The Nehru Report, Delhi Proposals, and Jinnah’s Fourteen Demands
While the Simon Commission carried out its work in isolation from Indian public opinion, India’s leading political parties attempted to forge a common constitutional programme of their own. This effort produced the Nehru Report of August 1928 — the first major Indian attempt to draft a constitutional framework for the country — along with the earlier Delhi Proposals and the subsequent Jinnah’s Fourteen Points, all of which shaped the trajectory of Hindu-Muslim constitutional negotiations in the years before independence.
Background: Lord Birkenhead’s Challenge and the All Parties Conference
- The rejection of the all-white Simon Commission by Indian leaders led Lord Birkenhead, the Secretary of State for India, to deliver a speech in the House of Lords challenging Indians to draft a constitution — implying that they could not produce one acceptable to leaders across India’s various communities.
- In response to this challenge, an All Parties Conference, presided over by Dr. M.A. Ansari, met in February 1928 and appointed a subcommittee under the chairmanship of Motilal Nehru — with his son, Jawaharlal Nehru, acting as secretary — to draft a constitution.
- The committee included nine other members, among them two Muslims.
- However, the final report was signed by only eight persons: Motilal Nehru, Ali Imam, Tej Bahadur Sapru, M.S. Aney, Mangal Singh, Shuaib Qureshi, Subhas Chandra Bose, and G.R. Pradhan.
- Shuaib Qureshi disagreed with some of the recommendations even while signing.
- This effort marked the first major attempt by Indians themselves to draft a constitutional framework for the country.
- The Committee’s recommendations were unanimous except on one point: while the majority favoured “dominion status” as the basis of the Constitution, a section wanted “complete independence” instead — with the majority granting this section liberty of action on the issue.
Main Recommendations of the Nehru Report
- The Report confined itself to British India, envisaging a future federal link-up with the princely states. For British India, it recommended:
- Dominion status on the lines of self-governing dominions as the desired form of government — a position that dismayed the younger, more militant section of the Congress, prominently including Jawaharlal Nehru.
- Rejection of separate electorates, which had formed the basis of constitutional reform until then; in their place, joint electorates were proposed, with reserved seats for Muslims at the centre and in provinces where they were in a minority — but not in provinces where Muslims were in a majority, such as Punjab and Bengal — in proportion to the Muslim population, with the right to contest additional seats.
- A federal form of government, with residuary powers vested in the centre.
- A detailed description of the machinery of government, including a proposal to create a Supreme Court, and a suggestion that provinces be reorganized on a linguistic basis.
- Nineteen fundamental rights, including equal rights for women, the right to form unions, and universal adult suffrage.
- Responsible government at both the centre and in the provinces.
- Full protection for the cultural and religious interests of Muslims — including the creation of new linguistic provinces with a view to accommodating Muslim-majority regions.
- Complete dissociation of state from religion.
- The language of the Commonwealth was to be Indian, writable in Devanagari, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, or Urdu script, with the continued use of English also permitted.
- Proposed structure of the Indian Parliament:
- The Senate: 200 members, elected for 7 years by the Provincial Councils.
- The House of Representatives: 500 members, elected for 5 years through adult franchise.
- The Governor-General — appointed by the British Government but paid from Indian revenues — was to act on the advice of an Executive Council collectively responsible to Parliament.
- Provincial Councils were to be elected on adult franchise for 5 years, with the Governor (British-appointed) acting on the advice of the Provincial Executive Council.
- The Nehru Report, alongside the Simon Commission’s report, was made available to participants at the three Round Table Conferences (1930–1932). However, the eventual Government of India Act, 1935 owed much to the Simon Commission’s recommendations and little, if anything, to the Nehru Report.
The Delhi Proposals (December 1927)
- Communal differences soon disrupted what had begun as a unified drafting effort, drawing the Nehru Report into controversy over the question of communal representation.
- Earlier, in December 1927, a large gathering of Muslim leaders had met in Delhi at a Muslim League session and formulated four proposals to be incorporated into the future constitution. These, accepted by the Congress at its Madras session (December 1927), came to be known as the Delhi Proposals:
- Joint electorates in place of separate electorates, with reserved seats for Muslims.
- One-third representation for Muslims in the Central Legislative Assembly.
- Representation for Muslims in Punjab and Bengal in proportion to their population.
- Formation of three new Muslim-majority provinces — Sindh, Baluchistan, and the North-West Frontier Province.
- The Hindu Mahasabha strongly opposed both the creation of new Muslim-majority provinces and proportional Muslim representation in Punjab and Bengal (which would have secured Muslim control of both legislatures), and instead demanded a strictly unitary constitutional structure.
- This opposition complicated the negotiations. During the deliberations of the All Parties Conference, the Muslim League dissociated itself, holding firm to its demand for reserved seats for Muslims, particularly in the Central Legislature and in Muslim-majority provinces.
- Motilal Nehru and his fellow drafters thus faced a genuine dilemma: accommodating Muslim communal demands risked losing Hindu communalist support, while satisfying the latter risked alienating Muslim leadership.
Concessions Made to Hindu Communal Opinion
- To manage this dilemma, the Nehru Report ultimately made the following concessions toward Hindu communal opinion:
- Joint electorates proposed everywhere, but with reservation for Muslims only in provinces where they were a minority.
- Sindh to be detached from Bombay only after dominion status was granted, and subject to weightage for the Hindu minority in Sindh.
- A broadly unitary political structure, since residual powers were vested in the centre rather than the provinces.
Jinnah’s Proposed Amendments (Calcutta, December 1928)
- At the All Parties Conference in Calcutta (December 1928), convened to consider the Nehru Report, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, on behalf of the Muslim League, proposed several amendments — of which the following were rejected:
- One-third representation for Muslims in the Central Legislature.
- Reservation for Muslims in the Bengal and Punjab legislatures in proportion to their population, until adult suffrage was established.
- Residual powers to the provinces (rather than the centre).
- One of Jinnah’s demands, however, was accepted: that the constitution could not be amended unless passed separately by both Houses of Parliament with a four-fifths majority, and then approved unanimously in a joint session of both Houses.
- With his three principal demands unaccommodated, Jinnah returned to the Shafi faction of the Muslim League, and in March 1929, put forward fourteen points that would go on to form the basis of all future Muslim League propaganda.
Jinnah’s Fourteen Demands (1929)
- Federal Constitution with residual powers vested in the provinces.
- Provincial autonomy.
- No constitutional amendment by the centre without the concurrence of the states constituting the Indian federation.
- Adequate Muslim representation in all legislatures and elected bodies in every province, without reducing any existing Muslim majority to a minority or equality.
- Adequate representation for Muslims in the services and in self-governing bodies.
- One-third Muslim representation in the Central Legislature.
- One-third Muslim representation in any cabinet at the centre or in the provinces.
- Separate electorates.
- No bill or resolution in any legislature to be passed if three-fourths of a minority community considers it against their interests.
- Any territorial redistribution not to affect the Muslim majority in Punjab, Bengal, and the NWFP.
- Separation of Sindh from Bombay.
- Constitutional reforms in the NWFP and Baluchistan.
- Full religious freedom for all communities.
- Protection of Muslim rights in religion, culture, education, and language.
Response of the Congress and the Muslim League
- On 31 December 1928, the Congress, at its annual session, adopted a resolution welcoming the All Parties Conference Report, and affirmed that if this constitution was approved in its entirety by the British Parliament within a year — by 31 December 1929 — the Congress would accept it. If not, the Congress would launch a campaign of non-violent non-cooperation and non-payment of taxes.
- Three months later, the Subjects Committee of the Muslim League approved the Nehru Report, subject to the safeguards Jinnah had proposed at the Calcutta Convention.
- However, the open session of the Muslim League at Delhi on 31 March 1929 rejected the Nehru Report outright, affirming instead Jinnah’s now-famous “fourteen points” as the minimum conditions acceptable to Muslims for any political settlement.
Response of the Younger Section of the Congress
- The Nehru Report drew criticism not only from the Muslim League, Hindu Mahasabha, and Sikh communalists, but also from the younger section of the Congress, led by Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose.
- This younger section viewed the Report’s espousal of dominion status as a step backward, and the subsequent developments at the All Parties Conference only strengthened their criticism of the idea.
- Nehru and Bose ultimately rejected the Congress’s modified goal of dominion status and jointly established the Independence for India League.
