Unit 2.3 Consultation and Confrontation (COMPLETE)

Question 1

Why did the Round Table Conferences fail?

Answer 1

• Inconsistency over who is in government (No clear majority party)
• Religious groups & minorities not prepared to agree on the same terms.
• Each Conference involved different individuals meant focus wasn’t entirely clear.
• British government are more focussed on other foreign affairs (Rise of Hitler, Franco, Mussolini)
• New Individuals. The new Secretary of State for India (Sir Samuel Hoare) has more reservations about self-governance for India than his predecessor. Churchill set up the Indian Defence League (50 MPs) who made no secret of the fact that Indians should remain subordinate to the British Empire forever.
• Congress were alienating themselves.

Question 2

Why did the Labour Party refuse to attend the third Round Table Conference in 1932?

Answer 2

• Beginning to lose their reputation.

Question 3

When was the First Round Table Conference?

Answer 3

• November 1930 to January 1931.

Question 4

Who was present at the First Round Table Conference?

Answer 4

• 58 delegates representing most shades of Indian political opinion.
• Congress were not present.
• The Princes sent 16 representatives which was unexpected and increased support for dominion status.
• Lord Irwin
• Ramsay MacDonald.
• The 3 British political parties were represented by 16 delegates.

Question 5

What was discussed and what was the outcome at the First Round Table Conference?

Answer 5

It was decided that:
A) India would be run as a type of dominion.
B) The dominion would take the form of a federation that would include the princely states as well as the 11 British provinces.
C) There would be Indian participation at all levels of government.
- Very similar to that of the Nehru Report.

Question 6

When was the Second Round Table Conference?

Answer 6

• September 1931 to December 1931.

Question 7

Who was present at the Second Round Table Conference?

Answer 7

• Similar mix of delegates to the first.

- Gandhi was also present and he took it upon himself to become Congress’ only representative.

Question 8

What was discussed and what was the outcome at the Second Round Table Conference?

Answer 8

• Dominated by the well-known and well-rehearsed racial and religious minorities arguments.
• Gandhi was aware that he couldn’t accept any solution of dominion status, effectively opposing the outcome of the first delegation.

Question 9

When was the Third Round Table Conference?

Answer 9

• November 1932 to December 1932.

Question 10

Who was present at the Third Round Table Conference?

Answer 10

• Only 46 delegates attended.

- None from the British Labour Party or Congress

Question 11

What was discussed and what was the outcome at the Third Round Table Conference?

Answer 11

• Discussed the franchise (who is eligible to vote), finance and the role of the princely states but didn’t reach any definite conclusions.
• It collapsed in confusion.
• There were no more Round Table Conferences.

Question 12

How did Britain respond to the failure of the Round Table Conferences?

Answer 12

• 4th January 1932 Gandhi arrested and imprisoned.
• Congress outlawed.
• All members of Congress Working Committee were rounded up and imprisoned.
• Youth organisations were banned.
• Over 80,000 Indians (mostly members of Congress) were imprisoned within 4 months.
• The Communal Award (16th August 1932) Sikhs, Christians, Anglo-Indians and Untouchables were all declared as separate classes. (‘Awarding’ minorities with recognition within their communities to try and incite support)

Question 13

How did Gandhi respond to the failure of the Round Table Conferences?

Answer 13

• Boycott of British goods.
• Responded to the Communal Award with fast-unto-death (willingness to become a martyr). Therefore blackmailed the British.
• Met with the British at Yeravda (Poona) late 1932. Here they agreed that in essence, separate electorates would end (as although separate seats remained, voting was by the general electorate - British go back on word to appease Gandhi)
• Gandhi declared that untouchability should be abandoned by law. (Took 20 years - so only came about after Indian independence)

Question 14

What was the Indian Defence League?

Answer 14

• Conservative group who fought the Government of India Bill every inch of the way.

Question 15

Who was apart of the Indian Defence League?

Answer 15

• Ex generals.
• Former civil servants (some of whom had served in India)
• Rudyard Kipling was Vice President.
• Winston Churchill was its most ferocious supporter.

Question 16

What were Churchill’s views on India?

Answer 16

• His views were formed when he had been stationed there as an army subaltern in 1897 and they hadn’t changed since.
• He refused to accept that Indians were capable of running their own affairs.

Question 17

What was media support for the India Defence League like?

Answer 17

• Support came from the Daily Mail.
• It’s proprietor, Lord Rothermore, wrote a series of outrageous articles under the general heading ‘If We Lose India’.
• Daily Mail warned that India was essential to the British economy and to lose India’s trade at a time when every Western economy was struggling would be stupid.

Question 18

What sort of things were included in Lord Rothermore’s ‘If We Lose India’ articles?

Answer 18

• Laced with erroneous ‘facts’.
• Such as, the ‘fact’ that Gandhi and congress were an insignificant group of semi-educated Hindus and fake photographs of the British quelling riots with lorries piled high with corpses.
• The message was clear: India was unfit to govern themselves and only the British could manage them.