Nehru Report, Muslim Demands and the Hindu Mahasabha: Elusive Consensus on Future Constitution

Abstract

The Nehru Report of August 1928 presented the blueprint of a Swaraj Constitution. Encapsulating the demands of the Indians to the colonial government as opposed to the latter’s insistence on seeking opinion through an all-whites commission, the report also presents the historical roots of our present Constitution. Amid opposing claims, consensus over the communal issues in the report, which appeared possible until late 1928, became elusive from the end of December 1928. It was mainly due to the closing of the ranks of significant Muslim leadership behind Jinnah, and an ever-increasing vigilant attitude of the Hindu Mahasabha in not allowing any change beyond what had already been agreed upon. The failure of the report meant an end to the hope of finding a consensual solution to a future Indian Constitution made by the Indians and for the Indians. This, in turn, provided the colonial government with an excuse to impose its scheme through the Communal Award, White Paper and subsequently the Government of India Act of 1935. So, the most elaborate constitutional framework prepared by the leading nationalist leaders during the pre-Independence era finally crumbled under the weight of communal deadlock. This article studies the processes through which the differences over communal representation became so overpowering that they rocked the entire boat. The widening of communal fault lines precipitated by contesting claims over the recommendations of the Nehru Report left serious repercussions over the trajectory of future Indian politics.