Swaraj Party was a political wing of the Indian National Congress party that gained many seats in India in national and provincial legislatures in the elections of 1923 and 1937. The word swaraj is a Hindi word that can be loosely translated into English as self-rule or home rule. In the political sense, swaraj was a vague notion that implied support for Indian self-government and independence, and a reverence for India’s own cultural and historical traditions. The Indian political leaders Chitta Ranjan Das and Motilal Nehru founded the Swaraj Party in 1922.
The Swaraj Party came into existence amid the decline of Mohandas Gandhi’s noncooperation movement, which sought to bring about the end of British rule in India through a complete boycott of all institutions that accepted British rule in any form. This included the Indian-run provincial and national legislatures that had been given limited powers by the British government. The Swaraj Party believed that more could be accomplished by taking seats in these bodies, and that noncooperation could also occur from within British colonial institutions. The party argued that the role of elected legislators could, within the constitutional rules that governed these bodies, range from cooperation with the British when that was deemed appropriate, to obstruction of the legislatures, or to refusal to sit in the legislature.
The Swaraj Party’s elected candidates took their seats, and sometimes cooperated with, and sometimes obstructed, the legislatures. The party declared that it was in favor of India becoming a dominion (self-governing territory) within the British Empire. It was unclear, however, whether dominion status should involve a parliamentary government much like that of the United Kingdom or something different, which would take the particular needs of India into account. The Swaraj Party was effectively the political wing of the Congress in the 1920’s and 1930’s. It was an active party, seeking constant contact with the people in all parts of India to build support. In contrast to Gandhi’s advocacy of total noncooperation, the Swaraj Party focused on practical methods of achieving its political aims.
