1937 Madras Presidency Legislative Assembly election

1937 Madras Presidency legislative assembly election

←  1934 February 1937[1] 1946  →
All 215 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Madras Presidency
First party Second party   Leader C. Rajagopalachari Raja of Bobbili Party INC Justice Party Leader's seat Madras University Constituency Bobbili (lost) Seats won 159 18 Percentage 73.95% 8.37%
Prime Minister before election Kurma Venkata Reddy Naidu Justice Party Elected Prime Minister C. Rajagopalachari INC

The first legislative assembly election for the

The legislative council consisted of a minimum of 54 and a maximum of 56 members. It was a permanent body not subject to dissolution by the governor, and one-third of its members retired every three years. 46 of its members were elected directly by the electorate, while the governor could nominate 8 to 10 members. The breakdown of seats in the council was as follows:[3]^[4]

The Act provided for a limited adult franchise based on property qualifications.^[5] Seven million people, roughly 15% of the Madras people holding land or paying urban taxes were qualified to be the electorate.^[2] Separate ballot boxes were kept for candidates of different political parties. The Congress was allotted the yellow coloured box, while the Muslim League was allotted green coloured box.^[6][7]

Issues and campaign

The Justice Party had been in power in Madras for 17 years since 1920. Its hold on power was briefly interrupted only once in 1926-28 when P. Subbarayan was a non-affiliated Prime Minister.

Unpopularity of the Justice Government

The Justice Government under the

The Local Boards Act has been recently amended, taluk boards have been abolished, a district board has been bifurcated and attempts have been made to bifurcate other boards, which are hostile to him.... He is superseding municipalities, which do not bow to his authority, removing chairmen not liked by him and trying to forfeit the liberty of these bodies by the appointment of Commissioners.[8]

The Justice party was seen as the collaborative party, agreeing with the British Government's harsh measures. Its economic policies during the Great Depression of the 1930s were also highly unpopular. Its refusal to decrease the land revenue taxation in non-Zamindari areas by 12.5% was hugely unpopular. The Bobbili Raja, himself a Zamindar, cracked down on the Congress protests demanding reduction of the revenue. This further reduced the popularity of the Justice Party. The Governor of Madras, Lord Erskine reported to the then Secretary of State Zetland in February 1937, that the peasants in South India had become fed up with the Justice Party and "every sin of omission or commission of the past fifteen years is put down to them [Justice Party]".^[8] The affluent lifestyle led by the Justice ministers at the height of the Great Depression were sharply criticized by the Madras Press. They drew a monthly salary of Rs. 4,333.60 when compared to Rs. 2,250 per month the ministers in the Central Provinces received. This invoked the ire of the Madras press. The newspaper India wrote:

Is not Rs. 2,000 enough for Madras ministers, who were only second-rate vakils (lawyers) in the mufassal (rural areas)? When the poor are suffering for want of money, they are drawing fat salaries? What an injustice? When the country is on fire, when the axe of retrenchment has fallen on the poor and when the people are experiencing intense suffering under the heavy burden of taxation, the Madras Ministers have started on their tours immediately after passing the budget.^[8]

Even the European owned newspaper The Madras Mail which had been the champion of the earlier Justice Governments was sickened by the ineptitude and patronage policies of the Bobbili Raja administration. On 1 July 1935, it wrote in its editorial: "if the Justice Party is really determined upon reorganisation... the spoils system must go.^[8] The extent of the discontent against the Justice Government is reflected in an article of Zamin Ryot:

The Justice Party has disgusted the people of this presidency like plague and engendered permanent hatred in their hearts. Everybody, therefore, is anxiously awaiting the fall of the Justice regime which they consider tyrannical and inauguration of the Congress administration.... Even old women in villages ask as to how long the ministry of the Raja of Bobbili would continue^[8]

Resurgence of the Congress

The

The promises made in the election manifesto by the congress, while seeking suffrage, roused hopes, that the Congress government, if voted to power, would give relief to them. Perhaps the Agrarian distress forced the Indian National Congress to give up the policy and programme of non-cooperation and to undertake the responsibility of Government under a hated act

The Congress campaign was effective and targeted all sections of the population like peasants, workers, weavers and businessmen. Against it the Justice party had no definite program or policies. It could only harp on the Brahmin domination in Congress. Amidst the backdrop of the Great Depression and economic distress their charge was not effective.^[8][9] Satyamurti utilised the services of popular actors like V. Nagayya and K. B. Sundarambal for the election campaign. In particular Sundarambal vigorously campaigned for the Congress. Satyamurti also produced a campaign film directed by A. Narayanan of Srinivasa Cinetone. It featured the speeches of Rajaji, Satyamurti and other Congress leaders. But the film was banned by the colonial government.^[10][11] The coloured box system enabled the most organised party - the Congress to have uniform slogans throughout the presidency. The slogan "vote for Gandhi and the yellow box", was very popular and helped the party to mobilise its supporters.^[12]

Other parties

The other parties contesting the election were the Madras Province Muslim League (MPML) headed by Jamal Mohammad, the People's Party of Madras started by Raja of Pithapuram (a breakaway faction from the Justice Party) and the Muslim Progressive Party led by Nawab C. Abdul Hakim and S. M. Pasha.^[13][14]

Results

Party wise break up of seats in the Madras Legislative Assembly:^{[15][16][17][18]}

Total Number of Seats : 215

Note : The Nattukottai Nagarathar Association and Southern India Chamber of Commerce were seats reserved for Indian Commerce (businessmen). Nagarathar Association seat was won by

...internal dissension, ineffective organisation, inertia and lack of proper leadership led the Justice Party along the path of decline.[1]

Notable losses

Many incumbent ministers of the Justice Government were defeated in this election. The Prime Minister Raja of Bobbili was defeated by V. V. Giri of Congress by a margin of over 6000 votes in the Bobbili Assembly constituency. Other prominent Justice losers included Kumararaja of Venkatagiri, P. T. Rajan, A. P. Patro and the Raja of Ramnad.^[15][23]

Government formation

The elections were held and the results declared in February 1937. Rajaji was elected as the leader of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in March 1937. Despite being the majority party in the Assembly and the council, the Congress was hesitant to form a Government. Their objections stemmed from the special powers given to the Governor by the Government of India Act of 1935. According to the act, the Governor was given 1) special responsibilities in the area of Finance and (2) control and absolute discretionary powers over the cabinet in certain other issues. The Governor had the power to overrule the Cabinet. The Congress refused to accept power (in all the six provinces where they had won) with such caveats. The Governor of Madras,

Council of ministers in K. V. Reddy Naidu's interim provisional cabinet (1 April - 14 July 1937):[27]

Rajagopalachari's Cabinet

Council of Ministers in Rajagopalachari's Cabinet (15 July 1937 – 29 October 1939):^[28][29]

Changes

• On 7 January 1939, Raman Menon died and
  C. J. Varkey, Chunkath
  was inducted into the cabinet. Education portfolio was transferred from Subbarayan to Varkey and instead Subbarayan was given additional charge of Courts and Prisons.

Impact

The 1937 elections marked the start of the Indian National Congress' participation in the governance of India. In the Madras Presidency, it also marked the beginning of Rajaji's ascendancy in the Congress Legislature Party. Though it was Satyamurti who had led the election campaign, he gave up the leadership of the Legislature to Rajaji in accordance to the wishes of the national leaders of the Congress in Delhi. This election also marked the beginning of Congress dominance in the politics of Madras Presidency and later the

• 1937 Madras legislative council election

References