Resolution of the Working
Committee of the Indian National Congress
April 2, 1942
Legal Document No
72
The people of India have, as a whole, clearly demanded
full independence, and Congress has repeatedly declared that no other status
except that of independence for the whole of India could be agreed to or
could meet the essential requirements of the present situation.
The Committee recognize that future independence may be implicit in
the proposals, but the accompanying provisions and restrictions are such
that real freedom may well become an illusion.
The complete ignoring of ninety millions of people in the Indian States,
and their treatment as commodities at the disposal of their rulers, is
a negation both of democracy and self-determination. While the representation
of an Indian State in the constitution-making body is fixed on a population
basis the people of the State have no voice in choosing those representatives,
nor are they to be consulted at any stage while decisions vitally affecting
them are being taken. Such States may- in many ways become barriers to
the growth of Indian freedom, enclaves where foreign authority still prevails,
and where the possibility of maintaining foreign-armed forces has been
stated to be a likely contingency and a perpetual menace to the freedom
of the people of the States as well as of the rest of India.
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