In February 1946, a Cabinet Mission led by Lord Pethick-Lawrence, A. V. Alexander and Sir Stafford Cripps was sent to India by the British Government to negotiate the transfer of power from the British Government to India.
The Mission was initiated by the Prime Minister of Britain Clement Atlee. Since both Congress and Muslim League had many differences in viewpoints, the Cabinet Mission came up with their own set of proposals.
The Cabinet Mission presented two sets of proposals – long term and short term. The long term proposals included the formation of a constitution-making body or Constituent Assembly. It was also proposed that some parts of the country were free to join the Indian Union or remain aloof if they wished so. The Congress accepted the long term proposals in the hope that partition could be avoided.
The short term plan was that there would be a temporary national government till the constitution was formed. This government was to consist of representatives of the Congress, the Muslim League and others.
The Muslim League did not accept the short-term plan because Nehru had said that the Congress would lead the Constituent Assembly to shape Indian freedom as it liked. Finally, an interim government led by Jawaharlal Nehru was authorized by Lord Wavell and was installed on 2 September 1946.
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