Which of the following statements are correct ? 1. The Third Round Table Conference met in London in November 1932 without the participation of Congress 2. The discussions in the Third Round Table Conference led to the passing of the Government of India Act, 1935 3. The Government of India Act, 1935 did not favor the idea of provincial autonomy 4. The Governor was not given any power in the Act of 1935 to take over and run the administration of a province Select the answer using the code given below :

Q: What is the answer to CAPF 2024 Paper I Q67?

B. Correct — B, 1 and 2. The Third Round Table Conference sat in London from 17 November to 24 December 1932 with only 46 delegates; the Congress stayed away, as did the British Labour Party, which is why the session is remembered as the emptiest of the three. Its discussions, along with those of the earlier sessions, produced the White Paper of March 1933, which went to a Joint Select Committee and emerged as the Government of India Act, 1935. Statements 3 and 4 both invert the Act. Provincial autonomy was its central feature — dyarchy was abolished in the provinces and transferred to the centre — and section 93 empowered a Governor to assume to himself all the powers of the provincial government and run the province, a power used extensively after the Congress ministries resigned in 1939. (Provisional — pending the official UPSC key.)

(a)3 and 4
(b)1 and 2
(c)2 and 3
(d)1 and 3

Answer

Why

Correct — B, 1 and 2. The Third Round Table Conference sat in London from 17 November to 24 December 1932 with only 46 delegates; the Congress stayed away, as did the British Labour Party, which is why the session is remembered as the emptiest of the three. Its discussions, along with those of the earlier sessions, produced the White Paper of March 1933, which went to a Joint Select Committee and emerged as the Government of India Act, 1935. Statements 3 and 4 both invert the Act. Provincial autonomy was its central feature — dyarchy was abolished in the provinces and transferred to the centre — and section 93 empowered a Governor to assume to himself all the powers of the provincial government and run the province, a power used extensively after the Congress ministries resigned in 1939.

Why the others are wrong

(a)3 and 4 — Both are the reverse of the Act. Provincial autonomy was introduced in 1935, and the Governor was given the power to take over a province's administration.
(c)2 and 3 — Statement 2 is sound, but statement 3 denies the best-known feature of the 1935 Act.
(d)1 and 3 — Statement 1 is sound, but statement 3 is not. The Act made the provinces autonomous units with ministries responsible to elected legislatures.

Concept

The three Round Table Conferences ran between November 1930 and December 1932. The Congress boycotted the first, took part in the second through Gandhi alone after the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, and boycotted the third. The constitutional material accumulated across all three went into the White Paper of 1933 and then into the Government of India Act, 1935 — the longest Act the British Parliament had passed, and the framework from which large parts of the Indian Constitution were later drawn.

The item is built so that a candidate who knows the 1935 Act can answer it without knowing the conference dates at all. Provincial autonomy and section 93 are the two facts that make statements 3 and 4 false, and once both fall the only surviving pair is 1 and 2. The Act's structure is worth holding as a single picture: dyarchy moved from the provinces to the centre, the provinces got ministries responsible to elected legislatures, the federation of provinces and princely states was never brought into being because too few princes acceded, and the Governor and Governor-General kept discretionary and emergency powers over everything.

Key facts

The Third Round Table Conference met in London from 17 November to 24 December 1932 without the Congress.
The conferences fed the White Paper of 1933, which became the Government of India Act, 1935.
The 1935 Act abolished dyarchy in the provinces and introduced provincial autonomy.
Section 93 allowed a Governor to take over the administration of a province, and it was used after the Congress ministries resigned in 1939.
The all-India federation the Act provided for never came into existence, as the required number of princely states did not accede.

From the conferences to the Act

Nov 1930 – Jan 1931 — First Round Table Conference; Congress absent, its leaders in jail
Sept – Dec 1931 — Second session; Gandhi attends alone for the Congress after the Gandhi-Irwin Pact
Nov – Dec 1932 — Third session; Congress absent again, 46 delegates in all
March 1933 — White Paper on constitutional reform, then a Joint Select Committee
August 1935 — Government of India Act: provincial autonomy, dyarchy at the centre, an unrealised federation

Study next

The Government of India Act, 1935 and its borrowings into the Indian ConstitutionDyarchy under the 1919 Act and its transfer to the centre in 1935The Communal Award and the Poona PactProvincial elections of 1937 and the Congress ministriesSection 93 rule and the resignations of 1939

Common traps

Assuming provincial autonomy came only with independence.
Forgetting that the 1935 federation clause was never brought into force.
Reading the emptiness of the third session as meaning it had no constitutional consequence.

A four-statement item that mixes two facts about the conferences with two inverted claims about the Act, so knowledge of either half is enough.

Related PYQs

UPSC_2005_GS1_Q752005Open & attempt →

Consider the following statements : 1. In the First Round Table Conference Dr. Ambedkar demanded electorates for the depressed classes. 2. In the Poona Pact, special provisions for representation of the depressed people in the local bodies and civil services were made. 3. The Indian National Congress did not take part in the Third Round Table Conference. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 2
(b) 2 and 3
(c) 1 and 3
(d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer(c) 1 and 3

Its third statement is this question's first statement, and the key confirms it: the Congress stayed away from the Third Round Table Conference. The same paper adds what Ambedkar was pressing for at the first session.

UPSC_2004_GS1_Q32004Open & attempt →

Consider the following statements: Some of the main features of the Government of India Act, 1935 were the 1. Abolition of diarchy in the Governor's provinces. 2. Power of the Governors to veto legislative action and to legislate on their own. 3. Abolition of the principle of communal representation. Which of these statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only
(b) 1 and 2
(c) 2 and 3
(d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer(b) 1 and 2

The Governors' powers under the 1935 Act, keyed as correct on a UPSC paper. That settles the fourth statement here, which claims the Governor was given no power over a province's administration.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following was NOT a feature of the Government of India Act, 1935?
- (a)Provincial autonomy
- (b)A federal court
- (c)Abolition of separate electorates
- (d)Dyarchy at the centre
Answer(c) Abolition of separate electorates — the Act retained and extended communal representation.
practice — not a real PYQ
The Third Round Table Conference was held in
- (a)1930
- (b)1931
- (c)1932
- (d)1933
Answer(c) 1932 — it sat in London from 17 November to 24 December, without the Congress.

Which of the following statements are correct ? 1. The Third Round Table Conference met in London in November 1932 without the participation of Congress 2. The discussions in the Third Round Table Conference led to the passing of the Government of India Act, 1935 3. The Government of India Act, 1935 did not favor the idea of provincial autonomy 4. The Governor was not given any power in the Act of 1935 to take over and run the administration of a province Select the answer using the code given below :

(a)3 and 4
(b)1 and 2
(c)2 and 3
(d)1 and 3