Purushottam The tandon

Purushottam Das "Rajarshi" Tandon ( Hindi पुरुषोत्तम दास टंडन ; born August 1, 1882 in Allahabad , northwestern provinces , British India ; † July 1, 1962 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh , India ) was an Indian politician of the Indian National Congress (INC), whose president he was in 1950.

biography

Lawyer and entry for independence

Consisting of a family of middle class coming Tandon initially received his primary education at home and started after visiting the Muir Central College in Allahabad to study law , graduating 1904th He completed a subsequent postgraduate study of history in 1906 with a Master of Arts (MA) and then took up a position as a lawyer .

At the same time he became involved in 1906 as a representative for Allahabad on the INC committee, which he had already joined as a member in 1899 as a student. Tandon was also a member of numerous other organizations and institutions such as the Hindi Sahitya Samman and the Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samiti . In 1910 he became not only the editor of Abhyudaya , an influential daily newspaper in Hindi , but also chief secretary of the Hindi Sahitya Samman . In 1923 he was at the meeting in Kanpur then president of the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan elected and sat as such for the spread of Hindi, where he himself next to Urdu and Persian language.

On April 13, 1919, as a member of the INC committee, he was one of the organizers of the demonstration for the attainment of Indian sovereignty in Jallianwalla Bagh Park in Amritsar , which was perpetrated by the British Indian Army and Gurkhas against Sikhs , Muslims and Hindus Amritsar massacre ended.

In 1921 he was arrested for his active participation in the non-cooperation campaign promoted by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi . After his release he became President of the Congress Party in Gorakhpur District in 1923 and President of the INC Congress in Uttar Pradesh Province that same year . In 1930, Tandon, who was called "Rajarshi" by Gandhi, was arrested again during the Salt March for participating in the civil disobedience movement .

After his release he became a member of the working committee of the congress party and thus the closer leadership of the INC. At the 1931 party congress in Karachi . As an organizer of peasant protests, he was again imprisoned several times after 1932 before he was a member of the legislative assembly of Uttar Pradesh between 1937 and 1948. In addition, he took over the office of speaker of the Legislative Assembly. At first there was a controversy when he refused to resign as usual after an election as parliamentary speaker. When he offered to resign from the office of spokesman if he should not behave impartially, there were no objections and his tenure as speaker of parliament was ultimately recognized across parties.

Throughout his career in the national movement, he stood up for the rights of the oppressed classes. In a resolution he wrote at the 49th Congress of the 1936 Congress in Lucknow , he underlined the need to turn the INC into a mass organization by including the entire opposition to British imperialism and by developing closer collaboration with the people. Because of his involvement in the "Quit India" movement , Tandon was arrested for the seventh time in 1942.

Due to his poor health, he was released early from custody and then devoted himself to reorganizing the Congress Party.

Rise to President of the Congress Party

In 1946 he became a member of the Constituent Assembly that prepared the sovereignty of India on August 15, 1947.

Tandon was deeply religious, but due to his adherence to the Radhasoami belief, free from any restrictive and sectarian prejudice. He emphasized the "essential unity of Hindu-Islamic culture despite its noticeable differences. He attributed the existing problems between Hindus and Muslims to the divide et impera policy of the British colonial administration . The division of India was unacceptable to him, and so he said his displeasure with the founding of the two states India and Pakistan by staying away from the celebrations for Indian Independence Day .

At the INC party convention in Nashik in 1950 , he was elected President of the Congress Party. Before the party congress in 1951, he resigned from this office after it came between him and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to disagreements over the composition of the working committee and the relations between the party's organizing wing and the ruling faction of the Congress party.

In the 1952 elections he was first elected a member of the House of Commons ( Lok Sabha ) before he became a member of the House of Lords ( Rajya Sabha ) in 1956 . Shortly afterwards, however, in 1956 he had to resign from this mandate for health reasons and withdrew from active political life.

President Rajendra Prasad paid tribute to him in a public ceremony on October 3, 1960. Finally, in 1961, he was awarded the Bharat Ratna , the highest civilian merit in India.

Political standpoint and speeches

Tandon played a prominent role in the history of India and can be seen as a direct successor to Madan Mohan Malaviya and Lala Lajpat Rai , without, however, their social conservatism due to their time of activity . His political philosophy within the Congress Party was shaped by Vallabhbhai Patel . However, his advocacy of the legacy of ancient Indian culture led to the prevailing general misunderstanding of his principles and ideas. His unwavering advocacy of Hindi made him a target of linguistic chauvinism . However, his speeches, writings and his worries about the location of regional languages ​​justify him as a personality with open-mindedness and foresight.

In his election speech at the party congress in Nashik in 1950, he stated:

"According to our constitution , the government of our country is secular . This declaration of our position became necessary because of the view that Pakistan, which from our old policy after the partition was declared communal and based its government on the religion of Islam . It (India) does not depend on any religious book. All citizens have been given equal rights regardless of religion or caste . I consider this to be evidence of the wisdom and foresight of our country.

Web links

• Biography on the homepage of the congress party
• Biography (India Information)