ABSTRACT
The constitutional position in India at the outbreak of war in 1939 was the consequence of the India Councils Act of 1909, and the Government of India Acts of 1919 and 1935. There was an elected Indian Assembly to which the central Government of India was responsible in all but defence and foreign affairs; and in the provinces there was already responsible government, though provincial governors in special circumstances retained the power to veto legislation. The outbreak of war in 1939 had led to an immediate attempt by the Indian National Congress party, which controlled a majority of the provincial governments in India, to make its co-operation in wartime dependent on the granting of Indian independence at once. When the Labour Government took office in 1945 it was as determined to grant India its independence as, in 1905, the Liberals had been determined upon self-government for the Boers.
