Nehru Report was a report on Constitutional Reforms presented by Mr Moti Lal Nehru in 1928.
Background:
When the recommendations of the Simon Commission were presented in the parliament in October, 1927, for approval, India was passing through a political turmoil of unprecedented intensity. The Congress Muslim League had rejected recommendations of the Simon Commission and stood face to face with regard to the future constitutional pattern of India. Lord Birkenhead, the Secretary of State for India was greatly annoyed with diversed public opinion prevailing in India. He was very much offended on the treatment extended to the Simon Commission. When the Indian poli parties rejected the recommendations of Simon Commission he declared in parliament, “The Indians are so divided, opposed and fed up of each other they are unable to produce a unanimously accepted constitution.”
The statement of Lord Birkenhead stirred the vanity of Indian political leaders who accepted the challenge to produce unanimous proposal on the constitution. An all parties conference was convened on February, 1928 to prepare a draft for the constitutional reforms. The conference appointed a Committee to determine the principles for future constitution of India. The Committe was presided over by Moti Lal Nehru, the leader of the Swarajya Party. Other members of the Committee were Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, G.R. Pardhan, M.R. Jaikar, N.A. Joshi, Sir Ali Imam and Shoaib Quershi (Muslim member). Representation of the Muslims on the Committee was of insignificant nature. The Muslim membe were unrepresentative of their community a had long ago been rejected. The Muslim members attended only one meeting and put their signatures when the report was placed before them. The report submitted by the Committee is known as Nehru Report which contained the following recommendations:
Salient Features of Nehru Report:
1. Full responsible Government on the model of the constitution of the self governing dominions to be introduced in the sub-continent.
2. Separate electorate should be replaced by the joint electorate with reservation of seats for the minorities in proportion their population.
3. The foreign affairs, defence and army should be placed under the control parliament and Viceroy.
4. Sindh should be separated from Bombay to a new province if it were capable bearing its expenditures.
5. Full provincial status should be given N.W.F.P. and Balochistan.
6. Unitary form of Government to be established in the Centre.
7. Hindi should be made official language.
The Nehru Report was published in August 1928. It had failed to make an impact on the public as it aired the Hindu-Muslim rift. It recommended a full responsible Government in the Centre in which the majority was to have a sway in political authority.
The Report clearly reflected the Hindu prejudicial approach and was based on anti Muslim sentiments. The Muslims had a shocking effect over the recommendations of the report. The members of the Central and Provincial Assemblies were not prepared to agree to the report. There could hardly be a reasonable person who would agree to the degrading proposals of the report.
The Congress immediately accepted the report and issued a threat to the Government to launch a non-cooperation movement against the Government if the report was not implemented by December, 1929. The Muslims were completely disillusioned to find the Congress coming out with its true nature as a Hindu body.
An All Parties National Convention was held in Calcutta, in December, 1928 to consider the Nehru Report. The Quaid-i Azam proposed three amendments in the Nehru Report which were as follows:
1. 1/3 representation for the Muslims in the Central legislature.
2. Muslim representations in the Punjab and Bengal on the basis of population.
3. Residuary powers be given to the provinces instead of Central Government
The amendments proposed by the Quaid-i-Azam were very reasonable and did not reflect a sharp contrast of ideas and point of view. Dr. Ambedkar says,
“These amendments show, that the gulf between the Hindus and Muslims was not in any way a wide one. Yet there was no desire to bridge the same.” All these amendments, proposed by the Quaid-i-Azam when put to vote, were rejected by the Hindu majority. The Quaid-i
Azam declared, “The Nehru Committee has adopted a narrow-minded policy to ruin the political future of the Muslims. I regret to declare that the report is extremely ambiguous and does not deserve to be implemented.”
An All Parties Muslim Conference was held in Delhi under the Chairmanship of Sir Agha Khan in January, 1929. The conference
put up the following demands from the Muslim community.
1. Separate electorate should be retained for the Muslims.
2. Federal system should be introduced in the Centre with full provincial autonomy.
3. 1/3 seats should be given to the Muslims in Central legislature.up The Muslims should be given
4. representation in Central and provincial ministries.
5. Muslim majority should be revived in the Muslim majority provinces.