Saturday 6 August 2011

SURAT Split

1. In 1905, the session of the congress was held at Banaras (Varanasi) and G.K. Gokhle was elected as its president. The Extremist wanted the Swadeshi & Boycott(S&B) movement extended from Bengal to the rest of the country and Boycott to every form of association with the colonial government along with the strong resolution in its favour.
The moderates wanted to confine the movement to Bengal and even there limit it to the Boycott of foreign goods only. AS a compromise a relatively mild resolution condemning partition and supporting S&B programme in Bengal was passes.
2. At the Calcutta session of congress in 1906 the extremists wanted either Tilak or Lala Lajpat Rai as the president, while the moderates proposed the name of Dadabhai Naoroji, who was respected by the all nationalists. Finally Dadabhai Naoroji was elected as its president and as a concession to the extremist; the goal of INC was defined as SWARAJYA OR SELF-GOVT. Like that of U.K or the colonies and a resolution supporting S&B movement and National Education was passed.

3. In 1907 the extremists wanted the session of INC to be held at Nagpur with Tilak or Lajpat Rai as its president and reiteration of S&B and National education resolution.
The moderates wanted the session to be held at Surat with Rashbehari Ghosh as president and sought to drop the resolution on S&B and National education.
Both sides adopted rigid position, leaving no room for compromise. The Split became inevitable and came at the Surat session of Congress in Dec. 1907. The Congress was now dominated by the Moderates who elected Rashbehari Ghosh as president. The moderate leaders having captured the congress machinery excluded the extremist from it.
Science
CONSEQUENCES OF SURAT SPLIT

The split did not prove useful to either party:
1. The moderates lost touch with the younger generation of nationalists. 
2. The British played the game of divide and rule. While suppressing the extremists, Britishers tried to win over moderate national opinion so that former could be isolated and suppressed. 

Unfortunately, neither the moderates nor the extremists understood the implication of the strategy. The Surat split suggested that the policy of carrot and stick had bought rich dividends to the govt.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the overview of topic. Short n simple explanation. ๐Ÿ‘

    ReplyDelete