Swaraj Party

Last updated
Swaraj Party
Leader Chittaranjan Das
Secretary Motilal Nehru
Founder Chittaranjan Das, Motilal Nehru
Founded1 January 1923;101 years ago (1 January 1923)
Dissolved1935;89 years ago (1935)
Split from Indian National Congress
Merged into Indian National Congress
Colours

The Swaraj Party, established as the Congress-Khilafat Swaraj Party, was a political party formed in India on 1 January 1923 after the Gaya annual conference in December 1922 of the National Congress, that sought greater self-government and political freedom for the Indian people from the British Raj.

Contents

It was inspired by the concept of Swaraj. In Hindi and many other languages of India, swaraj means "independence" or "self-rule." The two most important leaders were Chittaranjan Das, its president, and Motilal Nehru, its secretary.

Das and Nehru thought of contesting elections to enter the legislative council with a view to obstructing a foreign government. Many candidates of the Swaraj Party were elected to the central legislative assembly and provincial legislative council in the 1923 elections. In these legislatures, they strongly opposed the unjust government policies. [1]

As a result of the Bengal Partition, the Swaraj Party won the most seats during elections to the Bengal Legislative Council in 1923. The party disintegrated after the death of C. R. Das. [2]

Chauri Chaura

The Swaraj Party was formed on 1 January 1923 by Indian politicians and members of the Indian National Congress who had opposed Mahatma's suspension of all civil resistance on 12 February 1922 in response to the Chauri Chaura tragedy, where policemen were killed by a mob of protestors. Gandhi felt responsible for the killings, reproached himself for not emphasizing non-violence more firmly, and feared that the entire Non-Cooperation Movement could degenerate into an orgy of violence between the British-controlled army and police and mobs of freedom-fighters, alienating and hurting millions of common Indians. He went on a fast-unto-death to convince all Indians to stop civil resistance. The Congress and other nationalist groups disavowed all activities of disobedience.

However, many Indians felt that the Non-Cooperation Movement should not have been suspended over an isolated incident of violence, and that its astonishing success was actually close to breaking the back of British rule in India. These people became disillusioned with Gandhi's political judgments and instincts.

Council entry

Gandhi and most of the Congress party rejected the provincial and central legislative councils created by the British to offer some participation for Indians. They argued that the councils were rigged with un-elected allies of the British, and too un-democratic and simply "rubber stamps" of the Viceroy....

In December 1922, Chittaranjan Das, Narasimha Chintaman Kelkar and Motilal Nehru formed the Congress-Khilafat Swarajaya Party with Das as the president and Nehru as one of the secretaries. Other prominent leaders included Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Subhas Chandra Bose of Bengal, Vithalbhai Patel and other Congress leaders who were becoming dissatisfied with the Congress. The other group was the 'No-Changers', who had accepted Gandhi's decision to withdraw the movement.

Now both the Swarajists and the No-Changers were engaged in a fierce political struggle, but both were determined to avoid the disastrous experience of the 1907 split at Surat. On the advice of Gandhi, the two groups decided to remain in the Congress but to work in their separate ways. There was no basic difference between the two.

In the 1923 Indian general election, Swarajist members(45/145) were elected to the councils. Vithalbhai Patel became the president of the Central Legislative Assembly.

At a meeting on 30 December 1923, the general council of the party demanded the establishment of fully responsible government for India. They demanded that the government start by releasing political prisoners, suspending all repressive laws and orders, and convening a round table conference to negotiate the principles of a constitution for India. [3]

However, the legislatures had very limited powers, and apart from some heated parliamentary debates, and procedural stand-offs with the British authorities, the core mission of obstructing British rule failed.

With the death of Chittaranjan Das in 1925, and with Motilal Nehru's return to the Congress the following year, the Swaraj Party was greatly weakened.

Pro-Changers and No-Changers, and the Simon Commission

After his release from prison in 1924, Gandhi sought to bring back the Swarajists to the Congress and re-unite the party. Gandhi's supporters were in a vast majority in the Congress, and the Congress still remained India's largest political party, but Gandhi felt it necessary to heal the divide with the Swarajists, so as to heal the nation's wounds over the 1922 suspension.

The Swarajists sought more representation in the Congress offices, and an end to the mandatory requirement for Congressmen to spin khadi cloth and do social service as a prerequisite for office. This was opposed by Gandhi's supporters, men like Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajendra Prasad, who became known as the No Changers as opposed to the Swarajist Changers. Gandhi relaxed the rules on spinning and named some Swarajists to important positions in the Congress Party. He also encouraged the Congress to support those Swarajists elected to the councils, so as not to embarrass them and leave them rudderless before the British authorities.

When the Simon Commission arrived in India in 1928, millions of Indians were infuriated with the idea of an all-British committee writing proposals for Indian constitutional reforms without any Indian member or consultations with the Indian people. The Congress created a committee to write Indian proposals for constitutional reforms, headed by now Congress President Motilal Nehru. The death of Lala Lajpat Rai, beaten by police in Punjab further infuriated India. People rallied around the Nehru Report and old political divisions and wounds were forgotten, and Vithalbhai Patel and all Swarajist councillors resigned in protest.

Between 1929 and 1937, the Indian National Congress would declare the independence of India and launch the Salt Satyagraha. In this tumultuous period, the Swaraj Party was defunct as its members quietly dissolved into the Congress fold.

Madras Province Swarajya Party

The Madras Province Swarajya Party was established in 1923. S. Satyamurti and S. Srinivasa Iyengar led the party. The party contested in all provincial elections between 1923 and 1934 with the exception of the 1930 election which it did not participate officially due to the Civil Disobedience Movement, though some of the members of the party contested for office as independents. The party emerged as the single largest party in the 1926 and 1934 Assembly elections but refused to form the provincial government under the existing dyarchy system. In 1934, the Madras Province Swarajya Party merged with the All India Swarajya Party which subsequently merged with the Indian National Congress when it contested the 1935 elections to the Imperial Legislative Council under the Government of India Act 1935.

From 1935 onward, the Swarajya Party ceased to exist and was succeeded by the Indian National Congress in the elections to the Imperial Legislative Council as well as the Madras Legislative Council.

Presidents of the Madras Province Swarajya PartyTerm startTerm end
S. Srinivasa Iyengar 19231930
Sathyamurthy 19301935

Performance of the Madras Provincial Swarajya Party

ElectionsSeats in Madras AssemblyAssembly Seats wonTotal number of Council seatsMembers nominated to the councilResultParty President
1923982029
1926984134 S. Srinivasa Iyengar
1930Did not participate in the elections due to Civil Disobedience Movement
19349829

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vallabhbhai Patel</span> Indian barrister and politician (1875–1950)

Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel, commonly known as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was an Indian independence nationalist and barrister who served as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India from 1947 to 1950. He was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress, who played a significant role in the country's struggle for independence and its political integration. In India and elsewhere, he was often called Sardar, meaning "Chief" in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Persian. He acted as the Home Minister during the political integration of India and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. Rajagopalachari</span> Indian statesman and writer (1878–1972)

Chakravarti Rajagopalachari BR, popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji, was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and independence activist. Rajagopalachari was the last Governor-General of India, as when India became a republic in 1950 the office was abolished. He was also the only Indian-born Governor-General, as all previous holders of the post were British nationals. He also served as leader of the Indian National Congress, Premier of the Madras Presidency, Governor of West Bengal, Minister for Home Affairs of the Indian Union and Chief Minister of Madras state. Rajagopalachari founded the Swatantra Party and was one of the first recipients of India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna. He vehemently opposed the use of nuclear weapons and was a proponent of world peace and disarmament. During his lifetime, he also acquired the nickname 'Mango of Salem'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maulana Azad</span> Indian politician

Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed bin Khairuddin Al-Hussaini Azad ; 11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was an Indian independence activist, writer and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. Following India's independence, he became the First Minister of Education in the Indian government. He is commonly remembered as Maulana Azad; the word Maulana is an honorific meaning 'Our Master' and he had adopted Azad (Free) as his pen name. His contribution to establishing the education foundation in India is recognised by celebrating his birthday as National Education Day across India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motilal Nehru</span> Indian lawyer and politician (1861–1931)

Motilal Nehru was an Indian lawyer, activist, and politician affiliated with the Indian National Congress. He served as the Congress President twice, from 1919 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1929. He was a patriarch of the Nehru-Gandhi family and the father of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chittaranjan Das</span> Indian politician, poet and author and leader of the Bengali Swaraj Party (1870-1925)

Chittaranjan Das, popularly called Deshbandhu, was an Indian freedom fighter, political activist and lawyer during the Indian Independence Movement and the Political Guru of Indian freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. He is the founder-leader of the Swaraj Party in undivided Bengal during the period of British Colonial rule in India. His name is abbreviated as C. R. Das. He was closely associated with a number of literary societies and wrote poems, apart from numerous articles and essays.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vithalbhai Patel</span> Indian politician (1873–1933)

Vithalbhai Patel was an Indian legislator and political leader, co-founder of the Swaraj Party and elder brother of Sardar Patel.

Swarāj (Svarāja) sva "self", raj "rule") can mean generally self-governance or "self-rule". It was first used by Shivaji to attain self rule from the Mughal Empire and the Adilshahi Sultanate. Later, the term was used synonymously with "home-rule" by Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati and later on by Mahatma Gandhi, but the word usually refers to Gandhi's concept of Indian independence from foreign domination. Swaraj lays stress on governance, not by a hierarchical government, but by self-governance through individuals and community building. The focus is on political decentralisation. Since this is against the political and social systems followed by Britain, Gandhi's concept of Swaraj advocated India's discarding British political, economic, bureaucratic, legal, military, and educational institutions. S. Satyamurti, Chittaranjan Das and Motilal Nehru were among a contrasting group of Swarajists who laid the foundation for parliamentary democracy in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Indian National Congress</span>

The Indian National Congress was established when 72 representatives from all over the country met at Bombay in 1885. Prominent delegates included Dadabhai Naoroji, Surendranath Banerjee, Badruddin Tyabji, Pherozeshah Mehta, W. C. Bonnerjee, S. Ramaswami Mudaliar, S. Subramania Iyer, and Romesh Chunder Dutt. The Englishman Allan Octavian Hume, a former British civil servant, was one of the founding members of the Indian National Congress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">S. Srinivasa Iyengar</span>

Seshadri Srinivasa Iyengar CIE, also seen as Sreenivasa Iyengar and Srinivasa Ayyangar, was an Indian lawyer, freedom-fighter and politician from the Indian National Congress. Iyengar was the Advocate-General of Madras Presidency from 1916 to 1920. He also served as a member of the bar council from 1912 to 1920, the law member of Madras Presidency from 1916 to 1920 and as the president of the madras province Swarajya Party faction of the Indian National Congress from 1923 to 1930. Srinivasa Iyengar was the son-in-law of renowned lawyer and first Indian Advocate-general of Madras, Sir Vembaukum Bhashyam Aiyangar. Iyengar's followers called him Lion of the South.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Purna Swaraj</span> Proclamation of Indian independence from the British Empire published on 26 Jan. 1930

The Declaration of Purna Swaraj was a resolution which was passed in 1930 because of the dissatisfaction among the Indian masses regarding the British offer of Dominion status to India. The word Purna Swaraj was derived from Sanskrit पूर्ण (Pūrṇa) 'Complete', and स्वराज (Svarāja) 'Self-rule or Sovereignty', or Declaration of the Independence of India, it was promulgated by the Indian National Congress, resolving the Congress and Indian nationalists to fight for Purna Swaraj, or complete self-rule/total independence from the British rule

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nalini Ranjan Sarkar</span> Indian businessman, industrialist, economist and public leader (1882-1953)

Nalini Ranjan Sarkar was an Indian businessman, industrialist, economist, and public leader. He was greatly involved in the political and economic regeneration of Bengal. Sarkar was Finance Minister of West Bengal in 1948. The Sarkar Committee Report was instrumental in the subsequent establishment of the four Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) by the Government of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">P. Subbarayan</span> Indian politician

Paramasivan Subbarayan was an Indian politician, freedom fighter and diplomat and was the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency, India's ambassador to Indonesia and Union Minister of Transport and Communications in Jawaharlal Nehru's government. He was the father of General P. P. Kumaramangalam, who served as India's Chief of Army staff, and of politician Mohan Kumaramangalam. He was also the grandfather of INC and BJP politician and Union Minister Rangarajan Kumaramangalam.

Satyendra Chandra Mitra was an Indian freedom fighter, who started his political career as a revolutionary and got associated with the Jugantar Party. He was arrested and interned at Janjira Char in the middle of the Padma River in 1916 and was released after the Great War. He continued his studies and after becoming an Advocate in the High Court of Calcutta, he joined the Swaraj Party, founded by Deshabandhu Chittaranjan Das. The then British Administration were afraid of the success of the Swaraj Party and feared a revolution. It was then that he was imprisoned in Mandalay Jail in Burma along with fellow leaders of the Swaraj Party, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Anil Baran Roy from 1924 to 1927. On being released, he was elected unopposed to the Central Legislative Assembly, the precursor to the Indian Parliament, in 1927. He was a Member of The Age of Consent Committee in 1927-28 that was composed of parliamentarians to determine the age at which girls and boys could marry. It became The Child Marriage Restraint Act in 1929 and is popularly referred to as the Sarda Act. He fought tirelessly for the welfare and release of political prisoners in the Central Assembly. He was elected the Chief Whip of the Swaraj Party when Pandit Motilal Nehru was its leader. The Swaraj Party was then merged with the Congress Party. In 1934, Satyendra returned to Calcutta on being defeated in the General Election that year. Later he became the President of the Bengal Legislative Council in 1937 until his death on 27 October 1942. He left behind his wife Uma Mitra and only child, Aroti Dutt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">S. Satyamurti</span> Indian politician (1877–1943)

'Sundara Sastri Satyamurti was an Indian independence activist and politician. He was acclaimed for his rhetoric and was one of the leading politicians of the Indian National Congress from the Madras Presidency, alongside S. Srinivasa Iyengar, C. Rajagopalachari and T. Prakasam. Satyamurti is regarded as the mentor of K. Kamaraj, Chief Minister of Madras State from 1954 to 1962.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Legislative Assembly</span> Lower house of the British Indian Imperial Legislative Council (1919–1947)

The Central Legislative Assembly was the lower house of the Imperial Legislative Council, the legislature of British India. It was created by the Government of India Act 1919, implementing the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms. It was also sometimes called the Indian Legislative Assembly and the Imperial Legislative Assembly. The Council of State was the upper house of the legislature for India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1923 Madras Presidency Legislative Council election</span>

The second legislative council election to Madras Presidency after the establishment of diarchical system of government by the Government of India Act, 1919 was held in 1923. Voter turnout was higher than the previous election. Swarajists, a breakaway group from Indian National Congress participated in the election. The ruling Justice Party had suffered a split, when a splinter group calling themselves anti-Ministerialists left the party. It won the highest number of seats but fell short of a majority. Nevertheless, Madras Governor Willington invited it to form the government. Incumbent Justice chief minister Panagal Raja was nominated by party leader Theagaraya Chetty to continue as chief minister for a second term. The government survived a no-confidence motion, brought against it on the first day of its tenure by the opposition headed by C. R. Reddy.

General elections were held in British India in November 1923 for both the Central Legislative Assembly and Provincial Assemblies. The Central Legislative Assembly had 145 seats, of which 105 were elected by the public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1926 Indian general election</span>

General elections were held in British India between 28 October and late November 1926 to elect members of the Imperial Legislative Council and the Provincial Legislative Councils.

The Responsive Cooperation Party was a political party operating in the Indian independence movement and was established by M. R. Jayakar, B. S. Moonje, N. C. Kelkar and others. The party was a splinter from the Motilal Nehru-led Swaraj Party, which was further split by the formation of the Independent Congress Party and the Nationalist Party. The Responsive Cooperationists had become opposed to the concept of non-cooperation with the government of the British Raj and Jayakar's move away from the Swaraj Party was evident by October 1925. The concept of responsive cooperation predates the party and was coined by Joseph Baptista, before being taken up by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, of whom Kelkar was a follower, around 1919.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hemanta Kumar Sarkar</span>

Hemanta Kumar Sarkar was an Indian philologist, author, biographer, editor, publisher, union leader, leader of the Indian freedom movement and an associate of Subhas Chandra Bose. He was a close friend and the first biographer of Subhas Chandra Bose, the co-founder of Labour Swaraj Party in Bengal along with Muzaffar Ahmed and Kazi Nazrul Islam and led the movement for the Partition of Bengal and formation of Bengali Hindu homeland in 1947.

References

  1. Chandra, Bipan (2000). India's Struggle for Independence. Penguin Books Limited. pp. 249–251. ISBN   978-81-8475-183-3.
  2. Misra, Chitta Ranjan (2012). "Bengal Pact, 1923". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
  3. Bakshi, Shiri Ram (1995) [First published 1989]. Swaraj Party and Gandhi. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors. pp. 3–5. ISBN   978-81-7156-144-5.