Results of the Second Round Table Conference

Results of the Second Round Table Conference

Question:-Describe the convention and results of the Second Round Table Conference.

The Round Table Conferences of 1930–32 was organized by the British Government to bring about constitutional reforms in India. It was conducted on the recommendation of the Simon Commission of May, 1930. The first one failed as the Indian National Congress, largest political party could not take part in it because most of the leaders were in jail. The settlements did not work and the Civil Disobedience Movement went on.

- Congress Participation

After the Dandi March, the British were forced to take the Indians seriously and, so, Lord Irwin signed the Gandhi-Irwin pact. One of the clauses of this pact made Congress a participant of the Second Round Table Conference as the Indian government realized that without the Congress decisions could not be taken.

- The Civil Disobedience Movement was discontinued and the Second Round Table Conference was held in London in 1931.

- Change of government in Britain

Just two weeks earlier the Labor Government in Britain had come down and the Conservative Government under Ramsay McDonald had risen which encouraged the McDonald's Communal Award for the minority.

- Indian Delegates

Mahatma Gandhi, accompanied by Sarojini Naidu, Madan Mohan Malaviya, Ghanshyam Das Birla, Muhammad Iqbal, Sir Mirza Ismail (Diwan of Mysore), S.K. Dutta and Sir Syed Ali Imam, were invited from India to participate. Gandhi was the sole official representative of the Congress.

Gandhi made three claims:

1. The Congress alone represented political India

2. The Untouchables were Hindus and they should not be named as a “minority” group three claims

3. Separate electorates or special safeguards should not be there for Muslims or minority communities

- Dissensions among delegates

However, the other delegates did not agree to these claims. And such dissension between different groups was the main reason for the failure of this conference. About the last claim, he clashed with the Muslim representation. And about the claim about the untouchables, their leader Dr. B.R. Ambedkar opposed Gandhi. There dissensions were later settled in the Poona Act.

- Ultimate failure

Consequently, there were no substantial changes in the constitution. When returned to India, the civil unrest had spread throughout again, and Gandhi was arrested with a few other Congress leaders. Sind was created as a separate province, and the interests of minorities were safeguarded by the McDonald's Communal Award for the minority.