After Nehru report, leaders of Indian nationalist movement become increasingly vocal in demanding dominion status for India.⁣
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To appease these leaders, then viceroy of India made a statement on 31st October 1929 regarding the status of India in the British empire. There was great rejoicing because it was just three days before Deepavali and therefore called “Deepavali Declaration” ⁣
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It was intended to calm leaders of the Indian nationalist movement who had become increasingly vocal in demanding dominion status for India. ⁣
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The Declaration was a five-line statement in simple non-legal language. It attempted to clarify to its British and Indian audiences that the intention of the British government was to facilitate India attaining dominion status in the future. However, there was no mention of any timeline.  ⁣
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The Declaration triggered political developments both in Britain and India. In Britain, there was a backlash: significant parts of the political class and the general public were against India attaining obtaining dominion status. ⁣
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In India, nationalist leaders welcomed the Declaration and radically changed their mode of engagement with the British government: they now wanted all negotiations between Indian political leaders and Britain to be about the formalization of dominion status for India and the framing of a new Constitution. ⁣
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When it was clarified that people had misread Irwin’s statement, that Britain could not promise Dominion status anytime soon, it pissed everyone off. So they declared a movement for “Purna Swaraj” on 26 Jan, 1930 (notice the date: It was later, in 1950, selected to be Republic Day).⁣
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