E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi – His Life & TimesChapter XVIAsia's Message To The WestLATE in, November 1946 Prime Minister Attlee summoned Nehru, DefenceMinister Baldev Singh, Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan to 10 Downing Street for anextraordinary conference.The Constituent Assembly was to meet in New Delhi on December 9; Jinnah hadrepeatedly declared that the Moslem League would boycott it. The object ofthe Downing Street conference was to bring the Moslem League into theconstituent Assembly. For, if the Assembly was a predominantly Congressaffair, with the Moslems outside, how, the argument ran, could Englandtransfer power to it and leave India?Originally, the Moslem League had accepted the Cabinet Mission's plan of May16, 1946, and thereby agreed to go into the Constituent Assembly. Later,however, it had withdrawn.The issue on which Jinnah withdrew from the Assembly provoked hotdiscussions and fierce hatreds. What was it?Article 19 of the Cabinet Mission's plan stipulated that the Constituent Assemblywould first meet in New Delhi for a short, formal session and then break up intothree sections corresponding to three groups of provinces: Group A comprisedthe centre, the heart of India and was overwhelmingly Hindu; Group B includedthe North-west Frontier Province, Sind and the Punjab was largely Moslem inpopulation; Group C, in the north-east, consisted of Bengal and Assam.Each section would draft a constitution for its group of provinces. But if aprovince did not like the constitution it could stay out of the group.Thus Hindu Assam would be required to sit in Section C with Moslem Bengal andparticipate in the drafting of a constitution for Group C. But should Assamdislike the final constitution it could secede from Group C and stand alone, orpossibly, join Group A. The sections were compulsory, the groups voluntary.www.mkgandhi.org Page 517