The Pledge of Independence

The Pledge of Independence

The Indian National Congress was split into two groups-Moderates and Extremists- in 1907 at its Surat Session.  The moderates were led by Gokhale and the extremists by Tilak. The three prominent leaders of the extremist group were Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal- the trio nicknamed as ‘Lal-Bal-Pal’ of the freedom movement. The moderates wanted   dominion status within the British Empire through constitutional means of petitions, prayers and the like, while the extremists believed in agitations, strikes and boycotts and militant approach to achieve self-rule. They accused the moderates adopting a ‘policy of mendicancy’.  In 1916, Annie Besant and Tilak had established the Home Rule League, with the objective of achieving Home Rule. However, the League could not survive more than two years.  And with the death of Tilak in 1920, the stage was set for Gandhi to galvanise the freedom movement.

The impact of Gandhi’s entry into the freedom movement could be gauged from what Nehru had said: “He was like a powerful current of fresh air that made us stretch ourselves and take deep breaths; like a beam of light that pierced the darkness and removed the scales from our eyes; like a whirlwind that upset many things, but most of all the working of people’s minds…The political freedom took new shape then and acquired a new content. “   He did not descend from the top; he emerged from the millions of India, speaking their language and incessantly drawing attention to them, and their appalling conditions. He told them to get rid of the system that produced poverty and misery. The essence of his teaching was fearlessness and truth.  It was " psychological change, almost as if some expert in psycho-analytical methods had probed deep into the patient’s past, found out the origins of his complexes, exposed them to his view, and thus rid him of that burden.”

Gandhi had converted the Congress, which until then confined to the English educated elites of cities like Bombay, Calcutta etc., into a people’s movement.  He  transformed it into a democratic and mass organization, shunning recourse to violent methods, instead adopting peaceful techniques of resistance, and yet not submitting to what was considered wrong and unjust.  It meant pain and suffering and sacrifice.  The older leaders of the Congress did not take easily to these ways and were disturbed by the upsurge of the masses. Some of them had left the Congress, including Jinnah, whom Gokhale called “the best Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity”.  Nehru succinctly summed up why Jinnah left the Congress: “He left the Congress not because of any difference of opinion on the Hindu-Muslim question but because he could not adapt himself to the new and more advanced ideology, and even more so because he disliked the crowds of ill-dressed people, talking in Hindustani, who filled the Congress… he felt completely out of the picture and even decided to leave India for good.” That Jinnah who indeed left India and settled in England had returned to India to carve out Pakistan from India is a different story. 

Gandhi had an amazing knack of reaching the heart of the people.  His first major campaign against the British colonial rule the non co-operation movement was launched in 1920. Earlier, following the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in April 1919- as a fall out of the Rowlatt Act- the Congress had withdrawn support to the British government. The non co-operation meant boycotting the courts and the British goods and paralysing the administration. It was a peaceful non-violent mass revolt. The lawyers were asked to give up their practice and the students to boycott the government colleges. However, Gandhi suspended the movement that gained support and momentum across the country, following the Chauri Choura incident in February 1922 of a crowd of peasants burning alive some 22 policemen in the police station. The abrupt suspension of the movement angered and disappointed many leaders who were in prison, like Nehru, at a time when the country was consolidating its position and advancing on all fronts.  Gandhi’ was arrested and tried for sedition and sentenced to six years imprisonment.

In 1928, the British Government had sent the Simon Commission,consisting of seven Parliamentarians,to India to study constitutional reforms and make recommendations. The Congress boycotted the Commission, because it had no Indian representation. That year the Congress at its Session in Calcutta had passed a resolution demanding dominion status. The younger radical leaders in the Congress were unhappy and insisted on taking a more aggressive stand on the question of independence. The Lahore Session of the Congress in 1929 had assumed historical significance. Gandhi was to be elected as the Congress President, but he withdrew from the contest in favor of Jawaharlal Nehru. And soon after Nehru’s election as the Congress President, Gandhi said:”those who know the relations that subsist between Jawaharlal and me know that his being in the Chair is as good as my being in it. We may have intellectual differences, but our hearts are one.”

Thus the leadership of the Congress was passed on to the radical group. As the Congress President, Nehru moved a resolution for Purna Swaraj, which was adopted. At the stroke of midnight December 31, he unfurled the tricolor flag on the banks of river Ravi. The Congress Working Committee decided to observe 26 January, 1930 as Puma Swaraj Day. On January 26 the pledge of independence was administered all over the country. And Nehru became a national hero, gaining unprecedented popularity among the masses, the youth and the intellectuals.

An extract from the pledge:”We believe that it is the inalienable right of the Indian people, as of any other people, to have freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil and have the necessities of life, so that they may have full opportunities of growth…The British Government in India has not only deprived the Indian people of their freedom but has based itself on the exploitation of the masses, and has ruined India economically, politically, culturally and spiritually.  We believe, therefore, that India must sever the British connection and attain Purna Swaraj or complete independence.” The freedom movement got fresh impetus and intensified. Since then January 26 was celebrated as the Independence Day every year, and 26 of a month became a historical day in independent India. That was why the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution of India on 26 November 1949. And it was on 26 January 1950, the Constitution came into operation and India became a Sovereign Democratic Republic.