When did Muslim League observe ‘Direct Action Day’?
- (a)16th October, 1946
- (b)16th August, 1946
- (c)16th December, 1946
- (d)16th November, 1946
Correct — B, 16th August, 1946.
The Muslim League Council, meeting at Bombay in late July 1946, withdrew its acceptance of the Cabinet Mission Plan and resolved to resort to direct action to achieve Pakistan. It fixed 16th August, 1946 as Direct Action Day.
In Calcutta that day and the days following turned into mass communal killing, remembered as the Great Calcutta Killings. Bengal was then governed by a Muslim League ministry headed by H. S. Suhrawardy.
The idea to carry away: Direct Action Day came before the Interim Government took office on 2 September 1946. It was pressure the League applied from outside that government, not from within it.
- (a)16th October, 1946 — October 1946 belongs to the sequel rather than to the call. One landmark of that month for the League is its decision to enter the Interim Government in late October 1946, after having stayed out when that government was formed in September.
Reading the date this way also inverts the sequence. The League called for direct action while outside the government, and only afterwards took seats in it.
- (c)16th December, 1946 — December 1946 is the constitutional endgame, not the street call. The month's best-known event in this sequence is the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly on 9 December 1946, which the Muslim League stayed away from.
A December date would place Direct Action Day after the League had already joined the Interim Government, which reverses the order of events.
- (d)16th November, 1946 — By November 1946 the League had already taken its seats in the Interim Government, and it stayed out of the Constituent Assembly when that body first sat the following month. The closing months of that year are associated with the communal violence that spread through Bengal and Bihar after Direct Action Day.
Picking November therefore dates the call by its consequences. The violence of the autumn followed 16 August 1946; it did not start it.
Direct Action Day was the Muslim League's shift in 1946 from negotiation to mass agitation. Having first accepted and then withdrawn from the Cabinet Mission Plan, the League set aside constitutional bargaining and called its followers out to press the demand for Pakistan.
The date matters because it separates two phases of the same year: the months of talks with the Cabinet Mission, and the months of communal violence and constitutional deadlock that came after.
1946 is the year in which the transfer of power stopped being a question of whether and became a question of on what terms and to whom. The Cabinet Mission's plan of 16 May 1946 proposed a single Indian union with grouped provinces, and Congress and the League read its grouping provisions differently.
Direct Action Day is the hinge of that year. After it, the argument over Pakistan was conducted alongside large-scale communal violence, and that setting shaped the negotiations running up to Partition.
- The Muslim League Council met at Bombay in late July 1946, withdrew its acceptance of the Cabinet Mission Plan and resolved on direct action to achieve Pakistan.
- The League fixed 16 August 1946 as Direct Action Day.
- The Cabinet Mission Plan had been announced on 16 May 1946, proposing a union of provinces with a grouping arrangement.
- Calcutta saw large-scale communal killing from 16 August 1946, remembered as the Great Calcutta Killings; Bengal then had a Muslim League ministry under H. S. Suhrawardy.
- The Interim Government took office on 2 September 1946 with Jawaharlal Nehru as Vice-President of the Viceroy's Executive Council, and without the Muslim League.
- The Muslim League entered the Interim Government in late October 1946, Liaquat Ali Khan taking the Finance portfolio.
- The Constituent Assembly held its first sitting on 9 December 1946; the Muslim League did not take part in it.
All four options offer the 16th of a month, so the day carries no information and only the month decides. Fixing Direct Action Day before the Interim Government of 2 September 1946 settles it.
- The stem asks when the day was observed, not when it was announced. The Bombay Council resolution came in late July 1946, while the day itself was 16 August 1946.
- Every option is the 16th of some month, so scanning for a familiar-looking number gets you nowhere; the month is the whole question.
- 16 May 1946 (Cabinet Mission Plan) and 16 August 1946 (Direct Action Day) are both 16ths of 1946 and can be swapped for each other.
- Dating Direct Action Day to October or later puts it after the Interim Government took office on 2 September 1946, which turns a call made from outside the government into a protest made from inside it.
- Autumn 1946 dates are attached to the violence in Noakhali and Bihar, which came after Direct Action Day rather than constituting it.
Be able to give the date on its own, as this item wants it. The options separate only by month, so the mark turns on holding 16 August 1946 rather than a familiar-looking numeral.
Be able to place it in sequence, against the Cabinet Mission Plan of 16 May 1946, the Interim Government of 2 September 1946 and the Constituent Assembly's first sitting on 9 December 1946.
And be able to reach it from its consequences — the Great Calcutta Killings, and the province and ministry in office at the time, Bengal under H. S. Suhrawardy.
MPPSC_2025_PRE_PaperI_Q42025Same episode and the same year of asking, but the verb differs: MPPSC asks when the League 'announced' Direct Action, while this stem asks when the day was observed. The looser verb does not move the key — MPPSC offers 22nd June, 16th August, 22nd October and 22nd August 1946, so it too answers 16 August 1946. The underlying distinction is still worth holding: the Bombay Council resolution came in late July 1946, the day itself was 16 August 1946. The distractor design differs as well — MPPSC clusters its wrong options on 22nd dates, whereas UKPSC holds the 16th constant and varies only the month.
UPSC_1998_GS1_Q401998The next step in the same 1946 sequence. This UKPSC item fixes the date on which the League acted outside the government; the UPSC item asks about the League after it came inside, when Liaquat Ali Khan took the Finance portfolio in the Interim Government. Same year and same actors, but a portfolio question rather than a date question.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Direct Action Day was followed within weeks by which one of the following?
- (a)The first sitting of the Constituent Assembly
- (b)The taking of office by the Interim Government, with Nehru as Vice-President of the Executive Council
- (c)The announcement of the Cabinet Mission Plan
- (d)The signing of the Lucknow Pact
Answerb — The Interim Government took office on 2 September 1946, about a fortnight after 16 August 1946.(a) fails because the Constituent Assembly first sat on 9 December 1946, nearly four months later, not within weeks. (c) fails because the Cabinet Mission Plan was announced on 16 May 1946, three months before the day, not after it. (d) fails because the Lucknow Pact belongs to 1916.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Muslim League Council session at which the League withdrew its acceptance of the Cabinet Mission Plan and resolved on direct action was held at
- (a)Lahore
- (b)Bombay
- (c)Karachi
- (d)Lucknow
Answerb — The Council met at Bombay in late July 1946 and passed the direct action resolution there.(a) Lahore is where the League adopted its 1940 resolution demanding separate states for Muslims, six years earlier. (c) Karachi is not the venue of this Council session. (d) Lucknow is associated with the 1916 League session and the Lucknow Pact with the Congress.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Arrange the following events of 1946 in correct chronological order: 1. Announcement of the Cabinet Mission Plan 2. Direct Action Day 3. Interim Government takes office 4. First sitting of the Constituent Assembly
- (a)1 – 2 – 3 – 4
- (b)2 – 1 – 3 – 4
- (c)1 – 3 – 2 – 4
- (d)1 – 2 – 4 – 3
Answera — The dates run 16 May 1946, 16 August 1946, 2 September 1946 and 9 December 1946, which is the order given in (a).(b) fails because the Cabinet Mission Plan preceded Direct Action Day. (c) fails because Direct Action Day preceded the Interim Government's taking office. (d) fails because the Constituent Assembly first sat in December, after the Interim Government of September.