Spectrum Summary: Congress Rules in Provinces

Table of Contents
1. Formation and constitutional background
2. Gandhi's advice to Congress office-bearers
3. Work under Congress ministries
4. Evaluation and impact of the Congress ministries
5. Reasons why change was limited
6. Resignation and immediate aftermath
7. Concluding remarks
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Congress ministries were formed in Bombay, Madras, Central Provinces, Orissa, United Provinces, Bihar, and later in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Assam.

Formation and constitutional background

The formation of provincial Congress ministries followed the introduction of provincial autonomy under the Government of India Act, 1935. Provincial elections were held in 1937, and the Indian National Congress secured victories in several provinces. Where elected majorities existed, Congress ministries were formed and took office to run provincial administrations under the limited autonomy allowed by the Act.

Gandhi's advice to Congress office-bearers

Mahatma Gandhi counselled that Congressmen should hold office lightly rather than tightly. He described ministerial office as a kind of "crown of thorns", warning against becoming absorbed in office so deeply as to lose touch with the movement and its objectives. This guidance shaped how many Congress leaders approached the responsibilities and limitations of provincial power.

Work under Congress ministries

The Congress ministries pursued an agenda that combined political, social and administrative measures. Their work can be grouped under several broad headings.

Civil liberties

• Laws giving emergency powers were repealed where possible, and many wartime and repressive measures were rolled back.
• The government lifted bans on several organisations and revoked prohibitions on certain books and journals.
• Press restrictions were relaxed and newspapers previously placed on blacklists were taken off them.
• Confiscated arms and arms licences were restored to individuals who had lost them during earlier repressive measures.
• Police powers were curtailed in practice; the CID (Criminal Investigation Department) reduced its surveillance of nationalist politicians.
• Political prisoners and revolutionaries were released; orders of deportation and internment were revoked.
• In Bombay lands confiscated by the government during the Civil Disobedience Movement were returned.
• Pensions of officials who had associated with the Civil Disobedience Movement were restored.

Agrarian reforms and limitations

The Congress ministries aimed at agrarian improvements but faced structural and political constraints. Their attempts must be understood in the context of limited provincial authority and a complex agrarian order.

• The ministries often did not have adequate powers to carry out deep agrarian changes.
• Financial resources were limited because a large share of revenue and fiscal control remained with the Central Government.
• The strategy of class adjustments-seeking to conciliate and neutralise large landowners such as zamindars-restricted radical redistribution.
• The dominant logic of Congress politics at the time emphasised confrontation with colonialism rather than long-term administrative reform, creating a constraint of time and priorities.
• War clouds began gathering around 1938, which shortened the period available for reform.
• Provincial upper chambers (Legislative Councils), often populated by landlords, moneylenders and industrialists, were reactionary and their support had to be sought for legislation in provinces such as the United Provinces, Bihar, Bombay, Madras and Assam.
• The agrarian structure itself was socially and legally complex, making comprehensive reform difficult within the short tenure of these ministries.

Attitude towards labour

The provincial ministries tried to balance immediate improvement in workers' conditions with maintaining industrial peace. This led to a mixed approach: while some pro-labour measures were introduced, administrations were also cautious about strikes and industrial unrest.

• The ministries attempted to advance workers' interests while promoting industrial peace.
• At times governments resorted to repressive measures such as invoking Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (prohibiting unlawful assembly) and arresting labour leaders to prevent strikes and disturbances.

Social welfare and development

• Some provinces imposed or extended prohibition in selected areas as a social reform measure.
• Measures for the welfare of Harijans (Dalits) were introduced or given attention.
• Provincial governments emphasised primary, technical and higher education, and invested in public health and sanitation.
• The ministries encouraged khadi and indigenous industries through subsidies and other supports.
• Prison reforms were undertaken to improve conditions and administration.
• Efforts were made to promote indigenous enterprises and local industry.
• The Congress set up the National Planning Committee under the Congress president Subhas Chandra Bose in 1938 to study economic planning and coordinated development proposals.

Extra-parliamentary mass activity

• Launch of mass literacy campaigns to spread education and political awareness.
• Setting up of informal Congress police stations and panchayats to resolve local disputes and substitute for weak local administration.
• Congress grievance committees organised and presented mass petitions to provincial governments and led local people's movements to press demands.

Evaluation and impact of the Congress ministries

The period of Congress rule in provinces-commonly referred to as the 28-month Congress rule in many accounts-had significant political and social consequences even where deep structural change was limited.

• The experience confirmed the view that Indian self-government was necessary for radical social transformation and that elected Indian ministries could be agents of change.
• Congressmen demonstrated that a movement could use state power to further its ends without being entirely co-opted by the existing administrative system.
• Several ministries were able to manage and control communal riots and reduce communal tensions through administrative action.
• The morale and perceived impartiality of the colonial bureaucracy declined as Indians assumed administrative responsibilities.
• Work in provincial councils helped neutralise many previously hostile elements such as landlords and local elites by involving or accommodating them in legislative work.
• People were able to visualise the shape of self-rule and what independent provincial administration might look like.
• The administrative competence displayed by Indian ministers weakened the colonial argument that Indians were unfit to govern themselves.
• The ministries resigned in October 1939 after the outbreak of the Second World War; the immediate cause was the declaration of India's entry into the war by the Viceroy without consulting the elected ministries.
• The Congress victory in several provinces coincided with what some contemporaries regarded as an anti-labour shift in Congress practice; one outcome cited is the Bombay Traders Disputes Act, 1938 (as it is recorded in contemporary accounts).

Reasons why change was limited

• Provincial autonomy under the Government of India Act was substantial but not complete; central controls and reserved powers limited radical measures.
• Financial constraints: provinces lacked sufficient independent revenue and many key fiscal powers remained with the central government.
• Political necessity to conciliate powerful local interests-landlords, moneylenders and business groups-reduced the scope for far-reaching land and economic reforms.
• Short time span in office and the looming international crisis after 1938 curtailed long-term planning.
• Reactionary upper chambers (Legislative Councils) and colonial legal structures impeded legislation.
• Congress's broader strategy continued to balance between winning office and maintaining mass mobilisation; sometimes this produced tensions between administrative duty and movement politics.

Resignation and immediate aftermath

In October 1939 most Congress ministries resigned in protest after the Viceroy declared India at war with Germany on behalf of British India without consulting Indian ministers. The resignations removed Congress from formal provincial power and shifted the balance back towards direct central and colonial control until wartime and post-war political developments created new alignments.

Concluding remarks

The experiment of Congress ministries in the late 1930s was an important transitional phase in modern Indian political history. It demonstrated both the possibilities and the limits of provincial self-rule under colonial constitutional arrangements. While they achieved immediate gains in civil liberties, social welfare measures and administrative representation, deep structural transformations-particularly in agrarian relations and labour policy-remained constrained by limited powers, fiscal weakness, social opposition, and the international crisis that culminated in the Second World War.