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All 24 themes of modern India Now open: Partition and independence

Part A The British conquest 1707 to 1857

  1. 01Mughal decline and the regional powers
  2. 02The European trading companies
  3. 03The Carnatic Wars
  4. 04The conquest of Bengal
  5. 05The wars of expansion
  6. 06Instruments of expansion and the frontiers
  7. 07Resistance before 1857
  8. 08The Revolt of 1857

Part B Awakening and early nationalism 1857 to 1915

  1. 09Socio religious reform movements
  2. 10Rise of organised nationalism
  3. 11Partition of Bengal and Swadeshi
  4. 12Revolutionary nationalism, first phase

Part C The Gandhian era 1893 to 1947

  1. 13Gandhi in South Africa
  2. 14The First World War years
  3. 15Khilafat and Non Cooperation
  4. 16Civil Disobedience
  5. 17The Left in the national movement
  6. 18Caste movements and the depressed classes
  7. 19Peasant, worker, tribal and princely state movements
  8. 20Quit India and the INA
  9. 21Communal politics and the Muslim League
  10. 22Partition and independence
  11. 23Women, capitalists, foreigners and others

Part D After 1947 1947 to 1975

  1. 24Integration and reorganisation

Theme 22Part C · The Gandhian era

Partition and independence

1946 to 1947 · from the Cabinet Mission to the Radcliffe line

Seventeen months separate the Cabinet Mission's arrival from independence. In that time a plan for a united India failed, communal violence spread from Calcutta to Punjab, and a lawyer who had never seen India drew a line through two provinces. This theme puts each step on a map, with the line drawn on India's official boundary.

194619471948Cabinet Mission16 May planLeague withdrawsDirect Action to MountbattenCalcuttaNoakhaliPunjabPlan, Act, line3 JuneActRadcliffe

Event 1March to July 1946

The Cabinet Mission plan

Attlee's Labour government sent three cabinet ministers, Pethick Lawrence, Stafford Cripps and A. V. Alexander, to find a way to transfer power to a united India.

Hyderabad Rajputana Kashmir Mysore Central India GROUP A GROUP B GROUP C

Swipe the map sideways to see all of it.

The Mission rejects a sovereign Pakistan but proposes a weak Union (defence, foreign affairs, communications) and three groups of provinces: A the Hindu majority provinces, B the northwest (Punjab, NWFP, Sindh, Baluchistan), C the east (Bengal, Assam). Groups could frame their own constitutions; a province could leave its group after the first elections.

Group AGroup BGroup CPrincely states

Modern State shapes stand in for the old provinces; princely states, shown in purple, stood outside the groups.

Event 2August 1946 to March 1947

Direct Action and the killings

The League's Direct Action Day began a year of communal violence that made partition seem, to many leaders, the lesser evil.

Calcutta16 August 1946 Noakhali Tippera Bihar Garhmukteshwar Rawalpindi Multan Lahore Amritsar

Swipe the map sideways to see all of it.

Direct Action Day. In Calcutta, under the League ministry of Suhrawardy, four days of killing leave about 4,000 dead: the Great Calcutta Killing.

Centre of revoltRevolutionaries
  1. 2 Sept 1946 Interim Government formed with Nehru as vice president of the Executive Council.
  2. Oct 1946 The League joins it, to obstruct; Liaquat Ali Khan as finance member.
  3. 9 Dec 1946 The Constituent Assembly meets; the League boycotts it.
  4. 20 Feb 1947 Attlee announces that Britain will leave by June 1948.
  5. 24 Mar 1947 Mountbatten arrives as the last Viceroy.

Event 3June to August 1947

The Mountbatten plan and the Radcliffe line

Mountbatten decided within weeks that partition was unavoidable and that speed was essential. He brought the date forward by ten months.

  1. 3 June planIndia to be divided; Punjab and Bengal to be partitioned if their assemblies vote for it
  2. Votes and referendumsPunjab and Bengal assemblies vote for partition; referendums in the NWFP and Sylhet join them to Pakistan
  3. Indian Independence Actpassed 18 July 1947; two dominions from 15 August
  4. Radcliffe awardboundaries drawn in five weeks; published on 17 August
EAST PAKISTAN NWFP Sylhet PUNJAB BENGAL WEST PAKISTAN to India to Pakistan to India Sindh to Bombay Lahore Amritsar Gurdaspurto India Calcutta Khulnato Pakistan Murshidabadto India Chittagong Hill Tractsto Pakistan Karimganjstays in India Peshawar Karachi Delhi

Swipe the map sideways to see all of it.

The Punjab and Bengal assemblies vote, by sections, to partition their provinces. In July the NWFP votes in a referendum, boycotted by the Khudai Khidmatgars, to join Pakistan, and Sylhet district of Assam votes to join East Bengal.

Centre of revoltTown or cityPakistanIndiaRefugee flows

Why did the Congress accept partition?

  • Fear of civil war after 1946 to 1947.
  • The Interim Government showed the League would block every decision.
  • A strong centre in a smaller India was better than a weak union.
  • Partition of Punjab and Bengal at least kept their Hindu and Sikh majority areas in India.

Who is to blame?

  • The British: separate electorates, divide and rule, and a hasty exit.
  • The League: Direct Action and the two nation theory.
  • The Congress: 1937, and Nehru's July 1946 statement.
  • Most historians see a combination, not a single culprit.

Who's who11 people

People

Clement Attlee

British PM

Announced the British exit.

Pethick Lawrence, Cripps, A. V. Alexander

Cabinet Mission

March to June 1946.

Lord Mountbatten

last Viceroy

3 June plan; first Governor General of India.

Cyril Radcliffe

Boundary Commissions

Drew the line.

Jawaharlal Nehru

Interim Government

Vice president of the Executive Council; first Prime Minister.

Vallabhbhai Patel

Home

Accepted partition early, in 1946 to 1947.

M. A. Jinnah

League

First Governor General of Pakistan.

Liaquat Ali Khan

League

Finance member; first PM of Pakistan.

H. S. Suhrawardy

Bengal

Premier during Direct Action.

M. K. Gandhi

Noakhali

Walked for peace; in Calcutta on 15 August.

V. P. Menon

Reforms Commissioner

Drafted the transfer of power plan.

Key terms7

Terms

Grouping
The Cabinet Mission's plan of three groups of provinces.
Direct Action Day
16 August 1946.
Interim Government
Indian Executive Council from 2 September 1946.
3 June plan
Mountbatten plan for partition.
Indian Independence Act
Passed 18 July 1947.
Radcliffe line
The boundary of 1947 in Punjab and Bengal.
Dominion
A self governing member of the Commonwealth with the British monarch as head of state.

Mains angleHistoriography

Was partition inevitable?

Yes, by 1946

Separate electorates, the League's 1946 victory and the violence of 1946 to 1947 left no workable alternative; even the Cabinet Mission's union would have broken down.

or

No, not until late

Historians such as Ayesha Jalal argue Jinnah used Pakistan as a bargaining counter for parity in a loose federation, and the Cabinet Mission plan could have worked had both sides committed to it.

For the answer: show how choices by all three parties, at specific moments (1909, 1937, July 1946), narrowed the options until partition became the least bad one.

Maps are drawn on the Survey of India outline used across VidBodh; maps that leave the subcontinent use a world base with India shown as the Survey of India depicts it. Coloured glows show where a power held sway, a movement spread or tribute was collected; they are not borders.