The Warrior and the Saint 167tions and cap ital cities, and enthusiastic audiences came to hear him
speak. The stalwarts of the Congress stayed away, but Bose was able to
obtain the ser vices of some able lieutenants, such as Sardul Singh Ca-
veeshar in Punjab, Mian Akbar Shah in the Frontier, and K. F. Nariman
and Hari Vishnu Kamath in Bombay. He also received the backing of
peasant leaders, including Swami Sahajanand Saraswati of Bihar (presi-
dent of the All- India Kisan Sabha), N. G. Ranga of Andhra, and Indulal
Yagnik of Gujarat. In Karnataka, he was pleasantly surprised when S. K.
Hosmani, the incumbent president of the Congress party in that prov-
ince, crossed over to his Forward Bloc.^72
At a meeting of the All- India Congress Committee (AICC) in late
June 1939, the right wing—in order to tighten its control over the
party apparatus and the provincial ministries—passed two resolutions
prohibiting Congress members from offering satyagraha without the
permission of the party brass and freed the Congress provincial minis-
tries from the need to follow the directives of the provincial parties.
The Left Consolidation Committee, led by Bose, responded by calling
for demonstrations across the country on July 9 against what they saw
as the stifling of intra- party democracy. Meetings denouncing the two
resolutions were held in many places, and Bose himself addressed a
large crowd that had gathered inside and outside the Franji Cowasji
Hall in Bombay.^73 The Congress Working Committee charged him with
violating party discipline and banned him from holding any elective
of fice in the Congress for three years, beginning in August 1939.
This disciplinary action by the Congress High Command had seri-
ous repercussions in Bengal. Even after resigning as Congress president,
Bose had been serving as president of the Bengal Provincial Congress
Committee, and the overwhelming majority of Bengal’s congressmen
and congress women were on his side. As soon as Rajendra Prasad had
taken over as Congress president, two men belonging to the anti- Bose
minority in Bengal, Bidhan Chandra Roy and Prafulla Chandra Ghosh,
had been appointed to the Working Committee. If anything, Bose’s
removal from the chair of the Bengal Provincial Congress Commit-
tee solidified support for him in the region. Since the elected Ben-
gal Provincial Congress Committee continued to side with Bose by a
large majority, the Congress High Command appointed a small ad hoc