POST WAR NATIONAL SCENARIO

Question 1

Defence of the INA prisoners in the court was organised by?

Answer 1

1. Bhulabhai Desai
2. Tej Bahadur Sapru
3. Kailash Nath Katju
4. Jawaharlal Nehru
5. Asaf Ali.

Question 2

INA day was observed (celebrated) on?

Answer 2

INA Day was observed on 12 November and INA Week from 5 to 11 November 1945.

Question 3

Organizations who supported the INA cause?

Answer 3

1. Muslim League
2. Communist Party
3. Unionists
4. Akalis
5. Justice Party
6. Ahras in Rawalpindi
7. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
8. Hindu Mahasabha
9. Sikh League.

Question 4

Chronology of the three upsurges– winter of 1945-46?

Answer 4

1. November 21, 1945— in Calcutta over the INA trials.
2. February 11, 1946— in Calcutta against the seven year sentence to INA officer Rashid Ali.
3. February 18, 1946— Bombay, strike by the royal Indian Navy ratings.

Question 5

Rebellion by Naval Ratings?

Answer 5

Rebellion by Naval Ratings On February 18, 1946 some 1100 Royal Indian Navy (RIN) ratings of FMIS Talwar went on a strike to protest against
- racial discrimination (demanding equal pay for Indian and white soldiers)
- unpalatable food
- abuse by superior officers
- arrest of of a rating for scrawling Quit India’ on HMIS Talwar
- INA trials
- use of Indian troops in Indonesia, demanding their withdrawal.
(There was no issue of a new recruitment policy in the Royal Indian Navy at the time of the strike).

Question 6

Which were the flags hoisted by the Ratings during rebellion?

Answer 6

1. Tricolor flag
2. Crescent flag (probably Muslim League)
3. Hammer and sickle flag (probably communist flag)
4. Congress flag.

Question 7

Who persuaded the ratings to surrender on February 23 with an assurance that national parties would prevent any victimization?

Answer 7

Patel and Jinnah.

Question 8

Evaluation of Potential and Impact of the Three Upsurges of 1945–46?

Answer 8

• The three upsurges were significant in many ways:
  1. Fearless action by the masses was an expression of militancy in the popular armed mind.
  2. Revolt in the armed forces had a great liberating effect on the minds of people.
  3. The RIN revolt was seen as an event marking an end of British rule.
• These upsurges prompted the British to extend some concessions:
  1. On December 1, 1946, the government announced that only those INA members accused of murder or brutal treatment of fellow prisoners would be brought to trial.
  2. Imprisonment sentences passed against the first batch were remitted in January 1947.
  3. Indian soldiers were withdrawn from Indo-China and Indonesia by February 1947.
  4. The decision to send a parliamentary delegation to India (November 1946) was taken.
  5. The decision to send Cabinet Mission was taken in January 1946.

Question 9

Despite considerable erosion of the morale of the bureaucracy, the British infrastructure to repress was intact. They were soon able to control the situation. It was a _______ battalion in Bombay that rounded up the ratings and restored them to their barracks.

Answer 9

Maratha.

Question 10

Congress and Gandhi on upsurges of 1945-46?

Answer 10

Congress did not officially support these upsurges because of their tactics and timing.
Gandhi said they were doubly wrong.

Question 11

Three stage pattern of the upsurges of 1945-46?

Answer 11

1. When a group defies authority and is repressed.
2. When the city People Join in.
3. When people in Other Parts of the Country Express Sympathy and Solidarity.

Question 12

The British had initially decided to hold public trials of several hundreds of INA prisoners besides dismissing them from service and detaining without trial around 7,000 of them. They compounded the folly by holding the first trial at the Red Fort in Delhi in November 1945 and putting on dock together a Hindu,______ , a Muslim,_________, and a Sikh, ___________.

Answer 12

Prem Kumar Sehgal, Shah Nawaz Khan, Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon.

Question 13

Congress performance in 1946 elections?

Answer 13

1. It got 91 per cent of non Muslim votes.
2. It captured 57 out of 102 seats in the Central Assembly.
3. In the provincial elections, it got a majority in most provinces except in Bengal, Sindh and Punjab. The Congress majority provinces included the NWFP and Assam which were being claimed for Pakistan.

Question 14

Muslim League performance in 1946 elections?

Answer 14

1. It got 86.6 per cent of the Muslim votes.
2. It captured the 30 reserved seats in the Central Assembly.
3. In the provincial elections, it got a majority in Bengal and Sindh.
4. Unlike in 1937, now the League clearly established itself as the dominant party among Muslims
   In Punjab A Unionist-Congress-Akali coalition under Khizr Hayat Khan assumed power.

Question 15

Significance Features of Elections?

Answer 15

The elections witnessed communal voting in contrast to the strong anti British unity shown in various upsurges due to
1. Separate electorates
2. limited franchise— for the provinces, less than 10 per cent of the population could vote and for the Central Assembly, less than 1 per cent of the population was eligible.

Question 16

Why Cabinet Mission was sent to India?

Answer 16

The Attlee government announced in February 1946 the decision to send a high-powered mission of three British cabinet members (Pethick Lawrence, Secretary of State, for India; Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade; and A.V. Alexander, First Lord of Admiralty) to India to find out ways and means for a negotiated, peaceful transfer of power to India. (Pethick Lawrence was the chairman of the mission.)

Question 17

When did the Cabinet Mission arrived?

Answer 17

The Cabinet Mission reached Delhi on March 24, 1946.
As the Congress and the League could not come to any agreement on the fundamental issue of the unity or partition of India, the mission put forward its own plan for the solution of the constitutional problem in May 1946.

Question 18

Main points of Cabinet Mission plan?

Answer 18

1. Rejection of the demand for a full-fledged Pakistan.
2. Grouping of existing provincial assemblies into three sections.
3. Three tier executive and legislature at provincial, section, and union levels.
4. A constituent assembly was to be elected by provincial assemblies by proportional representation.
5. In the constituent assembly, members from groups A, B, and C were to sit separately to decide the constitution for provinces and, if possible, for the groups also. Then, the whole constituent assembly (all three sections A, B, and C combined) would sit together to formulate the union constitution.
6. A common centre would control defence, communication and external affairs. A federal structure was envisaged for India.
7. Communal questions in the central legislature were to be decided by a simple majority of both communities present and voting.
8. Provinces were to have full autonomy and residual powers.
9. Princely states were no longer to be under paramountcy of the British government. They would be free to enter into an arrangement with successor governments or the British government.
10. After the first general elections, a province was to be free to come out of a group, and after 10 years, a province was to be free to call for a reconsideration of the group or the union constitution.
11. Meanwhile, an interim government was to be formed from the constituent assembly.

Question 19

Different interpretations of the Grouping clause by Congress and Muslim League?

Answer 19

Congress: To the Congress, the Cabinet Mission Plan was against the creation of Pakistan since grouping was optional, one constituent assembly was envisaged, and the League no longer had a veto.
Muslim League: The Muslim League believed Pakistan to be implied in compulsory grouping. (The Mission later claritied that the grouping was compulsory.)

Question 20

Main Objections to the Cabinet Mission Plan?

Answer 20

1. Congress- Provinces should not have to wait till the first general elections to come out of a group. They should have the option of not joining a group in the first place.
   (Congress had the Congress ruled provinces of NWFP and Assam in mind which had been included in groups B and C respectively.)
   - Compulsory grouping contradicts the oft-repeated insistence on provincial autonomy.
   - Absence of provision for elected members from the princely states in the constituent assembly (they could only be nominated by the princes) was not acceptable.
2. League Grouping should be compulsory with sections B and C developing into solid entities with a view to future secession into Pakistan.

Question 21

Acceptance and Rejection of the Cabinet Plan?

Answer 21

• The Muslim League on June 6 and the Congress on June 24, 1946 accepted the long term plan put forward by the Cabinet Mission.
• July 10, 1946 Nehru said, “We are not bound by a single thing except that we have decided to go into the Constituent Assembly (implying that the Constituent Assembly was sovereign and would decide the rules of procedure). The big probability is that there would have objections to joining sections B and C.”
• July 29, 1946 The League withdrew its acceptance of long term plan in response to Nehru’s statement and gave a call for “direct action” from August 16 to achieve Pakistan.

Question 22

A Congress dominated Interim Government headed by Nehru was sworn in on _______.

Answer 22

September 2, 1946.

Question 23

Who brought the Muslim League quietly to the Interim Government?

Answer 23

Wavell quietly brought the Muslim League into the Interim Government on October 26, 1946. The League was allowed to join
- without giving up the ‘direct action.
- despite its rejection of the Cabinet Mission’s long-term and short-term plans.
- despite insistence on compulsory grouping with decisions being taken by a majority vote by a section as a whole.

Question 24

Did League attended the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly?

Answer 24

Meeting on December 9, 1946, was not attended by League. Consequently, the Assembly had to confine itself to passing a general ‘Objectives resolution’ drafted by Jawaharlal Nehru.

Question 25

Characteristic Features of Indian Communalism?

Answer 25

• Communalism (more accurately ‘sectarianism’) is basically an ideology, which gives more importance to one’s own ethnic/religious group rather than to the wider society as a whole, evolved through three broad stages in India.
• Communal Nationalism: the notion that since a group or a section of people belong to a particular religious community, their secular interests are the same, i.e., even those matters which have got nothing to do with religion affect all of them equally.
• Liberal Communalism: the notion that since two religious communities have different religious interests, they have different interests in the secular sphere also (i.e., in economic, political and cultural spheres).
• Extreme Communalism: the notion that not only do different religious communities have different interests, but also that these interests are incompatible, i.e., two communities cannot co-exist because the interests of one community come into conflict with those of the other.

Question 26

The Punjab Hindu Sabha was founded by?

Answer 26

• In 1909 by U.N. Mukherjee and Lal Chand.
• Opposed the Congress for trying to unite Indians of all colours into a single nation.

Question 27

All India Hindu Mahasabha held its first session in April 1915, with __________ as president.

Answer 27

The Maharaja of Kasim Bazar.

Question 28

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was established in?

Answer 28

1925.

Question 29

What was the Shimla Delegation?

Answer 29

In 1906; Agha Khan led a Muslim delegation (called the Shimla Delegation) to the viceroy, Lord Minto, to demand separate electorates for Muslims at all levels.

Question 30

All India Muslim League was founded by?

Answer 30

1. Agha Khan
2. Nawab Salimullah of Dacca
3. Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk
4. Nawab Waqar-ul-Mulk to preach loyalty to the British goverment and to keep the Muslim intelligentsia away from the congress.

Question 31

When did the Congress accepted the Muslim League demand of separate electorates?

Answer 31

1916.

Question 32

Did Communal Award accepted the Muslim Communal demands contained in the 14 points?

Answer 32

Yes Communal Award accepted all Muslim Communal demands contained in the 14 points.

Question 33

INA Relief and Enquiry Committee was organised by and what was its objective?

Answer 33

• The Congress organised an INA Relief and Enquiry Committee, which provided small sums of money and food to the men on their release, and attempted, though with marginal success, to secure employment for these men.
• Its main objective was to rehabilitate the INA prisoners after their trial.