The Indian National Congress’ Last Hurrah - Vijayvaani.com

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  • The Indian National Congress’ Last Hurrah
    
  • Radha Rajan

  • The Cabinet Mission – May, 1946

  • Viceroy invites Congress to form Interim Government and the Congress accepts – August 12, 1946  
     
    • Muslim League declares Direct Action Day – August 16, 1946
    • Communal riots in Bengal and Bihar
    • Communal riots in Bombay – 1st September, 1946
  • The mind-games that Gandhi thought he was playing brilliantly with Jinnah and the British eventually boomeranged on the nation. Jinnah felt betrayed by Gandhi and the Viceroy when the League was not invited to form the interim government on its own as per Clause 8 of the statement of June 16 and the Muslim League rejected the Cabinet Mission proposals in toto making the threat of a violent eruption by the League very real. But contrary to what the British government wanted, the Muslim League did not unleash violence on the 29th of June even though they did reject the State Paper and refuse to co-operate with the Cabinet Mission. 
  • Almost as if they wanted to ignite the tinder-box of seething anger in the Muslim League, the Viceroy invites the Congress to form the interim government on the 12th of August. The stage had been set for the imperial government’s back-up plan to be unraveled with perfect timing. The Viceroy did not invite the Muslim League to form the interim government after the Congress rejected the interim government proposals but went ahead to invite the Congress to form the interim government after the League rejected the Mission proposals.
  • An enraged Jinnah declared ‘direct action’ on the 16th of August, with the sole objective of making the sovereign state of Pakistan a reality. Partition, which had been averted by the groupings clause in the State paper and the proposal to make a three-tier constitution, was now imminent – thanks to Gandhi’s megalomaniac insistence on disregarding the general view of the Congress Working Committee to accept the State Paper as a starting point for the transfer of power, and on being the only person to negotiate on behalf of the Congress and by extension, it is worth repeating, the whole nation barring the Muslims. Whose agenda was Gandhi really serving?
  • In August 1946 after Jinnah blamed Gandhi squarely for aborting the Cabinet Mission proposals for transfer of power, and to emphasize the point that Muslims were not only a separate nation but also hostile to all non-Islamic faiths, he called upon the Muslims to launch direct action, not against the British government, but going by the horrific numbers of Hindus killed in Calcutta on August 16th alone, against the Hindus. Additionally it also served to debunk Gandhi’s stubborn insistence that Muslims can and will live peacefully with Hindus if only the Hindus would serve them wholeheartedly and without political motives.[8]