In the 1920s, Nehru’s reputation as a dynamic and rising Congress leader was established. He became the President of the Allahabad Congress Committee in 1923. Towards the end of the decade however, Nehru grew increasingly restless with the pacifist nature of the senior Congressmen. The senior leaders favoured a slower and more patient approach, while Nehru along with Subhas Chandra Bose, wanted complete freedom. They wanted an ultimatum to be given to the British Government to grant India dominion status.
The Calcutta Congress of 1928 brought the rift into the open. Nehru’s speeches became inflammatory and he openly decried the Nehru Commission framed by Motilal Nehru. It took the intervention of Mahatma Gandhi for Nehru to abandon his fiery stance for more direct action.
At the same time, Gandhiji had no doubts about Nehru’s importance to the freedom movement. It was because of Gandhiji that Nehru was elected president of the Congress in 1929, in succession to his own father.
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