Soldier rebellion in India
Subhas Chandra Bose died in a plane crash on 18 August 1945. After that the British started hanging the soldiers of Azad Hind Fauj and hanging them. Till now the Congress had been seeing the Azad Hind Fauj as its enemy. He did not show any sympathy towards the soldiers of Azad Hind Fauj. Indian soldiers felt very bad about this. Showing sympathy with the soldiers of the Azad Hind Fauj, he started an armed rebellion.
On 20 January 1946 the airmen of Bombay, Lahore and Delhi went on strike. On 19 February 1946, there was a strike in the Navy. The strikers wore the badges of the Azad Hind Fauj. Marines from Karachi, Calcutta and Madras also went on strike. The British military officers tried to crush this strike with a gun. Because of this, bullets were fired from both sides. At the same time, 300 soldiers went on strike in the Indian Signal Corps in Jabalpur. The British government was stunned by these strikes.
After the massacres by the Muslim League and the revolts taking place in the Indian armies, the White Government of England began to understand that now India will have to be given independence without delay of even a single day, whether Congress, Muslim League, Dalit side and No matter how many obstacles should be put up by the Indian kings. The Government of England announced to send a high level cabinet mission to give India independence as soon as possible.
Arrival of Cabinet Mission to India
On 15 March 1946, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee announced in the House of Commons that the Labor government of Great Britain was sending a cabinet mission to India to try to end the impasse between Britain and India and the Congress and the Muslim League.
He said- 'I hope that the British-India and Princely-India politicians will find a solution to the problem of bringing together these two different types of different parts under one great policy. We have to see that the 'Indian State' finds its rightful place. I do not believe for a moment that the Indian kings will wish to be a hindrance to India's progress, but as has been the case with other problems, the Indians will solve this problem themselves.'
Three cabinet ministers were placed in this commission by the Government of England - (1) Lord Pethick Lawrence, Secretary of India, (2) Sir Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade and (3) First Lord of the Admiralty A. V. Alexander. This commission was called 'Cabinet Mission' Also called. This commission reached India on 24 March 1946.
Simultaneously, Prime Minister Attlee sent a telegram to the Viceroy of India, Lord Wavell, in which it was written - 'Labour Government does not want to ignore the Viceroy but feels that such a party can decide there , will give great support to the negotiations of the agreement and will assure the Indians that this time we want to make it happen.'
With the advent of this mission, the political department understood that the time had come to expedite the integration of the states into the new structure. During a press conference on 25 March, Lord Pethick Lawrence said- 'We have come to India with the hope that Indians can build a system that can create a constitutional structure for the whole of India. .'
He was asked whether the states would be represented by the representatives of the kings or the representatives of the people? To this Pathik Lawrence replied that- 'We will let the situation remain as it is. Will not build new structures. '
On 2 April 1946, in a meeting with the Cabinet Mission and the Viceroy, the Chancellor of the Narendra Mandal, Bhopal Nawab Hamidullah Khan demanded a separate country from India and Pakistan for the native states. He said that on the basis of the report of the Simon Commission, a Privy Council should be formed of the native-states and the provinces of British-India. When two countries (India and Pakistan) can be formed in India, then why can't the third India be recognized which is made up of native-states?
No Indian king wants to accept the constitutional structure given in the Government of India Act 1935. The supremacy should not be transferred to the Government of India. Sir Stafford Cripps, a member of the Cabinet Mission, believed that if the native kings were allowed to remain separate from the Indian Union, it would create geographical problems.
The same evening the Cabinet Mission spoke to the representatives of the Standing Committee of the Narendra Mandal, which included the rulers of Bhopal, Patiala, Gwalior, Bikaner and Navanagar. In this meeting, Lord Pethick Lawrence said that if British-India becomes independent then the supremacy will end and the British government will not keep troops to maintain internal order in India. States would be relieved of treaty obligations as the British Crown would be unable to discharge treaty obligations.
The British were naturally interested in maintaining the long standing relations with the Indian states, but these relations were to be dependent on the position of the states in the new India. If the states surrender their sovereignty to the Indian Union formed at the time of independence, then these relations could be done only through the Indian Union. Cabinet Mission Congress, Muslim League and Federation of Indian Kings 'Narendra Mandal' to find a unanimous formula to give independence to India was talking to. From this conversation it was understood by the kings that the British would no longer live in the country.
Therefore, instead of getting the grace of the British, care should be taken that the independent India that will be formed in the future should not swallow the kingdoms of the kings. On the other hand, the younger kings were apprehensive about the fact that the elder kings might swallow them up. In princely India, strange restlessness and many-sided turmoil had started. After dealing with the kings and their representatives, the Cabinet Mission also spoke to the leaders of the Congress and the Muslim League.