- A subcommittee under the chairmanship of Motilal Nehru was formed in February 1928.
- Other members included: Jawahar Lal Nehru, Ali Imam, Tej Bahadur Sapru, M.S. Aney, Mangal Singh, Shuaib Qureshi, Subash Chandra Bose, and G.R. Pradhan.
- A unanimous report was brought in August 1928 except that its majority section wanted ‘dominion status’ while other sections favoured ‘complete independence’.
Recommendations
- Confined itself to British India. Self-governing dominions as demanded by Indians.
- Separate electorates should be replaced by the Joint-electorate system where Muslims are provided with reservations in the Centre and in those provinces where they are in minority. It provided for the protection of the religious and cultural interests of Muslims.
- It recommended a federal type of government with residuary power at the centre.
- Provinces are to be organised on linguistic lines.
- Nineteen fundamental rights including equal rights for women, universal adult franchise etc.
- State would be completely separated from religion.
- Indian parliament at centre to have a senate (elected by provincial councils) and a house of representatives (elected on basis of adult suffrage). The Governor General would act on the advice of the executive council responsible to parliament.
Varied response to Nehru Report
- Due to communal differences, unity between political leaders broke.
- Delhi proposals of Muslim League (1927): In the Madras session of Congress, the Delhi proposals were accepted to accommodate the demands of the minority community.
- These proposals included: Joint electorates in place of separate electorates with reserved seats for Muslims, and the formation of new Muslim-majority provinces- Sindh, Baluchistan and NWFP.
- Reaction to Delhi proposals: Hindu Mahasabha was opposed to these proposals. It demanded a strict unitary form of government.
- Compromise formula: At all party’s conferences, concessions were made to Hindu Mahasabha, which included: Reservation of seats only where Muslims are in minority, Residual powers to be with the centre and Sindh to be separated only when dominion status was achieved.
- However, Muslim leaders were not satisfied. Jinnah proposed amendments to the Nehru report. This included- 1/3rd representation to Muslims in the central legislature, residual powers with provinces etc. These were not accepted.
- Fourteen Points of Jinnah: In March 1929, the 14 points were presented which became the basis for future propaganda of the Muslim League.
- These points included demands for residual powers with provinces, adequate representation of Muslims in services and self-governing bodies, separate electorates etc.
- Nehru Report failed to satisfy the demands of various sections such as Sikhs, the Muslim League and Hindu-Mahasabha.
- Younger sections led by Nehru and Bose too rejected dominion status demand as it was a step backwards. They jointly set up the Independence for India League.
