Question

 When and why was the Simon Commission appointed?

Answer 1

Hint: Simon Commission is also known as Simon Commission, the Indian Statutory Commission was a group of seven Members of Parliament under the chairmanship of Sir John Simon. The commission arrived in British India in 1928.

Complete answer:

Simon Commission was formed to analyse the working of the government of India Act, 1919, and suggest further constitutional and administrative reforms within the British colonial rule of India. Congress was deciding to boycott the Simon Commission because No Indian was included in it. It was an ‘all-white’ commission. It rejected the demand for Swaraj. This commission was a gaggle of seven MPs from Britain who came to India in 1928 to review constitutional reforms and make recommendations to the government.

This Commission was Government of India Act 1919 which announced that in 10 years from 1919 a royal commission will be set up to report on the working of the act. Diarchy was introduced in India by the 1919 Act. The Indian leaders and people wanted a reform of the diarchy form of Government. The Conservative Party-led government within the UK feared a defeat at the hands of the Labour Party within the elections due. So, they hastened the appointment of a commission in 1928, even though the commission was due only in 1929 as per the 1919 Act. The Commission was opposed by many Indians like Nehru, Gandhi, Jinnah, the Muslim League, and Indian National Congress because it only included 7 members of the British Parliament but no Indians. People were chanting the slogan, ‘Simon Go Back’.

Thus the Simon Commission was dispatched to India in 1928 to review the the Government of India Act 1919. The Commission, appointed by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, did not include any Indian delegates.

Note: The Indian Statutory Commission named the Simon Commission after coming to the chairmanship of Sir John Simon. The Simon Commission was introduced to abolish Diarchy. The objective of the commission was to replace diarchy with complete provincial autonomy.