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MINOR POLITICAL PARTIES AND THE LANGUAGE OF POLITICS IN LATE COLONIAL BENGAL(l921-194?); ATTITUDE, ADJUSTMENT AND REACTION THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH BENGAL BY KOUSHIKIDASGUPTA ASSISTANT PROFESSOR DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY UNIVERSITY OF GOUR BANGA MALDA UPERVISOR PROFESSOR I. SARKAR DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH BENGAL RAJA RAMMOHANPUR, DARJEELING WEST BENGAL 2011 IK 35 229^ I ^ pro 'J"^') 2?557i UNIVERSITY OF NORTH BENGAL Raja Rammohunpur P.O. North Bengal University Dist. Darjeeling - 734013 West Bengal (India) • Phone : 0353 - 2776351 Ref. No Date y.hU. CERTIFICATE OF GUIDE AND SUPERVISOR Certified that the Ph.D. thesis prepared by Koushiki Dasgupta on Minor Political Parties and the Language of Politics in Late Colonial Bengal ^921-194'^ J Attitude, Adjustment and Reaction embodies the result of her original study and investigation under my supervision. To the best of my knowledge and belief, this study is the first of its kind and is in no way a reproduction of any other research work. Dr.LSarkar ^''^ Professor of History Department of History University of North Bengal Darje^ingy^A^iCst^^a^r Department of History University nfVi,rth Bengal Darjeeliny l\V Bj DECLARATION I do hereby declare that the thesis entitled MINOR POLITICAL PARTIES AND THE LANGUAGE OF POLITICS IN LATE COLONIAL BENGAL (l921- 1947); ATTITUDE, ADJUSTMENT AND REACTION being submitted to the University of North Bengal in partial fulfillment for the award of Doctor of Philosophy in History is an original piece of research work done by me and has not been published or submitted elsewhere for any other degree in full or part of it. KOUSHIKI DASGUPTA Dated... 3.".!.'.!! Assistant Professor Department of History University of Gour Banga Malda Contents Page No. Abbreviations 1. Acknowledgement 1-2 2. Introduction.. 3-18 3. Chapter I -The Test of Gandhism and Factionalism In Bengal Politics: The Swarajist Phase 19-67 4. Chapter Il-Sectarian Politics and the Minor Political Parties-Early 1920S-1932 68-144 5. Chapter III—Popular Politics and the Minor Political Parties : 1920s to 1939 145-255 6. Chapter IV—Minor political Parties and Bengal Politics : 1939-1947 256-352 7. Conclusion 353-361 8. Appendices 362-394 9. Select Bibliography 395-423 Abbreviations ABP Amrita Bazar Patrika AICC All India Congress Committee BPCC Bengal Provincial Congress Committee BPML Bengal Provincial Muslim League CPI Communist Party of India GB Government of Bengal GI Government of India Home Poll Home Political IB Intelligence Branch KPP Krisak Praja Party NMML Nehru Memorial Museum and Library WPP Workers' and Peasants' Party A cknowledgement I deem it my honour and profound duty to express my sincere appreciation and thanks to all those who rendered their valuable services and cooperation during the course of my research and preparation of the present thesis. First of all I express my sincere gratitude to my Supervisor, Dr. I.Sarkar, Progessor, Department of History, University of North Bengal, under whosriBlT^uidance this work has got the shape in the present form. I am benefitted from his continuous encouragement, scholarly guidance and timely suggestions all the way through my research work. I can not forget the services I have received from the staff members of National Archives, New Delhi, Nehru Memorial Museum Library, New Delhi, West Bengal State Archives, National Library, Calcutta, Uttarpara Jai Krishna Public Library, Institute of Social Science Library, Calcutta, North Bengal University Library and Ajay Bhaban Library, New Delhi. My special sense of gratitude is due to all those party workers who have provided books, reports and important party document which enriched my understanding of the theme of this dissertation. I extent my heartiest thanks to all the teachers who were associated with my P.G Studies in the Department of History, University of North Bengal. I specially recall the contributions of Prof J Kar, Prof T. K Roychoudhury, Prof Mrs. M. Bhattacharya, Prof. Mrs. C. Chakrabourty, Prof. A.G Ghosh, Dr. K. Bandhyopadhyay, Dr.A. Bagchi and Prof R. Roy Sanyal who have helped me some way or other to develop this Ph.D dissertation. I express my sincere gratitude to Prof A. G Ghosh and Dr. K. Bandhyopadhyay who had focused on some new areas of the history of modern Bengal during the time of my P.G Studies. I also wish to thank Sri Binoy Garg and Jatin Upadhyay of the All India Hindu Mahasabha office, New Delhi, for their kind help and assistance. My sincere thanks are also due to Mr Gokul Roy, Karandighi (MLA, All India Forward Block),Dr Srikumar Mukherjee,Itahar, MLA,CPI and a Minister, Government of West Bengal, and Sri Satya Ranjan Das,((Raiganj) a dedicated scholar of regional history of North Bengal for their support and assistance in course of my study. For infusing necessary inspiration and encouragement I deem it my sincere duty to record my thanks to Prof Ranjan Chakrabourty, Department of History, Jadavpur University and for proving valuable suggestions I wish to pay my heartiest gratitude to Prof Amalendu De, a retired Professor of History, Jadavpur University. Last but not the least I extent my special thanks to all my colleagues of the University of Gour Banga, Malda. I bear a sincere obligation and feel indebted to Prof Gopa Dutta,the honourable Vice Chancellor, University of Gour Banga for her kind support and assistance to me in various circumstances I might not have completed this work without the support of my parents in every possible manner. Here I want to recall the continuous encouragement and mental support of my beloved mother Smt. Snigdha Dasgupta who passed away early in 2010. This work would not have been completed unless the help of my father Mr.Pallab Dasgupta, once a teacher of Economics, Raiganj College, who has stood by me all the time since my childhood. I must record my thanks to the supreme Lord who always guides me to reach to my destination. KOUSHIKIDASGUPTA Dated... .r.'.... Assistant Professor Department of History University of Gour Banga Malda Introduction In spite of a considerable number of works on the organized and unorganized fonns of politics of pre partition Bengal, there has been a dearth of discussion on the political parties in general. None of the existing literatures reflect Bengal politics in terms of a political process providing scopes for highlighting the language of party politics both in and outside the arena of legislative politics in pre partition Bengal. Most of the writings has deah either with the growth of nationalist politics Litider the fold of the Congress or discussed the general political developments in Bengal with a special reference to the course of Muslim politics under the Muslim League. In late colonial Bengal the shift from nationalism to communalism is one of the popular issues for the historians working on it. However, almost all these works are based on the background of all India politics dominated mainly by two major political parties the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress. It may be noted that the political language of the minor political parties were not less expressive than the major political parties because at every crucial stage of late colonial Bengal politics these parties appeared with greater potentials of articulating the existing political realities. After the enactment of the Act of 1919 the entire structure of party politics entered into a more responsible phase of decision making. The political parties now became more involved into the task of carrying the weitage of expectations from people to state and took the responsibility of influencing tjie content of public policy in favour of some set of principles. In w^s seen that from 1920s some important political personalities took the opportunity of mobilizing popular support in 3 favour of their respective ideas and political objectives. Until the partition of the province these personalities stayed as the originating spirit of different political developments and to some extent set the pulse of late colonial Bengal politics. Leaders like Chittaranjan Das, A K Fazlui Huq, Shyamaprasad Mukherjee, and Subhas Chandra Bose were the few among others who had contributed in their own way to make their political philosophy more special than their contemporaries. All of these leaders tried to ensure t^at thatysny cost the interest of Bengal and Bengalis must be kept unabated in every circumstance. Definitely the shadow of communal preferences sometimes put them under pressure, however, a strong sense of belonging always made them attached with their people and soil. The late colonial politics in Bengal while reflecting the the dynamisms of mainstream Indian politics, maintained its essential characters in identical terms. In this process the minor political parties had some definite roles to play. Ever since the Indian national movement started, Bengal remained the most politically advanced province. It was here that the very necessities of a separate Muslim organization were felt in early 20tth century and within the first tluee decades of the century the Congress continued to grow as the most enterprising political party of the nationalist Indians. The constituency of nationalist politics went beyond the confines of elite politics after the Non cooperation movement (1920-22) and the invo]hmeM of a large section of the masses into the nationalist movement put forward the importance of leadership in transforming the ambitions of the masses into an anti colonial national movement. In Bengal the task of articulating the aspirations of the masses was carried on by a numbers of 4 lor I Indian National Congress and ihe Muslim League and tiie term 'minor' has been used to describe those parties which had tried to function independently out of the influence of the major political parties.

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