WHAT WAS THE WAVELL PLAN 1945 ? AND WHY IT HAD NOT ACCEPTED BY INDIAN POLITICAL PARTIES?
The Wavell Plan
In the month of October 1943 the British Government decided to replace Lord Linlithgow with Lord Wavell as the Viceroy of India.
As according to the British Government Lord Wavell before assuming the charge as the Viceroy of India had worked as the Chief of the Indian army so he has good understanding in relation to the Indian Situations and can give better solution to solve the deadlock situation for the INC and Muslim League.
Lord Wavell after studying the basic problems in relation to the deadlock situations had visited London and discussed his suggestions with the British Government.
So after making discussions with the British Government a
plan was made which becomes famous by the name the Wavell Plan 1945.
This plan contained some following suggestions:
1. If all the Indian political parties becomes ready to help the British Government in the World War then after the end of the World War the British Government would introduce Constitutional Reforms in India for the benefit of Indians.
2. After the end of the War, a new executive council of the viceroy will be constituted and the number of its members would also be increased.
3. In that executive counsel of the Viceroy, there would be equal representation of Hindus and Muslims as well as representation will also be given to low-caste Hindus, Shudders and Sikhs.
4. Except the Viceroy and the commander-in-chief all the other members in the Executive Council would be Indians.
5. An Indian would be appointed as a member of Foreign Affairs in the Council. However, a British Commissioner would be appointed to look after the matters relating to the trade.
6. Till the transfer of power from the British Government to the Indian Hands, the defence of India would be in the hands of the British Authority.
7. Viceroy would convene a meeting of the Indian politicians including the leaders of INC and the Muslim League so that they could nominate the names of the members in the new executive council of the Viceroy.
8. It was also suggested in this Plan that if this plan will be approved in respect of the Central Government then the same type of popular ministries comprising of political leaders would be formed in all the provinces.
What happened at
the Shimla Conference?
Lord Wavell invited 21 political leaders including Mahatma Gandhi and M A Jinnah to Shimla, which was the summer capital of British India to discuss the Wavell Plan on 25th of June, 1945.
But the said Conference met with the failure because the Muslim League and the INC could not settle their differences.
Jinnah insisted that only Muslim League’s members could be the Muslim representatives in the Council, and opposed to the Congress nominating Muslim members. This was because Jinnah wanted the Muslim League to be the sole representative of Muslims in India to which the INC would never agree.
In the Wavell Plan, there were 6 Muslim representatives out of 14 Members, which was more than the Muslim’s share in the population of India as at that as well the population of the Muslims in the total population was only 25 per cent. Beside this, the Muslim League also wanted the power of veto in respect of any constitutional reform which it believed was not in their interest. INC opposed this unreasonable demand of Muslim League as well.
Moreover, Mr. Jinnah refused to give the names to the Council unless the government acknowledged that only the Muslim League was the exclusive representative of Indian Muslims.
Thus, the Wavell Plan, was dissolved with the failure of the
conference.
.
To discuss the proposal with the Indian Leaders, a Conference was called at Simla on June 29, 1945 to which were invited the prominent leaders of the Congress, the Muslim League, Sikhs, Scheduled Castes, Europeans, the Unionist Party of the Punjab, Gandhi Ji and Mr. Jinnah.
But this Conference, however also met with failure.
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