Rajgopalachari Formula, Desai-Liaqat Pact & Wavell Plan

by Devender

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Rajagopalachari was a veteran Congress leader who came up with a formula for the cooperation of Congress and the Muslim League.

Rajgopalachari Formula:

It implicitly accepted the League's demand of Pakistan. Gandhi also accepted this formula however Hindu leaders under Vir Savarkar stood against it. The main points of this formula were:

Muslim league to stand with Congress demand of Independence
League to support Congress in forming a provisional government at center
After the end of the second world war, the entire population of Muslim majority areas in the North-West & North-East India decides by a plebiscite, whether or not to form a separate sovereign state
If the partition is reached, then the agreement is to be made jointly for safeguarding defense, commerce, communications, etc.
All these terms would be the only operative if Britishers transfers full power to India

However, Jinah was opposed to these at certain points such as:

He wanted Congress to accept the two-nation theory and wanted only Muslims of North-West and North-East to vote in the plebiscite and not the entire population. He was also against the idea of a common center.

So, while Congress was ready to make a deal with the league for Independence of the Indian Union, League was only busy at getting a new nation and not independence.

Desai-Liaqat Pact

Bhulabhai Desai was a leader of Congress whereas Liaquat Ali Khan was a leader of Muslims. Together they drafted a proposal for the formation of an interim government at the center which consisted of: An equal number of persons nominated by Congress & League in the central legislature and 20% reserved seats for minorities.

However, no settlement could be reached by Congress and League on these grounds but still a sort of parity between the Congress and the League was decided upon, which had far-reaching.

Wavell Plan

Lord Wavell was a viceroy of India. In June 1945, he convened a conference that was aimed at reconstructing the governor general’s executive council pending the preparation of a new constitution. The main proposals of this plan were:

All members of the executive council to be Indian except Governor-general and commander-in-chief
Equal representation to Hindus and Muslims
This reconstructed council to work as Interim government under the act of 1935
Governor-general to exercise his veto on the advice of ministers
Representatives of different parties were, to submit a joint list to the viceroy for nominations to the executive council
If the joint list was not possible, then separate lists to be submitted
Possibilities were kept open for negotiation on a new constitution, once the war was won