INDIAN POLITICS AND THE ELECTIONS OF 1937 b y David Denis Taylor Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the University of London 1971 ProQuest Number: 11010433 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 11010433 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 ABSTRACT The thesis consists of a preliminary examination of the de­ velopment of Indian politics in the mid-1930s, especially their reaction to the Government of India Act, 1935* and the consequent provincial elections of 1937. The period has re­ cently been opened to research through the availability of official records and private and party papers in India and England. Newspapers and secondary sources have also been used. Chapter 1 looks at the way in which British policy to­ wards the elections and electoral arrangements vrs formulated, and at whether there were specific attempts to influence their outcome. Working from an ideal type of a nationalist party as a bourgeois-led consensus movement, chapter 2 analyses the composition of the Indian National Congress and other parties, their relations to other political and social structures, their policies, their relations with each other, and the effect on them of contesting elections. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between Congress and communal groups. The themes of the previous chapter are developed in chapter 3 by focussing on the election campaign as a time when existing problems had to be resolved and new ones were created. Chapter ^ presents the results of a study of the socio-economic and political backgrounds of the successful candidates. This supplements the conclusions reached in the previous two chap­ ters. Chapter 3 attempts to present the election results as fully and as accurately as possible. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS India is, despite occasional difficulties, a most pleasant and helpful place to carry out academic research. My work has been considerably aided by the assistance of the staff of the several libraries and record offices where I worked, in particular the Nehru Memorial Library and Museum, the National Archives of India, the Indian Council of World Affairs Library, and the Bombay History of the Freedom Movement unit. I wish to thank them, and also their colleagues of the India Office Library and library of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in London, especially for producing records which were not finally listed and for obtaining permission to consult them. I should also like to acknowledge most gratefully the help of my supervisor, Dr. S. R. Mehrotra, who has introduced me to periods of history and politics be­ yond the 1930s, and the interest and encouragement at various stages of Professor W. H. Morris-Jones, Pro­ fessor H. R. Tinker, and Dr Hugh Gray. CONTENTS P*g.e. Abstract „.............. Z Acknowledgements .. 3 Abbreviations 3 Introduction 6 1. The Government and the Elections •• 13 2. The Political Parties 101 I The All-India Situation II The Provinces 3. The Election Campaign 219 The Successful Candidates.......... * 301 3* The Election Results and the Development of Indian Politics ............... 3^-6 Bibliography 3^9 ABBREVIATIONS ±n Text AICC All-India Congress Committee CEB Central Election Board CNP Congress Nationalist Party C.P. Central Provinces CPB Congress Parliamentary Board CPC Congress Parliamentary Committee CSP Congress Socialist Party DCC District Congress Committee DSP Democratic Swaraj Party IIP Independent Labour Party MLA Member of Legislative Assembly NAP National Agriculturist Party N.W0F.P. North-West Frontier Province PCC Provincial Congress Committee U.P. United Provinces In Footnotes AICC All-India Congress Committee CLAD Central Legislative Assembly Debates CWC Congress Working Committee FR Fortnightly Reports G of I Government of India GR Governors1 Reports HCR Hammond Committee Report HPO Home Political HPU Home Public IAR Indian Annual Register INC Indian National Congress (see bibliography) 10 India Office JP Jayakar Papers LCR Lothian Committee Report PR Provincial Reports RD Reforms Department RO Reforms Office S of S Secretary of State INTRODUCTION The development in India of a pluralist, multi-party system, and the dominance within it of the Indian National Congress, can be regarded either as limiting the possibility of radical social change or as an essential prerequisite of planned econo­ mic development. It is at all events in Contrast to the ex­ perience of most new states in Africa, where single-party systems predominate. The reasons for the contrast are partly specific to the Indian social system and cultural traditions.^ It is also widely recognized that the historical circumstances of the Indian independence movement played and continue to play an important part in determining the shape of the Indian politi- 2 cal system. This thesis examines the developments of the mid-1950s, particularly the provincial elections of 1937- Al­ though it makes no attempt to relate the political system of the time to that of today, it is based on the belief that the achievement of independence did not mark a complete break with the past and that political leaders in the 1930s had inevitably to be concerned with problems of the distribution of power and prestige as well as with their transfer from alien hands. ^The basic units of the caste system - the gotra and the .jati - are too small, and the larger castes too dispersed and divided to dominate the system completely, except at the local and occasionally the state levels. The combination of hierarchical and segmentaiy elements in the caste system permit a degree of mobility which is enhanced by the existence of a competitive democracy. ^For example, W.H.Morris-Jones, The Government and Politics of India (2nd ed. 1967), chapter 1, and Rajni Kothari, Politics in India (1970), pp. 77-85* 7. The study of an election has advantages and disadvantages as a means of understanding political systems. One's attention is inevitably drawn to the manifestations of direct political activity, and the temptation to be misled by the forms of politi­ cal institutions is particularly strong. The political signi­ ficance of those who do not have the vote (in India in 1937 some 60°/o of the adult male population were unenfranchised) is largely ignored. Except on an intuitive basis it is not possible to distinguish temporary from permanent features of the system. On the other hand, an election is a moment when differ­ ent issues and trends are drawn together, and the actors at the various levels of the system, although their expectations are very different, take part in a single event. Although the functions of elections vary in different systems, the general point remains valid. What were the functions of the 1937 elections in India? For the government the holding of the elections was a means to legitimize its position and to establish provincial autonomy on a base of popular support. Although successive reforms had been rejected by Congress, there was always the hope that the more moderate elements might be detached and induced to co-operate. Conversely, the elections provided Congress with an opportunity to deny legitimacy to the government and to its Indian opponents in terms that would be generally recognized. Political organizers, whether or not they wished to parti­ cipate in the legislative process themselves, were able to use the election campaign as a way to recruit and mobilize mass support. The organizational structure and techniques employed 8. in the campaign could be used, with slightly different emphases, to reach both the enfranchised and the unenfranchised* Alter­ natively, bargains could be struck with those who commanded mass support, in which the counters were derived from the elections. Elections (and the subsequent exercise of power) provided new resources to the political system.^ As has been said, they could be means of attracting new recruits to the political parties. They could also be used to further traditional rival­ ries between castes or other sectional groupings. Although factionalism had existed previously within Congress, it appears to have increased as a result of the elections. The elections made new demands on the existing system of party organization. In the past nationalists had stressed the need for co-operation between disparate groups to achieve a single aim, and Congress during the civil disobedience period had been a 'front* rather than a party. Collaborators with the British had operated largely as individual notables. Neither model could be used unaltered for the 1937 elections. The pri­ mary need for Congress was to integrate its disparate parts in­ to a single structure. In so far as there was co-operation with non-Congress groups, it had to be on the basis of a pact or an electoral agreement rather than a simple united front. It was also necessary to achieve a slightly greater degree of ideo­ logical consensus, although potentially divisive issues were ■^The pattern of distribution within the system was changed simultaneously so that only some parties benefited. 9. avoided as much as possible. The organizational structure that had sufficed for the civil disobedience period had to be re­ placed by one that could not only cope with the increased de­ mands of contesting elections but could also make self-interest as well as self-sacrifice a basis for party unity.