RAS question
The Cabinet Mission Plan rejected the demand for:
Correct answer: (A) A separate Pakistan.
The Cabinet Mission Plan rejected the demand for a separate sovereign state of Pakistan.
Explanation
The Cabinet Mission first examined the Muslim League's claim for a separate, fully independent sovereign Pakistan, including north-western and north-eastern Muslim-majority areas. The report concluded that such a state would not solve the communal minority problem, because large non-Muslim populations would remain inside the proposed Pakistan and Muslim minorities would remain elsewhere in British India. It also found a smaller Pakistan confined to Muslim-majority areas unacceptable, and said neither the larger nor smaller sovereign Pakistan offered a workable solution. Instead, the plan recommended a Union of India dealing with foreign affairs, defence and communications, with provinces retaining residuary powers and being free to form groups.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Provincial autonomy was not rejected; the plan vested all subjects outside Union subjects, along with residuary powers, in the provinces.
- (C) Separate electorates were a different communal-representation issue, while the Cabinet Mission examined and rejected the demand for sovereign Pakistan.
- (D) Dominion Status was not rejected; the report focused on constitutional machinery and on whether power should pass to two separate sovereign states.
Concept
This tests the Cabinet Mission Plan within the transfer-of-power phase of modern Indian history. RAS repeatedly asks it because the plan tried to balance Indian unity, provincial grouping and communal safeguards before Partition.