Cabinet Mission Plan — Definition

Definition

The Cabinet Mission Plan was the British delegation’s May 1946 proposal for an Indian Union with limited central powers, provincial autonomy and intermediate provincial groups. It sought a constitutional compromise between Congress’s commitment to unity and the Muslim League’s demand for safeguards and Pakistan.

The Union would manage foreign affairs, defence and communications; constitution-making would proceed through representatives selected under a prescribed scheme. It was a proposed settlement, not the final Constitution of independent India.

Its federal compromise failed, but the Constituent Assembly associated with its arrangements became an enduring institutional result.