Cabinet Mission (1946)

After ruling for nearly a century, facing growing nationalism and protests was getting tiresome for Britishers especially after world war two which exhausated the globe financially and emotionally. Britishers were now planning on giving independence to the eager india. The problem was that India had never been a united country before. A number of rulers ruled India before and it was only under the British that it came together under one ruler. The Indian identity which didn’t exist before the freedom struggle was now in full force and demanded a country of their own. It was never an easy action though to obtain an agreement with Indian leaders and get all the sections of the Indian society to agree upon one common plan and that became the reason that different commissions were sent in India during that time to come up with an independence plan. The Cabinet mission of 1946 was one of those which came after the failure of the wavell plan.

Global condition post world war and why government wanted a solution now

The end of world war two was the beginning of the modern and global world in a new sense. A new era had started where the previous all mighty European powers were no longer the major global powers anymore.The united states of america and the soviet union come to the forefront as two major powers who even though were allies in world war two against germany but still had very opposite ideologies and were in conflict (passively). The concept of democracy was getting wider and wider application all across the globe and led to formation of the united nations for conflict resolution between countries. At a time like this, colonization of another country directly contradicted the western countries’ stance of political ideology of promoting democracy across the globe.The global stage at this time provided the right time for Britishers to leave india.

Failure of wavell plan

Wavell plan was one of the more significant plans that came after world war two ended but it wasn’t accepted. The elections made it clear how unpopular the muslim league actually was but even then the wavell plan had provisions for a virtual veto to muslim league which was unacceptable to the rulers of the Indian national congress and that led to failure of wavell plan.

Elections

Congress got majority in every province except sindh, bengal and punjab. It acquired 57 seats out of the 102 in the central assembly.

On the other hand, muslim league got the thirty reserved seats.

This election witnessed communal voting due to separate electorates and the political atmosphere at that time. Muslim league had now established itself as a dominant party.

Cabinet mission

Cabinet mission was announced on 19th february 1946 and arrived in march 1946. It was a three member commission headed by Patric Lawrence and S. Gipps and A V Alexander as the other two members. This commission came up with the cabinet mission plan which in the end did not obtain an agreement from all leaders.

Main features of cabinet mission

1. Cabinet mission assured that India’s unity will be preserved and blatantly rejected the demand of muslim league for a seperate country of pakistan.
2. The proposal of cabinet mission was for a federation of provinces and the princely states where the residuary powers will lie with the provinces.
3. The British government proposed to have all areas of rule reserved for Indians except for foriegn affairs, Defence and transport and communication which they reserved for themselves under this cabinet mission plan.
4. The plan maintained a back door entry for the formation of pakistan as it categorized the state of india in 3 groups:

A→ rest of india.

B→NWFP, Sindh and Punjab.

C→Bengal, Assam.

The provision was that after the first general elections of independent India with a new constitution, if any member or group surrendered their state list to the center, they could demand independence from the British government after ten years.

The constituent assembly elections were to be held indirectly from British India while the members were to be nominated from the princely states.

The grouping clause and its ambiguity

Different parties interpreted the grouping clause differently. Congress assumed that the grouping was voluntary while the muslim league thought grouping was compulsory. Both thinking the one in their own benefit initially accepted the wavell plan.

Why it was accepted and then rejected

Muslim league was the first to support the cabinet mission plan on 6 june 1946. Then congress also accepted the cabinet mission plan on 24 june 1946. Jawaharlal Nehru, one of the most important congress leaders at the time made a statement in which he mentioned that the congress was not bound by anything except the elections and formation of constituent assembly in the cabinet mission plan. This statement caused outrage among the muslim league members who later opted for withdrawing their support from the cabinet mission plan on 29 July, 1946.

Aftermath 

The elections of the constituent assembly did not go according to how Mohammad Ali Jinnah had expected. Out of the 293 seats, Indian national congress secured 208. In this scenario Jinnah declared 16th August 1946 as the direct action day which marked the beginning of one of the biggest communal riots that the country had ever seen before spreading from Nowkhali to Lahore. Following this, the prime minister of britain at the time Atlee declared that a provisional government will be established in India and the British government would leave india by 30 june 1948. Mountbatten’s plan came next and final with the provisions of partition and birth of two dominions of India and Pakistan. This plan led to the Indian independence act of 1947.

Conclusion

The concept of democracy was getting popular. At a time like this, colonization of another country directly contradicted the western countries’ stance of political ideology of promoting democracy across the globe. The global stage at this time provided the right time for Britishers to leave India and they were eager to do so after the exhaustion from world war two. A lot of plans were explored to find a way to do so. One of those was the mountbatten plan which failed to receive the acceptance from all leaders. Cabinet mission plan followed this but also failed on account of the withdrawal of acceptance by the muslim league and the communal riots that followed the elections. Finally Atlee’s declaration came and the last plan for India, the mountbatten plan which was accepted and the Indian independence act of 1947 was passed giving birth to two countries- India and Pakistan.