From Non-Cooperation to Civil Disobedience (1922-1935): Swaraj Party, Bhagat Singh, the Salt March, Purna Swaraj & the Poona Pact

The Swaraj Party & the No-Changers (1922-1927)

🎯 Exam priority: High-yield. Tier 1 — UPSC's bread-and-butter here; study this deepest and revise it most.

Why this topic matters for UPSC. This stretch of the Gandhian phase — Civil Disobedience, the Round Tables and the Poona Pact — is high-frequency in Prelims and a Mains staple.

• The Salt March, the Round Table Conferences, the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and the Poona Pact are must-know.

• The chronology of 1928–1934 is a common Prelims sequencing trap.

• Mains: assess the Civil Disobedience Movement and the Poona Pact's significance for Dalit politics.

The abrupt suspension of Non-Cooperation after Chauri Chaura (February 1922) and Gandhi's arrest left the national movement without a mass programme for the better part of a decade. The leaders now divided over a single question: should nationalists keep boycotting the new legislative councils, or enter them and wreck British "reforms" from within?

Pro-Changers vs No-Changers

• The "pro-changers" — led by C.R. Das (Deshbandhu) and Motilal Nehru — argued that nationalists should end the boycott of the councils, enter them, and obstruct their working to expose the hollowness of the reforms. In December 1922 they formed the Congress-Khilafat Swaraj Party (Das president, Motilal a secretary), functioning as a group inside the Congress that accepted the full Congress programme except that it would contest council elections.

• The "no-changers" — Vallabhbhai Patel, Rajendra Prasad, C. Rajagopalachari, Dr Ansari — warned that legislative politics would sap nationalist fervour. They stuck to the constructive programme: spinning and khadi, temperance, Hindu-Muslim unity, and the removal of untouchability. On Gandhi's advice (released on health grounds in February 1924) the two wings agreed to stay within one Congress while working in their own ways.

The Swaraj Party's Record (1923-1926)

• Despite little time to prepare, the Swarajists did remarkably well in the November 1923 elections, winning 42 of the 101 elected seats in the Central Legislative Assembly. With allied Indian groups they repeatedly outvoted the government, and in March 1925 got Vithalbhai J. Patel elected President (Speaker) of the Central Assembly.

• But they could not bend an authoritarian government and finally walked out of the Assembly in March 1926. The death of C.R. Das in June 1925 was a grievous blow. Meanwhile, as the movement ebbed, communalism revived: the Hindu Mahasabha (founded 1917) and the Muslim League grew active and riots spread after 1923; Gandhi undertook a 21-day fast at Delhi in September 1924 in penance for the communal bitterness.

The Labour-Peasant Upsurge (1928)

• Beneath the political apathy, new forces were stirring. A left wing rose in the Congress under Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose, who toured the country preaching socialism and complete independence; youth leagues and the first All-India Youth Congress (1928) sprang up.

• 1928 saw a wave of mass action. In Gujarat, Vallabhbhai Patel led the Bardoli Satyagraha — a successful no-tax campaign against a revenue hike that won him the title "Sardar". Trade unionism surged under the AITUC: the Kharagpur railway workshop, the South Indian Railway, the Tata works at Jamshedpur and a five-month Bombay textile strike of ~150,000 workers — over five lakh workers struck in 1928 alone. Alarmed, the government arrested 31 trade-union and communist leaders and tried them in the long Meerut Conspiracy Case (1929-33).

Revolutionary Nationalism Revived (1924-1931)

The collapse of Non-Cooperation also revived the revolutionary stream — young men and women who, having lost faith in slow constitutional methods, turned again to organised armed action, now increasingly tinged with socialism.

From the HRA to the HSRA

• The Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), founded in October 1924 to organise an armed revolution, staged the Kakori train robbery (August 1925) to fund itself. The government struck back through the Kakori Conspiracy Case: Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan and two others were hanged.

• In 1928, under Chandrashekhar Azad, the survivors reorganised as the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA), adding a socialist goal — to "end the exploitation of man by man." Its members included Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru.

Saunders, the Assembly Bomb & the Martyrs

• To avenge the lathi-charge that killed Lala Lajpat Rai, the HSRA shot the police officer Saunders (December 1928). On 8 April 1929, Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt threw a (deliberately harmless) bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly to protest the Public Safety Bill — not to kill, but "to make the deaf hear" — and courted arrest to turn the courtroom into a platform.

• In jail they hunger-struck for the rights of political prisoners; Jatindranath (Jatin) Das died after a 63-day fast (1929). Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were hanged on 23 March 1931, becoming martyrs who electrified the country.

Bengal & the End of the Phase

• In April 1930, Surya Sen led the famous Chittagong Armoury Raid; a striking feature of the Bengal movement was the participation of young women (Pritilata Waddedar, Kalpana Dutt). Chandrashekhar Azad was killed in a shoot-out at Alfred Park, Allahabad, in February 1931; Surya Sen was captured and hanged (1933). With the leaders dead or jailed, revolutionary terrorism waned — but it had spread nationalist and socialist consciousness deeply.

The Simon Commission & the Nehru Report (1927-1928)

By 1927 the British themselves handed the Congress the issue it needed to reunite the squabbling wings.

The Simon Commission (1927)

• In November 1927 London appointed the Indian Statutory Commission — popularly the Simon Commission after its chairman — to review constitutional reform. Crucially, every member was an Englishman: the very idea that foreigners would judge India's fitness for self-government was felt as an insult to self-respect and a denial of self-determination.

• At its Madras session (1927, Dr Ansari presiding) the Congress resolved to boycott the Commission "at every stage and in every form"; the Muslim League (then under nationalist leadership) and the Hindu Mahasabha joined in — a rare moment of unity. When the Commission landed at Bombay on 3 February 1928, it was met everywhere with hartals and black flags under the slogan "Simon Go Back." At Lahore, Lala Lajpat Rai was injured in a lathi-charge and died (1928), becoming a martyr of the protest.

The Nehru Report (1928)

• Challenged by the British to produce its own constitution, an All Parties Conference appointed a committee under Motilal Nehru (members included Tej Bahadur Sapru, Ali Imam and Subhas Bose) which submitted the Nehru Report in August 1928. It recommended Dominion Status as the "next immediate step," a federation of linguistic provinces with an executive responsible to the legislature, joint electorates with reserved seats for minorities for ten years, and adult suffrage.

• The All Parties Convention at Calcutta (December 1928) failed to ratify it: communal leaders objected, and Jinnah put forward his "Fourteen Points" (separate electorates, one-third of central seats for Muslims, residuary powers in the provinces). National unity was foiled — Azad later lamented, "the Muslims were fools to ask for safeguards, and the Hindus were greater fools to refuse them."

Purna Swaraj (Lahore, 1929)

The rejection of the Nehru Report and the militancy of the new left wing pushed the Congress past the goal of dominion status to the demand for full independence.

Purna Swaraj (Lahore, 1929)

• At Calcutta (1928) the Congress had given the government a one-year ultimatum: grant dominion status or face a struggle for complete independence. When it lapsed, the Lahore session of December 1929, presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru (son succeeding father Motilal as Congress head), passed the resolution declaring Purna Swaraj (Complete Independence) the goal.

• On 31 December 1929 the newly adopted tricolour was hoisted on the banks of the Ravi, and 26 January 1930 was fixed as the first Independence Day — observed every year with the Pledge of Independence, which held it "a crime against man and God to submit any longer" to British rule. The session authorised a civil disobedience movement but left its programme to Gandhi.

The Salt March & Civil Disobedience (1930-1934)

To turn the pledge into mass action, Gandhi chose the most ordinary of substances — salt — whose tax fell on every Indian, rich or poor.

The Dandi Salt March (1930)

• From 12 March 1930, Gandhi and 78 chosen followers walked nearly 240 miles (about 200 in the book) from the Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi on the Gujarat coast, reaching it on 6 April 1930, where he broke the salt law by making salt from sea-water — a symbolic refusal to live under British-made law. "Sedition," Gandhi declared, "has become my religion."

• The Civil Disobedience Movement then spread nationwide: defiance of salt and forest laws, no-tax campaigns, non-payment of rent, and boycott of foreign cloth and liquor. A striking feature was the mass participation of women, who picketed shops and marched beside the men.

The Reach of the Movement

• In the North-West Frontier, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (the "Frontier Gandhi") organised the non-violent Khudai Khidmatgars (Red Shirts); at Peshawar, two platoons of Garhwali soldiers refused to fire on demonstrators, showing nationalism was reaching the army. In the east, the 13-year-old Rani Gaidinliu of Nagaland raised the banner of revolt (captured 1932). Repression was savage — over 90,000 satyagrahis jailed (Gandhi included), the Congress declared illegal, the press gagged, and by official figures over 110 killed in firings.

Truce, Resumption & Withdrawal (1931-1934)

• The Congress boycotted the First Round Table Conference (1930) — "Ramlila without Rama." The Gandhi-Irwin Pact (March 1931) suspended the movement and freed non-violent prisoners in exchange for the Congress attending the Second RTC; the Karachi session (1931) ratified it and passed the historic Resolution on Fundamental Rights and the National Economic Programme (civil liberties, nationalisation of key industries, agrarian reform).

• The Second Round Table Conference (1931), which Gandhi attended as the Congress's sole representative, broke down over the minorities question. Under the new Viceroy Lord Willingdon the government was determined to crush the renewed movement; Gandhi was re-arrested and the Congress outlawed. The movement was officially suspended in May 1933 and withdrawn in May 1934.

The Communal Award, the Poona Pact & the Act of 1935

While Civil Disobedience raged, the British played their oldest card — communal division — and then framed a constitution designed to contain Indian nationalism.

The Communal Award & the Poona Pact (1932)

• In August 1932, British PM Ramsay MacDonald announced the Communal Award, granting separate electorates to minorities — and, for the first time, to the Depressed Classes. Gandhi, convinced this would permanently split Hindu society and isolate the depressed classes, began a fast unto death (20 September 1932) in Yerwada jail.

• The fast ended in the Poona Pact between Gandhi and Dr B.R. Ambedkar: separate electorates for the Depressed Classes were dropped in favour of a larger number of reserved seats within the general (joint) electorate. (Ambedkar accepted under the pressure of Gandhi's failing health, though he held that separate electorates would better have protected his community.)

The Government of India Act, 1935

• The Third Round Table Conference (1932) led to the Government of India Act, 1935, the longest piece of British legislation till then. It provided for: an All-India Federation of British provinces and Princely States (with States given disproportionate weightage and their representatives nominated by the rulers, not elected); provincial autonomy, ending dyarchy in the provinces; and a planned dyarchy at the Centre.

• But power stayed firmly British: only about 14% of the population got the vote; defence and foreign affairs were reserved; and Governors and the Governor-General kept special "safeguards" — veto, the power to legislate by ordinance, and control over the services and police. The Congress condemned it as "totally disappointing"; the federal part was never introduced.

The 1935 Act in Operation: Congress Ministries & the Rise of the Left

Bitterly opposed though it was to the 1935 Act, the Congress decided to contest elections under it — to prove how unpopular it was, and to use office to widen the freedoms below.

The Congress Ministries (1937-1939)

• The provincial elections of 1937 were a Congress triumph: it swept the polls and formed ministries in seven of the eleven provinces (later coalitions in two more); only Bengal and the Punjab had non-Congress ministries. Congress ministries took office in July 1937.

• Within the narrow limits of the Act, the ministers cut their own salaries to ₹500 a month, released political prisoners, expanded civil liberties and press freedom, passed tenancy and anti-usury laws for peasants, and promoted education and public health. The "largest gain was psychological" — men jailed yesterday now governed.

The Rise of the Left (1934-1939)

• The world depression and the Soviet example spread socialist ideas: the Congress Socialist Party was founded in 1934 (Acharya Narendra Dev, Jayaprakash Narayan), the first All-India Kisan Sabha in 1936, and Nehru (president 1936-37) urged the Congress towards socialism. Subhas Chandra Bose, re-elected president in 1939 against Gandhi's wishes, was forced to resign and founded the Forward Bloc — setting the stage for the final phase of the freedom struggle.

Why This Matters for UPSC

• Prelims: Swaraj Party (1923; 42 seats; Vithalbhai Patel as Speaker 1925); Bardoli Satyagraha & "Sardar" Patel (1928); Meerut Conspiracy Case (1929); HSRA & Bhagat Singh (Assembly bomb 1929; Jatin Das; hanged 1931); Chittagong raid & Surya Sen (1930); the Simon Commission (1927, all-white) & Lajpat Rai; the Nehru Report (1928); Purna Swaraj (Lahore 1929, 26 Jan 1930); the Dandi Salt March; Gandhi-Irwin Pact, Round Table Conferences & the Karachi Fundamental Rights resolution (1931); the Communal Award & Poona Pact (1932); the GoI Act 1935; the Congress Ministries (1937).

• Mains: the strategy and limits of Civil Disobedience; the Gandhi-Ambedkar debate over the Communal Award; how far the 1935 Act met nationalist aspirations; the growth of the socialist left.

Further Reading

• Standard NCERT-level texts and reference books on modern Indian history (any UPSC reading list).

Test Yourself: Practice Questions & PYQs

Test how well you can explain the period from Non-Cooperation to Civil Disobedience (1922-1935). Decide your answer, then open Show answer.

Practice Questions

Q1. The Swaraj Party (1923) was founded by:

• (a) Gandhi and Patel

• (b) Bhagat Singh and Azad

• (c) C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru

• (d) Nehru and Bose

Q2. In March 1925 the Swaraj Party succeeded in getting elected as President (Speaker) of the Central Legislative Assembly:

• (a) Vithalbhai J. Patel

• (b) Vallabhbhai Patel

• (c) C.R. Das

• (d) Motilal Nehru

Q3. The 1928 no-tax campaign that earned Vallabhbhai Patel the title 'Sardar' was the:

• (a) Kheda Satyagraha

• (b) Bardoli Satyagraha

• (c) Borsad Satyagraha

• (d) Champaran Satyagraha

Q4. Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt threw a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly (1929) in order to:

• (a) kill the Viceroy

• (b) stop the Simon Commission

• (c) free political prisoners

• (d) make the deaf hear — a symbolic protest, not to cause death

Q5. The revolutionary who died after a 63-day hunger strike in jail (1929) was:

• (a) Ashfaqulla Khan

• (b) Chandrashekhar Azad

• (c) Bhagat Singh

• (d) Jatindranath Das

Q6. The Chittagong Armoury Raid (April 1930) was led by:

• (a) Bagha Jatin

• (b) Bhagat Singh

• (c) Chandrashekhar Azad

• (d) Surya Sen

Q7. The Simon Commission (1927) was boycotted by Indians chiefly because it:

• (a) had not a single Indian member

• (b) raised the salt tax

• (c) recommended partition

• (d) abolished the councils

Q8. The Purna Swaraj (complete independence) resolution was adopted at the Congress session of:

• (a) Karachi 1931

• (b) Lahore 1929

• (c) Calcutta 1928

• (d) Nagpur 1920

Q9. The Civil Disobedience Movement began with the Dandi Salt March, which started from:

• (a) the Sabarmati Ashram

• (b) Yerwada jail

• (c) Wardha Ashram

• (d) Porbandar

Q10. The Karachi session of the Congress (1931) is remembered chiefly for:

• (a) adopting Purna Swaraj

• (b) launching Quit India

• (c) the resolution on Fundamental Rights and the National Economic Programme

• (d) the partition of Bengal

Q11. By the Poona Pact (1932), the Depressed Classes were given:

• (a) no representation

• (b) a separate province

• (c) separate electorates

• (d) reserved seats within the general (joint) electorate

Q12. The Government of India Act, 1935 introduced in the provinces:

• (a) provincial autonomy

• (b) universal adult franchise

• (c) dyarchy

• (d) direct British rule

UPSC Previous Year Questions (PYQs)

This is among the most heavily tested stretches of modern history (the questions below are real UPSC PYQs, CSE 2014 and 2012); the Salt March, the Communal Award/Poona Pact and the 1935 Act recur in Prelims and Mains.

Q1. The 1929 Session of the Indian National Congress is of significance in the history of the Freedom Movement because the: (UPSC CSE 2014)

• (a) decision to participate in the Round Table Conference in London was taken

• (b) attainment of Self-Government was declared as the objective of the Congress

• (c) attainment of Poorna Swaraj was adopted as the goal of the Congress

• (d) Non-Cooperation Movement was launched

Q2. Mahatma Gandhi undertook fast unto death in 1932, mainly because: (UPSC CSE 2012)

• (a) none of the above

• (b) Ramsay MacDonald announced the Communal Award

• (c) Congress and Muslim League had differences of opinion

• (d) Round Table Conference failed to satisfy Indian political aspirations

Mains Practice Questions

Use these to frame full-length answers. You don't have to answer one exactly — they show the angles UPSC tests, so let them guide which points you cover.

• Why did the national movement split into pro-changers (Swaraj Party) and no-changers after 1922, and what did each achieve?

• Discuss the significance of the Simon Commission boycott and the failure of the Nehru Report.

• “The Salt March was a masterstroke of mass mobilisation.” Examine the spread and limits of the Civil Disobedience Movement.

• Explain the Gandhi-Ambedkar debate over the Communal Award and the meaning of the Poona Pact.

• How far did the Government of India Act, 1935 satisfy nationalist aspirations? Assess the work of the Congress Ministries.