The Round Table Conferences

First Round Table Conference

• Held in London between November 1930 and January 1931.
• Open King George V on November 12, 1930 and chaired by Ramsay MacDonald.
• Between the British and the Indians as equals, Congress and some prominent business leaders refused to attend.
• Indian princely states, Muslim League, Hindu Mahasabha and its sympathisers, Sikhs, Parsis, Women, Liberals, Depressed Classes, Justice Party, Labour, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians & Europeans, landlords & Universities.
• Government of India was represented by Narendra Nath Law, Bhupendra Nath Mitra, C.P. Ramaswami Iyer and M. Ramachandra Rao.
• Outcome: Nothing much was achieved at the conference, little was done to implement these recommendations and civil disobedience continued in India.

Second Round Table Conference

• September 7, 1931 to December 1, 1931.
• Indian National Congress nominated Gandhi & A. Rangaswami Iyengar and Madan Mohan Malaviya also there.
• Princely state, Muslims, Hindu groups, liberals, Justice Party, Depressed Classes, Sikhs, Parsis, Indian Christians, Industry, Labour, Indian women, universities, Burma, Sindh, Assam, Central Provinces.
• Government of India was represented by C.P. Ramaswami Iyer, Narendra Nath Law and M. Ramachandraao.
• Lord Irwin had been replaced by Lord Willingdon, Labour government in England had been replaced by a National Government.
• Right Wing or Conservatives in Britain led by Churchill strongly objected to the British government negotiating with the Congress on an equal basis.
• Gandhi (and therefore the Congress) claimed to represent all people of India against imperialism.
• Many of the delegates were conservative, government loyalists, and communalists these groups were used by the colonial government to neutralise the efforts of Gandhi.
• British government claimed that the Congress did not represent the interests of all of India.
• Gandhi pointed out, need of a partnership between Britain and India on the basis of equality, demand immediate establishment of a responsible government at the centre as well as in the provinces.
• Discarded the idea of a separate electorate for them, no need for separate electorates or special safeguards for Muslims or other minorities, other delegates disagreed with Gandhi.
• Session soon got deadlocked. Separate electorates were being demanded by
• The Muslims, depressed classes, Christians and Anglo-Indians. All these came together in a "Minorities’ Pact".
• Princes were also not too enthusiastic about a federation, especially after the possibility of the formation of a Congress government at the centre had receded after the suspension of civil disobedience movement.
• Outcome: lack of agreement among the many delegate groups, no substantial results regarding.
• Two Mulsim majority provinces - NWFP & Sindh.
• Indian Consultative Committee.
• Three expert committees - finance, franchise and states.
• Prospect of a unilateral British Communal Award if Indians failed to agree.
• Government refused to concede the basic Indian demand of freedom.

Third Round Table Conference

• November 17, 1932 and December 24, 1932,
• Not attended by the Indian National Congress and Gandhi. It was ignored by most
• other Indian leaders.
• Again, like in the two previous conferences, little was achieved. The recommendations were published in a White Paper in March 1933 and debated in the British Parliament afterwards.
• Joint Select Committee was formed to analyse the recommendations and formulate a new Act for India, and that committee produced a draft Bill in February 1935 which was enforced as the Government of India Act of 1935 in July 1935

Civil Disobedience Resumed

• Failure of the second Round Table Conference.
• December 29, 1931 to resume the civil disobedience movement.

During Truce Period (March-December 1931)

• United Provinces, movement for rent reduction and against summary evictions.
• NWEP, Khudai Khidmatgars and agitating against the brutal methods of tax-collection.
• Bengal, oraconian ordinances and mass detentions had been used in the name of fighting terrorism. 1931, firing incident on political prisoners in Hijli Jail.

Changed Government Attitude After Second RTC

After the second Round Table Conference, the British were determined to reverse this trend

• Gandhi would not be permitted to build up the tempo for a mass movement again.
• Goodwill of the Congress was not required, but the confidence of those who supported the British against the Congress - government functionaries, loyalists, etc. - was very essential.
• National movement would not be allowed to consolidate itself in rural areas.
• Viceroy Willingdon refused a meeting with Gandhi on December 31, January 4, 1932, Gandhi was arrested.

Government Action

• series of repressive ordinances, virtual martial law.
• Congress organisations at all levels were banned.
• Gandhi ashrams were occupied.
• Press was gagged and nationalist literature, banned.

Popular Response

• People responded with anger. 80,000 satyagrahis, mostly urban and rural poor, were jailed.
• Picketing of shops selling liquor and foreign cloth, illegal gatherings, non-violent demonstrations, celebrations of national days, symbolic hoistings of national flag, non-payment of chowkidara tax, salt satyagraha, forest law violations and installation of a secret radio transmitter near Bombay.
• Gandhi and other leaders had no time to build up the tempo.
• Masses were not prepared.
• April 1934, Gandhi decided to withdraw the civil disobedience movement, not lost political faith in the Congress - won freedom in their hearts.