Lord Willingdon: Governor General and Viceroy of India (1931-1936)

Lord Willingdon served as 22nd Viceroy and Governor General of India from 18 April 1931 to 18 April 1936. Important events of this period include Second and Third Round Table Conferences, relaunching of Civil Disobedience Movement, Communal Award by Ramsay MacDonald (1932), Poona Pact (1932), Government of India Act 1935, and Separation of Burma from India.

Second Round Table conference 1931

The Second Round Table started on September 7, 1931 in England. Gandhi represented Indian National Congress and Sarojini Nayudu represented Indian women. This conference saw an overwhelming number of Indian delegates including included loyalists, communalists, careerists, big landlords, representatives of the princes and others. In this conference, Gandhi iterated the need of partnership between Britain and India as between two equal nations. The main points put forward by Gandhi included:

• A responsible government must be established immediately and in full, both at the centre and in the provinces.
• Congress alone represented political India
• The untouchables were Hindus and should not be treated as a “minority”,
• There should be no separate electorates or special safeguards for Muslims or other minorities.

However, government said that Congress did not represent the interests of all India. The communal issue was also not solved as points raised by Gandhi were rejected by other communities of India. The conference deadlocked and all minorities {except Sikhs} such as Muslims, Dalits, Christians, Anglo-Indians, Europeans demanded separate electorates. The talks failed and ended on December 11, 1931.

Civil Disobedience Movement – Second Phase 1931-1934

Meanwhile, the political turmoil worsened in India and there was a general disturbance in Bengal, United Provinces and Punjab. The Viceroy had issued a number of ordinances virtually imposing “Civil Martial Law”.

Once Gandhi returned from London, Congress decided to resume the Civil Disobedience Movement. However, within a week Gandhi was arrested. In next four months some 80 thousand people were hailed. Protests started all over India. The main activities in protests included picketing the liquor shops, burning of foreign cloths and processions.

The government dealt with the movement with rough hand. The congress and other political parties were declared illegal. Offices and funds of the parties were seized. All Ashrams of Gandhi were occupied by Police. In a few months, the movement was crushed. It was suspended in May 1933 and was withdrawn in May 1934.

During this phase of CDM, there was an uprising in Alwar Rajasthan, where Mevs rose against the local raja {thus called Mev Uprising} against his revenue enhancement measures. The Raja was sent to Europe and his administration came under central government for many years. Some other areas also saw similar uprisings.

Communal Award and Poona Pact, 1932

When CDM was in full swing, the British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald announced the Communal Award {aka MacDonald Award} on August 16, 1932 proposing minority representation in the legislatures. As per this award: (1) seats of provincial legislatures were to be doubled (2) separate electorates for communities was to be retained (3) Muslims were to be granted a weightage wherever they were in minority (4) 3% seats were to be reserved in all provinces except NWFP (5) depressed class, dalits and untouchables were to be declared as minority (6) allocation was to be made to labour, landlords, traders and industrialists.

In effect, the communal award accorded separate electorates for Muslims, Europeans, Sikhs (in Punjab), Indian Christians, Anglo Indians, Depressed Classes, and even Marathas. (Some seats in Bombay were given to Marathas).

The implicit objective of the Communal Award was to strike down nationalism and create parochial loyalties towards communities and different spheres of interests.

For Gandhi, the most painful aspect of Communal Accord was provision of separate electorate for depressed classes, because this would divide the Hindus and untouchables were integral part of Hindu community. The separate electorates for untouchables were mainly because of active efforts of Dr. B R Ambedkar who had put such demands in the round table conferences. {Note that Dr. Ambedkar attended all the three Round Table Conferences}.

Gandhi {from Yarawada Jail} wrote a letter to the Prime Minister that if this award, so far it is related to depressed classes, is not changed; he would sit on a fast unto death in the jail itself. On 20 September 1932, Gandhi sat on fast unto death. The Hindu leaders approached Dr. Ambedkar to negotiate on the matter.

On 25 September, 1932, there was a pact between Gandhi and Ambedkar, which was called Poona Pact. Via this pact, Ambedkar agreed on Joint Electorates while Gandhi agreed for reservation of seats {double in number than existing in provincial legislatures} for depressed classes in provincial classes and adequate representation of Dalits in civil services.

In summary, by communal award, the British were successful in diverting attention from Civil Disobedience Movement and created a dissension among the Hindus. Larger issues faded into the background for some time and what a common man got was confusion on Poona pact.

Third Round Table Conference, November 1932

In November 1932, a third round table was again held in London. Congress was not invited so not attended. In Britain, Labour party also did not attend. Only some 46 people attended this conference. In this, college student Chaudhary Rahmat Ali proposed the name of Pakistan, the new “holy land” specially carved out from India for the Muslims.

At the end of this conference, a White Paper was released on the basis of which the Government of India Act, 1935 was drafted. However, Congress insisted that only satisfactory alternative was a constitution drawn up by the Constituent Assembly which should be elected as far as possible on the basis of Adult Suffrage.

Bihar Earthquake 1934

The last major event during the times of Lord Willingdon was the catastrophic 8.4 scale Earthquake in Bihar. This earthquake completely destroyed the Munger and Muzaffarpur area. Its epicenter was in Nepal and almost whole of the Bihar state got affected. Life of some 40,000 people was lost.