Twenty-Eight Months of Power: India's First Rehearsal for Self-Rule

In the winter of 1936-37, India voted on a scale it had never seen, and the Congress, which had spent fifty years demanding power, suddenly had to use it. The 1937 elections under the 1935 Act gave the Congress ministries in most of British India; for 28 months Indians ran their own provinces, released their own prisoners, and passed their own tenancy laws. Then came a war they were never consulted about, and the whole experiment collapsed in a wave of resignations. In between, the Congress tore itself apart over its own presidency. This is the story of India's first rehearsal for self-government.

The 1937 verdict

The elections were held across 11 provinces, Madras, Central Provinces, Bihar, Orissa, the United Provinces, Bombay, Assam, NWFP, Bengal, Punjab and Sindh. The Congress had prepared carefully: at Lucknow (April 1936), under Nehru's presidency, it resolved to contest on a manifesto of civil liberties and agrarian reform; at Faizpur (December 1936), the first Congress session held in a village, also under Nehru, it demanded a Constituent Assembly elected on adult franchise and adopted a radical agrarian programme (50% rent reduction, abolition of feudal levies, recognition of peasant unions). The results vindicated the effort: the Congress won 716 of the 1,161 seats it contested, with absolute majorities in six provinces and the largest bloc in Bengal, NWFP, Assam and Bombay. It fared poorly only in Punjab and Sindh, where the Unionist Party and local notables held the countryside, and in the upper houses, whose restricted franchise favoured the elite.

To take office or not: the great debate

Winning was the easy part; the Congress had campaigned on wrecking the 1935 Act, not working it. In March 1937 a special AICC session debated office acceptance. The left (Jayaprakash Narayan, Sahajanand Saraswati, N.G. Ranga) called it a retreat from non-cooperation; the right, backed by industrialists like G.D. Birla, argued that power could deliver real relief to peasants and workers. The compromise, moved by Rajendra Prasad with Gandhi's implicit approval, was conditional acceptance: the Congress would form ministries provided Governors gave an assurance they would not use their special powers to interfere. The assurance, in suitably vague language, came, and ministries were formed in seven provinces (later joined by NWFP and Assam): Bombay under B.G. Kher, the United Provinces under Govind Ballabh Pant, Madras under C. Rajagopalachari, Bihar under Sri Krishna Sinha, Orissa under Hare Krishna Mehtab, the Central Provinces under N.B. Khare, and the NWFP under Dr. Khan Saheb.

Twenty-eight months of Congress raj

What the ministries did

• Released political prisoners, lifted bans on newspapers and organisations, restored civil liberties.
• Passed tenancy legislation protecting peasants from eviction and moneylenders; land reforms in Bombay.
• Labour welfare: minimum wages, paid holidays, employment insurance schemes.
• Prohibition campaigns, khadi promotion, jail reforms, public-works investment.
• The Wardha Scheme of Basic Education (1937, Zakir Husain committee): free, compulsory, mother-tongue, craft-centred schooling.
• Cut ministerial salaries; declared fundamental rights; repealed repressive laws like the Moplah Outrages Act.

The shadows

• The Bombay ministry used the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) against leftists and arrested socialist leaders, power, critics said, was already corrupting.
• Communal tensions rose; the Muslim League, shut out of power-sharing in the United Provinces, hardened its separate course.
• The ministries operated within the Act's safeguards and could not touch the deeper structures of colonialism, land revenue, the Indian Civil Service (ICS), the army.

The experiment's value was demonstrative: for the first time, Indians saw Indians governing, and the British saw that Indian ministers could administer without chaos. But it also exposed the Congress to the temptations of office, a criticism the left never let it forget.

The resignations and the Tripuri rupture

On 1 September 1939 the Second World War broke out, and Viceroy Linlithgow declared India a belligerent without consulting a single Indian leader. The Congress Working Committee at Wardha (October 1939) demanded a clear statement of war aims and a promise of independence; when none came, it directed the ministries to resign. Between late October and November 1939 the Congress ministries walked out in seven provinces, and Governors took over under Section 93. Jinnah called on Muslims to observe 22 December 1939 as "Deliverance Day", a thanksgiving for the end of Congress rule that advertised, unmistakably, how far apart the League and the Congress had drifted.

Meanwhile the Congress had split at the top. Subhas Chandra Bose, elected president at Haripura (1938), sought re-election at Tripuri (March 1939) against Gandhi's candidate Pattabhi Sitaramayya, and won. Gandhi's terse response, "Pattabhi's defeat is my defeat," made Bose's position untenable; a resolution moved by Govind Ballabh Pant required the president to nominate his working committee in consultation with Gandhi. Bose resigned in April 1939, and in May founded the Forward Bloc to rally the radical left; Rajendra Prasad succeeded him as president. The Tripuri crisis was the Congress's deepest internal rupture since Surat (1907), and a preview of the confrontations that would define the 1940s.

The League's turn: from cooperation to Deliverance Day

The 1937 verdict radicalised the Muslim League. Having won few seats, the League sought coalition partnerships with the Congress in the United Provinces, and was rebuffed; the Congress, flushed with its majority, chose to govern alone. Jinnah converted the slight into a narrative: Muslims, he argued, could never be safe under a Hindu-majority Congress, in office or out of it. When the Congress ministries resigned in 1939, the League's call to observe Deliverance Day (22 December 1939) was celebrated with genuine fervour in many Muslim localities. The resignations thus had a double effect: they protested British high-handedness, but they also vacated the political field, between 1939 and 1945, with the Congress out of office and then in jail, the League organised unopposed and the Pakistan demand moved from slogan to programme.

The war's constitutional aftershocks

The resignations triggered a chain of British offers, each inadequate, each radicalising Indian opinion further. The August Offer (8 August 1940) promised dominion status after the war and an Indian constitution-making body, but gave minorities a virtual veto on any future constitution, which the Congress read as a licence for partition. Gandhi's answer was Individual Satyagraha (October 1940), a limited, symbolic protest, Vinoba Bhave the first satyagrahi, meant to assert the right to dissent without launching a mass movement Britain could crush during wartime. When the Cripps Mission (March 1942) failed in turn, the constitutional road was exhausted, and the Congress turned, for the last time, to mass struggle: Quit India.

Key Terms

• 716 of the 1,161 seats it contested: The Congress's tally in the 1937 provincial elections: it won 716 of the 1,161 seats it contested, securing absolute majorities in six provinces and emerging as the largest party elsewhere. The result proved the party's mass base after the Civil Disobedience years. For UPSC, it explains the formation of Congress ministries in 1937 and their resignation in 1939 over India's forced entry into World War II. The Congress ministry in the United Provinces under Govind Ballabh Pant, which resigned in October 1939.
• without consulting a single Indian leader: Without consulting a single Indian leader describes Viceroy Linlithgow's unilateral declaration on 3 September 1939 that India was a belligerent in the Second World War. Indians were committed to a war they had no voice in choosing, exposing the hollowness of the 1935 Act's federal promise. For UPSC it is GS-1: the immediate trigger for the Congress ministries' resignation in October-November 1939. The resignation of all Congress provincial ministries in October-November 1939 in protest against the unilateral war declaration.
• Day of Deliverance (22 December 1939): Jinnah called for a Day of Deliverance to celebrate the resignation of Congress ministries, presenting Congress rule as 'Hindu rule'. The Congress read it as communal triumphalism.
• 22 December 1939 as "Deliverance Day: 22 December 1939 was observed by the Muslim League as 'Deliverance Day' to celebrate the resignation of Congress provincial ministries in October-November 1939, after the Congress withdrew from office over India's unilateral entry into World War II without consultation. Jinnah portrayed Congress rule as oppressive to Muslims. For UPSC, Deliverance Day marks the League's open bid to position itself as the sole spokesman of Muslim India on the road to the Pakistan demand. Congress ministries resigned after the Viceroy declared India a belligerent in the war without consulting Indian leaders.
• Deliverance Day (22 December 1939: is the day of thanksgiving observed by the Muslim League at Jinnah's call after Congress ministries resigned in late 1939 over India's unilateral entry into the Second World War. Jinnah framed Congress rule as Hindu domination from which Muslims had been delivered. For UPSC it marks the hardening of communal politics and the League's pivot toward the Pakistan demand.
• late October and November 1939: This is the period when Congress ministries in the provinces resigned after Viceroy Linlithgow declared India a belligerent in the Second World War on 3 September 1939 without consulting Indian leaders. The resignations followed a Congress Working Committee decision and handed the administrative initiative back to the British. UPSC significance: GS-1 modern history, the national movement during the war years. resignation of Congress ministries, October-November 1939
• August Offer (8 August 1940: The August Offer is the set of wartime proposals announced on 8 August 1940 by Viceroy Lord Linlithgow. It promised dominion status as India's goal, more Indian members in the Viceroy's Executive Council, and a constituent assembly after the war to frame the constitution. The Congress rejected it as too little and too late, launching the Individual Satyagraha instead. For UPSC, it is the first British offer of a constituent assembly, marking a step toward transfer of power. The Congress rejected the offer at its Wardha meeting in August 1940 and began the Individual Satyagraha in October 1940, with Vinoba Bhave as the first satyagrahi.
• Individual Satyagraha (October 1940: Individual Satyagraha was the limited civil disobedience launched by Gandhi in October 1940 against India's forced entry into World War II without consultation. Vinoba Bhave was the first satyagrahi (17 October 1940), followed by Jawaharlal Nehru; participants courted arrest by making anti-war speeches. It matters for UPSC because it shows the Congress's calibrated resistance between the August Offer and the Quit India Movement. Vinoba Bhave's arrest near Wardha days after beginning his march is the emblematic opening episode of this deliberately restrained satyagraha.
• Six majorities, eight ministries: In the 1937 elections Congress won absolute majorities in six provinces (Madras, Bombay, UP, Bihar, CP, Orissa) and formed ministries in eight, adding Assam and the NWFP through allies. Bengal, Punjab and Sind stayed out.
• vacated the political field: Vacated the political field describes the withdrawal of a dominant party or movement from organized politics, leaving the space open for other forces to occupy. The concept arose in 1948, when Gandhi proposed dissolving the Congress into the non-political Lok Seva Sangh and Nehru objected that political work would still need a political institution. For UPSC, it serves GS-1 (post-independence India), framing debates on party organization and political succession. Gandhi's January 1948 proposal to dissolve the Congress into the Lok Seva Sangh, opposed by Nehru on the ground that withdrawing from the political field would leave it to rival forces
• Cripps Mission (March 1942: The Cripps Mission is the British delegation led by Sir Stafford Cripps that arrived in India in March 1942, during the Second World War, to secure Indian support for the war effort. It offered Dominion Status after the war and a constitution-making body, but allowed provinces to opt out, which the Congress rejected and Gandhi dismissed as a 'post-dated cheque'. For UPSC, its failure cleared the way for Quit India and is central to questions on wartime constitutional proposals. The Mission's provision allowing provinces to frame their own constitutions effectively conceded the Pakistan demand in principle.
• resigned in April 1939: Subhas Chandra Bose resigned as Congress president in April 1939, weeks after winning re-election at Tripuri against Gandhi's nominee Pattabhi Sitaramayya, because the old guard refused to cooperate with his working committee. He then formed the Forward Bloc within the Congress. UPSC GS-1: the national movement and the Congress split. Bose founded the Forward Bloc in May 1939.

The 1937 verdict, province by province

Congress contested 1,161 seats and won 716. It won absolute majorities in six provinces and formed ministries in eight, the other two through allies:

What the ministries did with power

The resignations of October-November 1939

When Britain declared war on 3 September 1939 and dragged India in without consulting a single Indian leader, the Congress Working Committee demanded a clear statement of war aims. None came. The ministries resigned in October and November 1939, and Governors took over under Section 93. Jinnah marked the day as a Day of Deliverance on 22 December 1939, a celebration that deepened the communal divide.