East West University

GEN 226 / Lecture 2 (2)

Constitutional Developments in India: 1919-1947:

Demand for Further and More reforms The Dyarchy constitution had failed to satisfy the rising demands
of Indian political leaders. The inherent defects of this Act also became obvious. The ministers were not
given full powers over their departments, and ministerial responsibility was more a myth than a reality.
The Act, in fact, offered a parliamentary system without parliamentary responsibility. The transfer of
power to elected representatives was only nominal. Real power remained concentrated in the hands of
the Governor General. The only redeeming feature of the Act was that the elected members of the
legislature got the opportunity to criticize the government. This they did and made it clear that the
Government of India Act, 1919 was nothing less than a 'responsible autocracy'. Thus the promise of the
right of self-determination to the Indians remained as elusive as ever, and the reforms were condemned
by all the political parties as highly unsatisfactory. The Indian National Congress at its annual session in
1919 condemned these reforms as 'disappointing and inadequate', and thus rejected the constitution
and later refused to participate in the elections under this constitution.

Simon Commission and the Nehru Report At the end of 1927 the British government appointed a
commission under the chairmanship of Sir John Simon to examine the working of the Government of
India Act, 1919 and recommend the principles for a new constitution for India. The Congress boycotted
the Simon Commission because of its all-white composition and set up a body, an 'all-party conference',
to look into it. This in turn appointed a committee in 1928 with Pandit Motilal Nehru as its chairman to
'consider and determine the principles of the constitution in India'. The Muslim League also rejected the
commission, though a faction of it under the leadership of Sir Mohammad Shafi sided with the British
government.

The Nehru Report (the report of the Motilal Nehru Committee), published in 1929, accepted the
'Dominion Status' not as a distant goal but as the 'next immediate step'. The report hoped that the
communal problems would be solved happily in free India. It emphasized the dire necessity of provincial
autonomy in a federal structure. It recommended for a bi-cameral legislature in India, a senate and a
house of representatives for representing the constituent states and the people. It, however,
recommended the abolition of a separate electorate and any weightage for the minority communities,
and proposed their substitution by a joint electorate with reservation of seats.

Jinnah's Fourteen Points The Nehru Report could not satisfy the Muslim leaders who had always been
insisting on weightage in representation and a separate electorate in accordance with the terms of the
Lucknow Pact of 1916. In response to the Nehru Report, Mohammed Ali Jinnah gave his Fourteen-point
formula for Hindu-Muslim unity in anti-British movements. Jinnah emphasized the need for federal

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government with full provincial autonomy. He also emphasized the necessity for the continuance of a
separate electorate for the Muslims and weightage for them where they were a minority to be balanced
by 'under-weightage' in Bengal and Punjab. It also demanded that the Muslims must have a statutory
share in the central and provincial cabinets.

Round Table Conferences The recommendation of the Simon Commission satisfied neither the Congress
nor the Muslim League, which also opposed each other as regards constitutional dialogue. To overcome
the deadlock, Lord Irwin, the Governor General, declared that 'Dominion Status' would be the object of
India's Constitutional development; but his statement failed to have any pacifying effect. The Congress
began a Civil Disobedience Movement. It did not attend the first Round Table Conference in England in
1930, but all other parties and the princes of the native states did. However, some progress was made in
the conference. A general consensus emerged about the next constitution. It should be federal, in the
first place; second, all the Indian representatives agreed on the issue of 'Dominion Status' for India; it
was agreed that the government should be parliamentary in form; fourth, there was also an agreement
that dyarchy should be continued at the centre during the transition period.

The second Round Table Conference was held in 1931 and it was attended by the Congress headed by
MK Gandhi. After the conference, the British Government made an award in 1932. It incorporated
separate electorates not only for the Hindus and Muslims, but also for the British citizens living in India
and the depressed castes. Gandhi threatened a fast unto death against that part of the award which
provided for a separate electorate for the depressed castes of Hindus. He considered the Poona Pact,
under which a number of seats were reserved for the members of the depressed castes, to be a solution
to that problem. The Third Round Table Conference was held in 1932.

The Government of India Act, 1935 These conferences provided enough materials to the Joint Select
Committee, which was formed to draft the constitutional framework for India. In March 1933 the British
Government published a draft of the future constitutional plan for India in the form of a White Paper. In
April 1933, the Joint Select Committee discussed the various suggestions offered to it and gave it a final
shape. A bill was introduced in the House of Commons on 5 February 1935. It became an Act on 4 June
1935 and received royal assent on 2 August 1935.

The Government of India Act, 1935 is a very lengthy and complicated statute consisting of 321 sections
and 10 schedules. The basic features of the Act were: (a) All-India Federation; (b) Central responsibility;
(c) Provincial autonomy and (d) Safeguards. The separate electorate system introduced earlier was
retained. No representative Federal government as envisaged under the Act was formed in the centre
and All India Federation never came into being.'

The Government of India Act, 1935 was received with a chorus of condemnation from the Indian
National Congress and the Muslim League, and yet both the parties resolved to participate in the
provincial elections of 1937 under this constitution. The participation brought a great victory for the
Congress. It obtained an overall majority in the Hindu majority Madras, UP, CP, Bihar and Orissa
provinces and emerged as the single majority party in Bombay and Assam provinces. The Congress won
711 of the 1585 seats in provincial legislatures. In the North-Western Frontier province the Red Shirts
led by Frontier Gandhi, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, declared their solidarity with the Congress. Muslim
league and Krishak Praja Party (KPP) coalition government headed by AK Fazlul Huq, leader of the KPP,
was formed in Bengal after the 1937 election.

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Pakistan Movement Throughout the discussions leading up to the 1935 Act it was assumed that
representation of minority communities would be included in the provincial government. The provincial
governors were specially instructed to ensure it. In the Muslim-majority provinces like Bengal, Assam,
Sind and Punjab a kind of balanced representation was achieved, but the Congress high command
refused to initiate Congress-Muslim coalitions in the Hindu majority provinces.

The refusal of the Congress ministries and the discriminatory and repressive nature of Congress rule in
the Hindu-majority provinces brought the communal issue to the forefront. Here MA Jinnah's role, first
as a mediator and then as the propagator of the two-nation theory became prominent. This is the
genesis of the political conviction of Jinnah that in the United India, organised on the basis of one nation
and one federal government, the Muslims would have no future as a permanent minority. So in January
1940 Jinnah expounded his two-nation theory. On the basis of the two-nation theory a historic
resolution demanding independent states for the Muslim majority areas was passed in the All India
Muslim League council conference held in Lahore on 23 March 1940.

The Muslim League's demand which soon came to be known as Pakistan movement further complicated
the political situation in India. The British Government, already at war with the Axis powers and
desperately in need of Indian support, issued its August offer on 8 August 1940. It offered to create a
representative body to settle the constitutional issues and formulate a new constitution after the war. It
expected that all parties and communities in India would co-operate with the war effort of the British
Government and pave the way for India's attainment of free and equal partnership in the British
Commonwealth of Nations. The Congress however, refused to accept the offer and resorted to a civil
disobedience movement in August 1942 known as Quiet India movement. The Muslims denounced the
Congress move and stated that no constitutional plan would be acceptable to the Muslims of India
without the approval of the Muslim League as the true representative of the Muslims.

The Cripps Mission, 1942 The entry of Japan into the war, especially after the fall of Rangoon, made the
British Government more worried; it seriously felt the need for the support of all the parties and
communities in India. For ensuring that, Sir Stafford Cripps, a member of the War Cabinet, came to India
with new proposals comprising a long-term and a short-term plan with a view to satisfying some of the
demands of the Indian leaders.

As a part of the long-term plan, the British Government proposed to take steps to create a new Indian
Union, which would have the full status of a Dominion. It also proposed that immediately after the end
of the war, steps would be taken to set up a constituent assembly to frame a new constitution for India.
In its short-term plan, the British Government must retain control of India as a part of their war effort,
and an interim government would be formed consisting of the representatives of the major parties in
India for the effective conduct of war. The Cripps Mission failed.

The Simla Conference Lord Wavell, the Governor General and Viceroy of India, in a speech to the people
of India on 14 June 1945, proposed for a conference of political leaders at Simla and make the following
suggestions : (a) the Executive Council should be reconstituted so that all its members except the
Governor General and Commander-in-Chief would be Indians. The caste Hindus and the Muslims would
be equally represented in the council; (b) the portfolio of external affairs would be transferred to an
Indian member of the council; (c) this council was to function as the 'Interim Government' till the war
was over and an agreement reached on the final constitution of the Indian Union. The Simla Conference
failed too. The Congress refused to accept the League's claim to have the right to nominate Muslim
members on those bodies, and the League refused to accept the Congress claim to have that right.

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The Cabinet Mission Plan, 1946 In March 1946, the British cabinet sent three of its members, Lord Pethic
Lawrence, Mr. AV Alexander and Sir Stafford Cripps, to India to make another attempt at settling the
differences between the Hindus and the Muslims and helping it attain freedom. They, in consultation
with the Viceroy, did their best to help both the Congress and the Muslim League to come to an
agreement on the structure of the future government in India. They, however, failed in their attempt
and finally announced a plan to solve the constitutional deadlock. Its main points are as follows: (a) It
suggested a federal union of India comprising both British India and native states; (b) The union would
have authority in foreign affairs, defence, currency, and communications. The Union should have an
executive and a legislature constituted by the representatives of the British Indian provinces and the
states; (c) Other subjects and the residuary powers should be vested in the provinces; (d) The provinces
of British India would form the following three groups : (i) Group 'A' would consist of such Hindu
majority provinces as Madras, Bombay, UP, CP, Bihar and Orissa; (ii) Group 'B' would consist of such
Muslim majority provinces as the Beluschistan, Punjab, NWFP, and Sind; (iii) Group 'C' would comprise
such Muslim majority provinces as Bengal and Assam. Any group may decide to secede from the union.
The provinces should be free to form groups with executives and legislatures; each group could
determine the provincial subjects to be taken in common; (e) There should be a constituent assembly to
frame a constitution for the Union and for groups and provinces. Members of the provincial legislatures
would elect the members of the constituent assembly, the number of seat alloted to each province
being proportional to its population. The seats would again be divided between the communities in
proportion to their numbers; (f) There should be an interim government at the centre.

The Muslim League accepted the Plan on 6 June 1946. The Congress after prolonged discussion accepted
the long term scheme of the plan but rejected the proposal for the formation of an interim government.
The government declared that even if one major political party accepted the plan it would invite that
party to form the interim government and go ahead with giving effect to the Cabinet Mission Plan.
Governor General Lord Wavell, however, did not act according to his commitment and did not invite the
Muslim League to form the interim government when it accepted the plan. The Muslim League regarded
this as a breach of promise by the Governor General. Moreover the statement of Mr. Nehru in Bombay
on 10 July 1946 after his election as president of All India Congress replacing Moulana Abul Kalam Azad
that the 'big probability is that, from any approach to the question, there will be no grouping' along with
his demand for the sovereignty of the proposed constituent assembly, created a deep distrust in the
minds of the League leaders. In this situation the Muslim League rejected the plan.

Partition Plan of Lord Mountbatten The British Government thus recognized the inevitability of the
Partition of India. The Muslim League wanted partition for the sake of Pakistan. Nehru and Patel, the
two prominent Congress leaders also agreed to partition, although Gandhi at first bitterly opposed.
When in March 1947 Lord Mountbatten came to India as the new Governor General, the situation was
ripe for the Partition of India. On 3 June 1947, he came out with the details of his partition plan
according to which India was partitioned along communal lines under the Indian Independence Act,
1947. [Emajuddin Ahamed] [Abridged]

[http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Constitutional_Development]

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