The Cabinet Mission of 1946 came to India aimed to discuss the transfer of power from the British government to the Indian leadership, with the aim of preserving India's unity and granting it independence. Formulated at the initiative of Clement Attlee, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the mission had Lord Pethick-Lawrence, the Secretary of State for India, Sir Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade, and A. V. Alexander, the First Lord of the Admiralty. Lord Wavell, the Viceroy of India, did not participate in every step but was present.
Background
Towards the end of their rule, the British found that their temporary patronage of the Muslim League conflicted with their longstanding need for Indian unity. The desire for a united India was an outcome of both their pride in having politically unified the subcontinent and the doubts of most British authorities as to the feasibility of PakistanThis desire for Indian unity was symbolized by the Cabinet Mission of March 1946,[2] sent by the British government, in which the subject was the form of a post-independent India. The three men who constituted the mission, Stafford Cripps, Pethick-Lawrence and A.V. Alexander favoured India's unity for strategic reasons.
Upon arriving in the subcontinent the mission found both parties, the Indian National Congress and Muslim League, more unwilling than ever to reach a settlement. The two parties had performed well in the elections and emerged as the two main parties in the subcontinent, the provincial organisations having been defeated. That was because of the separate electorates system. The Muslim League had been victorious in approximately 90 percent of the seats for Muslims.[5] After having achieved victory in the elections Jinnah gained a strong hand to bargain with the British and Congress.[6] Having established the system of separate electorates, the British could no longer reverse its consequences in spite of their genuine commitment to Indian unity.[7]
Plan
The mission made its own proposals, after inconclusive dialogue with the Indian leadership,[8] seeing that the Congress opposed Jinnah's demand for a Pakistan comprising six full provinces.[9] The mission proposed a complicated system for India with three tiers:[10] the provinces, provincial groupings and the centre.[11] The centre's power was to be confined to foreign affairs, defence,[12] currency[13] and communications.[14] The provinces would keep all the other powers and were allowed to establish three groups.[15] The plan's main characteristic was the grouping of provinces. Two groups would be constituted by the mainly-Muslim western and eastern provinces. The third group would comprise the mostly-Hindu areas in the south and the centre,[16] such as UP, CP, Bombay, Bihar and Madras.[17] Group B would comprise Sind, Punjab, Northwest Frontier and Baluchistan. Bengal and Assam would make up Group C.[18]
Reactions
Through the scheme, the British expected to maintain Indian unity, as both they and Congress wanted, and also providing Jinnah the substance of Pakistan. The proposals almost satisfied Jinnah's insistence on a large Pakistan, which would avert the moth-eaten Pakistan without the mostly non-Muslim districts in Bengal and Punjab being partitioned away. By holding the full provinces of Punjab and Bengal, Jinnah could satisfy the provincial leaders who feared losing power if their provinces were divided.[19] The presence of large Hindu minorities in Punjab and Bengal also provided a safeguard for the Muslim minorities remaining in the mostly-Hindu provinces.
Most of all, Jinnah wanted parity between Pakistan and India. He believed that provincial groupings could best secure this. He claimed that Muslim India was a 'nation' equally entitled to central representations as Hindu India. Despite his preference for only two groups, the Muslim League's Council accepted the mission's proposals[22] on 6 June 1946 after securing a guarantee from Wavell that the League would be placed in the interim government if the Congress did not accept the plan