1937 Indian provincial elections

Electorate

Although the Congress's demands of universal adult franchise were not met, the Government of India Act 1935 did increase the number of enfranchised people, on the recommendations of the Lothian Committee Report of 1932 headed by Lord Lothian, the Under-Secretary of State for India alongside those of the Viceroy's cabinet & provincial governments. Approximately 30 million people, among them some women, gained voting rights. This number constituted one-sixth of Indian adults. The Act provided for a limited adult franchise based on property qualifications such as land ownership and rent, and therefore favored landholders and richer farmers in rural areas. The eligibility criteria differed significantly across the states, according to their conditions.

Muslims had been given separate electorates by the Government of India Act 1909. This was extended to include Sikhs, Europeans & Anglo-Indians by the Government of India Act 1919. The Communal Award, declared in 1932 by the British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, & incorporated into the 1935 Act, extended the separate electorates to include Christians, Backward Tribes, women & special interest groups (business representatives, labour representatives, landholders & university constituencies). Women's suffrage activist Eleanor Rathbone successfully led a campaign for the inclusion of wives and widows of men qualified to vote into the electoral roll, alongside educated women. An attempt to create a separate electorate for Dalits was thwarted by the Poona Pact.

Seats contested

Legislative Assemblies

Legislative Councils

Schedule

Election campaign

Indian National Congress

Having adopted the resolution of Purna Swaraj at the 1929 Lahore session & conducting the civil disobedience movement beginning with the Salt Satyagraha under the leadership of Gandhi, the Congress adopted a new constitution in 1934 & participated in general elections held that year. The widespread reception of the civil disobedience movement by the masses and Congress's foray into electoral politics largely alienated it from other political parties of the country (with which it had allied up in the 1928 All Parties Conference), who were alarmed at the Congress adopting an increasing confrontational & majoritarian stance. Previously the Congress had refused to participate in the electoral systems created by the 1909 & 1919 Acts, which saw the creation of the breakaway parties like the Indian Liberal Party headed by Surendranath Banerjee, Swaraj Party headed by Chittaranjan Das & Responsive Cooperation Party headed by M. R. Jayakar made up of Congressmen that participated in elections, but these parties went into dissolution with the Congress's participation in elections. The Congress had also boycotted 2 out of the 3 Round Table Conferences that had been attended by its competitors like the Hindu Mahasabha, Muslim League & Akali Dal. The Congress consistently refused to acknowledge the relevance of these parties, with Gandhi, as the sole Congress representative in the 2nd Round Table Conference, declaring the Congress to be the sole legitimate representatives of all Indians, irrespective of religion & caste - a claim that was widely denounced by many Indians. Despite having boycotted the last Round Table Conference, the Congress at its 1936 Lucknow session, agreed to contest the provincial elections to be held in 1937. The Congress's refusal to oppose the Communal Award saw the creation of Congress Nationalist Party by Madhav Shrihari Aney, made up of Congress dissidents resenting its ideological rigidity.

The Congress at this point acted as a federation of its state units, all of which acted in a largely autonomous manner. Factionalism was rife within the Congress party as a whole. Although Gandhi had largely retired from active political participation at this time and focused on social activities like conducting relief work at the 1934 Bihar earthquake, campaigning against untouchability and setting up the All-India Village Industries Association from his ashram at Wardha, his influence remained strong within the Congress party as the ultimate arbitrator in times of crisis, a mass leader during agitations & through his followers like Rajendra Prasad, Vallabhbhai Patel, C. Rajagopalachari & Abul Kalam Azad, who dominated the core Congress bodies like the All India Congress Committee & the Congress Working Committee. Apart from this Gandhian faction, there also existed another faction, led by the likes of Govind Ballabh Pant, Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari and Asaf Ali, composed mostly of new members who began their political activity after the non-cooperation movement as members of the aforementioned Congress breakaway parties but joined the Congress after the civil disobedience movement. They were Gandhian in ideology but didn't endorse the skepticism towards electoral politics & abstentionist stance of the Gandhian faction. There also existed a Hindu nationalist faction headed by Madanmohan Malaviya (as the Congress at this time didn't bar its members from having simultaneous membership of the Hindu Mahasabha) which supported electoral participation & government formation and a socialist faction represented by the Congress Socialist Party headed by Sampurnanand, & some individual radicals like Subhashchandra Bose & Shardulsingh Kavishar, supporting participation in elections but opposed to government formation. Jawaharlal Nehru, although adhering to Fabian socialism, didn't openly affiliate himself with this socialist group, choosing instead to work with the Gandhian establishment.

Increase in membership of the Congress party following the civil-disobedience movement hastened factionalism within state & district units. A notable example was seen in the Bengal unit, where the left-wingers headed by Bose were locked in a power struggle with the Gandhians led by Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, with Bose emerging victorious with the appointment of his brother Saratchandra Bose as the state Congress president. In Bombay, Jayakar and N. C. Kelkar formed the Democratic Swarajya Party due to resentment against the dominance of Gujaratis like Patel, K. M. Munshi & Bhalubhai Desai over Marathis like Shankarrao Deo in the state unit. The Assam unit was plagued with conflict between Sylheti Bengalis led by Basantakumar Das & the Assamese led by Gopinath Bordoloi. In Central Provinces, the Congress unit was divided between its Marathi unit divided between followers of N. B. Khare (who also happened to be a Hindu nationalist) & T. Poonamchand Ranka and the Hindi unit, divided between Ravishankar Shukla & Dwarkaprasad Mishra groups. The Orissa unit was divided between a Gandhian Karan faction centered around Cuttack & Balasore led by Harekrushna Mahatab & a Puri based Brahmin group in support of electoral politics led by Nilkantha Das. The Punjab unit was divided between Satyapal & Gopichand Bhargava factions. The Sindh unit was divided between the Karachi-based Swami Govindanand faction & the Amil-supported Jairamdas Daulatram faction.

The Congress didn't publish a formal election manifesto, but its 1931 Karachi Resolution acted as one.

All India Muslim League

The Muslim League at this point, consisted of mostly rich, educated and powerful Muslim urban middle class, merchants & landlords who had risen through the government ranks following the elections held after the 1919 Act. By this time, authority of the League had been firmly consolidated under Muhammad Ali Jinnah, having overcome the split caused by Mian Muhammad Shafi. However, its power as a nationwide political party was very weak, with provincial Muslim Leagues & leaders in their individual capacities exercising more power than the party. Although Muslims had actively supported the Congress during the Khilafat movement, but by the time of the elections, the Congress had almost entirely lost its Muslim support base (except in the North West Frontier Province, due to the Khudai Khidmatgar movement) due to resentment over Gandhi unilaterally halting the movement over the Chaurichaura incident, the Congress's decision to boycott the 1920 elections, controversy over the usage of Vande Mataram by the Congress in its 1923 Kakinada session, rejection of the 1923 Bengal Pact, rejection of separate electorates for Muslims in the 1928 Nehru Report & increasing anti-Muslim rhetoric among Hindus following the Malabar rebellion, controversy around the Rangila Rasul & the outbreak of sporadic communal clashes all over the nation throughout the 1920s & early 1930s over issues like public cow slaughter during Bakrid & playing of music by Hindu processions passing by mosques. By this time, many Muslim leaders had distanced themselves away from the party (except for a handful like Azad, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai & Tassaduq Ahmed Khan Sherwani). Jinnah took a nationalist stance and emulated the Congress's electoral campaign and appointed Muslim League Parliamentary Boards for the 1937 elections. Through this, he expected to advance the party as a coalition partner for the Congress, which they might need to form provincial governments. He miscalculated that the separate electorates system, with a larger electorate, would produce good results for the Muslim League. He also undertook countrywide tours in order to unite various Muslim leaders & influential members of the Muslim society under the Muslim League, but failed to do so due their vested interests. The Jamiat-e-Ulema-i-Hind, the country premier organisation of Muslim clerics, remained neutral towards the Muslim League. Jinnah held talks with Rajendra Prasad at Delhi in February 1935 over dropping separate electorates in exchange of joint electorates but at the cost of securing reservation of seats for Muslims in Bengal & Punjab, but it fell apart. Jinnah's campaign was based on Muslim nationalism & communal issues like the Shahidganj dispute & promotion of Urdu (see Hindi-Urdu controversy) but avoided intra-communal polarising issues like the status of Ahmaddiyas (which was the campaign issue for the Majlis-e-Ahrar) or giving the ulema any say in policymaking. The Muslim League's support in rural areas independent of zamindari support or among the workers and small traders in cities was non-existent. Here it faced challenge from various regional Muslim parties composed of former Khilafat activists opposed to the Muslim League due to personal or ideological reasons.

Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha

The Hindu Mahasabha, in its 1935 Poona session & 1936 Lahore session, decided to participate in the elections & government formation. Representing Hindu mercantile community & upper-caste landlords, it derived its strength following the Congress's refusal to condemn the Mappila Muslim perpetrators of the Malabar rebellion, Gandhi's refusal to condemn the assassination of Arya Samaj activist Swami Shraddhanand by Muslims because of his campaign of reconverting Hindus forcibly converted to Islam (which the Muslims interpreted as promoting apostasy) & collapse of Hindu-Muslim unity by the 1920s & 1930s. It campaigned over issues like Hindu nationalism, regionalism, opposition to reservation for backward castes & non-Hindus in government bodies and implementation of reactionary policies. However, it was divided into a pro-Congress faction headed by Malaviya & an anti-Congress faction headed by Ganpat Rai & Padmaraj Jain. Like the Congress, the Hindu Mahasabha also acted as a federation of autonomous provincial Hindu Sabhas. While in the Central Legislative Assembly, the Congress parliamentarians were willing to cooperate with the Hindu Mahasabha member Bhai Parmanand, Nehru was outright opposed to it. The Hindu Mahasabha held talks with the Congress Nationalist Party (of which Malaviya was a key member) & the Democratic Swarajya Party (as it adhered to a model of Hindu nationalism espoused by Bal Gangadhar Tilak) over fielding a common candidate & even a possible merger, but it ultimately failed. It was a significant player in the Muslim-majority provinces of Bengal, Punjab, Sindh & North-West Frontier Province. A major campaign issue of the Hindu Mahasabha was the Congress's neutrality towards the Communal Award, in which Muslim seats in Muslim majority provinces were designated on the basis of actual population ratios based on the 1931 census report but Muslim seats in Hindu-majority provinces were allotted on the basis of a negotiated ratio with favourable weightage towards the Muslims as determined in the 1916 Lucknow Pact, alongside the British government partially conceding to Jinnah's 14 Points by separating the Muslim-majority Sindh from the larger Hindu majority Bombay & upgrading Muslim-majority NWFP from a Chief Commissioner's Province to a gubernatorial province.

Communist Party of India

The Communist Party of India didn't participate in the elections as it was banned as a political outfit by the British authorities following the 1929 Meerut conspiracy & the party saw the electoral system as a whole to be a bourgeois setup. However, its peasant wing, the All India Kisan Sabha, derived significant influence in the rural areas from its campaign on agrarian distress. Many Kisan Sabha leaders, like N. G. Ranga & Sahajanand Saraswati, held Congress membership and had close contacts with the socialist faction of the Congress & with Nehru. Its trade wing, the All India Trade Union Congress, also exerted a considerable amount of influence among the trade unions. The AIKS extended its support to the Congress in the elections.

Other parties

Landlords also stood as candidates in the rural seats apart from landholders' seats (as ownership of land in the constituency was a criterion for candidature), campaigning over issues of rural development like irrigation, education & co-operative finances. They favoured cooperation with the British & opposed change in tenancy rights which affected their social & economic status. Landlord parties like the Muslim Independent Party in Bihar, Khoti Sabha in Bombay & National Agriculturist Party in United Provinces acted as mere legislative groupings meant to serve the vested interests of its members than a political party with a definite political agenda. Some members of these landlord parties also held simultaneous membership of communalist groups like the Hindu Mahasabha & the Muslim League.

The Unionist Party of Punjab, although dominated by landlords, campaigned on the urban-rural divide & over the Land Alienation Act, thereby attracting a large following of the peasantry across religious lines. The dominance of Punjabi Muslim landlords in the Unionist Party was challenged by the Hindu Election Board of Raja Narendra Nath, supported by urban Hindu mercantile groups.

The Krishak Praja Party of Bengal, was a tenant party, in that its campaign issues were the abolition of zamindari system & wealth inequality between the rural peasantry & the urban bhadralok, which assumed a communal turn as most of the zamindars & educated gentry in the Muslim-majority region of eastern Bengal happened to be Hindus, where they acted as a dominant minority.

Resentment against the dominance of Brahmins in public life and within the Congress saw the formation of caste-based outfits like the Non-Brahman Party in Bombay, patronized by Chhatrapati Shahu of Kolhapur & the Justice Party in Madras. The Non-Brahman party suffered from caste rivalry between the Kunbis & the Lingayats & lost support to the non-Brahman Congress leaders like K. M. Jedhe & A. B. Latthe. The Justice Party which once dominated Madras politics, suffered from its record of despotism while in office, caste infighting like those between Kammas & Reddys, infighting among its members like the clash between the Raja of Bobbili & the Raja of Pithapuram (who formed the People's Party in response) and loss of non-Brahman support following the election of C. N. Muthuranga Mudaliar as state Congress president. Many of these parties were also dominated by landholders & campaigned on issues of rural development. The Parsi community of Bombay, put off by the socialist leanings of the Congress, joined the Non-Brahman party (although some like Khurshed Nariman remained with the Congress) and stood as candidates in Hindu seats. In addition to this, there were also Dalit based parties, like the Depressed Classes League in Bihar, the Satnami Mahasabha in Central Provinces, & the Independent Labour Party of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, campaigning for Dalit interests. However, outside of Bombay the Independent Labour Party support was largely confined to the Mahar community & failed to attract the support of other Dalit groups like the Chamars. Dalit leaders like Jagjivan Ram & the Harijan Sevak Sangh also played a crucial role in consolidation of Dalit support for the Congress.

The Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab campaigned on grounds of Sikh interests, but suffered a split with the emergence of the Sikh landlord based Khalsa National Party. The Congress was unable to obtain much Sikh support due to its neutrality to the Communal Award, which both Sikh parties vehemently opposed.

Due to restrictions over finance & campaigning, the personal connection of the candidate with the electorate assumed far greater importance than party affiliation. Zamindars participating from rural constituencies relied on the influence among their tenants. Caste & community consolidation also played a crucial factor alongside the reputation & history of personal political activism of the candidate. Most of the non-partisan press of India were sympathetic to the Congress, except for those operated by Anglo-Indians & Europeans.

Results

The Congress won 706 out of around 1586 seats in a resounding victory, and went on to form seven provincial governments. The Congress formed governments in United provinces, Bihar, the Central Provinces, Bombay and Madras.

The 1937 elections demonstrated that neither the Muslim League nor the Congress represented Muslims. It also demonstrated the provincial moorings of Muslim politics. The Muslim League captured around 25 percent of the seats reserved for Muslims. The Congress Muslims achieved 6 percent of them. Most of the Muslim seats were won by regional Muslim parties. None of Congress' Muslim candidates won in Sindh, Punjab, Bengal, Orissa, United Provinces, Central Provinces, Bombay and Assam. Most of the 25 Muslim seats the Congress captured were in NWFP, Madras and Bihar.

Legislative assembly results

[[Member of the Legislative Assembly (India)|MLAs]] elected

Legislative councils results

[[Member of the Legislative Council (India)|MLCs]] elected

Government formation

The Congress initially refused to form governments in the provinces it had won because the Government of India Act empowered the Governor to over-rule Cabinet decisions & wield control over finances. However, S. Satyamurti launched a campaign within the Congress party, convincing Mahatma Gandhi to direct Congress leaders in accepting premiership positions. On 22 June, Governor-General Lord Linlithgow issued a statement declaring the willingness of the British administration to work alongside the Congress within the ambit of the GoI Act. On 1 July, the Congress Working Committee formally took the decision to form governments in the provinces.

Madras Presidency

Main article: 1937 Madras Presidency legislative assembly election, Madras Presidency legislative council election, 1937

In Madras, the Congress formed the government by winning 159 seats, eclipsing the incumbent Justice Party (21 seats). The Muslim League won 9 out of the 28 seats reserved for the Muslims. On the initial refusal of Congress to assume power, Kurma Venkata Reddy Naidu of the Justice Party was sworn in as Chief Minister of Madras State on 1 April by the governor John Erskine. Three months later, the Congress staked claim & C. Rajagopalachari was sworn in. The legislatures convened under the chairmanship of B. Sambamurthy (assembly) & Dr. U. Rama Rao (council).

Sind

Main article: 1937 Sind legislative assembly election

The Sind Legislative Assembly had 60 members. The Sind United Party emerged the leader with 21 seats, and the Congress secured 5 seats. Mohammad Ali Jinnah had tried to set up a League Parliamentary Board in Sindh in 1936, but he failed, though 72% of the population was Muslim. Though 34 seats were reserved for Muslims, the Muslim League could secure none of them. Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah of the Sindh Muslim League was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Sind with Hindu Mahasabha support on 28 April by Governor Sir Lancelot Graham. Within a year, he was replaced by Allah Bux Soomro of the Sind United Party. The assembly convened under the chairmanship of Bhojsingh Pahlajani.

United Provinces

The UP legislature consisted of a Legislative Council of 52 elected and 6 or 8 nominated members and a Legislative Assembly of 228 elected members: some from exclusive Muslim constituencies, some from "General" constituencies, and some "Special" constituencies. The Congress won a clear majority in the United Provinces, with 133 seats, while the Muslim League won only 27 out of the 64 seats reserved for Muslims.

The Congress refused to form a coalition with the League, even though the two parties had a verbal understanding to do so. The party offered the Muslim League a role in government if it merged itself into the Congress Party. While this position had a good basis it proved to be a mistake. The Congress disregarded that even though they had captured the large part of UP's general seats, they had not won any of the reserved Muslim seats, of which the Muslim League had won 29.

On the Congress' refusal to assume power, the Nawab of Chhatari from the National Agriculturist Party was sworn in on 3 April by the governor Harry Graham Haig. Three months later, the Congress laid claim to government formation and Govind Ballabh Pant was sworn in as the Chief Minister of United Provinces. The legislatures convened under the chairmanship of Purushottamdas Tandon (assembly) & Sir Sitaram (council).

Assam

In Assam, the Congress won 33 seats out of a total of 108 making it the single largest party, though it was not in a position to form a ministry. Sir Muhammed Saadulah of the Assam Valley Muslim Party was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Assam on 1 April by the governor Robert Niel Raid. One year later he was replaced with Gopinath Bordoloi of the Congress. The legislatures convened under the chairmanship of Basanta Kumar Das (assembly) & Monomohan Lahiri (council).

Bombay Presidency

Main article: 1937 Bombay Presidency elections

In Bombay, the Congress won 86 out of the 175 seats, falling just short of gaining half the seats. However, it was able to draw on the support of some small pro-Congress groups to form a working majority. After the Congress initially refuse to take power, the governor Michael Knatchbull sworn in Dhanjishah Cooper of the Non-Brahmin party as the Chief Minister of Bombay on 1 April. Four months later, the Congress staked claim for government formation and B.G. Kher was sworn in. The legislatures convened under chairmanship of Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar (assembly) & Mangaladas Mancharam Pakvasa (council).

Punjab

Main article: 1937 Punjab Provincial Assembly election

Sikandar Hayat Khan of the Unionist Party, with support of the Khalsa National Party and Hindu Election Board was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Punjab on 5 April by the governor Sir Herbert Emerson. The assembly convened under the chairmanship of Shahabuddin Virk.

Bengal

Main article: 1937 Bengal Legislative Assembly election

A. K. Fazlul Huq of the Krishak Praja Party formed a coalition government with the support of Khawaja Nazimuddin of the Muslim League & independent Dalit MLAs like Jogendranath Mandal. He was sworn in on 1 April as the Chief Minister of Bengal by the governor Sir John Anderson. The legislatures convened under the chairmanship of Azizul Huq (assembly) & Satyendra Chandra Mitra (council).

North West Frontier Province

In the overwhelmingly Muslim majority North-West Frontier Province, Congress won 19 out of 50 seats and was able, with minor party support, to form a ministry. Due to the Congress' initial refusal to form government, the governor Sir George Cunningham sworn in Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum of the Muslim Independent Party as the Chief Minister on 1 April. Five months later, the Congress laid claims to government formation & Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan, (brother of Bacha Khan) was sworn in. The assembly convened under the chairmanship of Malik Khuda Baksh Khan.

Other provinces

As the Congress initially refused to assume power, other people had to be sworn in. On 1 April, governor Sir Maurice Garnier Hallett sworn in Muhammad Yunus of the Muslim Independent Party as the Chief Minister of Bihar. On that day, the Maharaja of Paralakhamudi Krushna Chandra Gajapati (representing landholders) was sworn in as Chief Minister of Odisha by governor John Hubback. In Central Provinces, an interim government was formed by Dr. E. Raghavendra Rao, sworn in by the governor Sir Hyde Gowan.

In July, the Congress laid stake to government formation, thus Shri Krishna Sinha in Bihar & Bishwanath Das in Orissa were sworn in. In August, Narayan Bhaskar Khare was sworn in as Chief Minister of Central Provinces. Within a year, he was sacked from the Congress & replaced by Ravishankar Shukla. The legislatures in Bihar were convened under the chairmanship of Sachchidananda Sinha (assembly) & Rajivranjan Prasad Singh (council). Legislative assemblies in Orissa & Central Provinces were chaired by Mukunda Prasad Das & Ghanshyam Singh Gupta respectively.

Analysis

The Congress received the support from all sections of the Hindu society, across provincial identities, caste lines & the rural-urban divide. Although having a significant upper-caste leadership (which was extremely acute in places like Bihar, Bombay & Madras), no caste group felt itself unrepresented within the Congress. While the Congress was able to consolidate the support of Hindus in Hindu majority provinces, it failed to do so in Sindh, Punjab & North West Frontier Province - places where Hindus were in minority, due to its position on the Communal Award. In these areas, Congress support was mostly restricted to the urban areas. The only exception was Bengal, where the Hindu support consolidated behind the Congress as the bhadralok found the Hindu Mahasabha's reactionary stance unappealing. Outside of rural Sindh, whose separation from the Hindu majority Bombay it bitterly opposed, the Hindu Mahasabha found little electoral support among Hindus elsewhere. The Hindu Mahasabha's emphasis on Brahmin supremacy alienated the non-Brahmins & Dalits. Bengal was an exception, where it won 2 rural seats reserved for Dalits in Muslim majority districts due to the 1932 pact between Dalit leader M. C. Rajah & Hindu Mahasabha leader B. S. Moonje. The conservative rural Hindu electorate in Hindu majority areas didn't found the Hindu Mahasabha's campaign of achieving a Hindu theocracy & preventing government interference in religious matters like temple entry of Dalits over Nehru's concern for agrarian distress in the backdrop of the Great Depression through promises of land reforms, adjustment of taxation rates, declaration of moratorium of debts & increased spending on rural development in his 1936 presidential address in Lucknow, appealing. Although patronized by zamindars, many of the Hindu Mahasabha supporters chose to participate as independents or other landlord parties rather than under the Mahasabha affiliation. Even Shyamaprasad Mukherjee, future leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, contested the elections as an independent, and got elected from the Calcutta University constituency, by virtue of being its vice-chancellor. However, it did have significant support from within the right-wing faction of the Congress supporting Hindu revivalism who shared the paranoia about a possible state capture by Muslims, with Nehru writing in 1942; "many a Congressman was a communalist under his national cloak". Out of the 468 Muslim seats the Congress had contested just 58 of them and won only 25, 15 in North West Frontier Province, 4 in Bihar, 4 in Madras & 2 in Punjab, but the Congress refused to accept its failure in attracting Muslims & wouldn't recognise the Muslim League's claims of being the representative of Indian Muslims until Partition negotiations began in 1946. Similarly, it also failed to attract Sikh support, winning only 4 Sikh rural seats in Punjab, due to the Sikh opposition to the Communal Award. Nevertheless, the Congress persisted in its claim of being the sole legitimate representative of all Indians.

Within Bombay, Ambedkar's party won 10 out of 15 seats reserved for Dalits. Although winning 80 out of the 151 Dalit seats nationwide, the Congress was unable to win a majority of Dalit seats outside United Provinces, Bihar, Orissa & Madras, with a significant number of Dalit MLA's being elected as independents.

Of the 478 seats reserved for Muslims, the League won 111, emerging as the single largest Muslim party, but it was vastly outnumbered by independents (126) & other Muslim parties (236). The League won 29 seats in the United Provinces where it had competed for 35 out of the 66 seats for Muslims. Emerging as the single largest Muslim party in Muslim minority states of Assam, United Provinces, Bombay & Madras, it won the majority of urban Muslim seats but in rural areas faced strong competition from independents and landlord parties. Its performance in Punjab, where it won just two of the seven seats it vied for, was unsuccessful. It performed better in Bengal, capturing 40 of the 120 seats for Muslims, winning all 6 urban Muslim seats, seats in areas where Muslims were in minority & where Muslim League supporting zamindars stood as candidates. A notable example was the Nawab family of Dhaka, whose several individuals were elected from rural Muslim seats. But the League lost a large amount of the rural Muslim support to the Krishak Praja Party & independents, who prioritised rural issues over communal ones. Hence, it could not form a government on its own in Bengal. Muslim preference was clearly represented for regional parties which were not supportive of the Congress. The Muslim League was confronted with the fact that Hindu majority provinces would be ruled by Hindus, but Muslim League would not rule the provinces with Muslim majorities. The Congress domination over the government made the prospects of federal Muslim politicians appear dismal. Regional parties kept the League out of power in those provinces with Muslim majorities while in the Hindu majority provinces it was unwanted by the Congress. Antagonised by this rebuff the League stepped up its efforts to attract a popular following.

Apart from the Congress, the only other parties able to elect members from more than one religious denomination were the Justice Party in Madras (5 Hindus including 2 Dalits, 8 Muslims & 4 Christians), the United Party in Orissa (5 Hindus inclusive of 1 Dalit & 1 Muslim), the Hindu-Sikh Nationalist Party in North West Frontier Province (4 Hindus & 3 Sikhs) & the Unionist Party in Punjab (13 Hindus inclusive of 4 Dalits, 73 Muslims inclusive of 1 woman & 2 Christians).

Aftermath

The Congress ministries went on expanding civil liberties as promised in its 1931 Karachi manifesto. Draconian powers of the police were curbed, press censorship was lifted, surveillance over politicians by the CID was curtailed (although right-wing leaders like Rajagopalachari in Madras & Munshi in Bombay diverted the CID to track the activities of left-wing elements & the ever-increasing number of communists instead, the most famous incident being the detaining of left-wing Congress member Yusuf Meher Ali), political prisoners from the Cellular Jail were repatriated back, those who lost their jobs for participating in the civil disobedience movement were rehabilitated & laws were made to curb exploitation of the rural poor by moneylenders. However, due to the significant number of zamindars in the legislative bodies, the Congress governments were unable to take decisive action in amending tenancy laws. This caused resentment among the peasants, manifesting in the form of peasant agitations. Dissatisfaction with the pace of labour reforms caused massive industrial strikes in various cities. Many Dalit leaders considered the work done by the Congress governments (such as legalising temple entry & increasing scholarship) to improve conditions of the Dalits as 'token legislature'.

The Congress's assumption of power saw a massive influx of self-serving opportunists enrolling themselves as Congress members with the aim of obtaining lucrative positions in state governments & local administrative bodies. One observer notes

This in turn led to widespread corruption, nepotism, clientelism, abuse of power & despotism within the Congress ranks. Gandhi bemoaned this transformation of the Congress & wrote in the May 1939 issue of the Harijan

This time period also saw increased infighting within the Congress, between its socialist & Gandhian factions, beginning with the election of Bose as Congress president in its 1938 Haripura session. Gandhian leader Sardar Patel (who harboured personal enmity with Bose due to the dispute surrounding the last will of his brother Vithalbhai Patel), worked to undermine Bose's authority within the Congress. Bose's clash of ideas with Gandhi ultimately led to his resignation even after being re-elected Congress president in the next year's Tripuri session, leading to the formation of the Forward Bloc.

Although the Muslim League failed miserably in Punjab, Jinnah reached an agreement with Sikandar Hayat Khan in October 1937, called the Sikandar-Jinnah Pact, under which Muslim members of the Unionist Party were allowed to hold simultaneous membership in the Muslim League (thereby eliminating the need for a separate provincial Muslim League wing), in exchange for the Muslim League to represent the interests of the Unionist Party at the Imperial Legislative Council. Although initially seen as extremely humiliating & disadvantageous for the League, the Pact allowed the League to consolidate its influence among the rural Muslim population, following the government's violent clamp down on Ahrars & Khaksars over the escalating Shahidganj dispute. Communal riots between Muslims & Hindus in Panipat on Holi and between Muslims & Nihang Sikhs in Amritsar in that year hastened religious polarisation in the state, manifested by the formation of armed Hindu militias in the cities in opposition to the Khaksars & the paramilitary groups of the political parties (like the Muslim National Guard & Congress Seva Dal), most notably among them was the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

In Sindh, Sir Abdullah Haroon was able to secure the mergers of the outfits led by Hidayatullah & Pir Ilahi Baksh in October 1938. He also engineered defection of 10 legislators from the Sind United Party under G. M. Syed. But Soomro survived the no-confidence motion by giving ministerial positions to the defectors. The Muslim League hastened communal polarisation caused by riots in Shikarpur in March 1937 through its agitation over the Manzilgarh dispute to discredit his government.

By late 1937, the provincial wing of the Muslim League was created in the North West Frontier Province, bolstered due to the defection of many leaders from the landlord-based Muslim Independent Party over the Congress's anti-feudal laws. In 1938 bypolls, it won 4 seats, 1 in Hazara & 3 in Haripur.

Hindu-Muslim relations continued to deteriorate after the elections, with the outbreak of religious violence in Madras, Central Provinces & Punjab throughout May 1937. In his address on 17 April 1938 at Calcutta, Jinnah accused the Congress members of collaborating with outfits like the Hindu Mahasabha & Arya Samaj in perpetuating violence against Muslims during these riots. The Muslim League sharpened its claims of Islamophobia in the Congress through the Pirpur report, Shareef report & Fazlul Haq's report titled Muslim Sufferings Under Congress Rule. Apart from allegation of collaborating with rioting Hindus, other grievances made by the Muslim League were:

1. Imposition of Vande mataram over Muslims.
2. Imposition of Hindi as a compulsory language over Muslims & suppression of Urdu
3. Imposition of the Congress's tricolour flag over the Muslim population
4. Discrimination against Muslim candidates in job appointments
5. (Selectively) instigating Hindu ryots to launch peasant movements in areas where the zamindar happened to be a Muslim.
6. Banning cow-slaughter
7. Mandating veneration of Gandhi's image & ideas among Muslims studying in government-run schools.

The Congress rejected the veracity of these allegations. Rajendra Prasad openly challenged Jinnah to have the allegations verified by a judicial committee headed by Sir Maurice Gwyer, Chief Justice of the Federal Court. But the Muslim League refused to formally lodge the complaint, with Chaudhury Khaliquzzaman privately confessing that the allegations were heavily exaggerated & somewhat baseless, but it successfully created a sense of paranoia among Muslims about their future in a Hindu majority independent India. Nehru refused to attach any importance to either the Muslim League or its allegations & did nothing to dispel the sense of mistrust among the Muslim population. He did, however, launch a mass contact programme to reach the Muslims, which Jinnah exploited as a vindication of his allegations. The Pant administration in United Provinces was seen as attempting to undermine Muslim solidarity by escalating Sunni-Shia conflict through the Madh-i-Sahaba dispute.

On 3 September 1939, Viceroy of India Lord Linlithgow declared India to be at war with Nazi Germany immediately after Britain's declaration. The Congress objected strongly to the declaration of war without prior consultation with Indians in the legislatures. The Congress Working Committee suggested that it would cooperate if a central Indian national government were formed and a commitment were made to India's independence after the war. The Muslim League promised its support to the British, with Jinnah calling on Muslims to help the Empire by "honourable co-operation" at the "critical and difficult juncture", while asking the Viceroy for increased protection for Muslims.

The government did not come up with any satisfactory response. Viceroy Linlithgow could only offer to form a 'consultative committee' for advisory functions. Thus, Linlithgow refused the demands of the Congress. On 22 October 1939, all Congress ministries were called upon to tender their resignations. Both Viceroy Linlithgow and Muhammad Ali Jinnah were pleased with the resignations. On 2 December 1939, Jinnah put out an appeal, calling for Indian Muslims to celebrate 22 December 1939 as a "Day of Deliverance" from Congress:

Gallery

File:Members of Punjab Provincial Assembly 1st.jpg|MLAs of the Punjab Legislative Assembly in 1937 File:1937 Madras Legislative Assembly.jpg|Madras Legislative Assembly session in 1937 File:Members of the N.W.F.P. Legislative Assembly 1937.jpg|MLAs of the NWFP Legislative Assembly in 1937 File:AK Fazlul Huq Cabinet 1937.jpg|A. K. Fazlul Huq's first cabinet in 1937 File:Pandit Nilakanth With Nehru in Odisha.jpg|Nehru in Odisha while campaigning for the elections in 1937 File:The Delegates of the All-India Convention of the Congress - New Delhi 1937.jpg|1937 AICC session in Delhi, where the decision to stake claim in provincial government formation was communicated to the newly elected Congress MLAs who had convened. File:Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (in the center) with activists of 'Scheduled Caste Federation' (1937).jpg|Ambedkar surrounded by the party workers of the Independent Labour Party in 1937 File:Muslim League Working Committee, Lucknow Session (Photo 429-4).jpg|Muslim League Working Committee members in Lucknow in October 1937 File:Indian Congress Metting 1937 Calcutta.jpg|AICC session in October 1937, held at Bose's Calcutta residence File:Subhas Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru and others proceeding to the AICC meeting on October 1937.jpg|Nehru and Bose at Calcutta, proceeding to attend the above-mentioned session.

Notes

References

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