Introduction

• Under the pressure of the sustained struggle of the Indian people, the British Government promulgated the Government of India Act, 1935.
• Under the new constitution, elections were held in various provinces in 1937.
• The Indian National Congress formed ministries in seven provinces.

• Despite having limited powers, the Congress ministries took beneficial measures for the people:

  • Lifting the ban on the press.
  • Releasing political prisoners.
  • Curbing police powers.
  • Encouraging welfare activities.
• The beginning of the Second World War in 1939 changed the situation.
• The British Government decided to drag India into the war without considering Indian opinion.
• In protest, the Congress ministries resigned from the provinces.
• Gandhi decided to begin a limited Satyagraha on an individual basis, with selected individuals participating in every locality.
• This individual Satyagraha was planned to express Indians’ strong political feelings against British policy.

Cripps Mission

In March 1942, the Cripps mission led by Stafford Cripps was dispatched to India with constitutional proposals in order to gain Indian support for the war effort. Stafford Cripps, the leader of the House of Commons and a member of the British War Cabinet, was a left-wing Labourite who actively supported the Indian national movement.

Background

• Japan pushed beyond the eastern borders of India, and the fall of Burma was a war jolt against the British.
• There was an imminent threat of the Japanese invasion of India and Indian support was crucial to the British war effort.
• The Viceroy Lord Linlithgow declared India a war party in the British Empire when the Second World War broke out in 1939. It was done without the consultation of the Indians and led to major congressional demonstrations.
• The party leaders, who ruled 7 provincial governments, resigned. It was celebrated as "Deliverance Day by the Muslim League.
• Britain was under pressure from the US and other allied leaders to implement its own colonial policies in India, as well as to gain Indian participation in the Allied war effort.
• This has also prompted the British Government to send Cripps to India.

Reasons for Cripps Mission to come to India

• The British suffered setbacks in South-East Asia. As a result of this, India faced an invasion by the Japanese.
• The British allies, namely the United States, the Soviet Union, and China, forced Britain to obtain Indian cooperation for the war.
• India agreed to support Britain in the war in exchange for complete independence from Britain soon after the war.

Main Proposal

• There would be the formation of an Indian union with Dominion status.
• That Indian union would be free to choose its relations with the Commonwealth and international organizations such as the United Nations.
• The Indian defence sector was to be under British control.
• The governor general's powers were preserved.
• A constituent assembly was formed to draft a new constitution, and it was to be partly elected by provincial assemblies and partly nominated by the Princes.
• The British government would accept the new constitution under two conditions:
  • any province unwilling to join the Union could have its own constitution and form its own Union, and
  • the new constitution-making body and the British government would negotiate a treaty to effect the transfer of power and to protect racial and religious minorities.