Cabinet Mission Plan places Punjab in a Muslim-majority group

Who: The Cabinet Mission, British ministers including Lord Pethick-Lawrence and Sir Stafford Cripps, who came to India in March 1946 and worked with the Viceroy, Lord Wavell. They had to reconcile the Congress and the Muslim League. The Sikh case was put by Master Tara Singh, Giani Kartar Singh, Harnam Singh and later Baldev Singh. Baba Kharak Singh's Central Akali Dal sent its own memorandum.

What: When talks between Congress and the League at Simla failed, the Mission and the Viceroy issued their own statement on 16 May 1946. It rejected a sovereign Pakistan of any size. A smaller one would split Punjab and Bengal, and any division of Punjab, it said, would divide the Sikhs, leaving substantial numbers on both sides. Instead it proposed a Union of India holding only foreign affairs, defence and communications, with provinces free to form groups. A Constituent Assembly elected by the provincial assemblies would count only three communities: General, Muslim and Sikh. Punjab, the North-West Frontier and Sind formed Section B, Bengal and Assam Section C, and six other provinces Section A. Section B had 35 seats: 9 General, 22 Muslim and 4 Sikh. Punjab alone had 28: 8 General, 16 Muslim and 4 Sikh.

The plan spared Sikhs a division of Punjab but placed them, without safeguards, in a Muslim-majority group. Master Tara Singh had told the Mission he stood for a united India but, if Pakistan were conceded, for a separate Sikh state free to federate with either side. The Sikhs rejected the plan and at first declined to elect members to the Constituent Assembly. In June 1946 Master Tara Singh told a meeting at Amritsar to prepare to die in the struggle ahead. On 18 July Cripps told the Commons that the Sikhs had lost their weightage and that both main parties had been pressed to find them a strong voice.

The Muslim League accepted the statement on 6 June. Congress accepted it but rejected the proposals for an interim government. On 10 July Nehru voiced reservations on grouping, and on 29 July the League withdrew and prepared for direct action. The Great Calcutta Killing followed on 16 August.

Where: Negotiated in New Delhi and Simla and read to the House of Lords in London on 16 May.

Why it mattered: The Mission itself had warned that dividing Punjab would divide the Sikhs. When its plan collapsed, that division, which it had condemned, became the path Mountbatten found workable a year later. The plan also showed what Sikh leaders faced: a community of about 5.5 million against 90 million Muslims, with no area where Sikhs held a majority.