Cabinet Mission

In 1946, Britain sent one last major plan to keep India united. It rejected a separate Pakistan. It offered a loose federation instead.

The plan failed within weeks. The way it failed shaped Partition itself. This lesson covers the Mission, the plan, the Constituent Assembly it created, and the collapse.

1Why did Britain send the Cabinet Mission?

Postwar Britain wanted to hand over power.

• Britain’s postwar Labour government wanted to transfer power. It announced the Mission on 19 February 1946.
• The Mission had three British Cabinet members. They were Lord Pethick-Lawrence, Sir Stafford Cripps and A.V. Alexander.
• Pethick-Lawrence was Secretary of State for India. Cripps led the earlier Cripps Mission of 1942.
• The Mission reached India on 24 March 1946. It spent weeks in talks with Congress and the Muslim League.
• Viceroy Lord Wavell joined many meetings. He was not a formal member of the Mission.
• The talks at Simla failed to produce a deal. So the Mission issued its own plan on 16 May 1946.
• It rejected a separate Pakistan. A split would have left large minorities on both sides, and would have divided Punjab and Bengal.

2What was the three-tier plan?

A loose union, three groups, and strong provinces.

• The plan proposed a Union of India with three tiers. These were the Union, the Groups and the provinces.
• The Union held only Defence, Foreign Affairs and Communications. It could also raise the money needed for these subjects.
• All other subjects, and all residuary powers, stayed with the provinces.
• Provinces were sorted into three sections. Provinces could form Groups to share some provincial subjects.
• Section A: Madras, Bombay, the United Provinces, Bihar, the Central Provinces and Orissa. These were Hindu-majority.
• Section B: Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan. These were Muslim-majority in the north-west.
• Section C: Bengal and Assam. Bengal was Muslim-majority, and Assam was not.
• A province could leave its Group after the first general election under the new Constitution.
• Any communal question in the Union legislature needed a majority of both major communities.
• The princely states would not join the Union by force. Paramountcy would simply lapse when British rule ended.

3How was the Constituent Assembly built?

Its design shaped the Constitution that followed.

• The plan’s most lasting idea was a Constituent Assembly. It would draft India’s own Constitution.
• It was to have 389 seats. Of these, 292 came from the Governors’ Provinces and 4 from the Chief Commissioners’ Provinces.
• The princely states were allotted 93 seats.
• Provincial assemblies elected their members by the single transferable vote. Seats were roughly one per million people.
• Each province’s seats were split among three communities: General, Muslim and Sikh.
• So members were chosen indirectly, not by all adult voters.
• The elections were held in July and August 1946. Congress won most of the General seats. The League won most of the Muslim seats.
• The Assembly first met on 9 December 1946. The Muslim League stayed away.
• After Partition, its strength fell to 299 members. Of these, 229 came from provinces and 70 from princely states.

4Where did the plan fall apart?

One unclear clause did the damage.

• The Muslim League accepted the plan on 6 June 1946. It saw grouping as a path to a Pakistan-like arrangement.
• Congress accepted the long-term plan on 25 June. It rejected the interim government proposals of that month.
• Both read the grouping clause in opposite ways. Congress said grouping was optional. The League said it was compulsory.
• On 10 July 1946, Nehru held a press conference in Bombay. He said Congress would enter the Assembly free of any commitments.
• He added that the Assembly could change the plan. This cast doubt on compulsory grouping.
• The League withdrew its acceptance on 29 July 1946.
• It then called for Direct Action on 16 August.
• The Great Calcutta Killings followed. Several thousand people died and about 100,000 were left homeless within 72 hours.
• Riots spread to Bengal, Bihar and the United Provinces.
• Nehru’s interim government took office on 2 September 1946. The League first stayed out, then joined on 26 October.
• Liaquat Ali Khan became Finance Member. That gave the League a say over every other department’s budget.

5How close did India come to staying undivided?

It was closer than most people remember.

• The plan’s wider vision collapsed. But the Constituent Assembly it created still drafted India’s Constitution.
• The Mission offered the League a large share of power without a new country. It offered Congress a united India.
• Neither side trusted the other enough to accept the middle path.
• No single design flaw killed the plan. The failure to agree on grouping did.
• After the violence of August 1946, the case for Partition grew stronger.
• Britain’s next big step came in 1947 with the Mountbatten Plan.
• The idea of a Union of States later shaped Article 1 of the Constitution, which calls India a “Union of States”.