THOUGH GANDHI reported in March of

1937, "I am concentrating

my attention on village work . . . and
cannot think of anything
else," less than a month later, he was
lured from his rural retreat,
back into the political fray.1
The 1935 Government of India Act that
had emerged from London's
three Round Table Conferences
enfranchised some thirty-five million
Indians,
more than half of whom trekked to polling
places throughout British
India in February of 1937. Congress
candidates won 716 seats, capturing
majorities in six of British India's eleven
provincial legislative assemblies.
Nehru, whose electrifying air-borne
campaign, had led the euphoric Congress
party to its stunning victory, ordered all
minority parties to "line up!"
saying there were only two parties left in
India, Congress and the British.
Jinnah rejected that argument, insisting
that the Muslims represented by his

1
Muslim League, were a "third party."2
Then Lord Zetland, the new Tory
secretary of state for India, insisted that
British provincial governors would
all be "obliged," under the new
Constitution, to "safeguard the legitimate
interests of the minorities."3 And the new
viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, firmly
reiterated his secretary of state's
message, which Congress viewed as
nothing
but the old British policy of divide and rule
with a vengeance. "The
latest gesture is one of the sword not of
goodwill," Gandhi told the Associated
Press, "certainly not of democratic
obedience to the will of a democratic
majority."4
Zetland refused to back down, however,
so the much-hailed, eagerly
anticipated experiment in provincial "self-
rule" under the 1935 Constitu-
[ 182 ]
Prelude to War and Partition
tion was suspended, replaced by
appointed official ministries. Nehru's fury

2
flared to white intensity; Gandhi urged
moderation. "Jawaharlal reads one
meaning and I another," he told his Seva
Sangh ("Service Society") conference
in April. Instead of launching a violent civil
war, Gandhi told Nehru
that "we can wreck the Constitution
through non-violence," advising use
of Motilal's old Swarajist technique of
joining the government to obstruct
its operations from within.5 Gandhi knew
that Jawaharlal was ready to
fight, and that "if for the sake of the
freedom of India he feels compelled to
cut the throats of Englishmen; he will not
hesitate."6 Most of the elected
Congress members agreed with Gandhi
so Nehru was obliged to "surrender"
to Zetland's insistence on safeguards.