Date: 12 November 1931
Location: London
Speaker: Aga Khan III
Source: Speeches of Aga Khan III – K K Aziz
Full Text
Safeguards for individuals and communities – inclusion of Muslims and other minorities in the Central Government – separate elector ates – fair representation on the Public Services Commission legislation affecting minority interests – special claims of Muslims, the depressed classes, the Anglo-Indians and the European com munity.
No person shall for reason for his origin, religion, caste or creed, be prejudiced in any way in regard to public employment, office of power or honour, or with regard to enjoyment of his civic rights and the exercise of any trade or calling.
Statutory safeguards shall be incorporated in the constitution with a view to protect against enactments of the Legislature of discriminatory laws affecting any community.
Full religious liberty, that is, full liberty of belief, worship, observances, propaganda, associations and education, shall be guaranteed to all communities subject to the maintenance of public order and morality.
No person shall merely by change of faith lose any civic right or privilege, or be subject to any penalty.
The right to establish, manage and control, at their own expense, charitable, religious and social institutions, schools and other educational establishments with the right to exercise their religion therein.
The constitution shall embody adequate safeguards for the protection of religion, culture and personal law, and the pro motion of education, language, charitable institutions of the minority communities and for their due share in grants-in-aid given by the State and by the self-governing bodies.
Enjoyment of civic rights by all citizens shall be guaranteed by making any act or omission calculated to prevent full enjoyment an offence punishable by law.
In the formation of Cabinets in the Central Government and Provincial Governments, so far as possible, members belonging to the Mussulman community and other minorities of considerable number shall be included by convention.
There shall be Statutory Departments under the Central and Provincial Governments to protect minority communities and to promote their welfare.
All communities at present enjoying representation in any Legislature through nomination or election shall have represen tation in all Legislatures through separate electorates and the minorities shall have not less than the proportion set forth in the Annexure but no majority shall be reduced to a minority or even an equality. Provided that after a lapse of ten years it will be open to Muslims in Punjab and Bengal and any minority communities in any other provinces to accept joint electorates, or joint electorates with reservation of seats by the consent of the community concerned [sic]. Similarly after the lapse of ten years it will be open to any minority in the Central Legislature to accept joint electorates with or without reservation of seats with the consent of the community concerned.
With regard to the Depressed Classes no change to joint elec torates and reserved seats shall be made until after 20 years’ experience of separate electorates and until direct adult suffrage for the community has been established.
In every Province and in connection with the Central Govern ment a Public Services Commission shall be appointed, and the recruitment to the Public Services, except the proportion if any reserved to be filled by nomination by the Governor-General and the Governors, shall be made through such Commission in such a way as to secure a fair representation to the various communities consistently with the considerations of efficiency and the pos session of the necessary qualifications. Instructions to the Governor-General and the Governors in the Instrument of Instructions with regard to recruitment shall be embodied to give effect to this principle, and for that purpose – to review period ically the composition of the Services.
If a Bill is passed which, in the opinion of two-thirds of the members of any Legislature representing a particular community affects their religion or social practice based on religion, or in the case of fundamental rights of the subjects if one-third of the members object, it shall be open to such members to lodge their objection thereto, within a period of one month of the Bill being passed by the House, with the President of the House who shall forward the same to the Governor-General or the Governor, as the case may be, and he shall thereupon suspend the operation of that Bill for one year, upon the expiry of which period he shall remit the said Bill for further consideration by the Legislature.
When such Bill has been further considered by the Legis lature and the Legislature concerned has refused to revise or modify the Bill so as to meet the objection thereto, the Governor General or the Governor, as the case may be, may give or withhold his assent to it in the exercise of his discretion, provided, further, that the validity of such Bill may be challenged in the Supreme Court by any two members of the denomination affected thereby on the grounds that it contravenes one of their fundamental rights.
The North-West Frontier Province shall be constituted a Gover nor’s Province on the same footing as other Provinces with due regard to the necessary requirements for the security of the Frontier.
In the formation of the Provincial Legislature the nominations shall not exceed more than IO per cent of the whole.
Sind shall be separated from the Bombay Presidency and made a Governor’s Province similar to and on the same footing as other Provinces in British India.
Mussulman representation in the Central Legislature shall be one-third of the total number of the House, and their represen tation in the Central Legislature shall not be less than the proportion set forth in the Annexure.
The constitution shall declare invalid any custom or usage by which any penalty or disadvantage or disability is imposed upon or any discrimination is made against any subject of the State in regard to the enjoyment of civic rights on account of Untouch ability.
Generous treatment in the matter of recruitment to Public Service and the opening of enlistment in the Police and Mili tary Service.
The Depressed Classes in the Punjab shall have the benefit of the Punjab Land Alienation Act extended to them.
Right of Appeal shall lie to the Governor or Governor-General for redress of prejudicial action or neglect of interest by any Executive Authority.
The Depressed Classes shall have representation not less than set forth in the Annexure.
Generous interpretation of the claims admitted by sub-Com mittee No. VIII (Services) to the effect that in recognition of the peculiar position of the community special consideration should be given to the claim for public employment, having regard to the maintenance of an adequate standard of living.
The right to administer and control its own educational insti tutions, i.e., European education, subject to the control of the Minister.
Provisions for generous and adequate grants-in-aid and scholar ships on the basis of present grants.
Jury rights equal to those enjoyed by other communities in India unconditionally of proof of legitimacy and descent and the right of accused persons to claim trial by either a European or an Indian jury.
Equal rights and privileges to those enjoyed by Indian-born subjects in all industrial and commercial activities.
The maintenance of existing rights in regard to procedure of criminal trials, and any measure or bill to amend, alter, or modify such a procedure cannot be introduced except with the previous consent of the Governor-General.
Agreed by:
HIS HIGHNESS THE AGA KHAN (Muslims), DR. AMBEDKAR (Depressed Classes), RAO BAHADUR PANNIR SELVAM (Christians), SIR HENRY GIDNEY (Anglo-Indians), SIR HUBERT CARR (Europeans).
Source: Indian Round Tabl,e Conference (Second Session): 7th. September 1931 1st. December 1931, His Majesty’s Stationery Office, London, 1932, Cmd. 3997, pp. 68-73.
The most difficult issue before the Conference was the communal divisions in India. The Minorities Committee was almost all the time in session, but no agreement was in sight. At last, as his contribution to the solution of the problem, Gandhi tabled the Congress scheme for a settlement which was a reproduction of the Nehru Report. This brought all the minorities together, just as the publication of the Nehru Report in 1928 had united all non-Hindu groups against its recommendations. As a counter to the Congress scheme the Muslims, the Untouchables, the Indian Christians, the Anglo-Indians and the Indian Europeans presented a joint statement of claims which, they insisted, must stand or fall as an independent whole. It is generally believed that the Aga Khan was the chief architect of this formula.
The second session of the Round Table Conference lasted from 7 September to 1 December 1931. The delegates who composed the Conference were:
British Delegation J. Ramsay MacDonald Lord Sankey Wedgwood Benn .A rthur Henderson J. H. Thomas H. B. Lees Smith Sir William Jowitt F. W. Pethick-Lawrence Lord Snell Earl Peel Marquess of Zetland Viscount Hailsham Sir Samuel Hoare Oliver Stanley Marquess of Reading Marquess of Lothian Sir Robert Hamilton Isaac Foot H. Graham White Indian States’ Delegation Maharaja of Alwar Maharaja Gaekwar of Baroda Nawab of Bhopal Maharaja of Bikaner Maharaja Rana of Dholpur Maharaja ofJ ammu and Kashmir Maharaja of Nawanagar Maharaja of Patiala Maharaja of Rewa Chief Sahib of Sangli Raja of Korea Raja of Sarila Sir Prabhashankar Pattani Sir Manubhai Mehta Sardar Sahibzada Sultan Ahmad Khan Nawab Sir Muhammad Akbar Hydari Sir Mirza Muhammad Ismail T. Raghavia K. N. Haksar British Indian Delegation The Aga Khan Sir C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar Sir Sayyid Ali Imam Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Sirijut Chandradhar Barroah J.C. Basu E. C. Benthall Sir Muhammad Shah Nawaz Khan Bhutto Sir Hubert Carr C. Y. Chintamani Nawab Sir Ahmad Said Khan Chchattari Sir Maneckji Dadabhoy Maharajadhiraja of Darbhanga Mawlawi Muhammad Shafee Daoodi Dr. S. K. Datta Raja Sher Muhammad Khan A. K. Fazlul Haq M. K. Gandhi A. H. Ghuznavi Sir H. A J. Gidney Sir Padanji Ginwala V. V. Girl Sir Ghulam Husain Hidayatullah Hafiz Hidayat Husain Sir Muhammad Iqbal Rangaswami Iyengar B. V.Jadhav M. R. Jayakar Sir Cowasji Jehangir Muhammad Ali Jinnah T. F. Gavinjones N. M.Joshi Dr. Narendra Nath Law Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Nawab Sir Sayyid Mehr Shah Sir P. C. Mitter H.P. Mody B. S. Mooaje Ramaswami Mudaliar Mrs. Sarojini Naidu Raja Narendra Nath Sayyid Muhammad Padshah A. T. Pannir Selvam Raja of Parlikimedi Sir A. P. Patro Sahibzada Nawab Sir Abdul Qaiyum M. Ramachandra Rao B. Shiva Rao Sir Sayyid Sultan Ahmad Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru Sir Mian Muhammad Shafi Sardar Sampuran Singh Srinivasa Sastri Sir Chimanlal Setalvad Kanwar Bisheshwar Dayal Seth Sir Phiroze Sethna Dr. Shafaat Ahmad Khan Begum Shah Nawaz Mawlana Shaukat Ali M. R. Roy Rao Bahadur Srinivasan Mrs. Subbarayan S. B. Tambe Sir Purshotamdas Thakurdas Sardar Ujjal Singh Sir C. E. Wood Zafrullah Khan.