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The next day, Jinnah announced 16 August 1946 would be "Direct Action Day" and warned Congress, "We do not want war. Why do you expect me alone to sit with folded hands? I also am going to make trouble." When they take you into their confidence I will take you into mine. When asked to be specific, Jinnah retorted: "Go to the Congress and ask them their plans. He said that if the Muslims were not granted a separate Pakistan then they would launch "direct action". He proclaimed that the Muslim league was "preparing to launch a struggle" and that they "have chalked out a plan". In July 1946, Jinnah held a press conference at his home in Bombay. Jinnah rejected the British Cabinet Mission plan for transfer of power to an interim government which would combine both the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress, and decided to boycott the Constituent Assembly. Fearing Hindu domination in the central government, the Muslim League politicians pressed Jinnah to revert to "his earlier unbending stance". On 10 July, however, Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress President, held a press conference in Bombay declaring that although the Congress had agreed to participate in the Constituent Assembly, it reserved the right to modify the Cabinet Mission Plan as it saw fit. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the one time Congressman and now the leader of the Muslim League, had accepted the Cabinet Mission Plan of 16 June, as had the central presidium of the Congress. All other powers would be relegated to the 'groups'. The central government was expected to handle the subjects of defence, external affairs and communications. The Muslim League demand for 'autonomous and sovereign' states in the northwest and the east was accommodated by creating a new tier of 'groups of provinces' between the provincial layer and the central government. After holding talks with the representatives of the Indian National Congress and the All India Muslim League-the two largest political parties in the Constituent Assembly of India-on, the Mission proposed a plan of composition of the new Dominion of India and its government. British Prime Minister Clement Attlee sent a three-member Cabinet Mission to India aimed at discussing and finalizing plans for the transfer of power from the British Raj to the Indian leadership. In 1946, the Indian independence movement against the British Raj had reached a pivotal stage. 4 Characteristics of the riot and demographics in 1946.

These events sowed the seeds for the eventual Partition of India. This violence sparked off further religious riots in the surrounding regions of Noakhali, Bihar, United Provinces (modern Uttar Pradesh), Punjab, and the North Western Frontier Province. More than 4,000 people lost their lives and 100,000 residents were left homeless in Calcutta within 72 hours. Īgainst a backdrop of communal tension, the protest triggered massive riots in Calcutta. Calling for Direct Action Day, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, leader of the All India Muslim League, said that he wanted “either a divided India or a destroyed India”. Ĭonsequently, in July 1946, it withdrew its agreement to the plan and announced a general strike ( hartal) on 16 August, terming it Direct Action Day, to assert its demand for a separate homeland for Indian Muslims out of certain northwestern and eastern provinces in colonial India. However, Muslim League suspected that Congress's acceptance was insincere. Both the Muslim League and Congress in principle accepted the Cabinet Mission's plan. The "groups of provinces" were meant to accommodate the Muslim League demand.

The 1946 Cabinet Mission to India for planning of the transfer of power from the British Raj to the Indian leadership proposed a three-tier structure: a centre, groups of provinces, and provinces. The Muslim League had demanded, since its 1940 Lahore Resolution, that the Muslim-majority areas of India in the northwest and the east, should be constituted as 'independent states'. The All-India Muslim League and the Indian National Congress were the two largest political parties in the Constituent Assembly of India in the 1940s. The day also marked the start of what is known as The Week of the Long Knives. It led to large-scale violence between Muslims and Hindus in the city of Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) in the Bengal province of British India. Direct Action Day (16 August 1946), also known as the 1946 Calcutta Killings, was a day of nationwide communal riots by the Indian Muslim community announced by Muhammad Ali Jinnah.