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Full text of "Socialist Trends In Indian National Movement"

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SOCIALIST TRENDS IN INDIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT

Post- 1 Var Problems

229

League and was a trap. He insisted on his two nation theory and crea- tion of a sovereign Muslim state. Jinnah wanted Gandhi to accept the basic and fundamental principles embodied in the Lahore Resolution as a pre-condition before the Congress and the League might arrive at a settlement to form a front to secure the freedom and independence for the peoples of India on the basis of Pakistan and Hindustan. In his letter dated 17 September Jinnah emphatically stated : we maintain and hold that Hindus and Muslims are two major nations by any definition or test of a nation. We are a nation of hundred million, and what is more, we are a nation with our own distinctive culture and civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature, sense of value and proportion, legal laws and moral codes, customs and calendar, history and tradition, aptitudes and ambitions; in short we have our own distinctive outlook on life and of life. By all canon of international law we are a nation. He also asserted that, I am convinced that true welfare not only of the Muslims but the rest of India lies in the division of India as proposed by the Lahore Resolution. Jinnah regretted that Gandhi was considering that working of ^he Resolution in practice would be nothing but ruin for the whole of India.

Gandhi categorically rejected Jinnahs plea because Hindu-Muslim unity was his life mission and he found no parallel in history for a body of converts and their descendants claiming to be a nation apart from the parent stock, and also because he thought that India was one nation before the advent of Islam, it must remain one inspite of change of faith of her very large number-of children. Gandhi remained stead- fast to the position that Hindus and Muslims were brothers and should remain so. He was prepared to accept partition if it became necessary not on the basis of two-nation theory but as between two brothers broadly within the framework of the C. R. Formula which according to him con- ceded the substance of the Lahore Resolution for otherwise there would be no limit to claims for cutting up India into numerous divisions. 52

Jinnah protested against Gandhis claim that Independence does mean as envisaged in the A.I.C.C. Resolution of 1942. In his letter of 21 September he wrote to Gandhi : It is, therefore, clear, that you are not prepared to revise your policy and you adhere firmly to your policy and programme . . . which culminated in your demand ... in terms of the August 8, 1942 Resolution .... You know that the August 1942 Resolu- tion is inimical to the ideas-and demands of Muslim India. Jinnah dis- agreed to independence and establishment of any provisional Govern- ment as envisaged in the August Resolution or in the C. R. Formula before creation of a sovereign homeland for the Muslims i.e. Pakistan.

Towards the end of the talks Gandhi became much disturbed at the intransigence of Jinnah. He wrote to him on 23 September, last even-

5 Gandhi to Jinnah, 15 September 1944, The Hindu, 29 September 1944.

Other Twenty-first Century Titles of Interest

Socio-Economic Transformation of Millions Through Rural Development Dr. Ram Das

Indias Population Policy : Critical Issues for Future

(Ed.) Professor S. K. Lai (in Press)

Regional Economic Planning in India {Ed ) Professor A. C. Angrish (in Press)

SOCIALIST TRENDS IN

INDIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT

(Being a Study of the Congress Socialist Party)

by

GIRJA SHANKAR

M.A., Ph.D.

Reader

Department of History Institute of Advanced Studies Meerut University, Meerut

Foreword by

BIPAN CHANDRA

Professor of Modem Indian History Centre for Historical Studies School of Social Sciences Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Twenty-First Century Publishers, Meerut

fodhpjr University UbrMf

Ac c

*'.' no .\(.!Z~+UL O' ) '

First Edition, 1987

Girja Shankar, M.A., Ph.D.

TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY PUBLISHERS Ranjan Building, P. L. Sharma Road Begum Bridge, Meerut-250 001

All rights reserved including the right to translate. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the Publishers.

Published by Shankar Goyal for Twenty-First Century Publishers, Ranjan Building, P. L. Sharma Road, Begum Bridge, Meerut-250 001 and printed at Urvashi Press, 49/3 Vaidwara, Meerut and Dayal Printers, 224, Biru Kuan, Meerut-250 002. Printed in India.

To

THE MEMORY of

ACHARYA NARENDRA DEV who

INSPIRED ME ' to study

MEN AND MOVEMENTS committed to bring about JUSTICE AND EQUITY in

SOCIETY

FOREWORD

Emerging as a political force in early 1930s, the Congress Socialist Party came to play a significant role in the Indian national movement. In particular, it contributed to the movements socio-economic radicalism and political militancy. Alongwith other left-wing individuals, groups and parties, it succeeded in making socialism the accepted creed of the youth of India during the 1930s and 1940s. Within the National Congress the left was able to command influence over one-third votes on important issues. Yet, there is no well-researched history of the CSP. Dr Girja Shankars study, based on extensive use of published and unpublished sources fills in this lacuna.

Dr Girja Shankar has traced at length the formation and growth of the CSP. In the early 1930s, the move towards the formation of a socialist party was made in jails during 1930-31 and 1932-34 by those who were dissatisfied with Gandhian strategy, tactics and leadership. Many of the founders of the CSP were active in the youth movements of the 1920s. Almost all of them had joined the Civil Disobedience Movement during 1930-31 and 1932-33. They were disillusioned by the Gandhi-Irwin Pact in 1931 many of them opposed the Pact at the Karachi session of the Congress and felt frustrated by the successful suppression by the Government of the second phase of the movement. In jails they got the time to study and discuss Marxian and other socia- list ideas. They looked for an alternative to Gandhism and liberal nationalism. Revolutionary terrorism had already declined. Attracted by Marxism, Soviet Union and Communism, they did not find themselves in agreement with the current political line of the Communist Party of India. Many individuals and groups were groping towards an alterna- tive. Ultimately they came together and formed the Congress Socialist Party at Bombay on 22 October 1934.

From the beginning, all Congress Socialists were agreed upon four basic propositions and perhaps on nothing else that the primary struggle in India was the national struggle for freedom; that they must work inside the National Congress because it was the primary body leading the national struggle and, as Acharya Narendra Dev put it in 1934, it would be a suicidal policy for us to cut ourselves off from the national movement that the Congress undoubtedly represents; that they must give the Congress and the national movement a socialist direction; and that to achieve this objective they must organize the workers and peasants in their class organizations and make them the social base of the anti-imperialist struggle.

Socialist Trends in Indian National Movement

i Hi

There were differences among the founders of the CSP on the charac- ter of the Congress. Some saw it as a bourgeois organization; others as a broader mass organization whose leadership was predominantly bour- geois; a few described the leadership as petty bourgeois. But all of them agreed that the Congress as constituted had failed to evolve a radical economic programme and was incapable of leading the masses to higher forms and stages of anti-imperialist struggle. The CSP, therefore, from the beginning assigned itself the tasks of both transforming the Congress and strengthening it. The task of transformation of the Con- gress was understood in two senses. One was the ideological sense. Congressmen were to be gradually persuaded to adopt a socialist vision of independent India and a more radical pro-labour and pro-peasant stand on current social and economic issues. Moreover, this ideological and programmatic transformation was to be seen as a process and not as an event. As Jayaprakash Narayan repeatedly told his followers in 1934 : We are placing before the Congress a programme and we want the Congress to accept it. If the Congress does not accept it, we do not say we are going out of the Congress, ff today we fail, tomorrow we will try and if tomorrow we fail, we will try again.

The transformation of the Congress was also seen in terms of changes in its leadership at the top. Initially, the task was seen in terms of the displacement of the existing leadership which was incapable of developing within the framework of its conception and interests the struggle of the masses to a higher level. The CSP was to develop as the nucleus of the alternative socialist leadership. As the Meerut Thesis of the CSP put it, the task was to wean the anti-imperialist elements in the Congress away from its present bourgeois leadership and to bring them under the leadership of revolutionary socialism. But, as Dr Girja Shankar shows, this perspective was soon found to be unrealistic and was abandoned in favour of a composite leadership in which Socialists would be taken into the leadership at all levels. The notion of alternate left leadership twice came up for realization in Tripuri in 1939 and at Ramgarh in 1940. But having supported Subhas Bose in the election to the Congress presi- dency, when it came to splitting the Congress leadership on a left-right basis and giving the Congress a left-wing leadership, the CSP shied away. Its leadership realized that such an effort would not only weaken the national movement but isolate the left from the mainstream, that the Indian people could be mobilised into a movement only under Gandhis leadership, and that, in fact, there was at the time no alternative to Gandhis leadership a fact which the right-wing in India did fully realize. The CSP leadership, as also the leadership of other left parties and groups, were not able to fully theorize this understanding and so they went back again and again to the notion of alternative leadership . The CSP was better grounded in the reality of Indian situation. There- fore, whenever it came to the crunch, it gave up its theoretical position

Foreword

ix

and adopted a realistic approach close to that of Jawaharlal Nehrus. This earned it condemnation of the other left-wing groups and parties for example, in 1939 for their betrayal of Subhas Bose. At such moments, the Socialists defended themselves and revealed flashes of an empiricist understanding of Indian reality. Jayaprakash Narayan, for example, said in 1939 after Tripuri : We Socialists do not want to create factions in the Congress and to establish rival leadership. We are only concerned with the policy an d programme of the Congress. We only want to influ- ence the Congress decisions. Whatever our differences with the old leaders, we do not want to quarrel with them. We all want to march shoulder to shoulder to our common fight against imperialism.

The right-wing of the Congress carried on a multi-sided struggle against the left, including the CSP. Dr Girja Shankar deals at length with the mutual struggle between the CSP and the right-wing Congress lead- ers. It becomes apparent that the right-wing had a big advantage over the CSP leadership it showed both ideological and tactical flexibility. It readily accommodated the left at organizational as well as program- matic levels, opposing it only at the ideological plane. It was willing to accept Socialists and other left-wing leaders at all leadership levels from the Working Committee downwards. It gradually accepted large parts of the left stand on concrete issue from land reforms to foreign policy. The left could meet its challenge only by following an equally complex and subtle approach towards the right-wing. But it tried to oppose the right with simplistic formulae and radical rhetoric. It was invariably worsted in any serious confrontation. For example, its most serious charge against the Congress right-wing was that it wanted to compromise with imperialism, that it was frightened of mass struggle, that its anti-imperialism was not whole-hearted because of bourgeois influence over it. The right-wing had little difficulty in disposing of such charges. The maturity of the right-wing and the immaturity of the CSP leadership is very lucidly brought out by Dr Girja Shankar in the last phase after 1945 when the CSP was gradu- ally manoeuvred into leaving the Congress. At this time, the CSP had the advantage of having Gandhis full support. But the CSP leaders once again developed a simple formula: the Congress was developing from a move- ment into a party; a party can have only one class content or character either bourgeois or socialist and since the Congress was not socialist it had become a full-blooded bourgeois party; and hence the Socialists must leave it. They were of course right in seeing the transformation of the Congress into a party as also its increasing domination by bourgeois elements. But what the Socialists failed to see was that this reverse transformation of the Congress was also bound to be a process and not an event. Gandhi backed the Socialists at this stage, but he constantly advised and urged them to remain and function within the Congress and to increase their influence within it by hard grass-root level work and

X

Socialist Trends in Indian National Movement

not look at the problem from the organizational angle. The CSP leader- ship failed to heed the advice and fought on the question whether the Congress would permit them to function within it as a separate party with its separate organization and discipline. They failed to see that the right-wing was on solid ground on this question the Socialists own experience in the 1930s to let a party function within a party should have made them see the sense in the right-wing stand. It is debatable whether the socialist movement in India would have gained if the Socia- lists had stayed in the Congress after independence. But the grounds for staying or leaving should have been debated on a different terrain.

Socialists and Gandhi developed in time a close and complex relationship. Starting with the project of declaring war on Gandhian ideas and exposure of the theory of non-violent struggle for social and political transformation and of Gandhis role as the spokesperson of the bourgeoisie, most of the Socialists ended up as admirers of Gandhian methods and of Gandhis basic and increasing radical commitment. Gandhi too over the years found himself more and more in agreement with the Socialists on socio-economic issues. In fact, it was only on the issue of non-violence and their unreal and bombastic style that he found disagreement with Socialists. Dr Girja Shankar has made a thorough study of this fascinating relationship between Gandhi and Socialists throughout this work.

The CSP was started with a basic commitment to unite all left-wing groups and parties into a single united party or at least a united front of all left-wing elements. In pursuit of this objective the CSP opened its doors to the Communists and Royists and tried to develop close working relationship with Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Bose. In no other field or endeavour did the CSP suffer greater frustration. Royists could not remain within it; the Communists and Socialists soon became sworn enemies; Nehru could not be incorporated into the CSP, nor would Nehru even coordinate his policies with those of the CSP; Bose and Socialists could no longer work together after 1939-40.

The relationship of the CSP with other left groups and individuals, and especially with the Communists, is a virtually unresearched subject, though it has, of course, aroused a great deal of heat and passion and polemics among the participants, with each side blaming the other. Dr Girja Shankar has made a beginning in this direction and provided material for a scientific discussion of the subject. The basic weakness, it seems to me, was the dual conception of the CSP as a party within the Congress and as a broad-front within which other organized parties and groups could function. The Congress could function as such a group because of its character as a popular mass movement which was organi- zationally loosely structured. It was not possible for the CSP to so function unless its leadership abandoned the role of a party or group with its own structure, leadership and discipline, that is, unless it agreed

Foreword

xi

to be just an ideological current which would provide cover to the under- ground activities of other left parties and groups and act as recruiting ground to them. The CSP leadership saw the Party in its first role, as the nucleus of a cadre-based socialist party; Royists, Communists and others saw it as performing the second role. It was, therefore, inevitable that they felt that it was legitimate to do fraction work inside it, and, to quote M. N. Roy, to absorb its real proletarian elements in his own party. The CSP leadership on the other hand declared such fraction work to be a betrayal of its trust in the others. The flaw was in the very conception that a Marxist-Leninist party could act as a box within another larger box which was another Marxist-Leninist Party ! The inevitable result of such an absurd experiment was the disastrous long- term schism between a Socialist Party which suffered from an anti- communist phobia and a Communist Party which saw every Socialist leader as a potential American agent.

Dr Girja Shankar has traced and analysed the evolution of the CPSs ideology at great length and with deep insights. He has shown how from the beginning the Partys leadership was ideologically divided into three ideological currents : the Marxian, the Fabian and the current influenced by Gandhi. This would not have been a major weakness for a broad socialist party which was a movement. But the CSP was already a party within a movement. Moreover, the Marxism of the 1930s was incapable of accepting as legitimate such diversity of political currents on the left. The result was a confusion which plagued the Party till the very end. The differences were papered over for a long time because of the personal bonds among most of the founding leaders of the Party, the acceptance of Acharya Narendra Dev and Jayaprakash Narayan as its senior leaders, and the existence of a strong under-current of nationalist feeling in the Party,

Despite the ideological diversity among the leaders, the Party as a whole accepted Marxism as its basic ideological lodestar. Though with all sorts of added qualifications, Marxism was to remain the guiding creed of the CSP till 1948. Gradually, however, large doses of Gandhian and liberal democratic thought were to become basic elements of the CSP leader- ships thinking. This was, however, not to prevent the CSP from through- out having a strong dogmatic strain, or, in the words of Dr Girja Shankar, doctrinal approach to politics. For one, the Socialists were at one with other leftists in failing to make a deep study of Indian reality. They continued to see the dominant Congress leadership as bourgeois, its policy of negotiations as working towards a compromise with imperial- ism, any resort to constitutional work as a step towards the abandon- ment of the struggle for independence. They took recourse to a simp- listic model of analysing Indian social classes and their political behaviour. Their approach towards communalism was principled but economistic. They chose to fight the right-wing not on questions of ideology but on

xii Socialist Trends in Indian National Movement

methods of struggle and such issues as office acceptance, collective affilia- tion of the trade unions and Kisan Sabhas to the Congress, and the record of the Congress Ministries. They saw all efforts to guide the national move- ment in a disciplined manner as imposing restraints on the movement. They constantly counterposed armed struggle to non-violence as a superior form and method of struggle even while accepting non-violence in practice. They were convinced that the masses were ever'ready for struggle, if only the leaders were willing to give a call. Above all they failed to grasp the Gandhian strategy of struggle. Consequently, they invariably fought the dominant Congress leadership on wrong issues and, when it came to the Crunch, were forced to trail behind that leadership lest they were isolated from the mass of Indian people.

This became clear thrice : in 1936-37 on the issue of elections and office acceptance under the 1935 Act, which was seen in terms of com- promise with imperialism ; in 1939-42 on the issue of initiation of a mass movement, when Gandhis reluctance was seen as the missing of a golden opportunity ; and in 1945-47 on the question of negotiations for the transfer of power, which were seen as British imperialisms last ditch effort to prolong their domination. Moreover, they saw the first post-1947 Congress Government as already fully structured bourgeois Government and the Congress as an integrated bourgeois party. The only comfort that a CSP leader can now derive from these instances of a totally wrong reading of the situations is that the other party of the left in India, the Communist Party, was one with them in all these instances.

The Socialists paid a heavy price for their dogmatic understanding of reality. They had emerged as shiny heroes from the Quit India Move- ment. They had the blessings of Gandhi. They had adopted a more or less corrcet approach towards the Partition issue. And, yet, in a few years time, the Party had been split ; many of its leaders had retired from politics, and the Party had become an institution of the past today only the name of the Socialist Party exists.

It is one of the major enigmas of modern India as to why did a party with such great promise come to nought. The Party had everything going for it. It had prestigious leaders. It was able to establish a strong and integral relationship with contemporary nationalism and national move- ment. Despite zigzags it did arrive, at least pragmatically, at a correct grasp of most issues. It functioned in an open manner and freely debated issues. A perusal of Dr Girja Shankars work would enable a student of history to find some of the answers. Perhaps the one single answer lies in the immaturity and [ineptness of the leadership. It seems that the calibre of leadership is a crucial determinant of the fate of a movement or a party. It seems from Dr Girja Shankars work that it was perhaps a great tragedy for the CSP that one mature leader that it had namely, Acharya Narendra Dev could not play an active guiding role in the party because of his personality, temperament and health.

Foreword

xt'ii

Dr Girja Shankars pioneering work has many merits. But none is weightier than its objectivity. It is usual for a writer to unduly favour or castigate the person or party whose biographer he or she is. Dr Girja Shankar has avoided this pitfall and presented us with a work w'hicb can be used by others to build alternative hypotheses if they so desire. 1 have great pleasure in recommending to the reader this work which will be indispensable to any student of the history of the left and of the national movement in the 1930s and 1940s.

Bipan Chandra

PUBLISHERS PREFACE

The greater part of the history of the Indian national movement is the history of the Indian National Congress. It is, therefore, only proper that at the completion of the hundred years of this great "organisation, we are bringing out the present volume namely the Socialist Trends in Indian National Movement in which the story of the role played by the Congress Socialist Party in the political life of the country has been detailed and analysed. A proper understanding of this aspect of our history is necessary to understand the factors and forces which ultimately led us to adopt Democratic Socialism as our national goal. The author \ of this monograph. Dr. Girja Shankar, Reader in the Department of History at the Institute of Advanced Studies, Meerut University, Meerut, has been working on this subject for several years. During his student days he was associated with Acharya Narendra Dev, one of the pillars of the Congress Socialist Party. He has also been in contact with other prominent leftist leaders and interviewed many of them during his investi- gations. It has naturally imparted a degree of authenticity to whatever he has said. We are, therefore, confident that the present work will be welcomed by the historians as an authentic full-length account of the Congress Socialist Party.

Some Opinions

Your book will make an important contribution to the study of India's National Movement as well as the development of the Congress Socialist Party.

Professor Bipan Chandra, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

It is an excellent work . . . will be useful to students and researchers alike.

Professor G. C. Pande, National Fellow, Indian Council of Historical Research and formerly Vice-Chancellor of the Universities of Rajasthan (Jaipur) and Allahabad.

Dr Girja Shankars work on the Socialist Trends in Indian National Movement is a scholarly study of the contribution of the Socialists to our freedom struggle. I have found the book very informative. The author has utilised almost all the material available published as well as unpublished and has been able by a critical analysis of it to present a a very balanced study of the movement. I am sure that the book will

xvi Social ist Trends in Indian National Movement

prove of great help to students of the subject and at the same time will be of benefit to the general readers as well.

Professor A. D. Pant, Director, G. B. Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad and formerly Professor of Political Science, Allahabad Uni- versity, Allahabad.

. . . a fine piece of research work. It provides an insight into the national movement from 1934 to 1947 against the background of the role of the socialists. The author has shown remarkable aptitude for going through and digesting the original documents.

Professor S. R. Goyal, Head of the Department of History, University of Jodhpur, Jodhpur.

The work presents a sympathetic understanding of the Congress Socialist Party, both as an organization within a larger entity and as a significant aspect of the movement. It brings out vividly how a shall group operated as a think-tank and struggled hard to tilt the policies of the Congress towards socialism, and succeeded well beyond its size to make an impact on the majority until it decided to cede from it. The work will attract students of social sciences who would like to use the material consolidated here in diverse ways.

Professor B. R. Chauhan, Visiting Professor, Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

(It) is well documented with the help of original materials .... For meaningful understanding of the history of socialism in India it is a very useful treatise.

Professor I. N. Tewary, Head of the Department of Political Science, Meerut University, Meerut.

The author has interpreted the historical material in a logical, scientific and objective manner. The book is and will continue to be useful for the political elites . . . (and) will provide, meaningful insights for students of Sociology for further research.

Dr S. S. Sharma, Head, Department of Sociology, Meerut University, Meerut.

(The author) has been an old associate of Acharya Narendra Dev .... Ideas and work of Acharya Narendra Dev which are not generally known to many have been highlighted in this work.

Mr Nirmal Khatri, Member, Lok Sabha.

. . . nobody working on socialism and nationalism in India will be able to ignore this work.

Ram Gopal, Author and Journalist, Lucknow.

AUTHORS PREFACE

The last phase of the Indian national movement for freedom was greatly influenced by currents of left-oriented ideas and actions. During this period, many leftist groups and parties sprang up in the arena of freedom struggle beginning from the early Marxist groups originating in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia to the splinter groups which came into existence towards the beginning of the Second World War. Endea- vouring to shape the national movement according to their ideologies, and putting up programmes and plans for the rebuilding of the county after the attainment of independence, these parties strengthened revolu- tionary spirit and imparted socialistic outlook to the movement. Although the Indian National Congress was the most powerful embodiment of Indian nationalism, the contribution of these groups and parties to the achievement of independence can hardly be ignored.

Hence, besides the history of the Indian National Congress the study of the role of these leftist groups and parties is necessary to understand the national movement in its total historical perspective. It is from this point of view that the present study of the role of the Congress Socialist Party, which constituted an important facet of the final phase of the national movement, has been attempted. Although the party functioned under the name of the Congress Socialist Party from 1934 to 1947 only, the study covers the period from 1947 to 1948 also, when the Party had dropped the prefix Congress from its name ; for even then it continued to remain essentially the old Congress Socialist Party as it did not proclaim its existence separate from the Congress till March 1948.

Of the parties proclaiming commitment to socialist goal, having all India organization and comparatively broader areas of influence in the pre-independence period, the history of the Congress Socialisty party is quite interesting and important. From its formation in 1934 as a party within the Congress till its emergence as a separate political party known as the Socialist Party after the Nasik Conference in 1948, the Congress Socialist Partys short life of about fourteen years was quite eventful. But so far no systematic, detailed and full-length account of the Party has been published. There are, no doubt, some works of eminent Socialists like Narendra Dev, Jayaprakash Narayan, Sampurnanand, Rammanohar Lohia, Asoka Mehta, M. R. Masani, Madhu Limaye and others, but an objective historical research work has to go beyond what has come from pens of partymen and politicians whose accounts are usually concerned with a particular problem or facet of the party and are often influenced by personal feelings and subjective interpretations. Some books dealing

xviii

Socialist Trends in Indian National Movement

with development of political parties in India have been published. One of the them, The Left Wing in India, by L. P. Sinha, (1965) deals exclusively with the leftist parties. The latest book on the subject. Congress and the Freedom Struggle : Gandhi and the Congress Socialist Party, by K. C. Mahendru (1986), is a good work in itself but is mainly limited as an in depth study of interaction between Gandhi and the Congress Socialists. All these books give inadequate coverage to the Congsess Socialist Party. P. L. Lakhanpals History of the Congress Socialist Party, published in 1946, besides being the work of a partyman was written in the thick of events. It is also incomplete and cursory. The Role of the Congress Socialist Party in the Indian National Congress, 1931-42, a dissertation submitted to the University of Chicago in 1955-56 by Thomas A. Rusch, was written when papers of various archives and personal papers of many political personalities were not open to scholars. The work covers the history of the Congress Socialist Party upto 1942 and unfor- tuntately remains unpublished ; it is available in the form of microfilm only. The author acknowledges the help and guidance from the writings stated above, and also of the sources made available in recent years.

The present study may, therefore, be taken as an attempt to give a datailed, systematic and full-length account of the history of the Congress Socialist Party constituting an important segment of the last phase of the history of Indias freedom struggle and an important aspect of the history of the Indian National Congress. The book is not history of a party ; it gives description and analysis of the interaction of various social, political and economic forces during this critical phase of Indian national move- ment culminating in the emergence of independent secular republic of India and the Islamic republic of Pakistan.

The book is divided into ten chapters. The first chapter examines the circumstances which necessitated the formation of a left opposition party within the Indian National Congress. The second chapter deals with the various stages of organization of the Party, its constitution, aims, objectives and programmes with a note on its first plunge into the politics of the country. The third chapter offers a study of the leadership and ideology of the Party and its political behaviour in the national movement. The fourth and fifth chapters examine critically the role of tlie Congress Socialist party in Indian politics from 1934 to the beginning of the Second World War and the conflicts of ideologies between the Congress Socialist Party and the Congress leadership. These two chapters also set forth attempts of the Socialists to capture the machinery of the Congress and impose their ideology on it and their ultimate failure in this endeavour. The sixth chapter assesses the Partys behaviour as a catalyst within the Congress aiding and speeding up anti-British tendencies during the War culminating in the adoption of the Quit-India Resolution of 1942. The seventh chapter examines the Partys role in the freedom struggle as part of the Indian National Congress during the Quit' India Movement. The eighth chapter unfolds the nature and extent of conflict in the divergent approaches of the Congress Socialist Party and the Indian National

Author's Preface

xix

Congress in the changed social, economic and political situation in the post-War period till the independence of the country. The ninth chapter analyses the circumstances leading to the parting of ways and formation of a saparate party known as the Socialist Party in March 1948 when the Congress leadership forbade all inner groupings within that organization. The study concludes with a chapter giving assessment of failures and achievements of the Congress Socialist Party.

The material for the study has been gleaned from reports, manifestos, pamphlets, circulars, booklets, Party organs, journals and other available sources scattered in the Party offices and various study centres in the country. Unfortunately much of the authentic material in the form of the official records of the Party has been lost owing to frequent police raids and also due to attempts at the hands of the Party workers to conceal their policies and programmes. Much material was lost in transit during change of headquarters from one place to another because of the frequent splits and transfers of the Party offices after independance. Luckily a valuable source of information about the functioning of the Party is available in the Nehru Memorial Library, New Delhi, in the form of the Jayaprakash Narayan papers. These are extremely useful as Jayaprakash Narayan had been the leading light of the Party throughout its existence and was Party General Secretary for its life with only occasional gaps. The information from these papers has been supplemented by the study of AICC papers and personal papers of other important personalities. The 'Home (Political) Department files pertaining to the period released by the National Archives of India, New Delhi, for the use of scholars also provide good information on the subject. Useful information has also been gathered through personal interviews from the leaders who had been associated with the Party or the socialist movement in India.

The work has been published during the time of great stress and conditions of hardship and strain due to unique situation which the author has been facing for raising voice against blatant social injustice and complicity on the part of many. But such good fortune falls to the lot of only few. Ironically this had been the lot of the Socialists also who are subject of study of this book. The author hopes that some future historian or other social scientist would take up the present theme for investigation and pass judgment for. the benefit of future generations which is the pur- pose of history. How much has this situation taken toll of resources, time and health of the author and how far has it affected quality of the work, are problems, left best in the meantime, to the author himself.

In preparing this work the author has profited from the counsel of many savants, the value of which no words of appreciation can adequately measure. He wishes to acknowledge his gratitude especially to Dr Bipan Chandra, Professor of Modern Indian History in Jawaharlal Nehru Uni- versity, New Delhi, who has not only read and made critical comments on the manuscript but has written a Foreword to the book. Professor G. C. Pande, National Fellow, Indian Council of Historical Research,

XX

Socialist Trends in Indian National Movement

Professor A. D. Pant, Director, G. B. Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad, Professor S. R. Goyal, Head, Department of History, University of Jodhpur, Professor I.N. Tewary, Department of Political Science, Meerut University, Professor H. M. Jain, Department of Political Science, Univer- sity of Allahabad and Dr S. S. Sharma, Head, Department of Sociology, Meerut University also read the manuscript and made invaluable sugges- tions. Professor S. R. Goyal specially put the author under his gratitude by acceding to his request to read the entire manuscript carefully and suggesting stylistic improvements in the same. Mr Ram Gopal, author and journalist, Lucknow, Dr Raj Narain, retired Professor of Philosophy, Lucknow University and Professor B. R. Chauhan, Visiting Professor, Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, also read certain chapters and saved the author from numerous pitfalls.

The authors revered teachers, Professor Satish Chandra, now in the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Professor H. L. Singh, now retired Professor of Banaras Hindu University, Dr I. P. Singh, now Indias Ambassador in Burma, Dr G. D. Bhatnagar, Retired Professor, Varanasi, and late Dr T. P. Chand of Gorakhpur University always gave encourage- ment to him during difficult times. The author cannot restrain himself from expressing his gratitude for help given by his old classmate Dr J. P. Singh of the Indian Administrative Service. He sincerely appreciates Dr Singhs continuous insistence on the completion and publication of the work.

The author is grateful to those leaders of the socialist and national movements in India whom he interviewed and who spared their valuable time and gave informative data. The author benefited immeasurably from suggestions of Mr Surendra Mohan, former member of Lok Sabha and leader of the Janata Party. His letters clarified many a doubtful points.

Mr Nirmal Khatri, member of Lok Sabha from Faizabad, which is the home district town of the author, has been evincing keen intesest in completion and publication of the work. The author is grateful to him for his sincere good wishes. Incidentally Mr Khatri is a grand-son of Acharya Narendra Dev to whose memory the book is dedicated.

The author is also indebted to the staff of various centres of study and libraries where he collected material, for without their help the work would have never been completed. The author is especially grateful in this respect to Mr M. S. Rana, Deputy Librarian and Mr Suleman Khan Professional Assistant, Research Section, Meerut University Library, for extending every possible facility.

The author would be remiss in his duty if he failed to gratefully acknowledge the help of Mrs Alka-Goyal, M. Sc., and Miss Vijayashri Goyal, M.A., in preparing the Name-Index.

Lastly, he sincerely thanks Mr Shankar Goyal, M. A., for publishing the book on behalf of the Twenty-First Century Publishers, Meerut. -

G. S.

CONTENTS

Foreword

vii

Publishers' Preface

XV

Author's Preface

xvii

Abbreviations

xxiii

I.

The Beginnings

1

II.

Formation of the Party

42

III.

Leadership and Ideology

79

IV.

Role Inside the Congress Organization, 1934-40

103

V.

Role Outside the Congress Organization, 1934-40

131

VI.

War-Time Strategy

158

VII.

Quit India Movement

186

VIII.

Post-War Problems

212

IX.

Parting of Ways

255

X.

The Summing Up

297

Appendices

308

Glossary of Indian Terms

341

Select Bibliography

342

Name-Index

354

ABBREVIATIONS

AICC

... All-India Congress Committee

AICSP

... All-India Congres Socialist Party

AIFB

... All-India Forward Block

AISA

... All-India Spinners Association

AITUC

... All-India Trade Union Congress

AIVIA

... All-India Village Industries Association

BLP

... Bengal Labour Party

C.A.

... Constituent Assembly

C.I.

... Communist International

CP

... Communist Party

CPI

... Communist Party of India

CPGB

... Communist Party of Great Britain

CSP

... Congress Socialist Party

CWC

... Congress Working Committee

DIB

... Director Intelligence Bureau

DIR

... Defence of India Rules

INA

... Indian National Army

J. P.

... Jayaprakash Narayan

LCC

... Left Consolidation Committee

MP

... Member of Parliament

PSP

... Panjab Socialist Party

U.P.

... United Provinces

W.C.

... Working Committee

WPP

... Workers and Peasants Party

Chapter I

THE BEGINNINGS

Socialist movement became one of the most compelling forces in Europe with the birth of Scientific Socialism of Karl Marx in the nineteenth century. But the Indian political movements of that period were almost unaffected by that ideology. The socialist movement in India sprang up in the later phase of the national movement and grew up as its integral part. The formation of the Congress Socialist Party 1 within the Indian National Congress in 1934 was an event of double significance. On the one hand, it represented a definite stage in the radical orientation of Indian nationalism and, on the other, it established a landmark in the growth of socialist movement which had been gathering strength for a decade. Various factors, both external and internal, had been operating to render this event inevitable.

Though socialist ideas influenced a few of Indian intellectuals and refor- mers of the nineteenth century, but on the whole this ideology did not receive much attention of the general public. Keshab Chandra Sen, one of the greatest leaders of the nineteenth century Indian Renaissance was in a sense a socialist with a clear vision. 2 He had started pleading for the uplift of the lower classes of Indian society fifteen years before the publi- cation of the English translation of Das Kapital of Marx in 1886 and, therefore, his ideas were not merely an echo of the great socialist thinker. 3 Among others who spoke or wrote for socialism in India in the nineteenth or early twentieth century, the names of Swami Vivekanand and Aurobindo Ghose stand out prominently. Aurobindo Ghose wrote a series of articles which were published in the Tndu Prakash of Bombay during 1893- 94 under the title of New Lamps For Old. 4 In these articles, Ghose criticised the middle class character of the Indian National Congress which he found deficient in sincerity and called for elevation and enlighten- ment of the proletariat. 5 In a letter dated November 1896 to Miss Mary Hale, Vivekanand wrote, I am socialist not because I think it is a perfect system, but half a loaf is better than no bread. The other systems have been tried and found wanting. Let this one be tried if for nothing else, for

'Hereinafter referred to as the CSP.

'Indian History Congress: Proceedings 'of the Ranchi Session, 1964, Part II, p. 221.

3 Ibid .

The articles intended to offer new lights to replace the old and faint reformist lights of the Congress.

'These articles are reproduced in Sri Aurobindo Bands Mataram , Early Political Writings, I, Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library, Pondichery, 1972, pp. 5-56.

2 Socialist Trends in Indian National Movement

the novelty of the thing. A redistribution of pain and pleasure is better than always the same person having pains and pleasures. 6 Vivekanand took notice of the struggle between the privileged and the unprivileged classes in India and expressed hope that the working people would one day become the ruling class in the country. Writing on the prospects of social transformation in India Vivekanand wrote in March 1899, The first glow of the dawn of this new power has already begun to break slowly upon the Western World and the thoughtful are at their wits end to reflect upon the final issue of this fresh phenomenon. Socialism, Anarchism, Nihilism and other like sects are the vanguard of the social revolution that is to follow. 7 The concept of socialism of Aurobindo Ghose and Vivekanand cannot be said to be scientific in the modern sense of the term. Rather than calling for a radical transformation of society through the struggle of the exploited classes against the privileged ones, it appealed to the rich to do justice to the exploited. These leaders of the social reform were mostly inspired by the progressive ingredients in Indias heritage itself. Nonetheless they were also influenced by the western ideas of utopian socialists like Robert Owen and Charles Marie Fourier, Christian socialists like F. D. Maurice and Charles Kingsley and anarchists like Peter Kropotkin. In India Marxian socialism took some time to become known and popular because the working class was in an embryonic state. How- ever, the situation changed in and after the first decade of the twentieth century. In 1907 Madame Cama and Sardar Singh Rana, a friend of Shyamji Krishna Varma attended the International Socialist Conference at Stuttgart as representatives of Indian socialists. Incidentally it was at this meeting that Madame Cama unfurled the first Indian national flag to the applause of an enthusiastic audience. 8 The period of major meta- morphosis was just before and during the First World War. In March 1912 Lala Hardayal wrote an article Karl Marx: a Modern Rishi, in. the Modern Review and in August of the same year Ram Krishna Pillai published a short biographical sketch of Karl Marx along with an exposi- tion of main tenets of his socialism in Malayalam. Probably this was the first book on Marx in an Indian language. In October 1916, one year' before the Bolshevik Revolution, a Gujarati writer Ambalal Patel force- fully pleaded that the workers of the world can shed the chains of slavery by their own power and prominently displayed the Marxian clarion call Workers of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains in an article on Karl Marx in the Gujarati Magazine Navajivan Aur Satya These writings acquainted the people in India with the ideology of Marxian socialism. Subsequently national and international events the most important being the Revolution of 1917 in Russia contributed vitally to

Swamt Vivekanand, Complete Works, VI, pp. 3S1-382.

'Ibid., IV, pp. 468-469.

*S. Scn fed.). Dictionary of National Biography, I, p. 241 and V, p. 198.

5 1. C. Jostn and K. Damodaran, Marx Conies to India. It contains English rendering of these works.

The Beginnings 3

create an intellectual ferment hastening the birth of a proletarian or Marxian socialist movement in India. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, generally considered a staunch traditionalist, reacted favourably to the progressive ideas of socialism. Once he remarked that the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia represented the eternal principles of equality and justice in human society. 10 Lala Lajpat Rai hailed Bolshevism as a genuine idea that could not be destroyed. 11 However before the end of the World War an organized socialist movement remained only in an embryonic state. But the concept and ideology of socialism had taken some root in the soil. Far reaching changes in social, cultural, political and economic spheres, both in and outside India, engendered anti-capitalist and pro-working class views and prepared ground for the emergence of an organized socialist movement. The factors related to the rise and growth of the socialist ideology in India leading ultimately to the formation of the CSP in 1934, may be studied under two broad headings, viz.. External and Internal.

External Factors (0 The War

Throughout the duration of the First World War, India was ruled by the Defence of India Act. The common man had little sympathy for the British. But there was no anti-British agitation. As the war reached the crucial stages, Great Britain and Allied Powers made liberal promises to keep India loyal. Asquith, the Prime Minister of Britain, made a statement that henceforth Indian questions would have to be approached from a different angle of vision. He held out the promise of self-government as a reward for Indias loyalty. Soon after Lloyd George, who succeeded Asquith, declared that the principle of self-determination was to be applied in tropical countries also. The entry of the USA in the War in 1917 strengthened the Allied Powers claim that they were fighting for democracy and peace. President Wilsons proclamation that the War was to make the world fit for free men to live in encouraged such hopes. Inspiring writings and statements of such facile writers and orators as H. G. Wells, Gilbert Murray and Woodrow Wilson, made out the War as a crusade to end all wars, to make world safe for democracy and to redeem mankind from the curse of militarism. They described German success as success of a brute force and of militarism over democratic forces. Above all, the Fourteen-Point-Programme of President Wilson, which proposed the princi- ple of self-determination as one of the bases for post-War reconstruction, raised high hopes in India for a drastic change in British policy.

But the outcome of all these benignant declarations and liberal promises of US and British statesmen and writers was the disappointing reform of 1919. Its purpose as seen by Indian nationalists, was more to channellize

10 Ra# Gopal, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, p. 499.

V. Gurgenov, October Revolution and India, The Northern India Patrika, November 10, 1967.

4 Socialist Trends in Indian National Movement

the nationalist movement into peaceful parliamentarianism and to frustrate the national unity than to grant any substance of self-determination. The peace settlements made at the end of the War raised an entirely new issue of the khilafat which subsequently assumed great importance in Indian politics. The decision of the Allies to dismember the Ottoman Empire and disband the Caliphate hurt the religious susceptibilities of Indian Muslims who, till then, had remained, by and large, loyal to the British. Their resentment gave rise to a powerful and aggressive politico-religious movement against the British.

The economic impact of the War on India also served as a catalyst to social and economic change. Inflation and shortage of consumer goods produced wide-spread hardship and discontent, especially among the poor and the middle classes. On the one hand the dormant peasantry became restive and on the other the labour class resenting retrenchment and reduction in the wages started agitation giving rise to powerful trade union movements.

Lastly, the international political and economic crises created by the War exposed weaknesses of the Western state system. Consequently the educated Indians for the first time became aware of defects of the liberal- capitalist system prevalent in the West. These developments exposed the Indian nationalists to new radical ideas.

(//) The Bolshevik Revolution

The Russian Revolution of 1917 created a psychological atmosphere all over the world against imperialism. After the Bolshevik Revolution, Russia became an active centre for the propaganda of Marxian socialism. Repre- senting a defeat of despotism at the hands of the toiling masses, the Russian Revolution gave immense impetus to Indian political aspirations. Immedia- tely after the Revolution, the Russian leaders proclaimed an anti-imperialist policy. In his inaugural speech at the Third International at Moscow on 2 March 1919. Lenin gave a stirring exhortation to the toiling masses of the world, Let the bourgeoisie continue to rage, let it still murder thou- sands of workers. The victory will be ours, the victory of the Communist Revolution is certain. 12 The communist leaders in Russia regarded India as one of the most important countries in Asia in which revolution was most likely to take place. M. N. Roy, a former Indian revolutionary and now an adviser of Lenin on colonial matters, held out the belief that a revolution was maturing in India because of the increase in the proletariat owing to industrialization and widespread strikes in the post-war period. Roy held the view that a raging class struggle was going on in India along with the struggle for national freedom. 13 He, therefore, advised the Russian leaders to exploit the situation for spreading communism in the country. Accordingly, the Communist International attempted to create an Indian Communist Party and penetrate into Indian trade unions and the Indian

William Z. Foster, History of the Three Internationals, II, p. 9. *

,5 M. N. Roy, India in Transition, p. i 7.

The Beginnings 5

National Congress by recruiting Indian political exiles, intellectuals staying in foreign countries and Muslim emigres dissatisfied over the Khilafat issue. 14 This resulted in the formation of the Communist Party and also workers and peasants parties in several provinces in the country.

People were greatly impressed by the achievements of Communist Russia, especially by its industrial advancement in the First Five Year Plan (1928-33). Some of the Indian nationalist leaders, like Nehru and Masani, paid visits to Russia. On their return they highlighted the tremend- ous advancement of that country after the Revolution. Nehru, in particular, referred to the Russian triumph over enormous difficulties in his booklet Soviet Russia which he wrote in 1928. Impressed by the developments in Russia during a sojourn in Europe, the peasant leader N. G. Ranga orga- nised a number of peasant conferences on his return full of admiration for Russian experiments and ambition to rouse toiling masses to achieve similar social revolution. 15 The Marxian ideology became an irresistible fascination particularly for those who did not subscribe to the viewpoint of Gandhi.

(Hi) Labour Movement

After the War the labour movements in Europe grew stronger than before. In Britain the Labour Party, which showed sympathy for political aspirations of the Congress, emerged as the main party of opposition. The Labour Party was wedded to socialism and its MPs often expressed sym- pathy with Indians in their demand for self-government inside and outside the Parliament. Their party also endorsed the idea of Home Rule for India and in 1918 pledged to assist in every possible way to bring about much desired reform. In a letter dated 22 January 1918, Labour leader George Lansbury assured Lajpat Rai his support for the constitutional agitation then going on in India. 16 At its annual conference at Scarborough the Labour Party demanded that the principle of democratic self-determination should be applied to the reorganization of the Indian Government with adequate protection to minorities. 17 The Independent Labour Party also, at its Glasgow Conference, passed a resolution supporting self-determination for India along with Ireland and Egypt. 15 Labour MP Ben Spoor was secretary of the British Congress Committee and was looking after Congress interests in England. 19 Ramsay MacDonald, later the Labour Prime Minister of England, was to preside over the Congress of 1911, only his wifes death prevented this event. 20 So naturally, many nationalist leaders looked to the eventual coming of the Labour Party into power as a hope for the

**M. R. Masani, The Communist Party of India, p. 10.

15 N. G. Ranga, Revolutionary Peasants, p. 60.

'Home Department (Political-B), May 1918, No. 160 (Secret).

I? B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya, The History of the Indian National Congress, 1, p 175 "Ibid., p. 175.

"Ibid., p. 174.

"Ibid., p. 179.

6 Socialist Trends in Indian National Movement

fulfilment of the aspirations of Indian nationalism. As remarked by Sitaramayya, The earlier politicians believed in the Liberals as against the Conservatives. The nationalists of a later day believed in the Labourites to the exclusion of the Liberals and Conservatives alike. 2! The deputation sent to England by the National Home Rule League and the Congress after the Amritsar Massacre in 1919 to present Indias case before the English public looked to the Labour Party to have their views presented in the House of Commons. 22 In December 1919 when the Indian National Con- gress was holding its session at Amritsar in an atmosphere of gloom because of the Jallianwala Bagh Tragedy and was to discuss among other things, the Montagu-Chelmsford Scheme, the British Labour Parliamentary Party in a telegram to the Congress conveyed fraternal greetings and expressed sympathy and support for continuance of the Indian struggle for achieve- ment of complete self-government within the empire. These friendly gestures of the British Labourites created favourable impression on the Indian nationalists. The Amritsar Congress session in a resolution recorded its grateful appreciation of the valuable services rendered by the Labour Party and for its full sympathy with demands for full responsible govern- ment in India and its generous assurance to advance it through its power and influence. 23

The Western Labour Movement also influenced the Indian trade union movement and helped it grow in strength. Meeting at Moscow, just before the Paris Peace Conference, on 24 January 1919, representatives of eight Marxist parties called for the revolutionary seizure of power, the establish- ment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the disarming of the bourgeosie and the arming of the proletariat, the suppression of the private property in the means of production and their transfer to the proletarian state, the Marxist characterization of the role of the right wing and centrist groups and the establishment of a new world organization to be called the Communist International. 24 A British Labour Party delegation attended the Congress Session of 1920 at Nagpur. This delegation also participated in the first session of the All India Trade Union Congress session held the same year. The AITUC founded in such influences and environment was dedicated in its aims to the abolition of capitalism, socialisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange and participation in the struggle for independence, 25 The International Labour movement also influenced the Indian National Congress in its approach to the foreign problems. The Anti-Colonial Congress, at which the League Against Imperialism was formed at Brussels in 1927, was very much under the influence of the Communists. The Indian National Congress which was

"Ibid., p. 98.

"Ibid., p. 175.

l) A. M. Zaidi (ed .), The Encyclopaedia of Indian National Congress, VII (1916-20), p. 533.

Foster, op. cit., II, p. 6.

S. D. Punekar, Trade Unionism in India, p. 324.

The Beginnings 7

for a time affiliated with it passed resolutions on foreign affairs reflecting socialist and communist view point. 26 The Indian National Congress resolutions passed under this influence later also protested against sending of Indian troops to China, condemned the danger of war from capitalist and imperialist quarters and dissociated itself and Indian people from war in which Britain was involved. 27

In his report to the AICC on the League Against Imperialism which he had attended as a Congress delegate, Nehru stressed the point that the Indian movement would be alienated from the workers movements else- where if it served only the capitalist interests. In such a case, according to him, the Indian national movement could utmost achieve political liberty. But freedom of the country, he pointed out, would be of little value to the vast majority of the population. Hence he suggested that the national movement in India was essentially for the emancipation of the masses and therefore he saw no difficulty in its cooperating willingly with similar movements in other parts of the world. 28 This emphasis given by Nehru on the identity of interests between the labour and socialist movements in the world and the national movement in India was no doubt based on an analysis of world affairs from socialist point of view. The League Against Imperialism and the subsequent Committee meetings of the League in which he participated helped Nehru to understand some of the problems of the colonial and exploited countries and he turned inevitably with goodwill towards Communism. 29 It was obviously under the influences of the international labour movement that the Congress at its Calcutta session in 1928 asked the AICC to create a Foreign Department in order to broaden international contacts of the Congress with the movements in other oppressed countries. 30

() Western Literature and Education

Western literature and Western education were powerful agencies of sprea- ding socialist ideas among the Indian youth. This is clear from the fact that most of the leaders of the national and leftist movements in India had a background of Western education. Now larger number of Indian students went to Western countries for study during post-war period than before. Almost all the outstanding leftist leaders of the post-war period had a - background of Western education and were acquainted with Western politi- cal and economic ideas through study of Western literature. M. N. Roy,

5 For some details about the Brussels Anti-Colonial Congress Session see Indian Quarterly Register, 1927, 1, pp. 204-211 and Chapter XXIII of Nehru, An Autobiography, pp. 161-165.

J 'BimaIa Prasad, The Origins of Indian Foreign Policies , pp. 53-90.

Indian National Congress: Being the Resolutions passed by the Congress, the All India Congress Committee and the Working Committee During the Year 1927 (Allahabad, AICC, 1935), pp. 68-69.

Jawaharlal Nehru, An Autobiography, p. 163.

10 Indian National Congress: Report of the Forty-Third Indian National Congress, Calcutta, 1928 (Allahabad, AICC, 1929), p. 91.

8 Socialist Trends in Indian National Movement

who was a leading participant in the formation of the Communist; Party of India in Moscow and was the first person to make an attempt to give socialist orientation to the Indian national movement, had been in cons- tant touch with the West and its ideas though he did not receive formal education in any Western country. Jawaharlal Nehru was attracted to socialist ideology while he was a student in England. In his autobio- graphy, Nehru recalls how, while studying law in London, he became vaguely attracted to the Fabian and socialistic ideas, and interested in the political movements of the day. 31 Subhas Chandra Bose, another leftist leader of national stature, had foreign education and after entering politics spent much of his time in Western countries. Jayaprakash Narayan, the founder of the CSP, imbibed Marxism while he was a student in the U.S.A. 32 M. R. Masani, Purushottam Tricumdas and Rammanohar Lohia, Achyut Patwardhan and many other leaders of the left-socialist movement had a background of Western education. A number of import- ant trade union and peasant leaders also had foreign education. Western progressive authors like H. J. Laski, Sydney and Beatrice Webb, G. D. H. Cole and Bernard Shaw had great popularity among the educated Indians and their works were in great demand in the intellectual circles in India. Their books acquired wide readership in India and were an important instrument in popularizing and explaining socialist ideology among the Indian people.

Internal Factors

While the external factors were important in creating a favourable environment, the internal factors produced necessary conditions under which the Indian national movement became radicalized. Naturally the socialist forces and ideology made a headway and a strong left wing both inside and outside the Indian National Congress emerged leading to the formation of the CSP. Most important of the internal factors were: (i) character of the Indian National Congress, (ii) British policy, (iii) post- war economic crises, (iv) Gandhian leadership, (v) rise of the left wing, and (vi) civil disobedience movements, 1930-34.

(/') Character of the Indian National Congress

Upto the end of nineteenth century, the Indian National Congress lacked dynamism. With the dawn of the twentieth century, a rapid change was ushered in its character. Early Congress was a reformist organization led by moderate-liberal leaders of the intelligentsia. The English educated elite played a criticial role in political theorising and setting forth the aims and the objectives, the kind of national India was going to be. The leader- ship, however, had serious limitations. Though Hume had played a unique and significant role in the early stages of the Congress, being a foreigner he could not bring about effective political and social mobilization. The

Nehru, An Autobiography, p. 25.

Jayaprakash Narayan, Socialism to Sarvodaya, p. 5.

The Beginnings 9

Congress was a homogeneous organization since there was no difference in viewpoints of the members as they were all drawn from the same class and shared the same outlook. The interests, objectives and view point's of this class were such as to isolate it from the bulk of the population. The Congress then did not give any serious thought to the social and economic problems of the country. Its influence was restricted and area of its appeal was limited to educated middle classes. Western liberalism was the philosophy of the leaders called the Moderates whose demands did not go beyond greater representation in councils and government jobs. The first formal Constitution of the Congress adopted in 1899 wanted vaguely to promote by constitutional means, the interests and the well-being of the people of the Indian empire. 33 For its limited demands the Congress waged its struggle in a moderate tone by passing resolutions and making entreaties. As time passed, it became increasingly clear that this method was ineffective in obtaining even limited objectives. It was realized as early as 1901 that the methods of prayers and petitions were nothing but symptoms of political mendicancy. 34 This character of the Congress gave rise to certain immediate problems. If the Congress was to command sufficient strength for bringing pressure on the Government, it must expand its ranks, give itself a mass basis and devise new techniques to attract greater public support. Some political developments in the early twentieth century led the Congress change its course. The partition of Bengal, British partiality to the Muslim League and repression of national- ists drove Indian nationalism into extremism and terrorism. The defeat of Russia at the hands of Japan bolstered the morale of Indians. Till this event the West loomed over the eastern world as irresistible in its power, but now the first break in this vision of supremacy came with the triumph of Japan in the Russo-Japanese War. 35 The defeat of Italy by Abyssinia at Adowa in 1896 also exploded the myth of the invincibility of the white race. The Indians began to shed their diffidence and develop confidence in their capacity to remove the British from India.

These events brought significant change of temper in Indian national- ism. It was for the first time in 1903 that the voice of the extremist in Indian politics attracted attention. 36 G. D. Bifla, who was then only 11, recalls in his autobiographical notes, how persons without political background in the family or the community began to be excited with the ambition to see India free. 37 Under- these circumstances a group of new leadership grew more popular than the old. The year 1905 saw the

3J N. V. Raj Kumar, Development of the Congress Constitution, p. 5.

- The then Maharaja of Natore, who was Chairman of the Reception Committee of the Congress at Calcutta in 1901, was the first person to characterise constitutional agitation as political mendicancy. C. Y. Chintamani, Indian Politics Since Mutiny p. 82.

Percival Spear, The Oxford History of Modern Indin, p. 318.

Chintamani, op. cit , p. S2.

3, G. D. Birla, In the Shadow of the Mahatma, p. xiv.

10 Socialist Trends in Indian National Movement

formation of the Nationalist-Party within the Congress under the leader- ship of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and Bepin Chandra Pal.

The superiority of the new party consisted in its realization of the basic

truths of modern politics. In their hands, Indian politics gave up the old shibboleth and its solid foundations were laid for the first time ... the new party also succeeded in destroying many of the old illusions to which our leaders of the moderate school still passionately clung. 38 The controversy in the Congress became more pronounced and - gave rise to extremism which inspired a much more radical national movement. .

There was a sharp contrast between the policies of the old and the new wings of the Congress as represented by the Moderates and the Extremists or Nationalists respectively. While the Moderates persisted in adopting the policy of prayer and persuasion, the Extremists evinced an aggressive posture. The contrast in their outlooks and policies can be well illustrated by referring to the outlooks and policies of their representative leaders, Gokhale and Tilak. Gokhale advocated constitutionalism and progress by stages and could not conceive the idea of more than colonial self-rule, 39 but Tilak was the first Congress leader to use the word Swaraj as the birth right of Indians even when others were frightened of speaking about it. 40 The Moderates appeal was limited to the upper classes and the intelli- gentsia; the Nationalists looked to the masses and the millions. It was largely owing to the pressure from the Nationalists coupled with reaction against the repressive policies of the British Government that in 1906, the Calcutta Session of the Congress passed the momentous resolution on Swaraj, Boycott, Swadeshi and National Education. But the subsequent strife between the two wings led the Nationalists to quit the Congress in 1907. Consequently from 1908, i.e. from imprisonment of Tilak in Mandalay to 1916, the Congress once again relapsed into political mendicancy. Death of Gokhale, the most influential among the Mode- rates in 1915, the re-emergence of Tilak in 1916, failure of the Moderates to react in a militant manner to the repressive British measures and rising temper of nationalism under Gandhi, reduced the Moderates into a

"Acharya Narendra Dev, Birth of the Nationalist Party, G. C. Sondhi (ed.), To the Gates of Liberty, pp. 146-47.

Lord Hardinge, Viceroy of India from 1910 to 1916, has recorded in his memoirs that on one occasion he had asked Gopal Krishna Gokhale, How you would like if I were to tell you that all the British officials and troops would leave India within a month. I will be very pleased to hear that news, replied Gokhale, but before you had all reached Aden, we would be telegraphing you to return. Quoted in B. R. Nanda, Mahatma Gandhi: A Biography (Abridged), p. 223. This may be cited as- an example of the typical attitude of the Moderates.

as at this stage that after 1927 socialism started enlivening the otherwise dull and colourless politics of the country.

(//) British Policy

The British Government pursued the age-old tactics of reform and re- pression and divide and rule to deal with the nationalist unrest. Reforms were aimed at winning cooperation of the Moderates while repression was meant to suppress militant and violent nationalism. The main target of the policy of divide and rule was to separate the Muslims from the main stream of nationalist upsurge. The policy of reform and repression became more pronounced during and after the War. The statement of the Secretary of State for India E. S. Montagu of 20 August 1917, and passing of the Rowlatt Act in 1919 were the most glaring examples of this policy. Montagu, on behalf of the British Government, declared in the Parliament that the policy of His Majestys Government was that of increasingly associating the Indians in every branch of administration and of gradually developing the self-governing institutions with a view to establishing responsible government in India as an integral part of the British Empire. He also indicated that the British Government had decided that

Bipan Chandra, Elements of Change and Continuity in Indian National Move- ment.

The Beginnings 13

adequate steps should be taken in this direction as soon as possible. 43 In pursuance of this declaration, the British Parliament passed the Govern- ment of India Act of 1919 which introduced the so-called dyarchy in the provinces but left power in the hands of the Governor General and the provincial Governors. Representation was expanded on the basis of separate electorate for landowners, Chamber of Commerce, Universities, Hindus, Muslims, Anglo-Indians, Christians, Europeans and the Sikhs. But no substantial power or responsibility was granted to the legislature. The franchise was limited by a high property qualification and only the rich were allowed to vote. The princely states, constituting one-third of India, were kept outside the framework of this seemingly democratic setup. Thus, the Act of 1919 did not grant substance of self-determination as promised by the British politicians during the War. This Act which aimed at channellizing the national movement into peaceful parliamentary action damaged national unity by dividing the people into separate competing electorate. A provision in the Act was made that after a period of ten years, the working of the constitution would be reviewed by a Commission of Enquiry which would 'also try to explore the feasibility of extension of powers of legislatures in India.

Assurances and subsequent steps for reforms were also accompanied by repression and the Rowlatt Act in order to suppress sedition and to retain repressive provisions of the War-time Defence of India Act permanently on the statute book. This resulted in new wave of revolutionary activities which was followed by the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy. These events intensi- fied the nationalist urge to get rid of foreign rule which combined with the Muslim anger over the issue of Khilafat took the form of non-coopera- tion resistance. Although the Non-Cooperation Movement was suspended in 1922, a majority of the Indian nationalists did not co-operate with the functioning of the Constitution of 1919. This reform, thus, did not satisfy Indian aspirations and the repression could not crush the national spirit. In 1928, the British Government appointed an all-British team of politi- cians known as the Simon Commission after the name of its leader to report on the working of the Reform. Exclusion of Indians from this Commission caused a wave of anger. There were country-wide demons- trations against it. The report of this Commission formed the basis of the Act of 1935.

By the end of the 'twenties Indian nationalists grew more and more impatient with the slow pace at which the reforms were being granted by the British. It was becoming increasingly clear that they were in no m