C. Rajagopalachari was an influential leader of the Madras province. Prior to the Quit India Movement, he had prepared a plan to solve India’s communal problem, in which the demand of Pakistan by Muslims was accepted under the right of self-determination.
The Congress leaders considered it very bad and there was a sharp disagreement with Rajagopalachari on this question. In 1943, he resigned from the Congress.
the political deadlock in India cannot be overcome without compromising with the Muslim League in 1942 Movement. After exiting the prison, Gandhiji needed to talk to Jinnah to solve this problem so that any solution could be found for this problem.
That is why Rajagopalachari published his plan on July 10, 1944, which became known as CR Formula.
The main points of C.R. Formula were the following:
- The Muslim League will support the demand of Indian independence and will give its full support to the Congress in forming a provisional government in the transition period.
- After the war, a commission will be appointed to determine the limits of the Muslim majority states in the north-east and north-west of India. On the basis of any practical franchise in these territories, a plebiscite will be decided to decide if these states want to separate from India or not.
- If the Muslim majority area decides to separate from India, then their state will be different and there will be a treaty between the two states regarding the means of defense, communication and commute.
- These conditions will apply only when Britain gives full independence to India.
Talks between Gandhiji and Jinnah started on the plan of Chakravarti Rajgopalachari in September 1944. Jinnah mainly rejected this formula for three reasons.
Reasons for the rejection of the plan of Rajgopalachari by Jinnah-
- In this plan, Muslims were given an incomplete, disabled, and termite Pakistan because they wanted whole Bengal, Assam, Sindh, Punjab and North Western Province, and Balochistan.
- In this, non-Muslims were also allowed to participate in the referendum, while Jinnah wanted to give the franchise to the Muslims only.
- Jinnah was not ready to accept the proposal of joint arrangement in relation to the means of defense, communication, and commute of this plan.
Therefore, negotiation with respect to C R Formula were unsuccessful because of all these things.
Jinnah was highly benefited by the failure of this negotiation. Gandhiji’s interaction with Jinnah was his political mistake because now the partition of the country became a matter of more discussion.
Jinnah’s pan-Indian importance increased because of Gandhiji’s running behind Jinnah and plead. Not only that, Gandhiji started to say Jinnah Kayde Azam (big leader).
In this way, Gandhiji gave him great importance in the eyes of Muslims by treating him as a leader. Leaders of the Muslim majority areas have now accepted Jinnah’s leadership.
Reference: https://www.indiaolddays.com/
