The Simla Conference: A Futile Attempt to Bypass Pakistan Scheme

Byline: M. Abid and Q. Abid "The conference of Indian leaders called by Wavell on 25 June 1945 was a charade from the beginning to the end. Delegates from all the major parties, the representatives of the Sikhs and the Scheduled Castes and the premiers of British provinces present and former including the Congress Party premiers who had resigned in 1939 were invited to meet the viceroy in the Viceregal Lodge in the Raj's summer capital of Simla, up in the Himalayas. It would transport the Indian leaders from the sweltering heat of the Indian plains in summer, some from jails, to a climate approximating summer in Scotland or Gstaad in Switzerland, amongst hillsides covered by pine, oak and deodar trees, with spectacular views of snow-clad mountains to the north. In Simla they would either walk to the Viceroy's Lodge or be carried there in a rickshaw, for no car except that of the Viceroy was permitted on the roads of this hill station.