Unit 2.3 Consultation and Confrontation (INCOMPLETE)

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 on 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.

Question 19

How did Stanley Baldwin (PM) pass the Government of India Bill?

Answer 19

• Steered the bill through the Commons with quiet determination.
• Stuck to the position he had taken up when he supported the Irwin Declaration and never wavered from it.
• Convinced the majority of his party that the British Empire was an organic organisation that had to change and develop, or die.

Question 20

Who attacked the Government of India Bill in the Commons and who challenged this view?

Answer 20

• Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee attacked the bill, but for different reasons.
• Sir Samuel Hoare (India SoS) argued no one had been able to produce a workable alternative to the Government of India Act.

Question 21

When was the Government of India Act introduced?

Answer 21

• Became law in August 1935.

Question 22

What were the main features of the Government of India Act?

Answer 22

• India was divided into 11 provinces, each of which had a legislative assembly and a provincial government.
• Each province would have a governor, who retained the power to act in an emergency.
• Dyarchy was abolished.
• Separate electorates were to continue as before.
• Burma was separated from India and given its own government.
• Sindh and Orissa were created.

Question 23

What would the provinces under the Government of India Act have control over?

Answer 23

• The provinces would have control over almost everything except defence and foreign affairs.

Question 24

How did the Viceroy’s role change under the Government of India Act?

Answer 24

• Would have to follow the advice of an Executive Committee which was made up of mostly Indians.

Question 25

Why was the Government of India Act opposed?

Answer 25

• The Act was only partially implemented by the time WW2 broke out.
• A federation of India was proposed but not under the conditions expected.
• Fear of violence and excessive discipline.

Question 26

Why did Congress oppose the Government of India Act?

Answer 26

• Objected the Act because they wanted purna swaraj.

- Did not want to support provincial governments which they thought might become Muslim dominated.

Question 27

Why did the Muslim League oppose the Government of India Act?

Answer 27

• The Act did not provide enough power to the Muslims.

- No guarantees were offered for the protection of Muslims rights.

Question 28

Why did the Princes oppose the Government of India Act?

Answer 28

• Angry that the Government of India Act inevitably resulted in a loss of power from the Princes.
• British government worried that some princes would join forces with ‘Tory die-hards’ to oppose the Government Act.

Question 29

Why were both Congress and the Muslim League faced with dilemmas in regards to the 1937 Elections?

Answer 29

• Didn’t know whether to participate or not.
• Not to participate would show they rejected the Government Act, but the elections were going aheads regardless so refusal to participate may result in a loss of representation.
• Both Congress and the Muslim League decided to take part.

Question 30

What was the outcome of the election for Congress?

Answer 30

• Highly successful.

- Gained majority of provinces.

Question 31

What was the outcome of the election for the Muslim League?

Answer 31

Won 3 provinces:

• Assam.
• North-West Frontier Provinces.
• Sind.

Question 32

How did Congress respond to the outcome of the election?

Answer 32

• Effectively became a ‘partner’ to the British government. Some supported this e.g. Gandhi however some did not e.g. Nehru.
• 1938: Congress torn apart by in-fighting. Gandhi wanted Bose to quit; Bose eventually did and he walked away from Congress altogether.

Question 33

How did the Muslim League respond to the outcome of the election?

Answer 33

• Muslim League had 2 options: promote Muslim League to win back some provinces or work with Congress (but Congress was unlikely to do this).
• Jinnah began a series of personal appearances, rallies and interviews.
• Targeted university students.
• Gave Muslims a sense of identity and purpose. Aided by the fact that some Congress dominated provinces had begun to treat Muslims poorly.

Question 34

How did Gandhi and Nehru react to the outbreak of WW2?

Answer 34

• Gandhi urged the British government to negotiate with Hitler.
• As hostilities commenced Gandhi gave his wholehearted support to the British people.
• Nehru and other Indian socialists sympathised completely with the British approach to fascism.

Question 35

How did Congress react to the outbreak of WW2?

Answer 35

• They were not prepared to commit themselves openly to support a government that had not consulted them prior to the declaration of war.
• They did not want to fight unless they were granted immediate swaraj.
• Congress withdrew the ministries from provinces where it had a majority in order to dissociate India from the war and to enforce the Congress determination to free India from foreign domination.

Question 36

Why could the British politicians not meet demands for purna swaraj and how did Congress respond to this?

Answer 36

• In the early months of WW2 British politicians were too preoccupied with the war and purna swaraj demands went on deaf ears.
• As a result, Congress’s leaders ordered all Congress members to resign from provincial ministries throughout India.

Question 37

Why was Congress’s demand to remove all members from provincial ministries not necessarily the best idea?

Answer 37

• It removed hundreds of Indians from official positions where they had been in a position to ease the effects of war for their people and, to some extent, influence events internal to India.
• India’s provinces reverted to a form of direct British government (something that hadn’t been experienced since 1919.)

Question 38

What did the Muslim League do on the 22nd of December 1939?

Answer 38

• Designated Muslim India’s Day of Deliverance.
• Called on all Muslims to celebrate their release form Hindu bondage.
• Jinnah suggested that the Muslim League branches all over India should hold public meetings and offer prayers of thanksgiving for deliverance from the Congress regime.

Question 39

What was exchanged between Nehrus and Jinnah’s letters in December of 1939?

Answer 39

• Nehru expressed sadness that their values, as well as their political objectives seemed to differ so greatly.
• Nehru expressed hope that some common ground could be found.
• Jinnah’s reply emphasised the need for Congress to treat the Muslim League as the authoritative representative organisation in India before any reconciliation could occur.

Question 40

How did the Muslim League react to the outbreak of WW2?

Answer 40

• Jinnah could hardy believe his luck as Congress had virtually retired from the political scene.
• With Congress now out of the picture, it was left to the League to work with the Raj and the British government to support the war effort and to strengthen their own position within India.

Question 41

What was the 1940 Lahore Resolution?

Answer 41

• Jinnah called a meeting of the League in Lahore to discuss the problems of forming the League’s constitutional goals.
• Attended by approximately 100,000 Muslims.
• The resolution set out what the Muslim League considered to be the basic principles of any new constitution for India.

Question 42

What two proposals did the 1940 Lahore Resolution set out?

Answer 42

• That those areas of the subcontinent where Muslims were in the majority should be grouped to form separate independent states.
• That minorities had to be protected, whether the people concerned were living in Muslim- or Hindu- dominated states.
• A working party was to be set up to frame a constitution based on these two principles.

Question 43

What was the reaction of Congress towards the 1940 Lahore Resolution?

Answer 43

• A battle of words ensued between Gandhi and Jinnah.

- Gandhi maintained that