BRITISH GOVERNMENT’S PROPOSAL

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09415777229, 094055338

E-mail- [e-mail];[e-mail]

 

 

BRITISH GOVERNMENT’S PROPOSAL

 

 

The Prime Minister asked me to preside over a Cabinet Committee to consider the present position in India, and to make recommendations. I now submit, on behalf of the Committee, for the consideration of the War Cabinet, the draft of a Declaration by His Majesty’s Government, regarding the future government of India.

 His Majesty’s Government, having considered the anxieties expressed in this country and in India as to the fulfillment of the promises made in regard to the future of India, have decided to lay down in precise and clear terms the steps which they propose shall be taken for the earliest possible realization of self-government in India. The object is the creation of a new Indian Union which shall constitute a Dominion, equal in every respect to the United Kingdom and the other Dominions of the Crown, and free to remain in or to separate itself from the equal partnership of the British Commonwealth of Nations. His Majesty’s Government therefore makes the following declaration:

(a) Immediately upon the cessation of hostilities, steps shall be taken to set up in India, in the manner described hereafter, an elected body charged with the task of framing a new Constitution for India.

(b) Provision shall be made, as set out below, for the participation of the Indian States in the constitution-making body.

(c) His Majesty’s Government undertakes to accept and implement forthwith the Constitution so framed subject only to:

(i) the right of any Province of British India that is not prepared to accept the new Constitution to retain for the time being its present constitutional position, provision being made for subsequent accession. With such non-acceding Provinces, should they so desire, His Majesty’s Government will be prepared to agree upon a new Constitution following the lines laid down above.

(ii) The signing of a treaty which shall be negotiated between His Majesty’s Government and the constitution-making body covering all necessary matters relating to the complete transfer of responsibility from British to Indian hands. Whether or not an Indian State elects to adhere to the Constitution, it will be necessary to negotiate revised Treaty arrangements, so far as this may be required in the new situation.

(d) The constitution-making body shall be composed as follows, unless the leaders of Indian opinion in the principal communities agree upon some other form before the end of hostilities: Immediately upon the result being known of the Provincial elections which will be necessary at the end of hostilities, the entire membership of the Lower Houses of the Provincial Legislatures shall, as a single electoral college, proceed to the election of the constitution-making body by the system of proportional representation. This new body shall be in number about one-tenth of the number of the Electoral College. Indian States shall be invited to appoint representatives in the same proportion of the total population as the average for British India and with the same powers as the British Indian members.

(e) While during the critical period which now faces India, and until the new Constitution can be framed, His Majesty’s Government must inevitably the full responsibility for India’s defence, they desire and invite the immediate and effective participation of the leaders of the principal sections of the Indian people in the counsels of their country, to give their active and constructive help in the discharge of a task so vital and essential for the future freedom of India.