Sir Stafford Cripps gave this speech at Edinburgh on 14 June 1945, the day L. S. Amery announced the Wavell Plan in the House of Commons and Wavell broadcast it in India. Cripps had led the British mission of 1942 that offered India Dominion status after the war and failed to win Congress or the League. He had served in Churchill's wartime coalition until it broke up in May 1945, and he was now campaigning in the general election called for 5 July. He says the plan was worked out under the coalition and that he accepts "my full share of responsibility" for it.
Cripps explains the plan: an interim Executive Council in which every portfolio except the Viceroy's and the Commander-in-Chief's would be held by Indians chosen from among the party leaders, a portfolio of Foreign Affairs in Indian hands, and a British High Commissioner. The Council would be "a balanced representation of the main communities including equal proportions of Moslems and caste Hindus." It could not yet be made responsible to the central legislature, he argues, because "the great minorities would be alarmed at the prospect of a permanent racial and religious majority controlling the central government." He insists that Britain must keep no "reservation of a selfish kind" about its interests in India, and that if this attempt fails, "we must try, try and try again."
[p. 115] To-day there has been announced in Parliament by the Secretary of State for India and published in a White Paper, a further suggested step toward the solution of the Indian difficulties. This plan was worked out during the life of the National Government at the suggestion of the Viceroy, Lord Wavell, and is one for which I accept my full share of responsibility.
I hope most earnestly that what is proposed will prove acceptable in India and will succeed in bringing a new spirit of co-operation into the relations between the British and the Indian peoples.
Ever since my visit to India in 1942, I have hoped that some way might be found towards a solution of this difficult problem, and I have done my best to help in resolving the impasse which has gradually increased in severity since the autumn of 1942.
I am particularly delighted that the Secretary of State has been able to announce the release of the members of the Congress Working Committee from detention, and I hope that all [p. 116] other political detainees will quickly gain their freedom at the hands of Central and Provincial Governments in India. These releases will mark the end of one of the sad chapters of our relationship with India and will provide the opportunity for that vigorous Indian leadership which alone can solve India's problems of reconstruction.
I welcome wholeheartedly the suggestions which have been put forward in the White Paper. They may not appear to be spectacular in terms of legislation, but they are indeed far-reaching adjustments of the constitutional position.
The idea is that for the interim period during which the final new self-governing constitution for India is being worked out by the Indians, in accordance with the plan which I took to India in 1942, and which still stands in its entirety, without change or qualification, there should be constituted a Viceroy's Executive Council in which all the portfolios, including the Home and Finance departments, but excepting those of the Viceroy and the Commander-in-Chief, will be held by Indians and, what is more important, that those Indians will no longer merely be nominees of the British but will be chosen from prominent politicians who will be representative of large sections of Indian opinion, such as the Congress, the Moslem League, the depressed classes, the Sikhs and so forth. At the same time, there will be created a portfolio of Foreign Affairs in the hands of a representative Indian and fully accredited Ambassadors and Ministers will be appointed to represent India at any capital the Indian Government chooses. In the same way, British India will be able to nominate its own representatives to all international conferences, a factor which may be of the greatest importance in the settlement of problems arising out of the Far Eastern war. There is a further important step announced by Mr. Amery, and that is the appointment of a British High Commissioner in India to represent British interests. This will emphasise the Viceroy's position as the head of the Indian Government and will save him the embarrassment of trying to represent both sides in any economic or similar matter in dispute.
Now this will constitute a very real advance if the suggestions put forward are acceptable to the Indian leaders, because [p. 117] for the first time the Central Government of India would be practically entirely composed of representative Indians; and that fact alone must bring about a complete alteration in the balance of power which has hitherto existed between British and Indians.
It is not possible in existing circumstances to make the Viceroy's Executive responsible to the Central legislature. To suggest such a course, with the existing legislature, would be to wreck all chances of success, for the great minorities would be alarmed at the prospect of a permanent racial and religious majority controlling the central government, and this would make impossible a scheme which requires the consent of majority and minorities alike.
The composition of the Viceroy's new Executive is to be worked out by him in consultation with the leaders of Indian parties and communities whom he will ask to nominate suitable persons to act on his Executive. From these nominees he will make his recommendations to the Crown for appointment. The objective is to obtain a balanced representation of the main communities including equal proportions of Moslems and caste Hindus.
It is to be hoped, and indeed we can, I am sure, anticipate, if this scheme goes through, that the Indian ministries will be formed once again in all provinces.
The British Parliament will still retain its ultimate responsibility as it must do until a new constitution is worked out. That is unavoidable, but with this present temporary constitutional change, if it is agreed to by the Indian leaders, it is quite obvious that there will be a great shift of power from the British Parliament and Government to the new Executive Council of the Viceroy which, for the first time, will be representative of the Indian peoples.
That is the really important factor in these new proposals. They do provide a marked step forward towards self-government and a much better opportunity for the fullest co-operation between Indians of all religions and parties and the British in achieving those final steps which still remain to be taken to accomplish the complete freedom of India.
I have always been convinced, and all my recent experiences [p. 118] have reinforced me in that conviction, that we Britishers must make it plain beyond any possibility of doubt that our one desire is to assist our Indian friends in every way that we can to work out, with the utmost expedition, their new constitution for a free India. These proposals are, I believe, a step in that direction.
We must not have, either in our policies or in our minds, any reservation of a selfish kind as to our commercial, industrial or financial interests in India. Such things must not be allowed to stand in the way of the desired progress to self-government for a single moment. All such questions can be taken up with the new Indian Government of India when it is formed and negotiated as between equals in the comity of nations.
Our country needs to retain the friendship of India. None but the most out-of-date reactionaries could imagine that we could accomplish that end by duress and force ; the days for such an attitude—if ever they existed—have long since passed away. We can no more compel India to act towards us in a friendly and co-operative spirit than can the French force Syria or the Lebanon into friendship with themselves.
Our one hope of maintaining our trade connections with the Indian people, connections which can well be to the great advantage of both our peoples, is by assuring ourselves of their friendship.
There is, I believe, still time to maintain and strengthen that friendship, and I am certain that that is the earnest desire of the British people. Despite all our misunderstandings and difficulties, despite all that we may have done inadvisedly in the past, the Indian Leaders are still, I believe, prepared to extend to us their friendship, provided that it is as equals. It is that equal friendship that I so ardently seek and desire.
In a world where there is so much conflict, and in which the future must so greatly depend upon our capacity to arrive at a better understanding and appreciation of the views and desires of other peoples, it is of the greatest importance that we should do our utmost to preserve the friendship of the peoples of the Indian continent by an intelligent and enlightened policy of co-operation in the achievement of their freedom.
Though my mission in 1942 brought no immediate success in its train, I hope and believe that I still have many friends [p. 119] in India who know that I have done my best to advance the realisation of Indian self-government. To all those friends I would most earnestly appeal for co-operation in a new joint effort of Indians and British, as equals, determined to find a way out of our difficulties.
In whatever position I may find myself after this election, I shall continue to exert all the influence I can command, in co-operation with my Indian friends, to bring about this complete self-government of India. That is my goal and for that I shall work.
This suggestion which is now put forward on the responsibility of all the major political parties in the country is not, so far as the British people are concerned, a last word. It is, I hope, another useful contribution but if, for any reason, it should fail—which I greatly hope it will not—we must try, try and try again until by the pooled common sense of the two great peoples we arrive at a just and happy solution of our problems.
With the Congress Leaders once more free after their years of embittering confinement, let us humbly trust that we may arrive at a deeper and more sincere understanding of their self-sacrificing patriotism for their country, a patriotism which has led them into years of patient suffering. For it is only if we can appreciate their motives of loyalty to the Indian people that we can expect them to understand the honest reasons for our actions which must often have seemed to them to be so mistaken and unjust.
With mutual respect and a better appreciation of the deep spiritual and national longings which the Indian Leaders represent, we may hope to collaborate with them, striving as equals each to make our fullest contribution towards the forging of a new future for one of the world's most densely populated continental areas. In this way it may be the privilege of our generation to add a new element of strength to the structure of world peace and happiness.
Stafford Cripps, Democracy Alive: A Selection from Recent Speeches (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1946), pp. 115–119.