 In 1946 , the Labour government in Britain , exhausted by recent events such as World War II and numerous riots , realized that it had neither the mandate at home , the support internationally , nor the reliability of the British Indian Army for continuing to control an increasingly restless British India . The reliability of the native forces for continuing their control over an increasingly rebellious India diminished , and so the government decided to end the British rule of the Indian Subcontinent . In 1946 , the Indian National Congress , being a secular party , demanded a single state . The Muslim majorities , who disagreed with the idea of single state , stressed the idea of a separate Pakistan as an alternative . The 1946 Cabinet Mission to India was sent to try and reach a compromise between Congress and the Muslim League , proposing a decentralized state with much power given to local governments , but it was rejected by both of the parties and resulted in a number of riots in South Asia . 
