Partition & Independence (1947)

By early 1947 Britain, weakened by World War II and rising Indian unrest, decided to quit India. The transfer of power was set in motion by a formal announcement in the British Parliament.

• The announcement promised that the British would leave India by June 1948 (a deadline later advanced to August 1947).
• Clement Attlee was the PM of England at the time of independence (Labour Party).
• This decision set the stage for the appointment of a new Viceroy to actually carry out the transfer.

To execute the transfer of power, Attlee sent Lord Louis Mountbatten to India as its new — and last — Viceroy.

• Lord Mountbatten became the new Viceroy of India on 24 March 1947, armed with vast powers.
• He was the last Viceroy of British India.
• After studying the situation, the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan appeared inevitable to him.
• He held wide consultations with Congress, the Muslim League and other parties before drawing up his plan.

After extensive consultation, Mountbatten put forward his plan for the partition of India. It is also called the June 3rd Plan.

• Under the plan, British India would be divided into two Dominions — India and Pakistan.
• Punjab and Bengal would themselves be partitioned between the two new nations.
• A referendum in the NWFP (North-West Frontier Province) and Sylhet would decide whether they joined India or Pakistan.
• Princely states were given the option to join either India or Pakistan (or, in theory, remain independent).
• The transfer of power was to be completed by 15 August 1947 — much earlier than the original 1948 deadline.

Both the Congress and the Muslim League ultimately accepted the Mountbatten Plan, which the British Parliament then turned into law.

• The British Government gave formal approval to the Mountbatten Plan by enacting the Indian Independence Act, 1947 in the British Parliament.
• The Act provided for the transfer of power to the Constituent Assemblies of the two Dominions, each with full authority to frame its own constitution.
• It ended British paramountcy over the princely states, leaving them free to accede to either Dominion.
• The Act came into effect from 15 August 1947.

A boundary commission was set up to physically demarcate the border between the two new countries through Punjab and Bengal.

• Separate boundary commissions for Punjab and Bengal were set up to demarcate the provinces.
• Sir Cyril Radcliffe had never visited India before and completed the boundary in just a few weeks.
• The award was published after independence (around 17 August 1947), which deepened the chaos of migration.

The journey from Attlee's announcement to actual freedom followed a clear, fast-moving sequence in 1947.

On 14–15 August 1947, British rule ended and two independent dominions came into existence.

• The partition of India and Pakistan came into effect from 15 August 1947.
• The British Government transferred all powers to these two Dominions.
• Lord Mountbatten was made the 1st Governor-General of independent India.
• Mohammad Ali Jinnah became the 1st Governor-General of the newly created Pakistan.

This split is best seen as a branch flow from a single Act:

The partition was the outcome of a long campaign by the Muslim League for a separate state, which sharpened in the years just before 1947.

• In 1940, at the Lahore Session of the Muslim League, the demand for a separate state of Pakistan was formally made, based on the Two-Nation Theory.
• The League wanted Muslim-majority areas grouped into an independent, autonomous and sovereign state.
• Many nationalist leaders opposed the demand — including Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Frontier Gandhi), Khuda Khitmadgar, the Watan Party and the Azad Muslim Conference.
• The Muslim League withdrew its acceptance of the Cabinet Mission Plan on 29 July 1946 and passed a "Direct Action" resolution.
• Direct Action Day (16 August 1946) condemned the British Government and the Congress and led to heavy communal riots; Jinnah later celebrated Pakistan Day on 27 March 1947.

Partition triggered one of the largest and most violent mass migrations in human history.

• The hurried division and the late publication of the Radcliffe Line caused massive confusion over which side villages and cities fell.
• An estimated several hundred thousand to a million people died in the communal violence that accompanied partition.
• Punjab and Bengal — the two partitioned provinces — saw the worst riots, refugee columns and bloodshed.

When the British left, over 500 princely states had to be merged into India — a task led brilliantly by Sardar Patel.

• Patel was India's first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister; he is also called the "Bismarck of India".
• Most of the ~565 princely states acceded peacefully through the Instrument of Accession.
• A few were special cases — Junagadh (settled by plebiscite), Hyderabad (merged via "Operation Polo", 1948) and Jammu & Kashmir (acceded 26 Oct 1947).

The most tragic aftershock of partition was the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, less than six months after independence.

• Gandhi was shot at Birla House, Delhi, during his evening prayer meeting.
• He had been working tirelessly for Hindu–Muslim unity and to stop communal violence.
• His death shocked the nation and helped calm the communal frenzy of partition.

Free India quickly set about framing its own constitution through the Constituent Assembly.

• 26 January was chosen because the Purna Swaraj (Complete Independence) resolution had been celebrated on that date in 1930.
• India thus became a sovereign democratic republic on 26 January 1950, now celebrated as Republic Day.
• Bangladesh later separated from Pakistan in 1971 after the Liberation War.

A quick-reference timeline of the major milestones of the freedom struggle and partition, as listed in the source notes.

A high-yield reference table of important books and articles of modern India and their authors, compiled from the source notes.