The plan of Sir Stafford Cripps envisaged that after the Second World War
Answer & explanation
Answer: (d) India should be given Dominion status
The Cripps Mission of 1942 offered India Dominion status once the Second World War ended. Indian leaders rejected the offer, and its failure led Gandhi to launch the Quit India Movement in August 1942.
- ✓ (d) NCERT's timeline records that the Cripps Mission in 1942 proposed post-war dominion status, and that Indian leaders rejected it.
- ✗ (a) Complete independence was not on offer. Dominion status, a lower position within the British Empire, was what the Mission proposed, which is why it was rejected.
- ✗ (b) The Cripps proposal did not promise partition of India into two before independence; that idea came up in the later 1946-47 negotiations.
- ✗ (c) The offer was of Dominion status, not of a republic bound by a condition to join the Commonwealth.
Remember · Cripps Mission, March 1942: post-war Dominion status; rejected by Indian leaders; followed by the Quit India Movement in August 1942.
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 10 India and the Contemporary World – II, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- NCERT Class 8 · Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Chapter 2 “1942: Cripps Mission proposes post-war dominion status; rejected by Indian leaders; Quit India Movement launched; mass arrests and repression”
- NCERT Class 10 · India and the Contemporary World – II, Chapter 2 “The failure of the Cripps Mission and the effects of World War II created widespread discontentment in India.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·