In the same manner that the Indian bourgeoisie was afraid of the revolutionary forces , so was imperialism afraid of its total extinction . Imperialism understood that it cannot control the Indian situation by force . According to Lt . General Sir France Tuker , the G . O . C , Eastern Command in India at the time , war weary Britain , financially broken , could not stand the increase of substantial British forces in India to enforce British authority in a country aflame with revolt . He writes : ‘ ultimately we found that this garrison commitment was more than the industrial needs our impoverished country could stand . That was another strong reason for our leaving India and leaving it quickly ’. (‘ While Memory Serves ’ - page - 518 ). Sir Stafford Cripps , one of the main architects of the compromise for transfer of power , told the British Parliament that he hold India , ‘ an expanded personnel in the Secretary of State ’ s Services and a considerable reinforcement of British troops would have been required ’,‘ I did not have any hesitation to reject ’ this alternative ’, he added .
Therefore , The British Government felt the need for compromise , to relinquish its political hold in the area - thereby enabling Britain to preserve intact all its financial , industrial and commercial position in India .
Thus , both the Indian bourgeoisie and the British colonial power were anxious , for a compromise , so that India could be ‘ saved ’ from being declared to the ‘ rabble ’.
Compromise and Transfer of Power :
Thus , in the immediate post- Second World War period , the British authorities finding themselves already weak in the changed correlation of forces in the international arena and facing an unforeseen revolutionary upsurge of all classes of the people in India , were showing interest to compromise with the Indian bourgeoisie . In summer of 1945 , an official Industrial Mission , headed by the top persons of Indian Industry , Mr . G . D . Birla and J . R . D Tata , visited the UK and the USA
June - 2022 to probe the atmosphere for compromise . It was the time when the Congress leaders were set free from the jails , and events moved swiftly . The Indian Mission ‘ opened a new chapter of Indo-British Co-operation for the mission found a definite change in the attitude of British Industries towards Indian Industrial Development and large British Industrialists were not merely reconciled themselves to the inevitability of industrialisation of India , but in many cases seemed to be in accord with India ’ s political aspirations ’. ( Eastern Economist - June 29 , 1945 )
This green signal for compromise hastened the pace of events . The British Cabinet decided to transfer power . The Cabinet Mission arrived in Delhi . Soon Pandit Nehru headed an interim Government at the Centre . By August 15 , 1947 transfer of power was announced . Lord Mountbatten as the First Governor-General of free India and Jawaharlal Nehru as the Prime Minister under the 1935 Constitution of India proclaimed Indian independence .
Thus independence was proclaimed . The Union Jack was hauled down . The tri-colour was hoisted . ‘ At least the bride was brought home , but only after she had become a prostitute ’. The national leaders ‘ sought to cheat destiny by constitutional cunning ’. ( Karl Marx , ‘ The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonapart ’.)
“ Thus independence was achieved peacefully and constitutionally , without a war of independence , without the need for an army of national liberation . The result was that , on August 15 , 1947 , the British Government transferred power in an orderly and cordial manner , bequeathing all its Indian institutions , organisations and services to the new Indian Government .” ( INDIA MORTGAGED , Page - 34 to 39 ).
Nation Building by the New Government :
“ Jawaharlal Nehru , long before he became Prime Minister , had told the people of this country that ‘ of one thing I am quite sure , that no new order can be built in India so long as the spirit of the ICS ( Indian Civil Service ) pervades our administration and our public services . Therefore it seems to me quite essential that the ICS and similar services must disappear completely before we can start real work on a new order . It is inconceivable that they will get the absurdly high salaries and allowances that are paid to them today ”. (‘ An Autobiography ’, Nehru , Page - 445 ).
The Great Mahatma , writing to the Viceroy Lord Irwin in 1930 , had remarked that , a system that provide such monumental salary – ‘ what is true of Vice - regal salary , is true generally of the whole administration ’ — deserves to be summarily scrapped ’. (‘ History of the Congress ’ by Pattabhi Seetharamaiah , page - 634 ). Did this system ‘ disappear completely ’ as Jawaharlal Nehru ‘ wished ’ or was it ‘ summarily scrapped ’ as non-violent Mahatma politely called for ? No . The betrayal of the National Revolution by the bourgeoisie leadership not only retained this administrative system but also its salary differentials between the higher and lower levels . Even the administrative habits and procedures — from May and S Parliamentary procedures to the secret files on the lower stuff of the administration , introduced and evolved by the colonial administration to preserve law and order , — ‘ continue to rule even to this day ’. ( Ibid- Page - 41 )
Such kind of betrayal against the united struggle of the fellow countryman was never seen before . “ The Constituent Assembly and the Constitution of India : The history of the Constituent Assembly is the history of the grand betrayal of the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal aspirations of the people of our country . The very manner in which the Constituent Assembly took shape was incongruous and anachronistic . The members were elected to the Constituent Assembly on the basis of the Government of India Act 1935 , which excluded 90 % of the workers and peasants from
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