Nehru as a Congress President-1929

In the 1920s, Nehru was elected president of the All India Trade Union Congress . He and Subhas Chandra Bose had become the most prominent youth Leaders and both demanded outright political independence of India . In 1927, he became  a member of the League against Imperialism created in Brussels. Jawaharlal criticized the (Motila) Nehru Report prepared by his father in 1928, which called for Dominion Status for india within the Briyish Empire . The radicalism of Nehru and Bose would provoke intense debates during the 1928 Congress session in Guwahati. Arguing that India would deliver an ultimatum to the British and prepare for mass struggle, Nehru and Bose won the hearts of many young Indians. To resolve the issue, Gandhi  said that the British would be given two years time to grant India  Dominion Status. If they did not , the Indian National Congress (INC) would launch a national struggle for full political Independence.  Nehru and Bose succeeded in reducing the statutary deadline to one year.
The failure of talks with the British caused the December 1929 session in Lahore to be held in an atmosphere charged with anti-empire sentiment. Preparing for the declaration of independence, the AICCelected Jawaharlal as Congress president at the encouragement of Gandhi. Nehru himselfreclled that he was sensible of the fact that it was considered somewhat surprising ,
" I havde seldom felt quite so annoyed and humiliated ... it is not that I was not sensible of the honour. .. But I did not come to it by the main entrance or even the side entrance : I appeared suddenly from a trap door and bewildered the audience into acceptance."
On dec 31, 1929 President Nehru hoisted the Tricolour flag of independence before a massive public gathering along the banks of the Ravi (Iravati) river. the Congress would promulgate the Purna Swaraj (  Complete Independence) declaration on January 26 , 1930. With the launching of the Salt Satyagraha in 1930, Nehru traveled across Gujrat and other parts of the country participating and encouraging in the mass rebellion against the salt tax. Despite his father's death in 1931., Nehru and his family remaineed at the forefront of the struggle.  Arrested with his wife and sisters, Nehru was imprisoned for all but four months between 1931 and 1935.During that same period, however, his popularity grew enormously . According to John Gunther, Nehru was both , " distrustful of it, while
   simultaneously unable to control being somewhat ' exclaimed and impressed."
His family quickly chastened him with raillery ; his wife and sisters, and even his small daughter, began to call him in the home the names he was given by the crowd . They would say, "Oh Jewel of India , what time is it ? or "Oh Embodiment of Sacrifice , pl;ease pass the bread."