After the withdrawal of the Non-cooperation Movement by Gandhiji, following the incident at Chauri Chaura, the Congress was split into two camps – the pro-changers and the no-changers. The pro-changers felt that the Non- cooperation Movement should not have been called off and that the Chauri Chaura incident was an isolated one. The no-changers accepted Gandhiji’s decision to withdraw the Movement.
The pro-changers, who consisted of Chittaranjan Das and Motilal Nehru, formed the Swaraj Party (Swaraj means ‘self-rule’ or independence).
Motilal’s son, Jawaharlal remained with the no-changers and faced a dilemma of allegiance. On the one hand, he shared his father’s rationalism, cultural values and sophisticated outlook, but differed with his political strategy. On the other hand, he had not much in common with Gandhiji but believed in his strategy and methods.
However, Jawaharlal’s dilemma was short-lived. The Swaraj Party gradually disintegrated. Das and Motilal had aimed at entering the legislative council with the objective of obstructing British policies from within but soon realized that the legislatures had very limited powers. Their core mission of obstructing British rule failed and over time its members quietly dissolved back into the Congress.
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