All Parties Conference

The All Parties Conference was a group of Indian political parties known for organizing a committee in opposition to the Simon Commission to author the Constitution of India after independence was actualized.^[1] It was chaired by Dr. M. A. Ansari.^[2]

Parties that were invited were^[3]

1. Indian National Congress
2. All India Muslim League
3. Central Khilafat Committee
4. Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha
5. Nationalist Party (led by Hari Singh Gour)
6. National Liberal Federation & it's offshoot South Indian Liberal Federation
7. Non-Brahman Party & it's offshoot Nationalist Non-Brahman Party (led by Bhaskarrao Jadhav)
8. Home Rule League (led by Annie Besant)
9. Central Sikh League
10. All India Conference of Indian Christians
11. Parsi Central Association, Zoroastrian Association, Parsi Rajakeya Sabha & Parsi Panchayat (representing Parsis)
12. Republican League
13. Independent Party
14. Anglo-Indian Association (representing Anglo-Indians)
15. Indian States Subjects' Association, Indian States Subjects' Conference & Indian States People's Conference (representing Princely States)
16. General Council of Burmese Associations (representing British Burma)
17. Communist Party of India, All India Trade Union Congress & Workers and Peasants Party (representing communists)

In addition to political parties, invitations were also sent to other organisations like the Indian Association, South Indian Chamber of Commerce and Landholders Associations of Madras, Bengal, Bihar & United Provinces. A notable exclusion was the Justice Party (which was renowned for it's collaborationist stance with the British).

The All Parties Conference met for the first time in February 1928 at Delhi & set up a committee to discuss the drafting of the constitution under the chairmanship of Motilal Nehru consisting of Madhav Shrihari Aney, M. R. Jayakar (representing Hindus), G. R. Pradhan (representing the non-Brahmans), Sir Syed Ali Imam, Shoaib Qureshi (representing Muslims), Sardar Mangal Singh (representing Sikhs), Sir Tejbahadur Sapru & N. M. Joshi (as non-partisans), with Jawaharlal Nehru as its secretary. However, the committee soon faced a major disagreement between the Congress, Hindu Mahasabha, Muslim League and Sikh League over the issue of reservation of seats on the basis of religion that had been created by the Government of India Act 1909 & Government of India Act 1919 - the Congress was outright opposed to it while the Muslim League was adamant in it's demand for ⅓rd representation in the Central Legislative Assembly and reservation of seats for Muslims in Hindu majority provinces as well as in the Muslim majority provinces of Bengal & Punjab, which was vehemently opposed by the Hindu Mahasabha & Sikhs. In addition to opposition to reservation for Muslims in Bengal and Punjab, the Hindu Mahasabha also opposed the Muslim League's demands of provincial autonomy for the Muslim majority Sind division within the Hindu majority Bombay Presidency & creation of new provinces out of the Muslim majority NWFP and Baluchistan. To resolve the disputes, 2 more committees were set up at its 2nd session in March 1928 at Delhi. Jayakar & Joshi refused to participate in the committee. Nevertheless, the committee did start it's work, taking in inputs from Madanmohan Malaviya, C. Y. Chintamani, Sacchidananda Sinha, Ishwar Saran, M. A. Ansari, Saifuddin Kitchlew, Tassaduq Ahmed Sherwani, Syed Mahmud & Chaudhury Khaliquzzaman. In its third session at Lucknow in August 1928, the committee presented its draft constitution, known as the Nehru Report.^[3] The Nehru report rejected reservation on the basis of religion, by refusing to acknowledge the deterioration of relations betweeen Hindus and Muslims over issues like the Malabar uprising, Rangila Rasul controversy, cow protection movement of the Arya Samaj (see Cattle slaughter in India) and the 1926 murder of Swami Shraddhanand & calling out the paranoia propagated by the Muslim League and the Hindu Mahasabha about the other side's aims of state capture as baseless. The Muslim League, stung by the Congress's rejection of separate electorates for Muslims (which the Congress had previously agreed to in the 1916 Lucknow Pact), widely denounced the Nehru Report, with non-Congress Muslim representatives refusing to sign in it.^[4] Still in its final session in December 1928 at Calcutta, the All Parties Conference formally adopted the Nehru Report, in response of which the indignant Muslim League representatives staged a walkout. Muhammad Ali Jinnah declared this as the 'parting of ways', yet kept the doors open for negotiation through his 14 Points, which was opposed by the Congress and the Hindu Mahasabha.^[5]

The sidelining of the Muslim League in the All Parties Conference had profound implications for the League in general. Jinnah, who had previously championed Hindu-Muslim unity (thereby dividing the party into factions loyal to him and Mian Muhammad Shafi), now turned towards Muslim nationalism.^[5]

The All Parties Conference would be the last such attempt by the Congress to work alongside other political players of the country on equal footing, as the Congress started to adopt a more confrontational & belligerent stance towards the British administration following the rejection of the Nehru Report in the Imperial Legislative Council, beginning with the election of Nehru as its president and adoption of Purna Swaraj in its 1929 Lahore session. The other parties in the Conference were opposed to this outright declaration of independence, instead opting for achievement of dominion status espoused in the Balfour Declaration, which the Congress had initially agreed upon by omitting all references to secessionism in the Nehru Report, much to the opposition of the growing socialist faction within the Congress party, which under the leadership of Subhash Chandra Bose, set up the Indian Independence League.^[6] The widespread intercommunal solidarity that had been generated by the All Parties Conference didn't last after the civil disobedience movement. In 1931, while attending the 2nd Round Table Conference, Gandhi, in his capacity as the lone Congress representative, while vociferously opposing any sort of affirmative action (as laid down in the Nehru Report), claimed the Congress to be the sole representative of all Indians irrespective of caste, religion, class, community and interests & disparagingly referred to delegates of all other Indian political parties present there as ''being not the chosen ones of the nation but chosen ones of the government", which a drew on-spot a sharp condemnation from all non-Hindu and Dalit leaders, especially Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.^[7] Congress's foray into nationwide electoral politics in 1934 and 1937 solidified its alienation from all other parties.