Changing political relationships, 1920 - 1930

Khilafat movement 1919 - 1923

Context

• Many Indian Muslims had long regarded the Sultan of Turkey as their caliph 

• Turkey's decision to fight on the side of Germany during WW1 challenged Muslims loyalties to the extreme 

• The Treaty of Sevres greatly reduced the size of Turkey and forces within Turkey removed the Sultan from power 

Key features

• The Khilafat movement, set up to support the caliph, spread rapidly throughout India. Using Islamic symbols to unite the diverse Muslim communities, it repudiated British rule in India and legitimised Muslim participation in any nationalist movement  

• Muslim leaders joined with Gandhi in mobilising the masses for his civil disobedience campaigns. At the same time, Gandhi endorsed the Khilafat movement, thus bringing the weight of Hindu opinion behind what had originally been a solely Muslim movement and gaining himself support from Muslim political and spiritual leaders 

• Jinnah opposed Gandhi's support, believing it to be an opportunistic move and something that caused schism amongst Muslims, threatening the existing political structure and orderly progress towards independence. At Congress' Nagpur session in December 1920 he spoke out openly against non-cooperation 

Significance

• The Khilafat movement collapsed by 1923: 

  • Turkey rejected the caliphate and became a secular state, and thus an important spiritual leader for Muslims (and the main reason for the movement's existence) was gone 

  • The religious, mass appeal aspects of the movement alienate Western-orientated politicians like Jinnah, who resigned from Congress 

  • Many Muslims became uncomfortable with Gandhi's leadership 

Links to events after

• Tanzeem and Tabligh movements 

25th meeting of Congress in Nagpur 1920

Context

• Gandhi captured the popular imagination through his style of campaigning and won mass support for Congress, emerging as leader in 1920 

  • There was nobody to oppose him (Gokhale died in 1915, Tilak in 1920 and Besant was seen as a woman of little consequence). Remaining members were so divided about which path to take they couldn't unite to oppose him 

  • Members of social and religious groups who had previously exercised little influence at meetings now appeared as delegates supporting Gandhi 

  • There was wide geographical support for Gandhi because of the many local disputed he had resolved 

Key features

• Gandhi dominated proceedings and by force of his arguments, his ability to bind Hindus and Muslims and his sheer charisma, he persuaded the delegates to vote for his policy of non-cooperation with the Raj 

• He won a majority of 2 votes to 1, although Jinnah spoke against the campaign 

Significance

• Gandhi's style of leadership and approach to protest became increasingly popular 

Links to events after

• Non-cooperation campaigns 

Non-cooperation campaign 1920 - 1922

Context

• Gandhi emerged as leader of Congress and announced non-cooperation at meeting in Nagpur in 1920 

Key features

• Gandhi urged Indians to: 

  • Boycott elections to the new legislative assemblies 

  • Hand back all titles and decorations awarded by the Raj 

  • Remove their children from government schools 

  • Refuse invitations to social events run by the Raj 

  • Boycott the law courts 

  • Withold taxes 

  • Refuse to buy imported goods 

  • Leave all government posts 

• Gandhi targeted areas of government where Indian non-cooperation was unlikely to bring them into conflict with police (e.g. taxation and administration) 

  • Students boycotted examinations 

  • Taxes were not paid 

  • A large number of voters stayed away from the 1920 elections 

  • Around 200 lawyers stopped work 

  • During the visit of the Duke of Connaught to Calcutta in 1921, shops were closed throughout the city and few Indians attended official ceremonies 

• However, millions refused to understand the morality underpinning the concept of satyagraha and followed their own agendas: 

  • In Bombay, a hartal was designed to coincide with the visit of the Prince of Wales and turned into 4 days of looting and rioting, leaving 53 dead and hundreds injured 

  • In Rangpur, the mob attacked moneylenders 

  • In Malaba, the Muslims Moplahs declared a jihad, killing British people and wealthy Hindu and Muslim landlords, as well as forcing Hindu peasants to convert to Islam 

  • In the Punjab, Hindus forces Muslims to 'purify' themselves by total immersion in water tanks and rivers, resulting in many drownings 

Significance

• After a mob of Congress supporters in Chauri Chaura burned 22 Indian policemen alive in February 1922, Gandhi called an end to the non-cooperation campaign 

• Gandhi's idea that satyagraha could, of itself, bring about swaraj had been discredited, although he was clear that the concept wasn't wrong, rather the Indian people weren't ready for the sort of self-discipline necessary to make it effective 

• Congress gained a greater understanding of peasant' needs (having previously ignored them). Jawaharlal Nehru travelled extensively in Awadh in the Summer of 1920, finding miserable poverty combined with a sense of excitement that change was in the air 

Links to events after

• Gandhi imprisoned 

• Congress consolidates its position 

Gandhi in prison 1922 - 1924

Context

• Non-cooperation campaign 1920-1922 

Key features

• Less than a month after calling off the campaign, Gandhi was arrested and charged with promoting disaffection with the legally 

• He plead guilty and was sentenced to 6 years' imprisonment 

Significance

• Gandhi's imprisonment gave everyone breathing space. Before he was released in January 1924: 

  • Congress became more involved in peasant communities and more understanding of their needs 

  • Congress became more ready to understand and exploit local grievances and explore how these could be linked to the broader campaign for swaraj 

  • Leadership of Congress passed to moderate lawyers C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru, who favoured taking advantages of the Government of India Act of 1919 and, in 1923, members of Congress were allowed to stand for election to councils set up by the Raj. Many were successful in local elections, giving those bodies an air of respectability and boosting Congress' popularity 

  • The Raj returned to its traditional policy of attempting to balance the need for control with making concessions to India. Considerable support was given to local assemblies (e.g. a cholera and smallpox inoculation programme was started) 

Link to events after

• 'Back to basics' campaign in 1924 

Tanzeem and Tabligh movements early 1920s

Context

• The precarious alliance of the Muslim League Khilafat committees and Congress collapsed once the non-violent campaigns ended. Hindu members began to regret the generous electoral arrangements agreed for Muslims under the Lucknow Pact 

• Many Muslims no longer saw Congress as an appropriate body to push for an independence where they would be politically protected, and the Muslim League's voice and ability to put pressure on the Raj was much weaker than Congress' 

• In 1921, 10.9% of Congress delegates were Muslims; by 1923, this had fallen to 3.6% 

• Collapse of the Khilafat movement by 1923 

Key features

• The Tanzeem movement focused on organisation to give direction and purpose to the Muslim community, while the Tabligh movement promoted Islam. The aim was to rejuvenate the religion and stop the conversion of Muslims to Hinduism 

• Every town was to have an Anjuman Tabligh-ul-Islam to ensure more rigorous preaching, better education, regular observance of religious duties and the renovation and reconstruction of mosques 

Significance

• Anjumans developed to concentrate on the economic plight of Muslims who were constrained by the power and influence of Hindu commercial communities. Anti-Hindu sentiment grew rapidly, particularly in poorer urban areas, where anger was previously directed at the Raj was now channelled at Hindus 

Constructive development

Context

• Gandhi emerged as leader of Congress 

• Non-cooperation campaign and Gandhi's imprisonment 

Key features

• From a base of 100,000, membership of Congress rose to around 2 million by the end of 1921 (thanks to non-cooperation. It achieved this by: 

  • Extending its appeal into a wider spread of geographical areas throughout the subcontinent 

  • Targeting previously neglected interest groups – railway workers, mill-hands and poorer peasants as well as richer peasantry and the commercial castes 

  • However, more conservative members had objected to seeing Congress transform into being a pressure group into one that demonstrated open defiance of the Raj 

  • A large number of Muslims left because of what they regarded as Gandhi's failure to support them over their concerns about the break-up of the Ottoman Empire 

• The party structure of three administrative levels (local branches, provincial committees and the All-Indian Congress Committee) was revitalised in 1920 as Gandhi believed a new direction was needed 

  • Membership of the AICC was increased from 161 to 350 and seats were re-allocated on a regional population basis 

  • Emphasis was placed on recruiting women and from hitherto untapped groups like trade unions 

  • Around 100 additional provincial committees and several hundred more local branches were set up 

  • Gandhi set up the Congress Working Committee within the AICC to formulate policy, mirroring what a cabinet was to a government 

Significance

• Congress membership, and the demographics it appealed to, drastically increased 

• Congress had now developed an alternative administrative structure that could take over from the Raj 

Links to events after

• Back to basics campaign 

Back to basics 1924

Context

• Gandhi imprisoned in 1922 

• Constructive development

Key features

• Upon his release from prison in 1924, Gandhi went back to basics: 

  • He set up the All-India Spinners' Association to spread the word about hand spinning and weaving and promote self-sufficiency. This reflected his desire to dismantle the structure and organisation of the state and return to the simpler, self-sufficient communities of the past 

  • Congress embarked on campaigns of mass literacy and improvement of village sanitation 

  • Gandhi campaigned on behalf of Untouchables to enable them to integrate into Indian society 

Significance

• Gandhi seemed to have abandoned his confrontational programme of non-cooperation and Congress seemed to be emerging as a responsible political party, improving the lives of Indians without the danger of striving for independence 

Links to events after

• 'Young Hooligans' burst onto the political scene, demanding renewed action 

• British Government sent out the Simon Commission in 1928 

Dehli Proposals 1927

Context

• Against the background of separateness, Jinnah continuously attempted to bring Congress and the Muslim League together to work out an agrees position for India's future 

Key features

• At the Muslim League's 1927 meeting in Delhi, Jinnah persuaded members to offer to end its support for separate electorates in exchange for a guaranteed 1/3 of seats in the Central Legislative Assembly and the separation of Sind from Bombay in order to create just one Muslim-dominated province. He hoped this would reunite the two parties 

Significance

• Congress rejected the offer out-of-hand, believing it to be the result of Muslim awareness of the weakness of their position 

• Viceroy Irwin also had his doubts 

Links to events after

• Jinnah's Fourteen Points in 1929 

Simon Commission 1928

Context

• 1919 Government of India Act was due for review in 1929, but this year was scheduled for the general election. The Conservative government were concerned that if Labour won, policy in India would veer to the left. Secretary of state, Lord Birkenhead, suggested simply bringing the review forward 

Key features

• In 1927, the government sent a seven-man parliamentary delegation, headed by Sir John Simon and containing Clement Attlee, to find out how the Government of India Act was working and to make recommendations for any necessary review. There were no Indian members 

• This sent the message that the future of India was to be decided by the British and Indians would take no part in decision-making 

Significance

• When the delegates arrived in Bombay, they were greeted by booing, jeering crowds carrying banners, waving black flags and shouting 'Simon, go home!'. Everywhere the Commission went, they were met with mass demonstrations, which the police could hardly control 

• Members of Congress, Hindu leaders, liberal thinkers and a large section of the Muslim League led by Jinnah decided to boycott the Commission and refused to give evidence 

• Muslims from the provinces where they were in a majority, Anglo-Indians, Sikhs and Untouchables decided to help the Commission's enquiries. They hoped for a better future than that which they anticipated under a Hindu-dominated Congress 

• The Simon Report did little more than reassert the status quo and was abandoned before publication 

Links to events after

• Congress demanded dominion status for India under the Nehru report 

Nehru Report 1928

Key features

• At an All-Parties Conference, a subcommittee produced the Nehru report, the work of Motilal Nehru and Tej Bahadur Sapru (the leader of the Liberal party) which was really the first draft of a written constitution for India 

• It recommended dominion status for India, suggesting that the princely states and British India be joined in a federation, with no further devolution of power to the provinces 

Significance

• In effect, Hindus would form a permanent majority within central government

• Despite vague promises that religious freedoms would be safeguarded, and new Muslim states created, most Muslims were deeply unhappy. Under the Nehru Report, they would lose the protection of their separate electoral status 

Congress meeting December 1928

Context

• Nehru Report 

• Congress organised a boycott of the Simon Commission 

Key features

• Under the leadership of Nehru, delegates backed 2 motions: 

  • Instant dominion status as recommended by the Nehru Report  

  • As suggested by Jawaharlal Nehru and Bose, the British were to withdraw completely from India by 31 December 1929 

Significance

• To expect the British to withdraw in a matter of months was completely unrealistic, but it was a clever political manoeuvre – when withdrawal did not occur Congress would have the excuse to embark on a further course of non-cooperation 

Links to events after

• Congress decide on purna swaraj at the Lahore meeting in 1929 

Jinnah’s 14 Points 1929

Context

• Rejection of 1927 Delhi Proposals 

Key features

• Jinnah offered a compromise plan of 14 points, which Congress rejected 

Significance

• Jinnah, believing that the situation represented a parting of the ways, left for England to follow a lucrative career as a barrister 

Links to events after

• The Muslim League and Congress continued to negotiate up to independence, but Congress would never again receive a better offer for a peaceful settlement 

• At this point, the concept of a separate Muslim state began to emerge 

Irwin Declaration October 1929

Context

• In May 1929, a Labour government was elected in Britain. PM Ramsay MacDonald and secretary of state William Wedgwood Benn, were sympathetic to Congress' demands (made in the Nehru Report) 

• Viceroy Lord Irwin suggested a conference to discuss future reforms and a declaration that the Raj's goal for India was dominion status. MacDonald, Wedgwood Benn and surprisingly Stanley Baldwin (Conservative leader) gave a supportive response 

Key features

• The Irwin Declaration reiterated the Montagu Declaration of 1917 and added that the attainment of dominion status would be a natural development of this. As far as British propaganda was concerned, there was absolute continuity in British policy 

• Indian representatives were invited to London to a Round Table Conference where details of a new Indian Constitution could be discussed 

Significance

• The CWC welcomed the announcement and called upon the British government to demonstrate its good faith by declaring an amnesty for all Indian political prisoners 

• When Irwin refused, Indian frustration led to more terrorist attacks, including the bombing of the viceroy's train and the destruction of the carriage next to the one he was travelling in 

Links to events after

• Gandhi-Irwin Pact 

Congress meeting December 1929 - purna swaraj

Context

• Gandhi was aware that, when Congress met in Lahore, his voice was all that delegates would listen to 

• Congress, was deeply divided about what to do about the Raj 

  • To embark on another civil disobedience campaign would alienate moderates and could end in bloodshed 

  • However, the 'young hooligans' had considerable support in the districts, particularly among the young and trade unionists 

• Backing militants would risk mass violence, while backing moderates and pushing for dominion status could risk permanently dividing Congress 

• It was also essential for Congress to reassert its authority and reemphasise its claim to speak for all India, otherwise they'd risk the British settling with individual factions and playing them off against each other 

Key features

• Gandhi decided to support the young hooligans, with purna swaraj being India's new political demand 

• He steered his policy through the various Congress committees and a militant open session and ended up with a working committee of his own choosing to direct Congress' action 

Significance

• Gandhi demonstrated his power and influence 

Links to events after

• Gandhi embarked on a salt satyagraha 

Salt satyagraha 1930 -1931

Context

• Gandhi backed the young hooligans at the Lahore Congress and decided on another civil disobedience campaign 

• The government tax on salt, though costing the average Indian very little, was an emotive issue. All Indians needed salt for cooking and is an essential element for the human body, yet in India its production was controlled by the Raj 

Key features

• On 12 March 1930, Gandhi set out from his house in Ahmedabad, intending to walk 240 miles to Dandi: 

  • A prayer meeting the day before attracted 10,000 and a gathering on the day 75,000 

  • 78 chosen followers (including Untouchables) accompanied him, selected to demonstrate the universality of the mission, and were joined by thousands of other marchers, as well as reporters and cameramen from the world's press 

  • The march took on the character of a pilgrimage, with participants spinning cotton thread, keeping a diary and behaving in a non-aggressive and peaceful manner 

• When Gandhi reached the sea and symbolically picked up a peace of salt, he declared he had broken the law, and urged Indians to do the same, which thousands of peasants did 

  • Hundreds of peasants were arrested and imprisoned, and there were mass arrests of local and national Congress leaders, including Jawaharlal Nehru 

  • The arrest of Gandhi in May sent shockwaves through India and triggered a wave of strikes and protests. Even moderates seemed to be sympathising with Gandhi 

  • The Raj continued to repress; in June, the entire CWC was arrested 

• After Gandhi's arrest, Congress authorised provincial committees to organise their own satyagrahas (although they recommended prioritising salt and only refusing to cooperate with authorities as a last resort) 

  • This allowed provincial committees a greater degree of autonomy to decide the level of disobedience, concealing its divisions and demonstrating that it was a universal organisation sensitive to local needs 

  • The campaign was harder for the Raj to stop as there was no central organisation for the Raj to take out 

Significance

• All provinces had been affected by the middle of 1930 

  • Parts of Bombay were in the hands of the mob and were no-go areas for the police 

  • In the district of Midnapore in Bengal, a salt satyagraha was followed by attacks on police and magistrates, intimidation of officials and a refusal to pay local taxes 

  • In the United Provinces, a peasant anti-land-tax campaign was particularly successful 

  • In the Central Provinces, local politicians decided to back opposition to  forest laws that protected the interests of local landowners and encouraged peasants to fell trees and graze animals where they wished 

• A range of people, from students to middle-class businessmen, became politically aware and articulate. Women became actively involved, often when men in their families were imprisoned but  in their own right too, with nearly 360 in jail by November for participation in satyagrahas 

• By early 1931, the Raj had generally restored law and order 

  • Around 60,000 people passed through India's jails in 1930. This put an immense strain on the ICS, police and magistrates of the Raj, as well as causing intolerable overcrowding. By the end of 1930 there were still 29,000 in jail, including 300 women and 2000 under 17 

• There had been a point in mid-1930 where Irwin had considered imposing martial law on the most disaffected regions, however the memory of Amritsar and the feeling that bringing the army in would be an admission of failure made him keep his nerve 

• By the end of the year, Congress was feeling the strain 

  • Local satyagrahas, though initially successful, couldn't be sustained once local grievances were settled 

  • An economic upturn later in the year made people anxious to return to normal business relationships 

Links to events after

• Gandhi-Irwin Pact 

Gandhi-Irwin Pact March 1931

Context

• Gandhi was conflicted about attending the London conference 

  • On one hand, he would be on foreign soil and forced to follow a British agenda. All representatives of Indian opinion (Sikhs, Untouchables, princes) would be there, compromising the chances of Congress getting what they wanted 

  • On the other hand, not going could possibly result in a settlement being made to which Congress could not agree 

• The violence that accompanied civil disobedience following the salt satyagraha left both Congress and the Raj exhausted; they needed to find a way out of the stalemate 

• At the end of 1930, Gandhi was developing his spiritual life in prison. Jawaharlal Nehru, released from prison in October, announced that the conquest of power was about to begin and went straight back to prison 

Key features

• Irwin feared that Congress would resort to a violent campaign: 

  •  He wanted to create a situation in which Gandhi could leave prison and participate in the conference, but couldn't be seen to openly negotiate with a terrorist 

  • He had to be seen to support the ICS and those who stood aside from confrontation 

  • He had to persuade Gandhi that his presence at the conference was in Congress' best interests 

• Indian businessmen, worried about the effect civil disobedience campaigns had on the economy, brokered a meeting between Gandhi and Irwin in 1931. Irwin appealed to Gandhi both as a spiritual being and a shrewd politician. Discussions were frank and open, and in the end it was decided that: 

  • Congress' civil disobedience was suspended 

  • Gandhi agreed to attend a second London Conference 

  • 19,000 Congress supporters were released from jail 

  • Confiscated property was returned to its owners 

Significance

• The Gandhi-Irwin Pact brought everyone some breathing space 

• Demonstrated a willingness of the Raj to collaborate with Congress, perhaps undermining its strength and indicating Congress'  own power 

Links to events after

• Gandhi attended the second Round Table Conference