Congress party’s first steps to power
R. L. Singal

From Movement to Government: The Congress in the United Provinces, 1937-1942
by Visalakshi Menon. Sage Publications, New Delhi. Rs 395. Pages 364

THE book under review discusses the work of the Indian National Congress in UP from 1937 to 1942 as a political party crusading for independence from the British as also against the latter’s encouragement to the divisive communal forces, particularly the designs of the Muslim League. It also analyses the role of the party’s government from

July 1937 to October 1939 (during the course of 28 months of its holding office).

The populous province of UP, in many ways, represented India in miniature. The author herself states that the choice of UP was an irresistible one because, according to

Gyanendra Pandey, whom she quotes, the province mirrored in a particularly acute form some of the principal opportunities and problems facing the national movement in the country as a whole.

UP was the nerve centre of this movement. The Civil Disobedience Movement of 1930 and the Government of India Act of 1935 rightly formed the backdrop to this study. This Act was an ingenious device adopted by the British Government to divert the attention of the Congress, which spearheaded the mass movement for independence "into Constitutional channels, to provincialise it and reduce its influence through countervailing representation for the princely states".

This assessment of the learned author shows her incisive mind and deep inside. She has dealt with the Congress party’s sincere and, to a large extent, successful efforts to establish close contacts with the people, particularly the peasants in the countryside, understand their problems and take concrete steps to ameliorate these.

After the Congress took office in July 1937 in six provinces after the general election held under the 1935 Act with its limited franchise of about 13 per cent of the population, a great responsibility devolved on the party. It had to fulfil the aspirations of the people not only for good governance and a prompt redressing of their grievances, but also by way of taking steps for their economic betterment to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor by undertaking land reforms and other social welfare measures. Another challenge to the party’s ingenuity and capability was to deal with the rabid communal propaganda of the Muslim League under M.A. Jinnah, whose only aim in life was to thwart the efforts of the Congress to forge a Hindu-Muslim unity. In spite of all its sincerity and good work in this direction, the Congress largely failed on this score.

The main focus of the study, according to the author, "is on the Congress organisation in this period and the manner in which it dealt with the challenges thrown by the British Government". The author is of the opinion that because of the fairly good work done by them, the fibre of the British authority was eroded by the Congress ministries, not wholly or in full measure, but substantially. The Congress was a catalyst of change in thinking in the sense that the Congressmen whom the British bureaucracy had been used to treating as law-breakers and agents of sedition had suddenly become their masters. At least the Indians among the members of the Steel Frame had their first glimpse of an alternative future. Their hearts did start pulsating with national ethos and pride. This alarmed the governors and the Viceroy.

Another plus point for the Congress was that students and the youth had come into the forefront of political activity, which was a source of strength and inspiration to the old leadership. The steps taken by the Congress Government during the short period of its rule made the landlords and capitalists realise that their vested interests would not be protected in the new dispensation, but certain cherished Congress ideals such as prohibition remained a distant dream because of budgetary constraints. Still, after these 28 months of governance, the people were convinced that the Congress, hitherto a party of agitators and freedom fighters, was capable of playing a constructive role.

With the formation of a purely Congress ministry in UP, the Muslim League under Jinnah became frustrated. Its frustration made it adopt a much more strident and aggressive stance in fanning communal passions and labelling the Congress rule as Hindu Raj out to suppress the Muslims and annihilate their culture. Here the reviewer is reminded of the farsightedness of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who, just before the formation of the ministry in UP had struck a deal with two leading figures of the Muslim League leadership in UP, namely Nawab Ismail Khan and Chaudhary Khaliquzzaman, that both of them would be taken into the ministry headed by G.B. Pant.

They gave in writing that they would accept the Congress programme and fully cooperate with the national party in running the affairs of the state. After the departure of Maulana

Azad to Patna on his mission of ministry-making in Bihar, Jawaharlal Nehru repudiated this agreement and told the two Muslim League stalwarts that only one of them could come in.

They naturally declined, and thus the great Maulana’s strategy of demolishing the League in UP ended in a fiasco. "All students of Indian politics know that it was from UP that the League was reorganised. Jinnah took advantage of the situation and started an offensive which ultimately led to Pakistan," laments the Maulana in his well-argued and authentic book ‘India Wins Freedom’. This incident of UP politics appears to have escaped the attention of the learned author, whose books, otherwise, is well documented and based on extensive research.

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