C.R. Formula or Rajaji Formula (1944)

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Efforts to resolve the prevailing constitutional deadlock between the Indian National Congress and the All India Muslim League over India’s independence from British rule led several individuals to put forward constitutional formulas of their own.

C. Rajagopalachari, a veteran Congress leader, drafted a formula aimed at securing Congress–League cooperation — a formula that amounted to a tacit acceptance of the League’s demand for Pakistan. It received the support of Mahatma Gandhi.

The Muslim League would endorse the Congress demand for independence and cooperate with the Congress in forming a provisional government at the centre.
At the end of the war, a commission would be appointed to demarcate districts with an absolute Muslim majority; within these districts, a plebiscite would be held among all inhabitants — including non-Muslims — on the basis of adult suffrage, to decide whether to form a separate sovereign state.
- All parties would be permitted to present their views on partition before the plebiscite was held.
Should partition be accepted, a joint agreement would be concluded to safeguard shared concerns such as defence, commerce, and communications.
Border districts would retain the option of joining either of the two resulting sovereign states.
These terms would come into effect only once England transferred full powers to India.

As the tide of the war turned in the Allies’ favour, the British administration’s attitude towards the Congress softened; the United States, despite being Britain’s wartime ally, had also been pressing for India’s demand for self-governance to be met.
Although the rest of the Congress leadership remained imprisoned, Gandhi was released on 5 May 1944.
Following his release, Gandhi proposed talks with Jinnah on his two-nation theory and on the broader question of partition.
- The CR formula served as the basis for these negotiations.
- Gandhi and Jinnah met in September 1944 in an effort to break the deadlock, with Gandhi placing the CR formula before Jinnah as his proposal.
- Despite this, the Gandhi–Jinnah talks failed after two weeks of negotiations.
In Gandhi’s assessment, the talks broke down over a fundamental difference in perspective: he viewed separation as a matter to be resolved within the Indian family, preferring to retain elements of partnership, whereas Jinnah sought a complete dissolution with full sovereignty for Pakistan.

Jinnah wanted the Congress to formally accept the two-nation theory.
- He insisted that only Muslims of the North-West and North-East should vote in the plebiscite, rather than the entire population of the demarcated districts.
- He held that the Muslim League alone represented all Muslims, which made the adult-suffrage plebiscite proposed under the formula redundant in his view.
Jinnah also staked a claim to the British Indian provinces then regarded as Muslim-majority regions — Sind, Baluchistan, the North-West Frontier Province, and Punjab in the north-west, and Assam and Bengal in the north-east.
- A plebiscite conducted as per the CR formula risked the partition of Punjab and Bengal themselves, a prospect Jinnah sought to avoid.
He further opposed the idea of a common centre shared between the two proposed states.

Despite its failure, the CR formula was viewed by Akali Dal leaders such as Master Tara Singh as a betrayal of the Sikh community by the Congress.
- Since the formula implied the vivisection of Punjab, its acceptance would have divided the Sikh community between the two resulting nations.
- As Sikhs did not form a majority in any single district — despite being a substantial presence across Punjab — they would have been left scattered between the Muslim and Hindu states.
The proposal also drew opposition from leaders including V.D. Savarkar and Syama Prasad Mookerjee of the Hindu Mahasabha, and Srinivasa Sastri of the National Liberal Federation.
Lord Wavell, then Viceroy of India — who had earlier insisted on India’s geographic unity — offered his own assessment of why the talks collapsed: he held that they failed because Gandhi himself did not “really believe” in the proposal, while Jinnah was unwilling to “answer awkward questions” that would have revealed he had “not thought out the implications of Pakistan.”