CONTENTS T.K. TOPE (M.A., LL.B., LL.D.) has been an academician throughout his career. He was a Professor of Sanskrit for eight Years (1939-47), a Professor of Law, Government Law College, Bombay (1947-58), Principal, Government Law College, Bombay (1958-75),Vice Chancellor, University of Bombay (1971-77), a Member of the Law Commission of India (1962-68), a Member of the Maharashtra State Law Commission (1977-80), Sheriff of Bombay (1986). He is an acknowledged authority on Constitutional Law of India. He has to his credit more than 12 books, the most important of which is the Constitutional Law of India (1982). He has been associated with Congress from his student days (1930).He Participated in Congress Movements in 1930 and in 1942. Price: Rs.32.00 CONTENTS BOMBAY AND CONGRESS MOVEMENT T.K.TOPE SHERIFF OF BOMBAY MAHARASHTRA STATE BOARD FOR LITERATURE AND CULTURE BOMBAY CONTENTS First Edition: September 1986 Publisher Shri S.D.Deshmukh Secretary Maharashtra State Board for Literature and Culture Mantralaya, Bombay 400 032 Secretary Maharashtra State Board for Literature and Culture Printer The Manager Government Central Press Charni Road, Bombay 400 004 Price: Rs 32-00 CONTENTS Dedicated respectfully to the holy memory of my ancestor Senapati Tatya Tope’ of 1857 ‘War of Independence’ CONTENTS CONTENTS FOREWORD………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….7 PREFACE……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..14 PROLOGUE………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….16 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 19 CHAPTER I - First Phase .............................................................................................................. 26 CHAPTER II - Dawn Of Gandhian Era ........................................................................................ 44 CHAPTER III - Changes in Policies ............................................................................................... 58 CHAPTER IV - Civil Disobedience Movement ............................................................................ 67 CHAPTER V - The ‘Quit India’ Struggle ..................................................................................... 86 APPENDIX A - Address of Shri Rajiv Gandhi ........................................................................... 121 APPENDIX B - Some Prominent Congress Leaders from Bombay ......................................... 139 APPENDIX C - Some important places connected with Congress Movement in Bombay ...148 CONTENTS FOREWORD The Maharashtra State Board for Literature and Culture had decided to publish books on peoples’ History of Maharashtra, History of freedom struggle and History of India. Fortunately, our resolution coincided with the Centenary Celebration of the Indian National Congress. This made our task relatively easy. To accomplish it however, it was necessary to collect and publish the source material of all such histories. It is needless to say that the two books written by Dr. T. K. Tope come under this projected scheme of ours. I have always thought that the two books : Bombay and Congress Presidents (already published ) and Bombay and Congress movement ( which is being published now), should be written by Dr. Tope only. He belongs to hoary tradition of Bombay. He was a student of the city, a Professor in the University of Bombay, a Vice-Chancellor of the University and is now Sheriff of Bombay. In all these capacities he has carefully observed and collected in his memory the activities which made the history of Bombay. In fact he is one of the makers of the history of Bombay. I am glad that he accepted our invitation and agreed to write the present book. Bombay has played a major role in the Congress movement. As Dr. Tope points out “ The role of the City of Bombay in Congress movement is unique.It was here in 1885 that the Indian National Congress was born. It was from this city that Gandhiji gave the call for Non- cooperation. It was again here in Bombay, that the Civil disobedience movement was systematically carried on a very large and systematic scale. It was again Bombay that hosted the A.I.C.C. Session in 1942, when Gandhiji gave the call ‘ Quit India’. The Naval Ratings in Bombay in 1946 unfurled the flag of hostilities towards the Britishers. The present President of the Congress and the Prime Minister of India Shri Rajiv Gandhi was born in Bombay”. The History of Modern India begins with the battle of Plassi. It was a turning point in India History. It is on this day, that the seeds of the British Empire were sown in India. In fact, it was at this time that Mughal power had already collapsed and in 1761, in the 3rd battle of Panipat, Maratha power also received a great blow. By 1818 the Peshwas had surrendered and by 1854-55 the last Maratha Kingdom of Bhosala’s of Nagpur was annexed. The other States like thoseof Holkars, Sindias and Nizam were subjugated though they were allowed to remain as principalities in the British Empire. There was bound to be a reaction to this and in 1857 the forces of Nationalism and Feudalism expressed themselves in a revolt almost throughout India. As a result of this revolt the rule of East India Company came to an end and India became a part of the Empire of the Queen of England: she became the Empress of India. Establishment of Indian National Congress was itself a landmark in the history of our freedom struggle. Before that, there were, indeed, political revolts almost every year and in every part of the country. But these struggles were mostly of the select few. The common man of the country had not risen in revolt and no one could have in fact fought the British with traditional weapons. Although establishment of the British rule in India was in itself a miracle, a small size trading company coming from 10 thousand miles away and bringing under its wings, the whole of the country, the military mite of the British was far superior to CONTENTS ours and if the British rule had to be resisted, it had to be resisted with a different kind of organisation and weapons. The liberals among the British had also realised that it would not be possible to rule the dissatisfied and disgruntled people and that the establishment of order depended on the peoples’ co-operation. So, seeking co-operation of the leaders of the society was in the air and it resulted in the establishment of the Indian National Congress. The architects of this event were Hume, Wedderburn, Dadabhoy Naoroji, Sir Henry Cotton amongst others. A few of them wanted this Institution to be social, but a few of them definitely wanted it to be political, so that it could become a forum of people for demanding political reforms. However, from the very beginning Congress has always remained the main political forum and the history of freedom struggle can be generally identified with the history of the Congress. Not that, there were not other extremist groups, struggling for our independence, but directly or indirectly, they were also connected with the Congress. In the beginning the role of the Congress was, so to say, very minor, that of making certain resolutions and requesting the Government to make some reforms necessary for the welfare of the people. It must be admitted that the British rule also brought with it a new awareness for the common man, who was being educated in the British way of thinking but gradually the awareness also made clear the real important of bondage and the intelligent class gradually started asserting itself. This asserting developed in different directions Mahatma Jyotiba Phule tried to awaken the common man. Justice Ranade and Agarkar pleded for social changes and Dadabhoy Naoroji Lokmanya Tilak. G. K. Gokhale tried to bring about political changes. Of course. Tilak was a hardliner and very soon he could gather young men around him, not only from Maharashtra, but also from other parts of India. He gave a four point programme-(1) Boycott of foreign goods ; (2) Promotion of Swadeshi : (3) Natational Education and (4) Swarajya. The struggle between the moderates and Tilak gives us another important phase in the history of our freedom struggle, “Swaraj is my birth-right and I will have it” was his basic slogan and he could gather strength, because of the ways of the Britishers. For example when Lord Curzon divided Bengal, even the terrorists looked to Tilak for a moral support, which he did give and but for him the activities of Sawarkar. Senapati Bapat and revolutionaries of Bengal would not have gathered the momentum. Tilak’s policy naturally resulted in splitting the Congress at Surat between two camps, the younger element gathering around Tilak. This I think was the beginning of the second phaseof our freedom movement. It was also a landmark in a sense, for , Tilak had by this time introduced a new weapon in the struggle, a weapon of mass movement, which later on was very effectively used by Mahatma Gandhi. Lokmanya Tilak obeyed the British law, but fought for our constitutional rights like an opposition leader. His going to Jail had also a different significance. Till then only robbers and brigands, and at the most the extremists were put in jail and the jail was regarded as a place to be abhored. When Tilak went to jail, the situation changed. Tilak was arrested in 1908 and was released in 1914. By this time, Mrs. Annie Besant had also started the Home Rule Movemnent. But when Tilak came back to India the political scene was completely dominated by Tilak and from Lucknow Congress till about 1920 Tilak was the policy maker of Indian peoples’ demands. CONTENTS Mahatma Gandhi returned from Africa by about 1915, but for about a year he travelled in all parts of India, watching and studying what was happening. He started as a follower of Gokhale, who was moderate. But the Jallianwala massacre in 1919 completely changed Gandhiji. The Jallianwalla Episode, I regard, as an important landmark in our freedom struggle. It was the emergence of a new leadership,that of Gandhiji, a leadership which ultimately led us to Swaraj. It is at this time, that Montegue-Chemesford reforms were announced.