Simon Commission
The Indian Statutory Commission was a group of seven British Members of the House, who had been sent in 1927 to British India to design a constitutional reform that colony. Because of its chairman, Sir John Simon, it was commonly referred to as the Simon Commission. Ironically, Clement Attlee was one of its members, that British Prime Minister, who had to lay off 1947 India and Pakistan to independence.
The Law on the Government of India in 1919 had installed a system of diarchy in the provinces of British India. The Indian public demanded a revision of the difficult dual power and the law of 1919 called for a commission to be appointed after 10 years, to examine the functioning of the system of government in the constitutional practice and, where appropriate, to design reforms. Towards the end of the 1920s, the conservative British government feared massive electoral defeats in favor of the Labour Party in Britain and they feared the consequences of a transfer of power to such an " inexperienced " corporation in India. Therefore, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin appointed in November 1927 seven MPs, including the chairman, Simon, who formed in 1919 promised Commission, which should deal with the constitutional problems of the Indian state.
The people of the Indian subcontinent, even the moderates were beside themselves and it felt as a national insult, that the Simon Commission, which should determine the future of India, did not belong to a single Indians and Indian interests should only be investigated and judged by Britons. The Indian National Congress decided at its party conference in December 1927 in Madras the Commission and called for a boycott of Lord Birkenhead, the Secretary of State for India, the submission of a draft constitution that would be acceptable for the Indian population. Also guided by Ali Jinnah Group of the Muslim League decided to boycott the Commission.
Almost simultaneously with her arrival on February 3, 1928 in Bombay, the Simon Commission was faced with a Protestpulk. The Commission was accompanied by chants, such as " Simon, go back". The whole country went on a hartal (strike, in which the stores are closed ) and many people welcomed the Commission with black flags. Similar protests took place in every major Indian city, who visited the seven British MPs. Nevertheless, surpassing a protest against the Simon Commission scandalously all other:
On October 30, 1928, the Simon Commission arrived at Lahore, where, as in the rest of the country, massive protests expected. The protest in Lahore was led by Lala Lajpat Rai Indian nationalists, who had introduced a resolution against the Simon Commission in the Central Legislative Assembly of the Punjab in February 1928. In order to clear a path through the crowd to the Commission, the police began their lathis, iron-studded batons, bashing the protesters. In particular, against the 63 -year-old Lajpat Rai, the police were brutal, the later in the course of that day said: ". Every beat that hits me is a nail in the coffin of British imperialism " Seventeen days later, died on November 17, 1928 he his injuries.
No Indian politician was willing to meet with the Commission. However, to make a constructive contribution, a committee was appointed, chaired by Motilal Nehru with an Indian draft constitution of a bipartisan conference. This draft constitution, commonly known as the Nehru Report, foresaw the dominion status after the model of Canada, Australia and New Zealand. However, the Muslims opposed the Nehru Report, because they saw their minority rights not sufficiently considered in the unified electorate. The radical wing of the Congress Party by Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose then demanded complete independence from the British Empire, Swaraj. The fierce controversy within the Congress Party was ended by a compromise proposal of Mahatma Gandhi, which provided an ultimatum to the British side, after the Congress party would be satisfied with Dominion status if the would be passed within a year to 31 December 1929. If the Dominion status would not be granted until then, the Congress party would devote a nonviolent campaign for full independence. The British government responded to the ultimatum that one must wait for the Simon Commission's report and the formulation of a draft constitution by the Round Table in London. With this rejection, the Congress Party gave up its convention in late 1929 and was its president for the first time Jawaharlal Nehru acted, not satisfied: You asked Gandhi in the development of a strategy of a new campaign of civil disobedience that took place 1930-1934.
The Simon Commission in 1930 published its 17 - volume report. She suggested the abolition of diarchy and the establishment of representative provincial governments. The report recommended the retention of separate communal electorates - as long as were up tensions between Hindus and Muslims subsided. Given the Commission's rejection by educated Indians and growing instead of shrinking local tensions, the British government opted for a different method of dealing with the Indian Constitution Question: Before the release of the report, she stated that she would continue taking into account the Indian views and the natural way the constitutional process of Dominion status for India is. The result of the Simon Commission was the Law on the Government of India of 1935, which established a representative government at the provincial level in India and forms the basis for many parts of the Indian Constitution. The first provincial elections were held in 1937, which won the Congress Party in nine of the eleven provinces.