Simon Commission

The Indian Statutory Commission was a group of seven British Members of Parliament of United
Kingdom that had been dispatched to India in 1928 to study constitutional reform in Britain's most important
colonial dependency. It was commonly referred to as the Simon Commission after its chairman, Sir John
Simon. One of its members was Clement Attlee, who subsequently became the British Prime Minister and
eventually oversaw the granting of independence to India and Pakistan in 1947.
Background
The Government of India Act 1919 had introduced the system of dyarchy to govern the provinces of British
India. However, the Indian public clamoured for revision of the difficult diarchy form of government, and
the Government of India Act 1919 itself stated that a commission would be appointed after 10 years to
investigate the progress of the governance scheme and suggest new steps for reform. In the late 1920s, the
Conservative government then in power in Britain feared imminent electoral defeat at the hands of the
Labour Party, and also feared the effects of the consequent transference of control of India to such an
"inexperienced" body. Hence, it appointed seven MPs (including Chairman Simon) to constitute the
commission that had been promised in 1919 that would look into the state of Indian constitutional affairs.
The people of the Indian subcontinent were outraged and insulted, as the Simon Commission, which was to
determine the future of India, did not include a single Indian member in it. The Indian National Congress, at
its December 1927 meeting in Madras (now Chennai), resolved to boycott the Commission and challenged
Lord Birkenhead, the Secretary of State for India, to draft a constitution that would be acceptable to the
Indian populace. A faction of the Muslim League, led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah, also decided to boycott the
Commission.
An All-India Committee for Cooperation with the Simon Commission was established by the Council of
India and by selection by the Viceroy The Lord Irwin. The members of the committee were: Sir C. Sankaran
Nair (Chairman), Sir Arthur Froom, Rajah Nawab Ali Khan, Sardar Shivdev Singh Uberoi, Nawab Sir
Zulfiqar Ali Khan, Sir Hari Singh Gour, Sir Abdullah Al-Mamun Suhrawardy, Kikabhai Premchand and Rao
Bahadur M. C. Rajah. Quaid-e-Azam was the person who was the main reason of the independence and if he
wasnt there we could not have a great country like Pakistan. And we should not forget the muslims who had
scarified their lives for us. In Burma (Myanmar), which was included in the terms of reference of the Simon
Commission, there was strong suspicion either that Burma's unpopular union with India would continue, or
that the constitution recommended for Burma by the Simon Commission would be less generous than that
chosen for India; these suspicions resulted in tension and violence in Burma leading to the rebellion of Saya
San.
[1]

The Commissions recommendations were:
'Future Advance The first principle was that the new constitution should, as far as possible, contain within
itself provision for its own development. It should not lay down too rigid and uniform a plan, but should
allow for natural growth and diversity. Constitutional progress should be the outcome of practical
experience. Where further legislation is required, it should result from the needs of the time, not from the
arbitrary demands of a fixed time-table. The constitution,while contemplating and conforming to an ultimate
objective, should not attempt to lay down the length or the number of the stages of the journey. It has been
a characteristic of the evolution of responsible government in other parts of the British Empire that the
details of the constitution have not been exhaustively defined in statutory language. On the contrary, the
constitutions of the self-governing parts of the British Empire have developed as the result of natural growth,
and progress has depended not so much on changes made at intervals in the language of an Act of
Parliament, as on the development of conventions, and on the terms of instructions issued from time to time
to the Crown's representative. The Preamble to the Government of India Act declares that progress in giving
effect to the policy of the progressive realisation of responsible government in British India can only be
achieved by successive stages; but there is no reason why the length of these successive stages should be
defined in advance, or why every stage should be marked by a commission of enquiry." (Simon Report vol. 2
p. 5)
Almost Responsible Government at the Provincial Level Dyarchy should be scrapped and Ministers
responsible to the Legislature would be entrusted with all provincial areas of responsibility. However,
safeguards were considered necessary in areas such as the maintenance of peace and tranquility and the
protection of the legitimate interest of the minorities. These safeguards would be provided, mainly, by the
grant of special powers to the Governor.
Federation The Report considered that a formally federal union, including both British India and the
Princely States, was the only long-term solution for a united, autonomous India.
Immediate Recommendations at the Centre - to help the growth of political consciousness in the people,
the franchise should be extended; and the Legislature enlarged. Otherwise, no substantial change was
recommended in the Centre. The Report strongly opposed the introduction of Dyarchy at the Centre. It
should be noted that Simon set great store on having a unanimous report. This could only be done if he
recommended no change at the centre as: the diehards were opposed to any Indian responsibility at the
Centre: the Conservative leadership would oppose any responsibility at the Centre which did not build in
conservative-pro-British control (as they tried to do in the Government of India Act 1935; and, Labour would
oppose the type of gerrymandering at the Centre necessary to meet the requirements of the Conservative
leadership.
Protest and death of Lala Lajpat Rai
Almost immediately with its arrival in Bombay on February 3, 1928, the Simon Commission was confronted
by throngs of protestors. The entire country observed a hartal (strike), and many people turned out to greet
the Commission with black flags. Similar protests occurred in every major Indian city that the seven British
MPs visited. However, one protest against the Simon Commission would gain infamy above all the others.
On October 30, 1928, the Simon Commission arrived in Lahore where, as with the rest of the country, its
arrival was met with massive amounts of protesters and black flags.In the Madras Presidency excluding the
Chief Minister,P. Subaroyan the remaining 2 other Ministers resigned - Dewan Bahadur R.N.Arogyaswamy
Mudaliar and A.Ranganatha Mudaliar. The Lahore protest was led by Indian nationalist Lala Lajpat Rai, who
had moved a resolution against the Commission in the Legislative Assembly of Punjab in February 1928. In
order to make way for the Commission, the local police force began beating protestors with their lathis
(sticks). The police were particularly brutal towards Lala Lajpat Rai, who died later on November 17, 1928.
Aftermath
The Commission published its 2-volume report in May 1930. It proposed the abolition of diarchy and the
establishment of representative government in the provinces. It also recommended that separate communal
electorates be retained, but only until tensions between Hindus and Muslims had died down. In September
1928, ahead of the Commission's release, Mr. Motilal Nehru presented his Nehru Report to counter its
charges that Indians could not find a constitutional consensus among themselves. This report advocated that
India be given dominion status of complete internal self-government.
Noting that educated Indians opposed the Commission and also that communal tensions had increased
instead of decreased, the British government opted for another method of dealing with the constitutional
issues of India. Before the publication of the report, the British government stated that Indian opinion would
henceforth be taken into account, and that the natural outcome of the constitutional process would be
dominion status for India. The outcome of the Simon Commission was the Government of India Act 1935,
which established representative government at the provincial level in India and is the basis of many parts of
the Indian Constitution. In 1937 the first elections were held in the Provinces, resulting in Congress
Governments being returnacted in almost all Provinces.
Members of the Commission
Sir John Simon
Clement Attlee
Harry Levy-Lawson, 1st Viscount Burnham
Edward Cadogan
Vernon Hartshorn
George Lane-Fox
Donald Howard, 3rd Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal