Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

FREEDOMMOVEMENT

on the constitutional changes in the Central Legislative Assembly on February 18. The motion was carried in the Assembly. On June 27, the A.I.C.C. met at Ahme- dabad. There was an altercation between Gandhi and the Swarajists over the new con- stitution of the Congress. On November 23, a pact was signed be- tween Gandhi and the Swarajya party on March 29,1925, C.R. Das issued a manifesto condemning violence perpetuated by the Gov- ernment. On June 16, C.R. Das died. On Aug 22, Vithal bhai Patel was elected the president of the Central Legislative Assembly. In the Kanpur session of the Congress held on Dec 26-28, the Congress, the members of the Swarajya party were directed to walk out of the Legislatures (which they did in March, 1926). 1926 : On April 3, conference of all political parties was held except the Congress. After the death of Chittaranjan Das in mid-1925, the Bengal ‘ Swarajists’ were in total disarray. Meanwhile communalism was beginning to make headway in the country, feeding on political inactivity and frustration. Even the Swarajists were affected by the communal virus. After the death of C.R. Das the Muslim League and the Hindu Mahasabha, started in 1917, once more became active. The Swarajya Party split when Madan Mohan Malaviya and Lajpat Rai founded a purely Hindu party - the so-called Independent Congress Party - under whose banner they fought the coming elec- tions. Communal riots broke out in Delhi, Lucknow, Allahabad, Jabalpur and Nagpur. No less than sixteen riots took place in 1925. The Calcutta riots of 1926 were the worst. The Statutory Commission of 1928 listed 112 communal riots between 1922 and 1927 in which approximately 450 lives were lost and 5,000 persons were injured. 1927-28 - Shapurji Saklatwala became a member of British Parliament. Emergence of Nalini Gupta, S. A. Dange and Muzaffar Ahmed. Princely states met in Bombay to demand integration of Indian states and found AISPC (All India State People's Conference)

be set up to review the fitness of India for further reforms and extension of parliamen- tary democracy. This came to be known as the Simon Commision as Sir John Simon was its Chairman. M. A. Ansari, the Congress President at the Madras session of 1927, declared a Congress boycott of the Commision's work of enquiry. ‘Indian people are entitled to de- termine their own constitution ei- ther by a Round Table Conference or by a convention parliament. That claim has been definitely negatived by the appointment of the commis- sion... We cannot be parties to an enquiry into our fitness for Swaraj or for any measure of responsible government. ..The third reason (for boycott) in undoubtedly the affront to Indian self-respect involved in the deliberate, exclusion of Indians from the commission. ’

leaders who did not see eye-to-eye with the Congress and held an All-India Muslim con- ference on Jan 1,1929 which issued a mani- festo of Muslim demands. This formed the ba- sis of the 14 demands formulated by Jinnah in the same year. On April 8, Bhagat Singh and Batukeswar Datta threw bombs in the Assembly Hall at Delhi. Lahore conspiracy case - The govern- ment started a case against Bhagat Singh- the Lahore conspiracy case. Some of the accused protested against their treatment as prisoners. To draw public attention to their stand they went on a hunger-strike. Finally, the jail au- thorities were compelled to feed them forci- bly, so that they would not die as martyrs. In reply to the Congress demands the Viceroy Lord Irwin declared on Oct 31,1929 that the ‘natural issue of India's constitutional progress' was the attainment of Dominion status and announced that a Round Table Conference of all parties would be held in London to discuss the recommendations of the Simon Commission. As this fell far short of its demands the Congress at its Lahore session in December 1929 declared complete independence -‘PURNA SWARAJ’ as its goal and decided to boycott the Round Table Conference and took steps to launch a pro- gramme of civil disobedience. This was inter- preted by the no-change group as boycotting all legislative, executive and other govern- ment institutions. The broad masses of India sympathized with the Congress demand for Puma Swaraj. The demand was accepted by not only the youth, but also the older generation, and the moderate Swarajists and non-changers in the Congress. ‘On Dec. 31, 1929 at the stroke of the midnight the resolution of PURNA SWARAJ was passed. As 1930 ushered in, the Flag of Independence, the tri colour, was unfurled to the deafening shouts of Jatin Das who refused to take food and medicine died on 13th Sept 1929.

- S. Srinivasa Iyengar.

The Congress, the Liberal Federation, and initially, even the Muslim League decided to boycott the Simon Commission.

The Congress slogan.

Go Back, Simon

which confronted the Commission wherever it went created a bond of unity in the national struggle. The police lathi-charged demonstra- tors and among the many who were injured were Lala Lajpat Rai who received serious injuries from which he died on November 17, 1928. On 3 February 1928 when the Commis- sion landed in Bombay it was met by huge processions, with ‘GoBack, Simon’ banners and black flags. * On Aug 28-31 - All parties convention held in Calcutta. Congress session in Calcutta accepted the constitution for India drafted by the Nehru Committee.

“INQUILAB ZINDABAD”

1929

Long Live Revolution

In November 1927, the British Cabinet

* The Muslim League grew in strength.

announced that a Royal Commission would

Mohammed Ai Jinnah joined the Muslim