Lahore session of 1929

Also called: Lahore Congress, Lahore Congress 1929, Lahore session · Topic: The National Movement: Gandhian Era · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 2 "Nationalism in India"; Class 12, Ch 3 "Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement"

Meaning

The Lahore session of 1929 was the yearly meeting of the Indian National Congress held at Lahore in December 1929. Jawaharlal Nehru was its president. It declared "Purna Swaraj" (complete independence) as the goal of the Congress and authorised the launch of Civil Disobedience. [5]

It matters because the Congress stopped asking for dominion status and demanded full freedom. It also gave the lead to a younger generation, and it set the stage for the Salt March of 1930.

Explanation

Background: why Congress reached Lahore in an angry mood

• The quiet years after 1922.
• Gandhi called off Non-Cooperation after Chauri Chaura (Feb 1922). Congress was left without a mass programme.
• The Swaraj Party of C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru, formed on 1 January 1923, worked inside the councils. Its policy was council entry: get elected to the British-made councils and oppose the government from inside. [4]

• Gandhi turned to constructive work, mainly khadi (hand-spun, hand-woven cloth) and the abolition of untouchability.

• Young leaders wanted a bolder goal.

• Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose wanted more radical mass agitation.

• They wanted the goal stated plainly as full independence, not dominion status (self-rule inside the British Empire, with the British Crown still at the head).

• The Depression gave people a money reason to protest.

• Agricultural prices began to fall from 1926.

• The land revenue demand stayed the same, so peasants had less cash but owed the same tax.

• The Simon Commission was an insult.

• It was appointed on 8 November 1927 under Sir John Simon, and it had not a single Indian member. [2]
• It was met with black flags and the slogan "Go back Simon" when it arrived in 1928.

• Lala Lajpat Rai was beaten by police at Lahore on 30 October 1928 and died in November 1928. [2]

• Bardoli (1928) showed that satyagraha could still win.

• Under Vallabhbhai Patel, peasants refused to pay a revenue hike of about 22 per cent, and they won. [3]

The trigger: Irwin's vague offer (October 1929)

• Viceroy Lord Irwin promised "dominion status" at some unstated future date, plus a Round Table Conference.
• He fixed no date. He did not say dominion status was the immediate goal.
• The result: the radicals were not satisfied, and the moderates got nothing solid. The offer failed, and the way was open to a sharper demand at Lahore.

What happened at Lahore (December 1929)

• A new, young president.
• Jawaharlal Nehru, aged 40, was made president. [5]

• It was the older generation handing the baton to the young.

• Purna Swaraj became the goal.

• The session declared Purna Swaraj (complete independence, a full break from British rule) as the goal of the Congress. [5]

• Civil Disobedience was authorised. [5]

• Civil Disobedience means openly and peacefully breaking unjust laws, and refusing to obey or pay the government.

• The choice of when and how to start it was left to Gandhi.

• Independence Day was fixed. Congress chose 26 January 1930 as the day for people all over India to declare their independence.

Results: 26 January 1930 and the road to Dandi

• The first Independence Day (26 January 1930).
• People were asked to gather, hoist the tricolour and read out the pledge aloud together. [5]
• The pledge said that freedom is an inalienable right of Indians, a right that belongs to them and cannot be taken away.
• It said that if a government denies this right and oppresses the people, the people may alter or abolish it. This wording deliberately echoes the American Declaration of Independence.

• Those who took the pledge promised to work for the attainment of Purna Swaraj. [5]

• Turnout was thin.

• "Purna Swaraj" was an abstract idea. A poor peasant or labourer could not see how it would change their daily life.

• Gandhi's answer.

• He decided to tie the big goal to a concrete grievance that every household felt, as Bardoli had been tied to the revenue bill.

• That grievance was the salt tax. It led to the Dandi March of March 1930 and the start of Civil Disobedience.

• Nehru's rise. After Lahore, Nehru became the recognised leader of India's youth and intellectuals. [5]

Time, place and evidence

• When: December 1929. It is the annual session that came after the Calcutta session of 1928.
• Where: Lahore, in Punjab (now in Pakistan). By most textbook accounts, the tricolour was hoisted on the banks of the river Ravi.
• Period: the Gandhian era of the national movement, between Non-Cooperation (1920–22) and Civil Disobedience (1930–34). The Viceroy was Lord Irwin.
• Key people:
• Jawaharlal Nehru: president, aged 40. [5]
• Mahatma Gandhi: guided the session and later chose salt as the issue for Civil Disobedience.
• Subhas Chandra Bose: with Nehru, the face of the younger radical group.

• Lord Irwin: made the vague dominion status offer of October 1929.

• How we know:

• Jawaharlal Nehru's Presidential Address to the Lahore Session, kept in the national digital archive (indianculture.gov.in). [5]
• The official Congress resolutions on Poorna Swaraj, from the same archive. [5]
• NCERT Class 10, Ch 2 "Nationalism in India", and Class 12, Ch 3 "Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement".

Don't confuse with

• Lahore Resolution, 1940: passed by the Muslim League (not the Congress) in the same city. It demanded separate Muslim-majority states and is also called the Pakistan Resolution. Lahore 1929 was the Congress demand for Purna Swaraj.
• Calcutta session, 1928: here the Congress still accepted dominion status, the goal of the Nehru Report, and gave the British one year to grant it. Lahore 1929 came after that year ran out and went further, to complete independence.
• Karachi session, 1931: held after the Gandhi–Irwin Pact, with Vallabhbhai Patel as president. It is known for the resolution on Fundamental Rights and economic policy, not for declaring Purna Swaraj.
• 26 January 1930 vs 26 January 1950: 1930 was the first Independence Day, observed by taking the pledge. 1950 is the day the Constitution came into force. That date was chosen to honour the 1930 pledge.

Prelims Hooks

• Lahore Congress, December 1929: president Jawaharlal Nehru, aged 40. [5]
• Lahore 1929 adopted Purna Swaraj as the Congress goal and authorised Civil Disobedience. [5]
• 26 January 1930 was observed as the first Independence Day, with flag-hoisting and a public pledge. [5]
• The trigger was Lord Irwin's vague offer of "dominion status" in October 1929, which the Congress rejected.
• Chronology: Simon Commission appointed (Nov 1927) → Bardoli Satyagraha (1928) → Lajpat Rai's death (Nov 1928) → Irwin's offer (Oct 1929) → Lahore Congress (Dec 1929) → Independence Day (26 Jan 1930) → Dandi March (Mar 1930).
• Trap: the 1940 Lahore Resolution belongs to the Muslim League, not the Congress, and is not linked to Purna Swaraj.

Mains Points

• A change in goal and a change in generation.
• Lahore replaced the demand for dominion status with complete independence. It made Nehru, aged 40, the voice of the young.
• This closed the debate of the 1920s between cautious and radical nationalists, and the radicals won on the goal.

• Gandhi still controlled the method, so the Congress stayed united.

• Lahore came from many causes coming together.

• The Depression (prices falling from 1926) gave people an economic grievance.
• The all-white Simon Commission and Lajpat Rai's death gave them anger and a political trigger. [2]
• Bardoli showed that organised satyagraha could win. [3]

• Irwin's empty offer of October 1929 removed the last reason to wait.

• The thin turnout of 26 January 1930 teaches a lesson about mass movements.

• A constitutional goal like Purna Swaraj could not, by itself, move peasants and workers.
• Gandhi tied this abstract demand to salt, something every household used daily. That turned an elite resolution into a mass movement and made Lahore the start of the Civil Disobedience phase.

Related concepts

• Swaraj Party
• C.R. Das
• Motilal Nehru
• No-changers
• Constructive programme
• Jawaharlal Nehru
• Subhas Chandra Bose
• Bardoli satyagraha 1928
• Vallabhbhai Patel
• Simon Commission

Read more

• The road back to mass politics, 1922–30