Answer:It was Government of India Act 1919 that announced that in 10 years from 1919, a royal commission will be set up to report on the working of the act. Read the points below to understand the background of the Simon Commission:
Diarchy was introduced in India by the Government of India Act 1919. The Act also promised that a commission would be appointed after 10 years to review the working and progress made on the measures taken through the Act.
The Indian people and leaders wanted a reform of the diarchy form of government.
The Conservative Party-led government in the UK feared a defeat at the hands of the Labour Party in the elections due, and so hastened the appointment of a commission in 1928 even though it was due only in 1929 as per the 1919 Act.
The Commission was composed entirely of British members with not a single Indian member being included in it. This was seen as an insult to Indians who were right in saying that their destiny could not be determined by a handful of British people.
The Secretary of State for India, Lord Birkenhead had berated Indians on account of their perceived inability to formulate a concrete scheme of reforms through consensus among all sections of the Indian political scene.
Lord Birkenhead was responsible for setting up the Commission.
Clement Atlee was a member of the Commission. He would later become Britain’s Prime Minister during Indian independence and partition in 1947.