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Interim Government: London Conference

The Interim Government of India was formed on September 2, 1946 from the newly elected Constituent Assembly to help transition India and Pakistan to independence from British rule. The Interim Government, led by Jawaharlal Nehru and the Indian National Congress, was in place until August 15, 1947 when India and Pakistan gained independence. The Muslim League initially refused cabinet positions but later joined in October 1946 to protect Muslim interests. The Interim Government struggled to resolve political deadlocks between the Congress and Muslim League. Liaquat Ali Khan's "Poor Man's Budget" in February 1947 was praised for benefiting common people and further boosted the Muslim League's popularity and competence in governance.

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334 views2 pages

Interim Government: London Conference

The Interim Government of India was formed on September 2, 1946 from the newly elected Constituent Assembly to help transition India and Pakistan to independence from British rule. The Interim Government, led by Jawaharlal Nehru and the Indian National Congress, was in place until August 15, 1947 when India and Pakistan gained independence. The Muslim League initially refused cabinet positions but later joined in October 1946 to protect Muslim interests. The Interim Government struggled to resolve political deadlocks between the Congress and Muslim League. Liaquat Ali Khan's "Poor Man's Budget" in February 1947 was praised for benefiting common people and further boosted the Muslim League's popularity and competence in governance.

Uploaded by

Ali Asghar
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Interim government

On 2nd September 1946 the Interim Government of India was formed. This temporary
government was formed from the Constituent Assembly of India (which was then newly
elected).

This government was entrusted the task of helping the transition of India and Pakistan from
British rule to Independence as two separate nations. The Interim Government was in place
till 15th August 1947, when the nations of Indian and Pakistan received Independence from
colonial rule.

As the World War II ended, all political prisoners in India who had taken part in the Quit
India Movement were released by the British. The Indian National Congress, India’s largest
political party and a party which had taken part in the freedom movement decided to
participate in the elections for a Constituent Assembly. Even the Muslim League decided to
take part. The Constituent Assembly elections were not regarded as direct elections. The
members of the Assembly were elected from each of the provincial legislative assemblies.
Owing to this, the Indian National Congress won most of the seats, including seats in areas
with a Hindu majority. The Muslim League on the other hand won seats in areas where
there was a Muslim majority.
Congress-dominated Interim Government headed by Nehru was established. The Muslim League refused
to accept the proposal in the beginning and did not nominate its members on 5 reserved seats. Muslim
League, afterwards, thought that Congress, being in power could harm the Muslim interests so it joined
the Cabinet after two months on 26th October 1946. However, the basic attention of both the parties was
to save their interests in the interim government.

Muslim League part of the Interim Government as well, the Department of Finance was
headed by Liaquat Ali Khan. The Departments of Posts and Air as headed by Abdur Rab
Nishtar and the Department of Commerce was headed by Ibrahim Ishmail Chundrigar, the
Department of Law was headed by a Scheduled Caste Hindu politician Jogendra Nath
Mandal.

London conference
The British Government convened a conference of Hindu leader in December 1946 in London to resolve
the constitutional problems. Prime Minister Attlee, Lord Wavell, Nehru, Quaid-e-Azam, Liaquat Ali Khan
and Sardar Baldev Singh participated in this conference. This Conference also could not end political
deadlock.
Poors man budget

Finance minister liaqat ali khan presented the budget on February 28, 1947. This was the
first time when an Indian presented the budget of his country and that also proved to be the
last budget of British India. Budget was a poor’s friendly budget and is known in the history
as Poor Man’s Budget. budget and was appreciated by the common people. The popularity of Muslim
League further enhanced and it was proved, i.e. if the proof was still required, that Muslim League was
competent enough to run the affairs of an independent state

Following were some of the main features of the Poor Man’s Budget:

Salt Tax was completely abolished for the first time.

Minimum exemption limit for income tax was raised from Rs. 2000/- to Rs. 2500/-

Special income tax of 25% was introduced on the businessmen whose annual profit was more than Rs.
100000/-
A graduated tax was introduced on the capital gains exceeding Rs. 5000/-

A commission was proposed to look in to the accounts of those who accumulated wealth during the
Second World War and to introduce heavy taxes on them.

By presenting the Poor Man’s budget, Liaquat was able to kill two birds with one stone. On one hand the
budget was hailed in the local press and was appreciated by the common people. The popularity of
Muslim League further enhanced and it was proved, i.e. if the proof was still required, that Muslim League
was competent enough to run the affairs of an independent state. On the other the hand the capitalist,
most of whom were the pro-Congress Hindu industrialists and businessmen, termed it as “Millionaire’s
howls” and decided to stop the funding of the Indian National Congress. The budget presented by Liaquat
compelled the Congress leaders to accept that giving Finance ministry to the Muslim League was a
blunder on their part.

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