Cabinet Mission & Interim Government

• High-powered mission of three British cabinet members (Pethick Lawrence, Secretary of State for India; Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade; and A.V. Alexander, First Lord of Admiralty) to India to find out ways and means for a negotiated, peaceful transfer of power to India. (Pethick Lawrence was the chairman of the mission.)

Reason for British Withdrawal Seemed Imminent Now

• Success of nationalist forces in the struggle evident by the end of the War.
• Demonstration in favour of nationalism among the bureaucracy and the loyalist sections.
• British strategy of conciliation and repression had its limitations and contradictions.
• Conciliation except full freedom.
• Non-violent resistance was repressed with force.
• Government did not clamp down on ‘sedition’ or made offers for truce.
• Unable to wield authority & its prestige suffered.
• Efforts to woo the Congress dismayed the loyalists, Congress ministries coming to power in the provinces further compounded this dilemma.
• Constitutionalism or Congress Raj, helped in deeper penetration of patriotic.
• Demands of leniency for INA prisoners, revolt of the RIN ratings had raised fears that the armed forces may not be as reliable if the Congress started a 1942-type mass movement.
• Only alternative to an all-out repression of mass movement was an entirely official rule which seemed impossible now because the necessary numbers and efficient officials were not available.
• Government realised that a settlement was necessary for burying the ghost of a mass movement and for good future Indo-British relations.

On the Eve of Cabinet Mission Plan

• Congress demanded that power be transferred to one centre & minorities’ demands be worked out in a framework ranging from autonomy to Muslim-majority provinces to self-determination or secession from the Indian Union.
• British bid for a united and friendly India and an active partner in defence of the Commonwealth, because a divided India would lack in defence and would be a blot on Britain’s diplomacy.
• British policy in 1946 clearly reflected a preference for a united India.
• 1946, 5March - PM says "though mindful of the rights of minorities... cannot allow a minority to place their veto on advance of the majority".
• Shimla Conference, Wavell allowed Jinnah to wreck the conference.

Cabinet Mission Arrives

• Cabinet Mission reached Delhi on March 24, 1946, discuss with Indian leaders of all parties and groups on issue of
• Interim government.
• principles and procedures for framing a new constitution giving freedom to India.
• Congress and the League could not come to any agreement on the fundamental issue of the unity or partition of India.

Cabinet Mission Plan - Main Points

• Rejection of the demand for a full-fledged Pakistan,
• Non-Muslim - 38 % in the North-West & 48 % in the North-East;
• Principle of communal self-determination would claim separation of Hindu-majority western Bengal and Sikh- and Hindu-dominated Ambala and Jullundur divisions of Punjab.
• Deep-seated regional ties, Bengal and Punjab were partitioned.
• Partition would entail economic and administrative problems & problem of communication between the western and eastern parts of Pakistan.
• Division of the armed forces would be dangerous.
• Provincial assemblies into three sections.
• Section-A: Madras, Bombay, Central Provinces, United Provinces, Bihar and Orissa (Hindu-majority provinces)
• Section-B: Punjab, North-West Frontier Province and Sindh (Muslim-majority provinces)
• Section-C: Bengal and Assam (Muslim-majority provinces).

Members from groups A, B and C were to sit separately to decide the constitution for provinces and if possible, for the groups also, sit together to formulate the union constitution.

• Three-tier executive and legislature at provincial, section and union levels.
• Constituent assembly was to be elected by provincial assemblies by proportional representation.
• Centre would control defence, communication and external affairs, federal structure was envisaged for India.
• Communal Question, by a simple majority of both communities present and voting.
• Provincial - full autonomy and residual powers.
• Princely states were no longer to be under paramountcy of the British government. They would be free to enter into an arrangement with successor governments or the British government.
• After the first general elections, a province was to be free to come out of a group and after 10 years, a province was to be free to call for a reconsideration of the group or the union constitution.
• Interim government was to be formed from the constituent assembly.

Different Interpretations of the Grouping Clause

• Congress: Cabinet Mission Plan was against the creation of Pakistan since grouping was optional; one constituent assembly was envisaged; and the League no longer had a veto.
• Muslim League: Muslim League believed Pakistan to be implied in compulsory grouping.

Mission later clarified that the grouping was compulsory

Main Objections

Congress

• Provinces should not have to wait till the first general elections to come out of a group.
• They should have the option of not joining a group in the first place.
• Compulsory grouping contradicts the oft-repeated insistence on provincial autonomy.
• Absence of provision for elected members from princely state in constituent assembly (they could only be nominated by the princes) was not acceptable

Muslim League

• Grouping should be compulsory with sections and C developing into solid entities with a view to future secession into Pakistan.
• League had thought that the Congress would reject the plan, prompting the government to invite the League to form the interim government

Acceptance and Rejection

• Muslim League on June 6 and the Congress on June 24, 1946 accepted.
• July 1946 Elections of provincial assemblies.
• July 10, 1946, Nehru stated "“We are not bound by a single thing except that we have decided to go into the Constituent Assembly". The big probability is that there would be no grouping as NWFP and Assam would have objections to joining sections B and C.
• July 29, 1946, League withdrew its acceptance of the long-term plan, call for “direct action” from August 16 to achieve Pakistan.

Communal Holocaust and the Interim Government

• From August 16, 1946, the Indian scene was rapidly transformed, communal riots.
• Worst-hit areas were Calcutta, Bombay, Noakhali, Bihar and Garhmukteshwar (United Provinces).

Changed Government Priorities

• Wavell was now eager to somehow get the Congress into the Interim Government, even if the League stayed out.
• This attitude was against the League’s insistence that all settlements be acceptable to it and also against earlier government postures of encouraging communal forces, of denying the legitimacy of nationalism, and of denying the representative nature of Congress.

Interim Government

• Fearing mass action by the Congress, a Congress-dominated Interim Government headed by Nehru was sworn in on September 2, 1946.
• Wavell quietly brought the Muslim League into the Interim Government on October 26, 1946.
• without giving up the ‘direct action’;
• despite its rejection of the Cabinet Mission’s long-term and short-term plans.
• despite insistence on compulsory grouping with decisions being taken by a majority vote by a section as whole.

14 Ministers of Interim Government

September 2, 1946–August 15, 1947

1. Jawaharlal Nehru: Vice President of Executive ouncil, External Affairs and Common Wealth Relations
2. Vallabhbhai Patel: Home, Information and Broadcasting
3. Baldev Singh: Defence.
4. Dr. John Mathai: Industries and Supplies.
5. C. Rajagopalachari: Education.
6. C.H. Bhabha: Works, Mines and Power.
7. Rajendra Prasad: Agriculture and Food.
8. Jagjivan Ram: Labour.
9. Asaf Ali: Railway.
10. Liaquat Ali Khan (Muslim League): Finance.
11. Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar (Muslim League): Commerce
12. Abdur Rab Nishtar (Muslim League): Communications
13. Ghazanfar Ali Khan (Muslim League): Health
14. Jogendra Nath Mandal (Muslim League): Law

Obstructionist Approach and Ulterior Motives of the League

• League did not attend the Constituent Assembly, first meeting on December 9, 1946.
• Passing a general "Objectives Resolution" drafted by Jawaharlal Nehru.
• Ideals of an independent sovereign republic with autonomous units, adequate minority safeguards and social, political and economic democracy.
• League refused to attend informal meetings.
• League questioned the decisions and appointments made by the Congress members.
• League had only sought a foothold in the government to fight for Pakistan, continuation of the civil war by other means.
• Congress demand that the British get the League to change its attitude in the Interim Government.
• February 1947, nine Congress members of the cabinet wrote to the viceroy demanding the resignation of League members and threatening the withdrawal of their own nominees.
• League demanding the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly.