![]() Some people in India were outraged and insulted that the Simon Commission, which was to determine the future of India, did not include a single Indian member. The Viceroy of India Lord Irwin too supported the decision to exclude Indians as he too thought they would vote together with the Labour MPs but also because he thought the Indian representatives would fight each other. He also ensured that there were no Indians in the commission, as he believed the Labour MPs and Indian members would join. Hence, the commission was appointed ahead of time, and seven MPs were selected to constitute the promised commission to examine the state of Indian constitutional affairs. The Secretary of State for India F.E Smith feared that the ruling Conservative government was facing imminent electoral defeat at the hands of the Labour Party, and hence feared that the commission would be filled by its members and sympathizers. Indian opinion clamored for revision of this form of government, and the Government of India Act 1919 stated that a commission would be appointed after ten years to investigate the progress of the government scheme and suggest new steps for reform. The Government of India Act 1919 had introduced the system of diarchy to govern the provinces of British India. He suffered a brutal police beating during the protest and died of his injuries eighteen days later on 17 November 1928. Prominent Indian nationalist Lala Lajpat Rai led a protest against the commission in Lahore. The commission was strongly opposed by the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress, and prominent Indian leaders including Nehru, Gandhi, and Jinnah, because it contained only British members and no Indians. In November 1927, the British government appointed the Simon Commission two years ahead of schedule. The commission was constituted because at the time of introducing the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms in 1919, the British Government had declared that a commission would be sent to India after ten years to examine the effects and operations of the constitutional reforms and to suggest further reforms. One of its members was the future leader of the Labour Party, Clement Attlee, who later became committed to self-government for India. ![]() The commission arrived in the Indian subcontinent in 1928 to study constitutional reform in Britain's largest and most important possession. The Indian Statutory Commission, also known as the Simon Commission, was a group of seven members of the British Parliament under the chairmanship of Sir John Simon. Report on possible constitutional reform in British India
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