La Martiniere

Model United Nations, 2023

THE DECENNIAL EDITION

CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF THE

DOMINION OF INDIA, 1947

BACKGROUND GUIDE

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 CONTENTS

1. Letter from the Executive Board

2. Introduction

3. About the Committee

4. Historical Background

5. Indian Independence Act, 1947

6. Understanding Section 9 of the Indian Independence Act, 1947

 Letter from the Executive Board
Dear Delegates,

On behalf of the Executive Board of the Constituent Assembly of the

Dominion of India, we extend our heartfelt welcome to this historic
endeavor. The legacy of our founding fathers and the aspirations of
millions rest upon your shoulders as you embark on this noble task. We
expect you to embody sagacity, integrity, and inclusivity in shaping our
nation's future.
Your deliberations must transcend personal biases, champion social
justice, and safeguard individual liberties. We anticipate a spirited
discourse that transcends partisan divisions and fosters consensus. Each
proposal should uphold the tenets of democracy, secularism, and
equitable representation.
As torchbearers of our nation's destiny, we trust in your wisdom to draft
a constitution that not only mirrors our diverse ethos but also charts a
course for a just, progressive, and harmonious India. Let the ideals of
unity in diversity guide your pens.

Sincerely,

Executive Board
Constituent Assembly of the Dominion of India
 Introduction
In the midst of a significant upheaval marked by extensive bloodshed,
societal unrest, riots, and political instability, the British India is not only
on the cusp of achieving its long-awaited independence but also
anticipates the tragic division along communal lines into the Dominion of
India and the Dominion of Pakistan. This division involves over 565
princely states, each facing the choice of affiliating with either of the
dominions or pursuing independent statehood.

Beginning in the early 1940s, the demand for a separate Muslim state has
culminated in the birth of the Dominion of Pakistan, accompanied by
widespread civil unrest, characterised by numerous cases of violence,
murder, vandalism, sexual assaults, and other horrific crimes. Concerning
the princely states, some have already made determinations to align with
one of the two dominions, while others contemplate establishing
themselves as autonomous entities.

It is essential to underscore that the long-awaited independence and

partition of British India are slated for August 15, 1947. Therefore,
although this committee bears the paramount responsibility of
formulating the Constitution of India, each member is acutely aware of
the imperative to mitigate losses as the British Empire declares
independence, an event awaited for centuries. This responsibility entails
crafting a constitution that meticulously represents the interests of every
community, irrespective of its size.

Furthermore, it is pertinent to note that the designated freeze date for this
conference is July 21, 1947.
 About the Committee
The Constituent Assembly of India was formed in response to the need
for framing a comprehensive and inclusive constitution for a nation that
is going to achieve its independence after centuries. It was essential to
establish a constitutional framework that would govern the country's
political, social, and economic structures, while upholding principles of
democracy, justice, and equality. The Constituent Assembly has been
tasked with the monumental responsibility of drafting the Constitution of
India, ensuring that it reflected the aspirations and values of a diverse
and pluralistic society, along with providing a solid foundation ourselves.

The inaugural meeting of the Constituent Assembly of India convened on

December 9, 1946, and its principal agenda was the adoption of the
Objectives Resolution. This pivotal resolution delineated the
foundational principles and philosophical underpinnings that would
undergird the forthcoming Constitution of India.

Subsequently, the Constituent Assembly has maintained a steadfast

commitment to scrutinizing the intricate intricacies of the impending
constitution. However, given the imminence of British bestowal of
independence upon our nation within a month's time, it is paramount to
engage in discourse concerning the requisites and aspirations of the
princely states. It is sanguinely anticipated that these princely states, in
concert with the Dominion of India, will partake in the formulation of an
illustrious India—an India that attentively hearkens to every voice and
equally extends its mantle of citizenship to all its constituents.
 Historical Background
A. Situation in the Early 1940s

In the early stages of the Second World War, the Allies in general and the
United Kingdom in particular were facing huge losses, that were
beginning to severely impact their economies as well as their overall
morale and their war efforts. The early to mid- 1942 especially, went
down as one of the darkest periods in the history of the United Kingdom,
with multiple losses being reported from near and afar, be it in the form
of military defeats, especially in the Malaya- Singapore region and in the
Tobruk region in Libya, or in the form of other bitter losses, like the
Dunbeath air crash, which resulted in the death of Prince George, the
Duke of Kent. After the fall of Singapore in February 1942, the
A.B.D.A. Command was dissolved, resulting in the resignation of Sir
Archibald Wavell as the Supreme Commander of the ABDACOM, who
was then given the responsibility of the defence of Burma as the
Commander-in-Chief of the Indian forces, until June 1943.

Meanwhile, along with the August Offer in the year 1940 proposed by the
then Viceroy and Governor-General of India Victor A. Linlithgow, it was
during the Cripps Mission, sent by the British government to India in
March 1942, when the British first gave any concrete signs of granting the
Indians independence. Even though the Cripps Mission had failed
miserably, it served as one of the primary causes behind the creation of
the Dominion of India, as well as the Dominion of Pakistan, with
Mahatma Gandhi launching the Quit India Movement merely months
later, when the Second World War was roughly at its peak.
The primary objective of the Cripps Mission was to gather Indian
support and cooperation during the testing times of the Second World
War, following the suggestions from the key allies of the United
Kingdom, like the United States and the Republic of China.

However, the British atrocities that were committed against India didn’t
cease by any margin whatsoever. The Bengal famine of 1943 resulted in
thousands of deaths, with the region not only facing a severe food crisis
but also the effects of the World War, as air raids were conducted by the
Japanese on Calcutta and there was hardly any concrete response from
the Allies. Furthermore, the former Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom, Winston Churchill, denied the requests for food imports for
the people of Bengal, even though the requests were made by the then
high-ranking British officials, like General Claude Auchinleck, who was
serving as the Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in India, the
former Viceroy and Governor General of India, Victor A. Linlithgow or
even Admiral Louis Mountbatten, who was then serving as the Supreme
Commander of the South- East Asia.

With Subash Chandra Bose also actively involved in the Second World
War, he set up the ‘Azad Hind’ government at Port Blair with the
assistance of the Japanese, as they attacked the Port of Kolkata in
December 1943 and Imphal in March 1944. In the following years, as the
British forces and officials were occupied in the Second World War, the
demand for independence was only gaining more popularity across the
entire India. The British forces in 1944, managed to drive out the
Japanese forces, that had attacked various regions of Eastern India, as
planned under Operation U- GO. The Japanese forces were driven out of
India after the Battle of Kohima, which followed the Battle of Sangshak.
The surrender of the Japanese Empire was announced by Emperor
Hirohito on August 15, 1945, roughly a few months later, with the
Emperor agreeing to the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. Subash
Chandra Bose has been presumed dead in a plane crash that occurred
three days later, on the island of Taiwan.
B. Recent Developments and the Referendums of Sylhet and NWFP

Following several events like the Royal Air Force Mutiny in the early
months of 1946 as well as various hartals in Calcutta and Bombay, the
British had finally agreed upon granting independence to India, the initial
signs of which were visible in the form of the Atlee government sending a
Cabinet Mission to India, comprised of the following members:

I. The Right Honourable Frederick W. Pethick-Lawrence, the Secretary

of State for India and Burma,

II. Sir Richard Stafford Cripps, the President of the Board of Trade and

III. The Right Honourable Albert V. Alexander, the First Lord of the
Admiralty.

While the British had already begun with the formal processes of granting
the Indians, absolute independence, various riots had begun to emerge
across the entire British India, ranging from Direct Action Day in
Calcutta to the more recent Rawalpindi massacres.

In February 1947, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Clement

Richard Atlee, announced in the House of Commons that the transfer of
power will take place in India by June 1948 and that the fate of the
princely states will be discussed after deciding the date on which India
would be granted independence. With this, Lord Louis Mountbatten was
appointed as the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, on the 21st of
February, 1947.
As soon as Mountbatten arrived in India, he began with the negotiations
between the Congress and the Muslim League, regarding the Pakistan
demand.
Meanwhile, Sir Cyril John Radcliffe was appointed as the chairperson for
the boundary commissions for Bengal and Punjab.

With the rise in communal tensions in Punjab, Maharaja Hari Singh is

said to have strengthened the security of the border regions that the
princely state of Jammu and Kashmir shares with Punjab. Meanwhile,
Lord Mountbatten attempted to stop the partition of Bengal and carry
on with the partition of the Muslim-majority Kashmir, which was met
with a sharp disagreement from the Maharaja, as well as the eminent
leaders of the Congress. Furthermore, in late April 1947, Mountbatten
stated during his visit to the North-West Frontier Province that a
referendum is to be held very soon, to decide whether the region will join
the Dominion of India or the Dominion of Pakistan. This was opposed
by the Khudai Khidmatgars under Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Later, the
Khudai Khidmatgars even advocated for the creation of a Pashtunistan,
or the merging of the provinces into Afghanistan but this demand of
theirs, primarily as part of the ‘Bannu Resolution (presented: June 21,
1947)’ was declined by the British, leading to the boycott of the NWFP
Referendum by the Khudai Khidmatgars as well as several Pashtun
tribes, that was later conducted in July 1947. The result of this
referendum was announced on July 20, 1947, with the majority voting in
favour of joining the Dominion of Pakistan.

On May 17, 1947, the former Maharaja of Tripura, Bir Bikram Bahadur
passed away and was succeeded by his son, Maharaja Kirit Bikram
Kishore Deb Barman, who is only thirteen years of age as of now. The
affairs of the state of Tripura are currently looked after by the regent,
Maharani Kanchan Prava Devi.
The month of May was to bring more hardships as the riots that had
broken out in Punjab were now spreading to Bengal, amidst the talks
over the partition of Bengal and the illegal plebiscites that were
conducted. Following this, the Sylhet referendum was conducted in the
Assam Province, to decide whether this district wishes to remain in the
Undivided Assam region or join the Dominion of Pakistan. The Sylhet
region chose to join East Pakistan, with a comparatively narrow margin
of votes.

The Mountbatten Plan that was announced on June the 3rd, 1947, stated
that the two newly formed states, India and Pakistan, will be given a
dominion status, with them having the option of creating their own
constitution. According to the Mountbatten Plan, the two dominions
would be the Dominion of India, which shall be a Hindu majority state,
with the other one being the Dominion of Pakistan, with predominantly a
Muslim majority.

The princely states on the other hand were suggested to join either of
these two dominions, depending upon the pretext of the geographical
status and the choice of the people of the princely states. The constitution
framed by the Constituent Assembly would cease to apply in the regions
that would fall under Pakistan. Meanwhile, Sir Radcliffe has arrived in
India, during the early days of July, 1947, to decide the borders.

Lord Mountbatten is to hold a meeting shortly, with the Chamber of

Princes.
 Indian Independence Act, 1947
Receiving the royal assent of July 18th 1947, The Indian Independence
Act of 1947, was a watershed moment in the annals of colonial history,
heralded the culmination of India's arduous struggle for emancipation
from British colonial rule. This landmark legislation not only served as
the legislative bedrock for creating two distinct dominions, India and
Pakistan but also crystallized the intricate process of decolonization,
etching an indelible mark upon the geopolitical landscape.

The act's overarching objective was the relinquishment of British

suzerainty over the Indian subcontinent. It enshrined the principles of
self-determination and sovereignty, wherein the Indian populace's
aspirations for autonomous governance were granted substantive
expression. This was achieved through the establishment of two self-
governing entities, India and Pakistan, each endowed with the
prerogative to draft their respective constitutions, a testament to their
newfound agency.

In the run-up to this historic juncture, the Mountbatten Plan,

propounded by the last British Viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten,
elucidated a blueprint for partition along religious lines, predominantly
to assuage mounting communal tensions. This edifice of division,
however, bore the seeds of a cataclysmic human exodus and inter-
communal violence, resulting in an unprecedented humanitarian crisis
with seismic ramifications.
The act delineated the contours of sovereignty by extricating the British
Parliament's authority to legislate for the two dominions. Additionally,
the British monarch's position as the symbolic sovereign of India was
preserved, albeit in a titular capacity, symbolizing a ceremonial vestige of
imperial power. This entailed the cessation of British paramountcy in
India's princely states, thereby endowing them with the discretion to
affiliate with either India or Pakistan, a decision pregnant with
ramifications for the subcontinent's territorial integrity.

Integral to the act's mosaic is the bifurcation of financial assets and

obligations between the two nascent dominions. It has been briefly
discussed in section 9 of the Indian Independence. The delicate task of
apportioning debts and assets was undertaken to ensure a modicum of
economic stability for the fledgling nations. This fiscal disentanglement
was further emblematic of this document's commitment to a seamless exit
strategy, albeit one that was laden with its own set of intricacies.

Paradoxically, while the Indian Independence Act ostensibly proffered

liberation, it perpetuated certain vestiges of colonial legal frameworks.
The Government of India Act of 1935, a legislative scaffold underpinning
colonial governance, was adopted, with selective amendments, as the
provisional constitution for the dominions. This hybrid arrangement was
a pragmatic expedient to ensure continuity in governance during the
critical transition period.

The act's unequivocal ramifications extended beyond the subcontinent's

borders. The fracturing of the British India into the dominions of India
and Pakistan also kindled discussions on the future of princely states.
With the possibility of accession to either dominion, the princely states
engaged in intricate diplomatic negotiations.
In the denouement, the Indian Independence Act of 1947 was emblematic
of decolonization's multifaceted tapestry. Its nomenclature belied its
profound implications, as it not only catalyzed the establishment of two
sovereign dominions but also unraveled the complexities of partition,
princely states, and post-colonial legal continuity. While it extricated the
Indian subcontinent from the clutches of colonialism, it was not without
its pitfalls, encapsulating the intricate dialectic between liberation and the
legacy of colonialism.
 Understanding Section 9 of the Indian
Independence Act, 1947
Section 9 of the Indian Independence Act of 1947 is subdivided into six
sub-sections, each elaborating on the procedural aspects of the Act's
implementation within the Dominion of India (and the other dominion(s)
that are to come into existence). The Act confers various powers and
authorities upon the Governor-General of India to facilitate a smooth
transition of power. Additionally, this section extends certain powers to
the Governors of individual provinces that are set to dissolve in
accordance with the Act's provisions.

This clause also places considerable significance on the date of the

announcement of the Mountbatten Plan, as it stipulates that any order
issued by the Governor-General or any Governor on or after the 3rd of
June 1947 shall take effect accordingly. Furthermore, these orders shall
hold sway not only within British India until independence is granted but
also within the Dominion of India and any other relevant dominions,
after the appointed date (i.e. the 15th of August, 1947), both within and
beyond these specified regions. However, it is worth noting that these
orders may be subject to repeal or amendment in accordance with the
legislation of the respective dominions.

Moreover, Section 9 of the Indian Independence Act of 1947 stipulates

that in the event that a portion of the present province of Assam is to be
incorporated into the emerging province of East Bengal, the earlier
provisions, i.e., the preceding sections of this Act, shall be applicable as if
the Province of Assam were to cease to exist on the 15th of August, 1947,
and would be subsequently reconstituted as a new province.
THE DECENNIAL EDITION