THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT AND THE PARTITION OF INDIAWhereas the Khilafatists welcomed Gandhi’s new policy, most Congress
members were sceptical about it. A special Congress was to decide on the
adoption of a non-cooperation resolution in Calcutta in September 1920.
Tilak, who had avoided taking a definite stand, died in August 1920.
When Gandhi received this news he said: ‘My strongest bulwark is gone.’
This statement has remained an enigma and one can only surmise what
Gandhi meant. Far from being his follower, Tilak was in fact Gandhi’s
rival; Gandhi, however, probably assumed that Tilak was bound to support
him once he had to take a stand at the Calcutta Congress. Gandhi attended
this Congress with mixed feelings: he was not sure whether he would get a
majority for non-cooperation. To his surprise the proposal of a boycott of
the elections was favoured by many politicians who had already registered
as candidates. Perhaps they felt that their chances of success were limited
and that the boycott would provide them with a good alibi. The Congress
politicians were caught on the horns of a dilemma: the franchise had been
extended to many people with whom they had had no contact, and those
voters who had been enfranchised earlier would probably vote for the
liberals who had left the Congress. Among these liberals there were many
prominent politicians who had held seats for quite some time and could
not be dislodged very easily. Under such circumstances non-cooperation
was the best solution. When Gandhi noticed this unexpected wave of
support he forgot about his usual reluctance concerning big words and
empty slogans. The Congress members had pointed out to him that his
programme referred only to specific issues and did not even mention
‘swaraj’ (self government). He took the hint, included this term in his
resolution and enthusiastically promised ‘swaraj in one year’ if his
programme was fully adopted. But in spite of this enthusiasm the
resolution was carried with only a narrow majority.
Between the special Congress of September 1920 and the annual
Congress to be held in Nagpur in December 1920, Gandhi had only a very
limited time to consolidate his position. He toured the country with the
Khilafatists and tried to get support among the young people, whom he
asked to leave the schools and colleges set up by the British. He called this
whole education system ‘satanic’ and found a good deal of response among
college boys. But he did not spend his time exclusively on agitation; he also
drafted a new constitution for the National Congress to include provisions
for a permanent Working Committee, a reorganisation of the Provincial
Congress Committees along the lines of linguistic provinces and a better
representation of rural areas. This reform of the Congress constitution was
Gandhi’s answer to the Montagu-Chelmsford reform which the Congress
had decided to boycott. Actually, the boycott of the elections to the
reformed councils proved to be much more important for the consolidation
of Gandhi’s position than all the other boycotts. The voters had not
responded to the boycott as readily as Gandhi had hoped, but the Congress