CDS (II) 2024 General Knowledge · Question 69 of 120

Correct — A, 1 and 3 only. That is the option marked for this paper, and statements 1 and 3 are certainly right. The Cabinet Mission — Pethick-Lawrence, Cripps and A. V. Alexander — was announced in February 1946 and reached India on 24 March 1946 to negotiate the transfer of power with Indian leaders, which is statement 1. Its statement of 16 May 1946 opens its recommendations with a Union of India ‘embracing both British India and the States’, dealing with foreign affairs, defence and communications, which is statement 3. The card has to be honest about the other two. Clause (5) of the same paragraph reads that ‘Provinces should be free to form groups with executives and legislatures, and each group could determine the provincial subjects to be taken in common’ — which is what statement 4 describes, so on the primary document statement 4 is true as well. Clause (3) vests all subjects other than the three Union subjects, and all residuary powers, in the provinces, which is the substance of the ‘largest measure of regional autonomy’ in statement 2. The one word in the item that can be argued down is ‘two-tiered’: the scheme is more usually described as three tiers — Union, groups of provinces, provinces — so ‘two-tiered’ belongs to one family of textbooks rather than to the document. If you accept statement 4, the only option that can hold is (d). Learn the plan rather than the code: a weak centre with three subjects, provinces holding everything else, and grouping in between.

• (b)1, 2 and 4 only — Drops statement 3, which is the plainest clause in the whole plan — a Union embracing both British India and the princely states, with a federal centre over it.
• (c)2, 3 and 4 only — Drops statement 1, the least contestable statement in the item. The Mission arrived in March 1946 for exactly the purpose the statement gives.

The Cabinet Mission of 1946 was the last British attempt to hand over power to an undivided India. Its plan of 16 May 1946 rejected a sovereign Pakistan and proposed instead a Union of India covering British Indian provinces and the princely states, whose centre would handle only foreign affairs, defence and communications. Everything else, and all residuary power, stayed with the provinces. Provinces were to be free to form groups with their own executives and legislatures, and the constitution could be reconsidered after ten years. A Constituent Assembly was to be elected on this basis, and an interim government formed. The Congress and the League read the grouping clause differently, the interim government was formed in September 1946 with the League joining later, and the plan came apart within a year.

This is a passage-derived item and it behaves like one: the four statements read as a paraphrase of a single account of the plan. Two of them, the arrival in 1946 and the federation of provinces and states, are safe from any angle. The other two are safe against the document but not against every textbook, and with no published key for this paper the item cannot be settled cleanly. The useful move is to hold the plan's architecture rather than the option letter — three subjects at the centre, residuary power in the provinces, optional grouping, review after ten years — because that is what any future question on the Cabinet Mission will test. Note also which mission is which: Cripps sat on the 1942 mission as well as this one, which is the usual source of confusion.

• The Cabinet Mission consisted of Lord Pethick-Lawrence, Sir Stafford Cripps and A. V. Alexander; it reached India on 24 March 1946.
• Its statement of 16 May 1946 proposed a Union of India embracing both British India and the States, dealing with foreign affairs, defence and communications.
• All subjects other than the Union subjects, and all residuary powers, were to vest in the provinces; the States retained everything they did not cede.
• Provinces were to be free to form groups with executives and legislatures, each group deciding which provincial subjects to hold in common.
• The constitution was to be open to reconsideration after ten years and at ten-yearly intervals thereafter.

• Confusing the Cripps Mission of 1942 with the Cabinet Mission of 1946; Cripps was on both.
• Believing the Mission conceded Pakistan. It expressly rejected a sovereign Pakistan and offered grouping instead.
• Counting the tiers without saying which scheme you mean — Union and provinces is two, Union, groups and provinces is three.

As a multi-statement item on the contents of the 16 May 1946 plan, or as a single-answer question on what form of government the Mission envisaged.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which three subjects were to be handled by the centre under the Cabinet Mission plan of May 1946?

  • (a)Foreign affairs, defence and communications
  • (b)Defence, finance and law
  • (c)Foreign affairs, finance and railways
  • (d)Defence, communications and education

  Answer(a) Foreign affairs, defence and communications — everything else, and all residuary powers, was to rest with the provinces.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Who among the following was NOT a member of the Cabinet Mission that came to India in 1946?

  • (a)Lord Pethick-Lawrence
  • (b)Sir Stafford Cripps
  • (c)A. V. Alexander
  • (d)Lord Wavell

  Answer(d) Lord Wavell — he was the Viceroy at the time, not a member of the three-man Mission.