The Motilal Nehru Report 1928

• IAS NEXT, Lucknow
• 24, Nov 2022

The Motilal Nehru Report 1928

The Motilal Nehru Report 1928 was a report by a committee headed by Pt. Motilal Nehru.

This committee was created when Lord Birkenhead, Secretary of State of India asked the Indian leaders to draft a constitution for the country.

The report, which demanded a Dominion Status for India was considered by the Congress.

Background

Congress in its annual session of 1928 held at Calcutta.

While Jawahar Lal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose were in favour of complete swaraj, most of leaders were satisfied with the dominion status for the time being.

At the annual session of the Congress in Madras in December 1927, a resolution was passed which advocated the boycott of the Simon Commission “at every stage and in every form “. Other factions of the politicians also joined the boycott.

On February 3, 1928 a complete Hartal was observed in Mumbai on the day when Simon Commission landed in Bombay. Wherever the commission goes, people came out in processions and show him “Simon Go Back”.

But the commission had to do its duty.

It visited twice in 1928 and 1929 and finally submitted its report in May 1930.

But, it was not to be accepted by the Indian Leaders.

The secretary of state for India was Lord Birkenhead, who threw a challenge to these congressmen to prepare a draft of constitution of India.

The political leaders accepted the challenge and this was followed by a call for All party conference in February and May 1928.

The outcome of the All-Parties Conference was that a committee was appointed under the Chairman ship of Motilal Nehru, to draft the proposed constitution.

Jawaharlal Nehru was secretary of the committee and Ali Imam, Tej Bahadur Sapru, M.S. Aney, Mangal Singh, Shuaib Qureshi, Subhas Chandra Bose and G. R. Pradhan were its members

 The committee prepared a draft constitution called The draft constitution was prepared which was called

-Nehru Committee Report. This report was submitted on August 28, 1928 at the Lucknow conference of all the parties. But Jinnah Voted against this report.

 

Key Points of Nehru Report

The main points of the Nehru report were as follows:

• India would be given Dominion status. This means independence within the British Commonwealth.
• India will be a federation which shall have a bicameral legislature at the centre and Ministry would be responsible to the legislature.
• Governor General of India would be the constitutional head of India and will have the same powers as that of British Crown.
• There will be no separate electorate.
• The draft report also defined the citizenship and fundamental rights.

Responses of Indian leaders after Nehru Report

The issue of communal representation was controversial.

In December 1927, many Muslim leaders met Motilal Nehru at Delhi and suggested a few proposals.

These were accepted by Congress at its Madras session. These ‘Delhi Proposals’ were:

•1/3rd representation of Muslims in the Central Legislature.
• Representation to Muslims in Punjab and Bengal in proportion to their populations.
• Formation of three new provinces with a Muslim majority – Sindh, Baluchistan and North-West Frontier Province (NWFP)

However, the Hindu Mahasabha was opposed to the formation of the new provinces and the communal representation in Bengal and Punjab. They pressed for a strictly unitary system.

At the all-party conference held in Calcutta in 1928 to discuss the report,
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.

Jinnah’s Fourteen Points

• Federal constitution with residual powers with the provinces.
• Provincial autonomy.
• No constitutional amendment without the agreement of the states.
• All legislatures and elected bodies to have adequate Muslim representation without reducing Muslim majority in a province to minority or equality.
• Adequate Muslim representation of Muslims in the services and in selfgoverning bodies.
• 1/3rd representation of Muslims in the Central Legislature.
• 1/3rd Muslim members in the central and state cabinets.
• Separate electorates.
• No bill to be passed in any legislature if 3/4th of a minority community considers it against its interests.
• Any reorganisation of territories not to affect the Muslim majority in Bengal, Punjab and the NWFP.
• Separation of Sindh from Bombay Presidency.
• Constitutional reforms in the NWFP and Baluchistan.
• Full religion freedom for all communities.
• Protection of the religious, cultural, educational and language rights of
 

The novel features of the Nehru Committee Report were almost accepted by the Indian leaders.

The next session of the Congress was held in Calcutta in December 1928.

In this session, the Nehru Report was accepted by a majority vote.

The congress gave an ultimatum to the British Government to accept the recommendation of the report by December 31, 1929, and also threatened for another mass movement in case the report is not accepted.

The report was not accepted by the Government.