Cripps
Mission-1942
Entry
of Japan into Second World War prompted Britain to look towards the demands of Indians
seriously. The result was the Cripps Mission. Prime Minister Winston Churchill
constituted the Cripps Mission headed by Sir Stafford Cripps who was the Leader
of House of Commons at that point of time.
Sir
Stafford Cripps submitted the Draft Proposals or Declaration to Governor
General’s Executive Council and subsequently during a press conference they
were made known to the people of India.
The
highlights of Draft Declaration were as following:
After
the Second World War Indian Union with Dominion Status will be created. It would
have right to even participate in important organisations at international
level
Constituent
Assembly will be formed for making a Constitution which would have members from
the territories controlled by British and Native or Princely States
In
case a particular province didn’t want to join the Union of India would have
its special Constitution
The
defence related matters would be under the control of British
The
Cripps Proposals were not accepted by the Indian leaders. Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru and Maulana Azad were part of the negotiations about the Cripps
Proposals. Their most important demand was British government should give
complete independence to India and not dominion status
Mahatma
Gandhi also rejected the Cripps Proposals and he described it as ‘a post dated
cheque’. According to some historians one more sentence was added to it by
somebody else and it was claimed that actually Mahatma Gandhi called the Cripps
Proposals or Cripps Mission as ‘a post
dated cheque on a failing banks’.
As
far as Muslim League was concerned it was vehemently demanding a separate state
for Muslims
The
minorities wanted more safety measures
for them
Organisations
like Hindu Mahasabha and other people with liberal thinking objected to issue
of right to secede away from Commonwealth
In
this way Cripps Proposals faced opposition and objections from all the
important stakeholders. Ultimately the Cripps Proposals were rejected by
Indians and Cripps Mission proved to be a failure. Sir Stafford Cripps had
arrived in India in the month of March 1942 and returned to Britain in April
1942.
Cabinet
Mission Plan 1946
By
the end of Second World War Conservative Party of Winston Churchill lost power
in Britain and Labour Party formed the government. Clement Atlee of Labour
Party became the Prime Minister in May 1945.
Clement
Atlee’s government decided to send three Ministers of India in order to
negotiate with the Indians. These three Ministers were- Lord Pethick-Lawrence,
Sir Stafford Cripps and A. V. Alexander. They were supposed to visit India and
negotiate with the Indians. The visit of these three Ministers is described as
the Cabinet Mission in history.
The
Cabinet Mission arrived in India in March 1946.
Important
highlights of the Cabinet Mission Plan were as following:
·
There would be Union government
·
The Union government will have Executive and
Legislature
·
The provinces would have autonomy in respect
with the subjects allotted to them and also they will have residuary powers
·
The provinces could form Groups with Executive
and Legislatures and further every Group could decide the common provincial
subjects
It Grouped
the Indian provinces into A, B and C categories. The composition of each of
these Groups was as following:
·
Group A- Bombay, Madras, Central Provinces, United
Provinces, Bihar and Orissa
·
Group B- Punjab, the North West Frontier and
Sindh
·
Group C- Assam and Bengal
It
was further said that:
·
Delhi, Ajmer-Marwara and Coorg would be free to
join Group A
·
Baluchistan would join Group B
One
point to be noted here is that Group A and Delhi, Ajmer-Marwara and Coorg had
majority of Hindus and Group B, Group C and Baluchistan had majority of
Muslims, hence, somewhere there was an invisible communal line in the Groupings
of the Provinces.
One
of the important aspects of Cabinet Mission was to form the Constituent
Assembly for framing the Constitution and also to decide the issue of how to
form Interim Government.
The
major demand of Muslim League was that the provinces should be allowed to make
changes in the Constitution of Union immediately instead of after ten years.
As
far as Indian National Congress was concerned it wanted that the independence
of India should be given more priority than framing a Constitution. It also
wanted more powers to be vested in Union government, especially in the
eventuality of worst kind of law and order problem.
Mountbatten
Plan – 3 June 1947
After
Cabinet Mission the things moved fast rather dramatic events unraveled. On 16
August 1946 Muslim League created trouble by declaring it as Direct Action Day.
Due to it communal problems were created in different parts of the country.
An
interim government was formed in India on 2 September 1946. It had
representatives of Indian National Congress as well as Muslim League. Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru was Vice President of the Executive Council in interim
government and in that capacity he headed the government as the Prime Minister.
Muslim League was not in the mood to co-operate with the Constituent Assembly.
Muslim
League and its leader Barrister Jinah wanted to have a separate nation for the
Muslims. The Indian National Congress resisted demand but Muslim League was not
ready to compromise on the issue of a separate Pakistan for Muslims.
Clement
Atlee, the then Prime Minister of England made an announcement on 20 February 1947
that British government intends to hand over the political power in India to
Indians latest by the month of June 1948.
On
the above background Lord Mountbatten arrived in India as the Governor General
of India. The topmost agenda of Lord Mountbatten was to accelerate the speed of
transfer of power to Indians.
Things
became pretty clear that Muslim League would not give up its demand for
separate Pakistan.
Due
to the stand taken by Muslim League it became clear that partition of India
would be unavoidable.
On 3
June 1947 Lord Mountbatten declared the modalities of transfer of power.
The
salient features of Mountbatten Plan were as following:
Punjab
and Bengal would be partitioned
Provinces
with the majority of the Hindus would have to accept the existing Constituent
Assembly which they had already done
Provinces
with Muslim majority such as Baluchistan, Bengal, Punjab, Sindh and North West
Frontier Province would be given liberty to join the Constituent Assembly of
India or Pakistan
Indian
National Congress accepted the Mountbatten Plan and as expected Muslim
dominated areas like Sindh, East Bengal, West Punjab and Baluchistan joined
Pakistan. Under the leadership of Sir Cyril Radcliffe Commissions were formed
in order to decide the boundary between India and Pakistan.
The
Indian Independence Act 1947
India
ultimately got most coveted independence from British rule as per the
provisions of the Indian Independence Act 1947. A Bill titled the Indian
Independence Bill was tabled in British Parliament on 4 July 1947. This Bill
was passed on 18 July 1947 and came to be known as the Indian Independence Act
1947.
Important
provisions of the Indian Independence Act 1947 were as following:
The independent
Dominions of India and Pakistan to be created
The
date for independence was fixed as 15 August 1947
The King
of Great Britain henceforth could not use the power to veto the laws related to
India
The British
Monarch no more could act as paramount power in respect with Indian States
The treaties
signed between the Indian States and British Crown would cease to exist after
15 August 1947
As
far as the relationship and arrangements between Government of India and Indian
States were concerned they should be discussed and decided with the Dominions
of Pakistan and India
The
office of Secretary of State for India would cease to exist
The
Dominions of India and Pakistan would be at liberty to leave the British
Commonwealth of Nations
Tryst
with Destiny
Thus,
the long cherished dream of Indians to get complete freedom from British rule
came true at the mid night of 15 August 1947. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru gave his
famous speech at this hour titled as ‘Tryst with Destiny’ before the
Constituent Assembly of India. Excerpts from this speech are as following:
‘‘Long
years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall
redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At
the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to
life and freedom…….”
Only
regret was that freedom came with the scar and incurable wound of partition.