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

STORMY 1930 223.
Committee with Mr. J. H. Thomas as Chairman, the Minorities
Committee with Mr. Ramsay Macdonald as Chairman etc.
The fact that the representatives of the Indian States were
invited to the Conference made it evident at the very outset
that the British Government were anxious to bring the
Indian States within the future Indian Constitution. The
first step in that connection had been taken by Sir John
Simon when he wrote to the British Prime Minister for an
enlargement of the terms of reference with a view to including
the question of the relations between British India and the
Indian States. The Simon Commission also reported that
the ultimate Constitution of India must be a federal one.
The only question that remained undecided was as to when it
would be possible to bring about a federation of British India
and the Indian States. In the circumstances it was no surprise
when on November 17th, at a sitting of the Round Table
Conference, His Highness, the Maharaja of Bikaneer, wel-
comed such a federation. The whole idea had been talked
over and discussed, months before the Round Table Con-
ference met. The proposal of federation was one of the
cleverest moves adopted by the British Government at this
stage, and it is a pity that elderly politicians like Sir Tej
Bahadur Sapru and Mr. M. R. Jayakar did not see through
the game at once, though Mr. Srinivasa Sastri and Mr. M.
A. Jinnah did feel suspicious towards the idea at the beginning.
The Government of India in their despatch of September
20th, had merely mentioned the safeguards—that is, the
subjects that should be retained under the control of His
Majesty's Government and the British Parliament. But
what about the subjects that were to be within the purview
of the Indian Legislature? British interests demanded that
there should be a Conservative element in that body that
could be trusted to checkmate the radical forces in British
India. And what could be better than to bring the Indian
Princes in, so that they might act as a dead weight in the
Central Legislature? This rapprochement between the
British Government and the Indian Princes had begun as
early as 1922, as we have already seen in Chapter III, following
the visit of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales to India. Faced with