Indian National Movement - Swarajists and Simon Commission

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Swarajists

  • The withdrawal of the Non-Cooperation Move­ment led to the resentment of many leaders of the Con­gress.
  • A lot of leaders like: Motilal Nehru, C. R. Das etc. , wanted change in the Con­gress and were called Pro-Changers .
  • There were leaders who did not want change in the Congress like Vallabhbhai Patel, Ansari, Rajendra Prasad, C. Rajgopalachari etc. , were called No-Changers.
  • In the 37th Annual Con­gress Session at Gaya in 1922, the Pro-Changers were defeated by the No-Chang­ers by a vote margin of 890: 1740 respectively.
  • As a result of this Motilal Nehru and C. R. Das resigned and on 1st January, 1923 they founded the Congress Khilafat Swaraj Party (ac­cording to Sumit Sarkar on March, 1923) .
  • C. R. Das became the first President and Motilal Nehru the first General Secretary, of the newly formed party.
  • Elections took place in November, 1923, on the ba­sis of Montague-Chelmsford Constitution of 1919.
  • In this elections 62 lakh people participated.
  • In the elections Moderates defeated: S. N. Banerjee Bengal Sheshagiri Aiyar Madras . Paranjapey Bombay Chintamani U. P. H. Kunzroo.
  • National Liberation Fed­eration faired badly in Elec­tions.
  • Swaraj party got 42 seats, out of 101 seats in Central Legislative Council.
  • They had absolute major­ity in Central Province; in Bengal they had majority; they got some success in Bombay and U. P.
  • In Madras, Castiesm and in Punjab, Communalism af­fected their prospect in the elections.
  • The C. L. C met for the first time elections on 30th Janu­ary, 1924.
  • In March, 1925 Vittalbhai Patel become President of the Central Legislative Council (1st Indian Speaker) .
  • C. R. Das became Mayor of Calcutta.
  • S. C Bose became the Chief Administrator.
  • Vittalbhai became Head of Ahmadabad Municipalities.
  • Jawahar Lai Nehru became Head of Allahabad Munici­pality.
  • Rajendra Prasad became Head of the Patna Munici­pality;
  • They defeated the most dangerous bill- The Public Safety Bill in C. L. C in 1928;
  • They successfully pro­tested Sir Alexander Muddiman and Lee Commis­sion Committee Report.

Crisis in the Swarajist Party

  • On 16th June, 1925, C. R. Das died.
  • A no. of sectarian devel­opment took place.
  • Again elections took place in 1926.
  • Swaraj Party had almost divided into 3 groups: The Old Swarajists, The Responsivists (Jaikar, Kelkar and Munji) , The Independent՚s Congress Party (M. M. Malviya)

Results of the Elections of 1926

  • 40 seats were bagged by Swarajist Party out of the 104 seats.
  • In Madras, they did not fair well; the anti-Brahmanical parties dominated.
  • In Bengal they won most of the seats.
  • In Bihar and Orissa, Responsivists dominated.
  • In Central Province, Punjab and U. P. , Swarajists were defeated.

Simon Commission

Background

  • A lot of resentment was against the Act of 1919, among the people.
  • The British government realise this by appointing the Simon Commission in 1927.
  • On 8th November, 1927, the British P. M. established a 7 member team called Simon Commission with John Simon as its Chairman.
  • The Simon Commission landed at Bombay on 3rd February, 1928.
  • The Congress boycotted the Simon commission and hartals were taken out.
  • The Muslim League Ses­sion held in December, 1927, under the Chairmanship of Mhd. Yaqub boycotted the commission at the Calcutta.
  • In 16th February, 1928, L. L. Rai moved a resolution in the Central Legislative Council (CLC) and protested against it.
  • Lord Birkenhead felt that by the next general elections Labour Party would come to power.
  • Hence, he did not want the Commission to come under the next government.
  • The Commission was to enquire about the following:
  • enquire in to the working of the government.
  • growth of education, de­velopment of representative system of governance in In­dia and matters connecting with it;
  • how far it would be advis­able to adopt responsible government;
  • to extend modify and re­strict the degree of respon­sible government;
  • to enquire about the rela­tions between states and govt.
  • The purpose of the Com­mission was to report on the making of the Constitution of India.
  • The report was published on 13th January, 1930, with the following recommenda­tions:
    1. new constitutional recon­struction should be done;
    2. it should be a federal con­stitution;
    3. Provinces to be given full autonomy including law;
    4. the governor should have discretionary power related to internal security and ad­ministrative powers to pro­tect the different communi­ties;
    5. the number of members of Provincial Legislative Council (PL. C.) should be increased;
    6. In the C. L. C, the lower house should be called Fed­eral Assembly and upper house-Council of States;
    7. the governor general should have complete power to appoint the members of his Cabinet;
    8. Government of India should have complete control on the High Court;
    9. the number of members of Secretary of States should be reduced;
    10. the Central Legislature to be enlarged and elected by Provincial Councils;
    11. Burma was to be sepa­rated from India and Sindh from Bombay Presidency.

Limitations of the Commission

  • No Indian members in the Commission.
  • No universal franchise.
  • The position of Governor General remained unaffected.
  • No provision to abolish separate electorate
  • On 20th September, 1929, the Government of India ap­proved the report and sent it for discussion in the Round Table Conference.

Civil Disobedience Movement

  • The immediate cause for the initiation of CDM was the failure of Simon Commis­sion.
  • The CDM started on 12th March, 1930, with the Dandi March (popularly known as Salt Satyagrah) .
  • 72 or 79 male followers along with Gandhiji started their movement to Darshana. Sarojini Naidu was the only female to participate.

Regional Variations: Bombay

  • Jamnalal Bajaj, K. F. Nariman, Yusuf Mehar Ali were the leaders.
  • Gujarat: No Tax Move­ment was launched at Bardauli (Surat) . The main centres were: Anarid, Borsad, Kheda (Nadia Taluk) and Bharoach (in Jambusar) .
  • Tamil Nadu: C. Raja­gopalachari conducted a salt march from Trichinopalli to Veda Vannayam (on Tanjore coast) . Head quarter was Tiruchengodu. Satyamurti and Srinivas Aiyangar were the leaders.
  • At Malabar Vaikom Satyagraha took place under the leadership of K. Kelapant. He walked from Calicut to Bayannur to break the Salt Law.
  • P. Krishnapillai hoisted the national flag on 11th No­vember 1930. Kelapant had a contact with Ezvahas.
  • Bengal: Extremists were quite active. The Chittagong armoury raid took place in
  • April 1930.1n August, 1930, Bina Bose killed an English officer.
  • In December, 1930, Badal and Dinesh entered Writer՚s building and shot the I. G. (Prison) .
  • No tax and Chowkidari movement started in Midnapore, Arambagh.
  • J. M. Sen Gupta and S. C. Bose were at loggerheads.
  • Therefore was not very successsful.
  • Kishoreganj and Dhaka witnessed communal riots.
  • Sylhet was a main base in Bengal.
  • Punjab: Tara Singh of Akali, Kharag Singh of Congress were the main leaders.
  • Kirti Kishan Sabha, Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Riashati Prajamandal were the important associations.
  • United Provinces: CDM was very active.
  • A riot took place in Benaras.
  • In Awadh, no rent move­ment started.
  • In Rai Bareilli, tallukdars were organised by Kalka Prasad.
  • The centres were: Barabanki and Allahabad.
  • Karachi: Swami Govind-anand was important.
  • Orissa: Gopabandhu Chaudhary was the leader
  • In 1931, Raiyat Sabha was found.
  • Bihar: A protest against Chowkidari tax at Saran, Munger and Bhagalpur.
  • Rajendra Prasad was in­jured in a mass rally.
  • In Begusarai, Somrabonga Majhi, was a tribal leader.
  • Peshawar: Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan was very active.
  • Khudai Khidmatgar Move­ment was launched during this period.
  • It had 50,000 red shirts (members) .
  • Garhwal: On 20th April. , 1930, Chander Singh Garhwali refused to fire on the pathans.
  • Manipur: Rani Gadinilai of Nagaland rebelled against the British and was sentenced to life imprisonment. J. L. Nehru said about her, “a day will come when India will re­member and cherish her.”
  • Assam: Tarunram Phoken, a Congress leader opposed CDM.
  • N. C. Bardolai was not very active.
  • In Kamrup, Chandra Prabha Shakyani led the movement.
  • Allahabad: M. N. Roy led no tax campaign.

Suspension of the Movement

  • The movement was sus­pended partially after Gandhi -Irwin Pact.
  • But it was resumed after the failure of the 2nd Round Table Conference.
  • In January 1932, Gandhi and other leaders were ar­rested .
  • In 1933 Gandhi confessed the failure of the movement. He resigned from congress membership and took to con­structive work.