History (Modern India History :- Communal Award, Poona Pact & Government Of India Act Of 1935)

Modern India History :- Communal Award, Poona Pact & Government Of India Act Of 1935

Lord Willingdon (1931-1936)

 *The second Around Table Conference, 1931

 *Restarting of the Disobedience Movement, 1931

 *The communal award, 1932 & the Poona act

 *Third Round Table Conference, 1932

 *The Government of India Of 1935

Communal Awards

 *The Communal Award was announced by the British Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, in August 1932.

 *This was yet another expression of British policy of divide and rule.

 *The Muslims, Sikhs and Christians had already been recognised as minorities.

 *The Communal Award declared the depressed classes also to be minorities, and entitled them to separate electorates’.

Gandhi’s Reaction to Communal Awards

 *The effort to separate the depressed classes from the rest of the Hindus by treating them as separate political entities was vehemently opposed by all the nationalists.

 *Gandhi saw the Communal Award as an attack on Indian unity and nationalism.

 *Once the depressed classes were treated as a separate political entity, he argued, the question to abolishing untouchability would get undermined

 *He said that separate electorates would ensure that the untouchables remained untouchables in perpetuity

- Gandhi demanded that the depressed classes be elected through joint and if possible a wider electorate through universal franchise, while expressing no objection to the demand for a larger number of reserved seats. And to press for his demands, he went on a fast unto death in the Yeravada jail.

Poona Pact

 *Finally, an agreement was reached between Dr Ambedkar and Gandhi, Known as the Poona Pact

 *Accordingly, seats reserved for the depressed classes were increased from 71 to 147 in provincial legislatures and 18 % of the total in the central legislature.

 *The Poona Pact was accepted by the Government as an amendment to the Communal Award.

B R Ambedkar

 *He was a jurist, a statesman, a social reformer and a leader of the depressed classes.

 *He was born in Mahar caste in Mahu (M P) in 1891.

 *He went for higher studies to England and America.

 *He was the first graduate of Mahar caste.

 *He participated in all the three Round Table Conferences.

 *He signed Poona Pact with Gandhi Ji in 1932.

 *From 1942 to 1946, he was in the Executive Council of the Governor General.

 *He organized the Indian Labour Party, Scheduled Caste Federation and People’s Education Society.

 *He was the chairman of the Drafting Committee of our Constitution.

 *He also piloted the Hindu Code through the Indian Legislature.

 *From 1947 to 1951, he was a law minister in Nehru’s cabinet.

 *Towards the end of his life he embraced Buddhism.

The Government of India Act, 1935

- Government of India Act of 1935 was passed on the basis of –

 *the report of the Simon Commission

 *the outcome of the Round Table Conferences

 *the White Paper issued by the British Government in 1933

Main features of this act were – 

 *Provision for the establishment of an All India Federation at the Centre, consisting of the Provinces of British India and the Princely States

 - It did not come into existence since the Princely States refused to give their consent for the union

 *Division of powers into three lists viz. Federal, Provincial and Concurrent.

 *Introduction of Diarchy at the Centre

 - The Governor-General and his councilors administered the “Reserved subjects”

 - The Council of Ministers were responsible for the “Transferred” subjects

 *Abolition of Diarchy and the introduction of Provincial Autonomy in the provinces.

 *The Governor was made the head of the Provincial Executive but he was expected (not bound) to run the administration on the advice of the Council of ministers.

 *Provincial Legislatures of Bengal, Madras, Bombay, United Provinces, Bihar and Assam were made bicameral.

 *Extension of the principle of Separate Electorates to Sikhs, Europeans, Indian Christians and Anglo Indians

 *Establishment of a Federal Court at Delhi with a Chief Justice and 6 judges.