CDS (I) 2023 General Knowledge · Question 30 of 120

Correct — A, Punjab and Sind. The elections of early 1937 were the first held under the provincial autonomy provisions of the Government of India Act, 1935, on a franchise widened to roughly a sixth of the adult population. The Congress swept them. It won outright majorities in Madras, Bombay, the United Provinces, the Central Provinces, Bihar and Orissa, and it came out as the single largest party in Bengal, Assam and — on most accounts — the North-West Frontier Province. Two provinces stood apart. In Punjab, Sir Sikandar Hyat Khan's Unionist Party, built across religious lines on the rural and land-revenue interest, took about 94 of 175 seats against the Congress's 18. In Sind, the vote splintered among the Sind United Party with roughly 17 seats, the Sindh Muslim League with about 16 and several smaller groups, and the Congress was left with about 7 of 60. There is also a shortcut that needs no memory of Punjab or Sind at all. Every wrong option here contains Assam, and in Assam the Congress won 33 seats of 108 against the next party's 10 — plainly the largest. Strike out every option naming Assam and only one remains.

• (b)Assam and North-West Frontier Province — Assam is wrong on the count: 33 Congress seats against 10 for the next party made it the single largest there. The frontier province is the genuinely close cell — the seat tables show the Congress a couple of seats behind an independent Muslim grouping, while the standard histories still count it as the largest party — but Assam settles the option either way.
• (c)Punjab and Assam — Half right and half wrong, which is what makes it dangerous. Punjab belongs on the list; Assam does not, and one wrong member is enough to reject the pair.
• (d)Assam and Madras — Madras was the Congress's biggest single win of the whole election — about 159 of 215 seats, against 21 for the Justice Party. Naming it is the clearest error in the set.

The Government of India Act, 1935 abolished dyarchy in the provinces and gave them autonomy under ministries responsible to elected legislatures, while the federation it proposed at the centre never came into being. Elections to the new provincial assemblies were held in the winter of 1936-37, and the Congress, which had contested while denouncing the Act, formed ministries in most provinces from July 1937. Those ministries resigned in October and November 1939 over the Viceroy's declaration of war on India's behalf without consulting Indian opinion.

The examiner's design here is a single poisoned name repeated across three options. Assam appears in b, c and d, so a candidate who is sure about Assam does not need to be sure about anything else. Where the Congress did badly is also worth understanding rather than memorising: both Punjab and Sind were Muslim-majority provinces with strong regional parties organised on agrarian and local rather than communal lines, and the Congress had built little rural machinery in either. The result mattered later — the Muslim League also did poorly in 1937, taking only a small share of the Muslim seats, and it was the experience of that defeat and of the Congress ministries that pushed it towards the mass politics of the 1940s. One honest caveat about the North-West Frontier Province in option b: seat tables put an independent Muslim grouping marginally ahead of the Congress there, while the standard textbook line counts the Congress as the largest single party, so that particular cell is contested and the Assam test is the safer route.

• The 1937 provincial elections were the first under the provincial-autonomy provisions of the Government of India Act, 1935.
• The Congress won clear majorities in Madras, Bombay, the United Provinces, the Central Provinces, Bihar and Orissa, and formed ministries from July 1937.
• In Punjab the Unionist Party under Sir Sikandar Hyat Khan won about 94 of 175 seats against the Congress's 18.
• In Sind no party came close to a majority; the Sind United Party led with about 17 seats and the Congress took about 7 of 60.
• Congress ministries resigned in October and November 1939 after India was declared a belligerent in the Second World War without consultation.

• Reading 'single largest party' as 'formed the government' — in Bengal the Congress was the largest party and still did not hold office.
• Forgetting that the 1935 Act's federal half never came into force, so provincial autonomy is the only part that actually operated.
• Assuming the Muslim League swept the Muslim seats in 1937; it did not, and that is the point most often missed about this election.

As a which-province item on the 1937 results, or as a statements item on what the Government of India Act, 1935 did and did not bring into force.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The party that formed the ministry in Punjab after the 1937 provincial elections was which one of the following?

  • (a)Indian National Congress
  • (b)All-India Muslim League
  • (c)Unionist Party
  • (d)Krishak Praja Party

  Answer(c) Unionist Party — Sir Sikandar Hyat Khan's party won about 94 of the 175 Punjab seats on a cross-communal agrarian platform, against 18 for the Congress.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Congress ministries formed after the 1937 elections resigned in 1939 for which one of the following reasons?

  • (a)The rejection of the Cripps proposals
  • (b)India being declared a belligerent in the Second World War without consulting Indian opinion
  • (c)The announcement of the Communal Award
  • (d)The arrest of the Congress leadership during the Quit India movement

  Answer(b) India being declared a belligerent in the Second World War without consulting Indian opinion — the ministries resigned in October and November 1939.