Towardsfreedom_kittu_4_surat congress

The Surat Congress is one of the most important events in the history of the Freedom Movement as well as in the history of the Indian National Congress. Though not officially given its due importance in the records of history, yet it marks a turning point in India’s struggle for freedom. It ushered in the spirit of freedom and the sense of dignity of the Indian nationhood; a whole new psychological climate was created. But it took the Congress party more than two decades to officially accept and openly declare on January 26 1930 the concept of total freedom, which was the slogan of the Nationalists in the Congress in 1907.

However, before we come to the Surat Congress, let us follow briefly the sequence of events immediately after the Partition of Bengal. After Curzon's proposal to partition Bengal became known in December 1903, protest meetings in the typical Congress style based on prayers and petitions were carried out for more than one and a half year, with absolutely no effect on the British. However at the same time, there was a spontaneous boycott of British goods in Bengal. The Swadeshi movement was on its way. The appeal of the Swadeshi movement was its direct mass approach and its rejection of "prayer-petition" politics. Instead it sought for a complete overthrow of British rule. It was this prospect that frightened the leadership of the Congress; the next few years show the battle in the Congress between these two trends.

It was on July 19, 1905 that Curzon went ahead with his partition plan. Within days, spontaneous protests were organised all over Bengal and the boycott of British goods was started.

By August, even Congress leaders such as Surendranath Banerjea were forced to take up the Boycott call. On August 7, 1905, in a public meeting at the Calcutta Town Hall, the Boycott Resolution was passed. The Swadeshi movement, which came earlier and was seeking for the complete overthrow of British rule, took full advantage of this uprising among the people of Bengal. But this, the Congress leadership could not tolerate. It was evident that the Congress leadership did not even stand for national independence. Quite predictably they reacted to the Swadeshi movement. As early as November 1905, the Congress leaders felt things had gone too far. They managed to call off the boycott of British educational institutions on November 16, 1905. The appointment of the reputedly liberal Morley as Secretary of State and Minto as Viceroy was seized upon as a reason for ending the boycott. Gokhale proclaimed at the December 1905 Congress at Benares: "Gentlemen, how true it is that to everything there is an end! Thus even the Viceroyalty of Curzon has come to an end!" He went on to extol Lord Ripon as having kindled the flame of National Consciousness and the Congress.

The Benares Congress

At a time when the boycott movement was raging in Bengal, the Benares Congress passed no resolution supporting it. The impending visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales would have been a splendid occasion for the Congress to protest at least against the repression on the Swadeshi agitators. Instead, the Congress leaders moved a resolution "most humbly and respectfully" welcoming the Prince and Princess. Those in the Subjects Committee who disagreed, - Tilak and others were in a minority, - however agreed as a compromise to abstain from the voting on this "unanimously passed" resolution. Yet, the "extremists", as the nationalists were then called, were not willing to be tamed in this fashion. Meetings were held all over India against the British. The message of these meetings was clearly against British imperialism and that alarmed the "moderates" further.

As already noted, Sri Aurobindo and Tilak had formed in 1906, the Nationalist Congress Party. It seemed that by the 1906 session of the Congress, the Nationalists in the Congress, by their sheer numbers and popularity, seemed poised to take over the Congress. This was because of the decision to hold the session at Calcutta. The audience (excluding the delegates) numbered 20,000 - over four times the number that was normally present at earlier Congresses. Nationalists from different provinces had forged some links in the interim, and there were attempts to elect one of them President for the Congress. The move was scotched by the "moderates"; they elected the aged and respected Naoroji instead. However, the 1906 Congress leadership despite being unhappy was forced to accept four resolutions dealing with: the partition of Bengal, the boycott movement, Swadeshi, and self-government. But, the 1906 Congress was by no means a radical affair. The leadership managed to tone down each resolution considerably to make them ambiguous. Thus "Swaraj" became "the system of government obtaining in the self-governing British colonies". The effort of the "Nationalists" to have the resolution in support of the Bengal boycott movement extended to other provinces was defeated. And further, the Congress leaders were determined to review every resolution of the Nationalists at the next session.

Sabotage of 1906 Resolutions

In the interim between the 1906 and 1907 Congress sessions, the Congress leaders, especially Gokhale, made several statements reinterpreting the four 1906 resolutions. For example, on February 4, 1907, Gokhale made his oft-quoted remark that "I want India to take her proper place among the great nations of the world, politically, industrially, in religion, in literature, in science and in arts...I want all this and I feel at the same time that the whole of this aspiration can, in its essence and its reality, be realised within this Empire". On February 9, he effectively repudiated the main slogan of Bengal, - viz, boycott: "I am sure most of those who speak of this `boycott' mean by it the use, as far as possible, of Swadeshi articles in preference to foreign articles. Now such use is really included in the Swadeshi, but unfortunately the word `boycott' has a sinister meaning to it, - it implies a vindictive desire to injure another, no matter what harm you may thereby cause yourself. And I think we would do well to use only the word Swadeshi to describe our present movement, leaving out the word `boycott' which creates unnecessary ill will against ourselves. Moreover, remember that a strict `boycott' of foreign goods is not at all practicable in our present industrial condition...." He thus gave the movement a twist and reinterpretation, which was to become a point of diversion within the movement.

It is not surprising therefore that the "extremist" delegates at the 1907 Congress believed the rumours that the four Calcutta resolutions were going to be revoked (in fact, the resolutions were later dropped or amended).

The session of the Congress had first been arranged at Nagpur, but Nagpur was predominantly a Mahratta city and violently extremist. Gujarat was at that time predominantly moderate; there were very few Nationalists and Surat was a stronghold of Moderatism. However, the Mehta-Gokhale combine, with its greater control over the actual machinery of the Congress, got the location transferred to Surat. Since, by convention, the local Reception Committee also chose the President, this also ensured a "moderate" President.

The Nationalists however, came in strength, from all parts; they held a public conference with Sri Aurobindo as the President.

The decision to shift the venue of the Congress was taken at the last moment, so that the Nationalists could not turn up in large numbers. To defeat this strategy of the Moderates, Sri Aurobindo, in the columns of Bandemataram, appealed to the delegates of the Nationalist party to attend the Surat Congres. Here are two extracts from the Bandemataram:

“We call upon Nationalists, who are at all desirous of the spread of Nationalist principles and Nationalist practice all over India, to make ready at whatever inconvenience and, if they find it humanly possible, go to Surat to support the Nationalist cause. We are aware of the tremendous difficulties in our way. Surat is far distant, the expenses of such a journey are almost prohibitive, for only a small percentage of our party are men of means, and the time for preparation is almost nil. And yet we must go. What is a Nationalist good for if he cannot make up by his enthusiasm and energy for his other deficiencies, if he cannot make nothing of difficulties and turn the impossible into the possible? It is to sweep away difficulties and to strike the word impossible out of the Indian's dictionary that our party has arisen.”

“We must go as poor men whose wealth is our love for our Motherland as pilgrims travelling to our Mother's temple. We have a great work to do and cannot afford to be negligent and half-hearted. Be sure that this year 1907 is a turning point of our destinies. Let us fear to miss by absenting ourselves the chance of helping to put in one of the keystones of the house we are building for our Mother's dwelling in the future, the house of her salvation, the house of Swaraj.”

The Surat Congress was to be held in the last week of December 1907. In this context, we shall quote some passages from the writings of Mr. Nevinson who was then a member of the British Parliament and who reported on the Surat Congress in the Manchester Guardian.

“When I reached the house in a large square… I found it dark and apparently empty. A Hindu servant let me in, and after a time Mr. Aurobindo Ghose appeared alone. He had not expected me, because the letter about my coming had been stopped , no doubt by postal spies, as he said all his letters were. … He was a youngish man, I should think still under thirty. Intent dark eyes looked from his thin clear-cut face with a gravity that seemed immovable, but the figure and bearing were those of an English graduate. There is a religious tone, a spiritual elevation… He was possessed by that concentrated vision… But at the end of the road he saw a vision more inspiring and spiritual than any fanatic saw who rushed on death with Paradise in sight. Nationalism was to him more than a political object or a means of material improvement.

Grave with intensity, careless of fate or opinion, and one of the most silent men I have known, he was of the stuff that dreamers are made of, but dreamers who will act their dream, indifferent to the means.”

The Nationalists held a public meeting before the session of the Surat Congress. Nevinson further writes:

"Grave and silent - I think without saying a single word - Mr. Aravinda Ghosh took the chair, and sat unmoved, with far-off eyes, as one who gazes at futurity. In clear, short sentences, without eloquence or passion, Mr. Tilak spoke till the stars shone out and someone kindled a lantern at his side.”

It was known that the Moderates leaders had prepared a new constitution for the Congress, which would make it practically impossible for the extreme party to command a majority at any annual session for many years to come.

It was obvious that a showdown was at hand. Tilak, Sri Aurobindo and other Nationalist leaders made it quite clear before the session began that although they had no desire to split the Congress they would in no case agree to retreat from the 1906 resolutions. On December 26^th the draft resolutions were made available just before the session was to begin, and they revealed that certain changes and modifications had been made in the swadeshi, boycott and national education resolutions with a view to watering them down. In the afternoon the session met and there was an uproar over the nomination of the President. The session had to be postponed and it met again the next day. It was then that the final debacle was witnessed.

The first business was the election of the President. The Nationalists had proposed Lala Lajpat Rai, just released from prison, to be the President of the 23^rd Congress. The Moderates opposed this and chose instead Dr Rashbehari Ghose, a lawyer from Calcutta. His name was proposed and Lajpat Rai duly withdrew his.

“But when Surendranath rose to second the motion, and before he could utter the full sentence, a tumult burst. Waving their arms, their scarves, their sticks and umbrellas, a solid mass of delegates and spectators on the right of the Chair, sprang to their feet and shouted without a moment’s pause.

Over their head was the label, ‘Central Provinces’ – Central Provinces where Nagpur stands and Congress was to have been. Remember Nagpur! they cried, Remember Midnapur! White turbans from Madras joined them. The whole ten thousand were on their feet, shouting for order, and shouting for tumult. Surendranth tried again and again to speak, again and again he was shouted down with cries of Shame, Shame! Traitor! The Congress broke up without transacting any business. Wild defence was met by wild denunciation, but no violence followed. It was a still and peaceful people, anxious to leave conciliation open.

By noon the pandal was full to overflowing. At one o’clock the Presidential procession entered. The Congress leaders took their seats behind the green table that stretched the whole length of the high-raised platform, before which there was no railing, but only as it were an escarpment for defence. Tilak was seated in the front row and not on the dais in the place reserved for him. As the procession entered Tilak sent a note to the Chairman saying that he wished to speak on the election of the President. The Chairman of the Reception Committee was Tribhuvandas Malvi of Surat.”

The previous day, the Nationalists had tried to avert a showdown. Tilak and Khaparde had tried in vain to meet Malvi and later on they tried to meet Gokhale and Pherozeshah Mehta, that too in vain. It was then that Tilak sent the note to Malvi, the Chairman. The note said: “Sir, I wish to address the delegates on the proposal of the election of the President after it is seconded. I wish to move an adjournment with a constructive proposal. Please announce me.” Tilak received no reply despite many reminders. After several speakers spoke, including Motilal Nehru and Surendranath Banerjee, the Chairman Mr Malvi proposed that Dr Rash Behari Ghose should take the Chair as President.

“Brother Delegates, ladies and gentlemen, he began, my first duty is to tender you my thanks for the signal honour you have done me.

“Beyond his first duty he never went. As when lightning flashes in air surcharged with storm, Mr Tilak was seen standing in front of the Presidential Chair itself, expostulating, protesting, all in that calm decisive voice of his, the voice of a man indifferent to fate. He had given notice of an amendment, he was there to move it, and there he would remain.

After an altercation with Mr Malvi, Tilak appealed to the delegates. Uproar drowned the rest. With folded arms Mr Tilak faced the audience. On either side of him, young Moderates sprang to their feet, wildly gesticulating vengeance. Shaking their fists and yelling to the air, they clamoured to hurl down the steep of the platform. Behind him Dr Ghose mounted the table, and ringing an unheard bell, harangued the storm in shrill, agitated, unintelligible denunciations. Restraining the rage of the Moderates, Mr Gokhale, sweet natured even in extremes, stood beside his old opponent, flinging out both arms to protect him from the threatened onset. But Mr Tilak asked for no protection. He stood there with folded arms, defiant, calling on violence to do its worst, calling on violence to move him, for he would move for nothing else in hell or heaven. In front, the white-clad audience roared like a tumultuous sea.

Suddenly, something flew through the air, - a shoe - a Mahratta shoe, reddish leather, pointed toe, sole studded with lead. It struck Surendranath Banerjee on the cheek; it cannoned off upon Sir Pherozeshah Mehta. It flew, it fell, and as at a given signal, white waves of turbaned men surged up the escarpment. Leaping, climbing, hissing the breath of fury, brandishing long sticks, they came, striking at any head that looked to them Moderate and in another moment, between brown legs standing upon the green baize table, I caught glimpses of the Indian National Congress dissolving in chaos.”

“Like Goethe at the battle of Valmy, I could have said, “Today marks the beginning of a new era, and you can say that you were present at it,”

In the vast pavilion a combat raged at large. Group rushed upon group, delegate upon delegate. Ten thousand men, all crowded among ten thousand chairs, no uniform, no distinction, nothing to mark off Extremist from Moderates, except the facial expression of a temperament- it was a difficult conflict to maintain. Finally the Police arrived. Within an hour the vast pandal, strewn with broken chairs, sticks and rags of raiment stood empty as a banquet hall deserted.

In the twinkling of a shoe the Congress had been changed, and a new spirit, a different and difficult spirit had indeed arisen in the country.”

It had been roses, roses all the way, when the Moderates had traveled to Surat. On Sunday, as the party returned by train, each station rang with shouts of Down with Rash Behari , Down with Gokhale, Down with Surendranath.

The event marked the final split between the Radical and Moderate wings of the Congress. The Radicals virtually seceded from the organization. But although for several years the Moderate leaders continued to run the Congress and hold its sessions it became clear that they lacked any mass support. In the words of Shri Diwakar:

“The Surat Congress ended in a fiasco but made history. The result was that the moderates continued to possess the body of the Congress while the spirit went out along with the extremists. For the next ten years Indian nationalism flourished outside the precincts of the National organization. When it returned to the charge in 1916 it completely routed the Moderates, who later continued their existence outside the Congress as a small and not very influential coterie. They ceased to be a political force in the country.”

" Sri Aurobindo, who always liked to work from behind the scene, had been pushed into the fore-front of the freedom movement. He had now become its acknowledged leader. The whole country rang with the cry of Bande Mataram and a new spirit swept across the country. People had awakened to the need of Swaraj - complete independence- and were willing to give their lives to attain it."

History very seldom records the things that were decisive but took place behind the veil; it records the show in front of the curtain. Very few people know that it was I (without consulting Tilak) who gave the order that led to the breaking of the Congress and was responsible for the refusal to join the new-fangled Moderate Convention which were the two decisive happenings at Surat.

The Benares Congress

Sabotage of 1906 Resolutions

Sri Aurobindo

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