Interim Government

Fearing mass action by the Congress, a Congress-dominated Interim Government headed by Nehru was sworn in on September 2, 1946 with Nehru continuing to insist on his party’s opposition to the compulsory grouping.

Despite the title, the Interim Government was little more than a continuation of the old executive of the viceroy (Wavell overruled the ministers on the issue of the release of INA prisoners in his very last cabinet meeting in March 1947).

Wavell quietly brought the Muslim League into the Interim Government on October 26, 1946. The League was allowed to join

● without giving up the ‘direct action’;

● despite its rejection of the Cabinet Mission’s long- term and short-term plans; and

● despite insistence on compulsory grouping with decisions being taken by a majority vote by a section

as a whole (which would reduce the opponents of Pakistan in Assam and NWFP to a position of helpless minority).