The Round Table Conferences

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The Simon Commission had submitted the report to the government.
The Congress, Muslim league and Hindu Mahasabha had boycotted it.
In order to secure some legitimacy and credibility to the report, the government announced that it would convene a Round Table Conference (RTC) in London with leaders of different shades of Indian opinion.

The First Round Table Conference was held at London in November 1930.
Ramsay Macdonald, the British Prime Minister, proposed a federal government with provincial autonomy.
There was deadlock over question of separate electorate for minorities.
But the Congress decided to boycott it, on the issue of granting independence so government try to negotiate with Congress.

Negotiations with Congress were started and the Gandhi-Irwin pact was signed on March 5, 1931.
Gandhi was released from custody in January 1931, and the two men began negotiating the terms of the pact.
The Karachi Congress session ratified the Gandhi-Irwin pact.
In the end, Gandhi pledged to give up the Satyagraha campaign, and Irwin agreed to release tens of thousands of Indians who had been jailed during the movement.
Allow people to make salt for their consumption and permitting the picketing of liquor and foreign cloth shops.
However the Viceroy refused to commute the death sentence of Bhagat Singh and his comrades.
That year Gandhi attended the Second Round Table Conference in London as the sole representative of the Congress.

Gandhi attended the Second Round Table Conference which began on 7 September 1931.
Gandhi refused to accept separate electorates for Minorities.
A meeting between Gandhi and Ambedkar on this issue of separate electorates before they went to London to attend the Second Round Table Conference ended in failure
On returning to India, Gandhi revived the Civil Disobedience Movement.
This time the government was prepared to meet the resistance.
Soon all the Congress leaders including Gandhi were arrested and the Congress was banned.
Despite Government’s repressive measures it is worth mentioning here that the movement continued till April 1934.

In the meantime, the Third Round Table Conference was held from 17 November to 24 December 1932.
The Congress did not participate in the conference as it had revived the Civil Disobedience Movement.
The decision on Separate electorate for Depressed Class was left to the arbitrated by the Britain Prime Minister Ramsay McDonald.

The British government announced on August 16, 1932 what came to be known as the Communal Award.
Ambedkar’s demands for separate electorates with reserved seats were conceded.
It provided separate electorates to minorities viz. Muslims, Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians and women and the depressed classes.

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