The ‘Cabinet-Mission’ of 1946 was led by:

The correct answer is A. The Cabinet Mission reached India in March 1946 with three members: Lord Pethick-Lawrence, Secretary of State for India, who headed it, Sir Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade, and A.V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty. Its job was to work out arrangements for transferring power, and it produced the May 1946 plan for a loose Union of India with grouped provinces and an interim government. Pethick-Lawrence was made a peer in 1945, so 'Lord' is the correct style, though the option writes 'Sir'.

• B) Lord Linlithgow was Viceroy from 1936 to 1943, so he was out of office before the mission arrived. He is associated with the 1939 war declaration and the Quit India period.
• C) Lord Wavell was the Viceroy during the mission and took part in the talks, but he did not lead it. Later he invited Nehru to form the interim government.
• D) Sir John Simon chaired the Simon Commission of 1927-30, which had no Indian members and was boycotted. That was a different body.

Core concept: the Cabinet Mission Plan and the route to independence through a Constituent Assembly. This is a staple of Modern India and a recurring Mains theme on partition and constitution-making.

Trap: aspirants pick Wavell because he was in office during the mission, and confuse the Viceroy with the mission's head.