The Election of 1937 and formation of Congress Ministries- 2 | History Optional for UPSC (Notes) PDF Download

Achievements of the Ministries

• Tenancy Bills Passed: In Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Orissa, tenancy bills were passed that granted multiple rights to tenants and imposed several restrictions on Zamindars.
• Madras Assembly Legislation: In Madras, the Assembly was in the process of enacting significant legislation. However, before a bill could be drafted, the Ministry resigned.
• Measures of Tenancy Reform: Tenancy reform measures, extending security of tenure to tenants in landlord areas, were also implemented in the legislatures of Bombay, the Central Provinces, and the North-West Frontier Province.
• Agrarian Legislation Impact: The agrarian legislation introduced by the Congress Ministries improved and secured the status of millions of tenants in zamindari areas.
• Basic System of Landlordism: Despite these reforms, the fundamental system of landlordism remained unaffected.
• Beneficiaries: The primary beneficiaries were statutory and occupancy tenants, while the interests of sub-tenants of occupancy tenants were overlooked.
• Agricultural Labourers: Agricultural labourers were also not impacted by these measures.
• Mobilization and Franchise Issues: The lack of mobilization by kisan sabhas and the restricted franchise under the Act of 1935 contributed to the oversight of these two sections.

Regulation of the Moneylenders’ Business:

• With the exception of Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) and Assam, the Congress Government implemented a series of debtors’ relief acts aimed at regulating the moneylenders’ business.
• The provisions within these acts included measures such as the cancellation or significant reduction of accumulated interest on debts.
• Additionally, these governments initiated various modest rural reconstruction programs.
• In Bombay, for instance, 40,000 tied serfs were liberated.
• Furthermore, grazing fees in the forests were abolished in Bombay and reduced in Madras.
• Despite the Congress's intentions, the tenancy bills faced strong opposition from landlords. Similarly, the debtors’ relief bills encountered resistance not only from moneylenders but also from lawyers who, despite being supporters of the Congress, derived a substantial portion of their income from debt litigation.

Works related to workers:

• During the period of Congress Ministries, there was a pro-labour stance adopted in general.
• The basic approach included:
  • Advancing workers’ interests while promoting industrial peace.
  • Reducing the resort to strikes as far as possible.
  • Establishing conciliation machinery.
  • Advocating compulsory arbitration before resorting to strikes.
  • Creating goodwill between labour and capital with the Congress and its ministers assuming the role of intermediaries.
  • Striving to improve the conditions of workers and secure wage increases.
• This pro-labour stance alarmed the Indian capitalist class, prompting them to organize and urge provincial governments to proceed cautiously on such matters.
• In Bombay, the Ministry appointed a Textile Enquiry Committee, which recommended wage increases. Despite protests from mill owners, these recommendations were implemented.
• In November 1938, the Industrial Disputes Act was passed, emphasizing conciliation, arbitration, and negotiations over direct action. It aimed to prevent lightning strikes and lockouts.
• The Act faced strong opposition from Left Congressmen, including Communists and Congress Socialists, for restricting the freedom to strike and imposing a complicated procedure for trade union registration.
• In Madras, the government promoted the policy of internal settlement of labour disputes through conciliation and arbitration.
• In U.P., Kanpur witnessed serious labour unrest, with a major strike occurring in May 1938. The government set up a Labour Enquiry Committee, headed by Rajendra Prasad, which made several recommendations.
• The Bihar Labour Enquiry Committee, also headed by Rajendra Prasad, recommended strengthening trade union rights, improving labour conditions, and compulsory conciliation and arbitration before strikes.
• The Congress Governments removed impediments to indigenous industrial expansion and actively promoted modern industrial ventures, including automobile manufacture.

In the social domain:

• Prohibition was implemented in specific regions across various states.
• Initiatives for the upliftment of untouchables, referred to as Harijans (children of God) by Gandhiji, included:
  • Legislation allowing Harijans access to temples, public offices, water sources like wells and ponds, roads, transport, hospitals, educational institutions, restaurants, and hotels funded by public resources.
  • Customs imposing civil disabilities on Harijans were not recognized by courts or public authorities.
  • Increased scholarships and freeships for Harijan students.
  • Efforts to enhance the representation of Harijans in police and government services.
  • Focus on primary, technical, and higher education, along with public health and sanitation by the Congress Ministries.
  • Expansion of education for girls and Harijans.
  • Introduction of basic education emphasizing manual and productive work.
  • Organization of mass literacy campaigns for adults.
  • Support and subsidies for khadi, spinning, and village industries.
  • Implementation of prison reform schemes.
  • The Congress Governments participated in planning development through the National Planning Committee established in 1938 by Congress President Subhas Bose.

Some problems before Congress Government

• Basic Aspect of Congress Strategy: During non-mass struggle phases of the national movement, the Congress strategy aimed to continue mass political activity and popular mobilization within legal boundaries. This was part of the office-acceptance strategy, utilizing offices to promote mass political activity.
• Activity outside the legislature was to persist, with legislative activities coordinated alongside.
• In Uttar Pradesh (U.P.), this coordination was notably successful, exemplified by:
• Setting up popular organs of authority: Congress police stations and panchayats under local Congress committees dispensing justice.
• Establishing Congress grievance committees: District-level committees addressing local grievances.
• Mass literacy campaigns: Educating the public about the functioning of the ministries.
• Not all Congress governments could effectively coordinate administration with popular mobilization, particularly where right-wing factions dominated.
• A dilemma emerged: Could a party in government simultaneously organize popular movements and enforce law and order?
• While some Congress members aimed to strengthen the ministries through popular agitations, others sought to expose breaches of faith by the ministries, portraying the Congress as a political organ of the upper classes.
• Figures like C. Rajagopalachari and K.M. Munshi did not hesitate to use state apparatuses repressively.
• The formation of Congress ministries and the expansion of civil liberties sparked widespread popular energies:
• Kisan sabhas emerged across the country, along with a significant rise in trade union activity and membership.
• Revival and growth of student and youth movements.
• A strong boost to state peoples’ movements.
• Expansion of left parties despite Central Government bans:
• The Communist Party managed to publish its weekly organ,The National Front, from Bombay.
• The Congress Socialist Party (CSP) published journals like The Congress Socialist in various Indian languages.
• The Kirti Lehar, published by Kirti Communists in Punjab, is noteworthy for being published from Meerut, U.P., due to restrictions in Unionist-ruled Punjab.
• Many popular movements inevitably clashed with Congress governments.
• Peasant agitations often involved massive demonstrations and dramatic marches:
• In Bihar, kisan movements confronted the Ministry, with Kisan Sabha urging peasants not to pay rent or to forcibly occupy landlords’ lands.
• Instances of physical attacks on landlords and crop looting were reported.
• In Bombay, the AITUC, Communists, and followers of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar organized strikes against the Industrial Disputes Act, leading to police violence, including fatalities and injuries.
• Similar strong policies towards strikes were observed in Madras and Kanpur, where workers frequently struck, sometimes violently.
• Congress ministries struggled to address discontent within their mass base, attempting a mediatory role.
• While successful in U.P., Bihar, and to some extent in Madras, they faced challenges in Bombay.
• Often treating militant protests, especially trade union struggles, as law and order issues, they resorted to Section 144 against agitating workers and arrested peasant and trade union leaders.
• The Left criticized Congress governments for suppressing peasant and worker organizations.
• Gandhi also viewed the ministry formation policy as leading to a crisis but from a different perspective.
• He opposed militant agitations due to their violent nature threatening his non-violent strategy.
• Initially advising Congress ministries to rule without police and army, he later criticized violent speech or writing not being protected under civil liberty.
• Despite this, Gandhi objected to frequent reliance on colonial laws and law enforcement against popular agitations.
• He emphasized political education over violence and defended the rights of Socialists and Communists to practice their politics within Congress methods.
• Gandhi recognized the potential harm to Congress from repeated law and order interventions against workers and peasants, which could hinder future mass movements against colonial rule.
• He identified the inherent dilemma in the situation, leading him to question the effectiveness of the office acceptance policy.
• In December 1938, he suggested that if Congress ministries required police and military to govern, it would signal a need to relinquish office and seek the Holy Grail again.

Achievements of the Congress ministries during two years frustrated all groups who voted for Congress:

• Dalits and their leaders were not impressed by the few caste disabilities removal and temple-entry bills by Congress ministries that constituted the token legislative programmes of the Congress ministries, offering nothing more than mere window dressing.

Industrial working class:

• When the Congress formed ministries in eight provinces, it evoked jubilation and expectations from both labour and capital and the party had to continually balance between the two contradictory interests.
• Compulsions to seek labour votes in the provincial elections of 1937 had forced the Congress to include in its election manifesto some promises for labour welfare programmes.
• Its subsequent victory, therefore, aroused great enthusiasm and expectations among the working classes, as a number of trade union leaders became labour ministers in congress cabinets.
• Trade union membership increased by 50 per cent particularly in the Congress ruled provinces during this time, leading to a spectacular rise in industrial unrest in 1937-38, causing panic among the Indian industrialists.
• The Congress ministries had to adopt a number of resolutions implementing the labour welfare programmes, which it had promised during the election.
• This irritated the capitalists no doubt, but what further added to it were the conservative economic and fiscal policies of the provincial governments.
• Faced with financial stringency, these governments had very little choice but to increase taxes, like the property tax or sales tax, which the business did not quite like.
• They now closed ranks and this alarmed the Congress high command.
• Therefore, by the spring of 1938, there was a remarkable change in Congress policies, as it tried to placate capitalist interests.
• The most authentic manifestation of this shift was in its labour policy, which resulted in the passage of the notorious Bombay Trades Disputes Act, passed in November 1938.
• This aimed at preventing both strike and lockouts, but was tilted heavily in favour of capitalists. This resulted in a anti-labour shift in Congress policies.
• All parties except Congress condemned it and the passage of the bill was immediately greeted with a general strike in Bombay.
• This new anti-labour mood was visible in other provinces too, where industrial disputes gradually began to decline from 1939.
• This marked shift in Congress ideology and policy towards industrial relations dispelled capitalist fear and brought about a rapprochement between the two.
• In a non-Congress province like Bengal, the Congress leaders were only too happy to support the general jute mill strike in 1937, as it was an ideal opportunity to discredit the Fazlul Huq ministry and to hit at the “white bosses” of the IJMA.
• Nehru even went so far as to claim it to be“a part of our freedom movement.
• Yet at the same time, in the Congress provinces like Bombay, Madras and UP, their governments were using similar strong-arm tactics to control industrial unrest.
• But it is difficult to generalise about business attitudes, as some businessmen in the United Provinces and Madras still had their reservations about Congress, while the Muslim businessmen on the whole remained alienated.

Peasant:

• Before the elections, the Congress Party capitalized on the growing militancy among peasants. However, after winning, they struggled to meet the expectations of their kisan voters, who anticipated significant changes in agrarian relations.
• Right-wing leaders like Vallabhbhai Patel, Bhulabhai Desai, C. Rajagopalachari, and Rajendra Prasad favored constitutional politics over radical agitation. They were joined by committed Gandhians who supported the constructive program.
• As the election approached, the Congress could not ignore the organizational strength of the provincial kisan sabhas. Under pressure from the left, they included the abolition of zamindari in their election manifesto.
• In the 1937 elections, socialists and right-wing leaders united, leading to unexpected Congress victories in several provinces.
• When Congress ministries assumed office after July 1937, it was seen by rural masses as an emancipatory experience, establishing an alternative authority.
• However, the formation of ministries raised expectations and increased militancy among peasants. It also empowered the right-wing, who aimed to reshape Congress away from socialist influence.
• In Bihar, the Kisan Sabha led a strong peasant movement over bakasht land issues. The conservative Congress leadership realigned with landlords, diluting proposed tenancy legislations.
• Peasant dissatisfaction grew as tenancy laws were weakened under landlord pressure. In UP, Kisan Sabha activists were disillusioned with the Uri Congress ministry, which softened a 1938 tenancy law meant to cut rents by half.
• In Orissa
• kisan leaders were upset when the Congress ministry approved pro-landlord amendments to tenancy laws.
• The weakened legislation was stalled by the governor until a massive Kisan Day rally on September 1, 1938, pushed it through.
• Another challenge for Congress leadership was their stance on princely India, particularly whether to support the Prajamandal movement.

Overall Record of the Congress Ministry

• The Congress Ministries had a positive legislative and administrative record.
• Jawaharlal Nehru, initially critical of the Congress Ministries, later recognized their achievements despite numerous challenges.
• While the Left was critical, many of its expectations were largely met.
• A significant achievement was the effective handling of communal riots, with strong actions taken by district magistrates and police officers.
• The Congress leadership thwarted imperialist attempts to weaken the national movement through constitutional reforms, demonstrating how the constitutional structure could be used to further the movement's aims.
• Despite some weaknesses, the Congress emerged stronger from its period in office, maintaining focus on the struggle for self-government.
• The period of office strengthened national consciousness and expanded nationalist influence, preparing for future mass struggles.
• The movement's influence extended to the bureaucracy, notably weakening the morale of the Indian Civil Service (ICS), a key pillar of the British Empire.
• Many ICS officers began to believe that British departure from India was imminent.
• During later years, particularly the Quit India Movement, the fear of Congress regaining power, as demonstrated by their previous governance, helped neutralize hostile elements.
• The Congress Ministries did not lead to a rise in provincialism or a decline in Indian unity, contrary to the expectations of the framers of the 1935 Act.
• The Ministries managed to present a united front to the Government of India and maintained organizational discipline despite internal factionalism.
• When necessary, the Ministries resigned promptly at the request of the central Congress leadership, demonstrating that acceptance of office was just one phase in the struggle for freedom.
• The Congress also avoided a split between its Left and Right wings, which the British had attempted to promote since 1934.
• Overall, the Congress influenced all sections of society, advancing the process of nationalist hegemony and demonstrating that British power was not invincible.
• By showing Indians exercising power, the Congress challenged the British myth that Indians were unfit to rule.

Period of the Congress Ministries witnessed the emergence of serious weaknesses in the Congress

1. Factional Strife and Bickering:

• There was significant internal conflict and disagreement within the Congress party, both on ideological and personal grounds.
• For example, factional disputes within the Congress Ministry and the Assembly party in the Central provinces led to the resignation of Dr. N.B. Khare as premier.

2. Emergence of Bogus Membership:

• The practice of fraudulent membership began to emerge and grow within the party.
• There was a competition for jobs and positions that offered personal advantages.
• Indiscipline among Congress members was increasing across the board.
• Opportunists, self-seekers, and careerists, attracted by the prospect of being associated with a party in power, started to infiltrate the Congress ranks at various levels.
• This was made easy because the Congress was an open party that anyone could join.
• Many Congress members began to succumb to casteism in their pursuit of power.

3. Gandhiji's Concerns:

• Gandhiji started to feel that the Congress was weakening from within.
• He expressed his concerns in the Harijan columns, criticizing the growing misuse of office and corruption within Congress ranks.
• Gandhiji went so far as to suggest “giving the whole Congress organization a decent burial” rather than tolerating the rampant corruption.
• He advised a cessation of offices and preparation for another phase of Satyagraha.

4. Jawaharlal Nehru's Views:

• Jawaharlal Nehru also felt that the positive role of the Congress ministries was diminishing.
• In a letter to Gandhiji on April 28, 1938, he expressed concern that “Congress ministries are adapting themselves too much to the old order and trying to justify it”, suggesting that the party was sinking to the level of ordinary politicians.

5. Pirpur Committee

• Established in 1938 by the All India Muslim League to prepare a detailed report on the atrocities committed by Congress Ministries (1937-1939).
• These ministries were formed after the elections under the 1935 Government of India Act in various provinces.
• The report accused the Congress of interfering with religious rites, suppressing Urdu, promoting Hindi, denying legitimate representation, and economically suppressing Muslims.

Resignation of Congress Ministries

• On 3 September 1939, Viceroy Linlithgow declared India at war with Germany.
• The Congress strongly opposed this decision, as it was made without consulting Indian leaders.
• The Congress Working Committee offered to cooperate if a central Indian national government was established.
• They requested a promise of India’s independence after the war was made.
• The Muslim League, led by Jinnah, supported the British.
• Jinnah urged Muslims to assist the Raj through "honourable cooperation" during this critical time.
• He requested the Viceroy for increased protection for Muslims.
• Viceroy Linlithgow rejected the Congress's demands.
• On 22 October 1939, Congress ministries submitted their resignations.
• Both Viceroy Linlithgow and Muhammad Ali Jinnah were pleased with the Congress resignations.
• On 2 December 1939, Jinnah called for Indian Muslims to celebrate 22 December 1939 as a "Day of Deliverance" from Congress.
• Gandhiji welcome the resignations, believing they would help rid the Congress of 'rampant corruption.'
• He wrote to C. Rajagopalachari on 23 October 1939, acknowledging the bitterness of the situation.
• Gandhiji saw the resignations as necessary to expel 'parasites' from the Congress.
• The resignations had a unifying effect within the Congress.
• They brought together the Left and Right factions on the issue of war participation.