EARLY LIFE AND CAREER[EDIT]
POLITICAL CAREER[EDIT]
Although initially a member of the
Indian National Congress, India's largest political party, Sapru left it to join the Liberal party of India after the Congress began advocating
Swaraj (Self Rule) and supporting popular agitation and
civil disobedience against British colonial rule. A constitutionalist, Sapru advocated for greater political rights and freedoms for Indians to be achieved through dialogue with British authorities and did not support Indian independence from the
British Empire.
Sapru and Indian Liberals broke openly with the Congress after the ascent of
Mahatma Gandhi, who advocated
non-violent civil disobedience against British rule. Sapru opposed the
Non-cooperation movement (1920–22), the
Salt Satyagraha(1930–31) and the
Quit India Movement (1942–46). Sapru and other Liberal politicians participated in the central and provincial legislatures set up by the British, even though they were opposed by most Indian political parties and ignored by the people, who considered the legislatures to be unrepresentative "rubber stamps" for the
Viceroy of India. Sapru served in the Legislative Council of the United Provinces (1913–16) and the Imperial Legislative Council (1916–20) and as a member for law affairs in the Viceroy's Council (1920–23). He was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India (KCSI) in the 1923 King's Birthday Honours list,
[2] and was appointed a member of the Privy Council on 26 February 1934.
[3]
Due to their pro-British politics, Sapru and the Liberals were widely distrusted and ignored by Indians. However, many Congress politicians continued to respect Sapru as an eminent jurist, and his ties with the British made him valuable as a mediator. Sapru mediated between Gandhi and the Viceroy
Lord Irwin, helping to forge the
Gandhi–Irwin Pact that ended the Salt Satyagraha. Sapru also mediated between Gandhi, Dr.
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and the British over the issue of separate electorates for India's "
Untouchables", which was settled by the
Poona Pact. Sapru was chosen as the representative of Indian Liberals at the
Round Table Conferences (1931–33), which sought to deliberate plans over granting more autonomy to Indians.
Sapru supported the Viceroy's decision to bring India into the Second World War in 1939, even as the Congress criticised the decision as unilateral and made without consulting the representatives of India's people. However, Sapru and Indian Liberals lost their political influence as the British began paving the road for Indian independence in the mid-1940s. His last prominent role was as one of the main lawyers engaged to defend captured soldiers of the rebel
Indian National Army, raised by nationalist leader
Subhas Chandra Bose with the aid of
Imperial Japan during the war.
PERSONAL LIFE AND DEATH[EDIT]
Sapru was the only son of Ambika Prasad Sapru, and Gaura Hukku. He was the eighth cousin of
Allama Iqbal, whose grandfather was
Sahaj Ram Sapru. He and his wife had 3 sons (Prakash Narain, Trijugi Narain, and Anand Narain) and 2 daughters (Jagdembashwari and Bhuvaneshwari.) He was the grandfather of
Jagdish Narain Sapru. He died shortly after India's independence, on January 20, 1949 in
Allahabad.
REFERENCES[EDIT]
- Crusader for self-rule: Tej Bahadur Sapru & the Indian National Movement: life and selected letters(1999) by Rima Hooja ASIN: B0006FEFZK,
- Tej Bahadur Sapru (Builders of modern India) by Sunil Kumar Bose, Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India (1978), ASIN: B0006E11GM
- Indian national movement and the liberals by Abha Saxena, Allahabad, India: Chugh Publications, 1986. foreword by A.C. Banerjee.
- Muldoon, Andrew Robert, “Making a `moderate' India: British conservatives, imperial culture and Indian political reform, 1924–1935”
- Read this essay by A G Noorani to learn more about differences between Sapru and Mahatma Gandhi
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