The Split in the Congress: Surat 1907

Moderates were successful to some extent.
Moderates failed in many aspects. Why?
- They could not acquire any roots among common people.
- They believed that they could persuade the rulers to change their policies. However, their achievement in this regard was meager.
- They could not keep pace with the events. They failed to meet the demands of the new stage of the national movement.
The British were keen on finishing the Congress because:
- However moderate the leaders were, they were still nationalists and propagators of anti-colonialist ideas.
- The British felt that moderates led congress could be finished off easily because it did not have a popular base
In the swadeshi movement, all sections of INC united in opposing the Partition
- However, there was much difference between the moderates and the extremists about the methods and scope of the movement
- The extremists wanted to extend the Swadeshi and Boycott movement from Bengal to the rest of the country and to boycott every form of association with the colonial government
- The moderates wanted to confine the boycott movement to Bengal and even there to limit it to the boycott of foreign goods
After the Swadeshi movement the British adopted a three pronged approach to deal with congress. Repression-conciliation-suppression.
- The extremists were reppressed
- The moderates were conciliated thus giving them an impression that their further demands would be met if they disassociated from the extremists. The idea was to isolate the extremists.
- Once the moderates and extremists were separate the extremists could be suppressed through the use of state force while the moderates could later be ignored.
The congress session was held on December 26, 1907 at Surat, on the banks of the river Tapti.
- The extremists wanted a guarantee that the four Calcutta resolutions will be passed.
- They objected to the duly elected president of the year, Rash Behari Ghose.
- There was a confrontation with hurling of chairs and shoes.
The government launched a massive attack on the extremists. Newspapers were suppressed. Tilak was sent to Mandalay jail for six years.
The extremists were not able to organize an effective alternative party or to sustain the movement.
After 1908 the national movement as a whole declined.
The moderates and the country as a whole were disappointed by the 1909 Minto-Morley reforms
- The number of indirectly elected members of the Imperial and provincial legislative councils was increased.
- Separate electorates for Muslims were introduced.
With the split of Congress revolutionary terrorism rose.
In 1904 V D Savarkar organized Abhinav Bharat as a secret society of revolutionaries
In April 1908, Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose threw a bomb at a carriage which they believed was occupied by Kingsford the unpopular judge at Muzzafarpur.
Anushilan Samity and Jugantar were two most important revolutionary groups.
An assessment of the split
- The split did not prove useful to either party
- The British played the game of divide and rule
- To placate the moderates they announced the Morley-Minto reforms which did not satisfy the demands of the nationalists. They also annulled the partition of Bengal in 1911.

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