Misplaced Pages

#800199

115-542: Soon CRC began cooperation with the All India Forward Bloc of U. Muthuramalingam Thevar . The CRC-AIFB combine contested 59 seats in the assembly election (54 candidates from CRC, 5 candidates from AIFB. One of the five AIFB candidates, P.K. Mookiah Thevar , stood as a CRC candidate). There was also an informal understanding with the Communist Party of India , which decided not to contest against

230-808: A Classless Society ." Ahead of the 1946 assembly elections the ban on the Bloc was lifted in June that year. The Working Committee of the Forward Bloc met on 10 June. Elections to the Constituent Assembly and to provincial legislatures were held in December 1946. The Forward Bloc contested the elections. H.V. Kamath won a seat in the Constituent Assembly and Jyotish Chandra Ghosh, Hemantha Kumar Basu and Lila Roy were elected to

345-555: A Forward Bloc for the new nation of Pakistan . This would soon prove to be very controversial. The general secretary Yagee did, in line with the Varanasi resolution, dissolve the Bengal committee of the Forward Bloc and set-up ad hoc committees for West Bengal and East Bengal . Now the division between ' Marxists ' and 'Subhasists' resurfaced. The 'Subhasists', and S. S. Kavishar in particular, criticised Yagee's actions. The split

460-463: A Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan . As many displaced Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs made their way to their new lands, religious violence broke out, especially in the Punjab and Bengal . Abstaining from the official celebration of independence , Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting to alleviate distress. In the months following, he undertook several hunger strikes to stop

575-556: A child, Gandhi was described by his sister Raliat as "restless as mercury, either playing or roaming about. One of his favourite pastimes was twisting dogs' ears." The Indian classics, especially the stories of Shravana and king Harishchandra , had a great impact on Gandhi in his childhood. In his autobiography, Gandhi states that they left an indelible impression on his mind. Gandhi writes: "It haunted me and I must have acted Harishchandra to myself times without number." Gandhi's early self-identification with truth and love as supreme values

690-419: A daughter, and his third marriage was childless. In 1857, Karamchand sought his third wife's permission to remarry; that year, he married Putlibai (1844–1891), who also came from Junagadh, and was from a Pranami Vaishnava family. Karamchand and Putlibai had four children: a son, Laxmidas ( c.  1860 –1914); a daughter, Raliatbehn (1862–1960); a second son, Karsandas ( c.  1866 –1913). and

805-594: A family and first employed nonviolent resistance in a campaign for civil rights. In 1915, aged 45, he returned to India and soon set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against discrimination and excessive land-tax. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability , and, above all, achieving swaraj or self-rule. Gandhi adopted

920-592: A field hospital since the terrain was too rough for the ambulances. Gandhi and 37 other Indians received the Queen's South Africa Medal . In 1906, the Transvaal government promulgated a new Act compelling registration of the colony's Indian and Chinese populations. At a mass protest meeting held in Johannesburg on 11 September that year, Gandhi adopted his still evolving methodology of Satyagraha (devotion to

1035-628: A law practice in Bombay failed because Gandhi was psychologically unable to cross-examine witnesses. He returned to Rajkot to make a modest living drafting petitions for litigants, but Gandhi was forced to stop after running afoul of British officer Sam Sunny. In 1893, a Muslim merchant in Kathiawar named Dada Abdullah contacted Gandhi. Abdullah owned a large successful shipping business in South Africa. His distant cousin in Johannesburg needed

1150-519: A lawyer, and they preferred someone with Kathiawari heritage. Gandhi inquired about his pay for the work. They offered a total salary of £105 (~$ 4,143 in 2023 money) plus travel expenses. He accepted it, knowing that it would be at least a one-year commitment in the Colony of Natal , South Africa, also a part of the British Empire. In April 1893, Gandhi, aged 23, set sail for South Africa to be

1265-691: A mob of white settlers attacked him, and Gandhi escaped only through the efforts of the wife of the police superintendent. However, Gandhi refused to press charges against any member of the mob. During the Boer War , Gandhi volunteered in 1900 to form a group of stretcher-bearers as the Natal Indian Ambulance Corps . According to Arthur Herman, Gandhi wanted to disprove the British colonial stereotype that Hindus were not fit for "manly" activities involving danger and exertion, unlike

SECTION 10

#1732790375801

1380-491: A moral movement and that Allinson should therefore no longer remain a member of the LVS. Gandhi shared Hills' views on the dangers of birth control, but defended Allinson's right to differ. It would have been hard for Gandhi to challenge Hills; Hills was 12 years his senior and unlike Gandhi, highly eloquent. Hills bankrolled the LVS and was a captain of industry with his Thames Ironworks company employing more than 6,000 people in

1495-478: A public speaking practice group and overcame his shyness sufficiently to practise law. Gandhi demonstrated a keen interest in the welfare of London's impoverished dockland communities. In 1889, a bitter trade dispute broke out in London, with dockers striking for better pay and conditions, and seamen, shipbuilders, factory girls and other joining the strike in solidarity. The strikers were successful, in part due to

1610-921: A single candidate, Mukhtiar Singh Kaushik in the Nilokheri constituency. Kaushik got 442 votes (0.44%). In Andhra Pradesh the party had significant presence during the 1950s, but then declined sharply. In 2005 the party took an initiative to revive its Andhra Pradesh State Committee. In Telangana 2018 Assembly AIFB performed very well in some Constituencies. In Ramagundam Assembly constituency AIFB candidate Korukanti Chander won with almost 32,000 huge majority. In Bhupalapally AIFB candidate Gandra Satyanarayana Rao stood 2nd place with almost 52,000 votes. In 2024 Lok sabha elections , AIFB joined DMK-led Alliance in Tamil Nadu . Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi ( ISO : Mōhanadāsa Karamacaṁda Gāṁdhī ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948)

1725-464: A state of things we should have the ability to defend ourselves, that is, the ability to bear arms and to use them... If we want to learn the use of arms with the greatest possible despatch, it is our duty to enlist ourselves in the army." However, Gandhi stipulated in a letter to the Viceroy's private secretary that he "personally will not kill or injure anybody, friend or foe." Gandhi's support for

1840-652: A third son, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who was born on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar (also known as Sudamapuri ), a coastal town on the Kathiawar Peninsula and then part of the small princely state of Porbandar in the Kathiawar Agency of the British Raj . In 1874, Gandhi's father, Karamchand, left Porbandar for the smaller state of Rajkot , where he became a counsellor to its ruler,

1955-505: A volunteer mixed unit of Indian and African stretcher-bearers to treat wounded combatants during the suppression of the rebellion. The medical unit commanded by Gandhi operated for less than two months before being disbanded. After the suppression of the rebellion, the colonial establishment showed no interest in extending to the Indian community the civil rights granted to white South Africans . This led Gandhi to becoming disillusioned with

2070-492: A vow in front of his mother that he would abstain from meat, alcohol, and women. Gandhi's brother, Laxmidas, who was already a lawyer, cheered Gandhi's London studies plan and offered to support him. Putlibai gave Gandhi her permission and blessing. On 10 August 1888, Gandhi, aged 18, left Porbandar for Mumbai, then known as Bombay. A local newspaper covering the farewell function by his old high school in Rajkot noted that Gandhi

2185-606: Is a Political Party that was formed on May 3, 1939, by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in Makur Unnao , Uttar Pradesh , who had resigned from the presidency of the Indian National Congress on 29 April after being outmaneuvered by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi . The formation of the Forward Bloc was announced to the public at a rally in Calcutta . Bose said that all who were joining, must never turn their back to

2300-550: Is among admirers of Gandhi's efforts to fight against racism in Africa. The general image of Gandhi, state Desai and Vahed, has been reinvented since his assassination as though Gandhi was always a saint, when in reality, his life was more complex, contained inconvenient truths, and was one that changed over time. Scholars have also pointed the evidence to a rich history of co-operation and efforts by Gandhi and Indian people with nonwhite South Africans against persecution of Africans and

2415-653: Is commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti , a national holiday , and worldwide as the International Day of Nonviolence . Gandhi is considered to be the Father of the Nation in post-colonial India. During India's nationalist movement and in several decades immediately after, he was also commonly called Bapu , an endearment roughly meaning "father". Gandhi's father, Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi (1822–1885), served as

SECTION 20

#1732790375801

2530-448: Is traceable to these epic characters. The family's religious background was eclectic. Mohandas was born into a Gujarati Hindu Modh Bania family. Gandhi's father, Karamchand, was Hindu and his mother Putlibai was from a Pranami Vaishnava Hindu family. Gandhi's father was of Modh Baniya caste in the varna of Vaishya . His mother came from the medieval Krishna bhakti-based Pranami tradition, whose religious texts include

2645-399: The dewan (chief minister) of Porbandar state. His family originated from the then village of Kutiana in what was then Junagadh State . Although Karamchand only had been a clerk in the state administration and had an elementary education, he proved a capable chief minister. During his tenure, Karamchand married four times. His first two wives died young, after each had given birth to

2760-558: The 1971 general elections , the All India Forward Bloc chairman Hemantha Kumar Bose was murdered in Calcutta . An emergency central committee meeting was held on 24 February, which appointed P.K. Mookiah Thevar as the new chairman of the party. In the 1971 Lok Sabha election, the Forward Bloc launched 24 candidates around the country. Two were elected, P.K. Mookiah Thevar from Ramanathapuram and Jambuwantrao Dhote from Nagpur . The party contested three seats in

2875-477: The 2006 Tamil Nadu legislative election , the party was joined by the actor Karthik . Karthik was given the post of president of the Tamil Nadu state unit by the national party leadership and was put in charge of the election campaign of the party in the state. The party decided to contest a large number of seats without joining either of the two major political blocs in Tamil Nadu. The appointment of Karthik as

2990-582: The Apartheid . In 1903, Gandhi started the Indian Opinion , a journal that carried news of Indians in South Africa, Indians in India with articles on all subjects -social, moral and intellectual. Each issue was multi-lingual and carried material in English, Gujarati, Hindi and Tamil. It carried ads, depended heavily on Gandhi's contributions (often printed without a byline) and was an 'advocate' for

3105-710: The Bhagavad Gita , the Bhagavata Purana , and a collection of 14 texts with teachings that the tradition believes to include the essence of the Vedas , the Quran and the Bible . Gandhi was deeply influenced by his mother, an extremely pious lady who "would not think of taking her meals without her daily prayers... she would take the hardest vows and keep them without flinching. To keep two or three consecutive fasts

3220-469: The East End of London . Hills was also a highly accomplished sportsman who later founded the football club West Ham United . In his 1927 An Autobiography, Vol. I , Gandhi wrote: The question deeply interested me...I had a high regard for Mr. Hills and his generosity. But I thought it was quite improper to exclude a man from a vegetarian society simply because he refused to regard puritan morals as one of

3335-522: The Indian National Congress . Indira Gandhi had entered into open conflict with the traditional Congress leadership. Effectively two separate Congress parties appeared, the Congress(R) led by Indira and the Congress(O) led by Kamaraj . The split was in many ways a left-right one, with Indira whipping up populism against the established party elites. The Forward Bloc did in some ways welcome

3450-551: The Indian People's Forward Bloc . This party aligned itself with the Indian National Congress. The Bharatiya Forward Bloc , a former Forward Bloc splinter group, merged into the All India Forward Bloc prior to the 2006 election. AIFB has branches throughout the country, but the main strength of the party is concentrated in West Bengal. Notably though AIFB is co-operating with CPI(M) in West Bengal, Tripura and on

3565-704: The Left Front , out of whom all three were elected. Moreover, the party contested one seat in Haryana. In Tripura, a Left Front was formed consisting of the CPI(M), RSP and the Forward Bloc. The Front launched one Forward Bloc candidate, Brajagopal Roy in the Town Bordowali constituency. Roy won the seat with 7m800 votes (62.76%). In the beginning of 1978, the Left Front formed a majority government in

Indian National Democratic Congress - Misplaced Pages Continue

3680-550: The London Vegetarian Society (LVS) and was elected to its executive committee under the aegis of its president and benefactor Arnold Hills . An achievement while on the committee was the establishment of a Bayswater chapter. Some of the vegetarians Gandhi met were members of the Theosophical Society , which had been founded in 1875 to further universal brotherhood, and which was devoted to

3795-609: The Rashtriya Janata Dal and the National Democratic Alliance , condemning them as 'casteist and communal'. In 2002 , AIFB was one of four left-wing parties that nominated Lakshmi Sahgal as a candidate for the presidency of India. Sehgal, who challenged the main candidate A.P.J. Abdul Kalam , got around 10% of the votes. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections , the party received 0.4% of votes and three seats (All from West Bengal). Just before

3910-677: The Soviet Union via Afghanistan , seeking Soviet support for the Indian independence struggle. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin declined Bose's request, and he then travelled to Germany . In Berlin he set up the Free India Centre , and rallied the Indian Legion . Inside India, local activists of the Forward Bloc continued the anti-British activities without central co-ordination. For example, in Bihar members were involved in

4025-734: The Subhasist Forward Bloc . A by-election for the Aruppukottai Lok Sabha constituency seat vacated by U. Muthuramalingam Thevar's death was held in 1964, in which the Forward Bloc was defeated for the first time. In 1965, the party joined a 'Progressive Front' in Tripura. The front consisted of the Communist Party of India , the Forward Bloc and a break-away faction of the Socialist Party . The front demanded nationwide land reforms , strengthening of

4140-437: The 13-year-old Gandhi was married to 14-year-old Kasturbai Gokuldas Kapadia (her first name was usually shortened to "Kasturba", and affectionately to "Ba") in an arranged marriage , according to the custom of the region at that time. In the process, he lost a year at school but was later allowed to make up by accelerating his studies. Gandhi's wedding was a joint event, where his brother and cousin were also married. Recalling

4255-711: The 1967 election the communist parties aligned with a splinter group of the Congress Party. The Forward Bloc did not present any candidates in that election. In 1968, two influential party leaders in Tamil Nadu Velayudham Nayar (then a central committee member of the party) and S. Andi Thevar broke away from AIFB and founded the Revolutionary Forward Bloc . Nayar and Thevar accused the Forward Bloc of having deviated from its socialist principles through its co-operation with

4370-676: The 2007 assembly election, 2007 in Uttar Pradesh AIFB launched three candidates, Ram Lakhan in Bisalpur (732 votes, 0.51% of the votes in the constituency), Samar Singh in Fatehpur Sikri (870 votes, 0.69%) and Jabar Singh in Hastinapur (503 votes, 0.42%). AIFB has a small state unit in Haryana. The chairman of Haryana state committee is Naveen Kumar. In the 2005 election to the Haryana legislative assembly AIFB ran

4485-566: The AIFB candidate R. Rathina Thevar came third with 17244 votes (31.02%). The most spectacular victory was that of P.K. Mookiah Thevar (who contested Lok Sabha and assembly elections simultaneously) who got 49292 votes (74.46%) in the Usilampatti constituency, defeating S. Andi Thevar of the Revolutionary Forward Bloc . Lastly in West Bengal the party contested 52 constituencies, but could only win three seats. Its vote stood at 374 141 (2.90% of

4600-543: The Azad Dasta resistance groups, and distributed propaganda in support of Bose and Indian National Army . They did not have, however, any organic link either with Bose nor the INA. At the end of the war, the Forward Bloc was reorganised. In February 1946 R.S. Ruiker organised an All India Active Workers Conference at Jabalpur , Madhya Pradesh . The conference declared the formation of the 'FB Workers Assembly', in practice

4715-742: The Bengal Legislative Assembly. The Bloc held its 2nd All India Conference in Arrah , Bihar on 12–14 January 1947. S.S. Kavishar (a leading member of the Subhasist sector) was elected president and Sheel Bhadra Yagee (a leading member of the Marxist sector) was elected general secretary. Following Independence and Partition , the party national council met in Varanasi February 1948. The national council meeting

Indian National Democratic Congress - Misplaced Pages Continue

4830-637: The British Colonial Secretary, to reconsider his position on this bill. Though unable to halt the bill's passage, Gandhi's campaign was successful in drawing attention to the grievances of Indians in South Africa. He helped found the Natal Indian Congress in 1894, and through this organisation, Gandhi moulded the Indian community of South Africa into a unified political force. In January 1897, when Gandhi landed in Durban,

4945-494: The British and must fill the pledge form by cutting their finger and signing it with their blood. First of all, seventeen young girls came up and signed the pledge form. Initially the aim of the Forward Bloc was to rally all the leftwing sections within the Congress and develop an alternative leadership inside the Congress. Bose became the president of the Forward Bloc and S.S. Kavishar its vice-president. A Forward Bloc Conference

5060-470: The British responded by imprisoning him and tens of thousands of Congress leaders. Meanwhile, the Muslim League did co-operate with Britain and moved, against Gandhi's strong opposition, to demands for a totally separate Muslim state of Pakistan. In August 1947, the British partitioned the land with India and Pakistan each achieving independence on terms that Gandhi disapproved. In April 1918, during

5175-571: The British to quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned many times and for many years in both South Africa and India. Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on religious pluralism was challenged in the early 1940s by a Muslim nationalism which demanded a separate homeland for Muslims within British India . In August 1947, Britain granted independence, but the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two dominions ,

5290-500: The CRC in some constituencies. The CRC-AIFB combine formulated a 12-point election manifesto. The CRC-AIFB alliance emerged as the major opposition alliance in these elections, but could not defeat the Congress government. CRC won 14 seats and AIFB three. Half of the seats won were from the Ramnad and Madurai districts. Following the election, a joint 'CRC opposition' group was formed in

5405-553: The Congress. This was the first time the Congress lost its hold over the municipality after Independence. The INDC-AIFB-CPI-DMK front only lost in three constituencies where they had nominated independent candidates. In July 1959 INDC merged into the Swatantra Party . Albeit representing virtually opposite positions on the left-right scale, the cooperation between the Forward Bloc and the Swatantra Party continued in

5520-415: The Empire and aroused a spiritual awakening within him; historian Arthur L. Herman wrote that Gandhi's African experience was a part of his great disillusionment with the West, transforming Gandhi into an "uncompromising non-cooperator". By 1910, Gandhi's newspaper, Indian Opinion , was covering reports on discrimination against Africans by the colonial regime. Gandhi remarked that the Africans "alone are

5635-428: The Indian National Congress declared the independence of India. The British did not recognise the declaration, but negotiations ensued, with the Congress taking a role in provincial government in the late 1930s. Gandhi and the Congress withdrew their support of the Raj when the Viceroy declared war on Germany in September 1939 without consultation. Tensions escalated until Gandhi demanded immediate independence in 1942, and

5750-437: The Indian cause. In 1906, when the Bambatha Rebellion broke out in the colony of Natal , the then 36-year-old Gandhi, despite sympathising with the Zulu rebels, encouraged Indian South Africans to form a volunteer stretcher-bearer unit. Writing in the Indian Opinion , Gandhi argued that military service would be beneficial to the Indian community and claimed it would give them "health and happiness." Gandhi eventually led

5865-473: The Indian community organised a farewell party for Gandhi as he prepared to return to India. The farewell party was turned into a working committee to plan the resistance to a new Natal government discriminatory proposal. This led to Gandhi extending his original period of stay in South Africa. Gandhi planned to assist Indians in opposing a bill to deny them the right to vote , a right then proposed to be an exclusive European right. He asked Joseph Chamberlain ,

SECTION 50

#1732790375801

5980-405: The Indian people primarily by Gokhale. Gokhale was a key leader of the Congress Party best known for his restraint and moderation, and his insistence on working inside the system. Gandhi took Gokhale's liberal approach based on British Whiggish traditions and transformed it to make it look Indian. Gandhi took leadership of the Congress in 1920 and began escalating demands until on 26 January 1930

6095-402: The Muslim " martial races ." Gandhi raised 1,100 Indian volunteers to support British combat troops against the Boers. They were trained and medically certified to serve on the front lines. They were auxiliaries at the Battle of Colenso to a White volunteer ambulance corps. At the Battle of Spion Kop , Gandhi and his bearers moved to the front line and had to carry wounded soldiers for miles to

6210-528: The Natal Indian Congress. According to Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed, Gandhi's views on racism are contentious in some cases. He suffered persecution from the beginning in South Africa. Like with other coloured people, white officials denied Gandhi his rights, and the press and those in the streets bullied and called Gandhi a "parasite", "semi-barbarous", "canker", "squalid coolie", "yellow man", and other epithets. People would even spit on him as an expression of racial hate. While in South Africa, Gandhi focused on

6325-419: The Thakur Sahib; though Rajkot was a less prestigious state than Porbandar, the British regional political agency was located there, which gave the state's diwan a measure of security. In 1876, Karamchand became diwan of Rajkot and was succeeded as diwan of Porbandar by his brother Tulsidas. Karamchand's family then rejoined him in Rajkot. They moved to their family home Kaba Gandhi No Delo in 1881. As

6440-434: The Yagee-led group. Roughly speaking the Yagee's party had its main base in Bihar, Punjab and West Bengal, whereas the Ruiker-led group had its strongholds in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. In Tripura , a united front was formed by the Communist Party of India , Tripura Ganatantrik Sangha, Ganamukti Parishad, Ganatantrik Nari Samiti and independents to contest the election to the Tripura electoral college (whose function

6555-484: The age of 24, prepared a legal brief for the Natal Assembly in 1895, seeking voting rights for Indians. Gandhi cited race history and European Orientalists' opinions that "Anglo-Saxons and Indians are sprung from the same Aryan stock or rather the Indo-European peoples" and argued that Indians should not be grouped with the Africans. Years later, Gandhi and his colleagues served and helped Africans as nurses and by opposing racism. The Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela

6670-509: The cheapest college he could afford in Bombay. Mavji Dave Joshiji, a Brahmin priest and family friend, advised Gandhi and his family that he should consider law studies in London. In July 1888, Gandhi's wife Kasturba gave birth to their first surviving child, Harilal. Gandhi's mother was not comfortable about Gandhi leaving his wife and family and going so far from home. Gandhi's uncle Tulsidas also tried to dissuade his nephew, but Gandhi wanted to go. To persuade his wife and mother, Gandhi made

6785-441: The committee agreed with Gandhi, the vote was lost and Allinson was excluded. There were no hard feelings, with Hills proposing the toast at the LVS farewell dinner in honour of Gandhi's return to India. Gandhi, at age 22, was called to the bar in June 1891 and then left London for India, where he learned that his mother had died while he was in London and that his family had kept the news from Gandhi. His attempts at establishing

6900-540: The date of 22 June is considered as the founding date of the party by the Forward Bloc itself. The conference passed a resolution titled 'All Power to the Indian People', urging militant action for struggle against British colonial rule . Subhash Chandra Bose was elected as the president of the party and H.V. Kamath as the general secretary. Soon thereafter, on 2 July,1940 Bose was arrested and detained in Presidency Jail, Calcutta. In January 1941 he escaped from house arrest, and clandestinely went into exile. He travelled to

7015-448: The day of their marriage, Gandhi once said, "As we didn't know much about marriage, for us it meant only wearing new clothes, eating sweets and playing with relatives." As was the prevailing tradition, the adolescent bride was to spend much time at her parents' house, and away from her husband. Writing many years later, Gandhi described with regret the lustful feelings he felt for his young bride: "Even at school I used to think of her, and

SECTION 60

#1732790375801

7130-506: The formation of the Samyukta Socialist Party . The Forward Bloc was invited to join the new party, and the Delhi unit of the party did take part in a joint socialist anti-Nehru campaign conference in April 1964. The party stalwart in Tamil Nadu, U. Muthuramalingam Thevar , died on 30 October 1963. Following his death a power-struggle began between two of his disciples, Sasivarna Thevar and P.K. Mookiah Thevar . Mookiah Thevar emerged victorious and Sasivarna Thevar left to form his own party,

7245-408: The founding core of the party in Tripura joined the RSP. Today, AIFB is a member of opposition Left Front coalition. In the 2003 Tripura legislative election the Tripura State Committee president Brajagopal Roy contested the Town Borowali constituency on behalf of the Left Front. Roy got 9844 votes (43.57%), but was defeated by a Congress candidate. The AIFB state unit publishes Tripura Bani . In

7360-458: The inaugural speakers of the event, was arrested just after having delivered his speech. In March 1959 elections to the Madurai municipality was held. An alliance of INDC, AIFB, CPI and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was formed. Forward Bloc members stood as INDC candidates, denoting that the Tamil Nadu state unit of that party has virtually merged into INDC. 12 INDC candidates, 12 CPI candidates and 2 DMK candidates were elected against only 10 of

7475-423: The independence of India. During the 1951–1952 and 1957 Indian general election , the party was known as Forward Bloc (Marxist) . It has its main stronghold in West Bengal . The party's current Secretary-General is G. Devarajan. Veteran Indian politicians Sarat Chandra Bose (brother of Subhas Chandra Bose) and Chitta Basu had been the stalwarts of the party in independent India. Leveraging Netaji's sway over

7590-432: The interior of Maharashtra , where it performed well. Dhote, who was then known as Vidarbha ka Sher (the Lion of Vidarbha), had joined the Forward Bloc and campaigned for a separate Vidarbha state with the Forward Bloc as his platform. Dhote was hugely popular in the region at the time, and could draw crowds of hundreds of thousands to his meetings. In Tamil Nadu , the party contested one seat, Ramanathapuram , with

7705-411: The latter part of World War I , the Viceroy invited Gandhi to a War Conference in Delhi. Gandhi agreed to support the war effort. In contrast to the Zulu War of 1906 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914, when he recruited volunteers for the Ambulance Corps, this time Gandhi attempted to recruit combatants. In a June 1918 leaflet entitled "Appeal for Enlistment", Gandhi wrote: "To bring about such

7820-434: The lawyer for Abdullah's cousin. Gandhi spent 21 years in South Africa where he developed his political views, ethics, and politics. During this time Gandhi briefly returned to India in 1902 to mobilise support for the welfare of Indians in South Africa. Immediately upon arriving in South Africa, Gandhi faced discrimination due to his skin colour and heritage. Gandhi was not allowed to sit with European passengers in

7935-418: The legal cover of the still illegal Forward Bloc. Notably some leading communists from Bombay , like K.N. Joglekar and Soli Batliwalli, joined the 'FB Workers Assembly'. The Workers Assembly conference declared that the "Forward Bloc is a Socialist Party, accepting the theory of class struggle in its fullest implications and a programme of revolutionary mass action for the attainment of Socialism leading to

8050-462: The legislative assembly. This was done to counter the bid of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (which had 16 seats) to hold the post of leader of opposition. Soon five independent assembly members joined the CRC opposition group. V.K. Ramaswamy Mudaliar was elected leader of the 'CRC opposition'. On 28–29 September 1957 CRC held a state conference and reconstituted itself as the Indian National Democratic Congress . Notably, U. Muthuralingam Thevar, one of

8165-498: The mediation of Cardinal Manning , leading Gandhi and an Indian friend to make a point of visiting the cardinal and thanking him for his work. His vow to his mother influenced Gandhi's time in London. Gandhi tried to adopt "English" customs, including taking dancing lessons. However, he didn't appreciate the bland vegetarian food offered by his landlady and was frequently hungry until he found one of London's few vegetarian restaurants. Influenced by Henry Salt's writing, Gandhi joined

8280-759: The national defence, withdrawal from the Commonwealth , nationalisation of foreign capital, a rational food policy , release of all political prisoners and scrapping of the Indo-American agreement of food supply. Existence of the new front was declared at a meeting in Agartala on 17 November. Mass rallies of the front were held in Belonia on 28 November and then in Birchandra Bazar (near Belonia) on 1 December. The front did not last, though, as in

8395-539: The national level, AIFB is not part of the Left Democratic Front in Kerala . The Forward Bloc established its presence in Tripura in 1944, founded by Kamala Ranjan Talapatra. Bengali immigrants like Sailesh Sen, Gopi Ballav Saha, Dwijen Deu, Anil Dasgupta, Hiren Nandi and Sati Bhardwaz are the other active members of the party. They took part in various political campaigns. However, around 1955–1956 most of

8510-627: The new developments. It appreciated Indira's stands and reformulated its anti-Congress line to focus mainly opposition to the traditional Congress elite (i.e., the Congress(O)). In the 1969 presidential elections , AIFB supported Indira's candidate V.V. Giri . This caused an abrupt break-up of the Swatantra-AIFB alliance in Tamil Nadu , as the Swatantra Party sought to align itself with the Congress(O). On 20 February, just ahead of

8625-534: The new leader of the state unit provoked the sole Forward Bloc legislator and secretary of the state unit, L. Santhanam , to leave the party. In the election the party lost its representation in the assembly. A few months later, the party leadership expelled Karthik on the grounds of 'anti-party activities'. Ahead of the 2006 West Bengal legislative election , a section of the party led by Jayanta Roy, former AIFB Rajya Sabha member, and Chhaya Ghosh , former West Bengal Minister of Agriculture, broke away and formed

8740-470: The objects of the society A motion to remove Allinson was raised, and was debated and voted on by the committee. Gandhi's shyness was an obstacle to his defence of Allinson at the committee meeting. Gandhi wrote his views down on paper, but shyness prevented Gandhi from reading out his arguments, so Hills, the President, asked another committee member to read them out for him. Although some other members of

8855-400: The original inhabitants of the land. … The whites, on the other hand, have occupied the land forcibly and appropriated it for themselves." In 1910, Gandhi established, with the help of his friend Hermann Kallenbach , an idealistic community they named Tolstoy Farm near Johannesburg. There, Gandhi nurtured his policy of peaceful resistance. In the years after black South Africans gained

8970-573: The party contested 26 seats. Like in the 1971 Lok Sabha elections, the party did well in the interior areas of the state. It won the Nagpur North and Yeotmal seats, and came second in several others. In total, the AIFB candidates in Maharashtra got 363 547 votes (2.4% of the statewide vote). In West Bengal, where fresh elections to the state assembly were again held in 1972, the Forward Bloc launched 18 candidates. It got 331 244 votes (2.48% of

9085-403: The populace, the organization had established its electoral footprint after Independence in states like Tamil Nadu , Andhra Pradesh , Kerala , and Assam , with West Bengal as its primary bastion. However, after eight decades, the party, now confined to select regions, lacks any Members of Parliament or Legislative Assembly representatives. The Forward Bloc of the Indian National Congress

9200-540: The prejudice against Gandhi and his fellow Indians from British people that Gandhi experienced and observed deeply bothered him. Gandhi found it humiliating, struggling to understand how some people can feel honour or superiority or pleasure in such inhumane practices. Gandhi began to question his people's standing in the British Empire . The Abdullah case that had brought him to South Africa concluded in May 1894, and

9315-625: The racial persecution of Indians before he started to focus on racism against Africans. In some cases, state Desai and Vahed, Gandhi's behaviour was one of being a willing part of racial stereotyping and African exploitation. During a speech in September 1896, Gandhi complained that the whites in the British colony of South Africa were "degrading the Indian to the level of a raw Kaffir ." Scholars cite it as an example of evidence that Gandhi at that time thought of Indians and black South Africans differently. As another example given by Herman, Gandhi, at

9430-537: The religious violence. The last of these was begun in Delhi on 12 January 1948, when Gandhi was 78. The belief that Gandhi had been too resolute in his defence of both Pakistan and Indian Muslims spread among some Hindus in India. Among these was Nathuram Godse , a militant Hindu nationalist from Pune , western India, who assassinated Gandhi by firing three bullets into his chest at an interfaith prayer meeting in Delhi on 30 January 1948. Gandhi's birthday, 2 October,

9545-426: The right to vote in South Africa (1994), Gandhi was proclaimed a national hero with numerous monuments. At the request of Gopal Krishna Gokhale , conveyed to Gandhi by C. F. Andrews , Gandhi returned to India in 1915. He brought an international reputation as a leading Indian nationalist, theorist and community organiser. Gandhi joined the Indian National Congress and was introduced to Indian issues, politics and

9660-486: The rightwing Swatantra Party . In July 1969, violent clashes erupted in West Dinajpur district , West Bengal, between peasants aligned with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and East Pakistani refugee cultivators, who supported the Forward Bloc. CPI(M) leader Hare Krishna Konar characterised the events as a degeneration of the agrarian struggles in rural West Bengal. In 1969, a major split occurred in

9775-532: The short dhoti woven with hand-spun yarn as a mark of identification with India's rural poor. He began to live in a self-sufficient residential community , to eat simple food, and undertake long fasts as a means of both introspection and political protest. Bringing anti-colonial nationalism to the common Indians, Gandhi led them in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930 and in calling for

9890-542: The sole degree-granting institution of higher education in the region. However, Gandhi dropped out and returned to his family in Porbandar. Outside school, Gandhi's education was enriched by exposure to Gujarati literature, especially reformers like Narmad and Govardhanram Tripathi , whose works alerted the Gujaratis to their own faults and weaknesses such as belief in religious dogmatism. Gandhi had dropped out of

10005-425: The stagecoach and was told to sit on the floor near the driver, then beaten when he refused; elsewhere, Gandhi was kicked into a gutter for daring to walk near a house, in another instance thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to leave the first-class. Gandhi sat in the train station, shivering all night and pondering if he should return to India or protest for his rights. Gandhi chose to protest and

10120-818: The state, with Brajagopal Roy appointed minister in the state government. Ahead of the 2000 Bihar legislative election , AIFB took part in building a front together with the Bharatiya Jan Congress , the Bihar Vikas Party , the Janata Dal (Secular) , the Samajwadi Janata Party and the Nationalist Congress Party . The front vowed to maintain equidistance towards the two major blocs in Bihari politics,

10235-570: The state. Forward Bloc members of the Tamil Nadu assembly sat in the Swatantra group and the group was led by Forward Bloc leader P.K. Mookiah Thevar. All India Forward Bloc The All India Forward Bloc ( abbr. AIFB ) is a left-wing nationalist political party in India . It emerged as a faction within the Indian National Congress in 1939, led by Subhas Chandra Bose . The party re-established as an independent political party after

10350-516: The statewide vote), but could not win a single seat. After having contested the 1972 elections on its own, the Forward Bloc decided to join a 'United Front' led by the communist parties in Tripura . The front demanded clear-cut policies for procurement and distribution of food grains, stopping spiralling prices of essential commodities, a land reform legislation for delimitation of Tribal reserve areas and creation of employment opportunities for

10465-726: The statewide vote). On 28 March 1972, the party was able to win a seat in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Council (the upper house of the state assembly) for the first time. R. Sakthi Mohan was elected with the votes of the AIFB, DMK, PSP , Muslim League and the Tamil Arasu Kazhagam . In the 1972 state legislative assembly election, the Forward Bloc presented one candidate in Assam , five in Bihar and two in Madhya Pradesh. In Maharashtra,

10580-678: The study of Buddhist and Hindu literature. They encouraged Gandhi to join them in reading the Bhagavad Gita both in translation as well as in the original. Gandhi had a friendly and productive relationship with Hills, but the two men took a different view on the continued LVS membership of fellow committee member Thomas Allinson . Their disagreement is the first known example of Gandhi challenging authority, despite his shyness and temperamental disinclination towards confrontation. Allinson had been promoting newly available birth control methods , but Hills disapproved of these, believing they undermined public morality. He believed vegetarianism to be

10695-493: The support of its allies in the Progressive Front (most notably the Congress(R) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ). Meanwhile, the Forward Bloc played an important role in securing Mukkulathor votes for its Progressive Front allies. In West Bengal, the party contested 10 Lok Sabha seats. The party obtained some significant voting in constituencies like Cooch Behar (22.17%) and Birbhum (19.70%), but in general it

10810-493: The thought of nightfall and our subsequent meeting was ever haunting me." Gandhi later recalled feeling jealous and possessive of her, such as when Kasturba would visit a temple with her girlfriends, and being sexually lustful in his feelings for her. In late 1885, Gandhi's father, Karamchand, died. Gandhi had left his father's bedside to be with his wife mere minutes before his passing. Many decades later, Gandhi wrote "if animal passion had not blinded me, I should have been spared

10925-644: The torture of separation from my father during his last moments." Later, Gandhi, then 16 years old, and his wife, age 17, had their first child, who survived only a few days. The two deaths anguished Gandhi. The Gandhis had four more children, all sons: Harilal , born in 1888; Manilal , born in 1892; Ramdas , born in 1897; and Devdas , born in 1900. In November 1887, the 18-year-old Gandhi graduated from high school in Ahmedabad . In January 1888, he enrolled at Samaldas College in Bhavnagar State , then

11040-570: The truth), or nonviolent protest, for the first time. According to Anthony Parel, Gandhi was also influenced by the Tamil moral text Tirukkuṛaḷ after Leo Tolstoy mentioned it in their correspondence that began with " A Letter to a Hindu ". Gandhi urged Indians to defy the new law and to suffer the punishments for doing so. His ideas of protests, persuasion skills, and public relations had emerged. Gandhi took these back to India in 1915. Gandhi focused his attention on Indians and Africans while he

11155-511: The unemployed. A 24-hour Tripura Bandh was organised by the front on 16 December. On 3 May 1974 the four parties organised a 12-hour Tripura Bandh. Nineteen seventy seven was a crucial year in Indian political history. For the first time in independent India, the Congress Party was routed in a national election . The Forward Bloc had contested four seats in the Lok Sabha election. In West Bengal, it had three candidates which were supported by

11270-545: The unification of the Forward Bloc into the Congress. Many sections of the party disagreed with this move, and a Central Committee meeting was held in Nagpur 11–15 May. The Central Committee decided to expel Singh and Yagee. Hemanta Kumar Bose was elected as the new chairman and R.K. Haldulkar as general secretary. In 1964, a unity process was initiated by the Praja Socialist Party , which eventually resulted in

11385-681: The war campaign brought into question his consistency on nonviolence. Gandhi's private secretary noted that "The question of the consistency between his creed of ' Ahimsa ' (nonviolence) and his recruiting campaign was raised not only then but has been discussed ever since." According to political and educational scientist Christian Bartolf, Gandhi's support for the war stemmed from his belief that true ahimsa could not exist simultaneously with cowardice. Therefore, Gandhi felt that Indians needed to be willing and capable of using arms before they voluntarily chose non-violence. In July 1918, Gandhi said that he could not persuade even one individual to enlist for

11500-539: The world war. "So far I have not a single recruit to my credit apart," Gandhi wrote. He added: "They object because they fear to die." Gandhi's first major achievement came in 1917 with the Champaran agitation in Bihar . The Champaran agitation pitted the local peasantry against largely Anglo-Indian plantation owners who were backed by the local administration. The peasants were forced to grow indigo ( Indigofera sp.),

11615-480: The world. Born and raised in a Hindu family in coastal Gujarat , Gandhi trained in the law at the Inner Temple in London and was called to the bar at the age of 22. After two uncertain years in India, where he was unable to start a successful law practice, Gandhi moved to South Africa in 1893 to represent an Indian merchant in a lawsuit. He went on to live in South Africa for 21 years. There, Gandhi raised

11730-467: Was allowed to board the train the next day. In another incident, the magistrate of a Durban court ordered Gandhi to remove his turban, which he refused to do. Indians were not allowed to walk on public footpaths in South Africa. Gandhi was kicked by a police officer out of the footpath onto the street without warning. When Gandhi arrived in South Africa, according to Arthur Herman, he thought of himself as "a Briton first, and an Indian second." However,

11845-410: Was also preceded by a decision of the Indian National Congress in the beginning of the year to expel all dissenting tendencies within the Congress, including the Forward Bloc. Thus the party decided to renounce any links with the Congress once and for all, and reconstruct itself as an independent opposition party. Moreover, it passed a resolution that the party be divided into a Forward Bloc for India and

11960-474: Was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist , and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule . He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā (from Sanskrit , meaning great-souled or venerable), first applied to him in South Africa in 1914, is now used throughout

12075-559: Was appointed as the secretary of the Bengal Provincial Forward Bloc. In August, the same year Bose began publishing a newspaper titled Forward Bloc . He travelled around the country, rallying support for his new political project. The next year, on 20–22 June 1940, the Forward Bloc held its first All India Conference in Nagpur . The conference declared the Forward Bloc to be a socialist political party, and

12190-691: Was defeated by the CPI(M) candidates. Moreover, the party contested three seats in Bihar, one in Haryana , one in Madhya Pradesh, four in Uttar Pradesh and one in Delhi . In total, the candidates of the party obtained 962,971 votes (0.66% of the national vote). In the 1971 state legislative assembly election in Odisha , the party contested four seats. It got 8393 votes (0.19% of the statewide vote), but

12305-585: Was excommunicated from his caste. Gandhi ignored this, and on 4 September, he sailed from Bombay to London, with his brother seeing him off. Gandhi attended University College, London , where he took classes in English literature with Henry Morley in 1888–1889. Gandhi also enrolled at the Inns of Court School of Law in Inner Temple with the intention of becoming a barrister . His childhood shyness and self-withdrawal had continued through his teens. Gandhi retained these traits when he arrived in London, but joined

12420-727: Was held in Bombay in the end of June. At that conference the constitution and programme of the Forward Bloc were approved. In July 1939 Subhas Chandra Bose announced the Committee of the Forward Bloc. It had Subhas Chandra Bose as president, S.S. Kavishar from Punjab as its vice-president, Lal Shankarlal from Delhi , as its general secretary and Vishwambhar Dayalu Tripathi and Khurshed Nariman from Bombay as secretaries. Other prominent members were Annapurniah from Andhra Pradesh , Senapati Bapat , Hari Vishnu Kamath from Bombay , Pasumpon U. Muthuramalingam Thevar from Tamil Nadu and Sheel Bhadra Yagee from Bihar . Satya Ranjan Bakshi,

12535-546: Was held in Puri , Odisha on 28–31 December 1952. Mohan Singh was elected chairman and Dhillon as general secretary. In 1955, the Indian National Congress adopted socialism as its policy. Thus, leaders like Yagee and Singh then proposed that, as the Congress had become a socialist party, the Forward Bloc ought to merge with it. Singh and Yagee, without consulting the Central Committee nor the party membership, declared

12650-416: Was in South Africa. Initially, Gandhi was not interested in politics, but this changed after he was discriminated against and bullied, such as by being thrown out of a train coach due to his skin colour by a white train official. After several such incidents with Whites in South Africa , Gandhi's thinking and focus changed, and he felt he must resist this and fight for rights. Gandhi entered politics by forming

12765-466: Was not close to winning any seat. In Tamil Nadu, the party contested nine seats in the southern part of the state within the framework of the Progressive Front. Out of these nine candidates, seven won. In total, its vote stood at 268,721 (1.71% of the statewide vote). One of its candidates came second and in the Mudukulathur constituency (that had been the centre of the violent 1957 Ramnad riots )

12880-629: Was nothing to her." At the age of nine, Gandhi entered the local school in Rajkot , near his home. There, he studied the rudiments of arithmetic, history, the Gujarati language and geography. At the age of 11, Gandhi joined the High School in Rajkot, Alfred High School . He was an average student, won some prizes, but was a shy and tongue-tied student, with no interest in games; Gandhi's only companions were books and school lessons. In May 1883,

12995-588: Was now a fact. The 'Subhasist' group, led by Ruiker and Cavesheer, called for a conference in Chandannagar , West Bengal . Their conference was held on 29–31 December. On the same dates Yagee organised a conference in Calcutta. Effectively there was now two Forward Blocs, the Forward Bloc led by Ruiker and the Forward Bloc led by Yagee. Yagee was elected general secretary and K.N. Joglekar , chairman of

13110-658: Was the first Bania from Kathiawar to proceed to England for his Barrister Examination. As Mohandas Gandhi waited for a berth on a ship to London he found that he had attracted the ire of the Modh Banias of Bombay. Upon arrival in Bombay, he stayed with the local Modh Bania community whose elders warned Gandhi that England would tempt him to compromise his religion, and eat and drink in Western ways. Despite Gandhi informing them of his promise to his mother and her blessings, Gandhi

13225-468: Was to appoint a Rajya Sabha delegate from Tripura) jointly. The Forward Bloc participated in mass rallies on 2 October and 2 December 1951. However, just before the election the Forward Bloc withdrew from the front and decided to contest three of the 30 seats on their own. None of the Forward Bloc candidates were elected. The 5th party conference (a 4th party plenum had been held in Ingota, U.P. in 1949)

#800199