ABSTRACT
The economically decisive decade of the 1930s witnessed significant changes in social relations and a quickening of the political pace. The huge impact of the Depression showed how closely the Indian economy was tied to the capitalist world economy, and how vulnerable Indian society was to its dramatic downturns. The acute economic crisis of the early 1930s provided the context for the revival of mass nationalist agitations held in suspended animation since 1922 but also unleashed a whole range of other types of conflicts along lines of class, caste and religious community. The colonial state responded to the political challenges initially with repressive measures, and by mid-decade with a new round of political engineering which made concessions at the provincial level but gave away little at the centre. In the late 1930s some part of the social discontent was channelled into the provincial electoral arenas defined by the 1935 Government of India Act. At the same time the Gandhian old guard of Congress came under fire from the radical and socialist elements within and outside the party. The Muslim League, which offered cooperation against the British until 1937, was rebuffed by the Congress after the elections and began its search for an alternative political strategy.
