SWARAJIST. The term swaraj (more properly swarajya from swa= own or self ; rajya= rule or government) was originally employed in the ethical sense of control over self—self mastery. Prominence was first given to it in the political arena by Dadabhai Naoroji, who, in his presidential address to the Indian National Congress in Calcutta in Dec. 1906 claimed as the right of India swaraj "or self government like that of the United Kingdom or the Colonies," and the word soon gained currency as the equiva lent of Dominion home rule. By a judicial decision of the Calcutta high court (1907, I.L.R., 34 Calc.), it was held not necessarily to mean "independent government" in the sense of government of the country to the exclusion of the present Gov ernment. "It may mean, as is now well understood, government by the people themselves under the King and under British sov ereignty." Its adoption as the label of a particular political party was the outcome of the lengthy and ever-changing agitation set on foot by M. K. Gandhi in 1919. That movement commenced as one of passive resistance to the legislation known as the Rowlatt Act, which was designed to strengthen the hands of the Government in dealing with revolutionary crime, but, utilizing the aroused among Mohammedans by the Turkish peace terms, which crystallized in the Khilafat movement, and the excitement which ran through the country as the result of disturbances in the Punjab and their sequelae, Gandhi, in the succeeding year, launched a campaign of protest under the guise of non-violent non-coopera tion, which was to include the boycott of the courts and Govern ment schools, the resignation of titles and Government office, and abstention from participation in the forthcoming elections to the new legislative councils under the Reforms scheme. In July 1920 the attainment of swaraj was included among the objects of the non-co-operation movement, and at the meeting of that year it was adopted by the Indian national congress as their avowed aim. But as to the precise meaning of swaraj there existed a vagueness which Gandhi did little to dispel. At one time he defined it as parlia mentary government, whether within or without the empire; at another as dominion home rule ; at a third as the universal em ployment of the spinning wheel; yet again as the triumph of the Khilafat party. On the other hand, at the first meeting of the legis
lative assembly in Feb. 1921, in the message from His Majesty the King Emperor, the ideal of swaraj was mentioned as the dream for years of patriotic and loyal Indians, while the reforms were cited as the beginnings of swaraj within the empire.
In the first elections under the 1919 act Gandhi's followers took no part, but by the beginning of 1922, an influential section of the congress acting under the leadership of C. R. Das and Pandit Moti Lal Nehru, announced on Jan. 1, 1923, the formation of a Congress Khilafat Swarajya party, in whose programme the cap ture of the councils and the obstruction of all business in them was the leading immediate item. After protracted dissensions and manoeuvres this section was finally victorious within the congress, and at the elections of Nov. 1923 Swarajist candidates took the field as such and, noticeably as against the Moderates, achieved considerable success, though failing to secure (except in one prov ince) the clear majority for which they had hoped. Throughout the term of the second reformed councils the Swaraj party con tinued their wrecking tactics, succeeding in two provinces (Bengal and the Central Provinces) in bringing about a temporary suspen sion of the reformed constitution.
Towards the end of that year the party was split by the defec tions of some of its members, notably in Bombay and the Central Provinces, in the direction of "responsive co-operation," including the acceptance of office under Government, and in April 1926 an attempt was made to form an Indian national party of respon sivists, independents and moderates "to prepare for and accelerate the establishment of swaraj or full responsible government in India, such as obtains in the self-governing dominions of the British empire." These differences bore fruit at the third election of the reformed councils at the end of 1926, when the Swaraj party definitely lost ground, noticeably in the assembly and in the United Provinces, Punjab and Central Provinces. The Indian national congress (which by that time was practically the Swaraj party) in Dec. 1927, declared for the complete independence of India.