The Elections-And After

I. THE ELECTIONS

It was not a mere accident that the Congress decided to participate in the provincial elections under the new Reform scheme. They constitute a momentous incident in the evolution of Swaraj. They have proved to be a new phase of the national fight. They have brought down the struggle for national emancipation from the simmering heights of Satyagraha to things mundane, tangible, of earth earthy. They have in addition carried the gospel of the Congress to the remotest corners of the country–corners which were never penetrated in the days of the crores of members and of money, or even in the days of lacs of prisoners. Indeed the old saying has been found to have come true during the last election campaign,–that out of the blood of the martyrs the seed of Swaraj would grow. The seed has as a matter of fact sprouted and the plant has grown, blossomed and borne fruit. The grant of franchise to 3.5 crores of voters has extended it to one in ten, that is to say, to the head of every alternate family. The adoption of literacy as a criterion for the grant of franchise, has brought the power from the hands of the elders of the communities into those of the younger generation. The inclusion of the wives of male voters on the Register has brought into the field a new force of a dynamic character, the decisions of which are framed not on shifting expediencies but on principles standing firm and unshakable as a rock. Thus indeed has public opinion had a chance of asserting itself in the counsels of the country, first, by the numerical expansion in sheer volume of the voting strength, and next, by the augmentation in weight of the quality of the voters by the inclusion therein of the exuberant youth of the country and of the un-sophisticated women of the land. It is no wonder then that conservatism has received a death blow and radicalism has had a chance of shaping the nation’s destinies.

But more: there is a genuine national awakening effected through the strenuous and unremitting zeal of the Congress. It would be no exaggeration to say that in a rural constituency of say 600 villages, there have been held on behalf of the Congress not less than a thousand meetings; and for the 152 territorial seats in the Madras Presidency, a lac and a half meetings have taken place at which public men of various grades have had opportunities of educating the voters and their friends. Through this education and propaganda, the masses have been able to see the hollowness of the Reforms and recognize their pernicious character. The cruel events of the past sixteen years, the bulk of which witnessed Ministries of which the head have been zamindars, have been reviewed before the vision of the people at large, and, in contrast with them, the strivings and sufferings of the Congress have been shown off to real advantage. The attempt of Government to entrust to Feudal intermediaries the real power seemingly transferred to popular representatives, has been thoroughly exposed and the issue before the voters in the bulk of the general constituencies has centred round the Ryot Vs. the Zamindar. It were needless here to review the details of such an issue. Six zamindari seats have been reserved for the 414 zamindars in the Presidency, but unlike in the Christian and the Moslem constituencies, here the zamindars have been allowed to contest general seats while the voters in the general constituencies are not, naturally enough, to contest their reserved seats. And what is worse, the zamindars of the Province have not only themselves contested general seats in addition to their own reserved seats, but have run party candidates of their own ranging from ten to sixty each. Such a calculated attempt on the part of the zamindars, at the instigation of the Secretary of State in England and the Provincial and Imperial satraps in India, has been recognised sufficiently early by the Congress and vigorously–and successfully–combated by it. In a sense, then, the ryot has upheld his own rights in the last elections and may proudly look forward to the future for a correct balancing of the interests of the masses against those of the Feudal Barons and Knights. It was these latter that were used to put down democracy in England, and it is they that have been likewise put up in India. But Congress has not read history in vain.

There were two other circumstances to be noted in this connection. One was a democratic and the other a bureaucratic trick. The introduction of the colour-box system is an unqualified blessing, but whether it is an unqualified success as well is more than doubtful. The likeness of the colours of the Harijan candidate who is yoked to a second candidate in the general seats, both taking allied colours with but a streak in addition for the Harijan candidate to differentiate the two, has led to a serious complication resulting in the votes of the one being lodged in the box of the other. The Savarna candidates have thus suffered somewhat. In less advanced districts, even the colour distinction has been declared to be a difficult process for the untutored minds. Nevertheless it must be owned that, on the whole, this system has proved a real blessing to the illiterates in the country and has led to the exercise of the voting rights in a manner singularly free from fear.

The second is a bureaucratic trick which is the cumulative system of voting, under which Government have hoped to secure at least one out of the two seats allotted to an area in plural constituencies. The Congress was placed in a singularly disadvantageous situation inasmuch as it could neither plump for the Savarna candidate by casting both votes for him as the Justice party Savama candidates could do, nor distribute the two votes between the two candidates fairly, for, that way the Justice candidate having behind him fifty voters would score a hundred votes and defeat the Savarna candidate having 99 voters and getting just one less than the numerically less influential rival. Thus while the Savarna candidate got one vote too few, the Avarna candidate would get many in excess which ran to waste.

II. AND AFTER

Now that the elections have been concluded and the Congress has won clear majorities in six Provinces out of eleven, namely, Madras, Bombay, C. P., U. P., Bihar, and Orissa, the question is naturally raised as to what the Congress will do to reject the Reforms and replace them by a scheme which shall be a real foundation of Poorna Swaraj. When six out of eleven Provinces–and those the big six–have given a clear working majority, the temptation to form Ministries, already silently operating in the minds of the upper and middle classes of Congressmen, is apt to become aggressive, vocal and vociferous. In turn we are naturally inclined to ask why, when there are such clear majorities, we cannot throw out the budget and vote down the ministers’ salaries. Of Course there is one formidable objection to such a course and it is this. The salaries of the ministers will probably have been voted by the Montford Councils prior to the formation of the new Legislatures. That may be technically correct but is not probable. Leaving however this complication alone, the question still remains to be answered whether the Reform scheme cannot be wrecked straightway by the rejection of the budget relating to ministers’ salaries which may be reconsidered even if the Montford Councils have passed it, or considered primarily by the new Assembly. If the reconsideration by the new Assembly is not permitted, that itself will be a ground for revolt. Surely, no one can argue that because the defunct Councils have passed the budget for ministers, therefore the new Assemblies must accept the budget. All that the new Act says is that the salaries of the ministers once voted cannot be curtailed. Why not then reject them altogether?

It will doubtless be argued that a direct and immediate rejection of the budget, however unassailable from a theoretical standpoint, is nevertheless abounding in practical difficulties. The first of them is that the Governor may dissolve the Assemblies at once. Granted. Does not the Governor run as much risk as the Congress by the adoption of such a course? What if the Congress came out equally strong, if not stronger, in the reelection! Perhaps Congressmen may themselves feel diffident in the matter. But when we remember that our successes have exceeded our expectations, we shall be forced to concede that popular education is not like university studies, in which courses, examinations, and passes form a regular sequence. On the contrary they bear a closer analogy to apprenticeship in a workshop where education is imparted on the principle of learning by doing. So is our political education imparted to our voters on the principle of learning by voting. The people must be accustomed to the thought that elections are as much a phase of national fight as Civil Disobedience, that Congress has gone in large numbers to the Legislatures, not to secure small favours but to negotiate big changes. We must constantly accustom the popular mind to such a conception, in order to rouse it to the required pitch of final action.

The opponents to such a course would naturally suggest an alternative remedy that might be adopted by the Governor. They would say that the Governor might form a Ministry based upon an ad hoc combination of the heterogeneous groups in the Legislatures. One of two results would follow. The Congress being in a majority, the groups would be in a distinct minority and cannot proceed one second or one step further if the Congress majority remained intact and unshakable. The Reform scheme would be then wrecked; –wrecked first because the ministers’ salaries have had to be certified by the Governor, and next because almost every measure brought up by the heterogeneous Ministry will have been turned down. Not merely that; the Congress representing the Opposition and commanding a majority would pass a number of resolutions tending to alleviate the agrarian and economic position of the ryot, which, of course, the improvised and impotent Ministry will not be able to accept. That will lead to a deadlock, and a necessary dissolution of the Legislature; and when the Congress then faces a general election, it will command success, because it will have gone with a real grievance before the electorate that appeals to the imagination of the poor ryot,–not merely an academic gesture of fight as in the former case. Such an argument is apt to sweep us off our feet. The danger therein lies in the lapses that we might suffer during the slow process involved in it. Let it not be supposed that, because we are Congressmen, we are angels descended from the skies or disciplined soldiers standing to our guns, if the very heavens fell. Five or six abductions from our party will spell ruin to us. We should not expose ourselves to such a risk. Such an argument may beget the summary rejoinder that Congressmen are not worth their salt if there be five per cent amongst them who cannot be relied on and be won over.

Whatever may be the decision of the Congress in this behalf, the fact remains that the decision is likely to be shaped–being postponed till the end of March–by the actual facts of the situation, rather than by considerations of an academic or anticipative character. The Congress has today emerged victorious from a fight forced upon a front to which it has put its hand anew virtually. This wide commotion, this deep convulsion of a whole people, thirty-five crores strong with a voting strength of three and a half crores, is a new phenomenon in India and on a truly phenomenal scale have the elections been conducted. Phenomenal too has been the success attained, and not less phenomenal will be the future developments in the evolution of Indian nationalism. No one can foretell the future, and political cataclysms come with as much suddenness in their onset and devastation in their results as those that occur in nature. All that we have to recognise is that vox populi is vox Dei. The voice of the people is truly the voice of God, says the adage, and the Congress voicing forth the aspirations and the sufferings of 350 millions may well be trusted to shape the destiny of the nation under its charge. The elections have taken its message to hitherto untouched quarters, and if the fireworks of elections should not merely shed a measure of light but also emit the necessary volume of heat, the energy spent on them will not have been in vain.