The Cripps Mission

The object of the present book is to delineate an analytical and in-dept study of the Cripps Mission which was sent to India during a critical period of the Second World War to solve the Indian question by offering both short-term and long-term constitutional changes in a bid to enlist the whole-hearted co-operation of Indians in the ongoing war effort. But despite sincere and honest efforts to make a success of his mission, Sir Stafford Cripps crashed on the twin rocks of over-ambitiousness of the Congress – the largest and oldest political formation in India – and rigidity of the British War Cabinet. The book contributes a masterly analysis of the reactions to the failure of the Cripps Mission. It was a tragedy that Congress unceremoniously rejected the Cripps Plan on wrong assumptions thereby unleashing unwittingly a series of developments that inevitably led to the birth of Pakistan. The author has prepared his work solely on the basis of primery source-materials available in India and, keeping both the imperialist and the nationalist view-points at bay, he has allowed documents to tell their own story with total objectivity and freedom from fear or favour. The book should prove to be a seminal contribution to the burgeoning literature on the historic Transfer of Power from Great Britain to India.