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Unlock This CourseBy 1930 Britain needed a new way to decide India's future. There were three main causes.
The name was a message in itself. At a round table nobody sits at the head, so Indians were meant to feel they were being consulted as partners.
Key terms:
King George V opened the first conference on 12 November 1930, and it sat at St James's Palace until 19 January 1931. Ramsay MacDonald was in the chair. Nearly 90 delegates came: British politicians from all three main parties, Indian princes, and leaders from British India. These included Jinnah and the Aga Khan for the Muslims, Dr Ambedkar for the Depressed Classes, and spokesmen for the Sikhs and other groups.
One group was missing. Congress, the largest party in India, refused to come, and most of its leaders were in prison.
The princes surprised everyone by saying they would join an all-India federation with the provinces of British India. It was also agreed that Indian ministers should run the provinces, while Britain kept control of matters such as defence and foreign affairs.
Muslim delegates demanded separate electorates and other safeguards, as in Jinnah's Fourteen Points. Dr Ambedkar asked for separate electorates for the Depressed Classes too. Nothing was settled. And without Congress, no agreement could be made to work in India.
This is why the British now needed Gandhi in London. It was one cause of the talks that produced the Gandhi-Irwin Pact (see The Salt March and Civil Disobedience, 1930-31).
The second conference ran from 7 September to 1 December 1931. Gandhi came as the only official representative of Congress. He stayed among poor families in the East End of London and visited cotton mill workers in Lancashire, who gave him a warm welcome. But the conference itself went badly, for three reasons.
In August 1931 the Labour government fell during an economic crisis. MacDonald now led a National Government (a coalition of parties) that depended on the Conservatives, who were far less keen on change in India. In India, Lord Willingdon had replaced Irwin as viceroy and took a harder line.
Gandhi said that Congress spoke for all Indians, whatever their religion or caste. The Muslim, Sikh and Depressed Classes delegates flatly rejected this. They said they spoke for their own people.
The minorities feared being outvoted for ever by the Hindu majority. Several minority groups made a joint demand for separate electorates. Gandhi could not accept this, above all for the Depressed Classes, because he believed it would split Hindu society for good.
Weeks of argument ended in deadlock. MacDonald announced that if Indians could not agree, the British government would decide for them. Gandhi sailed home with nothing. He landed at Bombay on 28 December 1931, and Congress restarted civil disobedience. Willingdon acted fast. Gandhi was arrested on 4 January 1932, Congress was banned and tens of thousands were jailed.
On 16 August 1932 MacDonald gave his ruling, the Communal Award. It kept separate electorates for Muslims and Sikhs and gave them to other minorities, including the Depressed Classes.
Gandhi, in Yeravda jail near Poona, began a fast to the death on 20 September in protest. Dr Ambedkar was under huge pressure. If Gandhi died, the Depressed Classes might be blamed. On 24 September he and the Hindu leaders signed the Poona Pact. The Depressed Classes gave up separate electorates. In return they got 148 reserved seats in the provincial law-making bodies, about twice the 71 seats in the Award. Gandhi ended his fast.
The third conference met from 17 November to 24 December 1932. Only 46 delegates came. Congress was banned and absent, the British Labour Party stayed away, and Jinnah was not invited. It tidied up details and achieved little.
The role of Jinnah. Jinnah went to the first two conferences and argued for Muslim safeguards. But he found the Muslim delegates divided among themselves and Congress unwilling to give way. Disappointed, he stayed in England to work as a lawyer. It was 1934 before he agreed to lead the Muslim League again.
Why so little was settled:
The consequences still mattered. The idea of a federation, with Indians running the provinces, became the basis of British plans, published in March 1933 and then made law (see The 1935 Government of India Act and the 1937 Elections). The conferences also showed the world how deeply Congress and the minorities were divided, and the Communal Award fixed voting by community into Indian politics.
Extract A (a practice extract written for this lesson, in the style of a modern history textbook)
The Round Table Conferences were a grand show that produced almost nothing. Three times delegates sailed to London, sat in grand rooms and made endless speeches, yet they could not even agree on how Indians should vote. The first conference met without Congress, the largest party in India. The second collapsed into bitter squabbling between Gandhi and the minority leaders. By the third, hardly anyone was still listening. The delegates went home empty-handed, and India was no nearer to ruling itself.
What impression does the author give about the Round Table Conferences? You must use Extract A to explain your answer. [6 marks]
The author gives the impression that the Round Table Conferences were a pointless failure. This is shown by the language. Calling them 'a grand show' suggests they were for display, not serious work, and 'endless speeches' makes the talks sound like wasted time. The phrase 'bitter squabbling' makes the delegates seem childish, and 'empty-handed' stresses that nothing was won. The author also selects only the failures: Congress missing from the first conference, the quarrel at the second and the lack of interest in the third. The author leaves out anything that was achieved, such as the princes agreeing to join a federation. By choosing only the negative points and using scornful words, the author makes the conferences seem a complete waste of effort.
What lifts it to the top level: it names one clear impression, proves it with short quotations, and explains how the author's choice of words and of what to include and leave out creates that impression.
Do not retell what happened at the conferences. Pick out the loaded words in the extract, such as 'grand show' and 'empty-handed', and say what each one suggests. Then add one sentence on what the author has chosen to leave out.