Misreading of Cripps Mission

In his latest book, R.J. Moore traces the complicated course of the war-time efforts of Stafford Cripps to bring the Indian leaders into the Government and thereby behind the war effort. He brings out ably the obstruction of these efforts by Churchill, the Prime Minister, Amery, the Secretary of State, and Linlithgow, the Viceroy, and shows how in view of their hostility towards the Congress, and their firm commitment to the perpetua­tion of the empire after the war, the Cripps Mission, had perhaps little chance’ of success from the beginning. Cripps had built up a reputation in India as a supporter of India’s cause during the late 1930s. In October 1939 he had advised Nehru not to accept any­thing short of ‘action which proves conclusively the faith behind words’ and suggested that Congress should ‘stand as firm as a rock upon its demands’. His brief visit to India at the end of 1939 had further strengthened this reputation.During the first two years of the war the British Government was not interest­ed in arriving at a political settlement with the nationalist forces in India.