20. ROUND TABLE CONFERENCES (1930–32)

20. ROUND TABLE CONFERENCES (1930–32)

• Three RTCs held in London (1930, 1931, 1932) to discuss constitutional reforms based on the Simon Commission report and the Nehru Report.
• First RTC (12 Nov 1930 – 19 Jan 1931): Congress did not participate (Gandhi and other leaders were in jail due to the Civil Disobedience Movement/Salt Satyagraha); attended by representatives of princely states, Muslim League, Liberals, and other minority groups; princely states for the first time showed willingness to join an all-India federation, an idea later incorporated in the 1935 Act.
• Gandhi-Irwin Pact (5 March 1931): signed between Gandhi and Viceroy Lord Irwin — Congress agreed to suspend the Civil Disobedience Movement and participate in the Second RTC; Government agreed to release political prisoners (not convicted of violence) and permit peaceful picketing of liquor/foreign-cloth shops, among other terms.
• Second RTC (Sept–Dec 1931): Gandhi participated as sole Congress representative (deputed by the Congress as its "one-man delegation"); failed primarily over the communal/minority representation issue — Gandhi opposed separate electorates for the Depressed Classes (championed by Ambedkar at the conference), and no consensus on the minorities question could be reached.
• Third RTC (Nov–Dec 1932): Congress did not participate (Civil Disobedience had resumed and Congress leaders were again in jail); attendance was thin and the conference had limited impact.
• Outcomes formed the basis for the White Paper (March 1933), examined by a Joint Select Committee of the British Parliament, and finally enacted as the Government of India Act, 1935.