State any four clauses of the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946.

The Cabinet Mission, consisting of Lord Pethick-Lawrence, Sir Stafford Cripps and A.V. Alexander, came to India in March 1946. Its plan provided: (1) The REJECTION of the demand for a separate state of Pakistan; India was to remain a single UNION comprising British India and the Princely States. (2) A FEDERAL UNION with a weak Centre, which would control only defence, foreign affairs and communications, all residuary powers resting with the provinces. (3) The provinces were to be free to form GROUPS with their own executives and legislatures, and each province could opt out of its group after ten years. (4) A CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY was to be elected to frame the constitution of India, and an INTERIM GOVERNMENT of Indian leaders was to be formed at the Centre until then.

Four marks, four clauses, one mark each. The first clause is the most important: the Mission REJECTED Pakistan, which is why the League ultimately turned against it and called Direct Action Day in August 1946. The grouping scheme is what made the plan unworkable, since the Congress and the League read it differently — that disagreement is what led on to the Mountbatten Plan and partition. Naming the three members of the Mission adds precision.