द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

THE SLUMP 141
the Independent Party which played the same rôle in Northern
India as the Responsivist Party did in Central and Western
India. By the time Lala Lajpat Rai left the Swaraj Party,
another prominent personality joined that Party. He was Mr.
Srinivasa Iyengar, former Advocate-General¹ of Madras and
the leader of the Madras Bar. Mr. Iyengar on being returned
to the Assembly in 1926 was at once elected Deputy-Leader
of the Party and soon after, was elected President of the 1926
session of the Congress held at Gauhati in Assam.
The general attitude of the Government after the death
of Deshbandhu Das was on the whole reactionary. The only
exception was in the matter of the abolition of the Excise
Duty, which welcome event took place in December 1925..
The Excise Duty was first imposed as a tax on Indian mill-
made cloth in 1894. The ostensible object of this duty was
to obtain revenue for the Government but the real object was
to help the British textile industry, which did not view with
equanimity the growth of an indigenous textile industry in
India. Though since 1916 the duty on textile imports had
been kept at a higher level than the Excise Duty on Indian
mill products, the latter was keenly resented by Indian
Nationalists and especially by the Indian business community.
The abolition of the duty was therefore meant as a sop to the
Indian textile interests. Beyond this Act, no other friendly
gesture was made by the Government in India or in England.
The Labour Party, however, made a friendly move by adopting
the Commonwealth of India Bill drafted by Mrs. Besant for
conferring Home Rule on India and authorised Mr. George
Lansbury to introduce it as a Private Bill in the House of
Commons. The Bill received its first reading in December
1925, but it proved to be still-born. Nevertheless, it had
some value as a gesture.
The history of 1926 is largely a history of Hindu-Moslem
strife. As happens everywhere, the slackening of the Nationalist
movement diverted the energies of the people to internal
questions and disputes. The abolition of the Khalifate by the
Turks in 1924 led many of the Nationalist Moslems in India
¹ The position of the Advocate-General of Madras would correspond to
the position of the Solicitor-General in England.