ABSTRACT

A consideration of the formation of independent governance necessitates an investigation of Congress leaders’ conceptualizations of democracy. Establishing a free, democratic state was a crucial component of the Congress’s rejection of British rule; as the antithesis of autocratic foreign rule, independence meant a government responsible to the people. The Congress’s demand for the creation of a constituent assembly to formulate India’s constitution-a response to the dictates of parliament-was founded on the notion that the Congress represented the “will of the Indian people for national freedom and a democratic state.”3 However, democracy was a post-colonial ideal to Congress leaders, a mode of governance that could be implemented once the British had been ejected from India. During the late colonial period, the Working Committee remained concerned about unfettered democratic liberties, particularly regarding free speech, and as early as 1934 the Congress executive qualified Indian democracy by observing that India’s constituent assembly should be elected “on adult franchise or a franchise which approximates to it as nearly as possible.”4 Despite the Congress’s understanding of democracy in a vague emulation of the Western ideal, democratic practices would be altered as suitable to Indian conditions and, especially, in regard to the needs of the anti-colonial struggle.