PAKISTAN MOVEMENT

SIMON COMMISSION
• The Indian Statutory Commission, also known
as the Simon Commission, was a group of
seven members of the British Parliament
under the chairmanship of Sir John Simon. The
commission arrived in the Indian subcontinent
in 1928 [1] to study constitutional reform in
Britain's largest and most important
possession.
SIMON COMMISSION
• The commission was constituted because at the time of
introducing the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms in 1919, the
British Government had declared that a commission would be
sent to India after ten years to examine the effects and
operations of the constitutional reforms and to suggest
further reforms.[2]
• In November 1927, the British government appointed the
Simon Commission two years ahead of schedule. The
commission was strongly opposed by the Muslim League and
the Indian National Congress, and prominent Indian leaders
including Nehru, Gandhi, and Jinnah, because it contained
only British members and no Indians.
OPPOSITION OF COMMISSION
• The Simon Commission left England in January 1928. Almost
immediately with Its arrival in Bombay on 3 February 1928,
its members were confronted by throngs of protesters.
• Although there were also some supporters among the
crowds who saw it as the next step on the road to self-
governance.A strike began and many people turned out to
greet the Commission with black flags which was written
'Simon Go Back'.
• Maghfoor Ahmad Ajazi led the demonstrations against
Simon Commission in Patna.[ Similar protests occurred in
every major Indian city that the seven British MPs visited.
• One protest against the Simon Commission became infamous.
On 30 October 1928, the Commission arrived in Lahore where it
was met by protesters waving black flags.
• The protest was led by the Indian nationalist Lala Lajpat Rai,
who had moved a resolution against the Commission in the
Legislative Assembly of Punjab in February 1928.
• The protesters blocked the road in order to prevent the
commission members from leaving the railway station.
• In order to make way for the Commission, the local police led
by Superintendent James Scott began beating protesters. Lala
Lajpat Rai was critically injured and died on 17 November 1928
due to the head injuries he had sustained.
NEHRU REPORT
• The Nehru Report of 1928 was a memorandum
All Parties Conference in British India to appeal for a new
dominion status and a federal set-up of government for the
constitution of India.
• It also proposed for the Joint Electorates with reservation of seats
for minorities in the legislatures. It was prepared by a committee
chaired by Motilal Nehru, with Jawaharlal Nehru acting as the
secretary. There were nine other members in the committee.
• The final report was signed by Motilal Nehru and Jawaharlal
Nehru, Ali Imam, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Madhav Shrihari Aney,
Mangal Singh, Shuaib Qureshi, Subhas Chandra Bose, and G. R.
Pradhan.[1]
DEMANDS OF THE NEHRU REPORT
1.India should be given Dominion Status with the
Parliamentary form of Government.
2.Governor-General will act on the advice of executive
council. It was to be collectively responsible to the
parliament.
3.There should be Federal form of Government in India
with Residuary powers to be vested in Centre.
4.There will be no separate electorate for minorities. It
claimed “since separate electorate awakens communal
sentiments therefore it should be scrapped and joint
electorate should be introduced”.
THE DELHI PROPOSALS
• The report was not acceptable to Muslims and both the
Muslim members of the Committee did not sign it.
• A group of prominent Muslims, mostly members of the two
chambers of the central met at Delhi on March 20, 1927. M.A.
Jinnah presided over the session.
• The proceedings were held in camera and lasted for almost
seven hours.
• They knew that the greatest constitutional contention between
Muslim League and Congress was the matter of electorate.
• Jinnah and company declared that they would withdraw the
demand of Separate Electorates provided their demands will
be accepted by the Congress.
REJECTED BY MUSLIM LEAGUE
In the fourth session of the All Parties Conference convened in
December to review the Nehru Report, Jinnah representing the
Muslim League presented following four amendments in the report:
1. There should be no less than one-third Muslim representation in
the Central Legislature.
2. In event of the adult suffrage not being established, Punjab and
Bengal should have seats reserved for the Muslims on population
basis.
3. The form of the constitution should be Federal with residuary
powers vested in the provinces.
4. Sindh should immediately be made a separate province and the
reforms should also be introduced in NWFP and Balochistan at the
earliest.
PARTING OF THE WAYS
• Jinnah’s proposals were rejected when put to vote in All
Parties Conference.
• The Congress managed to get the majority vote in favour of
the Report. They asked the Government to make a
constitution till December 31 according to the
recommendations of Nehru Report and threatened that
otherwise the party would start a mass movement for the
attainment of Swaraj.
• Jinnah considered it as the “parting of the ways” and once the
“Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity” was now convinced
that the Hindu mindset in India was bent upon pushing the
Muslim minority to the wall.
FOURTEEN POINTS OF QUAID-E-AZAM
• A positive aspect of Nehru Report was that it resulted in the unity of divided
Muslim groups. In a meeting of the council of All India Muslim League on
March 28, 1929, members of both the Shafi League and Jinnah League
participated.
• Quaid-i-Azam termed the Nehru Report as a Hindu document, but considered
simply rejecting the report as insufficient.
• He decided to give an alternative Muslim agenda.
• It was in this meeting that Quaid-i-Azam presented his famous Fourteen
Points.
• The council of the All India Muslim League accepted fourteen points of the
Quaid.
• A resolution was passed according to which no scheme for the future
constitution of the Government of India would be acceptable to the Muslims
unless and until it included the demands of the Quaid presented in the
fourteen points.
THE FOURTEEN POINTS
• The form of the future constitution should be
federal with the residuary powers vested in the
provinces.
• A uniform measure of autonomy shall be granted to
all provinces.
• All legislatures in the country and other elected
bodies shall be constituted on the principle of
adequate representation of minorities in every
province without reducing the majority in any
province to a minority or even equality.
• In the Central Legislative, Muslim representation
shall not be less than one-third.
• Representation of communal groups shall continue
to be by means of separate electorate as at
present.
• Any territorial distribution that might at any time
be necessary shall not in any way affect the
Muslim majority in the Punjab, Bengal and the
North West Frontier Province.
• Full religious liberty, i.e. liberty of belief, worship
and observance, propaganda, association and
education, shall be guaranteed to all communities.
• No bill or any resolution or any part thereof shall be
passed in any legislature or any other elected body
if three-fourth of the members of any community
in that particular body oppose such a bill.
• Sindh should be separated from the Bombay
presidency.
• Reforms should be introduced in the North West
Frontier Province and Baluchistan on the same
footing as in the other provinces.
• Provision should be made in the constitution giving
Muslims an adequate share, along with the other
Indians, in all the services of the state.
• The constitution should embody adequate
safeguards for the protection of Muslim
culture.
• No cabinet, either central or provincial, should
be formed without there being a proportion of
at least one-third Muslim ministers.
• No change shall be made in the constitution
by the Central Legislature except with the
concurrence of the State’s contribution of the
Indian Federation.
ALLAHABAD ADDRESS`
• Several Muslim leaders and thinkers having insight into the
Muslim-Hindu situation proposed the separation of Muslim India.
• However, Allama Muhammad Iqbal gave the most lucid
explanation of the inner feelings of Muslim community in his
presidential address to the All India Muslim League at Allahabad
in 1930.
• Political events had taken an ominous turn. There was a two-
pronged attack on the Muslim interests.
• On one hand, the Hindus offered a tough opposition by proposing
the Nehru Report as the ultimate constitution for India.
• On the other, the British government i+n India had totally ignored
the Muslim demands in the Simon Commission report.
ALLAHABAD ADDRESS
• In his address, Allama Iqbal explained that
Islam was the major formative factor in the life
history of Indian Muslims.
• He claimed that the only way for the Muslims
and Hindus to prosper in accordance with
their respective cultural values was under a
federal system where Muslim majority units
were given the same privileges that were to
be given to the Hindu majority units.
ALLAHABAD ADDRESS
• As a permanent solution to the Muslim-Hindu
problem, Iqbal proposed that Punjab, North
West Frontier Province, Baluchistan and Sindh
should be converted into one province.
• The national spirit that Iqbal fused amongst
the Muslims of India later on developed into
the ideological basis of Pakistan.