Less
Empire
and
More
Commonwealth
891
do
more
violence to
the
principle
of self-determination than
a refusal.
Of
the two
widely
severed halves
of
the
projected
Pakistan,
the western
had
a
population
that
was 38
per
cent
non-Moslem,
and the
eastern
48
per
cent;
and in
the
rest of
India
there were
twenty
million
Moslems.
Outside
the
League
no Indian
opinion
favored
partition,
and
Congress
leaders
muttered
threats
of civil
war
to
preserve
the
union.
Yet the
mission saw
a
ray
of
hope
in a
Congress
reversal
of its
stand
on
federalism. The new
formula
provided
for
a rather
loose
federation
of
autonomous
provinces
invested
with
residuary
powers,
and
for
the
strengthening
of the
federal
government
by
the
addition
of such
specified powers
as
any province
might
wish to confer
upon
it.
The mission
rejected
the
scheme
for
two reasons.
One was
that it
would be difficult
to
work,
with
some ministers
responsible
to
the
whole federal
legislature
and others
only
to the members
from
particu-
lar
provinces.
The second
was that
it
would
be
unjust
to
deny
other
provinces
the
corresponding right
to
combine
among
themselves for
the
management
of common affairs.
Here was
the
key
to
the solution of India's constitutional
problem
that the
cabinet
mission
proposed
in
the
spring
of
1946
after much
consultation
with Indian
leaders.
The
central
government,
said
the
mission,
should
be
organized
on the basis of
equality
between
the
Hindu-majority
provinces
and the
Moslem-majority provinces,
and
be
confined
to
the control
of
foreign
affairs, defense,
communications,
fundamental
rights,
and
financial
arrangements
essential
for these
purposes;
the
provinces
should
possess
residuary powers;
and
an
inter-
mediate
governmental
tier should be
inserted
by
having
the
pre-
dominantly
Moslem
provinces
set
up
an
executive and a
legislature
for such
matters as
they
wished to
handle in
common,
and
by
having
the
predominantly
Hindu
provinces
do
the same.
The constituent
assembly
should be
elected
by
the
provincial
legislatures
in
proportion
to
population;
after a formal
opening,
it should divide
into sections to
settle
the
provincial
and
group
constitutions
before
coming together
again
to draw
up
a constitution
for
the central
government.
The
native
states
should
be fitted
into
the
system
by negotiation
with
them.
This
plan
devised
by
the
cabinet
mission
was the best
solution that
was ever
offered,
and
for
a while
there
were
encouraging
signs
that
it
might
be
applied.
Both
the
Congress
and the
League accepted
it,
though
with some
equivocation;
the
constituent
assembly
was
elected;
and
die
viceroy
was able to
form
an
interim
government
in
which
both
parties
were
equally
represented
and
a few
spokesmen
of
the
lesser