HISTOBLOG

FROM 1935 ACT TO CRIPPS MISSION
1. The Passing of Government of India Act 1935: 
- The Government of India Act 1935 was the result of Round Table Conference. 
- It allowed Indians to participate in the political processes. 
- It introduced principle of election on a wider scale. 
- It allowed the elected Indian representatives to run the administration at province level. 
- It laid the foundation of democracy. 
- It was a step towards improvement after 1919 Act. 
2. The provision of the Government of India Act 1935: 
a: Federalism:
a1: - The Indian provinces under the British rule and Princely states under the Indian rulers would form a federation. 
- The Princely states were allowed the option to remain outside proposed Indian Federation. 
a2: The powers of administration were divided into two lists at Center. One list was called Reserved List and the other was called Transferred List. 
- The Indian representatives in administration at provincial level could make laws only on the items included in the Transferred List. 
- The reserved list items were completely under the jurisdiction of the Governor-General. 
b: Province:
b1: - The Provincial autonomy was established by the act. It was achieved by scrapping the Dyarchy feature of 1919 Act and all the subjects of administration were transferred to the elected representatives at provincial level. 
- The Governor-General had the veto powers over the functions of the representatives of the people. 
- Two new provinces – Sindh and Orissa were created. Myanmar (Burma) was separated from India. 
3. Provincial Elections and the Congress Ministry:
a: Congress attitude towards 1935 Act:
- The Indian National Congress rejected the Act of 1935.
b: Why did Congress participate in 1936 elections:
- The Congress was not satisfied with the 1935 Act. It had rejected it. 
- The Congress wanted to demonstrate to the British government that the Congress had the popular support. 
- The Congress also wanted to use the opportunity to spread the awareness about its national programmes. 
Thus, the Congress which had rejected 1935 Act, participated in the election process held under the act. 
c: Success of the Congress:
- The Congress fought elections which took place as per the 1935 Act. 
- The Congress won and formed ministries in eight provinces out of eleven provinces. 
- The Congress formed ministries in Bombay Presidency, Madras Province, Orissa, Central Province, Bihar, Uttar Pardesh, North-West Frontier Province and Assam. 
d: The Achievement of Congress Ministries: (Oct. 98) (March 2001)
- The Tenancy Act and similar beneficial acts were past during the tenure of Congress rule. 
- The Congress ministries introduced many welfare programmes in the field of water supply, public health, village development, welfare of Dalits and primary education. 
- The Congress ministries promoted Khadi and village industries. 
- The Congress ministries removed restrictions on the newspapers. 
- The Congress ministries introduced civil reforms. 
- The Congress ministries released many political prisoners. 
The Congress ministries did commendable work during their first and a small tenure in government. They earned the appreciation for doing great deal of work inspite of all the shortcomings of the 1935 Act. 
e. The Congress ministries resigned: (Oct. 97, March 00)
- The Second World War started in 1939. 
- The British Crown declared that the British India government was participating in the war against Germany without taking into confidence the elected representatives of India. 
- As a protest against the arbitrary declaration of war, the Congress ministries resigned by the end of 1939. 
4. The Faizpur Session of the Indian National Congress:
a: Significance and Importance of Faizpur Session of the Congress: 
- Faizpur was a rural area in Jalgaon district of Maharashtra. 
- It was for the first time that Indian National Congress held its session at Faizpur in December 1936. 
- A large number of peasants participated in the session. 
- The Faizpur Session was important for the Congress which had been raising demands for the welfare of the peasants and struggled for them. 
b: Main resolutions of the Faizpur Session:
- The Session passed a large number of resolutions for the welfare of the peasants. 
- A 50% reduction in land revenue assessment and in rent was demanded. 
- The Session demanded the deferment of the recovery of loans from farmers. 
- The Session demanded the fixing of adequate minimum wages to the agricultural labourers. 
- It demanded no extra taxes should be imposed on the farmers. 
- The President of the Session, Jwahar Lal Nehru asked the workers and the peasants to participate in the activities of the Congress. 
5. The Second World War and the Indian National Congress: 
- The Second World War started in September 1939.
a: The Policy of the Congress towards the World War:
- The working committee of the Congress declared its policy on the Second World War in September 1939. 
a1: Main features of the Policy of Congress on the World War II:
- The working committee declared that the Congress was against Nazism and Fascism. 
- It declared that the Congress was against the Imperialism and Colonialism. 
- It declared that India would not take part in the war from the side of England 
- It emphasized that England had denied freedom to her Indian possession in contradiction to her claim that it was fighting for the freedom of the democratic nations. Therefore, the Congress announced that it would not fight for England. 
- The Congress further declared that England should clearly state that her aim in the war was to end colonialism and imparting of independence to India. 
- The Congress emphasized that if England did not assure that she was fighting for the end of colonialism in India and elsewhere then, India would not participate in the war. 
- The Congress also clarified that if England wanted to end colonialism, then an independent India would fully support her efforts to protect the democracy. 
- The Congress also expressed its opposition to the war and supported democracy, independence and fraternity. 
In short, the Congress declared a policy of opposing imperialism, Nazism and Fascism which it had declared in its earliest sessions also. 
a2: Attitude of the British towards the policy of the Congress towards the World War II: 
- British did not care about the policy of the Congress and the demands of the Congress. 
- British announced that India was a party to her war efforts. 
- As the British had not responded to the demands of the Congress, The Congress ministries in various provinces resigned in October-November 1939. 
b: Ramgarh Session of the Congress-March 1940:
- In the Ramgarh Session of the Congress in March 1940, Jawahar Lal Nehru demanded independence of all the British colonies along with the independence of India.
- In July, the working committee in another meeting demanded that the British should setup an interim National government at the Centre as a step towards the independence of India. 
- It was also decided that during the period of crises, no mass movement would be started. 
c. Individual Satyagraha:
- It had been adopted as a policy decision by the working committee of the Congress that in hour of crises due to the World War, no mass movement would be started. 
- Mahatma Gandhi declared that they would definitely propagate against the war but it would be done through peaceful means of non-violence. 
- Gandhiji was not in favour of any mass movement but suggest an alternative in form of Individual Satyagraha. 
- On August 17, 1940, the Individual Satyagraha was launched. 
- Acharya Vinoba Bhave was chosen as the first Satyagrahi by Mahatma Gandhi. 
- Other important Satyagrahis were Jawahar Lal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. 
- By May 1941, twenty five thousands Congress workers had offered Individual Satyagraha. Most of the Satyagrahis were put behind the bars when they offered the Satyagraha. 
6. Cripps Mission:
a: Reasons for sending Cripps Mission:
- By the end of 1941, the World War had extended to the East. 
- Japan had reached upto the eastern borders of India after conquering Singapore, and Mayanmar by the end of March 1942. 
- England was highly worried about the loss of the Indian colony where she was not getting the support of the Indians. 
- President of America, Franklin D. Roosvelt pressurized England to enlist the support of Indians for the war efforts. 
- The pressure of President of America and looming danger of Japan forced England to solicit the support of the Indians in her war efforts. 
- In order to get the support of the Indians, the Prime Minister of England sent Sir Strafford Cripps, minister in his cabinet to negotiate with the Indian leaders. 
b: Main Features of the Cripps Mission Plan: 
i. Britain would grant a dominion status to India as soon as possible and would establish a Federal government in the dominion of India. 
ii. As soon as possible after the war, Britain would establish a Constituent Assembly for India to frame a constitution for India. 
iii. All the provinces would have the right to self-determination and permitted to decide that whether they would like to join the government framed under the new constitution whenever that would be formed. 
iv. The Princely states were allowed the right to self-determination. If they did not wish to join the proposed federation, a separate treaty with British government would singed with the Princely states. The princely states would then sign it as independent states. 
v. As long as the war continued, all the departments except the War department would be transferred to the Indian representatives. 
 the proposal - A Post Dated Cheque: (March 97) (Oct. 97) (Imp.)èb. Strong resentment of the Congress and straightway rejection of the Cripps Plan  
- The Congress straightaway rejected the Cripps proposal because of the following reasons. 
i. The proposal intended to give a dominion status to India only after the end of the war. The Congress had already demanded complete independence for India. 
ii. All the proposed powers were to be implemented after the end of the war. No body knew at that time that when and with what results would the war end. 
iii. The proposal desired to extend the right of self-determination to the provinces and the princely states. In other words, it had in its design to divide India. Had the Congress accepted it then it would have laid the ground for the future partition of India. 
iv. Mahatma Gandhi had rightly commented on its nature by a pithy statement that the proposal was a “post dated cheque on a crumbling bank”. As every proposed feature was to be implemented on some undecided future date, it was compared to post dated cheque.
v. Jinnah of Muslim League had also rejected it because it had not clearly mentioned creation of Pakistan. 
vi. The talks failed and Sir Cripps returned to England without achieving anything.