ALLEGATIONS IN PARLIAMENT ABOUT THE REPRESENTATIVE CHARACTER OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY EXTRACT OF CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY DEBATES

In the course of the debates on India in the House of Commons and in the House of Lords in December last, certain statements were made detracting from the representative character of this Assembly during its last session. Notable among those who spoke in this strain were Mr. Churchill and Viscount Simon. Mr. Churchill observed that the Assembly, as it was meeting then, represented "only one major community in India". Viscount Simon was more specific and referred to the Assembly as "a body of Hindus". He went on further to ask "whether this meeting of Caste Hindus at Delhi can be regarded by the Government as the Constituent Assembly they meant at all".

    Both these gentlemen have held the highest offices of responsibility and have had a long and intimate connection with the affairs-of India; and whatever may be their views on current political controversies, they would not, I am sure, like to make statements which are wholly contrary to facts and lead to mischievous inferences. It is for this reason that I have considered it necessary in this occasion formally to state the facts. Out of a total of 926 Members who were to take part in the preliminary session, 210 Members attended. These 210 Members consisted of 155 Hindus out of a total of 160, 30 Scheduled Caste representatives out of a total of 33, all the 5 Sikhs, 5 Indian Christians out of a total of 7, all the 5 representatives of Backward Tribes, all 3 Anglo-Indians, all 3 Parsis and 4 Muslims out of 80. The significant absence is of course that of the representatives of the Muslim League--an absence which we all deeply regret. But it is clear from the figures I have quoted that, with the exception of representatives of the Muslim League, every community in India, whatever the party affiliation of the persons representing that community, was represented in the Assembly; and, therefore, to describe the Assembly as representing "Only one major community in India" or as "a body of Hindus" or as a "meeting of Caste Hindus" is a complete travesty of facts. (Cheers).