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

poona pact

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.
In every province out of the educational grant an adequate sum shall be ear-marked for providing educational facilities to the members of Depressed Classes.
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.