Q. Consider the following statements with respect to “Delhi Manifesto”:
1. The purpose of the Round Table Conference should be to determine whether or when dominion status was to be reached.
2. Congress and Muslim League should have equal representation.
3. General Amnesty for political prisoners.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
On November 2, 1929, a conference of prominent national leaders issued a ‘Delhi Manifesto’ which put forward certain conditions for attending the Round Table Conference:
that the purpose of the Round Table Conference should be not to determine whether or when dominion status was to be reached but to formulate a constitution for implementation of the dominion status (thus acting as a constituent assembly) and the basic principle of dominion status should be immediately accepted;
That the Congress should have majority representation at the conference; and
There should be a general amnesty for political prisoners and a policy of conciliation; Gandhi along with Motilal Nehru and other political leaders met Lord Irwin in December 1929 (after the viceroy had narrowly escaped after a bomb was detonated meaning to hit the train he was travelling in). They asked the viceroy for assurance that the purpose of the round table conference was to draft a constitutional scheme for dominion status. That was not the purpose of the conference, said Irwin. Viceroy Irwin rejected the demands put forward in the Delhi Manifesto.
Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India.
