Why ?
- Simon Commission 1928 has no Indian member in commission
- Secretary of State for India Lord Birkenhead challenged the Indian leaders to draft a constitution for India
- After challenge all party conference was held and committee formed to draft constitution
- Chairman of committee was Motilal Nehru with Jawaharlal Nehru as the Secretary. Other members were Ali Imam, Tej Bahadur Sapru,Subhas Chandra Bose, Shuaib Qureshi , Mangal Singh, M S Aney and G R Pradhan.
- The draft constitution prepared by the committee was called the Nehru Committee Report or Nehru Report.
- The report was submitted at the Lucknow session of the all-party conference on August 1928.
Recommendations
- Dominion status for India
- Nineteen fundamental rights including the right to vote for men and women above 21 years of age, unless disqualified.
- Equal rights for men and women as citizens.
- No state religion.
- No separate electorates for any community but supported reservation of minority seats.
- A federal form of government with residual powers with the center. There would be a bicameral legislature at the center. The ministry would be responsible to the legislature.
- constitutional head of India would be Governor-General
- Proposed the creation of a Supreme Court.
- linguistic basis for creation of provinces
- Country would have Indian language it can be Hindi,Sanskrit or any other Indian language ,Use of English also permitted
After Effects
- Communal representation was not accepted by Muslim league and the suggested
A.1/3rd representation of Muslims in the Central Legislature.
B.Representation to Muslims in Punjab and Bengal in proportion to their populations.
C.Formation of three new provinces with a Muslim majority – Sindh, Baluchistan and North-West Frontier
Province (NWFP).
2. Hindu Mahasabha opposed to the formation of the new provinces and the communal representation in Bengal
and Punjab. They pressed for a strictly unitary system
In all-party conference held in Calcutta in 1928, Jinnah made three amendments to the report:
- 1/3rd representation of Muslims in the Central Legislature.
- Reservation to Muslims in Punjab and Bengal in proportion to their populations until adult suffrage was established.
- Residual powers to be vested with the provinces and not the centre.
- Since these demands of Jinnah were not met, he gave the ‘Fourteen Points’ in March 1929, which served as the basis of all future agenda of the League.