Coningham, Arthur (1895–1948) CONDOR LEGION See Kondor Legion CONGRESS PARTY The Indian National Congress Party was dominated by the personality of Mohandas Gandhi—the “Mahatma” (“Great Soul”) Gandhi was a shrewd politician and nationalist leader, but also a fundamentalist social reformer, extreme moral idealist, and Hindu holy man Most of Gandhi’s ideas and accomplishments are unrelated to World War II His main impact on the war was to continue to seek independence for India without incurring attendant mass violence That process began in 1920 when he inspired organizational reforms within Congress that made it a true mass party, mainly by persuading its original company of mostly well-educated and higher-caste Hindus to accept membership for low-caste harijan That shift allowed Congress to appeal to substantial numbers of lower castes and Muslims and to emerge as a genuine national independence party After failure of negotiations with Britain over proposed “home rule” for India—the Round Table Conferences (1930–1932)—Congress was banned by the British until 1937 London instead experimented with unilateral reforms and contemplated carving India into sectarian electorates Such policies spurred violent demonstrations across India, a protest fast nearly to-the-death by Gandhi, then an archetypical Gandhian pact with harijan leaders calling for proportional representation In 1937 Congress won an impressive, nationwide victory in provincial legislatures set up under the India Act of 1935 But the next year it split between violent radicals led by Subhas Chandra Bose and the more traditional and moderate nationalists led by Gandhi During 1938 Gandhi worked to drive Bose—who embraced violent resistance to the Raj—from the presidency of the Congress Party When war broke out in 1939, Congress ordered noncooperation with Britain’s war effort, and all Party leaders resigned office Gandhi broke with other Congress leaders who supported armed resistance to a Japanese invasion of India, which he opposed on the basis of strict adherence to nonviolence He was jailed by the British for most of the war, notably for organizing a new mass movement demanding that Britain “Quit India” (1942–1945) That followed another breakdown in talks with Congress about India’s path to postwar independence Gandhi was basically pro-Western, within a context of profound philosophical pacifism Forfor the most part, he kept a prudent public silence about the moral consequences of the British waging a war against fascism and Nazi Germany He was released from jail in May 1944 Congress and the Muslim League divided over India’s independence, which therefore began tragically with an awful and bloody partition of the subcontinent CONINGHAM, ARTHUR (1895–1948) RAF air marshal An Australian by birth but raised in New Zealand, Coningham was a veteran of World War I who joined the Royal Flying Corps after being wounded and invalided out of the ANZAC infantry He commanded a Group in Britain from 1939 to 1941, before taking charge of the Western Desert Air Force He played a key role in planning and carrying out air operations at El Alamein During the advance of British 8th Army 261