Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- Preface
- Preface to the paperback edition
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Muslims 1931. Data by minor administrative subdivisions and major administrative divisions
- 2 Major administrative divisions
- Introduction
- 1 Jinnah between the wars
- 2 Jinnah and the League's search for survival
- 3 Jinnah and the Muslim-majority provinces
- 4 Centre and province: Simla and the elections of 1945–46
- 5 Jinnah's ‘Pakistan’ and the Cabinet Mission plan
- 6 The interim government: Jinnah in retreat
- 7 The end game: Mountbatten and partition
- Glossary
- Select bibliography
- Index
4 - Centre and province: Simla and the elections of 1945–46
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- Preface
- Preface to the paperback edition
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Muslims 1931. Data by minor administrative subdivisions and major administrative divisions
- 2 Major administrative divisions
- Introduction
- 1 Jinnah between the wars
- 2 Jinnah and the League's search for survival
- 3 Jinnah and the Muslim-majority provinces
- 4 Centre and province: Simla and the elections of 1945–46
- 5 Jinnah's ‘Pakistan’ and the Cabinet Mission plan
- 6 The interim government: Jinnah in retreat
- 7 The end game: Mountbatten and partition
- Glossary
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
Section 1
By 1945, Viceregal Lodge and the Congress were ready to have an interim government at the centre. In January, Bhulabhai Desai and Liaquat Ali Khan, leaders of their respective assembly parties in the central legislature, discussed a scheme by which the Congress and League would each have been given forty per cent of the seats in an interim government to be created under the existing constitution, but now to be Indian in composition with the exception only of the Viceroy and the Commander-in-Chief. A settlement at the centre for the long-term would be worked out after the interim government had taken office. Rule by Section 93 would come to an end and Congress would return to office in the provinces; and by agreement would include League representatives. For the time being, no elections would be called either at the centre or in the provinces. Desai's proposals gave Wavell hope of a way out of the deadlock. But when he saw the Viceroy, Desai was vague about Congress's readiness to give the League equal status in the interim government. Neither Jinnah nor Gandhi had endorsed the scheme. Both sides were keeping their options open. The Secretary of State had been right in fearing that Desai might ‘well be a stalking horse’.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Sole SpokesmanJinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan, pp. 126 - 173Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1985