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The Cripps mission was an attempt in late March 1942 by the British government to secure Indian cooperation and support for their efforts in World War II. The mission was headed by Sir Stafford Cripps, a senior left-wing politician and government minister in the War Cabinet of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Background[link]

In 1939 the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, declared India a belligerent state on the side of the Allies without consulting Indian political leaders or the elected provincial representatives. This caused considerable resentment in India and provoked the resignation en masse of elected Congress Party Provincial Governments, giving rise to the prospect of public revolt and political disorder in India. The British feared the destabilizing of India which could be fatal to discouraging further advances in Asia by the Japanese, as well as detrimental to obtaining much-needed resources and manpower to fight the war in Europe.

After December 1941 the situation for Britain in Asia became critical with the entry of Japan into the war, and the rapid Japanese conquest of Malaya and the military bastion of Singapore, plus the Dutch East Indies. Japanese invasions of Burma and India seemed next. The British government wanted the cooperation and support of Indian political leaders in order to recruit more Indians into the British Indian Army, which was fighting in the Middle East theatre, and which expanded to over 2½ million men, the largest volunteer army in history.

Debate over cooperation or protest[link]

The Congress was divided upon its response to India's entry into World War II. Angry over the decision made by the Viceroy of India, some Congress leaders favoured launching a popular revolt against the British despite the gravity of the war in Europe, which threatened Britain's own freedom. Others, such as Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, advocated offering an olive branch to the British, supporting them in this crucial time in the hope that the gesture would be reciprocated with independence after the war. The major leader, Mohandas Gandhi, was opposed to Indian involvement in the war as he would not morally endorse a war and also suspected British intentions, believing that the British were not sincere about Indian aspirations for freedom. But Rajagopalachari, backed by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Azad and Jawaharlal Nehru held talks with Cripps and offered full support in return for immediate self-government, and eventual independence.

The leader of the Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, supported the war effort and condemned the Congress policy. Insisting on a Pakistan, a separate Muslim state, he resisted Congress's calls for pan-Indian cooperation and immediate independence.

Cripps in India[link]

Upon his arrival in India, Cripps held talks with Indian leaders. There is some confusion over what Cripps had been authorised to offer India's nationalist politicians by Churchill and Leo Amery (His Majesty's Secretary of State for India), and he also faced hostility from the Viceroy, Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow. He began by offering India full dominion status at the end of the war, with the chance to secede from the Commonwealth and go for total independence. Privately, Cripps also promised to get rid of Linlithgow and grant India Dominion Status with immediate effect, reserving only the Defence Ministry for the British.

However, in public, he failed to present any concrete proposals for greater self-government in the short term, other than a vague commitment to increase the number of Indian members of the Viceroy's Executive Council. Cripps spent much of his time in encouraging Congress leaders and Jinnah to come to a common, public arrangement in support of the war and government.

There was little trust between the British and Congress by this stage, and both sides felt that the other was concealing its true plans. The Congress stopped talks with Cripps and, guided by Gandhi, the national leadership demanded immediate self-government in return for war support. Gandhi said that Cripp's offer of Dominion Status after the war was a "post-dated cheque drawn on a crashing bank".

Quit India Movement[link]

When the British remained unresponsive, Gandhi and the Indian National Congress began planning a major public revolt, the Quit India movement, which demanded immediate British withdrawal from India. As the Imperial Japanese Army advanced closer to India with the conquest of Burma, Indians perceived an inability upon the part of the British to defend Indian soil. Indian National Army,set up and led by Subhas Chandra Bose, to fight the British. It comprised Indians, most of them prisoners captured with the fall of Singapore in early 1942. The British response to the Quit India movement was to jail most of the Congress leadership.

Jinnah's Muslim League condemned the Quit India movement and participated in provincial governments as well as the legislative councils of the Raj. It encouraged Muslims to participate in the war. With this cooperation, the British were able to continue administering India for the duration of the war using officials and military personnel where Indian politicians could not be found. This would not prove to be feasible in the long term, however.

Causes of Failure[link]

Gupta points out that three reasons have been given for the failure the Cripps mission: 1) Gandhi's opposition led the Indian National Congress to reject the British offer; 2) Cripps' modification of the original British offer, which provided for no real transfer of power; 3) the behind-the-scenes efforts of the Viceroy and Secretary of State for India to sabotage the mission. Gupta concludes that documents released in 1970 support the third interpretation. Messages between Viceroy Lord Linlithgow and Secretary of State L. S. S. Amery reveal that both opposed the Cripps Mission and they deliberately undercut Cripps. While the British government utilized the Cripps Mission as evidence of its liberal colonial policy, personal and private correspondence reveals contempt for the mission and elation over its failure.^[1]

Long term impact[link]

The long-term significance of the Cripps Mission really became apparent only in the aftermath of the war, as troops were demobilised and sent back home. Even Churchill recognised that there could be no retraction of the offer of Independence which Cripps had made, but by the end of the war, Churchill was out of power and could do nothing but watch as the new Labour government gave India independence. This confidence that the British would soon leave was reflected in the readiness with which Congress politicians stood in the elections of 1945–1946 and formed provincial governments.^[2] In retrospect, this unsuccessful and badly-planned attempt to placate the Congress in return for temporary wartime support was the point at which the British departure from India became inevitable.

References[link]

1. ^ Shyam Ratna Gupta, "New Light on the Cripps Mission," India Quarterly, (Jan 1972), 28#1 pp 69-74
2. ^ Judith Brown Modern India. The making of an Asian Democracy (2nd ed. 1999) pp. 328–30.

Further reading[link]

• Clymer, Kenton J. "Franklin D. Roosevelt, Louis Johnson, India, and Anticolonialism: Another Look," Pacific Historical Review, (Aug 1988), 57#3 pp 261-284 in JSTOR
• Gandhi, Rajmohan, Patel: A Life (2008)
• Moore, R. J. Churchill, Cripps and India (Oxford) 1979 chapters 3-5
• Moore, R. J. "The mystery of the Cripps mission," Journal of Commonwealth Political Studies Volume 11, Issue 3, 1973, pages 195-213 online doi:10.1080/14662047308447190

Primary sources[link]

• Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War: Volume IV, The Hinge of Fate, (1950) Book One, Chapter 12, "India—The Cripps Mission"; limited preview of the whole chapter at Google Books
• Mansergh, Nicholas, ed., Constitutional Relations between Britain and India: The Transfer of Power.' Vol. 1: 'The Cripps Mission January-April 1942 (1970).
  • review in JSTOR

External links[link]

• Draft resolution
• Indian History
• Cripp's India Mission
• October Offer regarding India’s constitution, of His Majesty's Government 18 October 1939
• August Offer regarding India’s constitution, of His Majesty's Government 8 August 1940

v t e Indian independence movement History Colonisation East India Company British India French India Portuguese India Plassey Buxar Anglo-Mysore Wars Anglo-Maratha Wars First Second Third Polygar War Vellore Mutiny First Anglo-Sikh War Second Anglo-Sikh War Rebellion of 1857 British Raj more Philosophies and ideologies Indian nationalism Swaraj Hindu nationalism Gandhism Satyagraha Muslim nationalism in South Asia Swadeshi Socialism Khilafat Movement Events and movements Partition of Bengal Revolutionaries Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy The Indian Sociologist The Sedetious conspiracy Champaran and Kheda Rowlatt Committee Rowlatt Bills Jallianwala Bagh Massacre Non-Cooperation Kakori conspiracy Qissa Khwani Bazaar massacre Flag Satyagraha Bardoli 1928 Protests Nehru Report Fourteen Points of Jinnah Purna Swaraj Salt Satyagraha Round table conferences Act of 1935 Legion Freies Indien Cripps' mission Quit India Indian National Army Bombay Mutiny Coup d'État de Yanaon Provisional Government of India Organisations Indian National Congress All-India Muslim League Anushilan Samiti Jugantar Arya Samaj Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh India House Berlin Committee Ghadar Home Rule Khaksar Tehrik Khudai Khidmatgar Hindustan Republican Association Swaraj Party Indian Independence League All India Kisan Sabha Azad Hind more Social reformers Bal Gangadhar Tilak Muhammad Ali Jinnah Muhammad Iqbal Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Acharya Kripalani Rahul Sankrityayan Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Gopal Ganesh Agarkar Shahu Maharaj Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Dhondo Keshav Karve Vitthal Ramji Shinde Mahadev Govind Ranade Swami Dayananda Saraswati Vinayak Damodar Savarkar Swami Vivekananda Swami Sahajanand Saraswati Vinoba Bhave Baba Amte Ram Mohan Roy Gopal Hari Deshmukh Indian independence activists Puli Thevar Yashwantrao Holkar Rahul Sankrityayan Swami Sahajanand Saraswati Tipu Sultan Veerapandiya Kattabomman Sangolli Rayanna Baba Ram Singh Mangal Pandey Rae Ahmed Nawaz Khan Kharal Bakht Khan Veer Kunwar Singh Rani of Jhansi Bahadur Shah Zafar Swami Dayanand Saraswati Bal Gangadhar Tilak Gopal Krishna Gokhale Dadabhai Naoroji Bhikaiji Cama Shyamji Krishna Varma Annie Besant Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Har Dayal Subramanya Bharathi Lala Lajpat Rai Bipin Chandra Pal Rash Behari Bose Chittaranjan Das Bidhan Chandra Roy Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan Maulana Azad Ashfaqullah Khan Ram Prasad Bismil Chandrasekhar Azad Rajaji K. M. Munshi Bhagat Singh Hemu Kalani Sarojini Naidu Achyut Patwardhan Purushottam Das Tandon Alluri Sitaramaraju Muhammad Ali Jinnah Sardar Patel Acharya Kripalani Subhash Chandra Bose Vinayak Damodar Savarkar Jawaharlal Nehru Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Allama Mashriqi Kotwal Dhan Singh Gurjar V. K. Krishna Menon more British leaders Clive Outram Dalhousie Irwin Linlithgow Wavell Cripps Mountbatten more Independence Simla Conference Cabinet Mission Indian Independence Act Partition of India Political integration Constitution Republic of India

The Right Honourable Sir Stafford Cripps FRS
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office 13 November 1947 – 19 October 1950
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	Hugh Dalton
Succeeded by	Hugh Gaitskell
Minister for Economic Affairs
In office 29 September 1947 – 13 November 1947
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	New creation
Succeeded by	Post abolished (Trial post)
President of the Board of Trade
In office 27 July 1945 – 29 September 1947
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	Oliver Lyttelton
Succeeded by	Harold Wilson
Personal details
Born	(1889-04-24)24 April 1889 London, England
Died	21 April 1952(1952-04-21) (aged 62) Switzerland
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Isobel Cripps
Religion	Anglican

Sir Richard Stafford Cripps (24 April 1889 – 21 April 1952) was a British Labour politician of the first half of the 20th century. During World War II he served in a number of positions in the wartime coalition, including Ambassador to the Soviet Union and Minister of Aircraft Production. After the war he served in the Attlee Ministry, firstly as President of the Board of Trade and between 1947 and 1950 as Chancellor of the Exchequer. In the latter position, Cripps was responsible for laying the foundations of Britain’s post-war economic prosperity, and was, according to the historian Eric Shaw, “the real architect of the rapidly improving economic picture and growing affluence from 1952 onwards.”^[1]

Early life[link]

Cripps was born in London. His father was a Conservative member of the House of Commons who late in life, as Lord Parmoor, joined the Labour Party. His mother, the former Theresa Potter, was the sister of Beatrice Webb. Cripps grew up in a wealthy family and was educated at Winchester College and at University College London, where he studied chemistry. He left science for the law, and in 1912 was called to the bar as a barrister. He served in the First World War as an ambulance driver in France, and managed a factory producing armaments. He remained a barrister during the 1920s, where he specialised in patent cases, and was reported to be the highest paid lawyer in the country.^[2]

Joining the Labour Party[link]

At the end of the 1920s Cripps moved to the far left in his political views, and in 1930 he joined the Labour Party. The next year, Cripps was appointed Solicitor-General in the second Labour government. This post was customarily accompanied by a knighthood, making him Sir Stafford Cripps. In 1931, Cripps was elected in a by-election for Bristol East. During his time in parliament, he was a strong proponent of Marxist social and economic policies, although his strong faith in evangelical Christianity prevented him from subscribing to the Marxist rejection of religion.

In the 1931 general election, Cripps was one of only three former Labour ministers to hold their seats alongside the party leader George Lansbury and deputy leader Clement Attlee. In 1932 he was one of the founders of the Socialist League, which was composed largely of members of the Independent Labour Party who rejected its decision to disaffiliate from Labour. The Socialist League put the case for an austere form of democratic socialism.

In 1936, Labour's National Executive Committee dissociated itself from a speech in which Cripps said he did not "believe it would be a bad thing for the British working class if Germany defeated us".^[3] Cripps also opposed British rearmament: "Money cannot make armaments. Armaments can only be made by the skill of the British working class, and it is the British working class who would be called upon to use them. To-day you have the most glorious opportunity that the workers have ever had if you will only use the necessity of capitalism in order to get power yourselves. The capitalists are in your hands. Refuse to make munitions, refuse to make armaments, and they are helpless. They would have to hand the control of the country over to you".^[4]

Cripps was an early advocate of a United Front against the rising threat of fascism and he opposed an appeasement policy towards Nazi Germany. In 1936 he was the moving force behind a Unity Campaign, involving the Socialist League, the Independent Labour Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain, designed to forge electoral unity against the right. Opposed by the Labour leadership, the Unity Campaign failed in its intentions, rather than face expulsion from Labour, Cripps dissolved the Socialist League in 1937. Tribune, set up as the campaign's newspaper by Cripps and George Strauss, survived. In early 1939, however, Cripps was expelled from the Labour Party for his advocacy of a Popular Front with the Communist Party and anti-appeasement Liberals and Conservatives.

Second World War[link]

When Winston Churchill formed his wartime coalition government in 1940 he appointed Cripps Ambassador to the Soviet Union in the view that Cripps, an avowed Marxist, could negotiate with Joseph Stalin who was at this time allied with Nazi Germany through the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Cripps led a mission to Moscow in 1940 and obtained a secret but explicit pledge that the Soviet Union would enter the war on the British side.^{[citation needed]} When Hitler attacked in June 1941, Cripps became a key figure in forging an alliance between the western powers and the Soviet Union.

In 1942 Cripps returned to Britain and made a broadcast about the Soviet war effort. The popular response was phenomenal, and Cripps rapidly became one of the most popular politicians in the country, despite having no party backing. He was appointed a member of the War Cabinet, with the jobs of Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons, and was considered for a short period after his return from the Soviet Union as nearly a rival to Churchill in his hold on the country. The London bureau chief of the Associated Press reported in American newspapers in early March 1942 the prediction by "an extremely well-placed and reliable political source... that there was every likelihood" that Cripps would unseat Churchill as prime minister.^[5]

Churchill responded by sending Cripps to India on a mission ("the Cripps Mission") to negotiate an agreement with the nationalist leaders Gandhi and Jinnah that would keep India loyal to the British war effort in exchange for a promise of full self-government after the war. No formal agreement was however reached. For Churchill, the purpose of the trip was political: he intended Cripps to fail and blocked his efforts to give the Indians a role in the leadership of the war with the help of Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow, the governor-general of India.^[6]

Later in 1942 Cripps stepped down from being Leader of the House of Commons and was appointed Minister of Aircraft Production, a position outside the War Cabinet but in which he served with substantial success. In 1945 he rejoined the Labour Party.

Cripps was unhappy with the British black propaganda campaign against Germany. When Cripps discovered what Sefton Delmer was involved with (through the intervention of Richard Crossman) he wrote to Anthony Eden, then Foreign Secretary: "If this is the sort of thing that is needed to win the war, why, I'd rather lose it." Delmer was defended by Robert Bruce Lockhart who pointed out the need to reach the sadist in the German nature.^[7]

After the war[link]

When Labour won the 1945 general election, Clement Attlee appointed Cripps President of the Board of Trade, the second most important economic post in the government. Although still a strong socialist, Cripps had modified his views sufficiently to be able to work with mainstream Labour ministers. In Britain's desperate post-war economic circumstances, Cripps became associated with the policy of "austerity." As an upper-class socialist he held a puritanical view of society, enforcing rationing with equal severity against all classes. Together with other individuals he was instrumental in the foundation of the original College of Aeronautics, now Cranfield University, in 1946. The Vice-Chancellor's building is known as "Stafford-Cripps".

In 1946 Soviet jet engine designers approached Stalin with a request to buy jet designs from Western sources to overcome design difficulties. Stalin is said to have replied: "What fool will sell us his secrets?" However, he gave his assent to the proposal, and Soviet scientists and designers travelled to the United Kingdom to meet Cripps and request the engines. To Stalin's amazement, Cripps and the Labour government were perfectly willing to provide technical information on the Rolls-Royce Nene centrifugal-flow jet engine designed by RAF officer Frank Whittle, along with discussions of a licence to manufacture Nene engines. The Nene engine was promptly reverse-engineered and produced in modified form as the Soviet Klimov VK-1 jet engine, later incorporated into the MiG-15 which flew in time to deploy in combat against UN forces in North Korea in 1950, causing the loss of several B-29 bombers and cancellation of their daylight bombing missions over North Korea.^[8]

In 1946, Cripps returned to India as part of the "Cabinet Mission", which proposed various formulae for independence to the Indian leaders. The other two members of the delegation were Lord Pethick-Lawrence, the Secretary of State for India, and A. V. Alexander, the First Lord of the Admiralty. However, the solution devised by the three men, known as the Cabinet Mission Plan, was unsatisfactory to the Indian National Congress mainly its principal leaders, and instead of having to hold together the emerging one nation, Indian National Congress leaders travelled further down the road that eventually led to Partition.

In 1947, amid a growing economic and political crisis, Cripps tried to persuade Attlee to retire in favour of Ernest Bevin; however, Bevin was in favour of Attlee remaining. Cripps was instead appointed to the new post of Minister for Economic Affairs. Six weeks later Hugh Dalton resigned as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Cripps succeeded him, with the position of Minister for Economic Affairs now merged into the Chancellorship. He increased taxes and forced a reduction in consumption in an effort to boost exports and stabilise the Pound Sterling so that Britain could trade its way out of its crisis. He strongly supported the nationalisation of strategic industries such as coal and steel.^[9]

Despite financial problems from 1948 to 1949, Cripps maintained a high level of social spending on housing, health, and other welfare services, while also maintaining the location of industry policy. In addition, levels of personal prosperity continued to rise, as characterised by cricket and football enjoying unprecedented booms, together with the holiday camps, the dance hall, and the cinema.^[10] In his last budget as chancellor (introduced in 1950), the housebuilding programme was restored to 200,000 per annum (after having previously been reduced due to government austerity measures), income tax was reduced for low-income earners as an overtime incentive,^[11] and spending on heath, national insurance, and education was increased.^[12]

Although Cripps's severe manner and harsh policies made him unpopular, he won respect for the sincerity of his convictions and his tireless labours for Britain's recovery. His name once induced an infamous Spoonerism when the BBC announcer McDonald Hobley introduced him as 'Sir Stifford Crapps'.^[13]

Personal life[link]

Cripps had suffered for many years from colitis, inflammation of the lower bowel, a condition aggravated by excessive stress. In 1950 his health broke down under the strain and he was forced to resign his office in October. He resigned from Parliament the same month, and at the resulting by-election on 30 November he was succeeded as MP for Bristol South East by Tony Benn. Cripps died two years later while recuperating in Switzerland.

Cripps was the nephew maternally of Beatrice Webb, whose sister Theresa Potter was his mother. He was married to Isobel, Lady Cripps, better known as Dame Isobel Cripps (1891–1979), and had four children

• Sir John Stafford Cripps^[14] (1912–1993) whose only son is married, and has issue. Sir John's son and grandson are in remainder to the Barony of Parmoor.
• Isobel Diana Cripps (1913–1985) who died unmarried
• (Anne) Theresa Cripps^[15] (1919–1998), who was married 1945 to Sir Robert Cornwallis Gerald St. Leger Ricketts, 7th Bt, and had two sons and two daughters. The elder son Sir Tristram Ricketts, 8th Bt.^[16] succeeded his father, died in 2007, and has been succeeded by his own son, Sir Stephen Ricketts, 9th Bt.
• Peggy Cripps, born Enid Margaret Cripps (1921–2006), children's author, philanthropist and socialite. Peggy Cripps shocked much British opinion by marrying the black African aristocrat Nana Joseph Emmanuel Appiah (1918–1990), a relative of the Ashanti king of Ghana, in June 1953. Peggy Appiah had one son and three daughters. Her son is the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah (b. May 1954 London), the Laurance S. Rockefeller professor of philosophy at Princeton University. Her three daughters live in Namibia, Nigeria, and Ghana and have had eight children between them.^[17]

Cripps was a vegetarian, certainly for health reasons and possibly also for ethical reasons. "Cripps suffered from recurring illness which was alleviated by nature cure and a vegetarian diet...".^[18]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Stafford Cripps

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Stafford Cripps

• Archival material relating to Stafford Cripps listed at the UK National Register of Archives
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Stafford Cripps
• Blue plaque to Sir Stafford Cripps at Filkins

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Andrew Peter Cripps (born 5 February 1981) is an Australian politician who is a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland and Minister for Natural Resources and Mines.^[1]

He was born in Tully, Queensland, Australia, and was elected for The Nationals in September 2006 to represent Hinchinbrook, replacing the retiring National Party MP, Marc Rowell. Cripps was re-elected in 2009 for Liberal National Party following the merger of the Liberal Party and The Nationals in Queensland.

Since 27 November 2010 Cripps has been the Shadow Minister for North Queensland, Reef Protection and Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Economic Development and the Shadow Minister for Public Works.Following a reshuffle he was appointed Shadow Minister for Agriculture and North QLD. Cripps has previously been the Shadow Minister for Disability Services and Multicultural Affairs (6 April 2009 - 26 November 2010), the Shadow Minister for Natural Resources and Water (30 September 2008 – 5 April 2009), the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure and Planning (29 January 2008 – 12 August 2008) and the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Mines and Energy (21 September 2006 – 29 January 2008).^[2]

Cripps also serves on the Law, Justice and Safety Committee (since 23 April 2009) and was previously a member of the Legal, Constitutional and Administrative Review Committee (23 April 2009 – 28 May 2009), and the Health Quality and Complaints Commission Select Committee (1 July 2007 - 15 November 2007) of the Queensland Parliament. On 9 September 2008 he became one of the sitting members of the Liberal National Party of Queensland.

Prior to his election, Cripps was a Queensland State President of the Young Nationals and also worked as Rowell's electorate officer.

Political history[link]

• Joined the Queensland Young Nationals in 2001
• Chairman of the Greater Brisbane Young Nationals (2001–2003)
• Secretary of the Cairns–Innisfail Young Nationals (2005–2006)
• Delegate to Conference and Central Council of The Nationals—Queensland (2003)
• Member of The Nationals–Queensland State Management Committee (2003)
• State President of the Queensland Young Nationals (2004–2006)

References[link]

External links[link]

• LNP Biography for Andrew Cripps

This article about a National Party of Australia politician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Baldev Singh
C. Rajagopalachari, Governor General of Dominion of India, with Sardar Baldev Singh and the chiefs of Staffs of Indian Armed Forces in 1948.
Minister of Defence
In office 1947–1952
Prime Minister	Jawaharlal Nehru
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Kailash Nath Katju
Member of Parliament - Lok Sabha
In office 1952–1961
Personal details
Born	July 11, 1902 Rupar, Punjab, British Raj (now India)
Died	1961 Delhi, India
Political party	Indian National Congress Shiromani Akali Dal Akali Dal
Alma mater	Khalsa College
Religion	Sikh

Baldev Singh was an Indian Sikh political leader, he was an Indian independence movement leader and the first Defence Minister of India. Moreover, he represented the Punjabi Sikh community in the processes of negotiations that resulted in the independence of India, as well as the Partition of India in 1947.

After independence, Baldev Singh was chosen to become as the first Minister of Defence, and served in this post during the first Kashmir war between India and Pakistan. He is addressed often with the title of Sardar, which in Punjabi and Hindi means Leader or Chief.

Early life and political career[link]

Baldev Singh was born on July 11, 1902 in the Rupar district of Punjab to an aristocratic family. Singh was educated at the Khalsa College in Amritsar, and began working in his father's firm in the steel industry. He rose to the position of director of the firm.

Bladev Singh won an election to the Punjab provincial assembly under the Government of India Act 1935 in 1937, as a candidate of the Panthic party. He became closely linked with Master Tara Singh and the Shiromani Akali Dal.

Cripps Mission and World War II[link]

When the Cripps Mission arrived in India in 1942 to offer Indians some form of self-government, Baldev Singh was chosen to represent the Sikh community in the talks, which also included the chief Indian political party, the Indian National Congress and Muslim League party. The Mission failed to make any progress.

While the Congress Party launched the Quit India Movement, Baldev Singh and other Sikh leaders did not support it. Singh negotiated an agreement with Sikander Hyat Khan, the leader of the Unionist Muslim League to form a government in Punjab, and became the provincial Development Minister for a brief time in the summer of 1942.

Cabinet Mission and government[link]

Baldev Singh was chosen again to represent the Sikh viewpoint to the Cabinet Mission Plan that had arrived to discuss proposals for Indian political independence. Singh reiterated the Sikh view that India should remain a united country with special protections for the rights of religious minorities. Singh also insisted that should partition become inevitable, the division of the Punjab should happen in a way to offer territorial protection to the Sikhs from Muslim domination.

Although Baldev Singh and other Sikhs initially opposed the implementation of the Mission's May 16 scheme, in the grounds that it did not offer any protection to the Sikh community, Baldev Singh joined the new Viceroy's Executive Council, to be headed by Congress leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as the Sikh member. Singh became the Defence Member, a post erstwhile held by the British Commander in Chief of the Indian Army. However, by early 1947, it was clear that the interim government would not work, owing to the conflict between the Congress Party and the Muslim League.

Partition of India[link]

Baldev Singh once again represented the Sikh community, this time on the Partition Council, which on the basis of the plan written by V.P. Menon and Lord Louis Mountbatten, would partition British India into two independent, self-governing dominions of the British Empire: India and Pakistan.

The Sikh community feared that partition would leave the Sikhs people a small minority in both Pakistan and India, and worried of the violence and deprivation of rights which might victimize them. But the violence of 1946-47 where thousands of people in the Punjab had been killed, made the Sikh leaders unwilling to co-exist with a Muslim majority and had acquiesced to the partition of the province. And given assurances by Congress leaders that India would protect its religious minorities under a secular, democratic Constitution, the Sikhs backed India and partition.

As defence minister[link]

On August 15, 1947, India became an independent nation and Baldev Singh Singh became India's first Minister of Defence, under the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. Singh was also a member of the Constituent Assembly of India.

Along with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Home Minister, Singh became responsible for leading the Indian Army's efforts t ecurity, relief and refuge to over 10 million Hindus and Sikhs who were leaving the newly created Pakistan. Terrible violence broke loose on both sides of the frontier along the Punjab and Bengal, and to date it is estimated that over 1 million people were killed, with millions more suffering from usual acts of cruelty and great physical and personal trauma from the migration.

The Army was caught unprepared, and itself was torn apart by the conflict. Thousands of Muslim officers were leaving for Pakistan, and those still doing their duty for India were worried of their own safety. The Hindu and Sikh soldiers were committing acts of violence against Muslims leaving India as revenge for the killings of Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan. Riots had broken out in Calcutta, Delhi and Bombay. Patel and Singh led from the front, and despite a heavy toll, the Army finally re-asserted peace and rule of law all over India and the borders of Punjab and Bengal, and organized a massive relief and aid operation for the millions of people arriving in India.

Defence Minister Singh also led the preparations and planning for war in Kashmir, which had broken out with Pakistani tribesmen and some military officers had incursed into the state with the aim of annexing it into Pakistan. Over almost two years, the Indian Army would wage battle with the militants and the Pakistan Army at the highest altitudes in the world. The Army succeeded in pushing back the raiders from Srinagar and beyond the Baramulla Pass, but with Nehru's declaration of a cease-fire under the supervision of the United Nations, a considerable portion of territory now lay under firm control of the Pakistani Army, and the Kashmir conflict was born.

In September 1948, under the instructions of Acting Prime Minister Sardar Patel Singh and his commanders prepared plans for Operation Polo, a week-long operation that annexed the princely state of Hyderabad into the Indian Union. Singh remained a close advisor to Patel on managing the Kashmir conflict and issues of the integration of India.

Later life[link]

In 1952, Baldev Singh became a member of the Parliament of India as a member of the Congress Party when the nation held its first democratic elections under the new Constitution of India, but did not join the Nehru administration. Singh remained the major political representative of Sikh concerns and was respected by the Akali Dal, and was re-elected in 1957. Singh died in Delhi after a prolonged illness in 1961. He is survived by his nephew, Sardar Ravi Inder Singh, former Speaker of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, leader of the Akali Dal, Panthic Morcha and also the only Punjabi to own 4 private jets. He is also survived by his niece Harbhajan Kaur who currently resides in Ludhiana.

See also[link]

• History of the Punjab
• Indian independence movement
• Partition of India
• Shiromani Akali Dal
• Tara Singh Malhotra

External links[link]

• http://www.sikh-history.com/sikhhist/personalities/sewadars/baldev.html

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