The three Round Table Conference of 1930-1932?

Round Table Conferences were successful only to some extent. The Round Table Conferences were held in London in 1930, 1931 and 1932. But neither Gandhi nor Jinnah attended all of them.

The Round Table Conferences were held to consider the ‘Simon Commission Report’ and to suggest reforms to solve the constitutional problem of India. On the whole the Conferences did not achieve much and the constitutional problem was not resolved.

The First Round Table Conference (1930) was successful in the sense that it was agreed that Federal System of government would be adopted for India and responsible representative government would be set up in provinces. This was a great achievement because the Congress had suggested ’Unitary Form’ of government in provinces was a good step forward for self-rule. But Congress did not attend this conference because congress leaders were in jail on account of non-cooperation movement. 

Secondly, the princely states also agreed to join the federation. Also several committees were formed to discuss different issues.

The Second Round Table Conference (1931) was attended by the Congress with high hopes of progress. Mr. Gandhi represented the Congress but he declared that the Congress was the only political party which could speak for all the Indian people. He also declared that there was no minority problem in India. Muslims and other minority leaders did not agree with Mr. Gandhi. Therefore on account of Mr. Gandhi stubborn and unfair attitude the conference could not achieve much but its success was that it was declared that Orissa, NWFP and Sind (after separation from Bombay) would be given full provincial status. The minorities issue remained unresolved.  

The Third Round Table Conference was held in November 1932. It was again not attended by Congress. Mr. Jinnah also did not attend. The Conference proved to be a mere formality. It only finalized the reports and broke up without achieving anything of substance.

In the light of above facts, it can be said that although the Round Table Conference did not achieve much on the whole, yet the first conference of 1930 was more successful than the other two.