Cripps Mission (1942)
March 23rd, 2008 | by Raja Ghias |By March 1942, Second World War took new and unfavorable turn for the British and their allies. The Japanese advance in Burma was gradually but relentlessly closing the gap between Indian safety and Japanese arms. Singapore, the great allied bastion in the Far East, had fallen. Fortune certainly did not seen to favor the allies.
It was because of theses circumstances that the British Government sent Sir Stafford Cripps, the Lord Privy seal and the leader of the House of Commons and a member of the War Cabinet to India with a draft declaration for discussion with Indian leaders.
Cripps, accompanied by his staff, arrived in New Dehli on 22 March 1942. The same day he addressed a press conference, saying he had been always a great friend of India, and he thought it his duty as a member of the War Cabinet to visit India to help her at a time of crises.
The conclusions agreed upon the Cabinet were embodied in a Draft Declaration, which Cripps brought with him to India. This Declaration was published on 30 March 1942 and became known as Cripps offers. The Draft Declaration of the British Government contained the following proposals:
1. Immediately upon the cessation of hostilities steps shall be taken to set up in India an elected body charged with the task of farming a new constitution for India.
2. Provision shall be made for the participation of the Indian States in the constitution-making body.
3. The British Government undertook to accept and implement forthwith the constitution so farmed, subject to the following conditions:
(a) Any provision of British India might refuse to accept the new constitution and chosen to retain its existing constitutional position, provision being made for its subsequent accession of it so decided.
With such non-acceding Provinces, if they so desired, the British Government would be prepared to agree upon a new constitution, giving them the same full status as the Indian Union.
(b) The constitution-making body would conclude a treaty with the British Government, coverning all necessary matters arising out of the complete transfer of responsibility from British to Indian hands and guaranteeing; but this treaty would not impose any restriction on the power of the Indian Union to decide in the future its relationship to the Member States of the British Common wealth.
4. The members of the Lower Houses of the Provincial Legislatures would elect the Constitution- making body by the system of proportional representation.
5. Until the new constitution could be framed the British Government would remain responsible for the defence of India, but it desired and invited the immediate and effective participation of the leaders of the principal sections of the Indian people in the counsels of their country, of the Common wealth and of the United Nations.
Muslim League rejected the offer on the ground that non-accession clause did not go far enough to produce the Pakistan of their dreams. The Congress rejected the offer on the advice of Gnadhi, who regarded it as “a post-dated cheque on a failing bank”. The Sikhs also straight way rejected it and called it a blow to the integrity of India and betrayal of their cause.
Of the Congress leaders only Chakravati Rajagopalacharia favored acceptance of the Cripps and formed a national front for prosecuting the war. He saw clearly that the main obstacle in the way of Indian’s freedom and security was lack of agreement between the Congress and Muslim League. Under his leadership the Congress members in the Madras legislature passed a resolution in April 1942, recommending acceptance of Pakistan in principle. The leaders in control of the Congress party rejected the proposal and Rajagopalacharia was driven into exile.
