Congress Socialist Party
Also called: CSP, Congress Socialists · Topic: The National Movement: Gandhian Era · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement"
Meaning
The Congress Socialist Party (CSP) was a socialist group inside the Indian National Congress, formed in 1934. Its founders included Jayaprakash Narayan and Acharya Narendra Dev. Socialism is the idea that wealth and land should be shared more fairly, so the CSP wanted the freedom struggle to also fight for peasants and workers. Its members stayed in the Congress but pushed it to the left.
Example
In 1936 Nehru was Congress president. His socialist views, and his closeness to the socialists, upset conservative leaders like Rajendra Prasad and Vallabhbhai Patel, who threatened to resign. Gandhi kept the party together by acting as the go-between. During Quit India in August 1942, socialists led the underground resistance after the senior leaders were jailed.
Don't confuse with
- Forward Bloc (1939): Subhas Chandra Bose formed it after leaving the Congress presidency, to gather radical forces behind himself. The CSP came earlier and was built around Jayaprakash Narayan and Narendra Dev.
Related concepts
- Provincial elections of 1937
- Congress ministries 1937-39
- Wardha scheme of basic education
- Haripura session 1938
- Tripuri crisis 1939
- Forward Bloc
- Second World War
- Lord Linlithgow
- Resignation of Congress ministries
- Day of Deliverance 1939