"The Cripps Mission was plagued throughout, and ultimately torpedoed." Critically examine.

Answer:

The Cripps Mission of March 1942, sent to secure Indian cooperation in the war, failed completely. It was indeed plagued from the outset by mistrust, restrictive terms and divided British intentions, and finally torpedoed by the gulf between what India demanded and what London would concede.

Why it was plagued from the start

• It came only under pressure from the United States and China after Japanese advances.
• Its offer of dominion status was deferred to the end of the war, giving nothing immediate.
• The right of provinces to opt out conceded the principle of partition in embryo.
• Defence was to remain firmly in British hands, which the Congress could not accept.

Reactions and rejection

• Gandhi famously called it a post-dated cheque on a crashing bank.
• The Congress demanded a genuine national government with real power at once.
• The Muslim League rejected it because Pakistan was not explicitly conceded.
• Sikhs, Depressed Classes and other groups also found the terms unsatisfactory.

Who torpedoed it

• Churchill and Amery had no intention of a real transfer of power and limited Cripps's brief.
• Viceroy Linlithgow undermined the negotiations from within India.
• Its failure led directly to the Quit India Movement of August 1942.

The statement is thus well-founded. The mission was hobbled by its restrictive terms and by the reluctance of Churchill's government, so its failure owed less to Indian intransigence than to British unwillingness. As historians note, its collapse destroyed the last hope of wartime cooperation and precipitated the final phase of the freedom struggle.