Enforcement Officer / Accounts Officer (EO/AO) 2020 recruitment test, advertisement 421. Transcribed from the Commission's own booklet (series A, NMJX-U-GTA); answer as per the official UPSC final answer key. This question is in Part B. Answer last reviewed 24 August 2026.

Who among the following was not a member of the Cabinet Mission ?

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

Answer

Why

Correct — D, (d) Lord Wavell. The Cabinet Mission was a delegation of three serving members of Attlee's Labour cabinet, sent to India in 1946 to settle the transfer of power: Lord Pethick-Lawrence, the Secretary of State for India, who led it; Sir Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade; and A.V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty. Wavell was not one of them and structurally could not have been. He was the Viceroy — the head of the government in India that the Mission had come to negotiate over — and a mission of the British Cabinet does not include the officer whose administration it is sent to wind up. He took part in the discussions, sat with the Mission at the Simla conference of May 1946 and issued the statement of 16 June on the interim government, but he participated as Viceroy and not as a member. The Mission reached Delhi on 24 March 1946 and announced its plan on 16 May. It rejected the demand for a sovereign Pakistan, on the reasoning that a Pakistan containing the whole of Punjab and Bengal would include very large non-Muslim populations while a smaller Pakistan would not solve the problem it was meant to solve, and proposed instead a three-tier structure: a Union of India dealing with defence, foreign affairs and communications, with a legislature and an executive; groups of provinces free to settle their own constitutions and to decide what subjects to hold in common; and the provinces, in which all residuary powers would vest. The provinces were placed in three sections, A for the Hindu-majority provinces of Madras, Bombay, the United Provinces, Bihar, the Central Provinces and Orissa, B for Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province and Sind, and C for Bengal and Assam, and a province could leave its group after the first general election under the new constitution. A Constituent Assembly was to be elected indirectly by the provincial assemblies, and an interim government was to be formed at once. The League accepted the plan on 6 June and withdrew its acceptance on 29 July, calling for Direct Action on 16 August; the Congress objected to compulsory grouping, which it read as Pakistan by another name. The interim government took office on 2 September 1946 under Jawaharlal Nehru, and the League joined it on 26 October.

Why the others are wrong

(a)Pethick-Lawrence — Lord Pethick-Lawrence was a member of the Mission and its chairman, so he cannot be the answer to a question asking who was not. As Secretary of State for India he was the minister in London constitutionally responsible for Indian affairs, and the senior figure of the three. He had a long record of sympathy with Indian self-government and with the suffrage movement in Britain, and his presence signalled that the Labour government meant the mission to succeed. Remember the composition by office rather than by name and the item becomes easy: Secretary of State for India, President of the Board of Trade, First Lord of the Admiralty — three cabinet ministers, and no Viceroy among them.
(b)Stafford Cripps — Sir Stafford Cripps was a member, and the most active negotiator of the three. He is also the one with previous form in India, which is where confusion usually starts: he had come out alone in March 1942 with the Cripps Mission, whose offer of Dominion status after the war, with the right of any province to stay out of the Union, satisfied nobody — the Congress rejected an assurance redeemable only at the end of the war, and Gandhi's description of it as a post-dated cheque is the phrase everyone remembers. Its failure was followed within months by the Quit India resolution. Distinguishing the 1942 Cripps Mission, which was one man, from the 1946 Cabinet Mission, which was three, is the single most useful thing to fix about this period's delegations.
(c)A.V. Alexander — A.V. Alexander was the third member, and the least known, which is exactly why he is offered here: a candidate who has learned only 'Pethick-Lawrence and Cripps' will suspect the unfamiliar name and choose it. He was First Lord of the Admiralty, the cabinet minister responsible for the Royal Navy, and his inclusion reflected the weight defence questions carried in any settlement — the future of the Indian armed forces and of British bases was one of the hardest parts of the transfer of power, as the naval mutiny at Bombay in February 1946 had just underlined. The lesson for the paper is not to eliminate a name for being unfamiliar; eliminate it for being in the wrong job.

Concept

The Cabinet Mission is the last serious attempt to transfer power to a single Indian union, and its importance is that the Constituent Assembly which wrote the Constitution of India was elected under its scheme. The plan's architecture was designed to give the League the substance of what it wanted — provinces grouped so that the Muslim-majority provinces could act together, with wide autonomy — while keeping a single Union responsible for defence, foreign affairs and communications. It failed on the question of whether grouping was compulsory. The Congress said a province could decline to join its section from the start; the League said the sections were mandatory and their decisions binding; the Mission's own statement of 16 May supported the League's reading while the interpretative statement of 6 December 1946 in London confirmed it, by which time the League had already withdrawn and Direct Action Day had been followed by the Calcutta killings of August 1946 and the violence in Noakhali and Bihar. The Constituent Assembly met for the first time on 9 December 1946 without the League. Wavell, who had wanted a phased British withdrawal, was replaced by Mountbatten in March 1947, and the Indian Independence Act followed in July. The sequence to hold is August Offer 1940, Cripps Mission 1942, Wavell Plan and Simla Conference 1945, Cabinet Mission 1946, Mountbatten Plan and Indian Independence Act 1947.

Constitutional milestones of the 1940s are asked in these papers as bare recall — who was in a mission, which plan proposed what, which body met when — because the material is finite and the names are fixed. The habit this item rewards is holding a delegation by the offices its members held, which makes an outsider like the Viceroy obvious at once and also explains why he could not have been a member. It is also worth noticing what the question is anchored to: Wavell was the Viceroy at that moment, and a candidate who pictures Mountbatten in the chair is picturing the following year.

Key facts

The Cabinet Mission of 1946 had three members: Lord Pethick-Lawrence, Secretary of State for India; Sir Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade; and A.V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty.
Lord Wavell was the Viceroy at the time and took part in the negotiations, including the Simla conference of May 1946, but was not a member of the Mission.
The Mission arrived in Delhi on 24 March 1946 and announced its plan on 16 May 1946.
The plan rejected a sovereign Pakistan and proposed a three-tier structure of Union, groups of provinces and provinces, with residuary powers in the provinces.
The Union was to deal with defence, foreign affairs and communications; the provinces were placed in Sections A, B and C.
The Muslim League accepted the plan on 6 June 1946 and withdrew acceptance on 29 July, announcing Direct Action Day for 16 August 1946.
The interim government took office on 2 September 1946 under Jawaharlal Nehru; the League joined it on 26 October 1946.
The Constituent Assembly, elected under the Cabinet Mission scheme, first met on 9 December 1946.
Wavell was succeeded as Viceroy by Lord Mountbatten in March 1947.

Three ministers of the British cabinet — and the man they came to negotiate over

Lord Wavell — the VICEROY, not a member→He was the head of the government in India that the Mission had come to negotiate over, and a mission of the British Cabinet does not include the officer whose administration it is sent to wind up. He took part in the discussions, sat with the Mission at the Simla conference of May 1946 and issued the statement of 16 June on the interim government — but as Viceroy, not as a member of the Mission. He was succeeded by Lord Mountbatten in March 1947.

Lord Pethick-Lawrence→Secretary of State for India and chairman of the Mission — the minister in London constitutionally responsible for Indian affairs, and the senior of the three. He had a long record of sympathy with Indian self-government.

Sir Stafford Cripps→President of the Board of Trade, and the most active negotiator of the three. He is also the one with previous form in India, which is where the confusion usually starts: he had come out alone in March 1942 with the Cripps Mission, whose offer of Dominion status after the war, with the right of any province to stay out of the Union, satisfied nobody.

A. V. Alexander→First Lord of the Admiralty, the cabinet minister responsible for the Royal Navy, and the least known of the three — which is exactly why he is offered here, since a candidate who has learnt only ‘Pethick-Lawrence and Cripps’ will suspect the unfamiliar name and choose it. His inclusion reflected the weight that defence questions carried in any settlement.

What the plan proposed→The Mission reached Delhi on 24 March 1946 and announced its plan on 16 May. It REJECTED a sovereign Pakistan: one containing the whole of Punjab and Bengal would hold very large non-Muslim populations, and a smaller Pakistan would not solve the problem it was meant to solve. It proposed three tiers instead — a UNION for defence, foreign affairs and communications; GROUPS of provinces free to settle their own constitutions, Section A the Hindu-majority provinces, B Punjab, the Frontier and Sind, C Bengal and Assam; and the PROVINCES, holding all residuary powers.

Why it failed, and what survived→It failed on whether grouping was compulsory. The Congress said a province could decline to join its section from the start; the League said the sections were mandatory and their decisions binding. The League accepted on 6 June 1946 and withdrew on 29 July, announcing Direct Action Day for 16 August. The interim government took office on 2 September under Nehru. What survived is what matters most: the CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY that wrote the Constitution of India was elected under this scheme, and first met on 9 December 1946.

Study next

The Cripps Mission of 1942 and the Quit India movement that followed itThe Wavell Plan and the Simla Conference of 1945The Constituent Assembly: composition, election under the Cabinet Mission scheme, and its first sittingThe Mountbatten Plan of 3 June 1947 and the Indian Independence Act, 1947The interim government of 1946: its composition and the League's participation

Common traps

Adding the Viceroy to the Mission. Wavell was present at the talks throughout, which is exactly why the option works.
Merging the Cripps Mission of 1942 with the Cabinet Mission of 1946. Cripps was in both, alone in the first and one of three in the second.
Rejecting A.V. Alexander because the name is unfamiliar. Unfamiliarity is not evidence.
Believing the Cabinet Mission proposed partition. It expressly rejected a sovereign Pakistan; partition came with the Mountbatten Plan of 1947.
Forgetting that the Constituent Assembly owes its composition to this plan, which is why the Mission matters beyond the year it failed in.

The transfer-of-power items in EPFO EO/AO papers are single-fact questions on membership, dates and proposals, and the negative form used here is the commonest. Learn each mission or plan as a card of four lines — who came, when, what was offered, who rejected it and why — and the whole decade becomes answerable in seconds.

Related PYQs

EPFO_EOAO_2020_Q33Open & attempt →

Who among the following was the President of the Indian National Congress at the time of independence of India ?

(a) Pattabhi Sitaramayya
(b) Jawaharlal Nehru
(c) Abul Kalam Azad
(d) J.B. Kripalani

Answer(d) J.B. Kripalani

The paper's other item from the transfer-of-power years, asking who was president of the Indian National Congress at the moment of independence. The two questions sit a year apart in the same story: the Constituent Assembly whose membership the Cabinet Mission's scheme determined was the body that met under that Congress leadership, and the office-holders of 1946 and 1947 are asked about in these papers almost interchangeably.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Who was the Viceroy of India when the Cabinet Mission visited India in 1946 ?
- (a)Lord Linlithgow
- (b)Lord Wavell
- (c)Lord Mountbatten
- (d)Lord Willingdon
Answer(b) Lord Wavell
practice — not a real PYQ
The Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946 provided for which one of the following ?
- (a)Immediate grant of Dominion status to India
- (b)A three-tier structure of a Union, groups of provinces and provinces
- (c)Partition of India into two independent dominions
- (d)Continuation of the Government of India Act, 1919
Answer(b) A three-tier structure of a Union, groups of provinces and provinces

Why