On the Cabinet Mission Proposals [2]1Sri Aurobindo
Autobiographical Notes
and Other Writings of Historical Interest
Part Three. On Indian and World Events 1940–1950
1. Public Statements, Messages, Letters and Telegrams
On Indian Independence 1942–1947
On the Cabinet Mission Proposals [2]1
Dec. 16, 1946
Dear Surendra Mohan
I have shown your letter to Sri Aurobindo. It raises some serious misgivings.2
What do you mean by saying that the Congress may have
to accept the group system? Do you mean to say that the Moslem League majority
on both sides of India are to be allowed to have their way and dictate the
constitution for all the provinces in the two groups and also a general
constitution for each of the two groups overriding the autonomy of the
provinces? That would mean that the Sikhs, the Frontier Province and Assam are
to be thrown to the wolves, offered as an appeasing sacrifice to Jinnah. It
would mean the establishment of a divided Pakistan of which the two portions,
Eastern and Western, would ultimately and indeed very soon unite and secede from
any All-India Union that might be established; for that is the policy of the
League. Will the Sikhs consent to be thus placed under Mussulman domination?
They have declared emphatically that they will not, they will follow the
Congress only so long as the Congress keeps to its promise not to support any
constitution disapproved by the Sikhs. As for Assam, will the Assamese consent
to commit suicide? For that is what the grouping means if it is a majority vote
that decides in the group. The Hindus of Bengal and Assam joining together in
the section of the Assembly will not have a majority. This opens a prospect that
the League in this group may dictate a constitution which will mean the end of
the Assamese people and of Hinduism in Assam. They may so arrange that the
tribes of Assam are constituted into a separate element not participating in the
Assam Provincial Assembly but parked off from
it. The constituencies of the province could then be so arranged as to give the
Mussulmans an automatic majority. Assam could then be flooded with Mahomedan
colonies from Bengal and Assam be made safe for Pakistan; after that the
obliteration of Hinduism in the province could be carried out either by an
immediate and violent or a gradual process once the separation of India into
Pakistan and Hindusthan had been effected.
We hope your leaders are alive to the dangers of the situation. I am eagerly awaiting an answer from you.
1 On 24 March 1946, three members of the British Cabinet came to India in order to find a solution to the constitutional deadlock brought about by the unwillingness of the Muslim League to work with the Congress and other Indian parties. After surveying the situation, the Cabinet Mission offered a new proposal on 16 May. Its most salient feature was the so-called group system, by which provinces in the Northwest, the Northeast, and the rest of the country would form semi-autonomous groups within the larger Indian union. (The idea was to grant the substance of the League’s demand for Pakistan without partitioning the country.){{1}}Nine months later, after the details of the group system had come out, Sri Aurobindo was asked for his opinion by Surendra Mohan Ghosh, the President of the Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee, with whom he occasionally held talks about political developments. He dictated this reply to Surendra Mohan’s letter on 16 December 1946.
2 This letter was sent over the signature of Nolini Kanta Gupta. The recipient was Surendramohan Ghosh, a Bengal Congress leader who was then serving as a member of the Constituent Assembly in Delhi. Surendramohan had written to Nolini explaining some of the provisions of the Cabinet Mission proposals. Sri Aurobindo’s dictated reply was written down by his amanuensis, Nirodbaran. In transcribing this, Nolini made some necessary changes to the opening, putting for instance “what do you mean by” where Sri Aurobindo had said “He might be asked what is meant by”. – Ed.