The\nSecond World War came to an end in Europe in May 1945. In India, Lord Wavell\nhad already succeeded Lord Linlithgow as the Viceroy of India in October 1943.\nHe had earlier been the Commander-in-Chief here. His appointment gave rise to\nmisgivings as to whether Britain would still keep India by dint of force. These\nforebodings, however, proved false. Wavell was a nice person, a soldier by\nprofession, a poet by temperament and a statesman by compulsion. In his first\naddress to the Central Legislature on February 17, 1944, he affirmed :\n\u201cIndia shall have full control of her own destiny.\u201d This sent a breeze of joy\nin the people that their country would soon become free. Wavell made it clear\nthat from the point of view of defence as well as many internal and external\neconomic problems, India was a natural unit. \u201cYou cannot alter geography,\u201d he\ndeclared. These were also the words of cheer for the unity of the country. He\ncalled a conference of the Governors of all the Provinces and discussed with\nthem the various steps that the Government should take to resolve the political\nproblem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lord\nWavell went to London for consultation with the Home Government in March 1945.\nThe Labour Party withdrew from the coalition government after the end of the\nWar due to differences with the Conservatives on the matters relating to social\nsecurity and planning. Sir Winston Churchill continued as the caretaker Prime\nMinister till the gene\u00adral elections were held. The Viceroy returned to Delhi\non June 4, 1945. He made a broadcast of his proposals on June 12, 1945\nsimultaneously with the statement of Mr. Amery, the Secretary of State for\nIndia in the House of Commons. He also announced his intention to convene a\npolitical conference on June 25, 1945 as well as the decision of the Government\nto release the members of the Congress Working Committee. His proposals laid\ndown the complete indepen\u00addence of the Viceroy\u2019s Executive Council except the\nportfolio of Defence on the basis of parity between the caste Hindus and the\nMuslims. Gandhiji objected to the term \u2018caste Hindus\u2019. Jinnah asserted that the\nMuslim League had the sole right to nominate all the Muslim members to be\nincluded in the Viceroy\u2019s Executive Council. The Hindu Mahasabha objected to both\nthe principle of parity between the Hindus and Mus\u00adlims and its exclusion from\nthe Simla Conference. The Congress put forward its claim to include in its\nshare of representation the members of all the communities, including the\nMuslims, Christians and Harijans. In his inaugural speech, the Viceroy\nexplained the aims and objectives of the conference. He cla\u00adrified, \u201cIt is not\na constitutional settlement, it is not a final solution to India\u2019s complex pro\u00adblems\nthat is proposed.\u201d But the atmosphere of the Conference seemed more favourable\nto its failure than to its success. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who started the\ndiscussion on behalf of the Congress, minced no words about the national\ncharacter of the Congress and declared its unwillingness to enter into any ag\u00adree\u00adment\nor compromise which gave it the character of a communal party. Jinnah asser\u00adted\nthat the Muslim League would not com\u00adpromise on its demand for Pakistan and\nthus participate in a common national government of undivided India. The talks,\ntherefore, failed, with each side blaming the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a fortnight or so of the failure of the Simla Conference, the\nLabour Party came to power in England as a result of an election held on July\n25, 1945. It won a landslide victory with 393 seats against 215 obtained by the\nConservatives. Clement Attlee became the Prime Minister on July 26, 1945 with\nPethick Lawrence as the Secretary of State for India. The new Prime Minister\nwas very sympathetic to the Indian problem. \u201cCircumstances obliged me,\u201d he once\nstated, \u201cto take a very active part in the Indian problem.\u201d He had been a\nmember of the Simon Commission in 1929. The Congress was very happy with the\nLabour Party\u2019s vic\u00adtory. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, President of the Congress,\nsent his felici\u00adtations to Attlee. The later events, however, proved that there\nwas not a big line of divide between the Conservatives and the Labou\u00adrites. The\nfor\u00admer followed the maxim \u201cdivide-and-rule\u201d, the latter \u201cdivide-and-quit\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nViceroy again went to London for a meeting with the leaders of the new\ngovernment on August 24, 1945 and returned on September 16, 1945. He announced\non September 19, 1945 the objectives of the Labour Government\u2019s policy towards\nIndia. His Majesty\u2019s Government was determined to do its utmost to promote the\nearly realisation of full\nself-government in India. Elections to the Central and provincial legislatures\nwere to be held. The British Government also intended to convene a Constituent\nAssembly for India and to reconstitute the Viceroy\u2019s Executive Council to be\ncomposed of representatives of main political parties after the results of the\nelections were declared. Both the Congress and the Muslim League did well in\nthe general elections. Out of a total of 102 seats in the Central Assembly, the\nCongress got 57 with the League obtaining 30 and the rest going to\nIndependents, Europeans and the Akalis. In the provincial legislatures, the\nCongress won power in Bombay, United Provinces, Madras, Central Provinces,\nOrissa and the League in Sindh and Bengal. The two parties formed their\nministries in these provinces. In Punjab, the Congress won 51 seats, the Akalis\n22 and the Unionists 26 against the Muslim League\u2019s number at 75. The Unionist\nleader, Khizr Hyat Khan formed a coalition ministry. It was clear that the\nelection results had not contributed towards the solution of the political\nproblem; instead, it perpetuated the Congress-League conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nBritish Government sent a Cabinet Mission to India in March 1946 with a view to\nhelping India attain freedom as speedily and as fully as possible. It consisted\nof Lord Pethick Lawrence, Secretary of State for India, Sir Stafford Cripps,\nPresident of the Board of Trade, and A. V. Alexander, First Lord of Admiralty.\nThe Mission arrived on March 23, 1946. It spent nearly five weeks in India\nholding marathon discussions with political leaders, provincial governors,\nrepresentatives of minorities and special interests, the ruling princes and\nprominent individuals. Among the prominent political leaders who met the Mission\nwere Gandhiji, Maulana Azad, Jinnah, Sapru, Jayakar, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee,\nJagjivan Ram, Ambedkar, Baldev Singh and Master Tara Singh. The policy of the\nBritish Government was very clear from the statement of Prime Minister Attlee\nmade in the House of Commons on March 15, 1946, \u201cWe are very mindful of\nthe rights of minorities and minorities should be able to live free from fear.\nOn the other hand, we cannot allow a minority to place its veto on the advance\nof the majority.\u201d Within that framework, the Mission failed to reach an\nagreement with the Indian leaders. As the Congress and the Muslim League could\nnot reach an agreement, the Mission accepted its failure and announced its own\nplan on May 16, 1946. The Congress wanted immediate independence. It had the\nfederal structure in view for the future constitution of the country. The\nMuslim League harped upon the two-nation theory on the strength of the separate\nelectorates for the Muslims granted by the British Government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nCabinet Mission plan rejected the demand for Pakistan and suggested a federal\nstructure of the government. The Union was to embrace both the British\nprovinces and the princely states. Its authority was limited to three\nsubjects\u2014Defence, Foreign Affairs and Commu-nications\u2014with the power to raise\nthe necessary finances for them. All the residuary subjects were to be included\nin the provincial list. The British provinces were categorised into three\ngroups : A, B and C, i.e.,<\/em> \nsubfederations, Group A\u2014Madras, Bombay, United Provinces, Central\nProvinces, Bihar and Orissa, Group B\u2014Punjab, N.W.F.P. and Sindh, and Group\nC\u2014Bengal and Assam. The princely states were free to join any of these three\ngroups. There was to be a Constituent Assembly consisting of 296 members from\nthe British India and 93 members from the princely states. For the British\nIndia, the composition was to be 210 general seats, 78 Muslim seats and four\nSikh seats. The Assembly had to frame a constitution which the provinces were\nfree to accept or reject as they liked. The Con\u00adstituent Assembly was also to\nsign a treaty with England on the mode of the future relationship between the\ntwo countries. For the interim period, the Viceroy\u2019s Executive Council was to\nbe reconstituted and all the portfolios, including that of Defence, were to be\nentrusted to the Indian leaders. Both the provinces and the princely states\nwere free to join the Union or secede from it after the constitution for the\nentire country was framed by the Constituent Assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gandhiji gave his blessings to the plan with his interpretation that\nthe Constituent Assembly would be a sovereign body for drafting the\nconstitution of independent India and would, thus, be free to improve upon the\nplan of the Mission by rejecting the concept of the subfederation. The Congress\nWorking Committee was critical about the status and powers of the interim\ngovernment and maintenance of the British troops in India. The Muslim League\naccepted the plan as it strengthened its demand for the creation of Pakistan by\nplacing the Muslim-majority provinces in the separate groups other than the\ngeneral group. It, therefore, announced its willingness to participate in the\nConstituent Assembly. The Muslim League also wanted that the Viceroy should\ninvite them to join the Government as it had accepted the plan but the British\nGovernment did not agree because it wanted participation of both the League and\nthe Congress in the government and did not reconcile to the situation where the\nLeague was in and the Congress out of Government. The elections to the\nConstituent Assembly took place in July 1946 in which the Congress obtained\nmore than two-thirds majority. It won 202 seats out of 292. The Muslim League\ngot only 73 seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was, indeed, strange that both the Congress and the League could\nneither reject the May 16 plan outright, nor accept it wholly. Both took\ndifferent stands on different occasions. The Congress could not yield on the\npoint of its national character nor reconcile itself to the two-nation theory\npropounded by Jinnah. The All-India Congress Committee elected Jawaharlal Nehru\nas the Congress President at its Bombay Session held on July 6 and 7, 1946. He\ndeclared that the Congress had decided to join the Constituent Assembly and\nwould remain in it as long as it thought it was for the good of the country and\nwould come out when it thought it was injuring its cause. He elaborated the\nposition at a Press Conference in Bombay on July 10, 1946 that the Congress had\nnot entered into any permanent commitment with regard to both the short-term\nand long-term plans of the Cabinet Mission and was absolutely free to take an\nindependent stand in the Assembly. His statement made the Muslim League ner\u00advous.\nJinnah characterised it as a complete repu\u00addiation of the basic form upon which\nthe long-term scheme rested as well as the fundamental nature of the rights and\nob\u00adligations of the parties accepting the scheme. The Muslim League, therefore,\ndecided to withdraw its acceptance of the Cabinet Mission plan in Bombay on\nJuly 29, 1946 and observe the \u201cDirect Action Day\u201d on August 16, 1946.\nUnfortunately, it proved to be the horrible day on which riots and killings\ntook place in Calcutta on a massive scale. Mob violence continued for four days\nand the government was unable to control the situation. The number of those\nkilled was put at 5,000 and those of injured at 15,000. Property worth crores of rupees was\ndestroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the Viceroy continued his efforts to form an interim\ngovernment. He proposed to constitute an Executive Council of 14 members\u2014six to\nbe nominated by the Congress, including one belonging to the Scheduled Castes,\nfive by the Muslim League and three belonging to the minorities by the\ngovernment. The Congress accepted this offer, but stressed the need for giving\nfull independence of action to the new government. The Viceroy, accordingly,\ninvited Jawaharlal Nehru on August 6, 1946 to make proposals for the formation\nof an interim government which the latter accepted after its approval by the\nCongress Working Committee. Nehru now sought the cooperation of the Muslim\nLeague and offered five seats out of 14 to the nominees of Jinnah in his\ngovernment. He also met him on August 15, 1946 in Bombay but without success.\nHe was now left with no option but to proceed alone in forming the provisional\ngovernment. On August 24, 1946, the official communique announced the\nnames of new members of the interim government. These were : Jawaharlal\nNehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, Rajendra Prasad, Asaf Ali, C. Rajagopalachari,\nSarat Chandra Bose, John Mathai, Baldev Singh, Shafaat Ahmed Khan, Jagjivan\nRam, Ali Zaheer and C. H. Bhabha. The new government assumed office on\nSeptember 2, 1946. The Muslim League observed this day as the day of mourning.\nGandhiji declared, \u201cWe are not yet in the midst of civil war but we are nearing\nit.\u201d The Muslim League later decided to join the provisional government and its\nfive nominees\u2014Liaquat Ali Khan, I.I. Chundrigar, Abdur Rab Nishtar,\nGhazanafar Ali Khan and Jogendra Nath Mandal\u2014were sworn in on October 25, 1946.\nBefore that, however, the country was ablaze in the communal flames and the\nHindu-Muslim riots took place in various towns and villages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Constituent Assembly met on December 9, 1946 at New Delhi. Two\nhundred and five members attended the meeting. The seventy-three Muslim League\nmembers boycotted the proceedings. There were also no representatives of the\nprincely states. Jawaharlal Nehru moved the \u201cObjectives Resolution\u201d. It\nenvisaged the Indian Union to be an independent sovereign republic. The\nConstituent Assembly again met on January 20, 1947 when it approved the\nObjectives Resolution. The Muslim League had not so far withdrawn the boycott\nof the Constituent Assembly. Nor was there any harmony in the functioning of\nthe provisional government. The conflicts between the ministers belonging to\ntwo parties\u2014the Congress and the Muslim League\u2014were growing faster every day\nand every hour. It seemed that the unity of the country was impossible and\npartition inevitable. The declaration by the Labour Government to quit India by\nthe end of June 1948 under all circumstances made it a cruel reality. Prime\nMinister Attlee made his historic announcement on February 20, 1947, \u201cThe\npresent state of uncertainty is fraught with danger and cannot be indefinitely\nprolonged. His Majesty\u2019s Government wish to make it clear that it is their\ndefinite intention to take necessary steps to effect the transference of power\nto responsible Indian hands by a date not later than June 1948.\u201d The events\nmoved faster than aeroplanes or rockets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lord Wavell left India on March 23, 1947. His successor, Lord\nMountbatten assumed office next day, i.e.,<\/em> March 24, 1947, with all royal grandeur.\n\u201cI am under no illusion about the difficulty of my task,\u201d he said and added, \u201cI\nshall need the greatest goodwill of the greatest possible number and I am\nasking India today for that goodwill.\u201d His immediate task was to restore peace\namong the Congress and the League members in the Executive Council and among\nthe Hindus and the Muslims in the country at large. He attempted to fulfil this\ngreat task not gradually but quickly. He was in the prime of his life, full of\nenergy and vitality, swift in taking decisions, and capable of implementing\nthem. He could persuade others by his affable manner as well as imposed his\nwill upon them by his mandate. He knew that the creation of Pakistan was an\nill-conceived idea. He also knew that this was no solution to the communal\nproblem and that it was bound to harm the interests of both the communities in\nthe larger context. He still prepared his partition plan because he was too\nmuch in a hurry and did not bother about the future. Gandhiji opposed his plan\nvehemently and suggested that the Viceroy should entrust the governance of the\ncountry to Mohammad Ali Jinnah. But that was not acceptable to the Congress\nParty. Jawaharlal Nehru said, \u201cWe saw no other way of getting our freedom\u2014in\nthe near future, we mean.\u201d Gandhiji had once remarked, \u201cHindus and Muslims are\nnot two nations. Those whom God has made one, man will never be able to\ndivide.\u201d It was, thus, unfortunate that the nation won her freedom through\npartition of the country. India and Pakistan became two independent nations on\nAugust 15, 1947. Lord Mount\u00adbatten became the first Governor General of\nfree India and M. A. Jinnah that of the newly created Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Exactly\nat the midnight of August 14\/15, 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru spoke in the\nConstituent Assembly, \u201cLong years ago, we made a tryst with destiny and now the\ntime comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure but\nvery substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps,\nIndia will wake to life and freedom.\u201d The Assembly resolved that the members\nwould take the following pledge:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt\nthis solemn moment, when the people of India through suffering and sacrifice\nhave secured freedom, I, a member of the Constituent Assembly, do dedicate\nmyself, in all humility, to the ser\u00advice \nof India and \nher people to the\nend that this ancient land attain her rightful place in the world and make her\nfull and willing contribution to the promotion of world peace and the welfare\nof mankind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nfirst action of the sovereign Constituent Assembly was to proclaim the\nIndependence of India and approve the appointment of Lord Mountbatten as the\nfirst Governor-General of free India. The new day brought to the people a\nbright sunshine of independence. It was Friday, August 15, 1947.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the day of independence brought to the people bright sunshine in their lives, the day by itself was not all that bright. The subcontinent was rocked by the worst bloodbath in its history resulting from the partition. On the day of independence, Gandhiji was not in Delhi. As the nation was celebrating her independence, he was attempting to restore peace in Bengal. He could not reconcile himself to the two-nation theory of Jinnah nor to the creation of Pakistan as a separate nation. He planned to visit Pakistan to spread his message of peace to the Muslims there. He felt passionately that if he could not ensure the political unity of the country, he would strive hard to retain its spiritual unity. This remained only a dream. The day of his visit to Pakistan never came as a fanatic Hindu, Nathu Ram Godse, shot him dead on the evening of January 30, 1948. The last words on his lips were \u2018Hey Ram, Hey Ram\u00a0!\u2019 He gave up his life for the unity and independence of the country. That was too high a price which the imperial bureauc\u00adrats extracted from us for their diplomacy to retain the Indians in the new Commonwealth. Pakistan ceased to be its member for a number of years, but was readmitted\u00a0into the Commonwealth fold in 1989. Pakistan was again suspended from the Commonwealth in October 1999 because of military takeover in that country. However, it was readmitted to the group in May 2004. But its conflicts with India and the evil effects of the division of the country are permanent.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Second World War came to an end in Europe in May 1945. In India, Lord Wavell had already succeeded Lord Linlithgow as the Viceroy of India in October 1943. He had earlier been the Commander-in-Chief here. His appointment gave rise to misgivings as to whether Britain would still keep India by dint of force. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":578,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions\/578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}