Abstract
The nine-and-a-half years between the appointment of the Simon Commission in November 1927 and the formation of popular ministries in the provinces in July 1937 were full of complex and often contradictory political developments. The national movement, deliberately and insultingly ignored through the setting-up of an all-white Commission to consider the next instalment of constitutional changes, fought its way through the First Civil Disobedience campaign to a position of near-equality with the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of March 1931. This was followed by a major British counter-offensive under Willingdon and Ramsay Macdonald’s National Government, which had apparently smashed the Congress by 1933–34. The victory was soon proved illusory, however, by the sweeping Congress electoral triumph of March 1937 which for the first time gave the national movement some real, though very partial, control over the state machinery at the provincial level.
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Further Readings
For economic developments, see Bipan Chandra, ‘Colonialism and Modernization’, in his Nationalism and Colonialism in Modern India (Delhi, 1979); C. J. Baker, Politics, Ch. III as well as his ‘Colonial Rule and the Internal Economy in Twentieth Century Madras’, in Power, Profit and Politics, Amiya Bagchi, Private Investment
and Rajat Ray, Industrialization in India: Growth and Conflict in the Private Corporate Sector 1914–47 (Delhi, 1979), passim. The best study of Indo-British economic relations in this period is Basudev Chatterji, Lancashire Cotton Trade, that of Indian business attitudes, Claude Markovits, Indian Business and Nationalist Politics from 1931 to 1939; both are due for publication in the near future. Basudev Chatterji has recently published part of his data in ‘Business and Politics in the 1930s: Lancashire and Making of the Indo-British Trade Agreement, 1939 in Power, Profit and Politics. I am deeply grateful to Basudev Chatterji and Claude Markovits for permitting me to use some of their findings in my Chs. VI and VII. For an alternative view, which sees India acquiring virtual economic independence already from the 1920s,
see I. A. Drummond, British Economic Policy and Empire, 1919–39 (London, 1972),
C. Dewey, ‘End of Imperialism of Free Trade: Eclipse of Lancashire Lobby and Concession of Fiscal Autonomy to India’, in Dewey and Hopkins, (ed.) Imperial Impact: Studies in the Economic History of Africa and India (London, 1978),
and B. R. Tomlinson, Political Economy of the Raj, 1914–47 (London, 1979).
2
For general accounts of 1928–29, see S. Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru (Vol. I). D. G. Tendulkar, Mahatma, Vol. II. Judith Brown, Gandhi and Civil Disobedience, Ch. 1–2. The Indian Annual Register proved most useful for this and subsequent sections in Chs. 6 and 7. British policy is competently surveyed in R. J. Moore, Crisis of Indian Unity. On the Nehru Report negotiations, see also Uma Kaura, Muslims and Indian Nationalism (Delhi, 1977), C. Khaliquzzaman, Pathway, and P. Hardy, Muslims of British India.
For princely states, R. L. Handa, History of Freedom Movement in Princely States (New Delhi, 1968), and R. J. Moore, Crisis of Indian Unity. For youth movements, see Gopal, Nehru; J. Nehru, An Autobiography, and his Selected Works, Vol. IV;
and Subhas Bose, The Indian Struggle, (Calcutta, 1935, 1964). On the revival of revolutionary terrorism, and new trends within it, see Terrorism in India, 1917–36 (Government of India, 1917–36. raptd. Delhi, 1974).
Bipan Chandra, ‘Ideological Development of Revolutionary Terrorists in Northern India in the 1920s, in his Nationalism and Colonialism and Bhagat Singh, Why I Am An Atheist (reptd. Delhi 1979). On labour and the Communists, see Petrie, Communism; Williamson, India and Communism 1928–35 (in Hallet Collection, I.O.L.).
Sukomal Sen, Working Class, Murugesan and Subramanyam, Singaravelu, Gautam Chattopadhyay, Communism and Bengal’s Freedom Movement, Volume I, 1917–29 (New Delhi, 1970),
Sarkar, National Movement and Popular Protest in Bengal, 1928–34 (unpublished thesis, Delhi University, 1981),
Subodh Roy (ed), Communism in India—Unpublished Documents 1925–34 (Calcutta, 1972). Vinay Behl, Sramik Andolan and G. Omvedt, Cultural Revolt. Ch. 13 (which summarizes the findings of R. Newman, Labour Organization in Bombay Cotton Mills 1919–29, an unpublished Sussex thesis which I have not been able to see).
My account of agrarian issues and kisan movements is based on Partha Chatterji, Agrarian Relatiohs, T. Sarkar, Popular Protest, Azim Husain, Fazl-i-Husain (London, 1946).
Ramesh Walia, Praja Mandal Movement in East Punjab States (Patiala, 1972),
W. Hauser, Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha, 1929–42 (unpublished thesis, Chicago, 1961, N.M.M.L. microfilm): B. Stoddart in Low (ed.), Congress and the Raj,
Mahadev Desai, Story of Bardoli (Ahmedabad, 1929); and Ghanshyam Shah, ‘Traditional Society and Political Mobilization: The Experience of Bardoli Satyagraha 1920–28’, Contributions of Indian Sociology, No. 8, 1974.
The section on Simon boycott and labour upsurge is based on considerable part also on my own research, using the Annual Reports of the Indian National Congress, Indian Chamber of Commerce, and Bombay Mill-owners’ Association; the Home Political and A.I.C.C. files and the private papers of Irwin, Birkenhead and Sykes at I.O.L. of Benthall at Cambridge, and of Thakurdas and Jayakar at the N.M.M.L. and the N.A.I.
3
Studies of the first Civil Disobedience movement at the all-India level include Tendulkar, The Mahatma, Vol. III; S. Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru, Ch. 9; Judith Brown, Gandhi and Civil Disobedience; and S. Sarkar, ‘The Logic of Gandhian Nationalism: Civil Disobedience and the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, 1930–31’, Indian Historical Review, July 1976). Gandhi, Collected Works, Vol. 34–35, and Nehru, Selected Works, Vol. IV, include much valuable material.
See also S. A. Kochanek, Bnsiness and Politics in India (California, 1974);
and G. D. Birla, The Path to Prosperity (Allahabad, 1950) and In the Shadow of the Mahatma (Bombay, 1953) for business attitudes; Terrorism in India for the last wave of revolutionary terrorism;
S. Sarkar, ‘Primitive Rebellion and Modern Nationalism: A Note on Forest Satyagraha in the Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience Movements’, in K. N. Panikkar (ed), National and Left Movements in India (Delhi, 1980); R. J. Moore, Crisis of Indian Unity, for British policies.
D. A. Low, (ed.) Congress and the Raj, is a collection of valuable regional surveys; see particularly the articles of D. Hardiman on Gujarat, R. Kumar on Bombay city, B, Stoddart on coastal Andhra, G. Pandey on U. P., D. E. U. Baker on C.P., D. Arnold on Tamilnadu, and G. McDonald on Bihar, all of them focussed partly or sometimes mainly on Civil Disobedience. G. Pandey, Ascendancy is the best full-length study of a region available so far for the Civil Disobedience years. See also A. D. D. Gordon, Businessmen and Politics; D. Hardiman, Peasant Nationalists, Ch. 9; G. Omvedt, Cultural Revolt; G. S. Hallappa, History of Freedom Movement in Karnataka (Bangalore, 1964); Venkatarangaiyya, Andhra Pradesh; C. J. Baker, Politics, T. V. Krishnan Kerala’s First Communist: Life of ‘Sakha’ Krishna Pillai (New Delhi);
D. Arnold, Congress in Tamilnad, D. Baker, ‘Forest Satyagraha in the Central Provinces’. N. M. M. L. seminar (December 1980); A Guha, Planter Raj to Swaraj; J. Gallagher, Congress in Decline: Bengal 1930–39’ in Locality, Province and Nation;
T. Sarkar, ‘The First Phase of Civil Disobedience in Bengal 1930–1’ (Indian Historical Review, July 1977) and Communal Riots in Bengal 1930–1, in M. Hasan, (ed.), Communal and Pan-Islamic Trends in Colonial India, Delhi, 1981 as well as her unpublished thesis, already cited; R. Walia, Piara Mandal; W. Hauser, Kisan Sabha,
K. K. Datta, History of the Freedom Movement in Bihar, Vol. II (Patna, 1957); S. Henningham, Protest and Control in North Bihar, Ch. 3;
A. K. Gupta, North-West Frontier Province Legislature and the Freedom Struggle (New Delhi, 1976);
and D. G. Tendulkar, Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Bombay, 1967). Original sources used for this section include Home Political and AICC files, the Annual Reports of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Bombay Millowners’ Association and the private papers of Irwin, Sykes, R. E. Hawkins, Benthall, Thakurdas and Walchand Hirachand.
4
For general accounts of the Truce months, see S. Gopal, Nehru, Ch. 9; J. Nehru, An Autobiography; Judith Brown, Civil Disobedience, and Tendulkar, Vol. Ill. Regional details may be sought in D. Hardiman’s thesis, already cited; G. Pandey, Ascendancy; B. Stoddart in Congress and the Raj; P. N. Bazaz, History of the Struggle for Freedom in Kashnmir (New Delhi, 1954); W. Hauser, Kisan Sabha; T. Krishnan, Kerala’s First Com munist;
A. K. Gopalan, In the Cause of the People (Madras, 1976);
T. Ramakrishna, ‘Kisan Movement in Andhra 1918–38, in Proceedings of Seminar on Socialism in India (N.M.M.L. mimeograph, 1970). For official policies, see R. J. Moore, Crisis of Indian Unity; Basudev Chatterji, Business and Politics; C. A. Low, ‘Civil Martial Law: the Government of India and the Civil Disobedience Movements, 1930–34’ in Low, (ed.) Congress and the Raj; and P. S. Gupta, Imperialism and British Labour Ch. 7, 8. The original sources mentioned in the previous section have also been used, along with the Report of the Karachi Congress and the Indian Annual Register.
5
Many of the references for the first Civil Disobedience Movement are helpful also for 1932–33, particularly Congress and the Raj, J. Brown, G. Pandey, T. Sarkar, G. S. Halappa, C. J. Baker, and D. Arnold; see also G. H. Khan, Freedom Movement in Kashmir 1931–40 (New Delhi, 1980)
and H. Kruger, (ed.) K. M. Ashraf (Delhi, 1969). I have also drawn considerably on AICC and Home Political files and the private papers of Templewood (Hoare), Sykes. Hawkins and Thakurdas. For business realignments, the best accounts are by Basudev Chatterji and Claude Markovits; I have used also Kochanek, Business; G D. Birla, In The Shadow of the Mahatma, and the Jayakar and Thakurdas papers. There has been little research so far on Gandhi’s Harijan campaign: but see Tendulkar, Vol. III; D. Keer, Ambedkar, Murugesan and Subramanyam, Singaravelu; C. J. Baker, ‘Leading up to Periyvar’ and Eleanor Zelliot, ‘The Leadership of Babasaheb Ambedkar in B N. Pandey (ed.), Leadership in South Asia; and R. Jeffrey in People, Princes and Paramount Power. For conflicting ‘Right’ and ‘Left’ political trends, see Gopal; Nehru’s Autobiography and Selected Works; Tendulkar, Vol III; B. R. Tomlinson, Indian National Congress and the Raj 1929–42; Hauser, Kisan Sabha;
N. G. Ranga, Revolutionary Peasants (Delhi, 1949);
C. Revri, Indian Trade Union Movement (Delhi, 1972);
E. M. S. Namboodiripad, How I Became A Communist (Trivandrum, 1976), A. K. Gopalan, In the Cause of the People; and Subodh Ray, Communism in India. The most detailed study of the C.S.P. so far is T. A. Rusch, The Role of the Congress Socialist Party in the Indian National Congress (Unpublished thesis, N.M.M.L., microfilm).
D. M. Laushey, Bengal Terrorism and the Marxist Left (Calcutta, 1975), is a disappointing treatment of an important subject.
For the 1935 Act, see Coupland, Constitutional Problems; Gwyer and Appadorai, Speeches and Documents; R. J. Moore, Crisis of Indian Unity and B. R. Tomlinson, Indian National Congress and the Raj, 1929–42 (London, 1976). S. Gopal gives a good summary of the main political developments, and
Jawaharlal Nehru, A Bunch of Old Letters (Bombay, 1958) includes some illuminating correspondence of the mid and late-1930s. The Indian Annual Register is surprisingly informative, even about kisan movements; see also W. Hauser, Kisan Sabha, and the issues of the Congress Socialist (available at N.M.M.L.). For princely states, see R. L. Handa, R. Walia, and the Indian Annual Register. On Left trends in literature, see D. Anjanayulu, ‘Impact of Socialist Ideology on Telegu Literature between the Wars;’ Kaa Naa Subramanyam, ‘Socialism in Tamil Letters’, 1919–39; P. Padhye, ‘Impact of Socialism on Marathi Literature’; and S. S. Chauhan, ‘Impact of Socialist Ideology on Hindi Literature’ 1918–39—all in Socialism in India (N.M.M.L.) mimeograph, 1970);
Madan Gopal, Munshi Premchand—A Literary Biography (Bombay, 1964);
Sudhir Chandra, ‘The Ideal and the Real in Premchand’ (N.M.M.L. seminar paper, 1980); and
Ralph Russell, ‘Leadership in the All-India Progressive Writers Movement’, in B. N. Pandey, (ed.), Leadership in South Asia (New Delhi, 1977). For alignments within the Congress, and business attitudes, see Bipan Chandra, ‘Jawaharlal Nehru and the Capitalist Class 1936’, in his Nationalism and Colonialism; Claude Markovits, Indian Business, while the Thakurdass papers are particularly illuminating on the latter theme.
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Sarkar, S. (1989). Nationalist Advance and Economic Depression 1927–37. In: Modern India 1885–1947. Cambridge Commonwealth Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19712-5_6
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