampant corruption .

28 months of Congress Ministries

This article deals with ‘28 months of Congress Ministries  – UPSC.’ This is part of our series on ‘Modern History’ which is important pillar of GS-1 syllabus . For more articles , you can click here

Introduction

‘The British, after imposing the Act of 1935, decided to immediately put into practice provincial autonomy, and announced the holding of elections to provincial legislatures in early 1937. Nationalists were faced with a new political reality. All of them agreed that the 1935 Act must be opposed root and branch; but the question was how to do so in a period when a mass movement was not yet possible.

Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Bose, the Congress Socialists and the Communists were totally opposed to office acceptance and thereby working within the 1935 Act. The Left case was presented effectively and passionately by Nehru, especially in his Presidential Address at Lucknow in early 1936.

1. Firstly, to accept office, was ‘to negate our rejection of it (the 1935 Act) and to stand self-condemned.’
2. Secondly, office acceptance would take away the revolutionary character of the movement imbibed since 1919.

Behind this issue, said Nehru lay the question ‘whether we seek revolutionary changes in India or (whether we) are working for petty reforms under the aegis of British imperialism.’ Office acceptance would mean, in practice, ‘a surrender’ before imperialism.

Pro-office acceptance leaders agreed that there were pitfalls involved and that Congressmen in office could give way to wrong tendencies. But the answer, they said, was to fight these wrong tendencies and not abandon offices. Moreover, the administrative field should not be left clear to pro-Government forces. Even if the Congress rejected office, there were other groups and parties who would readily form ministries and use them to weaken nationalism and encourage reactionary and communal policies and politics. Lastly, despite their limited powers, the provincial ministries could be used to promote constructive work especially in respect of village and Harijan uplift, khadi, prohibition, education and reduction of burden of debt, taxes and rent on the peasants.

Congress decided at Lucknow in early 1936 and at Faizpur in late 1936 to fight the elections and postpone the decision on office acceptance to the post-election period .

Results  of election

Congress won a massive mandate at the polls despite the narrow franchise. It won 711 out of 1,161 seats it contested. It had a majority in most of the provinces. The exceptions were Bengal, Assam, the NWPF, Punjab and Sind; and in the first three, it was the largest single party (BANPS)

Note – There was evident failure of the Muslim League to make good its claim to be the sole representative of the Muslims. The League failed to win a single seat in the N.W.F.P. and could capture only 2 out of 84 reserved constituencies in the Punjab and 3 out of 33 in Sind. The Congress also won most scheduled caste seats, except in Bombay where Ambedkar’s Independent Labour Party captured 13 out of 15 seats reserved for Harijans.

28 months of Congress Ministries

• During June, it formed Ministries in six provinces: Madras, Bombay, Central Provinces, Orissa, Bihar and U.P. Later, Congress Ministries were also formed in the North-West Frontier Province and Assam.
• To guide and coordinate their activities and to ensure that the British hopes of the provincialization of the Congress did not materialize, a central control board known as the Parliamentary Sub-Committee was formed, with Patel, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Rajendra Prasad as members.
• Congress was now to function both as a government in the provinces and as the opposition vis-a-vis the Central Government where effective state power lay
• The formation of the Ministries by the Congress changed the entire psychological atmosphere in the country. People felt as if they were breathing the very air of victory and people’s power, for was it not a great achievement that khadi clad men and women who had been in prison until just the other day were now ruling in the secretariat and the officials who were used to putting Congressmen in jail would now be taking orders from them?
• Responsibility was, of course, tremendous. However, there were limitations on the Congress Ministries’ power and financial resources. But, within the narrow limits of their powers, and the time available to them (their tenure lasted only two years and four months), they did try to introduce some reforms, take some ameliorative measures, and make some improvement in the condition of the people — to give the people a glimpse of the future Swaraj.
• Congress Ministers set an example in plain living. They reduced their own salaries drastically from Rs. 2000 to Rs. 500 per month. They were easily accessible to the common people. And in a very short time, they did pass a very large amount of ameliorative legislations

Work done by Ministries

1 . Civil Liberties

• Commitment to civil liberties was as old as Congress itself
• All emergency powers acquired by the provincial governments during 1932, through Public Safety Acts and the like, were repealed; bans on illegal political organizations such as the Hindustan Seva Dal and Youth Leagues and on political books and journals were lifted.
• Securities taken from newspapers and presses were refunded and pending prosecutions were withdrawn.
• In Congress provinces, police powers were curbed and the reporting of public speeches and the shadowing of political workers by CID  agents stopped.
• Thousands of political prisoners were released + many revolutionaries involved in kakori & other conspiracies released
• Difference between the Congress provinces and the non- Congress provinces of Bengal and Punjab was most apparent in this realm. In the latter, especially in Bengal, civil liberties continued to be curbed and revolutionary prisoners and detenus, kept for years in prison without trial

2. Peasants Question

Ministry formation raised the expectations & brought back militancy among peasants & also brought right wingers in power to take back power from clutches of the socialists

2.1 Bihar

• Tenancy Legislation was taken up in all the Congress ruled provinces. The Right Wing did not want to go ahead without negotiations with the landlords & positions varied from province to province
• In Bihar, Congress signed pact with Zamindars regarding the provisions of the Tenancy Bill . Rajendra Prasad & Maulana Azad had been instrumental in this
  • In Bakshat land, permanent tenancy was converted to short term tenancies
  • Bihar  Kisan sabha totally criticised this along with left  leaning congressmen who sympathised with Peasants
  • At this time ban was imposed on Congressmen from participating in Kisan Sabha activities in Bihar
  • Kisan Sabha launched number of movements at regional level to remind congress to implement Faizpur Agrarian Programme

2.2 UP

• In UP there was more left leaning leaders . Tenancy Bill was passed but governor didn’t give assent for two years
• Gave all statutory tenants both in Agra and Oudh full hereditary rights . The rents of hereditary tenants could be changed only after ten years 

2.3 Bombay

• They were able to restore lands to original owners which were confiscated due to no rent campaign of Congress

2.4 Orissa

• Tenancy  bill was passed  granting the right of free transfer of occupancy holdings, reducing the interest on arrears of rent from 12 to 6 per cent and abolishing all illegal levies on tenants.

3. Pro Labour

• Congress had promised better working conditions to the working class , however its policy was influenced by Relations between Right wing & Left wing leaders

Right Wing	Believed that relation between labourers & capitalists will be based on Gandhian principle of Trusteeship
Left Wing	They wanted relationship on class lines

• 1937 :  Labour Committee appointed by Congress accepted a programme
  • Holidays with pay
  • Employment insurance
  • Leave with pay during sickness
  • To devise a way to fix minimum wage
  • Legitimisation of trade unions which pursued policy of peaceful & legitimate means

• The formation of popular ministries initially stimulated labour organization and militancy. Trade union membership went up by 50% in 1938 as compared to 1937, and labour unity was strengthened by the coming together of the AITUC and the moderate N.F.T.U. Major industrial disputes of these years included the great general strike in Bengal jute mills , a series of stoppages in Kanpur cotton mills, textile strikes in Amritsar, Ahmedabad and particularly in Madras province , the strike in Martin Burn’s Kulti and Hirapur iron and steel works in 1938, and the bitter six month-long struggle in the Digboi oil works in Assam (April-October 1939).
• Birla complained of rampant ‘indiscipline’ in Congress provinces  and there were   threats of a flight of capital from Congress-ruled Bombay and U.P. to the princely states where labour laws hardly existed.

• In Bengal , Congress supported strike in Jute mills & condemned the repression of jute workers by non congress government
• However, Bombay Province Ministry Introduced Industrial Disputes Bill  aim to prevent strikes & lockouts & crush workers which went on  strike

4. Other constructive works

• Dalit Temple entry allowed by Madras Ministry  (led by C Rajagopalachari)
• A vigorous campaign in favour of prohibition  of liquor
• Grant of ₹ 2 Lakh for Khadi & Hand spinning in Madras.
• Honorary medical officers to be appointed in Hospitals
• Investment in public buildings to be considerably reduced
• Reduction in salaries of ministers
• Declaration of fundamental rights
• Welfare scheme for tribals
• Jail reforms.
• Repeal of Moplah Outrage Act

Challenges to legislatures

• Nearly all the Congress-run states (that is, U.P., Bihar, Bombay, Madras and Assam) had reactionary second chambers in the form of Legislative Councils, which were elected on a very narrow franchise — was less than 70 thousand for the second chambers. These were, therefore, dominated by landlords, capitalists and moneylenders, with the Congress forming a small minority. Hence, majority in the lower house was not enough in order to get any legislation passed .
• There was malicious propaganda set out by communal parties & accused congress of discrimination against minorities.
• Many opportunists entered congress during this period in order to take advantage of office . Gandhi & Congressmen were well known to this situation & wrote about this in Harijan

Congress itself began to lose its popularity as indicated in the drastic fall in its membership, from 4.5 million in 1938-39 to 1.4 million in 1940-41

Government of India Act 1935

This article deals with ‘Government of India Act 1935 – UPSC.’ This is part of our series on ‘Modern History’ which is important pillar of GS-1 syllabus . For more articles , you can click here

Introduction

Even-though, the Government had successfully suppressed the mass movement during 1932-33, it was aware that suppression could only be a short-term tactic. It couldn’t prevent the resurgence of another powerful movement in the years to come. For that it was necessary to permanently weaken the movement. For this British Parliament passed Government of India (GoI) Act 1935

Main Provisions

1 . Related to Provinces

• Provincial Autonomy –  for the first time, Provinces to have separate legal entity . Full freedom & responsible government was given  to provinces except in certain cases .
• Dyarchy introduced by GoI Act,1919 abolished
• Two new states – Orissa and Sind established
• Governors, appointed by the British Government, retained special powers. They could veto legislative and administrative measures, especially those concerning minorities, the rights of civil servants, law and order and British business interests.
• Governor also had the power to take over and indefinitely run the administration of a Province. Thus both political and economic power remained concentrated in British hands; colonialism remained intact.
• Responsible government to be provided to all 11 states . Among them Bengal, Madras , Bombay, UP, Bihar and Assam to have Bicameral Legislature

2. All India Federation

• Act provided for the establishment of an All-India Federation to be based on the union of the British Indian provinces and Princely States. However, entry into Federation was compulsory for Indian Provinces but optional for Princely states.
• This Federation will come into being when the more than 50 per cent of the Princely States formally acceded to it by signing the Instruments of Accession, which would override their previous treaties with the British Crown (this didn’t happen and Federation was never formed)
• Federal Legislature was Bicameral comprising of
  • Council of States having 156 representatives of British India & not more than 104 (40%) of Indian states. It was a permanent house with 1/3 members retiring every 3rd year.
  • Federal Assembly was to have 250 representatives of British India & not more than 125 (33.3%) members of Indian States with normal tenure of 5 years.
• The representatives of the States to the federal legislature were to be appointed directly by the Princes who were to be used to check and counter the nationalists.
• Dyarchy was introduced at the centre,
  • Reserved Subjects included departments of Foreign Affairs , Defence, Internal Security & Ecclesiastical Affairs to be administered by GG through Councillors appointed by him only
  • Transferred Subject were to be administered by Governor General on the advice of popular ministers answerable to Federal Assembly subjected to safeguards
• Federation of India was not intended to be sovereign legislature . It couldn’t amend the Indian Constitution which right remained with British Parliament . Besides, the range of its legislative activities was limited in that it couldn’t enact legislation affecting British suzerainty over India or even armed forces maintained in India.
• Governor General retained power to issue Ordinances

3. Others

• Franchise to be based on Property but increased from 5 million to 30 million
• Separate electorates were extended further to Muslims, Sikhs, Europeans, Indian Christians, Anglo Indians, Sikh Women in Punjab, Mohammedan Women, Indian Christian Women in Madras,  Anglo Indian women in Bengal besides electrodes for Commerce and Industry , Landlord, Labour, University etc
• Transfer of financial control from London to New Delhi, in response to a long-standing demand of the Government of India for fiscal autonomy.
• Secretary of State’s Council was abolished. Not Secretary of State BUT HIS COUNCIL.
• Establishment of Reserve Bank of India (RBI)

Why Britishers gave these concessions

• Hoped that once the Congressmen in office had tasted power and dispensed patronage they would be most reluctant to go back to the politics of sacrifice.

• Reforms could be used to promote dissensions and a split within the demoralized Congress ranks on the basis of constitutionalist vs. non constitutionalist and Right vs. Left. The Left and radical elements, it was hoped, would look  all this as a compromise with imperialism and abandonment of mass politics and would, therefore, become even more strident. Then, either the leftists (radicals) would break away from the Congress or their aggressive anti-Right politics and accent on socialism would lead the right- wing to kick them out. Either way, the Congress would be split and weakened.

• Provincial autonomy, it was further hoped, would create powerful provincial leaders in the Congress who would wield administrative power in their own right, gradually learn to safeguard their administrative prerogatives, and would, therefore, gradually become autonomous centres of political power

• In the Bicameral Central Legislature, members nominated by the princes would constitute 30 to 40 per cent of the seats, thus permanently eliminating the possibility of a Congress majority.

Analysis

• Federal character was seriously distorted by the provisions of safeguards and special responsibility which gave extraordinary powers to the executive head at the Centre and the Provinces. An important point to be noted is that fully responsible government was not introduced at the centre.

• In the provinces, in place of Dyarchy the Act of 1935 provided for responsible government in all the departments. But this was balanced off by wide discretionary powers given to the governors about
  1. Summoning legislatures,
  2. Giving assent to bills and
  3. Administering tribal regions.
  4. Safeguard minority rights, privileges of civil servants and British business interests.

And finally, they could take over and run the administration of a province indefinitely under a special provision.

• The electorate was enlarged to 30 million; but the high property qualifications only enfranchised 10 percent of the Indian population. In rural India, it gave voting right to the rich and middle peasants, as they were presumably the main constituency for Congress politics. So the act, suspects D.A. Low, was a ploy to corrode the support base of the Congress and tie these important classes to the Raj.

• In the bicameral central legislature, members nominated by the princes would constitute 30 to 40 % of the seats, thus permanently eliminating the possibility of a Congress majority.

• Act of 1935 did not mention the granting of dominion status . However much die-hard Conservatives like Winston Churchill might think that the act amounted to Britain’s abdication of empire, his colleagues had consciously chosen the federal structure because, as Carl Bridge has argued, it “would act primarily to protect Britain’s interests rather than hand over control in vital areas”. Its net effect was to divert Congress attention to the provinces, while maintaining strong imperial control at the center.

The Act of 1935 was condemned by nearly all sections of Indian opinion and was unanimously rejected by the Congress. The Congress demanded instead, the convening of a Constituent Assembly elected on the basis of adult franchise to frame a constitution for an independent India.

Why Federation didn’t come to being ?

• The federation scheme ultimately failed because the Princes were reluctant to join it. Their main objection was that the act did not resolve the issue of paramountcy. The Government of India as a paramount power enjoyed the right to intervene in the affairs of their states or even overthrow them if necessary.
• Their other fear was about joining a democratized federal central government, where the elected political leaders of British India would have little sympathy for their autocratic rulers and would provide encouragement to the democratic movements in their territories.
• Furthermore, the larger states did not want to surrender their fiscal autonomy, while the smaller states complained of their inadequate representation in the legislature
• Along with that, Congress and Muslim leaders were also not very much enthusiastic about it. Muslim leaders, first of all, were afraid of Hindu domination and felt that the proposed federal structure was still very unitary. All the representatives of British India to the central legislature were to be elected by the provincial assemblies and this would go against the Muslims who were minorities in all but four provinces. The Congress too did not like the proposed structure of the federation, where one-third of the seats in the federal assembly were to be filled in by the princes, thus tying up the fate of democratic India to the whims of the autocratic dynastic rulers.

Communal Award and Poona Pact

This article deals with ‘ Communal Award and Poona Pact – UPSC.’ This is part of our series on ‘Modern History’ which is important pillar of GS-1 syllabus . For more articles , you can click here

Communal/MacDonald Award

• When Civil Disobedience Movement was going on ,  British PM declared his award in August 1932
• According  to this :
  1. a fixed quota of seats to be elected by Separate Electorate of  Untouchables and to be filled by persons belonging to  the Untouchables; 
  2. double vote, one to be used through separate electorates and the other to be used in  the  General Electorates.
• It means, the depressed classes were given seats which had to be filled by election from the special constituencies in which only they could vote.However, they were eligible to vote in the general constituencies as well.
• Terms of communal award satisfied Muslim  league but left Gandhi in great distress.
• He went unto fast in Yervada jail
• Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya organised a conference of prominent leaders like Dr Ambedkar , Rajindra Prasad ,Rajagopalachari who showed anxiety to save Gandhi .
• Other provisions were women were to be reserved in all states except North West Frontier Province.

Poona Pact

Two groups of Hindus reached a settlement & signed a pact at Poona  called Poona Pact .

Points

• There would be joint electorate for all Hindus & it was decided that Harijan would remain as indivisible part of Hindu community
• 148 seats were allotted to Harijans in Provincial Legislature as against 78 under Mac Donald award
• Adequate representation to depressed classes in local bodies
• Central Legislature : 18% seats to Harijans
• System of reserved seats & primary elections to be terminated after 10 years

Ambedkar  ultimately agreed to it, as the proposed number of such reserved seats  for the depressed classes was increased and a two-tier election system was recommended to ensure proper repre­sentation of such classes.

British government amended Communal Award  & device of Britishers to separate Depressed classes from Hindus failed.

Importance of Poona pact

1. It  is true  that the Poona Pact gave the untouchables 148 seats, while the award had only given them  . But to conclude from  this that the Poona Pact gave them  more than what was given by the Award is to ignore what the Award had in fact given to the Untouchables.  The communal award gave the untouchables two benefits:- (i) a fixed quota of seats to be elected by Separate Electorate of  Untouchables and to be filled by persons belonging to  the Untouchables; (ii)  double vote, one to be used through separate electorates and the other to be used in  the  General Electorates
2. Now, if the Poona Pact increased the fixed quota of seats it also took away the right to do the double vote.

Civil Disobedience Movement

This article deals with ‘ Civil Disobedience Movement  – UPSC.’ This is part of our series on ‘Modern History’ which is important pillar of GS-1 syllabus . For more articles , you can click here

Background

• Anti Simon Movement didn’t immediately become Mass Movement because Gandhi was not convinced that it is appropriate time  & people were not ready for such movement . But now time was reap . People wanted to do some action & Gandhi came to active politics and attended Calcutta Session of December 1928 . He began to consolidate nationalist ranks & reconciled militant left wing under Nehru & Subash
• Lahore Session – announced launching of Civil Disobedience Movement under full leadership of Mahatma Gandhi .
• World Depression during this time led to downfall in prices & hit peasants substantially. Propertied peasant class wanted lowering of taxes from government. 
• Mahatma Gandhi wrote to Viceroy if situation can be saved but discouragement was in store for him . 

11 Point Demand of Gandhi

In March 1930 , Gandhi again addressed Viceroy through English friend Reynolds in letter which went in vain. Demands were 

• Prohibit intoxicant
• Abolish Salt Tax
• Reduce military expenditure
• Accept Postal Reservation bill
• Reserve coastal shipping for Indians
• Impose custom duty on foreign cloth
• Change in ratio between ₹ & £ (1.04 £ instead of 1.06£)
• Reduce rate of land revenue
• Release of political prisoners
• Abolish CID or give its control to citizens
• Issue license of arms to citizens for self protection
• Reduce expenditure on Civil Administration

It was a compromise  formula, which included, according to Sumit Sarkar’s classifcation,

• Six “issues of general interest”, like reduction of military expenditure and civil service salaries, total prohibition, discharge of political prisoners not convicted of murder, reform of the CID and its popu­lar control and changes in the arms act;
• Three “specific bourgeois demands”, like lowering of the rupee-sterling exchange rate to 1 s 4d, protective tarrif  on foreign cloth and reservation of coastal traf­fic  for Indian shipping companies;
• Two “basically peasant themes”, i.e., 50 per cent reduction of land revenue  and its subjec­tion to legislative control  and abolition of salt tax and government.
• Salt monopoly,was a mixed package to appeal to a wide cross­ section of political opinions and unite the Indians once again under one overarching political leadership.

Dandi March

• Started on 12 March 1930 with 78 chosen followers from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi(none was woman) & made salt in violation of salt law. This was  symbol of Indian’s refusal to live under British rules
• Bombay Chronicle wrote, ” in history of national movements this event is most glorious & most important.”

Side Topic : Gandhi openly told Viceroy about his plans of Salt Satyagraha and also said they can arrest me if they think that was right . This can be seen in contrast with Communist Movement of Lenin which work under utmost secrecy. Gandhi didn’t believe in that. Infact , he equated secrecy with violence.

Side Topic : Why Salt?

• 1882 Salt Act gave the British a monopoly on the collection and manufacture of salt, limiting its handling to government salt depots and levying a salt tax.Violation of the Salt Act was a criminal offence. Eventhough salt was freely available to those living on the coast (by evaporation of sea water), Indians were forced to purchase it from the colonial government.
• Initially, Gandhi’s choice of the salt tax was met with incredulity by the Working Committee of the Congress,Jawaharlal Nehru and Dibyalochan Sahoo were ambivalent; Sardar Patel suggested a land revenue boycott instead. The British establishment too was not disturbed by these plans of resistance against the salt tax.
• Gandhi had sound reasons for his decision. The salt tax was a deeply symbolic choice, since salt was used by nearly everyone in India. An item of daily use could resonate more with all classes of citizens than abstract demand for greater political rights.
• The salt tax represented 8.2% of the British Raj tax revenue, and hurt the poorest Indians the most significantly.
• Explaining his choice, Gandhi said, “Next to air and water, salt is perhaps the greatest necessity of life.”
• Gandhi felt that this protest would dramatize Purna Swaraj in a way that was meaningful to the lowliest Indians. He also reasoned that it would build unity between Hindus and Muslims by fighting a wrong that touched them equally.

Programme of the movement was as follows:

1. Salt law should be violated everywhere.
2. Students should leave colleges and government servants should resign from service.
3. Foreign clothes should be burnt.
4. No taxes should be paid to the government.
5. Women should stage a Dharna at liquor shops, etc.

Spread of Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM)

• Reached northern extreme to North Western corner under Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan called frontier Gandhi . He organised pathans under society Khudai Khidmatgars / Red Shirts
• In Peshawar , 2 platoons of Gadhwali soldiers refused to fire . Nationalism begun to penetrate into Army as well
• In Eastern most corner ,  Manipuris took part & in Nagaland  Rani Gaidinliu ,16 years old took part in it &  jailed . She was freed in 1947 when India became free

Side topic – Rani Gaidinliu

• Gaidinliu (1915–1993) was a Naga spiritual and political leader who led a revolt against British rule in India.
• At the age of 14, she joined the Heraka religious movement of her cousin Haipou Jadonang.
• Movement later turned into a political movement seeking to drive out the British from Manipur and the surrounding Naga areas. Within the Heraka cult, she came to be considered an incarnation of the goddess Cherachamdinliu.
• Gaidinliu was arrested in 1932 at the age of 16, and was sentenced to life imprisonment by the British rulers.
• Jawaharlal Nehru met her at Shillong Jail in 1937, and promised to pursue her release. Nehru gave her the title of “Rani”, and she gained local popularity as Rani Gaidinliu.She was released in 1947 after India’s independence, and continued to work for the upliftment of her people.
• An advocate of the ancestral Naga religious practices, she staunchly resisted the conversion of Nagas to Christianity. She was honoured as a freedom fighter and was awarded a Padma Bhushan by the Government of India

Methods adopted

1 . Salt Satyagraha

• Gandhi in Dandi
• C Rajagopalachari in Madras province
• In Dharsana , planned to be done by Gandhi but he was arrested . Sarojini Naidu, Imam sahib(Gandhi’s associate ) & Manilal (gandhi’s son) did that with 2000 volunteers & was non violent with police lathi charging them but they responded nothing . Injured comrades carried on stretchers & other column making way to take place . Widely reported by US reporter Webb Miller
• Wadala suburb 
• Balasor & Puri District of Odisha
• Midnapore in coastal Bengal 
• It was just a catalyst & beginning for rich variety of defiance

2. Boycott of foreign cloth & liquor

• Vigorous boycott of foreign cloth and liquor shops and had especially asked the women to play a leading role in this movement. Along with the women, students and youth played the most prominent part in the boycott of foreign cloth and liquor
• Traders’ associations and commercial bodies were themselves quite active in implementing  boycott, as were the many mill owners who refused to use foreign yarn and pledged not to manufacture coarse cloth that competed with khadi.
• Liquor boycott brought Government revenues from excise duties crashing down

3. Chawkidari Tax

• In Eastern India , there was refusal to pay the Chowkidari tax.
• Chowkidars, paid out of the tax levied specially on the villages, were guards who supplemented the small police force in the rural areas in this region. They were particularly hated because they acted as spies for the Government and often also as retainers for the local landlords.
• Widely took place first in Bihar
• In Bengal , with onset of monsoon it was difficult to make salt . Hence movement shifted to anti- Chawkidari tax

4. No Land Tax

• In Kheda district, Bardoli taluqa in Surat district, and in Jambusar in Broach, a determined no-tax movement was in progress — the tax refused here was the land revenue.
• Villagers in  thousands, with family, cattle and household goods, crossed the border from British India into the neighbouring princely states such as Baroda and camped for months together in the open fields. Their houses were broken into, their belongings destroyed, their lands confiscated

5. No Revenue – No Rent

• In UP
• No-revenue part was a call to the zamindars to refuse to pay revenue to the Government, the no- rent a call to the tenants not to pay rent to the zamindars. In effect, since the zamindars were largely loyal to the Government, this became a no-rent struggle

6. Prabat pheris

• Bands of men, women and children went around at dawn singing nationalist songs, became the rule in villages and towns.

7. Patrikas

• Illegal news-sheets, sometimes written by hand and sometimes printed , were part of the strategy to defy the hated Press Act, and they flooded the country.

8. Vanar & Manjari Sena

• Children were organized into vanar senas or monkey armies and at least at one place the girls decided they wanted their own separate manjari sena or cat army!

Gandhi Irwin Pact

Background

• 1930 : British Government summoned first Round Table Conference (RTC) to discuss Simon Commission Report but Congress boycotted . That proved to be abortive
• For a conference on Indian affairs without Congress was like staging Ramlila without Rama & government now tried to negotiate agreement with congress so that it would attend RTC
• On 26 Jan 1931 , Gandhi with other members of Congress working committee were released . Negotiations for settlement began &  Gandhi Irwin Pact was signed by Gandhi on behalf of Congress & Lord Irwin on behalf of British government 
• Importance – placed Congress on equal footing with Government

Side Topic : First Round Table Conference (RTC)

• Before Simon Commission had submitted report, Torries fell and Labour Government came in Britain. They showed intention to make Constitutional changes after ascertaining views of all shades and called for RTC.
• But when First RTC held, Congress was deeply involved in Civil Disobedience Movement . Government was well aware that without taking Congress on board these negotiations would not yield anything
• Congress placed some conditions for attending RTC and prominent was

Recognition of India’s right to secede at will and grant of fully responsible government both at Central and Provincial levels

This wasn’t  acceptable to government and they proceeded without Congress

• First Round Table Conference (RTC) was held in Nov 1930 – 89 Persons participated in it
  • 16 from British Political Parties
  • 58 various Indian Political Parties

MR Jayakar	Hindu Mahasabha
TB Sapru	Liberals
Agha Khan , Shafi , Fazlul Haq ,  Jinnah	Muslims
Ambedkar	Depressed Classes
KT Paul	Christians
Members representing interests of Princely States

• Despite all its handicaps , it did arrive at two important things
  • It recommended the formation of an All India Federation of British Indian Provinces & Indian States.
  • It also proposed to establish a responsible government at the centre with certain safeguards for the transitional period. However, to the disappointment of the nationalists, the period of transition was not clearly specified.

Outcomes of Pact

• Struggle was provisionally suspended
• Disobedience prisoners were to be released (but relatively little attempt seems to have been made for saving the life of Bhagat Singh)
• Remission of all fines not yet collected
• Return of confiscated lands not yet sold to third parties
• Lenient  treatment for those government employees who had resigned
• Government also conceded the right to make salt for consumption to villages along the coast
• Right  to peaceful and non-aggressive picketing
• Congress demand for a public inquiry into police excesses was not accepted, but Gandhis insistent request for an inquiry was recorded in the agreement.
• Gandhi agreed to participate in RTC on three principles
  1. Establishment  of Federation  of India
  2. Establishment of responsible government
  3. Certain safeguards for British Government which would get due place in future constitution of India

• But why Gandhi signed Pact is mystery. There is some evidence that the crucial role was played by business pressures. A surcharge of 5% had been imposed on cotton piecegoods imports in early February, despite some Cabinet opposition and loud protests from depression affected Lancashire obviously on political grounds. Purshottamdas went to see Gandhi at Allahabad in order to try to put commercial pressure on him. Thakurdas was in Delhi during the negotiation

Yusuf Meher Ali, soon to become a prominent Socialist leader, denounced unequivocally ‘the politics of compromise’ and ‘change of heart’, and bitterly attacked ‘the Birlas, Purshottamdas Thakurdas’, Walchand Hirachands, Husainbhai Laljis, who are now out and busy in making efforts to obtain the fruits of the suffering and sacrifices of others’.

Negative Impact- Peasants took it as betrayal because neither there was any promise of tax reduction nor their confiscated land was returned. The pact, rather than police lathis, broke the morale of the Peasants

Achievements of first phase

• The vast mass of the people were undoubtedly impressed that the mighty British Government had  to treat their movement and their leader as an equal and sign a pact with him. They saw this as a recognition of their own strength, and as their victory over the Government. Thousands who flocked out of the jails as a result of the pact were treated as soldiers returning from a victorious battle and not as prisoners of war returning from a humiliating defeat. They knew that a truce was not a surrender, and that the battle could be joined again, if the enemy so wanted.
• Marked a critically important stage in the progress of the anti-imperialist struggle. The number of people who went to jail was estimated at over 90,000 — more than three times the figure for the Non Cooperation Movement of 1920- 22.
• Imports of cloth from Britain had fallen by half; other imports like cigarettes had suffered a similar fate.
• Government income from liquor excise and land revenue had been affected. Elections to the Legislative Assembly had been effectively boycotted. A vast variety of social groups had been politicized on the side of Indian nationalism
• The participation of Muslims in the Civil Disobedience Movement was certainly nowhere near that in 1920-22. The appeals of communal leaders to stay away, combined with active Government encouragement of communal dissension to counter the forces of nationalism, had their effect. Still, the participation of Muslims was not insignificant, either. Their participation in the North-West Frontier Province was, as is well known, overwhelming.
• Support that the movement had garnered from the poor and illiterate, both in town and in the country, was remarkable indeed.
• For Indian women, the movement was the most liberating experience to date and can truly be said to have marked their entry into the public space

Karachi Congress of 1931

Congress met in Karachi on 29 March 1931 ie 6 days after Bhagat Singh , Rajguru & Sukhdev have been executed . All  along route , Gandhi was greeted with black flags .

Main resolutions passed at Karachi Session of 1931

1 . About Bhagat Singh’s death

• Drafted by Gandhi by which it, ‘while dissociating itself from and disapproving of political violence in any shape or form,’ admired ‘the bravery and sacrifice’ of the three martyrs.’

2. About Delhi Pact(Gandhi Irwin pact)

• Congress endorsed the Delhi Pact and reiterated the goal of Poorna Swaraj

3. About Fundamental Rights

Eventhough the Congress had from its inception fought for the economic interests, civil liberties and political rights of the people, this was the first time that the Congress defined what Swaraj would mean for the masses. 

• Guaranteed the basic civil rights of free speech, free press, free assembly, and freedom of association; equality before the law irrespective of caste, creed or sex; neutrality of the state in regard to all religions
• Elections on the basis of universal adult franchise
• Free  and compulsory primary education.
• Substantial  reduction in rent and revenue, exemption from rent in case of uneconomic holdings, and relief of agricultural indebtedness and control of usury
• Better conditions for workers including a living wage, limited hours of work and protection of women workers; the right to organise and form unions to workers and peasants
• State  ownership & control of key industries, mines and means of transport.
• The culture, language and script of the minorities and of the different linguistic areas shall be protected.

The Karachi resolution was to remain in essence the basic political and economic programme of the Congress in later years.

Resolution on fundamental rights and economic policy  has often been interpreted as a major concession to placate the Left. It is true that some officials suspected in it the hand of M.N. Roy . But there was in reality precious little of ‘socialism’ in the 20-points of the Karachi Resolution, which combined general democratic demands (civil liberties, legal equality, adult suffrage, free primary education, and a state policy of religious neutrality) with much of Gandhi’s 11-points of 1930, plus fairly   modest promises to labour (living wages, an end to forced labour, trade union rights, etc.), a vaguely worded clause about control by the state of key industries and mineral resources, and a very moderate programme indeed of agrarian change. Only ‘substantial reductions’ were promised in land revenue and rent, there was no reference to the burning issue of rural indebtedness, and obviously no intention at all of eliminating landlordism or redistributing land. 

Second Round Table Conference (RTC)

• Held in London but nothing much was expected
• In the intervening period the situation had  undergone a change. On 26 August 1931 , MacDonald’s Labour Cabinet resigned and a new coalition government dominated by the Conservatives was formed under him. Wellingdon succeeded Lord Irwin in Delhi in April 1931. Sir Samuel Hoare a leading conservative became Secretary of State for India.
• Overwhelming majority of Indian delegates to RTC, hand-picked by the Government, were loyalists, communalists, careerists, and place-hunters, big landlords and representatives of the princes. They were used by the Government to claim that the Congress did not represent the interests of all Indians
• The Second Session ended on 1 December, 1931 and made recommendations on the matters such as:
  1. Composition of the Indian Federation
  2. Structure of the Federal Judiciary
  3. Mode of accession of States to the Federation
  4. Distribution of Financial Resources.

These were same as had been suggested earlier by the Nehru Committee Report. The proceedings of the conference were bogged down by the communal issues. 

• British Government refused to concede the basic Indian demands.  Gandhi came back at the end of December 1931 to a changed political situation.
• Delhi Pact  had raised the political prestige of the Congress and the political morale of the people and undermined and lowered British prestige. New Viceroy believed that the Government had made a major error in negotiating and signing a truce with the Congress, as if between two equal powers. They were now determined to reverse it all.

British Policy after 2nd Round Table Conference

British policy was now dominated by three major considerations

• Gandhi must not be permitted to build up the tempo for a massive mass movement, as he had done in 1920-1 & 1930
• The Government felt that  functionaries — village officials, police and higher bureaucrats — and the loyalists — ‘our friends’ — must not feel disheartened that Gandhi was being ‘resurrected as a rival authority to the Government of India,’ and that the Government was losing the will to rule.
• Nationalist movement must not be permitted to gather force & consolidate itself in rural areas

Gandhi came back & crushing of movement

• While Gandhi was in London, Government prepared secret plans for coming showdown & decided to launch hard & immediate blow against any rival movement at very outset.
• JL Nehru was arrested in UP, Abdul Gaffar Khan was arrested in NWFP & in Bengal government was ruling thru draconian ordinances .  Whole state was converted into Civil Martial Law . Within week, leading Congressmen were behind jails &  80,000 satyagrahis were jailed
• The non-violent movement was met by relentless repression. The Congress and its allied organizations were declared illegal and their offices and funds seized. Nearly all  Gandhi Ashrams were occupied by the police.
• Peaceful picketers, Satyagrahis  were lathi-charged, beaten and often awarded rigorous imprisonment and heavy fines, which were realised by selling their lands and property at throw away prices. Prisoners in jail were barbarously treated.
• No-tax campaigns in different parts of rural India were treated with great severity. Lands, houses, cattle, agricultural implements, and other property were freely confiscated.
• Wrath of the Government fell with particular harshness on women. Conditions in jails were made extraordinarily severe with the idea of scaring away women from the Satyagraha.
• The freedom of the Press to report or comment on the movement, or even to print pictures of national leaders or Satyagrahis, was curtailed. Within the first six months of 1932, action was taken against 109 journalists. Nationalist literature — poems, stories and novels — was banned on a large scale.

End of Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM)

• In 1933 ,Gandhi confessed failure of movement & resigned his membership of congress & confined his work to upliftment of Harijans . Harijan upliftment became his principle concern . He started All India Anti Untouchability League in Sept 1932 & weekly Harijan in Jan 1933 even before his release . He went out on Harijan tours between Nov 1933 & Aug 1934
• Gandhi personally decided to abstain from it after his final release from jail in April 1933  . It was suspended temporarily in June 1933 &  was finally withdrawn in April 1934

If the colonial policy of negotiations by Irwin had failed earlier, so had the policy of ruthless suppression by Willingdon. People had been cowed down by superior force; they had not lost faith in the Congress. Although the movement from 1930 to 1934 had not achieved independence and had been temporarily crushed, the Indian people had been further transformed. The will to fight had been further strengthened; faith in British rule had been completely shattered

Civil Disobedience Movement versus Non Cooperation Movement

Feature	CDM	NCM
Objective	Complete independence	Swaraj and redressal of two issues
Methods	Non cooperation and violation of unjust laws	Only non cooperation
Govt reaction	Ruthless repression	Moderate repression
Participation
1 Muslims	Low (only under frontier Gandhi)	Huge on account of the khilafat issue
2 Women	High	Marginal
3 Lawyers & students	Low	High
4 businessmen	More	Less
5 Peasant	Less	More
Imprisonments	3 times than in NCM
Level of control	Was there but some violence seen in Sholapur	Very controlled
Outcome	Communal Award	– Revolutionary Activities – Swarajist Party

Simon Commission / Indian Statutory Commission(1927-29)

This article deals with ‘ Simon Commission  – UPSC.’ This is part of our series on ‘Modern History’ which is important pillar of GS-1 syllabus . For more articles , you can click here

Background

• Govt of India Act,1919 had provision that further constitutional changes were to be considered within 10 yrs but since 1919, Indian leaders were demanding early consideration . British government remained adamant that they will consider anything after 10 years
• 1927: Conservative Party was expecting their defeat in elections & they didn’t want to leave this important matter in hands of Labour government . They appointed Statutory Commission to Report working of Act of 1919 with view to modify or amend it

Other Reasons

• At this time, Communal situation in India was at its ebb. Tory government wanted to send Commission at this time to give expression that India wasn’t yet ready to govern themselves
• Result of activities of Swarajist Party and youth activities led by Nehru and Bose which made real nature of Govt of India Act 1919 public

Boycott of Simon Commission

• 7 member All White Commission under Sir Simon
• Note – One of its members was Clement Attlee, who subsequently became the British Prime Minister and eventually oversaw the granting of independence to India and Pakistan in 1947
• Commission was to decide whether Indians were fit to govern themselves & nothing referred wrt Swaraj.
• Indians considered it as insult that no Indian is considered fit enough to decide political future of India

Hence , All parties boycotted the commission

(Note : Muslim League led by  Shafi, Justice Party of madras ,  Unionist Party of Punjab, central Sikh Sangh & All India Achut Federation didn’t boycott)

British government gave following reasons for not taking any Indian Member

• Since  committee had to report its proceedings to  British Parliament so it was justified to appoint British members only. Argument don’t hold weight because there were two Indian Members of British Parliament- Lord Sinha and Mr. Saklatwala.
• As there was no unanimity of Indian opinion on the problem of Constitutional development, it was not possible to appoint any Indian as its member.
• Actually Birkenhead was afraid that in a mixed commission, there could be an alliance between the Indian and British Labour representatives.
• Irwin declared that Indians had been excluded from the membership of Commission because they could not give an accurate picture of their capacity to govern to the Parliament and their judgement was bound to be coloured.

Methods used in Anti-Simon Protests

• Congress session in Madras (December 1927) meeting under the Presidency of M.A. Ansari decided to boycott the commission “at every stage and in every form”.
• Congress converted boycott into popular movement
• It temporarily united different groups in India . Different  parties were trying to lay common political program

Bombay	– Hartal in whole city when Simon commission landed here ( 3Feb1928) – Rallies , processions & black flag demonstrations
Madras	T Parkasam  led processions
Punjab	Huge demonstrations
Other places	Lucknow (kites flown with Simon go back on it) , Vijaywada, Poona, Calcutta – wherever they went welcomed with black flag & Slogans of Simon go back

Government Repression

• Tried to suppress with heavy hand . There were lathi charges & brutal beating

Lahore	Lala Lajpat Rai was beaten by police & succumbed to death . Bhagat Singh & comrades avenged his death
Lucknow	Jawahar lal Nehru &  Govind Ballab Pant  beaten up

• Revived Revolutionary Activities in some parts  (especially Bengal & Punjab) 

Birkenhead challenge & Nehru Report 1928

Lord Birkenhead, the Conservative Secretary of State responsible for the appointment of the Simon Commission, had constantly harped on the inability of Indians to formulate a concrete scheme of Constitutional Reforms which had the support of wide sections of Indian political opinion. This challenge was taken up and meetings of the All-Parties Conference were held to finalise a scheme which popularly came to be known as the Nehru Report after Motilal Nehru.

Main Provisions of Nehru Committee Report

• Same constitutional status to India wrt Self Government as enjoyed by Canada, Australia  & its Parliament should have power to make laws & should be known as Commonwealth of India
• Constitution should include Declaration of Rights guaranteeing Freedom of Conscience & Free profession & practice of religion
• There would be no state religion & state shouldn’t directly or indirectly endow to any religion
• Constitution would define Citizenship
• NWFP & Sind (to be separated from Bombay) would have same constitutional status as other provinces
• Abolition of separate electorates & instead of that reservation of seats for Muslims at center & also in provinces having Muslims in minority
• Princely states to  transfer exercise of Paramountcy from Governor General to Govt of India & conflicts between Commonwealth of India & Princely states to be decided by Supreme Court
• Governor General would be Kings representative who would act on advice of Executive Council & similar arrangement in Provinces where Governor would be representative of Govt of India
• Hierarchy of Courts with Supreme Court at its apex
• Nehru Report contained virtually no federal features although committee conferred the establishment of a federal constitution . But it didn’t take concrete steps for its establishment
• Residuary subjects with Centre ( like in Govt of India Act 1919)
• Later  more proposals added – Communal Representation was to be reconsidered after ten years

Nehru Report as a reversal of Lucknow pact:

• Reservation of seats for Muslims only in Provinces where they were a minority 
• Proposed to abolish the Separate Electorate and discard the reservation of seats for Muslim majorities in Punjab and Bengal
• This was the reversal of Lucknow pact

Reactions & response to Nehru Report

1 . Within Congress

• Opposition from young group led by JL Nehru & Bose for acceptance of Swaraj & not Poorna Swaraj as goal
• Compromise reached at Calcutta Session of 1928 .  Either British government accept  Nehru Report in its entirety in one year else their demand will shift to Poorna Swaraj & they will start Civil Disobedience Movement for its achievement.
• Note – Already in August 1928, the “Independence of India League” was formed with Jawahar Lal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose as Secretaries and S. Srinivasa Iyengar as President for the cause of Poorna Swaraj

2. Muslim League

• At the All Parties Conference held at Calcutta in December 1928 to consider the Nehru Report, Jinnah, on behalf of the Muslim League, proposed three amendments to the report:
  • 1/3rd representation to Muslims in the Central Legislature
  • Reservation to Muslims in Bengal and Punjab legislatures proportionate to their population, till adult suffrage was established
  • Residual powers to Provinces.
• This wasn’t accepted & he joined group led by Aga Khan & Mohammad Shafi . 1928 breakdown did contribute considerably to the aloofness and positive hostility of most Muslim leaders towards Civil Disobedience two years later. Hence, Hindu – Muslim Unity atleast of Elites of both Religion was lost.

3. Hindu Mahasabha

• They also rejected Report on communal basis

4.  British Government

Outrightly rejected by British government because

• Not made after taking permission from the Government
• Even not accepted  by all parties at All Party conference . Hence, donot represent all people

Jinnah’s 14 Points

• March 1929 : Jinnah gave 14 points which were to become the basis of all future propaganda of Muslim League
  • Federal Constitution with Residual Powers to Provinces.
  • Provincial autonomy.
  • No Constitutional Amendment by the Centre without the concurrence of the states constituting the Indian federation.
  • All legislatures and elected bodies to have adequate representation of Muslims in every province without reducing a majority of Muslims in a province to a minority or equality.
  • Adequate representation to Muslims in the services and in self-governing bodies.
  • One-third Muslim representation in the Central Legislature.
  • In any cabinet at the Centre or in the Provinces, one- third to be Muslims.
  • Separate electorates.
  • No bill or resolution in any Legislature to be passed if three-fourths of a minority community considers such a bill or resolution to be against their interests.
  • Any territorial redistribution not to affect the Muslim majority in Punjab, Bengal and NWFP.
  • Separation of Sindh from Bombay.
  • Constitutional reforms in the NWFP and Baluchistan.
  • Full religious freedom to all communities.
  • Protection of Muslim rights in religion, culture, education and language.

Differences between Nehru Report & Simon Commission Report

Simon Commission	Nehru Report
Appointed by British Government	Appointed by all major parties of India
All members were English	All members were Indians
No mention of idea of Self Government	Contained its imminent application
Executive was to remain supreme & independent of legislative control	Executive was to be responsible to legislature both at centre & provinces
Separate electorate for minorities	Rejected separate electorate & instead proposed reservation of seats for muslims
No provisions regarding Fundamental Rights	Provisions regarding Fundamental Rights were there
No provision regarding reducing Governor General power	Governor General reduced to constitutional head with no real power
No provision of Adult franchise	Present

Delhi Manifesto

• June 1929, a Labour Government headed by Ramsay MacDonald took power in Britain and Lord Irwin, the Viceroy, was called to London for consultations.
• Oct 1929 : Lord Irwin’s Declaration that government intends to draw a new constitution after asserting various shades of Indian political opinion at Round Table Conference to be held in London
• Two days later, a conference of major national leaders met and issued what came to be known as the Delhi Manifesto, in which they demanded that it should be made clear that the purpose of the Round Table Conference was not to discuss when Dominion Status should be granted, but to formulate a scheme for its implementation.
• Later Irwin told Gandhi personally that he was not in position to give any assurance they are demanding

Lahore Session , 1929 & Moving toward Poorna Swaraj

• Honour of hosting what was, perhaps, the most memorable of the Congress annual sessions went to Lahore, the capital city of Punjab, and the honour of declaring ‘Purna Swaraj’ as the only honourable goal Indians could strive for went to the man who had done more than any other to popularize the idea — Jawaharlal Nehru.
• Jawaharlal Nehru’s Presidential Address was a stirring call to action: ‘We have now an open conspiracy to free this country from foreign rule and you, comrades, and all our countrymen and countrywomen are invited to join it.‘
• On the banks of the river Ravi, at midnight on 31 December 1929, the tricolour flag of Indian independence was unfurled amid cheers and jubilation. Amid the excitement, there was also a grim resolve, for the year to follow was to be one of hard struggle.
• It was on 26 January 1930 , public meetings were to be held at which the Independence Pledge would be read out and collectively affirmed. This programme was a huge success, and in villages and towns, at small meetings and large ones, the pledge was read out in the local language and the national flag was hoisted