The people of India agitated against the arrival of the Simon Commission because:
Answer & explanation
Answer: (c) There was no Indian member in the Simon Commission
The Simon Commission was appointed to review the working of the constitutional system set up by the Act of 1919. All its members were British; it did not have a single Indian member. Indians saw this as an insult to their right to shape their own constitution. When it arrived in 1928, the Congress and many other groups greeted it with the slogan 'Go back Simon'.
- ✗ (a) Indians did not object to a review as such; the Act of 1919 itself provided for a review after ten years. What they objected to was that the reviewing body had no Indian member.
- ✗ (b) The protests began when the Commission arrived in 1928, long before its report appeared in 1930. The agitation could not have been a reaction to its recommendations on dyarchy.
- ✓ (c) The Commission was all-White, with no Indian member. This exclusion triggered an all-India boycott, joined by the Congress and a section of the Muslim League.
- ✗ (d) The Commission made no proposal to partition the country, and partition played no part in the 1928 protests.
Remember · The Simon Commission was appointed in 1927 and arrived in 1928. It was all-British, with no Indian member. Hence the all-India boycott and the 'Go back Simon' slogan.
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 10 India and the Contemporary World – II, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part III, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- NCERT Class 10 · India and the Contemporary World – II, Chapter 2 “The problem was that the commission did not have a single Indian member. They were all British. When the Simon Commission arrived in India in 1928, it was greeted with the slogan 'Go back Simon'.”
- NCERT Class 12 · Themes in Indian History, Part III, Chapter 3 “That year there was an all-India campaign in opposition to the all-White Simon Commission, sent from England to enquire into conditions in the colony.”
Question: UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) 2013, General Studies Paper I. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 25 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·
