CONGRESS RULE IN PROVINCES

Question 1

Civil Liberties during the 28 months of Congress rule?

Answer 1

• The Congress ministries did much to ease curbs on civil liberties:
  1. Laws giving emergency powers were repealed.
  2. Ban on illegal organisations, such as the Hindustan Seva Dal and Youth Leagues, and on certain books and journals was lifted.
  3. Press restrictions were lifted.
  4. Newspapers were taken out of black lists.
  5. Confiscated arms and arms licences were restored.
  6. Police powers were curbed and the CID stopped shadowing politicians.
  7. Political prisoners and revolutionaries were released, and deportation and internment orders were revoked.
  8. In Bombay lands confiscated by the government during the Civil Disobedience Movement were restored.
  9. Pensions of officials associated with the Civil Disobedience Movement were restored.

Question 2

1. _______, a socialist, was arrested by the Madras goverment for inflammatory speeches and later released.
2. ________, a socialist, was arrested by the Madras government for seditious speech and given a six months sentence.
3. _______, the Bombay home minister, used the CID against communists and leftists.

Answer 2

1. Yusuf Maherally
2. S.S. Batliwala
3. K.M. Munshi.

Question 3

Agrarian reforms during 28 months of Congress rule?

Answer 3

• Due to constraints Congress ministries could not undertake a complete overhaul of the agrarian structure by completely abolishing zamindari. These constraints were:
  1. The ministries did not have adequate powers.
  2. There were inadequate financial resources as a lion’s share was appropriated by the Government of India.
  3. Strategy of class adjustments was another hurdle since zamindars, etc., had to be conciliated and neutralised.
  4. There was constraint of time since the logic of Congress politics was confrontation and not cooperation with colonialism.
  5. War clouds had started hovering around 1938.
  6. The reactionary second chamber (Legislative Council) dominated by landlords, moneylenders and capitalists in United Provinces, Bihar, Bombay, Madras and Assam had to be conciliated as its support was necessary for legislations.
  7. The agrarian structure was too complex.
• In spite of these constraints, the Congress ministries managed to legislate a number of laws relating to land reforms, debt relief, forest grazing fee, arrears of rent, land tenures, etc.
• But most of these benefits went to statutory and occupancy tenants while sub-tenants did not gain much.
• Agricultural labourers did not benefit as they had not been mobilised.

Question 4

Social welfare reform during 28 months of Congress rule?

Answer 4

• These included the following-
  1. Prohibition imposed in certain areas.
  2. Measures for welfare of Harijans taken— temple entry, use of public facilities, scholarships, an increase in their numbers in government service and police, etc.
  3. Attention given to primary, technical and higher education and to public health and sanitation.
  4. Encouragement given to khadi through subsidies and other measures.
  5. Prison reforms undertaken.
  6. Encouragement given to indigenous enterprises.
  7. Efforts taken to develop planning through National Planning Committee set up under Congress president Subhash Bose in 1938.

Question 5

Extra Parliamentary Mass activity of Congress during the 28 months rule?

Answer 5

1. Launching of mass literacy campaigns.
2. Setting up of Congress police stations and panchayats.
3. Congress Grievance Committees presenting mass petitions to the government.
4. States peoples’ movements.

Question 6

28 month Congress rule was significant because?

Answer 6

1. The contention that Indian self-government was necessary for radical social transformation got confirmed.
2. Congressmen demonstrated that a movement could use state power to further its ends without being co-opted.
3. The ministries were able to control communal riots.
4. The morale of the bureaucracy came down.
5. Council work helped neutralise many erstwhile hostile elements (landlords, etc).
6. People were able to perceive the shape of things to come if independence was won.
7. Administrative work by Indians further weakened the myth that Indians were not fit to rule.

Question 7

What led to the Bombay Trades Disputes Act in 1938?

Answer 7

The huge Congress victory in the elections had aroused the hopes of the industrial worling class; there was increased militancy and industrial unrest in Bombay, Gujarat, the United Provinces and Bengal at a time when the Congress was drawn into a closer friendship with Indian capitalists. This resulted in Congress attitudes that led to the Bombay Traders Disputes Act in 1938.

Question 8

What was Pirpur Committee?

Answer 8

All India Muslim League, annoyed with the Congress for not sharing power with them established the Pirpur Committee in 1928 to prepare a detailed report on the atrocities supposedly committed by the Congress ministries. In its report the Committee charged the Congress with interference in the religious rites, suppression of Urdu in favour of Hindi, denial of proper representation and of the oppression of Muslims in the economic sphere.

Question 9

Who was the President of the INC Haripura, Gujarat session of 1938?

Answer 9

In Haripura, Gujarat, in February 1938, Subhash Chandra Bose was the President.
The session adopted a resolution that the Congress would give moral support to those who were agitating against the governance in the princely states.
Bose was also instrumental in setting up a National Planning Committee later.

Question 10

President of Tripuri session of INC?

Answer 10

• In January 1939, Subhash Bose decided to stand for the president’s post in the Congress. Gandhi was not happy with Bose’s candidature.
• However, Sardar Patel, Rajendra Prasad, J.B. Kriplani and some other members of the Congress working committee favoured the candidate supported by Gandhi, namely Pattabhi Sitaramayya. Subhash won the election, he got the full support of the Congress Socialist Party and the communists. Gandhi congratulated Bose on his victory but also declared that Pattabhi’s defeat is my defeat. Now it became a Gandhi versus Bose issue.
• In March 1939 the Congress session took place in the central provinces (near Jabalpur in present day Madhya Pradesh).

Question 11

A resolution was moved by _______, reaffirming faith in Gandhian policies and asking the Bose to nominate the working committee “in accordance with the wishes of Gandhiji”, and it was passed without opposition from the socialists or the communists.
Gandhi said that he would not like to impose a working committee on the president and that, since Bose was the President, he should choose the members of the working committee and lead the Congress.

Answer 11

Govind Ballabh Pant.

Question 12

When did Bose resigned from INC and who was elected president its his place?

Answer 12

Bose resigned in April 1939. This led to the election of the Rajendra Prasad as president of the Congress.

Question 13

Why did Congress working committee took disciplinary action against Bose?

Answer 13

• In May 1939, Bose and his followers formed the Forward Bloc (at Makur, Unnao) as a new party within the Congress.
• But when he gave a call for an all India protest on July 9 against an AICC resolution, the Congress Working Committee took disciplinary action against Bose.
• In August 1939, he was removed from the post of President of Bengal Provincial Congress Committee besides being debarred from holding any elective office in the Congress for a period of three years.

Question 14

Who called Bose the “Prince among the Patriots”?

Answer 14

In 1942, Gandhi called Bose the “Prince among the Patriots”.

Question 15

Who called Gandhi the “Father of Our Nation”?

Answer 15

Bose called him the “Father of Our Nation” in a radio broadcast from Rangoon in 1944.

Question 16

Both Gandhi and Bose considered socialism to be the way forward in India. Gandhi did not subscribe to the western form of socialism which he associated with the industrialisation, but agreed with the kind of socialism advocated by ________.

Answer 16

Jayaprakash Narayan.

Question 17

Gandhi and Bose on Non violence?

Answer 17

Gandhi was a firm believer in ahimsa and satyagraha, the non violent way to gain any goal.
Bose believed that Gandhi’s strategy based on the ideology of non violence would be inadequate for securing India’s independence.

Question 18

Gandhi and Bose on Means and Ends?

Answer 18

Bose had his eye on the result of the action. He believed in seizing whatever opportunity was available to carry forward the struggle for freedom.
Gandhi felt that the non violent way of protest that he propagated could not be practiced unless the means and ends were equally good.

Question 19

Gandhi and Bose on form of government?

Answer 19

Bose– there should be “a synthesis of what modern Europe calls Socialism and Fascism. We have here the justice, the equality, the love, which is the basis of Socialism, and combined with that we have the efficiency and the discipline of Fascism as it stands in Europe today.” He called this samyavada.
Gandhi’s ideas on goverment can be found in the Hind Swaraj (190[); it was “the nearest he came to producing a sustained work of political theory.” Gandhi’s idealized state, his Ramrajya— a utopia, in fact– did not need a representative goverment, a constitution, an army or a police force. Capitalism, communism, exploitation and religious violence would be absent.

Question 20

Gandhi and Bose on Militarism?

Answer 20

Subhas Bose was felt attracted to military discipline and was thankful for the basic training he recieved in the University Unit of the India Defence Force.
Gandhi was against military on the whole. His Ramrajya, being built on the concept of truth and non violence and self regulation would be a perfect place and would not require either police or grandiose armies.
The main causes of war, according to Gandhi, were racialism, imperialism, and Fascism in connect of the second world War. He listed economic inequality and exploitation as additional causes of war and instability in the international system. If these were eradicated, there need not be any war. He was not against defensive war: if the innocent were attacked, there was no option but to defend oneself. So of course, the military was required for self defense, but it was to be on minimal scale.

Question 21

Gandhi and Bose’s ideas on economy?

Answer 21

Gandhi developed the idea of Sarvodaya. He was against largescale industrialization. He was not against instruments and machinery that saved individual labour.
Bose considered economic freedom to be the essence of social and political freedom. He was all in favor of modernisation which was necessarily to be brought about by industrialisation. Industrialization would solve the problem of unemployment. Moreover, industrialization was necessary if India were to compete with foreign countries. Heavy industries, he said, form the backbone of the national economy.

Question 22

What was the theory of trusteeship?

Answer 22

The capitalist who amazed wealth was a thief, according to Gandhi. In his opinion, if a person had inherited wealth or had made a lot of money through trade and industry, the amount was to be shared with the entire society and must be spent on the welfare of all. He put forward his theory of trusteeship under which he wanted the capitalists to be trustees, and as such would take care of not only themselves but also of others.

Question 23

Gandhi and Bose on Religion?

Answer 23

• For Gandhi there is no higher way of worshipping God than serving the poor and identifying God in them. He considered different religions to be merely the different paths towards the same destination. All religions are based on the same principles, namely, truth and love. Religion is a binding force and not a dividing force.
• Subhash Bose believed in Upanishadic teachings. He revered the Bhagavad Gita and was inspired by Vivekananda. He was also inspired by the India of the past as reinterpreted by thinkers. He was free of bigotry or orthodoxy, he took up the Hindus’ cause when he demanded that Hindu prisoners to be given the right to do Durga Puja just as Muslims and Christians were allowed to celebrate their festivals.
  Religion is a private matter state has nothing to do with it.

Question 24

Azad Hind Fauz?

Answer 24

On December 9, 1930 Bose called upon the women to participate in the liberation struggle, invoking the imagery of Durga.
He was not a sectarian. He named his force Azad Hind Fauz, and there were many non Hindus in that army and who were close to him. The INA was to be a mixture of various religions, races, and castes with total social equality of all soldiers. They served food cooked in the common kitchen and shared space in common barracks breaking the age old caste bonds and practices. Common celebrations of all religious festivals took place in the INA.

Question 25

Gandhi and Bose on caste and untouchability?

Answer 25

• Gandhi’s goals for society were mainly three: eradicating untouchability, marinating the varna distinctions of the caste system and strengthening tolerance, modesty and religiosity in India.
  He said that if any Shastra propounded untouchability that Shastra should be abandoned. He, however, supported the varna system; he believed that the laws of caste were eternal.
• Bose looked forward to an India changed by a socialist revolution that would bring to an end the traditional social hierarchy with its caste system; in its place would come up an egalitarian, casteless and classless society. Subhash Bose completely rejected social inequality and the caste system. He spoke in favour of inter caste marriages. In his public speeches, Bose spoke vehemently against untouchability. He was inspired by Vivekananda in his belief that the progress of India would be possible only with the uplift of the downtrodden and the so called the untouchables.

Question 26

Gandhi and Bose on women?

Answer 26

• In Gandhi’s words, “To call a women the weaker sex is a libel: it is man’s injustice to women.” Gandhi played an important role in uplifting the status of women in India.
  Bringing women out of purdah.
  Opposed child marriage, the dowry system and female infanticide, and treatment of widows.
  However, in the matter of roles of men and women, Gandhi would be regarded as patriarchal and traditional by present standards.
  She has to be the complement of man.
  Her duty of motherhood requires qualities which man need more possess. She is passive, he is active. She is essentially mistress of the house. He is the bread winner, she is the keeper and the distributor of the bread. She is the caretaker in every sense of the term.
  Gandhi considered women to be the presiding deities of the home. It was their dharma to take care of the home. If they do not follow dharma, the people would be totally destroyed.
• Subhash Bose had a more robust view of the women. Bose considered women to be the equals of men, and thus they should be prepared to fight and sacrifice for the freedom of India. It is impossible for one half of the nation to win freedom without the active sympathy and support for the other half.
  He wanted women to get all-round education including not only literacy, but physical and vocational training. He was all for abolition of purdah and also supported widow remarriage.

Question 27

Planning Commission was set up by?

Answer 27

As Congress president in 1938, Bose set up the Planning Commission, he insisted that there should be a separate planning commission for women. This commission was chaired by Rani Lakshmi Bhai Rajawade and was to deal with the role of women in planned economy in future India.

Question 28

Women’s regiment in the Indian National Army in 1943?

Answer 28

In 1943, Bose called on women to serve as soldiers in the Indian National Army. This was a must radical view. He formed a women’s regiment in the INA in 1943, named the Rani of Jhansi Regiment. Many women were enthused to join the Regiment commanded by Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan (Sahgal after marriage).

Question 29

Gandhi and Bose on education?

Answer 29

• Gandhi was against the English system of education as also against the use of English as a medium of instruction. He wanted education to be in the Vernacular. He advocated free and compulsory education for all boys and girls between 7 and 14 years.
  To Gandhi morality had to be the part of the education.
  He conceived his Nai Talim or basic education for all in 1937.
• Subhash Bose was for higher education, especially in the technical and scientific field, as he wanted an industrial India.

Question 30

What was Nai Talim?

Answer 30

• Gandhi conceived his Nai Talim or basic education for all in 1937.
• Nai Talim aimed to impart education that would lead to freedom from ignorance, illiteracy, superstition, psyche of servitude.
• Handicrafts, art and drawing were the most fundamental teaching tools in Nai Talim.
• He emphasized on vocational education.

Question 31

What led to the Second World War?

Answer 31

On September 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland– the action that led to the Second World War. On September 3, 1939, Britain declared war against Germany and the British Government of India declared India’s support for the war without consulting Indian opinion.

Question 32

Congress offer to the Viceroy during Second World War?

Answer 32

Congress decided to support the war effort conditionally.
1. After the war, a constituent assembly should be convened to determine political structure of a free India.
2. Immediately, some of a genuinely responsible government should be established at the centre.
The offer was rejected by Linlithgow, the Viceroy.

Question 33

CWC meeting at Wardha, opinion of different leaders regarding World War 2?

Answer 33

• The official Congress position was adopted at the Wardha session of the Congress Working Committee.
• Gandhi, who had all sympathy for Britain in this war because of his total dislike of the fascist ideology, advocated an unconditional support to the Allied powers.
• Subhas Bose and other socialists, such as Acharya Narendra Dev and Jayaprakash Narayan, who had been invited by the Congress to attend the Wardha meeting so that different opinions could be discussed, had no sympathy for either side in the war. In their opinion, the war was being fought by imperialists on both sides; each side wanted to protect its colonial possessions and gain more territories to colonise, so neither side should be supported by the nationalists. In fact, they thought it was the ideal time to launch a civil disobedience movement, to thus take advantage of the situation and snatch freedom from Britain.
• Jawaharlal Nehru was not ready to accept the opinion of either Gandhi or of the socialists. He, therefore, advocated no Indian participation till India itself was free. However, at the same time, no advantage was to be taken of Britain’s difficulty by starting an immediate civil disobedience movement. Gandhi was more or less isolated in his stand. In the end he decided to go with Nehru’s position, which was adopted by the Congress Working Committee.

Question 34

The CWC resolution?

Answer 34

The CWC resolution condemned Fascist aggression. It said that
1. India could not be party to a war being fought, on the face of it, for democratic freedom, while that freedom was being denied to India.
2. If Britain was fighting for democracy and freedom, it should be proved by ending imperialism in its colonies and establishing full democracy in India.
3. The government should declare its war aims soon and, also, as to how the principles of democracy were to be applied to India after the war.

Question 35

Government’s response to CWC resolution?

Answer 35

Viceroy Linlithgow, in his statement, made on October 17, 1939, tried to use the Muslim League and the princes against the Congress. The government:-
- refused to define British war aims beyond stating that Britain was resisting aggression.
- said it would, as part of future arrangement, consult “representatives of several communities, parties and interests in India, and the Indian princes” as to how the Act of 1935 might be modified.
- said it would immediately set up a “consultative committee” whose advice could be sought whenever required.

Question 36

Government’s Hidden agenda during second world War?

Answer 36

• Even before the declaration of the War, emergency powers had been acquired for the centre in respect of provincial subjects by amending the 1935 Act.
• In May 1940, a secret Draft Revolutionary Movement Ordinance had been prepared, aimed at launching crippling pre-emptive strikes on the Congress. The government could then call upon the Allied troops stationed in India. It could also win an unusual amount of liberal and leftist sympathy all over the world by painting an aggressive Congress as being pro-Japan and pro- Germany.

Question 37

In January 1940, _______ stated, “Dominion status of Westminster variety, after the war, is the goal of British policy in India.

Answer 37

Linlithgow.

Question 38

The Ramgarh session of the Congress was presided by and what was declared in this session?

Answer 38

• The Ramgarh session of the Congress was held in March 1940 with Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in the president’s chair.
• All agreed that a battle must be waged but there was disagreement over the form.
• The Congress finally declared at the session that the people of India would accept nothing short of complete independence. Indian freedom could not be in the form of dominion or any other status within the imperial structure.

Question 39

Pakistan Resolution— Lahore (March 1940)?

Answer 39

The Muslim League passed a resolution calling for grouping of geographically contiguous areas where Muslims are in majority (North-West, East) into independent states in which constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign and adequate safeguards to the Muslims where they are in minority.

Question 40

August Offer?

Answer 40

Linlithgow announced the August Offer (August 1940) which proposed:
1. Dominion status as the objective for India.
2. Expansion of viceroy’s executive council which would have a majority of Indians (who would be drawn from major political parties).
3. Setting up of a constituent assembly after the war where mainly Indians would decide the constitution according to their social, economic and political conceptions, subject to fulfilment of the obligation of the government regarding defence, minority rights, treaties with States, all India services.
4. No future constitution to be adoped without the consent of minorities (veto assurance).

Question 41

Congress and Muslim League response to August Offer?

Answer 41

The Congress rejected the August Offer. Nehru said, “Dominion status concept is dead as a doornail.”
The Muslim League welcomed the veto assurance given to the League, and reiterated its position that partition was the only solution to the deadlock.

Question 42

Evaluation of August Offer?

Answer 42

• For the first time, the inherent right of Indians to frame their constitution was recognized and the Congress demand for a constituent assembly was conceded.
• Dominion status explicitly offered.
• In July 1941, the Viceroy’s executive council was enlarged to give the Indians a majority of 8 out of 12 for the first time, but the British remained in charge of defence, finance and home.
• Also, a National Defence Council was set up with purely advisory functions.

Question 43

Aims of launching individual Satyagraha?

Answer 43

• Individual satyagraha was launched immediately after the August Offer.
• The aims of the Individual Satyagraha were
  1. To show that nationalists patience was not due to weakness.
  2. To express people’s feeling that they were not interested in the war and that they made no distinction between Nazism and the double autocracy that ruled India.
  3. To give another opportunity to the government to accept Congress’ demands peacefully.

Question 44

What was the Delhi Chalo Movement?

Answer 44

• The demand of the satyagrahi would be the freedom of speech against the war through an anti war declaration.
• If the government did not arrest the satyagrahi, he or she would not only repeat it but move into villages and start a march towards Delhi, thus precipitating a movement which came to be known as the ‘Delhi Chalo Movement’. (After August Offer when individual satyagraha were launched).

Question 45

Who were the first, second and third persons to observe the individual satyagraha?

Answer 45

1. Vinobha Bhave (1st)
2. Jawaharlal Nehru (2nd)
3. Brahma Dutt (3rd).

Question 46

When did Gandhi designated Nehru as his chosen successor?

Answer 46

The CWC overrode Gandhi’s and Nehru’s objections and passed a resolution offering to cooperate with the government in the defense of India, if:-
1. Full independence was given after the war.
2. Substance of power was transferred immediately.
It was at this time that Gandhi designated Nehru as his chosen successor.

Question 47

Differences between Nehru and Gandhi?

Answer 47

• Nehru was indifferent to religion, Gandhi believed deeply in his own version of God.
• Nehru believed that industrialisation was the only solution to the accute and widespread poverty of India, while Gandhi called for the reviving of the rural economy.
• Nehru believed in the powers of the modern state to elevate and reform society, while Gandhi was skeptical of state power, trusting instead to the conscience and willingness of individuals and communities.
• Despite having so many differences, Nehru revered Gandhi, and Gandhi, in turn, believed in Nehru more than his own sons.

Question 48

Similarities between Nehru and Gandhi?

Answer 48

1. Patriotism in an inclusive sense, i.e., they identified with India as a whole rather than with a particular caste, language, region or religion.
2. Both believed in non violence and democratic form of government.

Question 49

Book ‘The Good Boatman’ is written by?

Answer 49

Rajmohan Gandhi.
He writes that Gandhi preferred Nehru to the alternatives because he most reliably reflected the pluralist, inclusive ideas of India that the Mahatma Gandhi stood for himself.

Question 50

When was Cripps Mission sent?

Answer 50

In March 1942, a mission headed by Stafford Cripps was sent to India with constitutional proposals to seek Indian support for the war.

Question 51

Why Cripps Mission was sent?

Answer 51

1. Because of the reverses suffered by the British in South East Asia, the Japanese threat to invade India seemed real now and Indian support became crucial.
2. There was pressure on British from the Allies (USA, USSR, China) to seek Indian cooperation.
3. Indian nationalists had agreed to support the Allied cause if substantial power was transferred immediately and complete independence given after the war.

Question 52

Main Proposals of Cripps Mission?

Answer 52

1. An Indian Union with a dominion status would be set up, it would be free to decide its relations with the Commonwealth and free to participate in the United Nations and other international bodies.
2. After the end of the war, a constituent assembly would be convened to frame a new constitution. Members of this assembly would be partly elected by the provincial assemblies through proportional representation and partly nominated by the princes.
3. The British Government would accept the new constitution subject to two conditions:
   - any province not willing to join the Union could have a separate constitution and form a separate Union.
   - the new constitution making body and the British government would negotiate a treaty to effect the transfer of the power and to safeguard racial and religious minorities.
4. In the meantime, defence of India would remain in British hands and the governor general’s power would remain intact.

Question 53

How was the proposals of the Cripps Mission was different from those offered in the Past?

Answer 53

1. The making of the constitution was to be solely in Indian hands now (and not mainly in Indian hands as contained in the August Offer.
2. A concrete plan was provided for the constituent assembly.
3. Option was available to any province to have a separate constitution a blueprint for India’s partition.
4. Free India could withdraw from the Commonwealth.
5. Indians were allowed a large share in the administration in the interim period.

Question 54

Congress objections to Cripps Mission?

Answer 54

• The Congress objected to:
  1. The ofter of dominion status instead of a provision for complete independence.
  2. Representation of the princely states by nominees and not by elected representatives.
  3. Right to provinces to secede as this went against the principle of national unity.
  4. Absence of any plan for immediate transfer of power and absence of any real share in defence; the governor-general’s supremacy had been retained, and the demand that the governor-general be only the constitutional head had not been accepted.

Question 55

Muslim League objections to Cripps Mission?

Answer 55

• The Muslim League
  1. Criticized the idea of a single Indian Union.
  2. Did not like the machinery for the creation of constituent assembly and the procedure to decide on the accession of provinces to the Union.
  3. Thought that the proposals denied the Muslims the right to self-determination and the creation of Pakistan.

Question 56

Reasons for failure of Cripps Mission?

Answer 56

1. Congress and Muslim League objections to it.
2. The Liberals considered the secession proposals to be against the unity and security of India.
3. The Hindu Mahasabha criticized the basis of the right to secede.
4. The incapacity of Cripps to go beyond the Draft Declaration and the adoption of a rigid “take it or leave it” attitude added to the deadlock.
5. The procedure of accession was not well defined. The decision on secession was to be taken by the resolution in the legislature by a 60 percent majority. If less than 60 percent of members supported it, the decision was to be taken by a plebiscite of adult males of that province by a simple majority. This scheme weighed against the Hindus in Punjab and Bengal if they wanted accession to the Indian Union.
6. Talks broke down on the question of the viceroy’s veto.

Question 57

Which Mission was described by Gandhi as “a post dated cheque”.?

Answer 57

Cripps Mission.