7 Jawaharlal Nehru 7self-government with the Government of India Act.
Ultimately, it provided for a federal system composed of
the autonomous provinces and princely states. Although
federation never came into being, provincial autonomy
was implemented.
When the elections following the introduction of
provincial autonomy brought the Congress Party to power
in a majority of the provinces, Nehru was faced with a
dilemma. The Muslim League under Mohammed Ali
Jinnah, who was to become the creator of Pakistan, had
fared badly at the polls. Congress, therefore, unwisely
rejected Jinnah’s plea for the formation of coalition
Congress-Muslim League governments in some of the
provinces, a decision on which Nehru had not a little influ-
ence. The subsequent clash between the Congress and the
Muslim League hardened into a conflict between Hindus
and Muslims, which ultimately led to the partition of
India and the creation of Pakistan.
World War II and Independence
When, at the outbreak of World War II in September 1939,
the viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, committed India to war with-
out consulting the autonomous provincial ministries, the
Congress Party’s high command withdrew its provincial
ministries as a protest. Congress’s action left the political
field virtually open to Jinnah and the Muslim League.
When the Japanese carried their attack through Burma
(now Myanmar) to the borders of India in the spring of
1942, the British government, faced by this new military
threat, decided to make some overtures to India. Prime
Minister Winston Churchill dispatched Sir Stafford
Cripps, a member of the war cabinet who was politically
close to Nehru and also knew Jinnah, with proposals for a