British Missions

21 August 2020 21:36

YEAR MISSION DETAILS Responses

Aug,1940 August Offer • dominion status as the objective (Long Term) • Congress Rejected(No Dominion status)
(Linlithgow) • expansion of viceroy’s executive council • ML welcomed Veto assurance but reiterated
(majority of Indians ) Partition
• setting up of a constituent assembly after the
war
• no future constitution to be adopted without the
consent of minorities.
Mar,1942 Cripps Mission • Dominion Status • Congress objected to dominion status , right of
• Constituent Assembly will be convened after war provinces to secede
to frame new constitution • ML criticised idea of single Indian Union
• Conditions:
(i)Any province not willing to join Union can have
separate union
(ii)new constitution making body and the British
government would negotiate a treaty to effect
the transfer of power and to safeguard racial and
religious minorities.
• Defence of India to remain on British hands and
GG powers to remain intact
1944 Rajagopalachari • ML to endorse Congress demand for • Gandhi supported it
Formula independence • Jinnah wanted only the Muslims of North-West
• League to cooperate with Congress in forming a and North-East to vote in the plebiscite and not
provisional government at centre. the entire population.
• After the end of the war, the entire population • Vir Savarkar condemned the CR Plan.
of Muslim majority areas in the North-West and
North-East India to decide by a plebiscite
• In case of acceptance of partition, agreement to
be made jointly for safeguarding defence,
commerce, communications, etc.
• The above terms to be operative only if England
transferred full powers to India.

Desai- Liaqat Plan • Equal number of persons nominated by the No settlement btw Congress and ML
(Bhulabhai Congress and the League in the central
Desai+Liaqat Ali legislature.
Khan) • 20% reserved seats for minorities.
June 1945 Wavell Plan • With the exception of the governor-general and • ML wanted all Muslim members to be League
(Shimla Conference) the commander-in-chief, all members of the nominees and claimed some kind of veto in the
executive council were to be Indians. council with decisions opposed to Muslims
• Caste Hindus and Muslims to have equal needing a two-thirds majority for approval.
representation.
• reconstructed council was to function as an • Congress objected to reducing it to purely caste
interim government within the framework of the Hindu Party
1935 Act
(i.e. not responsible to the Central Assembly).
• The governor-general was to exercise his veto on
the advice of ministers.
• Representatives of different parties were to
submit a joint list to the viceroy for nominations
to the executive council. If a joint list was not
possible, then separate lists were to be
submitted.
• Possibilities were to be kept open for
negotiations on a new constitution once the war
was finally won.

Feb,1946 Cabinet Mission • Rejection of the demand for a full-fledged Congress:

Prelims Page 1
Feb,1946 Cabinet Mission • Rejection of the demand for a full-fledged
(Pethick Lawrence, Pakistan
Secretary of State • Grouping of existing provincial assemblies into
for three sections:
India; Section-A: Madras, Bombay, Central Provinces,
Stafford Cripps, United Provinces, Bihar and Orissa (Hindu-
President of the majority provinces)
Board of Trade; and Section-B: Punjab, North-West Frontier Province
A.V. Alexander, First and Sindh (Muslim-majority provinces)
Lord of Admiralty) Section-C: Bengal and Assam (Muslim-majority
provinces).
• Three-tier executive and legislature at provincial,
section and union levels.
• A constituent assembly was to be elected by
provincial assemblies by proportional
representation (voting in three groups—General,
Muslims, Sikhs)
• A common centre would control defence,
communication and external affairs. A federal
structure was envisaged for India.
• Communal questions in the central legislature
were to be decided by a simple majority of both
communities present and voting.
• Provinces were to have 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.
• Meanwhile, an interim government was to be
formed from the constituent assembly.
Prelims Page 2
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.
(Congress had the Congress-ruled provinces of
NWFP and Assam in mind which had been included
in groups B and C respectively.)
• Compulsory grouping contradicts the oft-
repeated insistence on provincial autonomy
• Absence of provision for elected members
from the princely states in the constituent
assembly (they could only be nominated by
the princes) was not acceptable.
League:
Grouping should be compulsory with sections B and
C developing into solid entities with a view to future
secession into Pakistan.
The League had thought that the Congress would
reject the plan, thus prompting the government to
invite the League to form the interim government.
The Muslim League on June 6 and the Congress on
June 24,1946 accepted the long-term plan put
forward by the Cabinet Mission.
July 29, 1946: The League withdrew its acceptance
of the long-term plan and gave a call for “direct
action” from August 16 to achieve
Pakistan.