Congress’s right wing, backed by Gandhi, defeated Nehru’s socialism

Evidence

Ambedkar’s ire here is likely directed at the socialist turn within the Congress. Following the 1936 Congress session in Lucknow, where Nehru took over as party president at Gandhi’s behest, the Agrarian Resolution declared that “the most important and urgent problem of the country is the appalling poverty, unemployment and indebtedness of the peasantry, fundamentally due to the antiquated and repressive land revenue system”. Nehru and the few socialists he managed to sneak into the thirteen-member Congress Working Committee (CWC)—Acharya Narayan Dev, Jayaprakash Narayan and Achyut Patwardhan—sought to end the ‘middle class domination’ of the Congress and sought direct representation for peasants and workers in the party. But tacitly backed by Gandhi, the right wing within the Congress opposed Nehru’s socialist tendencies. On 29 June 1936, CWC members Babu Rajendra Prasad, Jairamdas Daulatram, Jamnalal Bajaj, Acharya Kripalani and S.D. Dev submitted their resignations from the CWC in a joint letter, contending that Nehru’s preaching of socialism in his election speeches was “prejudicial to the interests of the country and to the success of the national struggle for freedom”. Gandhi backed the conservatives, as did the business classes. Subsequently Nehru recanted. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1062

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader question of why the Congress prioritized class/land issues over caste annihilation — echoes recent readings on Congress socialism and caste.