Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

FREEDOM MOVEMENT

of the Congress in a way which deterred the extremists. For the next 7 years, the Congress was the meeting place of the moderates. The moderates blamed the extremists for the Surat split. However it cannot be denied that the Surat split not only weakened the Indian Na- tional Congress but it virtually destroyed its effectiveness till the Lucknow session of 1916. During the Lucknow session in 1916, both the Congress and the Muslim League held their annual sessions at Lucknow. It was in that atmosphere of give and take that the Lucknow pact was signed by the two. As per the provisions of the pact, the provinces were to be free from the control of the Central government in matters of finance and admini- stration. The British bureaucrats in India particu- larly during the tenure of Lord Curzon and Minto were utterly hostile to Congressmen who spoke of the need for introducing greater representative institutions. However, the militant nationalists and the revolutionaries forced the Government to think of concili- atory steps. The Government encouraged Muslim separatism and tried to separate moderates from the extremists by constitutional reforms. Minto, Curzon’s successor as Vice- roy, had decided to play the game of ‘Divide and Rule.’ Certain reforms were introduced in 1909, which came to be called the Minto- Morley Reforms. These reforms provided for the participation of qualified Indians in Gov- ernment in deciding public issues. According to the reforms an Indian was to be appointed a member of the Governor- General's Executive Council and of each of the Provincial Executive Councils. 1909 - MINTO-MORLEY REFORMS

Satyendra Prasanna Sinha (later the first Sinha of Raipur) had the honour to be the first Indian, appointed Law Member of the Gover- nor-General's Council. Lord Morley clearly laid down that the Governor-Generals Coun- cil "in its legislative as well as its executive character should continue to be so constituted as to ensure its constant and uninterrupted power to fulfill the constitutional obligations that it owes and must always owe to his Maj- esty's government and to the Imperial Parlia- ment". The Act raised the number of the members of the Executive Councils of Bom- bay and Madras to 4. In 1909 an Executive Council was introduced in Bengal and in 1912 the newly formed province of Bihar and Orissa had one. The Act gave the authority to the government to constitute an Executive Coun- cil for a Lieutenant Governor's province also. The Act increased the size of the legisla- tive councils. The additional members of the Govemor-General's Council were increased up to a maximum of 60, those of Madras, Bombay, Bengal, UP, Bihar and Orissa to a maximum of 50 and those of the Punjab, Burma and Assam to 30. The Governor-Gen- eral had the power to nominate three non- officials to the Governor- General's Council to. represent certain specified communities and he had also at his disposal 12 other seats to be filled by nomination. The remaining 27 seats were to be filled by non-official elected members, some of whom represented certain special constituencies such as landowners in seven provinces, the Muhameddans in 5 prov- inces and two chambers of commerce in Cal- cutta and Bombay. The Act did not provide for an official majority in the provincial legis- lative councils. The majority of the members were to be non-officials. Some of the non-of- ficials were to be nominated by the Governor. There were three main types of elector- ates for the Central Legislature : (1) general, consisting of non-official members of the pro- vincial legislative councils; (2) class, such as Muslims and landholders ; and (3) special, like the universities and chambers of com- merce. Muslim landlords and European capi- talists got reserved seats. The functions of the legislative councils were increased. Elaborate rules, were made for the discussion of the budget in the Imperial Legislative Council. Every member was given the right to move any resolution relating to any alteration in taxation, any new loan or any additional grant to local governments

serious differences between the two; a resolu- tion urging the annulment of the partition was moved. The resolution stated, "Whereas the people ...... have no say in matters of admini- stration the Congress is of the view that the boycott movement... against the partition of Bengal was and is still justified". Supporting the resolution, Bipin Chandra Pal hinted that boycott means ‘total non-co-operation with the government’. Similarly resolutions on swadeshi, national education and self-govern- ment were passed. The important achieve- ments of the Calcutta Congress, was the ac- ceptance of the two terms 'Swaraj' and 'self- government' as the political objective. One important effect had been that the undisputed authority of the moderates in the field of politics was on the wane. The tempo of the national movement rose with the deportation of Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh of Punjab and the prosecution of the Sandhya and Bande Mataram for publish- ing seditious articles. The radical wing of Tilak and Aurobindo decided on a showdown when the venue of the Congress was shifted from Poona to Surat and Tilak's claim to the presidency was rejected for that of Rashbehari Ghose. SURAT SPLIT At the Surat session in 1907, the Con- gress broke up in chaos. The nationalists had been split into two warring camps. The split was due to many causes. There were fundamental differences be- tween the moderates and extremists over the loyalty to the English, ultimate goal, method, approach and strategy. Further the resolutions passed at the Calcutta Congress were more the offspring of a compromise rather than unity. The Calcutta Congress fixed the next venue at Nagpur but later it was shifted to Surat - a stronghold of moderates. Dissat- isfied with the resolutions of the Calcutta session the moderates tried to undo the same at Surat much against the wishes of extremists. Difficulties also arose over the election of the President; while extremists proposed the' name of Lajpat Rai; the mod- erates wanted Rashbehari Ghose as the President. The Surat session of Dec. 26 1907 ended amidst chaos over the pruning of some of the resolutions and the Dec. 27 session was adjourned when Tilak asked for a place on the platform to address the delegates. The moderates later met on 28th Dec. 1907 and took steps to change the constitution