A month before the Tripuri session, in February 1939, the Congress
Party managed to pass a nonbinding resolution in the Legislative As-
sembly demanding India’s withdrawal from the League of Nations.^13
The supplementary motion, moved by Abdul Qaiyum Khan (a lawmaker
from the North West Frontier Province, currently a part of Pakistan),
cited British policy in Palestine as one of the reasons for the demand.^14
Subsequently, Palestine drew little attention. The INC and its leaders
were preoccupied with World War II and the po liti cal restrictions that
followed. With most of its leaders incarcerated during the war, the Con-
gress Party could not function normally and was unable to focus on ex-
ternal issues.
However, any understanding of the Congress Party’s policies toward
Palestine would be incomplete without underlining certain crucial omis-
sions: (1) There was no reference to the Balfour Declaration in the INC
resolutions.^15 This was in contrast to the Muslim League, which consis-
tently demanded the abrogation of the British promise for a Jewish na-
tional home in Palestine. (2) The Congress Party did not take any formal
position on the Jewish problem or propose a possible solution for it.^16 (3)
The Congress Party never repudiated Jewish claims over Palestine and its
criticisms were directed only at the modus operandi of the yishuv. (4) While
maintaining that the British gave contradictory promises to the Arabs and
Jews, the Congress Party did not suggest a compromise between these
confl icting promises. And (5) even though it demanded a demo cratic state
in Palestine with “adequate protection of Jewish rights,” the Congress
Party was not clear whether these rights were po liti cal and national or re-
ligious and social.
Nehru and the Palestine Question
As Bandyopadhyaya reminds us, since the Madras (now Chen-
nai) session in December 1927, Nehru became the “recognized spokes-
man of the Congress on foreign aff airs.” After the formation of the Foreign
Department of the Congress Party in 1925, “practically every resolution
of the Congress on foreign aff airs was inspired, drafted, and pi loted by
Nehru.”^17 What were Nehru’s opinions on Palestine and Jewish national-
ist aspirations?
At one level, Nehru had a sympathetic understanding of the plight of
Jews. In May 1933, he wrote:
the congress party and the yishuv 47