Cabinet Mission (1946)
- Objectives of the Cabinet Mission
- To obtain an agreement with the Indian leaders as to the framing of a constitution for India.
- To formulate a constitution-making body (the Constituent Assembly of India).
- To establish an Executive Council with the support of the major Indian parties.
- Reactions
- The Plan was initially accepted by both the Muslim League and the Congress Party.
- However, the Congress Party later rejected the ‘grouping’ part of the plan because it opposed the grouping of provinces based on religion.
- The Muslim League was unwilling to change any part of the Plan, leading to a breakdown in consensus between the Congress and the Muslim League.
- Further attempts by the Cabinet Mission to reconcile the differences also failed.
Direct Action Day
- In 1946, Muhammad Ali Jinnah declared August 16 as ‘Direct Action Day’ and called on Muslims across the country to ‘suspend all businesses.’
- Direct Action Day, also known as the 1946 Calcutta Killings, resulted in nationwide communal riots.
- It led to large-scale violence between Muslims and Hindus in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in the Bengal province of British India.