Simla Conference (1945)
March 30th, 2008 | by Raja Ghias |After the failure of Jinnah-Gandhi negotiations, another attempt at reconciliation was made in June, 1945, this time by government, when British government presented its own proposals in the shape of the Lord Wavell plan. Lord Wavell invited representatives of major political parties to discuss his plan. The conference began in Simla on 25 June and lasted till 14 July. The chief proposals of the plan may be summed up as follows:
1. The Executive Council shall be reconstituted to have a proportion and balanced the main communities including equal proportions of Muslims and caste Hindus.
2. The viceroy will call into conference a member of leading India politicians and invite them to give a list of names for appointment.
3. The members of the Executive Council shall be Indians with the exception of the viceroy and the commander in chief.
4. Noting contained in any of these proposals will effect the relations of the crown with the Indian states.
5. If such cooperation can be achieved at the center it will no doubt be reflected in the provinces.
6. The External Affairs for the British India shall be placed in the charge of an Indian member and that fully accredited representatives shall be appointed for the representation of India abroad.
The members of the conference were agreed that in the Executive Council there should be five caste Hindus and Five Muslims but conference to achieve anything more as there was a deadlock over the Muslim League’s demand that all five Muslim members of the Executive Council should be taken from the Muslim League. The Congress stand was that out of five Muslims one should be a Unionist Muslim, one a nationalist and three Muslim Leaguers. The viceroy said he was prepared to include four members of the Muslim League, but the fifth should be a Unionist Muslim. The attempt failed because Jinnah not only wanted parity between the Muslims and Hindus but also insisted on the Muslim League nominating all Muslim Councilors.
