Provincial elections were held in British India in the winter of 1936–37 as mandated by the Government of India Act 1935. Elections were held in all eleven gubernatorial provinces - Madras, Central Provinces, Bihar, Orissa, United Provinces, Bombay, Assam, North-West Frontier Province, Bengal, Punjab and Sind. No elections were held in the British provinces of Delhi, Ajmer-Merwara, Coorg & Baluchistan and in the princely states.
The final results of the elections were declared on 20 February 1937. The Indian National Congress emerged in power in five of the provinces, Bombay, Madras, the Central Provinces, the United Provinces, the North-West Frontier Province, Bihar, and Orissa. The exceptions were Punjab, Sindh (where it failed to obtain majority), Assam & Bengal (where it was nevertheless the single-largest party). The All-India Muslim League failed to form the government in any province on its own.
The Congress ministries resigned in October and November 1939, in protest against Viceroy Lord Linlithgow's action of declaring India to be a belligerent in the Second World War without consulting the elected representatives of the Indian population.
Electorate Although the Congress's demands of universal adult franchise were not met, the Government of India Act 1935 did increase the number of enfranchised people, on the recommendations of the Lothian Committee Report of 1932 headed by Lord Lothian, the Under-Secretary of State for India alongside those of the Viceroy's cabinet & provincial governments.
Approximately 30 million people, among them some women, gained voting rights. This number constituted one-sixth of Indian adults. The Act provided for a limited adult franchise based on property qualifications such as land ownership and rent, and therefore favored landholders and richer farmers in rural areas. The eligibility criteria differed significantly across the states, according to their conditions.
Muslims had been given separate electorates by the Government of India Act 1909. This was extended to include Sikhs, Europeans & Anglo-Indians by the Government of India Act 1919. The Communal Award, declared in 1932 by the British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, & incorporated into the 1935 Act, extended the separate electorates to include Christians, Backward Tribes, women & special interest groups (business representatives, labour representatives, landholders & university constituencies). Women's suffrage activist Eleanor Rathbone successfully led a campaign for the inclusion of wives and widows of men qualified to vote into the electoral roll, alongside educated women. An attempt to create a separate electorate for Dalits was thwarted by the Poona Pact.
Legislative Assemblies Legislative Assemblies Province Total Hindu Muslim Others Women Christian Anglo-Indian European Commerce Landholders Labour Universities Assam 108 47 (inclusive of 7 reserved for Dalits) 34 9 (Backward Tribes) 1 1 0 1 11 0 4 0 Bengal 250 78 (66 rural & 12 urban, inclusive of 30 reserved for Dalits) 117 (111 rural & 6 urban) 0 4 (2 Hindu & 2 Muslim) 2 4 11 19 5 8 2 (Calcutta University & Dhaka University) Bihar 152 93 (88 rural & 5 urban, inclusive of 15 reserved for Dalits) 39 (34 rural & 5 urban) 0 4 (3 Hindu & 1 Muslim) 1 1 2 4 4 3 1 (Patna University) Bombay 175 115 (101 rural & 14 urban, inclusive of 15 reserved for Dalits) 29 (23 rural & 6 urban) 0 6 (4 Hindu urban, 1 Muslim urban & 1 Hindu rural) 3 (2 rural & 1 urban) 2 3 7 2 7 1 (Bombay University) Central Provinces 113 84 (74 rural & 10 urban, inclusive of 20 reserved for Dalits) 14 (12 rural & 2 urban) 1 (Backward Tribes) 3 (Hindu) 0 1 2 2 3 2 1 (Nagpur University) Madras 215 146 (131 rural & 15 urban, inclusive of 30 reserved for Dalits) 28 (26 rural & 2 urban) 1 (Backward Tribes) 8 (3 Hindu urban, 3 Hindu rural, 1 Muslim urban & 1 Christian urban) 8 2 3 6 6 6 1 (Madras University) North West Frontier Province 50 9 (6 rural & 3 urban) 36 (33 rural & 3 urban) 3 (Sikhs) 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 Orissa 60 45 (inclusive of 6 reserved for Dalits) 4 4 (nominated members) 2 (Hindu) 1 0 0 1 2 1 0 Punjab 175 42 (34 rural & 8 urban, inclusive of 8 reserved for Dalits) 84 (75 rural & 9 urban) 31 (29 Sikh rural & 2 Sikh urban) 4 (2 Muslim, 1 Hindu & 1 Sikh) 2 1 1 1 5 3 1 (University of the Punjab) Sind 60 18 (15 rural & 3 urban) 33 (31 rural & 2 urban) 0 2 (1 Hindu urban & 1 Muslim urban) 0 0 2 2 2 1 0 United Provinces 228 140 (123 rural & 17 urban, inclusive of 20 reserved for Dalits) 64 (51 rural & 13 urban) 0 6 (3 Hindu rural, 1 Hindu urban, 1 Muslim rural & 1 Muslim urban) 2 1 2 3 6 3 1 (Lucknow University) Total 1586 817 (inclusive of 151 reserved for Dalits) 468 49 (34 Sikh, 11 Backward Tribes & 4 nominated) 40 (28 Hindu, 10 Muslim, 1 Christian & 1 Sikh) 20 12 27 56 37 38 8 Legislative Councils Legislative Councils Province Hindu Muslim European Others Total Assam 10 6 2 0 18 Bengal 10 (8 rural & 2 urban) 17 (16 rural & 1 urban) 3 27 (elected by MLAs) 57 Bihar 9 4 1 14 (elected by MLAs) 28 Bombay 20 5 1 0 26 Madras 35 7 1 3 (Christian) 46 United Provinces 34 (29 rural & 5 urban) 17 (12 rural & 5 urban) 1 0 52 Total 118 56 9 44 227
Schedule +SourceProvincePolling beginsPolling endedAssam18 January8 FebruaryBengal18 January26 JanuaryBihar22 January28 JanuaryBombay11 February18 FebruaryCentral Provinces4 February19 FebruaryMadras15 February20 FebruaryNorth West Frontier Province1 February1 FebruaryOrissa20 January27 JanuaryPunjab18 January3 FebruarySind1 February1 FebruaryUnited Provinces7 February18 February
Election campaign
Indian National Congress
Having adopted the resolution of Purna Swaraj at the 1929 Lahore session & conducting the civil disobedience movement beginning with the Salt Satyagraha under the leadership of Gandhi, the Congress adopted a new constitution in 1934 & participated in general elections held that year. The widespread reception of the civil disobedience movement by the masses and Congress's foray into electoral politics largely alienated it from other political parties of the country (with which it had allied up in the 1928 All Parties Conference), who were alarmed at the Congress adopting an increasing confrontational & majoritarian stance. Previously the Congress had refused to participate in the electoral systems created by the 1909 & 1919 Acts, which saw the creation of the breakaway parties like the Indian Liberal Party headed by Surendranath Banerjee, Swaraj Party headed by Chittaranjan Das & Responsive Cooperation Party headed by M. R. Jayakar made up of Congressmen that participated in elections, but these parties went into dissolution with the Congress's participation in elections. The Congress had also boycotted 2 out of the 3 Round Table Conferences that had been attended by its competitors like the Hindu Mahasabha, Muslim League & Akali Dal. The Congress consistently refused to acknowledge the relevance of these parties, with Gandhi, as the sole Congress representative in the 2nd Round Table Conference, declaring the Congress to be the sole legitimate representatives of all Indians, irrespective of religion & caste - a claim that was widely denounced by many Indians. Despite having boycotted the last Round Table Conference, the Congress at its 1936 Lucknow session, agreed to contest the provincial elections to be held in 1937. The Congress's refusal to oppose the Communal Award saw the creation of Congress Nationalist Party by Madhav Shrihari Aney, made up of Congress dissidents resenting its ideological rigidity.
The Congress at this point acted as a federation of its state units, all of which acted in a largely autonomous manner. Factionalism was rife within the Congress party as a whole. Although Gandhi had largely retired from active political participation at this time and focused on social activities like conducting relief work at the 1934 Bihar earthquake, campaigning against untouchability and setting up the All-India Village Industries Association from his ashram at Wardha, his influence remained strong within the Congress party as the ultimate arbitrator in times of crisis, a mass leader during agitations & through his followers like Rajendra Prasad, Vallabhbhai Patel, C. Rajagopalachari & Abul Kalam Azad, who dominated the core Congress bodies like the All India Congress Committee & the Congress Working Committee. Apart from this Gandhian faction, there also existed another faction, led by the likes of Govind Ballabh Pant, Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari and Asaf Ali, composed mostly of new members who began their political activity after the non-cooperation movement as members of the aforementioned Congress breakaway parties but joined the Congress after the civil disobedience movement. They were Gandhian in ideology but didn't endorse the skepticism towards electoral politics & abstentionist stance of the Gandhian faction. There also existed a Hindu nationalist faction headed by Madanmohan Malaviya (as the Congress at this time didn't bar its members from having simultaneous membership of the Hindu Mahasabha) which supported electoral participation & government formation and a socialist faction represented by the Congress Socialist Party headed by Sampurnanand, & some individual radicals like Subhashchandra Bose & Shardulsingh Kavishar, supporting participation in elections but opposed to government formation. Jawaharlal Nehru, although adhering to Fabian socialism, didn't openly affiliate himself with this socialist group, choosing instead to work with the Gandhian establishment.
Increase in membership of the Congress party following the civil-disobedience movement hastened factionalism within state & district units. A notable example was seen in the Bengal unit, where the left-wingers headed by Bose were locked in a power struggle with the Gandhians led by Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, with Bose emerging victorious with the appointment of his brother Saratchandra Bose as the state Congress president. In Bombay, Jayakar and N. C. Kelkar formed the Democratic Swarajya Party due to resentment against the dominance of Gujaratis like Patel, K. M. Munshi & Bhalubhai Desai over Marathis like Shankarrao Deo in the state unit. The Assam unit was plagued with conflict between Sylheti Bengalis led by Basantakumar Das & the Assamese led by Gopinath Bordoloi. In Central Provinces, the Congress unit was divided between its Marathi unit divided between followers of N. B. Khare (who also happened to be a Hindu nationalist) & T. Poonamchand Ranka and the Hindi unit, divided between Ravishankar Shukla & Dwarkaprasad Mishra groups. The Orissa unit was divided between a Gandhian Karan faction centered around Cuttack & Balasore led by Harekrushna Mahatab & a Puri based Brahmin group in support of electoral politics led by Nilkantha Das. The Punjab unit was divided between Satyapal & Gopichand Bhargava factions. The Sindh unit was divided between the Karachi-based Swami Govindanand faction & the Amil-supported Jairamdas Daulatram faction.
The Congress didn't publish a formal election manifesto, but its 1931 Karachi Resolution acted as one.
All India Muslim League