This protest banner, which demands ‘Indian Uninvited Guest, Simon Go Back’, is from the papers of Sir Samuel Findlater Stewart, an India Office official. Signs such as these were used to protest against the Indian Statutory Commission, commonly referred to as the Simon Commission after its chairperson Sir John Simon.

The Simon Commission was a group of seven members of the British Parliament sent to India in 1928 and charged with the task of studying the progress and effects of the Montagu–Chelmsford reforms introduced in 1919. These reforms had introduced a Dyarchy, in which some self-governance was given to the Indian provinces; it became the basis for the Government of India Act of 1919.

The Commission did not include any Indian representatives, which many, including Nehru, Gandhi and Jinnah, saw as an affront to their right of self-determination. The Indian National Congress and a faction of the Muslim League boycotted the Commission and its findings.

Protests began in India as soon as the Commission arrived, many greeting the MPs with flags that read ‘Simon Go Back’. The police reacted violently, in some cases leading to injury or even the deaths of protesters.

The Commission report was published in May 1930 and a series of Round Table Conferences took place in its wake. The outcome of these was the Government of India Act 1935.