Cripps Proposals 1942
1942 saw the advancement of British forces in India. Apart from that there was a pressure from the American President F. Roosevelt and Chinese premier Chiang Kai-Shek to concede the real political power to the people of India. The fall of Burma was enough to frighten the British and when the Japanese army began to knock the doors of India after Burma and Singapore, the war cabinet of Britain sent Sir Stafford Cripps to India on March 1942 to elicit cooperation from the Indians. It promised for the fulfillment of past promises to self government to Indian people.
The proposal of the Cripps mission was that:
“India would be a dominion associated with the United kingdom”.
It promised that immediately after the war is stopped, steps would be taken up to set up an elected body charged with the task of making the constitution for India and provisions would be made so that the Indian states could participate in the framing of the constitution.
- Through the Cripps mission for the first time, British government recognized the “Right of Dominion’ for India.
- Indians were given promise of liberty to frame their own constitution.The Cripps mission which was a move to appease the Congress, Muslim League and Indian states at the same time was rejected by all of them.Gandhi wanted an undivided India, Muslim league wanted a separate Pakistan , Congress demanded a full control over defense “stating that a slave country cannot have any inspiration” .Muslim league said there was inadequate representation of Muslims.Sikhs rejected because of non accession of provinces.Hindu Mahasabha rejected because the “Pakistan Virus” was alive.The Dalits and depressed classed also rejected because there was nothing new for them.
CRIPPS MISSION
Viceroy Linlithgow was convinced that there was no necessity to make any concessions during the war. But with
the international situation getting increasingly ominous. President Roosevelt of the US and President Chiang Kai-
Shek of China as also Britain’s Labour Party leaders pressurized Churchill to seek Indians ‘cooperation. Moreover,
the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941 and invaded Burma, reaching closer to India. The British Cabinet
was forced to make a declaration of its war aims so as to obtain India’s full support. When Lintithgow saw the
draft declaration, he tendered his resignation, which the Cabinet did not want to accept then. Churchill was in a
fix. He was saved from making a difficult choice when Sir Stafford Cripps offered to go India as representatives
of the War Cabinet. Cripps was credited with having won over the Soviet Union as an ally during his term in
Soviet Union as the British Ambassador. His success in India would have presented him as serious rival to
Churchill. Churchill could hardly have wished Cripps to solve the Indian problems. However, Winston Churchill
announced on March 11, 1942 that British Cabinet was sending a mission to India under Sir Stafford Cripps.
Cripps announced that the aim of the British policy was the earliest possible realisation of self-government in
India. But the Draft Declaration he brought with him repeated the promise of granting Dominion Status and a
Constitution-making body after the war whose members would be elected by provincial assemblies and
nominated by the rulers in case of the princely states . On the demand for Pakistan, a provision stated that
any province unwilling to accept the new Constitution would be able to have a separate agreement with
Britain regarding its future status. But for the present, the British would have sole control over India’s defence.
Negotiations between Cripps and Congress leaders were unsuccessful. Cripps had been told not to go beyond
Negotiations between Cripps and Congress leaders were unsuccessful. Cripps had been told not to go beyond
the Draft Declaration. The congress objected to the provision granting Domination Status rather complete
independence; the representation of the princely status in the constituent assembly not by the states’ people
but by rulers’ nominees; and provision for India’s partition.Britain refused the Indian demand for immediate
transfer of power to them and for a real share in the responsibility for the defenCe of India. The Cripps offer
(called a ‘post-dated cheque’ by Gandhi) was rejected.
 | April 27, 1942 |
 CHIANG KAI-SHEK AND MAHATMA GANDHI, LEADERS OF ONE-THIRD OF WORLD'S PEOPLE, MEET IN CALCUTTA. MODEL OF SHIP ON WHICH HOST ONCE SAILED STANDS IN BOOKCASE. |
Gandhi looks like an Asiatic but he is really a Hindu lawyer from South Africa. Like all India's Hindu leaders, he is loaded to the eyebrows with the patter of English university education. His idea of being foxy today is to wait to see whether or not this war abolishes the British Empire. He was therefore opposed to coming to any agreement whatsoever with an Empire that may possibly be on the skids. To Chiang Kai-shek, the short-spoken man of action, this brand of thinking was blankly mysterious, but he was exceedingly polite to all India's leaders.
The proposition brought to India a month later by Sir Stafford Cripps was that India would become a Dominion after the war, united or disunited as its separate parts decided for themselves. After much talk, Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress Party, the Moslem League and the Untouchables all rejected this proposal, all for totally different reasons. Britain thereupon withdrew its offer. The comment of Nehru was typically that of an Indian leader: "Sir Stafford took the attitude, peculiar to the British, that they are always in the right, and the other is always wrong and damnably wrong." he therefore decided that Indians will not be among the men who make the peace, but that India will wait to petition the winner. Nehru and Cripps aged visibly during the talks under a full moon within smell of rose gardens. Gandhi remained calm. And Chiang Kai-shek went home without change of expression.
Actually India ceased being productively important about a century ago when the machine made its handicraft economically obsolete. In electric energy - the modern world's gauge of industrial power - India is about on a par with the State of South Carolina. Skipped by the industrial revolution, its 390,000,000 people have been largely reduced to the meanest level of agricultural sustenance. Only about 1% of this population is really represented by the Hindu leaders. Most of the rest of India do not know the name of Nehru, perhaps not even the name of Gandhi.
These are the people who will presently meet the Jap, unless Chiang Kai-shek's troops under American General Stilwell can stop that common enemy in Burma. The two contrary ways of meeting destiny have probably never been better symbolized than by the two men above. Gandhi has decided to leave India the football of destiny. Chiang long ago decided that China would and could make its own destiny.
It is significant that the pictures on this page of Chiang Kai-shek and Madame Chiang in India were all taken in the house of India's greatest capitalist. Gandhi's chief backer, a man willing to do business with anybody. It is hard to imagine what China's Generalissimo, hardened by awful sacrifice and heroism, made of this soft world of the Indians.
 Mahatma Gandhi, who was the chief obstacle to Britain's plan for India, joins in a laugh with the cheerful Chiangs in Birla's luxurious Calcutta house. Notice that Gandhi in his unbleached, homespun cotton robe is barefooted. Except for a midday siesta, Gandhi talked with Chiang Kai-shek from noon until after his early vegetarian supper. During talks Gandhi spun some cotton, gave the khaddar cloth to Chiang, the spinning wheel to Madame. Here the great Hindu taps the floor with his staff, while Madame Chiang Kai-shek translates his English for her husband. |
 Madame Chiang and Nehru, leader of India's dominant Congress Party, work on details of India's war effort. Nehru has taken off his shoes to sit more comfortably cross-legged at lunch (see below), has apparently forgotten to put them back on. Madame Chiang is wearing a garland of jasmine given her by her Hindu hosts. The house belongs to the richest supporter of Gandhi and Nehru and the richest Hindu in India, Ghanshyamdas Burla, whose money comes from the manufactured cotton goods that Gandhi crusades against. Birla is opposed to "scorched earth" policy. |
 The Chiangs, flanking Nehru, make him laugh at lunch in Birla's magnificent Calcutta house. The low round tables carry a beaker of water, four silver bowls of curry, a plate of rice and one of whole-wheat pancakes (chapatti). Aristocratic, highly educated Nehru in the Hindu style uses no napkin. Pancakes are dipped by hand in the curries. Meanwhile Gandhi, who never eats a mid-day meal, was taking his noon siesta. Madame Chiang, Nehru and Gandhi all talked in English. Madame translated for her husband. Chiang is here thinking over his pre-lunch talk with Gandhi. |
Adapted from the April 27, 1942 issue of LIFE for private non-commercial use only.
Portions copyright 1942 Time, Inc.
Related Searches
Web Results
... a life of Sir Stafford Cripps, ... Burma to China to meet Chiang Kai-shek] In China Cripps seems to have been more ... Chiang Kai-shek pressed ...
... U.S. Congress establishes the World War Foreign Debt Commission. 1942 Chiang Kai-shek meets with Sir StaffordCripps, ... Chiang Kai-shek (Chiang Chung ...
This Day in WWII 9 February 1941 ... Chiang Kai-shek meets with Sir Stafford Cripps, ... Chiang Kai-shek meetswith Sir Stafford Cripps, ...
The proposition brought to India a month later by Sir Stafford Cripps was ... These are the people who will presentlymeet the Jap, unless Chiang Kai-shek's troops ...
Today In History. What Happened This Day In History. ... Chiang Kai-shek meets with Sir Stafford Cripps, the British viceroy in India. 1943 :
President Roosevelt of the US and President Chiang Kai-Shek ... He was saved from making a difficult choice whenSir Stafford Cripps ... CRIPPS MISSION; ...
A few of the great historical events that happened today in history, February 9th! ... Chiang Kai-shek meets with SirStafford Cripps, the British viceroy in India.
... Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Louis Johnson, Chiang Kai-shek, Harold ... The Cripps Version: The Life of Sir StaffordCripps (London: Allen Lane, 2002) Clarke, Peter ...
Home » indian history » CRIPPS MISSION. ... President Chiang Kai-Shek of China as also Britain’s ... choice whenSir Stafford Cripps offered to go ...
Apart from that there was a pressure from the American President F. Roosevelt and Chinese premier Chiang Kai-Shekto ... Sir Stafford Cripps to ... Cripps mission was ...
Quit indian movement august 8 . 1942