Timeline
16 May 1946
After the breakdown of the Simla tripartite talks (May 1946), the Mission issued its own Statement of , the central plan.
16 June 1946
The Statement of dealt with the formation of an interim government.
6 June 1946
The Muslim League accepted the plan on but withdrew its acceptance on 29 July 1946 after Jawaharlal Nehru's Bombay press statement (10 July) suggested the C…
29 July 1946
The Muslim League accepted the plan on 6 June 1946 but withdrew its acceptance on after Jawaharlal Nehru's Bombay press statement (10 July) suggested the Co…
16 August 1946
The Muslim League accepted the plan on 6 June 1946 but withdrew its acceptance on 29 July 1946 after Jawaharlal Nehru's Bombay press statement (10 July) sugg…
9 December 1946
The Constituent Assembly was nonetheless elected in July 1946 and first met on , but the League boycotted it.
2 September 1946
The interim government under Nehru took office on .
3 June 1947
The Mission's plan ultimately failed to prevent partition, paving the way for the Mountbatten Plan () and the Indian Independence Act, 1947.
Positions at a glance
Indian National Congress
The Cabinet Mission was dispatched to India in March 1946 by British Prime Minister Clement Attlee's Labour government to devise machinery for the peaceful transfer of power and to settle the constitutional deadlock between the Indian National Congress and the All-India Muslim League. It comprised three Cabinet ministers — Lord Pethick-Lawrence (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) — who worked alongside Viceroy Lord Wavell. The Mission's immediate backdrop was the collapse of the Simla Conference (1945), the post-war financial exhaustion of Britain, the Royal Indian Navy mutiny of February 1946, and Attlee's declaration that Britain intended to quit India.
All-India Muslim League
The Cabinet Mission was dispatched to India in March 1946 by British Prime Minister Clement Attlee's Labour government to devise machinery for the peaceful transfer of power and to settle the constitutional deadlock between the Indian National Congress and the All-India Muslim League. It comprised three Cabinet ministers — Lord Pethick-Lawrence (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) — who worked alongside Viceroy Lord Wavell. The Mission's immediate backdrop was the collapse of the Simla Conference (1945), the post-war financial exhaustion of Britain, the Royal Indian Navy mutiny of February 1946, and Attlee's declaration that Britain intended to quit India.
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In 1946, the Cabinet Mission led by Lord Pethick-Lawrence rejected a sovereign Pakistan and proposed a three-tier federal grouping scheme, which the Muslim League repudiated on 29 July 1946, calling Direct Action Day.
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