Swaraj Party

• IAS NEXT, Lucknow
• 24, Nov 2022

Swaraj Party

The Swaraj Party or the Congress-Khilafat Swarajya Party was formed on 1 January 1923 by C R Das and Motilal Nehru.

The formation of the Swaraj Party came after various significant events like the withdrawal of Non-cooperation Movement, the government of India act 1919 and 1923 elections.

Formation of Swaraj Party

The suspension of Non-cooperation Movement was met with an impressive measure of logical inconsistencies among pioneers of the Congress Party

while some wanted to continue non-cooperation, others wanted to end the legislature boycott and contest elections.

The former was called no-changers and such leaders included Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, C Rajagopalachari, etc.

The others who wanted to enter the legislative council and obstruct the British government from within were called the pro-changers.

These leaders included C R Das, Motilal Nehru, Srinivasa Iyengar, etc
   
   There was a split in the Congress. The No-Changers or orthodox Gandhian’s denied the programme of council-entry and desired the congress to follow Gandhi's constructive programme.

The Pro-Changers or Swarajists wanted the constructive programme to be coupled with a political programme of council-entry.

In 1922, in the Gaya session of the Congress, C R Das (who was presiding over the session) moved a proposal to enter the legislatures but it was defeated.

Das and other leaders broke away from the Congress and formed the CongressKhilafat Swarajaya Party with Das as the president and Nehru as one of the secretaries.

Other noticeable pioneers included N C Kelkar, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Subhas Chandra Bose of Bengal, Vithalbhai Patel and different Congress pioneers who were getting to be disappointed with the Congress.

Objectives and Aims of Swaraj party

The Congress-Khilafat Swarajya Party or the Swaraj Party aimed for:
• Speedy attainment of dominion status.
• Obtaining the right to frame a constitution adopting such machinery and system as are most suited to the conditions of the country and genius of the peoples.
• Establishing control over the bureaucracy.
• Obtaining full provincial autonomy.
• Attaining Swarajya (self-rule).
• Getting people the right to control the existing machinery and system of government.
• Organising industrial and agricultural labour
• Controlling the local and municipal bodies.
• Having an agency for propaganda outside the country.
• Establishing a federation of Asian countries to promote trade and commerce.
• Engaging in the constructive programmes of the Congress..

Works and Achievements of Swaraj Party

The Swarajists emerged as the single largest party in the Central Assembly, Bombay and Bengal Councils while their number in the U.P. Council was not insignificant in 1923. The victory of the Swarajists at the polls strengthened their position in the congress as against the No Changers. In the absence of mass political activities in this period, the Swarajists played a significant role in keeping the spirit of AntiBritish protest alive. They made it almost impossible for the British rulers to get the approval of the legislatures for their policies and proposals.

For example, in 1928, the government introduced a bill in the legislative assembly which would give it the power to expel from the country those nonIndians who supported India’s struggle for freedom. The bill was defeated. When the government introduced this bill again, Vithalbhai Patel who was the president of the assembly refused to allow it. The individuals from Swaraj Party did significant work towards India's battle for Freedom. The Swarajists exposed the weaknesses of the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms. They gave fiery speeches in the Assembly on self-rule and civil liberties. The debates in the legislatures, in which Indian members often outwitted the government and condemned the government, were read with interest and enthusiasm throughout the country.

The year 1924-25 registered many victories for the Swarajists in the Legislative Assembly. They succeeded in throwing out the Budget forcing the Government to rely on its power of certification. The Swarajists in their zeal to wreck pg. 4 the reforms from within often succeeded in blocking the passage of the Government's Bills and other measures. They resorted to adjournment motions and asking inconvenient questions to expose the misdeeds of the alien government. The death of C.R. Das in 1925 deprived the Swarajists of their ablest leader and their position was weakened. In 1926, the Swarajists withdrew from the council proclaiming the death of dyarchy. The Swarajist activities produced a stir in the country and achieved whatever could be achieved by their tactics under the constitution.

Constructive Work

The Council Entry for wrecking reforms from within was the main, but by no means the sole, objective of the Swarajists. They also had a definite conception of socioeconomic reforms or ameliorative activities which Gandhi characterised as the constructive programme. To Gandhi the chariot of freedom struggle had two wheelsconstructive programme and political campaigns. The constructive programme, as adumbrated by him, consisted of eighteen items of which the most important were Hindu-Muslim unity, removal of untouchability, prohibition, Swadeshi and boycott. The Swarajists could ill-afford to ignore the programme as they knew that some day they might have to leave the Councils and resort to civil disobedience along with those who did not go to the councils. The Swarajists lent support to the Constructive Programme but did not share Gandhi's passion and idealism in this regard.

Decline of Swaraj Part

Reasons for Decline|

The Demoralisation and the decline of the Swaraj Party, was due to the absence of a broad ideological basis. Although the Swarajists, with their programme of Council Entry, seemed very promising in 1923 and looked like changing the course of Indian Politics, they petered out very soon, and were undeniably a spent force by 1929. Some of the reasons for its decline are as follows -

1. Rising Communal Politics -The increasing communal tempo began to shape the course of events. The protracted Hindu-Muslim tension, presence of reactionary elements of both the communities within the party, which ostensibly professed secularism, really created a difficult situation. The Hindus felt that their interests were not safe in the hands of the Congress. The activities of the Hindu Mahasabha also weakened the Swarajist position. The Muslim alienation from the Congress became so marked that its erstwhile Muslim members fought elections as Muslims, not as Swarajists.

2. Lure of Office- The lure of office proved to be another reason for the decline of the Swarajists. They began their career with a bang by entering councils with the declared objective of stiff resistance to the bureaucracy. The spirit of resistance soon gave way to cooperation. V.J. Patel was elected President of the Assembly and Motilal accepted membership of Skeen Commission. The Policy of unqualified obstruction lost its appeal and the party showed signs of disintegration. In fact, many of the Swarajists had no faith in the policy of Non-Cooperation. Having entered the councils, they were not averse to enjoying its privileges. The Swarajist leaders accepted offices and sat on various committees.

3. Class Character- The Swaraj Party represented the upper-middle class elements of the Congress who had always been opposed to direct mass action. pg. 6 They had joined the nationalist struggle to prevent it from committing itself to revolutionary mass action. They were drawn, quite unwillingly, into the vortex of Non-Cooperation movement. On the failure of the movement, they took to parliamentary politics and later seemed to be content with playing the role of constitutional opposition.

4. Internal Divisions- The Swaraj Party was a house divided against itself. Mutual bickering and distrust eroded its credibility. Denial of tickets to some Swarajists led them to declare their candidature as independents. There were internal divisions among the Swarajists. They were divided into the responsivists and the non-responsivists. The responsivists (M M Malaviya, Lala Lajpat Rai, N C Kelkar) wanted to cooperate with the government and hold offices, whereas the non-responsivists (Motilal Nehru) withdrew from legislatures in 1926

   In spite of its decline, Swaraj party succeeded to a great extent in achieving its goals at that challenging time. The activities of Swarajists enlivened an otherwise dull political     atmosphere. Their tactics of obstruction embarrassed the government while the parliamentary duels of the period constitute a brilliant page in the annals of parliamentary politics.