the 1919 Reforms to test their real worth in practice—their strategy was to assert their accomplishments in the new floor of constitutional politics. Without the support of those politicians at that juncture and without their dare to work the new reforms, the history of constitutional politics and institutional configuration in British India and the post-independent India, Pakistan and Bangladesh could have taken entirely different shapes.
With the visible decline of the country-wide non-co-operation rebellion and the large-scale arrest of the campaign leaders and their cohorts, the immediate and the unflinching threat to the legislatures seemingly weakened. No longer, it was a great secret—Gandhi had little faith in the legislatures as the training ground for self-government and steady organizational growth.3 However, several among his colleagues, such as C. R. Das, Pandit Malaviya, Lajpat Rai, V. J. Patel, B. C. Pal and Motilal Nehru saw the prospect of utilizing the new legislative bodies for exerting added pressure on the Government for making further political concessions. So it was almost an anti-Gandhi rise up when those leaders took initiative to enter the Central and provincial legislatures. Thus, the schism between the two groups inside the Congress: one with Gandhi’s boycott of legislatures and the other willing to enter the new legislatures culminated in the creation of the Swaraj Party in 1923; it was a new political forum under the leadership of C. R. Das and Motilal Nehru, which put forward the controversial agenda to put themselves into the legislatures.4 Few doubted that the 1923 election was a thumping victory for the Swarajists in the central as well as in a few provincial legislatures.
With the 48-strong Swarajists headed by Motilal and Patel and a few outstanding Independents like Jinnah and Rangachariar, the centre of gravity of Indian politics, for a while, shifted to the Central Legislature in 1924. With an eye towards the Congress Party-led nationalist movement in the country and also to establish the new group’s credibility in the legislature, the immediate Swarajist goal was to set forth the well known political grievances.5 Their main target was to keep up the spirit of resistance to foreign rule at a juncture when the non-co-operation stir was no longer in the highest gear and the nationalist churn was rather at low ebb.6 The moderates among the nationalists seemingly felt that certain good things could be achieved through the legislatures and a range of constitutional opportunities were indeed offered by the new reforms.7 On his election as the President of the Assembly, V. J. Patel openly admitted on the floor of the House that the working of the Reforms ← 14 | 15 → convinced him to give up non-co-operation and go into the legislatures. He outlined a number of achievements by his predecessor Sir Frederick Whyte.8 For a while at least, the Swarajists appeared to be the legislative wing of the Indian National Congress although few would then admitted it openly. Their political actions inside the Central Assembly such as the rejection of budget and periodic censures of the Government habitually received the utmost publicity in the country outside. Public opinion was fully aware of the limitations of the new legislatures, but they seemed to be impressed by the vigor and acumen with which the political questions were pushed in the Assembly floor. Summing up the Swarajist achievements in the Second Assembly, the daily Hindu wrote: “It has to its credit solid achievements in the direction of asserting and in some cases at any rate, receiving recognition of the rights of the subjects. It was this Assembly, again, that repeatedly rejected by majorities of 63 to 56, the Government demands for grants and subsequently threw out the Finance Bill by 60 votes to 57, acting on the principle of redressing grievances before supply.”9 Such reactions of the press confirmed how far the Central Legislature was alive to the political mood outside. The British press was also watching then with a great interest what was happening in the Central Legislature: The Times, for example, came out with editorial comments on all major events in the Central Assembly.
The years from 1924 to 1926 offered an excellent opportunity to the Government to take a forward step in Indian constitutional development when the Swarajists were ready to co-operate with the Government on a range of social, economic and political issues. A positive response, on behalf of the British government, to the demand for a Round Table Conference in 1924 would have strengthened the hands of those politicians who wanted to exercise only constitutional methods for India’s political emancipation. Motilal Nehru’s amendment demanding a Round Table Conference in February 1924 was far more conciliatory than had been expected of the Swarajist leader.10 He said: “We have come here to do something which we have not been doing so far. Sir, we have come here to offer our co-operation, non-co-operators as we are, if you will care to co-operate with us; if you don’t, we shall, like men, stand upon their rights, continue to be non-co-operators.”11 The reasons for not responding to the Swarajist pleading to the Assembly were never fully revealed; however, some would blame Lord Reading, the then Viceroy for the lack of creative imagination for constructive initiatives.12 His biographer, however, revealed that the constitutional debate in 1924 was taken seriously by him.13 He wrote to Lord Oliver, the ← 15 | 16 → Secretary of State for India, explaining the need for some “cautious move” forward to “offer some inducement for goodwill and co-operation.”14 Lord Oliver seemed to be reluctant to concede any wider scheme of reforms.15 At this stage there was also some speculation about a “conference” between the Indian leaders and a few British statesmen to settle the questions of further constitutional advance.16 But eventually only a departmental enquiry popularly known as the Muddiman Enquiry was held into the working of the Reforms to explore the possibilities of further expansion within the precincts of the 1919 Act.17 It was a great disappointment for the Swarajists and Motilal refused to serve on the Committee but several Independent leaders like M. A. Jinnah and Sir Sivasawami Iyer were among the other members who agreed to work with the team. The Report of the Committee was, however, not unanimous and when it came up for the consideration of the Assembly in 1925, the Swarajists rejected it.18
The frustration over the questions of further constitutional expansion led the Swarajists to stage a walk-out from all the legislative bodies on March 8, 1926. It was but a political demonstration marking the Swarajists’ impatience with the Government. But in September 1926, they had to go back to the legislatures to stop the Government from rushing certain important bills. In the Central Assembly, the Government introduced the Currency Bill which would fix the exchange ratio of Indian Rupees. It was a matter of national importance and the Swarajists went back to the Assembly to adopt a motion postponing the Bill’s further consideration till the next session.19 There were several other significant developments at this stage which brought defection among the Swarajists and indeed the key controversy was over the utility of the legislatures in British India. Lajpat Rai resigned from the Swaraj Party as a protest against its policy of “walk-out” from the legislatures since he held that it was more harmful to the Hindus than any other class or community.20 He further argued that the “walk-out” of 40 to 50 Swarajists in the Assembly deprived only 4 or 6 Muslim constituencies of the services of their representatives, while the Hindu constituents’ loss of representation (from that walk-out) was about 6 or 7 times higher.21 The Swarajists who opposed such storming out of the legislative floor was known as the Responsive Co-operators who later formed an Independent Congress Party with a Central Board consisting of Pandit Malaviya, Lajpat Rai and Raja Narendra Nath for conducting elections.22 In the autumn of 1926, the Swarajist’ position was indeed unhappy; there was a mounting perception that they would possibly disappear at the future elections.23 ← 16 | 17 →
Much recorded in the British Indian Colonial history: the communal harmony achieved by the Khilafatists and Gandhi’s followers in 1920 and 1921 did not last long. The Hindus in general were doubtful of the extra-territorial patriotism that the Khilafat agitation implied.24 There was a sort of rebellion in Malabar by the Muslim Khilafatists who were better known as Moplahs. The rebels defied law and order and terrorized the public. Rumors had it that the Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam in that area, which, across the spectrum, offended the Hindus and a plethora of resolutions were moved in the central and provincial legislatures calling upon the Government to restore law and order in Malabar. It was not too difficult for the Government to bring the situation under control but the incident contributed to the Hindu-Muslim discord especially in South India that evidently spilled in other parts
