The Britishers claimed that the Indians were not included in the Simon Commission on account of discord among the various groups in India. The Secretary of State, Lord Birkenhead challenged the Indian leaders to draft a constitution to which all parties would agree. An all parties’ conference was held in May, 1928 which appointed a committee to draft a constitutional scheme.
The committee was headed by Moti Lal Nehru and its report came to be known as the Nehru Report. Its other members were Subhash Chander Bose, Sir Ali Iman, Sir Tej Bhadur Sapru, G.R. Pradhan, M.S. Aney, Shuab Qureshi and Sardar Mangal Singh.
The report was placed in the annual session of the Congress held at Lucknow on 10th August, 1928 where it was adopted unanimously. The report favoured dominion status in which India would be a federation of linguistic provinces.
As regards the communal problem, the report recommended joint electorates with reservation of seats for minorities. Moreover, it emphasised the necessity of giving much autonomy to the provinces. Powers to be divided between the centre and provinces was on the basis of federal structure.
The report, however, failed to be passed as Muhammad Ali Jinnah put forth his fourteen point demands and the Hindu Mahasabha also had reservations.
The Congress accepted the report only under pressure from Gandhiji. The younger members led by Subhash Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru felt that acceptance of dominion status was a step from complete independence demanded at Madras in 1927.
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