Simon Commission

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  • Study the progress of the governance scheme and suggest new steps.
  • All-white, seven-member Indian Statutory Commission, popularly known as the Simon Commission on November 8, 1927.
  • Failure of the 1919 Act to create a stable imperial power had led to several parliamentary reports and inquiries.
    • Lee Commission went into the Raj’s failure to recruit enough British officers.
    • Mudiman Commission looked into the deadlock within the diarchic dispensation.
    • Linlithgow Commission inquired into the crisis of Indian agriculture.
Indian Response
  • Angered the Indians most was the exclusion of Indians from the commission and the basic notion behind the exclusion that foreigners would discuss and decide upon India’s fitness for self-government.
  • Deliberate insult to the self-respect of Indians
Congress Response
  • Congress session in Madras (December 1927), presidency of M.A. Ansari decided to boycott the commission “at every stage and in every form”
Other Groups
  • Support the Congress call of boycott of the Simon Commission.
  • Muslim league had two sessions.
    • Jinnah at Calcutta - Oppose the Simon Commission
    • Muhammad Shafi at Lahore  - Supported the government.
  • Unionists in Punjab and the Justice Party in the south, decided not to boycott the commission.
Public Response
  • hartals and slogans of "Simon Go Back".
  • New generation of youth got their first taste of political action.
  • Active part in the protest, giving it a militant flavour.
  • Nehru and Subhash Bose emerged as leaders of this new wave of youth and students.
  • Germination and spread of new radical ideas of socialism reflected in the emergence of groups such as the Punjab Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Workers’ and Peasants’ Parties and Hindustani Sewa Dal (Karnataka).
Police Repression
  • Came down heavily on demonstrators, lathicharges not sparing even the senior leaders.
Dr Ambedkar and the Simon Commission
  • Dr Ambedkar was appointed by the Bombay Legislative Council to work with the Simon Commission
  • Argued for ‘universal adult franchise’, provinces autonomy and dyrarchy at Centre.
  • Behalf of the Bahishkrita Hitakarini Sabha, submitted a memorandum on the rights and safeguards.
  • Depressed classes should be regarded as a distinct and independent minority.
  • Depressed classes as a minority needed far greater political protection than any other minority in British India.
  • Political protection of the depressed classes, representation on the same basis as the Mohammedan minority.
  • Wanted reserved seats & separate electorate for the depressed classes.
  • Safeguards either in the constitution or way of advice in the instrument to the governor regarding the education of the depressed classes and their entry into the public services.
  • Simon Commission did grant reserved seats to the depressed classes, but the condition was that candidates who would take part in the elections would have, first of all.
  • Ambedkar, report remained a dead letter.
Impact of Appointment of Simon Commission on the National Movement
  • Stimulus to radical forces demanding not just complete independence but major socio-economic reforms on socialist lines.
  • Indian unity seemed bright at that point of time.
Simon Commission Recommendations
  • Abolition of dyarchy.
  • Establishment of representative government in the provinces.
  • Governor - discretionary power in relation to internal security and administrative powers.
  • Members of provincial legislative council should be increased.
  • Rejected parliamentary responsibility.
  • Governor-general was to have complete power to appoint the members of the cabinet.
  • Government of India complete control over the high court.
  • Recommended that separate communal electorates, only until tensions between Hindus and Muslims had died down.
  • No universal franchise.
  • Accepted the idea of federalism but not in the near future; Consultative Council of Greater India include British provinces as well as princely states.
  • NWFP and Baluchistan should have the right to be represented at the centre.
  • Sindh should be separated from Bombay, Burma should be separated from India.
  • Indian army should be Indianised though British forces must be retained. India got fully equipped.

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