British
You preside over the conference. Understand the ideology behind British rule and the frameworks that have been proposed.
Queen Victoria: Proclamation of 1858 (3 pp.)
The foundational document of Crown rule in India. The treaty obligations you must honor or abandon.
Thomas Babington Macaulay: The Minute on Education (3 pp.)
The civilizing-mission ideology that shaped British India’s education system.
Dadabhai Naoroji: The Pros and Cons of British Rule (6 pp.)
The economic case against empire. The ‘drain theory’ that every Indian faction will cite against you.
The Cabinet Mission Plan: The Last British Offer (6 pp.)
The British framework for transferring power. The kind of proposal you will need to draft.
Congress’s Response to the Cabinet Mission Plan (2 pp.)
How Congress reacted. Anticipate these objections when crafting your own proposal.
Indian National Congress (INC)
You claim to speak for all Indians. These readings show both the promise and the vulnerability of that claim.
The Lucknow Pact, 1916 (6 pp.)
Congress's model for Hindu-Muslim unity: the agreement on reserved seats that briefly held the movement together.
Sarojini Naidu: For the Evolution of National Life (4 pp.)
Congress secularism articulated by one of its most prominent voices.
Jawaharlal Nehru: “Be Not Afraid” (5 pp.)
Nehru’s socialist, modernizing vision for India’s future.
Abul Kalam Azad: The Muslims of India and the Future of India (8 pp.)
A Muslim leader who opposes partition and stays with Congress. Your strongest evidence that Congress speaks for Muslims too.
The Rajagopalachari Formula and Gandhi-Jinnah Correspondence (6 pp.)
The failed 1944 negotiations. Study what went wrong to understand what you face at Simla.
Gandhi: Hindu-Muslim Tension, Its Cause and Cure (3 pp.)
Your ally Gandhi’s diagnosis of communal conflict.
Dadabhai Naoroji: The Pros and Cons of British Rule (6 pp.)
The economic case against empire. Masani’s father wrote Naoroji’s biography—this is your intellectual inheritance.
The Cabinet Mission Plan: The Last British Offer (6 pp.)
Know what the British have proposed so you can shape their next offer.
Muslim League
You demand Pakistan. These readings trace the intellectual case for a separate Muslim state, and the arguments you must overcome.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah: “The Thrust Toward a New Muslim Nation” (5 pp.)
Jinnah’s own case for Pakistan—the two-nation theory in his words.
Muhammad Iqbal: A Separate Muslim State, and Letters to Jinnah (6 pp.)
The intellectual foundation for Pakistan, from the poet-philosopher who inspired the idea.
Choudhary Rahmat Ali: “The Fatherland of the Pak Nation” (3 pp.)
The man who coined the name “Pakistan” and mapped its geography.
Sayyid Ahmad Khan: Congress as a Danger and a Folly (5 pp.)
The foundational argument for Muslim separatism: why Congress cannot represent Muslims.
Mohamed Ali: Hindu-Muslim Unity, Then Adversary of Gandhi (7 pp.)
A Muslim leader who allied with Gandhi, then turned against him.
Begum Shaista Ikramullah: Cherished Encounters with Jinnah (9 pp.)
A Muslim League woman’s account of Jinnah and the movement for Pakistan.
Shah Abdul Aziz: Islam in Danger (3 pp.)
An early theological argument that Muslim life under non-Muslim rule is imperiled.
Abul Kalam Azad: The Muslims of India and the Future of India (8 pp.)
A Muslim leader who opposes partition. Know this argument: Congress will use Azad against you.
B. R. Ambedkar: Must There Be a Pakistan? (8 pp.)
A non-Muslim’s strategic analysis of partition. Ambedkar takes the demand seriously and probes its weaknesses.
The Cabinet Mission Plan: The Last British Offer (6 pp.)
The provisions on grouping provinces are especially relevant to Pakistan.
Gandhi’s Adherents
You carry Gandhi’s moral authority. Master his arguments, and know the strongest objections to them.
Gandhi: Hind Swaraj (6 pp.)
Gandhi’s foundational text rejecting Western modernity. The philosophical basis for village self-rule.
Gandhi: The Crime of Chauri Chaura (3 pp.)
Gandhi calls off the entire non-cooperation movement after a single act of violence.
Gandhi: Hindu-Muslim Tension, Its Cause and Cure (3 pp.)
Gandhi’s diagnosis of communal conflict and his prescription for healing it.
Gandhi: Letter to Lord Irwin (Salt Satyagraha) (5 pp.)
Gandhi explains the Salt March to the Viceroy. Satyagraha in practice.
Gandhi: From the Gandhi-Irwin Pact to Quit India (3 pp.)
The immediate political backdrop to Simla.
Gandhi: Untouchability and Swaraj (4 pp.)
Gandhi on caste, untouchability, and women.
Tagore’s Critique of Gandhi, and Gandhi’s Response (9 pp.)
The sharpest internal debate about nonviolence and non-cooperation.
Periyar Responds to Gandhi on Caste (4 pp.)
The most devastating critique of Gandhi’s approach to untouchability.
Scheduled Caste Federation
You fight for 70 million Untouchables. Arm yourself with the intellectual case for political power.
The Gandhi-Ambedkar Debate on Caste (6 pp.)
The central confrontation: Ambedkar’s case for annihilating caste versus Gandhi’s defense of varnashrama.
Gandhi’s Responses to Ambedkar (4 pp.)
Gandhi’s specific arguments against Ambedkar’s demands. Know these so you can refute them.
Jotirao Phule: The Tyranny of a Brahman-Dominated History (5 pp.)
The intellectual precursor to Ambedkar: a 19th-century radical’s attack on Brahmin domination.
Periyar Responds to Gandhi on Caste (4 pp.)
Periyar’s sharp critique of Gandhi’s paternalism toward Untouchables.
B. R. Ambedkar: Must There Be a Pakistan? (8 pp.)
Ambedkar’s strategic analysis of partition from an Untouchable perspective.
Gandhi: Untouchability and Swaraj (4 pp.)
Gandhi’s position on untouchability. Know the argument you are fighting against.
Hindu Mahasabha
You demand a Hindu nation. These readings build the case that India’s identity is fundamentally Hindu.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak: The Gita Versus the Penal Code (7 pp.)
The founding texts of Hindu militant nationalism.
V. D. Savarkar: The Glories of the Hindu Nation (5 pp.)
Hindutva articulated: India as a Hindu civilization-state.
Aurobindo Ghosh: Passive Resistance and India’s Hindu Mission (11 pp.)
Spiritual nationalism: India’s destiny as the resurrection of Hinduism.
Bankim Chandra Chatterji: Hail to the Mother (4 pp.)
The author of Vande Mataram. The cultural nationalism behind the anthem that divides the conference.
Dayananda Saraswati: Gokarunanidhi (20 pp.)
The foundational Hindu text on cow protection. The moral and religious case that drives your agitation.
Gandhi: Communal Problems (esp. Ch. 14: Cow Protection) (37 pp.)
Gandhi’s collected writings on Hindu-Muslim friction. Focus on Ch. 14: he agrees cows are sacred but opposes legal compulsion—understand his position to counter it.
Akali Dal (Sikhs)
You are too small to win alone but too important to ignore. Understand Sikh identity and the Punjab’s stakes in partition.
Eleanor Nesbitt: Sikhism — A Very Short Introduction (book)
A concise overview of Sikh history, beliefs, and identity.
The Sikh Religious Code: Lives of Discipline and Devotion (2 pp.)
The Khalsa code that defines Sikh identity.
Lala Lajpat Rai: The Hindu-Muslim Problem, 1924 (10 pp.)
A Punjab leader’s early proposal to divide the Punjab and Bengal along communal lines.
Gurbachan Singh and Lal Singh Gyani: Demanding a Sikh State (6 pp.)
The case for Khalistan: why Sikhs cannot survive in either a Hindu India or a Muslim Pakistan.
Communist Party of India
You see class, not religion, as the real divide. These readings provide the Marxist analysis of Indian nationalism.
M. N. Roy and Rajani Palme Dutt: Communist Responses to Gandhi (11 pp.)
Two Marxist critiques of Gandhian nonviolence as a mask for bourgeois exploitation.
G. D. Adhikari: National Unity Now! (8 pp.)
The CPI’s wartime position on nationality and self-determination.
Jayaprakash Narayan: A Plea for a Communitarian Polity and Economy (6 pp.)
A Marxist who moved toward Gandhian communalism. The tension between theory and Indian realities.
E. M. S. Namboodiripad: The All-India Kisan Sabha (14 pp.)
A CPI leader’s account of the peasant movement’s founding at Lucknow in 1936, its demands, struggles, and growth.
P. Sundarayya: Excerpts from Telangana People’s Struggle (5 pp.)
A communist leader’s account of armed peasant insurrection against the Nizam of Hyderabad.
M. Abdullah Rasul: The Tebhaga Struggle of Bengal (15 pp.)
The 1946 sharecropper uprising in Bengal—peasants demanding two-thirds of the harvest.
Princely States
You claim sovereignty. Understand the proposals on the table and the arguments for independent or autonomous states.
Queen Victoria: Proclamation of 1858 (3 pp.)
The foundational document of Crown rule. Your treaties with the Crown are your legal basis for sovereignty.
The Cabinet Mission Plan: The Last British Offer (6 pp.)
The British framework for transferring power, including provisions for princely states.
Congress’s Response to the Cabinet Mission Plan (2 pp.)
Congress wants a strong central government that absorbs your territories.
Sarat Chandra Bose: Proposing a Bengal Free State (7 pp.)
A bold proposal for an independent Bengal. A model for the sovereignty you seek.
Cabinet Mission Memorandum on Paramountcy, 1946 (2 pp.)
The British state that paramountcy will not transfer to any successor government. Your legal trump card.
Butler Committee Report, 1929 (75 pp.)
The earlier ruling: paramountcy cannot be transferred without princely consent. The legal foundation of your sovereignty claim.
Village Leaders
You represent the vast majority of Indians. Every faction claims to speak for you. These readings give voice to rural India.
Romesh Chunder Dutt: The Causes of India’s Poverty (6 pp.)
The economic devastation of rural India under British rule.
Rabindranath Tagore: “The Problem of India” (4 pp.)
Tagore on the poverty, isolation, and unrealized potential of the villages.
Gandhi: Untouchability and Swaraj (4 pp.)
Gandhi on the village-level injustices that no constitution can solve from above.
E. M. S. Namboodiripad: The All-India Kisan Sabha (14 pp.)
The peasant movement organized. A communist leader tells the story of its founding, demands for land and debt relief, and growth.
M. Abdullah Rasul: The Tebhaga Struggle of Bengal (15 pp.)
Bengal sharecroppers rise up to claim two-thirds of the harvest. The village fights back.
Gandhi: Communal Problems (esp. Ch. 14: Cow Protection) (37 pp.)
Cow protection stirs your villages more than any constitutional debate. Focus on Ch. 14—Gandhi’s position shapes how this plays out.