“A deed without a name . . .”
Hi, Everyone! After the
WWII, Britain was left in such dire straits that it was imperative for her to
find some solution to the Indian problem and get out of India.
Prime Minister Atlee
sent a delegation of Ministers to find a solution to the problem of India.
After studying the situation well, the delegation came to one, and only one,
conclusion.
“The delegation
were therefore unable therefore unable to advise the British Government to
transfer power in India to two entirely separate sovereign States.”[1]
There
was hope for a united India yet! I have put the Cabinet Mission Plan proposal
in a nutshell in my novel.
“An agreement
being impossible, the Cabinet Mission announced a plan: formation of a Union of
India, embracing all the provinces and Princely States, which would deal with
the foreign affairs, defense, and communications along with the power to raise
the finances required for them; provinces to be divided into three
sections—effectively representing what could be West Pakistan, Hindustan, and
East Pakistan; a provincial autonomy to be established by vesting all other
subjects and residuary powers in the provinces; a Constituent Assembly to be
formed to map out the constitution of free India; and an Interim Government to
be formed immediately for the day-to-day running of the country in the
transition period, while a permanent deal was negotiated with Britain.”[2]
The
delegation left, and it was up to Wavell now to get the Congress and the Muslim
League to agree to the Cabinet Mission Plan.
This
was, of course, easier said than done! But after much argument and putting
forth of reservations, both the Congress and the League decided to accept the
Cabinet Mission Plan in spirit (though with reservations.)
“Jinnah proposed to hold out his hand of
‘co-operation’ to the Congress. The Congress, too, accepted the plan of May 16
as it stood, and declared its willingness to join the Constituent Assembly with
a view to framing the constitution of a free, united and democratic India.”[3]
“The Congress
and the Muslim League had indeed accepted the long-term
plan . . . hereafter it was not to be so much a struggle to
wrest power from the British, as a dispute as to how that power, once
inherited, should be shared by the parties concerned.”[4]
Pakistan
scheme was off the table . . . ! For the first time in the
last ten years, the dreaded vivisection of India was shelved, at least for the
moment.
In
1946, the scene was all set to save India from being hacked!
·
Why then did India get
partitioned?
·
Why was there practically a
civil war in India?
·
Why did rivers of blood flow
in India?
·
At whose door can we lay this
responsibility?
Read
on tomorrow.
Anurupa
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