Socialists, Communists, Labour, Students and Women in the National Movement

The 1930s and 1940s saw the growth of socialist, communist, labour and student organisations, and women took part in large numbers in the freedom struggle.

Socialists and Communists

• Congress Socialist Party (1934): formed within the Congress by Acharya Narendra Dev, Jayaprakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia, Minoo Masani, Achyut Patwardhan (at Nasik jail and then Patna).
• Communist Party of India (CPI): the first group at Tashkent (1920) under M.N. Roy; the CPI was formed in India at Kanpur in 1925. Meerut Conspiracy Case (1929 to 1933) against 31 leftist and labour leaders.
• Forward Bloc (1939), Revolutionary Socialist Party (1940).
• Nehru was influenced by socialism and promoted it within the Congress (Lucknow 1936).

Labour

• Madras Labour Union (1918) by B.P. Wadia; Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association (1918) (Gandhi and Anasuya Sarabhai).
• AITUC (31 October 1920), with Lala Lajpat Rai as the first president.
• Trade Unions Act (1926); Trade Disputes Act (1929) restricted strikes; Royal Commission on Labour (Whitley, 1929). Bombay textile strike (1928) led by the Girni Kamgar Union.

Peasants, students and writers

• All India Kisan Sabha (1936) (Swami Sahajanand Saraswati). All India Students' Federation (1936), Lucknow (inaugurated by Nehru). Progressive Writers' Association (1936) and IPTA (1943).

Women in the freedom struggle

• Women's Indian Association (1917); All India Women's Conference (1927). Sarojini Naidu presided over the Congress in 1925. Kamala Nehru, Aruna Asaf Ali, Sucheta Kripalani, Usha Mehta, Matangini Hazra, Rani Gaidinliu, Pritilata Waddedar, Kalpana Dutta, Kasturba Gandhi, Captain Lakshmi Sahgal and Bhikaiji Cama are notable names.
• Women took part in the Swadeshi, Non-Cooperation, Salt Satyagraha, Quit India and INA (Rani of Jhansi Regiment).