Surat Split and Lucknow Session

Surat Split

Extremists and moderates exhibit increasingly complicated ideological divisions. The British had a significant impact on how the Congress was divided. They placated the moderates by making nebulous reform promises. Both factions competed for the position of Calcutta Congress president in 1906. In the Calcutta session, Dadabhai Naoroji emerges as a compromising candidate. Naoroji issued four resolutions on swaraj, swadeshi, boycott, and national education to appease the demands of extremists.

The extreme stronghold of Balagangadhar Tilak, Nagpur, was chosen as the location for the 1907 Congress session. Gopal Krishna Gokhale changed the location of the event after realising that the community was supporting the extremists. Finally, the location was changed to Surat, a moderate city.

The 1907 Congress session was held in Surat on the banks of the Tapti River. Gopal Krishna Gokhale headed the moderates, while Lal Pal Bal led the extremists. The moderate leader, Rash Bihari Ghosh, was chosen to preside over the meeting. Extremists voiced their disapproval of the election. Extremists demanded a guarantee for the four resolutions voted by the Congress in Calcutta, while moderates refused their request, which ultimately led to the division.

Consequences of Surat Split

The Surat division damaged the people's unity and harmed the national movement. Following the meeting, the British government arrested and imprisoned extremist leaders. The Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League became active in Indian society as religious organisations gained increasing visibility in the national movement. The split led to a decade of paralysis on the political front. The British government's hostility prevented the leaders from carrying out their plans at this time. The Indian Congress was severely undermined, and the British government began dividing India based on religion with the Minto-Morley reforms of 1909.

Lucknow Session

In 1916, Lucknow hosted the Congress's 31st session. Ambica Charan Majumdar, a well-known lawyer who had been closely involved with the Congress since its inception, served as its president. The Lucknow session was one of the significant sessions in the history of the Indian National Congress which reunited the Congress after the Surat split.

Main Features of Lucknow session

Extremists and moderates reunited

The Lucknow session also forged friendly relations between the different factions of the Indian National Congress, the radical thinking garam dal (also known as the "hot faction," under the leadership of Bal Gangadhar Tilak) and the moderate naram dal (also known as the "soft faction," headed by Gopal Krishna Gokhale). Both the Moderates and the Extremists came together after a period of around ten years.

Lucknow Pact

The Congress-League Pact, also known as the Lucknow Pact, was signed to bring about unity between the Congress and the League. The Lucknow Pact was an agreement reached between the Indian National Congress and Muslim league during their combined meeting in Lucknow in the year 1916.

The Indian National Congress and Muslim league came united because of the efforts of Lokamanya Tilak and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. They held that only with the cooperation of Hindus and Muslims could India achieve self-government. They are referred to be the Lucknow Pact's architects.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah helped the Congress and the League come to an understanding. As a result, Sarojini Naidu has given him the title "Ambassador bof Hindu-Muslim Unity".

• India will have its self-government.

• The Governor’s Executive Council should follow the same procedure.

• To abolish the Indian Council

• Muslims should have a 1/3rd of the seats in the central government.

• Separate electorates for all the communities till they demand for joint electorate.

• The use of Weight-age system.

• Five-year term for the Legislative Council.

• Half of the members of Imperial Legislative Council should be Indians.

• British Government must pay the salary of the Secretary of state for India.

• The executive and the Judiciary should be separated.

• It must be determined, province by province, how many Muslims are represented in the provincial legislatures.

Questions

Qns 1. Write a note on Dadabhai Naoroji.

Ans. Dadabhai Naoroji was considered to be the "Grand Old Man of India." He was a well-known Parsi philosopher, cotton dealer, educator, and a political figure in India. He got chosen again as the President in 1906 after serving as INC's second president in 1886. The first Asian politician in the United Kingdom was Dadabhai Naoroji. Between 1892 and 1895, he was a member of parliament (MP) in the House of Commons (United Kingdom).

Dadabhai Naoroji was instrumental in the establishment of East India Association. The work of Dadabhai Naoroji concentrated on the transfer of wealth under colonial control from India to England. He was known for his famous work called the Drain of wealth theory which gave a clear understanding regarding the economic exploitation done by the Britishers. He was one of the moderate leaders in the early phase of the Indian National Congress. The name Indian National Congress was a contribution of Dadabhai Naoroji, before it was known as Indian National Union. It was one of the great achievements that Dadabhai Naoroji was elected to represent India at the Amsterdam conference (Second Socialist International) in 1905.

Qns 2. Write a note on GopalKrishna Gokhale.

Ans. In 1889, Gokhale joined the Indian National Congress after becoming a social reformer and Mahadev Govind Ranade's disciple. In the year 1899, Gopal Krishna Gokhale has won a a seat in the Bombay Legislative Council. He was one of the early moderate leaders of the Indian National Congress and was the political guru of Mahatma Gandhi.

On May 22, 1903, he was chosen as a non-officiating member from the province of Bombay to the Indian council by the then Governor-General of India. After the council's expansion in 1909, he later served on the Imperial Legislative Council as well. Gokhale become the president of the Indian National Congress in the year 1905. He was the founder of the Servants of India Society.