இந்தக் கட்டுரையில், TNPSC குரூப் 1, குரூப் 2, குரூப் 2A, குரூப் 4 மாநிலப் போட்டித் தேர்வுகளான TNUSRB, TRB, TET, TNEB போன்றவற்றுக்கான முறைகள் இலவசக் குறிப்புகளைப் பெறுவீர்கள்.தேர்வுக்கு தயாராவோர் இங்குள்ள பாடக்குறிப்புகளை படித்து பயன்பெற வாழ்த்துகிறோம்.
Cabinet Mission – 1946
Historic Announcement
After the Second World War, Lord Atlee became the Prime Minister of England.
15 March, 1946 – Lord Atlee made a historic announcement in which the right to self-
determination and the framing of a Constitution for India were conceded.
Cabinet Mission
The changed global scenario in the post – World War II context led to the setting up of
the Cabinet Mission.
Three members of the British Cabinet Headed by Secretary of State for India, Sir Stafford
Cripps with A.V.Alexander and Pethick Lawrence as members the mission landed in India
in March 1946 and began work on its brief: to set up a national government before the
final transfer of power.
Provision was made for three groups of provinces to possess their separate
constitutions.
The Cabinet Mission also proposed the formation of a Union of India, comprising both
the British India and the Princely States.
The Union would remain in charge of only foreign affairs, defence and communications
leaving the residuary powers to be vested in the provinces.
A proposal was envisaged for setting up an Interim Government, which would remain in
office till a new government was elected based on the new Constitution framed by the
Constituent Assembly.
Both the Muslim League and the Congress accepted the plan.
The provinces were divided into three groups viz.
Non-Muslim Majority Provinces – Madras, Bombay, Orissa, the Central Provinces,
and the United Provinces.
Muslim Majority Provinces in the Northwest – Punjab, North West Frontier Province,
Sind and Baluchistan.
Muslim Majority Provinces in the Northeast – East Bengal and Assam.
The idea of partition did not figure at this stage.
The Muslim League could dominate the administration in the North-East and North-
West provinces while the Congress would administer rest of the provinces.
June 6, 1946 – Jinnah sounded out his acceptance of the idea.
The Congress, meanwhile, perceived the Cabinet Mission’s plan as a clear sanction for
the setting up of a Constituent Assembly. Nehru conveyed through his speech at the
AICC, on July 7, 1946, that the Indian National Congress accepted the proposal.
Subsequently, Jinnah on July 29, 1946, reacted to this and announced that the League
stood opposed to the plan.
Interim Government
The Viceroy issued invitations on 15 June 1946 to the 14 men to join the Interim
Government.
The invitees were:
Jawaharlal Nehru
Vallabhbhai Patel
Rajendra Prasad
Rajaji and Hari Krishna Mahtab (on behalf of the INC)
Mohammed Ali Jinnah
Liaquat Ali Khan
Mohammed Ismail Khan
Khwaja Sir Nazimuddin and Abdul Rab Nishtar (from the Muslim League)
Sardar Baldev Singh (on behalf of the Sikh community)
Sir N.P. Engineer (to represent the Parsis)
Jagjivan Ram (representing the scheduled castes)
John Mathai (as representative of the Indian Christians)
The Congress proposed Zakir Hussain from its quota of five nominees to the Interim
Council.
The Muslim League objected to this and, on 29 July 1946, Jinnah announced that the
League would not participate in the process to form the Constituent Assembly.
This invited a sharp reaction from the British administration.
On 12 August 1946, the Viceroy announced that he was inviting Nehru (Congress
President) to form the Provisional Government.
After consultation with Nehru, 12 members of the National Interim Government were
announced on 25 August 1946.
Apart from Nehru, the other members were:
Vallabhbhai Patel
Rajendra Prasad
Asaf Ali
C. Rajaji
Sarat Chandra Bose
John Mathai
Sardar Baldev Singh
Sir Shafaat Ahmed Khan
Jagjivan Ram
Syed Ali Zaheer
Cooverji Hormusji Bhabha
It was stated that two more Muslims will be nominated in due course.
Five Hindus, three Muslims and one representative each from the scheduled castes,
Indian Christians, Sikhs and Parsis formed the basis of this list.
Later, Hare Krishna Mahtab was replaced by Sarat Chandra Bose.
The Parsi nominee, N.P. Engineer was replaced by Cooverji Hormusji Bhabha.
In place of the League’s nominees, the Congress put in the names of three of its own
men:
Asaf Ali
Shafaat Ahmed Khan
Syed Ali Zaheer
Direct Action
The League gave a call for ‘Direct Action’ on 16 August 1946.
It was in this context that the Congress agreed to the Constitution of the Interim
Government.
Nehru assumed office on 2 September 1946.
Yet another round of communal violence broke out across the country and more
prominently in Bombay and Ahmedabad.
Lord Wavell set out on another round of discussion and after sounding out Nehru, he
proposed, once again, to Jinnah that the League participation in the Interim
Government.
The Muslim League accepted the proposal but Jinnah refused to join the cabinet.
Reconstitution of Interim Cabinet
The Interim Cabinet was reconstituted on October 26, 1946.
Those who joined on behalf of the League were:
Liaquat Ali Khan
I.I. Chundrigar
A.R. Nishtar
Ghazanfar Ali Khan
Jogendra Nath Mandal
But there was no let-up in the animosity between the Congress and the League and this
was reflected in the functioning (rather non-functioning) of the interim council of
ministers.
The League, meanwhile, was determined against cooperating in the making of the
Constituent Assembly.
Naokhali in East Bengal was ravaged by communal violence.
The members of the League who were part of the Interim Government refused to
participate in the ‘informal’ consultations that Nehru held before the formal meeting of
the cabinet in the Viceroy’s presence.
The Muslim League, it seemed, were determined to wreck the Interim Government
from within.
Impressive Victories of Congress
The Congress scored impressive victories in the July–August 1946 elections and secured
199 from out of the 210 general seats.
The Muslim League did equally well in seats reserved for the Muslims. The League’s tally
was 76. All but one of the 76 seats came from the Muslim-reserved constituencies.
The League, however, decided against participating in the Constituent Assembly.
Hence, only 207 members attended the first session of the Constituent Assembly on 9
December 1946.
Socialistic Budget
The proverbial last straw was the budget proposals presented by Liaquat Ali Khan in
March 1947.
The finance minister proposed a variety of taxes on industry and trade and proposed a
commission to go into the affairs of about 150 big business houses and inquire into the
allegations of tax evasion against them.
Khan called this a ‘socialistic budget’.
This, indeed, was a calculated bid to hit the Indian industrialists who had, by this time,
emerged as the most powerful supporters of the Congress.
The intention was clear: to hasten the partition and prove that there was no way that
the League and the Congress could work together towards independence.
Direct Action Day-2
Hindu communalism and Muslim communalism fed on each other throughout the early
1940s.
Muslim League openly boycotted the Quit India movement of 1942.
In the elections held in 1946 to the Constituent Assembly, Muslim League won all 30
seats reserved for Muslims in the Central Legislative Assembly and most of the reserved
provincial seats as well.
The Congress Party was successful in gathering most of the general electorate seats, but
it could no longer effectively insist that it spoke for the entire population of British India.
In 1946, Secretary of State Pethick- Lawrence led a three-member Cabinet Mission to
New Delhi with the hope of resolving the Congress–Muslim League deadlock and, thus,
of transferring British power to a single Indian administration.
Cripps was primarily responsible for drafting the Cabinet Mission Plan.
The plan proposed a three-tier federation for India, integrated by a central government
in Delhi, which would be limited to handling foreign affairs, communications, defence,
and only those finances required to take care of union matters.
Jinnah accepted the Cabinet Mission’s proposal, as did the Congress leaders.
July 29, 1946 – The Muslim League adopted a resolution rejecting the Cabinet Mission
Plan.
In August 16, 1946, the Muslims throughout India should observe a ‘Direct Action Day’.
The rioting and killing that took place for four days in Calcutta led to terrible violence
resulting in thousands of deaths.
There was bloodshed in Calcutta and several other places, including Delhi.
This was when Gandhi set out on his own course to arrive in Calcutta and decided to
stay on at a deserted house in Beliaghatta, a locality that was worst affected,
accompanied only by a handful of followers.
Muslims who were hounded out of their homes in Delhi were held in transit camps (in
Purana Quila and other places).
It was only after Gandhi arrived there (on 9 September 1946) and conveyed that the
Muslims were Indian nationals and hence must be protected by the Indian state (Nehru
by then was the head of the Interim Government) that the Delhi authorities began
organising rations and building latrines.
Gandhi who was until then resisting any effort to vivisect the country had to accede to
the demand of the Muslim League for creation of Pakistan.
British Prime Minister Atlee’s statement in Parliament on February 20, 1947, that the
British were firm on their intention to leave India by June 1948 set the pace for another
stage.
Lord Wavell was replaced as Viceroy by Lord Mountbatten on March 22, 1947.
Mountbatten Plan
Lord Mountbatten became the Viceroy of India on March 22, 1947.
Mountbatten came up with a definite plan for partition.
It involved splitting up Punjab into West and East (where the west would go to Pakistan)
and similar division of Bengal wherein the Western parts will remain in India and the
East become Pakistan.
The Congress Working Committee, on May 1, 1947, conveyed its acceptance of the idea
of partition to Mountbatten.
The Viceroy left for London soon after and on his return disclosed the blueprint for
partition and, more importantly, the desire to advance the date of British withdrawal to
August 15, 1947.
There were only 11 weeks left between then and the eventual day of independence.
The AICC met on June15, 1947.
It was here that the resolution, moved by Govind Ballabh Pant, accepting partition, was
approved.
It required the persuasive powers of Nehru and Patel as well as the moral authority of
Gandhi to get the majority in the AICC in favour of the resolution.
The period between March 1946 and August15, 1947 saw many tumultuous events such
as:
The setting up of the Cabinet Mission
The formation of the Interim Government
The birth of the Constituent Assembly
The widening of the rift between the Congress and the Muslim League that led to
the partition and finally the dawn of independence.
Indian Independence
Reasons for an Early Withdrawal of British (August 15, 1947)
Britain wanted to secure Congress’ agreement to the dominion status for British’s early
withdrawal and at the same time, the British could escape the responsibility for the
communal situation.
The legislative assemblies of Bengal and Punjab decided in favour of the partition of
these two provinces.
Thus, East Bengal and West Punjab joined Pakistan.
West Bengal and East Punjab remained with the Indian Union.
The referendum in Sylhet resulted in the incorporation of that district in East Bengal.
Two boundary commissions, one in respect of each province, were constituted to
demarcate the boundaries of the new provinces.
The referendum in NWFP decided in favour of Pakistan. The Provincial Congress
refraining from the referendum.
Baluchistan and Sindh joined with Pakistan.
Indian Independence Act
The British Government accorded formal approval to the Mountbatten Plan by enacting
the Indian Independence Act on July 18, 1947.
The salient features of this Act were:
The partition of the country into India and Pakistan would come into effect from
August 15, 1947.
The British Government would transfer all powers to these two Dominions.
A Boundary Commission would demarcate the boundaries of the provinces of the
Punjab and Bengal.
The Act provided for the transfer of power to the Constituent Assemblies of the two
Dominions, which will have full authority to frame their respective Constitutions.
Radcliff Boundary Commission
The Radcliff Boundary Commission drew the boundary line separating India and
Pakistan.
On 15 th August 1947- India, and on the 14 th August 1947- Pakistan came into existence
as two independent states.
Lord Mountbatten was made the first Governor-General of Independent India.
Mohammad Ali Jinnah became the first Governor General of Pakistan.
The most tragic incident occurred on January 30, 1948.
Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, on his way to a prayer meeting, was assassinated by Nathuram Godse.
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