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

THE SLUMP 143
were exhausted, they made peace. Though matters did not
reach a crisis elsewhere as it did in Calcutta, there was con-
siderable tension all over the country. For the Congress
Party the hour was dark. The elections to the Legislatures
were due in November and they were going to be held
under the shadow of Hindu-Moslem riots. The field would
not be as open to Congressmen as it had been in 1923. New
organisations representing reactionary Hindus and reactionary
Moslems had come into existence and they would put up their
own candidates. During the elections of 1926 a strong
propaganda was carried on by a section of the Moslems to the
effect that if the Hindus were going to carry on their non-
co-operation with the Government, the Moslems should have
nothing to do with them, but should endeavour to work the
Constitution. On the other side the Hindu Mahasabha raised
the cry that if the Hindus non-co-operated while the Moslems
secured the help of the Government, they would be placing
themselves at a serious disadvantage as compared with the
Moslems. The Hindu Mahasabha therefore urged the modi-
fication of the Swarajist policy of non-co-operation. Never-
theless, among the Hindu electorate the influence of the
Congress was much greater than that of the Hindusabha,
though among the Moslem electorate, the influence of
reactionary and sectarian organisations proved to be stronger
than that of the Congress at the General Election of 1926.
The General Election of November 1926, being contested
by Nationalists in the name of the Congress, there was a great
improvement in their strength in many of the Provincial
Legislatures, e.g., in Madras and Bihar. The whole-hearted
co-operation of all sections of Congressmen, which was not
forthcoming in 1923 when the Swaraj Party ran the elections,
was responsible for the improvement. But in one respect the
election results were worse than in 1923. In 1923 a large
number of Nationalist Moslems had been elected as Swarajists
but in 1926 their places were generally taken by their reac-
tionary co-religionists. In provinces like Bengal and Punjab
with a large Moslem population, the situation inside the
Legislatures was not favourable for the Congress Party. In
the Central Provinces which had been the stronghold of