The Congress Ministries (1937-39)

Under the provincial-autonomy provisions of the 1935 Act, the first elections were held in 1937. The Congress had a sharp internal debate over whether to take office at all, but it swept the polls and formed ministries in most provinces. Its 28 months in office (1937-39) proved that a movement could use state power without being co-opted. The ministries eased civil liberties and attempted reform. But they also exposed the strains of running a colonial administration, before all of them resigned in 1939 over the war. This is a high-yield topic.

The early 1930s produced a strong socialist current inside the Congress. Young Congressmen, disillusioned after the Civil Disobedience Movement, founded the Congress Socialist Party (CSP) in 1934 at Bombay. Its aim was to work within the Congress and push the national movement towards a socialist programme. Its prominent leaders were Acharya Narendra Dev, Jayaprakash Narayan, Minoo Masani, Achyut Patwardhan, Asoka Mehta and Ram Manohar Lohia. Nehru and Subhas Bose stood outside the CSP but gave the broader left its national voice.

The CSP is often misread, so its actual positions matter:

• Method: it stood for democratic socialism reached through mass organisation of peasants and workers, not for a dictatorship of the proletariat on the communist model.
• Programme: it pressed for agrarian reform and planning. It did not adopt the old tactics of boycott of British goods or evasion of taxes, which belonged to earlier mass movements.
• Electorates: it opposed separate electorates for minorities and oppressed classes, in line with the Congress rejection of communal representation.

The left's growth alarmed business interests. In 1936, when Nehru as Congress president preached socialism at the Lucknow session, twenty-one leading industrialists signed the Bombay Manifesto, a public statement that openly opposed the spread of socialist ideas. Its support, however, was largely confined to the Bombay business circle. Capitalists elsewhere in India did not rally behind it, and many businessmen preferred to keep working with the Congress.

Everyone in the Congress agreed the 1935 Act must be opposed "root and branch." They disagreed, however, on how to do it at a time when a mass movement was not possible. The Congress agreed to contest the elections, but the question of accepting office if it won split the party along left-right lines:

• Nehru, Subhas Bose and the Congress socialists and communists opposed office acceptance. They argued it would mean "assuming responsibility without power," would blunt the rejection of the Act, and would sidetrack the real struggle. As a counter-strategy, the leftists proposed entering the councils only to create deadlocks.
• The proponents of office acceptance argued it was a short-term tactic, since mass struggle was not then possible. Office could be used to promote constructive work and should not be left to pro-government reactionaries.

Gandhi was initially opposed in the Working Committee, but came round by 1936 to giving the ministries a trial. At its Lucknow (1936) and Faizpur (1937) sessions, the Congress resolved to fight the elections and postpone the office decision to after them. The resolution was "not to submit to this constitution... but to combat it both inside and outside the legislatures so that it can be ended."

Elections to the provincial assemblies were held in February 1937 in 11 provinces. This was the first election in which a far larger number of Indians could vote: about 30 million, 14 per cent of the population, including 4.25 million women. The Congress manifesto reaffirmed total rejection of the 1935 Act. It promised release of prisoners, agrarian reform, debt relief, and the right to form unions.

The Congress swept the polls, winning 716 of the 1,161 seats it contested and a majority in most provinces. It formed ministries in Bombay, Madras, the Central Provinces, Orissa, the United Provinces, Bihar, and later the NWFP and Assam. Gandhi advised Congressmen to hold office "lightly, not tightly." These were "crowns of thorns," to be used in ways the British had not intended, and to prove the Congress could rule with the least help from the police and army.

The record of the ministries:

• Civil liberties: emergency laws were repealed, press restrictions and bans on organisations lifted, political prisoners and revolutionaries released, confiscated lands and pensions restored, and police powers curbed (though there were blemishes, some socialists were arrested).
• Agrarian reform: the ministries were hampered by inadequate powers, scarce finances, the need to conciliate landlords, and the looming war. They still passed laws on land reform, debt relief, tenancy and rent. But most benefits went to statutory and occupancy tenants, not sub-tenants or labourers.
• Labour: the approach was to advance workers' interests while keeping industrial peace through conciliation; militant strikes were treated as law-and-order problems.
• Welfare: prohibition in some areas, measures for Harijan welfare (temple entry, scholarships), attention to education and public health, encouragement to khadi and indigenous enterprise, and a National Planning Committee under Subhas Bose (1938).

Congress rule revealed the strains of power. By 1939, internal squabbles and hunger for office had begun to surface. An apparent anti-labour shift (the Bombay Trades Disputes Act, 1938) and the Praja Mandal dilemma over the princely states further tested the leadership. The Praja Mandals were local people's movements inside the princely states, demanding responsible government from their rulers. Their umbrella body was the All-India States' Peoples' Conference, which coordinated the agitation across the states. In 1939, Jawaharlal Nehru accepted its presidency. His acceptance signalled that the Congress now openly identified itself with the struggle of the states' people. The Muslim League, aggrieved at being shut out of power, set up the Pirpur Committee (1938) to allege atrocities against Muslims under Congress rule.

On the outbreak of the Second World War, the viceroy declared India a belligerent without consulting Indian opinion. In protest, the Congress ministries resigned in October 1939.

Evaluation. Despite the strains, the 28 months were significant. They confirmed that Indian self-government was necessary for radical change. They showed a movement could use state power without being co-opted. The ministries helped control communal riots, lowered the morale of the bureaucracy, neutralised hostile elements, and let people glimpse "the shape of things to come if independence was won."