द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

THE BAROMETER RISES 165
meeting of the Bengal Congress Committee¹ was held, there
were signs of enthusiasm among the Congress workers of
Bengal. The most potent impetus to the new awakening
came, however, from the side of the Government.
It was an auspicious moment for the Indian Nationalists
when in November 1927 the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, made an
announcement, regarding the appointment of the Indian
Statutory Commission. The appointment was made under
Section 84a of the Government of India Act, 1919, which
provided for decennial reviews of the political situation in
India, somewhat reminiscent of the periodical surveys made
by the British Parliament into the affairs of the East India
Company at the time of the renewal of the Company's`
Charter. Since the Statutory Commission was due in 1929,
it was rather surprising to find a Tory Government accelerat-
ing the date of the Commission. The Indian National
Congress had been pressing since 1920 for a Round Table
Conference for revising the Constitution, with a view to the
early introduction of Dominion Home Rule, but this demand
had been consistently turned down by the British Govern-
ment. The Conservative Party had never taken kindly to
the Reforms of 1919, for which the Liberal, Mr. Montagu,
had been largely responsible, though Indian opinion con-
sidered them inadequate and unsatisfactory. They, therefore,
wanted to dispose of the Indian question themselves while
they were in power, so that the Labour Party, if they hap-
pened to succeed them, would not be able to make any further
concession to the Indian demand for Home Rule. Since the
next General Election in England was due in 1929, the
Conservative Cabinet found it necessary to appoint the
Statutory Commission in 1927.
The Commission was composed of Sir John Simon (Chair-
man), Viscount Burnham, Lord Strathcona, Hon. Edward
Cadogan, Mr. Stephen Walsh, Major Attlee and Col. Lane
Fox. (Mr. Walsh resigned and was succeeded by Mr. Vernon
Hartshorn.) There were seven members, of whom two were
Labourites, one (viz., the Chairman) was a Liberal, and the
¹ At this meeting of the Bengal Congress Committee the writer was
elected President and Mr. Kiron Sankar Roy, Secretary.