The elections to the Central Legislature and the Provincial Legislative Councils under the Government of India Act, 1919, were held in the winter of 1920. The Indian National Congress had resolved to boycott them. A number of liberal leaders were elected, prominent among whom were Srinivasa Shastri and Sivaswami Aiyer. They were great patriots and able legislators. They championed the cause of the people in the first Parliament of the country with great ability. They differed from the nationalists only about the methods of achieving their goal by constitutional means instead of through a mass struggle by the people. They attacked the Government in Parliament with great fury. Resolutions were moved one after another, to punish the officers responsible for brutal acts at Amritsar, for payment of compensation to the victims and for establishment of a tariff commission to protect the infant native industries. These attacks were launched with greater vigour in the subsequent sessions also. Resolutions were moved for full Indianisation of services and immediate grant of Swaraj. These great parliamentarians achieved a wonderful feat in their career when they were able to defeat the Government on the demands for grants, make cut motions, reject the proposals for enhancement in the excise duty and abrogate the Press Act.
This encouraged the Congress leaders like C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru to reconsider the decision of boycotting the legislative bodies after Gandhiji suspended the Non-Cooperation Movement in the wake of violence at Chauri Chaura. The idea was first mooted by C. R. Das and discussed by him with his colleagues in the Alipur Central Jail. He wanted to dispel the atmosphere of frustration and arouse a new enthusiasm among the people by changing the tactics of the struggle by the nationalists. He thought that the decision of boycotting the deliberative bodies by the Congress should be revoked and the Congress should enter the legislatures with the intention of offering obstruction from within. He, therefore, started a campaign in favour of his programme for the Council entry after his release from jail. The matter came up for consideration at the annual session of the Congress at Gaya in December 1922.C. R. Das, who presided over the session, made a fervent plea for the Council entry. There was stiff opposition to the proposal from the staunch Gandhians like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, C. Rajagopalachari and Dr. Ansari. They were known as the “non-changers”. They opposed the Council entry because they thought that it would create rivalries among leaders and thus weaken the nationalist fervour. The supporters of Das were known as the “pro-changers”. As unanimity could not be achieved, the matter was put to vote. The non-changers carried the day. In sheer disgust, Das resigned from the Congress. He formed a new party called the Congress Khilafat Swaraj Party on January 1, 1923, with the help of Motilal Nehru, Vitthalbhai Patel, Madan Mohan Malaviya and M. R. Jayakar. C. R. Das became the President and Motilal Nehru one of the secretaries. It came to be known later as the Swarajist Party. It had no ideological differences with the Indian National Congress and wanted to remain as its constituent. The Congress, therefore, accorded the necessary permission to the Swarajists to carry on their programme at its special session held at Delhi in September 1923, which was ratified by the regular session at Kakinada in December 1923.
The Swarajists held their first political conference at Allahabad in March 1923, where the constitution of the new party and its plans of action were prepared. Within a few months of its inception, the party had to jump in the election fray for the Central and the Provincial Legislatures due to be held in November 1923. It issued its manifesto on October 14, 1923, declaring its full faith in principles of “non-violent non-cooperation”, a gospel of Gandhiji. It further stated that its legislators would press for the right of the Indian people to frame their own constitution. If this was not acceded to, they would resort to a policy of uniform, continuous and consistent obstruction with a view to make government functioning impossible through the Assembly and Councils. The manifesto also elucidated that the party would seek cooperation of the members of other nationalist parties for the fulfilment of their programme and when the latter sought the cooperation and help of the party for the purpose of defeating the Government on both the official and non-official bills and resolutions, it would extend its full support.
The Swarajists achieved great success in the elections. They virtually routed the Liberals, defeating their veteran leader, Surendranath Banerjee. They obtained majority of seats in the Provincial Legislature of the Central Provinces, the status of the largest party in Bengal and the second largest group in Assam and United Provinces. In the Central Legislature, the Swarajists were able to capture 42 seats out of a total of 101 elected seats.
In the Central Assembly, the Swarajists formed a coalition with the group of independents led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah. The combination came to be known as the Nationalist Party. It had the strength of 72 members and was thus capable of defeating the Government, largely dependent for its support on the nominated non-officials and the official members numbering thirty-nine only. The joint programme of the coalition stated that if the Government did not make a satisfactory response to the resolution demanding reforms within a reasonable time, it would then be bound to adopt a policy of obstruction and follow such tactics as refusing supplies at the time of presentation of the demands for grants. It worked well as the amendment, moved by Motilal Nehru, to the resolution of Rangachariar asking the Governor-General to take steps to have the Government of India Act, 1919 reviewed with a view to establishing full responsible government in India and summoning a Round Table Conference for achieving that purpose was carried in the Central Assembly by 76 to 48 votes on February 19, 1924. Later, when the Assembly took up the voting of supplies on March 10, 1924, after the presentation of the budget by the Finance Member on February 29, 1924, the demand after demand was either cut down or totally refused. These included the demands under customs, income-tax, salt and opium. The discomfiture of the Government reached its climax when the Finance Bill was thrown out on March 17, 1924. The Assembly also rejected the report of the Lee Commission in September 1924 at the instance of Motilal Nehru, because its recommendations were generous to the Europeans and niggardly to the Indians.
The Swarajists members of the Provincial Councils also did quite a commendable job in the provinces. In Central Provinces, they had an absolute majority, but declined to join the ministry on the request of the Governor because they did not want to deviate from the principle of wrecking the Council from within. They were able to obtain rejection of the bills introduced in the Legislative Councils by the Ministers. In Bengal, the party was able to obtain approval of the legislature by 72 votes to 41 recommending the immediate release of the political prisoners. It was on this occasion that Das thundered in the Provincial Council, “We are told that the Government will never be coerced. If by coercion is meant the application of physical force, I agree. But if this statement means that the Government is not to yield to the wishes of the people, I differ entirely. If it is stated that the Government is not to be coerced, may I now make this declaration on behalf of the people of this country that the people will not be coerced either.”
The dawn of the year 1925 brought new laurels to the Swarajists. They were able to get the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance of 1924 struck down on February 5, 1925 by a resolution of the Assembly carried by 58 votes against 45. In March 1925, they succeeded in electing Vitthalbhai Patel as the President of the Assembly. In September 1925, they were able to carry the amendment moved by Motilal Nehru by 45 votes to 14 when the Assembly took up consideration of the report of Muddiman Committee. It urged the Government that Parliament should recognise the right of India to responsible government and immediately summon a Round Table Conference of Indian parties to frame a constitution and embody it in an Act. That was perhaps their last outstanding achievement. In fact, sharp differences had already cropped up within the ranks of the nationalist party due to the different temperamental attitudes of its leaders, Motilal Nehru and Mohammed Ali Jinnah. The former was a domineering personality who did not tolerate the difference of opinion lightly. In sharp contrast, Jinnah was aloof and aristocratic, always ready to offend as well as get provoked. Thus when the budget for the year 1925-26 was presented in the Assembly, the Swarajists wanted to follow the line of approach adopted by them
in the previous year, i.e., “no supplies till the grievances are removed.” The moderates and the nationalists did not see eye to eye with them upon this for the reason that they did not want that the Government should be paralysed by a whole refusal of demands. To them, it was not possible by this method to force the transfer of power immediately or in the near future.
On June 16, 1925, C. R. Das breathed his last, to the great misfortune of the country. His death was a severe blow to the Swarajist Party. The acceptance of an appointment in the Governor’s Executive Council by S. B. Tambe as a Member in Central Provinces on October 8, 1925, gave another jolt to the party. A fierce controversy arose. Motilal Nehru demanded an explanation from Tambe and convened a meeting of the party to consider the matter at Nagpur. Before the meeting could take place, M. R. Jayakar came out openly in defence of Tambe’s action considering it analogous to Vitthalbhai Patel’s becoming President of the Central Assembly. This brought a split in the party with Jayakar and Kelkar resigning from the Executive Committee and forming a new party known as the Responsive Cooperationists. They aimed at giving a fillip to the Council entry by “occupying every place of power, initiative and responsibility and giving no quarter to the bureaucracy.”
The general budget for the year 1926-27 came up for consideration before the Central Assembly in March 1927. Before the discussion started on the Demands for Grants, Motilal Nehru made a statement recalling how the hand of cooperation and friendship extended to the Government by the Swarajists had been rudely spurned. He gave a solemn warning to the British Government in the following words :
“There is no more use for us here. We go out into the country to seek the suffrage of the electorate once more. We do not give up the fight. We have no misgivings either about our fate or our deserts, and we go forth into the country to put it to the touch to win or lose it all. We feel that we have no further use for these sham institutions, and the least we can do to vindicate the honour and self-respect of the nation is to get out of them and go back to the country for work. In the country we will try to devise those sanctions which alone can compel any government to grant the demands of the people.”
Immediately after the statement, the Swarajists walked out of the Assembly in a body, over which President Vitthalbhai Patel took an exceptional step to adjourn the House. In the next election, held in November-December 1927, the Swarajists were again able to capture 40 seats out of 104 elected members, but they were balanced by their rivals, the Responsivists. When the Congress adopted the Purna Swaraj resolution at Lahore in December 1929 and later asked the members of the legislatures to resign their seats to participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement, the chapter of non-cooperation to the Government from within the deliberative bodies came to an abrupt end. The Swarajists were perhaps not able to achieve much towards the nations’s march to freedom, but were certainly successful in bringing home to the authorities that all the future plans of the constitutional advance must accept the Dominion Status as the major premise of the problem.
