When Black Flags Drowned Out Britain: The Revolt Against the Simon Commission

The Simon Commission landed in India without a single Indian voice — the response was a sea of defiance On a grey February morning in 1928, the streets of Bombay burst into an unforgettable display. Thousands pushed forward, waving black flags high against the colonial sky. Their message was as plain as the banners themselves: “Simon, go back!” It was not the sound of guns but the sight of cloth — dark, fluttering, insistent — that unsettled the British that day. The Simon Commission had come to India to shape its constitutional future, yet it arrived without a single Indian member. An empire already cracking under pressure now faced the shame of being shouted down in its own dominion. Why the commission was doomed from the start The British plan was straightforward: send a seven-member team, led by Sir John Simon, to assess how India’s constitutional arrangements under the 1919 ...

Sayan Guha

• 3 weeks ago
• 3 minutes read