The Structure that wasn’t—or, a Muslim man’s imaginative and prescient of Unbiased India
Azad felt the Congress ought to settle for this proposal. He writes that Jinnah was initially against it, as a result of he had gone too far down the highway with the Pakistan demand. However he felt he couldn’t negotiate higher phrases than those on provide and the Muslim League Council, on his recommendation, voted in favour of the Cupboard Mission Plan.
On 16 June 1946, the Congress Working Committee additionally endorsed the plan. Azad wrote: ‘The acceptance of the Cupboard Mission Plan by each the Congress and the Muslim League was an excellent occasion within the historical past of the liberty motion in India. It meant that the troublesome query of Indian freedom had been settled by negotiation and settlement and never by strategies of violence and battle. It additionally appeared that the communal difficulties had been lastly left behind.
‘All through the nation there was a way of jubilation and all of the individuals had been united of their demand for freedom. We rejoiced however we didn’t know then that our pleasure was untimely and bitter disappointment awaited us’.
On 7 July 1946, the AICC endorsed it.
The query of the Congress presidency additionally arose the that month. Azad had been elected in 1939 for a yr however had remained within the submit until 1946 by default as a result of after World Conflict II broke out, the Congress was banned and its leaders jailed. He selected to not contest and to throw his weight behind Nehru as a substitute of Patel — a choice he would come to remorse.
Patel would have seen his plan by way of, whereas Nehru, in Azad’s opinion, ‘gave Jinnah the chance to sabotage’ it.
On 10 July 1946, at a press convention, Nehru stated the Congress was ‘unfettered’ by the Cupboard Mission Plan and will do because it selected within the Constituent Meeting, the place it had a majority.
On 27 July, the Muslim League Council met below Jinnah and now rejected the Cupboard Mission Plan and reiterated its demand for Pakistan.
We all know what occurred after that.
What might need been had the plan been accepted and undivided India preserved, however with a weaker Centre, we are going to by no means know.
