Gandhi and Bengal Politics 1920 -1940
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi entered nationalist politics in 1920 and changed the character of the national movement completely. Before 1920, Bengal politics was mainly dominated by the activities of the revolutionaries and the politics within Congress. Anushilan Samity and Yugantar were the two main revolutionary groups in Bengal at the beginning of twentieth century. Their main intention was to liberate their motherland through violent struggle. The Congress leaders as well as the revolutionaries of Bengal were not at all ready to accept Gandhi and his doctrine of nonviolence. Gandhi too had no sympathy for the revolutionaries, as their method was against his principle of non-violence. C R Das and Subhas Chandra Bose of Bengal Congress gave stiff opposition to Gandhi. Eventually, the death of C R Das and the imprisonment of Bose at Mandalay prison, Burma saw the emergence of Gandhiites like J M Sengupta through whom gradually the control of Bengal Congress went into the hands of Gandhi. The final showdown between Gandhi and Bose came in 1939 when Bose was compelled to resign as Congress President at Tripuri. Disunity within the Left wingers, non-cooperation from the Congress leaders forced Bose to leave the country to liberate his motherland with foreign help.
