The Simon Commission and the Nehru Report

In the late 1920s the question of India's constitutional future came to a head. Britain sent the all-white Simon Commission to decide whether India was fit for reform. Indians were insulted at their exclusion and met it with the cry "Simon Go Back." In reply, Indians drafted their own constitution: the Nehru Report (1928). But it foundered on the communal question, producing Jinnah's Fourteen Points. Out of this churn came the Congress's historic demand for purna swaraj (complete independence) at Lahore in 1929. This is a very high-yield topic.

The Government of India Act 1919 had promised a review commission after ten years. The Conservative government feared a Labour victory and appointed it early. This was the Indian Statutory Commission, set up on 8 November 1927 under Sir John Simon, with Clement Attlee among its members. It was to advise whether India was ready for further reform.

Its fatal flaw was that it was all-white, with not a single Indian member. To Indians this was an insult. Foreigners would decide India's fitness for self-government, a violation of self-determination. The response was immediate and nearly unanimous:

• the Congress (Madras session, December 1927, under M.A. Ansari) resolved to boycott it "at every stage and in every form." Nehru also got a snap resolution passed declaring complete independence the goal;
• the Liberals, the Hindu Mahasabha and the majority Muslim League faction under Jinnah joined the boycott (though Muhammad Shafi's faction and the Justice Party did not);
• when the Commission landed at Bombay on 3 February 1928, it met a countrywide hartal, black-flag demonstrations and the slogan "Simon Go Back" (credited to Yusuf Meherally).

The protests gave a new generation of youth their first taste of political action. They brought Nehru and Subhas Bose to the fore. Police repression was severe. At Lahore, Lala Lajpat Rai was beaten in a lathi-charge and died on 17 November 1928. His words: "the blows... are the last nails driven into the coffin of British imperialism." Dr Ambedkar appeared before the Commission and argued for universal adult franchise and reserved seats for the depressed classes. (The Simon Report, published in 1930, proposed abolishing dyarchy and giving provincial autonomy. But it rejected responsibility at the centre and retained separate electorates. Events had already overtaken it.)

The Simon Commission dealt only with British India. The princely states raised a separate question: what exactly was their relationship with the British Crown? To answer it, the government set up the Butler Committee in 1927, formally the Indian States Committee, under Sir Harcourt Butler. Its object was to examine and improve the relationship between the Government of India and the Indian States, and to clarify the meaning of paramountcy, the Crown's overriding authority over the princes.

The Committee reported in 1929. Its main conclusions:

• Paramountcy must remain paramount: the Crown's supreme authority over the states was left flexible and undefined, free to adapt to changing circumstances.
• Relations with the Crown, not British India: the states' relationship ran directly to the Crown. It could not be transferred, without the states' consent, to any future Indian government responsible to an elected legislature.

The princes were disappointed, since paramountcy stayed vague and open-ended. Nationalists objected too, because the report treated the states as standing outside any future self-governing India. Remember the pairing: in 1927 the Simon Commission reviewed constitutional reform in British India, while the Butler Committee examined the princely states.

Lord Birkenhead had taunted that Indians could never agree on a constitution. To answer him, an All Parties Conference met in 1928. It appointed a committee under Motilal Nehru, with Tej Bahadur Sapru, Subhas Bose, Ali Imam and others. The Nehru Report, finalised by August 1928, was the first major Indian attempt to draft a constitution. Its main recommendations:

• Dominion status as the form of government (to the dismay of the younger, militant section led by Jawaharlal Nehru);
• rejection of separate electorates in favour of joint electorates with reserved seats for Muslims only where they were in a minority (not in Punjab and Bengal where they were in a majority);
• linguistic provinces;
• nineteen fundamental rights, including equal rights for women and universal adult suffrage;
• responsible government at the centre and in the provinces; and
• complete dissociation of state from religion.

The communal rift. The drafting began in unity but broke on the communal question. At the All Parties Conference (Calcutta, December 1928), Jinnah proposed three amendments: one-third Muslim representation in the central legislature, reservation for Muslims in Bengal and Punjab, and residuary powers to the provinces. They were not accepted. Jinnah returned to the Muslim League and in March 1929 issued his Fourteen Points. These became the basis of all future League propaganda. They demanded a federal constitution with residuary powers to the provinces, one-third Muslim seats at the centre, separate electorates, and protection of Muslim rights. The Nehru Report satisfied no one. The League, the Hindu Mahasabha and the Sikhs rejected it. The younger Congressmen (Nehru and Bose) rejected its dominion-status goal and set up the Independence for India League.

The pace now quickened towards a final demand for complete independence:

• Irwin's Declaration (31 October 1929) vaguely affirmed that dominion status was the "natural issue" of India's progress and promised a Round Table Conference. But it gave no timetable, so there was "nothing new or revolutionary" in it.
• The Delhi Manifesto (2 November 1929) of national leaders made three demands: that the Round Table Conference frame a dominion-status constitution, that the Congress have majority representation, and that there be a general amnesty. Irwin rejected these. The stage was set for confrontation.
• At the Lahore Congress (December 1929), presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru, the decisive steps were taken. The Round Table Conference was to be boycotted. Complete independence (purna swaraj) was declared the aim. The Congress Working Committee was authorised to launch civil disobedience, including non-payment of taxes. 26 January 1930 was fixed as the first Independence Day. At midnight on 31 December 1929, Nehru hoisted the tricolour on the banks of the Ravi.
• On 26 January 1930, the Independence Pledge (drafted by Gandhi) was read out across the country. It declared freedom the inalienable right of Indians and resolved to attain purna swaraj.