SECTION-1: Setbacks for Hindu Mahasabha, 1945–1946

As the war was coming to a close, attempts began to be made in different quarters for a solution of the political problem. After the failure of the Gandhi–Jinnah talks, two other outstanding events leading towards some sort of settlement had taken place from the non-official side. First, on 9 November 1944, Gandhi readily offered to cooperate with a committee, that Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru had for long opined should be appointed to investigate the entire constitutional and communal problem. Sapru then persuaded the Standing Committee of the Non-Party Conference to appoint a Committee under his chairmanship. The Sapru Committee, which Dr Mookerjee correctly believed was the outcome of Gandhiji's inspiration, met in Delhi on 29 December and dispersed on 31 December. It came with an interim report unanimously recommending the acceptance of parity between Caste Hindus and Muslims in the formation of an Interim National Government, subject to the condition that the Muslims must agree to a joint electorate. It is evident from Chairman Sapru's letter dated 7 January 1945 that while the Sikh attitude was quite helpful and he was expecting response from Hindus, Jinnah refused to recognise them. He also noted that while the view of the Hindus, shared by many minorities, favoured a strong Centre, the Muslim League view was that there should be no Centre of any kind. Wavell did not really expect anything to come of the Sapru Committee whose report was sent to him in April 1945 while he was in London. The Mahasabha realised at once the enormous mischief that Sapru's proposal was going to make with regard to Hindu interests. Dr Mookerjee records in his diary, “No one would think of doing away with a separate electorate, but the proposal of parity would be looked upon as both desirable and possible by HMG and would now have the added support of a non-official committee of so-called impartial statesmen and politicians such as the Sapru Committee was dubbed to be”. In fact, Sapru's proposal to form an Indian Government on the basis of parity between Caste Hindus and Muslims was one of the basic features of the Wavell Plan, but the condition laid down by it – acceptance of a joint electorate – was completely ignored.