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:
- new constitutional reconstruction should be done;
- it should be a federal constitution;
- Provinces to be given full autonomy including law;
- the governor should have discretionary power related to internal security and administrative powers to protect the different communities;
- the number of members of Provincial Legislative Council (PL. C.) should be increased;
- In the C. L. C, the lower house should be called Federal Assembly and upper house-Council of States;
- the governor general should have complete power to appoint the members of his Cabinet;
- Government of India should have complete control on the High Court;
- the number of members of Secretary of States should be reduced;
- the Central Legislature to be enlarged and elected by Provincial Councils;
- 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.