Mr. President, Sir, I consider it a great privilege to be called upon to accord my support to this Resolution. It is in the fitness of things that this memorable Resolution should have been moved by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. For it was he, at whose instance the Madras Congress, in the year 1926, passed the Resolution for complete independence. It was under his Presidentship, that, in the year 1929, the Congress adopted the complete independence of India as its creed. Again speaking in 1934, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru said ‘politically and nationally if it is granted, as it must be, that the people of India are to be the sole arbiters of India’s fate and must therefore have full freedom to draw up their constitution, it follows that this can only be done by means of a constituent assembly elected on the widest franchise. Those who believe in independence have no other choice. Therefore, Sir this Resolution moved by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on this memorable occasion in the Constituent Assembly on behalf of this country has a particular value. I consider, Sir, this Resolution as a pledge and a solemn resolve on the part of each one of us sitting in this Assembly and on the part of the country as a whole. Now since this Constituent Assembly has started its sittings and even before it started its sittings, we have noticed a certain amount of change in the mentality of the British Government. Well, we would like to say there have been several constitutions, evolved by Constituent Assemblies of different varieties in this century and in the previous centuries. It is for the British Government itself to choose what variety of Constituent Assembly it would like this Assembly to be and what variety of constitution it would like this Assembly to adopt. There is, for example the instance of the United States of America, framing its constitution after the War of Independence, which was waged in the year 1774-75. That was a violent revolution, as we would like to call it. The Constitution that was framed after the War of Independence was one of those-constitutions. Later on we find in the 19th century a number of constitutions being evolved by negotiation. In 1867 the Dominion of Canada became a Federation. It was through a peaceful negotiation that the Constitution of this Dominion was framed and evolved and accepted by the British Government. Again in 1900, the Australian Commonwealth was brought into being and that also by a constitution which was negotiated peacefully. We have another instance of the Union of South Africa. It became a Commonwealth in 1909 and that also through a constitution framed and accepted peacefully. The latest instance thereafter, is that of Ireland. In 1921 Ireland was asked to enter into a treaty with the British Government. That was after a guerilla war-fare and after the Sinn Fein agitation, a prolonged agitation, and after the British Government had done all it could do, to bring about Ulster into being. The case of Ireland Is the latest instance and is one which ought to be borne in mind by the British Government and by the present British Cabinet. The sores that are rankling in the minds of the Irishmen will remain fresh as ever and the vault has been an alienation which has not yet ceased to exist. If India is to sit in this Constituent Assembly, and if India is to frame a constitution I again repeat, it is for the British Government to decide whether that Constitution will be of the Irish model, whether that Constitution will be of the U.S.A. model or whether that Constitution will be evolved peacefully. Signs are that the British Government have not ceased to try the Ulster methods which they tried in Ireland and so many other counties. If they insist on pursuing those methods, the results will be of the Irish model. I will therefore repeat, I will therefore warn the British Government, that it will be better if it brought about all its methods of persuasion and diplomacy. into making this Constituent Assembly a success, by its own efforts combined with that of ours.
