Role of Different parties in Freedom Struggle
Role of Indian National Congress in Freedom Struggle
Founded in 1885, the Indian National Congress (INC) was at the forefront of the nationalist movement in India before 1947. After India’s independence in that year, the Congress emerged as the ruling party, and it maintained power uninterrupted for three decades (1947–1977). Since then, the party has been in and out of power.
In the first three decades of its existence the Congress was an elite organization dominated by English-educated, urban middle-class Indians. The organization was much like a debating society, but Mohandas K. Gandhi, who assumed its leadership in 1920 and remained its spiritual leader until his death in 1948, transformed the Congress into a mass movement and a political institution with an organizational structure that paralleled the colonial administration. Gandhi expanded the membership and appeal of the Congress by mobilizing the rural population, especially the lower castes and outcastes of the Hindu social hierarchy—the sudras, or “untouchables.” The Congress became the sole representative of the national cause, leading three campaigns between 1920 and 1947: the noncooperation movement (1920–1922), the civil disobedience campaign (1931–1932), and the “Quit India” movement (August 1942). The Congress won seven of the eleven provinces in the 1937 elections, which were held under British rule following the provisions of the Government of India Act of 1935, and it formed a government in those provinces.
Role of Communist party of india in indian freedom struggle
The Communists had a very little impact on the freedom struggle of the country because their ideology and method of struggle did not suit the people of India. The Communist party and individual Communist leaders were practically nowhere in 1885, when Indian National Congress was founded and even long after that till 1924, when in September of that year Satya Bhatta founded Communist Party of India.
The party’s objective was to struggle for complete swaraj for the country in which there will be common ownership over all means of production and distribution. These will be used for the welfare of the masses. The Communists rejected Gandhian philosophy of non-violence and in 1925 expressed their desire for independence from the control of Comintern.
They made it clear that they were not their subordinates. They wanted that radical changes should be brought in Congress party programmes. They were critical of both the Congress and Swaraj party. They pleaded that the Congress party should follow policy of militant mass action and policy of surrender and compromise should be discarded.
They considered that Congress was at present under the influence of bourgeois leadership from which it should be liberated. In 1926, Communists decided to work under the guidance of Comintern and some Communist leaders even attended Sixth Congress of Communist International held in September, 1928.
It decided to fight on two fronts for country’s freedom namely National bourgeoisie on the one hand and British imperialism on the other. It was at this Communist International that about India it was resolved that, “The Communist must unmask the national reformism of the Indian National Congress and oppose all the phases of the Swarajists and Gandhists, etc., about passive resistance.”
The Communists should fight against Gandhian ideology. Accordingly they criticised Gandhian philosophy of Civil Disobedience movement for being not a struggle but a manoeuvre of the Indian bourgeoisie to obtain concessions from imperialism. They believed that Gandhian programme diverted attention of the workers and peasants from their main struggle against landlords and capitalists.
But even then when important Congress leaders were arrested in Meerut Conspiracy case Communist leaders did not favour this arbitrary move of the British government and formed a Civil Defence Committee which included such prominent leaders, as Moti Lal Nehru, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Dewan Chaman Lal and many others. Funds were also raised for fighting court case.
Hindu mahasabha and indian freedom struggle
Established in 1915, the Mahasabha (known previously as the Sarvadeshak Hindu Sabha) has been struggling to stay politically and socially relevant. Local forerunners to the Mahasabha had been sprouting across the country since the early decades of the 20th century when the All India Muslim League was formed in 1906 and the British announced separate electorates for Muslims under the Morley Minto Reforms. As a result of these developments, Hindu leaders realised the need to come together to form an organisation that would safeguard their interests. Over the years several small Hindu sabhas were formed in Punjab, United Provinces, Bihar, and Bombay Presidency. In April 1925 the Sarvadeshak (all India) Hindu Mahasabha was formally established and all the regional organisations brought under it. In April 1921 it changed its name to Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha.
Ever since its inception, the Mahasabha’s role in the freedom struggle has been read as rather controversial. While not supportive of British rule, the Mahasabha did not offer its full support to the nationalist movement either, abstaining from participating in the Civil Disobedience movement of 1930 and the Quit India movement of 1942.
Under the stewardship of V D Savarkar, the Mahasabha was opposed to Gandhi’s overtures to hold parleys with Muslim League president Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Congress’ efforts to integrate Muslims. It was evidently demonstrated when it did not actively support the Indian freedom movement against British rule and boycotted the Quit India Movement officially.
All india muslim league and indian freedom struggle
Muslim League was a political group that led the movement calling for a separate Muslim nation to be created at the time of the partition of British India (1947). The Muslim League was founded in 1906 to safeguard the rights of Indian Muslims. At first the league was encouraged by the British and was generally favourable to their rule, but the organization adopted self-government for India as its goal in 1913. For several decades the league and its leaders, notably Mohammed Ali Jinnah, called for Hindu-Muslim unity in a united and independent India. It was not until 1940 that the league called for the formation of a Muslim state that would be separate from the projected independent country of India. The league wanted a separate nation for India’s Muslims because it feared that an independent India would be dominated by Hindus.
Jinnah and the Muslim League led the struggle for the partition of British India into separate Hindu and Muslim states, and after the formation of Pakistan in 1947 the league became Pakistan’s dominant political party. In that year it was renamed the All Pakistan Muslim League. But the league functioned less effectively as a modern political party in Pakistan than it had as a mass-based pressure group in British India, and hence it gradually declined in popularity and cohesion. In the elections of 1954 the Muslim League lost power in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), and the party lost power in West Pakistan (now Pakistan) soon afterward. By the late 1960s the party had split into various factions, and by the 1970s it had disappeared altogether.
APPSC GROUP 1 Notes brings Prelims and Mains programs for APPSC GROUP 1 Prelims and APPSC GROUP 1 Mains Exam preparation. Various Programs initiated by APPSC GROUP 1 Notes are as follows:-- APPSC GROUP 1 Mains Tests and Notes Program
- APPSC GROUP 1 Prelims Exam - Test Series and Notes Program
- APPSC GROUP 1 Prelims and Mains Tests Series and Notes Program
- APPSC GROUP 1 Detailed Complete Prelims Notes