The Indian politics had become dull after the failure of the Non-cooperation Movement. At this time the British government itself provided an opportunity to the Indians for the revival of political agitation in the country. The British government announced the appointment of a statutory commission on November 8, 1927 and the constitution of the commission revived the political agitation in India.
The commission consisted of seven members of the British Parliament with Sir John Simon as its Chairman. The most objectionable feature of the commission from the Indian point of view was its all white composition. Not a single Indian was considered fit to be included in the commission. The commission was to look into the functioning of the reforms introduced in India by the Act of 1919 and to inquire into the working of the growth of education in India.
The commission worked under hostile circumstances. Its composition was taken to be an insult to the dignity and national self-respect of India. All important political parties and their leaders refused to cooperate with the commission and most of them decided to boycott it. Probably, after the Jallianawala Bagh tragedy no other action of the British government was attacked so bitterly by the Indians as the appointment of this “all-white commission.” When the commission landed in Bombay on 7 February, 1928 it was greeted with a countrywide hartal.
The commission was confronted with hartal, demonstration, black flag everywhere it went. Large demonstrators took place in Delhi, Lahore, Madras, Calcutta, Patna and other big towns, with resounding slogans of ‘simon go back‘. At Lahore Lala Lajpat Rai while leading a mammoth procession of demonstrations against the commission received several lathi blows by the police and he succumbed to the injuries. Thus the simon commission united the Indians against the British and kept the fire of nationalism burning.