Historical Figures

57. Sardar gets the thorny crown of presiding over the Karachi Conference

When Gandhiji and other Congress leaders reached Karachi to participate in the Karachi convention, thousands of youths raised slogans against them. Coping with this dire situation was not easy. In this hour of crisis, Gandhiji entrusted Patel with the responsibility of presiding over the conference, wearing a crown of thorns. Sardar in his very first speech quelled the anger of thousands of youths who were not ready to listen to the leaders.

Patel said that when you have elected an ordinary farmer as the president of this conference, then I request you that whatever Gujarat has done in the freedom movement so far, you should also take inspiration from the work of freeing the country. . Referring to the youth who believed in armed revolution, Sardar said that I will not say anything here about their way of working, but I bow my head in front of their patriotism, courage and sacrifice.

Sardar said that we hope to get some good results of Gandhi-Irwin Pact but if it does not happen then the movement will be started again. At this point many youths stood up and started saying that suspending the movement would delay the attainment of independence.

On this Sardar said that at present Gandhiji's age is 63 years and my age is 56 years. We want to see the country independent in our life itself, so we are more worried than you. These words of the Sardar cooled the anger of the youth. They sat down and the proceedings of the conference went on smoothly.

Gandhi had negotiated with Irwin by ignoring the voice of the country and losing a lot, but the imperialist British had negotiated by taking the Congressmen out of jail so that by passing a resolution for the formation of the Union of India in the ongoing Round Table Conference in London, a resolution was imposed on the Indians. A new constitution can be imposed through which the white government gets a license to exploit the whole of India in a constitutional way.

Gandhi was the only representative of the Congress in this conference. On 1 December 1931, this conference ended without any solution, due to the demands of reservation of seats for the Depressed Classes in the Federal Parliament proposed by Dr. Ambedkar and Jinnah's insistence on reservation of seats for the Muslims.

The rulers of the princely states also did not want the formation of the Union of India now because there was a fear of ending their states. The specialty of this Round Table Conference was that it was decided to make a constitution for the future Union of India. When the Congress did not support the government's side in the Round Table Conference, the cycle of repression started again in India.