09th Aug, 2021

Political Party in pre-independence India

Political associations before the Indian National Congress

• The Indian National Congress was not the first political organization in India.
• However, most of the political associations in the early half of the nineteenth century were dominated by wealthy and aristocratic elements. They were local or regional in character.
• Through long petitions to the British Parliament most of them demanded:
  • administrative reforms,
  • association of Indians with the administration, and
  • spread of education.
• The political associations of the second half of the nineteenth century came to be increasingly dominated by the educated middle class and they had a wider perspective and a larger agenda.

Political Associations in Bengal

(1) The Bangabhasha Prakasika Sabha

• It was formed in 1836 by associates of Raja Rammohan Roy.

(2) The Zamindari Association,

• More popularly known as the ‘Landholders’ Society’, was founded to safeguard the interests of the landlords.
• Although limited in its objectives, the Landholders’ Society marked the beginning of an organized political activity and use of methods of constitutional agitation for the redressal of grievances.

(3) The Bengal British India Society

• It was founded in 1843.
• Objective: the collection and dissemination of information relating to the actual condition of the people and to employ such other means of peaceful and lawful character as may appear calculated to secure the welfare, extend the just rights and advance the interests of all classes of our fellow subjects
• In 1851, both the Landholders’ Society and the Bengal British India Society merged into the British Indian Association.
• It sent a petition to the British Parliament demanding –
  • establishment of a separate legislature of a popular character;
  • separation of executive from judicial functions;
  • reduction in salaries of higher officers; and
  • abolition of salt duty, abkari and stamp duties.
• These were partially accepted when the Charter Act of 1853 provided for the addition of six members to the governor-general’s council for legislative purposes.

(4) The East India Association

• It was organised by Dadabhai Naoroji in 1866 in London.
• Objective: to discuss the Indian question and influence public men in England to promote Indian welfare.
• Later, branches of the association were started in prominent Indian cities.

(5) The Indian League

• It was started in 1875 by Sisir Kumar Ghosh.
• Objective: stimulating the sense of nationalism amongst the people and of encouraging political education.

(6) The Indian Association of Calcutta

• It is also known as the Indian National Association superseded the Indian League.
• It was founded in 1876 by younger nationalists of Bengal led by Surendranath Banerjea and Ananda Mohan Bose, who were getting discontented with the conservative and pro-landlord policies of the British Indian Association.
• The Indian Association was the most important of pre-Congress associations.
• Objective: to “promote by every legitimate means the political, intellectual and material advancement of the people.”
• It set out to

1. create a strong public opinion on political questions, and
2. unify Indian people in a common political programme.

• It protested against the reduction of age limit in 1877 for candidates of the Indian Civil Service examination.
• The association demanded simultaneous holding of civil service examination in England and India and Indianisation of higher administrative posts.
• It led a campaign against the repressive arms act and the vernacular press act. Branches of the association were opened in other towns and cities of Bengal and even outside Bengal.
• The association sponsored an all India conference which first took place in Calcutta on December 28 to 30, 1883. It later merged with the Indian National Congress in 1886.

Political Associations in Bombay

(1) The Poona Sarvajanik Sabha

• It was founded in 1867 by Mahadeo Govind Ranade and others, with the object of serving as a bridge between the government and the people.

(2) The Bombay Presidency Association

• It was started by Badruddin Tyabji, Pherozshah Mehta and K.T. Telang in 1885.

Political Associations in Madras

The Madras Mahajan Sabha was founded in 1884 by M. Viraraghavachari, B. Subramaniya Aiyer and P. Anandacharlu.

Pre-congress campaigns

These campaigns were –

(i) for the imposition of import duty on cotton (1875)

(ii) for Indianisation of government service (1878-79)

(iii) against Lytton’s Afghan adventure

(iv) against Arms Act (1878)

(v) against Vernacular Press Act (1878)

(vi) for the right to join volunteer corps

(vii) against plantation labour and against Inland Emigration Act

(viii) in support of Ilbert Bill

(ix) for an All India Fund for Political Agitation

(x) campaign in Britain to vote for the pro-India party

(xi) against reduction in maximum age for appearing in

Indian national congress

Foundation of Indian National Congress

• First session held in 1885 (Bombay).
• Indian National Union, formed by A.O. Hume, became Indian National Congress.
• Foundational theories of INC and prominent believers:

a. Safety Valve Theory —Lala Lajpat Rai

b. Conspiracy Theory—R.P. Dutt

c. Lightning conductor Theory—G.K. Gokhale

Important leaders of Moderate Phase

• Dadabhai Naoroji, Badruddin Tyabji, Pherozeshah Mehta, P.Ananda Charlu, Surendranath Banerjea, Romesh Chandra Dutt, Ananda Mohan Bose, G.K. Gokhale, etc.

Early Nationalist Methodology

• Constitutional agitation within four walls of law
• Create public opinion in India and campaign for support to Indian demands in England
• Political education of people
• Political connections with Britain in India’s interests at that stage
• Time not ripe for direct challenge to colonial rule

Contributions of Moderate Nationalists

• Economic critique of British imperialism
• Constitutional reforms and propaganda in legislature
• Campaign for general administrative reforms
• Defense of civil rights

All-India Muslim League

Background:

• The communal idea that the Muslims are a separate nation was sown into the Indian political ethos first by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, a philosopher and Muslim reformist.
• He had founded the Muhammadan Educational Conference in 1886 but this organization stayed away from politics and desisted from even discussing it as per its own code.
• On 30 December 1906, around 3000 delegates attended a conference of the Muhammadan Educational Conference at Dhaka in which the ban on politics was removed and a motion was moved to form the AIML.
• The AIML was the first Muslim political party of India.
• The idea was that the Congress Party was only catering to the needs of the Hindus.
• Founders: Khwaja Salimullah, Vikar-ul-Mulk, Syed Amir Ali, Syed Nabiullah, Khan Bahadur Ghulam and Mustafa Chowdhury.
• The first Honorary President of the League was Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah (Aga Khan III).
• Objective: to promote and secure civil rights for Muslims. It espoused loyalty to the British government as a means to achieve more political and civil rights.
• Muhammad Ali Jinnah joined the league in 1913.
• They provided the government with a tool to fight the growing nationalism in the country. Even though partition of the country was not on the minds of Indian Muslims in the early years of the league, it came into the picture after 1930.
• Leaders of the league began the propaganda that Hindus and Muslims are not one nation and have separate cultures and identities although they have been cohabiting for centuries.
• In 1940, Jinnah gave a speech in Lahore in which he talked of the impossibility of living as one nation nad formulated the Two-Nation Theory.

Other important political parties in the Pre-independence era

(1) Communist Party of India 1925

• It was formed on 26 December 1925 at the first Party Conference in Kanpur. S.V. Ghate was the first General Secretary of CPI.
• There were many communist groups formed by Indians with the help of foreigners in different parts of the world.
• Tashkent group of Contacts were made with Anushilan and Jugantar the groups in Bengal, and small communist groups were formed in Bombay (led by S.A. Dange), Madras (led by Singaravelu Chettiar), United Provinces (led by Shaukat Usmani), Punjab, Sindh (led by Ghulam Hussain) and Bengal (led by Muzaffar Ahmed).

(2) All India Forward Bloc 1939

• In April 1939, Subhash Chandra Bose left Congress and on 3 May 1939, he established the “Forward Bloc” of the Indian National Congress.
• He started publishing a newspaper titled Forward Bloc.

(3) Ghadar Party 1913-1919

• The Ghadar Party, initially the Pacific Coast Hindustan Association, was formed in 1913 in the United States.
• It was founded by Sohan Singh Bhakna and Lala Hardayal. Its aim was to get rid of the colonial super-power by means of an armed struggle and to set up a national democratic government on the sub-continent.

(4) Swaraj Party 1923-1935

• After the Chauri Chaura incident, Mahatma Gandhi withdrew the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1922. This was met with a lot of disagreements among leaders of the Congress Party.
• While some wanted to continue non-cooperation, others wanted to end the legislature boycott and contest elections. The former were called no-changers and such leaders included Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, C Rajagopalachari, etc.
• The others who wanted to enter the legislative council and obstruct the British government from within were called the pro-changers. These leaders included C R Das, Motilal Nehru, Srinivasa Iyengar, etc.
• In 1922, in the Gaya session of the Congress, C R Das (who was presiding over the session) moved a proposal to enter the legislatures but it was defeated.
• Das and other leaders broke away from the Congress and formed the Swaraj Party. C R Das was the President and the Secretary was Motilal Nehru.
• Prominent leaders: N C Kelkar, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Subhas Chandra Bose.

(5) Hindustan Socialist Republican Association 1928-1936

• Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) was a revolutionary organization, previously it was known as the Hindustan Republican Army.
• Founded by: Ram Prasad Bismil, Sachindra Nath Bakshi, Sachindranath Sanyal and Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee.
• A manifesto for the party was written by Sanyal titled ‘Revolutionary’. It contained incendiary material asking the youth of the country to join the party and take part in the freedom struggle.
• It did not approve of the methods used by Gandhi and criticized them. The manifesto stated that it sought to achieve a ‘Federal Republic of the United States of India’ after overthrowing British rule.
• It also demanded universal suffrage. The material espoused a socialist society for India.
• In 1924 – 25, many young people joined the party, prominent among them being Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Chandrasekhar Azad.

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