Question

why do the elections of 1935 not good for Muslims? (7 marks)

Answer 1

Answer:

Electorate

The Government of India Act 1935/ Legislative council 1935 increased the number of enfranchised people.[1][2] Approximately 30 million people, among them some women, gained voting rights. This number constituted one-sixth of Indian adults. The Act provided for a limited adult franchise based on property qualifications such as land ownership and rent, and therefore favored landholders and richer farmers in rural areas.[2]

Election Campaign and results

At its 1936 session held in the city of Lucknow, the Congress party, despite opposition from the newly elected Nehru as the party president, agreed to contest the provincial elections to be held in 1937.[3][4] The released Congress leaders anticipated the restoration of elections. They now had a stronger standing with their reputation enhanced by the civil disobedience movement under Gandhi's leadership.[5] Through the elections the Congress sought to convert its popular movement into a political organisation. The Congress won 758 out of around 1500 seats in a resounding victory, and went on to form seven provincial governments. The Congress formed governments in United provinces, Bihar, the Central Provinces, Bombay and Madras.[6]

The party's election platform had downplayed communalism and Nehru continued this attitude with the initiation of the March 1937 Muslim mass contact program. But the elections demonstrated that of the 482 Muslim seats the Congress had contested just 58 of them and won only 26 of those. In spite of this poor showing the Congress persisted in its claim that the party was representative of all communities.[1] The Congress ministries did not succeed in attracting their Muslim countrymen. This was largely unintentional.[7]

The 1937 elections demonstrated that neither the Muslim League nor the Congress represented Muslims. It also demonstrated the provincial moorings of Muslim politics.[8] The Muslim League captured around 25 percent of the seats reserved for Muslims. The Congress Muslims achieved 6 percent of them. Most of the Muslim seats were won by regional Muslim parties.[9] No Congress Muslim won in Sind, Punjab, Bengal, Orissa, United Provinces, Central Provinces, Bombay and Assam.[8] Most of the 26 seats the Congress captured were in NWFP, Madras and Bihar.[10]