History 8 November 2026

The Simon Commission (1927) – 'Simon Go Back' and the road to the 1935 Act

Five key points

1. Why it was set up: the Government of India Act, 1919 provided for a commission to review the working of the reforms (dyarchy) after ten years; the Conservative government of Stanley Baldwin, with Lord Birkenhead as Secretary of State for India, appointed it two years early, in November 1927.
2. Members: seven British MPs under Sir John Simon, including Clement Attlee (later British Prime Minister, 1945–51). No Indian was included – the main reason Indians opposed it.
3. Boycott: the Madras session of the Congress (December 1927, president Dr M.A. Ansari) resolved to boycott it 'at every stage and in every form'; a section of the Muslim League under M.A. Jinnah and the Hindu Mahasabha also stayed away. When the Commission landed at Bombay on 3 February 1928, it was met by an all-India hartal and black-flag protests with the slogan 'Simon Go Back'.
4. Repression and response: in a police lathi charge on a protest march at Lahore on 30 October 1928 Lala Lajpat Rai was badly injured, and he died on 17 November 1928; Jawaharlal Nehru and G.B. Pant were beaten at Lucknow. Birkenhead's challenge to Indians to produce an agreed constitution led to the Nehru Report (August 1928).
5. Outcome: the Simon Report (1930) proposed the abolition of dyarchy, provincial autonomy and a federation, kept separate electorates and did not mention dominion status; it was taken up at the Round Table Conferences (1930–32) and fed into the Government of India Act, 1935. Tamil Nadu link – the boycott decision was taken at the Madras session, which also passed a resolution declaring complete independence the goal of the Congress.

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Sources: www.britannica.com · indianculture.gov.in · ncert.nic.in · www.inc.in