Since the decade of the 1920s, the national movement acquired various ideological strands and thereby its…

Question

Since the decade of the 1920s, the national movement acquired various ideological strands and thereby its social base. Discuss.

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

From the 1920s, Gandhian, socialist, revolutionary and social-justice strands each drew peasants, workers, women, youth, Dalits and tribals into the national movement, though communal strands split away part of its base. The Congress won 617 of 864 general seats in the 1937 provincial elections.

**Introduction**

Non-Cooperation in 1920 turned the Congress into a mass body open to anyone paying four annas. Socialist, revolutionary and social-justice strands then grew beside Gandhism, each drawing in a new section, though some also pulled parts of the base away.

**Ideological Strands and the Groups They Drew In**

SKETCH: timeline | New strands after 1920
- 1920 :: AITUC founded
- 1925 :: CPI, Self-Respect
- 1928 :: HSRA formed
- 1934 :: Congress Socialists
- 1936 :: Kisan Sabha

1. **Gandhian satyagraha**: Mass non-violence, khadi and the Khilafat alliance (1920-22) brought peasants, women and Muslims in, and Bardoli (1928) proved peasant satyagraha.
2. **Socialist left**: Nehru and Bose argued for economic equality, Communists led the 1928 Bombay textile strike, and the Kisan Sabha gave peasants their own organisation.
3. **Revolutionary socialism**: Bhagat Singh's HSRA and his execution in 1931 stirred students and youth.
4. **Social justice**: Periyar's Self-Respect Movement, Vaikom (1924-25) and Ambedkar's Mahad Satyagraha (1927) mobilised non-Brahmins and depressed classes.

**How the Base Widened, and Where It Fractured**

1. **Reach**: The Congress won 617 of 864 general seats in 1937, and the States People's Conference (1927) reached princely states.
2. **Fractures**: The Bardoli resolution (1922) shielded landlords, the Muslim League built a rival base after 1937, and Ambedkar's separate electorate demand ended only in the Poona Pact (1932).

**Way Forward**

1. **Plural umbrella**: The Congress held Gandhians, socialists and liberals together.
2. **Freedom with justice**: The Karachi Resolution (1931) fused rights with economic justice, later carried into the Constitution.

**Conclusion**

From the 1920s, multiple ideologies made the movement a broad coalition of peasants, workers, women, youth, Dalits and tribals; its loss of Muslim mass support marks the limit of that widening.

Since the decade of the 1920s, the national movement acquired various ideological strands and thereby its social base. Discuss.

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