Cripps' mission

The Cripps mission was an attempt in late March 1942 by the British government to secure Indian cooperation and support for their efforts in World War II. The mission was headed by Sir Stafford Cripps, a senior left-wing politician and government minister in the War Cabinet of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Background

In 1939 the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, declared India a belligerent state on the side of the Allies without consulting Indian political leaders or the elected provincial representatives. This caused considerable resentment in India and provoked the resignation en masse of elected Congress Party Provincial Governments, giving rise to the prospect of public revolt and political disorder in India. The British feared the destabilizing of India which could be fatal to discouraging further advances in Asia by the Japanese, as well as detrimental to obtaining much-needed resources and manpower to fight the war in Europe.

After December 1941 the situation for Britain in Asia became critical with the entry of Japan into the war, and the rapid Japanese conquest of Malaya and the military bastion of Singapore, plus the Dutch East Indies. Japanese invasions of Burma and India seemed next. The British government wanted the cooperation and support of Indian political leaders in order to recruit more Indians into the British Indian Army, which was fighting in the Middle East theatre, and which expanded to over 2½ million men, the largest volunteer army in history.

Debate over cooperation or protest

The Congress was divided upon its response to India's entry into World War II. Angry over the decision made by the Viceroy of India, some Congress leaders favoured launching a popular revolt against the British despite the gravity of the war in Europe, which threatened Britain's own freedom. Others, such as Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, advocated offering an olive branch to the British — supporting them in this crucial time in hope that the gesture would be reciprocated with independence after the war. India's and Congress' major leader, Mohandas Gandhi, was opposed to Indian involvement in the war as he would not morally endorse a war — he also suspected British intentions, believing that the British were not sincere about Indian aspirations for freedom. But Rajagopalachari, backed by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Azad and Jawaharlal Nehru held talks with Cripps and offered full support in return for immediate self-government, and eventual independence.

The leader of the Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, supported the war effort and condemned the Congress policy. Insisting on a separate Muslim state, he resisted Congress calls for pan-Indian cooperation and immediate independence.

Failure of the mission

Cripps meeting Mahatma Gandhi during the Second World War

Upon his arrival in India, Cripps held talks with Indian leaders. There is some confusion over what Cripps had been authorised to offer India's nationalist politicians by Churchill and Leo Amery (His Majesty's Secretary of State for India), and he also faced hostility from the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow. He began by offering India full Dominion status at the end of the war, with the chance to secede from the Commonwealth and go for total independence. Privately, Cripps also promised to get rid of Linlithgow and grant India Dominion Status with immediate effect, reserving only the Defence Ministry for the British. However, in public he failed to present any concrete proposals for greater self-government in the short-term, other than a vague commitment to increase the number of Indian members of the Viceroy's Executive Council. Cripps spent much of his time in encouraging Congress leaders and Jinnah to come to a common, public arrangement in support of the war and government.

There was little trust between the British and Congress by this stage, and both sides felt that the other was concealing its true plans. The Congress stopped talks with Cripps and, guided by Mohandas Gandhi, the national leadership demanded immediate self-government in return for war support. Gandhi said that Cripp's offer of Dominion status after the war was a "Post dated cheque drawn on a crashing bank".

When the British remained unresponsive, Gandhi and the Congress began planning a major public revolt, the Quit India movement, which demanded immediate British withdrawal from India. As the Imperial Japanese Army advanced closer to India with the conquest of Burma, Indians perceived an inability upon the part of the British to defend Indian soil. This period concurred with the rise of the Indian National Army, led by Subhas Chandra Bose. The British response to the Quit India movement was to throw most of the Congress leadership in jail.

Jinnah's Muslim League condemned the Quit India movement, participating in provincial governments as well as the legislative councils of the British Raj, and encouraging Muslims to participate in the war. With this limited cooperation from the Muslim League, the British were able to continue administering India for the duration of the war using officials and military personnel where Indian politicians could not be found. This would not prove to be feasible in the long-term, however.

The long-term significance of the Cripps Mission only really became apparent in the aftermath of the war, as troops were demobilised and sent back home. Even Churchill recognised that there could be no retraction of the offer of Independence which Cripps had made, although by the end of the war Churchill was out of power and could only watch as the new Labour government gave India independence. This confidence that the British would soon leave was reflected in the readiness with which Congress politicians stood in the elections of 1945–6 and formed provincial governments.^[1] In retrospect, this unsuccessful and badly-planned attempt to placate the Congress in return for temporary wartime support was the point at which the British departure from India became inevitable.

References

1. ^ Judith Brown Modern India. The making of an Asian Democracy (Oxford) 1999 (2nd Edition) pp. 328–30.

• R.J. Moore Churchill, Cripps and India (Oxford) 1979 chapters 3-5
• Draft resolution
• Indian History
• Rajmohan Gandhi, Patel: A Life

Further reading

• Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War: Volume IV, The Hinge of Fate, [ Cassell, London, England, 1951 and Houghton Mifflin, Boston, Massachusetts, 1950, 1986: ISBN 978-0-39-541058-5; also Bantam Books, New York City, 1962 and Penguin Books, London, England, 2005: ISBN 0141441755 (pbk.) ], Book One, Chapter 12, "India—The Cripps Mission"; limited preview of the whole chapter at Google Books

External links

• Cripp's India Mission
• October Offer regarding India’s constitution, of His Majesty's Government 18 October 1939
• August Offer regarding India’s constitution, of His Majesty's Government 8 August 1940