THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT AND THE PARTITION OF INDIAThis generosity was at the expense of the caste Hindus, many of whom
deeply resented this Gandhi-Ambedkar pact. On the other hand,
untouchable politicians were also not happy with it because candidates
who wanted to win such reserved seats had to be acceptable to the
majority of the voters and not only to the untouchables. Special parties of
untouchables would not have a chance, whereas untouchable candidates
put up by the Congress would win the seats. The Gandhi-Ambedkar pact
had a sideeffect which was not immediately noticed by contemporary
observers: it tied the Congress to the Communal Award, of which it was
merely a modification, and in this way it also obliged the Congress to play
the constitutional game according to the rules laid down by the British.
The pros and cons of office acceptanceAfter the excitement of civil disobedience the Congress was once more
bound to return to the constitutional arena. Gandhi terminated the civil
disobedience campaign once and for all in 1933 and in the following year
the Congress candidates were very successful in elections to the Central
Legislative Assembly (formerly the Imperial Legislative Council). In 1934
the left wing of the Congress established the Congress Socialist Party,
which looked upon Nehru as its mentor although he never joined it.
Gandhi saw to it that Nehru was once more elected Congress president in
- In this capacity he had to lead the Congress into the election
campaign under the new Government of India Act of 1935. Nehru was all
for winning the elections but was opposed to Congressmen accepting office
under this new constitution. The particular federal structure of the new
constitution and the bloc of conservative princes were anathema to Nehru
and the leftists. The princes, however, were far from unanimous in their
policy. The most powerful—those in Kashmir, Hyderabad and Mysore—
looked down upon the rest, believing that they were quite safe from all
future plans of integration and amalgamation. The politically most active
princes were the middling ones (Patiala, Bikaner, Bhopal, Alwar, etc.),
although they too were subject to rivalries and status conflicts which made
it difficult for them to get together for any concerted action. The more
enlightened representatives of princely governments and of the Chamber of
Princes were unable to inspire the other princes with their concern for the
future, just as they were unable to establish a princely consensus; when the
princes found out that the British were not very eager to get the new
federation going, they were content to stay out of it and enjoy life as usual.
The elections to the provincial assemblies were a great success for the
Congress, which gained a majority in most of them with the exception of
the Panjab and Bengal, where regional parties and coalitions prevailed. The
richer peasants and occupancy tenants, who were enfranchised for the first
time in this election, voted massively for the Congress; the British had