Nehru Report

In this article, we will tell you about the Nehru Report. This report has a lot of great proposals that aim to create a positive impact on India. But, what exactly is the Nehru report, what. were the key points of it and why was it formed? Keep reading this article to find answers to all these questions.

What is the Nehru Report?

The Nehru Report of 15 August 1928 was a memorandum that proposed a new dominion status for India. It was also aimed to set up a federal government for the constitution of India and asked to devise Joint Electorates with reservation of seats for minorities. 

The All Parties Conference were the ones that prepared this report. Motilal Nehru was the chairman and his son Jawaharlal Nehru was the secretary. The committee consisted of nine other members.

Background

In November 1927, the British Government had appointed the Simon Commission to see how the Government of India was working. He was also assigned to give constitutional reforms for India.

Since the commission didn’t have any Indian members, many leaders revolted against the Simon Commission. 

Even after the revolt, the British didn’t make any changes to the commission. Instead, they asked the Indians to frame the constitution themselves.  Lord Birkenhead, Secretary of State for India challenged Indians by saying this statement, ‘… let the Indians produce a constitution which carries behind it a fair measure of general agreement among the great peoples of India…’

This challenge was accepted by many nationalists and the Nehru Report is the result of it. The Indian National Congress responded to the Simon Commission by doing this two things:

• Congress didn’t provide any cooperation to the Commission
• To draft the Constitution of India, Congress set up an All Parties Conference

Key Points in the Report

The Nehru Report consisted of the following points:

• Dominion status for India (This was the major point in the report. This is the reason why the report was drafted in the first place)
• Bill of Rights
• 19 fundamental rights that allow both men and women above 21 years to vote
• Equal rights to all men and women
• There will be no state religion and at the same time, separate electorates will not be provided to any separate community
• Although it did provide reservations of minority seats
• Special reservations were provided to the Muslims and the minority present in the provinces
• The language of the country would be mainly Indian which would either be written in Devanagari (Sanskrit/Hindi)
• Usage of other languages like Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi or Gujarati will be allowed as well
• English can also be used
• The report demanded a federal form of government
• There should be a bicameral legislature at the centre and the ministry would be responsible for it
• The Governor-General would be the constitutional head
• The Supreme Court should be formulated and provinces would be devised along linguistic lines

Jinnah’s Reaction to the Report

In 1929, Mohammad Ali Jinnah gave 14 points that became the demands of the Muslims to participate in Independent United India. The demands are as follows:

1. The Federal Constitution should be formulated with the residuary powers.
2. All provinces should have this one thing in common: equal Autonomy.
3. All the legislatures and other elected committees present in India should be confined to the principle of adequate and effective representation of minorities. This rule should be present in every province.
4. Muslims in the Central Legislature should not be less than ⅓.
5. Representation of the communal groups should continue and separate electorates should be provided.
6. If there is some territorial distribution happening then it should have any negative impact on the Muslims present in Punjab, Bengal and NWFP provinces.
7. Full religious liberty.
8. No resolution from the legislature should be generated if three-fourths of the members oppose the bill.
9. There should be a separation of Sindh from Bombay.
10. Reforms to be introduced in the NWFP and Balochistan.
11. Adequate share in all the services should be provided to all Muslims.
12. The Constitution should put a heavy emphasis on the protection of Muslim religion, culture, education, charitable institutions and personal laws.
13. ⅓ representation to all the Muslims in both central and provincial cabinets.
14. Consent of the provinces is mandatory if changes need to be made in the Constitution.

Conclusion

The Nehru Report wanted to give equal rights to all Indians. This report laid the foundation for the provision of the Fundamental right in India. It all started with a challenge given by the Britishers to frame our own Constitution. We gave a powerful response to them by laying down the major fundamental rights that guarantees every Indian equal respect and opportunities.